Although these businessmen caused a lot of losses to Daming, Lao Zhu didn't take them to heart at all.

There is only money, no power, and it is just a fattened pig for the imperial court.

The only trouble with these merchants is that they have countless umbrellas in the imperial court, and these officials have a stake in them, and they will definitely protect them in case of trouble.

So Lao Zhu directly shot and destroyed the protective umbrella of these people with thunderous means.

As for the rest of the merchants, they can send a few people to harvest their wealth directly.

Of course, although Lao Zhu was at ease with Zhao Guangluan, he was not at ease with the officials under Zhao Guangluan.

When Zhao Guangluan led people to raid the house, so as not to hide the wealth of those soldiers, Jinyiwei would definitely accompany him.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Zhao Guang thought about those colleagues who were arrested, and his heart was mixed, and after a while, he answered, and then asked, "Your Majesty, are you arresting them on the charge of bribing officials?" ”

"No, arrest them on charges of treason and collaboration with the enemy."

Old Zhu said loudly: "These businessmen are fornicating with slaves, and the evidence is conclusive. ”

"We have already ordered people to go to Shanxi to arrest their master's family, and all these businessmen will be dealt with strictly, and no one will be spared."

"Treason and collaborator?"

After Zhao Guanglu heard this, he raised his head in shock, obviously a little incredulous.

"Your Majesty, this can't be, right?"

"How could those businessmen have such monstrous audacity?"

Thinking about it, these businessmen, even if they are profiteers, can only buy low and sell high, hoard, and disrupt market prices.

In his opinion, this is what those businessmen should do, how can treason and defect to the enemy have anything to do with these businessmen?

"What's impossible, businessmen chase profit, they only have the word profit in their eyes."

Lao Zhu glanced at Zhao Guang and said slowly: "For the sake of money, they can do anything, what can they do for betraying the country?" ”

"For them, there is no country that is not a country."

"The Ming Dynasty is gone, they can still do business in Jiannu, as long as they can make money, it doesn't matter to them whether it is Daming or Jiannu."

Speaking of this, Lao Zhu couldn't help but snort coldly, and then said: "Over the years, countless pieces of salt and iron in the Ming Dynasty have been sold by them to Jiannu. ”

"Jiannu's current army, it can be said that a small half of them are armed, and the treason of the merchants is much more serious than the treason of the generals."

Hearing Lao Zhu say this, although Zhao Guangluan still felt a little unbelievable, but looking at Lao Zhu's indifferent look, he knew that this matter must have been settled in Lao Zhu's heart, even if he said anything more, it was useless.

Therefore, he was silent for a moment, and then slowly spoke: "The minister understands, and the minister will send someone to arrest those merchants." ”

After saying this, Zhao Guangluan retired directly.

After he left, Old Zhu Youyou sighed.

In the early days of his Ming Dynasty, the world was initially decided, there were few people and many lands, there was a lack of labor, and there was not enough resource agriculture.

Therefore, in order to encourage agriculture, he lightly punished the small endowment and strictly restricted commerce, in order to let the Ming recover as soon as possible.

However, as the population grew and resources became excessive, commerce continued to develop rapidly, even with the restrictions of the imperial court.

In today's Ming Dynasty, in addition to the Jin merchants, there are many other business schools.

For example, the merchants of the Hui Shang and the southeast faction, compared to them, the Jin Shang was just a loser.

After all, a large part of the reason why the Jin merchants chose to commit treason to the enemy and do business with Jiannu was because the living space was completely occupied by the merchants of the Hui merchants and the southeastern faction.

The merchants of the Hui merchants and the southeastern faction, they not only have money, but also power, and most of the officials in the DPRK and China have contacts with them, and even their people.

The Jin merchants wanted to fight with them, they were simply seeking their own death, and they wanted to go south to the sea, but the channel to the sea was jointly controlled by the merchants of the southeast faction, so they could only consider expanding the trade route to the north.

In the early days, they may just want to expand a way of life so that the business can continue, and when Jiannu grows stronger and starts a war with the Ming Dynasty, they are already completely tied to Jiannu, even if they want to give up Jiannu, it is impossible.

And the Hui merchants and the merchants of the southeast faction who completely squeezed the Jin merchants to the point that they could not survive were not a good thing in Lao Zhu's opinion.

Among them, the Hui merchants controlled the private salt, and the salt tax collected by the imperial court every year, as well as the fact that they earned more than a dime a million dollars from selling illegal salt.

The merchants of the southeast faction are even more powerful, and overseas trade is basically completely monopolized by the southeast merchants.

They relied on the imperial court's maritime ban, smuggled on a large scale, earned high profits, and even used the power in the imperial court to obstruct the imperial court from opening the sea ban in order to protect their overseas trade.

Every time someone in the imperial court mentions the matter of opening the sea ban, the most vocal opponents must be those officials of the southeastern faction.

Some time ago, in order to let Zheng Zhilong buy grain from overseas, Lao Zhu said that he would open a sea ban when he was in the last dynasty, but when Lao Zhu killed him so ruthlessly, there were still many officials who jumped out to oppose it.

In particular, it can be seen how strong the merchants of those southeastern factions are in the imperial court.

Of course, Lao Zhu didn't get used to them, those officials who objected, one was counted as one, and Lao Zhu was all cut down.

Even if some of these officials are honest and selfless ministers, and they are only used to speak out, Lao Zhu has not been soft in the slightest.

The ban on opening the sea is the most important part of his plan, and no one can stop this, and whoever stops it will die.

As for Zheng Zhilong, he can barely be regarded as a businessman of the Southeast faction, but he does not have much to do with the merchants of the Southeast faction, if he insists on saying that there is, it is only a business dealing.

Before Zheng Zhilong collected tolls at sea, a big ship of three thousand taels of silver, most of these big ships were merchant ships of the southeast faction.

This time, after Zheng Zhilong officially defected to Lao Zhu, the enemies he faced were also those merchants of the southeast faction.

After all, when there was a sea ban, although they needed to give Zheng Zhilong a toll, it was a completely monopolistic business, and no one could do overseas trade except for the merchants of their southeast faction.

And monopoly business has always made money faster than grabbing money, so with such high profits, they will definitely not allow others to share the cake, let alone pay taxes to the imperial court.

In the past few months, Zheng Zhilong and Luo Yangxing have killed many people in Fujian and Zhejiang, how many homes they have copied, and the impeachment of the two has been handed to the capital like a piece of paper, but Lao Zhu has always ignored it as if he didn't see it.

Over time, the businessmen and officials of those southeast factions also knew what Lao Zhu's attitude was, and they temporarily stopped a lot.

Lao Zhu rubbed his eyebrows gently, always feeling that this matter was a little troublesome.

Merchants are easy to deal with, but the business of merchants is troublesome.

The richer the country, the richer the businessmen, and once they have money, their next step is to gain power.

This kind of thing, just killing can only manage for a while, but not for a lifetime, and a system must be developed to improve the situation.

"Merchant...... Businessman ......"

Lao Zhu muttered a few words softly, and he always felt that if businessmen could not be properly managed, they would inevitably become a big disaster that would disrupt the country in the future.

But fortunately, he still has time, this matter is not in a hurry to solve it for the time being, and the top priority is to send Jiannu back first.

Lao Zhu silently wrote down this matter, and then waited for the result of Zhao Guang's raid.

……

The development of things was similar to what Lao Zhu expected, and these businessmen did not have the slightest power to resist without a protective umbrella.

The shop was seized, and the people were directly arrested.

The arrest was personally supervised by Zhao Guangluan, the governor, but when Zhao Guangluan was doing it, he also felt that these merchants might have been wronged, so he asked his soldiers to refrain as much as possible and did not act rudely towards those merchants.

As a result, after raiding a grain depot, when Zhao Guangluan saw the moldy grain hoarded by these merchants, the whole person was instantly furious.

During this period of time, the price of grain in Jizhou has risen again and again, and many people are almost unable to eat.

For this reason, Zhao Guangluan, the governor, regardless of his identity, personally entertained the wealthy merchants in Jizhou City, wanting to discuss with them and let them reduce the price of grain.

But each of these wealthy businessmen blamed themselves for their difficulties, that they had no food, and that their lives were not easy.

As a result, now after Zhao Guangluan confiscated them, he knew that not only did they have grain, but also that the grain was about to go bad, but he didn't have the slightest intention of letting them out, and sat back and watched the price of grain in Jizhou City soar.

No, it's not sitting idly by, food prices are rising so fast, there must be these businessmen behind it!

After figuring it out, Zhao Guangluan became extremely angry, and at this time, he restrained the last trace of mercy and directly asked his soldiers to start torturing these merchants.

After he went to inspect the full granaries one by one, Zhao Guangluan's gloomy face was about to drip water.

Disasters are everywhere, and countless people starve to death on the road every day.

But in this case, the grain stored by these merchants is enough for the entire people of Jizhou to eat for a year.

They're not doing business anymore, they're making a fortune, they're eating people nakedly!

！

"Kill, kill!

！ ”

Zhao Guangyan looked at these grains, and his hands trembled a little with anger.

Don't say that they still have the crime of collaborating with the enemy and treason, even if they are not accused of collaborating with the enemy and treason, it is not an exaggeration to kill these people!

After these people were put on death row, some of them went on to shake out a lot of things out of fear.

For example, in addition to food, these people also deal in prohibited things, such as salt, iron, weapons, and armor.

After finding out these things, Lao Zhu didn't mean to wait for the autumn queen at all, and directly executed him in Jizhou City the next day.

For a time, the heads of people in Jizhou City were rolling, and the blood of direct killing was soaring.