In the dead of winter, the weather is getting colder and colder.
It felt like being in an ice cave. No matter where you were, the cold air would penetrate through the gaps in your clothes, making your body shake uncontrollably.
Jiang Yifeng stood at the door of the Su family's main hall, feeling the cold outside, and said nothing for a long time.
"Mr. Jiang, are you worried about the country and the people?"
In the main hall of the Su family, in addition to Su Yingxue, there were also Zhao Xu, the head of the Zhao family, Song Shoucai, the head of the Song family, and Wang Zhilou, the head of the Wang family.
"I'm thinking the colder it gets, the better our coal sales will be."
Jiang Yifeng turned around and looked at the three family heads with a smile.
Worrying about the country and the people is the court's business. For him, making money is the most important thing.
Thinking of this, he looked at the three family heads and asked: "Everyone, how is the recent sales of coal?"
Wang Zhilou was the first to speak, "At first, many people were worried about the poisonous gas produced by the burning of charcoal, and not many people bought it. However, through the promotion of newspapers, the sales of charcoal are getting better and better. Our Song Family Restaurant can sell about 100,000 jins a day. .”
Zhao Xu followed closely, "The Zhao family also has some industries in other cities, so the sales volume is better. They can sell 200,000 kilograms of pebbles a day."
"Haha, it seems they are not as good as the Song family."
Song Shoucai laughed loudly, with a proud face on his face, "My Song family's rice shops are all over Jiujiang County, and we can sell a million kilograms of coal in one day. The supply exceeds demand in many cities, but it takes a lot of time and cost to transport the coal there." .”
Jiang Yifeng frowned slightly as he listened to the reports of the three family heads, "Including the Su family, we can only sell 1.5 million kilograms of pebbles in one day, which is still too little."
One and a half million kilograms looks like a lot, but if you convert it, you will find that it is actually only 750 tons.
Dozens of cities in Jiujiang County, including Sioux City with a population of hundreds of thousands, sell 750 tons of coal a day. On average, a city only sells a few dozen tons of coal.
It should be understood that Meishan can dig more than this amount of coal in one day.
He originally thought that the supply of coal would exceed the demand, but he did not expect that the supply would exceed the demand. If this continues, the coal dug from the coal mountain will accumulate.
At this time, Su Yingxue said calmly, "Our four shops are already selling pebbles. Even if there is an increase in the future, it will reach 16.7 million jins at most. It will be very difficult to reach 2 million jins."
"yes!"
Jiang Yifeng nodded undeniably.
In fact, it is a miracle that charcoal can achieve such sales volume in such a short period of time.
After all, if you want to sell coal, it is not just as simple as digging out the coal and taking it to the city to sell it. You must also have a sales network.
Fortunately, by cooperating with the Zhao family, Song family, and Wang family, he can use these three shops as sales points, which is equivalent to having a natural sales network for coal.
Among them, the Song family has the greatest contribution.
The Song family is the largest grain merchant in Jiujiang County. Rice shops are located in various cities in Jiujiang County. With so many sales points, one family sells more coal than the other three.
However, Jiang Yifeng is still a little dissatisfied with such sales.
Jiang Yifeng held his chin and thought for a while, then hesitantly said: "Actually, I have a way to increase the sales volume of coal."
"Mr. Jiang, what can I do?"
The three family heads were shocked, and they all looked at Jiang Yifeng with eager eyes.
Su Yingxue didn't speak, but it was easy to see from her rapid breathing that she was also a little eager.
"My approach has three main parts."
Jiang Yifeng paused and looked at the three of them, "First of all, we should not only sell coal in the city. We must find ways to sell coal to towns and rural areas and set up sales points in towns and villages."
"Secondly, the market in the city is not fully open at this stage. I plan to find a lot of hired workers and let them act as coal salesmen and let them sell coal door to door."
"third……"
Jiang Yifeng looked at Song Shoucai, "The head of the Song family just said that coal is in short supply in many cities. The problem lies in transportation, so we need to find a faster way to transport coal to various cities."
After the words fell, Su Yingxue and the three family heads frowned slightly, all thinking about the feasibility of Jiang Yifeng's method.
After a while, Zhao Xu took the lead and said: "It's a good idea to set up sales points in villages and towns. Although those farmers don't have much money, they have a large population and should be able to sell a lot of coal."
Wang Zhilou said: "It is also a good idea to hire salesmen to promote door to door. This can prevent fish from slipping through the net and open up the market to the maximum extent."
However, Song Shoucai frowned, "The Song family collects grain, transports grain, sells grain...the transportation capacity exceeds that of any other family in Su City, so there is no faster way than the Song family to transport coal to various cities. "
Jiang Yifeng thought for a while and asked, "Is the Song family transporting grain through official means?"
Song Shoucai nodded, "That's right."
Jiang Yifeng asked again: "Is there a waterway?"
Song Shoucai replied: "There are some, but not every city can rely on water transportation."
Hearing this, Jiang Yifeng looked at Su Yingxue and asked, "Xuexue, do we have a map of Jiujiang County?"
Su Yingxue did not answer immediately, but looked at the three family heads and hesitated.
Seeing this, Jiang Yifeng suddenly realized that in ancient times, let alone ordinary people, even high-ranking officials and dignitaries were not allowed to hide maps privately.
At this time, Zhao Xu smiled and said: "Miss Su, it's just a map. The Zhao family also has it. I believe the Wang family and the Song family should have it too!"
"have!"
Wang Zhilou and Song Shoucai hesitated for a moment, then nodded and admitted.
In fact, as the Zhou court's control over various states and counties weakened, any powerful family would prepare a map. This was considered a secret.
Now that the three family heads are talking about this, they want to tell Su Yingxue that we are all grasshoppers on a rope, and no one will betray anyone.
When Su Yingxue heard what the three family heads said, she no longer hesitated, called Zhuer, and found a map of Jiujiang County.
Jiang Yifeng unfolded the map, and the entire topography of Jiujiang County was displayed in front of several people.
The reason why Jiujiang County is called Jiujiang County is mainly because there are nine rivers. These nine rivers are like a net, dividing Jiujiang County into pieces.
It is for this reason that most of the cities in Jiujiang County are built along the water. Each city has many docks and can rely on water transportation in most cases.
Jiang Yifeng stared at the map for a while, then suddenly pointed to a city and asked, "This city is far away from any river. How can we transport the coal there?"
Song Shoucai just glanced at it and said: "This is Pingshan Pass, which belongs to Guancheng. It was mainly built to resist foreigners. Therefore, there are no waterways. To transport materials here, they are transported from the nearby Sanchuan City."
With that said, Song Shoucai clicked on the map and pointed out the location of Sanchuan City.
Immediately afterwards, Song Shoucai continued: "Sanchuan City is on the bank of the Nu River, and water transportation is developed. The supplies will be sent here first, and then transported from here to Pingshan Pass."
Jiang Yifeng asked: "How long does it take to get from Sanchuan City to Pingshan Pass?"
Song Shoucai said: "The two cities are two hundred miles apart. Although there is an official road, ordinary people cannot use it, and the Song family cannot use it, so it will take four days."
Jiang Yifeng suddenly suggested, "What if we build a road between the two cities?"
"Build the road!"
Upon hearing this suggestion, the other four people's eyes widened.
When they heard Jiang Yifeng's idea, they felt their heads buzzing because they did not expect that Jiang Yifeng would come up with such a ridiculous idea as building roads in order to sell coal.
However, for the sake of face, the three family heads did not speak and all looked at Su Yingxue.
Su Yingxue had no choice but to say, "It costs a lot to build a road. It is not a wise move to build a road just to sell coal."
"Mr. Jiang, we can accept the first two suggestions, but building roads is absolutely not feasible."
"There are only 30,000 people in Pingshan Pass. The money used to build the road can't be earned by selling charcoal monkeys for years and months."
"If it is not official, it will easily breed robbers, and it will not be safe at that time."
After Su Yingxue spoke, the other three family heads expressed their thoughts one after another.
After hearing this, Jiang Yifeng understood that no one would support the idea of building roads.
"Oh well!"
Jiang Yifeng immediately compromised, thought for a while and said: "Since we are not building roads, let's find another way and let the merchants of Pingshan Pass take the initiative to go to Sanchuan City to bring back the coal."
Song Shoucai asked: "How to get the merchants at Pingshanguan to bring back the coal?"
"As long as the merchants in Pingshan Pass realize that they can make money by pulling coal from Sanchuan City to selling it in Pingshan Pass, a large number of merchants will do so."
Jiang Yifeng paused for a moment, then smiled slightly and said: "I plan to set up a coal wholesale point in a place with convenient transportation like Sanchuan City. The wholesale point will sell coal at a starting price of 50,000 kilograms, and two copper coins per kilogram."
"It's a copper coin cheaper, so you'll make a lot less money."
Song Shoucai felt like his heart was being cut by a knife.
In order to save a meal for his family, he deliberately shut out the county governor, then picked up a stone on the roadside as a gift and went to the county governor's house for a meal.
It is no exaggeration to say that he is the stingiest person in Sioux City.
Therefore, when he heard that he wanted to sell the coal at a low price to other merchants and let others make the difference, it was even more uncomfortable than cutting his flesh.
No……
This is cutting his flesh.
Jiang Yifeng looked at Song Shoucai, "Master Song, don't just think about making less money. You should consider how much more coal we can sell in this way. Those merchants only make a small amount of money, and we make the bulk of it."
"All right!"
Song Shoucai nodded reluctantly.
At the same time, he looked at the mutton on the table and told himself in his heart that when he left later, he must eat some mutton as compensation for himself.
"correct!"
Jiang Yifeng suddenly smiled and asked: "I recently opened a shop. I wonder if the three family owners have heard about it?"
Zhao Xu raised his eyebrows, "Is it the bank you mentioned to me before?"
The last time he was in Meishan, Jiang Yifeng mentioned the bank to him, but he thought it was too unreliable.
After all, as long as you are not a fool, you cannot put your money with others. This behavior is too risky.
As a result, he just thought that the bank was deliberately made by Jiang Yifeng to deceive him, so he didn't take it seriously. He didn't expect that Jiang Yifeng really brought the bank out.
"That's right."
Jiang Yifeng smiled slightly and took the initiative to explain without waiting for questioning: "There are two main businesses of the bank. One is to keep money. If you feel that it is not safe to leave the money at home, you can leave it in the bank without any fees."
"Second, the bank provides loans. If you are feeling tight recently, you can borrow money from the bank. Of course, you need to pay interest."
"Of course, there is another advantage of the bank. For example, if you have a batch of silver in Pingshanguan and want to transport it to Su City, the journey is long and extremely unsafe. You can store the money in Pingshanguan Bank and come to Suzhou with the banknotes. City, take out the money at Su City Bank."
With that said, Jiang Yifeng took out a few banknotes and placed them in front of several people.
These banknotes are worth ten taels, one thousand taels, and ten thousand taels respectively.
The three family heads quickly took the banknotes and observed them carefully.
As soon as they got the banknotes, the three family heads were shocked because the feel of the banknote paper was completely different from that of hemp paper.
It was a kind of paper they had never seen before.
At this time, they finally understood why the Su family didn't care that the papermaking technology was leaked.
Because the Su family has mastered more powerful papermaking techniques and can make better paper.
After observing for a long time, Zhao Xu picked up the banknote worth ten thousand taels and asked: "Mr. Jiang, this banknote says ten thousand taels. Can I understand that this banknote is ten thousand taels?" silver?"
Jiang Yifeng nodded, "Yes, this banknote is ten thousand taels of silver."
Hearing this, the three family heads suddenly opened their eyes wide, with shock gleaming in their eyes.
Because they probably guessed that the real power of the bank was here.
Zhao Xu took a deep breath and asked, "Mr. Jiang, the reason why you mentioned the bank to the three of us is that you want us to deposit all the money of our respective families in your bank?"
Jiang Yifeng shook his head, "The three of you are not fools, how could you store your money elsewhere."
If you are a small businessman, you may still store your money in a bank, but families like the Wang family, Zhao family, and Song family have at least one million taels of silver at home.
They have more wealth than banks. They can easily open a bank, so how can they save their money elsewhere.
Besides, in the eyes of the three of them, storing money elsewhere is not as safe as keeping it yourself.
"Then what is your purpose?"
Wang Zhilou looked at Jiang Yifeng, with a half-smile on his lips.
"It's very simple."
Jiang Yifeng looked at the three of them and said with a smile: "I hope that when the three family heads pay their salaries in the future, they can take the extra step to put the salaries in the bank and issue banknotes to the employees."
The Song family, the Wang family, and the Zhao family are among the largest families in Jiujiang County and have a large number of employees.
As long as you give them banknotes when paying their salaries, the bank will suddenly have a large number of customers.
What else can develop customers faster than this?
