readx;

The so-called family banquet is actually held in the Wuying Palace, and the Wuying Hall belongs to the category of foreign dynasties, so the so-called queen's family banquet is actually just a name. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info This Wuying Hall was originally the place where the emperor lived, that is, the place where the emperor dined and slept in the foreign court, it can be seen that this family banquet was actually presided over by the emperor himself, and the mother was just a companion.

Therefore, although all the ministers present entered from the noon gate, there was a distance from this Wuying Palace, but it was closer to enter from the Xihua Gate, but the rules were rules, and the royal rules were not convenient for the ministers, and when it was almost noon, the ministers were already waiting here.

Liu Chengfeng came back from the desert, his complexion was slightly darker, but his spirit was much better than before, as soon as he arrived at noon, Li Dongyang and the others did not greet him, perhaps because of avoiding suspicion, one by one they just nodded to each other with Liu Chengfeng, but the pair of brothers Shou Ninghou and Jian Changbo waved to Liu Chengfeng from afar.

Zhang Heling came back after the end of this year, and presided over the construction of the Chi Road from Jiujiang to Nantong Prefecture, which can be regarded as a great achievement, after all, Jiujiang is also within the sphere of influence of King Ning, and King Ning is very repulsive to this Chi Road, obstructing it in many ways, and even instigating one or two small-scale civil uprisings, all of which were directly transferred by Zhang Heling. The foreman's bullet suppressed, in fact, the so-called foreman is the escort directly transferred by the Jubao Firm, with the assistance of these people, everything is settled, although it has caused a lot of turmoil, but the court is just turning a blind eye, after all, everyone knows what is going on, this is King Ning wants to make trouble, it is impossible not to suppress, and the court is not in a hurry to turn his face with King Ning, naturally, put this matter aside.

For his brother-in-law's promising, Zhu Youzhu seemed very happy and praised him well, so that Queen Zhang felt comfortable, and this Shouning Hou was also happy in his heart, there is a rumor in the palace now, the emperor plans to take advantage of this merit to give Shouning Hou a liter absolutely, although this is just groundless, it is not accurate, but Zhang Heling is very happy.

It is a hurdle to go from Hou to Gongben, and it is more difficult for the emperor's relatives and relatives to step past than to ascend to the sky, to put it bluntly, there is no real credit, no matter how close you are to the palace, it will not be possible. And this time, Zhang Heling can be regarded as a hard worker, most of the things of Chidao are presided over by him, and the convenience brought by Chidao is seen by everyone, and many ministers of the imperial court are also praised in their hearts, after all, with Chidao, the imperial court's control over the local area is far strengthened, and it is of great benefit to the cabinet and the six ministries.

Zhang Heling has been happy to see people these days, but it's a pity, Liu Chengfeng went to the desert, and now he sees Liu Chengfeng coming back, and the two of them haven't seen each other, Zhang Heling is particularly attentive, stepped forward and grabbed Liu Chengfeng's hand, and said with a smile: "Liu Chengfeng has lost weight recently, oops, it's good to come back, it's good to come back." After that, he lowered his voice, squeezed his eyebrows, and said, "I'll do the east at night, let's go to the Cloud Pavilion to have fun." ”

Liu Chengfeng smiled slightly: "I just came back, and I didn't go to home, so let's change it." Shou Ninghou also lost a lot of weight. ”

That Zhang Yanling also came up, and the three of them laughed for a while, this Zhang Heling went out, and it can be regarded as an increase in knowledge, no longer as headless and brainless as before, occasionally talking about what he saw and heard in Jiangnan and Jiangxi, Liu Chengfeng stayed in Beijing most of the time, and after listening to it, he didn't expect the changes over there to be so fast.

In Zhang Heling's words, the changes south of the Yangtze River are many times faster than those of the Jingshi, in fact, this also makes sense, the south side of the Yangtze River, is the beauty of luxury, and the people are not as rigid as the north, plus it is closer to Lianzhou, once the imperial court opens its mouth, the restrictions are relaxed, and the construction of the Chi Road provides convenient transportation. In fact, many new things were actually started from the south side of the Yangtze River, and then promoted to Beijing.

Look at this Zhang Heling's tone, it seems that he is quite nostalgic for the south of the Yangtze River, and then he can't help but say that he went to Lianzhou, Zhang Heling went to Lianzhou before building Jiujiang Chi Road, speaking of Lianzhou, Zhang Heling couldn't help but show a look of longing, and said to Liu Chengfeng: "It is really a good place, more prosperous than Suzhou and Hangzhou, the population of various countries gathers, there are merchants everywhere, some shopping malls that supply goods, even the feet have nowhere to go to the ground, Liu Yishi, there is this Lianzhou as a fief, it is really worth three Tongzhou, hey, if I am old, I will ask for the surname to move the family over there, Take care of your days. Yes, Jubao Commercial Bank will pay dividends at the end of the year this year, do you know? ”

Liu Chengfeng said: "I've heard of some, but I guess I can't tell much." ”

Zhang Heling lowered his voice and said, "I'm afraid of a lot, let me tell you, a lot of money is on the books, and a lot of it is under the books." ”

Liu Chengfeng's eyes narrowed, and when he saw this Zhang Heling looking sneaky, he also lowered his voice and asked, "What is on the books, and what is under the books." ”

Zhang Heling said: "You are not in charge of the business of the trading house now, to tell you the truth, in the trading house, there are a lot of other ways of money, such as last year, the caravan found a gold mine when it was in the Wa Kingdom, so it bought it at the land price in advance, and then hired local natives to mine ......" Zhang Heling squeezed his eyes and said: "This mine alone has an annual income of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, in addition, there are actually a lot of such things, I only know about the Wa Kingdom, on the Edo side, the caravan crushed all the trade caravans, on the books, Although there is nothing wrong with the price of the goods, the real price will shock you to death. Originally, the price of a piece of silk in Jiangnan was two taels of silver, and when it arrived in the Wa Kingdom, it was five taels, and five taels were on the books, which was afraid that it would not sound good, but what was really sold to the Wa Kingdom was twelve taels...... In addition, there are many women in the Wa Kingdom, and the price of women is very low due to the perennial war, and when the caravan returns, it will also take some women back, or sell them to Jiangnan, or go to Nanyang ......"

Zhang Heling chattered about business, and was afraid that Liu Chengfeng would not understand, so he made a lot of strokes. In fact, how could Liu Chengfeng not know that there are many huge profits here, to put it bluntly, it is actually just a monopoly, because this caravan is too large, it may not be a threat to the Ming Dynasty, but for all countries, it is a behemoth existence, a huge fleet, tens of thousands of guards, elite weapons, such a force, for any country, it is not easy to provoke.

It is precisely by virtue of these forces that the monopoly is brought about, although Liu Chengfeng has not seen it with his own eyes, but he knows that behind this monopoly, it must be bloody, and anyone who does not cooperate and does not escort the caravan will be eliminated, such as supporting the opposition forces in the country, and may even do it himself. Or for those competing caravans, take all kinds of intimidation or direct elimination.

In fact, having come to this point, in order to strive for greater profits, this is no longer something that anyone can stop, and under the huge benefits, these people who have been adrift at sea all the year round are definitely not easy to provoke.

As for human trafficking, it is even more commonplace, as long as there is money to earn, who cares about this? Especially the Wa Kingdom, which is now in the period of princely hegemony, each feudal domain urgently needs a large number of firearms and even artillery in order to defeat its opponents, and there are not many resources in that place, and it is actually nothing to sell the women in their own domains in exchange for killing weapons.

As for the so-called minerals, Liu Chengfeng didn't believe that they were bought as Zhang Heling said, and most of them were plundered by force.

However, these benefits are absolutely intolerable to Daming, so there are two account books, one is for people to see, and the other is the dividends of shareholders and the rewards of the people in the fleet.

To put it bluntly, Jubao Trading House has now become a gold-swallowing monster, if at the beginning, they just wanted to do the sea trade business in peace, but with the gradual expansion of appetite and ambition, they are no longer satisfied with the small profits of tens of millions of taels of silver, what they need is to squeeze more profits, and these profits are often unseemly.

Zhang Heling's voice was very low when he spoke, and he was naturally afraid that others would hear about his deeds, after all, as one of the shareholders of Jubao Commercial Bank, there were many decisions, most of which were instigated by him.

Liu Chengfeng couldn't help but smile bitterly, he didn't want to take care of the affairs of the firm, although the firm was run by him, in addition to the royal family, Liu Chengfeng was the largest shareholder, plus the main force of the firm, all entrenched in his fiefdom, he had great power to speak in the firm, but he knew that he still couldn't stop this trend, opened this Pandora's box, but it was not easy to close.

Liu Chengfeng thought to himself at this time, no wonder Liu Ji suddenly made a fuss about this treasure firm, most likely this Liu Ji also found out something.

Thinking in his heart, Liu Chengfeng couldn't help but look in the direction of Liu Ji, Liu Ji happened to glance at him coldly, looking at each other, Liu Chengfeng clearly felt that Liu Ji showed murderous intentions.

At this moment, a eunuch finally came over, looked at the princes and ministers outside the noon gate, and then raised his throat and said loudly: "Niangniang has a decree, please enter the palace to attend." ”

When everyone heard this, they lined up according to their identities and entered the palace together.

On the side of Wuying Palace, there was faint music, and along the way, the eunuchs and palace people were in a hurry, all of them were talking about something, the princes and ministers were all gloomy, Zhang Heling felt that something was not right, and gently pulled the sleeve of Liu Chengfeng, and said in a low voice: "Why do I feel that something is not right, why is everyone suffering from a bitter face?" ”

(To be continued)