Jiang Jun wanted to talk to Shang Cheng about his thoughts. But for two days he didn't find the right time. Actually, it's not without opportunities. But firstly, this matter of mind cannot be said in front of outsiders, and secondly, he feels that it is difficult to talk about it, let alone talk carefully with Shang Cheng, even if he wants to lead the topic towards this matter, he can't do it. No matter how good the reason for his resignation is, it can't change the fact that he will definitely be disappointed...... Alas, others have sharpened their heads and climbed up in their careers, but he is good, but he does the opposite, and actually wants to do the thing of retreating bravely......

Yang Heng took care of his own affairs, and seeing that he didn't seem to be leaving, he didn't wait for him anymore, and went back to the city first.

He stayed on the grounds that he was attending the shareholders' meeting at Liu Kee Warehouse. Now that Gao Xiaosan has come back safely, they have some basic understanding of things on the sea route, and the next thing to consider is whether it is necessary for Liu Ji Warehouse to go to Zhenla and Tianzhu; If we want to continue to go to sea, how can we solve the problem of manpower and ships? You can't always lease someone else's ship to go to sea; If you don't leave, what should the warehouse do next?

Chiang was resolutely opposed to continuing to go to sea. He knew a merchant from Mingzhou. Fang Ji told him that even if the Fang family had been walking on the sea for nearly a hundred years, going to sea would still be a dangerous matter, and even if Liu Ji Cargo Store had the best ships and sailors one day, he would still be prepared to lose a lot of money. Jiang Jian listened carefully and thought about Fang Xuan's words, and finally determined that this was not alarmist. He believes that under the current situation that the deflation phenomenon in the Jingshi area is becoming more and more obvious, and the scope of influence has begun to spread to the surrounding areas, there is no need for the warehouse to expand new trade routes. Not only can not consider the matter of going to sea, but also seize the opportunity to shrink the business scope of the warehouse, except for Rendan, other things can be stopped, such as long-distance freight such as high-cost and low-profit industry, should be completely abandoned, such as fur, cloth, medicinal materials such a highly competitive industry, can not continue to participate. The first thing for the warehouse now is to maximize the concentration of cash and raise positions, so as to fully prepare for the next development of the warehouse.

Gao Xiaosan said: "It's not impossible to give up long-distance trafficking, but if you also throw away the business of medicinal materials, isn't it a little anxious?" Rendan also needs a lot of medicinal materials, and if you buy them from other families, the profits will be thinned, and the shortcomings will be easily grasped. ”

"It's nothing to divide the money, and we can't make enough money in this world anyway. Someone pinched the shortcomings? That's impossible! Jiang said firmly. He pointed to Xun An, who was sitting at the bottom of the house, and said, "Mr. Xun and I have the same opinion. He also believes that there is no need for us to continue to do the business of long-distance freight and cloth medicinal herbs, which is too distracting and manpower. ”

Xun An, who originally wanted to move his family to Yingxian Bomen as a slave and maid, but became a guest by mistake, became a former Pingyuan Mansion official, and he also sat in this hall. Speaking of which, he is still the first guest secretary under Shang Cheng, and the only guest secretary of Shang Cheng, which undoubtedly brought him great fame and fame. As the saying goes, "the big is hidden in the court, the middle is hidden in the city, and the small is hidden in the wild", in the eyes of people who don't know the inside story, he is obviously a legendary "hidden in the city" master hermit! It's a pity that he, a hermit, knows neither military affairs nor government affairs, and the title of guest secretary is completely undeserved, at least he knows his details of Shangcheng, so he has never "asked" him any questions. He himself knows his catties very well, and since he lived in Zhuangzi, he has never bothered Shang Cheng. However, in order to be worthy of the guest treatment given to him by Shang Cheng, he still tried his best to do some things within his ability, mainly to help Yue'er and Erya take care of the business of the warehouse. But he doesn't have any unique insights into business, and when it comes to doing business, the big guys who pick out a random warehouse are better than him. But he also has his strengths. He was born as a tax collector, and he couldn't do anything else, and he was relatively clear about the various commercial tax systems formulated by the imperial court, such as residential tax, passing tax, and fixed tax, and it was easy to deal with those tax collectors who were not clean and wanted to take advantage of them. And he has been working in the yamen for several years, "good practice among the public gates", he has also formed a lot of good karma, and now he is working in the warehouse, and others are willing to help him in the past. In the past few months, the profit of the warehouse has increased by more than 20%, and a large part of the reason is because he has recently attracted a group of customers. It is precisely because of his contribution and his status as a guest secretary that he is also qualified to participate in this shareholders' meeting.

Gao Xiaosan only came back, and he had only known Xun An for a few days, although he had heard about him somewhat, but he didn't know this person. So he asked Xun An: "Mr. Xun, do you also think that the business of the warehouse should be reduced?" ”

Xun An hurriedly waved his hand and said, "Little third brother, I beg you, don't call me any 'sir', will you?" Mr. Jiang is the real gentleman, and my gentleman is purely someone else's nonsense. ”

Gao Xiaosan shook his head and said seriously: "That's not good! You are the guest of the business, and your status is there, who dares not to respect you, that is, not to respect the business of Yingxian County. One by one, this is the rule. You weren't supposed to sit in that chair, you were supposed to be in the first seat! It's because we can't resist you, so it's up to your temperament to ......" At this point, he stopped. He didn't say anything to blame Xun An, which was also a respect for Xun An's identity as a guest.

The others all nodded solemnly, obviously agreeing with Gao Xiaosan's words.

Xun An could only accept this fact with a wry smile. He never imagined that the respectful title of "sir" would be harsh!

He said: "That's right, in the past two days, Mr. Jiang and I have sorted out the business and trading of the warehouse, and I feel that the stall at home is really too big now. Nowadays, in addition to Rendan, we have pack horse freight in Yanshan, fur trading in Shangjing, Shu brocade business in Chengdu, and grain and silk in Jiangnan. Again, the warehouse now has about 500 men, including men and helpers, but it uses nearly 300 people like pack horses, and if you count the semicolons that have been set up in various places to take care of long-distance freight, it should be around 350 people. Three hundred and fifty people, this is seventy percent of our manpower, and pack horses and semicolon storefronts and barns and stables account for more than sixty percent of our capital. Seventy percent of the manpower, sixty percent of the capital, how much profit do they bring? In last year's books, the profit of long-distance freight was less than half of the total profit, only 40% of the profit! But what about Rendan? There are less than 50 people, accounting for less than 10% of the capital, but in the first half of this year, it accounted for 30% of the total profit, 611, which is still because our Rendan can't sell it at all. It's because Rendan's output can't keep up, so we have to persuade many merchants who come to the door to go back. Mr. Jiang and I both feel that the immediate priority is to expand the output of Rendan. We should give up all other livelihoods, concentrate our energy and human and financial resources, and open Rendan workshops in Shangjing, Chang'an, Chengdu, Jiankang and Laizhou. ”

"So, what about the sea route?" Gao Xiaosan is a little reluctant to go to sea.

"To go to sea, the current conditions are not ripe." Jiang Jun said.

"We can pay for a big boat, or we can build our own." Gao Xiaosan said. Although the warehouse may not have so much money, if we resell the pack horse freight and other miscellaneous businesses, we should be able to raise enough money to build a two-thousand-stone sea boat.

"The point is that we don't have enough energy to do business on the sea."

Gao Xiaosan was silent. If he goes to run the sea route, the other things in the warehouse are a bit tangled. He still doesn't know that Jiang Tuan may resign, and he doesn't know that Jiang Tuan is likely to put one aspect of his energy into the warehouse after his resignation, so he thinks that Jiang Tuan's words touch on the shortcomings of the warehouse. At the end of the day, the warehouse still lacks manpower, especially someone who can take charge of it!

At the critical moment, Erya stood up to support Gao Xiaosan. She is the initiator of going to sea to do business, and she must also stand up to help Gao Xiaosan speak: "If there are not enough people, just recruit again!" ”

Yue'er, who had been silent, also spoke. She first mentioned Jiang Tuan and Xun An's suggestion, and said: "What Mr. Xun and Mr. Jiang said is that the warehouse only leaves the Rendan business and other transactions to be sold, I think it's okay, so do it!" Let's set up the Rendan workshop in Beijing first. Then he said, "I have lost more than 40,000 yuan on the sea route, although it is to spend money to buy a lesson, but we must have a beginning and an end in our work, so we can't stop on the sea route!" Third brother, you have just arrived home, so let's rest at home for a while. But the matter of going to sea still has to continue, and it is still you who presides. If you don't have enough manpower, or if you don't have enough money or food, you can tell me. ”

She is the largest shareholder of the warehouse, accounting for more than half of the shares, and what she says is the final decision. Even if Jiang Jian and Xun An both felt that this decision was not appropriate, they had no way to refute it. Fortunately, the junior Gao has to rest for a while, and there will be no progress in the matter of the sea route for the time being, maybe they will have a chance to persuade the two eldest ladies to change their minds.

So, the matter of the warehouse was decided......