Seeing the puzzled eyes of the merchants, Zhao Feng smiled slightly.
Those who can participate in this banquet are also merchants with considerable wealth in the entire city. If they are small merchants, they are not qualified to attend this banquet at all.
Each of these merchants must have at least a few thousand taels of silver, which may not be much alone, but if added up, it is a lot.
After hearing Zhao Feng's words, the merchants couldn't help but ask.
"Master Prefect, is this what you meant?"
"Yes, does the prefect still want to take us to make a fortune together?"
Yu Ruhai waved his hands with an embarrassed look on his face, then turned to Zhao Feng and said.
"Mr. Zhao, please tell me your thoughts quickly and let these people listen carefully."
Zhao Feng smiled, cupped his hands, and said to these merchants.
"The method mentioned by the prefect is public-private partnership!"
"I know that your family has a lot of money, but you don't know what kind of business you should continue to engage in, and it is difficult for you to take these risks given your situation."
"So today I want to tell you a new business model, that is, we can start a business together with the prefect!"
Zhao Feng said this and clapped his hands. Sun Peng and Zhou Fei quickly arrived here carrying a bag of dusty powder.
Seeing the gray powder, the businessmen became a little confused.
Zhao Feng did not explain to them, but directly asked Zhou Fei to bring a bucket of water, then poured the water on the powder and started stirring.
"You can see that this thing is called cement. You only need to add some sand, and the stones can be made into concrete."
As Zhao Feng spoke, he added sand and stones to the cement. After mixing it evenly, Zhao Feng directly clamped it with wooden boards to form a wall.
"After this thing solidifies and dries, it will become harder than stone. It can be used to build roads, bridges, or houses."
"What I want to introduce to you is this business. As for the production method of this thing, only I know now!"
"And if I want to produce this thing, I need a certain amount of capital, so I called everyone here just to let everyone run this business with me!"
What he said made those merchants even more confused. Although they didn't know what this concrete was, if it was really as good as Zhao Feng said, then this thing could be used to build roads. A divine creature that builds bridges and houses!
Because they also discovered that the cement is as soft as mud and has high plasticity before it dries up.
If it can really become harder than stone after solidification, then building a house will no longer need to be done as before. You only need to clamp these things with wooden boards to build a house.
Suddenly, many wealthy businessmen became excited.
But they did not speak rashly. Zhao Feng looked at their expressions and knew what they were worried about.
"You don't have to worry. Since this thing has just appeared, there must be certain operational risks. The reason why I want everyone to enter into a public-private partnership is to share the risks to a minimum."
"If a person spends several thousand taels of silver to do this business, he will definitely lose everything if he loses money. But if every household here spends several hundred taels of silver to do this business, even if he loses money, he will lose everything. You will lose too much, and besides, you can make a lot of money with this thing!”
"How much money you contribute will determine how many shares you can hold in the company. When the time comes, you can distribute dividends based on these shares. This is what I call a public-private partnership."
"The other half is the public sector that I represent. We are responsible for the operation of this company. Everyone just needs to go home and wait to get their money!"
Zhao Feng's words immediately made those businessmen excited.
As Zhao Feng said, facing the emergence of such a very tempting new thing, if they were asked to directly spend thousands of taels of silver to do this business, then they might not have the courage.
But if every household contributes dozens or even hundreds of taels, then they can get a share of the pie if the business makes money, and they won't be hurt if the business loses money.
The businessmen present were still hesitating, but Li Wanyi said directly and loudly.
"Since there is a guarantee from the prefect and we are doing business with the government, I will give you five hundred taels of silver!"
"Our Li family has decided to participate in this business!"
Li Wanyi's words immediately caused a large number of sounds stealing cool air around her.
They are also very clear about the affairs of the Liu family and the Li family. The Li family has just resumed operations, and even its vitality has not been restored yet, so they spent so much money to participate in this business.
So what are they still hesitating about?
So these wealthy businessmen quickly raised their hands.
"I'm also involved in this business, I'll pay one hundred taels!"
"I'll pay two hundred taels."
"I'll pay you one hundred and fifty taels!"
After hearing what these merchants said, Zhao Feng nodded with great satisfaction.
Later, Zhao Feng asked Sun Peng and Zhou Fei to collect all the money from these merchants, register it, and finally make it public.
"Our company's revenue will be disclosed to the public every month, so you don't have to worry about us cheating your money."
"However, dividends need to wait until the end of each year before they can be distributed uniformly. I hope everyone can understand."
Those merchants nodded with great satisfaction. They did not ask for anything like dividends, as long as they could use the money to leave a good reputation in front of the prefect.
Seeing that Zhao Feng only used such a simple strategy to make these merchants willingly hand over thousands of taels of silver, Yu Ruhai couldn't help but give a thumbs up.
Then, Yu Ruhai lowered his voice and spoke to Zhao Feng.
"Mr. Zhao, I really have you. If this happens, our taxes this year will probably be solved!"
Zhao Feng looked at Yu Ruhai with some surprise, then shook his head very seriously and said.
"Master Prefect, you underestimate me. I said I would use this method to solve all three problems. If it was just for tax purposes, I wouldn't have to spend so much time."
"Now that we have the capital, we can let the common people come here to work together. And who says that this cement business can't make a lot of money?"
Zhao Feng said this and felt that the cement was almost solidified. He clapped his hands and asked Sun Peng and Zhou Fei to remove the wooden boards.
After the wooden boards were removed, the businessmen quickly went over to check and found that although the cement had not completely solidified, it was already standing there firmly.
