Chapter 220: Being Targeted

"What's wrong?" Zhao Xu was confused. ReadМ

Although the expansion of his fiefdom to the entire Yanzhou did not bring significant benefits to the trading company.

But it won't be detrimental to the business.

He couldn't think of anything that would make things difficult for the business bank.

"Today merchants from powerful clans came to the trading house and demanded that the monopoly rights be returned to the palace, and their money was returned. They claimed that they would never buy goods from the palace in the future." Yang He's face was so gloomy that water dripped from his face.

After hearing this, Zhao Xu felt a surge of anger in his heart.

Not to mention Zhao Heng’s true feelings about the reward this time, he was just pretending.

But the bad attitude of these powerful people towards him is obvious.

I didn't expect that it would be just a matter of showing him up in the court.

Now they actually ordered their merchants to tear up the contract and prepare to contain him in business.

"These bastards!" Zhao Xu snorted angrily.

In fact, he should have thought that these powerful people would be like this.

When the Yuan family first took charge of Yanzhou, the eight powerful families also targeted and suppressed them everywhere.

Later, the Yuan family had no choice but to rely on the Han family, and with the support of the Han family, they had their own voice in the court.

At the same time, Yuan Li secretly traded with Beidi, thus bypassing the eight powerful families and making the Yuan family the giant in Yanzhou.

Even the eight powerful families can't do anything about it.

Now that Yuan Li's vitality was seriously injured, he took control of the four northern counties.

These powerful families must suppress him, and at the same time support the Yuan family and let the Yuan family breathe and recover.

And in his opinion, compared to Yuan Li, the powerful people might be more afraid of him.

After all, he is the ninth prince of Dasong, the destiny royal family.

Yuan Li was powerful, but he only controlled Yanzhou. If he was powerful, he would tilt the balance between the powerful clan and the royal family in favor of the royal family.

"Your Highness, what should we do?" Yang He looked anxious.

If merchants from powerful clans cut off trade with the palace, the trade volume of the palace will be reduced by half.

Now that His Highness the King of Yan has worked hard to take charge of the entire Yanzhou, it is time to use money.

He was worried.

"Exclusive rights are not a problem. There is a contract. Can they back out if they want? It's a dream, but the initiative to purchase the goods is in their hands, which is troublesome." Zhao Xu said.

Although he hated it with itch, this time his weakness was indeed taken advantage of by these powerful people.

These powerful clans have very strong control over the state.

If his goods were not allowed to enter, there was really nothing he could do.

This time they would rather not make money themselves, but also want to contain him.

"Hey." Seeing that King Yan seemed to have no clue, Yang He sighed, "Your Highness, are we just going to let them control this?"

"Of course not." Zhao Xu narrowed his eyes.

Commerce is the economic lifeline of Yanzhou and is related to the most primitive capital accumulation.

If the road to accumulation is blocked, even if his mind is full of technology, he will not be able to start an industrial revolution in Yanzhou.

The reason is very simple. If you make something, you can't sell it and make a profit.

However, craftsmen and raw materials require silver.

In this way, this industry will become a negative equity.

If it becomes negative equity, the industry will be dead.

People in this industry have to go back to relying on farming to survive.

As a result, Yanzhou will not be able to allow various workshops to bloom everywhere and move from simple agriculture to industry.

The price of not being able to industrialize is just like the contemporary situation, which is being invaded by colonizers.

Furthermore, without enough money, his low tax policy will no longer be implemented, and the loyalty of the people will decline.

In order to maintain the operation of Yanzhou, he even had to collect money from the people of Yanzhou to build artillery and ships.

This is something that the people of Yanzhou simply cannot afford.

Therefore, he must find a way to break the situation.

Thinking of this, he said to Yang He: "You go back for now, I have my own plans."

"Yes, Your Highness." Yang He bowed, opened his mouth, sighed again, turned and left.

Wait for Yang He to leave.

Zhao Xu entered the study alone.

He was going to give Zhao Heng some tips, but the tips were not to accuse the powerful people of doing this.

After all, these powerful people are very shrewd, and they can just deny that it is the merchant's own decision.

What he wanted to do was to consolidate his commercial interests in royal-controlled states and counties.

Now that these powerful people have taken action, they will definitely encroach on his market in the royal family.

His purpose in making this offer was to gain a formal status for Yanjun Trading Company and firmly occupy the market in the royal-controlled states and counties.

In addition, there is the most important thing. He wants the same rights to sea trade as the Liang family.

This is a fallback path he has prepared, if his relationship with the powerful clan deteriorates overall in the future, or Dasong falls into turmoil.

At least he can still engage in maritime trade and obtain a steady stream of money and goods from overseas.

In the Age of Discovery, a small territory was not a problem. As long as you controlled the ocean, you would be invincible.

It's just that if Emperor Zhao Heng and the powerful clans have the same mind and want to maintain the balance of Yanzhou, I'm afraid his demands will not be achieved.

Therefore, it is necessary for him to come up with something powerful in exchange.

The most suitable thing is naturally artillery.

Moreover, he suspected that this time the powerful clan's manipulation in business was not only to contain him, but also to use it as a bargaining chip to bargain with him.

Liang Cheng also mentioned this matter in front of him intentionally or unintentionally when he was in Yancheng.

It can be seen that not only the powerful people, but also Zhao Heng has this idea.

It's just that he has just achieved a great victory, and he doesn't want to be so shameless.

Regarding this situation, he actually had a prediction after the Battle of Yanguan.

Therefore, we already have countermeasures.

Don't they want artillery?

Of course, he would not give them the steel cannons that the current royal soldiers used.

Instead, he gave them wrought iron cannons.

When he used iron molds to cast cannons, he considered the issue of large-scale production.

He also considered the issue of selling cannons in the future.

The evolution of cannons is from bronze to wrought iron, and then to steel.

Bronze is expensive and has a low cost-effectiveness. Wrought iron cannons are divided into white iron cannons and gray iron cannons in terms of quality.

White iron cannons are inferior to gray iron cannons, and gray iron cannons are inferior to steel cannons.

Therefore, he only needs to replace steel with iron and granular gunpowder with ordinary gunpowder to get a batch of low-end cast iron cannons.

These cannons are cheap, have a high burst rate, and have a short range.

On the battlefield, they will not offset the advantages of the cannons of his royal soldiers.

Therefore, he thinks it is not impossible to use these low-end cannons in exchange for some benefits.

Moreover, his cannons will continue to improve in technology, rather than stop there.

In comparison, with silver, he can put more technology into practice.

However, these were just his guesses. He had to wait and see what the powerful families wanted to do by using trade as an excuse, and then make a response.

Of course, he also had the worst plan.

If all his conditions were rejected.

He would have to work alone, and he would also do some small things in secret.

Thinking of this, he took up a pen and started writing.

"Your Highness, Your Highness..."

Zhao Xu had just finished writing the memorial, and was about to send someone to send it to the capital.

At this time, Liu Fu's voice came.

His voice was full of anger.