1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2259
Zhang Jinbao had just returned to the inn where he stayed. He didn't know that another good thing was about to happen to Johnsy College without his participation at all.

Zhang Jinbao first asked the students to go to the store to order some food. Although the dishes at the banquet just now were very good, but he was busy communicating with people from all walks of life, so he didn't have time to eat a few bites. He was already hungry at this time.

Of course, Zhang Jinbao did not forget to show off today's gains to the students while eating.In particular, Li Nai was invited to visit Danzhou in the near future, and discuss the agreement to establish a branch of the academy in Guangzhou. He had to boast about his achievements.

"If Fu Ruifeng can be recruited to cooperate with our academy this time, then we can slowly promote the brand of Jonesy Academy in the future, and it is very likely that we will have the opportunity to become the number one private academy in our country. After you graduate from the academy, you can also choose It is also a good way out to be a teacher in the branch school." Zhang Jinbao, while boasting, did not forget to draw inspirational pictures for the students and let them realize the bright future of the college.

Some students asked: "Dean, Fu Ruifeng is rich and powerful, if they want to participate in the daily affairs of the academy, won't it destroy the order of the academy?"

Zhang Jinbao slowly put down his chopsticks, and replied seriously: "I will discuss this point carefully with Li Nai at that time. Jointly running a school does not mean that Fu Ruifeng can intervene in the daily affairs of the academy. We will set a limit in the meeting. It is Fu Ruifeng who can intervene, what they have no right to intervene... In short, they cannot be allowed to interfere with the normal operation of the academy."

Zhang Jinbao also had some considerations about how to maintain the original independence of the academy in the joint school model.If he wants to open a branch in Guangzhou, he needs the support of Fu Ruifeng, a local snake, to provide land, funds, and other social resources in the local area. Fu Ruifeng is a businessman, and the only reason why he is willing to cooperate with Jonesy Academy is profit.The academy can train professionals for Fu Ruifeng, but this condition alone may not be enough to make Fu Ruifeng tempted.

What Zhang Jinbao is more worried about is that Fu Ruifeng will ask to directly participate in the management of the academy. He himself is a businessman wearing the mask of an educator, and he knows very well what will happen if another business force stronger than himself intervenes in the operation of the academy. what's the situation.Sending someone over to be the deputy dean to check and balance him is probably considered light, if not, he will try to slowly lift him up, and then at some point turn Jonesy Academy into the property under the name of Fu Ruifeng.

Yes, Zhang Jinbao is very clear that his seeking cooperation with Fu Ruifeng involves a lot of commercial risks, and if he does not do it well, he will be seeking skins from tigers.But he refused to give up his goal, and Haihan officials couldn't help him too much with the matter of opening a branch of the Academy in Daming territory, so he could only find someone with certain strength to cooperate.

Therefore, he must determine some rules at the beginning of the cooperation to ensure that the academy can operate normally like in Danzhou, and will not receive too much interference from the partners.Of course, if the partner just got a few related households from time to time and asked to be exempted from the entrance examination, or to give some other special treatment, Zhang Jinbao didn't mind cooperating in these trivial matters.

Zhang Jinbao is not sure how Fu Ruifeng will treat this transaction, but at least from preliminary negotiations, Li Nai should have a greater interest in this project, and is even willing to go to Danzhou to inspect Qiongxi for this purpose. As far as the actual operation of the academy is concerned, this can be said to be a good start.As for the next negotiation with Li Nai, he still has at least two or three days to think about it.

However, Li Nai's most important thing at this time was not the project of Jonesy Academy, but the fact that Zheng Zuo approached him before and wanted to set up the Annan Guild Hall in Guangzhou.

Li Nai didn't think there was anything wrong with Zheng Zuo's idea at the time, so he agreed immediately, but after returning to his residence to think about it, he felt that there was something unclear about it.

According to Li Nai's knowledge, Annan's main trading destination at present is the Haihan Kingdom. The three major ports of Danzhou, Haikou and Sanya have many merchant ships that regularly travel to and from Annan.For Annan, the distance between Guangzhou and several ports on Hainan Island is three or four times farther, and the freight cost alone is not a small sum.

If the procurement project is not particularly large, or if it is not a long-term demand, it is actually more cost-effective and less risky for Annan merchants to purchase goods shipped by Ming merchants at the port of Hainan Island than to open a trade route to Guangzhou by themselves.

Even if the Annan people wanted to set up a guild hall and a storehouse on the northeast coast of the mainland, Guangzhou would not be the first choice. Hong Kong Island under Haihan’s rule is obviously more suitable for their trade needs, and the security is definitely better than Guangzhou higher.

Li Nai is not sure whether there is already an institution like the Annan Guild Hall on Hong Kong Island. If there is, then Zheng Zuo would not have much need to spend a lot of resources to build a trading institution with similar functions in Guangzhou, which is more than 200 miles away.If not, Zheng Zuo's first choice should be Hong Kong instead of Guangzhou.But no matter which possibility it is, it will make Zheng Zuo's decision seem a bit strange.

The most important thing is that he remembered that there seemed to be very few merchants from Annan in the Guangzhou market. Annan's demand for building a guild hall in Guangzhou did not seem to be as urgent as Zheng Zuo's performance.

Thinking of this, Li Nai called one of his stewards to ask, "Which ports do Annan's merchant ships usually call at when they go to the north?"

The steward replied: "Usually, they will call at the port of Macau under the Portuguese rule and Hong Kong under the rule of the Haihan people. Further north, they will call at Kaohsiung Port, Magong Port, Zhangzhou Port, Jilong Port, and Dinghai Port. But they will go to Fujian. There are very few Annan merchant ships north of the strait, perhaps only a dozen ships a year!"

Li Nai nodded, and asked again: "Are there many Annan merchant ships arriving in Guangzhou?"

The steward replied: "There may be three or four ships a month. Annan merchant ships rarely make a special trip to Guangzhou, because the prices of many things in Guangzhou and Hong Kong are almost the same. For merchants, there is no need to travel more than 100 miles. "

Li Nai was silent for a moment, and then continued to ask: "If the Annan people want to build a guild hall in Guangzhou, what do you think?"

The manager said with a look of surprise: "At present, there are not many Annan people living in Guangzhou, and there are not many Annan merchants coming and going. If we build a guild hall, I am afraid that it will be empty for a long time in the future. "

Li Nai dismissed the steward, and became more and more sure that Zheng Zuo's idea was to hide other purposes.It is absolutely impossible for a high-level person like Zheng Zuo to waste time on things that are not enough or even dispensable.Since Annan did not have a strong demand to set up a guild hall in Guangzhou, why did Zheng Zuo pretend to be such a situation?It can't be just to cheat Fu Ruifeng's land, right?
Li Nai thought for a while and still had no clue, so he could only take one step at a time.However, Guangzhou is also the territory of the Li family, and even the government can't do anything to the Li family now, so Li Nai doesn't have to worry about what monsters Zheng Zuo can make after he arrives in Guangzhou.When the time comes, just see the trick and dismantle it, so as not to damage your own interests.

At this time, Zheng Zuo had just returned to his residence not long ago, and was asking his staff to write invitations.He invited He Xi and Xu Yuxing to meet in private today. He originally planned to wait until after the martial arts competition to arrange the arrangement, but Tao Donglai announced during the meeting that he would announce next year's arms sales list during the martial arts competition. Zheng Zuo was worried that this news would affect the For his plan, he decided to advance the meeting with He and Xu to tomorrow.

"These two invitations must be sent to them early tomorrow morning." If it wasn't too late by now, Zheng Zuo really wanted someone to send them overnight.

The next day, at a certain restaurant in the city, Zheng Zuo finally waited for He Xi and Xu Yuxing who came to the appointment.Seeing that everyone had arrived, Zheng Zuo called Xiaoer over and asked him to serve wine and food.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Zheng Zuo took the initiative to say: "Both of you are very busy people, today I am honored to meet with you, thank you in advance!"

He Xi said: "The little prince is so polite, I'm afraid there will be some difficult matters to discuss with us?"

He Xi spoke unceremoniously, but Zheng Zuo didn't think he was disobedient. He knew that He Xi had a special position in the senior management of Haihan, with great authority, and he spoke quite directly, but since the other party came, naturally he would not get up and leave easily .

Zheng Zuo smiled and said: "Master He is a straightforward person, so I won't go around in circles. I invite you two to come over for a meeting today. I really have something important to discuss."

After Zheng Zuo told his plan, He Xi and Xu Yuxing's faces changed slightly.They really didn't expect that what the Annan people planned was not only difficult, it could be said to be a huge trouble.

Zheng Zuo's plan can be summed up simply. He wants to represent Annan and invite Haihan and Fujian to join hands to carve up the Guangdong and Guangxi regions under the Ming Dynasty.

The carve-up mentioned by Zheng Zuo is not just the current control of the sea passage in the coastal areas of Guangdong and Guangxi, but the use of military means. The three families jointly send troops to occupy these areas and place them under their own rule.

According to Zheng Zuo's proposal, Annan would get the area west of the Leizhou Peninsula, Fujian Xu's would get the area east of the Pearl River Estuary, and the most prosperous area in the middle would be assigned to Haihan in the future.In this way, the sites obtained by the three families can be connected with their original territories, and it is also convenient for ruling.

Rao He Xi and Xu Yuxing were used to seeing the world, but they really didn't expect that the Annan people would want to play so big.After the two looked at each other for a long while, He Xi smiled wryly and said first, "My lord, may I take the liberty to ask, is this your personal intention, or the intention of King Qingdu?"

Hearing this question, Zheng Zuo's expression was a little worried: "Could it be that what I mean can't represent An Nanguo?"

He Xi said: "I just want to remind the young prince that doing so means going to war with Daming, and it will put Master Xu who is far away in Fujian in a very difficult situation."

Xu Yuxing said: "I can tell the young prince very frankly, as far as the moment is concerned, our Xu family has no plans to establish itself, let alone start a war for it."

Zheng Zuo saw that the attitude of these two people was obviously opposed to his proposal, so he quickly said: "Don't rush to draw conclusions, you might as well think about the benefits of doing so first. The Ming Dynasty's rule over the Lingnan area was originally very loose, and now There is also a war in the north that hinders the deployment of Daming's troops. If we send troops together, I believe that we will not encounter too much trouble in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions. As long as we occupy the land, what can Daming do? Can we still divide the troops? Three ways to attack us?"

He Xi shook his head slightly and said: "My country and Ming Dynasty have established diplomatic relations, so it is impossible to go to war without declaring it. Moreover, going to war with Ming Dynasty will do more good than harm to our country, and the executive committee will definitely not agree."

"The land from the Leizhou Peninsula to the mouth of the Pearl River is much larger than Hainan Island, and has a population of hundreds of thousands. Isn't this an urgently needed resource for your country? If you only want to maintain friendship with Daming, Daming will not hand over these resources to your country on its own." Zheng Zuo is still trying to persuade He Xi to accept his point of view.

He Xidao: "Things are not as simple as the little prince thinks...Warning against Daming will greatly affect the trade between our country and Daming, although it is indeed possible to loot from Daming through war, including land and population. resources in the country, but at the same time we will also lose a huge sales market, do you understand? More than half of the various goods that our Haihan country sells abroad are sold to Daming. Losing this market will make my country's Foreign trade has been greatly affected."

Xu Yuxing also said: "If Da Ming is forced to go to war, it will make Da Ming face the difficult situation of being attacked from both sides. Maybe the little prince will think that this is just convenient for us to carve up the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, but in fact it may cause Da Ming to be overwhelmed, and the world will be in chaos. !"

"The chaos is also in the far north inland, isn't it?" Zheng Zuo retorted: "If Daming just fell apart, it wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing for us! May I ask where the army in Daming can defeat our three families? Either side? Maybe in three to five years, our sphere of influence will be able to advance to the south bank of the Yangtze River, or even further north. I don't think anyone can stop us, and the entire Ming Dynasty will be a big pie waiting for us to carve up !"

In fact, Zheng Zuo's words are already quite provocative, and they are indeed extremely feasible.If the three companies present jointly send troops, at least in the southern coastal area, there is indeed no local garrison that can pull out to fight them.If things go well, it is not impossible to support the war with war and advance all the way north.

Moreover, he is well aware of Haihan's desire for land and population, so he used this to persuade Haihan to participate, which shows that he has used his mind to prepare before this.It's just that Zheng Zuo's estimation of the positions of these two companies is still a small misjudgment, and the conditions he raised did not have an immediate effect.

(End of this chapter)