In the early Ming Dynasty, smuggling by sea was strictly prohibited by the imperial court, and merchants involved in smuggling not only had to face the harsh natural environment at sea, but also had to be careful to avoid the imperial court's sailors, and if they were not careful, they could lose their lives. Therefore, even if everyone knows that smuggling is extremely profitable, those who dare to participate in smuggling in the early days are all bold outlaws.

If you want to complete smuggling, it is not enough to rely on smugglers alone, someone must supply these smugglers and purchase smuggled goods, so there are suppliers and buyers, but these two kinds of businessmen are worried about being implicated in smuggling, so at the beginning, their contact with smugglers is very secret, and even many people will deliberately conceal their true identities, in order to not implicate themselves when those smugglers are caught.

It is precisely because of this situation that the smuggling industry has gradually formed a situation in which smugglers and suppliers and buyers are clearly distinguished, in which suppliers and buyers indirectly participate in smuggling, and they bear the least risks, so they share the least dividends from smuggling, and smugglers bear most of the risks in the smuggling process, so they share the most smuggling dividends.

Originally, this situation lasted for hundreds of years, but by the time of Emperor Xiaozong, the sea ban had been completely relaxed, and smugglers opened the way through money to buy off the officials of the coastal state capitals, and at the same time, the power behind them was also intertwined, and the whole body was affected, and finally officials at all levels turned a blind eye to the smuggling situation under their rule, and even the seaside guards were in the same stream as the smugglers, providing all kinds of convenience for smuggling, and smuggling was almost in a semi-open situation. Smugglers are not much different from ordinary businessmen except for the risks they have to bear at sea.

It is precisely with the reduction of the risk of smuggling, coupled with the huge rewards of smuggling, that more and more people want to participate in smuggling, especially those suppliers and buyers who are already related to smuggling, have invested money to buy ships to recruit people, and personally participate in smuggling.

But smuggling is not something that everyone can do, especially those old smugglers after years of development, have already carved up some traditional sea routes, such as the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, they mainly take the Nanyang and Ryukyu and other southern routes, and are very familiar with these routes, and even some indigenous officials in the Nanyang and Ryukyu have been bought by them, so it can be said that they have formed their own fixed chain of interests, so those new smugglers want to compete with them, it is simply a difficult thing to compare.

For example, Li Mo in front of Zhou Zhong now, he invested a lot of money to establish a smuggling fleet many years ago, intending to take the route of the Japanese country, but the route of the Japanese country has been divided between the Ming Dynasty and the smuggling merchants of the Japanese country, and it just so happened that the route he took had a conflict with the interests of one of the Japanese people.

It can be said that since Xiaozong, this situation like Li Mo is very common, many people are tempted by the huge profits of smuggling, and as a result, they rashly build ships and go to sea, because they are not familiar with the situation, so that most of them are lost, with these people as a lesson from the past, many people in the future have dismissed the idea of smuggling.

After Zhou Zhong learned about the above situation, coupled with the fact that the Chamber of Commerce did not have the funds to recover its strength now, he made the decision to let others join the shares, and he was not worried that He Xian and these people would refuse. After all, they have long wanted to participate in smuggling, but they have no way out, and now they have given them such an opportunity, I am afraid that only a fool will refuse.

"Yes! Absolutely! Sure enough, I saw that Hu Lei reacted at this time, and suddenly slapped the table and shouted excitedly, "I didn't expect the virtuous nephew to be so generous, willing to take out the Chamber of Commerce to let everyone join the shares, I don't have much else, just timber and money, not to mention anything else, as long as I buy shares, I have all the timber of the Chamber of Commerce!" ”

Seeing Hu Lei speak first, Xu Xuan and Chen Wufa next to him also reacted, and they all agreed loudly at the moment, the eldest He Xian and Li Mo pondered for a moment, and the most reluctant couldn't stand the huge profits brought by smuggling, and finally nodded slowly.

Seeing that the five people passed unanimously, Zhou Zhong couldn't help but smile proudly. But at this moment, Li Mo, who has always been very steady, suddenly spoke: "Virtuous nephew, since you want to recruit us to join the Chamber of Commerce, we naturally can't ask for it, but the old man wants to ask more, I don't know how we should join the shares?" ”

Li Mo's question was also what the other four were most concerned about, so when they heard this, they all turned their eyes to Zhou Chong. I saw that Zhou Chong had already made a bamboo in his chest and said: "Uncle you must also know that smuggling is not something that anyone can do, our Nanyang Chamber of Commerce has been operating in the Nanyang area for many years, not only familiar with the routes there, but also has a wide range of contacts in the local area, and these are exactly what others do not have, and it is also the biggest resource of our Chamber of Commerce." ”

When he said this, Zhou Chong paused for a moment and then said: "Of course, everyone knows the situation of our Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, because my father had an accident before, which led to a great loss of the strength of the Chamber of Commerce's fleet, and the funds were very scarce, so the little nephew thought twice and decided to take out forty percent of the shares of the Chamber of Commerce, each of which was valued at 20,000 taels, and those who hold shares can check the accounts of the Chamber of Commerce, but they cannot interfere in the operation of the Chamber of Commerce. ”

Seeing Zhou Chong finish his words with a smile, Li Mo and He Xian were all taken aback, a percentage of shares will cost 20,000 taels, and they can only share the money and cannot interfere in the management of the Chamber of Commerce, which is really a sky-high price, but considering the huge profits brought by smuggling, coupled with the previous scale of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, this price is barely acceptable.

"Don't say anything, my old Hu will pay 20,000 taels and invest in 10% of the shares of the Chamber of Commerce!" Hu Lei was the first to speak, don't look at his rude appearance, but in fact he is a shrewd and decisive person, otherwise he would not have made such a big timber business.

"Hehe, Brother Hu has paid 20,000 yuan, and the younger brother naturally can't live behind, and I am willing to pay 20,000 yuan to buy 10% of the shares." At this time, Xu Xuan, the youngest of the five and the widest in his path, spoke.

"Tsk! The two brothers are really bold, for the brother is just stunned, two percent of the shares were snatched away by you, although I really want to have more shares, but there are still Brother Li and Brother He, but I don't know how many shares the two brothers are willing to buy? At this time, Chen Wufa, who was the most wealthy of the four, spoke, but now there were only 20% of the shares left, but they still had three people, so he wanted to ask Li Mo and He Xian for their opinions first.

I saw that Li Mo and He Xian first glanced at each other after hearing this, and then discussed a few times in a low voice, and finally spoke: "In terms of financial resources, we can't compare with Brother Chen, plus we are old, and we don't have the momentum of your young people, so the two of us will each contribute 10,000 taels, and each will account for half of the shares!" ”

Chen Wufa also knew that Li Mo and He Xian had let him, so after hearing this, he immediately bowed his hand to the two of them and said: "Thank you two elder brothers for giving way, the younger brother is not welcome, I want the last shares!" ”

In a short period of time, Zhou Chong gave up forty percent of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce shares were carved up, and at the same time, 80,000 taels of silver were about to arrive, with this silver, the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce will definitely be able to recover in the shortest possible time, coupled with a major reform he tailored for smuggling, then the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce will definitely soar into the sky, a mere Shuangyu Port can not accommodate the development of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, and there will definitely be a broader stage in the future.

Next, Zhou Chong discussed with Chen Wufa and them the specific matters of the shares, such as the payment method of the silver and how to check the accounts in the future. Among them, it is worth mentioning that only Hu Lei did not need to pay cash among the five people, because now the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce needed to build a large number of sea ships, so he just converted the silver into equivalent timber and transported it.

However, at the end of the day, the shrewd Xu Su suddenly raised a very sensitive question: "Brother Zhou, after a while, we can sign the documents, and then pay the shares and silver, even if we officially become shareholders of the Chamber of Commerce, but I want to ask again, as shareholders of the Chamber of Commerce, in the future, the Chamber of Commerce will buy our goods, or sell goods to us, is there any preferential treatment?" ”

As soon as Xu Xuan's question came out, it immediately attracted the attention of Chen Wufa and others, they are either suppliers of the Nanyang Chamber of Commerce, or buyers of the Chamber of Commerce, and the transaction volume with the Chamber of Commerce is very huge every time.

"Brother Xu's question is good, in fact, even if you don't ask, I just have something I want to discuss with you, this matter is related to the future operation model of the Chamber of Commerce, and as for the discounts that everyone wants, it is also related to this matter!" Zhou Zhong said with a smile. He had always put himself in the position of a junior before, but this Xu Xuan had been commensurate with his peers several times, and the other party's age was indeed not very old, so Zhou Zhong simply followed the other party's words and called the other party "big brother".

In addition, Zhou Zhong was also thinking about how to lead to the most critical questions below, but he didn't expect Xu Xuan to take the initiative to ask about this matter, which just gave him a chance, and it was time to discuss with them the reform of the smuggling model of the Chamber of Commerce.