When Yang Sichen and his mother entered the dining room, Old Master Yang was already waiting at the main seat. The four of them greeted her and sat down. Old Master Yang ordered the servants to pour wine for Madam Zheng and Yang Sichen, then said,""Now that Ruozhu is back, this old man can finally relax a little.”
Madam Zheng picked up the wine and said," Father, what are you talking about? My wife doesn't often manage the house. If she doesn't do well, please give her some advice."”
Old Master Yang took a sip of his wine and said,"I'm already so old. It's time for me to retire. You and Xingrun can discuss the matters at home in the future. Don't ask me. You and Xingrun have been wandering outside for so many years. What haven't you seen?”
Madam Zheng nodded and finished the wine in her glass.
Yang Sichen also raised his glass and said to Madam Zheng,""Mother, you have to take care of the house this time. Otherwise, Grandfather will nag again.”
Madam Zheng smiled and said,"Look at you. You're already so old, but you're still so naughty!"”As he spoke, he took a sip of wine.
Seeing this, Yang Sichen pretended to drink the wine in his glass in one gulp, but his face turned red from choking.
Old Master Yang looked on and smiled as he invited the mother and son to eat.
After a quarter of an hour, Old Master Yang saw that the mother and son were almost done eating, so he waved his hand to get the food to be removed and brought Siwen and Sijing out to play.
The servants served tea to the three of them. They knew that Old Master Yang had something to say to the mother and son, so they did not dare to disturb them. They all retreated from the side room, closed the door, and stood far away.
Old Master Yang took a sip of tea and said,"I heard that the situation in Liaodong is extremely bad, and the Imperial Court can no longer control Nu Er Gan. Can our Yang Family's business in Liaodong continue?”
Madam Zheng thought for a while and said," Whether the imperial court can control Nurgan or not, the Zhenren will not touch us merchants lightly. They want tea leaves and food."”As she spoke, she glanced at Yang Sichen and then at the door worriedly.
Yang Sichen immediately understood and went outside to take a look. When he realized that no one was eavesdropping outside, he nodded at Madam Zheng and sat back down.
"Because of the constant disputes between the Jurchen tribes, the imperial court has begun to restrict the trade caravans from Jinzhou to Liaodong." Most of the tea and food urgently needed by the Jurchen tribes could only be transported through Wala, and the price had risen by at least 50%.”
"Sea route?" Old Master Yang and Madam Zheng asked in unison.
Yang Sichen thought for a while and looked at Madam Zheng.""Yes! Sea route. Starting from Songjiang, he would head northeast to Japan's Nagasaki, then head north from Nagasaki through the East China Sea of North Korea, or he could reach Nurgan Dusi. As long as they discussed with the Jurchen tribes, they would send people to receive them on the shore. If they were afraid that the imperial court would find out, they could let the Japanese do the work from Nagasaki to Nurgan. Even if we only transport the tea leaves and grain to Japan, the profits here are enough for us to make a fortune.”
Madam Zheng didn't have much of a reaction, but Old Master Yang, who had been a pirate before, understood what Yang Sichen meant. So, Old Master Yang asked,""The pirates on the sea are not easy to deal with. Those people are all outlaws with strong ships and sharp cannons.”
Yang Sichen took a sip of tea and said," The imperial court strictly forbids the private manufacture of firearms. This grandson knows that, but there are quite a number of fireworks workshops among the people." The imperial court didn't say anything about selling fireworks privately. As for the muskets in the hands of the Japanese pirates, I saw a type of iron crossbow in a book a few days ago. As long as there is enough pig iron and charcoal, it is not difficult to make it, and its power is not inferior to the muskets. I heard that Japan's Satsuma Domain is attacking Ryukyu, but our Ming Dynasty is too busy fighting. Since the Imperial Court doesn't care, then our Yang Family shouldn't have a problem occupying an island, right? Grandfather, don't forget how you made your fortune back then. It is said that it is the duty of loyalty to the monarch to eat the salary of the monarch. However, since the Han Dynasty, his grandfather had never been able to have more than 300 years of national fortune. The Great Ming Dynasty had lasted for more than 240 years and was about to run out of luck. No matter who rules the world in the future, we rich merchants will be fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered!! When the emperor is short of money, it will be the time of our death!!”
When Madam Zheng heard this, her face turned pale. She looked at Yang Sichen and said,""Little Chen…Where did you hear that?”Old Master Yang, on the other hand, was calm and thoughtful.
Yang Sichen stopped and looked at Old Master Yang's expression before turning to look at Madam Zheng. Both of them looked thoughtful. So, Yang Sichen tactfully stopped talking and waited quietly.
After half a cup of tea's time, Old Master Yang asked,""Little Chen, do you mean that this Great Ming Dynasty is really rotten from the bottom?”
"The original intention of Emperor Taizu when he established the guard station system was to raise millions of soldiers and not cost the people a single grain of rice. But now, the soldiers of the guard station have fled seriously, and the rest are mostly reduced to serfs. Once the world changed, how could such an army fight?”Yang Sichen said," Let's look at the grain officer system that has already collapsed. The reason why the " grain chief ", who had no power but no position, was so attractive was mainly because he could profit from the process of collecting tax grain. In addition to relying on grain to earn gray income, some grain chiefs also came up with various ways to fill their own pockets.”
"And it's not just that." Yang Sichen sorted out his words and continued,""What's more serious is that with the development of productivity, the world's order can no longer tolerate the Great Ming Dynasty's way of governing. The current ethos of " all things are inferior, only books are superior " had seriously hindered the survival of the Great Ming Dynasty, and the Great Ming Dynasty was maintained by a group of scholars and squires who read the books of sages. If they wanted to prolong the Ming Dynasty's life, they had to break the dominance of Confucianism, and breaking this situation would affect the fundamental interests of this group of scholars. Let's see what kind of people were the chief assistants and secondary assistants in these years. Therefore, unless the Emperor monopolized power, there was no possibility of change.”
"Even if someone topples the Great Ming Dynasty, as long as the dominance of Confucianism is not changed, it will only be a change of medicine. The Chinese civilization will still be unable to walk out of this strange circle.”Yang Sichen said.
"Did you think of what you said today?" Old Master Yang asked seriously.”
Yang Sichen nodded and replied vaguely,""A few days ago, my grandfather told me about the Yang family's situation. I have been thinking, why is our Yang family so rich, but our status is still not high? Then, he slowly thought of this. In fact, we businessmen are the ones who are well versed in the way of government. The way of government lies in compromise, which is similar to the way merchants ask for exorbitant prices and return money. Those Confucian disciples who are familiar with the books of the sages are inferior to us.”
Old Master Yang couldn't help but laugh when he heard this.!”
Madam Zheng looked at her son with a complicated expression. In the end, she nodded in relief.
Yang Sichen saw that the atmosphere had loosened up, so he took the opportunity to say,""Grandfather, about the tea leaves…"
Old Master Yang waved his hand and said,"I'll tell your father about this when he comes back. You don't have to worry about it.”
Seeing this, Madam Zheng heaved a sigh of relief and led Yang Sichen out of the dining hall of the Blue Sea Hall.
…………
Yang Sichen followed Madam Zheng out of the Eon Sea Hall and was about to bid farewell to Madam Zheng and return to his own Blue Wave Courtyard. "We haven't seen each other for nine months, right?" Madam Zheng called out to Yang Sichen. Chen 'er might as well follow his mother to Anlan Court to sit and chat with her.”
As soon as she entered Anlan Court, two pink balls pounced at Madam Zheng's feet and shouted,"Mother!" So it was Sijing and Siwen.
Madam Zheng patted the sisters 'heads and looked at Yang Sichen before saying,""Go greet your big brother and then go play by yourself. Mother has something to say to your big brother.”
The two sisters walked forward obediently and bowed to Yang Sichen.
Yang Sichen returned the greeting and looked at the two little girls. He took the two golden cat-eye hairpins from Zi Juan and bent down to pass them to the sisters. The two sisters happily took the hairpin, thanked him, and ran away.
Yang Sichen smiled." Mother, my sister is loved by my family. When my sister gets married in the future, I won't be able to love them even if I wanted to." Don't you think so?"
Madam Zheng pretended to hit him after hearing that and scolded him with a smile,"You little brat, you're so unreasonable. He really deserves a beating!"
Yang Sichen smiled as he dodged and said,""Mother, don't be angry with your son. Your son really knows his mistake!”
After this commotion, Madam Zheng finally relaxed and smiled. Yang Sichen heaved a sigh of relief.
The mother and son entered the house. Madam Zheng waved her hand and asked the servants to leave. Then, she said,"Although what you said today was treasonous, but thinking about it carefully, it makes sense. What do you want to do?" After saying that, she stared at Yang Sichen.
Yang Sichen didn't answer, but instead asked with a smile,""Does Mother have any plans to become the Empress Dowager?”
When Madam Zheng heard this, her face turned pale and she asked in a trembling voice,""You want to rebel?"
Yang Sichen's expression didn't change. He shook his head and said,""No, no. Even if I don't rebel, this Da Ming won't last for thirty years. Our Yang family doesn't have many good years left. Once the Imperial Court is short of money, they will definitely target us. The new dynasty will not tolerate our Yang family. Mother, don't forget what grandfather used to do.”
"What do you want to do?" Madam Zheng sat down and asked.”
" Founding an overseas country!!" Yang Sichen said word by word.
Madam Zheng heaved a sigh of relief and asked,"Where is it?"
Yang Sichen said," There's a continent south of Nanyang. It's not much smaller than our Great Ming, and its population is only as large as our Great Ming's province. Moreover, it's an uncivilized native. As long as we migrate 300,000 people over, we'll be able to control it. The Jurchen people of Liaodong are about to rebel. Our Ming Dynasty's government soldiers have low combat strength and can't suppress them at all. It's only a matter of time before the Jurchen people start a country. Once the Jurchen establish a country in Liaodong, the Han people in Liaodong will suffer. If our Yang family and the Jurchen reach an agreement to exchange tea and grain from the Central Plains for the Han people in Liaodong, then at least 500,000 Han people will be used by our Yang family. In ten or twenty years, it would not be a problem to establish a country in the New World. Once the Ming Dynasty really falls, our Yang family can also take over the Central Plains!!”
"I'll tell your grandfather about this," said Madam Zheng."Don't get involved.”
Yang Sichen nodded and did not continue the topic. He only asked if his father was well.
The mother and son talked for a long time. Yang Sichen realized that Madam Zheng had a vague feeling that the Yang family might be facing a crisis, but she couldn't figure it out. After Yang Sichen said this, she realized how serious the problem was. By the time Yang Sichen and Madam Zheng were done chatting, the servant girl outside had already lit up the lights. Madam Zheng asked Yang Sichen to stay at Anlan Court for dinner before letting him return to Jade Wave Court.
After Yang Sichen returned to the Jade Wave Courtyard, he sat on the bed and began to circulate his Qi. After he finished circulating his Qi, he studied the Nine Yang Scripture with Zi Juan for a while. It was not until the early hours of the morning that they finally rested.
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。