sovbooks Chapter 109 Dragon Heaven Path
Chapter 109 Dragon Heaven Path
Chapter 109 Dragon Heaven Path
A few days later, in a private room of a tavern in Matoudian.
"Buddha's daughter,"
The short, stout incense burner who had been guarding the door strode into the private room and said in a deep voice, "That guy surnamed Wei is here!"
A moment later, Wei Sengteng entered the private room and sat down opposite Long Lingxian.
Three trustworthy servants, along with Qin Jisheng, who had previously been in contact with heretics, stood guard at the door.
"Commander Zhang has permitted you to do business at the horse-head inn."
Wei Sengteng cut to the chase with Long Lingxian, saying, "But I need you to do three things."
"I am all ears."
Long Lingxian, who was wearing a veil, smiled slightly at Wei Sengteng.
"The first thing,"
Wei Sengteng turned his head and gestured, and a servant took out a roster and handed it to the tall, thin incense general guarding Long Lingxian.
"Commander Zhang hopes you can help take care of these thieves on the list; there will be a generous reward."
These thieves either had powerful backers or received word of the operation before it began.
Either they are quick-witted and sense something is wrong in advance, so they run away or hide.
Now, less than a month after the suppression ended, some audacious individuals have already begun to return to their old ways.
This greatly displeased Zhang Kun, so he wanted to use Long Tiandao's knife to kill a few as an example.
"Can,"
Long Lingxian took the list handed to her by the tall, thin incense burner, glanced at it, nodded to Wei Sengteng, and asked, "What exactly constitutes a generous reward?"
"To prevent you from killing innocent people and claiming credit, we will only look at the bandit leader,"
Wei Sengteng replied to Long Lingxian, "Killing a bandit leader will earn at least a thousand taels of silver; the greater the reputation, the greater the reward."
"Okay, the second one?"
"Commander Zhang wants to buy salt at this price, once a month, the more the better."
Wei Sengteng took out fifteen copper coins, laid them out on the table, and asked Long Lingxian, "Can you get some?"
Long Lingxian turned to look at the guardian beside her. After seeing the hand gesture given by the guardian, she nodded to Wei Sengteng and said, "The 20th of each month is the grand offering."
Zhang Kun's glass business requires a large amount of salt as a clarifying agent, which makes the glass more transparent and colorless through salting out.
Privately made salt was only one-third the price of official salt, which saved a lot of costs.
Furthermore, smuggled salt could be distributed to local militia members as part of their wages, through salted fish, salted vegetables, and other means.
To combat corruption among the local militia, Zhang Kun planned to distribute more goods and less money.
In addition, the canteens of the river work camp and the mobile camp also used a lot of salt, which could be brought in to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
"Can,"
Twenty large quantities per month, that's eight thousand catties, or 200 taels of silver. Wei Sengteng nodded in agreement and continued, "The third thing is to use your connections in various prefectures and counties to sell dried mushrooms and other goods..."
'
Based on the data from the Jin Yun, Zhang Kun made a very important judgment:
The market for dried mushrooms in Zhili will be saturated in a few months.
For the Tambak business within the Hohai Basin to maintain growth, it either needs to lower prices to open up more markets or seize territory from other companies.
Even without resorting to any special tactics, the latter method still requires price reductions to gain an advantage, so the two approaches are essentially the same.
The problem is that the cultivation of tampoo has not yet been widely promoted in Zhili, making it difficult to reduce costs.
Engaging in price wars will severely compress profits.
Moreover, the Danba Group, which operates within the river and sea system, is involved in the sale of cigarettes, excluding the high-end cigarettes from the Limin ship.
Zhenjinhao, Qingxiahao, Tongyanghao, and Jinluhao all target the mid-to-high-end market, and proactively lowering prices would damage their brands.
Moreover, once prices drop, it's very difficult for them to rise back up.
Moreover, the distributors below were taking away too much profit and couldn't be easily replaced, which made Zhang Kun very unhappy.
There's nothing we can do; they all have powerful backers, local bullies and local tyrants.
Therefore, Zhang Kun planned to smuggle Tampagu into his own territory and other people's territories through Long Tiandao's "underground network".
It can both increase profits in the distribution process and steal profits from other companies.
After completing negotiations with Wei Sengteng, Long Lingxian left the tavern with her protectors and several incense burners.
Reaching the dock, gazing at the horse-head inn, which had recovered to about 70-80% of its pre-banditry prosperity, he exclaimed, "Truly worthy of being called a capable minister in times of peace!"
Matoudian suffered severe damage during the banditry, second only to Anpingdu, where rebels rose up.
To revitalize Matoudian, Zhang Kun designated it as a "special zone" encompassing Zhangjiawan and Hexiwu:
Relying on his prestige from quelling the rebellion, Zhang Kun destroyed gambling dens and gambling stalls in both places, and then sent the message to their masters.
If you want to do this business, you can, but within my jurisdiction, you can only go to Matoudian!
Zhang Kun will not directly collect taxes on this business, but will instead collect them indirectly through high rents.
Because of the rampant theft, many shops in Ma Tou Dian had become ownerless.
Zhang Kun confiscated these stores and then sent his men to "persuade" the remaining stores to reclaim them.
The property is handed over to the government for rental purposes, but the landlord only receives the normal rent and not the indirect tax portion.
The more than 70-mile journey from Zhangjiawan to Hexiwu was filled with gamblers, which led to the rapid revival of Matoudian.
Anping.
Because the glass business required a large amount of smuggled salt, it could not be stored in Nanxiawa, the capital, nor in Liangshuihe, Zhangjiawan.
Just then, Anpingdu's local forces were wiped out during the banditry, and Zhang Kun decided to take advantage of the situation to occupy the place.
The glass business—Yu Bing Hao—was established here.
Due to the limited number of documents issued by the epidemic prevention bureau, unemployed dockworkers and disaster victims who were unable to find employment were all forcibly conscripted here.
Anping has a very narrow and shallow river called Qinglong Bay, which is connected to the Grand Canal.
Zhang Kun plans to build a shipyard in Anping in addition to his glass business, expanding from ship repair to shipbuilding.
Qinglong Bay is too narrow and shallow; the waterway needs to be widened.
Over at the river engineering camp, a canal dredging project called "Dredging the Tongwan River Channel" has already begun.
Zhang Kun could only draw 300 men from the river work camp and the guerrilla camp to organize and manage these unemployed laborers and jobless disaster victims.
In total, there were about 4,500 people, who were incorporated into the Hexiwu Township Council and the Anping Branch of the River Works Bureau.
The project to widen the Qinglong Bay River channel was initiated, and under the guise of land reclamation, American crops such as tambaku were planted in the surrounding area.
Not only the River Works Bureau, but also many other bureaus in Zhangjiawan and Hexiwu Township Council were transferred from the River Works Bureau.
The former river protection army, now the patrol battalion, also prioritizes recruiting new soldiers from the river work battalion.
In addition, various merchant houses within the river and sea system recruited guards, protectors, and apprentice craftsmen.
The first batch of river workers recruited by the river work camp last year totaled 5,000 people.
To date, more than a thousand people have been transferred from the river engineering camp to obtain higher-paying jobs.
In addition, more than 1,500 people chose to return to their hometowns to develop their careers after completing the dredging of the nine gates of the city moat.
After all, many of the disaster victims recruited by Zhang Kun still had farmland and even families in their hometowns, which they found difficult to part with.
Of the more than 2,500 new river workers brought in, more than 1,500 were disaster victims recruited from Zhangjiawan and Hexiwu.
Of the remaining thousand or so, some came from people who had written letters home after the old river workers had gone home and then came to seek refuge with them.
Some veteran river workers returned home only to find that it was still difficult to make a living in their hometown, so they brought their families and fellow villagers back with them.