There is no hurry to recruit people for the time being, because the local manpower in Shunde is sufficient for the current production scale - in the machine workshop, the manpower required for the water-to-large spinning wheel is very small, and the production speed of the hydraulic machinery is enough to dwarf the manpower. The key to the need for a lot of manpower lies in the planting of mulberry and silkworms, and the subsequent stage of weaving silk, in addition to such an industrial chain, not only these need human resources, recruitment is a matter of time, it is nothing more than sooner or later.

The first priority is to seek capital injections. When you have money, you can buy more cocoons, recruit more labor, build more spinning wheels, attract more partners, and so on.

Shunde is nothing more than the Pearl River flowing down the river in Hong Kong. The representative sent to the headquarters of the Guangdong Trading Company soon met Cai Cheng, the mouse beard read the letter, listened to the representative's request, and found someone to check the accounts, the recent shortage of money is also there, Dongguan, Xin'an's fragrant wood is the same thing, they are in Chaozhou, Qiongzhou and the newly recovered Huizhou, Shaozhou are also laying commercial channels and investment, plus many contracts signed with old partners are about to expire, turnover is indeed not as convenient as before.

"In this matter, I still have to send someone to Guangzhou to ask the old man of the Fujun army."

Cai Cheng can do this, it is already an attitude of recognition, it is nothing more than the responsibility that needs to be borne is no longer something he can say.

The letter was sent to Guangzhou City at the fastest speed, at this time, Chen Kai was dealing with official business, just with a wave of his hand, he asked the people to send it to Zheng Xiyuan for disposal, he had already laid out the bureau in the general direction, how could there be so much time and mind to deal with these trivial things.

is too lazy to cover everything, Chen Kairusi also doesn't want Zheng Xiyuan to be bored at home. The letter was presented in the past, Zheng Xiyuan carefully read the text of Cai Cheng above, as well as the letter written by Shunde to Cai Cheng, both sides read it, although Zheng Xiyuan said that he was not very clear about the too specific things, but Chen Kai had also chatted with her in the past few days, and quickly made a judgment.

"The silver can be withdrawn, and the foreign son will invest in the Guangdong Trading Company, and then the Guangdong Trading Company will inject capital into Shunde to solve the problem of insufficient liquidity. However, the Guangdong Trading Company should send representatives to Shunde to supervise the use of funds, past accounts, industrial scale, product sales direction and development direction, etc., Guangdong Trading Cooperatives should know, and should inform my Chen family, and my Chen family will also communicate with other members through Guangdong Trading Company. Acceptable, the silver will soon be in place; Unacceptable, that's all. ”

Zheng Xiyuan's words are clear, and the people who come are also ordered to retreat. With this verbal agreement, the messenger quickly rushed back to Hong Kong, where he briefed Cai Cheng and the deputies, Cai Cheng made it clear on behalf of the Guangdong Trading Company that everything was to follow the instructions of Chen Fujun and Mrs. Chen, and the deputies had to go back to explain to the other members that after all, they were doing business together, and he had no right to decide for others.

Not far away, and the discussion was held in the conference hall of the machine shop outside Longjiang Town. The representative told the story of what he had seen and heard along the way, and everyone understood the whole process as if they had seen it firsthand.

"I heard that Chen Fujun's wife is the daughter of the Dingguo Mansion, and when something suddenly appeared, I could figure it out in an instant, it's really better to hear than to see."

When a shareholder says so, the meaning of the words is nothing more than that doing business is Zheng Xiyuan's family heirloom, and this Mrs. Chen is definitely a shrewd figure.

Fortunately, none of these shareholders were going to play any tricks on this, they really needed money to expand production. In the meantime, the worry is nothing more than that once the Chen family gets involved, will the Chen family use the authority of the government to embezzle their shares in the future, so that they will end up with a "bitter hatred of pressing gold threads every year and making wedding clothes for others".

In an official-based society, such things are the least uncommon, and even in countries and societies that are not official-based, once they have power in their hands, they will carry out orders and use power for personal gain is never new.

Merchants were a relatively disadvantaged group in Confucian society. The reason why they are relative is because compared with ordinary people, their money and connections are enough to support their high status. However, when they face the grassroots bureaucracy, even if they are officials and officials, they may not be able to sit on an equal footing.

There were examples in the Song and Ming dynasties that tried to change the status quo, that is, they tried to support scholars who could gain fame, and changed the composition of a purely merchant family into a gentry family, or a merchant family with a gentry as a dependent. In this way, it is not only enough to change the identity of the fat sheep, but even more likely to further influence the local and even the court's governance policies!

Some of them had gentry backgrounds, while others were simply ordinary merchants. However, whether there is or not, in front of a feudal official like Chen Kai and the second-in-command of the Zheng Group, he is just a group of scum.

There is no need to say it explicitly, everyone present already knows it. Now what they have to deal with is not Chen Kai, but Chen Kai's wife, the daughter-in-law of Dingguo Gong. In fact, in this era, whether in the East or the West, maritime merchants encounter weaker existences than themselves, and they often immediately start to do such a non-capital business, and the boundary between maritime merchants and pirates is just a word difference in the vast sea.

The pirate's heel, now with the blessing of the government and the army, bullying a merchant is probably like crushing a bedbug to death. However, this worry did not last long in their minds, recalling their identity, members of the Guangdong Business Alliance, and recalling that Zheng Xiyuan's capital injection method was not a direct investment in the name of the Chen family, rather than a hand through the Guangdong Trading Company, which seemed to have the meaning of avoiding suspicion, and this kind of thinking gradually faded.

"Then raise your hand ......"

Just as he was about to say the words of a show of hands, the largest shareholder swallowed his words in a daze. After all, after all, you are still dealing with people with government backgrounds, and if you show your hand to make your position clear, many people may have to worry about whether they will be retaliated against if they deny it, so they will make a decision that goes against their will. Although he did not intend to oppose it, this was not in line with the spirit of the Guangdong Business Alliance, and after thinking about it, he simply came up with another method.

"Now it's just a matter of being able or not, and it's better to write it down on paper with a pen and throw it into the cloth. When they were all finished, they wrapped up all the notes and shook them with their baggage. When the time comes, no one will know which one wrote it. ”

"That's a good idea!"

"This method is wonderful!"

As soon as the method came out, everyone hurriedly clapped their hands and praised it. Opinions do not have to be open to the public, so there is no direct offense to the person. Tactfulness, without losing sight of achieving the goal, is really a good strategy.

Just do it, divide the paper, everyone scattered, took the pen to find no one and wrote down the opinions that can and can't be written, and from time to time they glanced around, wanting to see what others wrote, but also afraid that others would see how they wrote. One by one, they were hidden and tucked away, and they hurriedly wrote down their opinions, and then folded the paper in half, and then folded it in half, and walked to the front of the case one after another, and put it on the baggage.

The solution was proposed by the major shareholder, so when everyone finished investing, he wrapped the burden and shook it in his hand, and even the tall and straight abdominal muscles on his stomach trembled, presumably burning a lot of calories. After a few rounds, looking around at everyone and making sure that the other shareholders were relieved about this, he stopped, put the furoshiki back on the table in full view of everyone, and slowly opened it. Then, he stood up straight, picked up a piece of paper casually, opened it slowly, and read out the words aloud.

"Yes!"

When the first sheet was finished, he turned the paper on its side and showed it to the crowd as a sign of justice. Then, after placing this one on the left-hand side, he picked up the second one, still slowly opening it, and read it out loud......

There were dozens of members, and there were quite a few in the conference hall, but it didn't take up much time to read it out like this. A moment later, as the last note was placed on the left-hand side, there was nothing left in the furoshiki. The major shareholder looked at the pile on the left-hand side, turned his head and looked at the empty right-hand side, and everyone's opinions were clear. The only thing is that there is a blank one outside of this, and I don't know if the owner of the note can't write or what.

"I guess I don't want to express my opinion."

Whether it is expressed or not, in fact, it doesn't matter anymore, the agreement is overwhelming, and the matter can be directly determined in this way. However, since the text was written, some people were worried that something would be seen from the notes, and the major shareholder still threw the papers into the brazier in front of everyone, and burned them, even the blank one.

"Perhaps, next time there will be an option to abstain." Thinking of this, the major shareholder raised his head and looked at the burden again: "Perhaps, it will be easier to change the box next time." ”

There was unanimity, and the matter was settled. The representative rushed to Hong Kong, and then Cai Cheng went to Guangzhou City to meet Zheng Xiyuan. After listening to the instructions, they returned to Hong Kong by boat to give explanations to the delegates. The latter, on the other hand, immediately rushed to Shunde with their opinions and suggestions, as well as representatives of the Guangdong Trading Company, and did not intend to delay for a moment.

It's undoubtedly a good thing that this thing is done. However, they did not pin all their hopes on Chen Kai and Zheng Xiyuan, here they are contacting the Guangdong Trading Company, and they are also contacting other gentry and businessmen, especially those who are interested in getting involved, and if they can pull a partner, then they will reduce a competitor, these are all used to trading, where will they not understand this truth.

The funds are becoming more and more abundant, and the members are becoming more and more motivated. First Longjiang, then Longshan, mulberry planting, silkworm raising, cocoon harvesting, silk reeling, textile and even production and sales of a link, under their series quickly formed a complete industrial chain, silk products soon appeared in the Hong Kong market.

If it is sold, there will be a return of funds. The next step is nothing more than circular production, and continue to expand the scale in the process of production, and the first thing to expand the scale is to solve the problem of manpower.

The western part of Guangzhou experienced the baptism of the Great War last year, and the population loss was not small. There are many reasons for fleeing and dying, but the results are obvious. In addition, the reintegration movement in Guangzhou also caused a large number of people who originally lived in Guangzhou to return to their hometowns, which undoubtedly exacerbated the population decline in western Guangzhou.

There is no way to conceive locally, so you can only look at other nearby prefectures and counties. In later generations, this is already short-sighted, Guangdong lacks labor, and the neighboring provinces, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Hunan, Fujian, Guizhou, and even recruiting labor to the north are a matter of course. There are even those who have set their sights on foreign countries.

However, with the current traffic speed and the current situation, in the case of lack of population and labor force, the first place they think of is naturally Zhaoqing Mansion. There is no other reason, near!

Looking to the west, however, they soon found that the Zhaoqing Mansion seemed to be a little different from what they had imagined.

In the early days of the recovery of Guangzhou, the Zhaoqing Prefecture assigned the southern counties to part of the Ming army in western Guangdong to raise troops. For example, Enping County was assigned to Wang Xing, for example, Yangjiang County was assigned to Li Changrong, and the same is true for Xinxing and Yangchun counties. To the north of Cangbushui, all counties, including Fucheng, were Li Dingguo's territory, but when Li Dingguo led his army to attack Guangxi, these territories were handed over to Lian Chengbi, the governor of Liangguang, and the civil official group of western Guangdong was responsible for administration, and some of Li Dingguo's remaining troops continued to undertake defensive tasks until the new garrison was formed.

In this way, the land of the province is divided into north and south, and the civilian and military control their own territory and implement their own policies in the areas under their control. However, among these various policies, there is one thing that is the same, that is, the tax reduction and exemption policies of Guangzhou, Huizhou and Shaozhou do not exist in Zhaoqing. Even Gaoming County and Xinxing County, where the two armies of the Ming and Qing dynasties fought for more than half a year last year, were no exception.

"Really, if I knew that Zhaoqing Mansion was in such a situation, I should have come here directly to recruit workers. These hungry people who can't eat are much cheaper than those locals in Shunde! ”