Chapter 2290
This malady in the Annan government started from top to bottom, with very few exceptions, so foreign businessmen had no way to complain even if they wanted to. As time went by, the merchants gradually gave up their plans to enter Annan to do business on their own, and instead went to several ports operated and managed by Haihan to engage in trading activities. These ports belong to Annan in name, but are actually under the control of Haihan. The business environment is much better than the ports operated by Annan itself, and the interests of the merchants are relatively secure.
As for whether a big shot like Zheng Zha knows that the people below are acting so recklessly? Li Jifeng believed that there was a high probability that he knew about it, but the local custom had always been like this. If Zheng Zha was to deal with it ruthlessly, it would inevitably affect the interests of all parties, and he would probably have to turn a blind eye in the end.
Li Jifeng would naturally not mention these things in front of Zheng Zha, but his impression of Annan's officials was not immune to this, and he always had doubts about Zheng Zha's true purpose of coming to Guangzhou. But he didn't want to give up this opportunity to expand Furifeng's influence overseas, so he could only tell Li Nai to deal with it carefully and pay attention to the next moves of the Annan people.
Li Nai felt that his father's opinion was a bit of a fuss. After all, asking merchants for cards was not unique to Annan. It was similar in all parts of the Ming Dynasty. At most, it was just not that ugly. However, he also knew that his father's views were always accurate, and there was nothing wrong with being more cautious, so he did not express any objection at the moment.
Li Jifeng's intuition was actually right. Not only Zheng Zha, but the entire Annan leadership was greedy for the land in the south of the Ming Dynasty. However, Annan did not dare to attack the Ming Dynasty without the support of Haihan. However, the establishment of the agency in Guangdong presided over by Zheng Zha was indeed intended to take this opportunity to collect intelligence about the Ming Dynasty. Li Jifeng had deliberately mentioned He Xi when talking about the Haihan Office in Guangdong, just to see how Zheng Zha would react to it.
Li Jifeng originally invited Chen Tianqi, the current head of the Guangdong Office in Guangdong, today, but unfortunately Chen Tianqi has been away on business these two days and is not in Guangzhou. Li Jifeng planned to meet and discuss Annan's actions after he came back.
Early the next morning, Li Nai's men visited Zhang Jinbao and gave him two arrangements for him to choose. First, Zhang Jinbao and his party can freely roam in Guangzhou for a few days to understand the local real estate transactions and see if they can find a suitable place to open an academy on their own. Another option is to go directly to the place provided by Li Nai. If it is suitable, he can start the formal implementation stage.
Regarding the location of the academy, Zhang Jinbao has already considered it. Regardless of whether the environment is suitable or not, it is reasonable to go to the place provided by Li Nai. The arrangement of inspecting the market conditions is even more indispensable. Zhang Jinbao wants to understand not only the local real estate market, but also the employment needs in Guangzhou, so that he can choose to open subjects suitable for local conditions in the subsequent operation of the college. .
Zhang Jinbao chose to inspect the market on his own first, and then go to the places provided by Li Nai after collecting the required information. If the place provided by Li Nai is satisfactory, then when discussing the terms of cooperation with him, it will be better to have a sense of bargaining power. It has been a year or two since the planning of this project began. Now that it has reached the stage of on-site inspection and site selection, Zhang Jinbao will not be in a hurry for two or three days.
Although it was a free activity, for the convenience of Zhang Jinbao and others, Li Nai still provided them with a guide and a carriage. Li Nai has many things to do, so he naturally doesn't have much time to accompany Zhang Jinbao around Guangzhou and outside the city. What's more, there is also a young prince from Annan who is also inspecting Guangzhou at this time. His time arrangement must give priority to Zheng Zao. journey.
Zheng Zha has a special request for the location of the office in Guangdong, that is, he hopes to be close to the Haihan Office in Guangdong. His starting point is also very simple, that is, he hopes to use the influence of the Haihan Office in Guangdong to successfully establish his own office in Guangdong. If there is any emergency, it would be better to be close to the Haihan Office in Guangdong to take care of it.
After hearing this request, Li Nai felt that Zheng Zha had overestimated the situation in Guangzhou. Even if the Annan background of this organization was exposed, the local government was unlikely to take strong measures against it, let alone let Haihan come forward to provide asylum.
However, since it was Zheng Zha's serious request, he could only provide the other party with a solution: "Little prince, the land near the Guangdong Office is basically in my hands. If you want to buy it for your own use, of course there is no problem. , but since this matter concerns the Haihan Office in Guangzhou, it is best to discuss it with Mr. Chen from the Office in Guangdong to avoid any misunderstandings.”
The land around the Guangdong Office is in the hands of Furifeng. This is not because Furifeng has any special plan, but at the request of Haihan, he stepped forward to acquire the land around the Guangdong Office one after another for safety. If the Guangdong Office needs to be expanded in the future, there will be ample space to choose from.
Of course, the cost of acquiring so much land is not a small amount, and only a wealthy customer like Haihan would adopt such a simple and crude solution.
Li Nai's answer was slightly beyond Zheng Zha's expectations, but he still responded calmly: "When I come to Guangzhou this time, I will definitely go to visit Master Chen, so I will make a decision after meeting with Master Chen."
Chen Tianqi returned to Guangzhou exactly one day later than Zheng Zha and Zhang Jinbao. The first news he received when he arrived at the Guangdong Office was that Zheng Zha had arrived in Guangzhou and sent a greeting card hoping to meet him.
In fact, Chen Tianqi had received the telegram a few days ago and knew the general purpose of Zheng Zha's visit to Guangzhou. However, the Executive Committee did not give clear instructions on this matter. Chen Tianqi's understanding is to wait and see what happens and see what the Annan people are going to do.
Chen Tianqi has never met this young prince of Annan before, and almost all the information he knows about him comes from information provided by the intelligence department. However, this paper information alone is not enough for him to judge the true identity of the other party. Intention.
Later, new news came from Li Nai. The Annan people intended to locate the office in Guangdong near the Haihan Office in Guangdong. This made Chen Tianqi seem to smell something.
"Reply a message to the Annan people and hold a banquet in my name to welcome Zheng Zha." Chen Tianqi quickly made a decision. He still wanted to meet with this young prince who liked to show off everywhere in person to see what the real purpose of the other party's attempt to set up an office in Guangdong was.
As for Zhang Jinbao, who came to Guangzhou to seek to open an academy, although he also sent a greeting letter to the Guangdong Office, Zhang Jinbao's status was naturally not as good as Zheng Zha's, and there was no big shot from the executive committee to say hello in advance. Fa received special care.
Businessmen like him come to Guangzhou to submit posts to the Guangzhou Liaison Office dozens of times a month. Chen Tianqi will also meet with him when he is free, but he will definitely not be as active as he is with Zheng Zao, let alone specially A banquet was held to welcome him. At most, I just want to see if I have free time and meet up with other Haihan businessmen who have recently arrived in Guangzhou.
However, Zhang Jinbao is not in a hurry. He came to Guangzhou to organize the academy and will not be able to leave in just a few days. He will have to stay here for ten days and a half at least. It doesn't matter if he waits a little longer. He submitted a message asking to meet Chen Tianqi, mainly for the purpose of becoming familiar with the Guangzhou Guangdong Office. After all, in the future, running the academy will inevitably have to manage the whole staff of the Guangdong Guangdong Office. He should start building contacts early, maybe something It will come in handy when the time comes. Due to limited financial resources, it would be difficult for Zhang Jinbao to afford the related expenses if he wanted to build an academy by himself after purchasing land in Guangzhou. Moreover, considering the construction period, building a house by yourself is certainly not as fast as buying a ready-made house. Therefore, the direction proposed by Zhang Jinbao is to convert a ready-made house into an academy. As for whether it is in Guangzhou City, that is not a necessary condition. Anyway, Qiongxi Academy is not in Danzhou City, so there is no need to have too high requirements for the branch.
According to Zhang Jinbao's request, the guide arranged by Li Nai took them to see several large houses for sale inside and outside the city.
Zhang Jinbao walked out of the door and looked back at the house with some reluctance. It was said that this place was the residence of a certain prefect in the past. The fourth courtyard also spanned the east and west courtyards. The area and hardware were completely in line with Zhang Jinbao's vision, and this place The building materials used in the courtyard are all of the highest quality, and the layout of the courtyard is also quite ingenious. The location is located in a secluded wealthy area of the city, making it almost impossible to fault it.
The only problem is that it's too expensive. The seller asked for 120,000 taels of silver, and it was an exact price. This figure directly dissuaded Zhang Jinbao from including this place as a candidate location. The psychological price he can accept is far lower than this amount. The difference is so big that there is no need for a counter-offer.
"The house is a good house, but this price is not a good price..." Zhang Jinbao smiled bitterly and said to the guide: "If we were in Danzhou, even if we buy land and build a house, we wouldn't spend so much money in total!"< br>
The guide's name was Gan Wei, a native of Guangzhou. Hearing this, he responded with a smile: "Master Zhang doesn't know something. There are fewer and fewer big houses in Guangzhou. Things are rare and expensive. The price will naturally rise. Don’t think that the price today is high. If you come here in another three to five days, it may be worth another ten thousand taels of silver, or it may have been bought by someone else.”
Zhang Jinbao was quite curious after hearing this, and then asked: "Why are houses in Guangzhou so in short supply?"
Gan Wei responded: "In recent years, businessmen in Guangzhou have been doing business with the Haihan Kingdom. Money comes quickly. When you have money, you naturally buy houses and land. In addition, many Haihan merchants also come to Guangzhou to buy houses. When the tide rises, all boats will be raised. Lift it up. If you had come three to five years earlier, you might have been able to close the deal for half the current price, but now there are more people buying houses than selling them, and people will naturally refuse to let go of the high price.”
Zhang Jinbao laughed dumbly and said: "Looking at it this way, the skyrocketing housing prices in Guangzhou City have something to do with Haihan!"
Gan Wei did not directly respond to Zhang Jinbao's statement, but still gave his own evidence: "Master Zhang, to tell you the truth, in recent years, more than half of the properties that the villain has brokered have been bought by Haihan people. . Not to mention the distance, don’t all the adults in the Guangdong Office have a house in the city? The price is not cheap at all..."
Zhang Jinbao heard this guy talk about the Haihan officials in the Guangdong Office. He didn't dare to take the conversation casually, so he could only cough and said: "It is reasonable for these officials to be stationed in Guangzhou and purchase real estate locally. ”
Why officials from the Guangzhou Liaison Office want to buy houses in Guangzhou city are of course for the convenience of life. Although the Guangdong Office is large, there are quite a lot of people coming and going every day, so it is not suitable for living at home. For people like Chen Tianqi who are already married and have children in Guangzhou, of course they have to buy their own house to live more comfortably.
These officials in the General Office of the General Office of the People's Republic of China are in charge of a large amount of business resources. They can earn profits by providing high-value business information without running the business themselves. And senior officials like Chen Tianqi, who has the status of a time traveler, are not short of money. Buying real estate in Guangzhou is easy, and you don't need to worry about the price like Zhang Jinbao. You can just buy the one that suits you.
As for the various living facilities in Guangzhou, the inside and outside of the city are basically two different worlds. If you want to live comfortably, it is of course better to buy a big house in the city. In addition, the relationship between Haihan and Daming has tended to ease in the past two years, and there seems to be no danger in living in Guangzhou.
Zhang Jinbao does not have the financial strength of senior officials. For him, the house worth hundreds of thousands taels of silver is still too much. Although the condition of the house is good, after all, he has to pay for it in cash. After thinking about it again and again, Zhang Jinbao can only I reluctantly gave up on this candidate.
Then I looked at two more properties in the city, but neither was as suitable as the first one. The place is too small and can only be used as a private school for elementary students. It is too stingy to use it as a branch school. The other place is located in a busy city. It was originally a business store, with a carriage shop and a bank next to it on the left and right. This place is good for doing business, but it is not suitable for opening an academy.
Zhang Jinbao didn't find a suitable property in the city, so he asked Gan Wei if he could go to see a similar place outside the city.
Gan Wei responded: "Yes, there is, but the place may be a little more remote. I will take Mr. Zhang to have a look."
The group of people took a carriage out of the city and visited a manor seven or eight miles away from the city. It is said that this place is the property of a retired official's family, but now that the old man has passed away, his descendants plan to move to another place, so they are planning to sell this manor.
This manor is quite large. Counting the farmland around the manor, it covers an area of about fifty acres. It only costs 30,000 taels to buy it all. However, Zhang Jinbao saw that the buildings in this manor were in disrepair. If they were to be used to open an academy, they would probably have to undergo large-scale renovations, and the corresponding expenditure would definitely not be a small amount.
(End of chapter)