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

Chapter 793 Trading Partner
The result of the meeting with Qian Qianyi was very good. Just as Zhu Shenzui guessed, although Qian Qianyi was famous, he was a very content person.

Qian Qianyi had two best things in his life: fame and status.

He now has fame, and it is not an exaggeration to describe him as a leader in the literary world. As for status, that is even simpler. Zhu Shenzhui can give it to him, and for Qian Qianyi the latter is more urgent than the former, otherwise he would not have rushed to Beijing after receiving the imperial edict.

The official rank of Youdu Yushi was not low. It would be even more remarkable if he became the Minister of Rites. Among the six ministries, the Ministry of Rites ranked first, and the position of Minister of Rites was Qian Qianyi's dream. In addition, Zhu Shencui also hinted that he was qualified to enter the cabinet, which made Qian Qianyi even more excited.

Moreover, Qian Qianyi held a very high position in the Donglin Party and was a signboard of the Donglin Party. When he returned to the court, the Donglin Party group that had previously surrounded Fang Fengnian and others was directly broken, and he was bound to be the leader of the Donglin Party. However, the biggest difference between Qian Qianyi and Fang Fengnian was that Qian Qianyi was not only an egoist, but also a very sensible person who could change his attitude according to the situation. As long as Zhu Shenzhui gave enough chips, Qian Qianyi's result of leaning towards Zhu Shenzhui was doomed.

In addition, Qian Qianyi looked like a scholar with great character, but in fact he was a coward. Otherwise, there would not be the rumor that "the water was too cold and my scalp was itchy". Holding Qian Qianyi in hand could not only win over and divide the Donglin Party, but also gain the support of some members of the Donglin Party through Qian Qianyi. There are many benefits to doing so, so why not do it?

On the day of summoning him, Zhu Shenzhui specially invited Qian Qianyi to stay in the palace for dinner, which made Qian Qianyi even more moved by Zhu Shenzhui. When leaving, Qian Qianyi specially assured Zhu Shenzhui that he would follow Zhu Shenzhui's orders in the court and help Zhu Shenzhui stabilize the political situation. Zhu Shenzhui encouraged him with a smile and personally sent him out of Wenhua Hall. Such an attitude was something that even the Prime Minister Wen Tihen did not enjoy.

After Qian Qianyi left, Zhu Shenzhui had just returned to the side hall when Du Xun came to report that it was Kang Youfu, the Minister of the Imperial Household Department, who wanted to see him.

He nodded slightly and asked Du Xun to bring Kang Youfu in. After a moment, Kang Youfu entered the hall.

"Your servant Kang Youfu pays his respects to the Regent, may your majesty live forever... May your majesty live forever..." As soon as Kang Youfu came in, he bowed deeply to Zhu Shenzhui.

"Get up." Zhu Shenzui was at a loss whether to laugh or cry when he saw this. Kang Youfu always bowed to him with great respect every time he saw him. He had reminded him before that this was not necessary, but this guy never changed. After a long time, Zhu Shenzui didn't say much and just followed him.

After all, Kang Youfu is different from others. He is not a scholar, but a businessman. Although he has excellent business talent and has been with him for a long time, this is his shortcoming and cannot be changed. This is also the reason why Kang Youfu's official position is not high. With his background, being a member of the Ministry of Revenue is the limit. However, Zhu Shenzhu specially set up the Household Department in the inner court and let him be the minister of the Household Department. His purpose is to start from another angle, to give Kang Youfu power in this way, and to do something big through the Household Department.

Compared with Xu Xiancheng's Grand Secretary, Kang Youfu, the Minister of the Imperial Household Department, was nothing in the eyes of the public. After all, Xu Xiancheng's official position was not low and his status was high. In addition, the Grand Secretary also led the imperial guards. As the children selected from the nobles and generals gradually became guards and were reused, everyone knew the importance of Xu Xiancheng, the Grand Secretary, and understood the value of this position.

But what is Kang Youfu? To put it bluntly, the so-called Imperial Household Department is the industry under Zhu Shenzhui's name, which was separated from the original Hengtong Trading Company. As for the Minister of the Imperial Household Department, he is actually the chief treasurer who manages these industries. Zhu Shenzhui just changed the name of the Imperial Household Department under the name of the inner court. How can he be compared with Xu Xiancheng?
Therefore, many people in the court looked down on Kang Youfu, thinking that he was no different from eunuchs like Du Xun, and was nothing more than a servant around Zhu Shenzhui. As for the title of Minister of the Internal Affairs Department, it was even more of a joke, as the position of the inner court was not recognized by the outer court at all. However, Kang Youfu didn't care about these attitudes at all. In his opinion, it didn't matter whether he was an official or not, what mattered was Zhu Shenzhui's attitude.

After bowing his head, Kang Youfu finally got up from the ground. Zhu Shenzhui waved his hand to let him sit down, but he only sat down carefully with half of his buttocks touching the stool.

"How are the preparations for opening Shandong to the sea?" Zhu Shenzhui asked directly.

"Regent, everything is ready. News has come from Shandong that everything is ready. I will go to Shandong in person the day after tomorrow to ensure that the opening of the sea goes smoothly." Kang Youfu replied respectfully.

Zhu Shenzui was very satisfied with his answer. Kang Youfu, the Minister of the Imperial Household Department, did a good job and was particularly careful in his work. Apart from other things, he managed the Shanxi border trade in an orderly manner. Otherwise, the border trade would not have reached such a scale and brought in so much profit this year.

"We need to be cautious when going to Shandong this time. Opening the sea is a serious matter, and many people are watching us. Do you know what to do?" Kang Youfu said quickly, "I know, I understand what to do. After I go to Shandong..." Immediately, Kang Youfu explained his arrangements in detail. Zhu Shenzhu listened carefully, interrupting him from time to time to ask questions. Kang Youfu answered them one by one. It can be seen that he was well prepared and considered everything comprehensively.

Shandong's opening of sea trade is different from Shanxi's border trade. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, border trade has never been stopped. In addition to the court's mutual trade, there have always been large and small smuggling activities, which cannot be stopped at all. Moreover, Shanxi's border trade has existed since the Tianqi period. At that time, it was Zhu Shenzhui who found Wei Zhongxian through Zhang Xijun to make it happen. Hengtong participated in it as a cooperative entity, and Kang Youfu was the person in charge.

Later, for the sake of interests, Hengtong voluntarily withdrew. Not long after, Emperor Tianqi died and Emperor Chongzhen succeeded to the throne. After Emperor Chongzhen came to power, he cracked down severely on the eunuch party and naturally cancelled the border trade in Shanxi, thus ending the border trade.

But after Zhu Shenzhu took over the government, he immediately restarted the border trade. Although the subject and structure of the border trade have changed from before, the essence remains the same. Moreover, the other side of the border trade is the Mongolian Tumed tribe, which is already controlled by Zhu Shenzhu. From this point of view, it is impossible for the Shanxi merchants to participate or not, or to do something privately.

Trading parties, trading platforms, and even supervision are all in his hands. It would be fine if the Shanxi merchants just did their business peacefully, but if they wanted to do something sneaky, they would not be able to hide it from Zhu Shenzhui. Zhu Shenzhui has a hundred ways to deal with them.

But it was different when Shandong opened up the sea to engage in maritime trade. In reality, the Ming Dynasty had never had real maritime trade. Even during the time when Zheng He sailed to the West, the so-called maritime trade was not open to the public. Instead, they used the excuse of visiting foreign countries to bring back some supplies to subsidize expenses.

Later, the imperial court banned maritime trade, but smuggling among the people never stopped, especially in the southern provinces. As the saying goes, "live by the mountain, eat by the mountain; live by the water, eat by the water." The wealthy families in Fujian, Shandong, and Zhejiang all smuggled abroad secretly, and it was impossible to do such business without going out to sea.

In just a few years after the opening of the Longqing Port, although there were signs of opening up maritime trade, in fact, there was no progress at all. In addition, the Ming Dynasty was different from the previous dynasties. For example, during the Song Dynasty, commerce was developed and there was a special Maritime Customs Office for overseas trade, but the Ming Dynasty had never established such an institution since its founding. In other words, fundamentally speaking, the Ming Dynasty was inherently deficient in foreign maritime trade, which also led to the current situation.

Now that it has been decided to open the sea in Shandong and develop maritime trade, Zhu Shenzui wants to break this situation and change the serious phenomenon of private smuggling in maritime trade. From private to public, the court will control maritime trade and profit from it.

However, there were bound to be obstacles and risks in doing so. The biggest problem was that once the northern sea trade was opened, it would affect the export smuggling in the south. Zheng Hongkui was brought to the capital and appointed as the deputy general of Laizhou to take charge of the navy because of this concern. The Zheng family was the largest maritime merchant group in the world, and the Zheng family's warships were the largest and most powerful in East Asia. To win over Zheng Hongkui alone was to win over the entire Zheng family, which also greatly weakened the opposition to the court's Shandong sea trade.

In addition, he also used maritime trade to make profits from overseas to make up for the lack of income for the court, and used maritime trade to win over northern merchants and put pressure on southern business groups, forcing them to turn from their previous opposition to cooperation with the court. In addition, he also used maritime trade to train the navy, explore routes, and prepare for future eastward or southward voyages. These were all considered by Zhu Shenzhui.

As for the previous Liaodong war, it was an accident, but from the current perspective, the effect is very significant. When Kang Youfu goes to Shandong, Shandong's maritime trade affairs will officially begin. At that time, not only the Japanese routes, but also Korea will become the maritime trade targets of the Ming Dynasty.

"Korea? Regent, isn't Korea in the hands of the Jiannu now?" When Kang Youfu heard Zhu Shenzhui mention Korea, he couldn't help but ask.

"What? We can't trade with the Jiannu?" Zhu Shenzhui said with a smile, "How many Jiannu people are there? Chen Xinjia has already submitted a memorial. Currently, the Jiannu people in Korea are only 5,000 people. Although Korea is small, it has a territory of 3,000 miles and a population of tens of millions. A mere 5,000 people can only suppress them at best. It is impossible to annex Korea."

"Besides, Korea has always been a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. Taizu established the ancestral precept that Korea is the first of the fifteen overseas countries that will not be conquered. Since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Korea has always been respectful to the Ming Dynasty and regarded the Ming Dynasty as its parent country. Although it is now threatened by the Jiannu and forced to surrender, the king and his subjects of Korea are still close to the Ming Dynasty. How can the Ming Dynasty sit idly by and watch such a country?"

"Right now, Liaodong has not been pacified, and we cannot help Korea expel the Jiannu for the time being, but there is no problem in trading with Korea privately. Doing so can appease the Korean monarch and his ministers and make them loyal to our Ming Dynasty. In addition, we can also make profits through trade. Why not do it?"

(End of this chapter)