Nanhai County, Guangzhou Prefecture, is Yiguo County in Guangzhou Prefecture and Yiguo County in Guangdong Province. It is located in the southeast of Guangzhou City.
In Nanhai County, there is a large house. Local people know that this is the house of the Li family, the leading family in the area.
The Li family has thousands of acres of land in the local area. This is some land that was vomited out after the Ming Dynasty came, otherwise there would be more land. And since private iron smelting was allowed in the 26th year of Hongwu, there are even iron shops in Foshan. And The locals also probably knew that his family was privately engaged in maritime trade and made a lot of money.
The local officials also speculated that his family was related to pirates, but they did not dare to touch the Li family without evidence. Guangdong is the place with the strongest clan power in the country. The Li family is a big family, and some of them are officials in the government. Moreover, the local big family, and There are too few pirates who have nothing to do with it. The local officials can only acquiesce in order not to cause big trouble.
But at this time, Li Guangrui, the direct young master of the Li family and the future head of the Li family, was staying in his room very unhappy, so that the servants who served him did not dare to approach him. Someone immediately went to find the young mistress.
Not long after, Li Guangrui's wife Kang came over and said, "Grandpa called you here today. What did he say to make you so unhappy?"
Li Guangrui turned around and saw that it was his wife Kang, and he immediately calmed down. His wife was from the Kang family, another big family in Guangzhou, and his wife Kang Hui was also very capable. His mother had passed away, and so had his grandmother. After many years, Kang Hui immediately took on the important task of housekeeping and grandma after entering the house.
This is not a good job. Anyone who has watched "Dream of Red Mansions" knows that it is very difficult for a young housekeeper who actually does not have the final decision-making power. Wang Xifeng is so powerful, and there are still people who are dissatisfied with her, and there are also some who she can't control. Dare to interfere with people and affairs, and Wang Xifeng even miscarried a child because of the housekeeper. It can be said that the cost was extremely high and no one thought her good.
But in the past two years, Kang Hui, the housekeeper, has been in charge of everything, and she has successfully given birth to a child. Li Guangrui also knows that housekeeping is not easy, so he is very convinced of his wife. When he saw her and asked her, he said: "Grandpa told me today that a message from Uncle Li Mu has arrived, indicating that the imperial court has opened the sea."
Kang Hui said nothing and waited for the next step.
Seeing that his wife did not take the bait, Li Guangrui could only continue: "But the place to open the sea is in Shanghu County, Zhili."
Kang Hui thought for a moment and said: "Shanghu County is in the southeast of Zhili, right, next to Caojiang Province?" People like them who do business in private and have huge sales have the southern coast in their minds. map. So Kang Huineng suddenly thought of it.
Li Guangrui said bitterly: "That's right there. You said where has the sea been opened since ancient times? Aren't they always opened in Guangdong and along the coast of Yongjian? Why is the sea opened in Zhili now? I don't know who decided to open the sea. You are really mentally ill."
Although Li Mu, an official of the Li family, was an official, he was an official in Anqing Prefecture. Although he was also in Zhili, it was not as convenient as the capital. He still knew about the matter from official documents, and hurriedly sent people to the capital about After making some inquiries, he sent a letter home, so Li Guangrui didn't know who opened the sea.
But with Li Guangrui's character, even if he knew it was Yunxi who took the lead, he would still dare to scold him at home.
Li Guangrui continued: "The ships of our Li family, oh, and the Kang family, and the Ye family have always only transported goods in the South China Sea. They have never even been to the north of Yongjian, let alone Shanghu County at the mouth of the Yangtze River.
."
"Although the merchant gangs in Suzhou were suppressed by the Ming emperor, the merchant gangs in Caojiang were also suppressed, but there are still ships and people. Now that they are opening the sea there, they are still not making a lot of money.
Waiting for them to become powerful, why don’t they come to the South China Sea to steal our routes?”
Kang Hui knew that Li Guangrui was worried that his family would not be able to compete with the merchants of Caojiang who controlled the treaty port in the future, so he was worried. The reason why his family was so wealthy was not earned by being a merchant? What if he just dug food from the fields?
Already starved to death.
However, she carefully thought about the location of Shanghu County and felt that it was indeed a very good place. It faces the Yangtze River and is close to the sea. It can be said that there is no better location than here in the country. It seems that there are also capable people in the government.
Human.' Kang Hui thought.
After thinking for a while, Kang Hui said to Li Guangrui: "Mr. sir, we can't compete for the route in the East China Sea, but we can keep the route in the South China Sea. After all, we have the right location and people, and they can at most occupy the right time.
There is still a fight.”
"And since the imperial court opened the sea in Zhili, it may not open the sea in Guangdong. Let my uncle inquire about it. No one in our Kang family is an official in the court now. Otherwise, I will go back to my parents' house and ask my father to inquire too.
."
After listening to Kang Hui's words, Li Guangrui felt that it made sense: the imperial court was unlikely to have only one mouth, otherwise it would not be good for the businessmen of Zhili and Caojiang to be dominated by one family. The imperial court still understood this truth, so either Guangdong or Guangdong
There must also be a place for trade.
In fact, Li Guangrui is not stupid, otherwise he would not be selected as the heir. He is just easily excited and tends to ignore some things when he is excited, so he found a calm wife like Kang Hui to help him, and the three major
The family is united and not afraid of problems.
Li Guangrui said: "I will go and tell grandpa right away and ask grandpa to write a letter." But he immediately reacted: "Grandpa should have thought of it a long time ago, so he should have already written to uncle. I will just wait for the result."
Kang Hui said: "Then you should go and talk to grandpa, but there is no need to worry."
After Li Guangrui finished mumbling about this matter, he recalled what happened a few years ago and said, "Is this Ming Dynasty specifically trying not to deal with Guangdong? In the past two years, our family's taxes were increased by half.
"
"My grandfather was still able to keep our family under control and did not go against the government at that time. I heard that there was a family in Shunde who disobeyed orders and was directly eradicated. I found out later that troops were mobilized in Guangdong at that time, and other
Not even in the provinces."
Kang Hui said: "Our family in Guangdong is the most powerful. I have heard uncles from Huguang, Bashu, Zhili, Henan and other places say that no one in other places dares to go against the government casually. Only we in Guangdong dare to
, the emperor has also heard about it, so he paid special attention to it when he implemented the 'dividing a small family into an area'."
Until the 2nd Li Guangrui century, Guangdong was the place with the strongest clan power in the country. I heard that in some rural areas, government orders could not be implemented at all without the deployment of armed police.
The father and wife talked again, and Kang Hui went to continue housekeeping. There were still many things for her to deal with. Li Guangrui went to find his grandfather to talk about the matter. Moreover, he had business matters under the guidance of his elders.
