Chapter 2297
The cooperative relationship between Haihan and Furifeng in the business field can no longer be simply described as close. At this stage, the two parties can almost be said to have a symbiotic relationship. Furifeng's success in recent years is inseparable from the rapid rise of Haihan. Overseas operations are completely dependent on the support provided by Haihan; and the business miracle created by Haihan is also because it opened the market in Ming Dynasty through Fulifeng at the beginning and obtained various resources needed for development. Even though the objects and regions where both parties carry out trade activities have developed greatly compared with before, they are still one of each other's most important partners.
It is precisely because of this special relationship that when Haihan and Furifeng took joint actions, it was not just in the business field. Zheng Zha's intention to come to Guangzhou was killed in the preparation stage by their joint efforts.
Haihan and Furifeng didn't even fully understand why the other was so resistant to the Annan people's intentions, but they had the same purpose, so they worked together to stumbling on Zheng Zha's plan to open an Annan guild hall in Guangzhou. Had to put it on hold temporarily.
As for the Haihan Project, which also opened an operating agency in Guangzhou, the treatment is completely different. Qiongxi Academy is probably the fastest project to be launched in Guangzhou in history. It only took about a month to complete a series of preparatory work such as venue, personnel, materials, official procedures and preliminary publicity. Such work Even in Haihan, the efficiency is already quite high.
Zhang Jinbao is of course very satisfied with this. The smooth progress of this project was completely beyond his expectation, and most of the problems that he worried about beforehand did not arise at all. Of course, he also understood that such success was all due to the strong support provided by Fulifeng, so he also worked extra hard in the preparatory work to put the Guangzhou branch into operation in a better state.
Zhang Jinbao knew very well the reason why Li Nai was willing to invest resources to help him succeed. In addition to being optimistic about the development prospects of Qiongxi Academy, there was also his ability to do practical things. From the verbal plan during the first negotiation in Sanya, to the subsequent on-site visit to Qiongxi Academy to demonstrate the feasibility of the project, to the actual actions after coming to Guangzhou, every step Zhang Jinbao took won Li Nai's appreciation and recognition. will receive various resources provided by it.
Three days before the start of the semester, all 300 enrollment places have been filled up, and some students who are far away from the academy have already stayed in inns outside Guangzhou in advance. Just because time was too tight, Zhang Jinbao had no time to prepare uniforms for these new students. The scene of the opening ceremony would inevitably be less impressive, which made him slightly regretful.
However, because the number of academy teachers is small, they only need to make clothes for a few newly hired people, so all teacher uniforms have been distributed.
In addition, there are nearly a hundred people who cannot pay the fees required for enrollment because of their poor family backgrounds, and cannot go through the enrollment procedures immediately after registering. Of course, they are not out of luck with Qiongxi Academy. They can choose the study abroad program for poor students provided by the academy and move to Danzhou to study at the academy headquarters. All expenses during the period will be borne by the academy first, and will be repaid in installments through work-study programs.
If you don’t want to travel across the ocean to study in Danzhou, you can also choose to wait for the second phase of the Guangzhou branch’s enrollment expansion. In view of the popularity of the first batch of enrollment, Zhang Jinbao has decided to immediately start building additional buildings on the periphery of the existing branch to accommodate more students. After the new student dormitories are built, arrangements can be made for the implementation of the second phase of the enrollment plan.
However, this expansion plan cannot be accomplished overnight, and the increase in the number of students means that the demand for supporting living facilities, teachers, and teaching materials will also increase greatly. These problems will take time to solve.
Zhang Jinbao estimated that it would take about three months to sort out these problems, and this was the approximate time he had previously estimated that the preparation period for the Guangzhou branch would take. However, because the Li family provided a ready-made manor, there was no need for the academy to buy land on its own. Building a house, so the preparation time is also greatly shortened, and subsequent expansion of enrollment will not be such a bargain.
Of course, with Fulifeng's help, it may not take as long as three months to expand the branch's student dormitories and supporting living facilities. However, considering that the living environment of local students is still somewhat different from that of Haihan, Zhang Jinbao is still a little worried that some problems that have not been encountered before will arise in the teaching process, and three months is enough for the college to discover the problems and take measures. It is easy to deal with it. To be on the safe side, wait until there are no major problems after three months before recruiting the next batch of students.
Li Nai also agreed with this. In addition to the reasons mentioned by Zhang Jinbao, he also needed more time to observe the operation of Qiongxi Academy to decide whether to continue to invest more resources in the academy.
After Li Nai returned to Guangzhou, he had talked with Li Jifeng several times about the joint school project, and his ideas were clearer than at the beginning. If he was initially interested in this project because he thought Jonesy College could cultivate the professional talents needed for Fulifeng, then after discussing it with his father, he realized that this project could do more than that.
Fulifeng's involvement in the cultural and educational industry will not only enhance the Li family's reputation in Guangdong, but will also enhance the industries it operates.
All kinds of high-end stationery, books, etc. currently exported by Haihan to Guangdong are all represented by Fulifeng. If Qiongxi Academy can gain a certain reputation in Guangzhou, it will become a living advertisement with a little publicity and processing, and the sales of these cultural products represented by Fulifeng will inevitably increase accordingly.
Every year, the turnover of various Haihan cultural products sold to Ming Dynasty by Furifeng can reach tens of thousands of taels. When the provincial examination competition is held every three years, the sales volume will increase greatly. The profit of this type of goods is quite high, with the gross profit at least around 30% to 40%. If Qiongxi Academy's ability to carry goods can increase sales to a higher level, then the profit brought to Fulifeng from the field of cultural goods alone will also be It is quite considerable. Perhaps in just two or three years, the profit will be enough to build another manor similar to the Guangzhou branch.
Therefore, using a high-quality manor as a school venue would be a huge one-time investment for Furifeng, but in the long run it would still be a profitable business. As for the calculation in between, Li Nai was not as thorough as Li Jifeng at the beginning.
The time finally came for the opening day of the academy in late October. Furifeng specially prepared a huge motorcade to transport the guests attending the ceremony from Guangzhou City to the location of the academy at the southern foot of Baiyun Mountain. Along with these gentry and celebrities, in addition to their servants, there were also a large number of people who flocked to the academy to watch the excitement.
For ordinary people, the academy is not actually a place suitable for watching the excitement. However, the newly opened academy seems to be anti-traditional in every aspect. The time for the opening ceremony was announced early in the previous publicity notice. and location, and encouraged and welcomed the public to attend the opening ceremony of the college, and seemed not to worry at all that doing so would cause the college to lose its tranquility.
The number of students and their families attending the opening ceremony, plus the college faculty and staff, helpers sent by Fulifeng, and security personnel to maintain order, totaled six to seven hundred people. There were hundreds of guests and servants invited by the Guangdong Office of Furifeng and Haihan to watch the ceremony. Together with the people in the academy, there were more than a thousand people. Even if there were no onlookers, it was already quite lively.
However, the number of people who came to watch the excitement was several times greater than those who participated in the opening ceremony. Many people were very curious about Qiongxi Academy, which has a Haihan background, and wanted to know how Haihan Academy operates and what content it teaches. , will cultivate so many top-notch people in all walks of life. Although many local scholars in Guangzhou would not sign up to study at this strange academy, their curiosity was aroused by its early publicity activities. They made appointments to watch the opening ceremony of Qiongxi Academy as a way to see it. It's an outing.
Of course, Zhang Jinbao and Li Nai were very busy. They stood at the entrance of the academy to greet the guests, allowing the invited guests to go in and rest first. When the ceremony started, they went to the venue outside the academy gate to watch the ceremony together.
Most of these invited upper-class people did not come empty-handed, but had prepared various congratulatory gifts, so after accepting the gifts, they had to exchange a few words one by one to show respect.
Zhang Jinbao stood next to Li Nai, listened to him introduce the identity of the visitor, and then thanked him with a smile on his face. Finally taking a chance, Zhang Jinbao rubbed his face that had become stiff with laughter, and whispered to Li Nai: "When I opened the academy in Danzhou, I never thought that it would be like this. Scenery! I really want to thank the Third Young Master for your support!”
Li Nai smiled and said: "Didn't there not be so many guests present when Qiongxi Academy opened?"
Zhang Jinbao said: "To be honest, that's really far off. If such a scene could have happened back then, I would have woken up laughing several times even if I fell asleep!"
When Zhang Jinbao opened Qiongxi Academy in Danzhou, the conditions were indeed far worse than today. At that time, he had no qualifications to invite celebrities to attend, and no money to hold a grand opening ceremony. He simply set up a table and brought a few The teacher and the 30 or 40 students who had finally collected them paid homage to the sages Confucius and Mencius and then counted.
Today, the Guangzhou branch has started school, and there is a lot of traffic and people outside the academy. Zhang Jinbao had visited Guangzhou Fuxue a few days ago, and the government-run academy was far less lively than his own place.
Although the onlookers could not enter the academy to visit, it was still worth discussing outside to see which celebrities were attending the ceremony.
First of all, almost all the leading figures in the local business community were present. This was obviously to maintain a good relationship with Fulifeng. Secondly, several major local families who have good relations with the Li family have also appeared one after another. The marriage relationships between these local wealthy families are complicated, but when good things happen, they must be of the same spirit.
Almost all the famous literati in the local cultural circle were specially picked up by Furifeng's carriage. However, these self-proclaimed celebrities would come out to help outsiders like Qiongxi Academy, which makes people have to guess how many benefits Furifeng secretly gave them before inviting them.
In the government, although big figures such as the prefect and tongzhi were not present, they also sent staff to attend as representatives. These local officials are generally cautious about attending private business activities and will not appear in person. It is already a great honor to have their staff send a congratulatory letter. Of course, as a thank you, Furifeng will definitely express his gratitude, and the staff running the errands will also receive corresponding benefits.
However, the officials in charge of local education affairs, such as Tixueguan, Xuezheng, Discipline, and Instructions, came to the scene one after another. Although Qiongxi Academy has a Haihan background, since it is running a school in Guangzhou, in principle it should accept the supervision of local authorities. Zhang Jinbao had already burned incense for these Bodhisattvas when he went through the formalities before, so he didn't have any resistance to this.
Seeing that the guests had all arrived and the time was almost up, Zhang Jinbao asked the teachers and students of the academy to gather on the pingba outside the gate, and then asked the guests to come out of the temporary lounge in the academy to hold the opening ceremony together.
Zhang Jinbao's original plan for the opening ceremony was very simple, that is, setting out sacrificial incense and candles, placing the Lords of Heaven and Earth, teachers, teachers and sages, and then he and Li Nai would deliver speeches on the theme of encouraging students to learn, and that was almost done.
But Li Nai believes that since so much time has been spent on preparations, it is natural that sufficient efforts should be made. At least several guests with special status should come out to speak a few words, so that the public can fully realize the strength of Qiongxi Academy.
The special guests Li Nai refers to include, in addition to the academic advisor representing the local government, his father Li Jifeng, and Chen Tianqi, the head of the Haihan Liaison Office in Guangdong. Such a lineup of speakers shows that Qiongxi Academy has not only received recognition from the government, but also received support from the private sector and overseas.
Of course Zhang Jinbao would not object to Li Nai's proposal. He was just worried that the influence of Qiongxi Academy was not enough for these big figures to say some explicit good things for the academy during the ceremony. However, Li Nai said that he would coordinate these things and asked Zhang Jinbao to just make good time arrangements.
So after the solemn worship ceremony, Zhang Jinbao first invited Master Tixueguan to lecture the academy and students who were about to start school. He also knew that Li Nai insisted on letting this gentleman speak. On the one hand, he was interested in his official status. On the other hand, the Li family had already paid the appearance fee for his attendance. This money was not just for showing off his face. What is taken away must be put to its fullest use.
This academic advisor surnamed Dong is over seventy years old and it's time for him to retire. However, if he can get such a lucrative job before retiring, he will not let it go easily. Although it is said that the person in charge of Qiongxi Academy is from Haihan, since the Chief Envoy and the Governor-General's Office have not spoken out about this matter, it means that the higher authorities have no intention of resisting Qiongxi Academy. Pockets are not at risk either.
(End of chapter)