Since Qin Shi Huang unified China, the merchant class has been severely suppressed, and people like Fan Li and Lü Buwei have never appeared again.

Merchants were discriminated against, first of all, the ancient feudal rulers ruled the people with Confucianism, which emphasized honesty and honesty with people.

However, businessmen will inevitably have a shortage of catties and two pounds in business, and even more so, they will kill other people's lives for the sake of wealth, which has a very serious opposition to Confucianism.

Therefore, in order to propagate the Confucian idea of generosity and benevolence and maintain the social atmosphere, it is necessary to suppress treacherous businessmen.

The second is that feudal society is an agrarian civilization. In the more than 2,000 years of feudal dynasties, it has always been a society that pays attention to "male ploughing and female weaving", the social productivity is low, and the people do not have much demand just to eat well, and naturally the demand for trade is greatly reduced.

Therefore, in ancient times, the commodity trade economy was not highly developed, coupled with the underdeveloped transportation, the distance of trade could only be carried out in a small range, and more merchants just walked the streets and alleys to sell goods as "merchants", and often lived in a fixed place in order to do business, which was simply a wanderer.

The ancients paid attention to stability, hoping to be the champion in the future, and naturally they would not look down on the merchants.

The real big merchants were few and far from the Qin Dynasty onwards, and it was not until the Song Dynasty that they gradually developed, but they were more of vassals of the powerful.

Finally, there is another important reason, which is the underdevelopment of money.

The most important thing for merchant trade is to have the support of currency, the Qin and Han dynasties coins are mainly metal currency, a thousand strings together have dozens of catties, not only financial insecurity, the scale of trade will not be very large.

Businessmen have pursued cumbersome money dung all their lives, and high-minded scholars will naturally scoff at it. Moreover, the ancient society was an autocratic society, and the feudal rulers were most afraid of others rebelling, once someone was rich enough to rival the country, no one could guarantee what he would do, and if he funded the rebels, the emperor would have to replace someone else to do it.

Shen Wansan is a clear example.

The order of the Shinong industry and commerce clearly shows that the merchants are underground in terms of status.

During the Qin Dynasty, merchants were not allowed to wear silk clothes, even if they were wealthy. During the Tang Dynasty, merchants could not enter the court as officials, and it was not until the Ming and Qing dynasties that the status of merchants changed.

This is not only due to social development, but also because it was not until the Ming and Qing dynasties that the world's silver flowed into China, which supported the monetary scale of the merchant class.

Now it is still the early Ming Dynasty, whether it is gold or silver, the amount is not much, and it cannot meet the needs of society at all, let alone meet the exchange of merchants.

Even the imperial court needed to replace it with cloth, silk, spices, and wood, and the merchants had more goods, and it was a very troublesome thing to exchange.

The merchants of this era, even if they have a lot of money, it is almost impossible for them to come up with 10,000 taels of silver.

Because none of their wealth is gold or silver, but in kind, land.

There are many weaving merchants in Suzhou who can take out 100,000 pieces of silk at one time, and these silks can be worth two or three hundred thousand taels of silver according to their value, or even higher.

But they could not get so much silver at once, because the amount of silver available in the market was limited.

Therefore, they could only trade with the inner supervisors, and exchange the food, tools, and materials they needed from the hands of the inner supervisors, and only a small part of them could be exchanged for gold and silver in circulation.

It was not until after the middle of the Ming Dynasty that a large amount of gold and silver from Dongying and Nanyang flowed into China, and the scale of commerce and trade gradually expanded.

It was not until the 16th century that Spain discovered a large amount of gold and silver in the Americas, and then this gold and silver flowed into China in large quantities, allowing the merchant class to remove the shackles that had been hanging around their necks.

In the article "Yin Yun Wu Shu People" by Yin Yun, a Liang man of the Southern Dynasty, it was written that "the waist is wrapped around 100,000 yuan, and the crane is mounted in Yangzhou". In fact, this is just a metaphor, it is impossible for a person to ride a crane, let alone a hundred thousand yuan around his waist.

According to the copper coins of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, one is about two or three grams, and it has always been two or three kilograms. 100,000 guan is 230,000 kilograms, that is, 2300 tons, dozens of boats are loaded in small boats, and hundreds of vehicles are pulled by cars.

Who has such a cow that can be wrapped around the waist!

For example, the Pu family went from the Tang Dynasty to Vietnam, then to Guangzhou, and then to Quanzhou, and when their family was at its largest, they had thousands of sea ships, and more than 2,000 sea ships were berthed, monopolizing the entire spice trade.

However, the amount of gold and silver is still small, and more often it is bartered, and no matter how large the scale of commerce is, it is subject to the circulation of gold and silver in the whole society.

The tea merchants and celadon merchants in Quanzhou were rich and unrivaled, and let them take out the goods, but the amount of gold and silver they owned was also far from the scale of the entire trade.

Therefore, in this era, even if Zhu Zhanji does not use banks to regulate, as long as he controls the import of gold and silver from outside, he can use internal control to control the commerce of the entire country.

However, this model severely constrained the development of commerce, so he thought of using banks to control commerce.

And the use of knighthood to improve the status of merchants, although it is only an opening, but the temptation of these merchants is not ordinary.

The status of the merchants was low, and after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the control of the alien people along the coast was very strict, and Ahmad and others were even more guarded.

Now they are like seeing a beacon in the darkness, and if they can be honored, each of them will spare no money and become one of the upper classes of the Ming Dynasty.

Zheng He did not hide it, and told the experience of the five people who were awarded. Ningbo Qiu He was awarded the medal because of his cooperation with Zhu Zhanji, and under the influence of Zhu Zhanji, he built roads and bridges in his hometown to facilitate the people.

Wu Jinwen in Ningbo is because he released grain for disaster relief during the Yongjiang River flood last year, and Han Yilang in Shaoxing has been promoting communism and mutual aid in his hometown because he has abandoned his family property in the past few decades.

Hangzhou Liao Chengxian has been promoting charity, and has been donating funds to build a number of Puji Hall, Hui'an Hall, Nursery Hall, Jishan Hall, Sangjing Hall and other places for the benefit of the people in the past few decades.

And Yuyao Jin Zhiyuan is a member of Jin Kuo's clan, he was influenced by Jin Zhiyuan, in the process of preparing goods for this internal supervision, in addition to lending a large number of goods to the internal supervisor, he also affected a large number of people.

After introducing these again, Zheng He said: "Although His Highness is a little wary of foreign races, this is because he takes the interests of the country very seriously, as long as he does not do anything harmful to the interests of the Ming Dynasty, His Highness has no prejudice against the merchant class." The five of them were able to receive the award, mainly because they made their own contributions to the stability of the Ming Dynasty.

This also reminds you people that businessmen who make profits should give back to the countryside and promote harmony among the people. As long as you can do this, even you people can still be trusted by His Highness. ”

He looked at Pu Rihe again and said, "Your ancestors have involved you, but you deserve it. At least in your generation, you have to keep your head in the dark and stop thinking about being in the limelight. ”

Pu Rihe's face was a little unwilling, but at this time he couldn't come against Zheng He, his current identity was just a slave, but Zheng He was the prince of the country.

If it weren't for the fact that everyone still cared that he was of the same clan and had received the favor of the Pu family, he wouldn't even have the qualifications to sit here.

When Pu's house was raided, he was less than a month old. In the past few decades, he has grown up in a humiliating environment.

With the passage of time, the people of the Pu family are almost dead, and the biggest secret of the Pu family is only known to him.

After the Jianwen Dynasty, Habu ransomed for him, married him and gave him a wife and children, and finally continued the incense. He slowly developed his own power, and with only one treasure of gold and silver, he spread the tentacles of the Pu family again, and had shares in the industries of many merchants.

On the surface, he is still a slave, but secretly, with the support of Hab, his power is no smaller than that of any family.

Now Zheng He has helped him get the edict of exoneration, and he will be able to live an upright life in the future.

But he was still unwilling, he wanted to regain the glory of his ancestors, and he also mastered the two treasures of the Pu family that hid gold and silver, which were his biggest honor guards.

Now Zheng He said that he should continue to keep his light and keep his eyes on it, even if he knew that this was the general trend, how could he be willing?

Around this trip to the West, Zheng He discussed with everyone for a long time, and it was not until late at night that everyone dispersed.

Regardless of whether Zhu Zhanji will meet them tomorrow or not, they must also be prepared and wait for the summons.

Zheng He recalled the conversation with everyone tonight, and felt that there was nothing wrong, so he put his mind at ease.

He knew that he couldn't hide the gathering of these people from Zhu Zhanji, and he didn't want to hide it. He is a man and does things uprightly. He has never had the slightest resentment, he is dedicated to serving the country, and he believes that the grandson can understand his mind.

Tonight, he has been guiding the conversation, not letting people say anything dissatisfied with the grandson, presumably, His Highness will not be taboo against him and these people because of this matter.

After sending everyone away, Zheng He, Habu and Pu Rihe returned to the Qingjing Temple. Hab lived in the temple, and Pu Rihe, who had been his "slave", of course, also lived in the temple.

Walking in this slightly dark night, the guards and entourage were a few steps away from them, Pu Rihe lowered his voice and asked Zheng He, "Grandpa Guo, is there still a turning point in this matter?" ”

Zheng He asked puzzledly, "Master Pu, I don't understand, why do you have to go to Heaven with us?" Now that you have escaped the guilt, if you have the heart to return to the west and return to heaven to take root, you can also find a chance to go back in the future. ”

Pu Rihe shook his head and said: "This is to the heavens, there are thousands of miles away, the wind and waves are dangerous, there are many pirates, if there is no fleet escort, the contemptible people will not have the confidence to return to the heavens." What's more, the Western Regions are poor, where can they compare to the wealth of the Ming Dynasty? If I want to regain the glory of my ancestors, how can I be willing to leave here? ”

Zheng He asked, "But your Pu family has hidden gold in the heavens?" ”

Pu Rihe knew that his bent desire to return to Heaven would lead to speculation in this regard.

The Pu family has three hidden gold, one in Quanzhou, and he has dug it out as a bargaining chip to attract everyone. One is in the sky, which is the last base code of the Pu family.

There is also the largest one on an uninhabited desert island in the South Seas, which is the largest one, and when the spice trade was in place, the development funds were hidden.

He didn't dare to think about this place, because now that the sea is banned, all ships going to sea must have official documents from the court and the internal supervisor, and there are fewer people going, for fear that other people will have different intentions, and if more people go, the gold and silver that his Pu family exchanged for blood and sweat will be cheaper for others, and it is not conducive to secrecy.

Their Pu family also has a branch in Tianfang to guard gold and silver, and he wants to return to Tianfang and take out gold and silver as funds for the Pu family's comeback.

So he didn't have the heart to hide it at all, and directly admitted: "That's true, now that the Ming Dynasty has been established for nearly 50 years, the country and the people are safe, and they have entered a period of commercial development." It's a pity that the contemptible people lack development funds, so they want to go back to heaven to transport back the gold there. ”

Zheng He looked at Habu, who was smiling gently, and it was obvious that he also knew about it. He pondered for a while and said, "Truthfully, the master of the Pu family believes in my person, and tells me the address and contact information, if I go to heaven, I will help you transport the hidden gold back." Even if you want to bring your people over, you can do it. ”

Pu Rihe bowed and said: "Of course, the contemptible people of the Duke of Dian believe it, this matter will bother you, and the contemptible people will definitely be rewarded in the future." ”

The new beauty, Zhu Zhanji did not neglect the old man. spent the wedding night with Shen Dai'er, she was very traumatized, and Zhu Zhanji comforted a group of old people in the next few days to prevent them from being jealous.

This night was Liu Chenghui's bedtime, and Zhu Zhanji also talked to her about the management of the harem, and asked her to control the women not to get pregnant on the way out.

This is a year or two, and if the child is born on the way, even if there are many doctors, it will not be safe.

If you want them to get pregnant, you have to wait until you are on your way back to stop taking birth control pills.

There is also the management of the harem, along the way, various countries will definitely give Zhu Zhanji a lot of women, and the management of these women, Zhu Zhanji has also handed over to Liu Chenghui.

Liu Chenghui was naturally flattered to be able to gain Zhu Zhanji's trust, and resolutely promised to help Zhu Zhanji manage the harem.

Early the next morning, Zhu Zhanji woke up and went on his morning exercises. When the soldiers of Fashizhai got the news that Taisun had gotten up, they immediately took action and conducted a drill on the big playground.

Looking at this majestic division, even if it was just some face-saving work, Zhu Zhanji's mood was also very happy.

At breakfast, he also received a summary of the information of the merchants in Quanzhou from the Jinyi Wei and the Counseling Division, including Zheng He's words and deeds and experiences of the meeting with those Semitic people last night.

In the morning, Zhu Zhanji met with all the generals of each water village at one time, and then he was consulting these materials.

Seeing these detailed situations, Zhu Zhanji realized that he had complicated the problem.

It is not the last years of the Ming Dynasty, and there are no interest groups that have colluded with Confucianism and Jiangnan businessmen to monopolize the country's economy. There was also no corruption of the government and the shrinking of power, which led to the emergence of bold Shanxi merchants who colluded with foreign domains.

After more than 30 years of cutting leeks by Zhu Yuanzhang, although today's merchant group has begun to develop again because of social stability, it is still noisy, and the grass and trees are all soldiers, and they are frightened.

The lack of security among today's businessmen is the biggest obstacle to rapid economic development. They simply did not think of uniting and using their economic power to influence politics, because they were all afraid of death.

The merchants of Quanzhou, including those Semites, had a close relationship with Zheng He, and the main reason was that they had brought countless profits to the West in the first four trips.

Because the large-scale trade of this era is controlled by the internal superintendent.

The relationship between Zheng He and the Pu family was not as collusive and conspiracy as Zhu Zhanji had guessed at the beginning, but it was because of sympathy and pity, coupled with the plea of the same clan, that he helped the Pu family ask for an edict.

In order to get the edict, Pu Rihe paid tribute to Zhu Di with an 800-pound statue of the pure gold Taishang Laojun.

Moreover, the Pu family has been raided for forty years, the female dependents are dead, and the men still have a few years left, only Pu Rihe is still young.

So Zhu Di didn't care about this Pu Rihe, and in a happy mood, coupled with Zheng He's kind words, he forgave his sins.

Even so, Zhu Zhanji didn't plan to give Zheng He a good face. At least snub him for a while, let him remember for a long time, and know who he is now.

Of course, this is because Zhu Zhanji still wants to use him. If you don't want to use him, you'll just be polite to him, and then kick him aside when you come back.

He changed his plan, originally he planned to personally lead the main fleet with Zheng He, and Wang Jinghong to lead the right army. But now he plans to let Zheng He lead the right army.

In the afternoon of the same day, Zhu Zhanji met with representatives of the major chambers of commerce and large merchants in Quanzhou, and as in Ningbo, Zhu Zhanji expounded on the credit guarantee measures of the imperial court, promising that the bank would give priority to returning the payment, whether it was gold, silver, or materials.

Of course, if you want gold and silver, you must also store it in the bank.

In the future, the imperial court will gradually increase its control over the circulation of large amounts of gold and silver, and gold and silver ingots will gradually be withdrawn from the market and replaced by gold and silver coins.

He also detailed the regulations on bank loans, as long as there is collateral, you can get a loan directly from the bank. In the future, the imperial court will also increase its support for merchants to increase their competitiveness.

The merchants were honored to have close contact with Zhu Zhanji, and they wanted to know how to obtain the imperial court awards, and they were also satisfied here by Zhu Zhanji.

Before leaving, Zhu Zhanji handed out a pamphlet to each of them, which gave a detailed description of bank loans, control over the transportation of large amounts of gold and silver, and bank rates for transshipment of gold and silver.

It also includes allowing merchants to assume more social responsibilities, and in the future, the imperial court will select a group of merchants every year to praise and award honors.

Of course, all this can not be carried out until he comes back, and Zhu Di does not have much affection for the merchants.

As for Zhu Gaochi, not to mention. He has always regarded merchants as a burden to society, believing that merchants are the source of trouble, and has a resolute attitude of suppression.

Zhu Zhanji was in a better mood when he didn't feel the threat posed by the merchants, and when Zhu Zhen and Huang Yuan put all the ships in Quanzhou into the command system.

Sun Lin arranged the inner line into all the ships, and assumed the responsibility of education, and then all the merchant ships set sail at the same time, taking advantage of the north wind, and began to go south.

Zheng He was a little surprised by Zhu Zhanji's change of plan, but he did not sternly oppose it, and after listening to Zhu Zhanji's arrangement, he could only receive the military order with some disappointment.

He knew that Zhu Zhanji had a prejudice against him, and the more he said now, the worse his impression would be.

The fleet has another fleet chasing from Dongying, this is Zhuang Jing and Pang Ying with 2,000 Japanese pirates from Dongying, they will follow Zhu Zhanji to explore the Nanyang Islands.

And Xue Lu and Zhu Zhen, although they don't know the reason why Zhu Zhanji and Zheng He are estranged, they know that their opportunity has come.

The position of the Naval Governor, which is second only to the Governor of the Navy, is red-eyed by many people.

When I walked from the capital, it was still a cold winter, but it was already spring here in Quanzhou.

Today's wooden boats are warm in winter and cool in summer because of the maximum thickness of one meter of logs, but when they enter the tropics and start sailing, the inside of the cabin is warm.

All sailing people love winter, because even if it is a little cold, it will not be cold in the cabin, and at most they will wear two more clothes on the deck.

But once in the tropics, the heat in the cabin is unbearable for most people.

Especially on Zhu Zhanji's flagship, because there are female dependents, the soldiers are not allowed to be naked when they adjust the sails on the deck.

Nowadays, cloth and silk are expensive, and almost everyone only has a few sets of clothes, and those people who can have a decent set of winter clothes are rich.

Even though the soldiers' clothes are issued by the army, there are only two sets a year, and everyone wears them carefully.

Working on a boat, in the tropics, almost everyone is bare-bottomed, wearing at most a pair of calf pants.

But the sailors who can work on this flagship are not at all disgusted with the hot weather and waste of clothes, and the pride of serving Taisun alone is enough to make them not care about this.

Of course, they will also be issued an extra set of clothes.

Zhu Zhanji had a row of wooden houses and swimming pools built on the aft deck of his flagship, which was three or four meters lower than the deck, and was blocked by wooden houses, so that when he brought his wives and concubines here to enjoy the sun and sea breeze, he could form a private world by letting people cover it with a cloth curtain.

Here, there are also several purpose-built wooden deck chairs, as well as bamboo deck chairs. The wooden chaise longue is wrapped in a thick cotton cloth and is very comfortable to lie on.

If you don't look at the wooden hull, all this enjoyment is not much different from that of hundreds of years later.

At first, the women were scared because it was fifteen meters above the sea, and when the boat sailed, the waves made people feel dizzy.

But when the weather gets hotter and hotter, they all like it one by one, because it is only here that they can wear thin clothes and enjoy the sea breeze.

The whole fleet began a tide of learning, and Wang Jinghong also began to actively prepare for various sports competitions.

Two days later, the fleet split up in the waters near the Dongsha Islands, from where Zheng He, with most of the cargo ships and a part of the protected naval fleet, sailed all the way southwest to Cochin, Champong, Chenla, and Siam for trade.

Zhu Zhanji led Yu Linwei and half of the navy and a small number of cargo ships to Luzon due south first.

Their fleet would travel along the Philippines and the north of the Palawan Islands, then to Sulu and Boni, and then join Zheng He's fleet at the Old Port.

The subsequent fleets will still be separated, and a large number of cargo ships will remain in the old port to trade with the surrounding small nations. Zhu Zhanji would lead a fleet to Java for trade, and would visit Nanzhou, which would later be Australia.

(This chapter is not in the state, some of the things I want to write have not been written, I want to double change today, and the next chapter will strive to complete this chapter, and set the tone of the West.) Leaving Zheng He aside because he is a green green, with him by his side, it is difficult for Zhu Zhanji to be tough on some small countries. ）