Ming Dynasty: I risked my life to teach the prince, the emperor begged me not to die

Chapter 139 Can’t guess

Forbidden City, the Imperial Palace.

Today's small court meeting determined the test questions for this year's imperial examination. They are very difficult, especially the eight-legged essay, which is particularly difficult compared to previous years.

As the small court meeting was about to end, the six ministries of the cabinet started a heated debate on whether to ban Shuntian Press, as proposed by Censor Yuan Fang.

People led by the Minister of Personnel Ni Yue believed that with the development of newspapers, there would inevitably be some excited people who would expound some exaggerated views in order to attract attention.

It is inevitable that there will be people with ulterior motives who use newspapers to stir up public opinion, causing the people to be exploited by evil people and so on.

The ministers headed by Liu Jian of the cabinet believed that as long as the distribution of newspapers was controlled, it could help educate the people. Moreover, it is more difficult to prevent people from speaking than to prevent rivers from flooding. It is not wise to simply prevent people from speaking.

Ni Yue asked the cabinet, "Lord Liu, as business develops in the future, once the benefits of newspapers are discovered, newspapers will spring up all over the country. How difficult will it be to control them? Some businessmen just need to open a newspaper and publish some outrageous opinions. How can we prevent them?"

"The mountains are high and the emperor is far away. It may not work in the capital, let alone in other places."

Emperor Hongzhi held his hands down and said to Ni Yue, "Mr. Ni, you are simply worried that there will be too many newspaper businessmen in the future, and it will be difficult for the court to control them, right?"

Ni Yue bowed and said, "The Holy Emperor is wise."

Emperor Hongzhi smiled and said, "That's simple. Why does the court need to control so many things? Isn't it enough to just focus on this one newspaper? Isn't it enough for the court to focus on this one newspaper?"

"Just like the wine and salt industries in the Han and Tang dynasties, not allowing them to proliferate, and allowing newspapers to educate the people, this is not a bad thing."

Emperor Hongzhi's idea was very simple. He would allow only one newspaper company, Shuntian Press, to be opened in the entire Ming Dynasty to curb the entry of other merchants. The court only needed to guard against Shuntian Press alone, and the problem would be solved.

Liu Jian cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty is wise, this is a good strategy."

When Emperor Hongzhi finished speaking, most of the six ministries in the cabinet knew Emperor Hongzhi's attitude towards newspapers.

You can open newspapers, but you can’t open too many. Just one newspaper is enough for the people to know the latest news in the world.

If the imperial court were to ban Shuntian Press now, it would inevitably lead to public criticism, which would not be a wise move.

In fact, there is another way, legislation.

However, making special laws for a single business obviously went against the ancestral teachings of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang did not like businessmen in the first place, and if a separate law was made for a single business, the civil servants would basically not agree.

So there can only be two possible outcomes in the end: either other merchants are not allowed to enter and the court supervises Shuntian Press alone, or Shuntian Press is banned.

But it is known that Emperor Hongzhi knew that the founder of Shuntian Press was his own son, so he would definitely choose the former.

This was something Chen Ce had already anticipated in his mind, and it was also the information that Chen Ce filtered out after Emperor Hongzhi went to see Chen Ce a few days ago.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have teased Fu Yuan, the fool, these two days.

Because Chen Ce had already speculated based on known conditions that it would be impossible for any businessman in Shuntian or even the entire Ming Dynasty to set foot in the newspaper industry!

So no matter how much money Fu Yuan spent on purchasing press releases, it would be in vain and a waste of money in the end.

Chen Ce deliberately raised the price for Fu Yuan just to make him lose more money!
Finally, this small court meeting set the basic tone for the future of the newspaper, and the next step was for the Ministry of Rites to announce it to the world.

……

In the evening, Zhu Houzhao found Chen Ce with his anger still lingering.

"Little brother! Are you really not going to fight?"

"Are you short of money? Don't worry, I'll get the money. We should fight for it. We can't fall behind!"

Chen Ce smiled and said, "No need to argue."

"The results will be out in the next two days at most."

Zhu Houzhao asked in confusion: "What is the result?"

Chen Ce smiled and said, "Others can't enter."

"Just talking about the newspaper industry, I'm afraid there won't be any more businessmen in the entire Ming Dynasty who can open another newspaper."

Zhu Houzhao looked at Chen Ce suspiciously and asked, "Why...?"

"It's impossible that the court will order the control of this business alone, right?" Chen Ce said: "Yes."

Ok?
Zhu Houzhao scratched his head: "Why?"

Why am I so unbelievable?
Why?

Chen Ce smiled and said, "That's it anyway, so there's no need to continue arguing with the other party."

"I restored the price to its original price, and once the other party gave up, he would not accept any more manuscripts."

"I can still buy those manuscripts that he paid a high price for by paying another five cents."

Zhu Houzhao: "..."

"If that's the case, the other party will be so angry that he will vomit blood... No, are you really so sure that the court will not allow anyone to open a newspaper again?"

Zhu Houzhao complained in his heart, thinking that he was not confident enough to let his father do such a decisive thing, not to mention that the court also had those civil servants in the cabinet and six ministries.

Can you figure out their psychology?
Chen Ce said calmly: "Wait and see, at most in these two days, the results will come out."

"But……"

Zhu Houzhao wanted to say more, but Chen Ce ended the topic, which made Zhu Houzhao feel very uncomfortable.

……

The servant of the Fu family told Fu Yuan that Yin Ping'er was a prostitute and the man with her, Yang Yuzhen, was not Yin Ping'er's husband.

Fu Yuan was very disappointed when he heard the news. Since she was not someone else's wife, then forget it.

His mind was now fully focused on Chen Ce's words, and he had no time to think about Yin Ping'er at this moment. He waved his hand casually and let the servant leave.

However, a remark from the servant of the Fu Mansion caught Fu Yuan's attention.

"Wait, you said that Yang Yuzhen's family runs a bookstore?"

The servant of the Fu Mansion nodded and said, "Master, the Yang family's bookstore business in Shuntian Prefecture is not big, but it is not small either. There are four or five stores."

Fu Yuan didn't know what he was thinking, and suddenly asked in a playful tone, "So Yang Yuzhen is in love with Yin Ping'er?"

The servant said respectfully, "Yes."

Fu Yuan smiled and said, "Interesting."

"Please find time to invite Yin Ping'er to your house."

"Old slave, let's do it now."

After sending the servant away, Fu Yuan began to think about what Chen Ce said in Tongji Canal this afternoon. His confident expression and mysterious words always made Fu Yuan feel that he seemed to have considered something wrong.

But after thinking about it for an entire afternoon, he really couldn't figure out where the problem was, which made him feel uneasy and irritated.

"Big brother."

Fu Wan came over from a distance and said to Fu Yuan, "We have bribed several big bookstore merchants in Peking and spent several thousand taels of silver."

"Brother, what are you doing? Why are you suddenly swallowing up so many bookstore merchants?"

Fu Yuan looked at him and finally shook his head and said, "Forget it, you don't need to know so much. It's useless to know it."

"Show me the information about the annexation merchants."

Fu Wan said "oh". He knew that his elder brother was extremely smart, cunning, and had a strong desire to control, so he basically did whatever his elder brother told him to do.

"it is good."

Fu Yuan glanced casually for a while, and suddenly his eyes lit up.

It turns out that among this group of merchants is the largest supplier of Yang's bookstore. That saves a lot of trouble. It is just the right opportunity to bankrupt the Yang family completely and then take over their bookstore at a low price.

(End of this chapter)