Chapter 226: Surprising News at the Banquet

"The Father-in-law of the Emperor is too kind. This Prince merely feels that the official recommendation system controlled by the Influential Clans has become a corrupt policy that drags down Da Song. Since the Rich Clans of Yanzhou have been swept away, why not give the scholars from humble families across the world a chance?" Zhao Xu said slowly.

"Your Highness's courage commands our admiration, but the official recommendation system is the lifeblood of the Influential Clans and Rich Clans of the world. By doing this, is Your Highness not afraid that the Influential Clans of the world will rise up to attack you?"

At this moment, a scholar in his thirties with a square face at the end of the table stood up and spoke.

Mi Zhuang looked at the scholar and said to Zhao Xu, "Your Highness, this man is named Zhu Tuo. He once served as a County Magistrate in Ningzhou for six years, but later, dissatisfied with his superiors' corruption and malpractice, he resigned in anger. For the past two years, he has been teaching at a private school in Jingshi with me."

Zhao Xu nodded slightly and said to Zhu Tuo, "You are mistaken. Sitting in Yanzhou, even if this Prince does nothing, the Influential Clans will still view this Prince as a thorn in their side. Since that is the case, it is better to act with a heavy hand and do whatever I wish."

Following this, he spoke of how the Influential Clans were suppressing him in trade.

Mi Zhuang frowned, "This method is the same path used to suppress the Yuan Family back then. Its purpose is to contain Your Highness; they likely want to force Your Highness to bow to the Influential Clans, just like the Yuan Family."

"This Prince thinks so as well," Zhao Xu said.

Zhu Tuo smiled, "Your Highness actually need not panic. Now that Your Highness holds Yanzhou alone, there are formidable enemies to the west and north. This is a crisis, but crises often contain opportunities. Xiliang and the Northern Di lack resources and need to trade with our Da Song. The trade generated from this often reaches the millions. Even the Rich Clan merchants cannot resist the temptation of this profit and will engage in smuggling. Since the Influential Clans can manipulate Your Highness now, why can Your Highness not manipulate them?"

Hearing this, Mi Zhuang stroked his beard and nodded slowly.

Zhao Xu gave Zhu Tuo an appreciative look and said, "This is indeed a method, but this Prince just fought a battle with the Northern Di. How would the Northern Di be willing to trade with this Prince?"

"I also have a method. If Your Highness can pull it off, the future profits will be more than ten million," another person stood up.

This person sat opposite Zhu Tuo; he had a round face, a dark complexion, and a black mole between his eyebrows.

"Your Highness, his name is Xia Huai. He once worked as an accountant on merchant ships for a living, and later served as a minor official in Jingshi for three years," Mi Zhuang said.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Xu's interest in Xia Huai increased greatly.

This was not because he had served as a minor official for three years, but because he had worked as an accountant on merchant ships.

Since waking up, he had basically grasped the environment within Da Song, but he knew nothing about the environment outside of Da Song.

He only knew that in the west of this world, warships equipped with Artillery roamed the seas.

However, according to contemporary experience, the Age of Discovery continued from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century.

During this period, Western warships arrived in the East.

Therefore, he wanted to know exactly what stage the West in this world was at.

"Please speak," Zhao Xu did not rush to ask, wanting to let Xia Huai speak first.

After pondering for a moment, Xia Huai said, "Sea trade! As long as Your Highness can obtain the Sea Trade Rights, once commercial goods go to sea, the profits will surely be abundant."

Zhao Xu nodded inwardly; the officials of Yanzhou all had no concept of the ocean.

Actually, they could not be blamed for this.

After all, the Dongtu continent had been a land-power nation for thousands of years.

Even in the current era, the importance of sea power had only been gradually reinforced in recent years.

It was just that the Song People did not understand it,

but he did.

The Age of Discovery was precisely an era of controlling maritime trade routes through maritime hegemony.

In this current period, the West, which held maritime hegemony and occupied colonial markets, imported its industrial products into markets all over the world.

They also obtained cheap raw materials from all over the world, earning vast wealth, thereby making their own countries prosperous and accumulating the capital for the Industrial Revolution.

Meanwhile, countries without maritime hegemony could only fall into internal involution.

Squeezing profits from their own people.

Therefore, in this era, whoever dominated the ocean held the code to wealth.

"Hmm, in the memorial this Prince is about to submit to Jingshi, there is indeed the matter of sea trade," Zhao Xu looked toward Xia Huai.

He paused and asked, "This Prince has always been very interested in the current state of Da Song's sea trade. I wonder if you encountered any interesting stories while working as an accountant at sea; you may tell this Prince."

Xia Huai looked up at the gray sky and said slowly, "In my view, among the Eight Great Influential Clans today, the Liang Family is the wealthiest; it would not be an exaggeration to say they are the richest in the world. This is enough to show the profit of sea trade."

After thinking, he continued, "As for interesting stories, I have not seen much. The Liang Family only allows core family members to participate in some important trades; outsiders have no way of knowing. At the time, I participated in the silk trade; the ships departed from Zhezhou, specifically heading to Dongying."

"Dongying?" Zhao Xu was stunned for a moment.

The history of the Central Plains in this world had become a tangled mess.

Other places had also undergone significant changes, but in this world, one could still find some familiar elements, such as the term Dongying.

"But if we are talking about interesting stories, I did see some strange-looking people in Dongying. Dongying calls them Angsa people, Stedan people, and the like."

"Angsa people? Stedan people? Do they have blue eyes and white skin?" Zhao Xu asked.

Xia Huai was startled, "How does Your Highness know?"

Mi Zhuang also looked at Zhao Xu in confusion; he was also very curious how Zhao Xu, who had grown up in the deep palace, knew about these things.

"This Prince heard it from some merchants," Zhao Xu defended.

Xia Huai showed an expression of realization and continued, "These strange people also taught the people of Dongying how to manufacture a type of Weapon called an Iron Cannon."

Upon hearing this, a wave of Bolan rose in Zhao Xu's heart.

Whether they were Angsa people or people from Amsterdam, it was clear that they were the Western colonists of this world.

In contemporary history, the Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, and British traded with Japan one after another.

At that time, Japan was ruled by the Shogunate, and among these nations, the Dutch had the closest relationship with Japan, even becoming the only country to trade with Japan after it closed its borders.

It was precisely through trade with these countries that Japan mastered the technology to manufacture Matchlocks, which the Japanese called Iron Cannons.

In the war of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasion of Chaoxian, this type of Weapon played a huge role.

Therefore, Xia Huai saying this gave him the illusion of history repeating itself.

It was as if Da Song was also in a period like the end of the Ming Dynasty.

However, just as the history of Da Song was distorted and had been in a state of isolation,

one still could not determine the development status of this world based on this alone; news in ancient times was still very blocked.

But one point was obvious.

An era where cold and hot Weapons were mixed was approaching.

Especially after he revealed the Artillery, it would attract even more attention from the influential classes of Great Song.

After all, Great Song has attached great importance to the development of the Firearm in recent years.

And the Firearm is actually the Artillery, but due to the limitations of forging technology, its power is very poor.

If one also counts the Matchlock that the Liang Family presented to Zhao Heng.

This means that even without his arrival, the Matchlock and Artillery had already stepped onto the stage of Great Song.

His appearance merely accelerated this process.

"The Eight Great Influential Clans cannot be underestimated." Thinking of the matter of the Matchlock, Zhao Xu muttered to himself.

Among the Eight Great Influential Clans, the Liang Family has always been low-key in the imperial court, but in his view, they are perhaps the ones hiding the deepest.

Judging from the current situation, the Matchlock has long since ceased to be a secret to the Liang Family.

Otherwise, they would not have generously gifted it to Zhao Heng; furthermore, a primitive Matchlock is not necessarily easier to use than a bow and arrow, which is likely another reason for the Liang Family's generosity.

Suddenly, he smiled.

Zhao Xu felt that he was overthinking things.

Regardless of how the winds and clouds change outside.

For now, developing his own fief remains the top priority.

Respond to all changes with constancy.