Rule the Ming Dynasty Alone

The wheels of history are turning quietly, and a conspiracy to overthrow the Ming Dynasty has slowly begun.

Just two days later, the eunuchs of Prince Ning's Mansion were dispatched one after another, and wedding invitations were sent out from Prince Ning's City, known as the Little Forbidden City. Prince Ning decided to hold a birthday banquet in advance.

Zhu Dianpei has been in power for forty-four years, and is now in his seventies. Now when he is hosting important officials in Nanchang City in the name of a birthday banquet, there are really not many people who dare not to give face to the old Prince Ning.

In addition to the governor of Jiangxi and the general of the Jiangxi army, the invited Jiangnan officials were senior officials such as the Provincial Envoys, the Provincial Envoys, and the Commanding Envoys.

Everyone who knows the inside story this time already understands that the Hongmen Banquet hosted by King Ning Zhu Dianpei will be held at the palace, and Nanchang City, the capital of Jiangxi Province in the Ming Dynasty, is about to change hands.

Once King Ning Zhu Dianpei started an uprising in Nanchang and the capital cooperated, the Ming Dynasty, which had lasted for more than a hundred years, would enter a great turmoil.

At the end of November in the fifth year of Hongzhi's reign, it was already late autumn.

The autumn sunshine shines through the ancient eaves and mottled tree shadows, and is falling on a bluestone and canal parallel plank road, shining with golden light spots.

The leaves of the old trees beside the canal slowly turn yellow and red under the caress of the autumn wind, like flowing oil paintings. Whenever the breeze blows, these leaves will fall lightly, covering the bluestone road, and will also fall on the canal and flow along the water.

Amid the farewells from the officials and people of Suzhou City, the splendid imperial ship set off again and was slowly heading towards its last destination, which was also a famous food desert in later generations.

The common people send you a respectful greeting to your Mingjun. Long live my emperor!

More people came to Suzhou City than when they were welcomed. Now the streets of Suzhou City were truly deserted. They knelt down to say goodbye to the imperial ship that was slowly heading south.

Farewell, Suzhou! Zhu Youtang, who was wearing a dragon robe, felt the love of these people for him and waved to his people.

Although Emperor Zhu Youtang left, he also gave a generous gift to the merchants in Suzhou City.

Royal Bank also followed south this time, but his mission was not to protect the monarch, but to shoulder a new mission - to boost the Chinese economy.

Since the circulation of silver is to be banned, we must find a way to inject new silver dollars into the market, and the most effective way is to issue low-interest loans to target groups.

According to the economic principles of later generations, low-interest loans make it easier for companies to obtain funds, thereby encouraging companies to make capital expenditures and expand production.

This helped to increase production capacity, increase employment opportunities, and promote economic recovery, and Suzhou became a new experimental field for the Ming Dynasty.

It was Hongzhi, the emperor in the fifth year of Hongzhi, who visited Suzhou during his southern tour and issued low-interest loans through the Royal Bank, thus successfully injecting a boost into Suzhou's economy.

Just from the biographies of the famous silk king Li Jiacheng and the steamship king Chen Daming, we can know the importance of this economic decision and it was also an important turning point in Chinese history.

Li Jiacheng is an ordinary silk workshop owner in Suzhou City. He has always adhered to the principles of honest management and quality first, and has won a good reputation in the industry.

However, as market competition becomes increasingly fierce, large silk workshop owners have seen a wave of mergers and acquisitions, using various means to acquire target workshops.

Li Jiacheng's Li's Silk Workshop attracted a group of loyal weavers to follow him by virtue of its superb weaving skills and honest business philosophy. These weavers are all skilled, hard-working and hard-working people, and they are the strongest guarantee of the quality of Li's silk.

Xu's Silk Workshop saw the value of Li's Workshop and the potential threat of Li's Workshop, so it decided to annex Li Jiacheng's Li's Silk Workshop.

Without Li Jiacheng's knowledge, he bought the land of Li's Silk Workshop from the original owner at a price much higher than the market price, and then significantly increased the rent.

Li Jiacheng was forced to accept this rent increase because he had to meet the construction deadline and maintain the reputation of Li Silk, thus increasing operating costs.

As a result, half a month later, he lost a large amount of goods because of Xu's trap. Now the cash chain was broken, and Xu asked for a rent increase.

Faced with rising rents, he knew that if he did not move to a place with more reasonable rents as soon as possible, the operation of the workshop would face huge difficulties.

However, the cost of relocation is undoubtedly a heavy burden for Li Jiacheng.

Just when Li Jiacheng was struggling with this, he accidentally learned that the newly established Royal Bank had launched a low-interest loan policy. To him, it is nothing more than a ray of light in the darkness and a life-saving rope when drowning.

With the mentality of giving it a try, he immediately went to the Royal Bank to submit a loan application and accepted the new arrangement or tease of fate.

“Can I really get a loan from your bank?”

Yes! Since your credit is very good, our Royal Bank can grant you a loan to relocate the workshop!

After a relatively simple wait and review, Li Jiacheng received a low-interest loan, which made him immediately overjoyed and saw the hope of Li's Silk Workshop becoming bigger and stronger.

This time he confidently rejected Xu's unreasonable rent increase request, and immediately started relocating the workshop after receiving the loan from Royal Bank.

Since the money was enough for him to find a place closer to the dock, he started arranging the move that day. This move quickly brought him good luck.

Throughout his legendary business life, the era of Li's Silk was based on this. Li Jiacheng and the weavers worked together to create a silk brand that resounded throughout the world.

As for another character, he belongs to the era of Chen Daming, the shipping king of Beijing and Hangzhou.

Although the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has various shortcomings, it also nourishes the people and nourishes many people who are active on this canal.

The economy of the Ming Dynasty is now booming. Ships are coming and going on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and people of all kinds gather here, forming a unique canal culture.

Among these many ship owners, Chen Daming is actually a very inconspicuous one.

Chen Daming has been living on the canal with his father since he was a child, and has accumulated rich shipping experience, especially a pair of eyes that can be compared with weather forecasting.

Because he was generous and generous, he also made friends with a group of like-minded brothers. They jointly operated a cargo ship and traveled north and south on the canal. Although it was hard work, they also enjoyed it.

However, in recent years, Chen Daming's fleet has encountered unprecedented difficulties.

Due to the aging and serious damage of the ships, frequent maintenance has made the operating costs high, and large transportation orders are often missed due to the poor condition of the ships.

Chen Daming saw it in his eyes and was anxious in his heart.

He knew that if the cargo ship could not be updated in time, his own livelihood would be in question, let alone taking on big orders and making a lot of money, and he might even be buried in the canal along with the cargo.

On this day, Chen Daming transported goods to Suzhou City and heard in the teahouse that the Royal Bank began to lend money to foreigners with extremely low interest rates.

There was something in his heart, but he was still a little doubtful. After all, it would be impossible for ordinary people like him to borrow money from the imperial bank at low interest rates.

Traveling all over the country these years, I have learned more or less that today’s emperor loves his people as his own sons.

Although it was unbelievable, Chen Daming decided to give it a try and went to Royal Bank to inquire about the loan.

In the bank, he first introduced his basic situation, and the person in charge explained to him the loan application process, conditions and repayment methods.

Copper coins, food stamps, cloth stamps, gold and silver coins are all acceptable. The only thing we will not accept is the return of silver! The person in charge of the bank came from the capital and spoke with a Beijing accent.

Chen Daming nodded repeatedly, as if he was dreaming.

The loan process was far simpler than imagined. After proving his identity, he successfully applied for a large low-interest loan from Royal Bank.

After Chen Daming got the money, he was no longer eager to take the order. Instead, he immediately purchased a brand new cargo ship, and this cargo ship did not accept silver settlement.

Soon, Chen Daming's fleet took on a new look and became active again on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

With his rich transportation experience and good reputation, he quickly received a large number of orders, and he also began to build a fleet, moving towards the status of the Beijing-Hangzhou shipping king.

These are just two of the many rising businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River. After receiving low-interest loans from the Royal Bank, a large number of small traders in the south of the Yangtze River, like butterflies emerging from their cocoons, have created their own business legends.

It's just that these people and things are things for later. The current perspective returns to the emperor's southern tour.

Since the imperial ship sailed south again, there was an additional group of people at the front of this team.

Almost all of these prisoners were unkempt and ragged. Their hands were tightly bound by rough iron chains, and every step they took seemed extremely difficult.

These traitors really deserve to be cut to pieces!

You can do such evil things, you really don't deserve to be a Ming Dynasty man!

Thanks to the Emperor's wiseness, my Xiaocui is able to return safe and sound!

…

When the people along the way saw the prisoners being held in front of the team, their eyes were full of anger and dissatisfaction, and they were talking one after another.

Many women here were abducted. For example, Zhao Liusi saw his daughter Xiaocui being sent back by the government. He was the emperor who came to thank Yingming, but he also wanted to take a look at these beasts.

I thought he looked like a beast, but I didn't want him to be a handsome young man! Some people were also curious about what the traitor looked like. After seeing Hou Haotian and Hou Jie, they couldn't help but sigh.

This has been the case from ancient times to the present. Some treacherous and evil people may think they have evil written on their faces, but they may be gentlemen or even upright officials.

After the core personnel such as Hou Haotian and Zheng Jie were captured and returned to Suzhou, they originally hoped that someone would save them, but they became negative teaching materials for the emperor's southern tour.

Wearing prison uniforms, they were escorted ahead. They were looked down upon by the people along the way, and even rotten eggs, rotten vegetable leaves, and quite fresh cow dung kept flying towards them.

No one wants to be infamy for thousands of years, but in the face of the people's accusations, these voices are sharp and harsh, like countless sharp arrows shooting into their hearts.

Although most of them have regretted it, it seems that it is already too late. The end point of the emperor's southern tour is Hangzhou, and that will be the end of their lives there.

After a period of sailing, the imperial ship finally arrived at Hangzhou, the last stop of its southern tour.

Hangzhou has a history of more than 1,800 years since it was established as a county in the Qin Dynasty.

In this process, Hangzhou's name has also undergone many changes. In the Qin Dynasty, a county government was established, which was called Qiantang, and was later renamed Qiantang. In the ninth year of Emperor Kaihuang's reign in the Sui Dynasty, Tang County was abolished and placed in Hangzhou. The name of Hangzhou appeared for the first time in history.

In the long history, Hangzhou was the capital of the Wuyue Kingdom and the Southern Song Dynasty, hosting a wealth of political, economic and cultural activities. Especially during the Southern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou became one of the most prosperous cities in the world at that time, and was praised by Marco Polo as the most beautiful and luxurious celestial city in the world.

In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Hangzhou became the capital of Zhejiang Province, and has been the political, economic, and cultural center of Zhejiang Province ever since.

During the Ming Dynasty, Hangzhou City basically followed the urban structure of the late Yuan Dynasty, abolishing some city gates, such as Qianhu Gate, Tianzong Gate, and Beixin Gate, and at the same time changed Yuhang Gate to Wulin Gate. Since then, the city gates of Hangzhou have been fixed as Wulin Gate, Genshan Gate, Fengshan Gate, Qingtai Gate, Wangjiang Gate, Houchao Gate, Qingbo Gate, Yongjin Gate, Qiantang Gate and Qingchun Gate, a total of ten, which are now known as The Ten Gates of Hangzhou.

Hangzhou City is the provincial capital of Zhejiang, so there are three government offices here, and Qian Sen, the prefect of Hangzhou, is responsible for governing Hangzhou. Therefore, there are hundreds of officials, large and small, in Hangzhou.

It's just that no matter how big an official is, he can't compare to the cabinet minister who was sent out at the beginning of the year. Yin Zhi, a bachelor in the cabinet of the Governor of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, has already led officials to greet him here.

Zhu Youtang was already used to seeing cards along the way, and it was commonplace for him to greet these officials, who would move directly into the palace that had been renovated.

He met Yin Zhi in the palace and looked at the loyal old man up and down: Mr. Yin Ge, our monarch and his ministers have not seen each other for nearly a year!

I always remember your majesty. I am very happy to see your majesty walking like a dragon and a tiger! Yin Zhi was very happy when he saw Zhu Youtang, and he expressed his true feelings.

Although the relationship between the emperor and the minister was not long, and they did not have the status of teacher and student, during their time together in the capital, the pair of the emperor and the minister got along very well.

This time we went south to Zhejiang. After the Ningbo Shipping Department was lucky enough to seize an important breakthrough, the effect of the silver ban in Jiangsu and Zhejiang was actually stronger than that in South Zhili.

Zhu Youtang thought of the loyal Wan An, and warned him seriously: Mr. Yin Ge is a bit older! It is rare to find a good minister in the Ming Dynasty, and it is even harder to find someone who is willing to work for me. I hope Mr. Yin Ge can take good care of himself. Body!

With your Majesty's words, I am satisfied. I am willing to follow Your Majesty with my remaining body until the lamp dies. There will never be two masters! Yin Zhi was slightly moved in his heart and expressed his stance.

Zhu Youtang knew that the next situation was complicated, and he said with a half-smile but not a smile: Absolutely two masters? If something unexpected happens to me, will my son be unfaithful?

Your Majesty, please don't joke about this. Even if I am a bone powder, I will not let Your Majesty make any mistakes! Yin Zhi's face straightened, but he expressed his stance seriously.

Zhu Youtang realized that his joke was too big, so he changed the subject: Can things be arranged properly?

Things have been arranged. Everything is as expected by His Majesty. They can't stir up trouble! Yin Zhi said with a fierce look in his eyes, looking very confident.

Zhu Youtang held it in for a while and then decided to tell the worst situation: Before leaving, Dongfang Dao made a divination and said that although we have a plan this time, we may encounter setbacks and we really can't play it seriously. Take it off!

Although Dongfang Dao is unreliable on the issue of his own heirs, we have to admit that Dongfang Dao can indeed get a glimpse of secrets, so this southern tour is actually accompanied by uncertain risks. (End of chapter)