Nanjing Jinyun

Having finally managed to deal with Han Kuang, Zhang Kun breathed a sigh of relief.

After the perplexing assault case last year, Crown Prince Zhu Changluo's position became more secure, and he gradually gained some power.

Although he is far from being comparable to the Wanli Emperor, he is by no means someone Zhang Kun can ignore.

After all, the world did not know that Zhu Changluo only had one month left to live after ascending the throne.

All that is known is that Zhu Changluo has been made crown prince for fifteen years, and the Prince of Fu left the capital two years ago to take up his fief in Luoyang.

So what if he knew he would die young? The Tianqi Emperor and the Chongzhen Emperor, who succeeded Zhu Changluo, were both his sons.

As mentioned before, Zhang Kun's current stance must be on the side of Emperor Wanli.

The River Work Camp was approved by Emperor Wanli, and the Jinyun Company was also designated by Emperor Wanli as a disciplined merchant.

His eunuch godfather was a close confidant of the Wanli Emperor, so Zhang Kun couldn't afford to act arbitrarily.

Zhang Kun had to maintain a sufficient distance from the Crown Prince, and even be hostile to him to some extent, so as not to displease the Wanli Emperor!

For the sake of their future, yet unable to completely sever ties with the Crown Prince, they were truly hostile to him.

Zhang Kun had to treat the Crown Prince with the utmost care, like walking a tightrope.

......

Zhang Ye's private residence in Zhangjiawan, Tongzhou.

When Zhang Kun met his godfather, the eunuch, he intended to report on Han Kuang's visit, but found that his godfather looked worried.

"The Nanjing Jinyun!?"

After listening to his eunuch godfather's story, Zhang Kun was stunned for a moment and said in disbelief.

Emperor Wanli wanted to establish another Jinyun Company in Nanjing to serve as a trading company for raw and processed grains in Southern Zhili and Zhejiang!

The event was overseen by Xu Bengao, a member of the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guard) Street Office, with Zhang Ye, who already had experience, participating in the preparations, and Zhang Kun assisting.

Your Majesty, that's Southern Zhili!

Above them were the dukes, marquises, earls, and officials of Nanjing, and below them were countless gentry and powerful figures from Suzhou, Hangzhou, Huaiyang, and other places!

With their support for the Danbagu merchants in Southern Zhili and Zhejiang, it would be as difficult as climbing to the sky to establish the Nanjing Jinyun Company!

Zhang Kun found it hard to accept, because before hearing this news, he was still thinking about how to combat smuggling from the south.

Nowadays, tampoo is only produced in Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and Southern Zhili, and the seedlings in the Western Hills of Beijing will not be planted until next spring.

Therefore, in terms of cost, the northern Tambak merchants could never compete with the southern ones.

For example, in southern Hebei and Shandong, although they were within the jurisdiction of Jin Yunhao, the local markets were actually dominated by southern merchants.

Moreover, many audacious southern merchants have begun smuggling tampons from Tianjin to the capital!

Zhang Kun was still worrying about how to defend himself.

Unexpectedly, Emperor Wanli waved his hand and ordered Zhang Kun to launch a fierce attack on the south!

Emperor Wanli, you want to use offense as defense, is that it?

Zhang Kun's assignment became "to assist in the operation of the Jinyun ship in Beijing, Shandong, Zhejiang, Xuanhua, Datong, Liaodong and other places," which sounded even more impressive.

In reality, I only grant him a one-rank promotion, making him a fifth-rank Jinyiwei commander.

Even more pitiful is Xu Bengao, who finally got approval for the project to dredge the moat of the nine gates of the city, which was about to become the most important moat of the South Three Gates.

Stripped of the title of Acting Governor, he hadn't even served half a year in the position of Governor-General of the Street Office before being kicked out of the capital!

What Zhang Kun didn't know was that if he hadn't traveled back to the late Ming Dynasty and changed history...

In the original timeline, Xu Bengao was unable to shed the title of "Acting Director" and return to the Southern Garrison to continue serving as its head.

During the Tianqi era, he was dismissed from office for offending Wei Zhongxian. He was reinstated during the Chongzhen era and became the Director of the Street Office.

Now, the Wanli Emperor is also offering Xu Bengao considerable compensation for losing his position as the commander of the street offices:

Besides overseeing the Nanjing Jinyun ship, he also had two other important duties: commanding the Nanjing Imperial Guards and assisting the Nanjing garrison.

This official has been promoted to the rank of Assistant Commander of the Rear Army, a first-rank official, reaching the pinnacle of his position.

In the capital, he was nothing special, but in Nanjing, he was already considered one of the top officials.

Considering the difficulty of the mission, Xu Bengao was also assigned a standard battalion of one thousand men by land and water, under the name of "Supervising the Standard".

The provisions and pay were temporarily provided by the imperial court until the Nanjing Jinyun shipyard was completed, at which point the Wanli Emperor also made a rare exception and used some of his private funds.

Perhaps Emperor Wanli did this because of the alliance formed between Zhang Ye and Xu Bengao after the river works camp.

Zhang Kun suddenly thought of something and muttered to himself:

Zhang Ye and Xu Bengao are both under fifty years old and in relatively good health, so they have at least another ten years or so of political life ahead of them.

Logically speaking, as a eunuch, Zhang Ye was often subject to the rule of "a new emperor, a new court," and would have been quickly marginalized after the death of Emperor Wanli.

However, Zhang Ye now controls the River Works Battalion and the Jin Yun, and being far from the central government, he is very likely to be retained by the new emperor!

There is precedent for this. From the Hongxi Emperor to the Zhengde Emperor, the average reign of the emperors was less than fourteen years, and there was also the Zhengtong Emperor who changed the Tianshun Emperor's reign.

As a result, the eunuchs of the Directorate of Ceremonial in the central government were not as long-serving as the garrison eunuchs and town eunuchs in the local areas.

In this way, the alliance between Zhang Ye and Xu Bengao became too close.

Therefore, Xu Bengao should be kicked out of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and sent to Nanjing, where he can set up the Nanjing Jinyun ship.

After all, Xu Bengao was not born into the family of eunuchs, but was a member of the Xu family of Songjiang and a fifth-generation descendant of Xu Jie!

Even if it were Zhang Ye's adopted son, Emperor Wanli wouldn't be so suspicious, would he?

As expected of Zhang Juzheng and Zhang Taiyue's students, he didn't sit on the throne for more than forty years for nothing!

Of course, all of the above are Zhang Kun's wild thoughts and do not represent Emperor Wanli's true thoughts.

Perhaps he was just smoking Gongyan cigarettes.

......

Only Zhang Ye, Xu Bengao, and Zhang Kun were in the study.

"My dear nephew, you have the most ideas! Quickly help us think of a solution to this life-or-death task!"

Xu Bengao's face was full of worry as he looked at Zhang Kun with a wry smile and asked for help.

"This matter is indeed very difficult to handle, therefore I believe we can only proceed step by step."

Zhang Kun didn't have any good ideas for the time being, so he advised Xu Bengao:

"First, set up your standard camp, Grand Commander, and then go to Nanjing to investigate the situation."

Once we have gathered enough intelligence, we can then consider our next move.

"Ugh!"

Xu Bengao shook his head and sighed, complaining to Zhang Kun:

"They say they're giving us a quota of a thousand people, but the pay is only one shi of rice per month. What kind of people can we recruit?"

Even if we put our own money into it, how many of those capable people would be willing to abandon their families and go to Nanjing with us?

If the new business fails and you want to return to the capital, your original location will have already been taken!

In any case, Xu Bengao's admiral's house has already been taken by Tian Ergeng, the son of Tian Le, the Minister of War!

"Grand Commander, with tampons so popular in the capital, they're bound to fool quite a few people."

Zhang Kun had a good idea for this and suggested to Xu Bengao:

"After all, no one really knows what the situation is in Southern Zhili. Neither I nor you have ever been to Southern Zhili, have you?"

You should even charge them bribes, making them feel this is a great opportunity to get promoted and make a fortune!

He then suggested to Zhang Ye, who was standing next to him:

"Godfather, there must be quite a few horse-breeding warriors and four guards in the Imperial Stables who live in poverty."

Even a single bushel of rice a month would be better than their current situation!

Zhang Ye nodded and agreed to Zhang Kun:

"There are indeed quite a few unemployed soldiers on the left and right sides of Tengxiang and Wuxiang, and we can select the usable ones to be incorporated into the standard battalions."