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

Chapter 854 Hepu Nanzhu
"Your Highness, Prince Zhou." Ye Shangren stood up and respectfully poured the small jar of wine in his hand into an extremely exquisite wine glass. He said casually, "This is a remote place in the countryside. There is nothing else to produce. I only have a cup of home-brewed wine, which is still drinkable. I came here today to offer it to Your Highness."

"Lord Ye, you are too polite." Zhu Su smiled slightly, picked up the wine glass and twirled it in his hand. The wine in the glass was so clear that the bottom could be seen. Amid the aroma of the wine, there was a faint scent of bamboo, and against the backdrop of the bamboo leaf pattern drawn by the craftsman on the bottom of the glass, the shadows of the bamboo were also flickering and lifelike as the wine swayed. Both the color and the taste were obvious, this was a glass of top-quality wine.

But it was impossible for Ye Shangren to go to the temple just to buy a glass of wine.

"Although this wine is good, how can you work for the court if you are drunk?... Lord Ye, if you have something to say, you might as well say it. After you finish speaking, how about you and I drink happily?" Zhu Su laughed.

"Yes, yes, Your Highness is right..." Perhaps he did not expect Zhu Su to be so straightforward. Ye Shangren was stunned and looked a little embarrassed.

He sat down and rubbed his hands on the hem of his clothes, as if he hadn't thought of the right words yet. Suddenly, he gritted his teeth and said, "Your humble servant...is ashamed."

"My Ye family is small, lacking medicine and doctors, and there is not much income from the land, so my family members are suffering. Now Your Highness has opened a market in Lianzhou, which is a good deed to help the people of Lianzhou. I, your humble official, have the audacity to ask Your Highness to allow my Ye family to buy a few shops in this market so that my family members can trade with foreign merchants..."

"...Is it possible?" Ye Shangren was extremely respectful.

Zhu Su gently put the wine glass back on the table, but his heart skipped a beat. Here it comes, finally one of the chieftains can't hold back his temper.

Ever since the banquet at Dongpo Tower that day, Zhu Su's plan to open a market in Lianzhou Prefecture was rejected by all the chieftains.

Perhaps it was the survival wisdom passed down for thousands of years. Although the local chieftains lived in the mountains, forests and lakes, they always had a tacit understanding when facing the imperial court. When they learned that Zhu Su was only willing to open the market in Lianzhou, they immediately understood that the imperial court was very likely to use this market to control these chieftains who had been passed down from generation to generation.

Perhaps one of the chieftains took the lead. In short, all the chieftains unanimously chose the "non-violent non-cooperation" approach to the construction of the market. They ignored the massive construction of the Lianzhou City and let Zhu Su do what he wanted. In their opinion, as long as they restrained the people in their clan and made it impossible for the young prince to work, this huge project would be shelved.

After all, the project planned by this prince was really too big, including the expansion of the city wall, the repair of canals and ports. Such a large project would be difficult to complete within a few years without tens of thousands of people working day and night.

Without manpower, the market cannot be built. If the market cannot be built, then the King of Zhou will have to change the location to the area under the jurisdiction of the chieftains, so that they can take advantage of it.

Unfortunately, these chieftains underestimated Zhu Su's ability. After the banquet that day, Zhu Su had already written a letter. In less than half a month, a caravan with several ships of building materials appeared in Lianzhou Prefecture. These chieftains also realized for the first time that they were ignorant of their own abilities: they saw that the city wall built by the Ming army, with no idea what it was, could be condensed into a whole in just a few days. In less than half a month, the new city wall of the East City was already built, and even the canal and the dock houses of the market had taken shape. This speed was simply unheard of.

They live in a remote corner and naturally don't know about the emerging building material that has been flourishing in the inland areas and northern borders of the Ming Dynasty in the past two years: cement.

The advent of cement directly advanced the military engineering industry of the Ming Dynasty to several levels. Without cement, the Ming Dynasty would not have been able to build cities and fortresses in the northern border and Japan at such a fast speed. It can be said to be a great military weapon for the Ming Dynasty to expand its territory. Most of the elite soldiers under Li Wenzhong and Lan Yu had served in the wars in the northern border and Japan, and they were very familiar with using cement.

In such a remote place, these Ming soldiers were able to build a city, not to mention the expansion of Lianzhou City. The appearance of Lianzhou City was changing with each passing day. Such unprecedented changes finally made the chieftains who were sure that Zhu Su could not build a market panic.

Now, finally, the first chieftain who couldn't hold back his temper found Zhu Su privately and said that he wanted to get a share of this huge project...

According to what Zhu Su said before, the main merchants facing Lianzhou Port are Nanyang merchants and Western merchants, which is foreign trade in nature. According to the court regulations, foreign trade requires a trade permit issued by the court, otherwise it is considered smuggling. After this permit is issued, they will be supervised by the relevant government offices of the Ming court and have the responsibility to pay taxes. The right of the chieftain to act on his own will be greatly reduced... Therefore, the words of this chieftain Ye seemed very hesitant and entangled.

Zhu Su knew this very well. Although the progress of the construction of Lianzhou Market shocked these chieftains, Ye Tusi came to them only because he was reluctant to give up the temporary income of the market. Perhaps, in their hearts, they still felt that this market was set up for the sake of their reputation as the King of Zhou, and when he pacified the chaos in the southwest and returned to Beijing, this market would be abandoned.

Ye Tusi was so entangled because he was weighing the pros and cons. He was afraid that even if he received the imperial permit, the market would be abandoned in a few days. He would be shackled for nothing but did not gain much benefit, which would be a loss.

Therefore, Zhu Su did not agree directly, but asked instead: "Master Ye wants to rent a shop... I wonder what kind of business do you want to do?"

"Oh, I don't have much to do." Ye Shangren was startled, then smiled and replied. "The clan still has some surplus food, some wine, and some cloth, mulberry, and other things. I want to exchange what I have with you..."

Tusi families have been passed down for hundreds of years. Which family doesn't have some surplus sundries? It is said that if Chinese things are shipped to the West, the profit will be ten times or even a hundred times. This is what Ye Shangren is thinking. He wants to sell these things to the Southeast Asian merchants who are going west. Anyway, it is unknown how long this market will last, so he will make as much money as possible.

"Oh? No South Pearls?" Zhu Su asked with a gleam in his eyes.

"Southern pearls? Oh. Your Highness, you mean river pearls, right? Of course there are." Ye Shangren said. "Lianzhou is adjacent to rivers, mountains and seas, and there are many clams. How can there be no river pearls?"

"It's just that... my clan is not the Xuhu clan. Although we have river pearls, the production is not abundant and is far less than what the Xuhu clan produces."

"This river pearl business... although I am interested in it, I think I still can't do it." Ye Shangren said with a wry smile.

(End of this chapter)