Zhu Neng clenched his fists, the veins on his forehead were exposed, and he gritted his teeth and said: "You three... If grandpa doesn't deal with you severely today, you won't know what it means to be so thick and thick, and I will be so angry!"
But at this moment, heads poked out of the awning boats docked at the pier.
When everyone saw that the fight was over, the boatmen who were hiding in the awnings jumped out of the boat one by one barefoot and gathered towards this side.
They were all wearing uniform blue cloth, and there were thirty or forty people in total. When they swarmed up, they all saluted together: "I have met three masters."
Zhu Neng was dumbfounded when he saw this crowd of people.
Zhang Anshi clasped his hands behind his back, looking very proud, and then waved his hand and said: "Go away, start working quickly, don't be lazy."
"Yes." Everyone dispersed in a hurry.
Zhu Neng: "..."
Zhang Anshi smiled and said to Zhu Neng: "Shibo, didn't I say that we use money to do business?"
"This...is this your deal?" Zhu Neng pointed to a ship docked at the dock.
Zhang Anshi said: "Of course."
"How much did you buy?"
"One of my brothers contributed 30,000 taels of silver, and the three of us contributed 7,400 taels of silver together to buy hundreds of large and small ships, plus employment and other expenses...that's about it."
Zhu Neng sneered: "This price is not a big advantage. Do you still want to imitate ordinary people and do business by ferry? How much money can you make?"
Zhang Anshi said: "We bought a hundred ships, but who said we only have a hundred ships? Zhu Yong, come and tell your father how many ships we have under our name now."
Zhu Yong crossed his hands proudly and said: "As of today, there are 431 large and small ships."
This time, Zhu Neng was frightened.
When he was in Peiping, he was also a middle-level military attache and he gradually reached today. He had heard about the situation in the ordinary market.
So he said with a sullen face: "Where did the extra three hundred ships come from? Were they stolen?"
"Shibo, what are you talking about?" Zhang Anshi said angrily: "Are we like robbers?"
Zhu Neng was silent.
Zhang Anshi sighed and said: "Shibo, you have misunderstood us. In fact...these ships are all coming to us on their own initiative. People are rushing to deliver the ships to our names."
Zhu Neng still just looked at him silently, as if he still didn't believe what he said.
Zhang Anshi asked casually: "Does Shibo know the situation at this pier? On weekdays, there are ships gathering at each of the eleven piers in Nanjing City. These... Shibo must know about it."
Zhu Neng said: "So what."
"But does Shibo know about the chaos at the dock? The water network in the south of the Yangtze River is dense, and countless people and goods are transported to and from the docks and boats. Therefore, countless people rely on the docks for a living. Let's just say this
The pier of Confucius Temple..."
Zhang Anshi paused and continued: "In the past, there were three harms here. The first harm was that the boatmen were vying for customers, and there were many boatmen who wanted their ferries to be fully loaded before they would sail.
, As a result, the passengers boarded the boat early in the morning, but the boatman refused to leave until the boat was full and not until noon. Many passengers suffered. "
"The second harm is that there is a mixed bag of fish and dragons in the dock, with various guilds and Taoist sects mixed in. Some are extorting ship owners, and some... I also have many ships under my control, and many people have unclean hands, and even kill people from time to time.
Ship passengers, people and property are stolen, and the disputes involved are countless. As the saying goes, the thieves of the boat shop should be killed even if they are not guilty. This is not a lie, because there are too many thieves involved in these businesses, and they all have sharp tongues and slippery lips.
,Which one of you has clean hands?"
"And the third harm is the government servants and officials along the way. They may collude with the guilds to extort the property of merchants and passengers. Or they may turn to blackmail the boatmen. The honest boatmen are disturbed, but they have to swallow their anger.
.”
Zhang Anshi's words were so reasonable that Zhu Neng didn't expect that a young man could understand the situation at the dock so clearly. At this time, he became serious: "So what?"
"After understanding these situations, it will be easy to handle. All you need to do is to prescribe the right medicine. So my nephew, hehe... did three things at the same time. The first one was to purchase a hundred ships, hire personnel, and all
The ships are all painted with a unified logo, and a unified black flag is hung on the bow. What is this called? This is called a brand. Then, I will let these hundreds of ships ship at a fixed time."
"Scheduled departure?"
"Yes, for example, the boat from Confucius Temple Ferry to Qixia Ferry must leave every half an hour. No matter whether it is full or not, even if there is only one passenger on the boat, the boat will still leave, rain or shine."
Zhu Neng touched his beard and frowned: "Isn't this going to be a loss?"
"We did lose money in the first few days, but later on, those regular visitors to the pier quickly discovered that our ships flying black flags are always on time. As long as we arrive at the ferry at Confucius Temple at the right time, we can make a fortune.
In this way, there is no waste of time, and for many people, the ship flying our flag is so trustworthy, so they don’t have to worry about being deceived and abducted by the shipowner midway, or even endangering people’s lives, so everyone
People are vying to be the first to sit on our boat. Our business is the hottest on the entire river."
What kind of person is Zhu Neng? This kind of thing is easy to understand. He couldn't help but nodded secretly and said: "How much can you earn?"
"Don't worry, Uncle Shi. As for passenger transport, of course you have to be honest and honest, and the price has to be fair, so in fact it's just a small profit. What you really earn... is reputation."
Zhu Neng looked at him with confusion and said, "Word of mouth?"
"Yes, in the next half month, our reputation has been accumulated, and we have begun to solicit freight business. Look at how much goods are needed in and out of Yingtianfu area. But not many traders dare to hand over the goods to the shippers. After all, the dock
The most chaotic situation is that many shippers are not clean. At this time, many people see that we are so trustworthy, and gradually some merchants want us to help transport goods."
"Look at this small ship, it can transport several kilograms of goods, and the profits from this freight are huge. Do you make a lot of money from it back and forth?"
Zhu Neng was surprised. The calculations in his mind seemed to have begun to crackle.
Zhang Anshi continued: "Of course, relying on this alone, the money is still too slow. If you want to seize the opportunity, you must expand quickly. So with reputation and freight, the third step is to expand. Because
Our business here is the best, and we have a good reputation among boat passengers and merchants. The business of other boat operators has plummeted, and at this time... we started to invite them to join us."
"Joining a team is very simple. The ship is registered under our name, we allow them to fly our flag, and at the same time we ask them to pay a certain deposit and provide them with unified training. During this process, they also have to be restrained, and finally we will use them according to their needs."
A certain percentage will be drawn on the profits generated. You see, in just a few days, more than 300 ships have joined us, and our scale has expanded like a snowball."
Zhu Neng asked again: "Are they so willing to let you take the commission for free?"
"This has hundreds of advantages and no disadvantages for them." Zhang Anshi said confidently: "This is actually the second thing we do, and it is also the reason why our three brothers will be known as the two most vicious people in the capital.