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Zhao Yingong was overjoyed, but he still had to make a good gesture and immediately said that he would not accept the ship charter to calculate the shares. Of course, the four big sand ships and the sailors on them had to risk the storm. Even though Mr. Shen was loyal, he personally could not I had to explain to the Shen family, so I immediately took out six Delong bills worth one thousand taels and expressed my willingness to pay the deposit for the person and ship in cash. [Read the latest chapter] I will take it back if I return safely.
A brand new large sand ship has a carrying capacity of about 4,000 stones, about 500 tons, and a cost of about 1,500 taels. The Shen family's boat cannot be a new boat. Paying the deposit according to the price of the new boat is already full of sincerity.
"You can't do this!" Shen Tingyang waved his hands repeatedly and refused. The two argued for a long time, but Shen Tingyang never accepted the ticket.
"However, I heard that ships going to Japan have to buy flags from Zheng Zhilong. Are you prepared?"
"Brother Ji Ming has already made arrangements for this matter. Brother Ji Ming, there is no need to worry too much." Zhao Yingong said confidently. Zheng Zhilong’s flag? Once the route is cleared, there will be no Zheng Zhilong's command flag.
The drinking lasted until evening, and Zhao Yingong rested in the Shen family home that night. We returned to Shanghai early the next morning.
After returning to Shanghai, Zhao Yingong immediately became busy. Now that we have hooked up with the Shen family, the next step is to focus on operations in Shanghai.
He has reached an agreement with Shen Tingyang, asking him to secretly prepare the ship's sailors. The specific purpose of the ship must be kept secret for the time being - Jiangnan is not Lao Zheng's territory, but there may be his business agent.
Zhao Yingong's temporary office in Shanghai is located in Baodaimen, Shanghai County, also known as Xiaodongmen outside the city. This is the location of the waterway wharf in the Ming Dynasty. The Shanghai headquarters of Qiwei Escort Bureau is located here. The area of the main office is not large, because according to the long-term plan, the future main office will still have to be moved to the Bund by the Huangpu River. This is only used as a transitional place.
Although it is of a transitional nature. But the houses are still very elegantly built. It is a compound that combines modernity and tradition. It's not to look different, it's purely because modern buildings are much better than traditional ones in terms of use effect and space utilization. It is said that the design drawings were created by the living secretary and female disciple of a veteran architect of the General Construction Company. However, all the elders sneered at this - it was just a little trick to raise the value of their secretaries in the future to help them become famous and start a family.
Zhao Yingong originally planned to build a new Qiwei headquarters on the location of the Bund, using this as a starting point to rebuild the Bund. However, after some on-site inspections, we found that development is a bit difficult: the geology here is mostly tidal flats, and because the Huangpu River is connected to the sea, it is greatly affected by tides, with a daily tidal level difference of up to 4 meters. With its current economic strength and the business conditions of this time and space, building a "New Bund" is truly a great leap forward. So in the end he chose to buy land and build a house near the mature Xiaodongmenwai Pier in Shanghai County.
The Shanghai main office still has the traditional Jiangnan large-sized foyer shape. The front yard can park sedan chairs, carriages and horses. There is a large black lacquered plaque hanging on the main door, with the three characters "Qiweizhan" - written by Xu Guangqi through the relationship with the Shanghai Church. Entering the main entrance is another large courtyard, all paved with stone slabs. There are only two golden trees planted in the courtyard. There are three two-story European-style buildings in the courtyard. Below is the office hall, above is the office structure.
The main hall is the Freight Bureau, the east hall is the Civil Information Bureau, and the west hall is the Shanghai office of Delong Bank. It's almost noon. It is the time when there are the most people doing things. Zhao Yingong went directly to the back from the side passage.
In the back yard are rows of warehouses: used to store transshipment goods and letters. Zhao Yingong passed directly through the passage until he entered the courtyard for the third time.
The three-row, two-story office building in the third row houses the "Ren Zihao" of "Hailu" - the back-end department of the Shanghai headquarters of the Qiwei Escort System. Zhao Yingong also has an office here.
Mao Sansheng was waiting in the foyer - he held two positions: the person in charge of the Shanghai main office, and the person in charge of the Shanghai branch of Qiweizhan. In fact, it is one team and two brands. Mao Sansheng single-handedly controls the "Ren Brand" in Jiangnan. He is a very key figure. To this end, both the Political Security Bureau and the Cheka deployed personnel through their respective channels to monitor him and the entire font.
Mao Sansheng didn't know that he was being monitored, but he understood the simple truth that when you hold power, you must express full loyalty. Therefore, since he was appointed as the person in charge of the Shanghai headquarters, he asked someone to move his family members in Jiangxi to Lingao.
He has been busy these days integrating Jiangnan's logistics system - this is a very complicated task that not only takes energy but also takes time. For more than a year, I visited almost all counties and most towns in Jiangnan and northern Zhejiang. As long as there is a navigable ship, he has been to all places. He is dark and thin, and he has initially built a journey from Nanjing to Hangzhou. Relying on the logistics system of inland waterway ships.
This system has now begun to make profits, especially the "Minxin" business. Industry, commerce, and agriculture are prosperous in Jiangnan, Zhejiang, and North China. There were many landowners living in the city, as well as many business practitioners, so there was a great demand for sending letters.
In the past, these letters were sent by ship, with high postage, arbitrary charges, and poor security. And generally it can only be delivered within a short distance, and it cannot be delivered if it is a little further or the route is more complicated. Qiweizhan's Minxin business is operated according to the model of a modern express delivery company, which is not only more efficient, but also has wider coverage. Roughly all towns in southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang can be reached within one week from the date of delivery. In addition, special "express mail" has been launched, which is delivered by dedicated personnel and ships, and the time can be reduced by half.
It is precisely because of this yiti connection that Zhao Yingong can conveniently direct the activities of the Hangzhou Station in various places while conducting activities in Hangzhou, Shanghai and Nanjing.
Zhao Yingong exchanged a few words with Mao Sansheng and asked about the recent business activities of the Shanghai head office. Then he arrived in front of his private office. He has a dedicated office in each cabinet and semi-colon under Hangzhou Station, which is locked on weekdays. Only he has the key.
As soon as he entered the office, Fenghua delivered letters from various places. Rolling orders for his itinerary were sent from the branch office where he was located to branches in various branches under the Hangzhou Station to ensure that all branches knew his whereabouts and could send timely and accurate reports. In this way, he can grasp the situation in various places and give timely instructions at any place. This is crucial for Zhao Yingong who has to carry out multiple tasks at the same time.
The first letter that Zhao Yingong opened was from Hangzhou Station. It was a report written by Fenghua about the silkworm breeding farm of Fenghuang Villa.
After buying the Shen family, Zhao Yingong began experimental sericulture in Wanbi Villa. A sericulture garden was specially opened and the Shen family was responsible for it. Wanbi Villa is mountainous, suitable for planting mulberry trees. Zhao Yingong transported hundreds of high-quality mulberry saplings and a batch of silkworm seeds through the Agricultural Committee to prepare for high-quality sericulture planting and breeding in Hangzhou.
The largest share of Sino-Japanese trade during the Edo period was raw silk. Japan needs 750,000 to 1 million stones of raw silk every year, half of which must be imported. Except for a few for its own use, most of it is made into foreign trade silk and velvet and exported to the Dutch. It is equivalent to a processing industry with both ends outside.
The raw silk that Lingao can provide is not much. Most of the raw silk purchased from the Pearl River Delta through Wanyou and business partners was sold directly to the Dutch and British. Therefore, Zhao Yingong must purchase Zhejiang raw silk locally.
Zhejiang's silk sources are quite abundant. As long as you have money, you can easily get enough raw silk for export. However, Zhao Yingong was not convinced about the quality of native silk - to be precise, he was instigated by Wu Nanhai and Si Kaide. Zhao Yingong actually knew nothing about sericulture and silk weaving, but he did not hesitate to listen. These two people made disparaging comments about domestically produced silk. So as soon as he got Wang Siniang and his daughter in Hangzhou, he immediately started the silkworm seed industry with great ambition.
Although China is the country of origin of sericulture, its sericulture and silk weaving industries fell behind in the Qing Dynasty. Due to neglect of breeding, the silkworm breeds of local silkworms continue to degrade, and the yield and quality of raw silk also continue to deteriorate. In order to expand exports after the Meiji Restoration, Japan spent a lot of energy on silkworm breeding, sericulture guidance, and improvement of silk reeling equipment. As a result, it soon emerged as a new force, taking away the Chinese soil silk that originally occupied a major share in the international market. . And since then, Japan has been in a leading position in sericulture: high output and good quality. So in the 1920s, when people of insight such as Fei Xiaotong hoped to revive domestic silk production, they had to introduce all silkworm breeds, technology and equipment from Japan. Almost all the first batch of professional teachers in the modern sericulture industry were Japanese students.
Japan's advantage in sericulture has been maintained even into the 21st century. Dozens of fine silkworm species brought from old times are bred in the constant temperature and humidity breeding farm of the Silkworm Breeding Farm under the Ministry of Agriculture. Among them are special varieties used to make ties, kimonos, evening gowns, and chiffon fabrics for export. Most of these varieties are cultivated in Japan and raised in Brazil and Southeast Asia. The import of these silkworm seeds into China was originally strictly controlled. Fortunately, Japan's economy was in recession for a long time in the early 21st century, so it was possible to get it with a little detour. Even at Wu Nanhai's request, the North American branch obtained genetically modified silkworms containing spider silk protein genes. They are currently being bred at the silkworm breeding farm of the Council of Agriculture, hoping that one day they can be used to make bulletproof vests.
The climate in Lingao was not suitable for promoting large-scale sericulture, so as soon as the silkworm breeding farm in Phoenix Villa was established, the Agricultural Committee transported most of the silkworm seeds to Hangzhou. With a stable breeding base, all these silkworm species, including adapted species hybridized with ancient indigenous silkworm species, can be cultivated on a large scale. As long as there is an order, we can outsource it to sericulture farmers. (To be continued.)
