The sea breeze crossed the water and made a rustling sound. A full moon in the sky reflected the turbulent waves hidden under the calm sea level.

Today, a massive recruitment ceremony is underway here.

Because the coast of Fujian has basically been blocked by the Dutch fleet, and merchant ships cannot even get close to the Ming navy, this reunion ceremony was chosen in Wenzhou Prefecture, Zhejiang.

After receiving the order, Wenzhou Prefecture quickly made a basic mobilization.

The government issued a notice that the local newspaper office with the Beijing News locally owned by the Beijing Newspaper, and was also "invited" to cooperate with the government to actively publicize the fact that the Zheng family would be invited by the court.

In order to expand the influence, the Wenzhou Prefect's Office stipulated in the notice that on the day of the recruitment ceremony, all people who come to watch, with more than three households, will be excluded from the tax amount for the whole year of the three years of Tianqi.

Any maritime merchants with 20 or more merchant ships in their hands will have priority transportation rights at Wenzhou Prefecture Port in the next three years.

What is the priority right to ship goods?

Because he was a pirate, what Zheng Yiguan asked for before from Fujian Governor Nan Juyi was just the business rights of the maritime merchants since ancient times.

The above is the so-called priority shipping rights that all maritime merchants are concerned about.

The maritime merchants that have this right will become the "imperial merchants" of the court in the next three years. Among the maritime merchants, the one that causes the Dutch people the most headache and makes the maritime merchants the most profit is silk.

Since he was crowned the queen in the first year of Tianqi, Li Shi, the eunuch of the Sili Prison who went to various places to select the queen, was able to make great contributions and was sent to the Suzhou Weaving Factory, which was causing trouble at the time, as the eunuch of the governor.

Two years have passed, and Li Shi has developed the first batch of Ming Dynasty imperial merchants in Suzhou Prefecture. The value of the existence of imperial merchants is to control the direction of silk circulation in various places for the court.

During the Tianqi period, Wei Zhongxian assisted in the political affairs and the so-called "eunuch party" claimed by the Donglin Party members rose and gradually spread throughout the world, except that Suzhou Weaving was sent by the emperor himself.

The other weaving bureaus of the Southern Zhili prefectures were all occupied by the eunuch party.

These eunuch party members were openly profiting for the so-called power eunuch Wei Zhongxian, but their secret role was to develop a large number of "imperial merchants" who relied on imperial power.

Local manufacturing bureaus and supervision departments have joined forces to control the entire process of silk from planting to output. Ordinary businessmen have only two choices to get.

One, pay a high price, two, become an imperial merchant.

Once they become imperial merchants, they will receive support from the imperial court, and it will be easier to resell silk, and they will also receive the escort of local navy when they travel to sea to deliver goods.

Of course, the imperial court cannot do the escort of the navy now, because the navy's combat power is very weak and the coastal areas can slightly curb the poorly equipped pirates.

After leaving the territorial waters, not to mention the Western colonists, the plunder fleets, and even some slightly stronger pirates, they will cause considerable losses to the imperial navy.

After the initial attempt to escort the entire process, government officials in various places suffered considerable losses, and soon the policies gradually changed and turned into symbolic coastal escort.

This is also the place where Zhu Youxiao is committed to development.

However, everything needs to be done step by step.

Most of the silks in Jiangnan have priority in the transfer of the imperial court and others sell three times, and they can make a considerable profit by taking one trip.

The court can withdraw tariffs and control goods, which is a win-win situation.

Nowadays, if the maritime merchants in various ports in the south want to transport silk exclusively to the West, they have to purchase silk from royal merchants.

Of course, since the second half of the second year of the Tianqi period, the conditions for becoming an imperial merchant have become increasingly harsh. It does not mean that anyone can become an imperial merchant and gain privileges.

This time, the large-scale absorption of imperial merchants in Wenzhou Prefecture quickly caused a great shock in the maritime business circle. Many people were not even transported their goods and came to the port of Wenzhou Prefecture to watch the Zheng family's recruitment ceremony.

They don’t know why the court attaches so much importance to this matter. Anyway, they don’t need to pay anything and get the priority monopoly on silk. Why not do it?

"Yiguan, look." Zheng Hongkui walked behind Zheng Yiguan with a serious look: "It's just an official position in the garrison of Zhangzhoukou, Fujian, why are there so many people?"

"I'm afraid the court's tricks are so he wants to tie me up." Zheng Yiguan also saw it, and there was no sign of joy in his expression that he was attracted to the hospital:

"I originally wanted to act as low-key as possible. After such a fuss, I, Zheng Yiguan, abandoned Li Dan and received the amnesty from the court."

"Li Dan is so arrogant that he must have turned against me because of this..."

"The court's hand is really clever. This is to hold us on the stove and roast us." Zheng Hongkui nodded and wondered:

"Is it that Nanjui's idea?"

"have no idea."

Zheng Yiguan is very honest. He is not old this year, but he is very mature. His eyes look at the deep sea, pretending to be thoughts that many peers don’t have:

"This time we recruited the Zheng family, and the imperial court also made such a move. It would be a draw for us if we were to lose money."

Zheng Hongkui was indecisive in character. At this time, he saw many maritime merchants and people waiting to watch jokes on the shore. When things came, he suddenly became a little hesitant and retreated. He asked:

"Then, will you still be invited?"

"Why not recruit?"

Zheng Yiguan seemed very puzzled why he asked such a stupid question. He took a look, but turned around and explained patiently:

"The court has made such a big disturbance. Even if he turns around now, Li Dan will have to ask me for guilt. The court and Li Dan, we must take one side first."

"It makes sense..." Zheng Hongkui thought.

The Zheng family's fleet quickly approached the port. It was not the local officials of Wenzhou Prefecture who came to greet the Fujian coastal defense guerrillas under Yu Zizao, who was called Wang Mengxiong.

Wang Mengxiong was born in a general in Shaowu Mansion in Fujian. His ancestors followed Emperor Yongle to make contributions to Jingnan and inherited the role of a thousand households in the coastal areas of the Great Jin Dynasty.

His father Wang Tao was a well-known general in Fujian and a capable subordinate of Yu Dayou. Later, Qi Jiguang moved his troops to Fujian and continued to eliminate Japanese pirates. He followed Yu Dayou's orders and cooperated with the Qi family army to fight.

During the battle on Hengyu Island, when the Qi family army surrounded the troops before they arrived, they accurately judged the day of the rising tide and led their troops to run for several days to defeat the Japanese pirate Ono Sanshiro.

Qi Jiguang also commented that Wang Tao, who was the guerrilla general of the coastal defense at that time, arranged a battle situation for himself and wiped out the Japanese pirates, and won plenty of time.

Wang Tao was blessed in his later years and gave birth to a son, named Mengxiong. Later, he died at home in the early years of Wanli. He became the deputy general of Fujian, the assistant commander of the Zhendongwei, and the left governor of the Five Army Governor's Office.

He could not have imagined that he had fought for his whole life and had successively wiped out the Japanese pirates with Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang, but his son was to continue fighting with Yu Dayou's son and Western colonists.

After Wang Tao's death, there was no fluctuation in the court and the country, but in the end, Emperor Wanli issued an edict to add a thousand households of Jinyiwei after his son became an adult, which was considered to be a blessing to the heroic spirit in Tiantian.

This son is Wang Mengxiong in front of him. Now the capable subordinate of Yu Zizao, the son of Yu Dayou, was ordered to come to contact Zheng Yiguan.

It was beyond Zheng Yiguan's expectation that Yu Zizao did not come by himself.

This time, the imperial court made Zheng Yiguan sniff his teeth and swallow it. The scene was very big and the news spread was quite wide. As a result, the only one who came to pick up people was a local guerrilla general from Fujian.

This is equivalent to a slap in the face...
Chapter completed!