While turmoil was occurring within the Jiannu group in Liaodong, the Ming Dynasty was also not idle.
The tenth day of the eighth month in the twenty-second year of Chongzhen.
In Anping Mansion (Zheng's residence) in Anhai Town, Quanzhou Prefecture, Fujian Province, Zheng Zhilong, the commander-in-chief of the Fujian Navy of the Ming Dynasty, and a group of clan members sat together.
Half an hour ago, Zheng Zhilong received an imperial edict from the court.
A quarter of an hour ago he received another secret letter from the capital.
These letters were not delivered directly, but passed through several hands before reaching Zheng Zhilong.
After reading the contents of the secret letter, Zheng Zhilong's eyebrows were twisted into a knot.
"What's wrong, brother?" asked Zheng Hongkui who was standing next to him.
Zheng Hongkui, whose original name was Zheng Zhifeng, was the second brother of Zheng Zhilong. He passed the military imperial examination in the 13th year of Chongzhen and served as the deputy general of Dengzhou.
To be cautious, Chongzhen transferred him to Fujian to serve as deputy general.
Seeing that Zheng Zhilong didn't speak, his other two brothers, Zheng Zhibao and Zheng Zhipeng, stepped forward and asked, "What's wrong, big brother? Why don't you say something?"
Zheng Zhilong exhaled heavily, handed the secret letter in his hand to Zheng Hongkui and said: "A letter from the capital said that the court plans to build a port in Songjiang Prefecture, Nanzhili, named Shanghai Port!"
"What?" Zheng Zhibao snatched the letter from Zheng Hongkui.
After reading the contents of the letter, he looked up and asked, "Brother, who wrote this letter? Is the information accurate?"
Zheng Zhilong shook his head and then nodded: "I can't reveal the person who wrote the letter, but I can tell you that this person is very reliable, so there is no need to doubt the authenticity of the news."
this...
A group of people fell into deep thought.
No matter what the purpose of the court's adding ports was, it was not good news for them.
They guard Yuegang and can collect flag money from all merchant ships entering and leaving.
Three thousand taels per ship per year, the amount is neither high nor low.
It is both within the range that merchant ships can afford and can maximize revenue.
Now the imperial court has added a port in Songjiang Prefecture in Southern Zhili.
There is no one selling flags or collecting protection fees there, so the merchant ships in Yuegang will definitely move to the ports in Southern Zhili after hearing the news.
Their income from selling flags will be greatly reduced.
"Also," Zheng Zhilong picked up another letter from the table and said to everyone, "Fujian Governor Zhang Kentang wrote me a letter asking me to cooperate with the government to exchange the silver in my hands for Ming Yuanbao."
Zheng Zhibao slammed the letter on the table in front of him, stood up and said angrily: "What does the court mean by this? Are they forcing us to rebel?"
"Shut up!" Zheng Zhilong glared at Zheng Zhibao. "If you talk nonsense again next time, I'll punish you by sending you fishing at sea!"
Although Zheng Zhibao felt somewhat indignant, he still sat down obediently.
"Brother," Zheng Zhibao was still a little unwilling after sitting down. He said with a worried look on his face, "The silver content of a Ming Yuanbao is only nine cents. The five businesses under our control have tens of millions of taels of silver in deposit! If we change all of them into Ming Yuanbao, we will lose at least several million taels of silver."
"This is not a currency reform, it's clearly robbery! Before, they imposed three taxes on the people, then they killed officials and confiscated their property, and now they are targeting us!"
"How can this be possible!"
Zheng Hongkui whispered, "Actually... strictly speaking, there is no loss. After all, one tael of silver could buy the same amount of things as one Ming Yuanbao! And the court has the cost of minting coins, so it is not robbery."
"It's different!" Zheng Zhibao shouted loudly: "The total cost of a Ming Yuanbao is nine cents and four cents. For every silver coin exchanged, the court will make a profit of six cents of silver. If all the profits are returned to us, then there will be no loss."
Zheng Hongkui calculated with his fingers and found that if the imperial court returned all the profits, they could exchange them for nearly two million more Ming Dynasty Yuanbao coins.
However, the profit distribution ratio had already been divided by the court, and they could not take it away.
"Ahem," Zheng Zhilong interrupted the argument with a heavy cough, "Everyone, Fujian Governor Zhang Kentang said in a letter that as long as we are willing to exchange silver for Ming Yuanbao, he can return half of the three cents profit that the court left for the local area!"
"Half is too little!" Zheng Zhibao complained, "And why should the court take half? It's unreasonable, too unreasonable!"
"Shut up!" Zheng Zhilong pointed at Zheng Zhibao's nose, "From now on, don't say a word."
Zheng Zhibao lowered his head and pretended not to hear.
Zheng Zhilong was so angry that he stood up and said, "Did you hear what I said just now? If you heard it, just say something!"
"How can I say anything if you don't let me speak?" Zheng Zhibao retorted.
"You..." Zheng Zhilong was speechless. He paused for a moment before saying, "Let's not discuss this for now. Although we are businessmen, we are also officials of the Ming Dynasty and should support the court's new policies! Zhang Kentang is in charge of Fujian. If the currency reform is not implemented smoothly, he will be implicated."
"Zhang Kentang has been pretty good to us. No one can guarantee that the next governor will be better than him, so he can't leave."
"Since he is willing to compromise by giving up 1.5 cents of profit, we should give him some face."
"Brother, we will do whatever you do!" Zheng Zhilong's relatives immediately expressed their opinions.
"Okay," Zheng Zhilong said in a deep voice when he saw that everyone had no objection: "Take out some silver from each business and collect 3 million taels to give to Zhang Kentang to exchange for Ming Yuanbao."
"With this money, we can get through to Zhang Kentang!"
"What about the remaining silver?" Zheng Zhibao asked.
"What silver?" Zheng Zhilong straightened his back. "Three million taels is all the property of our Zheng family. Where can we get more silver?"
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