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

Chapter 398

The entire Prince Jin's mansion has basically been attacked by the current Prince Jin. The current Prince Jin is fond of calligraphy and rare stones, and even admires Emperor Huizong of Song. It is precisely because of this that the Prince Jin is disliked by other vassal kings, and even by the emperor.

The Shanxi merchants, eager to please him, sent his calligraphy works and rare stones to the Prince of Jin's residence.

Zhu Qiyuan was genuinely afraid. His father was unpredictable and he feared that if he went back like this, he might be beaten to death.

Don't be fooled by his status as the eldest son of the Prince of Jin; once the Prince of Jin gets angry, he won't care about any of that.

So he could only look to Zhou Chu for help.

"You should first ask Prince Jin for his opinion before talking to me. Perhaps Prince Jin himself is unwilling to do business with me?"

Zhou Chu looked at Zhu Qiyuan and said.

Zhu Qiyuan's eyes lit up immediately upon hearing this.

"Does Lord Zhou mean that after I find out my father's opinion, we can still cooperate if my father is willing?"

“If the Prince of Jin is willing, I have no objection. However, since you have lost, you should make some gesture.”

Zhou Chu looked at Zhu Qiyuan and said.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Qiyuan's face flushed red and then turned pale.

Finally, he slapped himself in the face.

"I am young and inexperienced, and I hope Lord Zhou will not hold it against me."

Zhou Chu waved his hand when he heard this.

"Please make yourself at home, young master. We still have other matters to discuss."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Qiyuan returned directly to his guest room, wrote a letter, and had it sent by fast horse to the Prince of Jin's residence in Taiyuan.

Zhou Chu said this because he was basically certain that the Prince of Jin would not partner with him. After all, what he wanted to do was the coal business, and the largest business in Shanxi was also coal. A large part of the Prince of Jin's funds came from Shanxi's coal.

If the Prince of Jin's mansion were to cooperate with him, it would be tantamount to digging his own grave and cutting himself off from the gentry and merchants of Shanxi.

Although the Prince of Jin is a vassal king, if he offends the local gentry and merchants, he will probably find it difficult to move forward.

Even if the Prince of Jin was absurd, he could see this clearly, and Zhou Chu saw it even more clearly, so he didn't care about Zhu Qiyuan's attitude.

Once the Prince of Jin is excluded from this community of interests, then we won't have to deal with him ourselves. The impeachments from the other vassal kings will be enough to give him trouble. And the emperor is Jiajing, who will strongly support any decision made by Zhou Chu.

If things really come to a head with the Prince of Jin's mansion, Zhou Chu won't even need to do anything; someone will naturally help him deal with the Prince of Jin's mansion.

Zhou Chu was confident about this.

Because Zhou Chu summoned these vassal kings not just to do coal business; the coal business was only the initial stage of cooperation.

The real big business is overseas.

"Gentlemen, please follow me to the main hall. To avoid crowding, each of you may bring one attendant with you to the main hall."

Zhou Chu looked at the group of princes and their entourage before him and said.

Upon hearing this, everyone perked up, realizing that Zhou Chu was about to get down to business.

Even though everyone only brought one person with them, it was still very crowded when everyone arrived at the main hall of the Dong residence.

At this time, the number of princes in the Ming Dynasty has reached a peak, with more than forty princes alone.

Of course, besides these vassal kings, there was another vassal king who was not a vassal king. Zhou Chu also had Jiajing send them an imperial edict, which was the Mu Prince's Mansion.

The Mu family has been guarding Lijiang, Yunnan for generations, and their influence is deeply entrenched. It would be very unwise to touch the Mu family, whether for the Ming Dynasty or the imperial family. With the Mu family guarding Yunnan, Yunnan will always belong to the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty can rule Yunnan at the lowest cost.

If the Mu family were to be targeted, too many things would need to be changed for both the Ming Dynasty and Yunnan. The price the Ming Dynasty would have to pay to maintain stable rule over Yunnan would be much higher than it is now.

Therefore, the Ming Dynasty and the imperial family adopted a tacit attitude towards the Mu Prince's Mansion, which was not a vassal state but was more powerful than a vassal state.

Naturally, the Mu family's residence could not be left out of this collaboration.

The woman from the Mu Prince's Mansion was also a princess named Mu Yunping.

"It is my intention to summon you all here. I have discovered many coal mines in Xuzhou and Jining. These coal mines are enough for our Great Ming Dynasty to mine for at least a hundred years. I don't need to explain what coal mines mean, do I?"

After saying this, Zhou Chu took a sip of tea.

Upon hearing this, the eyes of all the princes and princesses lit up.