Rule the Ming Dynasty Alone

Three years is neither long nor short.

In the spring of the 16th year of Hongzhi, the sun shines on the sparkling sea, like a golden silk gently spread out.

A huge steamship is sailing slowly on the sea, and thick white steam is spewing out from the huge chimney from time to time. They drift in the air and form a hazy cloud.

Affected by an ocean current, the huge hull sways gently with the waves, making a low and long metal collision sound, like an ancient movement echoing in the night sky.

The sea breeze from the north gently brushes over the side of the ship with the salty taste of the sea water, blowing away the thick white steam and the metal movement here.

On the deck, the boatmen are busy shuttling in it. They are working in an orderly manner and moving some things that need to be dried from the cabin to here.

Inside the ship, passengers dressed in silk and satin either stood by the window and chanted poems about homesickness, or looked out at the blue sea and sighed at the beauty of the world, or sat around the tea table and talked in low voices.

They seemed to enjoy this journey very much, with expectations for the future written on their faces, and they also personally experienced the convenience of life brought by the development of science and technology.

In this vast sea, steamships are like the light of science and technology that illuminates this era, carrying the most advanced civilization of mankind, and connecting the four oceans more and more closely.

The only overlord in the ocean now is the invincible navy from the Ming Dynasty, which has monopolized the ocean trade.

This huge steamship departed from the Daming City on the American continent and will sail from the east to the west of the Pacific Ocean, and its destination is the Tianjin Port of the Ming Dynasty.

The emergence of steamships is changing the ocean era, not only breaking the constraints of natural factors such as ocean currents and sea breezes, but also greatly improving the speed of navigation.

The Dongwang ship was born at the end of the 14th year of Hongzhi. Its first voyage was a huge success and it has now become the main means of transportation between the Ming Dynasty and the upper class of the American continent.

Unlike traditional ocean-going ships that are mainly used for cargo or combat, this four-story ocean-going ship is a passenger ship affiliated to the North American Passenger Shipping Company, engaged in passenger transportation from the American Daming City to Tianjin.

Based on the different uses of the Dongwang, the designer of the Dongwang adopted a people-oriented concept and put all his energy into building a luxurious and comfortable space.

In addition to designing twelve Tianzi upper rooms, a luxurious restaurant is also designed on the second floor, as well as an entertainment room, a leisure room and a tea room. It can be said that everything is available here.

Not only is the space very comfortable, but the floor is covered with expensive Persian carpets, the walls are decorated with very elegant calligraphy and paintings, all farm tools are made of golden nanmu, and porcelain is from Jingdezhen, etc.

It is worth mentioning that in order to fulfill the promise to recover the investment cost to shareholders in two years, the bottom boat under the deck also sells ordinary tickets to the public.

The treatment of ordinary tickets is naturally much worse. Usually, 20 to 30 people are squeezed into a large bunk bed, and the main activity area is limited to the bottom cabin. Only at specific times can you go to the deck, and the area above the second floor cannot be set foot.

Although the environment in the bottom cabin is relatively poor and messy, it is still difficult to get a ticket.

After all, this environment is better than many cargoes compared to the VIP room. In addition, the sailing time of the Dongwang is shortened by half, and it is safer, so everyone is flocking to the Dongwang ticket.

The three or four months of travel time often allows most strangers to get along.

In addition to the comfortable environment and status symbol, the Dongwang provides a social platform for many people to build a network of relationships through dining or tea areas during the voyage.

No matter which era, a good network of relationships is very important. Even a certain Jianghu person used the eunuch's network of relationships to allow a retired cabinet elder to return to the court.

That's right, such a long journey is a natural social platform, not to mention that people are animals that need partners. They might be cautious a few days before sailing, but within half a month, the VIPs on the same ship became familiar with each other.

Even the upper-class VIPs holding luxury tickets were divided into different levels. On the four-story ship, the passengers on the third floor were the most noble, and the most active among them were Kong Ju and Wu Sanlang.

Kong Ju was a middle-aged man in his forties, wearing a set of blue Confucian clothes, which made him look gentle and refined, but his rather cunning rat eyes destroyed his literati temperament.

Although he only passed the examination for the title of student, not a juren, others still flattered him with the title of "Kong Juren".

Kong Ju did not explain or correct this title, as if he was originally a juren, and seemed to enjoy the misunderstanding of others.

However, he was more proud of another identity, that is, he was born in the Kong family of Qufu, Shandong, a large family that has been thriving in China for thousands of years.

Although the identity of the descendants of Confucius is becoming less and less popular in this dynasty, this identity is still quite influential in the literati and the people, and is also the greatest pride of the Kong family.

Kong Ju is the 62nd generation grandson of Confucius. Because he is a close relative of the family, he has obtained a lot of resources from the family and is a famous landlord in Qufu.

However, the thousand-year-old family finally ushered in the disaster. Emperor Hongzhi was not merciful and also surveyed the land of the Kong family in Qufu, resulting in some hidden land being pulled out.

Kong Ju's family was affected. Not only was he fined for hiding the land, but some of the occupied land had to be returned, resulting in his family losing a lot of land.

Unlike other clansmen who lived on land, he was smart since childhood and keenly sensed the economic crisis of the Kong family and discovered the business opportunities of maritime trade.

After receiving financial support from his family, Kong Ju followed the crowd to go overseas to pan for gold.

After he arrived in the American continent, because of his identity as the 62nd generation grandson of Confucius, he had greater convenience than other merchants and was able to get ahead in business repeatedly.

In just a few years, he accumulated a lot of wealth and became a well-known wealthy businessman in Shandong, and a more outstanding figure in the Kong family.

Although there were several businessmen with stronger financial resources than Kong Ju among the VIPs on the third floor, because Kong Ju was the 62nd generation grandson of Confucius, everyone gave him enough face and even took the initiative to curry favor with the descendant of Confucius.

You know, the court has always attached great importance to the Kong family, and every year it would send ministers to Shandong to participate in Confucius' birthday, and the status of Yanshenggong was very transcendent.

Wu Sanlang is a young man with ordinary appearance, but his thick eyebrows and big eyes add a bit of masculinity, and his tanned skin shows that he is a man who can endure hardships.

The American continent is full of gold, and the merchants who came to pan for gold in the early days made a lot of money. Wu Sanlang was one of the first merchants to go to North America to engage in fur trade.

Because he entered the American continent relatively early, he had good relations with many tribal leaders, and even his wives and concubines were the daughters of tribal leaders, so the fur trade was carried out very smoothly.

Since the appearance of the Dongwang, he also handed over the furs to the freight company under the jurisdiction of the Governor's Office of America, and he took a comfortable passenger ship back to Daming.

Wu Sanlang was born in Qinghe County, Shandong Province. In his adventures in the American continent, he relied more on his business talents, and was more like a model of successful grassroots entrepreneurship.

Although he has not yet reached his goal of becoming the fur king, he is already a fur merchant who cannot be underestimated.

During this voyage, he was very active, often renting venues to hold tea parties, and every time he would use the best tea to entertain some people who he thought were worth making friends with.

As a Chinese, the VIP cabins are almost all upper-class people, and there are a few people who don't like tea, so Wu Saburo's tea party always attracts the top guests.

That's why, during this long journey, Wu Saburo quickly became the most dazzling existence on the entire ship with the top-grade Longjing he brought.

Of course, this top-grade Longjing costs a lot of silver dollars, and even some top-grade Longjing is in short supply. In order to become the central figure of this ship, it can be said that he spent a lot of money.

Time flies, the Dongwang crossed the Pacific Ocean along the Aleutian Islands and entered the Sea of ​​Japan via Hokkaido.

Now the entire East China Sea is firmly controlled by the East China Sea Governor's Office, especially Japan and North Korea are not allowed to set foot in this sea area, so returning here is equivalent to returning home.

Today's tea party was held again, and Wu Saburo became the protagonist of this voyage again.

The fixed number of invited VIPs is 24, and these 24 invited VIPs came one after another, but they were accompanied by guards and servants.

Under the host of Wu Sanlang, the tea party started soon, and the latecomers were a tall young man and a fair-skinned elegant young man.

"What are the identities of these two Yuan Zheng?" Kong Ju was accepting flattery from others. After noticing the two young men who came late, his face suddenly became interested.

Unlike the other people on the same ship, seeing that this voyage was about to end, the two mysterious young men did not reveal their identities.

Either the other party was of great origin, or they were always playing tricks here. Judging from the other party's age and behavior, he thought it was mostly the latter.

A middle-aged fat man who was flattering Kong Ju shook his head and said very seriously: "The man surnamed Yuan is tall and looks like he is holding a knife, but he is actually holding a pen. It's just that at this age... hehe!"

The two dry laughs undoubtedly revealed a strong disdain, and the implication was very obvious.

If someone takes the imperial examination route, the younger he is, the less likely he is to be a Jinshi, or a low-ranking official, or even a worthless clerk.

"The man surnamed Zheng looks like a pampered young man, but I have carefully looked at his hands and found thick calluses!" Another old man who was flattering Kong Ju looked at another young man and said very confidently.

The last three words revealed his judgment.

They are all old-timers who have been doing business for many years. If they want to judge a person, they will not just look at the surface, but from some characteristics revealed by the other party, so as to infer the other party's true identity.

The young man who looks gentle and refined turned out to be a poor child who has been practicing martial arts since childhood, or engaged in farm work since childhood, so the other party's background is naturally not very good.

Kong Ju hesitated for a moment, then suddenly put down his teacup, stood up, and walked towards the two young men.

The two young men who were walking towards their designated seats saw Kong Ju blocking their way. The tall young man named Yuan frowned and said, "What's the matter?"

"How about you two come to my side to have a chat?" Kong Ju felt the other party's contempt, suppressed his dissatisfaction, looked at the table where he was sitting, and smiled confidently.

Although he has become a businessman, he is also a wealthy man with a lot of money, not to mention the halo of the 62nd generation grandson of Confucius, so he is naturally a proud person.

Originally, he was unwilling to personally inquire about the true origins of these two people, and had been waiting for these two young men to come and hug his thighs, but now that the journey was about to end, he finally couldn't help but come out in person.

In his opinion, as long as he personally went out, the other party would definitely make friends with him and tell him their origins.

The young man surnamed Yuan frowned, but coldly spat out two words: "Get out of the way!"

Huh?

Seeing that the tall young man surnamed Yuan did not give Kong Ju face, the people present could not help but look at each other, and at the same time knew that there would be a good show today.

During this journey, they also saw Kong Ju's character clearly.

He obviously ate the dividends of the times, and got the convenience of the Governor's Office of America with the halo of the 62nd generation grandson of Confucius, but he always thought that he was a natural business talent.

Now that the other party has been so humiliated, Kong Ju, who thinks highly of himself, will definitely not tolerate it.

"The ancestors said: If you don't learn etiquette, you can't stand! I don't know who you two are?" Kong Ju's face suddenly darkened, but he still suppressed his anger and asked about the other party's origin.

The young man surnamed Yuan said lightly: "We are strangers from other places. Do we need to get to know each other?"

"You are not happy to hear this. All of us here are strangers. Haven't we all become friends and confidants now?" Kong Ju's fat companion immediately supported him.

The young man surnamed Yuan smiled indifferently: "That's you, what does it have to do with me?"

"You don't want to stay with this status, but you have never missed a cup of tea. Are you poor people who eat for free?" Kong Ju rolled his eyes and immediately made a sarcastic remark.

After this, not only did the young man surnamed Yuan look gloomy, but the young man surnamed Zheng, who had been silent, also frowned.

"Kong Ju, it is my honor that the two of them come to the tea party, and I am willing to offer the tea to them for tasting. What does it have to do with you? If you continue to harass my two guests like this, please get out of here!" Wu Sanlang had already noticed this and immediately stood up to express his position.

Huh?

The people present were stunned, but they did not expect Wu Sanlang to stand up to defend the two people, even at the cost of openly offending the 62nd generation grandson of Confucius. (End of this chapter)