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

Chapter 878 Incentives
Even though Yang Dehua did not hold an official position, in terms of achievements he was just a scholar. Moreover, he did not become a scholar through a proper examination, but rather through the influence of his ancestors.

But Yang Dehua was born in Ningbo Yang family after all, and was a descendant of a local aristocratic family. Moreover, the Yang family had three ministers and ten Jinshi, and was very famous in Jiangnan. The Yang family's relatives, friends, and students were all over the officialdom. Relying on this relationship, although Yang Dehua was only a legal advisor, he was not an ordinary legal advisor. Not only was his job extremely comfortable, even the owner looked at him differently.

Moreover, Yang Dehua has served as the advisor to Gao Hongtu, Zheng Sanjun and Xu Shiqi respectively, and is still the most important aide to Xu Shiqi.

Gao Hongtu is currently in Nanjing. Although he does not have an official position, he is a famous scholar. As for Zheng Sanjun, he is even more so. He is now the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue in Nanjing. He controls the taxation power in Jiangnan and is the most powerful figure among the six ministries in Nanjing, second only to the Ministry of War. As for Xu Shiqi, he is now the Shangbaoqing of Nanjing and the Prime Minister of Yingtian Prefecture. With such a relationship, no one dares to underestimate Yang Dehua.

The reason why Yuan Chongyu went to Ningbo first and then visited Yang Dehua after finding out the situation in Jiangnan was because of this reason. He planned to start from Yang Dehua. Although he had never met Yang Dehua, his brother Yuan Chonghuan was acquainted with Yang Dehua. When Yuan Chonghuan was the head of the Ministry of War in the capital, Yang Dehua was Gao Hongtu's aide. The two had dealt with each other several times. Moreover, Yang Dehua's cousin and Yuan Chonghuan were fellow Jinshi, so they were not strangers to each other. In addition, Yang Dehua often expressed sympathy for Yuan Chonghuan's experience after Yuan Chonghuan's death, and he had whitewashed Yuan Chonghuan over the years. Therefore, after much deliberation, it was most appropriate to start the situation from Yang Dehua's side.

Although Yang Dehua is Xu Shiqi's aide, he is not in Nanjing this month but in Ningbo. Because of the Yang family's ancestor worship, Yang Dehua specially returned to his home in Dongmen from Nanjing.

Today, Yang Dehua was at home. He didn't take it seriously when he heard that someone was visiting him, especially when he saw that the person on the visiting card was a Korean. Yang Dehua cared even less. He thought that it was just because of his identity and the Yang family that this Korean had heard about him from somewhere and came to him on purpose to seek connections.

Although he was not an official, Yang Dehua was quite arrogant, and the Yang family also gave him the confidence. He did not want to meet him at first, but the servant told Yang Dehua that the other party had sent a valuable gift of three hundred taels of silver. Yang Dehua had the man brought in for the sake of the silver, intending to meet him. If the other party's request was not high, asking him for help would be a piece of cake.

"My name is Pu Shangyin, nice to meet you, Mr. Yang..." Yuan Chongyu, who was dressed formally, entered Yang's house. Under the guidance of the servants, he finally met Yang Dehua and walked forward to pay his respects.

"Are you Park Sang-yin?" Yang Dehua looked at him. Korea was a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty and had always considered itself a small China, so Koreans were no different from Ming people in terms of clothing and appearance. The man in front of him spoke fluent Ming Mandarin and looked young. If it weren't for the fact that his Korean identity was written in his visiting card, it would be impossible to tell whether he was from the Ming Dynasty or Korea.

"I am Park Sangyin." Yuan Chongyu replied respectfully, half bending over and still in a saluting posture.

"Haha, Park Sangyin..." Yang Dehua laughed secretly in his heart. The Koreans' naming is really weird. There are so many other names, but they chose such weird names. I don't know what the Koreans are thinking.

In fact, Yuan Chongyu himself also complained about this name, but there was nothing he could do. When he spent money to buy an identity in North Korea, he pretended to be a real Korean. It is not only difficult to forge a fake identity, but also easy to be discovered. It is easier to pretend to be a real Korean.

Anyway, Yuan Chongyu's identity was used in the Ming Dynasty, so there would be no problem as long as he didn't use it in Korea. With a real Korean identity, he could enter and leave the Ming Dynasty freely as a Korean merchant, which was very convenient. So even though this name was not very good, it was fine as long as it could be used.

Yang Dehua raised his hand and said "come on", then let Yuan Chongyu take a seat and asked the servant to serve tea.

After Yuan Chongyu sat down, the servant who served tea left. Yang Dehua did not beat around the bush and directly asked him why he came to see him.

Yuan Chongyu was well prepared for this and immediately told Yang Dehua that the purpose of his visit was to establish a relationship between Xu Shiqi and Zheng Sanjun through Yang Dehua, and he hoped that Yang Dehua could introduce several famous families in Jiangnan to him.

According to Yuan Chongyu, the Ming Dynasty now has sea trade in Shandong, and many of the Ming Dynasty's goods flow into Korea through Shandong. Sea trade has brought huge profits to the northern merchants of the Ming Dynasty. Yuan Chongyu is a businessman in Korea and is a famous local businessman in Korea. Their Park family has had trade relations with the Ming Dynasty a long time ago, and the Park family has a high status in Korea. Not only do they have many in-laws with the two-class nobles of the Korean court, but the Park family also has women who serve as Shang Gong in the Korean royal palace and can speak to the king. The Park family's previous trade was smooth sailing, and they even cooperated with Mao Wenlong, the general of Dongjiang Town at that time. But now that the Ming Dynasty has directly opened the sea in Shandong, it has not only monopolized the northern trade, but also taken away most of the profits, which makes the Park family's life not as comfortable as before.

Yuan Chongyu said that most of the merchants in Shandong Province were from the north, and most of them were from Shanxi. These Shanxi merchants not only knew how to do business, but also used the support of the Ming Dynasty to monopolize the trade with North Korea, which directly affected the status of the Park family in the North Korean business community.

In order to change this situation, the Park family had discussed with these Shanxi merchants, but the price offered by the other party was too high to accept. The Park family had no choice but to find another way. Since the Shanxi merchants could not cooperate directly, it would be better to cooperate with other Ming merchants. Moreover, it was not in the interests of the Park family to hold on to Korea. After internal discussion, the Park family decided to send Yuan Chongyu to Ming to find a suitable partner. In this way, Yuan Chongyu took a boat to Ningbo Prefecture and came to Yang Dehua for help.

Yuan Chongyu was originally a businessman. When he was in Liaodong, he was very familiar with the business community in the north. As for the trade routes in Korea, he also knew them very well. So when he talked about these things, he was very logical and well-founded, and people could not see any problems at all.

After listening to Yuan Chongyu's words, Yang Dehua understood what he was thinking. He pondered in his heart, but his face was calm. After a moment, he said, "The court opened the sea in Shandong to foreign trade. This is the court's policy. I, Yang, am just a scholar. How can I interfere in the court's affairs? Not to mention intervening in the trade of the North. Pu Shangyin, you came to me for this matter, but you asked the wrong person."

"Otherwise, Master Yang, please allow me to explain." Yuan Chongyu said quickly, "Although it is the imperial policy of the Ming Dynasty to open the sea in Shandong for foreign trade, it is the merchants of the Ming Dynasty who carry out the trade. Moreover, according to what I know, the Ming Dynasty did not give all the rights of foreign trade to the merchants in the north, especially to the merchants in Shanxi. When I was in Korea, I met several merchants from the south, but compared with the merchants from the north, the southern merchants are not as strong in Shandong and cannot compete with them."

"But as a Korean merchant, I have dealt with the Ming Dynasty for many years. I know that the prosperity of Ming Dynasty's commerce is not in the north but in the south, especially in Nanzhili, which is the richest place in Ming Dynasty and the most prosperous industry and commerce in the world. But for some reason, there are not many southern merchants participating in the opening of Shandong Sea, and many Ming Dynasty materials are produced in the south and sold to Korea by northern merchants."

"I wonder, if that's the case, why don't the southern merchants go north to trade with North Korea? Especially since Ningbo is a sea trade port, if we use ships to go directly north from Ningbo, we can reach North Korea without stopping in Shandong. This way, we can not only make huge profits, but also open up the sea route to avoid the monopoly of northern merchants. And North Korea has my Park family, so wouldn't it be a win-win situation for both sides to join hands?"

Yuan Chongyu was worthy of his business background. He expressed his attitude and interests in just a few words. His statement was very simple. He hoped that the southern merchants of Ming Dynasty would get involved in the trade with Korea, break the current monopoly of northern merchants on Korea's business, cooperate with each other and make wealth.

Yuan Chongyu had conducted an investigation before coming to the Ming Dynasty. He knew that the Ming Dynasty was making huge profits due to the opening of Shandong to the sea and the rise of maritime trade, but because of the court's policies, most of the participants were northern merchants, especially the Shanxi merchants mentioned earlier.

Obviously everyone knows that the profits from maritime trade are extremely huge, but the fattest piece of meat is now in the mouths of Shanxi merchants. How can the southern merchants of the Ming Dynasty not feel anxious?
Although some southern merchants have gone north in the past two years, these merchants are not big merchants, and many of them cooperate with northern merchants to participate in maritime trade. In the south, except for Zheng Zhilong's Zheng family, other wealthy merchants can only watch with envy.

Now Yuan Chongyu proposed that he should cooperate directly with southern merchants in the name of the Park family of Korea and bypass Shandong for maritime trade with Korea. In this way, a second maritime trade route could be opened up. It is conceivable how huge the benefits would be.

Moreover, Yuan Chongyu said that as long as the South agreed, he could make the final decision on the Korean side. Whether it was silk, porcelain, cotton cloth, grain, ironware or other goods, he could underwrite them all, and even sell them at a price 30% higher than that sold by the South to the Northern merchants.

Hearing this, Yang Dehua's eyes suddenly lit up, and he quickly asked if this was serious.
Yuan Chongyu nodded vigorously to show that he was serious, and took out a list of goods that he had prepared long ago from his arms. There were many goods and their prices written on it, and handed it over with both hands.

Yang Dehua took it and looked through it carefully. He couldn't help showing his joy on his face. If calculated according to the price in the booklet, the profit was extremely lucrative. As long as he sent out a few boats and made a trip to the sea, the money would flow into his pocket like water. How could Yang Dehua not be envious?
However, although he was tempted, Yang Dehua did not agree immediately. After suppressing his joy, he pretended to put the list aside and said that the matter was too big and he could not make a decision at the moment. He needed to consider it carefully before giving Yuan Chongyu an answer.

(End of this chapter)