Chapter 2259
Zhang Jinbao had just returned to the inn where he stayed. He didn't know that another good thing was going to happen to Qiongxi Academy without his involvement at all.
Zhang Jinbao first asked his students to go to the store and order some food. Although the dishes at the banquet were very good, he was busy communicating with people from all walks of life and did not have time to take a few bites. By this time, he was already hungry.
Of course, Zhang Jinbao did not forget to show off today's harvest to the students while eating. In particular, Li Nai was invited to visit Danzhou in the near future and discuss the agreement to establish a branch of the academy in Guangzhou. He had to show off his achievements.
"If we can get Fulifeng to cooperate with our academy this time, we can slowly promote the brand name Qiongxi Academy in the future, and we may have the opportunity to become the number one private academy in our country. After you graduate from the academy, you can also choose Becoming a teacher in a branch school is also a good way out." While Zhang Jinbao was boasting, he also did not forget to encourage the students and let them realize the bright future of the college.
Some students asked: "Dean, Furui is very wealthy and powerful. If they want to participate in the daily affairs of the academy, wouldn't they disrupt the order of the academy?"
Zhang Jinbao slowly put down his chopsticks and responded seriously: "I will discuss this with Li Nai carefully at that time. Jointly running a school does not mean that Fulifeng can intervene in the daily affairs of the academy. We will set a limit, which It is something that Furifeng can interfere with, but they have no right to interfere with it... In short, they cannot be allowed to interfere with the normal operation of the academy. ”
Zhang Jinbao also had some considerations about how to maintain the original independence of the academy in the joint education model. If he wants to open a branch in Guangzhou, he needs the local support of Fulifeng, a local leader, to provide land, funds, and other social resources. As a businessman, the only reason why Fulifeng is willing to cooperate with Qiongxi Academy is for profit. The academy can train professional talents for Furifeng, but just this condition may not be enough to make Furifeng excited.
What Zhang Jinbao is more worried about is that Fulifeng will ask to directly participate in the operation of the academy. He himself is a businessman wearing the mask of an educator. He knows very well what will happen if another business force more powerful than himself intervenes in the operation of the academy. What's going on. It would probably be easy to send someone as the vice-president to check and balance him, but maybe they would try to sideline him slowly, and at some point turn Jonesy Academy into a property under Fulifeng's name.
Yes, Zhang Jinbao is very aware that his pursuit of cooperation with Furifeng involves considerable business risks. If he does not do it well, he will seek skin from the tiger. But he refused to give up on his goal. As for opening a branch of the academy in the Ming Dynasty, the Haihan official could not help him much. He could only find people with certain capabilities to cooperate.
Therefore, he had to determine some rules at the beginning of the cooperation to ensure that the academy could operate normally as it did in Danzhou and would not suffer too much interference from the partners. Of course, if the partner only occasionally asks for admission from a few connections, or provides some other special care, then Zhang Jinbao wouldn't mind cooperating on these small matters.
Zhang Jinbao is not sure how Furifeng will treat this transaction, but at least judging from the preliminary negotiations, Li Nai should be very interested in this project, and is even willing to go to Danzhou to inspect Qiongxi for this purpose. Regarding the actual operating conditions of the academy, this can be said to be a good start. As for how the next negotiation with Li Nai will proceed, he still has at least two or three days to think about it carefully.
But what Li Nai paid most attention to at this time was not the Qiongxi Academy project, but the fact that Zheng Zha had approached him before and wanted to set up the Annan Guild Hall in Guangzhou.
Li Nai didn't think there was anything wrong with Zheng Zha's idea at the time and agreed immediately. However, after returning to his residence and thinking about it carefully, he felt that there was something unexplainable about it.
As far as Li Nai knows, Annan's main trade destination is Haihan State. The three major ports of Danzhou, Haikou and Sanya have many merchant ships that regularly go to and from Annan. For Annan, the voyage to Guangzhou is three to four times farther than the ports on Hainan Island, so the freight expenses alone are not a small amount.
If the procurement project is not particularly large or does not require long-term demand, then it is actually more cost-effective and less risky for Annan merchants to go to the port on Hainan Island to purchase the goods shipped by Ming merchants than to open a trade route to Guangzhou on their own.
Even if the Annan people wanted to set up a guild hall and business store on the northeastern mainland coast, their first choice would not be Guangzhou. Hong Kong Island under Haihan's rule is obviously more in line with their trade needs, and it is definitely safer than Guangzhou. higher.
Li Nai is not sure whether there is an institution like the Annan Guild Hall on Hong Kong Island. If there is, then Zheng Zha does not have much need to spend a lot of resources to build a trading institution with similar functions in Guangzhou, more than two hundred miles away. If not, then Zheng Zha's first choice should be Hong Kong rather than Guangzhou. But no matter which possibility it is, Zheng Zha's decision will seem a bit strange.
The most important thing is that he remembered that merchants from Annan seemed to be very rare in the Guangzhou market. Annan's need to build a guild hall in Guangzhou did not seem to be as urgent as Zheng Zha expressed.
Thinking of this, Li Nai called one of his stewards to ask: "Which ports do Annan's merchant ships heading to the north usually dock?"
The steward responded: "We usually call at Macau Port under the Portuguese rule and Hong Kong under the Haihan people. Further north, we will call at Kaohsiung Port, Magong Port, Zhangzhou Port, Jilong Port, and Dinghai Port. But it will go to Fujian. There are very few Annan merchant ships north of the strait, maybe only a dozen a year!”
Li Nai nodded and asked, "Are there many Annan merchant ships arriving in Guangzhou?"
The steward responded: "There may be three or four ships a month. Annan merchant ships rarely make a special trip to Guangzhou, because the prices of many things in Guangzhou and Hong Kong are almost the same. There is no need for merchants to travel more than a hundred miles of waterway. .”
Li Nai was silent for a moment, and then continued to ask: "If the Annan people want to build a guild hall specifically in Guangzhou, what do you think?"
The steward looked surprised and said: "There are currently no Annan people settled in Guangzhou, and there are not many Annan merchants coming and going. If a guild hall is built specifically, I'm afraid it will be mostly empty for a long time in the future. ”
Li Nai sent the steward away, becoming more and more certain that Zheng Zha's idea had other hidden purposes. A high-level figure like Zheng Zha would never waste time on something that is of insufficient importance or even dispensable. Since Annan did not have a strong demand to set up a guild hall in Guangzhou, why did Zheng Zha pretend to be in such a situation? There's no way this is just to defraud Furifeng's land, right?
Li Nai thought about it for a while and still had no clue. At the moment, he could only take one step at a time. But Guangzhou is still the territory of the Li family, and even the government can't do anything to the Li family now. Li Nai doesn't have to worry about what evil things Zheng Zha will do after he arrives in Guangzhou. When the time comes, it’s just a matter of taking advantage of the situation and not harming your own interests.
At this time, Zheng Zha had just returned to his residence and was asking his staff to write invitations. He invited He Xi and Xu Yuxing to meet in private today. He originally planned to wait until the competition was over before making arrangements. However, Tao Donglai announced during the meeting that he would announce next year's arms sales list during the competition. Zheng Zha was worried that this news would affect As part of his plan, he decided to advance the appointment with He and Xu to tomorrow. "These two invitations must be delivered to them early tomorrow morning." If it were not already too late, Zheng Zha would have wanted to have them delivered overnight.
The next day at a restaurant in the city, Zheng Zhu finally waited for He Xi and Xu Yuxing, who came to keep their appointment. Seeing that everyone had arrived, Zheng Zha called the waiter over and asked him to serve wine and food.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Zheng Zha took the initiative and said: "Both of you are very busy people, so I would like to thank you in advance for being able to meet with me today!"
He Xi said: "The young prince is so polite, I'm afraid there will be difficult things to discuss with us next, right?"
He Xi spoke rudely, but Zheng Zha didn't feel dissatisfied. He knew that He Xi had a special status among the senior management of Haihan, with great authority, and he spoke quite directly. But since the other party was here, he would not leave easily. .
Zheng Zha smiled and said: "Master He is a straightforward person, so I won't go around in circles. I invite you two to come over for a meeting today. We really have important matters to discuss."
After Zheng Zha revealed his plan, the faces of He Xi and Xu Yuxing changed slightly. They really didn't expect that what the Annan people were planning would not only be difficult, it could be said to be a huge trouble.
Zheng Zha's plan can be summed up simply. He wants to represent Annan and invite Haihan and Fujian to jointly carve up the Guangdong and Guangxi regions under the Ming Dynasty.
The carve-up that Zheng Zha mentioned was not just about the current control of maritime traffic in the coastal areas of Guangdong and Guangxi, but also the use of military means. The three companies jointly sent troops to occupy these areas and put them under their own control.
According to Zheng Zha's proposal, Annan will be allocated the area west of the Leizhou Peninsula, and the Fujian Xu family will be allocated the area east of the Pearl River Estuary. The most prosperous area in the middle will be assigned to Haihan from now on. In this way, the territories obtained by the three families can be connected with their original territories, which makes it easier to rule.
Even though He Xi and Xu Yuxing were used to seeing the world, they really didn't expect the Annan people to want to play such a big game. After the two of them looked at each other for a while, He Xi smiled bitterly and said, "Young prince, may I venture to ask, is this your personal intention or the intention of King Qingdu?"
Hearing this question, Zheng Zha looked slightly worried: "Does it mean that I can't represent Annan Kingdom?"
He Xi said: "I just want to remind the young prince that doing so means going to war with the Ming Dynasty, and will put Master Xu in Fujian in a very difficult situation."
Xu Yuxing said: "I can tell the young prince very frankly that for now, our Xu family has no intention of establishing our own business, let alone starting a war for this purpose."
Seeing that the attitude of these two people was obviously against his proposal, Zheng Zha quickly said: "Don't rush to a conclusion, you might as well think about the benefits of doing so first. The Ming Dynasty's rule over the Lingnan area was originally very sparse, but now There is also a war in the north that is holding back Ming's troop deployment. If we send troops together, I believe we won't encounter much trouble in the Guangdong and Guangxi areas. As long as we occupy the place, what can Ming do? A three-pronged attack on us? ”
He Xi shook his head slightly and said: "Our country has established diplomatic relations with the Ming Dynasty, and it is impossible to go to war without declaring it. Moreover, the benefits of going to war with the Ming Dynasty outweigh the disadvantages for our country, and the Executive Committee will never agree."
"The land from Leizhou Peninsula to the Pearl River Estuary is much larger than Hainan Island, and there are hundreds of thousands of people. Aren't these resources urgently needed for your country? If you just stay friendly with Ming Dynasty, Ming Dynasty will not hand over these resources to your country on its own." Zheng Zha still tried to persuade He Xi to accept his point of view.
He Xi said: "Things are not as simple as the young prince thought... Going to war against the Ming Dynasty will greatly affect the trade between our country and the Ming Dynasty. Although it is true that we can rob the Ming Dynasty including land and population through war. resources within the country, but at the same time we will also lose a huge sales market. Do you understand? More than half of the various goods our Haihan country sells abroad are sold to Daming. Losing this market will make our country’s Foreign trade is greatly affected.”
Xu Yuxing also said: "If Ming is forced to go to war, it will make Ming face a difficult situation of being attacked from both sides. Maybe the young prince will think that this is just convenient for us to carve up the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, but in fact this may cause Ming to be overwhelmed and the world will be in chaos. ! ”
"The chaos is also in the far north and inland, isn't it?" Zheng Zhu retorted: "If the Ming Dynasty falls apart, it is not necessarily a bad thing for us! Let me ask where the army of the Ming Dynasty can defeat the three of us. Either side? Maybe in three to five years, our sphere of influence will be able to advance to the south bank of the Yangtze River, or even further north. I think no one can stop us, and the entire Ming Dynasty will be a big pie waiting for us to carve up. ! ”
In fact, Zheng Zha's words are already quite inflammatory, and they are indeed extremely feasible. If the three companies present jointly send troops, then at least in the southern coastal area, there will indeed be no local garrison that can pull out a fight with them. If things go well, it is not impossible to support war with war and advance all the way north.
Moreover, he was well aware of Haihan's desire for land and population, and used this to persuade Haihan to participate, which shows that he had made careful preparations before this. It's just that Zheng Zha probably misjudged the stance of these two companies, and the conditions he proposed did not have an immediate effect.
(End of chapter)