Ming Jiajing: Starting from Immortality

Chapter 151 Hai Rui's sharp sword, the chief culprit!
Everyone thought so.

After the Ming Dynasty successfully wiped out the Japanese pirates and pacified the sea, it would immediately start ocean trade.

Silk, tea and porcelain have always been the protagonists of the Ming Dynasty's foreign trade.

The imperial court would inevitably purchase silk, tea and porcelain on a large scale, and it did so.

The imperial court previously owned mulberry fields in the south of the Yangtze River, plus the mulberry fields converted from the Yan and Xu families' fields, plus the mulberry fields in Chun'an County, there were now more than 1.2 million acres of mulberry fields in the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, the spring and autumn silkworms in these 1.2 million mu of mulberry fields have all spun silk. After the fresh cocoons are dried, they are reeled to obtain raw silk, which is then processed into mature silk.

Since the beginning of spring, the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau has purchased more than 36 million kilograms of cooked silk and produced 2.4 million pieces of silk.

The Jiangnan Weaving Bureau had long ago completed a transaction of 500,000 pieces of silk with Western merchants, bringing in an additional 7.5 million taels of silver for the imperial court.

Of the remaining 1.9 million pieces of silk, 900,000 pieces flowed into the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty, earning a total of 7 million taels of silver, which was used for the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau's silk collection and weaving expenses.

The reason why the price of 500,000 pieces of silk is higher than that of 900,000 pieces of silk is the disadvantage of the local market.

“People become cheap away from their hometown, while things become expensive away from their hometown.” This is especially true for more precious things like silk.

Everyone thought so.

The Ming court would use the one million rolls of silk from the Jiangnan Weaving Bureau to open up the Western market, and even Zhang Juzheng's cabinet thought so.

Zhang Juzheng, Gao Gong, Hu Zongxian, Li Chunfang, and Chen Yiqin all knew more or less the tricks of the Western market. They also knew that before and after the completion of the Jinghai Campaign, countless ships smuggling silk, tea, and porcelain crossed the oceans and dumped goods into the West, and the three treasures of the East were almost saturated in the West.

In the imperial court, in the two capitals and thirteen provinces, there were countless officials and powerful families waiting for the imperial cargo ships to set sail, waiting for the imperial court to recoup its losses, and waiting to see the emperor make a fool of himself.

Some officials even wrote memorials proposing another maritime ban and were waiting for the imperial cargo ships to leave before returning to submit their memorials.

Now, His Majesty suddenly said that the silk should be sold to Tatar instead of being exported to the West.

Zhang Juzheng's cabinet was stunned.

Li Chunfang even spoke carelessly in front of the emperor. As soon as he said it, he realized that he was in trouble.

Zhu Houcong looked at Li Chunfang with a smile and asked, "Mr. Li, why do you think my silk must be sold to the West?"

"In reply to your Majesty, our Ming Dynasty has always had trade with the West. A piece of silk in our dynasty is no more than ten taels of silver, but if it is shipped to the West, it can be sold for at least fifteen taels of silver. Twenty, thirty or even more is not impossible. I think that now that the sea is calm, the court will follow the trend and silk will add tens of millions of coins to the national treasury."

Sweat broke out on Li Chunfang's forehead, but fortunately he had some quick wit and managed to answer the saint's question.

It is reasonable to infer that the imperial court's silk would be sold to the West based on the price of silk sold to the West.

"is it?"

"Yes." Li Chunfang was about to kneel down, and answered with gritted teeth.

Zhu Houcong did not let him go. His smile became brighter, but in people's eyes it looked so cold. "It seems that my Lord didn't know that there was a ship full of silk in our family that went to the West. He sold the 100,000 pieces of silk woven from the raw silk that the Li family had stored for many years to the Westerners before all the smuggling ships did. He also sold them at a very high price and made a fortune."

Li Chunfang knelt down.

Cold sweat poured out from every pore of his body. The Li family of Xinghua County, Yangzhou Prefecture, South Zhili, was the uncrowned king of Xinghua County, and even Yangzhou Prefecture.

The reason is very simple. That is where the family of Li Chunfang, a cabinet elder, lives. The Li family has been passed down for more than a hundred years and is unmatched in the prefecture and county.

Nanzhili, Yangzhou Prefecture, this excellent geographical location destined the Li family to have an indissoluble bond with the ocean.

The maritime ban order, which prohibited even a single sail from going out to sea, could restrict ordinary people and intimidate the timid, but it could not restrict or intimidate the Li family of Xinghua.

For decades, the Li family's smuggling ships have sailed across the oceans unhindered and brought back huge wealth.

Because they were the family of a cabinet minister, the Xinghua Li family could be the first to know about any movement in the imperial court and the day when the Japanese pirates would be annihilated. Therefore, the smuggling ships of the Xinghua Li family were the first to go to sea and sell silk, tea and porcelain to Westerners.

One hundred thousand rolls of silk were sold for two million taels of silver in the West. After the Xinghua Li family sold the silk in the West, they exchanged the silver for medicinal materials and heartwood such as pepper and sumac, which were less common in the Ming Dynasty.

After making money from Westerners, he turned around and made money from the people of the Ming Dynasty, and then he could just sit back and watch the court make a fool of himself as the emperor.

Not only can you make money, but you can also watch the world's number one joke, the Xinghua Li family, who wants to win over everyone in the world.

Including him, the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

"In reply...in reply...to Your Majesty...I have lived in the capital for a long time and I don't know the current situation of my family. I hope Your Majesty can understand." Li Chunfang said hesitantly.

At this point, even the dumbest person would understand that the Emperor has seen through the Western plans of the officials and the wealthy families. If he admits it now, he and his family will be killed in the Emperor's wrath.

Dissociating oneself from the matter is the only option.

Even if the family is destroyed, as long as he, the cabinet elder of the Ming Dynasty, is there, there will be a chance to rebuild it.

"is it?"

Zhu Houcong asked a question that did not require an answer, and then continued, "The smuggling ship of the Li Qing family went ahead of everyone else, and it should also be ahead of everyone else. Calculating the days, it should have reached Qiantang Bay, right?"

The last bit of hope in Li Chunfang's heart was shattered. The emperor could accurately know the date and location of the return of Li's smuggling ship, so would he arrest them?
The answer is yes.

Under the dual laws of the Ming Dynasty Law and the Maritime Ban, anyone who violates the law and goes to sea to smuggle will have their property confiscated and their entire family executed!
The Li family of Xinghua is doomed.

But the family had thought about the day when the smuggling would be discovered, and they had made preparations in advance. Those who led and participated in the family's smuggling were all collateral branches of the family, some of whom were even five generations younger than the deceased.

The Li family is large and powerful, with many relatives and countless clansmen. Even if the family property is confiscated and nine generations of the clan are exterminated, Li Chunfang, the direct descendant of the Xinghua Li family, cannot be killed.

If you don't make a decision, you will suffer the consequences. Li Chunfang was soaked in cold sweat as if he had just been fished out of the water. He gritted his teeth and insisted, "Your Majesty, I don't know what my family has done. Please understand!"

Zhu Houcong smiled, but his tone was colder than the wind in the coldest days of winter. "If you don't know, then don't know. I have ordered Hai Rui, the prefect of Hangzhou Prefecture, and Shen Yu, the captain of the Zhejiang Thousand Households of the Jinyiwei, to handle the smuggling case. No matter who is involved, no matter who is implicated in the serious crime, there will be no mercy. From princes to ordinary people, anyone who violates the ancestral system of Emperor Taizu Gao and the laws of the Ming Dynasty will be killed without mercy!"

Li Chunfang remained silent, without any joy of surviving the disaster.

Hai Rui!

The family is finished!

(End of this chapter)