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

Chapter 137

"Weighing instrument, I swear that I will never betray you for the rest of my life."

Zhu Houcong approached Zhou Chu and, with the proper etiquette of a student, bowed repeatedly to him.

Zhou Chu casually held Zhu Houcong's hands.

"I will be crushed to pieces and never betray you."

Zhou Chu responded.

At this moment, Zhou Chu was undoubtedly moved. Jiajing valued relationships above all else. If he could have absolute trust in him, then Zhou Chu could go all out and make a difference.

The Ming Dynasty had too many problems, like a dilapidated ship with leaks appearing one after another. It was too difficult to turn things around from within. The only way was to try to solve the problem from both inside and outside. But to do so, the emperor had to have absolute trust in him.

"Your Majesty, the reason why Jiangnan is so united is simply because the enormous profits from smuggling bind them together. If we want to divide them, we must first open the seas. Once the profits from smuggling are gone, these people will collapse on their own."

Having received Jiajing's promise, Zhou Chu naturally stopped hiding his thoughts and revealed them.

"I have the same idea as you. My idea is to find a way to open the customs and let the merchants of my Great Ming go out, but I have no idea how to implement it."

When Jiajing heard Zhou Chu mention lifting the sea ban, he immediately felt a sense of kinship and was extremely excited.

"Does Your Majesty know how terrifying the profits from maritime trade are?"

Zhou Chu countered with a question.

"I am not entirely sure about that."

Zhu Houcong shook his head.

"Putting aside other things, just take raw silk as an example. The production price is about 40 wen per catty, and it is sold to the common people for about 160 wen per catty. If it is smuggled to Japan, it can be sold for more than 250 wen. And the local authorities in Japan sell it to the locals for at least 1,000 wen per catty, and sometimes two or three thousand wen."

Upon hearing Zhou Chu's words, Jiajing's hair stood on end. He had previously thought that the profits from smuggling were large, but he had never imagined they would be this large. The most powerful treasure ships in the Ming Dynasty had a recorded maximum carrying capacity of 1.6 million catties. Even if these smuggling ships were much smaller, each ship could still carry hundreds of thousands of catties, or at the very least 100,000 to 200,000 catties.

A pound of raw silk smuggled to Japan could earn 200 wen. A ship that could carry 200,000 pounds of raw silk could earn 40 million wen, or tens of thousands of taels of silver, in one trip. But obviously, there could not be just one smuggling ship; each trip would involve at least a fleet of ships.

"Raw silk is still the least profitable of these smuggled goods. In fact, each ship carries not much raw silk because the profit is very small. The most profitable is always porcelain. For example, the most common celadon bowls in our Ming Dynasty can earn 100 strings of cash each when sold to Japan. If a ship carries 10,000 celadon bowls, it can earn 1 million strings of cash."

Zhou Chu's words made Jiajing realize how narrow-minded he had been before.

"However, each ship needs to be loaded with cargo, and they need to bring a little of everything. Raw silk is the most popular commodity among the local powerful families in Japan. It is the most profitable item for them. On the contrary, celadon bowls are not as profitable as raw silk. All things considered, a ship with a carrying capacity of 200,000 catties can earn between two and three million taels of silver. A fleet would earn no less than 20 million taels of silver, or even more."

Zhou Chu only gave Zhu Houcong a rough estimate.

Even so, Zhu Houcong's eyes widened in astonishment.

A single smuggling trip can bring in ten to twenty million taels of silver—what terrifying earning power! If one could control Japan, the profits would multiply several times over.

Those people from Jiangnan must make countless smuggling trips throughout the year; no wonder they're all rolling in money.

"Weighing instruments, I must open a customs gate."

Jiajing took a deep breath and said.

"Opening a customs post is easier said than done. Those people naturally want to monopolize this business. As the saying goes, cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents. Once His Majesty proposes opening the sea, these people will definitely go crazy."

Zhou Chu sighed.

"Don't hide the weighing instruments anymore, I know you have a way."

Jiajing said somewhat urgently.

"It is not that I am intentionally hiding my abilities, but if we want to lift the sea ban, we must get these people to bring it up themselves. In this way, Your Majesty can go with the flow and they will have no complaints against Your Majesty."

"Your Majesty, consider this: are there really that many Japanese pirates along the southeast coast? Most of the Japanese pirates are actually people raised by these people; they are fishermen from the southeast coast. Your Majesty can examine the records of Japanese pirates captured throughout history. The majority of them are Han Chinese, and only a very small number are true Japanese."

Zhou Chu's words were like a revelation to Zhu Houcong, as if he had grasped something, but he couldn't quite understand it.

Upon closer examination, it seems that the greatest pirates throughout history were all Han Chinese.

Come to think of it, Japan is just a tiny island nation; what ability could it possibly have to cause continuous damage to the Ming Dynasty's coastline for so many years?

"These people raise Japanese pirates for two reasons. First, to prevent the imperial court from opening up the sea. As long as the problem of Japanese pirates is not eliminated, they have a reason to stop the imperial court's decision to open up the sea. Second, to prevent others from smuggling. Only by monopolizing this business can one make the most money."

Zhou Chu exhaled a breath of stale air.

"It's easy to get these people to open up the seas on their own initiative. Just prevent them from smuggling. Every smuggling ship that goes out to sea will be robbed. When they have no money left, they will take the initiative to petition the court to suppress the Japanese pirates and open up the seas."

Upon hearing this, Jiajing's eyes lit up, and the vague feeling in his mind instantly became clear.

"what do you mean?"

"My idea is that after this controversy over rites ends, I will travel to the southeast coast to recruit and train soldiers, creating an iron army that belongs exclusively to Your Majesty. Firstly, we can impersonate pirates at sea to intercept their money and goods, using war to sustain war. Secondly, under the guise of pirates, we can slowly plunder the wealthy merchants and gentry of Jiangnan."

Zhou Chu finally revealed his plan, but it was so shocking that even Jiajing gasped in astonishment upon hearing it.

"Is this too ruthless?"

Even the Jiajing Emperor trembled with fear upon hearing of this plan.

"Your Majesty, the gentry and civil officials in Jiangnan have long become the biggest cancer in our Ming Dynasty. Since ancient times, reform has required severe measures. If we want to restore the Ming Dynasty from its darkest hour, we naturally need swift and decisive measures. If we use gentle methods, how can we possibly outmaneuver these civil officials?"

Zhou Chu countered with a question.

Upon hearing this, Jiajing took a deep breath and calmed his turbulent emotions.

"Since I have said that there is no distrust between the ruler and his subjects, I will fully support you. Hengqi, just go ahead and do it. I will support you in everything."

Zhou Chu was also moved when he heard this. He knew how shocking his words were. If someone else were the emperor, they probably wouldn't have tolerated his schemes.

“It’s still early. The debate over etiquette will take some time. I think we should start by selecting and training soldiers within the Embroidered Uniform Guard. We don’t need many, just a few hundred. With these few hundred people, we will have a foundation. Then, we can have these few hundred people help me train the soldiers, which will be much more effective.”

Zhou Chu said.

"Very well, you can move the Jinyiwei personnel at will without asking me for permission."

Zhu Houcong was a smart man, and immediately granted Zhou Chu extremely high authority.