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

Chapter 305 Good News
Seeing Zhu Shenzui's unhappy expression, Zhu Qiuqi could only bite the bullet and explain a few words. At this time, Zhu Minfeng on the side spoke.

"Sixth Uncle, you can't blame Eighteen for this. After all, the Zhang and Wang families are not ordinary families. Even though Zhang Siwei and Wang Chonggu have been dead for many years, their students and former officials are still in the court."

"We can't rush this matter. It's better to wait and see for now. Besides, the border trade is now led by the East Factory and the Imperial Guards. We are only assisting in this matter. If we speak up for the East Factory and the Imperial Guards, we will not only get nothing, but also cause trouble..."

Nodding silently, Zhu Shenzhui felt that what Zhu Minfeng said made sense. After all, this matter could not be done openly. Although he had his own purpose in doing so, it would be troublesome if he did it. Anyway, the border trade had just begun, and there were many merchants in the whole Shanxi, including the inland areas. It would not be a big deal if there were more Zhang and Wang families, and it would not be a big deal if there were less. Since they were not appreciative now, he would just let them go. As long as they did not cause trouble for him, there would be no problem. If they really did something secretly, he would not be afraid. The East Factory and the Jinyiwei were not for show.

"Oh, Uncle Six, it's fine if we talk about the Zhang and Wang families, but the Jiexiu Fan family has the same attitude, and it is said that they privately have quite a few objections to border trade. We have to be on guard against this."

"The Jiexiu Fan family?" Zhu Shenzhui concentrated and thought carefully before he remembered which family the Jiexiu Fan family was.

The Jiexiu Fan family is also a branch of Shanxi merchants, and has a good relationship with the Zhang and Wang families. When the Zhang and Wang families were at their most glorious, they were among the merchants who were protected. However, after Zhang Siwei and Wang Chonggu passed away one after another, although the Zhang and Wang families are still the leading figures in Shanxi merchants, the Jiexiu Fan family has emerged as a dark horse in recent years and has developed extremely rapidly.

The business done by the Zhang family in Jiexiu is similar to that of Hengtong. They also made their fortune by selling private salt and smuggling outside the Great Wall. Moreover, their base camp is in Zhangjiakou. They have made a lot of money from this business in recent years.

With a frown on his face, he asked carefully about the situation of the Fan family in Jiexiu. Zhu Minfeng talked about some of what he knew. Zhu Qiuqi waited for him to finish and added a few words. After listening, Zhu Shenzhui did not speak for a while.

Zhu Shenzui was thinking about the previous attack on the grassland. Although the culprit had been identified and Galiba was dead, on the surface the incident seemed to be over, but in fact, in Zhu Shenzui's view, it was not over.

Zhu Shenzhui knew very well what kind of person Galiba was. Although he was good at forbearance and his methods were vicious, it would be an overestimation of him to say that he had planned this matter from beginning to end. If Zhu Shenzhui guessed correctly, there must be Shanxi merchants involved in this matter, and the traitor found before also proved that someone was behind it, secretly joining forces with Galiba to set up such a scheme.

But the person behind this mischief has not been found out until now. Previously, Zhu Shenzui used forces from all sides to take action against several Shanxi merchants. Most of these Shanxi merchants had overlapping businesses with Hengtong and also had trade routes to the grassland, so they were the most suspicious.

After all, commercial competition has led to the possibility that the other party will join forces with Galiba to seize the market. Zhu Shenzhui's move is to solve the hidden danger. Although he carried out indiscriminate attacks, there is no evidence to prove that the person who joined forces with Galiba is one of these Shanxi merchants.

However, Zhu Shenzhui was not an official, let alone a judge. He did not need evidence, only suspicion. He would strike down any merchant he thought might have done this. If the merchant was indeed the mastermind behind the incident, it would be considered revenge. If the merchant was wronged, it would be fine, because their trade routes overlapped with his. This strike alone was not too much. A real man should not be too particular about small matters. What if he made a mistake?
After this series of moves, Zhu Shenzhui eliminated the two Shanxi merchants and took over their industries and trade routes directly through Hengtong. This move also shocked other Shanxi merchants, letting them know that Hengtong was not a soft persimmon that could be easily manipulated.

Now that border trade is about to start, the goods and channels for trade have been prepared, and the smooth progress is also due to the ruthless actions taken at the beginning. Although the results are good, Zhu Shenzhui always feels that the Shanxi merchants he has eliminated are not the real culprits, because their resistance is not as strong as he thought, and some of the methods and preparations made before have not been used.

If they or any of them were really in league with Galiba, then it would not be so easy to resolve, and there would be strong resistance and struggle. Everything ended too smoothly, and this smooth reaction aroused Zhu Shenzhui's suspicion.

After thinking about it, these Shanxi merchants might not be the ones behind the scenes. They were just injured by mistake. Zhu Shenzhui did not feel guilty about this. What mattered if he was wrong? What he cared about was who was the real person behind the scenes and whether there were any overlooked targets he had chosen before.
Today, the Zhang and Wang families were suddenly mentioned, and the Jiexiu Fan family was also involved. When Zhu Shenzui heard the names of these three families, he suddenly thought of a problem that he had overlooked before, that is, perhaps the person behind the scenes and Galiba joined forces not only for the sake of trade routes, but perhaps for other purposes.

Let's not talk about the Zhang and Wang families for now. These two families have extremely high status in Shanxi and are not ordinary wealthy merchants. The Jiexiu Fan family has also been quite famous in recent years. The smuggling business has been growing bigger and bigger, accumulating countless wealth.

However, outsiders did not know, but Zhu Shenzui knew some secrets, and these secrets were the rumors about the Jiexiu Fan family in later generations.

It is said that the Jiexiu Fan family traded with the Mongols on the surface, but in fact they were secretly engaged in smuggling trade with Liaodong, and transported a large amount of supplies to the Jiannu during the trade, which enabled the Jiannu to finally survive under the iron-clad encirclement of the Ming Dynasty. It is true that merchants are only interested in profit, but there are not many merchants like the Jiexiu Fan family who disregard the country for profit, and it is precisely because of this that they can get extremely rich returns.

In pursuit of wealth, the Jiexiu Fan family did a lot of things to help the enemy. From this point of view, it is no exaggeration to say that the Fan family is a traitor to the Ming Dynasty. What they did was completely different from what Zhu Shenzhu did. At first glance, they were all smuggling, selling Ming Dynasty goods to foreigners, but their nature was completely different.

Zhu Shenzui was smuggling to the Mongolians on the grassland. Although the Mongolians had been fighting with the Ming Dynasty for nearly three hundred years, due to the rise of the Jiannu in Liaodong and Algdan Khan's intention to unify Mongolia in recent years, the Mongolians had actually become allies of the Ming Dynasty.

The former Ashi Temur tribe, now the Tengger tribe, was a direct subordinate of Ligdan Khan and one of the tribes that supported him. Strengthening their power through smuggling was equivalent to strengthening Ligdan Khan's power. However, Ligdan Khan and the Later Jin Jiannu in Liaodong were incompatible and hostile. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Zhu Shenzui's smuggling to the grasslands was a disguised way of helping the Ming Dynasty while making a profit for himself.

After the civil strife in Ashi Temur's tribe, Tenger became Taiji and Tana became Aliya. From this point of view, the Tenger tribe became the tribe controlled by Zhu Shencui, and Zhu Shencui was actually the real master of this tribe.

Therefore, the nature of the border trade that was about to be carried out was different from the previous one, and the biggest beneficiary was Zhu Shenzhu himself. As the profits of the border trade grew, Zhu Shenzhu and the Tengger tribe gained more benefits. On the contrary, the Jiexiu Fan family was different. What they did was completely aiding the enemy.

As Zhu Shenzui thought about it deeply, an idea emerged in his mind. If the person who secretly cooperated with Galiba and attacked him was from the Jiexiu Fan family, wouldn't it be more likely?

After careful consideration, Zhu Shencui deduced based on the time of the attack that before the attack, the Ashi Temür tribe was following Ligdan Khan to attack Khorchin, and the relationship between Khorchin and the Later Jin was extremely close. From this point of view, killing Zhu Shencui, cutting off the smuggling trade of the Ashi Temür tribe, and dealing a heavy blow to it would also weaken part of Ligdan Khan's power. This might not be a bad thing for Ligdan Khan's opponent, the Jiannu of the Later Jin.

Thinking of this, Zhu Shenzhui was a little uncertain. Although the reason made sense, it was just a guess. Zhu Shenzhui had no evidence to prove the truth. Moreover, the Jiexiu Fan family was not an ordinary merchant, nor was it as simple as the merchants he had attacked before. The Jiexiu Fan family was quite powerful and had a background in the court. More importantly, the Jiexiu Fan family had a close relationship with the Zhang and Wang families. The three families were inextricably linked. If one of them was attacked, the whole family would be affected. It was impossible for them to attack casually.

Zhu Shenzhui's power was not enough to deal with them directly, and Zhu Shenzhui's identity was too sensitive, so he couldn't do it himself. He thought about it and decided to find an opportunity to let the East Factory or the Royal Guard take action to test the waters, to see if he could startle them and see how they would react. However, if he wanted to do this, he had to find an opportunity, which was not possible at the moment. Zhou Anmin was only a captain of the Royal Guard, and he was currently in charge of border trade. If he took action against them at this time, it would lead to attacks from the court, and Wei Zhongxian would not agree.

Zhu Shenzhui finally suppressed this thought and continued to talk to them about business. After explaining some details of the later border trade arrangements and asking them to cooperate with the work and not to be careless, the three nodded repeatedly to let Zhu Shenzhui rest assured that there would be no problem with this matter.

As we were chatting, my sister-in-law Zhang suddenly came over quickly.

"Sister-in-law, what's wrong?" Seeing Zhang's face showing joy but also a little nervousness, Zhu Shenzhui asked curiously.

"Congratulations, uncle. My sister-in-law seems to be pregnant again..."

"What? Is it true?" Zhu Shenzhui was surprised and happy when he heard it. He quickly stood up. The three people who were sitting also quickly stood up and showed questioning expressions.

Zhang told Zhu Shenzhui that Xu Jingqiu had suddenly felt sick and had signs of morning sickness. She fed Xu Jingqiu some water and let her lie down to rest. Now she was feeling better. Based on her experience, she seemed to be pregnant, so she hurried out to tell Zhu Shenzhui that it would be best to ask a doctor to come and see her right away.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Shenzhui couldn't stop smiling. He didn't expect Xu Jingqiu to be pregnant again so soon. This was really a happy event. The three people beside him also congratulated her. Among them, Zhu Qiuqi was even smarter. He ran out without saying a word. While running, he didn't forget to turn around and tell Zhu Shenzhui that he would go to ask the doctor to see her and would be back soon. He told his uncle to wait at home without worry. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared.

(End of this chapter)