Ming Dynasty: Zhu Biao's younger brother, the most rebellious son in history

Chapter 35: Record of Traitors!
After the merchants he sent away left, they took many turns and came to another house. Hu Weiyong was sitting in the front hall with his confidants. The seven or eight merchants standing in front of him all came out of Tu Jie's house.

"Are you all here?"

Hu Weiyong put down his teacup, looked at the seven or eight businessmen standing in the front hall, and sneered, "You colluded with important officials of the court to seek personal gain. If His Majesty knows about this, every one of you will be killed, and your three clans will be exterminated."

Hurala!
After hearing Hu Weiyong's words, all the merchants who were standing before knelt on the ground, crying and kowtowing, begging Hu Weiyong for forgiveness!
When Hu Weiyong heard what the merchants said, he snorted with disdain.

snort!

It is His Majesty who wants to kill you. What does this have to do with me, Hu Weiyong?
Can I still stop His Majesty from killing your three clans?

"Prime Minister Hu, please show some mercy! Prime Minister Hu! My child is still young, he doesn't know anything~ Prime Minister Hu!"

One of the businessmen was crying so hard that his forehead was bleeding.

He kept begging Hu Weiyong: "Prime Minister Hu, please forgive my family. All the crimes are because of me. I am willing to offer all my wealth and beg for forgiveness."

Hu Weiyong did not say anything, but just looked at the other businessmen. How could the other businessmen not understand what Hu Weiyong meant?
They begged Hu Weiyong to give their families a chance to live by offering their wealth.

After a while, Hu Weiyong left the house with a stack of confessions with wet ink on them. After leaving the house, he got on a carriage and threw the confessions provided by the merchants into a corner of the carriage.

Then he took out a small black-covered notebook from his pocket.

When I opened it, there were many names on it: Wang Guangyang, Yang Yuangao, Chang Mao, Lan Yu, Liu Ji...

The names of the ministers were listed on it, and there was an "X" under some of their names.

When he came across Tu Jie's name, Hu Weiyong chuckled.

Then he used the charcoal pencil he carried with him to draw an "X" under his name.

Tu Jie, he's finished.

……

the next day.

Zhu Biao and Wang Guangyang were reviewing memorials in the Zhongshu Province's duty room. After a while, they took a break. Zhu Biao ate snacks and drank tea, looking very happy. He said, "Prime Minister Wang, Hu Weiyong is quite capable. We just leaked his name, and the people in Yingtian Prefecture were in a state of panic. Many officials cleaned up their businesses overnight, and there were quite a lot of people."

Wang Guangyang looked at Zhu Biao, whose face was glowing red, and said calmly, "The Crown Prince must have gained a lot from clearing the property of all officials and enriching the Second Prince, right?"

Yesterday afternoon, news leaked from somewhere that His Majesty had received word that officials and businessmen were colluding, and that His Majesty was going to send Hu Weiyong and the Imperial Guards' Office to jointly investigate the officials of Yingtian Prefecture. If this was true, there would be a nationwide investigation.

Hu Weiyong himself was also very high-profile. He walked around the streets of Yingtian Prefecture and found that 70% of the shops were closed. The restaurants and romantic places on both sides of the Qinhuai River that were usually crowded were now deserted.

Later, Wang Guangyang checked and found out that it was Xu Miaoyun, the eldest daughter of Duke Wei, who was in charge. Then Feng Sheng's family also started to move. The one who came forward was Feng Yuting, the eldest daughter of Feng Sheng's family. As for the other members of the Xu family, there was no movement at all.

If Wang Guangyang can't guess who is behind this, then he would have been prime minister in vain.

"Hey, just a little bit."

Zhu Biao scratched his head in embarrassment, feeling ashamed to be known for making money, but Zhu Biao was an honest man and would not lie. He also said directly that Wang Guangyang had a problem: "It was my second brother who leaked the news, and Hu Weiyong was responsible for fanning the flames. Then my father received the news and asked Commander Guo of the Imperial Guards to take over some merchants' shops. I acted late and only took over a dozen."

A dozen shops aren’t enough?
Now there are various businesses buying these shops, and they are all sold at a discount.

When your majesty announces the plan to develop commerce, these shops will restore their original prices and quadruple their prices.

Just buy and sell, and you can make huge profits.

Zhu Kai really dares to do this. Isn’t he afraid of being blamed by Zhu Yuanzhang after he finds out?
But think about it...I can't necessarily blame him, after all, Zhu Yuanzhang was also involved.

Wang Guangyang was puzzled and asked Zhu Biao: "May I ask, Your Highness, where did the Second Prince get so much money?"

"Money...my son doesn't have much money, it was all lent to him by others."

Zhu Biao did not hide it.

Make money, not shabby.

After knowing that the development of commerce would greatly benefit the Ming treasury, Zhu Biao was no longer so averse to doing business. As people who knew that the Ming Dynasty was going to develop commerce, he and Wang Guangyang were comrades in the same trench, so he told the origin of Zhu Kai's money: "Five thousand taels of gold were given to him by his father, two thousand taels were given by me, and thirteen thousand taels were given by my mother. The remaining fifty thousand taels of gold were from my second brother who wrote a loan note to the Xu and Feng families. My second brother borrowed money from the harem again and collected some gold and silver jewelry, which he sold to the Western Regions Hu merchants in exchange for 100,000 gold as the capital for the acquisition."

"..."

One hundred thousand taels of gold...

Wang Guangyang took a breath of cold air!
The Ming Dynasty's annual treasury revenue was only 7 million taels of silver and 500,000 taels of gold. Zhu Kai immediately got 100,000 taels of gold as capital!
After a while, Zhu Yuanzhang announced a decree to develop commerce, and the 100,000 taels of gold quadrupled...

Three hundred thousand taels!

hiss!
Wang Guangyang exclaimed in his heart how horrifying it was.

Judging from what Zhu Biao said, Zhu Kai did not take a penny himself. It was either given by Zhu Yuanzhang, Ma Xiuying and Zhu Biao, or borrowed by Zhu Kai.

In other words, Zhu Kai did not spend a penny and used the money he borrowed to do a business!
When he returned to exchange the principal and interest, Zhu Biao made a net profit of 200,000 taels of gold.

Considering how much money Zhu Kai earns, Wang Guangyang wants to start a business.

This is so attractive!

"Second Prince, you have a great way. With this combination of tactics, the Second Prince will at least get a net profit of 200,000 taels... of gold."

Wang Guangyang looked at Zhu Biao and said, "Second Prince, this much gold is almost 40% of the national treasury's income."

Zhu Biao quickly waved his hand, signaling Wang Guangyang not to talk nonsense: "Prime Minister Wang, don't talk nonsense. It's only 40% of the gold deposited into the national treasury last year. Silver and copper coins are the bulk of it, and cannot be counted as 40% of the national treasury's income."

"But this business... is indeed very profitable. Last night, my father beat my second brother up, blaming him for not telling me earlier."

Zhu Biao also realized the importance of commerce at this time, and said to Wang Guangyang: "Prime Minister Wang, according to my second brother's expectation, both the purchase and sale must pay value-added tax to the national treasury, but how to collect this value-added tax? Both the buyer and the seller have to pay taxes, isn't it too high?"

"Your Highness, it's not high. The profits of business are too great... But if you want to be specific, I can't explain it clearly. You have to ask the Second Prince."

Wang Guangyang also realized how much benefit the development of trade would bring to the national treasury.

If commercial taxes are collected, not to mention one expedition to the north every two years, even two expeditions a year would be a war of prosperity.

However, Wang Guangyang still had his concerns, and said to Zhu Biao with a frown: "Your Highness, it is still unknown whether the development of commerce will benefit the Ming Dynasty. However, if everyone puts profit first, the ethics and morals will be messed up."

(End of this chapter)