In the summer of the sixteenth year of Hongxing, at the beginning of June, he lived in Suzhou for a long time, and only went to Yingtianfu in December every year to celebrate the birthday of his son-in-law Chongzhen, and took Zhou Kui, the expired abbot of the New Year, suddenly received the emperor's edict brought by the old eunuch of Renshou Palace, and ordered him to go to the Laoshan Palace to meet him on the same day, without delay!

What's going on?

Zhou Kui, who was already seventy-four years old, was taken aback by this sudden emperor's edict, which had not happened in nearly 20 years!

He, the emperor's father-in-law and the emperor's grandfather, was cold as early as the year of the Jiashen disaster, not to mention that Zhu Cihong, the grandson, did not want to see him, and even Chongzhen, the son-in-law, and the daughter-in-law of Zhou Hou resented him for refusing to take the lead in donating military salaries at the critical moment when Li Zicheng's army was pressing, and he also took the lead in sabotaging the fundraising plan. So when he arrived in Jiangnan, he threw him aside.

Among the group of pro-ghost lords who followed Zhu Cihong south, he must be the coolest one, and he didn't even have a share of the house or homestead in Yingtianfu that everyone had, let alone add the word "Ke Nan" before his Jiading Bo.

Fortunately, Zhou Guozhang was originally from Suzhou, and he had a family, a business, a land and property in Suzhou Prefecture, and he could be regarded as a wealthy party. Although he was not at the expense of his son-in-law, daughter and grandson, no one sent money or goods, and even the landlords who originally sheltered him redeemed their land, and the official fields and military fields that he had encroached upon were also returned to their original owners. But after all, Zhou Kui is still a relative of the emperor, the father of the empress, and the grandfather of Zhu Cihong.

As long as Zhu Cihong doesn't speak, no one dares to slaughter his old man as a pig...... The Son of Heaven is unpredictable! Who knows when this cold stove will burn again?

Besides, there are more people here in Suzhou who don't like Zhu Cihong! Zhu Cihong was originally the way of the northern military system of the southern gentry, and used the military aristocracy exiled in the north to oppress the landlords and rich businessmen in the south to contribute money and effort - this way does not sound good, but it is very effective in practice!

How else could it be? Can it be done by relying on the southeastern gentry? Who is willing to pay for it without a knife on the neck?

Of course, Zhu Cihong didn't come to kill chickens and take eggs. He's going to release the water to raise fish, and he can continue to scavenge.

Therefore, while depriving the southeastern gentry of their political and economic privileges, they also paid great attention to protecting their legitimate interests, and gently let go of the floating wealth they had previously obtained by relying on privileges, basically preserving their vitality.

And this group of Jiangnan landlords and profiteers who lost their privileges and at the same time kept their vitality (without privileges, of course, they are no longer real gentry), and later hit the high-speed period of economic development from the last years of Chongzhen to the present!

This is a super outlet! The external environment is the Age of Discovery, and the internal environment is Zhu Cihong to stimulate industry and commerce, develop finance, and decentralize power - to sum up, it is almost these three axes, which look simple, but the effect is just right!

Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, it has been a way to suppress business, and although it has been liberalized a lot, there has been no fanfare encouragement after all. Therefore, after the profiteers got rich, they were like squeezing into the gentry, and there were not many who continued to grow bigger.

In addition, because of the privileges of the gentry, the countryside in the Jiangnan region has always been stuck on the threshold of capitalism and cannot go any further.

Later generations may not be able to understand the important position of agriculture on the road to capitalism, but in the 17th century, Zhu Cihong, who was troubled by the problem of feeding more than 100 million people and almost 200 million people, knew too well the truth of "food is heaven" - how can you go to capital if you can't eat enough?

Moreover, the raw materials of capitalist industry and commerce in this era are mainly supplied by agriculture! The production of cotton, silk, wool, etc., will crowd out the land for food production!

And a rich peasant or landlord who provided a large amount of raw materials for handicrafts was no longer a mere peasant (the concept of a strict separation of agriculture and industry and commerce is probably only in China, right?). ), but a commercial landlord or kulak.

In Jiangnan, where the handicraft industry is highly developed, industrial and commercial landlords and rich peasants have sprung up in large numbers since the last years of Chongzhen.

Because during this period, the rapid development of handicrafts provided a large demand for cash crops, and at the same time, the large farms that appeared in Huguang, Lianghuai, Jinou and Jinghai provided sufficient and cheap food supply for Jiangnan. In addition, the popularity of exotic crops such as sweet potatoes and potatoes has also provided farmers in the southeast with additional cheap food.

Therefore, landlords and profiteers who were also farmers, merchants and workers began to appear on the scene.

And Zhou Guozhang is actually one of them!

This ruler is not a person who does great things, but he is definitely an unrighteous person who can manage money!

stingy, shrewd, thrifty, also has a little background, also has capital, and has been quietly doing business.

So after completely losing his political privileges, he naturally transitioned into business.

It is said to be a business, but in fact, it is a combination of agriculture and industry, but it is only operated and managed by a business model.

Guozhang's main business is mulberry field and silkworm raising, in the last year of Chongzhen, the land leased by the Suzhou family was recovered, changed rice to mulberry, and planted tens of thousands of mulberry trees in one go, after the mulberry tree rose, it began to raise silkworms and sheep on a large scale (sheep also eat mulberry leaves).

And it's not blind breeding, the old man got inspiration from the old mountain horse farm, and began to select seeds in his own silkworm house, eliminate the sick and weak, and retain the strong. After more than ten years, it has also played the brand of Suzhou Guozhang silkworm!

After the success of running Sangtian, the old man led his sons to open a money bank - the so-called money bank is actually a small bank. After the success of the Maritime and Salt Merchants, many big businessmen found that the money came in this business a lot and quickly, so they invested in it.

Zhou Guozhang set up a money bank that only operated deposit and loan remittance (remittance had to be through the channel of Haiyan No. 2 Bank, and the handling fee was divided with Haiyan No. 2 Bank) in Suzhou.

Needless to say, it's definitely doing well!

He didn't even want Emperor Chongzhen to borrow money, and the asset quality of this money bank could still be poor?

So by the sixteenth year of Hongxing, Zhou Guozhang, who had already lost most of his privileges, was actually richer than when Chongzhen was in power......

, who made a fortune because of his own struggle, "loved" Emperor Chongzhen more than when he relied on his son-in-law to make a fortune.

The money you have worked hard for is precious! And also more afraid of losing!

Zhou Guozhang knew that Zhu Cihong hated himself, and the reason why he didn't move himself was mostly because of his daughter and son-in-law...... If the son-in-law is gone, will his little net worth be confiscated by his grandson?

When he was in power, he didn't take bribes, and later the process of making a fortune in business couldn't be clean.

So now that he received Chongzhen's command, he immediately thought that his absurd and mediocre son-in-law was probably going to fail......

Where did Zhou Guozhang dare to delay, he quickly rented a fast boat and went straight to Pukou. After arriving at Pukou, he did not stop, and went straight to the old mountain Renshou Palace. When I arrived outside Renshou Palace, I found that the place where the courtyard was cold in the past is now crowded with people!

But it doesn't look like I'm here to visit the sick, but like I'm here to visit a temple fair...... Judging by the dress and behavior of these people, they should all be businessmen from Nanjing and Pukou.

What's going on?

"Old man, you really don't know? The Emperor Taishang set up a stall outside Renshou Palace to do business! ”

Soon someone told Zhou Guozhang what was going on.

"What! The Emperor is setting up a stall? Really? What to sell? The old man was stunned when he heard this.

"Sell good stuff!" The man replied, "Silk and silk, jade treasures, jewelry, Western clocks...... They are all gifts and tributes received by the Emperor Taishang over the years. ”

"Gifts? Can that thing be sold? ”

"There's no money!" The man said, "You don't know, old man, do you?" Now that Tianfu has come out with a big investment in a business, the emperor also wants to intervene, what if he has no capital? I had to sell something! ”

"What kind of deal?" Zhou Guozhang continued to inquire.

"It's the buying and selling of investment and nation-building!"