From the end of Jiajing to the era of great pirates

From the end of Jiajing to the 20th year of Wanli, it can be regarded as more than 20 years of rapid changes in the entire society.

This is what Zhu Jue meant when he said time is tight.

At the end of Jiajing, various social changes occurred, and in the Longqing period, Kaihai was suddenly added, and then came Zhang Juzheng's reforms, which ended in the 18th year of Wanli and ended with Zhang Juzheng's death.Then it quickly returned to the original purely agricultural society.It couldn't be easier to make money in the middle, and Zhu Jue's idea was during this period.

Before deciding to build Zhengjiacun into an aristocratic family, Zhu Jue told Zheng Laoshi and Zhou Fengying about the general trend, but after all, they are ancient people and they are just fishermen, so they may not understand these things. If they were replaced by modern people of later generations, they would definitely understand it as soon as they heard it. Understood.

This is the Millennium of the Ming Dynasty. In the next 30 years, society will change rapidly. As long as you stand at the forefront of the times, pigs can fly into the sky.In such a big era, it is common for a few upstarts to emerge.

I started out as a private salt owner and tried not to waste too much energy and time. After quickly becoming a distributor for others, I invested my first pot of gold in the production of sea-going ships. In addition, I also participated in the sea trade, making a lot of money and integrating in the process. The upper-class Jin gentry established families and began to absorb the blood of the Ming Dynasty. The families began to train their own students to participate in the imperial examinations.It can be said that the time when it truly became a noble family began in the 20th year of Wanli.

After the end of Wanli, the Apocalypse Year began to expand significantly. With the cover of the disciples in the court, they began to recruit troops. Around the tenth year of Chongzhen, they raised the flag to rebel. This was Zhu Jue's plan.

This great era can be said to determine the future trend to a large extent. After all, after decades of building a family, this great era of wealth gathering cannot be missed.

Sea trade is not like the salt business. You can make money every day, but you can't make a profit at once.

It doesn’t even have to be far, all the gold and silver in the island country will be turned into profits and flow into the pockets of maritime merchants.The only thing you can do here is to buy some silk and exchange it for raw silk. Every time you come and go, there is a huge amount of gold and silver involved.Not to mention that this wave was directly connected to the Western Age of Discovery, and the participation of Western adventurers directly expanded the Ming court's profits.Statistics from later generations show that from the first year of Longqing in 1567 until the demise of the Ming Dynasty in 1644, the Ming Dynasty accounted for 3.5 million taels of silver, which shows the benefits of this wave of opening up the sea.

On the surface, this is still tax revenue received by the court.

What about privately?Zhu Jue didn't dare to imagine how many there were. The imperial court publicly opened Yuegang Harbor, but the coastline of the Ming Dynasty was tens of thousands of miles away. With the strength of the Ming Dynasty's management of the Jin gentry, who would be so honest about going to Yuegang to go to sea?This is a great era made of hundreds of millions of taels of silver. It doesn’t take much. Zhengjiacun takes a spoonful of it from the pot and it is enough to make him rich and prosperous for a lifetime.

All this depends on the reaction of the Xiao family first.

"All dead? There were more than 20 people, and not even one escaped to report?" Xiao Xisheng was so frightened. How could he know that such a small and broken village could have such a high force value?Could he be a changed pirate?Otherwise, all the more than 20 people on my side would be wiped out like that?

"I don't know. Anyway, I didn't see him come out after entering the cave." The spy Hui who was originally following him reported.I wanted to go take a look before, but the result was so terrible that the spies lost their courage.

"Then... if that doesn't work, let's be polite first and then fight. This may be a powerful dragon." Xiao Xisheng was silent. Although his thugs are not great masters, they are still strong. If they are really sent to compete with Shanxi merchants, they can do it. Compete for superiority.Now there are less than 20, so it’s better not to mess around.

It would have been okay if the Japanese pirates were rioting. Whether they bribed the Qi family's army to make a move or summoned the big boss Wu Zongxian, a village of several hundred people would be destroyed at the drop of a hat.But now that the Japanese pirates are gone, what’s the difference between dispatching local garrison troops and sending your own thugs?

Instead of going to that trouble, why not go to the house and ask yourself.

So the Xiao family prepared a generous gift and prepared to talk to this powerful dragon first with the courtesy of the same status.

The next day.

The Xiao family's visiting team entered Zhengjia Village directly and stopped at the door of Zheng Laoshi's house.

Now Zheng Laoshi's prestige is much higher, because everyone has benefited from the salt selling business, and Mr. Zhou, the most knowledgeable person in the village, also lives in his house, so his prestige is naturally higher.Originally, this was a village composed of several fishermen families living together, and there was no village leader. Now Zheng Laoshi seems to be a highly respected old man.

The spies of the Xiao family naturally also found out.

"Mr. Zheng, hello, hello, junior Xiao Xisheng, I'm late for your visit. I apologize, I apologize."

"It's easy to say, it's easy to say. I didn't know that nephew Xiao Xian is here..." Zheng Laoshi has been taught a lot by Zhu Jue recently, and this is the first time he has applied it.

"Mr. Zheng, let's not talk secretly. My nephew was offended before. That's because my nephew is blind and ignorant, but every profession has its own rules. Mr. Zheng, a good guy, can't It’s really hard for my nephew to resist. So when he came here, he also wanted to discuss with Mr. Zheng. The channels of the Xiao family are all ready. Can the Xiao family get a better life, and then... the benefits are naturally inevitable. It’s yours, Mr. Zheng.”

The mainstream of this era is boiling salt, and coal burning is not popular yet. Fuel is the bulk of the cost. The Xiao family just wants to be an agent to see if they can incorporate the Zheng family. If so, that would be the best, two families. If we can't make money together, we have to think about using official methods.

But the Xiao family never imagined that this salt comes from a gift from nature, and the salt field is far away in another world. Here in Zhengjia Village, there is no need to pay a single copper plate. All they do is make money together and see if they can become one. That’s all.Zheng Laoshi went to see the Pirate World and was deeply impressed by the open-air salt field. He was even more excited when he found out that the time was different and it took ten days for the Pirate World to take one day.

"Okay, can we make money together? We are all fellow villagers, so we don't have to worry about it too much. In this way, Mr. Xiao, how about one load and one tael?" Zhou Fengying consciously played the role of master, knowing that bargaining was her own business, so she went up So I bid what I thought was a high price.

One load is 120 kilograms, and the salt farm can produce this amount almost every day.Because of the time difference, the production here in Daming is about ten loads a day.

"One tael of silver per load?" Xiao Xisheng was stunned for a moment, and then hurriedly responded, "Okay, it's settled. From now on, I will send someone to pick up the goods every day, and we will clear the money and goods on the spot. How many do you have?" , I will take as much as I can!" If he had known this, what kind of thugs would he have sent? Why would he kill more than 20 people when he could win for ten taels of silver a day?The pension doesn’t stop there either.

Seeing that he was afraid of going back on his word, Zheng and Zhou were also a little disdainful. What if we don't understand?Your family can sell salt to Jiangxi, so it makes a profit, and that was given to you on purpose.The young prince said that this industry is in deep water and we are not competing with you for profit. Are you still worried that we will regret it?What benefits does the young prince have?

"Wait a minute, we still have some conditions here." Master Zhou stopped him, "It's not difficult, but our master wants to recruit some shipwrights. I wonder if the Xiao family has any connections?"

"A shipbuilder?" Xiao Xisheng's heart tightened at first, then relaxed, and he asked, "How much do you want?"

"As much as you like, the more the merrier."

Xiao Xisheng slapped his thigh and sealed the deal, "Okay, let's do this. I'll go back first and see how much I can buy. I'll deliver it to you first, and then I'll continue to ask questions. Anyway, this business is a long-term thing. Let's It still takes a long time to deal with it, how about it?" He originally suspected that this Zhengjia Village might be a pirate who had changed his career, but now it was further confirmed.But since the business is fine, everything is easy to talk about.Ships and everything else are trivial matters. Even if they go to sea again, as long as the salt in the cave doesn't run out, everything will be fine.

Anyway, there are a lot of people sneaking into business along the coast. If we just catch a few big merchants, are we still afraid that we won’t be able to recruit them?Zheng and Zhou were also happy. The young prince's request was fulfilled so easily. Even the "Long Qing Kaihai" project that had been planned for two years was also settled. It was really a relief.