Chapter 1004 Decisive Victory

Chapter 1004: Decisive Victory Chapter 1004: Decisive Victory Editor: Atlas Studios Zhou De widened his eyes, shocked to hear that Andre was a veteran spy.

He said angrily, “Why didn’t Great Qi capture him?” Mu Yangling smiled and said, “There’ll naturally be another one after capturing this one.

Besides, we don’t have any concrete evidence.

Do you think Andre is a professional spy?

He’s just a businessman, and helping his country spy on various countries is just something he does on the side.

Perhaps in the beginning, he simply sent back information on what he saw and heard outside, and only later on did he slowly become a veteran spy.

I want you to take on a similar role as Andre.

The west is far from our Great Qi, and while our Great Qi doesn’t care for their land, we can’t possibly be clueless if they have ill intentions towards us.” In short, even though they did not care about seizing the other party’s territory, the other countries should also forget about coveting Great Qi.

Zhou De’s expression turned serious as he said solemnly, “Your Highness, don’t worry.

Although I’m just a businessman, I also know that everyone is responsible for the rise and fall of their country.

We can only stand tall overseas if our country is powerful enough.

I definitely won’t let the ambitions of the foreigners succeed.” The last bit of unwillingness in Zhou De’s heart disappeared.

He did not expect the Westerners to have such malicious intentions towards them.

How was this any different from the Great Jin’s West Xia’s intruders?

When he thought of the large plots of land that had been lost in the previous dynasty, and how Great Qi might one day be filled with foreigners, Zhou De’s eyes turned red with anger.

Zhou De straightened his chest and strode out of the Prince’s Residence with great ambition.

The spies guarding outside went back to report to their patriarch.

The merchants could only sigh at the good luck of the Zhou family in private.

Why didn’t they think of sucking up to Fan Zijin when he was in a difficult situation back then?

Prince Rong and the Duke of Peaceful State were too domineering.

The maritime ban had been in place for 20 years, and with just one word from them, it was lifted just like that.

If only they’d known that the maritime ban could be so easily lifted, they’d have sent a large sum of money to the two of them long ago.

If only, if only.

Prince Rong didn’t care about business matters.

And since the Duke of Peaceful State had already chosen the Zhou family as his partner, they couldn’t surpass the Zhou family for the time being.

Even if the other party’s connections, foundation, and wealth weren’t as solid as theirs, they could only temporarily be beneath them.

While the great merchants felt that it was a pity, Zhou De tirelessly went to choose a few loyal and smart servants.

After struggling for the entire night, he finally chose his second son, Zhou Shu, from the first wife to bring them over.

Zhou De then spent the night giving Zhou Shu ‘psychological counseling’.

From the future of the Zhou family to the interests of the country, he relayed the Princess Consort’s words to him.

To conclude the pep talk, he held his hand and cried, “I can’t bear for you to do the work of a spy, but those foreigners are too detestable.

I’m afraid it’s not appropriate to hand such a mission over to the servants.

Since the Prince’s estate trusts us, we can’t let Prince Rong and the Princess Consort down…” However, Zhou Shu’s eyes asked with sparkling eyes, “Father, if we make a great contribution, do you think our family can enter officialdom?” As he spoke, he puffed out his chest.

Zhou De stopped crying and said hesitantly, “If you perform your tasks well, His Highness might give your nephews and sons a chance.” Zhou Shu’s eyes sparkled as he gritted his teeth and said, “I’ll do it.

Father, don’t worry.

For the future of my nephews and sons, I’ll definitely do my best.

Our family has worked hard for 30 to 40 years, but we haven’t been able to produce anyone with a high official rank.

This time though, we might succeed.

Even if it’s not through the Imperial Examination, as long as our descendents can become officials, it’s fine.” There was no merchant in Great Qi who did not want to improve their status.

Although merchants were rich, their status had always been very low.

Sometimes, in order to protect their business, they had to curry favor with officials in a subservient manner.

Not to mention that the economic foundation determined the superstructure, whether or not this sentence was applicable in ancient China depended on how one interpreted it.

However, there was one thing.

If the merchants wanted to live a good life, they had to make sure their descendants became officials.

Since the Tang dynasty, there had been a rule that merchants were not allowed to take the Imperial Examination.

By the middle to late stages of the Great Zhou Dynasty, through the efforts of the Emperors like Gaozong, it had already become a strict rule that the families of merchants weren’t allowed to take the Imperial Examination for three generations.

As Great Qi had yet to change this rule, it was indeed very difficult for the merchants to raise their status.

The Zhou family was naturally the same.

The children of the Zhou family would only have their names recorded in the genealogical tree after they turned ten years old.

Why was that?

This was in order to choose the brighter ones who were academically inclined.

Families with such talents in studying would send him to the family of a scholarly farmer from a collateral branch.

That kid would either be registered as the other party’s son or be adopted by that family.

Though he would continue to live and study in the Zhou family home.

The Zhou family would also provide some support to the collateral branch.

As they were only making use of the collateral family’s identity for the Imperial Examination, they were not afraid that the other party would snatch the child from them or that their kid would refuse to acknowledge them in the future.

This was because other than the child’s name being registered under the collateral family’s name, this child was essentially still theirs.

Their life and upbringing remained in their hands.

Back then, even when Zhou De was Old Master Zhou’s only legitimate son, Old Master Zhou had gritted his teeth and refused to let the boy’s name enter their genealogical tree.

He waited until the boy was ten years old and confirmed that he was not talented in studying before regretfully and thankfully recording his name in the genealogical tree.

They did not ask that their children become jinshis and become officials.

They only wanted them to become xiucais and raise the family’s status.

It could be said that the goal of the merchants was never to fight for power through officialdom, but to alleviate their status.

The Zhou family was like this, and so were the other businessmen.

The Zhou family was a little pitiful in this regard though.

It had been 40 to 50 years, but their family still had not produced a scholar.

It wasn’t that they didn’t work hard; it was just that the Imperial Examination was too difficult.

Furthermore, it was very hard for them to hire a good teacher with their status.

Also, it wasn’t easy for them to obtain good books.

They lacked educational resources and lacked focus.

Naturally, they could not produce a xiucai.

Back then, Zhou Shu had also been forced to study.

Even till this day, he was still very traumatized by this.

He felt that studying simply wasn’t in the Zhou family’s genes, and so it was useless no matter how hard they worked.

Now that there was another path in front of them, if they did not seize it, they would be letting themselves down.

For his sons and his family, Zhou Shu felt that it was worth it even if he had to risk his life.

Zhou Shu followed his father to the Prince’s Residence filled with the tragic feeling of a hero leaving and never returning.

In the end, the guard captain who came to train them cracked a smile and told them that their first and eternal mission was to be good businessmen.

Only in this way could they ensure their own safety and the entire intelligence system.

Then, the guard captain told them how to be a qualified businessman… Zhou Shu, who had been learning how to do business since he was eight years old, watched as the guard captain taught them how to be a qualified businessman… Many years later, Zhou Shu brought back a lot of valuable information to Great Qi, but he had been traveling safely between the Western countries and had become a famous businessman.

Recalling today’s training, he sighed seriously.

“I’ve always been a businessman…” Therefore, he had always been safe.

At this moment, the foreigners did not know that a child’s fight had caused such a series of consequences.

If Qi Haoran’s capture of Pedro, extermination of his 2,000 pirates, and the capture of 560 people was a heavy bombshell, then the discovery of the exquisite glassware and clocks appearing one after another after the foreigners returned to their homeland four months later, was another form of declaration of war.

Because there were very few clocks and glass products, each of them had only gotten one or two pieces.

Therefore, when they returned to their motherland, they naturally promoted them vigorously and raised the price very high.

When they did sell the things, the citizens realized the benefits of these things, and those exquisite glass products and clocks started appearing on the market one after another.

Just like theirs, there were even more varieties and choices.

Although they were also very expensive, many people still spent a lot of money to buy them.

Their previous publicity had all been done for the benefit of the Great Qi merchants.

This made the foreigners, who currently had no source of goods, furious.

If they had known earlier, they wouldn’t have rejected the Princess Consort of Great Qi back then and only gotten one or two units.

And now, the market they had spent more than half a month opening up, was immediately occupied by the Han people.

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