The World of Yellow Sky

Chapter 816

In the government office of Yecheng, khaki flags fluttered on the courtyard wall, and prayer flags full of scriptures fluttered slowly in the wind.

In the courtyard, a group of Tengxiang guards wearing armor, holding knives and guns stood on their respective posts. Anyone who wanted to plot evil would have absolutely no way to escape their eyes and avoid their attention.

Zhen Yan knelt on the corridor outside the courtyard of the house, waiting respectfully for the summon from the hall, but he had been sitting here for nearly an hour, and Xu An didn't have the slightest intention to summon him.

Although it is late autumn, the weather has turned cold, and the guards of the Ming army in the courtyard have already put on jerseys under their armor.

Zhen Yan was only wearing a relatively thin coat, so she should feel quite cold, but now Zhen Yan's forehead was already dripping with sweat.

Zhen Yan raised his hand and loosened his neckline, he felt a little hard to breathe.

Whenever the guards of the Ming army in the courtyard glanced over him, his heart would involuntarily tighten, and he could feel the undisguised killing intent.

Zhen Yan tried not to meet his gaze and avoided his gaze, and then forcibly stabilized his mind.

God knows how many people these soldiers killed to develop such a terrifying murderous aura.

When he walked all the way in from outside the government office, his steps were almost floating in the air.

Zhen Yan grinned, he felt that his feet didn't even belong to him, there was no seat under his knees, he was sitting directly on the wooden floor.

Zhen Yan closed her eyes, and breathed as steadily as possible. The hope of Zhen's family's final recovery was now pressing on him, and he had no choice.

I don't know how long it has passed, when Zhen Yan felt that her consciousness was a little fuzzy.

"promise!"

A tidy sound of promises suddenly came from the hall not far away, which made Zhen Yan's sanity recover a little.

Zhen Yan opened her eyes and looked up.

The wooden door of the house in front has been opened at this time, and a group of generals of the Ming army, either wearing battle robes or eagle wolf uniforms, filed out of the house.

The eyes of those Ming army generals swept over Zhen Yan's body, and they didn't stop for a long time. They seemed to have received orders, and they all walked out in a hurry.

Zhen Yan straightened up again, gritted his teeth and persisted. He raised his head as much as possible, looked ahead, and maintained his posture as much as possible.

This time, he didn't wait too long.

With the sound of footsteps, a black shadow completely blocked his vision and covered the affairs in front of him.

Zhen Yan raised her head with some difficulty, and in front of her was a young man with an iron crown on his head, with sword eyebrows and starry eyes, imposing manner, and a plain military uniform could not hide his sharpness.

"You are Zhen Yan?"

The young man looked down at Zhen Yan and said condescendingly.

Zhen Yan's expression changed slightly. He had already given his name in the report before, but now the young man is calling him by his first name.

"This is Zhen Yan, who came here this time to ask the Taoist Lord for approval regarding the application for official business."

Zhen Yan didn't refute, and his expression didn't change too much. The situation was stronger than others, and people had to bow their heads under the eaves.

He waited here for more than an hour, and he had already made up his mind, but he just called him by his first name, which was nothing at all.

"Oh?"

The young man raised his eyebrows and looked down at Zhen Yan with a hint of sarcasm on his face.

"You Zhen family actually want an official business pass? It's ridiculous, hahahahaha."

"Dao Jun once said: 'People cannot stand without trust, things cannot succeed without trust, and businesses cannot prosper without trust.'"

"Chen Zhen broke his promise first, claiming to pay [-]% of the money and grain, but in the end he only paid less than [-]% of it. Such a lack of faith, is he worthy of being my official businessman?"

Zhen Yan looked embarrassed, the other party didn't show him any kindness at all, but he couldn't walk away, there was only one way to go.

"This matter is indeed the fault of my Zhen family. The family tradition is not strict, and there are many problems within the clan, so it has caused disasters. But now, my Zhen family has eliminated the ills and cleansed my heart from illness."

Zhen Yan didn't care about dignity, he bowed his head solemnly and said with a pause.

"Dao Jun also said: 'Knowing mistakes can be corrected, and there is nothing good about it'."

"Now everyone in my Zhen family understands the mistakes I made, and I have made up my mind to completely correct them and return to the way of peace."

Hao Zhao squatted down, eye level with Zhen Yan, with a smile on his face, and said with a smile.

"Hahaha, when I was in Bingzhou, I heard that the Zhen family, Zhen Bokang, is good at debating, and seeing him today, it is indeed not in vain."

Hao Zhao bowed his hands and made a gesture of invitation in the direction of the door.

"Daojun summoned, please come in."

Zhen Yan's eyes moved slightly, he cupped his hands in return, and then wanted to stand up, but he didn't want to maintain the same posture all the time, his legs were a little numb, and because he was a little anxious to get up, he stood up all at once , couldn't help but blacked out, staggered and almost fell to the ground.

"Be careful."

In the end, Hao Zhao stretched out his hand to help him, so that Zhen Yan didn't fall to the ground.

"Thank you for your help."

Zhen Yan thanked her gratefully, regained her composure, and then walked towards the house.

"Zhen Yan, pay homage to Daoist Lord."

Walking into the house, Zhen Yan knelt down on the ground again and bowed first.

"I don't kneel down in Taipingdao, so I'm exempt."

Xu An closed the book in his hand, and his eyes fell on Zhen Yan who had just walked into the house.

The Yecheng government office has now become Xu Anxin's office. After all, the land of Hebei is at the beginning of peace, and there is still a lot of work to be done to deal with the aftermath.

As for the imperial palace in Yecheng, it is now closed and undergoing simple reconstruction. Xu An plans to relocate some branches of departments to Yecheng, and plans to temporarily use Yecheng as a companion capital.

The status of the capital city of Chang'an City will not be shaken. Chang'an City is the starting point and the most important link of the Silk Road.

With Chang'an as the capital, it can better control the western regions and northern borders, and can also have sufficient control over the south. The territory of the Tang Empire is unprecedentedly vast, and Chang'an City as the capital has played a big role.

But now, Xu An still has to temporarily move the center to Yecheng.

After all, the states and counties that have not yet been pacified are all in the southeast, and Chang'an City is really far away from these places.

"sit down."

Xu An raised his finger and pointed to the chair beside him.

The furnishings here have been changed, and the original seats and the like have been changed to more convenient seats.

"promise."

Zhen Yan looked at the completely different furnishings in the house, and was a little surprised, but he didn't show it on his face. After he promised, he sat on a chair as promised.

However, he was not full. He just sat on the edge of the chair, his body leaned forward slightly, his head was lowered, and he looked very cautious.

"I can give you the documents of the official business, but you should be very clear about the conditions for becoming an official business, and the obligations that need to be fulfilled?"

Xu An put down the document in his hand, and looked at Zhen Yan who was carefully sitting on the chair.

Zhen's family is actually just an example of him wanting to scare the chickens to scare the monkeys, to deter all the lucky and powerful families in Hebei.

Originally, he had no other plans, but the situation was beyond his expectations. The Zhen family actually donated the property in the secret treasury in exchange for a promise not to move his family north, and the Zhen family also wanted to become an official businessman of the Taiping Road.

Official merchants, as the name suggests, are merchants who have an official background and are officially recognized.

There are many benefits of being an official businessman. The most important thing is to obtain the official customs clearance document and hang the banner of the Ming court official businessman.

On the long commercial road, there will inevitably be threats of bandits, horse bandits, etc., subject to realistic conditions, it is naturally impossible for these horse bandits to disappear completely.

Although the Ming army will protect the trade routes, the trade routes are long, so threats cannot be completely avoided. Ordinary merchants need to bear certain risks. Obtaining official business certificates can minimize the threat.

Because officials and businessmen are eligible to purchase part of military weapons for defense, and even have a small amount of armor.

The most important thing is that any bandits who attack the officials and merchants of the Ming court will be regarded as directly declaring war on the Ming court, and the Ming army will destroy them at all costs.

This is well known in the Western Regions and Northern Xinjiang. The Silk Road in the Western Regions has been in business for some time. So far, there has not been a single attack on Ming court officials and merchants. The caravans of Ming court officials and merchants have also encountered horse bandits, but As soon as those horse bandits saw the banners of the officials and merchants, they avoided them far away.

In northern Xinjiang, there was an incident in which Xianbei people attacked the official caravan of Ming Court, and the result was that the entire Xianbei tribe who participated in the looting were either beheaded or sent to reform through labor.

With the gradual growth of Ming Ting's strength and lessons learned from the past, no one dares to smear the tiger's beard of the Ming army.

The second is to be able to legally buy and sell exclusive goods, such as copper and iron, salt, tea horses, silk, fur, cast silver, and some products from Mingting official workshops, and even weapons and armor.

Of course, there are benefits and there are obligations.

During the war, officials and businessmen need to deliver various military supplies such as military rations and armaments for the court, and they also need to pay a large amount of taxes, which are more than ordinary businessmen have to pay.

All officials and businesses are directly under the jurisdiction of Huzhongshufu and are controlled by Zhongshufu.

After becoming an official businessman, his clan is not allowed to serve as an official in the Ministry of Households, Ministry of Officials, and Zhongshufu. At the same time, he cannot serve as a chief official in the local area. It is to avoid the situation of using power for personal gain as much as possible.

"We are all aware of the obligations that need to be undertaken, and I, Mrs. Zhen, are willing to undertake all the obligations."

Zhen Yan's eyes were firm, and she replied solemnly.

Become an official businessman, the Zhen family still has a chance to recover, but if the Zhen family cannot become an official businessman, and the Zhen family wants to recover, then I don’t know when it will be, what month and what day, this is the last chance for the Zhen family, taking advantage of the rest of the powerful family Haven't reacted yet.

It doesn't matter if you can't serve as a chief official in the local area, or you can't enter the Zhongshu Mansion, the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Households and other government ministries. These are all later things.

The status of merchants is low, and it is not important to condescend to become a family of merchants with the nobility of the family.

Today, the status of merchants in the Ming Dynasty is not low. Basically, the laws of the Han Dynasty that are contemptuous of merchants have been abolished, and only a small part has been retained as a restriction.

Today, there are a total of four companies that have been certified by Ming Court officials and businessmen.

The first is the Pang family in Liangzhou, whose predecessor was Pang Bo, who once served as the head of the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The second family is the Hao family in Bingzhou, which is also Hao Zhao's family.

The third family is the Sima family of Qingzhou, the family of Sima Ju, Qu Shuai of Qingzhou.

The fourth family is the Zhao family in Lutai, but it should be called the Zhao family in Chang'an now. It was one of the three Lutai families at the time. Both Wang Ren and Li Heng served as generals in the army, and most of their children held important positions in the army. , and Zhao Le has been following Xu An as the chief of the army, and later served as an official in the Department of Internal Affairs and Zhongshufu.

Now Zhao Le is the chief officer of the Military Supplies Department of the Chinese Army Mansion, in charge of military supplies, military expenditure coordination, military logistics support and other responsibilities.

"but……"

Xu An didn't go around talking to Zhen Yanduo.

"Why should I give you Zhen's official business certification?"

Zhen Yan's eyes were bright, and he straightened up slightly.

"Because my Zhen family can bring enough benefits to Dao Lord, to Taiping Dao, and to Daming."

"The Daoist Lord re-opened the Silk Road, set up the Western Regions Protectorate, pacified Yizhou, surrendered the southern barbarians, opened up the southern road, expanded the territory to the north, opened up three provinces, and opened up the commercial route to the north."

"We also set up workshops, built water conservancy, and repaired roads in various places. At the same time, we encouraged commerce and opened markets widely. Therefore, commerce in various places developed rapidly."

"However, there are still only four companies that have been certified by the government and businessmen. I am afraid that it is already somewhat insufficient."

You can take the initiative to apply for Ming Court's official business certification, but so far there are only four, not because the conditions for becoming an official businessman are harsh, but because of the status of a businessman, it is difficult for people to change all at once.

The reason why the Liangzhou Pang family is willing to become an official businessman is because Pang Bo has passed away, and Pang Bo's branch has almost no successors, and only Pang De served in the army.

The same is true for the Hao family. Only Hao Zhao served in the army, and only one member of his clan passed the national examination, and most of the rest served in the army.

The clans of Sima Ju and Zhao Le were not aristocratic families in the first place. Sima Ju originally intended to go into business, and Zhao Le was very proficient in arithmetic. This talent was quite common among his clans. After the road was opened, Zhao Le applied to Xu An, and Xu An readily agreed to the request.

After all, Ming Court really needs official merchants to control the market and conduct certain transactions.

During the trip to the Western Regions, the purchase of Dawan's famous horses was the western region where the Zhao family's caravan went.

Although Dawan horses are expensive, there are almost no private caravans willing to take such a huge risk.

Xu An was a little surprised, he looked at Zhen Yan with serious eyes.

It seems that the reason why the Zhen family is so rich is not only because of the family's politicians, but also because of their keen sense of business.

"My Zhen family has a large number of caravan personnel, which can relieve the urgent need."

"At the same time, there are also artisans who raise silkworms and weave silk, burn porcelain and make pottery, and make wine and utensils, who can produce goods."

Zhen Yan carefully chose his words and spoke slowly, he was always paying attention to Xu An's expression.

Seeing that Xu An's eyes became serious, he knew he had hit the point.

But just when he was about to continue, Xu An raised his hand to stop him from continuing.

"I can issue permission from the government and business to Mrs. Zhen."

Xu An knocked on the desk, and then two Tengxiang guards in full armor came in from outside the house pushing a map and put it in front of Zhen Yan.

Zhen Yan had some doubts in his heart, but he completely let go of his hanging heart. It seems that the certification of the government and businessmen is already guaranteed.

"but……"

Xu An stood up, turned the subject slightly, and walked to the map, standing right in front of Zhen Yan.

Zhen Yan felt that her throat was interfering a bit, and the pressure brought to Xu An at such a close distance was a bit too much.

Xu An looked down at Zhen Yan, and said in an unquestionable tone.

"I have also arranged a new mission for you, Mrs. Zhen."

Zhen Yan's throat moved up and down, and she replied with difficulty.

"What mission?"

"Open the sea."

(End of this chapter)