In the past few days, Li Jing, accompanied by Li Zhe, rode a horse to visit the inner city and the east city. I basically have a relatively preliminary understanding of the inner city. Li Jing considered that the most important thing in business operation is the location, and his own only corner of the inner city is really not conducive to subsequent development.

Li Zhe is not only a good bank manager, but also a competent tour guide, Li Zhe accompanied Li Jing to play, while introducing: "This Nanjing is the place where Emperor Taizu built the capital, the inner city gate is thirteen, the outer city gate is eighteen, through the city forty miles, along the city there are more than 120 miles. There are dozens of streets and hundreds of alleys in the city, all of which are densely populated and gold-dusted buildings. ”

"There is a river in the city, and when the water is full, the boats and drums are drawn, day and night. In and outside the city, Lin Palace Fanyu, Biwa Zhuyong. In the Six Dynasties, it was 480 temples, and now there are 4,800 temples! In the streets and alleys, there are six or seven hundred large and small restaurants, and there are more than 1,000 tea houses...... In the evening, there are thousands of bright corner lanterns on the restaurants on both sides, and there are thousands of them on each street, shining like the day, and the walkers do not carry lanterns. When the Qinhuai River arrives at the moonlight, the deeper the night, the more the boat that blows and sings, which is poignant and euphemistic, and moving. ”

Li Jing said: "In the past two days, I finished eating and came out for a walk. It is centered on the South Market Street and the North Market Street and ends in front of the Imperial Palace. There are many shops on both sides of the street, the road is full of traffic, pedestrians are shoulder to shoulder, tea houses, gold and silver shops, pharmacies, bathrooms, chickens and ducks, pigs, sheep, grain, oil and grains, everything. There are many business signs. On both sides of the Qinhuai River, Buddhist temples, official offices, theaters, dwellings, archways, water pavilions, and city gates are stacked layer upon layer; In the Qinhuai River, grain boats, dragon boats, and fishing boats shuttle back and forth, and even singing boats that turn out of the inner Qinhuai River from time to time. This Jinling is actually prosperous. ”

Li Zhe said: "Yes, according to statistics in the last year of Wanli, the population of Nanjing is more than 5 million, and the population of Beijing is less than 2 million. There are not as many people as in the outer city of Nanjing. At least three million people lived within the walls of the inner city. The prosperity of Jinling is the best in the Ming Dynasty"

"If you want to buy a shop in Jinling, you need to go through the tooth shop," Li Jing asked.

"Yes, if you want to buy a house in the inner city, it is best to do it through a dental store, although it charges some handling fees, but it saves time and effort, and there will be no disputes."

"Yaxing, do you have acquaintances, help me find an old man, I'm going to get some shops." Li Jing said, "I'm going to buy a large plot of land in a densely populated area in the inner city, it doesn't matter if I have a house or not, I'm going to tear it all down and rebuild it into a roofed market, like a large dock warehouse." ”

"This is easy to say, I will help you find Chen San of the tooth shop, this person is a local household in Jinling, he has been doing the tooth shop for more than 20 years, and he does not know the things on the ground, and he will definitely be able to help the son find the land he wants."

In the afternoon of the same day, Chen San came to the Li family's house to see Li Jing. Li Jing's meaning is very simple: to buy some houses facing the street as shops in the area where medium-sized households are concentrated in Nanjing, and do not require the main commercial street, but it should be in the center of the settlement, and it is not far from where it comes. Three to five rooms are enough, the depth is normal, and every settlement buys such a house. There is no need to have a backyard warehouse. It's okay to have an old house, but it has to be sturdy. In addition, it is to buy a few large plots of land in the core area of the inner city, and it doesn't matter whether the house is good or bad, it must be demolished and rebuilt. In addition, there is a theater or theater to be transferred.

Chen San is really capable, after meeting in the afternoon, he found a piece of land every other day, which should have been placed in the hands of Yaxing before. It is a big house that has lost fire, just on the flower market street north of Jubaomen, a first-class lot, this house does not know what reason has changed several owners, all of them are not doing well, two dismissals, one is doing business and losing money, and two are living in the fire. At present, there is a fifteen acres of land, which is basically in ruins, with broken walls and broken walls, and a lot of grass has grown.

When Li Jing went to see the house, he felt that you were desolate. The owner has long since moved out, and the house is entrusted to the dental agency to handle it all. Li Jing was very satisfied after reading it, the location close to Huashi Street was too good. Although it is only a piece of land, it is also the best area of fifteen acres of land, and the asking price is 11,000 taels without counteroffering.

100 meters to the street, 100 meters deep, square, originally half of the houses and gardens with three parallel courtyards and three spans, are now basically deserted. Li Jing didn't care about these either, they all overturned and started over, planning to build the first department store in the Ming Dynasty here, which was called Wumart Department Store, which meant good quality and low price. Small shops opened in other residential areas are called Wumart department store branches as chain branches of Wumart Department Store. Li Jing and Chen San looked at the map of Jinling, and according to Chen San's explanation and introduction, they drew circles with a pen in each urban area, which were roughly divided into 55 residential areas, and the approximate location of the purchased shops was roughly selected in each residential area.

For Chen San, this is a big deal. Fifty-five shops will probably cost more than 10,000 taels of silver, and this time you can receive at least 1,000 taels of silver if you charge a commission of five cents for even one commission. Chen San worked very hard, contacted the resources in the hands of other people in the tooth shop, and transferred the land of fifty-five shops and Huashi Street to Li Jing's name in a few days. The total amount was twenty-two thousand taels of silver. As for the theater that Li Jing wants to buy, it is not possible to find a suitable one at once, so he can only continue to search for Li Jing.

Next, Li Jing arranged for the shopkeeper Li to organize people to renovate and repaint the 55 stores, repaint the façade black, and replace it with a unified gold-lettered signboard "Wumart Department Store Branch". After the decoration was renovated, the shopkeeper Li hired someone to be a clerk through the dental shop. The new shop had no other goods at present, and the cloth and silk that had been used to cover the silver and jewels, as well as the goods and cloth seized from the pirates, were put for sale in the first place.

It's the Lunar New Year soon, and people usually tear dozens of feet of cloth to make new clothes for the whole family. And then it's to buy some New Year's goods or something. In addition to the 50,000 horses transported from Taohuawu, the rest of the 150,000 horses had no capital at all. It can be sold at a low price as a promotional promotion to open up the situation for the newly opened Wumart department store. But Li Jing thought about it calmly, he just arrived in Jinling, and it was not appropriate to offend his peers, and his edge was too exposed. After thinking about it, I thought of a hidden solution.

Li Jing arranged for the sword to go to the wooden workshop in the eighteenth square of Jinling, and asked the carpenter to secretly order 300 wooden rulers, each ruler was two inches longer than the standard ruler. It is required to sell cloth at the same price as other peers according to the standard of this ruler. Take advantage of the psychology of small families like to take advantage of the people. I thought it was because the guys in the store made a mistake and gave too much, so I naturally made a lot of money in a muffled voice and didn't dare to make a noise. Such a thing, Chinese love face, this kind of cheap thing we will definitely not talk about privately with neighbors, relatives and friends. Will definitely come back next time I buy it.

Before opening, Li Jing asked the people of Qianzhuang to introduce him, and walked around the main officials of Shuntianfu and related management agencies, and according to the usual practice, he walked through the open and unwritten rules.

On the eighth day of the lunar month, on the day of the Laba Festival, all 55 Wumart department stores opened in a unified manner. There are only all kinds of cloth, silk, gold and silver jewelry. A few more goods were found in several stores in the affluent area. Wine and rum from oak barrels seized aboard the Phoenix. These drinks are very rare. They were all brought from Europe and the Americas.

All the clerks specially recruited a young man in his twenties, with good facial features and a tall and thin figure. The uniform clothing is a blue kaftan of the Republic of China, wearing a net scarf and soap boots. People rely on clothes, as handsome and chic, and look clean and neat. Before taking up the post, we specially conducted training on standing posture, speaking skills, etiquette, and how to receive all kinds of people.

In the first month of opening, a lottery was held, and a paper ball was drawn from a small box, and if the word A was written, it was the first prize, and a piece of homespun cloth was awarded, and if the word B was written, it was the second prize, and half a piece of homespun cloth was awarded. If it is written with the word C, it is the third prize, and the reward is one foot of cloth, which can be used to make a pair of socks or something. If it says thank you for your patronage. I just didn't win the lottery. Li Jing set the winning rate at about one-third.

On the opening day, each store hung up a sign of lottery rules. At the end of the year, it was the time to buy New Year's goods, and when I saw the promotional lottery of the newly opened Wumart department store, I was very tempted. If you draw it, you will pick it up for nothing. It quickly attracted a lot of people.