After completing this month's evaluation, the focus of His Royal Highness King Chu's work finally shifted to the sales process.
For this reason, he interrogated Xie Yunzhang again.
Seeing His Highness King Chu finally remembering him, Lord Li Ting was almost moved to tears. He had been in prison for more than two months, and he was not from Suzhou, so he was not qualified to participate in the competition.
Others were strategizing in prison every day and meeting with their families from time to time, but he could only count his toes and stare.
So when he saw Lao Liu, he kowtowed and begged:
"Your Highness, give this villain a chance. I also want to make a difference, and I also want to participate in the competition."
"This king gave them this opportunity to save Suzhou. You are not from Suzhou, why are you joining in the fun?" King Chu lay lazily on the soft couch, and a beautiful maid sent him a refreshing breeze.
He feeds fruit.
"I can also be from Suzhou. My uncle's family is from Wu County." Xie Liting pointed at himself and said, "I will ask my family to move the factory to Suzhou."
"Haha, no need to bother." Zhu Zhen smiled and waved his hand and said, "You answer a few questions from me first."
"Excuse me, Your Highness." When Xie Yunzhang heard that he had something to say, he quickly pricked up his ears and listened.
"It turns out that how can the silk, tea, porcelain, etc. you produce be sold overseas without going through the shipping department?" King Chu asked.
"Back to Your Highness, when the six major merchants used to do business, we always sold the goods to them, and then we didn't have to worry about it." Xie Yunzhang said hurriedly:
"Prince Zhang... oh no, after Zhang Sijiu's defeat, all those sea ships retreated to the sea. The imperial court sent naval forces to continuously attack, cutting off contact with the land, and the six large merchants became a passing thing.
"Later, the situation calmed down, and Lu Zhonghe reestablished contact with the sea through some unknown relationship. Those people would place orders through Lu Zhonghe, and then every month, ships would arrive, and we would transport goods there.
Pay the money with one hand and deliver the goods with the other hand. However, I never came on the ship again after the New Year...
"But we can't be considered maritime merchants at all, because the ships are not ours, and we can't control them." Xie Yunzhang said: "Even Lu Zhonghe is just a middleman who passes the news from both ends."
"Yes." Zhu Zhen nodded. Some of the content he had heard from others, but some things were the first time he heard about them.
There's no way, that's what it's like for an old interrogator. Don't expect to pour beans out of a bamboo tube and spit them all out in one go. Instead, it's like squeezing out toothpaste, a little at a time, and there will always be squeezing, but it can never be squeezed out completely.
"Where did they dock?" Lao Liu asked again.
"There are many joints, and it's not necessarily the case every time. They notify Lu Zhonghe at short notice, and Lu Zhonghe then informs us." Xie Yunzhang replied hurriedly:
"But mainly outside Hangzhou Bay, where the islands are dotted around, making it easy for them to hide and escape when the navy comes."
"You will send a ship to the island?" Zhu Zhen said solemnly.
"They are all offshore, and the sand boats we sail on inland rivers are barely competent," Xie Yunzhang said.
"If you are so controlled by others, you probably won't get a big share of the profits, right?" Lao Liu asked.
"Your Highness Mingjian, there is no way to get meat, that is, soup." Xie Yunzhang said with a bitter smile.
"Then why don't you communicate directly?" King Chu asked.
Xie Yunzhang smiled bitterly and said: "Because the sand boats are flat-bottomed boats, they are not afraid of running aground and are suitable for inland river shipping. But firstly, they are too slow, and secondly, they cannot break waves, especially in the ocean. It is easy to capsize. When Kublai Khan conquered Japan, he sailed from the south of the Yangtze River.
Nine hundred sand ships were recruited, but before landing, they encountered a typhoon and almost the entire army was wiped out. This was the reason.
"So sand ships cannot go far into the ocean. The imperial court also prohibits civilians from building sea ships, so we can only look at the ocean and sigh."
"Isn't that right? You guys are so honest?" Zhu Zhen didn't believe it. He was really afraid of the national law and they would not engage in smuggling. He looked at Xie Yunzhang coldly and said: "If you hide it from me again, you will die.
Go to jail!”
"Yes, yes..." Xie Yunzhang actually hadn't made up his mind to explain everything yet. He didn't expect that King Chu would induce him and leak the clues.
Now I couldn't hide it, so I had to tell the truth: "It's the gentleman in Beijing who doesn't allow us to go to sea."
"Hu Weiyong or Li Shanchang?" Zhu Zhen asked.
"This little guy really doesn't know." Xie Yunzhang shook his head and said: "The reason why Lu Zhonghe became the leading brother is because he monopolized the contact with that adult and regarded himself as his spokesperson. How could he tell us the secret?
, what if we also connect with Jingli?"
After that, he said as if he wanted to take credit: "Your Highness can find the fourth eldest son of the Lu family, Lu Jihe. He should be the Lu family's contact person in Beijing."
"He is dead." Zhu Zhen said calmly. He had already known about this person from other large households, and the third brother immediately sent an order to Liu Ying, who had returned to Beijing, to arrest this person.
Unfortunately, it was too late. The fourth son of the Lu family had already been drunk and thrown into the Qinhuai River to silence him...
Lao Liu was not surprised by this result. Even Lu Zhonghe was forced to death, let alone a mere contact person.
In addition, Liu Ying told them in her reply that the fourth son of the Lu family had indeed drank with Hu Weiyong's nephew, and that was just before Lu Zhonghe was forced to die!
Therefore, Hu Weiyong's suspicion is already very high.
~~
"He's dead too?" Duke Li Ting turned pale when he heard this.
Lu Jihe's death seemed to have hit him hard, even harder than the blow brought by Lu Zhonghe.
"Why, is your relationship with him better than with his elder brother?" Lao Liu asked.
"No, I haven't even seen him," Xie Liting said with a sad laugh: "It's just that I originally thought that Mr. Jingli wanted Lu Zhonghe to die, but it was just that Mr. Pingjiang was self-defeating and had no choice but to fake it. But his fourth son also died.
If you do, it means that the lord is going to kill everyone who knows about it."
"Knowing that you are in prison, it is actually the safest, right?" King Chu couldn't help but laugh.
"Yes." Xie Yunzhang finally lost hope and kowtowed heavily: "I will tell His Highness everything, little man!"
"Actually, Lin Xian, the commander of the Ningbo Guard, is also one of your lord's men. So none of us dare to build a sea-going ship. Otherwise, if he finds out, we will be imprisoned and sent to the army."
"Ningbo Wei..." Zhu Zhen repeated, finally getting the answer to the question in his heart.
The Ming Dynasty did not have a separate navy, and its warships were all subordinate to the garrison along the coast and rivers. Therefore, the warships in Zhejiang were basically under the control of the Ningbo garrison. After leaving Hangzhou Bay, all the warships on the sea were under the control of Commander Lin.
No wonder those smuggling fleets mainly operate along the coast of Zhejiang, it turns out they have a protective umbrella!
No wonder these things were kept secret from the imperial court. It turned out that someone was deceiving the superiors and hiding them from the subordinates!
"Lin Xian's boss is the commander of the Zhejiang capital, right?" Zhu Zhen asked, "Who is it?"
"His name is Wang Cheng." Xie Yunzhang replied: "However, the main task of the Ningbo Guard is to prepare for Japan, so Lin Xian has been assigned to the chief military officer of Japan for a long time."
