Gao Pragmatic is actually very satisfied with Wei Xuezeng's suggestion.
Gao Pragmatic doesn't care how much money was spent on the construction of the four major official ports, because in Gao Pragmatic's view, many of these expenses have not been spent on the real purpose, and a large part of them may have to be demolished after Gao Pragmatic takes over. Again.
What is pragmatic and pragmatic is actually the other three aspects.
The first aspect is that after the Ministry of Industry withdrew, there were actually no so-called official ports in Ming Dynasty, and all the private ports were fully opened. In terms of private ports, Jinghua’s construction and operation capabilities can completely defeat the other "retail investors" ”.
Why? Jinghua Tianjin Port has increasingly rich experience in operating ports; Jinghua Infrastructure has the largest engineering construction capacity in the Ming Dynasty; and Jinghua Cement Plant can provide "internally priced" cement. The use of large amounts of cement has improved construction standards, but Keep construction costs down.
You must know that near the port, due to the high sea breeze and rainfall, the service life of the wooden building itself is shorter than in dry areas, and the inside of the building is more likely to be damaged by moisture. Therefore, the use of bricks and cement buildings is " "Jinghua Standard" itself is a business card that attracts overseas merchants.
Coupled with various advantages such as large-scale operations, it can be said that as long as Jinghua takes over the four official ports, Daming's ports will only be divided into two categories: Jinghua and others. This kind of brand effect is what Gao Pragmatic has been pursuing tirelessly. , why do all his properties carry the "Jinghua" brand? It is also due to this consideration: as long as you see "Jinghua", the first impression you get is "strong strength"!
In this era, no one can count how much wealth a certain wealthy family has. In many cases, what merchants pay attention to when doing business is credibility. However, the brand Jinghua created by Gao Pragmatism can now be said with pride: "Jinghua" means credibility!
The second aspect is location advantage. Location advantage is a word he was exposed to a lot in his previous life. If he were to put it in the words of a Hong Kong real estate tycoon at that time, it would be "there are three core factors for real estate success: location, location, location." !”
In the feudal empire of the Ming Dynasty, who could get the best position? There is no doubt that it must be the imperial court! Even the highly pragmatic Tianjin Port was built next to the official port of the imperial court. It can be seen that the best position must have been expropriated by the imperial court. ——This is still the Wanli Dynasty, not the Chongzhen Dynasty. If the imperial court wants this land, do you dare not give it to it?
Therefore, not only is Tianjin's official port location good, but the three major official ports in the south, Ningbo, Quanzhou, and Guangzhou, also occupy the best geographical locations. If Gao Pragmatic takes over, it will be equivalent to the Ministry of Industry helping him in the name of the imperial court. After the "demolition" work was completed, the best quality properties were sold to him at a low price - Wei Xuezeng was obviously not a real estate tycoon. He only calculated the cost of building the port and did not realize that the land would have been acquired if the imperial court had not come forward to do so. , how much more money would be spent! He didn’t realize how amazingly the value of these lands would increase under Jinghua’s efficient operation!
The third aspect is that Gao Jingshi has been obsessed with expanding to the south, and he has so easily obtained an excellent entry point. Originally, Gao Jingshi wanted to buy land in the southern port several times, but the results were very disappointing. Wonderful, even though he is already a business tycoon in the north, not to mention a hidden political power. But in the south, the sky is high and the emperor is far away, and the local officials and gentry have many reasons and ways to exclude Gao pragmatism, and there is no way to find it. What's a good starting point?
In particular, Gao Jing's partner in the south, the Marquis of Linhuai, does not have the ability to help so much. Their family titles are broken in the middle, and their strength is indeed limited. At most, they can only help with the guard station.
, everything else is unreliable. After the Xu Pengju incident, although Xu Bangrui, the new Duke of Wei who inherited the Duke of Wei, was favored, he could not reverse the antipathy within the Xu family towards the Gao family for a while, so he
I can only write a letter to express my gratitude in private, and I can't help you on the face of it.
Now, as long as Gao Pragmatic agrees to this deal, he will immediately own the three best-located private ports in the south and gain three footholds in the south at once.
Thinking about it carefully, Wei Xuezeng actually gave Gao Jingjing two choices: one is to temporarily pay for the cement on credit. According to Gao Jingjing's intention, the credit is okay, the credit amount needs to be negotiated, and the interest that should be paid is probably unavoidable; the other is
In the transaction of paying for the goods at the private port just now, Gao Pragmatic directly exempted this year's cement payment, and added some money, and the four major official ports were directly transferred to Jinghua.
This multiple-choice question may not seem very different to Wei Xuezeng, but the difference is too big for Gao Pangshi. He said without hesitation: "Since Wei Butang attaches so much importance to river engineering affairs, as a native of Henan Province, Wansheng naturally also
We have to do our part—I want to go to Guangang Wansheng everywhere, and the rest of the conditions must be abided by Wei Butang’s wishes.”
Wei Xuezeng was overjoyed and thought to himself: This is the best thing. Not only did he lose a big burden that cost him more than 20,000 taels of silver every year, but he also "lost" nearly 300,000 taels of silver in arrears, not to mention that he still had 100,000 taels of silver in cash.
The money is in the treasury. With this, even if the allocation of the Ministry of Accounts is greatly reduced this year, at least our Ministry of Works can still breathe!
Wei Xuezeng and Wei Budang quickly stood up and thanked Gao Jingshi. Gao Jingshi had a thick face and a dark heart, but he could still accept it with a smile, as if "I only suffered such a big loss because of your Wei Budang's face."
appearance.
Wei Xuezeng was grateful again and again, but he still had to ask clearly about the business: "...I wonder about the one hundred thousand taels of silver?"
"Money is easy to handle." Gao Pragmatic smiled and said, "I wonder if the Ministry of Industry intends to ask for the money directly or has other considerations?"
Wei Xuezeng was slightly startled: "Other considerations? Seeking truth?"
Gao pragmatically said: "It's nothing special. There are two main considerations. One is that these 100,000 taels can still be used to buy cement, whether it is this year or next year. This money can be directly offset, so we are much less lazy.
Secondly, the one hundred thousand taels can be used to hire Jinghua Infrastructure to build the final project of diversion of the Yellow River - as you know, since the Ministry of Household allocation for river engineering is insufficient, in addition to cement, hiring labor and other aspects will probably
It’s hard to say now whether the reduction will affect the overall progress of the diversion project, so it’s best to prepare early.”
"Oh..." Wei Xuezeng frowned and thought for a while before saying: "I'm afraid our headquarters will have to discuss this matter with Mr. He before we can answer it. If we complete the previous transaction first, what will happen to the one hundred thousand taels of silver?
I will reply to you after the transaction is discussed with Mr. He?"
Gao Pingshi smiled and said: "Of course." However, he said this because he still hoped that he could go out without taking the money directly - it is obviously a better way to attract business for himself, but this intention may be too obvious. Wei Xuezeng obviously You need to communicate with Mr. He first.
He tried to persuade the two ministers to have dinner at Gao Mansion, but both ministers politely declined. Gao Pragmatic guessed that they would not stay for dinner, so he politely sent them to the gate. This deal could be serious. Everyone is really happy.
After the guests left, Gao Pragmatic had to turn his mind back to the current problem: the emperor asked him to find a consort for the third princess during the imperial examination. How should he handle this matter?
The most important question is whether it is feasible? These candidates who came to take the exam obviously still yearn for an official career. Let them give up the "nearby" civil service career and become a person who has nothing but a name. The consort Lao Shizi can't do anything, I'm afraid this matter is a bit difficult to handle...