Lu Ming

Chapter 531 The Daily Life of Shopkeeper Wu ([-])

Time: After the engineering meeting, place: small study in the White House.

Shopkeeper Wu and Bai Juren came back from Huangqitan today. First, they were impressed by the generosity and generosity of the General's Mansion in doing business, and then they discussed in detail how the Bai family should deal with it in the future.

By analyzing the information obtained at the meeting, the two first determined that the Bai family was not suitable for the project.The reason is simple, lack of foundation.

The Bai family became a respectable family in the local area only from the generation of Bai Juren. Before that, the main activity area of ​​the Bai family was in the county town, and there was no foundation, just ordinary people.

Although the Bai family has also prepared some land properties in the countryside and recruited some tenants in recent years, this is due to the inertia of traditional thinking, and the second is the reason for the "diversification of assets" allocation. The roots of the Bai family have not yet transferred to farming. There is not much influence in this regard.

The basic situation of the Bai family seems to be a bit powerless when taking over the project.To receive a project, firstly, there must be a rich labor force, and secondly, there must be "resources" in the location of the project bid.The latter point is somewhat more important in today's primitive engineering development projects.

Therefore, after analyzing with shopkeeper Wu, and finally after overall consideration, Bai Juren, who is more familiar with business, decided to invest resources in enterprises such as cement factories.As for the construction of roads and projects, let’s leave it to those country folks. If they are lucky, the road will pass by the door, and the contract will come from heaven.

In this way, after a night of repeated discussions, Master Bai made a crucial strategic decision in his study: invest more than half of the working capital of the Bai family in the purchase of shares in the cement factory.

In the case of not selling the property, this half of the funds is almost 5000 taels of cash, which can be regarded as the old foundation of the Bai family, the first generation of Chinese-style nobles.

It is not impossible to raise cash, but that would affect the daily operations of Baiji Grocery and other shops of the Bai family; although Master Bai was very optimistic about the development prospects of the cement factory, he still held back the idea of ​​throwing all his eggs in one basket , keeping the old industry running.

Ten days later, Bai Juren went out in person again, escorted the silver cart with shopkeeper Wu and a large number of servants, and went to the "Guangdong First Construction Zengcheng Project Department" next to the county government to sign the contract and pay the money.

In order to improve the authority, the project department opened next door to the county government office is just a collective name. There is not only the project bidding office, but also the independent cement plant preparation office, which belongs to the joint office.

After Bai Juren arrived, he and other county lords who were interested in investing in industry and commerce signed the contract respectively, pressed their fingerprints, and weighed the envelopes of silver that were removed from the silver car. The shareholder of the Zengcheng Cement Plant.

Generally speaking, the masters are still a little nervous at this moment.

Although it is very common for private businessmen to do business in partnership, what they are facing is completely different from the traditional situation-an unprecedented large workshop plan, unprecedented huge investment and new products, unprecedented strong founders, and investment All kinds of considerations and political speculation were mixed in the process, all of which made the old men who were able to do a good job in the Ming Dynasty feel at a loss.

However, these pioneers were on the right track after all.Compared with those who will be forced to change their destiny by the tide of society in the future, the incompatibility of the pioneers is nothing at all. The door of the new world is opening to everyone, and those who dare to eat crabs will definitely get the most generous rewards.

Becoming a shareholder of the cement plant is only the first step, and there are still a series of procedures such as the general meeting of shareholders.By the time Master Bai finished his work and once again brought shopkeeper Wu and his servants to stand in Huangqitan, the place had already turned into a bustling construction site.

Regardless of whether it is the Little Ice Age or not, compared with the frozen soil during the New Year's Day in the north, Guangdong can start construction all year round.The local migrant workers provided by the shareholders and attracted by the generous wages and meals have now been divided into two groups and are busy on the construction site.

The river beach next to the tributaries of the Zengjiang River was the first large-scale construction site.Since a mining pier needs to be built here, not only dredging boats have already started working on the river, but some people are soaking in the muddy water to build cofferdams.

Ore terminals require higher structural strength than passenger terminals.After the cofferdam is completed, several construction machinery emitting black smoke will be stationed here to assist in the construction of the wharf. By then, the melon-eaters in Zengcheng will be able to experience the terrifying power of industrialization.After that, there will be a gas-driven cargo hoisting system stationed at the terminal, which will bring you a different feeling.

There are also a large number of migrant workers working on the quarry not far from the wharf site.The ground here is being cleared, and the rocks are being framed, collected and carted away.These stones will eventually be sorted one by one, the limestone will be smelted, and the rest will be crushed and used as road construction material.

After the rocky beach is cleaned up, dormitories and stockyards will be built on the original site.Workers will start from here every day in the future to go to the northern hills to remove the soil and vegetation on the hills, and then dismantle these limestone-based hills bit by bit with explosives to provide cement plants with Raw material for smelting lime.

There is a third site on another vacant lot to the west.This is the site of the future cement plant, and there are also a large number of people cleaning the ground at the moment.

As a key project in 1631, a heavy gas compressor was being assembled on the construction site—it was too heavy for the pier in the county town to bear, and it was carried over abruptly by a large number of migrant workers in a disassembled state.

Seeing the endless bustling scene, Bai Juren standing on the slope couldn't help nodding.

Aside from the factories that will bring wealth to the Bai family in the future, even the current construction site, the Bai family has already begun to enjoy the dividends of betting: the baskets, sacks, straw ropes, etc. used on the construction site are all from Bai Remember that the quantity purchased is very large, and more will be needed in the future.Baiji Grocery Chain is currently organizing caravans to go to nearby villages to place orders and organize supplies. By the way, the villagers who have no information come to the construction site to fight against the work. The whole store is very busy.

"Master, look quickly, Master Ding is coming over there!"

At this moment, shopkeeper Wu yanked Bai Juren's sleeve, and pointed towards the county seat.

"Huh? It really is Master Ding."

Naturally, Bai Juren has met Ding Liqiu. When he went to Guangzhou to bid, Ding Liqiu was the host of the bidding meeting: "This is for inspection, follow me!"

Before he finished speaking, Master Bai hurriedly walked down the slope, facing the crowd in front of him with Ding Liqiu as the core.

(End of this chapter)