Smuggling Daming

"Yes!" Zhou Zhong sat there contemplating for a long while, and suddenly said with joy, "Uncle Tuo, I don't think this is the case. The Shibo Department is going to take over the entire Shuangyu Port now, but there is a huge shortage of manpower. I want to recruit a lot of people, but it will take at least a few months for the personnel to be really familiar with the management of the port after they are recruited, so I think it's better to let our people apply for jobs at the Shipbuilding Department, and then these people will directly become small officials of the Shipbuilding Department , In this way, we don't have to worry about their livelihood, and it also solves the manpower problem of the Shibo Department, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone!"

Hearing that Zhou Zhong had come up with such a method, Uncle Tuo finally turned his worries into joy and said: "This method is good. I heard that the small officials in the Shibo Department are well paid, which is not much worse than our chamber of commerce, and they can continue to work together. If you do your own business, I think everyone will have nothing to complain about."

Seeing that Uncle Tuo also agreed with his method, Zhou Zhong was also overjoyed, and immediately asked him to notify the people in the chamber of commerce, and he called Yang Tong, the secretary of Shibo, and told the other party about it. He was also very happy after hearing this, because their city shipping department is indeed very short of manpower, and it would be great to be able to accept the original port management personnel now, and this will also reduce some of the resistance for them to take over the port.

Just finished dealing with this matter, before Zhou Zhong could catch his breath, Xie Da came to look for him again. As soon as the other party entered the living room, Xie Da immediately complained to Zhou Zhong: "Nephew, can you take care of yourself this time?" We have suffered a lot, and now all the ports are under the management of the Shibo Department, and we will have to drink the northwest wind in the future!"

Hearing Xie Da's words, Zhou Zhong smiled and said: "Uncle Xie, don't make fun of my nephew. If others don't understand the benefits of Shibo Division taking over the port, they can help, but with Uncle Xie's intelligence , it can be seen that the advantages of this matter outweigh the disadvantages, and we lost a little income on the port, but we also got rid of a big burden, and even in exchange for the protection of the imperial navy in the future, this is a smile without losing money What a great deal!"

"Hahaha~, I knew you would say that!" Xie Da also laughed and said after hearing this, but then he said with some worry. "Nephew, what is the attitude of the imperial court now? On the one hand, the imperial court has not lifted the sea ban, on the other hand, the imperial court has appointed you as the admiral of the four seas, and officially designated Shuangyu Port as the port of Ming Dynasty. I asked myself, after living for so many years, But I can't guess what the court thinks?"

After Zhou Zhong heard it, he smiled strangely and said, "Uncle Xie. In fact, it doesn't matter what the court thinks. The key is to see what our emperor thinks. From my nephew's point of view, it's not that the emperor doesn't want to abolish the sea ban. There are too many things, and His Majesty can't make up his mind for a while. That's why I was appointed as the admiral. Although it is a military post in name, it cannot interfere with local government affairs, but in fact it puts Shuangyu Port under my jurisdiction. All government affairs are managed by the admiral's office."

Zhou Zhong paused at this point, and then said: "In this way, it has also created an established fact, that is, Shuangyu Port has completely got rid of the sea ban and has become a very special existence in Daming. Then the next step is to It depends on what our Shuangyu Port can bring to the imperial court? For example, the imperial court is currently short of money, if our Shuangyu Port can pay a large amount of taxes a year, then Your Majesty will have a reason to open the sea ban!"

Hearing Zhou Zhong's explanations, Xie Da's eyes widened in shock. He didn't expect Zhou Zhong to be charged with such a major task, and even the development of Shuangyu Port was related to whether the sea ban was lifted. He always thought it was a matter of the ministers in the court, but he didn't expect that it would have something to do with businessmen like himself.

After a while, Xie Da let out a sigh of relief and said, "It turns out that the imperial court wanted to lift the sea ban, but it was worried about the resistance when the sea ban was lifted, so it took Shuangyu Port as a pilot point. As long as Shuangyu Port succeeds , then the resistance will be much smaller.”

Zhou Zhong also nodded at this time, and then he suddenly thought of another thing, and immediately asked: "Uncle Xie, you must have been under a lot of pressure during this time, has the Xie family made any moves?"

The reason why Zhou Zhong asked this is because Yuyao's Xie family is a representative of the resistance to the release of the sea ban. Think about it, the Xie family used to control the Xie's Chamber of Commerce and made huge profits from smuggling. If the sea ban is imposed, then the profits they earned from smuggling in the past will inevitably drop greatly, so the Xie family will naturally not want to see the imperial court let go of the sea ban.

Of course, the Xie family is only one of the representatives, and the same is true of other aristocratic families related to smuggling interests. They are also the group of people who are most opposed to the lifting of the sea ban.Originally Zhou Zhong also belonged to this group of people, but now his status has changed. As the admiral of the imperial court, he can make his own chamber of commerce earn more profits when the sea ban is lifted, and Xie Da also does the same. There will be no losses, so not only are the two of them not afraid of letting go of the sea ban, they will even wave the flag for the release of the sea ban.

Hearing Zhou Zhong asked about the Xie family, Xie Da also shook his head and smiled wryly: "You have a conscience. When you first stationed a navy in Shuangyu Port, the Xie family used Xie Ke to give me constant help. Squeeze, I hope to let me prevent you from taking over Shuangyu Port, but I have never paid attention to it. During this time, the Xie family has sent people to see me, and each time they say a few words, I can only superficially perfunctory them. I can do what I usually do, anyway, the chamber of commerce is in my hands, no matter how anxious they are, it's useless!"

"Uncle Xie has suffered, and when Xiaobai makes some achievements in Shuangyu Port in the future, he will definitely ask for credit for uncle from His Majesty!" Zhou Zhong stood up at this moment and saluted Xie Da deeply.Now the three major chambers of commerce in Shuangyu Port stand side by side. Among them, his Nanyang Chamber of Commerce has the greatest influence, but the remaining Xie Family and Hong Family Chambers of Commerce are controlled by Xie Da. Now Xie Da is fully assisting him, and the remaining small and medium chambers of commerce are not Dare to say anything, after all, their business has not been greatly affected for the time being, which is why Zhou Zhong can take over Shuangyu Port so smoothly.

But Xie Da smiled when he heard Zhou Zhong's words: "I'm old, I don't care if I invite credit or not, as long as you marry Ling Yun in the future, don't treat her badly!"

"Uncle, don't worry, don't you know my nephew's character? Besides, Lingyun and I have shared joys and sorrows, and we are heart-to-hearts. Even if I treat myself badly in the future, I will never dare to treat Lingyun badly!" Zhou Zhong At this time, there were some glib words.

"If you still say that you won't be treated badly, then let me ask you, when do you plan to marry Lingyun?" Xie Da stared at Zhou Zhong's words, and said angrily. The obstruction of the family, coupled with an imperial decree from His Majesty the Emperor, resulted in Ling Yun only being a flat wife in the end, and this was one of the reasons why he hated the Xie family the most.

When Zhou Zhong heard Xie Da mention his marriage with Xie Lingyun, he immediately slapped his thigh and said, "Uncle Xie, my nephew was just about to tell you about this. I originally planned to marry Lingyun after the Chinese New Year last year, but I was delayed because of my busy schedule, and now the affairs of the Admiral's Mansion are finally on the right track, and I am free, so I just want to discuss with you about the wedding date, what date do you think is suitable?"

The marriage between Zhou Zhong and Xie Lingyun should have been done a long time ago, but it was delayed because of some miscellaneous things. Xie Lingyun has already complained about it. Every time she sees Zhou Zhong, she will complain, and she doesn't even care about the chamber of commerce. To take care of it, Zhou Zhong also felt guilty for this, so as soon as he was free now, he immediately discussed the wedding with Xie Da.

Xie Da was overjoyed when he heard Zhou Zhong's words, he slapped the table without even thinking about it and said, "The sooner the wedding date, the better, it's already March, I think we will set it up next month, and there will be nearly one month left. We will make preparations in the next month, we must make the wedding a splendid one, and we must not let Lingyun suffer any grievances!"

Although Ping's wife is also a wife, her status is still inferior to that of a regular wife, so Xie Da was worried that her daughter would be wronged, so she gave a month to prepare. After all, a grand wedding can also reveal the strength of her natal family. When he wanted to bully Xie Lingyun, he had to weigh it up.

Zhou Zhong can also understand Xie Da's thoughts, although he feels that with Jinxuan's character, he will never bully Lingyun, but it is useless to talk to Xie Da about this kind of words, so it is better to follow him in everything, anyway, the two families will not bully Lingyun. Not bad for the little money for the wedding, so he nodded again and again after hearing this, and then he discussed some details of the wedding with Xie Da, and then sent the joyous Xie Da away.

After returning home, Zhou Zhong found Jinxuan and Aunt Wang again, and then told the date of his marriage with Xie Lingyun. The family had already prepared for this matter, so Jinxuan and Aunt Wang also nodded in agreement, even Aunt Wang also specially found Sanniang, and then they discussed together what to prepare for Zhou's big wedding.

In the next month, Zhou Zhong kept running around Shuangyu Port and the barracks. Although he handed over all the drills in the barracks to Shenying, he was still worried, so he often went to see the people in Shuangyu Port. The takeover was also very smooth, especially after the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, the Xie Family Chamber of Commerce and the Hong Family Chamber of Commerce took the lead in handing over the management rights of the port, other small and medium-sized chambers of commerce also took the initiative to hand over. The three major chambers of commerce were eating, so they didn't dare to offend Zhou Zhong at all.

The preparations for the wedding were also very smooth. When the news of Zhou Zhong's big wedding spread, it not only caused a sensation in Shuangyu Port, but also made the entire Zhejiang officialdom pay attention to it. Following Zhou Zhong's fight with Governor Xie Di last time, Many people have noticed this young admiral, so when they heard that he was going to get married, these people immediately found Yu Wenyuan, the prefect of Ningbo, and expressed their desire to make friends with Zhou Zhong through him. Zhou Zhong is not stupid , Immediately issued wedding invitations to these people, even Governor Xie Di had a copy, anyway, his invitations were delivered, and it was the other party's business whether they came or not. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest motivation.)