Zhang Yanfang looked at the report in front of him and laughed. Although the merchants who went to Bao'an City to rent shops this time were less than those when Shanghai City opened the sea, the rent they got exceeded one-third of the total rent of Shanghai City that year, and Shanghai City City Company rented for five years, and here only one year for one year.

He said to the two deputy lifters beside him: "Now, counting the tariff of this year's Bao'an City Shipping Division, it is estimated that this year's commercial tax can exceed the agricultural tax." ”

"It's a good thing that the state has increased so many taxes without raising taxes on farmers," said one of the deputies. ”

But the other person had a pale face.

Zhang Yanfang of course noticed the different expressions of the two. Both of them were sent to Guangdong after graduating from Guozijian last year, and Zhang Yanfang personally selected these two people from dozens of people to serve as deputy promotions.

But after so many months of actual observation, he found that neither of these two people fully met his requirements. The person who spoke before was named Yu Kuikuan, a native of Bashu, who accepted Zhang Yanfang's rhetoric on the surface, but in his heart he actually didn't think so, and just echoed it; did not speak, this name is Zhang Guanglin, he accepted Zhang Yanfang's set of rhetoric, thinking that it is appropriate to raise taxes on businessmen to support the country, his unhappy expression just now was not aimed at Zhang Yanfang, but he himself is very disgusted with businessmen, but today he has to contact many businessmen, so he is unhappy.

Neither of these two people particularly met Zhang Yanfang's requirements, which gave him a headache. He relied on his intuition that it was not a good thing to return to Beijing now, and he did not want to return to Beijing - he had heard about the political struggle in the capital before, perhaps because of the bystander Qing, he thought that the civil officials who were denounced in the newspaper were all related to this, and Fang Xiaoru's departure from Beijing was considered by him to be a very important matter.

But the emperor may not let him return to Beijing one day, he needs to choose a suitable successor in advance, and the province will be busy at that time.

Because these two people are not particularly in line with Zhang Yanfang's requirements, he wants to apply to the imperial court this year for a batch of graduates from Guozijian to enrich the official office of Bao'an City, and select suitable talents from them.

But until then, only the two of them could be appointed. Zhang Yanfang thought.

"Yu Deputy Promotion, the maintenance of order in the City Department will be handed over to you, and the first, third, and fifth teams of the police of the Bao'an City Department will allow you to transfer, so you must maintain order here, and you can't make trouble." Zhang Yanfang commanded.

"Yes, sir." Yu Kuikuan agreed.

"Deputy Zhang, it is estimated that there will be businessmen trading tomorrow, you take the rest of the police to guard the exit of the north and south cities, be sure to check the bills carefully, and don't miss the taxes." Zhang Yanfang commanded again.

"Yes, Envoy Zhang." Zhang Guanglin said.

Zhang Yanfang commanded a few more words, and finally said: "Since everyone has come to Bao'an City as an official, then you must manage this place well, and this official will not hesitate to ask for credit for you." ”

……

……

On the second day, on the sixth day of the second month of February, the Li family's shop in Bao'an City was opened, and the guys put all the goods into the shop of the city company overnight, and some of the tea was placed on the counter for passing merchants to inspect.

Because it is difficult to escape the taxes of Bao'an City, the goods here are naturally more expensive than those in Guangzhou City, so even if the merchants of the Ming Dynasty are interested in tea or porcelain, they will not buy here, and they are all merchants.

The Li family also had a few old friends before, and of course they would take care of the old friends' business first. As soon as his shop opened, a few brown-skinned, Chinese-speaking merchants whom Lee had seen before surrounded him, checking the fineness of the tea leaves and asking for the price.

Lee Kuang-rui and Pak Jing-yi invited the two 'deepest' (the largest smuggling traders) into the backyard to discuss the price of tea and porcelain that had not yet been put on display.

The amount of goods demanded by these two merchants is very large, especially this time it has not been more than half a year to get goods from Guangdong, Li Guangrui got Bai Jingyi's prompt, and made certain concessions on the price, and both parties were very happy.

Several medium-sized merchants looked at the Li family's shop and were very envious of the market, but there were too many shops worthy of their envy, Guangdong here was normal to do business when the sea was not forbidden, and smuggled when the sea was forbidden, many merchants had old friends with the merchants, and they would not be too cautious to buy the goods, so unlike the first day of the opening of the sea in Shanghai, which was mainly based on seeing and rarely buying and selling, there were many shops opening here on the first day, and Zhang Guanglin was very busy from the beginning.

Zhang Yanfang didn't understand the reason for this, and after seeing the tariff bill that night, he thought that he could maintain this amount all along, and he was very happy.

In the past few days, Lee Guangrui has carefully inspected all the shops during the day, and at night he humbly learns how to manage the store with Bai Jingyi: how to arrange the work appropriately, how to make the guys bow down, how to negotiate business with different customers, and how to put the goods into the warehouse better before closing every day, etc. Because he was busy day and night, he lost a lot of weight.

By the 12th of February, the Li family's tea and porcelain business was on the right track, and the jewelry store that had been rented half of the shop from the Liang family in Foshan had also opened.

On 14 February, he returned to Canton and immediately returned to his family's mansion despite the fatigue of the journey.

Li Xianming did not come forward to meet him as usual, and his father, Li Jihu, spoke to him.

After Li Guangrui saluted his father and told him about the things in Bao'an these days, Li Jihu smiled and praised his son and asked him to retreat back to his yard; He immediately went to Li Xianming's courtyard.

After Li Xianming saw him, he listened to him repeat Li Guangrui's words, and after listening to it, he said: "I have already met a guy who came back with Rui'er just now, and it is almost the same as what you said. ”

"Dad, is that really the case?" Li Jihu asked.

"It's true, why am I lying to you!" Li Xian understood, and he said with a glance.

"It's great." Li Jihu said.

Although he praised his son just now, he didn't fully believe his son's words: in his mind, Li Guangrui should still be learning from the big shopkeeper, and it is impossible to take on such a thing alone without making mistakes. But he didn't expect that his son really didn't have any major problems.

"Actually, that's not all, what I'm most satisfied with is that Rui'er is so respectful to Bai Jingyi." Li Xianming said with a smile.

Although Li Guangrui knew that it was Li Xianming and Li Jihu who inspected him this time, he missed one aspect of the investigation: whether he could listen to the opinions of the elderly in the family.

People like Bai Jingyi have followed the Li family for at least three lifetimes, and they have rich experience in traveling south and north, which is a rare wealth for the family; But although some young juniors are very respectful to them on the surface—for the sake of following their ancestors—they actually disagree with it in their hearts, thinking that when they did business in the Mengyuan period, now that they are in the Ming Dynasty, they are different, and their experience is not useful.

But Li Guangrui didn't have such a thing, he was very respectful to Bai Jingyi and studied diligently, which made Li Xianming very pleased.

"Let Li Guangrui manage the line to Bao'an City, and it is better for him to personally manage the business route he has opened up." Li Xianming continued.

Li Jihu certainly understood what his father meant. The merchants of Guangdong and Guanjian are different from other places, and the merchants of these two provinces are mainly engaged in foreign trade, supplemented by domestic trade, and domestic trade is mainly for foreign trade.

In the future, Bao'an City Bosi will inevitably be the main place for businessmen in the two provinces to do business, and it will become the family's most important source of wealth.

Although Li Xianming has always paid attention to family unity, he also knows that unity is not so easy, if you want the family to twist into a rope, you must let the family control most of the financial resources, and it is difficult for other houses to compete with the family.

As long as Li Guangrui controls the line from Guangzhou to Bao'an, he controls most of the financial resources of the entire Li family, except for the three rooms in charge of smuggling iron weapons, the other rooms cannot compete with the big houses, and the remaining three rooms will never be so blind to compete with the big houses. In this way, the whole family can be united.

"But, Dad, Li Guangrui is only twenty-five years old now, and he only has three children, and it is not easy to have another child when he wanders all the year round." Li Jihu considered the problem from the perspective of the heir and said.

"That's right," Li Xianming thought about it for a while and said, "I'll let Ming'er give Rui'er a hand." ”

"And Bao'an is so close to Guangzhou, in fact, there is no need to let Rui'er always run at both ends. If you want to stay in Bao'an City for a few more days, you can let him take his daughter-in-law with him. Li Xianming added.

"And who's going to take care of the house?" Li Jihu asked again.

"You ask me about such things? Now it's you in the housekeeping. Li Xianming said.

Li Jihu saw that his father was a little angry, so he didn't dare to ask again, so he hurriedly retreated.

……

……

Yang Ren was very happy to receive Zhang Yanfang's report. Not only did they collect a lot of rent on the fifth day of the first month, but they also had a lot of tariffs in the first few days of opening the sea, which can be said to be a good start.

This credit can't all be counted on Zhang Yanfang's head, and he Yang Ren also has merit. Without his supervision and the power of the political envoys of Guangzhou Prefecture and Dongguan County, how could the sea be opened so quickly.

And although the political envoy of Guangdong Zuobu is also a big official, and the ruling party is much more majestic than in the capital, he still wants to return to Beijing as an official; He also knew that Yun Xi valued his merits, so he was extremely keen on things that could increase his merits.

Zhang Yanfang also understood the thoughts of his friend who had a good relationship, so this time he asked him to jointly write a letter with himself to report the success of opening the sea.

Yang Ren was very happy, and then took up the pen and personally wrote a report to the emperor about the situation of the opening of the sea in Bao'an City, and stamped his own seal and sent it to Bao'an for Zhang Yanfang to see.

'I hope that His Majesty will be in a good mood when he arrives in the capital. Yang Ren thought in his heart. 8)