The crown prince's words, 'Send your youngest son over,Mei Kejia understood.'

He had three sons, and the youngest of his favorites and wisest was the youngest.

Is this a coincidence?

Possibly.

But Mei Kejia doesn't think in the direction that 'others are stupid', he prefers to think that the prince did it on purpose.

This is actually to tell him that I have investigated you and is not a lie.

"Do you have anything to ask me?"

Zhu Houzhao paced at the entrance of the hall, saying as he walked.

Mei Kejia thought to himself, he had a lot to ask. But this is the East Palace, and it is not possible to ask everything, let alone ask non-stop.

After thinking about it, he picked a question.

"Villain, there is indeed a problem."

Zhu Houzhao smiled and gestured, "Ask."

Mei Kejia raised his eyes to confirm the prince's mood,

He speaks very carefully, and looks at his face, if it is not right, then quickly change to other problems.

In a way, it's not a scheming, it's a habit that has been used for years.

Right now, the crown prince seems to be in a good mood.

"The villain dared to ask His Highness. Why did you go all the way to find the villain, and what would happen if the villain refused?"

"The biggest fault of a smart person is that he is not honest." Zhu Houzhao pointed at him with a little teasing, "You have two questions."

"The villain lost his word! I beg your pardon!" Mei Kejia quickly knelt down.

"Alright, get up. You'll get to know me from now on. I said, you can ask any questions. Let's just say that this first question, I found you here, because what I want you to do, unless the most intelligent people can't do it, such a person is hard to find, and when I found you when I received the report from the Northwest, I naturally chose you. Of course, if you don't want to serve the East Palace, then you can leave, as long as you obey the law and don't really secretly communicate with the Tartars, I won't want your life. But I know you'll say yes."

Mei Kejia wondered in his heart, "Why is Your Highness so convinced?"

"Because this palace is the crown prince, you are willing to cooperate and work with Zhang Kun, but you are not willing to rely on me, the prince? There is no such thing in the world."

For Zhu Houzhao,

It's not very costly.

If he doesn't agree, then just another one. The lintel of the East Palace is something that people want to climb.

As for Mei Kejia going out and talking nonsense...... Smart people don't do such things.

This kind of terrible thing, stained with too much, he can't live today.

"Your Highness is heroic and wise, and the villain is happy and convinced." Mei Kejia then asked, "But I don't know, can the villain know now, what is the matter of the villain appointed by His Highness?"

"No, you can't." Zhu Houzhao turned around without hesitation and walked over to his book, "You can go down, and when your youngest son is sent to the capital, the palace will let you know everything."

Mei Kejia: "......"

This is ...... It's so direct,

He hadn't met anyone like this in all these years.

"Yes, the villain is leaving."

"Go back and get better. You're so weak, no matter how smart your brain is, you can't do anything." Before leaving, the prince said this. ….

"Yes."

Zhu Houzhao naturally knew that he wanted to be a corporal of Lixian,

But he also knows that being a master is not blindly good to him. He also wants to have a kind of style that they should respect.

It is the subordinates who accommodate themselves, not the subordinates themselves.

Therefore, Mei Kejia is the palace of Hutu, and the palace of Hutu. However, the ups and downs of the years will not make him overly anxious, and the prince does not say that he has no such thing as a bento, so he can take a few days off and slow down.

……

……

"If Your Highness wants silver, the slave has a way."

When Liu Jin was serving Zhu Houzhao for dinner, he suddenly

Ran mentioned this.

The crown prince glanced at him, "What way?"

"Slaves and maids, many noble children or people in the palace go out on errands, and they will beg the emperor to reward them with salt, since they can ask for it, why can't His Highness ask for it?"

One land, one salt.

These were all rewards that were given to feudal kings, nobles, and eunuchs during the Hongji period.

Perhaps in the eyes of people in this era, it is common for royal people to use some of these things, and they are nothing.

Liu Jin's mind should have no other intentions.

However, Zhu Houzhao still refused, "I came to Mei Kejia, saying that it was for silver...... Not really."

"Isn't His Highness using him as an imperial merchant?"

"In a few days, his youngest son should also arrive, you can bring someone over again, and then listen to it together."

Liu Jin was surprised, could it be that the prince had any more clever intentions? And be sure to wait for Mei Kejia's child to arrive.

"Yes."

"Lately, has anyone been begging for salt?"

「…… If there is a big wedding among the vassal kings of various places, the emperor will usually give salt to him."

"Got it."

These are the things that are waiting for him to reform.

In fact, there are many things that he, the prince, can slowly see and touch.

For example, last year, in the tenth year of Hongzhi, the country's annual income was about 19 million stones, 8.9 million stones of wheat, 3,600 kilograms of silk, and about 2.65 million kilograms of cotton...... Together, these are about 30 million taels of silver.

One of them is shocking, that is, the income of Tuntian is 2.93 million stones.

Zhu Yuanzhang said proudly, I raise millions of soldiers, and it doesn't cost the people a grain of corn, Zhu Houzhao feels strange that less than 3 million stone of grain can raise a million soldiers? Just kidding.

So I went to look through the Taizu record, and he was dumbfounded.

During the Hongwu period, the country's military income had more than 20 million stone of grain, and there were also records of 23 million stone during the Yongle period. That's all there is left!

He wasn't a person who liked to kill people everywhere, but with such a profound interest, once he wanted to move, it was unimaginable that he would not shed blood.

Of course, this is not the only source of money.

Our great Song Gaozong Zhao Gou once said a very interesting sentence: the market is the most profitable, if the measures are appropriate, the income is millions, will not win from the people?

That is to say, the benefits of maritime trade are abundant.

But in the Ming Dynasty and Hongzhi, it was a very difficult thing.

About 20 days later,

Zhu Houzhao finally met Mei Kejia's youngest son, saying that he was young, and he was three years older than him.

The child is very pretty, with a tall nose, red lips and white teeth, and almost makes people wonder if they have sent their son in for a daughter. ….

Mei Kejia also said that children are like mothers, Zhu Houzhao thought, it seems that this Mei Kejia is also a pure and lustful person.

The child was taken aside by the eunuch.

Liu Jin followed the prince, Mei Kejia fell last, and the three of them wanted to talk about business.

「…… The child's name is Mei Huaigu, who gave it the name?"

Mei Kejia spoke, "It was my father's father."

"Good name."

"Your Highness Xie's praise."

"You took my mission, at least three or five years, and it is estimated that you will not be able to come back. The family will settle down in the capital in the future, and as long as you are still from the East Palace, they will live more comfortably than when they followed you, at least not more than worrying about someone coming to arrest them."

"The villain has thanked His Highness for his kindness! Your Highness's great kindness, the villain will be a cow and a horse in this life to be returned."

Zhu Houzhao rolled his eyes, "Okay. Don't say anything like this in front of me."

Mei Kejia was slightly dumbfounded, what kind of routine is this, prince.

"Every word of the villain is from the bottom of his heart."

cinnabar

Houzhao's tone turned slightly stern, "Mei Kejia, you are a smart person, so don't pretend to be a stupid person in front of me. These people came to the capital as hostages, so you are really so grateful to me? The last time I saw you, I was very direct in my words and actions, because I knew that I could not fool you with any of my methods. Why, do you think you've fooled me by being smarter than me?"

such

Mei Kejia couldn't speak.

Everyone is acting, but the prince is not going to act.

"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is outstanding, rare in the world, villain, admire!" He finally stopped crying, and it was no longer as fake as he was just now.

Zhu Houzhao is the right medicine,

If it is a king, he can speak of the country, righteousness, and the people.

A businessman like Mei Kejia can just talk to him about the costs, benefits, and trading conditions.

"My actions are not very noble, even a little mean. But I told you the first time we met, I don't trust others easily, and what I want you to do is extraordinary, I hope you can understand. You don't think it's a prince to say it, you just say it as the object of your business. But then again, if this palace wants to harm you, they won't make so many detours, so you can rest assured that they only need to live in the capital, and no one will disturb them on weekdays."

Mei Kejia was solemn, and after touching the nail once, he knew what people like the prince liked to hear, "The villain understands. To put it mildly, if Your Highness doesn't put my family in Beijing, I think there is some kind of trap."

"Look," Zhu Houzhao raised his head and followed Liu Jin and said, "This is his true face! I thought to myself, how would this prince of this palace calculate him?"

"Your Highness forgives your sins." Mei Kejia laughed, "I'm really used to being on guard. Now I understand that the villain is just a businessman, and he is not worthy of His Highness's calculations."

"It's okay. If you're not smart, I don't want you yet."

None of the foregoing is mentioned,

After that, let's get down to business.

The crown prince pondered for a moment and organized the words, "...... After thinking about it, I still said directly, Mei Kejia, what this palace wants you to do is to do business on the southeast coast."

"Dare to ask Your Highness, what kind of business are you doing?" ….

"Business at sea."

When he said this, Mei Kejia and Liu Jin's eyelids twitched.

Mei Kejia was even more strange, "But Your Highness...... The sea ban is the national policy of the imperial court and the ancestral system. This business on the sea...... How?"

"Do what the merchants of the southeast do." The prince's words are rich in connotation.

The two people who heard this were all smart, and they understood it at once.

Smuggle!

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang stipulated that "people on the coast of the sea are forbidden and no private seas", and when he arrived in Yongle, Emperor Taizong also emphasized the national policy of banning the sea many times, which can be said to be the ancestral system.

If the ancestral system wants to change in such a political and moral environment, it is not an ordinary difficulty.

Although by the time of Longqing, it was indeed changed.

At this moment, Liu Jin and Mei Kejia also knew why the prince had to say it when Mei Kejia's family arrived in the capital.

This is probably related to the secret plan in the prince's heart,

Others don't know, and those who know must be their own people in the East Palace.

But Mei Kejia didn't have much contact with the East Palace, so he could only control it through that method.

"Your Highness, please!" Mecojia had to know what the purpose was.

Is it silver?

So to speak, but how hard can silver be for a prince?

It could only be ......

"Hongu, this national policy must be moved!"

The candle flame in the room flickered, brushing the faces of the three men, either resolute or shocked.

Liu Jin snapped and knelt down, "Your Highness! This is not a trivial matter, and I ask Your Highness to be cautious!"

This is not the same nature as leaving the palace and killing a few corrupt officials.

In public opinion, this is the ancestral system.

In terms of interests, Zhejiang and Fujian still have a large group of people with vested interests

Yes, if it is not done well, a lot of pirates can pop up overnight.

But Zhu Houzhao knows,

If the sea ban cannot be opened, and the benefits of sea trade cannot be obtained, then other reforms will not be discussed.

Is it difficult that land annexation also involves the whole country? Is it difficult to find out those in Juntun? Many of them were occupied by the generals. At the very least, the ban on the sea only concerns individual coastal provinces, which is better than a nationwide campaign.

At the end of the day, at this point, it's hard to lie down unless you're lying down.

"Get up, I didn't say I had to move now." Zhu Houzhao has never been an impulsive person.

If you don't plan a big event like this, how can you move it easily?

After Mei Kejia was shocked, he also figured it out, "According to the villain's opinion, His Highness's plan should take a few years, so it is said that the villain may not be able to come back in three or five years...... But the villain still doesn't understand, I don't know how His Highness wants to change it?"

Zhu Houzhao is also willing to explain, otherwise Mei Kejia didn't understand the gist and left like this, so how could it work? The guiding ideology is incorrect.

"The policy of sea prohibition has not been changed since Emperor Taizu Gao set it. Only in the Chenghua years, Qiu Jun proposed to restore the Song and Yuan Dynasty City Bo Division, but it was also a stone sinking into the sea, and it was over. Because the first difficulty in opening the sea ban is that it violates the ancestral system." ….

"However, under the national policy of banning the sea, do businessmen in Zhejiang and Fujian really not do business? In that place, there are seven mountains, two rivers and one field, and it lives near the sea, how can it be enough to eat just by growing food? So Hongu knows that there is actually a lot of smuggling along the southeast coast."

By the time of Hongji, the central government's control over the local areas had weakened, and smuggling had become even more rampant.

"Therefore, the second difficulty of opening the sea ban is the obstruction of the wealthy merchants on the southeast coast."

It's a bit paradoxical to say, they obviously need to do business overseas, but they are against opening the sea. The reason is that the ban on the sea makes their smuggling more profitable, after all, it is illegal, and only a few people who have a relationship with the government can do it, which is actually a kind of monopoly.

Mei Kejia was shocked inexplicably, "There is such a ridiculous thing......

"However, the ultimate goal of this palace is not just to get you to smuggle." Zhu Houzhao also has a third purpose, "Think about it, what will happen after you two open the sea?"

"Wako!" This Liu Jin knows.

Actually, it's not particularly accurate, don't you ...... Part of it is because of the ban on the sea, and the common people have no land to plant, and they are not allowed to go to the sea to make a living, so they can only be widows.

On the contrary, the opening of the sea will reduce some of these people.

Of course, there are still Japanese pirates overseas.

Zhu Houzhao nodded, "The imperial court does not have a decent sailor, and there is no money to establish a decent sailor. What is the use of spending so much effort to open the sea rashly, but without the strength to protect the merchant ships? In the end, will you not fatten up the robbers?"

Hear this,

Mei Kejia is no longer admired, but feels incredible.

How could the prince today have such thoughts?!

"Your Highness," he got up, lifted his robe and knelt down, "Your Highness also looks up to the villain too much, if according to His Highness, the villain is more than just a businessman......

"That's why I say, you can't do it unless you're the wisest. Mei Kejia, there is no repentant medicine at this time, you already know. can only accompany this palace Bo to a glorious ancestor. It is said that businessmen are adventurous, and you have lived for more than 30 years, but are you willing to follow this palace to accomplish this great thing?!"

"Of course the villain does! Your Highness, please command! His Highness is a direct person, and the villain must also be a man of his word—go to the soup and go to the fire, and do not hesitate!"

"Good!" Zhu Houzhao only said his true request at this time, "First, this palace will give you a sum of silver taels. 500,000 or 800,000. You've done business, and you say the number yourself. I will also let you bring some people to protect your safety, and on weekdays, under the banner of the imperial horse supervisor in the palace, the magistrate naturally does not dare to touch you too ruthlessly. After you go, this palace doesn't care what business you do, porcelain

utensils, silk, tea...... Anyway, you get the business going. The competition between merchants and merchants, this is your old business, I can't help much in the capital."

"The villain understands." Mei Kejia was quite confident when he said this, after all, he was also a very powerful businessman.

"Second, maybe three years, maybe five years, you will hear the sound of the imperial court opening the sea ban over there, and then there will be people on the southeast coast shouting against it, or even disobeying it by force. Therefore, in the past three or five years, you have to find out the rich merchants on the southeast coast carefully, and if someone wants to raise a private army, or disguise themselves as Japanese robbers to make trouble, this palace must at least know who the enemy is. This is your second mission." ….

"Third, after the business grows, you have to build a fleet on the sea, and as soon as the sea ban is lifted, the people along the coast will definitely go to sea in large numbers to make a living, and at that time, this palace does not want to be a prince who cannot protect his people. But I can't plan this section, you can only act according to the opportunity, and the important thing is to increase your strength."

Liu Jin was horrified when he heard this,

If this is done,

Isn't Mei Kejia equivalent to a prince with a heavy army?!

"On the day you come back, I will reward you with a knighthood!"

Jue... Title?!

Mei Kejia didn't dare to listen to this word,

His father was a merchant, and he was just a merchant, knighthood!

Those two words can make him tremble!

"Temple...... Your Highness......

"You don't have to talk back right away, think about it. However, you should be able to figure out some simple ones, such as why you must leave your family in the capital in this palace. If it were you, why wouldn't you do that?"

Mei Kejia was excited, he originally thought that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was looking for him as a businessman, just for money. Even if you ask him to do things, you just want to find an imperial businessman.

Who would have thought that such a big game of chess was arranged?!

And it started laying out several years in advance.

This kind of thinking and planning, who the hell can beat him?!

When there really was a day, could the wealthy merchants on the southeast coast imagine that the prince of the East Palace had his mind on them in the spring of the eleventh year of Hongzhi?

"Mei Kejia, what do you say?!"

Mei Kejia took a few deep breaths, and then saluted very formally, "The villain is fortunate in this life! I am willing to conspire with my Prince Daming! If it's not in vain for me to live this life, what's the point of being just a rich man like before?"

"Good!" Zhu Houzhao slapped the table, "In May, you set off for the south. I'll give you a month to spend time with your family. Before leaving, if you enter the palace again, I will still have an explanation."

"Yes!"

The merchant Mei Kejia kowtowed deeply!

In his heart, he left the East Palace with surging emotions.

It's Liu Jin, who is going to speak at this time,

"Your Highness, such a plan is not trivial, Mei Kejia was born in the northwest and is not familiar with the southeast, what if it fails? Do you think the slave is a different person?!"

Zhu Houzhao said faintly, "Familiar with the southeast...... If you want to find someone who is familiar with the southeast, then can you be familiar with the local? Can local people ...... No one will draw a sword against himself. Mei Kejia was born in the northwest and was a blank sheet of paper. I sent him to the southeast to do business, and to put it mildly, it was a tiger's mouth, so who else could he rely on for this blank piece of paper?"

Yes, you can't send someone who can't be assimilated by others, isn't that a chicken and an egg.

Liu Jin's lips trembled slightly, this ...... It turned out that I was specially looking for it from the northwest.

"But you're right, if he fails, Hongu can't hang himself from a tree." Zhu Houzhao's voice hasn't been down for long,

Zhang Yong's voice came from outside the hall.

"Slave Zhang Yong, see Your Highness!".

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