1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2290
The Annan government's malaise is from top to bottom, with very few exceptions, so even if foreign businessmen want to sue, they have nowhere to complain.Over time, the merchants gradually gave up their plans to enter Annan to do business on their own, and instead went to several ports managed by Haihan to engage in trading activities.These ports belong to Annan in name, but they are actually under the control of Haihan. The business environment is much better than the ports operated by Annan himself, and the interests of merchants are more secure.

As for a big man like Zheng Zuo, does he know that the people below are doing such mischief?Li Jifeng thinks that there is a high probability that he knows about it, but the local atmosphere has always been like this. If Zheng Zuo wants to deal with it harshly, it will inevitably affect the interests of all aspects.

Naturally, Li Jifeng would not mention these things in front of Zheng Zuo, but his impression of Annan's officialdom was inevitably affected by this, and he always had doubts about Zheng Zuo's real purpose in coming to Guangzhou.But he didn't want to give up this opportunity to expand Fu Ruifeng's overseas influence, so he could only tell Li Nai to be careful and pay attention to the next actions of the Annan people.

Li Nai felt that his father's opinion was a bit fussy. After all, asking merchants for food and cards was not unique to Annan, and it was similar in all parts of Ming Dynasty. At most, the food was not so ugly.However, he also knew that his father's views had always been accurate, and there was nothing wrong with being cautious, so he did not express any objection immediately.

Li Jifeng's intuition was actually right. Not only Zheng Zuo, but the entire Annan senior management was greedy for the land in the south of Daming. However, Annan did not dare to use weapons against Daming before he got Haihan's support.However, the establishment of an agency in Guangzhou presided over by Zheng Zuo was originally intended to take this opportunity to collect information on Ming Dynasty.Li Jifeng had deliberately mentioned He Xi when he was talking about the Haihan Office in Guangzhou earlier, and he also wanted to see Zheng Zuo's reaction to this.

Li Jifeng originally invited Chen Tianqi, the current person in charge of the Guangzhou Office today, but unfortunately Chen Tianqi went to other places for business these two days and happened to be away from Guangzhou.Li Jifeng planned to meet him and talk about Annan's actions after he came back.

Early the next morning, Li Nai's subordinates visited Zhang Jinbao and gave him two arrangements for him to choose.One is that Zhang Jinbao and his party can spend a few days freely in Guangzhou to learn about the local real estate transaction market and see if they can find a suitable place to open an academy by themselves.Another option is to go directly to the place that Li Nai provided him, and if it is suitable, he can start to enter the formal implementation stage.

Regarding the location of the academy, Zhang Jinbao has already considered it. No matter whether the environment is suitable or not, the place provided by Li Nai will go there.The arrangement of examining the market conditions is even more indispensable. What Zhang Jinbao wants to know is not only the local real estate market, but also the employment needs in Guangzhou, so that he can choose subjects suitable for the local conditions in the subsequent operation of the academy .

Zhang Jinbao chose to investigate the market by himself first, and after collecting the required information, he went to see the places provided by Li Nai.If the place provided by Li Nai is satisfactory, then when discussing the terms of cooperation with him, it is better to have a sense of bargaining.It has been a year or two since the planning of this project began, and now that it has reached the stage of site inspection and site selection, Zhang Jinbao will not be in a hurry for two or three days.

Although it was a free activity, but for the convenience of Zhang Jinbao and others, Li Nai still provided them with a guide and a carriage.And Li Nai has a lot of affairs, so naturally he doesn't have that much time to accompany Zhang Jinbao around the city of Guangzhou, not to mention that there is also a young prince Annan who is also visiting Guangzhou at this time, and his schedule must give priority to taking care of Zheng Zuo's journey.

Zheng Zuo has a special request for the location of the Guangzhou office, that is, he hopes to be closer to the Haihan Office in Guangzhou.And his starting point is also very simple, that is, he hopes to use the influence of the Haihan Office in Guangzhou to allow his own agency in Guangzhou to be established smoothly.In case of any emergencies, it would be better to be close to the Haihan Guangzhou Office to take care of them.

After listening to this request, Li Nai felt that Zheng Zuo was too nervous about the situation in Guangzhou. Even if the Annan background of this institution was exposed, the local government would not be able to take strong measures against it, and there was no need for Haihan to come forward to provide asylum.

However, since it was Zheng Zuo's serious request, he could only provide the other party with a solution: "My lord, the land near the Guangzhou Office is basically owned by my family. If you want to buy it for your own use, then of course there is no problem." , but since this matter is related to the Guangzhou Office of Haihan, it is best to discuss it with Master Chen of the Guangzhou Office first, so as to avoid any misunderstanding."

The land around the Guangzhou Office is in the hands of Fu Ruifeng. This is not because Fu Ruifeng has any special plans, but at Haihan's request, he came forward to buy the land around the Guangzhou Office for safety.In the future, if the Guangzhou Office needs to be expanded, there will be plenty of space to choose from.

Of course, to acquire so much land, the cost during the period is really not small, and only a wealthy customer like Hai Han would adopt this simple and crude solution.

Li Nai's answer was slightly unexpected to Zheng Zuo, but he still responded very calmly: "This time I come to Guangzhou, I will definitely pay a visit to Mr. Chen, so I will make a decision after meeting with Mr. Chen."

Chen Tianqi returned to Guangzhou just one day later than Zheng Zuo and Zhang Jinbao. The first news he received when he went to the Guangzhou Office was that Zheng Zuo had arrived in Guangzhou, and he sent a greeting card hoping to meet him.

In fact, Chen Tianqi had received the telegram a few days ago, knowing the general purpose of Zheng Zuo's visit to Guangzhou.However, regarding this matter, the executive committee did not give clear instructions. Chen Tianqi's understanding was to wait and see what happened, and first see what the Annan people were going to do.

Chen Tianqi had never met this little Prince Annan before, and almost all the information he knew about him came from the information provided by the intelligence department, and the information on paper alone was not enough for him to judge the real identity of the other party. intention.

Later, new news was sent from Li Nai, that the Annan people intended to choose the location of the Guangzhou office near the Haihan Guangzhou Office, which made Chen Tianqi seem to have a certain smell.

"Return a message to the Annan people. In my name, hold a banquet to welcome Zheng Zuo." Chen Tianqi quickly made a decision.He still wanted to meet this little prince face to face for a while, to see what the real purpose of the other party's attempt to set up an agency in Guangzhou was.

As for Zhang Jinbao who came to Guangzhou to seek to open an academy, although he also handed over a letter of worship to the Guangzhou Office, Zhang Jinbao's status is naturally not comparable to that of Zheng Zuo, and there is no senior member of the executive committee to greet him in advance, so there is no Law received special care.

Businessmen like him who come to Guangzhou to deliver posts to the Guangzhou Office have dozens of numbers every month, and Chen Tianqi will meet him when he is free, but he will definitely not be as active as he is with Zheng Zuo, let alone specifically Host a banquet to welcome him.At most, it is to see if one day is free, and meet with other Haihan businessmen who have recently arrived in Guangzhou.

But Zhang Jinbao was not in a hurry, he came to Guangzhou to organize the academy and he could not leave in just a few days, at least he would have to stay here for ten days and half a month, and it didn't matter if he waited a little longer.He sent a message to ask to see Chen Tianqi, mainly for the purpose of getting acquainted with the Guangzhou Office. After all, to run the academy in the future, it is necessary to manage the Guangzhou Office up and down, and start building contacts earlier, maybe something Time will come in handy.

Due to limited financial resources, it would be difficult for Zhang Jinbao to afford the related expenses if he wanted to build the academy by himself after the Guangzhou land acquisition. Moreover, considering the construction period, it is certainly not as fast as buying ready-made houses.Therefore, the direction proposed by Zhang Jinbao is a ready-made house suitable for transformation into an academy.As for whether it is in Guangzhou city, that is not a necessary condition. Anyway, Jonesy Academy is not in Danzhou city, so naturally there is no need to have too high requirements for the branch.

According to Zhang Jinbao's request, the guide arranged by Li Nai took them to see several mansions for sale inside and outside the city.

Zhang Jinbao walked out of the gate, and looked back at this mansion with some reluctance. It is said that this place was the mansion of a certain magistrate in the past. The construction materials of the courtyard are all high-quality materials, and the layout of the courtyard is also quite ingenious. The location is located in a secluded wealthy area in the city, so it is almost impossible to find any faults.

The only problem is that it is too expensive.The seller asked for 12 taels of silver, and it was the same price. This figure directly dissuaded Zhang Jinbao from including this place as a candidate.The psychological price he can accept is far lower than this amount, the difference is so great that there is no need for a counter-offer.

"The house is a good house, and this price is not a good price..." Zhang Jinbao said to the guide with a wry smile, "If it is in Danzhou, even if it is to buy land and build a house, it will not cost so much money in total!"

The guide's name is Gan Wei, a native of Guangzhou, who heard the words and replied with a smile: "Master Zhang doesn't know, there are fewer and fewer mansions in Guangzhou, and rare things are more expensive. The price will naturally rise. Don't think that today's asking price is too high. If you come in another three to five or seven days, you may have to raise another ten thousand taels of silver, or it may have been bought by another family."

After Zhang Jinbao heard this, he was also quite curious, and asked again: "Why are the houses in Guangzhou so tight?"

Gan Wei replied: "The businessmen in Guangzhou have been doing business with Haihan Guo these years. The money comes quickly. When they have money, they naturally buy houses and land. In addition, many Haihan businessmen also come to Guangzhou to buy houses. Lift it up. If you had to come three to five years earlier, you might be able to sell for half the current price, but there are more buyers than sellers, so people will naturally bite the high price and will not let go."

Zhang Jinbao laughed dumbly and said, "Then, according to this, the skyrocketing housing prices in Guangzhou City have something to do with Haihan!"

Gan Wei did not directly respond to Zhang Jinbao's statement, but he still gave his own evidence: "Master Zhang, to tell you the truth, over the past few years, more than half of the properties that villains have brokered deals with have been bought by Haihan people. Let’s not talk about it far away, don’t all the adults in the Guangzhou Office have a house in the city? The price is not cheap at all..."

When Zhang Jinbao heard this guy talk about the Haihan officials stationed in Guangzhou, he didn't dare to pick up the words casually, so he coughed dryly and said, "It's reasonable for these officials to be stationed in Guangzhou and buy real estate locally. "

Why do the officials of the Guangzhou Office buy a house in the city of Guangzhou? Of course, it is for the convenience of life.Although the office in Guangzhou is large, there are quite a lot of casual people who come in and out every day, so it is not suitable for living at home.For Chen Tianqi, who has already married a wife and had children in Guangzhou, of course, he can live more comfortably only by buying a house by himself.

These officials in the Guangzhou Office are in charge of a large amount of business resources. They can obtain income by providing high-value business information without having to run the business themselves. A high-ranking official like Chen Tianqi, who has the status of a time traveler, is not short of money. Buying real estate in Guangzhou is easy, and you don't need to be so concerned about the price like Zhang Jinbao, just buy the right one and you're done.

As for the various living facilities in Guangzhou, the inside of the city and the outside of the city are basically two worlds. If you want to live comfortably, it is of course better to buy a big house in the city.In addition, the relationship between Haihan and Daming has tended to ease in the past two years, and it seems that there is no danger to live in Guangzhou.

Zhang Jinbao does not have the financial strength of high-ranking officials. For him, the 10,000+ tael of a house is still too much. Although the conditions of the house are good, he has to talk with cash after all. After thinking about it, Zhang Jinbao can only endure the pain Discard this candidate.

Then I looked at two more properties in the city, but neither was as suitable as the first.A place is too small, at most it can only be used as a private school for beginners, and it is too stingy to use it as a branch school.The other place is located in a busy city. It was originally a business store, and the left and right neighbors are respectively a chariot dealer and a bank. This place is not bad for business, but it is not suitable for opening an academy.

Zhang Jinbao couldn't find a suitable property in the city, so he asked Gan Wei if he could go outside the city to see similar places.

Gan Wei replied: "Yes, but the location may be a little bit out of the way. I will take Master Zhang to have a look."

A group of people took a carriage out of the city and went to see a manor seven or eight miles away from the city.It is said that this place is the real estate of a retired official's family, but now that the old man has passed away, and the descendants plan to move to another place, they are going to sell this manor.

The manor is quite big. Even counting the farmland around the manor, the area is about 3 mu of land, and it only costs [-] taels of silver to buy it all.However, Zhang Jinbao saw that the manor's house had been in disrepair for a long time, and it would have to be renovated on a large scale if it was to be used as an academy, and the corresponding expenditure would certainly not be a small amount.

(End of this chapter)