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

Chapter 173

Yun Jin nodded and left, leaving Wang Zhi somewhat puzzled.

In the days that followed, Wang Zhi witnessed what hellish training was like. For the next two months, he was exhausted every day, but fortunately, he had many comrades around him, and the higher-ups provided plenty of food, with meat at every meal.

Wang Zhi had never experienced such a blissful life before. He stopped thinking about anything else and decided that even if they were pirates, he would settle down and work with them.

On this day, Yun Jin came to the new recruits and clapped her hands.

"It has been two months since you joined my Xuanwu Army. The training progress over these two months has been very good. Rest assured, we are not pirates, but the regular army of the Ming Dynasty. I have already resolved your household registration issues."

As Yun Jin spoke, she looked at Fang Hong beside her. Fang Hong immediately understood and led his men to distribute household registrations.

When Wang Zhi received his new household registration, he felt as if he were in a dream. Not only him, but all the new recruits never imagined that they would suddenly become regular soldiers of the Ming Dynasty and even obtain the household registration they had always dreamed of.

For a moment, everyone was incredibly excited. Only those who had experienced years of darkness understood the preciousness of the Ming Dynasty's household registration system.

"I've taken care of your household registration issue. Now it's time to test your training results. Only those who survive this battle will officially become members of my Xuanwu Army."

After the new recruits calmed down, Yun Jin said.

The target this time was none other than the Frankish people of Tuen Mun Island.

Meanwhile, Zhou Chu in Suzhou Prefecture received a lot of timber from Yun Jin, which was being transported via the river over the past two months.

During the training period, Yun Jin was not idle. He also went to the Nan Yue region to buy a lot of timber. Some Nan Yue people were unwilling to trade with Yun Jin and even wanted to seize Yun Jin's treasure ship. Yun Jin naturally did not treat these people politely and swept them all away.

Nanyue may not have much else, but it has many thousand-year-old trees, which are excellent materials for making the keel of treasure ships.

The transportation of timber is different from other things. It is usually bundled together and floated on the river, with the rafters carrying it all the way. However, rafting is a job that most people can't do, since you can encounter all sorts of situations along the way.

Zhou Chu was very happy to receive this batch of timber, as it would allow him to build an even larger treasure ship.

Yun Jin's treasure ship barely met the minimum standard for a treasure ship because the wood used to make the keel was too small.

"Young master, the newly appointed Prefect Yan and Censor Zhang have sent their visiting cards."

Chunlan took out the two most important visiting cards from a pile and went to the study to report them.

As for the other visiting cards, they were mostly from merchants. In the past month or two, as Zhou Chu's status in Suzhou Prefecture gradually rose, Chu Li's status naturally also rose.

With the large quantities of white sugar and glassware appearing on the market, these merchants, like sharks smelling blood, flocked around, all wanting a taste.

Zhou Chu naturally wouldn't meet any of these people, so Chunlan wouldn't even show them their visiting cards.

Zhou Chu instructed Chu Li to screen these merchants. Whoever wanted to obtain the distribution rights for white sugar and glassware had to sell their raw silk and cloth at the same time, which was considered a bundled sale.

In addition to the purchase price, these merchants who want to deal in sugar and glassware must give 40% of the profits earned from all their businesses to Chu Li.

This was Zhou Chu's way of laying the groundwork for collecting commercial taxes in the future.

When this condition was put forward, those merchants who already had large businesses were naturally unhappy, but Zhou Chu didn't care. If they didn't do it, there were plenty of people eager to do it.

Those small merchants, who didn't own many businesses, all saw this as an opportunity. They knew very well that once they obtained the distribution rights for these sugar frostings and glasswares, they would make a fortune. As for the portion that had to be handed over to the government? They certainly wouldn't have any objections.

Chu Li would send people to monitor the accounts of these merchants.

To prevent these people who monitor the accounts from colluding with the merchants, Chu Li also made them monitor each other. If anyone was found to be colluding with these merchants to falsify accounts, the person who reported it could receive half of their profits as a reward.

In this way, the possibility of falsifying accounts is basically eliminated, since no one knows what the people around them are thinking.

During this period, Chu Liu, backed by Zhou Chu, dominated the gambling dens in Suzhou Prefecture, winning millions of strings of cash. No one dared to do anything to him, and countless gambling dens had to close down, fearing that Chu Liu, this plague god, would come in.

"Go and send them a reply, inviting Lord Yan and Lord Zhang to visit our residence tomorrow."

Zhou Chu smiled.