Chapter 1770: We Understand Profiteers Best of All!

What did he mean by "arrest them all for Us"? That "We" isn't something just anyone in the Central Plains can use for self-address, is it? Who exactly is this "Little Chief Steward"?

The eight great profiteers all stood dumbstruck when they heard the Han speech of this "Little Chief Steward." And while they stood there gaping, sixteen warriors from before the tent already burst in from outside the great tent, the one in the lead being none other than "the most loyal of Great Ming," Li Zicheng.

The sixteen warriors, in pairs, one pair seizing one profiteer, took the eight profiteers as easily as catching chickens, and made them kneel in a row before the "Little Chief Steward," who was also the little Ming Emperor, Zhu Youjian.

Zhu Youjian looked smilingly at the eight great profiteers he had "fished up" — traitors who colluded with the foreigners to sell out the nation — and his mood was naturally one of boundless delight!

For these eight great profiteers to have made that unfilial son's blacklist, they must each have a fortune of several million, surely? Otherwise how could they have caught that unfilial son's eye? The expenses for developing the three prefectures of Xingzhou, Huizhou, and Yingzhou, plus the two chiliarchies of Uriankhai and Duoyan, all rest on you eight.

"Hahaha, We knew long ago that you eight were profiteers colluding with the foreigners to sell out the nation, wanting to sell Our Great Ming realm to the Jianzhou slave-thieves. We had no time to arrest you before; now We have finally found some leisure, and with a little stratagem We have taken you. What else do you have to say for yourselves?"

Hearing these words from Zhu Youjian, the future Eight Imperial Merchants were all shocked! So this young lord before them was the legendary little Ming Emperor — "brave as Lü Bu, cunning as Zhongda, ruthless as the Cao traitor"!

But what medicine had this little emperor taken wrong, that he would not stay properly in the imperial city of Xuanfu, and instead come out beyond the frontier to Xinghe City to scheme against us small merchants?

And why does this little emperor say we want to sell the Great Ming realm to the Great Jin state? There is no such thing! A gross injustice!

Oh, not that none of them had, and not that all of them had. This was now the first year of Chongzhen, not the seventeenth year of Chongzhen. The Later Jin state had only just barely managed to reach Zhangjiakou; before this, between the Later Jin state and Zhangjiakou there still lay Ligdan Batur. Even if the eight great profiteers had the will to sell out the nation, they had no route by which to do so. At most they had some indirect business dealings with Shenyang; colluding with foreigners perhaps, but selling out the nation — no.

In fact, even the collusion was not on a large scale. The two sides could not reach each other directly, and goods still had to pass through Mongol territory — how large could the trade be?

Even by the first year of Chongzhen, the only ones who had truly developed into traitors selling out the nation were Fan Yongdou, Wang Dengku, and Jin Liangyu. The remaining five were still wavering between selling out the nation and merely colluding with foreigners — after all, selling out the nation is not selling cabbages; one must be prudent!

One had to see clearly the trend of strength and weakness between Great Ming and Great Jin before staking one's life and fortune on a gamble!

These eight great profiteers all had means. A few million they did not have, but each could produce a family fortune of two or three hundred thousand taels — in the early Chongzhen years that made them rich men of their region. Could they gamble their fortunes without seeing the situation clearly?

And before the sixth month of the first year of Chongzhen, the trend between Great Ming and Great Jin was still quite clear. Great Ming was weakening day by day, while Great Jin was flourishing day by day. Though it was not certain that Ming would fall and Jin would rise, it was still very promising that the Great Jin state would reach the level of the old Great Liao. It was under this trend that Fan Yongdou, Wang Dengku, and Jin Liangyu developed from colluding with foreigners into selling out the nation, acting as internal agents for the Later Jin and guiding the Later Jin state.

But after the sixth month of the first year of Chongzhen, the situation between Ming and Jin suddenly changed. That little Chongzhen Emperor, who had been idling away his days ever since cutting down Wei Zhongxian with one sword, suddenly erupted, transforming into a ruthless little emperor — "brave as Lü Bu, cunning as Zhongda, ruthless as the Cao traitor." The business of selling out the nation naturally had to be put on hold!

So except for Fan Yongdou, Wang Dengku, and Jin Liangyu, who were already aboard the pirate ship and had no way out, the other five profiteers had already drawn back. They would merely collude with foreigners, and dared not sell out the nation.

And mere collusion with foreigners — though it was also a capital crime — was something a truly great profiteer had connections to smooth over. Without such connections, could one be a great profiteer?

But the problem was, the one who had caught them this time was the little Ming Emperor himself!

In Great Ming, he was apparently the greatest of all. Caught by him, could there still be any connections to work?

"Li Zicheng," Zhu Youjian said cheerfully to Li Zicheng, "drag away that traitorous scoundrel called Fan Yongdou, interrogate him under severe torture, find out his accomplices, and then report to Us."

"At your command!"

Li Zicheng and his eldest nephew Li Jin dropped the profiteer they had originally been holding, took the Fan Yongdou whom Zhu Youjian had pointed at, and dragged him out to find a place for severe torture — Zhu Youjian actually did not know this fellow had already sold out the nation (his boasting that he was a relative of Fan Wencheng did not prove anything; profiteers love to boast!). But he knew that his unfilial son had once specially ordered this fellow to be seized for death by slow slicing, so he gave Fan Yongdou special treatment.

Seeing Fan Yongdou dragged out like that, the remaining seven profiteers were so terrified they could not speak. Among them, Wang Dengku and Jin Liangyu were the most wretched — they were both accomplices in Fan Yongdou's treason! So they wet themselves on the spot.

Smelling the stench of urine, Zhu Youjian swept the seven profiteers before him with a cold, dark gaze. "We understand profiteers best of all, so We know you all have connections, all have backers. Otherwise, with the strength of the likes of you, how would you dare collude with foreigners and sell out the nation? Speak up, all of you — the silver you earned, did you send it all home?"

These words of Zhu Youjian were not empty in the least! Though he did not know how to do business, he truly understood profiteers! His unfilial son was the richest man in Great Ming, the Third Prince was the Loan King of Great Ming, the Fifth Filial Son was the Stock King of Great Ming, the sixth son given away in adoption was the Rent King of Great Ming, and his in-law Zheng Zhilong was the richest man in Great Ming. How could he not know where these heaven-cursed profiteers were crooked?

"Y-y-your Majesty, this small one is wronged!"

"Your Majesty, this small one did not sell out the nation, and this small one has no backers..."

"Your Majesty, this small one is just a small trader..."

"Your Majesty, an injustice!"

"Spare our lives!"

Except for Wang Dengku and Jin Liangyu, who had already wet themselves, the other five profiteers were all feigning pitifulness and begging for mercy — but none would confess who their backers were.

Because if they confessed, there would be no chance at all of keeping their lives! If they did not confess... perhaps they might still keep their miserable little lives.

Zhu Youjian, who understood profiteers best, merely gave a cold laugh. "Won't confess? Very well, very well. We shall wait — wait until Fan Yongdou confesses, and then we shall speak. If you are his accomplices, then there is nothing more to say: colluding with foreigners and selling out the nation, of course, means death by slow slicing!"

"Ah!"

Someone had already screamed and fainted. Zhu Youjian glanced at that person — it was Wang Dengku.

"Heh heh," the little emperor laughed. "It seems he has a share in colluding with foreigners and selling out the nation. Very well — later he can go on his way together with Fan Yongdou!"

He looked at the remaining six profiteers with a grim gaze and said slowly, "As for you... so long as you are not Fan Yongdou's accomplices, you will not be killed for now — only your households will be confiscated! You will confiscate each other's households... and when the confiscation is done, the accounts will be compared. If the accounts do not match, off with your heads! Those found to be wrong can live! If the accounts do match — heh heh — then it depends on how many accomplices and backers you can name! Name enough, and you live; not enough, and We take your heads!"

How many named would count as enough?

Zhu Youjian would not say! If he said, how could he still take their heads? And if he did not take their heads, how could he frighten their backers and accomplices?

This Zhu Youjian was surely more ruthless than his unfilial son!

He was an original, factory-issue feudal emperor — of course he was ruthless enough!

Moreover, he had grown up from childhood in an imperial household with little humanity; at the age of five his own mother had been killed by his own father. The man he was now was, in all likelihood, the most ruthless in all Great Ming!

Of course, the accomplices they named and betrayed — Zhu Youjian would not kill those. Because he understood profiteers best, and knew that these people, to save their lives, would surely bite wildly and at random. If he killed them all without distinguishing right from wrong, then he would be a muddle-headed tyrant.

But Zhu Youjian would not let those people off either — at least not all of them — because he needed his own imperial merchant corps to operate his vast enterprises.

Right now the Inner Transport Treasury was short of cash, but not short of assets. If all kinds of assets could be properly operated, an annual income of several million would be no problem at all. That would be "a flood that flows forever"! But now his unfilial son had not yet been born, so he could only rely on outside profiteers to help with operations. But profiteers are, after all, crooked — if he did not grab a few pigtails to frighten them, would that do?

(End of Chapter)