Under the dim light, Zhou Zhong sat motionless behind the desk, his eyebrows furrowed in thought. Xie Lingyun had been gone for a long time, and Zhuoer came to invite him to dinner several times, but Zhou Zhong refused because he

It takes time to digest some information, namely the secrets about the Zhou family that Xie Lingyun just told him.

Since Emperor Xiaozong of the previous dynasty, the Ming Dynasty's maritime ban policy has been very relaxed. Smuggling has become popular in the southern coastal areas. Almost all wealthy businessmen with a little wealth are more or less involved in smuggling. For example, the most representative one is Xie Lingyun

The family started their business through smuggling and became famous local wealthy people in Songjiang Prefecture.

In addition to the Xie family, most of the wealthy people in Songjiang Prefecture are also involved in smuggling. For example, Zhou Zhong's father Zhou Hai often participated in smuggling in the past. In the end, he encountered a shipwreck. Not only did people die, but the goods also sank.

In the middle of the sea, in order to repay the loan, Zhou Zhong sold off all his family's properties and finally paid it back.

The Zhou family has quite a lot of properties in Songjiang Prefecture. Although the Zhou family's business has been affected in recent years, they still have more than a dozen stores under their name, as well as fields outside the city, real estate in the city and other industries. But there are so many

However, due to a smuggling failure by Zhou Hai, they were all sold by Zhou Zhong to pay off the goods.

Sometimes Zhou Zhong couldn't help but wonder to himself, what exactly was his cheap dad smuggling? How big was the scale of smuggling? How could he lose his entire family fortune in one fell swoop? He couldn't figure out these questions anyway.

As for Aunt Wang and Butler Xu, they only knew about the affairs at home. Zhou Hai never let his family members interfere with business matters, so they could not answer Zhou Chong's doubts.

However, Xie Lingyun's arrival today finally allowed Zhou Zhong to learn something. According to Xie Lingyun, there are many secret ports in the south of Songjiang City near the sea. Land goods are usually boarded from there, and then shipped to Hangzhou Bay from Hangzhou Bay.

Not far south, you can reach Zhoushan Islands in no time.

When Zhu Yuanzhang implemented a sea ban, except for the largest Zhoushan Island, which allowed ordinary people to live, the residents of other islands had long been moved inland. However, this rough relocation did not stop maritime activities. On the contrary, because there were no residents on the islands, smuggling activities

It provides a considerable space. For example, the entire Zhoushan Islands area is where smuggling is most concentrated along the Ming Dynasty.

There is a large island in the south of Zhoushan Island called Liuheng Island, which is the third largest island in the entire Zhoushan Islands. There is a small island called Fodu Island on the west side of the northern end of this island. Between these two islands, one large and one small.

In the middle is a small strait with good water conditions. Smugglers generally call this strait Shuangyu Gate. There are excellent natural ports on both sides of Shuangyu Gate. In addition, it is close to the richest area in the south of the Ming Dynasty.

Shuangyu Port, the largest smuggling base in the Ming Dynasty, was gradually formed here. Not only the smuggling ships from the Ming Dynasty would come here, but also the trading ships from Japan, Korea, Ryukyu and other countries would gather here to trade with the smuggling ships from the Ming Dynasty.

When it comes to the name Shuangyu Port, not many people in later generations may know it, but it was famous in the history of the Ming Dynasty, mainly because it was the center of the entire Ming Dynasty smuggling activities. In later generations, scholars at home and abroad called Shuangyu Port

The port was known as the "Shanghai of the 16th century". A few decades later, Wang Zhi, the first pirate king of the Ming Dynasty, occupied this place and dominated the Ming Dynasty's coast, becoming the undisputed king of the smuggling industry. This shows the important position of Shuangyu Port.

Songjiang Prefecture is only less than a day's sea journey from Shuangyu Port, which is extremely convenient. This is one of the reasons why most wealthy businessmen in Songjiang Prefecture are involved in smuggling. Almost all ships involved in smuggling in Songjiang Prefecture will rush to Shuangyu Port for transactions.

, the Xie family and Zhou Zhong’s father Zhou Hai are no exception.

Smugglers are usually bold people. They ignore the regulations of the sea ban, privately build merchant ships to go to sea, and then trade with maritime merchants from surrounding countries. In the process of smuggling, there are no unified rules at all, and all actions are not subject to the laws of the Ming Dynasty.

Constraints, which also makes the smuggling business extremely chaotic. There is actually not much difference between merchants and pirates. When two fleets meet at sea, it is fine if both sides are of equal strength. If one side is strong and the other is weak, then the stronger one

Most of the parties will turn into pirates. The rule of big fish eating small fish does not only apply in the water, but also applies on the water.

The smuggling industry itself is so chaotic, and the chaos in Shuangyu Port, which is the smuggling base, can be imagined. It is still decades before Wang Zhi unifies Shuangyu Port, and the entire Shuangyu Port is in a state of chaos.

At a time when large and small forces coexisted, Shuangyu Port consisted of three ports, and each port was mixed with countless large and small forces, adding up to hundreds.

The forces in Shuangyu Port are mixed, but these forces are not like the underworld in later generations. After all, they are all composed of smugglers, and they mainly want to make money. Therefore, although there are constant frictions, they rarely use force to resolve them.

.

Generally, when there is a conflict of interest between two parties, everyone sits down to drink tea and negotiate. If they really can't reach an agreement, they can only rely on their own abilities. Usually one party's business is completely taken away by the other party, and in the end they have no choice but to

The end is to withdraw from Shuangyu Port. Of course, if the party whose business has been robbed is unconvinced, an armed conflict is likely to occur. However, regardless of winning or losing, both parties to the conflict may be suddenly attacked by a third party, so there are few powerful forces.

A conflict occurred in Shuangyu Port.

The above is all the information about smuggling and Shuangyu Port that Zhou Zhong heard from Xie Lingyun. Next is the information about Zhou Zhong’s father Zhou Hai. Among all the large and small forces in Shuangyu Port, four of them are the most powerful.

Zhou Zhong was powerful, and Zhou Zhong's father Zhou Hai was the leader of one of these four forces. This news surprised Zhou Zhong.

When he said this, Zhou Zhong interrupted and asked Xie Lingyun whether the Xie family was also very powerful in Shuangyu Port. However, Xie Lingyun smiled and said nothing about this question.

According to Xie Lingyun's account, Zhou Hai's power controls one-third of the revenue of one of Shuangyu Ports, and Zhou Hai controls a large fleet, which usually takes Ryukyu, Luzon and other Southeast Asian routes.

His income every time is in the tens of thousands, and he is definitely considered a leader among smugglers.

Hearing this, Zhou Zhong was confused. In the past, the Zhou family was indeed the most wealthy in the entire Songjiang Prefecture, but there were many wealthy people at the same level as the Zhou family. Moreover, the Zhou family has been going down a steep road in recent years.

In the end, he had to borrow external debts even to purchase goods. No matter how you look at him, you don't want to be a rich and oily smuggler. Where did the money your cheap father earned at sea go?

Xie Lingyun had no answer for Zhou Chong's question. According to what the Xie family saw, Zhou Hai's smuggling fleet and income from Shuangyu Port were absolutely beyond imagination. Zhou Hai had not encountered anything in recent years.

It was a huge difficulty, and they should have huge wealth in their hands, but the facts were inconsistent with their guesses, which made Xie Lingyun very strange.

Compared with the huge wealth that disappeared secretly, Xie Lingyun then told something very important to Zhou Zhong. When Zhou Hai took the fleet to sea, he encountered a shipwreck and none of the ships that went to sea came back. But when Zhou Hai took the fleet to sea, he encountered a shipwreck and none of the ships that went to sea came back.

When Hai went out to sea, he still left a considerable number of people in Shuangyu Port. After hearing the news of Zhou Hai's death, these people immediately fell into chaos. Now they have split into three forces and will never regain their former glory.

Most people in Songjiang Prefecture who have participated in smuggling know that Zhou Hai has strong maritime power, but they all know it tacitly. After all, smuggling is not a glorious thing, and few people openly discuss smuggling with others.

Related matters. And Zhou Hai has never told his family, and has never let his family participate in smuggling, so even Butler Xu and Aunt Wang don't know that his master actually has such a big power overseas. As for

Not to mention Zhou Zhong and Huo'er.

After Xie Lingyun introduced the above, she finally said the reason why she introduced these things, that is, she hoped that Zhou Zhong would give up the plan to introduce the Wang family into the soap business, and only the two of them would cooperate. In exchange, the Xie family would

Support Zhou Zhong to go to Shuangyu Island and help him take over the remaining forces left by Zhou Hai.

Although it is only a remnant force, and it was split into three groups before, there are still two to three hundred people who control part of the port's income, and even have several large ships in their hands. There is absolutely no problem in forming a small smuggling fleet.

Hearing the olive branch offered by Xie Lingyun, Zhou Zhong couldn't help but feel moved. He was worried about the lack of people in his hands, but he didn't expect that the cheap dad had left such a legacy, and if he could control these people

In his hands, even if he cooperates with the Xie family, he will not have to worry about his deserved profits being swallowed up by the other party.

But what makes Zhou Zhong a little strange is why Zhou Hai's subordinates don't come to him after such a long time? After all, he is also their young boss. When Zhou Hai died, they should be the first

It's time for him to come to take charge of the overall situation, but the fact is that they didn't come to him at all. It seems that there must be some unknown reason for this. Even if he wants to accept those two to three hundred people, it may not be easy.

, I will definitely need the support of the Xie family at that time.

Thinking of this, Zhou Zhong couldn't help but be a little undecided. If the Xie family could really support him in taking over those people left behind by Zhou Hai, then he would no longer be alone and would have some points no matter what he did in the future.

Confidence.

But Zhou Zhong is worried that Xie Lingyun is lying to him. If the above is all lies made up by her, or some key points are inconsistent with the facts, even if there are indeed residual forces left by Zhou Hai, he will not be able to conquer them at all.

what to do?

It was precisely because of the above that Zhou Zhong felt extremely entangled in his heart. Finally, he asked Xie Lingyun to give him time to think about it. In the end, in order to figure this out, he didn't even eat dinner.

However, after such a long period of weighing, Zhou Zhong finally came up with a solution. Sitting at the table, he suddenly opened his pen and paper, and then wrote to Xie Lingyun: "I want to go to Shuangyu Port in person. If
Chapter completed!