Can you live forever

Chapter 16 Everything has a master

A lunch, after eating for a long time, finally a group of amicable break up.

Zhang Zhixiang and the others returned to the guest room, but the father and daughter of the Wang family sat still, allowing the maid to clean up the table. Wang Yuanzhi was silent for a while, then suddenly smiled and said, "Look, dad's vision is okay, right?"

Wang Jiangque got up, stood at the window and watched Zhang Zhixiang enter the guest room.

"Is there really a fairy born?"

She murmured softly, the matter of American ginseng is the core top secret of the Wang family, even if it is leaked, it is not for the irrelevant Tianshi Mansion, and Zhang Zhixiang's attitude... is to give them a chance.

"maybe."

"Only immortals have the courage to regard wealth as floating clouds. In order to find opportunities, my eldest brother and I went deep into the hinterland of Beishangzhou to find this business opportunity. It can be said that we found this business opportunity after a narrow escape, but he clearly knew its value, but gave it to him lightly. stranger."

"I can tell."

"He just wants us to bring back ginseng. No matter how we sell it, it is always beneficial to the common people if there are more goods."

Wang Yuanzhi took out a tobacco rod, made some tobacco leaves, and took a long puff. His eyes in the smoke became brighter. Tobacco originated in the south-central part of Shangzhou. Offer this.

Xu, Wang, Wu and Wang are the four great Huizhou merchants.

The Xu family's business is in piracy and human trade, while the Wang family is a salt merchant. The Wu family originally earned some hard money and colonized wasteland overseas. Later, they planted tobacco on a large scale and made a fortune by selling tobacco. The Wang family is in the medicinal material business.

After doing business for so many years, Wang Yuanzhi suddenly found himself very poor.

The huge family property he is proud of is just an opportunity given away by Zhang Zhixiang lightly. In comparison, he is poor in both wealth and virtue, tsk tsk...

"father."

"If American ginseng is just the tip of the iceberg he knows, then what will happen if he goes to the capital and Emperor Jiajing gets his help?"

Wang Jiangque's question brought Wang Yuanzhi to his senses all of a sudden. The fact that they can live such a prosperous life is based on the weak imperial power and inability to centralize power.

If they were powerful kings like Taizu and Taizong, they would not benefit at all.

Today's emperor is a smart one, Yang Tinghe wanted to get a little emperor to be his puppet, but Jiajing directly overthrew Yang Tinghe through a grand ceremony, like the autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, those who deserved to be demoted, those who deserved to be killed, seemed to be beginning to look like an emperor .

The imperial power has begun to move closer to that of Emperor Chenghua.

This is actually nothing, no matter how smart Jiajing is, he is powerless to recover, at most he can reach the level of Chenghua, but the seemingly absurd Zhengde is more threatening, because Zhengde can control the army, and he is indeed good at fighting. This is why they rebelled. If it doesn't work, he ignores his face and forcibly removes the cause of Zhengde.

But if Zhang Zhixiang...

"All wealth in the country has its own owner. Anyone who moves is cutting flesh, and whatever they do is fighting for the interests of the people. They will inevitably be counterattacked. Even if they know about overseas wealth, they will not be able to manage it. At least they will not even be able to get past the Xu family."

"Only relying on knowledge, Zhang Zhixiang cannot reverse the situation of the emperor."

"No need to worry."

Freezing three feet does not happen in a day. The problems of the Ming Dynasty cannot be solved by Zhang Zhixiang, nor can it be solved by Jiajing. Only Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di can sweep the world again.

But such an emperor is a hero only in troubled times.

Thinking things through, Wang Yuanzhi smiled and said: "Instead of worrying about the growth of the imperial power, it is better to worry about the success of cultivating immortals today. If you really have the ability of immortals, that is the universal obedience."

Without even thinking about it, Wang Jiangque said, "Anyone can become a fairy, except the emperor."

Wang Yuanzhi laughed out loud.

……

Zhang Zhixiang and the others returned to the guest room, Yu Shui asked the young master what they ate for the banquet, hearing that it was just an ordinary dish, he was somewhat disapproving of the wealth of the Wang family.

Zhang Yonghuan chatted with Da Fangfeng before entering the room.

Although Wang Jiangque stated his interests and interests, it is better to take precautions to keep people's hearts in check.

"How, is the girl smart?"

After entering the room, Zhang Yonghuan asked with a smile. Zhang Zhixiang was not a fool. After Wang Jiangque told the route, he knew that the Wang family had been to "Wisconsin".

Wang Jiangque's concentration is stronger than her father's.

Think about when I was seven years old...

"It feels scary to be smart." Zhang Zhixiang really shuddered, thinking of Wang Jiangque's eyes that were so calm that they seemed to see through everything, he really felt like he was very wise and close to a demon.

"Don't dare to marry?" Zhang Yonghuan teased.

"Fourth Uncle..."

Zhang Zhixiang was helpless, Zhang Yonghuan smiled, patted Zhang Zhixiang on the shoulder, and said: "Okay, let's go to practice, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, so don't slack off."

Zhang Zhixiang stood up when he heard the words.

After standing for a while, he felt uneasy, and asked, "Fourth Uncle, do you know about steam engines?"

"heard about it."

"Then, since the steam engine can power ships, it can also be used to forge steel and power production, right? Is there such a factory?"

"Should be very few."

"Why?"

"People are cheap, machines are expensive."

"..."

Zhang Zhixiang suddenly understood why Daming had steam engines and hadn't industrialized for 200 years. Daming didn't lack labor at all...

That is to say, the special nature of ocean navigation makes the steam engine come into play.

Use it on land, that is, when building palaces, because those large parts are difficult to transport by manpower.

"Ugh……"

Zhang Zhixiang sighed faintly, feeling that history had played a joke on Daming, Zhang Yonghuan heard the deep meaning, and asked: "Steam engine is very important?"

"Well, it's about the rise and fall of civilization."

"civilization……"

"Book of Changes" has a saying: Seeing the dragon in the field, the world is civilized.The definition of civilization is often "brightness", but Zhang Zhixiang's meaning is obviously a higher-level concept than a country.

It should refer to Huaxia.

Is it related to the rise and fall of China?Zhang Yonghuan couldn't make sense of such a grand proposition, he sighed, and said, "Maybe I can remind His Majesty a thing or two when I come to Beijing this time."

In fact, it is useless, the court has no money.

The household department has less than 200 million taels of silver a year, what can it do?The Ministry of Industry has its own warehouse, but so what?Their budget is not enough, and they still ask the Ministry of Households for money every year.The emperor ordered to do things, and the household department must be crying for poverty. In the end, the emperor still had to allocate internal funds himself.

Emperor Jiajing was extremely intelligent and capable.

At the beginning of his accession to the throne, he sent all the 500 million taels of silver obtained from the confiscation of the Leopard House to the treasury of the Ministry of Households, thereby blocking Yoyo's mouth. After turning around and ransacking the eight tigers' homes, they got 500 million taels of silver, all of which were collected in the house. treasury.

Being rich is also the basic guarantee of Jiajing's imperial power.

At least he can spend money to do things without being restricted by the court.

of course.

Judging from the fact that Emperor Zhengde only had 500 million deposits, while the Eight Tigers ransacked the house with 500 million, even the loyal eunuchs gave the emperor less than [-]%...

And the emperor allocates money to do things.

If one million taels of silver is allocated, it would be nice to have 5 taels in place...

Things about steam engines are mostly impossible.

The Ministry of Industry will not do this kind of thing that costs money to develop technology out of thin air. Instead, it will reprimand it for violating the law of the ancestors on the grounds of "do you want to build sea ships and open sea bans if you study steam engines?"

The decrees that Laozhu used to control chaos and Yongle used to eat alone have become ropes to hang the royal family.

The emperor's eyes were only on the mainland of Daming, and he never thought of looking overseas again.

Zhang Yonghuan thought about something, and shook his head slowly. Even if there was no cold wave, the Ming Dynasty would not last long. A court without the ability to do things can only wait for its collapse and perish.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, let's practice martial arts, don't think about it so much."

"Ah."

(End of this chapter)