Chapter 2681
This Fengxiao has a slim figure, clear features, fair complexion, and is wearing a long green gown. She does not look like a businessman, but more like a scholar. However, during the conversation, the unique shrewdness of businessmen was still faintly revealed.
Fu Guoqing had introduced Zhang Fengchu's identity and background to the mission before he came. Speaking of which, this person was not unrelated to Haihan. His father-in-law was Dai Yingda, a Yangzhou salt merchant. Dai Chengrong, commander of the Second Regiment of the 7th Army Division, whom everyone had dealt with in Hangzhou, was Zhang Fengchu's brother-in-law. The Dai family also became a representative figure of Yangzhou salt merchants because they took refuge in Haihan early on. Today, they are still one of the major salt merchants officially certified by Haihan.
The Dai family has always been prosperous, and in the past ten years, it has used Haihan's channels to spread its branches in overseas countries. Even though Shi Chengwu often met Dai Chengrong in Hangzhou, he didn't know that he still had such a brother-in-law working in Busan, North Korea. Buy and sell.
With the financial resources of the Dai family, it would certainly not be too difficult to invest in and operate some industries in Busan. It is said that Zhang Fengchu married into the Dai family, and his ability to become the president of the Chamber of Commerce here probably benefited from the support provided by the Dai family.
As everyone sat down at the table, there was inevitably a drinking session. After drinking for three rounds, Shi Chengwu took the initiative to ask Zhang Fengchu about his local business situation.
In Shi Chengwu's view, since Zhang Fengchu is the president of the Chamber of Commerce, the information he can provide may be representative to a certain extent. As for the solution envisaged by the mission, it also needs to communicate with prominent figures like Zhang Fengchu and seek opinions first.
Although the Dongfeng Building where the banquet was held is owned by Zhang Fengchu, catering is not actually his main business. Zhang Fengchu still chose her own traditional industries with certain advantages, salt and shipping.
Since the salt farms built by Haihan in Shipu, Xiangshan and other places in Zhejiang were put into operation, locally produced refined salt has been trafficked to North Korea through Dinghai Port in Zhoushan, and Busan Port is naturally one of the destinations. Later, the Huizhou salt merchants in Yangzhou realized the general trend and chose to cooperate with Haihan and became the distributor of Haihan Salt Farm.
Naturally, such a large overseas market as North Korea will not be ignored. Under the operation of salt merchants, the amount of Haihan refined salt entering the North Korean market from Busan Port has also increased significantly. These low-priced and high-quality refined salts quickly defeated the local coarse salt on the market and occupied most of the market share.
However, Haihan later formed an alliance with North Korea and promoted industrial cooperation, building a large salt farm at the mouth of the Datong River in the north. In this way, North Korean officials could continue to control the country's salt production capacity, and the "private salt" imported by Haihan into North Korea was also Subsequently, it was officially controlled so as not to affect the official salt’s income.
The salt merchants reacted quickly. Since the private salt road was blocked, they tried to find a way to turn private salt into official salt. So the Dai family came forward to mediate on behalf of the Yangzhou salt merchants and funded the construction of salt farms in Busan. Except for a small part of the salt produced that was sold to Japanese businessmen and exported to Japan, most of it was provided to the government for purchase, and then the government channels for distribution.
In this way, although the salt farm is privately operated by Haihan salt merchants, the salt produced has successfully acquired the status of official salt. The official price of salt supplied by the salt farm to North Korea will of course be lower than the previous price, but because it is produced locally, the freight and labor costs are also lower than Haihan's domestic supply, so the operating profit is not much different from before. .
Zhang Fengchu is the son-in-law of the Dai family, but the salt industry he operates in Busan is not entirely the property of the Dai family. The actual controller behind it is the entire Yangzhou Salt Merchant Group. With such a strong backing, it naturally has great advantages in salt industry operations. Although some people in North Korea are jealous of this industry, its competitiveness is far from being comparable to that of Yangzhou salt merchants in terms of liquidity, production technology, and business scale.
Relying on the industrial moat formed by these advantages, Zhang Fengchu operates several salt farms in the surrounding areas of Busan that are doing well and provide a large number of employment opportunities for local people. As far as the current situation is concerned, no competitor has emerged that can really affect its market position. As for shipping, another advantageous industry operated by Zhang Fengchu, it is an emerging industry that has only developed due to the demand for overseas deployment after the Dai family began to move out of Yangzhou in the past ten years.
Although it started much later than those orthodox shipping lines, with its strong economic strength, the Dai family established its own shipping fleet in a short period of time. And precisely because the Dai family has many industrial layouts overseas, the resulting shipping demand is enough to provide its own fleet with a steady stream of transportation tasks.
The gradual prosperity of Busan Port in recent years has also generated a large amount of shipping demand. Zhang Fengchu sized up the situation and established fixed routes from Busan to Seoul, Zhoushan Dinghai Port, Japan's Sasebo Port, Taiwan's Jilong Port and other places. After several years of operation, the business situation here in Busan has become comparable to that of some old Haihan shipping companies.
After accumulating enough resources in Busan, Zhang Fengchu also began to gradually get involved in other industries, such as restaurants, inns and other service industries, which are areas that have only begun to test local waters in the past two years.
"The chefs in this restaurant are all Haihan nationals who have received orthodox cooking training. Various seasonings and some ingredients are also shipped from China to ensure the authentic Haihan flavor. If you are satisfied with your meal today, The villain is happy to provide catering for the mission during their stay in Busan.”
Zhang Fengchu was very confident in the quality of her restaurant, so she started promoting it on the spot.
"President Zhang, you have been here for a long time, what do you think of the local public security situation in Busan?" Shi Chengwu did not respond to his promotion, and instead asked about topics that he was interested in.
Zhang Fengchu glanced at Fu Guoqing, who was sitting next to him, and responded cautiously: "Sir, this harbor area is inevitably filled with people of all religions and nine streams. In addition, the local government's capabilities are limited, and the public security situation cannot be compared with that of our country."
Shi Chengwu nodded slightly and said, "How did President Zhang respond?"
Zhang Fengchu responded: "The properties under the villain's name are always guarded by golden shields. If something happens, they will take action to solve it. The villain only needs to be responsible for the aftermath. Or maybe it is luck. In the past few years in Busan, the villain has... I haven’t run into any big trouble.”
Shi Chengwu suddenly felt that he might have chosen the wrong person to investigate. With Zhang Fengchu's identity and background, how could an ordinary villain dare to look for trouble and provoke him. The Golden Shield Transporter has an owner like Zhang Fengchu, so he will definitely not hold back when trouble comes. Even if someone loses his life, Zhang Fengchu will pay for the aftermath.
(End of chapter)