Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 110: All Under Heaven Belongs to the King

The young eunuch stopped in front of the Wenhua Hall, announced in a high-pitched voice, then bowed and stepped aside, gesturing for Zheng Zhilong to go in by himself.

The palace doors were ajar, and it was very quiet inside. There were no guards standing around as I had imagined, nor were there any court officials presenting their reports.

Zheng Zhilong composed himself, straightened his official hat, and stepped over the high threshold. The light inside the hall was dim, which contrasted sharply with the scorching sunlight outside.

Zheng Zhilong's gaze was immediately drawn to the young figure in the center of the hall.

The man had his back to him, dressed in a black casual robe, without a crown, his long hair tied up with a simple jade hairpin. He stood in front of a huge map, looking somewhat frail, but his imposing and majestic presence made the entire hall seem to revolve around him.

Hearing footsteps, the figure slowly turned around.

It was an extremely young face, even carrying a hint of youthful naiveté, but those eyes were so deep that they held only an unyielding coldness and sharpness.

It's the emperor.

Zheng Zhilong's heart skipped a beat. He dared not be negligent in the slightest and immediately knelt down, kowtowing with the most standard salute: "Your humble servant, Zheng Zhilong, the Fujian Coastal Defense Guerrilla, pays his respects to Your Majesty! Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor!"

His forehead struck the hard gold brick solidly.

There was dead silence in the hall.

Zhu Youjian did not immediately tell him to rise, nor did he speak; he simply looked at him quietly.

Zheng Zhilong could feel that gaze, like a tangible blade, scraping across his back inch by inch, as if trying to dissect his flesh, bones, and even every thought deep in his mind.

Cold sweat broke out on Zheng Zhilong's forehead again, sliding down his cheeks.

"Be flat."

"Thank you, Your Majesty!" Zheng Zhilong felt as if he had been granted a pardon and slowly stood up, but still kept his body bowed.

Zhu Youjian did not return to the throne, nor did he walk around the huge map. He walked over and gently tapped the map with his finger.

His voice was calm, as if he were recounting an old story.

"Taiyuan, Shanxi; Suzhou, Jiangsu."

"The eight Shanxi merchants, who had been in business for a century, were eradicated by me in just one month."

His finger moved slightly, pointing to another prosperous area on the map.

“The grain merchants of Jiangnan colluded with the gentry and officials. In just half a month, heads rolled and the granaries changed hands.”

After saying all this, he finally shifted his gaze from the map to Zheng Zhilong.

Inside the main hall, Zheng Zhilong felt so quiet that he could hear his own heartbeat, which sounded very muffled.

"Minister Zheng," he began slowly, each word seemingly imbued with the chill of the north, "you command a thousand ships in Fujian. I want to know, compared to the centuries-old foundation of the Shanxi merchants, and the deeply entrenched power of the gentry in Jiangnan, is the foundation of your Anping Town deeper or shallower?"

Zheng Zhilong lowered his eyes and remained silent.

Zheng Zhilong spent half his life traveling from the East to the South Seas, from a mere ronin to a maritime overlord. Every single day he was constantly finding a way out of a dead end.

Storms can kill, cannon fire can kill, and the human heart can kill even more. Although the storms in the Wenhua Hall are invisible, they seem to be no different in essence from hurricanes on the ocean.

He remained silent, not out of fear, but in the silence, precisely capturing the unusual meaning in the emperor's words.

Since the emperor could destroy the Shanxi merchants and suppress the grain merchants, killing himself would be as easy as turning his hand.

Therefore, the reason he went to such great lengths to have the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard invite him from afar was certainly not simply to enjoy his embarrassing situation.

Having figured this out, Zheng Zhilong's heart, which had been weighed down, suddenly felt lighter. Fear is the most useless thing for a gambler, and he, Zheng Zhilong, is one of the biggest gamblers in the world!

Zheng Zhilong finally raised his head and met the emperor's gaze.

"Your Majesty, my foundation is shallower than theirs."

He first gave the answer the emperor most wanted to hear, without the slightest hint of reluctance.

Without waiting for Zhu Youjian to show any expression, he continued.

“But my abilities are different from theirs.”

Zhu Youjian raised an eyebrow slightly, and a faint hint of interest finally appeared on his usually cold face.

Zheng Zhilong knew that the card game had begun.

"Your Majesty, the Shanxi merchants and grain merchants are ultimately exploiting the Ming Dynasty, sucking its blood. No matter how large their businesses are, they are just moving money from one pocket to another. Your Majesty's confiscation of their property is simply putting the money that rightfully belongs to the nation back into the national treasury."

He paused, then said, word by word, "Even if this meat rots, it will rot in our own pot."

“But I am different.” A burning light flashed in Zheng Zhilong’s eyes, a light that contained ambition, confidence, and a precise understanding of the young emperor’s thoughts.

"My foundation lies at sea! My skill lies not in scrambling for food from the pot of the Ming Dynasty, but in... bringing fresh meat for Your Majesty and for the Ming Dynasty from beyond the pot, from the vast ocean beyond!"

"Meat outside the pot!"

Zhu Youjian stared at Zheng Zhilong for a long time.

A ripple finally appeared in those icy eyes, as if a crack had appeared in the ice that had never melted for millennia, revealing a hint of appreciation.

He slowly walked up to Zheng Zhilong, and that oppressive pressure came over him again.

"You mean you can give me something that those people can't?"

The phrase "meat outside the pot" allowed Zheng Zhilong to find his place.

His ambitious heart burned again, and his eyes blazed with a burning light. Since the emperor valued his skill in retrieving meat from the pot, he would show the emperor just how big and how succulent the meat was!
He leaned forward slightly, his posture respectful, yet his tone betrayed an air of boundless pride and confidence, like a top-notch manager showcasing his unparalleled sourcing to his largest client.

"Your Majesty is wise! What I meant by 'meat outside the pot' is no exaggeration!" he explained enthusiastically. "Ordinary people only know that our Great Ming's silk, porcelain, and tea are treasures from overseas, but they don't know how much profit they generate! A bolt of silk from Suzhou and Hangzhou can fetch ten times its price in Nagasaki! A chest of thin-walled porcelain from Jingdezhen is worth more than gold in Europe! And then there's tea from Wuyi Mountain, medicinal herbs from Sichuan, spices from Southeast Asia... These are all hard goods that can be exchanged for real gold and silver!"

He became more and more excited as he spoke.

"If Your Majesty would grant me a title and allow me free rein, I can guarantee that within three years, the profits I bring back from overseas for Your Majesty and the Ming Dynasty will amount to..."

"Zheng Qing."

Zhu Youjian suddenly spoke, his voice very soft, yet it was like a bucket of ice water being poured over his head.

Zheng Zhilong's remaining words were abruptly cut off, stuck in his throat. He looked up in surprise and saw the emperor watching him quietly.

“I know all that you’ve said.” Zhu Youjian slowly walked to the huge map again, his back to him. “Silk, porcelain, tea—these are the meat, but they’re just the oil on the surface.”

He paused, his voice remaining calm and even.

"What I want to know is the pot itself."

Zheng Zhilong's heart sank suddenly.

Zhu Youjian then spoke in a tone recounting past events: "I have a record here. Listen to it and see if it's accurate."

"Your fleet requires all merchant ships going to sea to fly the flag of your Zheng family. Each flag costs between two and three thousand taels of silver. This alone brings in no less than two or three million taels of silver a year."

Zheng Zhilong's mind went blank for a moment, and his initial enthusiasm was extinguished by seventy percent!

This was the core secret that allowed the Zheng family to survive and thrive; it was an unspoken rule that was never told to outsiders, yet the emperor knew it all!
However, this is just the beginning.

"You monopolize the shipping route from Fujian to Nagasaki, and silk, sugar, and medicinal herbs are all included. Silver from Japan and goods from Luzon flow into the Ming Dynasty through your hands. You profit from both ends, and your annual income is over three or four million taels."

Zhu Youjian's finger gently traced across the map from Fujian to Japan. "So, your annual income, in all its forms, exceeds eight million taels of silver. This figure... even my Ministry of Revenue cannot collect in a year."

The last sentence, though seemingly light, struck Zheng Zhilong like a mountain, chilling him to the bone and causing cold sweat to trickle down his forehead once more.

"Your Majesty..." He opened his mouth, wanting to explain, but found that any words seemed so pale and powerless.

Zhu Youjian seemed not to hear him and continued speaking to himself.

"Your arrangements are quite thorough in order to preserve this business." The emperor pointed his finger between Taiwan and Fujian.

"Regarding the shipping route, you abandoned the traditional transit through Ryukyu and opened a seven-day direct route from Quanzhou to Nagasaki, which can reduce transportation losses by 30%. Very clever."

"For escort, you have the 'Five Tigers Guerrilla Fleet' stationed in the Taiwan Strait, using three-masted gunboats to guard the perimeter and more flexible bird ship formations to transport core cargo. This tactic has repeatedly caused losses even to the Dutch galleon fleet."

"What interests me most is your intelligence." Zhu Youjian finally turned around slowly, his deep eyes once again falling on Zheng Zhilong's face, his gaze seemingly able to see through people's hearts. "You relied on the salt merchants' post stations in Jiangnan to establish an intelligence network from the source of goods in Suzhou and Hangzhou to your old base in Fujian. Within twelve days, the news would definitely reach you. Minister Zheng, tell me, how did you do it?"

The emperor's question was not really about finding out the reason.

This was clearly telling him how much wealth Zheng Zhilong had, and how much it was worth; the Emperor's scale had already weighed it all clearly.

Zheng Zhilong's confidence, pride, and even his ruthless courage were shattered at this moment by this casual remark!
If the emperor knew about his income, it could be attributed to the extensive network of secret agents in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and he could understand it.

But even his optimized flight routes, fleet tactical configurations, and even his most deeply hidden intelligence network colluding with salt merchants... these are the most core and confidential operational details of his Zheng family group! The emperor knew them all, even better than some of his chief stewards!

What this means is self-evident!

There are the emperor's men in his fleet! There are the emperor's men in his accounting office! Even in Anping Town, which he thought was impregnable, there might be the emperor's eyes and ears among his most trusted confidants!
He was like a self-important puppet, performing triumphantly, unaware that the strings that controlled his every move were always held in the hands of the emperor who sat high on the throne!
Pervasive!

The cold sweat stopped seeping out and instead poured out in large beads from his back, instantly soaking his inner shirt. The chill from the depths of his soul made his hands and feet icy cold, and he could barely maintain his kneeling position.

Zheng Zhilong struggled to lift his head and look at the excessively young emperor, his eyes filled with nothing but horror and awe.

(End of this chapter)