In the council hall, Liu Xiang obtained enough information from Lu Jiude to recruit security. After thinking for a while, he asked: "Your Majesty will open so many ports from Guangdong to Tianjin, and a large number of merchants will inevitably go to sea to trade in a short period of time, but the trading places for overseas bulk goods are only Nagasaki in Japan and Manila in the Philippines. If we go to too many merchant ships, the merchants in these places will inevitably lower the price, and the Ming merchants who go to sea to trade will not take risks to go to the sea to become pirates when they are unprofitable. When it comes, it will become the source of chaos along the coast of the Ming Dynasty? As for what His Majesty said, the exploration of new shipping routes is not something that can be completed in one or two years, or even ten or eight years. ”

Regarding Liu Xiang's doubts, Lu Jiude really couldn't answer them. After all, he is just a relatively clever little eunuch, and he does not have the perspective of God like Chongzhen for the future of overseas trade.

"This Leader Liu's question is very good. Although I don't know how to solve this problem, before I left Beijing, His Majesty had something to tell me, in addition to truthfully recording your problems, His Majesty also asked you to nominate a few representatives to go to Beijing with me to meet the saints, and jointly formulate a code of conduct for Daming maritime merchants overseas and regulations on mutual assistance. Lu Jiude said.

"Daming Maritime Merchants' Code of Conduct and Mutual Aid Regulations? What does that mean? Can we represent all the Ming maritime merchants? Zheng Zhilong and Liu Xiang asked in unison, obviously the two of them were still quite interested in formulating the rules of business for overseas merchants.

"Of course, it is not only you, but when I left Beijing, His Majesty had asked the officials of the coastal provinces to recommend a few merchants who were interested in overseas trade, or maritime merchants of more repute, to enter Beijing in November to convene a maritime conference. I think we can discuss what we can discuss these days, and we have discussed it almost, so why don't you prepare to elect deputies to Beijing for a meeting, and it is best that the number of deputies should not exceed 10. Lu Jiude said indifferently.

These days of constant dealing with these pirates, Lu Jiude has almost figured out the character of the pirate leaders. When dealing with these pirates, it is better to be direct and straightforward, and not to take a set of things in the palace, otherwise most of these pirates will understand the wrong meaning.

"Enter the capital to face the saint? What does my father-in-law mean, is Your Majesty willing to receive me and others? Before Zheng Zhilong and Liu Xiang could speak, Chen Xinji, another pirate leader of Eighteen Zhi, had already shouted loudly.

Li Kuiqi suddenly shouted a little unhappy: "We have more than ten leaders in Eighteen Zhi, why only give 10 representatives, I think it makes sense to double it." ”

Seeing that the pirate leaders all wanted to enter the capital to face the saint, and there was a quarrel in the hall, Lu Jiude had to explain: "Your Majesty has inquired, it is now the trade wind trade season, if you all enter Beijing, then who will preside over this season's trade?" Merchants do business, like farmers spring sowing, missing the time is equivalent to wasting a year. Therefore, Your Majesty means that you should elect a representative of prestige who can enter Beijing on your behalf to present your case to Your Majesty..."

If Lu Jiude arrives on the island, he will say this condition. Zheng Zhilong didn't say a word, he must have sent these people back to Fujian. Because this seems too much like a ploy to trap the pirate leader, the Ming court has done this kind of thing many times, and Zheng Zhilong is suspicious of this.

But the performance of Lu Jiude and others in the past few days has minimized Zheng Zhilong's suspicion of the imperial court. In his opinion, the new emperor, who had just ascended the throne, was still very sincere, otherwise he would not have painstakingly sent people out to discuss various details with the pirates, just as the person who bargained in trade was the one who really wanted to buy goods.

And Lu Jiude's explanation also made all the pirates feel very ear-catching, this new emperor of the Ming Dynasty is so approachable, compared to those civil officials in Fujian who put their eyes on their foreheads, it is simply a world of difference.

A Ming emperor who can think about the lives of the people and merchants is a good emperor for these pirates who consider themselves to be the people of the Ming Dynasty. As a result, the pirates' favorability towards Chongzhen suddenly soared.

And the fact that you can face the saint in Beijing has attracted most of the pirate leaders, and some wealthy ship owners have even made it clear that they would rather not do trade this season than miss the opportunity to enter Beijing to face the saint. In this era, let alone the people of the Ming Dynasty, even ordinary civil officials may not have the opportunity to meet the emperor.

And the maritime merchants of the Ming Dynasty are also the most comparable group of merchants, and the spiritual and material life of this era are extremely poor. When the merchants had made money, they either bought land and houses, or searched for beautiful women, good food, and fine wine. A little more tasteful, that is, to build roads and bridges or donate money to build a reputation or something.

As a merchant at the end of the Four Peoples, his status in the Ming society is too low, and he has always been looked down upon by scholars, and he can only find some satisfaction in the luxurious life of drunken lamp fans. Although some merchants made a fortune, they trained their children to study and changed their families to become scholars. But after all, they are a minority, and after these families come out, they don't think of themselves as one of the businessmen.

Although many of the Ming gentry are engaged in commerce today, their business is completely different from that of ordinary merchants. The Ming gentry never saw themselves as merchants, relying on the privileges of officials and scholars to profit from the evasion of state taxes.

Because of this, for these maritime merchants, if they can meet the Ming Emperor, they will not only have enough money to show off in the future, but also greatly increase their social status. Will the people who have seen the emperor be ordinary people? Even if you can't frighten the officials, it's natural to be superior in front of your fellow villagers.

At the beginning, these pirates in the Eighteen Zhi were just talking about brotherhood to canvass for themselves. However, as the shipowners who received the news returned one after another and wanted to participate, the election of representatives to Beijing became a farce.

Lu Jiude traveled to the south this time, completely with the mentality of showing himself in front of Chongzhen, and he didn't think that these poor pirates who wanted to rob civilians would have money to provide for themselves.

The ancients had no desire to be rigid, gave up distracting thoughts, and really wanted to do something, Lu Jiude actually completed this brilliantly, and he thought it was an extremely difficult task before he left Beijing.

Now that the general direction has been determined, it can be said that there is no suspense in Zhao'an, and the next thing is just a discussion on the details. Lu Jiude, who felt that he had completed the task, followed Lian Shanxiang and others around the village to learn about this area that had been reclaimed by Fujian immigrants.

Lu Jiude and the others, who left early and returned late, didn't care at all about the increasingly fierce election activities in Longgang. But Lu Jiude doesn't care, it doesn't mean that Zheng Zhilong has forgotten him, the creator of today's chaos in Longgang.