Chapter 51                                                                                                                             �

Zhou Mengchen also understood what Lu Yi said.

Even today's Jiangnan is not short of money. When the Lu family was in full swing, they donated tens of thousands of taels of silver to the government at once during the floods in Songjiang. So the Lu family had scattered ranks donated by the imperial court, and the Gu family in Songjiang was as big as the Lu family.

Zhou Mengchen calculated that the Lu family and Gu family's family's funds could still be affected even if they were less than one million taels. Even if the Lu family was extremely embarrassed, the land price of the Lu family should be hundreds of thousands taels. The Lu family's difficulties were partly due to lack of working capital, and more because of political marginalization.

Just counting, if the Lu family in Songjiang, Gu family, Xu family in Jiaxing, Xiang family in Taicang, Wang family in Taicang, and some famous and surnamed families in Jiangnan gathered together, it may not be impossible to get the tens of millions of taels.

But Lu Yi didn't mention any of them.

Because Lu Yi knew that these families value political resources and surpass economic interests.

When using the money of Hui merchants or Jiangnan merchants, Zhou Nengchen only needs to give rewards in money. And when using the money of these people, what they need is not just rewards in money. So Lu Yi didn't say anything at all.

Zhou Mengchen was also interested and said, "I know Hui merchants, but I don't know who are local merchants in Jiangnan?"

The Hui merchants were in great Ming Dynasty, and Zhou Mengchen also made an explanation with them early. Cheng Dawei was born in the Hui merchant family, and Cheng Dawei's father was still in charge of the Beijing family business for Zhou Mengchen. Zhou Mengchen and Hui merchants also had a little bit of incest. Especially the big surname Cheng among the Hui merchants.

This is also what Zhou Mengchen later learned that among the Hui merchants, the surname Cheng, Wang, Wu, etc., were all major Hui merchants. The Hui merchants all joined the family to go to business, and they raised funds and borrowed loans within the family. Generally, males came out to do business at the age of sixteen. Therefore, the financial resources gathered by these big surnames were also quite large.

The lineage of Cheng Dayi was originally considered a branch among the side branches of the Cheng family. Otherwise, Cheng Guangji would not have opened a store in Wuchang, and the business was only a few thousand taels. It was considered good for ordinary people, but the difference between the Yu Cheng family was large. Of course, most Hui merchants would not become bigger and stronger, and it would be normal for Cheng Guangji to do so. However, it would be scary to accumulate it.

The Wang family is the largest surname among the Hui merchants. The Wang family has a salt merchant, which is very famous. In the same year as Zhou Mengchen, Wang Daokun, who is now the deputy envoy of Fujian Censorate, was born in the Hui merchants and also operated the salt business at home, which was extremely rich.

In addition, Wang Zhi is also from the Wang family of Hui merchants. It can be said that the business on the sea is also controlled by the Wang family.

But the family is too big and there are differences within it. Wang Zhi no longer has much contact with the Hui merchant family. But the relationship is still there, which is why Wang Zhi believed that Hu Zongxian surrendered to the court, and after Wang Zhi died, someone would be buried and guarded the tomb. Because Hu Zongxian was also from Huizhou. The two were fellow villagers, and some Hui merchants were in charge of the relationship. After all, many Hui merchants also wanted to open the sea, which made Wang Zhi believe in Hu Zongxian.

He was killed later.

These were all learned by Zhou Mengchen through the Cheng family channels. However, he was a little confused about the merchants in Jiangnan.

Lu Yi coughed and said, "The merchants in Jiangnan have them everywhere, but to be honest, the Dongting lineage is the most popular one."

Zhou Mengchen was stunned and said, "Dongting, isn't it in Huguang?"

Lu Yi said, "I know that this Dongting is not the Dongting. The next Dongting refers to the Dongting Mountain in Taihu Lake. There are only the seventy-two peaks of Taihu Lake. Only Dongting Mountain in East and West is the big one, and Dongting Mountain in East and West is even rich and wealthy businessmen are endless." Lu Yi signaled and asked his son to take out an orange from the fruit plate on one side. He said, "This is Dongting Red, and even Dongting Mountain in Dongting Mountain. Among all the oranges, it is also considered the best. Dongting Mountain in East and West is not big and the land is sparse, so local people should dig the output value of the land as much as possible. Most people should not farm. There are many people who plant mulberry trees and raise silkworms. The silk here is also the best lake silk, and fruit trees are one of them. Such Dongting Red can not be eaten by people. Thousands of trees in their homes are no less than simple seals."

Zhou Mengchen immediately picked up an orange, peeled it off, and ate one. Sure enough, he felt that the juice was full of his mouth. Although it was not as good as the modern variety carefully cultivated in later generations, it was also one of the best fruits he ate in ancient times.

In fact, modern agriculture has made too much progress than in ancient times. Take the simplest fruits as an example. I don’t know how many times have it been updated. It is normal for the fruits of ancient people to be less delicious than later generations.

In fact, Zhou Mengchen never cared about the fruit plate on his table. After all, how could a person of his status care about the purchase of a fruit plate? But now eating oranges, he was full of thoughts in his heart and said, "Then?"

Lu Yi said: "With the family has capital, they are unwilling to do these things, so they come out one after another, using everything they do, almost everywhere. Some people call it Zuntian Dongting. According to legend, Shen Wansan is the person here."

However, Zhou Mengchen had a good impression of these people.

Most Shanxi merchants started out as salt merchants, and relying on the relationship between China and France and the government, they gradually accumulated capital. Although Hui merchants are huge and have done all walks of life, the ones they do the most are pawns and even usury. Although Zhou Mengchen could not use the moral standards of later generations to demand people of this era, it did not prevent Zhou Mengchen from having some concerns about Hui merchants. After all, the rise of the banking industry has hit the most against the pawns and private usury. Even during his time in Jiangnan, Zhou Mengchen also used the matter of usury violation as a key target for handling.

Now it seems that Dongting merchants are very good, and most of their property is managed by themselves. The relationship with the court is also relatively distant. It seems that they can be transformed into industrial capital.

Zhou Mengchen had already regarded Dongting merchant as one of his candidates for cooperation, but he could not listen to Lu Yi's words. He also had to carefully investigate the details of Dongting merchant.

Zhou Mengchen did not know the subsequent development of Dongting merchants. In the Ming Dynasty, Dongting merchants were not very developed. When Dongting merchants really made Dongting merchants shine, it was the late Qing Dynasty. However, at that time, Dongting merchants were transformed into comprador capital and played an important role in the national economy. The Dongting Xi family was a well-known name and had a close relationship with HSBC.

If Zhou Mengchen knew about this, I wonder if he could still maintain his favorable impression of the Dongtingxi family.

Zhou Mengchen said: "Mr. Lu is full of talent, can the reason be involved in my curtain?"

At this moment, Zhou Mengchen had confirmed that Lu Yi was the talent he wanted. He might even be a unique talent. After all, although Xu Wei was amazing, he was unable to get involved in economic affairs. Although Zhou Mengchen could do economic affairs well, Zhou Mengchen had too many things and needed someone to share them.

Although Zhou Mengchen was a little worried about Lu Yi's body and did not know whether Lu Yi could undertake heavy work. However, there were all kinds of talents in the Ming Dynasty, but there were too few people with real economic minds. Such people would not be in the court, and most of them had rigid financial management concepts. After all, they all increased revenue and reduced expenditure. Although Fang Dun did a good job, he could not escape from this category.

Some big businessmen in the country may have their own understanding of economic activities, but they are limited to their identities, or they do not have the ability to summarize what they see into the rules.

But Lu Yi is different. Because of his weakness and illness, he cannot enter the officialdom. He has been in charge of the Lu family affairs for many years and has participated in economic activities. In addition, his knowledge has extracted some ideas that are different from the current world. Zhou Mengchen really wants to add bricks and tiles to him to see what works he can leave behind.

Therefore, Lu Yi's physical problems were ignored. Anyway, Lu Yi needed to deal with mental work. If you were unable to move, just accompany a few assistants.

Isn’t Lu Yi showing off in front of Zhou Mengchen just for Zhou Mengchen’s words?

Lu Yi and Zhou Mengchen talked about it. It was not only Zhou Mengchen who was testing Lu Yi, but Lu Yi was also testing Zhou Mengchen. After all, Zhou Mengchen who Lu Yi knew was all heard from the previous story. It took only to know after reading what happened. After talking about it, I felt like I was meeting a close friend.
Chapter completed!