People in the Ming Dynasty are lawless

Chapter 244 Shanxi merchants who collaborate with the enemy and betray the country! Now he is being controlled to death!

This kind of person behaves a bit like a scholar,

Even though Lao Zhu's family has conquered the world, in the eyes of scholars,

Lao Zhu's family is still a farmer, unlike the emperors who have been there for thousands of years. No matter how they are born, they are always taller than Zhu Yuanzhang.

Even Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, was still a pavilion chief in the Qin Dynasty, acting in charge of a small area.

But what about Zhu Yuanzhang’s origins?

It’s not just poor and lower-middle peasants.

Still abject poverty, still a tenant farmer who herds cattle.

A person who doesn’t even have a place to bury his parents after they die is now an emperor, and once he turns over,

This made all of these families, which had been passed down for hundreds of years, very jealous.

In their eyes, our family has been passed down for so long, but it has not dominated the world.

And you, a poor commoner, took more than ten years of hard work to become the emperor and became the first family in the world. God is really short-sighted.

So deep down these people look down on the old Zhu family.

Even though they are doing business, their business is huge and they are the best in the world.

This arrogance comes naturally.

So even if King Jin personally summoned them to the palace to discuss important matters, they still felt that

The King of Jin may be just blowing the air with great fanfare, and there will be no actual business to be done.

They even thought that if King Jin asked them for money, they would just take some money to spend.

This shows how serious a scornful heart is.

If he had been the normal King of Jin, he might have imprisoned these people as soon as his temper got worse, and then demanded a thousand taels of silver from their families.

But this time King Jin put on an elegant attitude.

Even though the expressions on the faces of the more than fifty Shanxi merchants were not so happy, the servants still welcomed them in with smiles.

Not to mention, the Jin Prince’s Mansion was quite gorgeously built.

The large courtyard of Jiujin is full of carved beams and painted pillars.

Some places are even inlaid with gold edges.

Seeing this, the Shanxi merchants showed scornful expressions.

Even though these Shanxi merchants have money, they are very picky.

It is said that Shanxi Laoji is them.

Even if they have money, they would rather store gold and silver in the cellar than put it on the table.

This is the shrewdness of a businessman, who keeps his wealth secret.

Unlike the Prince's Mansion, which is splendid and beautifully decorated, it is not afraid of jealousy.

Fifty Shanxi merchants, led by the palace servants, arrived at the large reception room.

They sat down in order of wealth, and the servants brought the best fragrant tea.

These businessmen were not picky, they just picked up the tea and drank it.

After drinking, they started chatting with each other.

We chatted about some business matters and asked where the other party made his fortune.

A casual look, because in their eyes there is no need to be serious now.

Maybe King Jin would even have to ask them to wait here for an hour or two before they could come.

This is what they think the princes have always done.

However, what they didn't expect was that shortly after they sat down, hearty laughter came from behind the screen.

"Everyone is welcome to my palace!"

As soon as these words came out, none of the Shanxi merchants expected that the prince would come so soon.

This was completely beyond their expectation.

Aren't all these princes arrogant and rude?

Do they have to make others wait for them?

Why is this prince still waiting for him behind the screen?

However, these people reacted very quickly and hurriedly stood up and bowed: "Common people, please pay homage to Your Highness!"

King Jin waved his hand: "Without courtesy, please sit down!"

The Shanxi merchants sat down with mutterings.

King Jin got straight to the point: "I am not calling you here this time to pay homage, but to talk about big business with you."

The Shanxi merchants looked at each other with surprise in their eyes.

I guess I really didn't expect it. This prince was not so polite. He actually had business to do, which was quite refreshing.

Aren’t all of these princes able to afford food and clothing?

They enjoy high salaries and get countless good things from the treasury every year. What else do they need to do business?

Then King Jin clapped his hands, and several more people came out from behind the screen.

Some are young and some are very young, but looking at their clothes, you can tell that they are all princes.

Now more than fifty Shanxi merchants were even more surprised.

They hurried forward to salute.

Among those who came, King Gu, King Dai, King Qing, and King Su were all invited to Taiyuan, Shanxi by King Jin.

On the one hand, it is to talk about brotherhood,

On the other hand, as the governor of the Western Branch of the Ming Dynasty Chamber of Commerce, King Jin needed to assign some tasks.

At the same time, we have to beat these Shanxi merchants as Chen Han said.

At first, these princes only had a vague concept of Shanxi merchants, thinking that these people were just doing business and were no different from ordinary merchants.

However, after getting to know each other these days, I realized that these Shanxi merchants are very powerful. Not only do they have huge wealth, but they also consider themselves nobles.

Although they don't have any titles, they are extremely wealthy.

Even the local government had to be courteous to them.

It can be seen from this that money can really communicate with the gods.

Even in dynasties like the Ming Dynasty, which regarded businessmen as a lowly profession, when money reached a certain level, it could still buy dignity.

This is the case for these Shanxi merchants. After their financial resources reached an extremely high level,

The local government sometimes encounters projects that require large sums of money, and has to turn to these big businessmen for help.

So that each of these Shanxi merchants became arrogant.

Even if the princes invite them out, they have to be polite.

But what I didn't expect was that this time King Jin directly brought so many princes over.

Now Shanxi merchants all know that it is definitely not that simple. There must be some big business to do.

Soon they remembered that King Jin seemed to be returning to the capital to attend the birthday of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

And the reform in the capital was in full swing, and they had already heard about it.

Could it be because there are new developments in the capital?

So even a rude warrior like King Jin joined in the business business at this time?

These people have been thinking about a lot of things in their minds, but they still can't figure out a reason.

After King Jin brought his brothers to the hall, everyone took their seats.

The princes sat in the first place, and the King of Jin sat in the master's seat.

After King Jin sat down, he took a sip of tea, moistened his throat, and said directly, "This is to call everyone here without any nonsense, just one thing. Now Duke Qian in the capital has established the Daming Chamber of Commerce, and in our northwest area, Accordingly, the Western Branch of the Daming Chamber of Commerce was established.

What we, the Western Branch of the Ming Dynasty Chamber of Commerce, have to do is integrate the business resources of the entire northwest and carry out coordinated sales.

So I invite you to join the Western Branch of the Ming Dynasty Chamber of Commerce. "

After saying this, the expressions on the faces of the following Shanxi merchants were different.

To be honest, they look down on these princes here.

None of the princes in the Lao Zhu family are good. In their eyes, they are just moths. What else can they do besides eating the national food?

Except for Prince Jin, the other princes are all useless in their eyes. Why do they still want to do business?

What we are doing is a business that is unrivaled in the world. Why do we need you princes to come and get involved?

If you really want money, just ask and we will give it to you.

No matter how much we pay each year, we admit that we are wrong, but we just don’t get involved.

If you participate, we don’t have the right to say anything. How will you divide the profits when the time comes?

You are divided too much, but we are not convinced;

If your share is too small, how can we bear it if you retaliate?

So a Shanxi businessman stood up and spoke: "Your Majesty, I'm not a scoundrel. It's because the northwest of us is not as rich in products as the south of the Yangtze River.

There aren’t many opportunities to do big business. Our firms are all over the country and have not established a foothold in the northwest.

You asked us to come over, and there are so many businesses. Even if there is business, I'm afraid there will be more wolves than meat! "

This businessman is really outspoken. It's not that he's not afraid of death, but he just wants to test things out.

Sure enough, King Jin's expression changed.

When the other traders saw King Jin's expression change, they knew something in their hearts.

They are probably thinking: You see, they don’t want to do business at all.

It's just that he wants to extort money on this pretext.

Fortunately, when I came, I had already asked my servants to prepare a lot of gold and silver jewelry for me.

This is how they wanted to send King Jin away.

However, to their surprise, King Jin's expression changed drastically at first, but soon became normal. Instead, he smiled and said: "Our northwest is indeed famous for its barrenness.

But if you say there is no business opportunity, I don’t agree with it.

After all, are the only people doing business with merchants from the Ming Dynasty? "

As soon as these words came out, the Shanxi merchants present widened their eyes.

Because they are guilty.

To be honest, these traders can make such big deals,

Is it really just doing business in the mainland?

There are many business opportunities in Shanxi, or in the north outside Shanxi.

They imported cheap mutton from the grasslands and sold them inland, making a lot of money.

They get a lot of wool on the grassland and can sell it at a good price.

What they make is not just Ming Dynasty business, but also Mongolian money.

These people winked at each other, meaning: Has the court noticed that our collaboration with the enemy and our country has been discovered?

But no one came to check them?

The King of Jin had been in Shanxi for so long, wouldn't he know that these people would do business with the Mongols in the north?

It’s really not clear.

Firstly, because he cannot go out except to train the army;

Secondly, these Shanxi merchants are also very cunning. They have their own channels and are not easily noticed by others.

But it is impossible to say that the local magistrate did not know.

But the magistrate turned a blind eye.

The reason why they turn a blind eye is because doing business with them Mongols can reduce the number of Mongolian invasions southward.

In order to keep their reputation, officials can only pretend not to know.

Now the reason why the King of Jin and the others knew that the Shanxi merchants were doing business with the Tatar tribe was because Chen Han told them before they left.

The King of Jin didn't have much resentment about this, because if he could really trade with the Mongolian Tatar tribe in the north, it would be a good thing.

But for the current Shanxi merchants, this is not a good thing.

The forces of the Ming Dynasty and the Northern Yuan Dynasty are still at war. The Tatar tribe is one of the tribes of the Northern Yuan Dynasty, and it is also the closest to the Ming Dynasty.

Tatar tribes often go south to rob, and they have always been the focus of protection in the Datong area of ​​Xuanfu.

But Shanxi merchants actually went to do business with them. Isn't this a case of capitalizing on the enemy?

If such a crime is confirmed, it is certain that the family will be confiscated and the entire clan will be exterminated.

So these Shanxi merchants suddenly felt that their heads were starting to get cold.

King Jin stood up and said, "I know that you often trade with the Mongols in the north.

You sold pots, pans, salt, etc. to Mongolia and exchanged them for their mutton, wool, and horses.

These courts all know that, to be honest, there is no problem at all in charging you with collaborating with the enemy and treason.

But the imperial court did not do this. Instead, it used the method of opening the middle to let you make a fortune with salt in your hands.

Now that the Western Branch of the Ming Dynasty Chamber of Commerce is letting you join, it is to give you a chance to atone for your sins.

You must know that just because the court doesn’t investigate, it doesn’t mean that the court doesn’t know.

The fact that the imperial court turns a blind eye does not mean that one day when it settles accounts with you, it will not put these things on your heads and punish you with the crime of exterminating the nine tribes. "

When Prince Jin said this, the whole atmosphere suddenly became very depressing.

These Shanxi merchants were all frightened.

It turned out that the imperial court had long known what kind of business they were doing, but just turned a blind eye.

Perhaps as people in the official circles said, their transactions with the Mongolian Tatar tribes in the north were able to bring a certain degree of peace to the border, so the court turned a blind eye.

But this does not mean that when the court wants to deal with them one day, it will not use this to convict them.

So these Shanxi merchants panicked immediately.

Seeing the panic of these Shanxi merchants, King Jin felt really happy.

Sure enough, it has to be Chen Han.

Chen Han gave them advice.

Chen Han told them that the reason why these businesses are so big is because

In fact, they took advantage of the fact that the Mongolian Tatar tribes in the north had inconvenient transportation and did not have many products to exchange.

We exchanged pots, pans, and salt from the mainland for a large amount of mutton and a large amount of wool.

Even high-quality horses were sold inland, earning a huge price difference.

The King of Jin had been in Shanxi for so many years and didn't know that these Shanxi merchants were doing this kind of business.

The local government turned a blind eye because they wanted to take the benefits of these Shanxi merchants. How could they inform the King of Jin?

But Chen Han told him how to deal with these Shanxi merchants when he left the capital.

So I informed the King of Jin about the business done by the Shanxi merchants. Now when I told him, I saw that the faces of these Shanxi merchants changed drastically.

When King Gu and King Dai saw the expressions on the faces of the Shanxi merchants, they knew that it must be Chen Han.

The means of controlling them are really powerful.

After seeing the changes in the faces of the Shanxi merchants, the King of Jin smiled and said, "I don't want to cut off your wealth, but I want you to join the Western Branch of the Ming Dynasty Chamber of Commerce.

From now on, we will do this kind of business together with the Western Chamber of Commerce, and the profits will be divided in half.

You used to be frightened when you did such a business secretly, but now that the imperial court is backing you, you don’t need to be secretive anymore.

Of course you can also refuse, but the Kaizhong method will not be implemented.

You should know very well that the imperial court is building cement roads. In the past, it was inconvenient to transport grain and grass from Jiangnan to the important towns of Jiubian.

That’s why you traders are needed to transport food.

But don’t think that you are the smartest,

You should be aware of the difference in price between the salt you received and the grain you delivered.

After making so much money for so many years, I think you will not refuse if I ask you to repay the favor to the court. "

……

(End of this chapter)