It can be said that the Zhang, Wang, Liu, and Li families have infiltrated the entire Suzhou Prefecture. I dare not say that any trouble in the city cannot be hidden from their eyes, but people like Chu Yi and others are too conspicuous.
, people have noticed it since they got off the boat at the pier and entered the city. When Chu Yi and the others entered the Dongchang stronghold, several people also received the news at about the same time.
Outside the city of Suzhou, there is a quiet courtyard, surrounded by trees, and the scenery is very pleasant.
The most popular thing in Suzhou is gardens. These Jiangnan gentry were rich in gold and silver and built unique gardens one after another.
This garden is called Tingtao Villa, which is a villa of the Wang family in Suzhou. It is most loved by the head of the Wang family, Wang Dong, who often gathers with friends here on weekdays.
At this moment, in a quiet and elegant pavilion in the Tingtao Villa, several figures were sitting there leisurely drinking tea.
If someone saw the people in the pavilion, they would definitely be surprised. Three of them are the most noble ones. They are the three heads of the Wang family, the Chen family and the Zhang family among the major families in Suzhou. As for the others, they are also the top leaders in the counties of Suzhou.
Rich.
The Wang family, the Chen family, and the Zhang family are the largest maritime merchants in Suzhou Prefecture. Even if you look to the south of the Yangtze River, there are few that can compete with them.
As for the other companions, they are actually all maritime merchants, but compared to the three families, they are obviously inferior. On weekdays, they are naturally led by the three families. Among the maritime merchants, they have become the Suzhou-Hangzhou faction.
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A beautiful maid next to Wang Dong rolled up her sleeves, revealing a section of her white and jade-like wrist, and skillfully poured tea for all the household heads present.
The head of the Zhang family, Zhang Anping, glanced at Wang Dong and said, "Brother Wang invites everyone to come today, but what can I do?"
The head of the Chen family, Chen Lin, stroked his beard and looked at Wang Dong and said: "If I remember correctly, it will still be half a month before the next ship is shipped. Brother Wang probably is not going to sea this time!"
Wang Dong smiled slightly and glanced at everyone. Everyone was looking at Wang Dong now.
After all, even if Wang Dong invites everyone to get together on weekdays, he usually only invites one or three or two of them to have a small gathering, but it is really rare to invite everyone here at once like this time.
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Usually, everyone gathers together like this only before going to sea, when everyone gets together to distribute benefits. Obviously, this time is not the time to go to sea.
Wang Dong nodded slightly to the beautiful maid next to him, and saw the maid taking out a letter from her sleeve. Everyone was not surprised when she saw it.
Who doesn't know that Wang Dong is the most beautiful, and the beauties around him are all favored by him, so it seems that such private letters can be kept by the beauties around him.
Wang Dong took the letter and handed it to Zhang Anping beside him, saying, "Brother Zhang, you might as well take a look!"
Zhang Anping glanced at the letter, and with some doubts in his heart, he opened the letter, glanced at the contents of the letter, and his expression suddenly changed.
Zhang Anping's expression changed all the time. The content in the letter was really shocking. Even though Zhang Anping had experienced many storms and storms, he was still confused by it.
Others did not know the content of the letter, but they could see the change in Zhang Anping's expression, and they all showed curiosity.
What is the content of this letter that can make Zhang Anping lose his composure like this?
Yes, for Zhang Anping, this is already considered a gaffe.
Seeing that Zhang Anping's hands were trembling, he took a deep breath, calmed his mind, glanced at Wang Dong, and handed the letter to Chen Lin who was sitting aside.
Chen Lin was originally curious about the content of the letter, which made Zhang Anping lose his composure. Now he took the letter in his hand and naturally read it immediately.
Perhaps he was somewhat mentally prepared, so when he saw the contents of the letter, although Chen Lin was still shocked, compared to Zhang Anping's gaffe, at least Chen Lin stabilized his emotions.
Slowly placing the letter on the coffee table, Chen Lin's eyes fell on Wang Dong and said: "Brother Wang, are the things in this letter true?"
Wang Dong glanced at Chen Lin and Zhang Anping and said, "Wang just received the news earlier. I believe it won't be long before the two of you will also receive the news from the capital."
A maritime merchant glanced at Wang Dong and the others and said, "Master Wang, what kind of riddle are you trying to make? I wonder if we would be honored to know."
Wang Dong waved his hand, and the letter was naturally passed to the hands of several maritime merchants.
"What, the eunuch Chu Yi actually wants to open the sea!"
"This is absolutely not allowed!"
"Such a ridiculous thing, how could the civil and military officials of the DPRK just let eunuchs run rampant?"
When several family heads saw the contents of the letter, they almost exploded, and some even lost their temper and cursed.
It’s no wonder that they are the ones who make a living from sea trade. The foundation of their business is sea trade. If you don’t experience it personally, you will never understand how great the benefits of the sea are.
Even if getting involved in sea trade is full of risks, you have to be careful not only of pirates, but also of natural disasters in maritime trade. If you are not lucky enough, if you are not lucky enough, if you can go to sea with ten ships and return safely, then three or five will be pretty good.
Even so, after excluding the losses, there are still several times the profits to be made. The reason is because of the maritime ban.
The imperial court implemented a maritime ban, which directly cut off Ming Dynasty from overseas trade. However, just think about the huge overseas trade and how beneficial it is.
Because of the ban on the sea, there are not many people who have enough strength to smuggle and engage in sea trade. This is equivalent to raising the threshold. Competitors are directly eliminated by the court. In this way, anyone who can go to sea to engage in sea trade
, if it still cannot obtain several times or even more than ten times the benefits, it can only be said that its own luck is too bad.
Relying on the imperial government's ban on the sea, these merchants who engaged in maritime smuggling trade made a lot of money and became rich.
It should be said that what these people fear most is not the pirates or the disturbances of maritime merchants, but the imperial government's opening of the sea.
Once the imperial court opens the sea, a large number of merchants will inevitably join it. By then, competition will increase exponentially, and even a fool can imagine that the benefits of sea trade will definitely plummet.
Although there is still money to be made, but compared to making ten times as much as three times as much, how to choose? As long as there is no problem with your head, you must be like a mirror in your mind.
In order to protect their own interests, these large merchants spent a lot of effort and money to make friends with the court's civil and military officials over the years, and tried every means to prevent the court from opening the sea. At the same time, they even publicized the dangers overseas and the terror of pirates among the people.
Various methods were used to prevent outsiders from getting involved in maritime trade.
If someone still wants to get involved in maritime trade under such circumstances, then they will unite to suppress it and even dispatch the islands they support to rob and kill these newly joined maritime traders.
It is precisely by relying on these various means that these people can firmly control such a huge cake of Haitrade in their hands.
The benefits of maritime trade are astonishing. Even if some of it is used to bribe the court and some of it is used to support the pirates, it still accumulates millions of wealth.
Now, news has spread in the imperial court that the general manager Chu Yi wants to open up the sea. How can this not make these people angry about it?
Although it is just a rumor, they take it very seriously even if it is a rumor. They are not afraid of ten thousand, but just in case.
Every few years, someone in the court would always propose to open the sea, but every time they would be severely suppressed. Even if the emperor wanted to open the sea, he would not be able to do so.
This time, Chu Yi, who is famous all over the world, actually wants to open the sea. From Chu Yi's point of view, Wang Dong and others have no doubt about the authenticity of this news.
On the one hand, this letter was sent to them by a pavilion elder, and on the other hand, no one in the capital knew about Chu Yi's reorganization of the capital camp and the establishment of a navy.
At first, everyone didn't take it to heart, thinking that Chu Yi would just form a navy. It had nothing to do with them anyway, but now combined with the letter sent by Chao Zhongge Lao about Chu Yi's intention to open the sea, Wang Dong and the others immediately
It is clear that Chu Yi really had the intention to open the sea, otherwise there is no way to explain the reason why Chu Yi formed a navy.
Several maritime merchants were furious. When everyone calmed down a little, Han Xing, a maritime merchant from Wu County, Suzhou Prefecture, looked at Wang Dong with a cold light in his eyes and said: "Master Wang, that eunuch actually wants to open the sea, what should we do?"
"That's right, Master Wang, once the sea opens, our family will be huge and our business will be huge. I'm afraid we won't be able to withstand the impact of the sea opening!"
"The reason why we have been able to invest millions of dollars in wealth depends on sea trade. Once the sea opens, the benefits of sea trade will inevitably plummet. By then, we will no longer be as prosperous as we are today!"
Wang Dong waved his hand, and several people stopped talking one by one. Wang Dong looked at Zhang Anping and Chen Lin and said slowly: "You two, I invite you to come today because I want to unify our opinions with you. Su Hanghai
The merchants respect us, and such a big thing as opening up the sea will definitely shock the world. Those companies along the coast of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian are probably more anxious than us."
Zhang Anping stroked his beard and looked at Wang Dong and said: "Brother Wang means that we should stand still here and wait and see how the families on the southeast coast react."
Wang Dong shook his head and said: "No, this is a serious matter. We absolutely cannot sit idly by. Today we will come up with a resolution, and then we will immediately send people to contact those companies in the southeast. Let's work together. No matter what, we must
Kill the eunuch Chu Yi's thoughts in the court hall."
Chen Lin nodded and said: "What Brother Wang said is true. We must stop Chu Yi's thoughts of the eunuch, otherwise, there will be no way for us to survive!"
Wu County Han Xing made no secret of the murderous intention in his heart and said: "Everyone, I'm afraid this eunuch is not that easy to deal with. Don't forget that several ministers in the court have been harmed by him. It's best for us to make other preparations."
That’s it.”
Looking at Han Xing lightly, Wang Dong chuckled and said: "What the Han family leader said is not unreasonable. This is exactly what I want to say."
As he spoke, Wang Dong glanced at everyone and said: "Everyone, as the head of the Han family said, we cannot place all our hopes on the court. We must have backup plans, otherwise, once the court is over,
Hundreds of officials cannot fight against Chu Yi, so we must take action."
"Just kill him. A mere eunuch wants to cut off our wealth. Even the emperor can't do it, but he dares to do it!"
A family head said calmly while stroking his beard.
Zhang Anping said: "But don't forget, everyone, the eunuch Chu Yi's cultivation is probably not simple. Others don't know it, but we don't know it either. Even in the world, his cultivation is extremely high, and he can be called the first person."
Dongfang Bubai was not able to kill Chu Yi."
Chen Lin chuckled and said: "Brother Zhang overestimated that Chu Yi. He is indeed not bad in cultivation, but no matter how strong he is, he is just one person. Let's put it together and put together several people in the family."
If one person doesn't work, then three people. If three people don't work, then five people. I don't believe it. Even with a few top players, we can't surround and kill just one Chu Yi."
As a maritime merchant, every family has to fight at sea. Even if they have pirates, there are many pirates overseas. If there is not enough strong force to sit in, doing business overseas is really like a meat bun and beating a dog with no return.
ah.
If the powerful have the least contact with Jianghu, then these maritime merchants are definitely the ones who have the deepest contact with Jianghu. They have enough gold and silver. Even if it is to ensure the safety of their maritime trade, these maritime merchants will try their best to cultivate themselves.
of private armed forces.
Recruiting experts from across the world and cultivating them within the family, over the decades, each of these maritime merchants has many desperadoes in their hands.
Some merchants even have three or two top martial arts masters in charge. Otherwise, wouldn’t their millions of wealth be left to the hands of those in the martial arts world?
Jianghu is just a corner of the Ming Dynasty. In addition to those powerful Jianghu people who are famous in Jianghu, there are many masters and hermits in this huge world.
Among the huge Buddhist and Taoist families, the only ones that are famous in the world are Shaolin and Wudang.
But Shaolin is one of the eight sects of Buddhism, and Wudang is definitely not comparable to Taoist traditions such as Tianshi Tao and Louguan Tao.
For example, why the noble family worships Buddhism and Taoism? In the final analysis, on the one hand, it is spiritual sustenance, and on the other hand, it is not to establish a good relationship with the masters of Buddhism and Taoism.
There are really not many people in the world who dare to provoke the masters of the Buddhist and Taoist families. In addition, the court is intimidating them. This means that very few people in the world dare to provoke these rich and powerful families.
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Families such as the Zhang family, Wang family, and Chen family that risk their lives at sea, even if they spend money and resources, they will still have a few strong men to take charge.
Their status is the most embarrassing. It can be said that they are not related to uncles and disliked by grandma. They are scholars, farmers, and merchants, and the court does not value them. Even the masters of Buddhism and Taoism do not want to get too close to these businessmen who smell of copper. This is why
This leaves these merchant families to rely on themselves.
The fighting at sea was so brutal that even some small sects in the world could not compete with the private armed forces cultivated by these businessmen.
Chen Lin dared to say that several of them got together and sent out several top players to surround and kill Chu Yi. This was really not a joke, but they really had the strength.
Wang Dong put down the teacup in his hand and said with a gleam in his eyes: "Don't be busy, don't be busy. Even if Chu Yi is to besieged and killed, our family cannot bear the wind and losses. We will contact Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian."
As for the families along the coast, we can’t charge forward while they sit back and enjoy the gains!”
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