It may be said that the year is not good, but with the construction of the Fujian-Guangdong Maritime Giant Canal by Zheng Zhilong, there are still piracy activities outside the Fujiang Estuary, and the situation in Guangzhou has eased much. [No pop-up novel website] At the end of the year, Guangzhou, the largest city in the southeast, is bustling again.
Guangdong has always had warm soil and warm weather. Although China was in the Little Ice Age at this time and even Leizhou had snowed, coldness was not the norm south of the Five Ridges. As soon as the cold wave passed, the earth's atmosphere continued to warm up, and the earth was already an early spring scene with lush flowers. From wealthy families to well-off families, this New Year is still spent in joy. Starting from New Year's Eve, the city is filled with firecrackers, which become even more dense at the fifth watch of New Year's Day.
However, last year, Fujian suffered from consecutive years of famine, and Guangdong was also greatly affected. Foreign famine victims and local hungry people gathered on the wasteland near several temples with soup kitchens. Hungry people begging for food were pouring into the streets every day. The cry of hunger is endless. Fortunately, the weather is mild, and no bones have been frozen to death. However, when the weather is warm, various diseases have become a lifeline in places where the extremely poor population is concentrated. Every day, Baojia is carried from everywhere to the killing field outside the city. However, this situation is not unique to this year. Everyone is accustomed to it, so it does not hinder the prosperity of this city, let alone the new life of high officials, country officials and wealthy families.
After Xinzheng, there is the annual lantern market. Chengxuan Street is about three or four miles long from the south gate, and several streets along the road are full of lantern markets. As usual, the lantern market starts on the 14th day of the first lunar month every year and ends on the 16th day. It is a market during the day and you can watch the lanterns at night. In the lamp market, merchants from all over the world gathered, taking advantage of the opportunity to sell various goods. Day and night, there is a constant flow of people shouting and calling like a boiling pot. Many nearby streets and alleys become lively during the lantern market. At night, various lanterns are hung in front of each shop, including those made of beads, embroidered silk, five-color gauze, and Ming Dynasty. Corner, paper, wheat orange and grass. There are even extremely rare Western glass lamps and Australian film lamps. This kind of Australian film lamps only appeared on the market last year. The material is slightly transparent, light and soft, and the colors are bright and eye-catching. They have become the new favorite of local dignitaries and wealthy businessmen.
Especially precious lanterns are hung on colorful buildings on the street for people to watch from a distance. The colorful buildings on these streets face each other from north to south, with red doors and embroidered doors and carved beams. Most of the people with curtains upstairs were local high-ranking officials and the families of the gentry. The rental price for each colorful building was dozens of taels of silver per night.
The colored lanterns stay on all night long, so you can admire the lanterns and set off fireworks all night long. The fireworks are also diverse and amazing. Various bands performed sideshows and played all night long. In addition, here and there, dragon dance troupes and lion dancers arrived late at dawn, and men and women crowded all night long, and there was a sea of people.
The fourteenth day of the first lunar month is the second day when the lantern market enters the tide. That morning, there was a good-looking, middle-aged man who was close to old age. He had a sparse and thick beard. He was wearing a half-worn round-neck silk robe and a square scarf. There was a bit of gloom in his eyebrows. He rode a donkey from the West City to the East City. He got off the donkey in front of Zizhen's gate on Huifu Street, opened his wallet and walked slowly in.
This middle-aged businessman-like man, whose real name is Shen Fan, has been an apprentice in a famous jewelry shop in Guangzhou since he was twelve years old. He has worked hard for more than twenty years to become the head shopkeeper. After working in this industry for a lifetime, I just resigned from my employer. It's time to go back to the countryside to buy some land and enjoy some family happiness. Unexpectedly, something unexpected happened, and my only beloved grandson suffered from an unknown disease. I spent all my savings to consult famous doctors, and all they got was: cold to the bone, and there is no cure.
For Mr. Shen, this was like a bolt from the blue. He had a very difficult time raising children. He only had one son, who died long ago. This grandson was all his sustenance and hope, but now his life was hanging by a thread. It simply made him despair.
And somehow, the news of his grandson's illness was actually known to shopkeeper Sun Kecheng. Shopkeeper Sun is quite familiar with the jewelry and toys business because of his business relationship with the Escort Agency. , a young man who called himself Guo Yi appeared in front of him after his introduction, claiming that he could save his beloved grandson's life on the condition that he would serve as the shopkeeper of Zizhen, which was about to be established. For Shen Fan, who has a good reputation, joining another family is a taboo in the industry. However, he has already retired and has no connection with his original employer. If he leaves the company and seeks another career, it will be nothing more than material arguments from his colleagues behind his back. . Although this young man looks strange, he looks good and behaves well. He should not be a robber. Although I felt a little strange, I agreed at the time. After all, compared to the life of his grandson, what does his false reputation mean? So he treated a dead horse as a living horse and allowed Guo Yi to use medicine on his grandson. However, a miracle did happen. After swallowing some mysterious white pills with water according to the method given by Guo Yi for several consecutive days, his grandson's condition improved significantly. Overwhelmed with surprise, he asked a doctor to check his grandson's pulse, and was told that he was fine and just needed to rest. According to the agreement, as soon as the lantern market fell, Shen Fan fulfilled the agreement and officially joined Zizhen's family.
But this Zizhen is also weird. Shopkeeper Shen got some information from his peers. Said this shop has been open for less than a month. It seems to specialize in the sale of residential land. The store has strict access control. Everyone doesn't know much about the joints. Some colleagues advised him. The owner of this store has a close relationship with the Gao family. I'm afraid it's not a serious origin. It is not known which company is behind the trouble.
Such a thing. This made Shopkeeper Shen murmur in his heart. But then I thought about Sun Kecheng, who has always been known for his maturity and reliability. He would never introduce his employer to him randomly. So I decided to go to the Qiwei Escort Bureau first and take a look at the underground of the new owner.
Sun Kecheng didn't shy away from it. He told everything about Guo Yi's origins. Nothing more than an Australian maritime trader. I have some strange items in my hands. Thinking of coming to Ming Dynasty to develop and make money. As for what rare items there are. Shen Fan knew without asking: the various Australian exotic goods sold in the Gao family's shop were probably produced by Guo Yi. This was really beyond his expectation. At first I thought he was a wealthy man from another province. Think of Guangzhou, a geomantic treasure land, to earn a vote. It turns out that there are really some good things in hand. Shopkeeper Shen knows that the so-called Australian products are not only extremely exquisite. And it is almost impossible for outsiders to imitate it.
His original employer once invited him back to study various Australian exotic goods on the market. All the skilled craftsmen in the jewelry store say so. If only to imitate the appearance and structure. It can be done pretty well. It's just that some of the materials are unknown.
Shen Fan originally had no problem with being the shopkeeper of Zizhen. I know they are the place where Australian goods flow out. He has been curious about rare treasures all his life.
The matter of becoming the shopkeeper was settled. These days I am busy with house visits. Initial business relationship with Zizhendi was established.
When the two boys in front of the door saw the shopkeeper coming, they hurriedly threw away their brooms and came over to greet him and help him.
"Is the proprietor here?"
"I'm talking to the mighty shopkeeper Sun in the accounting room at the back." A young boy inside answered respectfully. This is the eldest son of Guo Dong's family, and he is very smart. Shen Fan knew that Gao Di's family were all working as servants in the mansion, and they were so-called close family members. Although he was just a young boy, he was very popular with Guo Dong's family in private, and he was responsible for the liaison with the Qiwei Escort Agency.
In fact, Gao Di is not just being reused right now. Shen Fan never dreamed that a young man who still looked like a child would now be one of Guo Yi's main eyes and ears.
During the time that Wen Desi was away, in addition to practicing martial arts in the escort agency and collecting the market prices of various goods as usual every day, he also continued to collect information about Gao Ji's family through a small group of friends he had met while playing at the Gao family in the past. He is quite scheming and knows that Shopkeeper Wen and the Gao family are very different from each other and are on guard against each other. Later, shopkeeper Xiao came and looked at the materials he collected. Shopkeeper Xiao smiled and said nothing, making no comment, but the reward made him happy for several days, not because of the money but because his work was recognized.
After Shopkeeper Xiao left, Shopkeepers Guo Gao Qing and Gao Fian came. They were puzzled by the frequent replacements of Australian maritime merchants and were a little uncomfortable with them. However, Gao Di understood to some extent that Shopkeeper Wen and this Australian were not the same. They are a group of people, and Shopkeeper Wen and Shopkeeper Xiao are just the leaders. Their family's slaves are not the minions of the Australians.
For this reason, he became more active. Under Guo Yi's instructions, Gao Di continued intelligence activities in addition to being a waiter and learning how to handle the work in the shop. He now has three or four subordinates from his former childhood friends, each of whom can get two hundred silver from him every month. This money comes from the previous activity of Wen Desi giving him one tael of silver every month. expenses. Guo Yi believes that an intelligence chief must not only be good at collecting intelligence, but also have good management capabilities, including managing his staff and finances. Therefore, Gao Di will not be given more fees.
Facts have proved that Gao Di, who is only fifteen after the Chinese New Year, is quite talented in some things. Now not only does Guo Yi know everything about the Gao family's actions, but Guo Yi can also promptly report on the discussions in Haopan Street and even the streets of Guangzhou City. Know.
Yi's next goal is to establish a rudimentary intelligence and trade network throughout Guangdong Province, and currently he relies on the Qiwei Escort Bureau. Under his planning and financial support, Shopkeeper Sun expanded the scale of the Qiwei Escort Bureau and established various industries at major waterfronts, traffic arteries and commodity distribution centers across the province. He acquired farms, opened inns, and drove cars. OK. Sun Kecheng was both happy and worried at the same time. He was happy that the countryside was now in ruins and his disciples, disciples, and fellow villagers could not survive in the countryside. There were many people who defected to him. Shopkeeper Guo asked him to build a large foreign cabinet, which solved the problem of these people's meals. The problem is that he has never seen anyone doing business like this. He didn't even know if the first store would make money, but the second and third stores were opened one after another. Moreover, with this momentum, he was afraid that all of Guangdong would have to open the store. The money spent made him tremble with fear. Just looking at the layout of Leizhou, A thousand taels of silver were spent before and after, and shopkeeper Guo repeatedly ordered: buy more land, farms and mills, buy as much as you can, even if shopkeeper Wen's family has gold and silver, it is not enough.
He had been muttering in his mind for several days. As soon as the New Year was over, he was anxious to discuss with Guo Yi whether to slow down the pace of expansion.
Shen Fan walked through the front yard and main hall, and passed through a moon cave door guarded by bodyguards. Inside is a fresh and elegant courtyard. There are three main rooms in the courtyard, which are Zizhen's accounting rooms. The long windows were all open, and Dongzhu Guo and shopkeeper Sun were talking among them. Sun Kecheng had a sad face, but he nodded again and again. Shen Fan, who had been a waiter for more than 20 years, slowed down and coughed lightly.
When Boss Guo saw him coming, he got busy to greet him. Shopkeeper Sun also got up and said goodbye when he saw him coming back.
Shen Fan reported to him one by one the status of his visits to customers and colleagues in the past few days. Logically speaking, there is no need to report such business issues to the owner, but Zizhen is very different from other stores. First, Shen Fan still doesn't know what the store plans to sell. The only thing he could do was to go around visiting big businesses in the city with the store's name cards and brochures.
"Proprietor, this is the list of people I want to visit Qi Zhe." Shen Fan took out a zhe from his sleeve and handed it to Guo Yi. Guo Yi has now completely transformed into the Ming Dynasty style, even wearing a bun.
After opening the folding book, on the plum red paper, there were many names written in regular small letters in column after column, and there were notes in small characters next to them, such as the proprietor of Baixianlou, the staff of the Governor's Yamen, the shopkeeper of Chen Ji Liangzhan, Gong Xingdian's boss, Zhao Jinshi from Panyu, and the Ma Xiang eunuch from Nanhai... are either rich or noble, or they are the housekeeper of a wealthy family, the concubine of a high official, and the like. At a quick glance, there are as many as ten families.
"So many?" Guo Yi was a little surprised, because Shen Fan had told him that most of the families he was planning to post to were among the biggest families in the city. The amount of money spent on jewelry and toys every year ranges from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands or hundreds of thousands.
"Back to the proprietor, these are the biggest big ones, and there are some smaller ones that I haven't visited yet." Here Colgate brought tea and hand towels. Shen Fan took off his hat and wiped the sweat from his forehead, "That's all for the past few days. There is just one thing that I need to ask for permission from my boss."
"Say it."
"What the owner sells are all priceless treasures and toys. With so many large businesses at the same time, is there any problem with capital turnover?"
Since Zizhen is in the house business. Just follow the practice of home business. According to the rules, wealthy families like this don’t pay cash when buying jewelry. They just get a discount in the jewelry store. If you like what you like, you can register and stamp it on the discount and then you can pick up the goods. Checkout takes place during the Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and New Year's Eve every year.
As a result, the cost requirements for the store are very high. Jewelry and toys are no better than others, and they cost thousands of dollars. Even if you have a lot of capital, it is difficult to have so many customers at the same time. Shen Fan was afraid that the overseas people did not understand the key and would be greedy for more and seek greater success, which would lead to total failure in the future.
