1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2681
This phoenix chick has a thin figure, clear eyebrows, fair complexion, and is dressed in a blue gown. She doesn't look like a businessman, but looks more like a literati.However, during the conversation, there was still a hint of shrewdness unique to businessmen.

Before Fu Guoqing came, he had introduced Zhang Fengchu's identity and background to the mission. Speaking of which, this person had nothing to do with Haihan, and his father-in-law was Dai Yingda, a salt merchant in Yangzhou.Dai Chengrong, head of the Second Regiment of the Seventh Division of the Army, who they had dealt with in Hangzhou, was Zhang Fengchu's brother-in-law.The Dai family also became a representative figure of the Yangzhou salt merchant group because of their early refuge in Haihan, and they are still one of the big salt merchants officially certified by Haihan.

The Dai family has always had a thriving population, and in the past ten years or so, it has spread branches and leaves in overseas countries through the channel of Haihan. Even though Shi Chengwu would often meet Dai Chengrong in Hangzhou, he did not know that he still had such a brother-in-law in Busan, North Korea. buy and sell.

With the financial resources of the Dai family, it is certainly not too difficult to invest and operate some industries in Busan.It is said that Zhang Fengchu was married to the Dai family, and he was able to become the president of the Chamber of Commerce here, probably because of the support provided by the Dai family.

Everyone sat down at the table, and there was a lot of drinking and staggering.After drinking for three rounds, Shi Chengwu took the initiative to ask Zhang Fengchu about his local business situation.

In Shi Chengwu's view, since Zhang Fengchu is the president of the Chamber of Commerce, the information he can provide may be representative to a certain extent.As for the handling plan conceived by the mission, it is necessary to communicate with prominent figures like Zhang Fengchu first to solicit opinions.

Although the Dongfeng Building where the banquet was held was owned by Zhang Fengchu, catering was not his main business.Zhang Fengchu still chooses traditional industries with certain advantages, such as salt and shipping.

Since Haihan’s salt farms built in Shipu, Xiangshan and other places in Zhejiang were put into operation, refined salt produced locally was trafficked to North Korea through Dinghai Port in Zhoushan, and Busan Port was naturally one of the destinations.Later, the Anhui salt merchants in Yangzhou realized the general trend, so they chose to cooperate with Haihan and became the distributor of Haihan Salt Farm.

Naturally, such a large overseas market as North Korea will not be ignored. Under the operation of salt merchants, the Haihan refined salt entering the North Korean market from Busan Port has also increased significantly.These low-priced and high-quality refined salt quickly defeated the local coarse salt in the market and occupied most of the market share.

However, later Haihan formed an alliance with North Korea and promoted industrial cooperation, and built a large salt farm at the mouth of the Taedong River in the north. Through this form, North Korean officials can continue to control their own salt production capacity, and the "illegal salt" imported by Haihan to North Korea is also Then it was controlled by the government so as not to affect the income of official salt.

The salt merchants reacted quickly. Since the road of private salt was blocked, they found a way to turn private salt into official salt.Therefore, the Dai family came forward to mediate on behalf of Yangzhou salt merchants, and funded the construction of salt farms in the Busan area. Except for a small part of the salt produced to be sold to Japanese merchants and exported to Japan, most of the salt produced was provided to the government for purchase, and then the official channel for distribution.

In this way, although the salt farm is privately operated by Haihan salt merchants, the salt produced has successfully assumed the status of official salt.Of course, the price of salt supplied by the salt farm to the North Korean government will be a little lower than the previous price, but because of the local production, the freight and labor costs are also lower than Haihan’s domestic supply, so the operating profit is not much different from before. .

Zhang Fengchu is the son-in-law of the Dai family, but the salt industry he operates in Busan is not entirely the Dai family's industry. The actual controller behind it is the entire Yangzhou salt merchant group.With such a strong backing, the advantages in salt industry management are naturally great. Although some people in North Korea are jealous of this industry, their competitiveness is far from being comparable to that of Yangzhou salt merchants in terms of liquidity, production technology, and business scale.

Relying on the industrial moat formed by these advantages, Zhang Fengchu's several saltworks in the surrounding areas of Busan have done well, and at the same time, they have provided a large number of employment opportunities for local people.As far as the current situation is concerned, there are no competitors that can really affect its market position.

As for shipping, another advantageous industry operated by Zhang Fengchu, it is an emerging industry that has only been developed after the Dai family started to go out of Yangzhou in the past ten years or so to meet the needs of overseas layout.

Although it started much later than those orthodox shipping companies, with its strong economic strength, the Dai family established its own shipping fleet in a very short period of time.And precisely because the Dai family has a lot of industrial layouts in various places overseas, the demand for sea transportation generated is enough to allow their own fleet to have a steady stream of transportation tasks.

The gradual prosperity of Busan Port in recent years has also generated a large amount of shipping demand. Zhang Fengchu judged the situation and established fixed routes from Busan to Seoul, Dinghai Port in Zhoushan, Sasebo Port in Japan, and Jilong Port in Taiwan.After several years of operation, the business situation in Busan has been able to compete with some old Haihan shipping companies.

After accumulating enough resources in Busan, Zhang Fengchu also began to gradually set foot in other industries, such as restaurants, inns and other service industries, which are areas that have only begun to test the water locally in the past two years.

"The cooks in this restaurant are all Haihan nationals. They have received orthodox culinary training. All kinds of seasonings and some ingredients are also imported from China to ensure the authentic Haihan flavor. If you are satisfied with your meal today, my lords, Xiaoren is happy to undertake the catering supply for the mission during its stay in Busan."

Zhang Fengchu was very confident in the quality of her own restaurant, so she started selling on the spot.

"President Zhang, you've been here for a long time, what do you think of the public security situation in Busan?" Shi Chengwu didn't respond to his sales pitch, and instead asked about topics he was interested in.

Zhang Fengchu glanced at Fu Guoqing who was sitting next to him, and replied cautiously: "My lord, this harbor area is inevitably full of people of various religions and ranks. In addition, the local government's ability is limited, and the security situation cannot be compared with that of our country."

Shi Chengwu nodded slightly and said, "How did President Zhang deal with it?"

Zhang Fengchu replied: "The properties under the villain's name are always guarded by the Golden Shield. If something happens, they will take care of it. The villain only needs to be responsible for the aftermath. Or luck, the villain has been in Busan for the past few years. I haven't had any major troubles."

Shi Chengwu suddenly felt that he might have chosen the wrong object of investigation. With Zhang Fengchu's identity and background, ordinary villains would not dare to ask for trouble to provoke him.The Golden Shield escort has a boss like Zhang Fengchu, so he will not hold back in case of trouble, even if someone is killed, Zhang Fengchu will pay for the aftermath.

(End of this chapter)