In the inner room, the grandfather and grandson were having a secret conversation.

"According to Grandpa's 'Four Grids' method, the Ming Dynasty is not far from being destroyed."

Zhao Hao sighed softly.

"Oh, what else?" Zhao Liben also sighed, touched the wrinkles on his forehead and said, "My dear grandson, grandpa has never told anyone this. I think if the Ming Dynasty continues like this, it will fall sooner or later."

"Grandpa probably won't see that day. If you're lucky, your father and uncle might be able to escape as well." He patted the back of Zhao Hao's hand and said:

"But Grandpa, I feel that when you and Zhao Xian reach my age, you will probably suffer the consequences of the Song Dynasty..."

"Maybe you can't listen to what Grandpa said now, and think that the old man is 'life is not even a hundred years long, but always worrying about a thousand years'."

"But this is really my biggest worry. Whenever I think about my grandson falling into such a hell, I am so scared that I can't sleep at night."

"If I don't resolve this worry, Grandpa will die with regret..."

Zhao Liben held his grandson's hand tightly, and a drop of turbid tear fell on the back of Zhao Hao's hand.

Zhao Hao was completely stunned there. At this moment, he completely understood Zhao Liben.

It was precisely because of the strong sense of crisis that the old man cruelly abandoned them last year - when the country really falls, the ones who will suffer the most will be the rich young men who enjoyed the glory of the previous dynasty.

The impact on ordinary people is naturally much smaller...

So he wanted his children and grandchildren to return to the status of ordinary people and experience the sufferings of the world.

Of course, the old man couldn't have known. When that day came, the Chinese would be completely destroyed, and regardless of gender, everyone would have to dress up as ugly slaves to survive...

~~

Although Zhao Hao understood his grandfather's worries, he still couldn't read his mind.

"But grandpa, the soft rice of the Tian family is not delicious, but is the soft rice of the Jiang family delicious?"

It is estimated that in the whole world, only this strange pair of grandparents and grandchildren can have such a serious discussion about which gigolo to rely on.

"I'm not bragging, but when it comes to making money, no one in this world can beat me." Zhao Hao's arrogant words were filled with disapproval of similar advantages.

"Hey..." Zhao Liben wanted to retort to him, but Zhao Hao's outstanding record made the old man stop talking.

After all, this kid has the capital to be crazy...

"Alas..." Zhao Liben sighed and said, "You can still blame me for not telling you clearly what I meant. That's why I kept nagging you."

"Grandpa always tells half the story, so I can't blame you." Zhao Hao poured him another cup of tea. "Let's get this straight today."

"The key to solving this old man's thousand-year worry lies with the girl Xueying." Zhao Liben said in a low voice.

"Huh?" Zhao Hao couldn't help but widen his eyes and asked, "Can she save the Ming Dynasty?"

I thought, could it be that I met someone in the same industry?

It shouldn’t be the case, otherwise with this young master’s “Collection of First Encounters”, everyone would have exchanged secret codes during the last blind date.

"No, she can't save the Ming Dynasty, but she can save our Zhao family and millions of people." Zhao Liben seemed to have made a great determination. He approached his grandson and whispered to him:

"Do you know Wang Zhi?"

"Which Wang Zhi, the eunuch of Chenghua, the great merchant of Jiajing?" Zhao Hao thought to himself, I not only know Wang Zhi, I also know Anli.

"It's the latter." Zhao Liben whispered, "He and I were born in the same year and month. We are from neighboring counties."

"Grandpa knows him?" Zhao Hao's eyes rolled around, and no one knew what he was thinking.

"More than knowing each other, we both studied at Huizhou Prefecture School." Zhao Liben chuckled and said, "His surname was Wang, and his name was Wang Zhi. When he was in school, he was chivalrous and wild, and he called himself a hero, but he was really not cut out for studying. Your grandfather and I both passed the imperial examination and became Jinshi, but he didn't even pass the examination to become a scholar, so naturally we lost contact later."

"When I heard about him again, he had become a feared overlord on the sea. But it was already the 36th year of the Jiajing reign that I met him again."

"But at that time, grandpa was the prefect of Changsha, right?" Zhao Hao asked.

"That's right. But it was that year that the Governor-General of Zhejiang, Hu Ruzhen, reported to the imperial court and promoted me to the position of Censor of Zhejiang." Zhao Liben said calmly.

"That year, Governor Hu persuaded Wang Zhi to surrender." Zhao Hao said again.

"It seems that you know a lot about what happened ten years ago." Zhao Liben looked at Zhao Hao with a little surprise.

"There's one thing I haven't told Grandpa yet." Zhao Hao smiled and said, "You tell me first, and I'll tell you after you're done, so you don't get blamed again."

"Hey..." Zhao Liben pretended to fight, but pulled back his hand and said, "I was taken directly from Changsha to Zhoushan by a military ship sent by the Governor-General's Office. When I arrived at the place, I found out that Governor-General Hu wanted to persuade Wang Zhi to surrender, and he specially asked me, his former classmate, to be the official representative."

"I was grateful to Governor Hu for his kindness and also had a strong desire to serve my country, so I immediately boarded Wang Zhi's fleet with the envoys for negotiations. The two sides had already reached an agreement before, and Wang Zhi was even happier when he saw me, and we had a night talk that night."

"Wang Zhi told me that the reason he was willing to submit to the court was not because he couldn't make it overseas, but because Hu Ruzhen told him that the court had agreed to 'open the port and trade.' He even showed me the imperial decree."

Zhao Hao nodded. He had seen this passage. Hu Zongxian took advantage of Wang Zhi's eagerness to open up maritime trade and made a lot of promises.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to open the sea, so forget it in this lifetime.

"He was very excited that night and opened up a new world for me that I had never known before." Zhao Liben said with a nostalgic expression:

"He told me that this world is not what we knew before. Distant continents are connected to each other by the ocean. On the other side of the ocean, there is a civilization that is not much worse than ours, and there is a continent full of gold, silver, and spices. Fifty years ago, the Portuguese and Spanish arbitrarily divided the world into two halves. They rode on sailing warships, relied on matchlock guns and Portuguese cannons, and frantically colonized different continents and seized endless wealth. Then they transported it to the gates of the Ming Dynasty, and through his smuggling fleet, he bought the Ming Dynasty's silk, porcelain, tea, etc., and finally transported it back to the West..."

"They want almost everything we have. But the scale of smuggling is always limited, which severely restricts the volume of trade. And when Wang Zhi's wealth has become incalculable, his goal is no longer just to make money, but to get the support of the court and build a center for maritime trade. Drive the Portuguese and Spanish fleets out of our vassal area, and let our own merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty sell the goods directly to the West!"

"Okay..." Zhao Hao thought to himself, could this person also be my colleague?

Of course not, it’s just that a person with such a vision that transcends his time seems so out of place in the Ming Dynasty of that era.

"He thought that this would not only end the Japanese invasion, but also make the court as rich as Portugal and Spain. The emperor would definitely agree, so he believed in the imperial edict... Later, I found out that it was Hu Ruzhen who asked Xu Wenchang to forge it. Xu Wei's skills were so superb that even I, who was a prefect, couldn't figure it out."

ps. Chapter 2, please give me monthly tickets and recommendation tickets~~