The second housekeeper, Zhang Youfeng, can be considered a distant relative of the Zhou family. The time in the Zhou family was even longer than that of shopkeeper Lin. That was when Zhou Wen's grandfather was still alive and worked as a servant in the Zhou family. At that time, the Zhou family was only considered a middle-class family. Later, when Lin Yun's family came, Lin Yun was well-educated and smart, and soon became Zhou Jinghai's right-hand man. Zhang Youfeng was not very literate and his abilities were not very strong, so Zhou Jinghai asked him to manage the inner house.
As a result, for more than ten years, Zhang Youfeng watched the Zhou family rise step by step, becoming one of the largest business houses in Lishi, and building a large mansion. Then he saw that Lin Yun, who was junior to him, had become the big shopkeeper of Fuyuan Company. He lived in a spacious east courtyard, went out with bright clothes and angry horses, and had many shopkeepers and assistants under him.
Zhang Youfeng was just envious and self-pitying at first, but later he couldn't stand his wife Aunt Zhang's nagging and complaining every day, and resentment gradually grew in his heart. He thinks that if Zhou Jinghai hadn't been partial, it would be hard to say that the position of the big shopkeeper was his.
Most people without self-awareness are like this. They don't reflect on their own abilities and cannot see the efforts and hardships behind other people's success. They can only envy, envy, and hate.
But Zhang Youfeng did not dare to show his resentment. Zhou Jinghai's success was not due to luck. It is said that shopping malls are like battlefields. Without the courage to kill and decide, you would not be where you are today. Zhang Youfeng only dared to hide his resentment in his heart, but he still behaved conscientiously.
Just a month ago, a man found Zhang Youfeng. After some bewitchment and persuasion, the demon hidden deep in Zhang Youfeng's heart was completely released.
This person is Li Yifu, the owner of Dashunlai Company, which has the same strength as Fuyuan Company in Lishi County.
Speaking of Dashunlai, it is a time-honored brand among the shops in Lishi County. It is a foundation established by the hard work of three generations of the Li family. In the hands of the current head of the family, Li Yifu, he took advantage of Yan Dashuai's painstaking efforts to develop Shanxi's economy, investing in roads and minerals, and became the boss of the business in Lishi County in one fell swoop.
Later, the rapid rise of Fuyuan Company made Li Yifu feel a little pressure. The so-called peers are enemies, but the competition among Shanxi merchants is still bound by some traditional rules. After all, Shanxi merchants have been developing and growing since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and over hundreds of years some unwritten rules have naturally formed. For example, merchants from Shanxi generally do not engage in vicious competition, price wars, etc. If they encounter merchants from other provinces competing for the market, they must unite to squeeze their opponents.
Originally, there were not many business conflicts between Dashunlai and Fuyuan Company. Dashunlai's main focus in the past ten years has been operating minerals. It has also invested in several mines in Zhongyang County and purchased a large number of Shanxi highway bonds, with a large amount of capital investment. . The market share of mountain goods and local specialties, which were the main products in the past, has gradually shrunk.
Zhou Jinghai saw this opportunity precisely. Fuyuan Company only dealt in mountain products and specialties, especially the large amount of medicinal resources contained in the Luliang Mountains. In the past few years, it has basically occupied all the markets that Dashunlai has withdrawn from, and has even grown stronger. This is also in line with the rules. You quit on your own, not because I forced you.
Li Yifu's original intention was not to completely withdraw from other markets. That was because a large amount of funds were invested in other directions and he had to temporarily reduce the size of the market. He wanted to wait for the mines to start withdrawing funds and then slowly recover the market. Who would have known that Zhou Jinghai found every opportunity and completely occupied the Li family's market in just a few years. Others didn't break the rules, but I was in trouble. From then on, Li Yifu felt a thorn in his heart and secretly hated Zhou Jinghai. You are not giving the boss face.
Last year, when a shopkeeper from Dashun went to Jincheng to hand over goods, he met a merchant from Xuchang. The merchant was carrying a letter from home entrusted by Zhou Wen. He knew that Dashunlai and Fuyuan were both big companies in Lishi County, and he had to temporarily change his route due to something else. He gave the letter to the shopkeeper from Dashun and took it back.
As a result, Zhou Wen's letter naturally fell into the hands of Li Yifu. Of course, he was unwilling to give the letter to Zhou Jinghai and destroyed it privately. As a result, Zhou Jinghai never heard from Zhou Wen and became anxious and sick.
By September, Dashunlai encountered the biggest crisis since starting business - the capital chain was broken!
It turns out that Dashunlai's biggest profitable project is minerals. The iron ore and copper ore from his mine are directly supplied to Taiyuan Arsenal. As a result, the Jin army was defeated in the Central Plains War and Marshal Yan resigned. Before even the payment for the previous few months could be settled, the arsenal announced the suspension of production.
Li Yifu's life was at stake now. If he could not get back hundreds of thousands of yuan in payment, there would be tens of thousands of tons of minerals backlogged in the mines, and it would be difficult to find new sales in such a hurry. Then there was a civil uprising because of the arrears of wages to the mine workers. Workers in a mine collectively made trouble and beat the mine manager to death during the fight. As soon as the leading workers saw that the matter was getting serious, they stopped at nothing. They robbed everything of value in the mine and led the workers up the mountain to become bandits.
It was really a leak in the house and it rained all night. Li Yifu was so anxious that his eyes turned red and he thought hard for many days but still had no solution. At the end of the road, he turned his blood-red eyes to Fuyuan Company, which had strong capital and wealth. Li Yifu is going to break the rules!
Li Yifu's family has been in business for three generations and has considerable influence in Lishi County. His eldest son is the commander of the second-line army of the Jin Army and is stationed in Zhongyang County. Without the support of his son who was the leader of the regiment, he would not have reached out to Zhongyang County to open a mine. The second son is the security captain of Lishi County.
At that time, the security team was actually equivalent to the police station. Only big cities had police stations, while small counties only had security teams.
Li Yifu also had a close relationship with the county magistrate of Lishi County, so he personally went to the magistrate's house with heavy gifts to state the pros and cons.
Mr. County Magistrate, do you think that Fuyuan Company has so much property and such a large family business? But this family is not prosperous. Zhou Jinghai's only son has been kidnapped and sent to Henan to serve as a soldier. The brutal war in the past six months has been in Henan. How can a small soldier come back alive in a battlefield where millions of troops are fighting fiercely? It must have died!
Look at Zhou Jinghai again. He is old and frail, with only one breath left. When you get the news that your son died on the battlefield, why don't you return to the West immediately? That huge family property, those white oceans, and golden gold bars will not be able to take advantage of others?
If God does not take it, you will suffer the consequences. To strike first is to be strong, but to strike later is to suffer disaster. As long as the county magistrate turns a blind eye, I will take care of the rest. When the time comes, those property owners will treat us as...
After getting the county magistrate's tacit approval, Li Yifu approached Zhang Youfeng again...
Now it's better, the county's military and government are all on the same boat, and there are even insiders. So a plan that was not complicated but bloody was born.
