NovelsAlex Chapter 1027 Attending the Banquet
Chapter 1027 Attending the Banquet
Chapter 1027 Attending the Banquet
"Your Highness." Several Maritime Affairs Department officials carefully handed the files in their hands to Zhu Su. "Here are the registration files of foreign merchants coming and going from Guangzhou Port last year. Please take a look..."
"Your Highness, this is from Quanzhou Port..."
"Your Highness, this is Hangzhou..."
A large pile of files was placed on the table. Zhu Su had long been buried in the mountain of files, but he was indifferent. He had a serious expression, and was absorbed in reading a file in his hand. He did not turn around to look at the officials, but just waved at them.
Several officials did not dare to disturb him and quickly bowed their heads and saluted, then retreated to their seats.
Inside the government office, the only sound left was the flipping of pages in the files. Apart from Zhu Su, dozens of officials from the Maritime Affairs Department, including Yang Shiqi, were also busy checking the records in the files.
The entire government hall was in a state of silent busyness.
It was quite hot today, and everyone was busy and sweating. From time to time, someone would lift up their sleeves and wipe the sweat off gently. They needed to pick out the registration of foreign merchants from the vast list of maritime merchants and summarize it for Zhu Su. Although the Maritime Affairs Office was established only a few years ago, the maritime trade of the Ming Dynasty has been prosperous over the years, and merchants have been coming and going in an endless stream. To summarize the movements of foreign merchants, the workload is still very staggering.
"Your Highness, this is the data summary of foreign merchants in Songjiang Port last year." Yang Shiqi, who was sitting below Zhu Su, put down the pen in his hand, held the file he had compiled, and came to Zhu Su's side. "In this way, the records of foreign merchants in recent years have been screened out here. Your Highness, do you need to continue the investigation?"
"No need." Zhu Su's voice came from behind the mountain of files. "These sifted files are enough for us to find clues."
"Look, in the 19th year of Hongwu, a Portuguese merchant was robbed by pirates in the Malacca Sea and went to Guangzhou Port alone to seek protection from the Ming Dynasty... In the 20th year of Hongwu, a Venetian merchant fled to Quanzhou Port and said that his goods were robbed by pirates and lost near Zhenla."
"These are the foreign merchants who came to our Ming Dynasty after suffering a disaster. I don't know how many more foreign merchants have been killed by them and lost both their people and their goods."
"There is no doubt that there are pirates active in the vicinity of the Strait of Malacca in Chenla, Srivijaya, and Malacca, and they have undoubtedly been lurking for many years, and have always been concealed from the eyes and ears of our court."
Yang Shiqi felt a little ashamed when he heard this. This matter was indeed the negligence of their Maritime Affairs Department. He bowed his head and apologized to Zhu Su, who waved his hand at him.
"The sea is full of dangers due to high winds and rough waves. It is not uncommon for your Maritime Affairs Department to fail to detect the disasters that occur occasionally among merchants."
"Just be more careful in the future."
Yang Shiqi nodded in agreement, and Zhu Su's expression became even more solemn. By checking the files, it can be basically confirmed that there is indeed a group of pirates in that place who are eyeing the maritime trade routes of the Ming Dynasty, but other than that, nothing else is known. This feeling of the enemy being in the dark and we being in the light made Zhu Su quite uncomfortable.
The court fell silent for a moment. After a while, an official suddenly said, "It's strange. If there are pirates in that place, why have we never heard of our Ming merchants being robbed there?"
Zhu Su was shocked. This reminded him that, yes, how much profit could those merchants make from the precious goods they brought to the Ming Dynasty? The real money was made from the silk, porcelain, tea, and colored glaze that the Ming Dynasty merchants brought to the West. In this case, how could they only rob foreign merchants and not rob Ming Dynasty merchants? "Quick, check if there are any records of Ming Dynasty merchants losing contact or disappearing there."
"If you find any, please report it immediately."
The hall was once again bustling with activity. A group of officials and clerks from the Maritime Affairs Department were busy again. The sound of flipping through files was heard again. However, this time, until the sun set, no record of Ming merchants encountering pirates near Malacca was found. Everyone was at a loss. Someone murmured, "This shouldn't be the case. Could it be that these pirates only know how to flatter the powerful and bully the weak, and don't attack us Ming merchants?"
"Perhaps, they are frightened by the might of the Ming Dynasty and dare not take any action?" someone else speculated.
"That should be the case." Yang Shiqi thought. "If we only rob the foreigners, it might not be a big deal. After all, our Ming navy fleet may not go to war for just a foreigner."
"But robbing our Ming merchants is different. Which merchant who can hold a maritime trade permit is not a person who can reach the emperor in our Ming Dynasty? If their fleet is disturbed, the Ming navy may go there to clear the sea. It is understandable that the pirates do not want to provoke them."
Zhu Su, however, had a different view. He touched his chin and said, "Pirates on the sea are not as good as those on land. The ocean is vast, and pirates make a living on the edge of a knife."
"Although our Ming navy is powerful, it is impossible for it to patrol the ocean for a long time. At most, it can only patrol once in a while to ensure that the sea area near Malacca is generally not occupied by others."
"Since they were able to rob foreign merchants, it means that this group of pirates is not as strong as us. Since they are not weak, they could just take advantage of the departure of our Great Ming Navy to come out and rob, or simply find a secret place and fight guerrilla warfare with our Great Ming on the sea. As long as we can't find their whereabouts, our Great Ming Navy may not be able to do anything to them."
"But they just sit there and watch our Ming Dynasty merchants make so much money, and instead rob foreign merchants..."
Zhu Su lowered his head and pondered. Since he had become a bandit, how could he not be greedy? If he was really so afraid of the Ming navy, he would not dare to do anything wrong within the Ming sphere of influence.
Everyone was silent again. Many people also felt strange, but they still couldn't think of a suitable reason. Seeing that it was getting late, Zhu Su said to everyone: "Forget it, everyone go to rest first. Thank you for your hard work today."
Everyone said they dared not to do it, and the group of people dispersed. Zhu Su also said goodbye to Yang Shiqi and returned to the palace with confusion and fatigue.
In the palace, Princess Xu had already prepared hot water and dinner for Zhu Su. After Zhu Su finished bathing, he felt a little less energetic. Xu stepped forward to rub his stiff shoulders, and the couple kneaded them for a while.
Xu suddenly remembered something, stopped kneading Zhu Su's shoulders, and asked, "Your Highness, during the days since you returned to the capital, people have been sending visiting cards to your house every day, hoping to invite you to a banquet."
"It is necessary to send favors. Should you take a look?"
"Hmm?" Zhu Su opened his eyes when he heard this. He never wanted to get involved in these interpersonal relationships, but since Xu suddenly mentioned this, he thought that there must be a lot of visiting cards accumulated.
I have been granted a fiefdom now, and I will not be alone when I go to Fengmingzhou in the future. Living in this world, who can avoid being involved in these human relationships?
The investigation of the pirates had reached a bottleneck, so it was okay to go to the banquet and eat for free. So Zhu Su ordered: "In this case, let Xiangdeng go and get those visiting cards."
"I should have some free time in the next few days, so I can pick a few important things to do."
Xu then went to tell the eunuch Xiang Deng, who came in a short while later, holding a dozen or so visiting cards of different sizes. Xu took the visiting cards, placed them in front of Zhu Su and said, "I have already roughly selected these visiting cards."
"The highest status one is this one from the Duke of Zheng's Mansion, and the rest are mostly from the Marquis' and Earl's Mansions. The others are mostly from merchants, so Your Highness, please consider them carefully." said Xu.
Zhu Su picked up the visiting cards and looked through them one by one. He said as he read, "Duke Zheng is a general in the army and is staying in the capital. As a prince, I have no friendship with him, so it is not appropriate for me to have too much contact with him. I think Duke Zheng is just exchanging courtesy. I will ask someone to prepare a generous gift to return the Duke's Mansion, and I will politely decline the invitation to attend the banquet. The same goes for other marquisates and earl's mansions."
"It's the merchants..." Zhu Su originally wanted to refuse, but for some reason, an idea suddenly came to his mind, and he said, "These merchants are inextricably linked to the business in our mansion."
"There's nothing wrong with attending their banquet once."
Most of these merchants were involved in maritime trade. Zhu Su had also been thinking about finding a time to get in touch with them. Since they had invited him, it would be a lot easier.
"Well, there are quite a few relatives among these merchants. We should meet them to avoid them saying that our Zhou Palace has a high threshold and spreading rumors." Xu said. "In that case, I will have someone reply to their invitations."
"Well, thank you for your help." Zhu Su said. Xu smiled back and left with the joint letter from the merchants.
Now, the Hongwu Emperor ordered that officials and military meritorious servicemen were not allowed to engage in business. Therefore, among the merchants of the Ming Dynasty, those with the most prominent identities were often those who were related to the Zhu family, or those who had a connection with the Zhu family.
For example, the Liu family of Yihuihou was born when Zhu was still a humble man. Liu Jizu, the landlord of the Liu family, was kind and gave Zhu a piece of land to bury his dead relatives. Since then, he has become prosperous and his descendants have benefited from it. The title of the Liu family belongs to Zhu Tianen, and they have no real power and are not among the military merits. Therefore, they are allowed to do business. They have benefited a lot from following Zhu Su over the years. Another example is Yang Lu, a businessman who helped Zhu Xiongying to succeed. His sister Yang was Zhu's concubine in the palace. As a relative without a real job, they are allowed to do business.
These people have some connections with the imperial court, and are more or less privileged than other businessmen. For example, the one who sent the visiting card to Zhu Su this time was a businessman named Zhu Fu. Zhu Fu was a relative of Zhu Su after he became rich, and was related to Zhu Su's grandfather. Although they are not related at all now, relying on this relationship and his own skills, he is still able to dominate the business world.
This person knew when to advance and when to retreat. In terms of seniority, he was actually on par with Old Zhu. But he never dared to regard himself as an elder in front of Zhu Su, and when dealing with other merchants, he never acted arrogantly because of his surname. However, the merchants took his surname into consideration and admired his character, so they elected him as the head of the Jinling Chamber of Commerce.
This visiting card was sent in the name of Zhu Fu.
"Jinling Chamber of Commerce... quite a few people have established bases in Nanyang. Perhaps, this elder of my clan who has nothing to do with them can know some unknown clues." Zhu Su thought.
The banquet of the Jinling Chamber of Commerce was held on the Qinhuai River. In order to invite King Zhou Zhu Su, Zhu Fu booked the most prosperous Fuleyuan among the Twelve Towers in Jinling. He spent a lot of money to decorate it, invited many scholars and singing girls, and then waited for Zhu Su's arrival.
As the sky was getting dark, Zhu Fu, the president of Jinling Chamber of Commerce, Liu Tianen, the son of Yihuihou, and a group of Jinling merchants came to the gate of Fuleyuan to meet Zhu Su, the Marquis. In terms of power in the court, Zhu Su may not have much, but in terms of influence on merchants, Zhu Su is undoubtedly the top in the Ming Dynasty.
Before he became famous for his military exploits, Zhu Su had already made a name for himself among merchants with his glass and other businesses. Not to mention the sea trade, Fengmingzhou and other businesses that merchants are now most eager to pursue, all of which have a close relationship with Zhu Su. The Shen family and the Zhao family, which were famous merchants in the Ming Dynasty, either cooperated with the Zhou Palace or were simply disciples of the Zhou Palace. The name of Zhou Wang Zhu Su is almost the same as the God of Wealth in the business world.
Zhu Su was also the most friendly towards merchants, and he always found some new ways for them to make money, such as the development of the chieftain territories of Lianzhou Prefecture and Guizhou Prefecture, from which some merchants gained a lot of benefits.
As long as you have a good relationship with His Royal Highness Prince Zhou, you never know when His Royal Highness Prince Zhou will have a sudden inspiration and a mountain of gold and silver will slip through his fingers... This statement is almost universally recognized in the business circle, so the merchants spared no effort to curry favor with Zhu Su.
When the sun was setting, Zhu Su, dressed in a moon-white robe, finally appeared by the Qinhuai River. As soon as he got off the carriage, Zhu Fu and a group of merchants came to greet him and said with a smile, "Your Highness is finally here. I haven't seen Your Highness for a long time. Your elegance is even better than before."
"It is such an honor to meet Your Highness today. Such an honor..."
All the merchants smiled and echoed. Zhu Su smiled and said, "Uncle, you are too polite. I haven't seen you for a long time. I wonder if you are in good health?"
"Alas, I dare not let His Highness call me uncle. I dare not, I dare not..." Zhu Fu waved his hands in panic, but his face was already wrinkled with smile. Obviously, Zhu Su's calling him uncle made him feel very honored.
"Thanks to your Highness's blessing, I have been in good health... The wind is strong at night, please don't catch a cold, Your Highness. Can we go inside the building and talk?" Zhu Fu said.
Zhu Su had no objection. The two of them were humble and polite, and Zhu Fu and many businessmen surrounded Zhu Su and went to the second floor. The second floor had been decorated magnificently by Zhu Su. As soon as Zhu Su sat down, maids presented delicious food and wine, and singing girls and dancing girls came in gracefully, with rings and jewelry jingling, and the fragrance lingering in the air, which was very luxurious.
"My Lord, you have invited me here. What advice do you have for me?" When they were half drunk, seeing that Zhu Fu had not revealed his intentions, Zhu Su simply asked straight to the point.
(End of this chapter)