In the study of King Zhao's mansion, Zhou Zhong sat leisurely behind the desk and sipping tea, Jiao Fang sat in front of him, and also said leisurely: "Lord Wang, the matter has been investigated, and the last letter was sent by Wang Qiong nine times out of ten." ”

"Hehe, it's really him, although this Wang Qiong is a capable minister, but this eight-sided delicate temperament is really a little uneasy, if I didn't send the letter directly to the imperial brother, I'm afraid he will secretly visit the next day, and then pledge allegiance to me, and encourage me to compete for the throne." Zhou Zhong tapped his fingers on the table, and said with a smile on his face.

"The prince's words are bad, although Wang Qiong is worse in style, and he likes to drill camps, but he is a rare talent, and after the last time he supported His Majesty to go on patrol, his prestige has increased greatly, even if the old minister enters the cabinet, he is not as good as Wang Qiong in terms of momentum, so after seeing Wang Qiong today, the old minister has formed an alliance with him, which is a good thing for each other." Jiao Fang said solemnly.

"Hehe, I don't care what agreement you have with Wang Qiongda, and no matter what kind of selfishness Wang Qiong has, as long as you work together to help my Ming Dynasty complete the final transformation, the fame and fortune you need, the royal brother and I will naturally not be stingy!" Zhou Zhong said with a smile, although his tone was very soft, but Jiao Fang was shocked by the spirit of listening, all the world wants is the word fame and fortune, even a cabinet minister like him is no exception, and the only ones who can satisfy his pursuit of these two words are His Majesty the Emperor and His Royal Highness King Zhao in front of him.

"Don't worry, the old man doesn't have a few years to live. But at least for now, we are still deaf and clear, and if we are given a few years, we will be able to do the same as we used to do in the Governor's Palace. Help His Highness clean up the ills of the Ming Dynasty! Jiao Fang assured Zhou Zhong in an old but very firm voice that he originally felt that he would not live for a few years, but now after returning to the cabinet, Jiao Fang suddenly felt that his whole body was full of strength, and it seemed that there would be no problem if he lived a few more years.

Hearing Jiao Fang's assurance, Zhou Chong also nodded, and then the two gossiped a few more words. Zhou Zhong personally sent Jiao Fang out of the palace, and now Jiao Fang has entered the cabinet, in terms of identity. is no lower than him, the king of Zhao, so there should be no less courtesy, otherwise it will make people think that Zhou Chong, the king of Zhao, is very arrogant.

After sending Jiao Fang away, Zhou Zhong returned to his study again. Since he returned to the capital. Staying in the study is much longer than staying in the bedroom, and sometimes he sleeps directly in the study at night, which makes him feel a little sorry for Jinxuan and them, but now Daming is in a critical period, and his imperial brother is a lazy character, and he takes care of all the government affairs by himself, which makes Zhou Zhong have to cheer up and deal with the upcoming changes of Daming.

The changes in the Ming Dynasty began on the sea. Especially after Zhou Zhong assumed the post of governor of the four seas, the sea ban of the Ming Dynasty was still nominally there. But in fact, it has already been abolished, the entire Ming coastal area is open, which makes the coastal residents can go to the sea to fish, there is one more way to live, in addition to the coastal ports are also active again, countless goods from the Ming coast, transported to the South Seas, India, the Persian Gulf and other places, the sea trade is extremely developed.

It is precisely because of the prosperity of maritime trade, greatly stimulated the industry and commerce within the Ming Dynasty, at the beginning of the southern silk, tea, porcelain and other traditional industry and commerce, the goods produced by these industries are the number one commodity of maritime trade, almost how much is produced and how much is sold, and the overseas high voice is in short supply at all, which makes the development of industries related to these industries extremely rapid, and even become one of the economic pillars of the entire south.

However, the influence of sea trade is far more than that, with the development of sea trade, the goods of sea trade are slowly showing a trend of diversification, such as cotton cloth This commodity is the latecomer, and even as early as a few years ago it surpassed silk and porcelain, becoming one of the most important overseas commodities of the Ming Dynasty, in addition to iron-related products, such as farm tools, weapons, etc., which are also very popular commodities overseas.

Among the above products, the most influential is cotton cloth, especially for the people in the north, the corn and sweet potatoes that Zhou Zhong dedicated to the imperial court made them have a full meal, but the cotton cloth made them have spare money in their hands, after all, cotton was very suitable for growing in the climatic conditions of the north, coupled with the serious land annexation in the north, many people because they had no land, they could only enter the city to find a way to live, which made manpower and raw materials have, so when the demand for cotton cloth in the sea trade expanded, People in many places in the north have begun to engage in cotton weaving, and many places have also formed large textile workshops with a scale of thousands of people, which has caused a surge in cotton cloth production in the north, so in some ports in the north, most of the goods transported are cotton cloth.

Cotton cloth is only one of the many goods in the sea trade, in addition to many other products, these products are exported overseas, greatly stimulated the Ming Dynasty's domestic industry and commerce, and the prosperity of industry and commerce, and made the people of the Ming Dynasty dislike a lot of money, the Ming treasury also received a large amount of taxes, it can be said that the real realization of the initial prosperity of the people.

On the surface, all aspects of the Ming Dynasty are developing in a good direction, and the vast majority of the people have no worries about freezing and starvation, but under this prosperous surface, the Ming Dynasty has not been substantially changed, especially the corrupt ruling group of the Ming Dynasty, which not only has no promotion for domestic industry and commerce, but has even seriously hindered the development of industry and commerce.

In fact, there are problems with the rule of the Ming Dynasty, especially the corruption of the rule of officials and the unreasonableness of the law, coupled with the decay of the army and the continuous natural disasters, so that the entire Ming Dynasty is internal and external troubles, and the rule is also precarious, it is no exaggeration to say that as long as you are not careful, the rule of hundreds of Ming Dynasty will collapse, and Zhang Juzheng after a few decades also saw the crisis of the Ming Dynasty, so he launched the Wanli New Deal, which made the rule of the Ming Dynasty extended for several decades.

However, now due to the influence of Zhou Chong, after the development of Daming sea trade, it has led to the development of all aspects of Daming, especially the prosperity of the people, making the whole Daming look extremely prosperous.

Zhou Zhong single-handedly caused the current change of Daming, he naturally knows better than anyone that the prosperous Daming on the surface is actually not reliable, and even as long as the prosperity of the surface is revealed, you will find that the inside of the Ming Dynasty has actually been decayed, if you don't want to find a way to remove the internal decay, then it will not take a few years, the situation that Zhou Chong painstakingly managed will be eroded by the internal decay, and the entire Daming will become darker than before.

It is precisely because of this that Zhou Chong has long wanted to carry out some targeted reforms to the Ming Dynasty, especially the two major pieces of law and official governance, which are the root of the decay of the Ming Dynasty.

The law of the Ming Dynasty was arranged by Zhu Yuanzhang, and Zhu Yuanzhang was very problematic, he thought that he could leave an ironclad country for future generations, so he used the law to bind all aspects of the Ming Dynasty into a box, and even stipulated it in great detail, even who wears what clothes.

What's even more terrifying is that Zhu Yuanzhang, who was from a humble background, has a simple view of life, that is, "dragons give birth to dragons, phoenixes give birth to phoenixes, and the sons of mice will make holes", so he used the law to restrict the issue of household registration, such as the children and grandchildren of soldiers will definitely be soldiers, and the children and grandchildren of craftsmen must still be craftsmen, etc., so there are strange groups of people such as military households and artisan households, and their descendants are limited to a certain occupation.

Perhaps at the beginning of the founding of the country, Zhu Yuanzhang's legal provisions played a considerable role in restoring national strength, but after more than a hundred years, these legal provisions he set have become the shackles on the Ming Dynasty.

In addition to the law, the rule of officials in the Ming Dynasty is also a big problem, the problem of the rule of officials is mainly manifested in corruption, the entire Ming officialdom, almost no one is not greedy, the difference is only the problem of greed and greed, even if some officials who are famous in history, they have also taken bribes as usual, some of these bribes are not given to them by others, but the gray income in their positions, if they do not take it, they will be rejected by the entire officialdom and become an outlier in the officialdom, such as Hai Rui decades later, He should be the only Qing official in the Ming Dynasty who is not greedy, but he made his family look at it in all directions, not only starved his daughter to death, but also died of Hugh's death, and in the end he didn't even have a son left.

The corruption of the rule of officials was doomed as early as the period of Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor who was born a poor peasant had a natural hatred for officials, but he had to rely on officials to help him govern the country, so he set the Ming officials' salaries extremely low, and each level of officials was strictly calculated, just enough for the official's family to eat, but there would be no money left, and he formulated a harsh punishment, thinking that this could prevent corruption.

But Zhu Yuanzhang forgot that prices are not static, especially in the later Ming Dynasty, the national strength increased, and prices began to soar, so the officials' money was relatively less and less to spend, and they couldn't even eat enough, in this case, the officials could only take the risk of corruption for their own belly, after all, they could not watch their families starve with them, and as a result, this caused the corruption of the Ming Dynasty to prevail, and it could not be eliminated no matter what. (To be continued......)