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

Chapter 304 Zhang and Wang's Families
"Fifth Aunt and Sixth Aunt (aunt) wish you a happy New Year..."

Familiar voices were heard outside, and one could tell it was from Zhu Minfeng, Zhu Minqi and Zhu Qiuqi, the uncle and nephew. But besides them, there were also the voices of women and children.

Today is the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, the day to visit relatives. It's not that the uncle and nephew didn't come early, but mainly because of the custom. Generally speaking, in Shanxi, people start visiting relatives on the second day of the Lunar New Year, go to grandma's house on the second day, uncle's house on the third day, and other relatives' houses on the fourth day. Rules are rules and cannot be changed, even though they have been very close to Zhu Shenzhui in recent years.

Zhu Shenzhu was reading a letter in his room, Xu Jingqiu and sister-in-law Zhang were busy in the main room, Qiao'er and her brother were playing on the kang. Zhu Minlan was at an age when he loved to have fun, and he was amused by Qiao'er and laughed. Qiao'er also enjoyed it, and she talked to her brother while holding a rattle in her hand.

The servant outside heard the knocking on the door and opened it, and saw Zhu Minfeng, Zhu Minqi, and Zhu Qiuqi, the uncle and nephew, coming with their family and children to pay New Year's greetings. Hearing the sound, Xu Jingqiu and Zhang hurried out to greet them, and were very happy to see them.

Hearing the noise outside, Zhu Shencui put the letter in his hand, stood up, straightened his robe, pushed the door open and walked out. When he left the house, a few of them also entered the yard. When they saw Zhu Shencui, they hurried forward to salute.

"Happy New Year, Uncle Six."

"Happy New Year. Why are you guys here together?"

"Haha, since we live close to each other, we agreed before the New Year that we would come together today to wish you a happy new year." Zhu Minfeng said with a cheerful smile. Zhu Minyu and Zhu Qiuqi on the side also agreed. Then they called their families to wish Zhu Shenzhu a happy new year.

There were quite a few people from the three families. Except for Zhu Qiuqi, who had just gotten married and didn't have any children, the other two families had several people, especially Zhu Minyu's family, which had six people, not including his mother. The oldest child was almost fifteen this year, and the youngest was about the same age as Qiao'er. Zhu Minfeng's family had fewer people, but they also had two children, the older one was thirteen and the younger one was nine.

Although Zhu Shenzhui is young, he is of high rank. In addition, the three families have been taken care of by Zhu Shenzhui in recent years. Otherwise, their lives would not be much better than before. You should know that the three families were not doing well in the past few years, especially Zhu Minyu's family, who lived a very tight life. They could not even have enough food on weekdays, let alone meat. But now? Not only do they have fields and land, but they also have generous income every month. Their lives are no longer the same as before. This change is all due to Zhu Shenzhui.

They are extremely grateful to Zhu Shenzui and his two uncles and nephews. Without Zhu Shenzui, the three families would not have such a good life.

Zhu Shenzhui accepted their gifts with a smile. Xu Jingqiu, who was standing by, had already prepared red envelopes and gave them to the children one by one. The children smiled even more after receiving the red envelopes and called him more affectionately.

"Is this your Qiukai?" Zhu Shenzhui asked with a smile, looking at the eldest Zhu Qiukai.

"Yes, Sixth Uncle, you haven't seen him for some time, right? The last time you saw him was last year." Zhu Minyu nodded with a smile.

"He's grown up so fast, and he's become so tall. If I meet him outside in the first year of junior high school, I won't be able to recognize him." Zhu Shenzhui said as he looked at the boy in front of him. The first time he met Zhu Qiukai was three years ago. At that time, Zhu Qiukai looked skinny. The twelve-year-old boy looked like he was ten years old.

After all, at that time, even food was a problem at home, and the whole family relied on Zhu Minyu's meager salary to survive. Moreover, the court not only discounted the salaries of the royal family but also often delayed their payments. Not to mention Zhu Minyu, even Zhu Shenzhu's family had a hard time before he started selling contraband salt.

Fortunately, several close relatives in the royal family helped, otherwise Zhu Minyu's family would have starved to death. Now it is different. As life gets better, eating is no longer a problem. In addition, there are meat and fish to supplement nutrition from time to time. The child is also growing fast. After not seeing him for a year, the boy has grown a lot taller. Although his face is still childish, he looks like a little adult.

He bowed respectfully to Zhu Shenzhui and called him Uncle. Zhu Shenzhui nodded happily and put the red envelope into his hand. Zhu Qiukai was an honest child like his father. He took the red envelope and subconsciously looked at his father. It was not until Zhu Minyu nodded that he put it away with peace of mind.

Compared to her brother, Zhu Minyu's eldest daughter was very generous. She called him uncle and happily accepted the red envelope. She also asked her uncle, Zhu Shenzhu's son Zhu Minlan, about wishing her uncle and aunt a happy new year. Zhu Shenzhu laughed out loud. He liked the little girl very much and asked Zhu Minyu if he had found a husband for her. But the girl rushed to say that she was still young and was not in a hurry to find a husband. She wanted to stay at home and serve her parents for a few more years. Everyone was very happy to hear that.

After chatting and greeting each other for a while, they were invited to go into the main house. The younger ones were told to play in the inner room by themselves. Qiao'er and Zhu Minlan were both in the inner room, and they would be fine with their sister-in-law Zhang looking after them.

After having the servants serve tea, Xu Jingqiu invited the women from the three families to go to the inner room, leaving a few men outside to drink tea and chat.

Picking up the tea and taking a sip, Zhu Shenzhui chatted with them for a while, just asking about the family's preparations for the New Year this year, the situation of visiting relatives in the past few days, etc. After chatting for a few words, Zhu Qiuqi got down to business.

"Uncle, Shopkeeper Kang sent a letter some time ago saying that preparations in the north are almost ready, and border trade will have to start after the New Year. When do you think it would be appropriate to send our goods over?" Zhu Qiuqi was talking about the trade with the Tengger tribe. Zhu Shenzhu made arrangements after the matter fell into Zhou Anmin's hands. Now Zhou Anmin is implementing this matter in Weiyuanwei, and Kang Youfu has also been sent to Weiyuanwei by Zhu Shenzhu to assist in the responsibility.

The business of Hengtong Trading Company in Pingyang is currently in the charge of the second shopkeeper, who was trained by Kang Youfu in recent years. Although he is not as talented in business as Kang Youfu, nor as good as Zhang Xijun in the past, he has no problem taking charge of his own business. He is also loyal and honest and trustworthy.

Because Kang Youfu temporarily went to Weiyuanwei, and the court had previously investigated the past of Zhu Shencui and the business, Zhu Shencui has now been separated from the business on the surface, but in fact the business is still Zhu Shencui's property, but outsiders do not know it.

Kang Youfu was not around, so the second shopkeeper was in charge of ordinary transactions. In addition, border trade was about to start, and the grassland trade mode would change in the later period, from self-organized caravans to normal border trade mode. In addition, Zhu Shenzhu also needed Hengtong Trading Company to be responsible for the integration of sources of goods and the transportation of materials, which was very different from before. Considering this, Zhu Shenzhu found Zhu Minfeng, Zhu Minyu and Zhu Qiuqi, the uncle and nephew, after returning from the grassland, and asked them to assist the trading company in handling this matter.

Among the three uncles and nephews, Zhu Qiuqi originally worked at Hengtong, Zhu Minfeng also did some auxiliary work under the arrangement of Zhu Shenzhui, and only Zhu Minyu seldom touched these things because of his personality. But people always change. As time went by, seeing his brothers and nephews doing prosperous business with Zhu Shenzhui, Zhu Minyu couldn't help but be moved, so this time he took the initiative to join in.

"Let's wait until the first month of the lunar year. You can write another letter to Manager Kang in the next few days to ask about it. You two can discuss the specific time." Zhu Shenzhu naturally knew about this matter, and he said after thinking about it.

"Okay, let's just leave it at that for now. If there are any changes, I'll tell you, uncle."

Zhu Shenzhu nodded and responded, then asked about the situation of integrating Shanxi businessmen and whether they encountered any troubles.

Zhu Qiuqi reported that because the border trade was led by the East Factory and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and the actual operation was handled by Hengtong, many merchants had come to Hengtong on their own initiative these days to seek cooperation. According to Zhu Shenzhui, the company followed the established rules and would basically accept all merchants who were willing to follow the rules. If they were going to do it, they would do it on a bigger scale. Border trade was a huge business, and Hengtong, as the leader, would make a lot of profit, not to mention its own goods. The larger the volume of goods, the more money they would make.

However, there are many businessmen who are willing to cooperate, some are waiting and watching, and there are also several big merchants who have not made any moves, including several wealthy merchant families in Shanxi.

Among them are two famous families, one is the Zhoupu Zhang family, and the other is the Jingsheng Wang family.

When talking about the Zhoupu Zhang family, we have to mention a key figure, that is Zhang Siwei, the prime minister of the Ming Dynasty after the death of Zhang Juzheng.

Zhang Siwei is the representative figure of the Zhang family in Zhoupu. Long before Zhang Siwei passed the imperial examination, the Zhang family was one of the wealthy merchants in Jin and had accumulated huge wealth by trading salt and tea.

After Zhang Siwei became an official, the Zhang family of Zhoupu went a step further. When Zhang Siwei became the Prime Minister, the entire Shanxi merchants followed the lead of the Zhang family of Zhoupu. Although Zhang Siwei had passed away for decades, the Zhang family of Zhoupu was still the pillar of the Shanxi merchants and played an important role.

As for the Jingsheng Wang family, they settled here during the Yuan Dynasty. After several generations of hard work, the family gradually became larger. Their descendants went from farmers to businessmen, and then from businessmen to officials, accumulating tens of millions of wealth.

Zhang Siwei's uncle Wang Chonggu was also an important official in the reigns of Jiajing, Longqing and Wanli. Although the Jingsheng Wang family was not a direct descendant of Wang Chonggu, they were relatives on the same family tree. As the saying goes, you can't write two Wangs with one stroke. With the background of Wang Chonggu and Zhang Siwei, the Jingsheng Wang family, like the Zhoupu Zhang family, became the most important branch of Shanxi merchants.

"Have these two families delivered the message? Is it just like that? Just don't explain the matter to them?" Upon hearing the names of the two families, Zhu Shenzhui frowned slightly and asked.

"The message was delivered a long time ago, but there was no reply. I asked someone to find out. It is said that the two families feel that this matter may be uncertain and do not want to get involved for the time being. In addition, the Zhang and Wang families are large and powerful, and have no shortage of trade routes. Maybe they feel that cooperating with us will not bring much profit..."

Zhu Shenzhui snorted coldly. Zhu Qiuqi's answer sounded like an excuse to him. In other words, the Zhang and Wang families looked down on Hengtong and were thinking of other tricks based on their background. How could a businessman not pursue profit? The Zhang and Wang families had been doing business for generations and it was impossible for them not to know the importance of border trade. But they used such an excuse to fool him. Maybe they were secretly thinking of replacing him.

Do they still think that this is the time when Zhang Siwei and Wang Chonggu are still alive? The court has a strong background? This is a different time. Now it is the Tianqi Dynasty. Zhang Siwei and Wang Chonggu have been dead for many years.

(End of this chapter)