Yuan Shu's words were not unreasonable. Even though it was mainly to stabilize the heart of the Jing Yang family, Yuan Shu was able to marry these two wives. But after getting along for a long time, they will naturally fall in love for a long time.

The three wives and concubines are all peaceful and gentle people, but only Cai Yi is the only one. Yuan Shu could see from her gaze that she had a yearning for power.

Of course, it doesn't mean that she is a mean woman, Cai Yi is also gentle and kind. But it may be because she was born in the environment of the Cai family, which caused her to always have an inexplicable sense of crisis, and she wanted to control the power so that she could rely on it.

It's good now, but as time goes by, Yuan Shu is really afraid that she will become the vicious Mrs. Cai in history. Therefore, I am going to find something for her to do, and doing business is a good way.

Although Yuan Shu has been supporting businessmen, he has been unable to change his social concept for a while. Therefore, Yuan Shu only maintained the fair competition of merchants, and did not really change the low status of merchants in Shinong industry and commerce.

Of course, it's not that Yuan Shu really can't change the status of a businessman, but that it's not necessary.

There are some things that you won't cherish if you don't go through ups and downs and hardships.

From Yuan Shu's standpoint, it is enough to maintain the relative fairness of the interests of merchants, and it is harmful to Yuan Shu to improve their status.

From the perspective of merchants, small businesses can be much more difficult to manage than large ones. They are not like a business family like the Zhen family, and they may one day secretly do something for profit and forgetfulness for the sake of profit under the temptation of other princes.

Anyway, if it was exposed, it would be good to give up part of Yangzhou's family business and switch to other princes. Because their assets and family business are not large, maybe if a successful order is successful, the profit will be more than their capital. As a result, these small businesses are very difficult to control.

And the big businessman has a big business, and it is not cost-effective to lose the entire family business in Yangzhou for such a little benefit. Don't think that you can buy a lot of things with more capital, small transactions are not easy to manage, but large transactions are easy to manage! These large-scale commercial activities are all specially watched by Yuan Shu.

Therefore, temporarily maintaining this situation of low status of merchants can effectively reduce the number of small merchants, but it will not cause much damage to large merchants, and it is more conducive to Yuan Shu's control of merchants.

This era is not the era of material abundance in later generations. The role of the merchant was basically to buy surplus food from the people and transport it to areas that were in dire need or in need of material. There is also the provision of some basic living materials.

As for transporting fruits from the south to the north, and cattle and sheep from the north to the south, it is basically impossible.

In troubled times, it is good for normal people to live, how can they have so much money to buy these things? Most of the people who can afford these are those wealthy families. Yuan Shu is now bent on building roads, in addition to facilitating the dispatch of troops and improving the control of the forces under his command, it is also to improve the spending power of the people under his command.

If Jiaozhou is developed, with the convenient transportation between Yangzhou and Jiaozhou, the fruit can reach Yangzhou within a few days. A lot of time and money are saved, and the price of fruit can be greatly reduced.

In addition, the people of Yangzhou are relatively wealthy, and it is normal to buy some occasionally to try them.

Therefore, the number of merchants is too large now, which is not a good thing for Yuan Shu. The focus should now be on material production.

However, now there is a small problem in the merchant group in Yangzhou, and the Zhen family is dominant.

Although the Xuzhou Mi family also defected to Yuan Shu, after all, the foundation is still shallow.

Although the Zhen family took root in Yangzhou half a year before the Mi family, coupled with the support of Yuan Shu, it has now become a giant existence.

And the Yangzhou Zhen family's family advocates and Cai Yi are the same type of women. Smart but too power-hungry, he could see the situation clearly at first, but now he is a little lost.

Many merchants have recently reacted that the Zhen family is too domineering, and in order to seize the market, they even deliberately lower prices to compete.

After Guo Jia and Tian Feng's investigation, the Zhen family did go a little too far and touched certain boundaries. In fact, they are mainly targeting the Mi family in Xuzhou, and they are afraid that the Mi family will grow into their opponents.

Mi Zhu is a kind person, and when he meets the Zhen family, he can avoid it. But relying on his benevolent personality and extensive contacts, he still took root in Yangzhou. The one who suffered the most from the Zhen family was actually the Mi family, but Mi Zhu didn't react.

When Yuan Shu heard the news, he was immediately furious. It seems that he is really too supportive of the Zhen family, after all, the Zhang family is a woman, although her ability is strong, but the overall situation is still a little weak. Do you really think that Zhen Mi has become her daughter-in-law, and she can do whatever she wants with her own support?

Yuan Shu immediately sent someone to warn the Zhen family. and ordered the Zhen family to spit out the benefits they had obtained by improper means.

Fortunately, although the Zhang family was a little carried away by interests, he was a smart person after all. immediately discovered the mistake he had made, and hurriedly withdrew most of his interests, and even went to apologize to Yuan Shu and the Mi family in person.

Seeing that Zhang's attitude was okay, Yuan Shu temporarily put down the matter. However, Yuan Shu found that it was indeed inappropriate to support the Zhang family too much, so he turned to the Mi family to join his own support, so that the two could compete against each other.

And now it is just right to let Cai Yi do business, on the one hand, it can show Yuan Shu's attitude and stabilize the hearts of businessmen. On the other hand, it can also more stabilize the pattern of the business community under Yuan Shu.

After all, the Zhang family is an outsider, although it is a relative to some extent, but after all, it cannot be completely controlled.

And Cai Yi is different, this is her own concubine. According to the situation of women marrying and following their husbands in this era, Cai Yi is definitely firmly on Yuan Shu's position unwaveringly.

Although Cai Yi may take the Cai family with him in business, Yuan Shu believes that Cai Mao can see his mind clearly and will not do something out of the ordinary.

Cai Mao looks like a big boss, but her mind is very delicate. As early as after the fiefdom was fully allocated, the Cai family had not had much contact with the Kuai family.

Although Yuan Shu is not clear about the situation in secret, being able to show his attitude on the bright side shows that Cai Mao is still a person with vision.

As a courtier, when encountering a monarch with a strong desire for control like Yuan Shu, the most taboo thing is one word, greed! Being too greedy can happen in any situation, especially under a master who wants to be in control.

If you want to live comfortably, you need to be clear about your position. Cai Mao of the Cai family controls 30,000 elite sailors, not to mention, the Cai family is still the first family in Jingzhou. If you get involved in business too much, Yuan Shu will really have to start.

Just like the Lu family in Yangzhou, it's okay to be the overlord of Yuzhang soil in peace and stability, and it's impossible to meddle in other places.

Cai Mao's ability to decisively dissociate himself from the Kuai family shows that this person can at least see the situation clearly and will not do some stupid things.

Yuan Shu never restrained his domineering character. A domineering lord is always much better than a cold lord. Never stab any of his subordinates in the dark with a soft knife, and every time he encounters a mistake by his subordinates, he will be warned openly.

When encountering such a lord, Yuan Shu's subordinates at least don't have to worry about encountering a tragic ending like Han Xin.

It's not that Yuan Shu doesn't know the art of kingship, but some methods are disdainful. Obviously, there is a majestic avenue to go, so why do you need to go sideways?

As long as you have a good balance and clear rewards and punishments, those false tricks can certainly win people's hearts. However, the upward and downward effects have caused some hidden dangers that Yuan Shu does not want to see.