Zheng Zhilong entered the Forbidden City, his palms were full of sweat, he never thought that one day he would be summoned here by His Majesty the Ming Emperor alone.

At this moment, Zheng Zhilong's psychology is also very uneasy.

His experience at the Daming School of Administration convinced him that the imperial court would definitely re-tax.

But he didn't know how to tell His Majesty about tariffs, he didn't know whether to show his fist and let His Majesty know the difficulties, or whether to give most of the interests of the Zheng group in a righteous and awe-inspiring manner.

The former may provoke His Majesty and kill him, while the latter will displease his brothers.

Zheng Zhilong suddenly felt that he didn't seem to be coming to Nanjing City, but when he thought that if he was killed by the emperor, then the Zheng group could take the opportunity to make chaos along the coast of Fujian and Zhejiang according to his prior arrangement, and even directly descend north to the Qing Dynasty!

Your Majesty shouldn't know that the Zheng family is a force that he can't move now, and the Zheng family is not the Donglin Party!

As soon as he thought of this, Zheng Zhilong couldn't help but straighten his chest again, entered the platform of the Qianqing Palace, and waited for Zhu Youzhen's arrival.

Zhu Youzhen saw that the person in front of him had thick eyebrows and big eyes, big ears, and he didn't seem to be a big pirate, but an ordinary old bureaucrat, although he humbly gave himself a big gift, but his eyes kept staring at him, as if he was looking at himself, as if he wanted to see something from his expression.

"Aiqing, what do you think about the imposition of tariffs?"

Zhu Youzhen didn't intend to hide anything from Zheng Zhilong, so he directly asked about the tariffs.

In fact, Zhu Youzhen was quite aggrieved in his heart, he was also the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, and if he wanted to collect taxes, he had to ask a pirate's opinion.

Zheng Zhilong didn't expect the emperor to ask him about this directly as soon as he opened his mouth, and he was a little surprised in his heart, and began to think that His Majesty the Emperor didn't seem to be arrogant enough to ignore the sea power of his Zheng family, otherwise why would he ask himself a pirate.

Since the emperor was still jealous of his Zheng family, Zheng Zhilong had the confidence to reply with his hand:

"Back to Your Majesty, since the opening of Longqing, there has been a trade in the Moon Port, and the tax of the imperial court has been issued by the Moon Port Coastal Defense Museum, so Wei Chen does not know what His Majesty means by levying tariffs, is it possible that the imperial court has not been subject to this tax before?"

Zhu Youzhen smiled, he naturally knew what the Yuegang trade was, this is the only legal trade port since the opening of the Ming Dynasty, at first it was indeed a gathering of Chinese and foreign merchant ships here, the imperial court was quite profitable, to the twenty-seventh year of Wanli, the annual income has been nearly 30,000 taels of silver, and it is even called the southern treasury of the Son of Heaven.

However, after the apocalypse, with the collusion between local officials on the southeast coast and pirate forces and coastal gentry, the smuggling trade became more and more rampant, which directly led to the decline of trade in Yuegang, and the scale of trade controlled by the imperial court was greatly reduced, and the tax revenue was also greatly reduced.

"Zheng Zhilong, why do you bother to fight with me haha, you are a Fujian person, and you often haunt Yuegang, why don't you know that only a few cents of the current Yuegang has flowed into the pockets of the imperial court", Zhu Youzhen said and threw a pile of music in front of Zheng Zhilong:

"This is a note submitted by the tax superintendent, Yuegang collected less than 3,000 taels of taxes last year, and according to the Jinyi Guardian, your Zheng family smuggled 3 million taels of tea alone in Yuegang this year! Zheng Zhilong, Zheng Zhilong, your Zheng family is really fat, and my salt tax income is only one million taels a year, which is not even as good as your Zheng family. ”

As soon as Zhu Youzhen's words came out, Zheng Zhilong couldn't help but tremble, and hurriedly crawled on the ground: "Your Majesty, don't listen to others' slander, although Weichen was born as a pirate, and it is also the Zheng family's business to go to sea in business, but he has never dared to do anything privately, and he is just a serious business through the Coastal Defense Pavilion to make a living." ”

"Through the Coastal Defense Pavilion to go through the serious business, the Coastal Defense Pavilion is only afraid that it will become your family now", Zhu Youzhen suddenly pointed at Zheng Zhilong and roared angrily: "Zheng Zhilong, don't think that I dare not kill you!" Now, if you dare to deceive me, I will let you, like Shang Kexi, be divided by five horses outside the Hongwu Gate! ”

When Zheng Zhilong heard Zhu Youzhen say this, he also remembered the scene he saw in front of Hongwu Gate, and he was so frightened that he hurriedly gave Zhu Youzhen a big salute, and he also knew that he was afraid that the more he covered it up at the moment, the easier it would be to anger His Majesty, so it was better to confess directly:

"Your Majesty is angry, Wechen doesn't dare to deceive Your Majesty, Wechen does smuggle some goods, but Wechen is all for the long-term peace and stability of my Daming Haijiang! Your Majesty, please think about it, if Weichen does not do this, how will he raise a water master, why do you think that Your Majesty does not have to worry about the danger of the sea frontier when fighting against Jiannu, Weichen has never asked Your Majesty for a penny of military salary, all thanks to the benefits of this, and please Your Majesty to be clear! ”

Bang!

Zhu Youzhen threw a teacup on the ground, and Zheng Zhilong was so frightened that he instinctively retreated:

"Why did Your Majesty point to Weichen, what Weichen said is the truth!"

Zhu Youzhen squeezed out a smiling face that was more ugly than crying, and patted Zheng Zhilong's shoulder: "Get up." ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Zheng Zhilong stood up a little timidly, he didn't dare to look at Zhu Youzhen's murderous smile now.

He knew that what he said just now was suspected of contradicting Zhu Youzhen, so he was a little worried that Zhu Youzhen would kill him in a fit of anger.

"You're right, I seem to have to thank Aiqing, thank you for not taking refuge in Jiannu, and for not letting my rear sea frontier be in chaos, but Zheng Zhilong, don't think that you can threaten me like this! My great cause of resisting the Qing Dynasty has never relied on your Zheng family, but now I can still clean up your Zheng family", Zhu Youzhen said and said: "Many people in the government and the opposition have advised me to restart the policy of releasing the sea ban, and even advised me to move the residents of the coastal thirty miles to the interior, so as to prevent the Zheng family from being rich and rivaling the country. ”

"Your Majesty, no! Wechen has never thought of restricting the imperial court, and Wechen can't restrain the imperial court, but if the sea ban is restarted, it will only reproduce the rebellion of the Japanese pirates! Besides, since His Majesty intends to impose tariffs, why is there any need to ban the sea", Zheng Zhilong shouted anxiously.

Although his Zheng family said that the sea power is very great, but it relies on the human, financial and material support of the coastal areas of southern Fujian, once the imperial court bans the sea in the way His Majesty said, then his Zheng family will become a rootless Ping, can only live overseas, and profits will be reduced by more than half, or even survive, after all, the Ming market is the largest market for overseas trade, once the Ming Dynasty closes this market, the scale of trade will shrink significantly, and his Zheng family will have no foundation for survival.

Zhu Youzhen walked in front of Zheng Zhilong: "It's good to know that I can't be restrained, without the support of the imperial court, what will your Zheng family do to fight with the red ghosts, and the Buddha machine!" Zheng Zhilong, I don't want you Zheng family to live, I know that you Zheng Zhilong have no ambitions, but I am the emperor of the Ming Dynasty and have the determination to revive the Ming Dynasty, I don't want others to sleep on the side of the couch, do you understand or not? ”

"Understood, Weichen understands", Zheng Zhilong now had to obediently follow Zhu Youzhen's meaning to reply, he also knew that he and the Ming court could not tear their faces, although he was strong, he could not leave the support of the imperial court, but he was not willing to give up most of the profits of the maritime trade to the imperial court, after all, this was his hard work for decades, and even if he was personally willing, the entire Zheng group behind him was unwilling.