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

Chapter 336: Advantages of the Sea
Renshou Palace.

When the Empress Dowager heard that the accounting school run by Zhou Nan was successful, a smile appeared on her face.

Now the two marquises of the Zhang family have become complete clowns. The harder they mocked the Zhou family before, the more embarrassed they must be now.

In Kunning Palace, Empress Zhang was so angry when she heard that the Zhou family's school was successful.

It’s not that he is jealous of the Zhou family, but more because he is disappointed in his two younger brothers who are just jumping around like clowns.

The success of Zhou's school had a huge impact. Many powerful relatives in Peking began to follow the Zhou family's example. A group of powerful people even started to run medical schools, architectural schools, etc.

The two brothers of the Zhang family were naturally shameless. What was the use of having face if they couldn't make any money? So they went back that day and started looking for the Imperial Hospital.

However, the Imperial Medical Service would naturally not transfer anyone out to teach.

But in the end, the Zhang brothers found the dismissed imperial physician Yao Liyao, and the two sides hit it off. Soon, the Zhang family began planning to open a medical school.

In short, all the powerful see is profit and money.

But there were still some scholars and officials who were furious at this time. The educational philosophy they adhered to was still that Confucian education was the orthodox one.

Now that an unhealthy trend has emerged in the country, these scholars and officials will naturally jump out to oppose it. On the one hand, the imperial censors have come forward to impeach, and on the other hand, Duke Yansheng in Shandong has come personally from Shandong to the capital in a threatening manner!

……

Sophora japonica alley.

Xie Duo, the chief priest, sat on a stone bench in Chen Ce's courtyard, drinking tea while reminding Chen Ce, "Duke Yansheng is here with bad intentions this time!"

Chen Ce said indifferently: "It has nothing to do with me. The school is run by the Zhou family. If Duke Yansheng comes to Beijing, let him talk to the Zhou family."

Xie Duo laughed and shook his head, saying, "Duke Yansheng is not a fool. He knows that the Zhou family is the top foreign relatives of the Ming Dynasty. He also knows that no one will support him if he argues with them."

Xie Jijiu stared at Chen Ce and said calmly, "So he would settle for the second best and come to trouble you!"

amount.

Chen Ce was puzzled: "What does this have to do with me?"

Xie Duo smiled and said, "The two marquises of the Zhang family are afraid of being humiliated by the Zhou family. Recently, they have been stubbornly saying among the powerful and wealthy that the idea of ​​opening a school was not something the Zhou family could have come up with at all. They said that it was you who came up with it, and you are their student, so in fact, it was their own idea."

Chen Ce: “…”

These two brothers are so talented that Chen Ce didn’t know what to say for a moment.

Xie Duo smiled and said, "The Zhang brothers don't have a good reputation in the capital. How come you are hanging out with them? They even swore that you were their student. Is that true? Or are they just talking nonsense?"

"If you're really talking nonsense, you'd better come forward and explain it."

Chen Ce shook his head and said, "It's not nonsense. This is a long story. Let's take a step back. What's the point of explaining it? Those who don't want to believe it won't believe it, and those who are willing to believe it will only make things worse no matter how you explain it. Most importantly, it will waste my time and energy."

Xie Duo said with admiration: "You are quite calm. Who doesn't cherish their reputation? You are the first one."

"The Duke of Yansheng will arrive in the capital soon, and he will definitely come to settle accounts with you. He is an orthodox Confucian, and he certainly does not want to see the Confucian scholars of the world learning these unorthodox ways without making progress."

"To put it more seriously, you have affected the foundation of Confucianism's rule over China for thousands of years. You are digging up the tomb of the Confucius family! He, the Duke of Yansheng, doesn't dare to cause trouble for the Zhou family, but he dares to cause trouble for you."

"Although there are people in the court who are protecting you, the Kong family has a great influence in the hearts of Ming scholars, and the people in the court can't do anything to him."

"Have you thought about how to deal with it?" Chen Ce said indifferently, "It's just an old man anyway. We'll talk about it when the time comes. It won't cause any big trouble."

Chen Ce still did not take the Yanshenggong Kong family seriously.

Xie Duo uttered an "oh" with a sly look on his face, "I am looking forward to it. I want to see what sparks will come out between you and Duke Yansheng. I think it will be very exciting."

Chen Ce: “…”

……

southeast.

When large numbers of textile machines and textile merchants flocked to the southeast, the textile industry indeed became more and more prosperous.

In fact, from the moment the imperial court encouraged the development of commerce, businesses in all walks of life in the Ming Dynasty began to expand unscrupulously and gradually turned into disorderly expansion.

The profits brought by business were so huge that even some big landlords in the southeast and south of the Yangtze River had no time to merge lands and instead turned their attention to more profitable businesses.

Just as Chen Ce predicted to the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Works, as commercial profits grow, land annexation will gradually decrease.

Everything is developing according to Chen Ce's prediction.

The increase in business in various industries in the southeast and Jiangnan, especially the textile industry, made the Fu family's profits lower and lower.

Fu Yuan had already made a countermeasure before. They had smuggled the cloth they produced to Japan, Ryukyu, Luzon, Korea, Manchuria and other countries by sea.

The first batch of profits from maritime smuggling has already come out. Their fleet can bring back tens of thousands of silver with just one trip out to sea.

The profits earned from textiles alone are more than five times that of inland areas!

There were already many smuggling merchants in the southeast, and now seeing that the Fu family was making money overseas, there were more and more smuggling merchants in the southeast.

Fu Yuan knew that no matter how much wealth the Fu family had, it would not be safe. He had long ago asked Fu Han to build good relations with the officials in the southeast. A small half of the money the Fu family earned would be distributed to the officials in various departments in the southeast.

The overseas world is dangerous, and the Fu family's fleet does not always return with a full load. Occasionally, they will encounter pirates, which forces the Fu family to train some thugs and guards to go out to sea with the maritime caravan.

In short, the scale of smuggling in the southeast is getting bigger and bigger.

Xu Jing sent all the information to Peking via letter.

When Chen Ce saw that the Fu family had successfully started smuggling on the sea, he finally felt relieved.

Everything is going according to their plan. With Fu Yuan taking the lead, it won't be long before the smuggling groups in the southeast become bigger and bigger. The smugglers in the southeast will eventually stick together for warmth. As the scale gets bigger and bigger, it won't be long before the imperial court will pay attention to the maritime smuggling in the southeast!

However, if the officials in the southeast do not report it proactively, it seems that it will not be easy for the court to know about smuggling in the southeast.

Chen Ce couldn't let Xu Jing write to the court, so he needed an imperial censor to take the initiative to go to the southeast to discover the smuggling of merchants in the southeast.

……

In the thirteenth year of Hongzhi’s reign, on the tenth day of the eighth month, it was close to the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The project of Hong Zhong, the Right Deputy Censor of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, in Chaohechuan is about to be completed. When Chen Ce heard the news, he fell into deep thought.

(End of this chapter)