The opening of the boutique department store was a great success, and its reputation was completely out. The next day, the number of sales staff was increased, and management and security measures were strengthened, which led to the recurrence of customer scrambling, but it turned into a strange scene of long queues.

Seeing this situation, Li Zhigao and Liu Runsheng changed their strategy again, announcing that the things in the boutique department store would no longer be retailed, and all would become wholesale, that is, only wholesalers would be accepted, and all settlement methods should be settled in gold.

In just the past seven days, relying on wholesale alone, Li Zhigao sold a small half of the goods purchased in the modern society last time, and the sales volume exceeded 3 million oceans, because as long as the gold is settled, it is equivalent to more than 100,000 taels of gold, so it can be said that it is a real gold fight, so that Li Zhigao and Liu Runsheng, who are familiar with the inside story, are speechless.

But it is precisely because of the outrageous good business that Liu Runsheng has new worries, afraid that he will be seen and troubled in the long run, after all, their power is still very weak and cannot withstand the covetousness of others.

That is, the time is still short, and others have not figured out the details of Li Zhigao, so they have not moved, but even if outsiders do not know the actual profits of boutique department stores, just looking at the merchants who come and go every day, plus the way of settlement as long as gold, they can roughly infer one or two of the profits.

According to Liu Runsheng, in this case, if there is no umbrella or anything like that, something will happen sooner or later.

This is not just speculation, just the day before yesterday, Liu Runsheng's wife and brother, Zhang Deping, who was a policeman in the patrol camp, secretly came over to remind him that the recent rumors in the city are not quite right, and it seems that many gang forces are already attacking the idea of their department store, but the fat is too big, and they have not agreed for the time being, so they did not immediately take action.

The best way is to get an armed security regiment by yourself to protect family property and deter the people around you, but that takes time, and it is impossible for the time being, so for now, the best and fastest way to protect yourself is to give up part of the profits and pull the establishment faction into the sea.

For this reason, Li Zhigao specially found Marven, took the initiative to give up 30% of the shares, and partnered with him to set up a boutique department store, so that the boutique department store became an American foreign firm partnered by Li Zhigao and Marven, and the shop called the boutique department store was also changed into a boutique department store industry.

After the company became an American foreign company, Li Zhigao and Marven partnered to invite Cheng Yonghe, the commander of the Yangtze River Navy, Wang Yongni, the prefect, and Fan Xuming, the magistrate of Dangtu County, to dinner.

Because there was a hint earlier, these bigwigs were invited to go, and at the dinner, Li Zhigao was not verbose, first said the background of the boutique department store, and then offered to take forty percent of the shares of the boutique department store to them, how to divide the forty percent of the shares, they looked at it themselves, once the equity was divided, the dividends in the future will be calculated every six months according to the number of shares. In this regard, Li Zhigao has only one request, that is, I hope that all adults can take more care of the boutique department store and don't let anyone find trouble.

Li Zhigao took the initiative to give away the shares, and they all understood what it meant, the background and earning power of the boutique department store, they also heard a little, so they said on the spot that the matter of the boutique department store in the future is their business, and they promise not to let anyone interfere with their money, no, it is to interfere with the normal business operation of the boutique department store.

In this way, with the background of a foreign bank that relies on foreign countries and self-respect, coupled with the distribution of profits to those in power, the boutique department store has temporarily gained a firm foothold, and no one on the face will come to find trouble.

And since then, the boutique trading company has become the key protection unit of the Taiping Mansion, the door of the boutique department store has long been a police officer to help stand guard to maintain law and order, not to mention, the boutique department store is located on the street, there are often mobile police patrolling back and forth, even at night, it is almost 24 hours of uninterrupted protection, such a thorough defense, I think it should be able to deter some blind guys.

Although this will divide part of the profits, for example, on the surface, Li Zhigao only has 30% of the shares, but that is all false, compared with the money earned, it is really nothing.

Moreover, even if the sales of boutique department stores are getting higher and higher, and the business is getting better and better, the root cause is that boutique department stores can provide many products that others can't produce. And this most fundamental purchase channel is only in the hands of Li Zhigao, and only he can buy these rare goods.

Since Li Zhigao has the final say on the purchase, there are more ways to go, for example, he can falsely open the purchase price, so that the purchase price becomes very high, such a balance, on the surface, although the boutique department store business is booming, but the actual profit earned is generalized, but because the total trade volume is getting bigger and bigger, and the capital turnover is getting bigger and bigger, it seems to be very profitable.

Marven is just that, Li Zhigao really wants to be with him for a long time, after all, he still needs the help of an American friend in the future. And through the contact in the past few days, he found that Marven, an American, is actually not bad, and he has not completely achieved the point of being consumed by profit.

In fact, if Marven was really greedy for profit and didn't care about anything, his trading house would not only be engaged in the business of kerosene lamps and other supplies, after all, the most profitable things in China these days were opium, arms and usury. To put it bluntly, Marven, like many foreign ordinary people who came to China to pan for gold at this time, still talked about basic morality and justice, which was different from those politicians and big businessmen.

But as for those officials of the Qing Dynasty, Li Zhigao sneered in his heart, let you be proud for a while, and when the Xinhai Revolution begins, hum, you have to spit out for me when you eat as much as you want!

But that's all for later, now, what I'm most afraid of is not the problem of tricks, but the fear of robbery, that is, those gangsters. Because officials can be bought, but it is difficult for the gangsters to buy, mainly because it is impossible for him to divide the shares to the gangsters, and it is difficult to satisfy the appetite of those local gangsters with ordinary buying.

You must know that Li Zhigao usually insists on collecting money as long as gold, so now the higher and higher sales are real gold bars, not silver tickets.

So much gold, plus the jewelry, jade and precious medicinal materials that Li Zhigao has acquired one after another, are all placed in his own yard, it is impossible to have a little wind without leakage, even if the wind does not leak, people outside can guess a thing or two, so even in the city, even if there are police officers from the patrol battalion standing guard, it is quite unsafe.

Li Zhigao understands very well that the deterrence of the police can only be temporary, but when he makes more money to a certain extent, and when the profit is high to a certain extent, there will inevitably be people who will take risks, even if there are police officers standing guard, it is useless.

As I said before, in this world, there are guns everywhere, the police have guns, and robbers also have guns, and they don't want to trouble the police and the government, but it's not necessary for the time being, and when it's really necessary, they won't be polite.

In this regard, Li Zhigao adopted a two-pronged approach.

First of all, it is to cross frequently, and do not leave a lot of money in the shop.

Don't look at the usual business booming every day, the goods are pulled out one by one, and the gold bars are brought home one by one, which makes the eyes of people with hearts red, but in fact, due to Li Zhigao's frequent transfer, there is not much money in the warehouse.

In the whole shop, only 30,000 oceans are usually kept as a turnover of money, and the real big funds, such as gold bars, jewelry, jade, and precious medicinal materials, are almost all moved to modern warehouses by Li Zhigao every other day.

Also out of concern for the robbers, he once again pulled the large amount of stock in the warehouse back to the modern era, only keeping the inventory here with a price of no more than 100,000 oceans.

In this way, when Li Zhigao returned to modern times, he brought gold bars and jade jewelry, and when he came back, he brought some modern products, so that the inventory of the Qing Dynasty was kept at a value of 100,000 oceans. Because of caution, and no one would have thought that there would be a crossing, there was basically no mistake.

He doesn't have any family and relatives here, and he usually doesn't go out of the shop, and he still has a ring in his hand, even if he is robbed, the loss will not be too great.

The second and most fundamental method is to establish its own escort merchant group as soon as possible, and strive to form a basic combat strength in a short period of time.

Out of the same concern, without Li Zhigao's supervision, Ma Wen, who got 30% of the shares and has already considered himself a major shareholder of the company, is more anxious than him for protecting the business group.

Because he was anxious, Marven couldn't hurry up to buy goods from American merchants, so he simply bought them from a British [***] fire merchant in Wuhu, after all, Taiping Mansion was still in the British sphere of influence at this time, and although the Americans also had some power here by relying on the open door policy, they still couldn't compare with the British. It's just that the British's power is mainly concentrated in Wuhu, which makes the Taiping Mansion more Americans in Tu County, but the Americans in Tu are mainly businessmen like Marven and arms dealers, and they have to go to Wuhu to find the British.

Due to the presence of Marvin, an American, and the fact that it was a cash transaction, the arms purchase went smoothly, and within a few days, 300 Enfield rifles of 0.303 caliber, that is, 7.7 mm caliber, and 300,000 rounds of ammunition were bought. In this way, the average of 1,000 rounds of ammunition for each gun is calculated according to the base number of 100 rounds of ammunition for the tethered rifle at this time, which is equal to ten bases for each gun, which is a lot in terms of tethered rifles.

This Enfield rifle, in the eyes of Li Zhigao, who is accustomed to modern weapons, is simple and not good, but in this era, it is already a fairly advanced rifle, at least much more advanced than those commonly equipped by the police and the new army, which are made in Hanyang, that is, commonly known as the old sleeve. Because of the fast rate of fire and accurate shooting, this gun also has a name here, called the British Quick Gun, which is currently one of the best rifles in the world.

Although Marven has already bargained hard, the price of this batch of arms is still not cheap. The price of each Enfield is 110 oceans, and the bullets are 80 oceans per 1,000 rounds, so that 300 rifles plus 300,000 rounds of ammunition make a total of 57,000 oceans.

This money, on the surface, is considered to be paid by a boutique department store, but because the shares have been divided, this is equivalent to Li Zhigao, Ma Wen and those local officials of the Qing Dynasty cooperating to pay.

For example, before all the people were recruited, the Taiping Mansion quickly gave this guard regiment a regimental training establishment, and by the way, Li Zhigao got the identity of a five-grade alternate Daotai, as well as a position of regimental training supervision, Liu Runsheng and Ma Wen also got a position in the regimental training association, and from then on, this regiment is a local regimental training arm that is seriously recognized by the Qing government.

After the arms are bought and the name is corrected, all that remains is to recruit.

It's much easier to recruit people, there are not many other things in the Qing Dynasty these days, that is, there are many people, as long as you give money, there are people who are willing to work hard.

Under the conditions of recruitment, under the consultation of many parties, especially at the insistence of Li Zhigao, the final decision was that each person should first be given 50 yuan of Dayang settling-in allowance, and then each person would be paid 3 yuan of Dayang silver per month, all of which would be covered with food and lodging. In case someone is killed or injured during the war, the wounded will be given free medical treatment, and the dead will be compensated 100 yuan, and the disabled will be given 50 yuan, and they will be given a job.

Although the treatment is good, the requirements are also high, and the standard is similar to when the family was recruited, with an age of no more than 25 and a height of no less than 1.65 meters.

In this way, according to strict standards, a total of 500 people were recruited, of which 300 of the best people were issued with one gun each, which was counted as a regular army, and the name was a regular soldier, and the other 200 were screened out, and they were not issued guns, but were issued with waist knives, and their official name was deputy soldiers, which were actually reserve soldiers and logistics soldiers.

There are guns and people, and there must be instructors, and the problem of instructors is not a problem, the prefect and the admiral of the Yangtze River Navy Division have to send people to help, but Marven strongly opposes, according to his words, if you want to train, you have to follow the Western style, and in his Marven's foreign business, two of them are Americans who have served in the army, one is called Scott, and the other is called Edward.

Although Scott and Edward had only served in the U.S. National Guard, that is, in the local militia units of the United States, and Scott, the highest-ranking of them, had only served as a lieutenant, it was enough to use these two men to train five hundred raw melon eggs.

Anyway, these people are just serving as the bodyguard group of the nursing home for the time being, and they are not really pulled out to fight against other people's regular army, so there is no need to be too harsh.

Out of various considerations, Li Zhigao had no objection to this, and after he handed over military training and other things to Marven, Liu Runsheng, and the two American instructors, Li Zhigao said hello in advance, using the excuse that the inventory was not enough, and he needed to go to other places to buy goods, and he might have to leave for a few days recently, so let them not worry.

Then, late that night, he quietly traveled back to modern times in a very secluded place in the back garden of his house.

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