Chapter 2277

Although the sailors on the ship were polite, Zhang Jinbao also had a sense of propriety. He couldn't treat this place like a restaurant just because the other party greeted him with delicious food and drinks. There was no need to serve wine at the moment. When Li Nai came back later, if he smelled of alcohol,

If Xuntian goes to say hello, that may not be too disrespectful to the other party.

According to what Li Nai said yesterday, he would rush to the port as soon as possible after socializing in the city. However, it took more than an hour after Zhang Jinbao and others finished lunch before Li Nai arrived at the port by carriage to board the ship.

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting for so long, President Zhang. I'll have people unmoor and hoist the sails to prepare for departure." After Li Nai saw Zhang Jinbao, he still explained the reason why he showed up later than the agreed time: "Then Little Prince Annan

The matter to discuss with me today is very important, and we have to discuss it first before we can leave Sanya, so I was delayed for a while in the city."

"Third Young Master has serious business, so it doesn't matter if we delay for a moment." Zhang Jinbao was originally on a free ride, and the other party paid for the trip, so how could he complain about such a trivial matter.

Before Li Nai came back, the sailors on the ship were actually ready to set off, so they quickly left the port after he gave the order. However, this did not mean that Li Nai was on vacation. In fact,

On the way to Danzhou, he still had to seize the time to deal with various official matters at hand.

After more than ten years of rapid development, Fulifeng has grown into a large-scale international trade organization that is rare in Ming Dynasty in this era. The scale of the industry it operates and the industries it involves far exceed that of this era.

level, it is not an exaggeration to call it a new business format.

If we look at the scale of overseas operations, Fulifeng is probably already the number one business organization in the Ming Dynasty. And more than 60% of its overseas industries are located on Hainan Island under the rule of Haihan

.

In his early years, Li Nai traveled frequently between Guangzhou and Sanya, not only to satisfy his personal curiosity, but also to handle various investment projects in Hainan Island for Furifeng.

Furifeng's early business areas in Hainan Island were mainly agriculture and commerce. Long-term projects with stable returns, such as plantations and storehouses, are the objects that Furifeng is willing to invest. So far, Furifeng has invested in Hainan Island.

There are as many as thirty or forty plantations and farms, large and small, operated by the company, and its business stores are also located in every county on the island.

Under the guidance of Haihan officials, Furifeng later began to invest in some relatively unfamiliar industries, such as deep processing of agricultural products, shipping and shipbuilding, mining and smelting, and infrastructure facilities. The benefits brought by these industries to Furifeng were not as high as

It is no different from the traditional industries we operated in the past, and it can even generate more generous profits.

However, with the rapid expansion of Furifeng's business scale, they inevitably encountered the same problem that Haihan encountered during the expansion process, that is, there were not enough operating managers available. Professional ability can no longer be used as a criterion for selecting and appointing managers.

, Furifeng can only try its best to dispatch relatively loyal personnel to these positions. The actual operators of many projects are even just workers transferred from Guangzhou, and they may not even be able to calculate the accounts clearly.

Even if Furifeng is willing to pay high salaries to recruit people from other places, it still cannot keep up with the growth in employment demand. Therefore, until this problem is effectively solved, Li Nai still needs to travel frequently between Guangzhou and Sanya, and he will

to supervise and guide the business projects under Haihan's rule.

If there is enough time, Li Nai will even conduct short-term intensive training for these managers during their arrival in Hainan Island, so that they can master the various skills required for daily operations, as well as the various operating mechanisms within Fulifeng.

When he came to Sanya this time, Li Nai's schedule was as busy as usual, and because he needed to attend martial arts competitions and various related entertainments, he basically couldn't spare time to talk to the local shopkeepers, stewards, and foremen in Sanya this time.

These subordinates held talks, not to mention skills training. And he could only have time to slowly review the various financial statements, operating reports, and project plans submitted by these managers after leaving Sanya by boat.

If the way things were done in this era, Li Nai certainly should have stayed in Sanya to handle these matters before leaving. Otherwise, he would wait until he returned to Guangzhou to come up with handling opinions based on the information provided by these documents, and then write a letter and send it to Sanya.

The time required will delay a lot of things.

Fortunately, Li Nai has learned to handle these matters in Haihan's way. He can send his handling opinions to Sanya via telegram from Danzhou or Guangzhou, and the local managers will implement them. This only requires effort

A small expense, but it can save a lot of precious time. For people of Li Nai's level, time is far more precious than money. It is the most trouble-free and time-saving way to deal with these tasks during the voyage.

.

So after a brief chat with Zhang Jinbao, Li Nai said that he still had official business to deal with, and returned to his exclusive cabin to close the door. Zhang Jinbao didn't doubt him, after all, he could let him

It was already a great favor for the teachers and students to take a smooth boat back to Danzhou. It was impossible for them to have to socialize with themselves all the way. Zhang Jinbao also specially greeted the students and told them not to shout or yell on the boat to avoid

It affects Li Nai's work.

It was not until dinner time that Li Nai came out of the cabin and took the initiative to invite Zhang Jinbao and his party to have dinner. During the dinner, Li Nai also seemingly casually inquired about the majors of these students and offered to come to them if they were interested.

Working conditions at Furifeng are negotiable, including salary and remuneration.

Zhang Jinbao quickly thanked Li Nai. He knew that Li Nai was not being polite. In fact, in recent years, some graduates of Qiongxi Academy have indeed joined Fulifeng to work, and the number has been increasing year by year. It is also true that

It was because of such signs that Zhang Jinbao boldly promoted his chain school plan to Li Nai in Sanya.

In Zhang Jinbao's view, Fulifeng's need for employees is obvious, and currently there is no specialized agency that can provide Fulifeng with the professionals it needs in a long-term and stable manner. This is an excellent opportunity for Qiongxi Academy.

entry point.

There was no talk that night. When the ship arrived at Changhua Port the next day, Li Nai proposed to stay here for a day to handle some official matters. He also invited Zhang Jinbao to visit an ironware workshop run by Furifeng here.

"I used to think that Changhua was full of government-run smelting workshops, but I didn't know that Fulifeng actually had an industry here." Zhang Jinbao said to Li Nai on the carriage heading to the destination.

Furifeng's industry in Changhua must be quite large, because there is a high-end box carriage waiting at the port to welcome Li Nai's arrival. Zhang Jinbao paid special attention to the door when he got on the car, and sure enough he saw Furifeng again.

The nameplate indicates that this carriage is not temporarily hired locally, but is specially deployed here to prepare for the arrival of big shots.

"Except for ours, all the other workshops here are indeed government-run." Li Nai did not deny Zhang Jinbao's statement, because Furifeng's establishment of a workshop here was a project specially approved by the executive committee, and so far there has indeed not been a second one.

Every family can enjoy such treatment.

Special materials related to the national economy and people's livelihood, such as salt and iron, have been controlled by the government in all dynasties, and Haihan is no exception. Although private operators can also intervene in the industrial chain, they can only act as processing distributors. In principle,

They will not be allowed to directly intervene in the production process.

Furifeng's treatment in this regard is actually no exception. He has no right to participate in the mining and subsequent smelting of Shilu iron ore. He can only purchase semi-finished steel products from government-run workshops for processing. What he does is actually the work of a blacksmith shop. Only

However, Furifeng has sufficient capital and an official license, so its business scale is much larger than that of an ordinary blacksmith shop.

The carriage passed through the towns near Changhua Port and headed north for about three or four miles. It was almost leaving Changhua County before finally arriving at the place Li Nai mentioned.

When Zhang Jinbao got out of the car, he saw that the workshop covered an area of ​​about ten acres. If measured by the standards of a blacksmith shop, it was indeed astonishingly large.

There is a huge coal pile on the roadside, which is two stories high. Zhang Jinbao estimates that this pile may contain hundreds of thousands of kilograms of coal. Two heavy-duty carriages are unloading. This kind of carriage is specially designed for carrying cargo.

It can carry up to two thousand kilograms of cargo and can be seen everywhere in Changhua.

Upon seeing this, Zhang Jinbao said: "It's quite a long journey to transport coal from the port."

Zhang Jinbao is not unfamiliar with the situation in Changhua. He knows that the coal used here basically comes from the Black Earth Port across the sea. The government-run workshops are located closer to the port than here. From a distance perspective, the light

The cost of coal-fired freight is estimated to be twice as high.

Li Nai nodded and said: "That's true. Therefore, considering the long-term business needs, we will build a cargo terminal on the nearby coast and build a road to get there, so that coal ships from Black Earth Port can be arranged.

By unloading the goods nearby, the freight can be saved.”

After hearing this, Zhang Jinbao could only sigh that Furifeng was rich and could use such a simple and crude way to solve the problems encountered in business.

But in fact, Fulifeng has already done detailed cost accounting for this. If the additional annual freight investment is calculated, then building a dedicated freight terminal nearby is more cost-effective for long-term operations, because more than just goods need to be transported here.

It's just coal burning, and a large amount of iron products need to be transported from here to other places. Calculated in and out, the annual freight savings are extremely considerable. As for the time cost saved by this, it is difficult to use money.

The value is calculated.

Of course, the abundant capital owned by Furifeng is indeed one of the reasons why Li Nai chose this solution, which can solve the root cause of the problem in one step. If he were an ordinary operator, he probably would not have such courage to build a

Dedicated freight terminals and roads solve the problem.

The managers of the workshop had already heard the news and came to welcome Li Nai's inspection. Li Nai politely introduced Zhang Jinbao's identity to his subordinates and invited him to enter the workshop to inspect the production situation.

"It turns out to be Dean Zhang. We also have people from your academy here, so they are no longer outsiders!" As soon as the steward here heard Zhang Jinbao's identity, he immediately got close to him. After all, Zhang Jinbao was following Li

This may mean that there is some new cooperation with Qiongxi Academy, and it will never go wrong to establish a good relationship with it first.

Zhang Jinbao said a few polite words, but actually had a similar conjecture in his mind: Since Li Nai brought him to visit this workshop, he might be planning to recruit apprentices in this profession from Qiongxi Academy in the future.

"Our raw materials here come from nearby government-run smelters, and then we process them into various civilian ironware, such as farm tools, kitchen utensils, anchor chains, etc. In the early years, these things were made by government-run workshops, but the prices were cheap and the profits were high.

The labor cost of government-run workshops is high and it is not cost-effective to make these things, so we gradually allocated some of them to us."

As Li Nai walked, he introduced the production situation here to Zhang Jinbao: "...more than half of the ironware we produce here is actually sold locally in Hainan Island, and the remaining part is shipped to Guangdong and Guangxi for sale."

Zhang Jinbao said: "As far as I know, our country's civilian ironware is sold very cheaply. I'm afraid the third young master won't make much money in this business, right?"

Li Nai smiled and said: "That's true, otherwise how could the government be willing to allocate this business to us? But it doesn't matter. Furifeng does this business not to make big money from civilian ironware, but to maintain a small profit.

Just run the business here.”

If you still do this business without making money, it must have other benefits. However, since Li Nai didn't take the initiative to mention it, Zhang Jinbao couldn't ask rashly and could only ponder it secretly in his heart.

Soon Zhang Jinbao was surprised to find that there were several steam engines used for processing iron in this workshop. As far as he knew, this thing could only be used in government-run institutions. Qiongxi Academy wanted to develop its own steam engines in the first two years.

Related projects were later urgently halted by the government. Unexpectedly, Furifeng was so smart that he could install a steam engine in this ironworks workshop.

And it was the first time that he saw how a steam engine cut an iron bar as thick as a thumb into sections at a very fast speed, and then curled and connected it into a chain. A blacksmith may have to work for a long time.

A whole day's work can be completed in just a few moments on this production line with a steam engine, and the efficiency is probably more than a hundred times higher.

Zhang Jinbao suddenly remembered that Li Nai had just said that it was not very profitable to make ironware for civilian use, but at such a speed of production, it would be difficult not to make money. At that moment, he couldn't help but ask: "Third Young Master, as far as I know, as long as you use

Where steam engines are concerned, the cost is much lower than labor, so why did you just say that the business here is not very profitable?"
Chapter completed!