gnovel Chapter 178 Established
Chapter 178 Established
On the night of the 20th of the first lunar month, clusters of fireworks were set off on the river embankment in front of the old granary.
As described in Zhao Mengfu's poem "To the Fireworks Makers," "The fireworks burst forth in a dazzling display like falling stars, their clamor and frenzy like a raging fire," a scene that finally allowed Shao Shuyi to experience a glimpse of the spirit of later generations.
After the fireworks display, Shengye Trading Company was officially established.
Accountant Yu Yuan, Transport Manager Kong Tie, Merchandising Manager Liang Tai, and Wang Huadu, who had just returned from Pudong, surrounded Shao Shuyi with beaming smiles—Shao Shuyi was temporarily serving as the head of the General Affairs Department, as there was no suitable candidate.
The first thing a trading company does after its establishment is not to have a meal together, but to hand over all its affairs and assets.
Inside the Chairman's office, Shao Shuyi sat behind a large desk, with the heads of various departments sitting across from him, frowning as he flipped through the account books. "One by one," Shao Shuyi said, taking a sip of tea to moisten his throat before looking at Yu Yuan. "Originally, I planned to allocate 150 ingots to the account, but with Madam Liu's help, we sold a lot of fish and salt ahead of schedule, so I'll allocate 500 ingots. From now on, all expenses will come from this." "Yes," Yu Yuan replied.
Shengye Trading Company was the private property of Gongming's elder brother, and it had 500 ingots of Zhongtong paper money in its accounts. This was the beginning of all its businesses.
"Have you contacted Song You yet?" Shao Shuyi asked.
"Brother, I've spoken to him, but he's still hesitant," Yu Yuan replied.
"Then let's wait and see," Shao Shuyi said with a smile. "Maybe Zheng Sheng will send him to me. Next, um, the transport room." After saying that, he looked up at Kong Tie.
Kong Tie's skin had grown increasingly dark, and his expression increasingly serious. He put down the ledger and said, "The transport department has two 400-ton seagoing vessels, namely Liu Jia and Liu Yi; two 300-ton Yellow River transport vessels, namely Kun Jia and Kun Yi; and two 200-ton canal vessels, namely Tai Jia and Tai Yi, totaling six vessels with a cargo capacity of over 1,900 shi. We have no boatmen, only Hou Tai from Gutang has come to apply, but we haven't assigned him a position yet." Shao Shuyi nodded and said, "Hurry up and recruit people. The transport department doesn't need to be too cautious. That Hou Tai is quite good; he's been transporting grain by sea several times, and he's more than qualified to be a ship manager."
"Then let him try out the position of Liu Jia's ship manager first," Kong Tie said.
"Can."
"Has Liu Si Dou arrived yet?"
They said they would come at the end of January.
"Tell him to hurry up and come here. Liu Yi, the chief ship manager, should give it to him," Shao Shuyi instructed.
"Okay." Kong Tie had no objection.
After Bian Sandou, Bian Sidou's elder brother, died in battle, Sidou withdrew from the private salt trade due to his family's persuasion. However, he was naturally willing to engage in legitimate business and strongly expressed this desire, so he was recruited.
"The next room is the cargo storage area," Shao Shuyi added.
"The two shallow boats in the room are Pingjia and Pingyi," Liang Tai said calmly as he sat there. "Besides the boats, there are 20,000 catties of Huai salt stored at Matuosha, waiting to be sold. The Shengyou Garden property where we are staying has 103 rooms. There are also 13 soldiers, eight of whom have already moved their families to Matuosha, and five other families will be sent there in a few days."
Shao Shuyi tapped on his desk and said, "From now on, don't mention the word 'warrior' anymore. Replace it with 'buddy'."
"Yes," Liang Tai replied crisply.
"The agricultural settlement." Shao Shuyi's gaze fell on Wang Huadu.
"The Yingtianfang area is the most chaotic," Wang Huadu said. "There are only sixty or seventy shi of grain left in Xiaoyuan and Matuosha. There's a half-finished house in Sanlinli with one or two hundred mu of land. We plan to try planting it this spring to see how much rice we can harvest. Are the people who are farming still in Matuosha? There are seventeen households and seventy-two people in total. I've found out that they all come from a place called Shouchun. They don't speak the language, so it's difficult to manage them."
"Sit up straight and speak properly," Shao Shuyi said, glancing at him with displeasure.
Seeing that Shao Shuyi was genuinely unhappy, Wang Huadu smiled sheepishly, sat up straight in the rattan chair, and said, "Alright, Brother Shao is right. After the second day of the second lunar month, I will return to Pudong and discuss with my uncle and 'Vegetable Garden' how to manage that wasteland in Pudong properly."
Shao Shuyi's expression softened slightly, and he said, "The work of the farm is indeed fragmented, so you'll have to put in a little effort, Dog Slave. First, get the wasteland sorted out; there will be other farm work to do later. I see there's a lot of wasteland in Ma Tuo Sha, full of knee-high weeds. The villagers mostly drive their cattle and sheep there to graze, but they haven't actually cultivated it. We can think of a way to address this in the future."
"What? We have to reclaim the wasteland of Ma Tuo Sha?" Wang Huadu looked distressed and said, "Brother Shao, I really can't do this job. It's too fragmented and too annoying. I'd rather go fight and kill."
"You can do this for now," Shao Shuyi said. "We're short-staffed everywhere right now, so we'll transfer you out once we find a suitable candidate."
Upon hearing that it could be arranged, Wang Huadu agreed.
"Finally, there's the General Affairs Office." Shao Shuyi flipped through the papers on his desk and said, "I'll be in charge of the General Affairs Office for now. The other departments haven't been set up yet, and we're short-staffed. Only the Huangtian Trading Company has 88 ingots of cash on its books."
After speaking, he glanced at everyone and said, "The next step is to appoint the section chiefs."
The so-called "section chief," like "chief clerk," was a title established by Shao Shuyi.
In terms of the corresponding government agencies, the "fang" was generally managed by a langzhong or yuanwailang, while the "ke" was mainly managed by clerks and other officials. In order to cover up their true nature, clerks, section chiefs, and even deputy section chiefs were created. In any case, they were just a "grassroots" organization in the countryside, and they could do whatever they wanted. At least they were more standardized than the "Mingwang," "Zushi," and "Xiangtou" positions in incense societies, even though they were all just grassroots organizations.
"Gao Daqiang, Wu Heizi, Li Fu, Cheng Ji, and Bian Yuanheng are appointed as section chiefs of Shengye Trading Company, and Yang Jin will serve as section chief of Huangtian Trading Company." Shao Shuyi continued, "However, I must say that although they are appointed as section chiefs, they may not have any official duties. This is just a preliminary appointment. They will be formally appointed when the various departments are established. The deputy section chiefs include the general managers of the ships in the transportation department, as well as Jiang Sanbao, Wei Erdi, Wu Shangyuan, and Jiang Bayue, totaling ten people."
"The head clerk receives two ingots of cash per month, the section chief seventy strings of cash, the deputy section chief one ingot, and the Huangtian Trading Company receives one rank less in cash. Rewards are uncertain and depend on the time..." Shao Shuyi spoke for a long time, finally concluding, "Including the workers in the trading post, we need to pay several dozen ingots of wages each month. Gentlemen, this isn't just my responsibility; how well you do directly affects the money you receive. Therefore..."
Shao Shuyi stood up from behind his desk, glanced around, and said, "We need to make some money from now on, otherwise we might not even be able to pay our workers." Everyone laughed at his words.
No one believed that they couldn't pay wages. Just by slowly selling the 20,000 catties of Huai salt carried by Ma Tuosha, they could recoup 600 ingots.
As for trading goods, no one considered it. It might be profitable, but it paled in comparison to smuggling salt, so they didn't bother mentioning it. Shao Shuyi stood at the window and looked once again at the distant Loujiang River.
Even at night, large and small boats were already sailing along this golden waterway, their lights stretching far into the distance. Before, he could only admire them; now he had joined them.
Now in his third year of transmigration, marked by the opening of Shengye Trading Company, he finally has his own business.
Starting on the 22nd, the Shengye Trading Company's transport department received its first order: two canal boats would transport a batch of timber to Suzhou, and on the return trip, they would also carry over 400 shi of grain.
On the 23rd, Liu Jia's ship carried 450 shi of grain to Yangzhou, marking his second transaction.
On the 25th, Kong Tie, the person in charge, personally led a team of three ships, Liu Yi, Kun Jia, and Kun Yi, carrying 600 shi of dried seafood, porcelain, paper, medicinal herbs, spices, and other goods to Wuhu.
Three business deals right from the start foreshadow a good start to the year.
On the 26th, Shao Shuyi personally led two boats, Pingjia and Pingyi, upstream to Matuosha.
Before setting off, the village head Zhang Dawang sent his nephew onto the boat, saying he needed to bring back a batch of livestock from Jiangyin Prefecture. Although this might make the boat dirty and troublesome to clean, Shao Shuyi agreed anyway. Why not take advantage of it? The first three orders were all provided by Madam Shen, and now that a new customer had finally appeared, he couldn't let him slip away.
On the 29th, the two ships docked at Matuosha one after the other.
Zhang Dawang's nephew was led to stay on Yaqian Street, while the rest of the people began loading the salted fish and Huai salt that they had promised to Madam Liu before the New Year. That night, they were escorted to Xiapu by Liang Tai, the chief manager of Pingyi Ship.
Shao Shuyi decided to stay on the island for two days to handle some related matters.
"Thirteen households can live here." Li Fu pointed to the houses in front of and behind a bamboo grove and said, "Some houses have been uninhabited for many years and are overgrown with weeds. The roofs are also leaky. We can just repair them ourselves."
"It's a bit bitter," Shao Shuyi commented.
Li Fu looked ahead and said in a calm tone, "If you can avoid corvée labor and taxes and still have food to eat, then it's not considered hardship."
Shao Shuyi patted him on the shoulder and said, "You'll get better slowly."
"Brother Shao," Li Fu suddenly said, "I was very pleased when you established Shengye Trading Company and assigned duties some time ago."
Having said that, he didn't say another word and led the way.
Shao Shuyi followed behind Li Fu, looking around.
The once abandoned houses gradually filled with people, some of whom were the families of soldiers from the trading post, and others were refugees gathered from the Huai River area, the latter of whom were about to travel by boat to Shanghai.
Every house was filled with dried salted fish hanging in front of and behind it, and the fishy smell was overwhelming when you got close.
Some places that were once overgrown with weeds have been cleared out and planted with beans, fruits and vegetables. Although they are still surrounded by weeds and the yield is worrying, they will surely become fertile fields in a few years.
Tie Niu's family also disembarked.
When his wife and children saw the dozen or so acres of barren land, two ponds, and a bamboo grove, they did not complain at all; on the contrary, they were very happy.
They are not afraid of hard work, they are afraid of not having the opportunity.
The men who followed Brother Shao not only enjoyed good food and drink, but also received a cash ingot every month, enough to support them.
With the problem of food solved, adults and children alike pitched in to gradually cultivate some land, and the family's life began to improve day by day.
The only ones who were unhappy during this process were probably the monks of Chong Sheng Temple.
They suddenly realized that the wasteland they had rented out might be in a predicament from which they could not get it back.
The thieves' families repaired the houses, cultivated the wasteland, and even dug out some crooked irrigation ditches. After going through so much trouble, can you really return it to me?
Therefore, they actively began to save themselves...