Zhao Hao’s next stop was Huajia in Wuxi, 150 miles away.

People at that time said, "Among the great families in Jiangnan, the Hua family must be the first."

The Hua family's foundation is no less than that of the Wang family of Langya, and their wealth is far greater than that of the Wang Shizhen family, even surpassing that of the Wang Xijue family.

The biggest feature of their family is that they are good at business. And they are not limited to the imperial examinations and business, but also pay great attention to managing their own personal connections and reputation. They are almost the financial sponsors of all the talented people in Jiangnan.

Tang Bohu, Zhu Zhishan, Qiu Ying and others often went to the Hua family to eat and drink.

Even the great Wang Yangming was not immune to this and followed suit a few times.

In other words, Wang Shizhen's family was rich, otherwise he would have had to ask his teacher for money.

That’s right, Hua Shuyang’s father, Hua Cha, was Wang Shizhen’s teacher.

The old man was a Jinshi in the fifth year of Jiajing, a Hanlin, and he presided over the provincial and metropolitan examinations, served as a reader for the palace examinations, and admitted a large number of famous people. Li Panlong and Wang Shizhen, the two leaders of the literary world, were both his students.

Therefore, Hua Cha had an extremely good reputation among scholars and was almost a sure candidate for Grand Secretary.

Unfortunately, he did not get along with Yan Song and was impeached by the censors for unfair admissions. In the 24th year of Jiajing, he resigned and returned home, never to come out again.

But Master Hua had many students and former officials all over the world. He was also kind and generous, and liked to help the younger generation. Almost all the poor scholars in Wuxi and Zhenjiang had received the kindness of the Hua family.

Over the past twenty years, he has maximized his ability to manage money, which has increased the Hua family's prestige and made them the most respected family in Jiangnan.

Well, Master Hua is the direction of Mr. Zhao's efforts...

The passenger ship traveled through the crisscrossing water network for a day and a night, and arrived in Wuxi the next day.

Zhao Hao had slept for a whole day and now he had regained his energy. He stood at the bow of the boat and looked at the prosperous scene of Wuxi city in the distance with its masts and oars like a forest and thousands of sails gathered.

He couldn't help but praise Hua Shuyang who was holding an umbrella for him: "I didn't expect your hometown to be so prosperous."

"Although Wuxi is not the capital of Changzhou, it is close to Taihu Lake and has a canal running through the city. It is indeed much more prosperous than the capital city of Wujin." Hua Shuyang explained with a hesitant look on his face.

"Your Hua family has made a great contribution to the city being able to surpass the prefectural capital." Zhao Hao said with a smile, glancing at Hua Shuyang and said, "Why do you look like that? Are you afraid to return home?"

"Yes, a little." Hua Shuyang smiled awkwardly, and finally made up his mind and said, "There is something that I must confess to Master."

"Tell me." Zhao Hao smiled knowingly, not surprised.

"Our family is actually not the good family as the legend says." Hua Shuyang lowered his head, his voice as soft as a mosquito.

"A family of scholars with generations of noble status, a wealthy family that loves to do good and give generously, aren't they good families?" Zhao Hao couldn't help but laugh and asked, "Then what is considered a good family?"

"Besides these superficial things," Hua Shuyang sighed, "my family is actually the same as the Xu family, secretly supplying goods to the sea merchants."

After realizing that his seventh junior brother might confront the Xu family or even the Wang family, he was tormented by this problem and couldn't sleep all night.

Thinking that his master would know the truth sooner or later, Hua Shuyang finally decided to tell the truth.

"It's nothing. The maritime ban is wrong in the first place." Zhao Hao shook his head and smiled, "It's not against the will of heaven. How can we put money aside and not let people make money?"

I'm trying my best to get in, your teacher.

"But my family is on a larger scale." Seeing that his master was open to this, Hua Shuyang felt relieved, but a little uneasy, he said, "Going north along the canal, from Wuxi, Wujin to Zhenjiang, more than 70% of the textile factories supply our family."

"Then your family is quite wealthy." Zhao Hao gasped. "Isn't this scale much worse than the Xu family?"

"Those factories are not ours." Hua Shuyang waved his hands and said, "My father always said, 'The benefits of the world belong to everyone, and it is not appropriate to monopolize them. Sharing some with others can avoid harm to the whole body.'"

Zhao Hao nodded. As expected of Grand Tutor Hua, he was an old hand at this.

"So more than ten years ago, my father took the initiative to return the land to the tenant farmers and burned the land deeds. Only 20,000 acres of paddy fields were left..." Hua Shuyang continued.

'Only...' Zhao Hao smacked his lips, not knowing what it felt like.

Given Hua Shuyang's sensitivity to numbers, he believes that 20,000 acres today is really very small compared to what it was back then.

"Half of the 20,000 acres is used to support the clan's charity, to help poor families tide over difficulties, and to provide full tuition for students. The other half is used for food at home, or for future emergencies." Then Hua Shuyang continued, "Later, other properties were sold or transferred. Now only a few businesses are left, so that the young people in the clan who don't study will not be too idle."

The arrangements are very clear.

Thinking of the two kings in Taicang who spared no effort to donate money to support education, and the salt merchants in Yangzhou who even did not let go of the passing candidates, Zhao Hao suddenly felt that the competition was fierce and there were too many wolves and too little meat.

It is necessary to build a strong brand in order to attract high-quality students!

"If you don't produce it yourself, how do you guarantee that others will sell the goods to you?" Zhao Hao came to his senses and asked the question knowingly, purely to confirm his guess.

"There are at least eight families like mine in Jiangnan." Hua Shuyang revealed, "These nine families have monopolized the sales of silk, cotton cloth, tea, and porcelain in Jiangnan. Merchants can only do business with these nine families and not with other families, otherwise they will be cut off from supply. Therefore, the rich families in Jiangnan must first sell their goods to these nine families, and then they will resell them to merchants."

"Then you can make a lot of money just by being a middleman and earning the difference." Zhao Hao enviously said, "How much money does your family have?"

"It's probably only about 10 or 20 million taels of silver." Hua Shuyang said uncertainly, "Not much more than Master."

"One or two million taels..." Zhao Hao rolled his eyes in anger and kicked him on the butt. "Isn't this too much?"

"How many generations has my family been saving this money? Master has only started for a year." Hua Shuyang twisted his butt and didn't dare to dodge.

"That's good enough." Zhao Hao nodded with satisfaction. He liked to hear this.

"Master, is this really true?" Hua Shuyang looked at Zhao Hao in confusion, then looked at his hometown which was about to approach.

"Of course it's wrong, and it's totally wrong!" Zhao Hao said solemnly, "In this world, the more you get, the more you have to bear. People who are only willing to take benefits but not take responsibilities can usually be called 'worms'."

"Termites?" Hua Shuyang's expression darkened. "Master is right. The Ming Dynasty is already riddled with holes. These big families... including my family, of course, are trying every possible way to evade taxes. Aren't they a bunch of termites?"

"Since both sides are wrong, we must try to correct it." Zhao Hao said in a deep voice: "We want the Ming Dynasty to truly lift the maritime ban, not just open a small crack. We want all those involved in maritime trade, including the nine major families, to assume their due obligations. The first step is to start with paying taxes!"

As he spoke, he also turned his gaze towards the increasingly approaching dock, and taught his disciples in a decisive tone:

“No matter how the world changes in the future, our country should not become a jungle where the strong prey on the weak. The way of heaven is to take from the rich and give to the poor. A country that can maintain long-term stability must ensure that the strong cannot evade their obligations. The weak must be free from hunger and have security and respect!”

"Yes, I understand, Master!" Hua Shuyang nodded heavily, wiped the tears from his eyes and said, "This is in the interests of everyone. I am willing to accompany you to correct the mistakes."

"You should take care of your health first." Zhao Hao glanced at the frail second disciple. Hua Shuyang had been ill after the imperial examination and had not recovered yet. "Being able to do well in mathematics is the greatest contribution. It is the mother of science."

"Yes, Master." Hua Shuyang responded respectfully.

ps. First update, please give me monthly votes and recommendation votes