Zhu Quan slowly opened his eyes, only to feel pain on the back of his neck, and his head almost fell off.
"Are you awake?"
Zhu Quan instinctively turned his head and screamed, it hurt him to death.
"Li Qing, you dog... Ouch, hiss~" Zhu Quan's face was full of pain.
This feeling was worse than sleeping with a stiff neck. He was angry, angry...and in pain!
Zhu Quan glared at Li Qing, as if he wanted to eat him.
Li Qing looked indifferent, and even wanted to laugh: "Don't be angry, the edict has been issued. No prince, nobles, or officials are allowed to get involved in maritime trade. Anyone who violates this will be demoted to civilians. You are not the only one who is unlucky."
"Do we have any grudge?" Zhu Quan asked.
"No!"
"Then why are you...hiss~" Zhu Quan was furious, "I'm really...aren't you afraid of being retaliated against in the future?"
Li Qing shrugged: "I don't have a few years left. If anyone dares to retaliate, I will make him suffer."
"..." Zhu Quan lost his temper. He really didn't know what to do with such a thing, so he said angrily: "I have ruined the fourth family in my life."
"You can't say that." Li Qing disagreed with his point of view: "If he hadn't succeeded in appeasement, do you think you could have been kind?"
"But I..." Zhu Quan said bitterly: "But I helped him so much, how did he treat me?"
Li Qing sneered: "Don't be dissatisfied. Your vassal is not the best, but it is enough to be among the top three among all the vassals in the world. You don't really want to share the world, do you?"
Zhu Quan was silent.
After a long while, he sighed resignedly and said angrily: "Now I just want to start a business and make some money to support my family. Why does the court keep holding on to me?"
"Didn't the Crown Prince make it very clear? If you want to do business, you can do it at any time as long as you give up your status as a feudal lord." Li Qing teased, "You can't have your cake and eat it too, you can take advantage of it all by yourself.
reason?"
He took a sip of tea and advised: "If I were you, it would be too late for me to have fun."
"What do I have to be happy about?" Zhu Quan was a bit defensive, "I'm already so miserable."
Li Qing rolled his eyes: "Are you miserable? There are so many vassal kings in the Ming Dynasty, who is as rich as you, Prince Ning?"
This is true. King Ning was the first to do trade at sea, and the scale was not as large as usual. How could he make less money?
"You have to know that many vassal princes have not even caught a single hair." Li Qing looked like he was heartbroken, "If I were you, I would cooperate with the court honestly. Anyway, I have made enough money, and it will last for generations or even ten generations.
They can’t all be spent;
Furthermore, you have a salary from the court, the title of vassal king on your head, glory, wealth, and rank, second only to the emperor, so what else is there to be dissatisfied about?"
Then, the conversation changed and his tone became colder: "If you persist in your stubbornness, the emperor will not say whether he will abolish you or not, but the money you earned from the sea will definitely be confiscated from you;
To be honest, it is too expensive for people from the south to move north. The court is not rich now, so you'd better not take advantage of it."
Just as he was talking, Zhu Zhanji opened the door and walked in. He asked with a smile: "How much money did Prince Ning make at sea?"
"No, I didn't make much." Zhu Quan shook his head guiltily: Damn, this grandson doesn't look like a good person!
"How much is not much?" Zhu Zhanji said affectionately, "I'm just asking, nothing else."
Zhu Quan's heart tightened, and the past pie suddenly sounded in his mind: Seventeenth brother, I became the emperor, and I share the world with you!
Looking at Zhu Zhanji again, he has the same expression as Zhu Di, the same... black.
Really black!
Zhu Quan said sarcastically: "What happened before is in the past. I just won't do maritime business in the future."
"It's empty talk, not to mention that Prince Ning has broken his trust before, so I'm worried," Zhu Zhanji said with a smile, "Here, write a letter of guarantee."
He took out a piece of letter paper from his arms and said, "This is written by King Xiang. Just follow what he wrote. How about it? Isn't it very considerate?"
I'm so considerate, you immortal Banban... Zhu Quan said with a smile: "We are all one family, there is no need to be like this, right?"
Zhu Zhanji nodded: "Then let's talk about how much money we made."
"……I wrote!"
~
Half a quarter of an hour later, Zhu Zhanji compared it and found that there was no problem before putting it away.
"Don't worry, as long as you keep your promise, let's forget what happened before." Zhu Zhanji said, "However, if you break your promise, don't blame the court for being unkind."
He said solemnly: "At that time, not only will the vassal state be reduced, but all the assets of Ning Prince's Palace will also be confiscated."
Zhu Quan felt angry, but he soon gave in to reality.
If he still had some strength to fight when Jianwen cut down the vassal vassal, now he has no capital to fight at all.
The vassal king who cut off his bodyguard was really like a tiger without teeth, and could only be at the mercy of the court.
Zhu Quan sighed, as if he had aged more than ten years all of a sudden.
He said angrily: "I understand!"
Zhu Zhanji smiled and said, "That's good. Lord Ning, please come back!"
"Just let me go back?" Zhu Quan was surprised.
"Of course not, Dongchang, Jinyiwei will go with you to hand over the trade matters." Zhu Zhanji smiled, "But don't worry, the goods will be settled for you at the original price, so you won't suffer a loss."
Zhu Quan secretly cursed: "This little brat and his grandpa have the same virtues. They don't want to eat meat."
"……good!"
…
King Ning left, but his business was not abandoned and was fully taken over by the imperial court.
This time, the imperial court is eating ready-made food, and it is not easy to make money.
~
After solving the feudal king, Zhu Zhanji instantly became strong-willed and directly summoned the six tribes and some nobles who stayed in Jinling to the palace for a meeting.
Without any room for negotiation, Zhu Zhanji directly conveyed the holy message:
1. Doing business, dismissing officials and deposing them;
Second, keep your official position and nobility, and don’t do business.
Two roads, choose one.
Don’t choose? You can’t go either way!
In the end, under Zhu Zhanji's power, everyone stood in line and unanimously chose the second path.
They all understand that with power, it is easy to make money even if you don’t have money, but if the power is gone, it will be difficult to keep money.
Li Qing naturally understands that there is no way to truly avoid their involvement in trade, but in any case, it is always good to prevent officials and nobles from being directly involved;
At least they can be restrained from blatantly taking advantage of others!
…
After solving the major issue of opening the sea, Zhu Zhanji began to solve the corruption matter to further curb their restless minds.
During this period, the factory guards have been secretly investigating and have made great achievements.
Five days later, the prefect of Suzhou was brought by Dongchang Fanzi. Zhu Zhan basically wanted to solve the case himself, but considering his identity, he handed the case over to Li Qing.
There were almost no officials in the Ming Dynasty who were not greedy, but this prefect was too greedy, and the court just needed to set an example, so it had no choice but to 'wrong' him.
The evidence was conclusive and the factory guards tortured him. The prefect of Suzhou quickly confessed, admitting that he had taken money from the wealthy gentry to facilitate the wealthy gentry in maritime trade and maliciously helped to suppress businessmen with small and medium assets.
Li Qing was not polite and immediately sentenced him to beheading.
Seven days later, the magistrate of Hangzhou was also taken into custody. The same process went through, and then his head fell to the ground.
Half a month later, the Dongchuang Incident of Haining County Magistrate occurred and he was executed by beheading.
…
Every time there was an interrogation, Zhu Zhanji asked officials to be present to watch.
Although this is not necessarily useful, it can deter them to a great extent.
~
Early May.
The punishment of corruption came to an end, and Zhu Zhanji began to inspect the Weaving Bureau and the Municipal Shipping Department. Officials at all levels responded carefully as if they were facing a formidable enemy.
However, what reassured them was that this ruthless prince was particularly easy to talk to this time. He was just going through the motions and was not serious.
After the inspection, they returned to the palace.
Then, I wander around during the day and return to the palace to rest at night, which is very regular.
Gradually, everyone felt relieved.
That night, Zhu Zhanji called Li Qing.
"Uncle Qing, let's go to Shibosi for a private visit tomorrow?"
"It's almost done." Li Qing frowned slightly, "This time I even cut off the straps and beat them, my wrists are already very strong, give them a buffer time, you have to check, and then check again after a while;
These days, what should be inspected has been inspected, and what should be played has been played. Let’s go back!”
"Go back now?" Zhu Zhanji was a little unhappy, "I'm just getting excited."
"Don't just think about you, think more about your father." Li Qing glared at him angrily, "Your father is already working hard, and this time he has offended the vassal king, nobles, and officials all at once.
What's it like?"
"Yeah...that's fine." Zhu Zhanji nodded, "The strategic goal this time has been achieved. I'll come back next time when I have time."
After a pause, he said, "How about we stay for two more days? The mountains and rivers here are beautiful and the scenery is pleasant..."
"Play with a hammer!" Li Qing interrupted him, frowning slightly, "Take care of it, we'll go back tomorrow."
Somehow, he suddenly had an ominous premonition.
Zhu Zhanji said helplessly: "At this time, the cabinet, six ministers, chief ministers, and doctors have all returned to Beijing. My father is not as busy as you said."
"If you want to stay here, I'll leave early tomorrow morning." Li Qing said calmly.
"Look at you, I didn't say I wouldn't go back." Zhu Zhanji rolled his eyes, "You're so old, why are you still so angry?"
Li Qing glared at him, "Do you want to try it?"
"Hey, don't tell me, that's what I meant." Zhu Zhanji became more excited, "Just wait, I'm going to make trouble for you. Let's have a good competition today."
Li Qing didn't expect him to be so active, so he said funnyly: "It's late at night, so let's say goodbye."
"Are you scared?"
"...Okay!" Li Qingxin said: Since you want to be beaten, then I will do it reluctantly.
~
Zhu Zhanji took two red-tasseled spears, removed the spearheads and threw one to Li Qing, "Don't hold back, I want to win fair and square."
"That's easy to say." Li Qing smiled and nodded, "How about we make a bet?"
Seeing his posture, Zhu Zhanji's belief in victory suddenly decreased by more than half. Without him, he would never have won a bet with Li Qing, not even once.
"Are you scared?" Li Qing asked.
Zhu Zhanji gritted his teeth and said, "It's a gamble."
Two years and two years, it’s time for me to win... Zhu Zhanji took a deep breath and hummed:
"If you can't hold on, just scream. Don't be embarrassed. If you lose to me, don't complain!"