Chapter 2294
Before Zhang Jinbao came to Guangzhou, he also considered the various uncontrollable factors that he might encounter in an unfamiliar environment. Therefore, he expected that the branch project would take three to five months at the earliest and one and a half years at the slowest time. During this period, he might have to travel to Guangzhou several times. , Only then can the site selection truly enter the implementation stage.
But the actual situation was indeed much better than he expected. Fu Ruifeng's participation really saved him a lot of time and energy. In just a few days, the step of selecting the location of the academy had been basically implemented. Moreover, the houses provided by the Li family are all ready-made. As long as the interior is slightly modified and the equipment needed for teaching is purchased, it can be quickly turned into a qualified academy.
Next, report to the government and go through the necessary registration procedures. The two parties have already reached a consensus that Furifeng will handle the matter to avoid embarrassment due to the special relationship between the academy and Haihan. After all, opening an academy is different from doing business. It is a purely monetary transaction. The government can turn a blind eye and allow Haihan merchants to engage in trading activities in Guangzhou. However, if the Haihan people want to open an academy in Guangzhou, the teachings are not traditional. The Four Books and Five Classics are contrary to the Ming Dynasty.
Following Li Nai's suggestion, Zhang Jinbao took the initiative to visit Guo Huan at Haihan Bank the next day and applied for a loan from him in the name of Qiongxi Academy to prepare for the funding turnover of the Guangzhou branch. Of course, it was not necessary for Zhang Jinbao to borrow this money. The main purpose was to maintain this relationship.
Of course, during this period, Zhang Jinbao also inadvertently revealed that he had determined the location of the academy with Li Nai and would continue to cooperate according to the original plan. When Guo Huan heard Xian Ge, he realized that Zhang Jinbao came to borrow money just to help him. He immediately said that he owed Zhang Jinbao this favor and would repay it when he had the opportunity in the future.
Although the location of the academy has been settled, this is actually just the first step in preparing for an academy, and there is still a lot of work to be done in the future.
Zhang Jinbao's originally expected progress was not so fast, so the two subordinates he brought to Guangzhou seemed to be insufficient. Later, in order to organize various affairs of the academy and establish disciplines, it is also necessary to mobilize some teaching staff from Danzhou.
Zhang Jinbao went to the Guangdong Office again and spent money to send a telegram back to Danzhou to arrange for the transfer of personnel and teaching materials. Fortunately, he had made corresponding plans before setting off, otherwise he would have to rely on this pay-per-word telegram to explain things clearly, which would really result in bloodshed. Even so, this expense was considered a huge sum of money for Zhang Jinbao. After completing the formalities, holding the receipt was painful.
However, before he could walk out of the gate of the Guangdong Office after finishing this matter, someone stopped him and asked him to go to the backyard to talk to the principal.
Zhang Jinbao was not nervous at all. This was where Haihan had the final say in the Guangdong Guangdong Office. He believed that the person who wanted to see him would not harm him, so he followed the person to a secluded courtyard at the back.
The man took Zhang Jinbao to a study room. Sitting behind a desk across from him was Chen Tianqi, the head of the Guangdong Office, whom Zhang Jinbao had only met a few days ago.
Chen Tianqi asked Zhang Jinbao to sit down and asked his men to serve tea. Zhang Jinbao felt even more relaxed when he saw this, knowing that the other party probably wanted to ask him something.
"I just heard that Dean Zhang came here to send a telegram back to Danzhou. Is the matter of setting up the academy settled?" Chen Tianqi didn't greet him much and went straight to the topic.
Zhang Jinbao responded respectfully: "Thank you, Mr. Chen, for your concern. I have already agreed on cooperation matters with Mr. Li San from Furifeng, so I came to the Guangdong Office to send a telegram and asked Danzhou to send the second batch of people as soon as possible." Come and prepare for the follow-up matters.”
Zhang Jinbao heard what Chen Tianqi meant, and it was obvious that as soon as he handed over the prepared telegram and fee, someone reported the news to Chen Tianqi who was sitting in the backyard. Chen Tianqi felt it was necessary to ask about the details of the matter, so he was stopped and taken to the study for questioning.
Zhang Jinbao did not expect that Chen Tianqi would be so concerned about the Guangzhou branch. When he met with him a few days ago, the other party only asked a few questions and did not show much interest. At that time, Zhang Jinbao felt that his project would not be able to attract Chen Tianqi's attention, but he never thought that the other party was secretly paying attention to the matter and was called in for questioning as soon as he showed up.
Chen Tianqi said: "Then how to choose the location of the academy?"
Zhang Jinbao knew that the other party was well-informed and did not dare to hide anything. He honestly said that he had inspected many properties in and outside Guangzhou these days, but in the end, a manor offered by the Li family was the most suitable for opening an academy. , so the address was finalized. The next step is to start preparing teaching materials, mobilize teachers from Qiongxi Academy to Guangzhou, and then publicize enrollment, determine the opening date, and implement it step by step.
After hearing this, Chen Tianqi nodded and said, "Dean Zhang is indeed a practical person. He has already handled so many things properly in just a few days since he came to Guangzhou."
Zhang Jinbao hurriedly said modestly: "It is only thanks to the care of all the adults, and Fu Ruifeng helped a lot, that this matter can go so smoothly."
Chen Tianqi said: "Dean Zhang thinks there is anything else that the Guangdong Office can help with. It doesn't hurt to speak out. As long as it is within my ability, I will try my best to arrange it."
Zhang Jinbao didn't know the reason for Chen Tianqi's change in attitude, but he thought it was definitely not his fault. He quickly thanked Chen Tianqi for his concern and said that he would try his best to do what he should do first. If there is really a need, When asking for official help, I will definitely come to the Guangdong Office again to bother me.
Chen Tianqi was very satisfied with Zhang Jinbao's informed and interesting response, and now said that when the Guangzhou branch is established, he will personally come to support the academy. Zhang Jinbao was flattered and quickly thanked Chen Tianqi again.
When Zhang Jinbao left, he still didn't know why Chen Tianqi's attitude became so enthusiastic, but in fact it was just because Chen Tianqi had just received an official document from Sanya yesterday about the work arrangements of the Guangdong Office in the next year. One of the key tasks requested by the Executive Committee is for the Guangdong Office in Guangdong to further increase the efforts to introduce professional talents from the Ming Dynasty, mainly referring to skilled craftsmen from all walks of life. We can further relax the restrictions for these people to go overseas. The conditions for settling in areas under Han rule include retaining the right to choose whether to join Hai-Han nationality, and providing better settlement conditions in terms of living conditions, etc.
In fact, the Executive Committee's requirements for introducing talents are not just raised this year, but are a repertoire that is mentioned every year. Although the Executive Committee will not set any specific requirements for the successful introduction of professional personnel, it is obviously necessary to at least ensure that performance will not decline compared with the previous year, and this is already considered a very important task for an organization like the Guangdong Office. A heavy task.
The total number of folk craftsmen in Guangzhou is limited. Considering that the training cycle of traditional skills is generally very long, the speed at which new blood is produced in these trades may not be as fast as Haihan's poaching. It is not easy to achieve increasing results year after year in this task. Although Chen Tianqi is quite capable, he still has to deal with headaches every year to complete this task.
According to the traditional approach, the only way to poach people is to give them preferential treatment, but nowadays there are fewer and fewer skilled craftsmen every year, and the number of people poached by this method alone is not as good as the previous one.
However, the appearance of Zhang Jinbao gave Chen Tianqi a new idea. He believes that the teaching model of Qiongxi Academy can allow local students in Guangzhou to gradually yearn for Haihan while learning production skills. By persuading these people to settle or further study in Haihan after receiving corresponding courses, the probability of success will be Obviously it will be much higher than that of ordinary civilians.
Chen Tianqi's thoughts were actually similar to those of other senior officials from Haihan who knew about the opening of a branch of Qiongxi Academy. Most people believed that the opening of this academy would help Haihan's cultural export and personnel introduction. However, the executive committee did not directly communicate its views on this aspect to him, so Chen Tianqi thought of this section much later than the one in Sanya.
The Executive Committee is also very concerned about the development of this matter as to whether social school-running forces can gain a foothold overseas. The school-running plan of Qiongxi College can be regarded as an experiment in the eyes of senior officials. If it fails, there will be no loss for the official, but if it succeeds, That would certainly pay dividends in the long term for Heihan.
Therefore, although the Executive Committee did not ask the Guangdong Office to give Zhang Jinbao special treatment in this project, after Chen Tianqi realized the significance of this matter to Haihan, he decided to give Qiongxi Academy certain treatment within his scope of authority. support. He summoned Zhang Jinbao for an interview. Firstly, he wanted to confirm whether the other party had the intention to serve the country. Secondly, he wanted to make the other party clear about his attitude. In the future, he would try to cooperate with the official requirements, especially the demand for talent training, and he must give priority to supplying his own country.
In this way, Zhang Jinbao muddle-headedly obtained the support from the person in charge of the Guangdong Office. Now with the double backers of the Furifeng Li family and the Haihan Office in Guangdong, the issue of Qiongxi Academy opening a branch in Guangzhou was already certain to be successful. It increased suddenly.
"Last year, the fortune teller said that I would have good luck in the coming year, that everything would go well, and that I would have a big breakthrough in my career. It seems that it was indeed true!" Zhang Jinbao was so excited that he didn't care whether the fortune teller he was looking for said it casually. His auspicious words are easy to appreciate, and I just feel that everything I have encountered in Guangzhou this time has gone smoothly, and it is probably the time for me to become prosperous.
Compared with Zhang Jinbao, who had smooth sailing, Zheng Zha, who also came to Guangzhou to expand his career, did not have such smooth sailing. Although the connections he asked for in Guangzhou all agreed and were willing to help, in actual operation, he found that it was not as smooth as he expected.
The first thing Zheng Zha encountered was the problem of land acquisition. The area Zheng Zha was interested in was not far from the Liaison Office in Guangdong. It was indeed the property of the Li family in name, but in reality it was not an empty land, but had some houses and shops built there. . If Zheng Zha wants to build the Annan Guild Hall here, he must first demolish the existing buildings on the land.
Usually in this case, you just need to pay some money to buy these houses, but this process is not smooth. According to the reported information, some of the owners of these houses actually have government backgrounds. This is not something you can just give away some money. situation.
As Zheng Zha, he naturally cannot handle these matters personally. He can only continue to entrust the Li family to communicate with these homeowners on their behalf and win these properties under suitable conditions.
While Li Nai agreed to the matter, he also explained the inconvenience to Zheng Zha. The Li family bought these lands but kept the properties here because these homeowners with backgrounds were not easy to deal with. If we want to persuade them one by one to accept the purchase price proposed by Zheng Zha, it will take more time to handle it properly-this time may be three to five months, or it may be longer.
Zheng Zha was naturally unhappy when he heard such a response. He felt that it was because the Li family had not explained the situation of these places to him in detail before, and now that the place had been decided to start construction, these inexplicable questions popped up. But he chose the place himself, and now the Li family still needs to mediate, so he can only keep this complaint in his heart.
But what Zheng Zha didn't know was that as long as the Li family said something, these houses could be moved cleanly within seven days. The so-called landlord causing trouble was actually nothing more than a double act arranged by the Li family. The purpose of this is to delay the Annan people so that the Annan guild hall planned by Zheng Zha will not appear in Guangzhou so soon. The unknowing Zheng Zha would inevitably owe the Li family a favor due to these mediation efforts in the process, and more than half of the extra money spent would flow into the Li family's pockets.
When it comes to calculating people in business, it is estimated that ten Zheng Zha are not as good as one Li Jifeng. The dual identity of the old fox and the local snake allows Li Jifeng to easily scheme against Zheng Zha, but Zheng Zha can only play the role of being sold and returning. A hapless character who helps count money.
Of course, this drama will not go on endlessly. Perhaps after a year and a half, when Zheng Zha gradually loses patience with this project, Furifeng and the Office in Guangzhou will join forces. He advised Zheng Zha to move the Annan Guild Hall southward to near Lijiazhuang on the lower reaches of the Pearl River, or simply locate it in Hong Kong.
As long as they do not directly compete with Furifeng and Haihan Office in Guangzhou, Li Jifeng and Chen Tianqi would not mind the existence of an organization like the Annan Association. However, Zheng Zao was good at diplomacy and was not good at understanding the conflicts of interest hidden under trade relations. After arriving in Guangzhou, he did not realize that he had been plotted. It was difficult for the so-called Annan Hall plan to be implemented as he thought.
In late September, starting from the Hong Kong Pier at the Pearl River Estuary to the Pearl River Pier outside Guangzhou, almost all the terminal warehouses under the name of Fulifeng had advertising signs for Qiongxi Academy in the most conspicuous places, and the terminals Admission notices for the Guangzhou branch are posted everywhere on the Internet, and a large-scale publicity campaign has been launched quietly.
(End of chapter)