Zhang Tianbao patted the handrail, and a sense of powerlessness came to his heart when he saw a guy like Zhen Qian, who didn't eat oil and salt, and saw that he didn't bite the hook, and then looked at his son Zhang Liang, who was excited and talked about elegance with Yuerong, and suddenly felt a little annoyed.

It is no exaggeration to say that before inviting Zhen Qian, these maritime businessmen did not even investigate Zhen Qian's preferences and personality characteristics, and it was precisely because of this that they chose to invite Zhen Qian to the banquet and get close to Zhen Qian.

The well-designed plan came to Zhen Qian, but it was useless in the slightest, if ordinary businessmen would have jumped up happily, they would even take the initiative to get close to these maritime merchants.

"Don't Zhen Qian want to make money and make his business bigger?"

A ridiculous thought flashed in Zhang Tianbao's mind, and he quickly gave up, if he was just an extremely careful businessman, why would he drive the drunken immortal building to Yangzhou, thousands of miles away, if he even had a little adventurous spirit, how could it be?

Zhang Tianbao, who couldn't figure it out, decided to implement another set of plans, and said in a cliché: "The current situation of maritime merchants is indeed difficult, otherwise they would not have found Zhen Lang to discuss this matter, after all, we met each other for the first time, and it is natural that Zhen Lang may not know much about us maritime merchants, and some wariness is inevitable, but it doesn't matter, we can start from a small business and understand each other, how about it?" ”

Zhen Qian raised his hands to agree with this, as soon as he opened his mouth, it was a big business of tens of thousands of yuan, he was not worried that it was fake, he saw so many maritime merchants today, and he would immediately do an all-round investigation of the credibility of these people after he went back.

Zhen Qian thought about it carefully, and it was imperative for the two sides to establish the necessary trust in the initial stage, and as for cooperation, it was the next step.

"Master Zhang, can you go to the study to talk about it?"

Zhang Tianbao was also ready to continue to cheer with Zhen Qian, but he didn't expect Zhen Qian to change so quickly, and he was happy in his heart at the moment: "Please!" ”

Zhang Tianbao got up and left his seat, Zhen Qian followed, Fujiwara Qinghe and a few maritime merchants looked at each other, and when they saw that they didn't call themselves, it was not easy to keep up, so the two walked to the study one after the other, and after sitting down, Zhang Tianbao opened his mouth and asked, "Zhen Lang has something to say to me?" ”

Isn't this knowingly asked? was not hypocritical at the moment, and said: "Exactly! I just heard that last year's strong wind in Yangzhou, the ships of the maritime merchants suffered heavy losses, I want to ask Mr. Zhang, can the maritime merchants have their own shipyards? ”

Zhang Tianbao shook his head, not understanding what Zhen Qian meant, so he said: "The ships of the maritime merchants are all ordered from the shipyard, and a sea ship needs at least three thousand or more, even if you don't count the goods on board, the crew and daily expenses alone will cost two or three thousand yuan a year, so ten ships in the hands of the maritime merchants are all giant merchants."

How did Zhen Qian not understand what Zhang Tianbao meant, the maritime trade seems to be infinitely beautiful, but it is actually a money-burning business, the landlord's family has no surplus grain, and the funds in the hands of the maritime merchants are also tight, and there is not much money left to run the shipyard business.

The result did not surprise Zhen Qian, so he continued to ask: "Then does Master Zhang want to operate inland river shipping?" ”

Zhang Tianbao was a little unaccustomed to Zhen Qian's jumping thinking, so he naturally didn't know what kind of medicine was sold in Zhen Qian's gourd, so he thought about it and said: "Inland waterway shipping is much less risky than at sea, and sailors are ready-made, Zhen Lang means to let me take care of inland river transportation, I don't know if I guess right?" ”

Zhen Qian nodded, since these maritime merchants keep saying that the risks at sea are unpredictable, then why don't they use the advantages in their hands to operate inland river transportation.

"Zhen Lang doesn't know, sea ships and inland river ships are different, the draft of sea vessels is not suitable for inland river narrow waterway navigation, if you want to operate inland waterway shipping, you must first build a number of ships suitable for inland waterway shipping, so that it will occupy a lot of manpower, material and financial resources, and we maritime merchants want to squeeze into inland waterway shipping may not be easy, and it is indispensable to compete fiercely with some businessmen, maritime merchants can not afford such a toss now?"

Zhen Qian laughed, and swept Zhang Tianbao's face very impolitely, which was intriguing: "But I don't know what the relationship between Master Zhang and a few maritime merchants outside?" ”

Zhang Tianbao felt that Zhen Qian liked to play tricks when he spoke, knocking in the east and punching in the west, and if the conversation continued, he would be taken to the ditch by the other party sooner or later: "Several maritime merchants outside are all friends of life and death who share the hardships and prosperity of Zhang, and please Zhen Lang don't talk about it clearly!" ”

Confrontations in the mall often start with mastering the initiative and rhythm of the conversation, and the more time you have for the opponent to think about it, it means that it is difficult to convince the opponent while being passive.

"To tell the truth, with the advantages of your maritime merchants, it is not difficult to occupy inland shipping, it is said that everyone collects firewood and the flame is high, I don't know if Master Zhang has ever thought of uniting the outside maritime merchants into a joint-stock shipping company, so that the funds occupied by everyone will be greatly reduced, and it is not a difficult thing for you!"

Zhang Tianbao's eyes flashed, and then he hid it without a trace, and asked rhetorically: "Your method is good, a person's strength is indeed very thin, if you contact other maritime merchants, it is not difficult, but how should we squeeze out the inland waterway shipping market now, if there is no more advantage than others, who will hand over the business to us, do we let us do our own business and transport our own goods?" ”

The goods of maritime merchants are not advantageous in Datang, and even because of the different needs of foreign countries, it is difficult for maritime merchants to gain a firm foothold in Datang, which Zhang Tianbao knows very well, and he is not moved by Zhen Qian's words.

"I also mentioned this point, Master Zhang, it is not easy for maritime merchants to do business in Datang all at once, I believe you should have no problem waiting for a year or two!"

Zhen Qian didn't wait for Zhang Tianbao to open his mouth and continued: "I have a few ideas, say them for reference, as for whether it is right or not, it depends on Master Zhang's vision!" First, you can buy a shipyard, and you can decide for yourself what kind of ships you want to build in the future. Second, buy a shipping company directly, and at the same time accept the original business together, which saves time and effort and can see the effect in a short time, and the third ......".

Zhen Qian deliberately sold a pass and said: "Master Zhang just said that the business characteristics are very important, others have their own, others do not have their own, this is the business characteristics, it is not difficult to do this, I know that there is a kind of car and ship in Yangzhou, it seems to be built by Cao Wang Li Gao, this kind of ship can not only use the wind power, but also with the help of manpower to drive the flywheel to sail on the water, the speed is more than twice as fast as ordinary ships, if Master Zhang can find someone to build such a car and ship, why worry about the inland shipping business is not prosperous?" ”

PS: There are three theories about the inventor of the car and boat, one is the Xu Shipu of the Northern and Southern Dynasties; the second is the ancestor of the North and South Dynasties; The third is Li Gao of the Tang Dynasty, this book does not want to discuss the inventor of the car and boat, but it is certain that there was already a prototype of the car and ship in the Tang Dynasty, and the car and ship were already very popular in the Song Dynasty.

(End of chapter)