The destiny of all heavens begins in the Red Chamber

As for Prince Chungshun's ambitious plans, they were naturally hidden within his astonishing overseas trade.

Of course, some of his thoughts were revealed naturally or unnaturally without alerting the other members of the royal family.

They were all sons of the retired emperor; which one of them didn't harbor boundless ambitions?

Most importantly, the current emperor's performance is far from that of a wise and enlightened ruler; otherwise, he wouldn't have been suppressed by the retired emperor for over twenty years.

With such a mediocre performance, how could he possibly win over the hearts of the other imperial family members who were also sons of the retired emperor?

Otherwise, Prince Chungshun wouldn't have tried so hard to make a name for himself, and other members of the imperial clan would have had little chance to rise to prominence.

Isn't it because people are worried that they have unrealistic ideas that they are so heavily suppressed?

Previously, there was absolutely no chance to make a splash in the capital. Even Prince Zhongshun didn't have much courage; one wrong move could lead to annihilation.

But now that we have the opportunity to make waves in the open sea, we are naturally unwilling to fall behind!

In particular, some extremely perceptive members of the royal family have already noticed certain clues.

It's worth noting that the one who initiated the overseas trade with Goryeo was none other than Prince Chungsun.

Some things don't need evidence; even just guessing can give you a sense of what's going on!

Putting everything else aside, even if all you can earn is money, that's still a pretty good thing.

No matter what you want to do, is it possible to succeed without money?

Even if it's just for enjoyment, the amount of money spent each year is not small!

In fact, there are indeed impoverished members of the royal family in the capital, all because they are broke.

As rumors about the Imperial Household Department's fleet in the capital intensified, the Prince Zhongshun's residence became increasingly bustling, with other members of the royal family or their representatives frequently visiting.

The message was essentially the same: they were criticizing the current emperor for being a worthless scoundrel who openly seized the commercial interests of a prince, and they hoped that Prince Zhongshun would not yield, as they would definitely support him.

Chapter 276 Impact (Please Subscribe)

These guys are just blatantly stirring up trouble!

Prince Zhongshun knew what was going on, but he still happily accepted the other party's 'kindness'.

His mood at this moment could no longer be described as good.

When the Imperial Household Department's fleet returned, his own fleet also returned with it.

At the same time, they brought back good news: the island, which was comparable in size to a county, had been captured.

According to the report from the trusted confidant on board, just as Jia Huan had said, the island was sparsely populated and was considered a place of exile for Goryeo, with only a handful of government personnel, less than a hundred people.

Even though the Prince Zhongshun's fleet only had about three hundred men, they still easily took over the island. The next step was to consolidate their territory.

How could Prince Chungshun not be happy when he received accurate information?

This place will be the first territory he conquers in the outer regions, which is of great significance.

And so it was; he showed no anger at all at the instigation of his brothers, and even revealed a hint of ambition.

After a brief discussion, several members of the royal family reached an agreement with Prince Chungshun.

They raised funds to purchase a large number of ships, intending to compete commercially with the Imperial Household Department's fleet!

As for whether it will anger the emperor, that's another matter, and we haven't considered it yet.

Those brilliant members of the royal family had much bolder ideas.

Since doing business with Goryeo is so profitable, is doing business with other vassal states equally lucrative, earning hundreds of thousands or millions each time?

The moment this idea was proposed, the eyes of the royal family members involved turned red with envy.

Prince Zhongshun poured cold water on the idea, sneering, "You should save your breath. The bulk of overseas trade has long been controlled by the powerful families in the south and the southeast coast!"

"The Goryeo route was too far for them, and too close to the Later Jin, which also posed a considerable risk. That's why it was given to me!"

"Otherwise, do you think I could have easily procured so many ships from the south?"

These words greatly disappointed the few royal family members who were already eager to make their moves.

"Is this still the Great Qian Dynasty? This is the first time I've ever heard of such a thing!"

"Yes, if we want to do overseas trade, do we have to put up with the attitude of those coastal clans in the south?"

"That's a complete joke! Even if the few of us team up, we can't do it?"

"Yeah, it's so frustrating no matter how I think about it, it's fucking awful!"

"..."

Listening to the complaints of his close brothers who were planning to invest heavily in overseas trade, Prince Zhongshun did not try to hide anything and gave a brief introduction to the situation of the major clans in the south and southeast coast.

The matter involves the Ming Dynasty's maritime ban, which of course had no effect on the powerful coastal families.

During the late Ming Dynasty, a powerful maritime merchant family emerged, namely the Zheng family.

During the Daqian Dynasty, the policy of banning maritime trade was not implemented.

Unfortunately, the families in the south and southeast coastal areas had been operating for who knows how long, and it was simply wishful thinking for the emerging maritime merchants to compete with them.

Even the local government officials have long been infiltrated by them; they're all in cahoots.

These are all fine, but the key issue is that they have people and troops in the open sea, so how can we compete with them?

Even the royal family, without deploying their navy, has little chance of competing with these maritime merchant families; it's that exaggerated.

In short, if you want to make a living at sea, you can only dream of bypassing these maritime merchant families.

In particular, apart from the shipping routes to Korea, they control the vast majority of commercial interests in the open seas. Getting involved rashly would not end well.

Even if you're lucky enough to reach another vassal state, they might not necessarily trade with you.

These words left the other members of the royal family dumbfounded, their faces filled with disbelief.

Little did they know that the waters of overseas trade were so deep!

At the same time, some greedy thoughts arose in my heart.

Damn, how could they possibly know? The powerful coastal clans actually control the dominant power in overseas trade?

Moreover, each of them has been operating for a period of hundreds of years.

If we take the amount of money the Imperial Household Department earned from Goryeo as a benchmark, just how wealthy were these coastal clans?

Even the wealthy salt merchants of Yangzhou probably couldn't match their fortune.

Of course, even if he had these thoughts in his mind, he certainly wouldn't reveal them to outsiders.

Therefore, he only expressed his amazement and shock at the Prince Zhongshun's mansion. Only after leaving did he begin to ponder whether he could harvest some money from those powerful families in the south.

How could their ulterior motives possibly escape the notice of Prince Zhongshun?

In the past, he would have preferred to completely block the news and monopolize all the huge benefits.

But right now, he's actually hoping that these members of the royal family will leak the information to the current emperor!

According to Jia Huan, if the situation weren't chaotic, how could he take advantage of the confusion?

Ideally, he could disrupt the order of the southern coastal regions and even interfere with the normal overseas trade of those powerful coastal clans; otherwise, it wouldn't be easy for him to intervene in other overseas regions.

For example, Japan, which is larger and stronger than Korea!

Prince Zhongshun even suspected that the big move Jia Huan mentioned was also related to the waters off Japan.

There's no way around it; the power of the major clans along the southern coast is indeed far too overwhelming in the open sea.

If they want to cause trouble in their traditional sphere of influence, namely the South China Sea, is it because they have too many men and need the help of pirates in the outer seas to weaken them?

That can only be the waters off Japan, which are closest to Korea. It's not hard to guess.

Despite his great curiosity, Prince Zhongshun had no intention of rushing to find Jia Huan.

The most important thing right now is to properly manage and develop the island we just acquired!

Just transporting enough people and developing the islands would be a huge expense, even for the Prince's Palace, given its resources.

Fortunately, the biggest shortage in the Great Qian Dynasty is refugees and hidden households; otherwise, the expenses would have been even more staggering.

On the other side, Jia Huan also received a report on the profits of his fleet.

The overall revenue was naturally incomparable to that of the Imperial Household Department's fleet, amounting to only around 80,000 taels.

For Jia Huan, who didn't invest much, such a return was already quite good.

The key point is that it has trained the crew, and the number of experienced crew members capable of navigating the open sea has increased significantly, which is the most important thing.

There's nothing more to say. After checking the accounts, continue proceeding at the original pace.

Currently, Prince Chungshun has only just acquired that island. How could he possibly make any progress without a year or two of hard work?

Even if one of his ships had found certain islands in Japanese waters as instructed, there was no need to reveal it directly.

Let's wait until Prince Zhongshun has managed his territory well and things have improved before making any decisions.

Unexpectedly, Xue Pan actually came looking for him that very day.

"Brother Huan, the Prince Zhongshun's Mansion has placed an order for supplies worth nearly 200,000 taels of silver!"

Xue Pan took a stack of papers and handed them directly to Jia Huan: "Take a look, should I agree or refuse?"