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

Chapter 231 Parting on bad terms
Seeing that Zhu Shencui was extremely angry, Zhu Minfan, who knew Ma Quan's true identity, had no choice but to persuade him. After much difficulty, he calmed Zhu Shencui down and at the same time scolded Ma Quan in a hypocritical manner. Ma Quan had no choice but to apologize to Zhu Shencui in person and admitted that he had said the wrong thing.

But even so, Ma Quan still didn't let Zhu Shenzhu go. When the atmosphere eased, he mentioned Hengtong Commercial Bank again, pretending to be quite interested in Hengtong Commercial Bank. What he meant was nothing more than Zhu Shenzhu, aren't you crying poor? But he knew that Zhu Shenzhu was the owner of Hengtong Commercial Bank. Since there was such a famous commercial bank in Pingyang, how could he be so poor? He couldn't even afford to change to a bigger yard? This shouldn't be right!
"Nephew, are you asking me about this?" Zhu Shenzhui had a surprised expression. He raised his hand and pointed at himself, then looked at Ma Quan and Zhu Minfan.

"Haha, Lieutenant, since Hengtong is the lieutenant's property, you should naturally ask the lieutenant. How can you ask the general?" Ma Quan said with a smile, biting his teeth.

Zhu Shenzhui didn't even look at Ma Quan, but stared at Zhu Minfan with his sharp eyes. Zhu Minfan felt uncomfortable being stared at.

"Well... Uncle Six, since we're talking about Hengtong, why don't you talk to Mr. Ma about it? It's not a big deal anyway."

"I say?" Zhu Shenzhui asked again, and suddenly laughed, "Nephew, is it my turn to say this? Wouldn't it be better if you said it?"

"Me?" Zhu Minfan had a puzzled look on his face, not understanding what this meant for a moment.

Seeing that he hadn't reacted yet, Zhu Shenzhui immediately said, "You know more about Hengtong's affairs than I do. Back then, the Liu family in Pingyang committed a crime, and the whole city was in an uproar. Do you remember?"

"Why don't you remember this? I remember it, but what does this have to do with Hengtong?"

"You, you are not even old, how can you be so confused?" Zhu Shenzhui said bluntly, "After the Liu family was defeated, the government sold the Liu family's property. Didn't I borrow some money from you at that time? I used the money to buy a store of the Liu family, which was also considered an asset. Later, Kang, a shopkeeper in Pingyang, came to me to discuss and said that he wanted me to hand over the store to him to manage."

"You know me well. I have never done any business in my life. The reason I opened this store is simply because the imperial salary is not coming down, and I am thinking of finding some income to supplement the family expenses. The Kang family has been doing business in Pingyang for generations and has a good reputation in Pingyang. Manager Kang is also an honest man. If I hand over the store to him, I can get some share without doing anything as the owner. How can I refuse such a good thing?"

"Besides, later on, Manager Kang said that we should merge several shops into a company called Hengtong. Besides, I am a member of the royal family, and no one would touch me in the eyes of the government. So they asked me to be the owner in name only, and give me an extra share of money every year. I thought about it and thought it was feasible. Anyway, the court didn't say that royal family members were not allowed to buy property, as long as they didn't directly manage it. Wouldn't I become the owner of Hengtong?"

"It's fine if other people don't know about this, but nephew, you know about it! I borrowed the money from you to buy the shop. How long have you forgotten about it?"

Zhu Shenzhui was talking nonsense in a serious tone, but his words contained a mixture of truth and falsehood, especially the thing he mentioned about borrowing silver, which was actually not borrowing silver but dividing the spoils.

Zhu Minfan knew better than anyone how the Pingyang Liu family collapsed and how the Liu family's property was divided. It was Zhu Shenzhu who, through Zhu Minfan, hooked up with Pingyang prefect Yu Zhida, and then used the name of the general's mansion to get in touch with the governor's office and the governor's office, and together they swallowed up the huge Liu family.

The Provincial Administration Office, the Governor's Office, the Pingyang Prefect and the Auxiliary General Zhu Minfan swallowed up most of the Liu family's assets, while Zhu Shenzhui, as the conspirator at the time, just followed suit and drank some soup and picked up some bones.

Compared with the wealth they got, what Zhu Shenzui and others got was not worth mentioning at all. In the end, they only got less than two thousand taels of silver plus thirty acres of irrigated land and a shop.

The two thousand taels of silver did not belong to Zhu Shencui alone. It was divided among Zhu Minfeng, Zhu Minwei and Zhu Qiuqi. As for the irrigated land, it was also given to Zhu Minwei. In the end, all Zhu Shencui got was a salt shop and a few hundred taels of silver.

Zhu Minfan knew this clearly, after all, all the silver and land came from his hands, and he didn't deduct much because he was a member of the royal family. Now Zhu Shenzhu directly linked the Hengtong incident to this matter. Although Hengtong was originally established because of this salt shop, some things behind it were only known by Zhu Shenzhu and Kang Youfu. How could Zhu Minfan know these? So when Zhu Shenzhu said this, Zhu Minfan immediately showed an expression of sudden enlightenment.

"Sixth Uncle, are you saying that this Hengtong is the original store and the Kang family...?"

"Yes!" Zhu Shenzhui slapped his thigh, "Isn't that right? What's the matter? Nephew, you don't think that I am really the boss, do you? I just have the title of boss. How can I, a mere royal family member, do any business? But then again, Manager Kang's business has been pretty good in the past two years, and he has received some dividends in a year, but these hundreds of taels of silver are definitely enough for food, and what use can they be used for other things? In addition to living a better life than before, he bought dozens of acres of land outside the city to rent, and most of the money was spent on getting married. How can there be any extra money to buy a house now? Unless the court reimburses the salary, there may be this possibility." As he spoke, Zhu Shenzhui's eyes once again turned to Ma Quan. Ma Quan cursed in his heart, didn't he just lose money? Why did Zhu Shenzhui keep pestering him? He was talking about the business, why did he bring up the salary again?

However, he was confused by Zhu Shenzui's explanation of Hengtong Trading Company, and the implication of his words seemed to be that Zhu Minfan knew the ins and outs of Hengtong Trading Company very clearly. What was going on?

After saying this, Zhu Shenzhui didn't want to stay in the general's mansion any longer. He said directly that he was invited to the mansion today and asked Zhu Minfan what he wanted to see him about. If it was nothing, he would leave first. His wife had just given birth to a son, and the child was still young, so he had to go home to take care of him. This was his first son and he was very worried about him. He would miss him if he left for a while.

When the child is older and can run and talk, I will bring him to the general's mansion to play, so that my eldest nephew and younger cousin can get to know each other better.

Zhu Minfan smiled and said yes repeatedly, and mentioned a few words about the arrangements for this year's ancestor worship, which also fulfilled the reason why Zhu Shenzhui came to his house.

After a few brief chats, Zhu Shenzhui stood up and said goodbye. Zhu Minfan and Ma Quan couldn't try to keep him, so they could only watch Zhu Shenzhui leave in a swagger.

"General, are you just going to let him go like this?" Ma Quan couldn't help but ask after Zhu Shenzhui left.

"Lord Feng, what's the matter? You want to keep him? If you want to keep him, just keep him, but don't drag me into it. We in the general's mansion have already given you face by doing this." Zhu Minfan said unhappily.

Ma Quan... No! It should be Feng Quan who looked very unhappy. Feng Quan was from the capital. He was the son of Feng Shengming, the left governor of Henan Province. He was an official in Beijing and served as a reviewer in the Hanlin Academy.

This time, the censor Liu Ce submitted a memorial to impeach the Shanxi Governor Xu Shaoji for occupying his position without doing anything. In the memorial, he also mentioned the situation of the Shanxi royal family, saying that some members of the Shanxi royal family had privately smuggled military supplies to Mongolia for huge profits. After reading the memorial, the Emperor Tianqi did not hold a court meeting because it involved royal family issues. In addition, the affairs of the royal family were internal affairs of the royal family, and it was even more inconvenient to discuss them directly in the court. So after much deliberation, the Emperor Tianqi decided to send someone to find out the situation first. He asked Wei Zhongxian to send a few men from the East Factory and Feng Quan to leave Beijing together. At the same time, he sent a message to the Pingyang General's Mansion through the Prince of Jin's Mansion, asking Zhu Minfan to cooperate with the investigation. This led to today's meeting.

It was Feng Quan's first time to go out of the capital to do business. Although he was not very old, he was full of energy when he left the capital, intending to do this job beautifully. If he did a good job, he might be promoted if the emperor was pleased when he returned to the capital. This was a great opportunity for him.

You should know that Feng Quan passed the imperial examination in the 41st year of the Wanli reign, when he was only 19 years old. He was a young man with high spirits and fame. But who would have thought that he would stay in the Hanlin Academy for so many years, and now Feng Quan, who is 26 years old, is still just a reviewer in the Hanlin Academy, with an official rank of only the seventh rank.

Feng Quan wasted seven years without making any progress. He was extremely anxious and kept thinking about how to get ahead and get promoted. Now, Emperor Tianqi asked him to go to Shanxi to investigate a case, and he brought a man from the East Factory with him. Feng Quan thought that his chance had come, so how could he not take it seriously?
Feng Quan arrived in Pingyang three days ago and moved into the General's Mansion. He was busy these days, investigating the situation of Hengtong Commercial Bank and Zhu Shenzhu in Pingyang. However, he did not find any problems after investigating. Zhu Shenzhu had been prepared, and Hengtong Commercial Bank had arranged everything properly, so no problems could be found. As for himself, he had always been careful and never revealed his true identity. As for other things, it goes without saying that both the Jinyiwei and the garrison had covered up everything. What could a scholar like Feng Quan find out with just a few thugs in his hands?

Feng Quan was very disappointed that no problems were found. After thinking it over, he decided to meet Zhu Shencui in person, so he invited Zhu Shencui to his house in the name of the general's mansion.

Originally, I thought it was easy to control an ordinary member of the royal family. Just scare Zhu Shenzhui and he would say anything. But who would have thought that after just a few words, Zhu Shenzhui would take the initiative and start talking about salary.

Feng Quan, a civil servant, always looked down on the royal family. He fell into Zhu Shenzhu's trap inadvertently and said the wrong thing, which gave the other party a handle. Zhu Shenzhu then continued to pester him. If Zhu Minfan had not tried to smooth things over, there is no telling how the matter would have ended.

What happened next made Feng Quan feel even more confused. Zhu Shenzui not only did not tell him directly about the affairs of Hengtong Commercial Bank, but instead dragged it into Zhu Minfan's hands. Zhu Minfan's reaction was even stranger. He looked as if he had suddenly realized something. Then, without waiting for Feng Quan to ask more questions, Zhu Shenzui just patted his butt and left, citing his wife and children at home. After the people left, Feng Quan was confused and felt unwilling.

(End of this chapter)