Laiyang was the capital of Dengzhou, and was originally the seat of the governor of Denglai. However, after Zhou Xian took office, he implemented military and political separation. Most of the soldiers were moved to Penglai, but the administrative center was still in Laiyang. He turned Long into the imperial censor appointed by the imperial court, but Zhou Xian gave him the right to deal with all the political affairs of Denglai and the two governments. Now, he completely looked like governor of Denglai, except for not taking military affairs.

Xu Hualong is worthy of being a high-ranking official who walked from the lower-level officials to the center of the court. Although he was a bit unique stubborn, he was a real talent. He quickly clarified the overall situation of Denglai. With the support of Zhou Xian, he quickly established his prestige for the promotion and removal of corresponding officials who should be promoted and dismissed.

Moreover, he was orderly in his work and was very careful in handling things. Previously, Zhou Xian brought more than 10,000 people from North Korea to Dengzhou, and Lin Qingye returned from Liaodong with thousands of people. So many people rushed in Dengzhou all at once, without causing too much chaos. On this point, the Dragon of Shihua was invaluable and fully demonstrated his ability.

A servant led Zhou Xian to the hall and bowed slightly, "Please wait for a while here, someone has already gone to inform Censor Zeng."

Zhou Xian nodded and said, "I understand, you go down first! In addition, I will send someone to inform the Prime Minister Chen and ask him to come to the government office immediately."

The servant responded and slowly retreated out. After a while, the two maids walked into the house, served a cup of tea for Zhou Xian and Xia Shu, and also created a stove.

The charcoal fire rose and the house gradually became hotter.

Zhou Xian took off his coat and sipped tea to look around. Since he became the governor of Penglai, he has led his troops to North Korea and has only been here for more than ten days. However, he was busy with various affairs at the time, and now he has an extremely vague impression of this government office. Now it seems that it is quite elegant and unique. Various furniture and murals in the house are mainly light red, giving people a very comfortable feeling.

After Xia Shu finished drinking the tea in the porcelain cup, he saw Zhou Xian silent and felt a little bored. "Military, I'll go and see the brothers. Sometimes they don't tell them a few times, and sometimes they are lazy to feed them even horses."

Zhou Xian nodded, took out about twenty taels of silver from his arms, and handed it to him, "Penglai is a military city, and there is not much place for entertainment, and Laiyang is much more prosperous than it is. During this period, you have worked hard to go with me in Qinglai. Later, you will find a better restaurant to reward your brothers on my behalf."

Xia Shu showed joy on his face and smiled, "Don't worry, I'll do it now."

Not long after, the Chief Censor Xu Hualong and Laiyang Prefect Chen Zhongsheng arrived one after another. After a while of greeting, Xu Hualong looked at Zhou Xian and asked, "Zhou Junmen, why did you suddenly come to Laiyang? Is there anything wrong?"

Zhou Xianxiao said, "There are indeed some things to discuss with you. He should have been called the prefect of the above, but he is far away in Laizhou, so he can only discuss the feasibility of this matter with you first. I plan to open a point in the Huanghai Lingshan Haikou in Jiaozhou and Weihai Weihaikou in Dengzhou, allowing scholars and merchants to go overseas for trade. Then he imposes heavy taxes on them to supplement the Denglai treasury."

As a Fujian native, I knew a long time ago that the profits of sea trade were huge, but the court had been banning the sea for many years. After he came to Delai, although he heard rumors that Zhou Xian had secretly sent ships to sea and made huge profits, those were carried out in secret. Now Zhou Xian put this matter on the surface and even planned to allow scholars and merchants to go to sea, which was a bit beyond his understanding. His first feeling was that Zhou Xian was crazy this time.

Chen Zhongsheng's face also changed drastically. He asked about the doubts in the heart of the Dragon. "Zhou Junmen, the court explicitly prohibits the sea. Isn't you doing this directly violate the court's laws?"

Zhou Xian nodded and said, "This matter is indeed as you said, contrary to the court's legal system. But when I left the capital in the past, Your Majesty gave me an oral order, allowing me to rebuild the Denglai army to restrain the Manchus from the sea. At that time, I proposed not to pay the court a sum of money, and only asked Your Majesty to allow me to open the maritime trade. Your Majesty finally agreed."

Xuhualong asked, "Zhou Junmen, do you have an imperial edict?"

Zhou Xian shook his head and said, "No, it's just an oral order."

Xu Hualong shook his head and smiled bitterly, not knowing whether Zhou Xian was too naive or too stupid. "Zhou Junmen, please forgive me for your frankness. The oral order is not an imperial order, but an optional existence. You think! This oral order comes from Your Majesty's mouth and into your ears, and no one can testify for you. I said this not because I suspect that the military order is lying, but because I want to tell the military order whether this matter is admitting it depends on Your Majesty. If everything goes well, of course it is your good and your Majesty, but if something happens, the blame for the crime may be for me."

Xu Hualong served in the court for a long time, experience, qualifications, and vision were not comparable to Zhou Xian. He directly pointed out the crux of the problem with one sentence. In the late Ming Dynasty, it was common for court officials to attack each other. Once Zhou Xian launched shipping, such huge profits would definitely attract others' jealousy. At that time, all the ministers attacked him. If Emperor Chongzhen could withstand such pressure, of course, it would be fine, but Emperor Chongzhen had always been indecisive and suspicious. Xu Hualong didn't think he would always stick to his original point of view, which was the reason why he did not take this oral order seriously at all. If it was an imperial edict, it would be completely different. It was a certificate that could be used as evidence at any time.

Chen Zhongsheng interrupted and said, "If the military can ask Your Majesty for an imperial edict, we will naturally fully support you in promoting this matter."

Zhou Xian picked up the water cup and sniffed, shook his head and smiled bitterly, "I dare to ask you two, if I wrote a letter to Your Majesty at this time and asked him to issue this imperial edict, what would Your Majesty think?"

Chen Zhongsheng was stunned for a moment, not very understanding of Zhou Xian’s meaning. But the dragon was completely silent. He pondered for a moment and said, “This book cannot be published.”

Chen Zhongsheng looked at the dragon and expressed his opinion, and he became even more confused, "Why is this again!"
Chapter completed!