Zhang Cheng never thought that his sudden idea would have such a huge and far-reaching impact.
However, when it came to negotiating and competing for profits with the town commanders and merchants, it was naturally difficult for him to come forward in person. In the end, he sent the black-faced He Biao to take charge, and Wei Zhice and Xu Qingyi assisted from the side.
The three of them negotiated with the generals and businessmen for two days, and finally reached a series of business cooperation agreements.
A giant-level fishery business was born!
Among them, Zhang Cheng, the commander-in-chief of Xuanfu Town, is naturally the largest shareholder, followed by Hong Chengchou, the governor-general of Jiliao, and Zhang Ruoqi, the commander-in-chief of the army. One of them is a feudal official and the other is a court official in Beijing.
What's more, Zhang Ruoqi was originally a doctor in the Ministry of War, one of the powerful figures in the central military department of the Ming Dynasty, and the direct superior of all the generals here.
And with his achievements in supervising the army and aiding the Liao Dynasty, it might be possible to be promoted to Minister of the Ministry of War. Considering that the noble princes in the court have few knowledge of military affairs, it is not impossible to succeed Chen Xinjia as Minister of the Ministry of War in the future.
Therefore, the current commander-in-chief in Liaodong has no objection at all to the fact that Hong Chengchou and Zhang Ruoqi, like Zhang Cheng, directly took the bulk of the shares.
Qiu Minyang, the governor of Liaodong, as well as several military lords in charge of Liaodong, as well as all the generals in the army who were in Liaodong at this time, also bought shares. Although their shareholdings were slightly different, they were generally distributed according to their strength.
No objection at all.
In addition, there are also big businessmen from various business gangs in other provinces who have also joined this fishing giant. Although the dried fish products made urgently are basically sold to dozens of people on the spot between Songjin and Jin.
Wan Daming officers and soldiers.
But after all, the war in Liaodong cannot continue to be such a stalemate. If the war here stops for a while, the dried fish produced will not be sold in such a large volume locally.
Therefore, the dried fish products produced here must be sold throughout the Ming Dynasty, which requires the concerted efforts of merchants from all over the country.
As the saying goes, everyone makes money!
For example, Liaodong forward commander Zu Dashou, although he is trapped in Jinzhou City at the moment, everyone still counts him as a member.
After all, in the land of Ming Dynasty and western Liaoning, Zu Dashou's power cannot be underestimated. Even if others are not present, everyone still dare not ignore his presence.
In everyone's agreement, the dried fish produced was collectively called "general fish".
Moreover, the unique logo of the Xuanbei Merchant Gang must be uniformly used on the outer packaging of the dried fish. This is the only point where there is no debate, and everyone unanimously agrees!
Xuanbei, especially the unique imprint of the Yunzhou workshop, as well as the special texture pattern marks on Yunzhou cigarettes and other products, in the northern region of the Ming Dynasty, both Xuanbei and Yunzhou had become endorsements of quality.
Just like the cigarettes, glass, fine salt and many other commodities produced in Yunzhou, they are famous in Xuanfu, Datong, Shanxi and even Gyeonggi, Shandong, Henan and other places.
It seems that the goods produced here are synonymous with high quality and exquisiteness!
With the Yunzhou brand and other products produced locally in Xuanfu gradually expanding their sales channels, it is not impossible that they will become famous throughout the Ming Empire in the future.
By putting the Xuanbei local brand on the product, it seems that the product will be of a higher grade, the quality will be guaranteed, and it will be easier for buyers to trust it.
This is just like some products in later generations, which are obviously produced domestically, but have to be named as a joint venture, or pass off as a fake foreign name, in order to sell well.
Zhang Cheng is naturally happy to see what happened because of the dried fish.
Because he knows that no matter in any era, there are only two ways to unite people's hearts. One is to worship people and control their thoughts. But so far, he has only been able to unite people in Xuanbei.
It can barely be regarded as having supreme authority.
But if we look at Xuanfu Town, he has not yet fully established his supreme prestige. Take the newly returned general Guo Yingxian, the guerrillas He Zhenxiong and Kuang Yongzhong, and the capital commander Tang Xiancheng as examples.
They are just more inclined to accept Zhang Cheng's command, not really loyal to Zhang Cheng. After all, the treatment of the Xuanbei Army is unmatched by other towns, and Zhang Cheng is still the deputy commander-in-chief of the Xuanfu after all, so he is naturally more loyal than others.
Get closer.
The second way to unite people's hearts is gold and silver!
This is an effective method in any era, and it is simpler and easier to implement.
Just like this fishery business, just the business of producing and selling "general fish" has tied all the officials and generals in Liaodong together, forming a new community of interests.
Perhaps many of them have not yet realized who is the most powerful speaker in this emerging community of interests?
This time Zhang Cheng was rare and did not care too much. He made a huge profit, so everyone was happy with the final result.
Although Hong Chengchou did not show up, he was the governor of Jiliao. At this moment, all the officials and generals in Liaodong naturally respected him. He had become the host of the fishery business, and the job of the talker was indeed between Zhang Cheng and
Xie Sixin is managing it secretly.
Although the dried fish business seems to be very profitable now and can be maintained in the future, in Zhang Cheng's eyes, it is not very serious.
He is now the chief military officer of Xuanfu Town. What he urgently needs now is to fight the tough battle under Jinzhou City, return to Xuanfu Town as soon as possible, and reorganize all the forces on his own territory first.
Only in this way can he be able to cope with various wars in the future, so he doesn't want to cause trouble now, so he will give out more profits today and form a good relationship with all the commanders.
In the future, it will be easier and cheaper to rectify all the forces in Xuanfu Town, at least they will not come against you.
As for the lost profits, you can make them back when you cooperate with the general soldiers of each town to open workshops in the future. Anyway, you have no shortage of ways to make money.
What's more, in another year or so, some of the firearms, artillery, ammunition and other military supplies produced by the Yunzhou Workshop can also be sold to the generals who have made money today.
The money will be transferred into his own hands.
Then there are the various merchants gathered in Songjin. Today, the Xuanbei Merchant Gang is cooperating with them. In the future, they can also use their business routes to sell their products to wealthy places in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
There are also many merchants from Tianjin, Shandong, Shanhaiguan and other places, and even local maritime merchants in western Liaoning.
The Xuanbei Business Gang has formed a business alliance with them, which will help expand the territory and power of the Xuanbei Business Gang. After all, Zhang Cheng has been setting up operations north of the Yellow River for many years, and his hidden network strength is no small matter.
By cooperating with major local merchants, you can hide yourself very well, and you can also use their power to better collect intelligence and reserve supplies.
The "general fish" dried fish will become a model for Zhang Cheng's cooperation with the generals, and may even become a means for him to control the generals in the future!
…………
After the "General Fish" Dried Fish Trading Company was officially established, the fishermen in the western Liaoning area immediately became popular. They used to simply sell their labor and transformed into professional fishermen, making money every day at work.
In addition, there were also sailors of the Longwu Navy docked on Juehua Island. They were tempted by the huge profits from the dried fish business and rushed to join the fishing army.
This Longwu Navy is the collective name for the five water camps created by Sun Chengzong, the governor of Jiliao at that time.
However, during the Ningyuan War that year, Wunage led the Houjin Cavalry to capture Juehua Island in one fell swoop, and all the water camps were destroyed. Although they were rebuilt afterwards, they could not regain their original glory.
Apart from transporting food and baggage for the army, they had almost no other role. Fortunately, the Qing navy was not strong at this time, so they could continue to exist in the Liaodong sea.
At this time, the navy officers and soldiers went into the sea to fish, which finally added another layer to the meaning of their existence.
In addition to the local fishermen and the officers and soldiers of the Longwu Navy, there were also many local military households who were familiar with the water, and they also rushed to the sea to fish. For a time, the sea in the Liaoxi Corridor was really busy with sailing races.
Especially at this time, it is the peak fishing season. In just a few days, a large number of various types of marine fish are caught ashore.
In various temporarily built workshops, large and small, densely packed large pots were erected. The fish after being scaled and gutted was put into the large pots and boiled to a pulp. They were dumped flat on the stone slabs and exposed to the sun. Then they were rolled with stone rollers, leaving large pieces.
Dried fish can be produced that can be stored for a long time.
Of course, these are still the lowest-grade dried fish, and are only used as dried fish products that can be quickly produced and supplied to ordinary sergeants in each battalion.
Most of the food eaten by the officers and soldiers of the Xuanfu army were fish porcelain jars. The ordinary dried fish products were only used as a supplement when the supply of fish porcelain jars was insufficient.
The so-called "fish porcelain jar" is made by cutting fresh sea fish into pieces, cooking them, and then adding an appropriate amount of soy sauce, sugar, koji wine, oyster sauce and other seasonings.
It is best to add an appropriate amount of fresh vegetables or dried vegetables to supplement the nutrients needed by the human body, and then seal it. The fish porcelain jar made in this way not only tastes extremely delicious, but can also be stored for several months.
This kind of fish porcelain jar is mainly produced by the Xuanbei merchant gang's newly established workshop near Songshanbao City.
In addition to supplying the Xuanfu army officers with food, the finished products will also be sold to the generals of the Liaodong armies. If there are any surplus, they will be sold to various parts of the Ming Dynasty to supply the needs of local wealthy households.
Because making porcelain fish jars requires a large amount of ceramic jars.
At first, the porcelain jars vacated after using the meat jars could be used to make porcelain fish jars after cleaning and drying. However, as the demand gradually increased, the supply eventually exceeded the supply.
As a result, a number of pottery workshops had to be opened in suitable locations in Gaoqiao and Xingshan, Liaodong. Due to the development of fishery, the local ceramic trade in Liaodong also flourished. This was something that no one expected.
Moreover, the simple version of "general fish" dried fish is very popular among the officers and soldiers of the Ming army in the Songxing area because of its high quality and low price.
There are too many orders of dried fish to be supplied here, and each production link requires a large number of manpower. Therefore, in addition to coastal fishermen, there are also many military households in Liaodong and even civilian laborers who transport food, and they all join in the dried fish business.
Came in the middle of the production work.
The common people who have experienced wars for many years now also learned to be thieves and thieves.
They work in the dried fish workshop here, but they only need food to pay their wages, not money.
Moreover, they also said that if they could not pay food as wages, then the worst possible solution would be to use an equal amount of dried fish to pay them as wages.
Today's dried general fish products have quickly become a substitute for meat in the eyes of many Liaodong soldiers and civilians, becoming the second staple food after grains.
In fact, for many low-level soldiers, as long as they can often eat meat, they are satisfied and do not have too many other requirements.
Zhang Chengfang led a group of personal guards to follow him closely. Zhang Cheng, Commander-in-Chief Zhang Ruoqi, and two generals Wang Pu and Chen Jiugao walked slowly along the Empress Palace area towards the southeast coastline.
People walking along the road were all in a hurry, and the surrounding area was also a busy scene. From time to time, pillars of smoke could be seen rising into the sky, as if the war in Jinzhou had nothing to do with it.
The sea is boundless, the waves are rolling, and even the air is filled with a strong smell of oysters.
Although there is still a Qing army stationed on the Huangtu Ridge, a part of Wang Pu's Datong Army and a large part of Zhang Cheng's Xuanfu Army are stationed at the foot of the Huangtu Ridge. Near the mouth of the Xiaoling River, there is also Shanxi General Li Fuming.
Soldiers and horses were stationed there, totaling tens of thousands of troops and horses.
The forts they set up were connected and spread all the way to the mouth of Xiaoling River, effectively blocking the Qing cavalry from infiltrating this side, allowing them to only observe from a distance, but not to explore the situation up close.
Therefore, all the way from the Empress Palace Dried Fish Market to the southeast, all the way to the seaside area at the mouth of Xiaoling River, there are densely packed fish drying farms and processing workshops, and the busy crowds are like ants.
The chants of various construction work continued like a tide, and it was so lively that if someone who didn't know the details came here, they would not be able to connect this place with the ongoing Songjin War.
On the sea in the distance, countless sails are like flying seagulls, swiftly passing through the waves. They unload mountains of sea cargo from various docks, and the busy scenery is eye-catching.
Perhaps because I have seen a lot of the sea these days and have become somewhat accustomed to it, the feeling of fear and insignificance that I felt when I first saw the vastness of the sea has been reduced a lot.
Wei Zhice and others followed Zhang Cheng, no longer as awe-struck as when they first saw the sea. However, when they saw the busy scenes along the way and the magnificent scene of thousands of sailboats racing in the sea, everyone was still amazed.
Very emotional.
Wei Zhice said with great admiration: "The commander-in-chief is really inscrutable. Not only does he command the army to fight in battles, he has great admiration for us, but he also excels in the preparation of ordnance.
How could I have thought that the method of preparing dried fish mentioned this time, alone, not only saved the lives of countless Liao people, but also solved the problem of food and meat for our army of hundreds of thousands. It really saved thousands of families.
Buddha!"
All the generals in Xuanfu Town beside him laughed, and Zhang Guodong also laughed and said: "The scholar is really amazing. Although you talked about your own feelings, you just hit our heart."
The rest of the people laughed softly, and Zhang Guangda's eyes became more determined. Among these people, only he and Lin Fangping were the first to follow Zhang Cheng.
In front of them, Zhang Cheng stood upright on a rock. On his left was Commander-in-Chief Zhang Ruoqi, and on his right were Chen Jiugao and Wang Pu.
Zhang Cheng seems to be the central focus of everyone!
He looked at the sea in front of him, feeling relaxed and happy, and couldn't help but said: "Since I came to Ming Dynasty, Zhang Cheng, what I am most proud of is that I have changed the fate of many people in the past."