Ming Dynasty: At the beginning of the game, Lao Zhu resigned and retired.

Chapter 535 Hu Weiyong's Sea Station Plan
Chapter 535 Hu Weiyong's Sea Station Plan

Looking at the boxes of gems, gold, spices...

Zhu Yuanzhang and his son did not speak for a long time.

I really don’t know what to say.

At this time, Fu Youde finally began to summarize.

"Your Majesty, if we only calculate the ordinary value, then all the gold, spices and other things on my ship, combined, I'm afraid it would be four million taels of silver."

"But the exact value of the money still needs to be sorted out and sold by His Majesty in the Imperial Treasury before we can calculate the exact amount."

At this time, Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Fu Youde with such kindness.

He stood up and put his arm around Fu Youde's shoulders.

"Hahaha, Weixue, you've given us a big surprise!"

"Well, you must be exhausted after your long expedition. Go home and rest first."

"Don't worry, your contribution will be counted for you once we have completed the statistics."

"We will never be short of your reward!"

"Hahahaha, you gave us a big surprise this time!"

After hearing what Zhu Yuanzhang said, Fu Youde smiled knowingly.

There is a saying that all his days of braving the wind and waves have not been in vain.

As for whether his achievements would be concealed, he was not worried about that.

After all, Zhu Yuanzhang was quite generous to his own people.

Therefore, Fu Youde did not hesitate. After saying goodbye to Zhu Yuanzhang and his son, he turned around and left.

As soon as Fu Youde left, Zhu Yuanzhang and his son sat among the "trophies" without any regard for the royal dignity.

Touching this, looking at that, even Zhu Yuanzhang was so useless that he pinched a few grains of pepper and stuffed them into his mouth, then choked and sneezed repeatedly.

"Tsk tsk, Biao'er, Weiyong was really right about this maritime trade!"

"He has long said that the huge profits from this maritime trade will definitely exceed our imagination."

"Although I listened to him and sent Weixue out, I still laughed at him in my heart."

"I thought, now that I am the emperor, how can I be as ignorant as a minister like him?"

"It's just maritime trade, how much money can it bring?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was obviously extremely emotional at this time, especially when he looked at the boxes of gold at his feet.

"Now it seems that we are the ones who are being smart!"

"Fortunately, we listened to Wei Yong. Otherwise... after we banned the sea, the money would have been earned by the wealthy families along the coast!"

"That would be a big problem!"

Zhu Yuanzhang may have had various shortcomings, and his vision and knowledge were indeed limited.

But there is one thing, although he is very stubborn, once he realizes his mistake, he will admit it.

I will never hold on just for the sake of face.

At the same time, he can always see some problems that others cannot see.

Just from a maritime trade with astonishing profits, he keenly discovered the crisis.

The maritime trade brings such huge profits. If the Ming Dynasty does not take it, will the big families along the coast refuse to take it just because of a ban issued by Ming Dynasty?

impossible!

The true face of those people is that they are obsessed with money and have insatiable desires.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty not only wanted to make this money, but also wanted to make a lot of it.

It was precisely because he had figured this out that Zhu Yuanzhang, who was already somewhat enthusiastic because of seeing the huge profits, became even more enthusiastic.

"Biao'er, tell me what you think. How should we handle this maritime trade?" "We must earn this money!"

"With this endless stream of income, there are so many things we can do!"

Seeing his father so excited, Zhu Biao was not surprised at all.

Because he was equally excited!

As the most stable crown prince and heir apparent of the Ming Dynasty, and also the de facto "executive vice emperor", he knew very well how much money the Ming Dynasty was short of.

It can be said that the Ming Dynasty is indeed advancing rapidly today, but precisely because of this, more places need money.

As the current executive vice emperor, he has to worry about money every other day.

Moreover, he was the next emperor of the Ming Dynasty who was taught personally by Zhu Yuanzhang.

He not only possessed the ruthlessness that Zhu Yuanzhang possessed, but also the cunning that was unique to scholars and that Zhu Yuanzhang did not have.

"Dad, Mr. Hu once said that this maritime trade should be managed by the Customs and the Maritime Customs Department to ensure that our Ming Dynasty can make stable profits from private maritime trade!"

"However, according to my son, no matter how good this matter is, it still needs to be postponed for now!"

"Huh? Why?"

Zhu Yuanzhang was really puzzled when he suddenly heard that his son opposed Hu Weiyong's opinion.

Zhu Biao smiled slyly. He patted the big box filled with gold that Fu Youde had brought to him and answered with a smile.

"Since there is huge profit in this maritime trade, then of course the Ming Dynasty court and the royal family must make some money first!"

"If we are not allowed to fill up the national treasury and the imperial treasury first, how can those merchants in the society eat meat?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang nodded repeatedly.

Yes, that's well said.

He was just too happy and didn't think about it for a moment, otherwise, he would not have agreed to set up the Maritime Customs.

At least, as Zhu Biao said, it won't start now.

"Moreover, it's just like Duke Ying couldn't even calculate the benefits of this trip."

"If we can't understand the benefits of maritime trade, then we won't be able to collect taxes in the future."

"My son doesn't believe that those merchants and local big families will behave themselves after the liberalization of private maritime trade in the future!"

"If we want to avoid being fooled by them from the beginning, we must understand the mystery better than they do!"

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard what Zhu Biao said, he lost his previous joy for a moment.

Because he knew that what his fat son said was absolutely true.

He hated corrupt officials, and also hated those unscrupulous businessmen with insatiable greed.

To this end, he killed batch after batch!
But he knew that as long as people were greedy, the struggle between merchants, local clans and the imperial laws would continue.

It's nothing more than the east wind prevailing over the west wind, or the west wind prevailing over the east wind.

"Well, Biaoer, you are right!"

"If you say so, then the colonial plan that Weiyong told us about must be put on the agenda!"

"Hmm? Colonies?"

Hearing Zhu Yuanzhang suddenly come up with a new idea, which was proposed by Mr. Hu, Zhu Biao instinctively became interested.

Zhu Yuanzhang did not hide anything and took the initiative to explain.

"Weiyong brought it up when we were chatting casually."

"He believes that maritime trade is a war between heaven and earth, and the voyages are often thousands of miles."

"Then it would be best if we occupied a piece of territory at a certain distance along the way and called it a colony."

"In this way, our sea trade route will have a post station!"

(End of this chapter)