Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 342 Jiajing instigated external relatives and gentry to compete for power!
The fact that the three imperial merchants were aggressively recruiting investors, purchasing goods and hiring people really made the wealthy families who did not want the court to monopolize Haili very angry.

A port was opened at Chaoyang Gate in Guangdong.

Boom!
Liang Chu's family member Liang Rui, accompanied by his agent Fang Zongwu, came to the people waiting for work at the dock.

Following the sound of a gong.

Fang Zongwu shouted to the unloaders, "There is a new ship coming from Beixi looking for people to unload the cargo. Is there anyone willing to hire me? I will pay one silver dollar per load of cargo!"

"Have!"

"Master Fang, is it really one silver dollar per load?"

"Is the meal included? We haven't eaten in a while."

The leader of many dock unloaders stood up and asked.

Grandpa Fang said, "Meals are provided. During the working period, rice is provided as much as you want. There will be a meat meal every other day! The first meal will be all meat!"

"Then let's do it!"

Upon hearing this, the unloaders were overjoyed and came over one after another, following Fang Zongwu to the brokerage firm he opened here. Then Fang Zongwu took these people to sign the contract with Liang Rui.

soon.

These people were taken to the restaurant that had been booked in advance and ate to their heart's content.

Not long after the unloaders finished their meal, several large sand ships and sailing ships appeared at Menpi Port.

Under the organization of the Liang family, these unloaders began to unload the cargo from the big sand ship and then move it onto the large sailing ship.

These boats all had flags that read "Operated under imperial order" and lanterns with "Shunde Liang Family" written on them.

"Dad, this is the Liang family's boat. They have taken away all our business and given food to the people waiting here!"

"The clans behind these people can't stop them. We in the Chen family also have people working in this."

Chen Guang, a gentry from Chaoyang, Guangdong, who had returned to his hometown to mourn his father as the Left Censor of the Household Department, was also on the upper floor of his house at this time, watching this scene and listening to his son Chen Zhu talking about this.

Chen Guang's face darkened after hearing this: "So, we can't organize these people to cause trouble in the name of the Japanese pirates invading!"

"Yes, it is no use trying to take advantage of the chaos to stop His Majesty from strictly banning the sea."

Chen Zhu said.

After hearing this, Chen Guang was silent for a long time, then he sighed and said:

"Your Majesty is so amazing! He actually thought of using this trick to deal with our coastal big families. Now it depends on whether the inspection tour to Japan will succeed!"

After hearing this, Chen Zhu asked, "What if it succeeds?"

"If it works, I will submit a petition to open the sea!"

Chen Guang said.

Chen Zhu was shocked when he heard this: "Open the sea?"

Chen Guang smiled bitterly and said, "Opening the sea to allow the court and the merchants and common people to share the benefits of the sea is better than letting the court and these three imperial merchants enjoy the benefits of the sea alone, right?"

"At least my Chen family can continue to lend money to those smugglers when the sea is open. Who should we lend money to now? To the Liang family in Shunde? If they need money, they will at least ask Your Majesty for a loan!"

"What my father said is true, but even if we really open the sea, we won't be able to make as much money as before."

"At least these smugglers in Chaoyang don't have to pay money to seek protection from noble families like us."

"The family is growing in number. My two younger brothers are getting married, my three younger sisters are getting married, and the newborns will need a few more maids to serve them. Without this income, it will be difficult to make ends meet. And if you want to be reinstated in the future, you will have to prepare money to bribe the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Science and Technology."

Chen Zhu said.

Chen Guang nodded after hearing this: "You are right, let's find another way to make money!" "If I want to avoid breaking the imperial law, I really don't know what other ways I can make money."

"There aren't many fields in Guangdong to begin with, and all that can be donated has been donated. The same is true on the trade routes, where they are basically owned by a few big families. We can't afford to offend them."

"Father, why doesn't the court understand the difficulties faced by our wealthy family?"

When Chen Zhu got to this point, he asked about Chen Guang.

Chen Guang looked at him like his son, and then said, "Well, I will go to Shunde tomorrow to visit Lord Liang and ask him what your majesty is thinking!"

"Mr. Liang is a loyal minister. Your Majesty may not consider the difficulties of our wealthy family, but Mr. Liang will always consider your Majesty's safety. If you continue to force him like this, no one knows if he will do something desperate!"

Chen Guang frowned after he said this.

The prosperity of the world is for profit; the hustle and bustle of the world is for profit.

Zhu Houcong strictly banned maritime trade and established the imperial merchant system to monopolize maritime trade. He also sent officers and soldiers to patrol the East Ocean to show his power to foreign invaders in order to stabilize the maritime borders.

This combination of punches made the big coastal households gnashed their teeth in hatred, but they were powerless to resist.

But at the same time, they were unwilling to save money and reduce the material and spiritual treatment of themselves and their families. They only blamed the emperor for not understanding the difficulties of the big families, and said that they were worried that if this continued, the big families would become more and more resentful of the emperor, which would eventually affect the safety of the emperor and be detrimental to the peace of the royal court and the world.

It can be said that things change over time.

Before, the emperor was required to save money.

Now it is the turn of the big coastal households to save money.

Zhu Houcong also knew that the reform of the entire distribution system would inevitably cause resentment among people.

After all, when it comes to cutting a cake, if you have one more piece, others will have one less piece.

But Zhu Houcong now has to cut the cake first before he can have the strength to make the cake bigger.

Otherwise, if the benefits of the world, especially the current sea benefits, are monopolized by the powerful and wealthy, then this huge sea benefit can only be used as capital for the powerful and wealthy to compete with each other in luxury, build gardens, and keep slaves, but cannot be used as a force to promote productivity and expand external resources.

Therefore, although these big coastal families were resentful and worried, it was a fact that the imperial merchants purchased goods on a large scale and hired people to follow the patrol fleets to go out to sea and smuggle on their behalf and on behalf of the pirates under their names.

Along the coast of Fujian and Zhejiang, large ships of imperial merchants came and went almost every day to collect goods, and the area did not appear deserted due to the strict patrols of the Coast Guard.

In this way, not only were the lower-class people along the coast who relied on maritime trade for their livelihood not affected, but the upstream suppliers and handicraft producers were not greatly affected in their livelihood due to the court's strict maritime ban. In fact, because Zhu Houcong asked Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling to come to the south to lend money at low interest rates, productivity was improved, production costs were reduced, and profits increased.

Boom!

"Hit me!"

"So what if Minister Song's family is a gang? Who are we in the Jianchang Marquisate afraid of?"

"To deny the people the right to borrow the low-interest loans from the Marquis of Jianchang is to disobey the emperor's will and deny us the right to help the people!"

On that day, Zhang Heling's family member Zhang Lan had his own servants beat up several gentry minions who came to prevent local people from borrowing money in front of his own money shop in Nanxun Town, Huzhou, and even killed several people on the spot.

As a result, the financial order of Nanxun Town was maintained, and the people were able to continue to borrow low-interest loans from Zhang's money house.

The gentry in Nanxun Town had no choice but to follow suit and lower interest rates.

But at the same time, the gentry in Nanxun Town, like other wealthy gentry in the south, grew increasingly hateful towards Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling.

It was in this context that when Zhu Houcong was instructing Yan Song to publicize the crimes of Tao Xie and others to the people in the form of vernacular drama, he received a memorial presented by Wang Shizhong, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate.

The reply to the memorial said that Ma Lu, the imperial censor of Shanxi, had found out that Zhang Yin, the commander of the Taiyuan Guard, was actually the Shanxi evil thief Li Fuda in disguise, and that Guo Xun, the Marquis of Wuding, Zhang Heling, the Marquis of Shouning, and Zhang Yanling, the Marquis of Jianchang, had connections with this traitor.

Zhu Houcong frowned after seeing this question. He knew the case of Li Fuda and also knew why this case suddenly appeared.

Therefore, Zhu Houcong summoned Huang Jin and ordered, "Summon Yuanfu!"

(End of this chapter)