Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 223 Reopening the Silk Road
"Could it be that what Your Highness is talking about is the glass business?" Below, a strange look flashed in the eyes of a merchant, and he stood up and coaxed.

"The Shen family's glass business is making a lot of money every day, and we have been coveting it for a long time!"

"We are all merchants in Suzhou, and now only the Shen family is flying Huang Tengda. Since His Highness is looking for us to cooperate today, he will certainly not treat us badly!"

"Everyone, haven't I thanked His Highness King Wu for his kindness?"

Following the booing of that person, the rest of the people also thanked Zhu Su loudly.A group of people were in a mess, as if Zhu Su had been set up with beautiful words.

Only Shen Wang, who had just been suppressed by Zhu Su last night, and a few mature and prudent ones, felt that something was wrong, and sat upright in their seats.

"Ah……"

Zhu Su didn't answer either, he still had a smile on his face, but his eyes no longer had the lazy and casual look just now.

He didn't stop, just smiled and continued to look at the messy crowd below.It wasn't until the compliments from the people below gradually died down that Zhu Su turned to Shen Wang and said, "Second Uncle Shen. This member was the first to speak."

"What is it?"

"Return to Your Highness." Shen Wang didn't dare to be negligent, he directly left the table and stepped forward, knelt down on both knees and respectfully replied to Zhu Su: "This is the great salt merchant of this residence, Ma Yuanwai."

"Ma Yuanwai." Zhu Su nodded, with an inexplicable smile on his face: "Ma Yuanwai is indeed a shrewd person, once he met him, he could guess what the king meant."

"Inviting all of you here today is indeed a big deal, and I want to share the pie with you."

"Everyone, are you interested in doing this overseas business with me?"

"Overseas?" Underneath, the merchants all frowned, and many people whispered to each other after hearing these two words.

"Your Highness... Your Highness..." Zhao Yunyan, the rice merchant, opened his mouth timidly and said:
"His Highness wants to do overseas business, is it because he wants to reopen the Silk Road?"

"I don't know what kind of goods business you want to do?"

"Silk Road Silk Road, of course it's silk." Zhu Su sat at the head and said. "The silk you weave in Suzhou has been famous all over the world since the Song Dynasty."

"This is a valuable item from China, and many foreign races are yearning for it. If it can be sold to the foreign countries by sea, how much profit will be made from it, I don't think I need to say it clearly?"

"In the Song Dynasty, your Suzhou mansion was rich, and you must be aware of it."

"I have something to tell you all. My Chinese silk and porcelain are extremely precious and rare in the eyes of those red-haired ghosts."

"If it can be transported there, one catty of silk can get dozens of catties of silver!"

"Even higher!"

"This matter is well documented in the classics of the Tang and Song Dynasties. Don't you know the huge profits of the road, sea and silk road?"

"Its value is more than a hundred times! I, Suzhou, is the hometown of silk. If I, Suzhou people do not take such huge profits, do I have to hand them over to others?"

The eyes of some businessmen sitting in the corner below are already lit up.But Zhao Yunyan still frowned.But the salt merchant surnamed Ma continued to ask: "Your Highness, we naturally know about overseas profits."

"It's just that His Highness is young, so I don't know. The shipping is not as good as it was in Song Dynasty."

As he said that, he put on a preaching look: "Let's not talk about the rampant Japanese plague now, going to sea is no longer as easy as it used to be."

"Let's just say that now my Ming Dynasty has a lot of waste to do, and there are not many big ships like this. Although we also covet the huge profits from overseas, it is really powerless!"

"Your Highness won't, you want me to wait until I build a ship and go to sea? Even if I wait to build a big ship, we can't beat the Japanese pirates at sea!" The horse salt merchant spread his hands.

"This horseman's words are wrong." Zhu Su smiled slightly. "The sea of ​​gold and silver on the sea, I wait for the Ming people to not take it. In the future, Japanese people, Koreans, and even those red-haired ghosts in the West will naturally take it."

"You also know that His Majesty has opened a shipyard in Poyang Lake, and his intention to reopen the sea ban is clearly revealed."

"Since the imperial court wants to open the sea ban, it will naturally send sailors to patrol the pirates. The danger of the pirates is naturally not a problem."

"As for the lack of a boat, this king is here for this matter."

"After a while, the imperial court will have a grain transport ship, which will carry military grain by sea from the south to Liaodong."

"What this king wants to do with you is this business. If you are willing, this king can make room on the grain ship to carry the goods for you."

"My lord knows that none of you have ever done shipping business. This time, it is an opportunity for you to familiarize yourself with the shipping business. Selling goods to Korea is not as profitable as selling them to the red-haired ghosts in the West."

"However, there are still profits. With the escort of the imperial fleet, you naturally don't have to worry about Japanese pirates running rampant at sea."

"When you get familiar with the shipping process, the imperial court will start to step up efforts to clean up the sea area. You and the experienced businessmen in Suzhou will be the first to take advantage of this policy and sail far away to make money..."

"This king's business, can you still do it?"

Zhu Su's words are not casual.After the failure of the Battle of Lingbei in the fifth year of Hongwu, the Ming court changed its combat strategy against Beiyuan in time, from "taking advantage of his illness to kill him, and clearing it up at once" to "accumulating strength and nibbling away step by step".

In order to guard against the Northern Yuan separatist forces in Liaodong: Beiyuan Taiwei Naha came out, and Lao Zhu assembled nearly [-] troops on the border of Liaodong. While building Beiping Mansion (now Beijing), he "assessed the situation and waited for opportunities."And the food and grass of this army is supplied by a sea transportation route opened up.

In recognition of the maintenance of this shipping route, Lao Zhu even appointed a new "Marquis of the Sea".

Some unofficial history and pheasant scholars framed the Ming Dynasty for abandoning the coastline completely, saying that Lao Zhu ordered "no piece of board should go into the sea".This is pure nonsense.In the 14th year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang strictly enforced the sea ban policy, saying only that "the Japanese pirates have not kept their footprints a little bit, and ordered the prohibition of people living near the sea from communicating with overseas countries."

After all, at that time, real Japanese and fake Japanese had long been confused.Who knows if you built a ship and went to sea without permission, did you go into business or become a Japanese pirate?

It can only be said that although it was a bad policy of passive defense, it was actually justifiable at the time.

What's interesting is that the words "slabs must not go into the sea" were actually originally from the "Zhu Wan Biography" compiled by the Qing people, and it was not what Lao Zhu said at all.Come to think of it, it was the book repairers who took the maritime ban policy implemented by the Qing Dynasty at that time, which was taken for granted, and put it on the head of the Ming Dynasty.

Gossip less.It is only said that after Zhu Su said that the imperial court was going to open up a new shipping route, the merchants below couldn't sit still.As merchants, they naturally know how big the benefits are in the sea.

Now the territory of Daming is dilapidated, and in some places, the crowing of cocks cannot be seen for thousands of miles.How much silk can be sold if there is so much silk produced in Suzhou?
But if it is sold to foreign countries... Those foreign places have always admired Chinese clothes, and most of them have "stupid people and a lot of money". Shipping Chinese silk and porcelain outside is no different from picking up money in Jinshan!
If there is really an army escort, this business can be done no matter what!

A group of people immediately whispered to each other.

"Your Highness." It was the mature and prudent Zhao Yunyan who spoke again.

"His Highness is willing to take us into this business."

"I just don't know, what do I need my Suzhou businessman to pay?"

(End of this chapter)