In the afternoon, I was having a happy chat, so Chengqian simply stopped leaving. .

It was almost evening when Xia Hua and Ruohua cooked in person. One of the two sisters was the empress and the other was the imperial concubine, second only to the queen in the palace. But when they returned to their parents' home, they had no airs.

The sisters learned the cooking skills of their father Zhang Chao and got the true teachings of Zhang's cooking skills. Cui Shisanniang and Zheng Hongxian all stood aside with a smile today. The queen and the daughter of the imperial concubine cooked their own meals, which made people proud.

Cheng Qian and Zhang Chao were sitting in the living room chatting. Zhang Chao was too lazy to cook with his daughter. He still trusted his daughter's skills very much.

The emperor sent someone to call some ministers.

It was said that it was the New Year, so I came to Zhang’s house for a meal and chatted by the way. It would be less restrictive than meeting in the palace.

The fastest one came was Changsun Wuji.

The emperor sent someone to invite him first. Changsun Wuji was free and easy. It seemed that he had changed a lot after experiencing some time ago. He came with a roast goose in his hand.

Li Ji also came and brought a pot of wine.

Fang Xuanling, Du Yan, Li Jing, Ma Zhou, Wei Zheng, Yuchi Gong, and Qin Qiong.

There were not many people, so nine people were called. Some were prime ministers, and some were not prime ministers.

The dishes were prepared on the table, and the wine and food were served.

Zhang Chao and Lao Tieqin were accompanying each other, and the king and his ministers were indeed less restrained. Even Zhang Chao and Zhang Sun Wuji were having a cup of tea, but they could not tell that they had any grudges.

Wei Zheng and Ma Zhou, two civil officials, both had good wine, especially Ma Zhou, who not only had good wine, but also had very good alcohol content.

There was no need to persuade him to come up, and he drank seven or eight cups in a while. Even though he was drinking wine today, it was very awesome.

During this period, Zhang Chao asked his sons to come over to toast.

Zhang also brought his wife, Princess Changle, Li Lizhi, to honor the emperor's elder brother Chengqian.

"I'm going to go to Liu to ask for the New Year. How are you preparing?" Cheng Qian asked his brother-in-law a smile, how old is Zhang younger than Cheng Qian, but when he was a child, Cheng Qian often stayed in the Zhang family and was very familiar with these little brothers.

"Everything is ready, and we will set off after the Lantern Festival."

"Do it well, don't lose the reputation of the Zhang family in Bashang." Cheng Qian patted Zhang on the shoulder, "Boyu, Liu Qiu still has hundreds of thousands of Shanyi who are not convinced by the king's life. Your responsibility is very heavy."

Changsun Wuji looked at Zhang and felt a little envious.

Although his son is not bad, first of all, Changsun Wuji's son is not as good as Zhang Chao.

He Changsun Wuji now has fifteen sons, but Zhang Chao already has thirty-one, more than twice as many as him.

Moreover, the Zhang family's men were really pleasing to the eye. They were all very promising, smart and united. A few days ago, I heard that the third son of the Zhang family had a conflict with the Yang Gongren family outside. At that time, the Yang family was five.

As a result, he showed his momentum. Although he heard that he was beaten up very badly, he crippled the seventh son of the Yang family, and the others were not good.

After hearing this, Zhang immediately brought a group of brothers to block the Yang family's brothers outside the Imperial College and beat them up. It is said that the Yang family also had more than a dozen brothers, but in the end they were beaten and begged for mercy and called grandpa.

It's embarrassing.

When Yang Gongren found out, he was so angry that he cursed the Zhang family robbers, but he was not embarrassed to come to Zhang Chao to argue. After all, the family men fought, and they both lost the most to the few, and they had no shame to say it.

After hearing that Zhang Chao knew about it, he did not deal with his children, and each of them rewarded a group of thousands of miles of horses.

His son is not as good as the Zhang family, and his daughter is not as good as the daughter. Thinking of the daughter who ran away from home to the Zhang family to elope with Zhang Qilang, he was so angry that he felt so painful that he was still in the palace.

He had no idea that daughter was gone.

"Yuan Fu told me something today, it sounds pretty good. I want to hear everyone's opinions." Cheng Qian also drank four or five glasses, his face a little red, but the wine was not intoxicating.

He smiled and said about the coastal security company mentioned before.

After hearing this, Changsun Wuji began to think carefully.

This plan is more bold than the sea privateer proposed by Zhang Chao back then.

During the war with Goguryeo, Zhang Chao proposed to allow the merchants and civilians to rob the coast of Goguryeo. Now, he directly allowed the merchants and civilians to jointly build companies, develop colonies overseas and establish territory.

Is this to allow ordinary people to divide the feudal status in addition to the nobles?

Although he was developing the territory as a company, the territory he developed was no different from the noble fiefs.

There is not even a size limit for their territory, so they can explore as big as they can.

It sounds like the court has only benefits but no harm.

But Changsun Wuji and Zhang Chao have been dealing with each other for so many years, and they are very clear about Zhang Chao's strength. Zhang Chao's favorite is to wrap icing on the shells!

There must be his deep purpose here.

What exactly is it?

Does Zhang Chao want to use his huge financial resources and connections to manipulate the establishment of a coastal security company behind the scenes, and then go overseas to develop colonial and expand its power reasonably and legally?

This is definitely the case.

According to some simple regulations proposed by Zhang Chao, the court divided the maritime trade routes and then recruited companies.

It is not that easy to get qualified, and you must first have enough financial resources.

Moreover, each company that is applied for must have more than one million jin of capital, at least thirteen partners, and the largest shareholder shares shall not exceed 30%.

To respond, you must first submit a deposit of 100,000 yuan to the court. If you succeed, the deposit will be increased to one million.

This million is in the hands of the imperial court. If these security companies protect the routes inadequately and cause merchant ships to be looted and lost, they will be fined, and in serious cases, they will even be disqualified.

But in Changsun Wuji's opinion, these terms are only restricted by ordinary businessmen.

One million jin of capital makes it impossible for ordinary businessmen to participate. One million jin of deposits raises the threshold.

But for a family like Zhang Chao, whether it is a deposit of one million yuan or a family that can hold no more than 30% of the shares at most, it is not a problem.

Once the Zhang family has money, he will take out even one million or five million. As for at least thirteen shareholders, the Zhang family has such a wide connection, and even the Zhang family has a huge family manager group.

These managers who depended on the Zhang family were also rich in wealth by the shares, dividends, bonuses, etc. given by the Zhang family. Many of the Zhang family's major managers even surpassed many old-fashioned wealthy families.

They all gathered under the Zhang family and managed one huge industry after another for the Zhang family.

They worked diligently, looked at these industries for the Zhang family and created huge profits.

Thirteen shareholders, no more than 30% of them alone, and these cannot limit Zhang Chao at all. He let his subordinates participate in it casually. In the end, all this is not his behind-the-scenes control.

What is spending money compared to gaining the benefits of exploring colonies and gaining territory?

Can money buy fiefdoms? Can money become lords? No.

But now, if you have money, you have the opportunity to recruit troops, develop colonies, and gain territory.

Back then, Zhang Chao secretly snatched strongholds in Nanyang and trained private troops.

Now Zhang Chao is going to recruit troops openly and establish colonial territory.

With the strength of the Zhang family, they are rich, powerful and talented. Let them go overseas to explore colonials, and who can stop them?

Just those primitive indigenous peoples along the coast?

He could even imagine those scenes, tigers entering the flock of sheep.

Zhang Chao himself has many territories, and no one can reach the number of fiefs. However, his territories are fixed, and they are either the territory of the court or the fiefs of other nobles. There is no chance of expanding.

But now, Zhang Chao has found a good way to expand.

"Your Majesty, I think it is very dangerous to authorize private recruitment of troops and horses to capture cities and land everywhere." Changsun Wuji directly pointed out the most critical point, the army.

The army has always been the top priority, how can we make private troops owned?

The vassal lords own an army, which is full of twists and turns. Even the vassal army must strictly possess the military quota according to the title.

If Zhang Chao’s plan is passed, wouldn’t it be that if he has money, he can recruit soldiers, conquer cities and plunder land, and own territory?

Everyone can recruit soldiers and everyone can have territory, so why not mess up?

Zhang Chao explained this question.

There are also restrictions on the number of troops of security companies in segmented routes, the size of the fundamental area, and the number of troops of security companies. In addition, the court must send supervision officials. The armed forces of these companies must send military supervisors, coaches, etc. at all levels.

After the territory was established, the administrative and judicial taxes were under the jurisdiction of the court and were managed by the court.

"As long as you strictly manage and control, you don't have to worry about losing control. This is even hiding troops from the people, and these security forces can also be included in the reserves of the court."

"Strictly manage, limit the number of troops, and prohibit crossing the border. So why not use them to protect the route and even expand territory for the imperial court?" Zhang Chao asked.

After all, these security companies are only established overseas and are not allowed in the territory of Datang.

Changsun Wuji believed that to protect the route, the imperial court could establish an escort fleet.

Zhang Chao smiled.

"It's not unaware of how far the road is from Linyi to Honghai, Changsun Gong is too far away, the court is also beyond the reach."

Fang Xuanling did not express his opinion easily.

He felt that once this matter was let go, it would definitely trigger many chain reactions. As for whether he could really control it in the future, he was still not sure. However, as Zhang Chao said, if the imperial court had to send a fleet to escort, it would be a bit less powerful.

He pondered for a long time.

"Your Majesty, if the route segment is subdivided and the court strengthens its management, the old minister thinks this is a good thing."

Wei Zheng, Ma Zhou and others also expressed their opinions.

In general, it is believed that this plan is feasible, but supervision is needed. Wei Zheng even proposed that the private sector should raise funds and the court should be responsible for the operation.

But Zhang Chao thought Wei Zheng was too naive and did not have enough benefits. Why did everyone hand over the money to the court?

The most important thing about his plan is that the company can develop colonization, and those who invest money can enjoy the huge benefits of developing colonials and establishing territories.

After all, compared to making money, it is quite impressive to be able to obtain a piece of territory. For many people who are rich but are not actually nobles, this is a very attractive place.

Even if you share a piece of territory with other shareholders, isn’t it much better than nothing?

For Zhang Chao, the person who proposed this plan, his biggest intention was not to benefit from it. He mainly wanted to let the Tang people go out, not only the nobles could be banned, but other rich people also had the opportunity to go out and explore and obtain this legal right.

For the court, at least, the route will be safe and the interests of trade can be preserved. In the long run, the Tang Dynasty will expand its territory and increase its taxes, which are all benefits.

If you have money, you can build a garden at home and support your family every day, and it doesn’t make any sense to fight with others.
Chapter completed!