Starting from mid-February until the end of February.
In just half a month.
The number of workers recruited by Harbor City has exceeded 30,000, 50,000, and even exceeded 100,000, with an average of nearly 10,000 workers recruited every day.
Almost all farmers, fishermen, salt workers, and handicraftsmen within fifty miles of the area came to Harbor City and became workers on this large construction site.
There are men and women among them.
The oldest is forty or fifty years old, and the youngest is only twenty or three years old.
Some are young and strong, some are incapable of working, and some have fled with their families.
The situation and composition are very complex.
But no matter what the situation is.
As long as you have hands and feet and a certain degree of labor ability, Harbor City will arrange a job for you. Even if it is helping in the kitchen to wash vegetables, or going to the beach to pick up some seashells and seafood, or being responsible for sweeping floors and toilets, etc., these are all formal jobs.
.
For those who are really unable to work, as long as they prove that they are the workers' family members, they will be given one meal at noon every day.
Therefore, for the surrounding population, Harbor City can almost be described as "all comers are welcome", as long as they come, they will be accommodated.
Just recruiting more than 100,000 workers and attracting all the young and healthy people within a radius of 50 miles nearby, just three meals a day will consume an unknown amount of food, and the daily wages to be paid exceed 10 million yuan, which is equivalent to tens of thousands of taels of silver.
.
Including other expenses, the average daily consumption is at least 30,000 taels of silver.
This does not include the various materials purchased by Xu Yuan from Hyundai, of which diesel alone consumes hundreds of tons every day and is worth nearly one million.
It is said that Xujiazhuang has hundreds of construction machinery, more than 30,000 young people, and various advanced modern tools. There is no problem at all in building a harbor city. It can be completed in about a year. Why do we need to recruit a large number of workers?
Attracted more than 100,000 people from surrounding areas?
These people have a limited role in improving the progress of the project. At most, they are equivalent to about a hundred construction machines, but the additional expenses they bring are not small. Why does Xujiazhuang do this?
"As long as we provide a large number of jobs and attract the population that was originally controlled by the landlords, gentry, and salt merchants to our side, when a conflict of interest breaks out between us and the salt merchant interest groups, they will even want to find jobs in Harbor City.
Trouble, at least within fifty miles of the surrounding area, they can't find a large number of manpower available, so they can only fight us personally."
"But our harbor city has more than 30,000 well-trained young people, and more than 100,000 workers are available. There are hundreds of thousands of people. Just take the steel shovels and steel picks that you usually use for work, which is very good combat effectiveness.
Coupled with the 1,000 elite village guards, the salt merchants and salt lords would not be able to capture our harbor city even if they encouraged the court to send 100,000 elite troops, either personally or because we have advantages in many aspects."
"People-oriented, the vast majority of the poor are the majority. As long as we can win them over to our side, no matter how powerful the interest group is, it will quickly collapse and become a lonely family. Although we have many
We paid a cost of tens of thousands of taels per day, but it severely weakened the opponent and made us invincible. Compared with letting these poor people become the opponent's cannon fodder and use them to attack and consume us, I don't know how much trouble we saved."
"To reduce the number of potential opponents and to recruit many of our own people, this is a strategy to draw fuel from the bottom of the cauldron for our opponents, and it is also a strategy for our own invincibility."
As for money, it is so easy to earn that there is no need to feel any pain compared to the most important people.
In a high-rise conference room.
Naturally, everyone agrees and applauds Xu Yuan's theories and views.
"Wonderful, wonderful, as long as you win the hearts and minds of the majority of people, you will be invincible. This has been true since ancient times."
"That's right. Now almost all the salt workers and salt households in Rugao County who are close to the sea have gone to work in our seaport city. When our salt factory is set up, even if the salt merchants want to use force, they won't be able to incite many salt workers.
Already."
"The salt workers only want to support their families, so how can they work for the salt merchants and salt lords who oppress them? Even if they are incited, as long as we offer a higher salary, they may switch to our side on the spot
.”
"Yes, the owner of the village has said that all the problems in the world are actually economic problems. This makes perfect sense. As long as one day, we control hundreds of millions of villagers and recruit countless workers to work for us.
, created more wealth. Even if the emperor is superior in this world, we are the ones who have the word, because the most important "people" are here with us. No matter how hostile others are, they are not as numerous as us, and their financial and material resources are not as good as ours, and their productivity
If you are not as good as us, what can you do to us?"
"There is no need to worry about anything anymore. The salt merchants can't change the world! Speed up the progress and open the salt factory first to add a new source of income. In addition, the population controlled by Xujiazhuang will soon exceed 300,000, and there may be a shortage of food.
As a precaution, we have to stop selling grain to foreign countries and find ways to purchase some grain."
Xu Yuan finally said.
…
March 1st.
Yangzhou City, Salt Merchant Guild Hall.
In a hall on the second floor, all the prominent salt merchants in Yangzhou City gathered together today to discuss a major event that made them anxious.
There are many merchants engaged in the salt industry in Yangzhou. Every link of salt production, transportation and sales supports countless merchants.
Among them, the six largest salt merchants, Ma, Wang, Xiao, Wang, Zhou and Luo, account for at least 70% of the market share of Huai salt, while other merchants divide the remaining soup.
Tangshuishui, and most of them depend on these six salt merchants for their survival.
But today!
In the meeting hall on the second floor of the guild hall, all six major salt merchants were present, sitting in the six seats in the middle, with extremely solemn expressions on their faces.
"What does Xujiazhuang want to do? Suddenly went to the seaside to build a city, suddenly hired a large number of workers, and abducted all our kitchen households. The sea salt output of various salt villages plummeted by 50% in some and 90% in many. Even hundreds of miles away from the Harbor City
In the salt villages miles away, 30% of the kitchen households have fled. If this continues, we will have no salt to sell, and soon all of us will be bankrupt and ruined!"
Ma Jiliang, the number one salt merchant sitting at the top, slapped the handle of his official hat with a pale face and said angrily: "What exactly does Xujiazhuang want?"
"This is digging out our roots. Not only are we digging out our roots, but the salt patrol soldiers I sent to Harbor City discovered that Xujiazhuang is building a salt drying field of tens of thousands of acres in Harbor City. The progress is amazing. Not long ago
Then it can be activated, Xujiazhuang plans to intervene in the business of our salt merchants!"
The head of the Wang family, Wang Sheng, also broke out a shocking news, which caused the faces of all the salt merchants present to change drastically. They were in an uproar and couldn't sit still.
Is Xujiazhuang going to build a salt drying farm?
It covers an area of tens of thousands of acres.
Doesn't this mean you want their lives?
In fact, the method of drying salt is not a new technology, but has existed since ancient times. In the Song Dynasty, many salt drying fields appeared. The output and efficiency were significantly higher than the backward salt boiling method. However, such an advanced technology did not exist.
It occupies the mainstream, but has been eliminated by the kitchen households cooking salt.
The main reason is that the construction cost of salt drying fields is relatively high. It is necessary to build sea dams and recruit a large number of people for a long time. They are often harassed by pirates and Japanese pirates. It is impossible for salt merchants to invest huge sums of money to strengthen security. In addition, typhoons and waves
Due to the destructive effects of salt drying, few salt drying farms can continue to operate for a long time, and various risks are high.
It is better to let the Zao households cook salt for them. The investment cost is almost zero, and all the risks are borne by the Zao households and salt households. During the acquisition, they continue to lower the price and exploit wildly. Over time, the cost of collecting salt is estimated to be lower than that of the sun salt method.
, there is no need to build any salt drying field.
After all, wouldn’t it be more fun to make money while lying down, so why bother?
I just didn't expect that the extremely wealthy Xujiazhuang would come in and acquire a salt drying field of 10,000 acres. With the scale and efficiency of this salt drying field, how much salt can be produced in a day?
Many of the Zaohu salt households they controlled also went to Harbor City, causing sea salt production to plummet.
If you continue to sit back and watch like this...
boom!
Xiao Changwan, the head of the Xiao family, slapped the table and said: "The Ming Dynasty sea ban is a national policy. Xujiazhuang builds a city without authorization and violates the national law. It is simply treason! We will report this matter to the Ming court and immediately eliminate this treason! However, if Xujiazhuang is willing to listen to us
He warned me to cancel the construction of Harbor City, repatriate all the kitchen households, and compensate us for losses of several million taels, and let this matter go. If you don't listen to the advice and insist on going your own way, you will be turned into powder when the imperial soldiers arrive!"
"Yes, Xujiazhuang's unauthorized construction of a city is tantamount to blatant rebellion. The imperial court will not tolerate it, and destruction is imminent." Immediately, a businessman agreed.
"But the imperial court has no money, and Xujiazhuang has not openly rebelled. One more thing is worse than one less thing. The imperial court is likely to settle down and choose to ignore it. Unless someone is willing to pay, it will send out an army."
"If you pay, pay! If each family pays 100,000 taels of silver, even ten Xujiazhuangs can be destroyed!" a certain salt merchant shouted.
"We also have a lot of business dealings with Xujiazhuang. If Xujiazhuang is destroyed and the supply of exotic goods from overseas is cut off, our losses will not necessarily be less than selling salt."
Hearing these extreme and tough voices, Luo Houping, the representative of the Luo family, couldn't sit still and had to stand up and said: "In business, peace is important to make money. How can we talk about weapons? Besides, when we and the Yangzhou salt merchants unite, how can we be afraid of Xujiazhuang's small actions?
, In this way, we should be polite first and then fight. We will send a few representatives to Xujiazhuang to negotiate with them. If that doesn't work, we will use strong methods and kill them from the beginning. "
As soon as Luo Houping said these words.
He immediately attracted countless ridicules, scolding him like "Are you a coward?", "My bones are weak, I'm scared", "The salt merchant is a shame, I'm ashamed to be associated with him" and so on. He was scolded bloody, but
Several heavyweight salt merchants expressed his views and thought it would be better to talk to Xujiazhuang first.
Because there are too many businessmen in Yangzhou City who have cooperative relationships with Xujiazhuang.
Yangzhou merchants account for the largest number of agents selling Xujiazhuang's "overseas exotic goods", accounting for at least 30% of the total. They have made countless amounts of money by selling Xujiazhuang's "overseas exotic goods", which is no less than what they earn from selling salt.
Therefore, their stance is relatively moderate, advocating negotiation and being less willing to fight.
Luo Houping is not actually an agent of Xujiazhuang, but has always been eager to obtain the agent qualification. He had bad luck a few times before and was blocked by Qian Renyi. If he can take the opportunity to build a good relationship with Xujiazhuang this time, he will be qualified to be an agent for overseas exotic goods.
Maybe you can get it.
So after another heated discussion, the tough voices against Xujiazhuang always prevailed. However, before taking tough measures, they also agreed to send a delegation of salt merchants to Xujiazhuang to negotiate and try to see if negotiation could work.
can solve the problem.
Luo Houping fought hard and got the qualification of a negotiator, and he will set off soon.