Chapter 299 Behind the Armed Escort

Since the establishment of commercial relations with mainland merchants, the commercial department has been committed to building a product distribution network based in Guangzhou and extending to other places. However, in view of the backward transportation conditions and relatively strict floating population in this era,

Control, the commercial sector's progress in this area is very slow, and they basically rely on the self-operation of local merchants such as "Furuifeng". Both efficiency and reliability are very low. Especially for things like arms and private salt.

It is even more troublesome to transport contraband goods to other places. Even a local snake like "Furuifeng" has to do a lot of cover-up work carefully.

Although the current production capacity of Chuanchuan Group's various industrial products is far from being able to supply a market as large as mainland China, with the gradual expansion of production capacity, the commercial department must also open up a wider sales market before the products become unsalable. And

The actual situation is far from the fast and efficient product distribution network expected by the business department. If you want to change this situation, you must first solve the problem of distribution channels.

To establish a specialized logistics transfer system, the current Guangdong Office in Guangzhou is still unable to do so, so Schneider and others, after summarizing, came up with another compromise yet effective method, which is an armed escort agency.

Although there was no "escort bureau" in the true sense during this period, private security agencies with similar functions were nothing new during this period. An organization called "Daxing" appeared during the Ming and Zhengde years.

By the Wanli period, it had gradually become popular in all major cities. This kind of private security agency with a fist pattern as its logo was publicly listed for business. Its business content was to provide security protection services for traveling merchants and wealthy families. The local government was concerned about its existence and

The operating rules are also approved. The valuable property escorted by "Dahang" can also be sealed by the official, so that the cargo owner can rest assured that no one will open the box privately during transportation.

As the capital of the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, Guangzhou City naturally has similar organizations. However, its scale and organizational structure are still at the level of "amateur players" in the eyes of the Guangdong and Guangdong Affairs Office. It is far from the requirements of the Guangdong and Guangdong Affairs Office and is not very cooperative.

Or the value of the acquisition. However, the Li family who took the initiative to come to the door gave the Li family a new idea - didn't the Li family themselves maintain a large-scale militia? Why not let them pull out this militia and then establish it?

A new organization to realize the preliminary plan of the General Office of the People's Republic of China on the construction of distribution channels.

This idea is undoubtedly very feasible. Since last year, the Lijia Militia Group has been gradually equipped with Type 27 matchlock guns and a full set of individual equipment purchased from Victory Port, and the commanders of the militia group are also arriving in batches.

Victory Port received unified training, and the training period was even longer than that of the North Vietnamese Army. Its combat effectiveness is still guaranteed. In addition, this militia group had performed several escort missions before, and successfully transported tens of tons of

Private salt has been transported to prefectural cities in Guangdong and Guangxi, which has proven their potential in this regard. As long as some targeted training is done, this militia can be turned into an armed escort team for use in the short term.

Of course, the issue that the Li family is concerned about is not just the combat effectiveness of their own militia, but more importantly, how to turn this combat effectiveness into money-making ability. The Li family has now invested more than 10,000 taels in this militia, even if it cannot

It would be good to get the capital back and earn some money for daily maintenance expenses.

In this regard, the General Office of the People's Republic of China has also prepared a plan. From now on, the main content of this armed escort agency will be divided into two parts: internal and external. Externally, it will mainly undertake the escort work of valuables, including gold and silver, etc., and this external business covers

It is the prohibited goods transportation operated by "Furuifeng" itself.

At present, "Fu Ruifeng" is still transporting contraband such as arms and salt from Guangzhou in the name of a caravan. It is secretive and often does not even dare to walk on the main road for fear of being punished by the local inspection department.

Interrogation. After establishing an armed escort agency, "Furuifeng" can use the method of sealing the consignment to deal with various interrogations that may occur on the road - of course, the seal of this seal must be obtained by the government.

, otherwise its legality will be worrying. As for how to communicate and cooperate with local officials, such small matters do not need to be pointed out one by one by the Guangdong Office. Li Jifeng, a veteran, naturally knows how to handle it.

The Li family and his son have certainly understood the trick of the Guangdong Office's remarks. The escort team can take ten boxes of goods on the road if they accept the task of escorting one box of goods. As for what is contained in the other nine boxes,

No one will tear off the official seal for inspection on the way. From now on, the escort team can blatantly transport all kinds of contraband across the state without worrying about being interrogated. To put it at the extreme, "Fu Ruifeng" wants to transport the goods wherever they want.

, you can completely fabricate a client on your own, and then transport a batch of goods that do not actually exist on the road.

Of course, it will not be easy to achieve this level. First of all, we have to organize all the yamen in Guangzhou. The cost is definitely not a small amount. However, the Guangdong Office generously stated that the start-up funds for establishing this organization can be

The 50-50 split with "Furuifeng" will be regarded as a business in which both parties share shares from now on. Loss will be shared together, and profit will be divided in half according to this ratio.

Regarding this proposal, the Li family and his son seem to have no reason to object - if this organization is established, then the goods transported through the secret line must come from Victory Port, and it is reasonable for the Haihan people to get involved. And the Haihan people do this.

Undoubtedly, it bears nearly half of the daily maintenance costs of the Li Jia Vigilante Group. Regardless of whether this organization can make money in the future, at least it can save a lot of money from here.

Of course, the Guangdong Office does not have too much money and no place to invest. There are exchange conditions for jointly engaging in this business with "Furuifeng": first, the daily management and decision-making of this armed escort agency must involve the participation of Commissioner Haihan.

, all affiliated personnel must participate in the professional training courses arranged by Haihan; secondly, Haihan has the right to send personnel to accompany the escort team to participate in the entire escort process. Haihan will also dispatch personnel to future branches stationed in other places.

The purpose of these two requirements is quite clear. The second requirement is simply a copy of He Xi's original words. Its function is to not only establish distribution channels, but also rely on the business network of this escort agency to

The mainland intelligence network affiliated to Haihan was gradually established.

He Xi has been in Guangzhou for half a year, but the establishment of the intelligence network has been limited to Guangzhou, and it is difficult to have suitable opportunities to expand to other places. This joint venture escort agency undoubtedly provides a good opportunity. In the future, as long as the escort agency

Wherever the team can go, Haihan's intelligence network can quickly extend there, and it can have a certain degree of armament in a legal form.

When Tao Dong came to Guangzhou, the Guangdong Office and the Li family had already had an in-depth discussion and basically reached an agreement on cooperation. After hearing the face-to-face report from the Guangzhou Office, Tao Donglai also believed that this

It is a relatively feasible plan - the progress in the commodity distribution network may not be as great as expected by the General Office of the People's Republic of China, but its role in promoting the construction of an intelligence system in the mainland is unparalleled. For this reason alone

At one point, Tao Donglai felt that the money was well spent.

The actual cost of the Cross-Travel Group is actually much less than the figures in the agreement between the two companies. This is because the Cross-Travel Group's investment is mostly discounted in terms of equipment and professional training courses, and the cash money is really not much. In the case of the two Li's People's Group

Calculated based on the scale of a hundred people, the investment amount of the Crossing Group is only two to three thousand taels of silver per year, and it will be paid back by selling an additional 20 to 30 tons of salt. Even if the scale of the Lijia Militia Group expands in the future, it will actually be within the capacity of the Crossing Group.

Internally, this amount of money is really just a small number compared to the activity funds approved by the Executive Committee for the Intelligence Department of the General Office of the People's Republic of China.

Of course, large-scale weapons such as muskets cannot be openly equipped by armed escort agencies. At best, such things can only be packed in boxes and travel with them. It is absolutely impossible to carry muskets through the market in broad daylight. However, this problem should be solved within this year.

After being solved, the military industry department of Victory Port is already developing a short version of the musket. Although the range will be shortened, the power will be further increased. Its main purpose is to provide it to the special operations company formed by Qian Tiandun in North Vietnam to facilitate their use.

Traveling in mountainous jungle environments.

In addition, there is a slightly less powerful police version that will be equipped with the soon-to-be-established police department. Now that there is a demand for this in Guangzhou, it can be downgraded to another level on this basis and a short-barrel version with weaker performance can be equipped.

Li Jia Vigilante Group. As for the matchlock guns originally used by the Li Jia Vigilante Group, they can be sold to Fujian. If they are operated well, they can even make a small profit - Xu Xinsu is selling weapons with money. And the Li family

The militia is expected to become the first armed force outside Victory Port to be equipped with flintlock weapons.

After taking care of the Li family, the Guangdong Office immediately used its business relationships to start looking for customers for the armed escort agency that was still being planned, and prepared to promote the armed escort business as an ancillary business of the bank. Currently, in the "sea business"

These foreign merchants who have accounts with "Han Development Bank" and have a huge amount of money transactions have become the focus of Schneider and others. Although the number of money transactions of "Haifeng" is not among the top, it has a strong regularity.

, almost at the beginning of every month, Wang Qin, the business manager of the "Haifeng" in Guangzhou, would go to the Guangdong Office to pick up cash ranging from 5,000 to 8,000, and transport it back to the main account in Huizhou through other methods.

It happened that Tao Donglai also planned to find customers to understand the operation of the bank, so Schneider came forward to invite Wang Qin to the inner court for an interview. Sure enough, after asking, Wang Qin was very interested in this matter, and Schneider seized the opportunity to ask

He introduced the planned business.

After hearing this, Wang Qin asked: "Since it is the escort team organized by you, I am naturally relieved. But I am a little unclear, why your escort fee is lower than that of others? This is usually the case with "Haihan"

' Two words, but I've never heard of bargains."

Schneider smiled and said: "The price is linked to the scarcity of the product. The price of our Haihan products is high because there are too many people who want to buy it and our production capacity is very limited. When the production capacity increases, the price will naturally

It will decrease. However, this escort business is different from commodities. We are not trying to make much money from this, but we just want to use this business to expand our business routes."

Wang Qin nodded thoughtfully, not sure whether he believed it or not.

Schneider naturally had something unspoken. The low escort price was not entirely due to the reason he just mentioned. Part of it was the profit from transporting his own private goods along the way. In addition, he also expanded this armed escort team into a logistics enterprise, relying on the expansion of transportation.

The plan is to reduce the cost of a single shipment through volume. Even if there is a slight loss in the early stage, in the long run, Schneider is still full of confidence in this business.

Tao Donglai then turned the topic back to the bank's business and persuaded Wang Qin to try the bearer small-denomination bank notes that "Haihan Development Bank" was about to launch. In addition to being usable in Victory Port, Tao Donglai

At present, several local merchants in Guangzhou, such as "Fu Ruifeng", "Yongfeng Buhang", and "Haihan Bookstore", will also begin to accept this type of banknote. In addition, "Chenghai Bank" in Chaozhou Prefecture, and as far away as Zhangzhou, Fujian

, Xu's Commercial Bank in Quanzhou has already reached an agreement with the Guangdong Office in Guangdong on the use of such small-amount banknotes, and within the year "Haihan Development Bank" will open branches in Zhangzhou, and then merchants in Fujian will

, you can also enjoy the deposit and withdrawal service at the local branch.

Wang Qin's "Haifeng" is headquartered in Huizhou, which is just across the Chaozhou Prefecture from Zhangzhou, and has a lot of business dealings with Fujian. This news made him very tempted. He is used to using "Haifeng" here in Guangzhou.

After the deposit and withdrawal service provided by Haihan Development Bank, Wang Qin really felt its convenience. If Zhangzhou can also provide such a service, then in the future, his own company will have to traffic goods from Zhangzhou to Guangzhou, and the delivery of money will

But it’s much more convenient.

Wang Qin immediately agreed and asked Schneider to immediately withdraw 500 taels from his account and exchange it for this small, unnamed banknote. After Schneider's instructions, Yu Xiaobao came in with a tray not long after.

.On the tray is a stack of new-style banknotes with face values ​​of twelve taels, fifty taels and one hundred taels, with a small brocade box pressed on top.

"A small gift is not a sign of respect, so don't dislike it, Boss Wang!" Schneider smiled and pushed the tray in front of Wang Qin.

Wang Qin opened the small brocade box and saw a one-inch-square glass seal with the small seal script "Haifeng Wang Qin". He thanked him profusely and said, "How can I afford such a precious gift?"

!Mr. Shi is so polite!"

Due to insufficient production capacity and conscious hype, Haihan's glass products have always been at a high level in Guangdong and Guangxi regions, and custom-made products that are only sold to a small number of collectors are even rarer. Wang Qin had previously asked the Liaison Office in Guangdong to replace a certain

A wealthy businessman from Huizhou customized a set of glass stationery, which only had the name of the owner and two poems engraved on it, and the price doubled from the original price. The product list of the Guangdong Office in Guangdong has clear price tags on the customized glass products.

The price of engraving is 10 taels per word, and there will be an additional fee if the size exceeds 5 cents. For customized products such as glass seals, the minimum starting price is more than 80 taels. With engraving, the market price is more than 100 taels. Wang Qin is so polite.

It's not like he was pretending.

Schneider said: "If Boss Wang needs anything from now on, all he needs to do is write a letter, seal it with this seal, and send someone to the Guangdong Office. We will send someone to your door to handle the business, saving Boss Wang the trouble of running around."

Wang Qin closed the lid of the box and responded with a smile: "That's not possible. If I don't come, how can I always get Mr. Shi's guidance?"

Schneider said: "Speaking of this, I have an idea recently. I wonder if Boss Wang is interested in participating in it."

"If it's a good thing, Mr. Shi, don't forget to count me in it!" Wang Qin was in a good mood at this time and began to speak casually.

Schneider explained: "That's right, our Guangdong Office plans to unite businesses with us in Fujian and Guangzhou to establish a new organization..."

"Chamber of Commerce?" Wang Qin asked before Schneider finished speaking.

Schneider shook his head and said: "It's not just a traditional chamber of commerce. The targets of this organization are merchants who are willing to cooperate with us and make a fortune together. There are no restrictions on geography or business scale. This is because the business we want to do is relatively large, and a single company

The combined strength of the two families is far from enough."

Wang Qin said in astonishment: "As far as I know, there are at least twenty or thirty merchants in Fujian and Guangzhou provinces doing business with you. What kind of business requires so many merchants to unite to do it?"

Schneider smiled and said nothing, and Tao Donglai took over the conversation: "Has Boss Wang been to Victory Port?"

Wang Qin nodded and said: "Fortunately, I went there once a month ago, but I was in a hurry that time and had no time to pay a visit to Mr. Shi."

Tao Donglai asked, "What do you think, Boss Wang, of Victory Harbor?"

Wang Qin thought for a while before answering: "When I first arrived, it was hard to imagine that the local port was just a new port that had been opened less than a year ago. Both the port facilities and the local environment are among the best among the ports I have been to!

I heard a long time ago that you are good at engineering construction. It was only after I went to Victory Port that I saw the indescribable power in the rumors. I also heard some rumors at that time that the Yazhou government intended to hand over some wasteland under its control.

Developed for you."

"It is indeed true, but we did not have so much energy to operate areas other than Victory Port at that time." Tao Donglai nodded and confirmed Wang Qin's statement: "If there are new opportunities now, we can create a second

, the third Victory Port, will Boss Wang be interested in participating?"

Wang Qin's eyes lit up: "Mr. Tao, are you kidding me? Do you really plan to open a new port? Can you reveal the details?"

"Of course." Tao Donglai nodded and said, "The new organization we just mentioned is prepared for this."
Chapter completed!