Ming Dynasty: Traveling through the harem, Zhu Yuanzhang was dumbfounded

Chapter 180 Discussion Meeting
"Master Cui, when will Lord Yang show up? It's been more than a few hours. If he can't show up, don't lie to us."

"That's right, Master Cui. The four of us have risked our lives to come to your Zhenjiang Prefecture from Jiangnan. If we can't see Lord Yang in the end, wouldn't we have wasted our time in vain?"

"It's such a good business. It would be a pity if we couldn't work together to do business together."

"Boss Cui, you have goods, and we have multiple business channels. As long as we work together, we will definitely make a fortune. Believe me, this can be accomplished. You are also a businessman, can't you see what this represents?"

Cui Dongjia, Cui Shulan's biological father, was surrounded by four people at this moment, from the naked eye.

In Zhenjiang Prefecture, Mr. Cui was always called Mr. Cui.

At that time, Mr. Cui was also very confused by the advice of his colleagues. He had clearly asked his daughter to look for Yang Chen in advance, so how come he hadn't seen any trace of the other party until now?

This is really strange. You know, he had calculated the other party's schedule and arranged the meeting today.

Unexpectedly, Yang Chen was different from before. Not to mention showing up, even his shadow could not be seen.

"Everyone! Can you let me say a few words? Lord Yang is usually very busy. Even if you rack my brains, I still don't know what Lord Yang is doing at this moment. The only thing I can tell you is one thing.

If Lord Yang doesn't want you, even if you pay him a fortune, Lord Yang will never come out."

It would have been better if he didn't say anything, but once he opened his mouth, others were greatly disappointed.

The four businessmen who appeared in this room were named Qian, Fan, Ma, and Liu. They were all representatives jointly nominated by the Chamber of Commerce in the Jiangnan region. Their purpose was to obtain endorsements for industrial products such as Yang Chen.

Since Lan Yu started to purge the Jiangnan region, most merchants have been reduced to banding together for warmth, because if they didn't, they would have gone bankrupt long ago.

In order to regain their wealthy status, the merchants set their sights on Yang Chen's goods.

Once they get the source of goods, they can comply with Zhu Yuanzhang's will and recycle all the items that can be sold at the lowest price, load them onto ships, and transport them to Southeast Asia or even further via ocean routes.

Unfortunately, there was almost no chance to communicate with Yang Chen. With no other options left, they set their sights on Mr. Cui.

They spent a lot of time and effort to get such an opportunity, but Mr. Cui told them that they might not be able to see Yang Chen today.

How can we make them feel willing?

"Alas! For the sake of people's livelihood, His Majesty sent General Lan to Jiangnan to reclaim the land. All the land accumulated by my family has been contributed. Now only one tenth of it is left. If I cannot reach an agreement on this deal with Lord Yang today, from now on, I am afraid that my Fan family will never be able to rise again!"

"Merchants cannot fight against the royal family. This has been a rule for thousands of years. We don't have any soldiers, so there is nothing we can do about it.

But this doesn't mean we have to sit and wait for death.

Although your majesty ordered General Lan to go to Jiangnan to clear up everything, didn't he still leave us a way out?"

"What Mr. Fan said makes sense. I heard some time ago that His Majesty is determined to wipe out all the Japanese pirates in the coastal areas. Without the obstruction of these Japanese pirates, there would not be so many risks in Nanyang, and we would be able to do business better.

The premise is that we can have goods that overseas countries don't have. The only trouble now is that Lord Yang never shows up. What should we do?"

"Mr. Cui, can't you go and look for him?"

The four people's eyes fell on Mr. Cui again. Facing everyone's expectant gazes, Mr. Cui shook his head and said:
"Impossible. It's true that Lord Yang is kind on weekdays, but it's also true that he can be very scary when he's angry. No one can disturb his plans, otherwise..."

Just when Mr. Cui was thinking of a way to warn a few people, Yang Chen's voice unexpectedly rang out outside the door.

"I say, old man Cui, you started making up my lies when I was not around. No wonder so many servants outside looked at me so strangely. This must be all thanks to you."

The moment the young and energetic voice sounded, everyone looked towards the door.

Yang Chen was seen walking towards them.

The moment they saw Yang Chen's face clearly, the four of them were shocked. Although they had known that Lord Yang was young, they did not expect him to be so young. He looked extremely energetic, many times better than these bearded guys.

"Master Yang! My Master Yang! We have been waiting for you for so long, and finally you are here!"

Mr. Cui walked forward with tears and snot, and when Yang Chen sat down, he quickly poured tea for him. The other four men stood up one after another, not daring to be negligent in the slightest.

In fact, they were just worried that Yang Chen would think that they, a group of businessmen, were not qualified to be on an equal footing with him, an official.

In fact, the attitude of most people in the Ming Dynasty towards merchants is very complicated. Although these people can bring a lot of wealth, they are always bullied by some officials.

This is why almost every emperor in the Ming Dynasty would encounter a very troublesome problem.

So many bad debts!
The Ming Dynasty had too many bad debts, especially during the Jiajing period, when officials abused their power and plundered countless wealth from the people. Every time they encountered a bad debt, there were only two solutions.

The first is to make the people suffer by increasing taxes, causing them to complain.

The second method is to exploit wealthy businessmen by randomly accusing them of a false crime, then finding an opportunity to kill them and confiscate all their property.

In this process, officials can embezzle some money. In short, there are plenty of ways to deal with it, but they will not let the knife fall on themselves.

Because of the influence of the idea that businessmen cannot compete with officials, many businessmen, even though they have a lot of money, dare not yell at any officials.

Has anyone ever tried to ignore officials by relying on their wealth?

Of course there were, but their endings were very miserable. In the Ming Dynasty, if you have money, you can do whatever you want in your own home, as long as it is not exposed.

However, once it is exposed, you will be in trouble. At the very least, all your property will be confiscated, and at worst, your entire family may lose their lives.

Seeing that everyone was afraid of him, Yang Chen smiled.

"Don't be nervous, everyone. I know that the purpose of your coming here today is to obtain first-hand sources of goods, sell my good things to other countries, and gain huge profits. Since you are doing business, then I will be frank. I have actually wanted to do this business for a long time, but I have never had much time. Now it's good, I am very happy that you can come.

So, we are all business partners, there is no need to be so reserved, just sit down quickly."

Seeing that Lord Yang in front of them was so amiable and easy to talk to, many people began to let down their guard and really sat down with ease.

However, although they were relaxed, they did not dare to speak aloud. They all stammered, just like Nuwa who was waiting to be married.

"So am I really that scary?" Yang Chen's interesting words broke everyone's silence, and the official surnamed Qian echoed:

"No, no, Lord Yang, please don't say that. It's just that we are all amazed by your ability. Since we entered Zhenjiang Prefecture, we have heard how the people praised you, the Imperial Censor.

Not only did you purge the former bureaucrats at the fastest speed, but you also led the people to a better future. Judging from the current situation, I think Yangzhou Prefecture in Jiangnan is probably not as good as the Zhenjiang Prefecture under your command. "

"Yes, Lord Yang, we have seen capable officials before. In the past, Qingzhou Prefecture had an imperial censor who also worked in the Metropolitan Censorate. His name was Yang Xian. With his abilities, he was able to restore the people's livelihood in Qingzhou Prefecture from the war in less than five years.

Such an achievement can leave a name in the local area for a long time. In my opinion, your ability is even greater, and it is not impossible for you to leave a name for thousands of years in the future."

"Yang Xian?"

Yang Chen muttered to himself that he actually knew this person. He was once a student under Liu Bowen. Unfortunately, he was too eager for quick success.

In order to be in the best condition for Zhu Yuanzhang's inspection, this guy adulterated the information in Qingzhou Prefecture at all costs. However, he was discovered by Hu Weiyong, who exposed his true face.

At that time, Yang Xian issued a military order, stating that if Qingzhou Prefecture was not rebuilt to accommodate 500,000 people, he would be beheaded.

As a result, there were less than 300,000 people in Qingzhou Prefecture at that time, still far from 500,000.

The fraud was exposed and dealt with, and Yang Xian was beheaded as he had promised to Zhu Yuanzhang.

"Today we are not going to talk about these things, but business. May I ask what kind of business you are running in Jiangnan? Why don't you tell me anything?"

"I wonder what you want to know, sir?"

Seeing that Yang Chen spoke frankly, the shopkeeper surnamed Qian didn't waste any words and asked directly.

Looking at everyone, Yang Chen said calmly:
"Since you are all doing business, if I can't understand what kind of business you are doing, how should I distribute it next is also a problem. Let's put it this way, Manager Qian is the first person who dares to talk to me.

In that case, why don't you tell me what you do, or what business your family is best at?"

Yang Chen already had this plan before coming. He had to first understand the skills of all the merchants before he would choose to hand over anything he had on hand to them.

When the crowd, who originally thought that Censor Yang was difficult to talk to, heard this, they were stunned.

Shopkeeper Qian also became bolder, cleared his throat and said:

"Since Censor Yang has spoken in this way, I will not be polite.

Like several of them, I am from Suzhou and Hangzhou, but my ancestors are not from Suzhou and Hangzhou. They are from Qian Liu, the king of Wuyue in the Five Dynasties. I am a descendant of his third branch.

My ancestors originally lived in the north, but because of the continuous wars, they fled to Hangzhou. Since then, my grandfather started to run a business. After all, there were too many descendants, and it was impossible to support the whole family by farming alone.

Starting from my father, all our predecessors have made a living on the sea. My family alone has dozens of boats, which are usually responsible for operating supplies and selling them in the south.

As for the things we sell, they are basically daily necessities, so the business run by my Qian family has everything.”

After learning about the Qian family's capabilities, Yang Chen had a rough idea in his mind that this family made a living by sailing.

In other words, the other party may be better than others in terms of transportation capabilities.

What the other party said next really proved his guess.

"Master Yang, you may not know that in Suzhou and Hangzhou, in addition to the ships of my own family, my Qian family also has ships of branch branches. Adding up all the ships, it is not an exaggeration to say that there are hundreds of ships."

Yang Chen raised his hand to signal the other party not to say anything yet, as he had his own considerations.

After a moment he asked what the others were good at, or more precisely, what business their families were good at.

The Fan family mainly runs a scented fabric business, and most women in the south spend money on their weddings.

The Ma family is in charge of transportation, that is, the escort agency. They have many capable men under their command, most of whom are members of the Ma family. When they go out, the escort agency is basically maintained by the Ma family.

After finding out what everyone was doing, Yang Chen spoke directly and briefly.

"Very good. We are all here to do business, but I need to make it clear in advance that if you do business here, you must obey my instructions. Otherwise, you will have to go back to where you came from. Who is in favor and who is against?"

"I agree! Everyone in the Qian family will obey Lord Yang's orders. As long as Lord Yang says so, we can do anything, as long as Lord Yang is willing to lead us!"

"That's right! The same is true for my Ma family. When it comes to business, we absolutely follow Lord Yang's lead!"

Shopkeeper Qian has a good eye. Before anyone can react, he takes the initiative to state his position.

Yang Chen is becoming more and more appreciative of this guy.

Next, here is his view on business.

"First of all, the word business is nothing more than you buy and I buy. I classify the entire Ming Dynasty as a huge economic market. In this market, we are the middlemen, responsible for selling various commodities.

Right now I have fine salt, fertilizers that can increase people's crops, exquisite and extremely pure "gems", perfumes, soaps, and all kinds of rare treasures that you have never seen before.

To put it bluntly, if any of these goods were to end up in any country outside the Ming Dynasty's waters, it would cause a huge wave.

If you can open up overseas markets, making money will be just like printing money, and you can earn hundreds of thousands of silver dollars a day without doing anything."

At this moment, Yang Chen was like a salesman, placing all the valuable items in front of everyone.

They looked at them one by one and chose whichever one they liked.

Regarding these dazzling items, the four of them certainly understood how profound the meaning behind them was.

As long as they can get one of them, it will be enough for them to have food and drink for the rest of their lives, and even for their descendants.

(End of this chapter)