Chapter 1535 Ningbo Business
To complete the integration or even annexation of regional industry operations in just one or two years, even Haihan's ability will still be beyond its capabilities, because Haihan currently has too many places to start along the coast of Daming. Regardless of personnel, funds, or supply of goods, it is difficult to take care of so many coastal states at the same time, so it is necessary to cooperate with local governments and use the power of these officials to promote the implementation of the plan.
Ningbo is no exception. Because of Qu Yutong's relationship, it is relatively easy for Haihan to integrate local industry resources. Shi Diwen had already informed Qu Yutong before his trip, hoping that he would come forward on his behalf to organize meetings with major local operators in various industries. Although Qu Yutong didn't quite understand Haihan's intentions in doing these things, he at least knew that it was beneficial and harmless to him, so he was very cooperative and made relevant arrangements in advance. Of course, during the specific negotiations, Qu Yutong would not come forward in person in order to avoid suspicion. At most, he would let his close confidant He Xiao attend.
In fact, Qu Yutong did not even know much about the changes in the situation in the north, He Xiao, a subordinate, because He Xiao's brother He Li had already gone to Liaodong for a field trip and had a better understanding of the local war situation and Haihan's long-term plans. We have a clear understanding of it and have already invested in property in Liaodong and signed a plantation cooperation agreement with Haihan. Although Qu Yutong also has a stake in this plantation project, Qu Yutong's information channels are all from Shi Diwen and others, so it is naturally impossible for He Li to have such true feelings. Moreover, He Xiao and He Li must have their own calculations as the manager, so when reporting Liaodong affairs to Qu Yutong, he would have more or less reservations.
The shipping industry that the He brothers are currently mainly engaged in is naturally one of the industries that Haihan is working hard to integrate, and the ships under their name can go to Liaodong. To a certain extent, it is also the special care from Haihan, so this time Shi Diwen came to Ningbo to meet with operators from various industries, and not surprisingly, they were included as invitees.
Shipping, food, finance, textiles, service industries, etc. are the main areas where Haihan is trying to integrate industries. On behalf of Haihan, Shi Diwen negotiated with the main local experience players in these industries. There were so many matters that could not be discussed in a day or two. So Haihan spent a lot of money to rent a large house in Ningbo city as the venue for this meeting with local business people. In this way, Shi Diwen can sit here and avoid the pain of traveling back and forth.
And those who came to Ningbo City with Shi Diwen, in addition to secretaries, cooks, grooms, signal corps and other attendants, there were also staff from the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Shipping, the Ministry of Agriculture and other departments, as well as an entire security platoon. There were more than a hundred people in total, and Shi Diwen also took this opportunity to let his little wife go home for a few days.
In addition to these manpower, the Ministry of Security naturally cannot be idle. It has specially dispatched a field operation team as covert protection. At the same time, it has also mobilized both light and dark people in Ningbo City to pay attention to collecting intelligence information on the market to prevent anyone from criticizing it. Shi Diwen is unfavorable. The interests involved in the integration of these industries are very huge. If Haihan wants to profit from it, someone's interests will inevitably be harmed, and no one can guarantee whether some people will try to take some more extreme revenge after being forced to do so. Means, such as assassinating high-ranking Haihan officials.
Similar behavior has not happened before. When Ning Qi went to Fujian to meet Xu Xinsu on behalf of Haihan, he encountered an assassination operation arranged by Shiba Zhi in the heavily guarded Zhangzhou City. Afterwards, the Haihan Mission Fleet also decisively took retaliatory measures and captured Nanri Island, the last stronghold of Shibazhi near the coast of Fujian at that time. When fundamental interests are harmed, whether it is pirates or businessmen, there may be extremely violent rebound actions. Since there are lessons learned from the past, of course, we must guard against this.
Shi Diwen himself didn't feel nervous at all. As a military general, he had commanded many combat operations overseas since time travel, so he was not afraid of fighting and killing. Moreover, he has not become slack because of his pampered living environment. He still maintains excellent physical condition and living habits. Ordinary assassins may not be able to challenge him in a one-on-one battle. In addition, he always keeps his gun with him when he leaves the base, so it is not a big problem to use weapons to save his life in dangerous moments.
Of course Qu Yutong, a local official, could not be idle. At Shi Diwen's request, Xu Shaohua, who had recently been promoted to staff general of the Ningbo Navy, was transferred to the city. He led a group of soldiers and stationed them with Shi Diwen and his party. Responsible for security outside the house where you stay. It seemed unreasonable to send people from the Navy into the city to protect Shi Diwen, but Qu Yutong knew that Haihan's most trusted military attache in Ningbo was Xu Shaohua. Because it is said that this person seems to have a close relationship with Xu Xinsu from Fujian, and Xu Xinsu and Haihan have always been in the same spirit, Xu Shaohua will naturally gain Haihan's trust because of this.
But in fact, the Ming army performing armed escort missions outside Shi Diwen's hotel was far more than a group of soldiers brought by Xu Shaohua. Huang Tao, the commander of Guanhaiwei, and Yan Guowei, the commander of Changguowei, have both come to Ningbo City. They are not here to protect Shi Diwen specifically, but to participate in the following industry talks. By the way, they brought their elite soldiers over to take Shi Diwen away. Checkpoints have been posted at several arterial intersections outside the residence.
The senior officers of these local guards have already tasted the sweetness of the smuggling trade. The benefits Haihan brought to them are more generous and stable than the rewards that the previous smugglers could provide, and they no longer stay in the smuggling trade. At the low-level stage of collecting money on a monthly basis, he began to get involved in business activities with the help of Haihan.
When these military attachés of the Ming Dynasty gradually became vested interests in the Haihan trade system, and even operators of some industries, Haihan's penetration into the coastal states of the Ming Dynasty had reached an irreversible level. In order to protect their own interests, these military attaches even did not hesitate to dispatch their elite soldiers to protect the personal safety of important figures like Shi Diwen during their activities in the Ming Dynasty. In other words, the people they use force to protect are no longer just the Ming Dynasty, but also Haihan who can give them many benefits. Although these benefits are not enough for them to choose direct treason for the time being, their position has been shaken. Quite awesome.
The first group of operators Shi Diwen met in Ningbo were from the transportation industry, which was also the foundation of the trade system established by Haihan in the Ming Dynasty. The people Haihan invited were not only in the shipping industry, but also included docks connecting land and water, horse and carriage shops specializing in inland transportation, etc., and even several large-scale shipbuilding workshops in Ningbo Prefecture. He Li, who had organized a fleet to go to Liaodong earlier, was now one of the representatives of the local shipping industry and attended the meeting organized by Haihan on his own initiative.
Although the transportation industry covers a wide range, Shi Diwen only invited a few dozen people. Haihan's purpose is to integrate this industry and ultimately use it for its own use, so it does not need to leave too many operators in the industry. As long as the companies with the largest operating scale are willing to join Haihan's camp and obey Haihan's unified arrangements, they can then use their influence in the industry to complete the monopoly of the entire industry in the region. Shi Diwen's mission is to persuade these operators to accept and join Haihan's plan.
Since early in the morning, groups of people have been arriving outside the house one after another. People from all walks of life who received the invitation came in sedans or cars, and some came directly on horseback. However, most of their entourages were Being blocked from the door, each invitation can only admit a maximum of three people including the entourage. As for the gifts sent by these people, they were all signed for by Haihan officials outside the gate, and there was no need for them to send people into the yard. Such a strict arrangement is, on the one hand, for safety reasons to prevent anyone from taking risks; on the other hand, it is also for the sake of confidentiality. After all, it will definitely take some time to implement the things agreed at this kind of industry meeting, and before that, Confidentiality is also very necessary.
He Li had met with Shi Diwen when he went to Zhoushan Island last time, and he had met many senior Haihan officials in Liaodong, so his adaptability to this kind of meeting was better than that of many of his colleagues. He did not choose to wait at the venue early in the morning. Instead, he arranged the time and arrived a little early. After greeting everyone who had arrived first in the flower hall, he sat down to rest for a while and drank two sips of hot tea. Haihan staff came out to inform them that they could enter the venue.
So everyone was led by the staff to the second courtyard. The venue had been arranged in the hall. The empty seat in the middle was naturally reserved for Shi Diwen, and there were two rows of tables on the left and right sides. The chairs are placed opposite each other, and there are name tags written on the table for guests to seat. After everyone took their seats, Shi Diwen did not keep them waiting for long, and quickly came out to meet everyone. After greeting each other one by one, Shi Diwen invited everyone to sit down again and start doing business.
"Thank you for being invited to participate in this meeting. The purpose of this meeting has been roughly explained in the invitation sent to you. So in order to save everyone's time, we will not go around in circles and get down to business. ”
After Shi Di's concise and concise opening remarks, he quickly got to the point. This is not because he is eager for success, but because he will host many talks in Ningbo this time. If he spends too much energy in the previous talks, it will be difficult to have enough energy to deal with issues in other industries later. .
As for the actual content, in fact, the Ministry of Commerce has already sent personnel to communicate and negotiate with these participants in the early stage. Most of them have already agreed on the conditions and agreement contents. They just have to wait until today's occasion to see the leading figures in the industry. Gathering together, witnessing together, and finalizing things together is a sense of ceremony. Of course, another important reason is that Haihan wants to use this to establish prestige in the industry so that he can issue orders and adjust the business strategy of this industry in the future.
For the transportation industry, Haihan's main plan is to integrate resources, integrating sea transportation, land transportation, and terminals as connection points. Different links on these transportation routes currently belong to different operators, and Haihan hopes that through integration, transportation efficiency can be improved to the greatest extent, thereby reducing transportation costs and obtaining more benefits.
The reason is very simple, but integrating resources within an industry is not easy. This not only requires Haihan to understand the transportation capacity and operating conditions of each company, but also to formulate an operation plan so that the transportation methods in each link can be better connected. Only travelers like Haihan who have mastered professional knowledge in logistics management and business operations can complete such a complex business integration plan in this era.
Although Haihan has facilitated contact with various companies in advance, there are still some companies that do not fully understand the integration plan proposed by Haihan and still have certain doubts. And Shi Diwen had to spend more time explaining to them the benefits and necessity of doing so. Fortunately, businessmen such as He Li, who had already chosen the Haihan camp, took the initiative to support him and praised Shi Diwen's proposal, saying that this approach would be of great benefit to everyone. This kind of flattery also made those who originally Some hesitant businesses finally made up their minds and joined the industry alliance organized by Haihan.
Among them, the one with the firmest attitude was actually not He Li, but the two commanders from Guanhaiwei and Changguowei. Their first step in joining the Haihan trade system was to use military ships and transportation channels for smuggling. It can be said that they were the first group of people to use transportation channels to make a fortune after Haihan entered Zhejiang, and they also tasted the most sweetness from it. . For them, Haihan's integration behavior is actually helping them expand their business routes, because in the future Haihan's import and export trade will be legalized with the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, and the advantages of the special transportation channels they currently have are will disappear. Only by joining the plan promoted by Haihan can they ensure that they can continue to earn stable income through the transportation industry in the future.
The statement of senior military officials is undoubtedly a big reassurance for private businessmen. Since even the local garrison is involved, the feasibility and reliability of this plan have been greatly increased. Of course, those who have other ideas also have another fear. If the local garrison is willing to stand up to help Haihan, then if they want to exclude themselves from Haihan's plan, they have to consider the trouble that may arise. .
"Everyone, the establishment of an industry alliance is imperative. The government actually supports our plan, which makes it easier for the government to manage. Of course, the fundamental reason is that the adults in Ningbo Prefecture can also collect more. Silver.”
Shi Diwen's words attracted a burst of laughter. Everyone actually understood this truth, but due to their status, they couldn't say it outright like Shi Diwen.
(End of chapter)