It was lucky and unfortunate to be a businessman in the Ming Dynasty. They said that they were lucky because the court did not care much about these civilians who were inferior to peasants. After Wanli, they even had no need to pay taxes because they received the convenience of the Donglin Party. They said that they were unfortunate because the status of merchants in the Ming Dynasty was low, and no matter how rich you had, they could not buy respect. Moreover, once the court disliked you, they would raid your house in minutes, and there was no place to say anything.

Shen Wansan is so awesome. The top ten wealthy businessmen in history are as rich as a country. When Nanjing was built, one-third of the city walls were built by him. As a result, he wanted to pay the money to reward the three armies, which angered Zhu Yuanzhang and was directly exiled to Yunnan and died in a foreign land.

It can be said that Chen Wansan did not make any mistakes. He just flattered Zhu Yuanzhang and was exiled to the army. Fan Yongdou and others were invested in the enemy and treasoned the country. Even if they killed their nine clans, it would be natural.

Therefore, Chang Wei, Fan Yongdou and others in the side hall all looked pale and their eyes were filled with fear. Look at me, and I looked at you, and only one confidence was conveyed, that is: despair.

After almost a cup of tea, a loud singing came from outside: "The Emperor is here."

Everyone knelt on the ground and shouted in unison: "Long live my emperor."

After shouting, they didn't dare to look up and just lay on the ground, waiting quietly for the verdict.

Zhu Cijing looked at the group of profiteers kneeling on the ground, and wanted to drag them all out and cut them down. Without these people's help, where did the Later Jin Dynasty come from so much food to support more than 100,000 troops? How could it be that excellent weapons and equipment? A tribe that had just left the primitive society could actually fight the Ming Dynasty and even dare not even come out of the city. These people are simply talents!

When Zhu Cijiu thought of talent, he had to suppress his anger. These people had no bottom line in their business, but they were all successful businessmen. As the saying goes, there is no businessman. If you have to be honest and stick to the rules, then you have to wear no pants waiting to pay. Sometimes you have to be a little treacherous, but this treacherous traitor is not a traitor of a traitor. They have been too traitor and must help them find the bottom line back in order to use it for me.

How to help them get the bottom line back? It’s very simple, both kindness and power, uh, to put it simply, it’s threatening and intimidation.

After Zhu Cijiu sat on the dragon throne, he looked straight and asked coldly: "You know what you have done, right?"

They naturally knew what they had done, and they did not dare to quibble in front of the emperor, otherwise there would be another crime of deceiving the king. Therefore, they all said in unison: "The people who are aware of the crime."

Zhu Cijiu said "um" slightly, then picked up the notebook on the long table and started reading it.

This is called "defying" and "killing a powerful stick in the palace is naturally unusable, so I can only kneel down and let them kneel for half an hour before talking about it.

The following group of Shanxi merchants were so scared by Zhu Cijiu's question that they were almost scattered. It turned out that they were brought to him because of the enemy and stolen the country. Now everyone only asks the emperor to be kind and drag them out and chop them up. Don't harm your family and implicate the nine clans!

However, a quarter of an hour passed, and the emperor had not ordered anyone to drag them out and chop them up. He could even read the sound of reading books quietly, without even saying anything. Could it be that he was reading their crimes?

These people were even more scared. They had done more things to collude with enemies and sell their country. Anything was enough to kill the nine clans. Everyone had cold sweats on their foreheads, and some of them had already started to tremble.

Waiting is always tormenting. After about a quarter of an hour, these Shanxi merchants felt like they had died, and they all lay there like corpses, without any chance.

At this time, Emperor Chongzheng Zhu Cijing finally spoke. He slowly said: "Remembering that God has the virtue of being alive, I will give you a chance now. There is a list here, so you can take a look first."

After saying that, he signaled to the eunuch who was serving next to him. The eunuch quickly picked up a stack of books on the long table and sent a copy to each of them.

When everyone heard that they still had a chance to survive, they regained their vitality. They took the order respectfully and lay on the ground to look carefully.

Why did they only recover a little vitality? Because there is a state called living is more uncomfortable than death. They are still not sure whether the emperor really wants to let them go or wants them to live is more uncomfortable than death, so they only recover a little vitality.

They originally thought they were asking them to return the stolen orders, but they were ready to lose everything, but when they saw the contents on the orders, they were sweating even more violently, and they were all full of antiques, calligraphy, paintings, and jewelry! The cheapest ones cost thousands of taels, tens of thousands of taels, and hundreds of thousands of taels. This is not ten or eight pieces, nor one or two hundred pieces, but a thick list. Even if they sell them all, they can't afford so many antiques, calligraphy, paintings and jewelry! The emperor really wants them to be more uncomfortable than death!

Zhu Cijing just read it casually, and was also scared by the things recorded on it. These were all confiscated by emperors of the Ming Dynasty. At that time, there were surprisingly many corrupt officials. Emperors of all dynasties were not good at plagiarisms and had confiscated countless corrupt officials' property. Some of them like to collect antiques, some like to collect jewelry, and even calligraphy and paintings.

Not to mention the others, Yan Song, the chief minister of the Jiajing Dynasty, collected 3,201 volumes of calligraphy and paintings. There are all original works by famous artists such as Gu Kaizhi, Wang Xizhi, Yu Shinan, Ouyang Xun, Yan Zhenqing, Huaisu, Yan Liben, Wang Wei, Su Shi, Huang Tingjian, Mi Fu, Ouyang Xiu, Zhao Mengzhao, Tang Bohu, Wu Daozi, Zhang Zeduan, Wen Zhengming, Zhao Mengjian, Qiu Ying, etc. Zhang Zeduan's "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" is one of Yan Song's 3,201 collections. How much do you think it is worth!

Everyone lay on the ground and flipped over for more than an hour and finally finished it. Zhu Cijing asked patiently: "How much do you think these things are worth?"

When everyone heard this, they felt bitter in their hearts. Sure enough, they really wanted to say to the emperor: "You might as well drag us out and cut them down. All the assets of Shanxi merchants together cannot afford these things! There is no such random levy, right?"

Of course, no one dared to reply like this. Chang Wei, who was kneeling on the left, said tremblingly: "If you go back to the emperor, the value of these antiques, calligraphy, paintings and jewelry is really immeasurable. If you insist on saying the price, the grass people think it is worth at least 10,000 taels of silver."

Ten thousand taels, that's one hundred million. Zhu Cijing didn't expect that these things could be sold for so much money in ancient times. He nodded with satisfaction and looked at Fan Yongdou, who was on the right.

Seeing that the emperor had come over, Fan Yongdou had to bite the bullet and replied: "If you go back to the emperor, these things would probably be sold for more than 10,000 taels during the Taiping period, but now the world is in chaos, and antiques cannot be sold at all, and jewelry can only be sold to the Nanzhili patriarch. These calligraphy and paintings can be sold in the capital."

Zhu Cijing nodded with satisfaction again. Experts are experts, and they thought of this thing wherever they took it.

He continued to say slowly, "Well, then the estimated price is 90 million taels..."

When Chang Wei, Fan Yongdou and others heard this, their faces immediately turned ashamed. They could still take out nine million taels if they were worth it. Nine million taels, they couldn't take out even if they killed them!

Zhu Cijing took a breath and continued, "I want to set up a business, with a total asset of 10 million taels. These antiques, calligraphy, paintings, and jewelry are invested at 90 million taels, accounting for 90% of them. You nine are responsible for the specific operations, giving you half a percentage, and Jinyiwei and Dongchang are responsible for assisting and supervising, accounting for half a percentage. What do you think?"

Now Chang Wei and Fan Yongdou were stunned. They still had half of the investment, only 5 million taels, which didn’t seem to want their lives!

Chang Wei asked a little uncertain: "Your Majesty, do you mean we should take these antiques, calligraphy, paintings and jewelry to do business?"

Zhu Cijing nodded after hearing this and said, "Yes, I just want you to use these things to do business. Do you know what the silver bill is?"

They naturally know what the banknotes are. Nowadays, as long as the assets are over 100,000 taels, banknotes become an indispensable thing. It is impossible for you to always bring tons of money to do business.

As soon as they talked about business, these people came alive. Fan Yongdou immediately asked: "Your Majesty, do you mean to set up a business that can issue bank notes?"

Zhu Cijiu nodded again after hearing this, saying, "Yes, I want to establish such a business, but it's not like you, you can only exchange it in Beijing and Shanxi. I want to establish a semicolon in both Beijing and thirteen provinces, and my banknotes must be available throughout the country!"

It is universally used in the country, that is, to connect the world. This has always been a dream of the Shanxi merchants. This dream was not realized in history until the establishment of the Qing Dynasty when they became imperial merchants. But now it is different. Emperor Chongzheng Zhu Cijiong helped them realize this dream in advance, but it was the emperor who dominated the emperor rather than the Shanxi merchants.

No one doubts whether Zhu Cijiu could build a semicolon everywhere in the country. In this era of imperial power supremacy, things that others could not do in their entire lives only need one oral order for the emperor to do.

What a great feat to connect the world! No one has achieved it in history, and it will be realized in their hands. Everyone was excited. Fan Yongdou asked with a flushed face: "Your Majesty, do you want to connect the world?"

Seeing their excited appearance, Zhu Cijing couldn't help but frown. If these profiteers and traitors, if they hadn't valued your talents, could I let you go easily?

The reason why Zhu Cijiu decided to use them was a helpless move. As an emperor, he could do whatever he wanted, but he had a limit on everything. He could not attract all the wealthy businessmen across the country for no reason, forcing them to invest and serve himself, that was to force them to rebel!

These people are different. They commit the serious crime of killing the nine clans. As long as they do not destroy their entire clan, they dare not resist anything they do. The biggest pain in his hands will not be afraid of them being disobedient.

Of course, it is not enough to just grab the foot, and you have to catch some hostages in your hands to be foolproof. Zhu Ciji coughed and said in a false sense: "Well, don't do anything about colluding with enemies and traitors in the future. Do your work for me well. I will not treat you badly. Huang Taiji will probably be crazy about your rebellion. Your descendants will be in danger. Send them all to the capital. I will send Jinyiwei to protect them day and night to ensure that they will not have any trouble."
Chapter completed!