Jiajing Chengming

Chapter 70: Let the relatives of the emperor and the civil officials fight each other
Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling were naturally excited when they learned that the emperor wanted them to choose two imperial stores. After they made their selection, they immediately submitted their request to meet Zhu Houcong.

This was an unexpected surprise for them.

They really didn't expect that the new emperor from outside the country would treat them with such courtesy and kindness.

For a moment, both of them had a better impression of the new emperor Zhu Houcong, and threw away their dissatisfaction with the former emperor's clearing of farmlands, which caused their families to suffer a lot of losses, and they paid their respects to Zhu Houcong very respectfully.

When Zhu Houcong saw the two, he smiled gently and asked:
"Please stand up, my two uncles. Have you decided which imperial store to choose?"

Zhang Heling raised his head and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, I dare not refuse your gift, but I dare not be too greedy, so I only chose the Tongzhou Royal Store."

"Your Majesty, I dare not be too greedy, so I only chose the Linqing Royal Store."

Zhu Houcong sneered in his heart after hearing this.

Is this what you call not being too greedy?
Nowadays, everyone in the world knows that the richest places in the north are Tongzhou and Linqing.

Otherwise, Zhengde would not have opened royal stores in these two places.

The Tongzhou Imperial Store was the place where all kinds of in-demand commercial goods from the capital were purchased.

Its main function was to provide iron ore to the Zunhua Iron Works and the Armory Bureau, and to provide silver ore and other ores to the Silver Works Bureau and the Internal Weaving and Dyeing Bureau.

Linqing Huangdian is a large warehouse base, and goods traveling from south to north can basically only be temporarily stored and transferred in Linqing Huangdian.

It can be said that these two royal stores are the two most lucrative royal store industries. Not only do their annual profits far exceed the returns from investing in land, they are also very stable and can generate income regardless of drought or flood.

As long as the Ming Dynasty does not change the canal transportation to sea transportation, these two imperial stores will always be two inexhaustible gold and silver mountains.

Otherwise, Yang Tinghe would not have been so anxious to ask the court to sell these two imperial stores first in his will.

In Zhu Houcong's view, these two imperial stores had probably long been targeted by wealthy and powerful officials from northern Zhili, Shandong and other places.

Zhu Houcong was happy that the brothers Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling had conflicts and contradictions over interests with the gentry and officials in northern Zhili and Shandong, so as to avoid the two forces uniting against him.

"You two uncles-in-law, there is no need to be so polite. Although I am the nephew of the Queen Mother, I have long regarded you two uncles-in-law as my closest relatives!"

"Since the two uncles have chosen these two imperial stores, I will naturally approve it. Not only will I approve it, but I will also try my best to take care of the business of the two uncles in the future."

When Zhu Houcong said this, he waved to Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling and said, "My two uncles, come closer."

Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling moved closer.

Zhu Houcong whispered, "To be honest, I have learned from the secret reports of the Jinyiwei lurking in the outer vassal states that in Korea, in Hamxing Prefecture, our Han homeland, there is a large iron mine that is much larger than the Zunhua Iron Mine. I want to take over this mine in the future, let the two uncles share the profits of this mine with me, and give them a share of great wealth."

Their eyes suddenly lit up.

"In addition, I also want to revive the currency system and expand the copper mines in the future. It just so happens that I have heard from the Jinyiwei that there is a large copper mine in Luzon, not far from Ryukyu in the South Sea, which far exceeds the reserves in China. I also want to build a navy to mine this mine in the future and share the profits of this mine with the two uncles. When the time comes, I will sell and store it through the imperial store of the two uncles, so that the two uncles will be richer and more prosperous than the previous emperor, to show the virtue of kinship!"

Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling were overjoyed after hearing this.

After all, the emperor said it himself, and he also said that it was the Jinyiwei who discovered it, and the Ming Dynasty did always send the Jinyiwei to gather various intelligence.

In addition, these two people are greedy and often do things that blind their minds for profit.

Therefore, the two of them believed it without a doubt, and hurriedly knelt on the ground and kowtowed to thank him:

"Your Majesty, thank you for your kindness to us. We bow down to thank Your Majesty!"

"Please stand up quickly, both of you uncles."

"Why so."

Zhu Houcong said with a smile.

So the two of them thanked him and stood up.

"This matter must be kept secret and must not be known to others, especially those civil officials outside. Even if the two uncles knew about it, they would not want the benefits of the world to fall into the hands of the court and the relatives of the emperor."

Zhu Houcong gave the two of them instructions very seriously.

Zhang Heling nodded and said, "I know! If I tell anyone about this, it would not be unjust for your Majesty to chop off my head."

"Same to me, my Lord!"

"I am not a fool, I will never tell anyone about this."

Zhang Yanling also said with a look of joy on his face.

Zhu Houcong nodded: "That's good!"

Zhang Heling glanced at Zhang Yanling at this time.

Zhang Yanling said to Zhang Heling a little embarrassedly: "Brother, you should speak first."

Zhang Heling shook his head and said, "You say!"

Zhang Yanling: "You are my brother, you speak!"

Zhu Houcong said: "If the two uncles have anything else to say, please speak directly."

Zhang Heling knelt down and said, "As Your Majesty said, the literati are keeping a close eye on the profitable businesses in this world. We are afraid that even though Your Majesty is willing to grant us such a great favor, they will not be willing to do so. When the time comes, Your Majesty will not be able to resist and will ask us to leave the store."

"Don't worry about these two uncles."

"First of all, I nominally gave you the silver, not the imperial store. You are bidding legally, and they have no say. Even if they want to fight, I have reason to refuse."

"Secondly, you are only giving money to the royal property left by the late emperor to prevent it from being sold at a low price and then being ruined, causing the employees in the store to have no way to make a living. This is a matter of righteousness, and I will never stand on their side."

After Zhu Houcong said this, the two of them felt relieved and left happily.

After the two men left, Zhu Houcong said, "Send Bao Zhong from Xingming Bank here!"

Bao Zhong was an old acquaintance of Zhu Houcong.

Although Bao Zhong was a eunuch, he had the best understanding of arithmetic and accounting among the old people in the palace when Zhu Houcong secretly taught them mathematics. Therefore, Zhu Houcong gave him the task of training mathematics talents in the former palace charity school, and now he has also handed over Xingming Bank to Bao Zhong.

Soon Bao Zhong arrived before the emperor and paid his respects to Zhu Houcong.

"I will let you assist in the sale of the Imperial Store as the Junior Supervisor of the Imperial Household Department. You will do this when the time comes."

Zhu Houcong waved Bao Zhong to come closer, and then whispered something in Bao Zhong's ear.

Bao Zhong nodded in agreement.

Then, Zhu Houcong asked the cabinet to issue an imperial edict, in the name of respecting the empress dowager and honoring the imperial family, and in the name of following the advice of court officials, to change the practice of granting estates to relatives by marriage to granting them silver instead.

Therefore, Zhang Heling, Marquis of Shouning, was awarded 100,000 taels of silver, and Zhang Yanling, Marquis of Jianchang, was awarded 100,000 taels of silver.

The court officials did not realize that the emperor wanted the two brothers to disrupt the situation. They just thought that the emperor still listened to the advice of the censor Meng Qi and did not grant the estates to the two relatives, so they were all amazed.

But when the day came for the imperial store to be sold, the court officials discovered something was wrong.

Because Zhang Heling and Zhang Yanling also came to the sale scene, to compete with the wealthy businessmen who represented the powerful forces behind the scenes for the imperial store.

This made Mao Jiping, the deputy director of the Ministry of Revenue who was in charge of selling the imperial store, very dissatisfied.

You have to know that before the sale of the imperial store officially began, the wealthy and powerful officials behind the scenes had already divided up the pie through various negotiations and transactions.

Therefore, if no other forces get involved in the sale, it will become very harmonious.

At that time, only a wealthy businessman would come to buy an imperial store. He would say that the imperial store was a bad asset with serious losses, and he had to buy it just to help the emperor tide over the difficult times. He would package himself as a Confucian businessman and thus achieve his goal of buying the imperial store at a low price and then having a good reputation.

But now that the relatives by marriage have also come to disrupt the situation, it is difficult for this drama to continue for a while.

When Mao Jiping saw the Junior Supervisor of the Imperial Household, Bao Zhonglai, he was even more indignant: "Even the inner court is buying it, is that still considered the emperor's grace?"

"Minister, you have misunderstood. We are not here to buy the imperial store. We are here to assist the emperor and help those merchants who are helping him sell his bad properties."

Bao Zhong replied with a smile.

Zhang Heling was puzzled after hearing this: "Helping the righteous merchants? What kind of righteous merchants are they? Why would Your Majesty help them?"

“Why aren’t they considered righteous merchants?”

Mao Jiping was about to ask how he could help, but when he saw Zhang Heling questioning the identities of these wealthy businessmen, he asked back. Then, because Bao Zhong made it clear that he was not here to buy the imperial store, he invited Bao Zhong to sit next to him.

Then, Mao Jiping began to sell off the imperial store, and he opened a document and said, "I am selling off the imperial store in Tongzhou, which is worth five thousand taels. Which righteous merchant is willing to buy it?"

For a moment, there was complete silence.

After a while, Li Dengcai, a wealthy merchant from the capital, stood up and said, "I'll buy it! Normally, the imperial store in Tongzhou would only sell it for three or four thousand taels. Now let's consider it as a way to repay the emperor's kindness."

"What kind of repayment is this!"

"The Royal Store in Tongzhou earns at least 30,000 taels of silver a year. How come it's only worth 3,000 or 4,000 taels?"

"I'll pay six thousand taels!"

Zhang Heling immediately stood up righteously. The emperor gave him 100,000 taels, so that everyone in the world would know that he had 100,000 legal silver, so he was not afraid now.

"Since your uncle says so, I will pay seven thousand taels."

"Eight thousand taels!"

"Nine thousand taels!"

Seeing that the other party was still following, Zhang Heling simply gritted his teeth and said, "Twenty thousand taels!"

Zhang Heling thought, "Although it's not good to show off your wealth, I have the 100,000 taels of silver given by His Majesty now, so it's not a loss to take an extra 20,000 taels to buy this Tongzhou Imperial Store."

Li Deng hurriedly said: "30,000 taels!"

"Brother, just pay him fifty thousand taels and make him shut up!"

"If we take out all the money His Majesty gave us, we will not lose money if we take out all the money His Majesty gave us."

Zhang Yanling gave advice from the side.

Zhang Heling nodded: "Fifty thousand taels!"

"Sixty thousand taels!"

"Seventy thousand taels!"

"Ninety thousand taels!"

Li Deng is really anxious now.

If he didn't take over the Tongzhou Royal Store now, he would have trouble explaining to his master behind him. Even if he had to pay the extra 90,000 silver coins himself, he had to take over the Tongzhou Royal Store.

Otherwise, once he loses the trust of his master, the loss will be even greater.

After all, the rise of every wealthy businessman these days depends on the support of powerful people.

"One hundred thousand taels!"

Zhang Heling said in a deep voice.

He was also angry now, and sneered: "Thinking back then, when I was fighting for land with the Changning Earl (the maternal family of Empress Dowager Zhou during Emperor Xianzong's reign), I was not afraid of thousands of servants coming to fight at my doorstep, so how could I be afraid of you guys?!"

"If you really are a tough guy, just keep following!"

Historical records show that Zhang Yanling, Marquis of Jianchang, and Zhou Yu, the younger brother of Empress Dowager Zhou, once fought over farmland, to the point that thousands of servants took to the streets to fight. It can be said that the Zhang brothers did not care about their image at all in their fight for land and profit.

Thanks to Xuanhui for the reward. I have received a lot of rewards recently. I hope the number of readers can also increase a lot. After all, Sanjiang did not win the PK this time. I am ashamed.

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(End of this chapter)