Chapter 209 The minister is forcing the palace. Your Majesty is competing with the people for profit (please subscribe!!) Swah——

Zhu Yuanzhang stood up suddenly and asked in a deep voice: "What are Li Shanchang and the others doing?"

"Are you forced to have a baby?"

After a second thought, he looked confused.

"That's not right! We haven't done anything recently!"

Soon another eunuch came in and said, "Your Majesty, Li Shanchang, Lu Chang, Song Lian and more than a dozen other adults are asking for an audience outside the palace!"

"No, with such a huge formation, I wonder if they thought I had done something wrong and asked them to wait outside the palace." Zhu Yuanzhang also lost his temper.

"Yes!"

The eunuch went down to deliver Zhu Yuanzhang's orders.

after awhile.

The eunuch ran in again, "Your Majesty, Mr. Li Shanchang said that they have important matters related to the survival of the Ming Dynasty to report to your Majesty, and please summon him."

"Haha -" Zhu Yuanzhang snorted coldly, "Is it related to the survival of the Ming Dynasty? What civil servants like them most is to make things very serious, and then propose an extremely outrageous solution to you, which makes them look like they are It's very similar. If you do it, it's because their advice was effective. If you don't do it, it's because we are incompetent and have nothing to do with them!"

"I hate them the most!"

"No! I'm in a bad mood today. I asked them to go back to where they came from. If there's anything else, we can wait until tomorrow morning to talk about it."

"Yes!"

Not long after the eunuch went out to deliver the message, he ran back again.

"Your Majesty, Mr. Li Shanchang said that if His Majesty does not see them, then they will kneel outside until His Majesty summons them!"

"You're excited, aren't you? If you want to kneel, then kneel. We are not Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, and we are being coerced by you ministers!" Zhu Yuanzhang did not change his mind at all.

Time passed for a while, and the sky gradually darkened.

Seeing this, Zhu Biao quickly said: "Father, why don't we meet each other? Li Shanchang, Lu Chang and my teacher Song Lian are all old. If we keep kneeling like this, something will happen!"

Zhu Biao's words stunned Zhu Yuanzhang.

"Biao'er, what you said makes sense. If something happens to Li Shanchang and the others, those historians will have to make random records again, and those unofficial historians will have records again." Zhu Yuanzhang thought for a while, then waved his hand, "Forget it. , let them all come in for me."

"I'd like to see if Li Shanchang and the others have anything to say."

With Zhu Yuanzhang's consent, Li Shanchang and others quickly walked in under the leadership of the eunuch.

"Come on and see Your Majesty!"

"Get back on your feet." Zhu Yuanzhang glanced at the ministers and said angrily: "Didn't I tell you? We can wait until tomorrow morning to talk about anything. Are you so impatient?"

Lu Chang raised his head and said, "Your Majesty, this matter is related to the survival of the Ming Dynasty. I can't wait for a moment."

"Haha, it is related to the survival of the Ming Dynasty? Do you want to say that Dongying rebelled, or that Beiyuan invaded? Or that the remaining forces of Chen Youliang and Zhang Shicheng rebelled again?" Zhu Yuanzhang said solemnly: "None of them!"

Snapped! Zhu Yuanzhang slapped the dragon case hard, "It seems that I have been too kind to you during this period, so that I let you do such nonsense!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's anger shocked all the ministers, but they were not intimidated.

Song Lian opened his mouth and said: "Your Majesty, I would like to ask your Majesty, how should we deal with cases of abuse of power for personal gain and collusion between officials and businessmen within the territory of our Ming Dynasty?"

Hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes filled with anger, and he said in a deep voice: "Abusing power for personal gain? Do you dare to collude with officials and businessmen? If there are such evil deeds among officials of the Ming Dynasty, they should be punished!"

"Who dares to do such a bastard thing? Tell me this person's name. I will skin him alive!"

Zhu Yuanzhang's tone was extremely firm. What he just said came completely from his heart. Abusing power for personal gain and colluding with officials and businessmen harmed not only the people, but also the court. It damaged the foundation of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yuanzhang absolutely cannot accept this.

However, after Zhu Yuanzhang said what he meant by this sentence, he regretted it a little.

Because Zhu Yuanzhang noticed that since he said this, the looks in the eyes of Li Shanchang and other ministers have changed a bit. Is there a trick in this? Sure enough, the next second, Lu Chang stood up and said loudly: "Your Majesty, I heard that a kind of edible oil called rapeseed oil is being sold in various places in the Ming Dynasty recently. It has been sought after by the people and has almost become The necessities in people’s daily lives!”

"However, as far as I know, this rapeseed oil has not been certified by the imperial court, so it is sold on the market. If there is something wrong with this rapeseed oil, what should I do?"

Song Lian followed up and said: "Not only that, the emergence of this rapeseed oil has seriously affected the sales of lard and other oils. One family is the only one. If someone with evil intentions poisons this rapeseed oil, what will happen to our Ming Dynasty?" Don’t you want to subjugate the country?”

"It is really dangerous to leave the lifeline of the country in the hands of businessmen!"

After Lu Chang and Song Lian finished speaking, Li Shanchang immediately took over.

"Your Majesty, I heard that Majia Trading Co., Ltd., which sells rapeseed oil, has a close relationship with Jinyiwei. Ji Gang, the envoy of Jinyiwei North Zhili Town, specially built a platform for Majia Oil Shop. Jinyiwei from all over the country also secretly protects Majia Trading Company. I am suspicious. "

Li Shanchang did not say anything, but raised his head and looked at Zhu Yuanzhang, his meaning was obvious.

kindness! ?

Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned, and now he completely understood.

These guys are here to cause trouble today! Thinking of this, Zhu Yuanzhang quickly looked at Prince Zhu Biao. The latter, like Zhu Yuanzhang, was also confused.

After a brief thought, Zhu Yuanzhang knew that people like Li Shanchang had found out that the boss behind the sale of rapeseed oil was Zhu Yuanzhang.

The fact that people like Li Shanchang dared to enter the palace collectively to meet him shows that they have obtained conclusive evidence.

If that's the case, then there's no need for him to hide it.

All right!Showdown, I won’t pretend anymore! "Ahem, to be honest with you dear friends, this Ma's Trading Company is actually run by the royal family, and I personally arranged the Jinyiwei side." In Zhu Yuanzhang's view, as long as he admits it personally, this matter should be over. After all, just now The ministers were worried that such important rapeseed oil was in the hands of outsiders, which would be detrimental to the Ming Dynasty. Now that it was confirmed that it was in the hands of the royal family, they would not say anything more.

But what happened next made Zhu Yuanzhang understand how simple his thoughts at the moment were.

"Ma's Trading Company is really His Majesty's property?"

Lu Chang asked quickly to make sure.

Zhu Yuanzhang nodded, "There is nothing to hide. Ma's Trading Company is my industry. How can I let others get their hands on things like chili peppers, soaps and rapeseed oil! Dear friends, please rest assured that I will make these things available to the royal family from now on." The management will never be controlled by outsiders!" The words just finished.

puff-

Li Shanchang and other ministers all knelt down.

kindness! ! ? Zhu Yuanzhang was stunned for a moment, then realized, "Li Shanchang, what are you doing?"

The ministers headed by Li Shanchang, Lu Chang, and Song Lian began to wail directly.

"Your Majesty! You are the emperor! How can you do business?"

"Your Majesty! Don't you hate merchants the most? Why are you becoming a merchant now?"

"If word of this gets out, how will the world view Your Majesty?"

"The emperor personally conducts business. This is the most ridiculous thing in the world!"

"Your Majesty, the whole world belongs to you, why do you want to sacrifice the big for small profits?"

"Confucianism says that the emperor is the master of the country. He must never compete with the people for profit. Doing so will lead to disaster!"

Listening to the wailing in the hall, Zhu Yuanzhang's face was covered with black lines.

You guys! ! You are clearly here to fight against me today! Zhu Yuanzhang was not used to it and chose to be tough, "Shut up!"

Even though Zhu Yuanzhang was already over 50 years old at this time, he was strong and strong. His scolding was deafening and revealed the majestic power of an emperor! Li Shanchang and others gradually silenced.

Although they asked themselves that they were right, it was not enough to make them dare not to listen to Zhu Yuanzhang. Of course, if Zhu Yuanzhang asked them to leave the matter alone, that would be another matter.

The Hall of Supreme Harmony gradually became quiet.

Zhu Yuanzhang said in a deep voice: "I went into business not because of your incompetence. When the Ming Dynasty's treasury was empty, my internal money was cleaner than my face! In addition to letting me save money and reduce taxes, what else did you give me? idea?"

"If I hadn't worked so hard to make money these years, would you have been able to live a good life?"

"Ask yourselves, in the past two years, have I given you too many things during festivals and festivals? To tell you the truth, all this money was earned through doing business at Ma's Trading Company!"

Hearing Zhu Yuanzhang's words, Li Shanchang and others nodded.

"Your Majesty, you are right. You have indeed given us a lot more things in the past two years. The ministers have been deeply favored by the emperor, so they naturally want to repay the imperial court! However, when the emperor does business, he actually competes with the people for profit. What's the difference between you and those corrupt officials who plunder people's wealth and wealth?"

"That's right! The emperor is doing business and enjoys all kinds of privileges. A mere Ma's trading company is actually escorted by royal guards. Isn't this a public weapon for private use?! This is a strategy to create chaos!"

"I also heard that due to the advent of rapeseed oil, many butcher shops selling lard have suffered a bleak business. Aren't these people your Majesty's people?"

"Your Majesty, please stop making excuses and return the market to the people!"

"I am loyal to the court and cannot bear to see your majesty go astray. If your majesty agrees, I am willing to return a lot of the things your majesty has given me in the past two years!"

Listening to what Li Shanchang and others said, Zhu Yuanzhang was so angry that his teeth itched.

If I say one sentence, you can answer me ten sentences, right?

Apart from letting Jin Yiwei keep an eye on me, I have never used any privileges!The success of Majia Trading Company depends entirely on the quality of its products!

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang did sneer at doing business at first. He founded Majia Trading Co., Ltd. just to deal with Ouyang Lun and avoid being discovered by Ouyang Lun. But when he could make tens or millions by reselling peppers, he then started to make soaps and rapeseeds. Making more money from oil, Zhu Yuanzhang's views began to change! It turns out that you can make so much money by doing business!

To be more precise, you can make so much money by doing business with Ouyang Lun! In the past two years, he has directly filled up his internal funds by doing business. This person has the confidence to have money, and it is the same as being an emperor! In the past, when Zhu Yuanzhang wanted to do something, he had to dig around for tens of thousands of taels of silver. He was afraid that he would use it beyond the limit and would be even more embarrassed when he needed the money again. But now, he can get millions of taels of silver. come out!

After feeling the pleasure of being rich, Zhu Yuanzhang naturally would not give up.

The whole world belongs to me, what about doing some business? However, seeing that Li Shanchang and others seemed to have a firm attitude, Zhu Yuanzhang was not willing to intensify the conflict too much, so he took a deep breath and asked in a deep voice: "Since you have gathered here, you must have some ideas, please tell me."

No matter what, let's find out what these ministers think first.

Hearing this, Li Shanchang, Lu Chang, and Song Lian looked at each other, and then Li Shanchang said: "Your Majesty, I have already discussed that rapeseed oil, a people's livelihood product, should be elevated to the same status as salt. , first of all, it needs special control by the court, and secondly, it needs to select businessmen with clean wealth and loyalty to the Ming Dynasty to distribute the oil, and they will sell it, and the court will extract the oil tax from it!"

"I have drawn up a list of oil merchants. These people are all merchants who are loyal to the Ming Dynasty. In the future, the Ming Dynasty will be able to collect both salt tax and oil tax! This is a great virtue!"

After saying that, Li Shanchang took out a folder from his sleeve and handed it over.

Zhu Yuanzhang took the book and took a look. Aren't the businessmen on the list all relatives, friends and brothers of the same clan as the person kneeling in front of him?

Obviously, this group of people came to plead for the people and the country. They clearly saw the hot rapeseed oil and wanted a share of the pie. This kind of operation did not happen once or twice.

You are really thinking well! Control rapeseed oil like salt. Your people divide the rapeseed oil trade and make a lot of money. The oil tax collected goes into the national treasury, and then you give me a symbolic share every year? The sound of the abacus was a bit too loud.

Absolutely unacceptable!

Zhu Yuanzhang held the fold tightly and said in a deep voice: "I still need to think about this matter. You guys should stand down first and we will discuss it in court tomorrow morning!!"

"I am not an unreasonable person. In the future, when the oil tax increases, we can still give more to His Majesty's internal funds. In this way, Your Majesty will not have to worry about anything, and you will have money in your account, and you don't have to worry. Being criticized for competing with the people for profit!"

"Your Majesty, please make a decision as soon as possible. I will take my leave!"

As Li Shanchang and others retreated, Zhu Yuanzhang couldn't help but explode.

Zhu Yuanzhang first threw the zhezi in his hand to the ground, "Asshole! They clearly want to get a share of the rapeseed oil!"

"I really underestimate them!"

Zhu Biao stood beside him, his brows slightly furrowed, "Father, I think what Li Shanchang, Lu Chang and the teacher said is unreasonable. This Ma's Trading Company was established by us to hide our identity from our fourth brother-in-law. Originally, I never thought that Majia Shang Society was running so well, and with the booming sales of rapeseed oil, it would be possible to be listed on the stock exchange, but it seems impossible now."

"Father, how about we listen to Li Shanchang and control this rapeseed oil like table salt? It won't make any difference anyway."

"No difference? The difference is huge!" Zhu Yuanzhang roared.

(End of this chapter)