Ming Dynasty: My Father Zhang Juzheng

Chapter 120 Dong Daming Chamber of Commerce

The Aoshan Lantern Festival ended with laughter and joy. With the lights going out, the festive atmosphere of the New Year in Beijing officially dissipated.

In the early morning of that day, the wind was light and the clouds were thin. The distant mountains were vast and the thin mist slowly dissipated. The streets and alleys of Beijing were filled with sounds of cursing, shouting, and yelling.

The new year has officially begun.

Zhang Yunxiu's carriage drove into Fugui Street and finally arrived in front of Tianxian Building on the street.

As soon as the carriage stopped, Zhang Yunxiu lifted the curtain, bent down and walked out. The waiter in charge of welcoming him smiled and said, "Master, Manager Hao is already waiting for you upstairs."

"Ah."

Zhang Yunxiu nodded slightly and walked in holding up his robe.

Walking through the hall, Zhang Yunxiu went up the escalator. Suddenly, a hearty laugh rang out from the stairs: "Oh, Master Zhang, you are finally willing to come and see me this time. It was extremely difficult to see you in the past."

Zhang Yunxiu raised his head and looked up. Hao Ren had wrapped himself up into a ball and was standing at the stairs with a smile on his face.

"Manager Hao, when you say this, are you scolding me?" Zhang Yunxiu said jokingly with a smile.

Hao Ren waved his hands repeatedly and rushed down with his feet.

Because he was wearing thick clothes, he staggered when he walked, which looked very funny. Zhang Yunxiu was afraid that he would fall, so he hurried forward to catch him.

The two of them went up to the box on the third floor, refilled their tea, lit the incense, and the maids tactfully withdrew.

Hao Ren smiled flatteringly, stood up and poured a cup of tea for Zhang Yunxiu, then blinked his eyes and asked, "Mr. Zhang, last time I said that our two families would do business together, so would you raise your hand again for the share?"

Thirty-seven open.

Seventy percent of it still belongs to others.

This made him, as the one who paid for it, feel a little uncomfortable.

"Why, you think it's too much?" Zhang Yunxiu took the tea, took a sip, and glanced at Hao Ren. "I'm not lying to you. We plan to set up a big chamber of commerce. If you invest money now, it will be considered as a shareholder. We will guide you for fun. If you want to invest again later, it will be difficult."

"Mr. Zhang, this 30%."

"Twenty percent."

"You are a little too overbearing,"

"One percent."

Zhang Yunxiu raised a finger slowly and leisurely. Hao Ren knew that his momentum had been lost, so he could only smile and say: "30% is 30%. It is our blessing to be able to make money with Master Zhang. We dare not expect anything else."

Wouldn't it have been better if you had said this earlier? Why do we have to waste our breath on this?

Rolling his eyes at Hao Ren, Zhang Yunxiu complained: "Although you have invested a lot of money now, we have also spent a lot of manpower and relationships. Each of these things requires a lot of money to take care of."

"These days, if you don't have rice in your hand, you can't even coax a chicken."

"Yes, yes, that's right." Hao Ren nodded and bowed, smiling apologetically.

"As long as you work hard, we won't lose you anything." Zhang Yunxiu smiled and continued to paint a big picture for him, "Think about it, our business is small now, 30% doesn't seem like much to you."

"When our business grows bigger in the future, that 30% will definitely exceed your imagination."

"How big?"

“It’s bigger than the tax revenue in Jiangnan.”

Zhang Yunxiu boasted arrogantly.

hiss.
Hao Ren's teeth trembled, his face full of disbelief.

"Can it really be that big?"

"You doubt me?"

Hao Ren shook his head repeatedly, but the expression on his face directly revealed his inner thoughts.

“Not to mention that you don’t believe it, even I didn’t quite believe it at first, but the gross profit from this will definitely exceed your imagination in the future.

Then you can have as much labor as you want and as much land as you want."

If you don't believe it, then why are you making such big promises to us?

Hao Ren curled his lips, but when he spoke, he forced a smile on his face: "Since the young master has said so, then I won't think about those things anymore, just follow the young master to make money."

"That's the name of this Chamber of Commerce. Sir, have you thought about it?"

"I've thought it through." Zhang Yunxiu smiled, stood up, stared into Hao Ren's eyes, and said word by word, "Let's call it the 'East Daming Chamber of Commerce'. We'll use this banner when we go out to sea."

"Eastern Daming Chamber of Commerce?" Hao Ren murmured, alert in his heart, "Sir, isn't it a bit too ostentatious for our chamber of commerce to have the word 'Daming' in it? Will the leaders above agree to it?"

If the emperor has agreed, it’s of no use if others don’t agree.

Besides, our emperor is still the major shareholder.

"Don't worry, it's not your turn to think about these things. When the warships are gathered in the spring of next year, we will go to Korea first, and then to Japan."

Hearing Zhang Yunxiu's words, Hao Ren finally felt relieved. He clapped his hands and shouted outside, "What are you waiting for? Serve us the food."

After the two men had eaten and drunk their fill, Zhang Yunxiu still had some things to do, so he had no intention of talking to Hao Ren about wild cotton. He only told him to recruit more young and strong men.

"Don't worry, sir. I understand the seriousness of this matter." Hao Ren nodded in response.

Afterwards, the two of them left the restaurant together and then left separately.

On the way back, Zhang Yunxiu sat cross-legged in the carriage, and the major and minor events of the past year kept emerging in his mind.

From helping the emperor make money, defeating Zhang Jing, and then helping Lao Zhang lay off monks and Taoists.

This year's hard work finally allowed him to gain a firm foothold, and now he has his own base.

Of course, all the power he has now is borrowed.

He was just an incarnation of the emperor walking outside the palace, and he knew his position very well.

He would not confront the emperor head-on like Lao Zhang did.

The emperor could not have made a mistake. If he did, it must be that person deliberately looking for trouble.

Just as I was thinking about it, snowflakes as big as rice grains began to fall in Beijing again. The cold wind was howling, lifting the car curtains and bringing in a gust of biting cold wind.

Zhang Yunxiu shuddered and urged, "Hurry up and go to Han San's house."

"Yes."

The driver nodded and whipped the horse whip, and the carriage rushed out for a distance. About two quarters of an hour later, Zhang Yunxiu arrived at Han San's mansion.

This is a large mansion with three courtyards and three rooms. It was originally owned by a wealthy businessman in the capital. In order to make friends with Zhang Yunxiu, he originally gave it to Zhang Yunxiu.

Zhang Yunxiu thought this place was a bit remote, and since Han Sanba was working so hard for him, he had to give him some benefits.

Zhang Yunxiu waved his hand and gave the house to Han San to live in.

When he stepped into the mansion, he saw Han San, wearing a casual home suit, leaning on an armchair in the hall of the mansion. On each side of him was a beautiful lady with half her breasts exposed, massaging his shoulders and legs.

On his right side, sat a young woman who was about twenty years old.

That was Han San’s first wife, Wang Lan.

"San'er, you are so awesome now." Wang Lan glanced at her husband's enjoying expression and snorted sourly.

"I've told you that you are not allowed to call me San'er anymore. You have to call me Master. Do you understand?" Han San opened his eyes and shouted at his wife angrily, "Look at you. You are still wearing these tattered clothes. You don't look like a Master or his wife at all."

"Where is it torn?" Wang Lan looked down and said, "This is the new clothes you bought for us when we got married, using the money you saved for a long time."

"That's all in the past." Han San felt a little guilty.

"No matter how far we go, we can't forget our roots, right?" Wang Lan frowned, and carefully recalled the time they had spent together. "I still like the alleyway we used to live in. Although there are a lot of different people living there, it's still human."

"It's not like here. We don't feel at ease living here."

Han San waved his hand to let the maid go, then turned his head, stared at his wife with a sallow complexion and asked, "You stink all day long, is that what you call human smell?"

"That's better than here."

"You stupid woman, you've been toiling all your life." Han San cursed and urged, "Okay, go make us two big pancakes and cook us two bowls of millet porridge. We're hungry."

"Hey."

Wang Lan nodded in agreement and stood up to leave, but a joking voice interrupted her: "Make us another big pancake, so that we can taste your wife's cooking skills."

Han San looked towards the entrance of the hall and suddenly fell off his chair: "Sir, why are you here? If you have anything to say, just send someone to let me know."

"What do you want to know?"

Zhang Yunxiu shook his head, walked in, and sat down on the chair on the left.

Han San wanted to invite Zhang Yunxiu to sit in the main seat. Zhang Yunxiu motioned him to sit down. Han San sat on the bench, ready to get up at any time.

"Boss, what's this?" It was the first time that Wang Lan saw her husband like this, and she pointed at Zhang Yunxiu and asked curiously.

"Why is a woman asking about this? Why don't you go and make pancakes for the young master and us?" Han San waved his hand impatiently and scolded.

"Oh, okay."

Wang Lan smiled at the two of them and walked away.

"You are so impressive, Brother Han San?"

Zhang Yunxiu chuckled and couldn't help but teasing.

When Han San heard this, his knees went weak and he fell off the chair with a plop, begging for mercy: "Master, Master, this is too much for me."

"Okay, I don't want to bother with your nonsense." Zhang Yunxiu waved his hand and said, "Li Ergou, you have been training for several months, how is your training going now?"

"This boy is still a man, and he has a ruthless nature. As long as you can control his wife, he will definitely not dare to have any second thoughts." Han San replied respectfully.

"That's good. We plan to send a fleet in March with Eunuch Zheng's sea chart to explore the south. We will record the map while exploring."

"Master, have you chosen this Li Ergou as your leader?"

Zhang Yunxiu nodded, stood up and walked to the wall, looking at a painting on it, muttering to himself: "This is his chance. If he can explore a few more times and find out the route clearly, we will definitely get his reward in the future.

If he unfortunately dies, it is his fate, and we cannot be blamed."

"Okay, I'll prepare it right away. I wonder how many ships you plan to send out?" Han San asked respectfully.

"About thirty ships. Except for two large ships, the rest will be replaced by medium-sized ships. Tell those who go out to sea that if they can come back alive and find out the route, each person will be rewarded with 300 taels of silver."

Under the reward, there must be a brave man.

Zhang Yunxiu was convinced that as long as the reward was high enough, these gamblers would give it a try.

Han San tilted his ear, wishing he could write down every word.

After Zhang Yunxiu finished speaking, Han San looked up at him and asked respectfully, "Sir, do you have any other instructions?"

"Not yet,"

Zhang Yunxiu said this and sat back in his original position.

At this time, Wang Lan came in with steaming pancakes and sauces. "Here, boss, let's eat. Today's sauce is specially brought from our old neighbor."

"Please come in first, sir." Han San smiled and stretched out his hand to push the plate of pancakes towards Zhang Yunxiu.

"This is your home. If we take over, your tigress will eat us alive." Zhang Yunxiu pointed at Wang Lan, who had a dark face and a black head, and laughed.

"She's not a tigress, she's just a female cat at best." Han San pouted, pointed at Wang Lan and ordered, "Go down and have a rest, I'll be with you here."

"Oh."

Wang Lan responded respectfully and left in a flash.

"You married a good wife." Zhang Yunxiu tore off a corner of the cake, put it into his mouth and chewed it carefully, letting the sweet wheat aroma spread in his mouth.

"Yes, when she wanted to marry me, her father didn't agree. I was the one who insisted and finally got her in marriage." Han San scratched his head and a simple smile appeared on his sharp face.

"Then why don't you be gentler to others?"

Zhang Yunxiu curled his lips and asked back.

"My dear, you don't know this, my wife is like this. If you speak loudly to her and act like the boss, she will be happy. But if you speak softly and talk about etiquette with her, she will be like drinking rat poison."

Han San grinned and explained to Zhang Yunxiu in a low voice.

"Interesting, interesting."

Zhang Yunxiu smiled and shook his head, then stood up, patted Han San on the shoulder, and ordered, "You must treat your wife well in the future, otherwise we will not forgive you."

"Little understands."

(End of this chapter)