The disgraced official I took care of was actually Zhu Houcong's childhood friend.

Chapter 426

Whoever they offended this time, they'll be dealt with.

After all, it is a royal bank. Although the means to deal with a royal bank do not violate the laws of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor has many ways to deal with them if he wants to, especially now that he has Zhou Chu, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, under his command.

This person is cunning and unpredictable, never playing by the rules.

The loss of so much silver was already heartbreaking for these Shanxi merchants, but the constant stream of bad news from the grasslands made them even more disoriented.

During this period, these Shanxi merchants suffered a series of misfortunes and heavy losses.

Little did they know, Zhou Chu was preparing an even bigger gift for them.

Inside the Prince of Jin's residence, Prince Zhu Zhiyang looked at the letter his son had sent a couple of days ago, hesitating and unable to make up his mind.

When the letter arrived, Zhu Zhiyang instinctively wanted to refuse Zhou Chu and have his son, Zhu Qiyuan, return immediately.

However, the letter stated that Zhou Chu had discovered a new coal mine, enough for the Ming Dynasty to mine for a century. Zhu Zhiyang understood what this meant: it meant that coal prices in Shanxi would have to be drastically reduced, which would severely damage the merchants in Shanxi who made money from coal mining.

This could even cause Shanxi's coal to lose most of its market potential.

Zhu Zhiyang was well aware of the vested interests involved.

He was unwilling to cooperate with Zhou Chu, partly because he disliked Zhou Chu as the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but more fundamentally because the benefits were not enough.

In Zhu Zhiyang's view, even if the price and sales of Shanxi coal mines are greatly reduced in the future, the profit share that Taiyuan coal mine businessmen should give him is much higher than the profit share he would receive from cooperating with Zhou Chu.

After all, according to what his son wrote in the letter, there were thirty or forty princes who were in cahoots with this commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, so each person would only get a very small share.

The reason he found it difficult to make a decision was simply the conflict between his stance and his interests. His interests made him want to side with the merchants in Taiyuan, but in terms of his stance, he was a vassal king. However, his stance had always been very wavering, otherwise he would not have become so deeply involved with these merchants.

Zhu Junzhang, the Prince of Dai in Datong, was very clear about his position and never had close ties with the merchants of Datong.

This is why many princes looked down on the Prince of Jin's mansion. The fact that most of the princes of Jin throughout history were absurd was only one reason. Another reason was that they were all well aware that the Prince of Jin's mansion had an unclear relationship with these merchants, which caused considerable harm to the Ming Dynasty.

In the end, Zhu Zhiyang compromised with the interests at stake and prepared to completely side with the Shanxi merchants. So he had representatives of the merchants from Taiyuan summoned to the Prince of Jin's residence.

"Your Majesty, what brings you here?"

The leading Shanxi merchant looked at Zhu Zhiyang with some flattery.

Unless absolutely necessary, they did not want to become adversaries with the Prince of Jin's mansion. After all, the Shanxi merchants were in a state of utter chaos, and it was always better to have one more friend than one more enemy.

"His Majesty ordered all the vassal kings to send people to find Zhou Chu, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Zhou Chu has discovered a coal mine in Xuzhou Prefecture, enough for the Ming Dynasty to mine for a hundred years."

Now that Zhu Zhiyang had figured it out, he wouldn't hide anything. He knew very well that only by providing enough information could he obtain enough benefits.

"what!"

Upon hearing this news, the merchants in the Prince of Jin's residence were all restless.

Lin Lu led the Tiger Army, advancing all the way. His attacks on the Mongol tribes were not aimless or sporadic, but rather based on the location of Datong, he continuously pushed outwards, gradually incorporating the grasslands into the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

The reason why the Ming Dynasty did not want to rule the grasslands, or rather, why many previous dynasties found it difficult to effectively rule the grasslands, was ultimately because the grasslands were too vast, and the manpower and financial resources required to rule them were too great.

Since the grasslands have no arable land, the benefits they generate for each dynasty are almost negligible. Therefore, long-term rule over the grasslands would not be a worthwhile deal for any dynasty in the Central Plains.

Zhou Chu had already provided a solution to this problem.

Zhou Chu had already drawn up the blueprints for the spinning jenny. The reason it hadn't been made was simply because if it only had silk, the Ming Dynasty's raw materials wouldn't be enough. If the spinning jenny were to be introduced too early, it would only cause a large number of weavers to lose their jobs, and the raw materials would be far from sufficient.

But with grasslands, things are different. Grasslands are natural pastures for raising sheep. Raising sheep on a large scale on grasslands would undoubtedly be a huge source of revenue for the Ming Dynasty. Then, sheep products could be exported to Japan and even the West by sea, reaping huge profits.

Currently, the biggest cost for grassland products to the Ming Dynasty is transportation cost. After all, there are no trains yet, and the transportation cost to transport wool products to the Ming Dynasty, or even by sea, would be very high.

However, none of this is a problem. As long as there is enough profit, many businessmen will flock to the grasslands like sharks smelling blood.