Chapter 49

The day after Li San came back, the silver taels given by the imperial court arrived in Qingzhou, and with the deposit of the harem concubines, Xiao Ming had 500,000 taels of silver in his hand that could be transferred.

These money can be said to be a huge sum of money in Qingzhou, but it is only a drop in the bucket for Xiao Ming's development plan.

And among them, 200,000 taels were the deposit for the perfumes that the concubines needed. He also needed to purchase spices to make perfumes and send them to the concubines. It can be said that the 200,000 taels had to be discounted.

As for perfume, Xiao Ming is not going to give it to others. Part of his business is to paralyze the wealthy family in Qingzhou, but he needs to keep some business so that he can make more money.

Especially in the prosperous south, where commerce is developed and trade is prosperous, compared to his own technological advantages, the fastest way to get money is through business, so he has been planning his own firm.

Let Zhang Liang build ships, after all, the purpose is for trade, because countless facts have proved that only business can rejuvenate the country.

"Li Kaiyuan, the captain of the Kokang commander, has seen His Highness." In the main hall of Prince Qi's mansion, Li Kaiyuan stood at the bottom and bowed to Xiao Ming.

With the money in his hand, Xiao Ming's idea of ​​setting up a commercial bank became even stronger, but the person in charge of the commercial bank had been hesitating, and it was not until the past two days that he decided to use Li Kaiyuan.

Now Xiao Ming reuses people such as Qian Dafu, Chen Wenlong and his son, one is his cronies, the other has no roots in Qingzhou, and has nothing to do with Qingzhou nobles.

He asked Qian Dafu to investigate this Li Kaiyuan, and he has no special background. Moreover, Li Kaiyuan's personality is extroverted and very slippery. Obviously, he is suitable for being a businessman, not a general.

He said, "Get up, this time this king is looking for you to give you an important task."

"His Royal Highness, please say, the lower official must do his best and die." Li Kaiyuan said with a smile.

Xiao Ming could say that he knew Li Kaiyuan's character very well, but he didn't take it seriously and said, "This king is going to build a business and wants you to be the shopkeeper."

"His Royal Highness." Li Kaiyuan's face turned white, and he shivered: "His Royal Highness, the last barbarian thing, the lower official has already introspected..."

Xiao Ming waved his hand, "This king is not condemning, I didn't blame you for what happened last time, and your position in the army will remain, but you need to take care of the business alone. If I'm not wrong, you His father, Li Shengji, used to be a businessman in Qingzhou."

Li Kaiyuan grimaced. The Great Yu Kingdom was still traditionally emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce. Although the stable environment of the past century has slightly improved the status of merchants, the overall merchants are still looked down upon.

The reason why he was able to become a captain in the army was not because of his merits, but because his father bought it from Xiao Ming with a lot of money.

It is precisely because of this that Lu Fei has always looked down on him.

Now Xiao Ming let him not be a general, but a businessman, I can imagine his mood at this time, but Xiao Ming said that he would be more relaxed when he said that he would retain his position.

"Returning to His Highness, that's true. Before my father went west, he had been traveling to various states to sell cloth." Li Kaiyuan said.

Seeing that there was still some unhappy emotion on Li Kaiyuan's face, Xiao Ming said: "This king knows that you are not happy, but you must understand that this firm is an official business. , if you insist on staying in the army, it doesn't matter, this king is looking for someone else, but Colonel Lu Fei came to report a few days ago, this heavy snow seems to freeze a lot of cattle and sheep on the grassland. The barbarians are going to raid the south in large numbers again..."

"His Royal Highness, the lower official is willing." Li Kaiyuan was shocked, he was the only seed in the family, and he was killed in the war between being looked down upon and the barbarians, he still chose the former.

Xiao Ming nodded at him with a smirk, "That's right, make the best use of everything and make the best of your talents. You are not suitable for the army. Come, this king will tell you how to build a business."

Li Kaiyuan looked helpless and had to go forward and listen carefully.

This time, the firm Xiao Ming planned to build was bearing the name of Prince Qi's Mansion. This was also for the sake of the firm's circulation in various places and to avoid blackmail by local officials.

The name of the firm is Wantong Firm, and Xiao Ming will spend 50,000 taels of silver to buy five small merchant ships and ten horse teams on land. This scale is currently only a small firm, but everything is difficult at the beginning, slowly Just grow.

In addition to the specific management methods of the firm, Xiao Ming also instilled many advanced business concepts in Li Kaiyuan, which Li Kaiyuan understood quickly under the effect of the technology spar.

His family was originally a businessman, and he knew a little about doing business.

"This first batch of products is perfume, you just need to go into the water and ship it directly to the southern states." Xiao Ming finally said.

At this time, Li Kaiyuan was still shocked by the new knowledge in his heart. This knowledge made him a little ambitious. He said: "His Royal Highness, I still have a few more trusted brothers in the army. I will be relieved with them."

"No problem, you can take anyone you want, except Lu Fei." Xiao Ming joked.

Li Kaiyuan nodded, told him to retreat, turned and left Qi Wangfu, and started to prepare for the business.

As soon as Li Kaiyuan left here, Liang Dahai went to the main hall under the guidance of Qian Dafu.

Xiao Ming asked, "Liang Dahai, what happened to the slaves this king asked you to buy?"

"His Royal Highness, Caomin spent a lot of money to find all the brothers he could find. This time, a total of 950 slaves were found for His Highness. When the snow on the roads in various states melted, Caomin prepared to go north to buy slaves for His Highness. "Liang Dahai said.

Nine hundred and fifty slaves are still too few, basically a drop in the bucket, but the meal always has to be stuttered. It seems that he has to focus on building ships, and overseas trade is the focus of commodity exchange.

"Yes, continue to buy slaves, this king will not treat you badly." Xiao Ming gestured to Qian Dafu.

At this time, Qian Dafu gave Liang Dahai a silver note of 20,000 taels.

"His Royal Highness, this is a bit too much." Liang Dahai was pleasantly surprised, he had never done such a smooth business before.

"Leave more for the next slave trade." Xiao Ming said: "Where are these slaves?"

"It's all on the dock in the north of Qingzhou City." Liang Dahai happily accepted the money. In the past, he waited for a long time in the East City to find a buyer, but now such a large transaction has made him truly appreciate the benefits of working with Xiao Ming.

Xiao Ming said to Qian Dafu: "Steward Qian, your name is Colonel Lu, and you will temporarily place the slaves outside the city in the military camp in the east of the city. Tomorrow, the king will go to see them."

Qian Dafu nodded and left with Liang Dahai.

Now that he has enough money, Xiao Ming is eager to use the money to get on the fast lane. What he said to scare Li Kaiyuan just now is not nonsense, and there are indeed a large number of barbarian scouts outside Cangzhou City.