When the rat-bearded tax collector heard the words "Prince Lu's Mansion", he immediately felt excited. After carefully studying the words "My own lamp", which was quite informative, he quickly shed the last bit of his arrogance.
"May I ask who your lord is?"
Zheng Haizhu said: "It's written on the road signs. My surname is Zheng, and this young man's surname is Wu. We are just ordinary people in Jiangnan. This time the princess's birthday coincided with the time when the family's craftsmen came up with fresh lanterns, so we sent them there.
, along the way, we also transported the Hangzhou, Jin, and Zhejiang rice collected by the tribe to the shop in the north. The latter is indeed a commodity, so there is no need to hide it from the tax collector."
Mouse Beard squeezed out a smile and said: "It's not just that I'm embarrassing you, but it's actually my responsibility. I'm running errands for the imperial court, so it's not easy to be confused. Let me ask you one more question, who is coming to contact you from Prince Lu's Mansion?
…?”
Zheng Haizhu said calmly and generously: "This is Mr. Zhang, the eldest historian of the royal family. He is from Shanyin, Zhejiang. I am a cousin of the Zhang family."
Mouse Beard squats in Qiaoguan every day, coming and going with all kinds of people, honest, cunning, timid, arrogant, noble, lowly, he has never seen any of them.
The woman in front of me was wearing a fine dress, which was worth at least twenty or thirty taels of silver. Her words and deeds were also graceful and magnanimous, and she indeed looked like she was used to dealing with nobles.
Zheng Haizhu saw that Rat Beard's fierce arrogance was gone, so he changed his tone to a gentler tone and discussed in a low voice: "In full view of everyone, the tax master and his men boarded our ship and returned empty-handed, so that the other ships behind could see it.
, of course it’s inappropriate. Please fill out an official receipt from the tax collector, and I’ll ask the clerk to hand it in according to the figures.”
When Mouse Beard heard this, he was overjoyed.
The stairs were so easy to build, why don’t you get down quickly?
He whispered a few words to the follower, and the follower Ma Liaoer came ashore and brought back a tax deed with the amount written on it in a moment.
Zheng Haizhu took a look and saw thirty taels.
Okay, this number is quite reasonable, and it should squeeze out the corruption of officials at different levels.
"Xu San, pay the tax, keep the official receipts, and don't forget to thank the tax master."
Xu San complied, and his last action was naturally to stuff the few pieces of silver he had just picked up from the deck back into Mouse Beard's sleeves.
…
This time Zheng Haizhu left the south of the Yangtze River and headed north, crossing the sea from Dengzhou with Wu Bangdang to meet Mao Wenlong in Liaodong. It was indeed only the second stop.
The first stop was Prince Lu’s Mansion in Yanzhou, located in the southwest of Shandong Province.
In the summer months, when Zheng Haizhu reconfirmed from Zhang Dai that his father Zhang Yaofang was still the head of the Lu Palace, he included this itinerary in his business trip plan.
"I am someone who wants to expand my business. I must have a boat that often plies the canal. Prince Lu's palace is not far from Jining Pass on the canal. Mr. Zhang, please introduce me to me."
Zheng Haizhu spoke directly, Zhang Dai did not refuse, and even helped with suggestions, saying that late autumn this year happened to be Princess Lu's thirtieth birthday, and he could write a letter to his father, saying that he specially hired Shanyin craftsmen to make the Zhejiang land.
Special birthday celebration lanterns, entrust Miss Zheng to escort them to your door.
Zheng Haizhu was overjoyed and praised Zhang Dai's method as a good one. It showed the elegance loved by the powerful, and it seemed very natural to visit Zhang Dai.
So, after arranging the Songjiang Firearms Factory and Zhenjiang Insurance Company, she confidently took the first step to explore the path to become a vassal of the Ming Empire.
Zongfan was a huge group in the Ming Empire.
Zhu Yuanzhang conquered the country three hundred years ago and divided his descendants into various places.
Among them, Lu Fan can be said to be a group that starts low and moves high.
The first King of Lu was Zhu Yuanzhang's tenth son, Zhu Tan.
Zhu Yuanzhang liked Zhu Tan very much, so he designated his fiefdom as the Yanzhou area, not far from Nanjing and guarding the main canal.
However, after Zhu Tan arrived in Yanzhou, he became obsessed with the psychedelic story of immortality. Under the deception of a group of wandering sorcerers, he took many elixirs and became almost blind before he was eighteen years old.
The swindlers were frightened and could only continue to make up lies, claiming that if they collected the "lifeblood" of 999 boys and made it into pills, and King Lu could take it, his eyesight would be restored to its original state.
Zhu Tan and Princess Tang built a playground in the mansion. On the pretext of having fun with the people, they kidnapped young boys from the homes of poor people and the homes of Shandong garrison troops, castrated them, removed their genitals, and then killed the children.
Put back.
This was so outrageous that Shandong soldiers and civilians quickly gathered at the governor's office to cry out and cry.
After the governor's report, Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that he vomited blood. Zhu Bi wrote: "These two couples cannot escape the death penalty. They should be the daughter of Ling Chixin (that is, Princess Lu)."
Of course, this was said to appease the anger of the people in the world. In fact, since Duke Xin Guo Tang He was Zhu Yuanzhang’s brother from a young age, the emperor did not actually kill Princess Lu, the daughter of Duke Xin Guo, alive, but
Secretly ordered Princess Lu to commit suicide.
As for Zhu Tan, he soon died under the influence of the elixir filled with heavy metals.
Zhu Yuanzhang gave the first king of Lu an evil posthumous title, "Huang", which means "shameless, absurd and ignorant", in order to quell the anger of the people of Lu.
However, the successive vassal kings after King Luhuang all had good reputations.
The now-appointed King of Lu, Zhu Shouhong, was the employer of Zhang Dai's father, Zhang Yaofang, and would live until the Chongzhen period.
In Zheng Haizhu's eyes, how could he not try to discover such connections?
What's more, as a small retail investor who often had a full position in energy stocks before time travel, it would be a bit unreasonable for her to have no association with "Yanzhou" where Prince Lu's Mansion is located.
…
"Miss Zheng, to the north of Huai'an, there are many small mines mined by private households. However, due to the excessive mining tax eunuchs in the past few years, they have basically been abandoned."
After the boat sailed out of Chaoguan in Huai'an, Wu Bangdang walked up to Zheng Haizhu, pointed in the direction behind the plain in the distance and said.
Before setting off from Zhenjiang, Zheng Haizhu had already told Wu Bangdang about the itinerary.
Compared with an ordinary employer like Zhang Dai, Wu Bangdang was Zheng Haizhu's more valued partner, so she naturally had more information about Wu Bangdang.
Therefore, Wu Bangde knew clearly that Zheng Haizhu went to make friends with Prince Lu because he valued a resource in Yanzhou: coal.
Wu Bangdang originally grew up in Jiliao, and lived in the capital for a while when he was young. He was much more familiar with coal as a fuel than the common people in Jiangnan.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! He told Zheng Haizhu with certainty that the court did not have much control over coal mining. There were very few official coal mines in the Ming Dynasty, even in Beijing.
In the Xishan and Mentougou area, 90% of the coal mines are self-sourced.
At the same time, he could even talk to Zheng Haizhu from the technical level of what he saw and heard, how to ventilate a small coal kiln and how to use moso bamboo to discharge poisonous gas (i.e. gas).
However, Wu Bondang never knew that there was coal in Yanzhou.
At this moment, Zheng Haizhu turned his head and said to Wu Bangdang: "Yes, you see, there is coal in Huai'an near Xuzhou, in Henan in the west, and in Boshan, Shandong. Why is Yanzhou in the center surrounded by these three places?
Is there no coal? In my opinion, there must be coal. There are probably two reasons why no one is opening the kiln."
Wu Bangde asked: "What's the explanation?"
Zheng Haizhu said: "First, the terrain there is superior. The winter months are actually warmer than the Jianghuai River. The people with thick skin and frost resistance are not like the people in the capital who need to burn coal for heating in the winter months. The princes and wealthy families are more delicate.
, but there was no shortage of money, so I went to buy good charcoal myself; secondly, the Lu and Confucius mansions were both in Yanzhou. When I was in Songjiang, I heard stories from Shandong’s past storytellers about the vassal kings of Lu and the Yan Sheng Gongs (referring to the Yan Sheng Gongs).
The title given to the eldest descendant of the Confucius family), digging a pond to raise koi carp, is considered a major event, for fear of shocking the dragon's cultural heritage."
After hearing this, Wu Bondang smiled lightly: "What Prince Lu's Mansion, the Confucius Mansion, is as grand as Long Live Lord? There are not only a thousand, but also hundreds of coal mines in Xishan. I haven't heard from the emperor that it disturbed the dragon's veins."
Zheng Haizhu also laughed.
What she admires very much about Wu Bond is that he often has an instinctive reaction against so-called authority, customs and routines.
To a certain extent, Zhang Yanke is a bit similar to him, but unlike Wu Bang Bang, Zhang Yanke has seen the dangers of the world and the coldness of the army at a young age. Therefore, if it had not been at the last moment of the country's subjugation, Zhang Yanke, who was content with fine clothes and fine food, would not have
Someone with Wu Bond's ambition for adventure.
Zheng Haizhu quickly stopped laughing and said to Wu Bangdang: "Zhilong told me that the Frankie people's artillery factory in Haojing often had trouble with fuel because the furnaces needed coal, and the coal from Guangfu had to be transported from Jiangxi.
It is more troublesome than them buying copper materials for cannon casting from the Japanese country. Now we want to open a firearms factory in Songjiang. If we want to buy a large amount of coal, it is most convenient to go from Yanzhou to Jining Chaoguan and go down the canal."
Wu Bond understood.
Zheng Haizhu and the others wanted to build cannons. Wu Bondang and his adoptive father Qi Jin both understood that this was a precautionary measure and they approved of it.
Wu Bond did not expect that Miss Zheng had already drawn such a detailed picture, just like when his grandfather led the troops to fight, he had to think deeply about where to set up the camp, where to store the supplies, and where to send them at night.
Zheng Haizhu's style with military temperament made Wu Bond feel very friendly.
"Let's go to Yanzhou and see," Wu Bondang added some encouragement in his tone, "The imperial court was short of money, and the vassal's expenses have become a frequent criticism. A small coal mine in Xishan can earn 5,000 taels of silver per year.
, If there really is coal underground in Yanzhou, wouldn’t Prince Lu’s palace be stupid enough to ignore the cornucopia?”
Zheng Haizhu nodded: "At that time, you don't have to disclose that you are a descendant of Qi Jiajun. You can just say that you are the shopkeeper who accompanies me to do business. You will brag about the great profits of Xishan in the capital with the whole family of Prince Lu."
After saying that, Zheng Haizhu left the deck and went to the cabin to change into the expensive gold-woven horse-face skirt that Yan Siqi had given her earlier.
This outfit was used to fool tax collectors along the way, and she had to go to Prince Lu's Mansion to support her, so it couldn't get dirty.
Wu Bondang turned around, still standing with his sleeves behind his back, as if he was looking up at the boatman to adjust the bamboo sail, but in fact, when his eyes fell, he looked at Zheng Haizhu's back.
While dealing with tax collectors at Huai'an Chaoguan, Wu Bondang was momentarily confused when he saw Zheng Haizhu appearing in brocade clothes.
He recalled the last appearance of another woman in his memory, also wearing an embroidered armor and a horse-faced skirt with gold trim.
The adoptive father laughed and praised beside her: "In the past, Ah Mei was just like a tomboy, following Bond to dig out bird's nests and catch toads. Now she has become a woman and has a beautiful face. We, Bond, are really lucky."
Over the past three years, this scene has often appeared in front of Wu Bondang's eyes, like ice in the winter moon, pricking deep in his heart.
After the severe pain subsided, Wu Bondang felt that he would feel better only if he sacrificed his loneliness and sorrow in the remaining long years.
He stood on the deck in trance until he saw Zheng Haizhu getting out of the cabin again, wearing a dark sarong, walking up to Xu San, discussing how to sell rice after arriving at Jining Chaoguan.