Chapter 89 Purchasing Servants
The two young men were both from clean backgrounds and in good health. They used to work as waiters, which was exactly what He Xi asked for. He immediately took them to a nearby tooth shop to sign documents. Both of these two young men were sent to the tooth shop for sale by their previous owners, so they signed the deed of sale directly for fifteen taels of silver each. After collecting the money, the dental shop will take a portion of it, and the rest will be given to the original owners of the two teenagers. As for the monthly money for the two of them, He Xi tentatively decided to give them three qian per person per month.
When signing the deed, the dental dealer asked the two people for their names. The two people were quite smart. After looking at each other, they knelt down and said, "Please give me your name." He Xi and Zhang Guang spent a long time together before they came up with two vulgar and nutritious names - Dafu and Dagui.
Just having a name and no surname is not enough. He Xi refused to let the two young servants take his surname: "No, no, then I won't be the godfather? After this, the executive committee found out and thought I was forming a gang to run a power outside, which could easily lead to misunderstandings." ”
However, the tooth merchant came up with an idea: "Since the two gentlemen claim to be overseas merchants, I thought it might be helpful to give them the surname 'Hai'. What do you think?"
"It seems possible...but why does it always sound a little weird?"
Before He Xi and Zhang Guang could recover, the two young men had already kowtowed and thanked them. He Xi took the deed with the words "Hai Dafu" written on it from the tooth dealer and said with a wry smile: "Would it be too vicious for us to give him such a name?"
The freshly baked Hai Dafu and Hai Dagui cannot understand the mood of their master. For them, these are really excellent names. Who wouldn't hope that they can be rich and powerful in the future? The two new owners seemed to be quite kind, and their hard days must have finally come to an end.
Although they hired two young servants, their original plan to buy a maid failed to come to fruition. The two went to the market a few more times. The old woman saw a large group of them, but the little girl didn't see any of them. In the end, The young servant girl looked to be in her thirties or forties.
Zhang Guang couldn't help but said a little frustrated: "When I used to watch those costume dramas, at this time, there would always be some young girls who sold their bodies to bury their fathers and cut grass as a target. Why did we look around and watch for a long time, but no one caught our eyes?" ?”
Although the tooth merchant didn't understand what "costume drama" meant, he understood the dissatisfaction in Zhang Guang's words and quickly explained: "The two gentlemen don't know something. There are not many little girls in this place." See, it’s only seven or eight months. But if you two really want to buy a maid, please come here tomorrow and you should be able to gain something.”
"What will be different tomorrow?" He Xi asked.
"Tomorrow is the day when the fair will be held this month. People from all over the country will come here to attend the fair. At that time, some families who are forced to make a living may come here to sell their sons and daughters." The tooth dealer introduced without hesitation. : "Nowadays, 70% to 80% of the land outside Yazhou City is owned by a few large families. Some families with no money and land have no choice but to sell their children for food and go to remote Tianya, Fenghuang and even Yulin to open up wasteland and cultivate land."< br>
"Then if we can provide food and accommodation and recruit some people who have lost their livelihood to cultivate wasteland in distant places, do you think it is feasible?" He Xi keenly sensed the opportunity and immediately asked.
"If we don't leave Qiongzhou Island and have a bowl of food to eat, I think we can still recruit a lot of people." The tooth merchant was also a very smart person. He heard the implication of He Xi's words and immediately added: "Two If you want to recruit a large number of people, I can work here for a long time.”
"How to calculate the price?" He Xi immediately started negotiations.
"Based on the number of people recruited, how about one silver per person?" The tooth dealer boldly quoted a price.
He Xi shook his head and said: "It's too expensive. One settlement for every hundred people, five taels of silver." He Xi cut the price in half without hesitation.
"Eight taels of silver, I can guarantee that there will be no less than 200 people per month." The tooth dealer made a slight concession and increased the weight.
"Seven taels of silver. I can pay you half as a deposit immediately." He Xi fought for every inch of land, and his bargaining posture was very professional.
"Deal!" The tooth dealer gritted his teeth and agreed to He Xi's conditions.
He Xi smiled, took out the silver and paid the deposit, and at the same time comforted: "Don't think that the price is a loss, if you can bring me seven or eight thousand people a year, that will be four to five hundred taels of silver. "The tooth merchant smiled bitterly and said: "There are only more than 20,000 people in Yazhou. How can there be so many rootless people willing to go out to cultivate wasteland? You are really kidding me."
He Xi shook his head and said: "You can't be so rigid in your business. There are only a limited number of residents in Yazhou. You can go to other places to look for it. You can go to Danzhou, Lingao and Qiongzhou Fucheng in the north, and Wenchang and Wanzhou in the east. Give it a try. I just charge people per head. As for where you brought them back, that’s your business.”
The dental dealer's eyes lit up: "In this way, it is an excellent method. It just needs to contact colleagues from various places, and I'm afraid it will take some time."
"That's okay. We have been living in Yazhou for a long time. You can come to us directly." After saying that, He Xi informed the dental dealer of the address of the Yazhou office.
"If anyone asks, where is this land reclamation going?" The tooth dealer was not overwhelmed by this big business, and he did not forget to ask clearly about these details.
"East of Yulin, Victory Harbor." He Xi answered him without hesitation.
"Victory Port? As far as I know, that bay has always been deserted. Has there ever been a port?" The tooth merchant looked stunned.
"It didn't exist in the past, but it exists now." Zhang Guang took the lead and said proudly: "Remember this name, and within a year or two, the entire Qiongzhou Prefecture will know the existence of Victory Port!"
On the way back to the Cliff Office, Zhang Guang still had trouble suppressing his excitement: "Old He, I am really convinced by you today. Not to mention your own professional work, you are also so strong in business negotiations. I think No worse than Malik and Qiu Yuan! ”
He Xi said seriously: "Don't say such words that are not conducive to unity when you get home. But having said that, I worked as a police officer for a few years before, and I haven't lost all the basic skills in business negotiation. Today It just happened to come across this opportunity. I'll call everyone together tomorrow to see what's going on in Wei City here... and let Xiao Zhao choose for himself to see if he can choose a suitable maid. ”
Since the rich and powerful two servants had few personal belongings, the group went around the city again and bought them a change of clothes and bedding. Zhang Guang also ran into a tavern on the street and drank three kilograms of liquor, saying that he wanted to invite everyone to celebrate today's "major results" together in the evening. After arriving at the Cliff Resident Office, He Xi arranged the residence of the two teenagers in a shop facing the street - anyway, there are no products for sale in the Cliff Resident Office now, so this small shop has been closed and temporarily used as a place for the two servants. place. The two teenagers didn't realize anything was wrong, so they found a few wooden boards in the shop to build a bed.
When it got dark, the members returned to the cliff office one after another. Maliko first discovered that there were two more young men in the house, so he asked what was going on, and Zhang Guang recounted today's experience. After listening to this, Maliko couldn't help but sigh: "Lao He is still very professional and flexible. Someone else may not be able to handle things so beautifully."
Everyone exchanged their results today at the dinner table. As expected, only He Xi and Zhang Guang had the most outstanding achievements. Although other people also communicated with local Akira people, most of them were superficial and did not collect any information worthy of attention. Two people from the military and police department spent a whole day making detailed records of the security changes at the three city gates, and planned to continue observing for a while to determine whether the Yazhou garrison's security system would remain unchanged for a long time. .
Zhao Xiaoruo, who was encouraged by He Xi to take the concubine route, spent most of the day in several shops selling women's products, but apart from buying a bunch of jewelry and female celebrities, he seemed to have failed to make any substantial progress. According to her own words, she had chatted with several women, but the difference in accents became the biggest obstacle to communication. In the end, she couldn't understand what each other wanted to express, so she had to give up. He Xi praised Zhao Xiaoruo's performance. He believed that it was extremely rare for a girl to go out alone in such a strange environment. He should not be too demanding on the speed of progress. After all, Zhao Xiaoruo studied nursing. Professional not a Bond girl.
Maliko and Qiu Yuan each visited several shops and conducted more in-depth and detailed research on the consumer market in Yazhou. According to their research results, the current economic situation in Yazhou is severely polarized. A large amount of land and social wealth are concentrated in the hands of a very small number of local officials and gentry. The accelerated pace of land annexation has led to a rapid increase in the number of local propertyless and unemployed people. This also corresponds to some of the information He Xi and Zhang Guang learned today.
Maliko pointed out that the current economic situation in Yazhou has a great negative impact on social stability. It is only because of the special social nature of the local area that the existence of military force can barely maintain a peaceful situation. The total number of guards and soldiers in Yazhou plus the naval officers and soldiers in Shuizhai exceeds 2,000. The ratio to the local population is one to ten. This is a very high ratio. With Yazhou’s production, it can bear such a scale. It can be said that it is very difficult to build up the armed forces. Judging from the changing trends of local economic conditions, there is only one conclusion-rebellion will inevitably occur in the long run.
The chaos or instability in Yazhou has no very direct impact on the crossing group in Shengli Port. However, the Cliff Office is in such a situation that it must consider how to take advantage of the current situation to obtain more benefits for the Crossing Group.
(End of chapter)