Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 225 Eighteen's Complaint

"Uncle Six, you are so polite." The feast was almost over, and it was getting dark. The royal family members who came to congratulate also left one after another. After they left, Zhu Minfeng, Zhu Minyu and Zhu Qiuqi were invited to the side room. After seeing off the guests, Zhu Shenzhu personally received them and served them a pot of good tea.

"Why are you being polite to me? What's the matter? I haven't seen you for a while. Are you guys going to study and prepare to take the exam to become a scholar? Your words sound sour and pedantic." Zhu Shenzhui poured tea for them with the teapot and joked with a smile.

"Hahaha, uncle, what you said is just a polite way, right? Why are you talking about passing the imperial examination? Besides, we are a member of the royal family, why should we take the imperial examination? People outside may not know what it is like for a member of the royal family to take the imperial examination, but how can you not know? If it were really the same path, everyone would have gone there long ago. Why would they have waited until today?" Zhu Qiuqi said happily as he took the tea.

The imperial examination for royal family members has been around for some time, and it was created during the reign of Emperor Wanli. However, the imperial examination for royal family members was nominally to open a way for the royal family members of the Ming Dynasty. After all, the Ming Dynasty had been established for more than 200 years, and there were more and more royal family members. The annual expenses of the Ming Dynasty to support the royal family members were a huge sum.

For this reason, the imperial court decided to open imperial examinations for royal family members, so that ordinary royal family members could also participate in the examinations, thus eliminating the situation where royal family members had to be supported, and allowing the court to reduce its spending on royal family members in this regard.

This measure sounds good, but in fact it is completely useless.

On the one hand, the imperial court allowed royal family members to take part in the imperial examinations, but on the other hand, it imposed restrictions. The most important of these was that only royal family members with the rank of general or lieutenant were eligible to take part in the imperial examinations. This was equivalent to excluding most of the royal family members.

Just like Zhu Shenzhui and others, they either held the title of Lieutenant Fengguo or Lieutenant Fuguo. According to the rules of the imperial clan examination, they could not participate at all. If they wanted to participate, there was only one way, which was to submit a petition to the court and voluntarily give up the title.

But the question is who is willing to do this? Once the title is removed, they will become idle members of the royal family without any rank, and all their salaries will be gone. Although the court has always deducted the salaries of the royal family, and the salaries received each year are getting less and less, even so, this is still a stable and guaranteed income!

Once you lose the title, this income will no longer be available to your family, and your descendants will no longer have the possibility of inheriting the title in the future. And can you guarantee that you can pass the imperial examination? The imperial examination is extremely difficult. Every year, countless students across the country have gone gray in order to pass this narrow path. It is no exaggeration to say that only one in a million can pass it.

There were few people in the royal family who were good at studying. Besides, only those who were given titles could take the imperial examination. Only a fool would take such a huge risk? In addition, the imperial examination for royal family members was only held four times in the imperial court. All four times were held during the Wanli period. The last one was held in the 33rd year of the Wanli period. It has been a long time since then.

Over the years, the imperial examination for royal family members has long become a joke, even though the court issued new regulations this year, saying that there will no longer be any restrictions on the imperial examination for royal family members with titles, which means that royal family members with the titles of general and lieutenant can also take part in the imperial examination, and this imperial examination is this year's Autumn Garden.

But after so many years, who would have prepared for such a sudden announcement? Therefore, only a few members of the royal family attended Qiuyuan this time. It was not clear about other places, but at least in Pingyang Prefecture, no members of the royal family attended.

Everyone laughed about this, saying that the so-called imperial examination for royal family members was just nonsense. If the court really wanted to relax the policy, why didn't they just announce that royal family members had the same right to take the imperial examination as ordinary people? Without any restrictions, and without making a special note about the imperial examination for royal family members?

This is nothing more than being in office and standing up for the emperor. He is eyeing the money in the pockets of the royal family and is unwilling to let the court support the royal family as before to reduce expenses. At the same time, he is wary of the royal family, fearing that the royal family will become successful through the imperial examination and thus threaten the imperial power.

We all have the same ancestors, we are all from the Zhu family, who doesn't know who? Is it fun to play such a trick? Instead of thinking about it, why not think about how to make the Ming Dynasty better, collect more taxes from those damn civil servants and gentry, and then pay the salaries owed to them? Wouldn't that be better?
The four people present were not outsiders, and they were all members of the royal family who had not lived a satisfactory life. Zhu Shenzhu was better, Zhu Minyu was an honest man, Zhu Minfeng was steady but also had complaints, and as for Zhu Qiuqi, he was a bold guy. When he talked about the court's debt to the royal family and the salary owed by the emperor over the years, Zhu Qiuqi became furious and couldn't help cursing.

"Eighteen, be careful with your words!" Hearing him talking more and more outrageous, Zhu Shenzhui couldn't help but remind him that if his words got out, it would be no good.

"Sixth Uncle is right, Eighteen, don't say such things. Besides, your life has been much better these years than before, so why are you still saying such things?" Zhu Minfeng nodded.

"Why can't I say it? Why can't I let people know that this family is not doing well? How can this be justified?" Zhu Qiuqi said this with his neck stiff. After he said this, everyone's face changed slightly, and he immediately realized that this sentence was too much.

During the tea break, Zhu Qiuqi concealed his embarrassment, then laughed and changed the subject: "Uncle, you got what you wanted this time. You gave your nephew an uncle. Eighteen would like to congratulate you."

"Hahaha!" Everyone laughed at the same time. Why did what this kid said sound so unpleasant?
After laughing for a while, Zhu Shenzhui asked him when he planned to have a child since he married his wife. It has been a year since they got married, right? Why is there no news?
"It's almost done, hehe..." Seeing that he was being dragged into this matter, Zhu Qiuqi laughed and evaded the question. Seeing that he didn't want to elaborate on this matter, Zhu Shenzhui stopped asking and instead asked about the three of them's recent situation. Talking about business, the three of them told Zhu Shenzhui about their recent situation. Zhu Shenzhui knew everything else about them. After all, the business they jointly established was originally the idea of ​​​​Zhu Shenzhui, and later they asked Hengtong Business to give them a part of the business, which was then supported and started.

From this point of view, the three people's business is a branch of Hengtong Business, and has a close relationship with Zhu Shenzhui. The reason why Zhu Shenzhui did this was because he took into account the special circumstances of Hengtong Business's trade. Apart from the legitimate business in Pingyang Prefecture, most of Hengtong Business's income is gray income, of which two major parts are the most important.

One is private salt, and the other is trade smuggling with the grassland. These two sources of income account for an important part of the income of the entire Hengtong Trading Company, including Zhu Shenzhui. Without these two sources of income, Zhu Shenzhui would not be able to make any money from the company's legitimate business, let alone to support what he did.

The private salt business has now become involved with the garrisons, and has formed a community of interests by winning over the various garrisons, thus extending its tentacles. Although the profit from private salt is much less than before, the overall profit is rising due to the expansion of channels and the sharp increase in shipments.

As for the trade smuggling on the grassland, whether it is to the grassland or from the grassland to the Ming Dynasty, the growth of goods is also amazing. Now, not to mention a year, the amount of goods smuggled in a single transaction is comparable to the annual shipment volume of an ordinary business. And relying on this model, Zhu Shenzhu also earned a lot of gold and silver.

However, relying solely on Hengtong for trade and smuggling would be too conspicuous. In addition, furs and other materials brought back from grassland trade transactions had to be sold in the Ming Dynasty. Although Hengtong had its own sales channels, it could not meet all sales capabilities after all.

Therefore, in this case, the existence of an external trading company that has close dealings with Hengtong is very necessary. This trading company can not only help Hengtong with some material purchases and reduce Hengtong's purchasing pressure, but also distribute the goods sold, thereby speeding up the return of funds.

Zhu Shenzhui was not born a businessman, but his vision was beyond the times, and many of his views and judgments on business were different from those of most people of this era. If you eat a piece of fat meat by yourself, even if you can eat it, you can't eat it fast, and you might even eat it too fast and die of bloating. Eating meat together can share your pressure and make the cake bigger and bigger, which is much better than eating it alone.

This was the main reason why Zhu Shenzhui supported them in setting up a trading company. Judging from the current situation, Zhu Shenzhui's goal has been achieved.

With the support of Hengtong Trading Company, Zhu Minfeng, Zhu Minwei and Zhu Qiuqi lived a very comfortable life. With the development of Hengtong, their trading company also grew bigger and their gratitude to Zhu Shencui grew.

"Uncle, I heard that something happened to the Hengtong caravan before?" After talking about the business for a while, Zhu Qiuqi suddenly asked.

As he spoke, the other two also showed concerned expressions.

"Oh, it's just a small matter, it's over, it's no big deal." Zhu Shenzhui replied lightly. The caravan had an accident on the grassland, and this matter could not be concealed, not to mention that so many people were injured and a lot of goods were lost. Many people in Hengtong knew about it, and since their company had cooperation with Hengtong, they naturally heard a thing or two.

But Zhu Shenzhui didn't want to say much about what exactly happened. After all, the matter was too complicated. Now Liu Dayou has dealt with it, but the person behind the problem has not been found. The whereabouts of Mu Changrui's family in Daizhou are unknown and the clues are cut off.

At present, the Jinyiwei is still investigating, and even Zhu Shenzhui is unsure whether they can find out the truth. Although he has a vague guess, there is no basis for the guess, and even Zhu Shenzhui himself is not absolutely sure whether this guess is true.

So Zhu Shenzhu didn't want to involve them in this matter. The three of them were different from him. They were all ordinary royal family members who just wanted to live a better life for their families. It would be bad if they were involved. He could just handle this matter himself.

"Uncle, you..." Seeing Zhu Qiuqi was about to say something, Zhu Shenzhui waved his hand.

"Old Four, Old Five, and Little Eighteen, there's no need to ask about Hengtong. It's already been dealt with. It's just a small matter. Just do your own thing. There's no need to interfere."

Zhu Shenzhui's words made the three of them think deeply, and they nodded silently, indicating that they understood his idea. But Zhu Qiuqi couldn't help but say something after nodding, meaning that they were all family members, and no matter what, if they needed them, they could just ask, and they had the life they had today thanks to Zhu Shenzhui, and it was okay even if Zhu Shenzhui asked them to do anything.

(End of this chapter)