Smuggling Daming

Under the dim light, Zhou Zhong sat motionless behind the desk, his brows furrowed, thinking about something.Xie Lingyun had been away for a long time, Zhuaner also came to ask him to eat several times, but Zhou Zhong refused, because he needed time to digest some information, that is, the secrets about the Zhou family that Xie Lingyun just told him.

Since Emperor Xiaozong of the former Dynasty, Ming’s sea ban policy has been loosened. Smuggling has become popular in the southern coastal areas. Almost wealthy businessmen with a little wealth have participated in smuggling to some extent. For example, the most representative one is Xie Lingyun. They started their business by smuggling and became well-known local tycoons in Songjiang Prefecture.

In addition to the Xie family, most of the wealthy people in Songjiang Mansion also participated in smuggling. For example, Zhou Zhong’s father, Zhou Hai, used to often participate in smuggling, and finally encountered a shipwreck. As a result, not only people died, but even goods sank into the In the middle of the sea, in order to repay the loan, Zhou Zhong sold all his family's property, and finally paid it back.

The Zhou family has quite a few properties in Songjiang Prefecture. Although the business of the Zhou family has been affected in the past few years, there are more than a dozen shops under their name, and there are also fields outside the city, real estate in the city and other industries.But with so many properties, in the end because of Zhou Hai's failed smuggling, all of them were sold by Zhou Zhong and paid for the goods.

Sometimes Zhou Zhong couldn't help thinking to himself, what exactly was his cheap father smuggling?How big is the scale of smuggling?To lose all of his huge family business at once?He couldn't figure out these questions no matter what. As for Aunt Wang and Butler Xu, they only knew about the family affairs. Zhou Hai never let his family members ask about business matters, so they couldn't explain Zhou Zhong's doubts.

However, the arrival of Xie Lingyun today finally let Zhou Zhong know something about it. According to Xie Lingyun, there are many secret ports in the south of Songjiang City near the sea, and goods on land are usually boarded from there, and then travel from Hangzhou Bay to Not far to the south, you will soon reach the Zhoushan Islands.

When Zhu Yuanzhang implemented the sea ban, except for the largest Zhoushan Island where people were allowed to live, the residents on other islands had long been moved to the inland.But this kind of rough migration cannot prevent maritime activities. On the contrary, because there are no residents on the island, it provides a considerable space for smuggling activities. For example, the entire Zhoushan Islands area is the place where smuggling along the coast of Daming is the most concentrated.

In the south of Zhoushan Island, there is a large island called Liuheng Island, which is the third largest island in the entire Zhoushan Islands. On the west side of the north end of this island is a small island called Fodu Island. In the middle is a small strait with good water conditions. Smugglers generally call this strait the Shuangyu Gate. There are natural excellent ports on both sides of the Shuangyu Gate. In addition, it is close to the most fertile area in the south of Daming, making Shuangyu Port, the largest smuggling base in Ming Dynasty, gradually formed here. Not only smuggling ships from Ming Dynasty would come here, but trading ships from Japan, North Korea, Ryukyu and other countries would also gather here, and trade with smuggling ships from Ming Dynasty.

When mentioning the name Shuangyu Port, maybe not many people know it in later generations, but it was famous in the history of the Ming Dynasty, mainly because it was the center of smuggling activities in the entire Ming Dynasty. In later generations, scholars at home and abroad called it Shuangyu Port. The port is known as "Shanghai in the sixteenth century". Decades later, Wang Zhi, the first pirate king of the Ming Dynasty, occupied this place and dominated the coast of the Ming Dynasty, becoming the well-deserved king of the smuggling industry. From this we can see the important position of Shuangyu Port.

Songjiang Prefecture is less than a day away from Shuangyu Port, which is extremely convenient. This is one of the reasons why most of the wealthy businessmen in Songjiang Prefecture are involved in smuggling. Almost all ships involved in smuggling in Songjiang Prefecture will rush to Shuangyu Port for transactions. , Xie's family and Zhou Zhong's father Zhou Hai is no exception.

Smuggling merchants are usually daring figures. They ignore the regulations of the sea ban, build merchant ships and launch them into the sea without permission, and then trade with maritime merchants in neighboring countries.In the process of smuggling, there is no unified rule at all, and all actions are not subject to the laws of Ming Dynasty, which also makes the smuggling business extremely chaotic. There is actually not much difference between maritime merchants and pirates. When meeting at sea, it’s fine if the two sides are equal in strength. If one side is strong and the other side is weak, then the strong side will mostly turn into pirates. The rule of big fish eating small fish is not only applicable in water, but also applies on the surface of water.

The smuggling industry itself is so chaotic, and the chaos in Shuangyu Port, which is the base of smuggling, can be imagined.There are still decades before Wang Zhi unifies Shuangyu Port. The entire Shuangyu Port is in a period of coexistence of large and small forces. Shuangyu Port is composed of three ports, and each port is mixed with countless large and small forces. There are hundreds of them together.

There are mixed forces in Shuangyu Port, but these forces do not fight and kill like the underworld in later generations. After all, they are all composed of smugglers, mainly for making money. Therefore, although there are constant frictions, they rarely use force to resolve them. .

Generally, when there is a conflict of interest between the two forces, everyone sits together to drink tea and negotiate. When they can't reach an agreement, they can only rely on their own abilities. Usually, one party's business is completely taken away by the other party, and in the end they can only helplessly Exit Shuangyu Port to end.Of course, if the party whose business has been robbed is not convinced, an armed conflict is likely to occur. However, no matter whether the two parties in the conflict win or lose, they may be suddenly attacked by a third party, so there are very few forces in Shuangyu Port. Conflict.

The above is all the information about smuggling and Shuangyu Port that Zhou Zhong heard from Xie Lingyun. Next is the information about Zhou Zhong’s father, Zhou Hai. Among all the large and small forces in Shuangyu Port, four of them are the most powerful. Powerful, and Zhou Zhong's father, Zhou Hai, is the leader of one of these four forces. This news surprised Zhou Zhong.

At this point, Zhou Zhong interrupted and asked Xie Lingyun, is the Xie family's influence in Shuangyu Port also very strong?But for this question, Xie Lingyun just smiled and said nothing.

According to Xie Lingyun, Zhou Hai's forces control one-third of the income of one of the ports in Shuangyu Port, and Zhou Hai holds a large-scale fleet in his hands. The income of each time is tens of thousands, definitely considered the best among smugglers.

Hearing this, Zhou Zhong was puzzled. In the past, the Zhou family was indeed the most wealthy man in Songjiang Mansion, but there were quite a few rich men at the same level as the Zhou family. In addition, the Zhou family has been going down a steep road in recent years. In the end, he even had to borrow money to buy goods. He didn't want to be a rich and oily smuggler. Where did his cheap daddy earn money at sea?

Xie Lingyun has no way to answer Zhou Zhong's question. According to what their Xie family saw, Zhou Hai's smuggling fleet and income in Shuangyu Port are absolutely beyond imagination. Zhou Hai has not encountered anything in recent years. It was too difficult, and they should have huge wealth in their hands, but the facts did not match their guesses, which also made Xie Lingyun very strange.

Compared with the huge wealth that disappeared secretly, Xie Lingyun then said something very important to Zhou Zhong.When Zhou Hai took his fleet out to sea, they encountered a shipwreck, and none of the ships that went out to sea came back.However, when Zhou Hai went to sea, he still left a considerable number of people in Shuangyu Port. After hearing the news of Zhou Hai's death, these people immediately fell into chaos. Now they have split into three forces, and they will never return to their previous glory. .

Most of the people in the Songjiang Mansion who have participated in smuggling know that Zhou Hai possesses a strong sea force, but they all know each other. After all, smuggling is not a glorious thing, and few people openly discuss and smuggle related matter.Moreover, Zhou Hai never told his family, and never let his family members participate in the smuggling, so even Steward Xu and Aunt Wang didn't know that his master had such a big influence overseas. As for Zhou Zhong and Bracelet Son, let alone.

After Xie Lingyun introduced the above things, she finally said the reason why she introduced these things, that is, she hoped that Zhou Zhong would give up the plan of bringing the Wang family into the soap business, and only the two of them would cooperate, and in exchange, the Xie family would Support Zhou Zhong to go to Shuangyu Island, and help him take over the remaining forces left by Zhou Hai.

Although it is only a remnant force, and it was split into three groups before, there are still two to three hundred people who control part of the port's revenue, and even have a few large ships in their hands. It is absolutely no problem to form a small smuggling fleet.

Hearing the olive branch thrown out by Xie Lingyun, Zhou Zhong couldn't help being moved. He was worried about the lack of people in his hands, but he didn't expect that cheap old man to leave such a lot of inheritance, and if he could control these people In his hands, even if he cooperates with the Xie family at that time, he doesn't have to worry about the benefits he deserves being swallowed up by the other party.

It's just that what makes Zhou Zhong a little strange is, why didn't Zhou Hai's subordinates come to him after such a long time?After all, I was their young boss. When Zhou Hai died, they should have come to him to take charge of the overall situation, but the fact is that they didn't come to him at all.It seems that there must be an unknown reason for this, even if I want to accept those 300 people, I am afraid it will not be an easy task, and I will definitely need the support of the Xie family at that time.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zhong couldn't help but hesitate. If the Xie family could really support him in taking over the people left behind by Zhou Hai, then he would no longer be a lonely person, and no matter what he did in the future, he would have some points. Emboldened.

But Zhou Zhong was worried that Xie Lingyun was lying to him. If the above were all lies fabricated by her, or some key points were inconsistent with the facts, even if there were residual forces left by Zhou Hai, he would not be able to subdue them at all. what to do?

It was also in consideration of the above that Zhou Zhong felt extremely entangled in his heart. Finally, he asked Xie Lingyun to give himself a time to think about it. In the end, in order to understand this matter, he didn't even eat dinner.

However, after such a long period of weighing, Zhou Zhong finally came up with a solution. Sitting at the table, he suddenly opened a pen and paper, and wrote to Xie Lingyun: "I want to go to Shuangyu Port in person. As Miss said, Zhou Zhong agreed to the conditions proposed by Miss this afternoon!"

Welcome readers to come and read, the latest, fastest and most popular serial works are all original!