What kind of talk about safeguarding maritime interests, the maritime merchants naturally understand that this is just a beautiful thing to say to their own people. The current scope of activities of the Haihan Fleet is not only to carry out escort missions, but also to "protect" the entire Qiongzhou Island. Last month, the Guangzhou Office issued a notice to all businesses to suspend sailing, and in order to prevent pirates from escaping from Qiongzhou Island, all ports on the island are now only allowed to enter and leave the island -- of course, this ban is only for ordinary people, and Haihan's own ships are not covered by this ban.

With the existing naval force of the Haihan people, it is enough to control the shipping route from the mainland area to Qiongzhou Island, and there is no other force in this sea area that can threaten the interests of the Haihan, but the Haihan people do not seem to be satisfied with the status quo, and declare that they will continue to build this terrible huge gunboat. If they are not bragging about it, then the purpose is worth pondering.

Of course, no one dares to question the Haihan people's approach in the open, and the government has turned a blind eye to this, and who is willing to jump out and offend the rich and powerful Haihan people? Besides, Haihan's intention in doing this is quite obvious, that is, to let the people present understand which side their butts should sit on, and if they want to play tricks, they can weigh whether their own fleet can handle such a frightening warship as Haihan......

After visiting the gunboats of the Haihan people, the merchants returned to the venue with different thoughts and began this year's shareholders' meeting. After more than two years of operation, in addition to the initial 13 major shareholders, the current "Qiong Lianfa" has also added more than 20 small shareholders who have joined one after another, and nearly 100 people attended the meeting.

There were not many buildings in Zhennan Port that were suitable for the venue, and in the end, Haihan managed to vacate a warehouse and then set it up as a venue. In view of the large space of the venue, in order to allow participants who sit a little farther away to hear the speeches clearly, the conference organizers also specially arranged loudspeakers in the four corners of the venue.

Although the venue is a little simple, the bosses and shopkeepers who come from all over the country don't mind this -- the business discussed during the meeting is often a big deal in the amount of 10,000 taels of silver, and it doesn't matter if the venue is shabby, and the most important thing is that the real money falls into the pocket.

Of course, in order to keep the content of the meeting confidential within a certain range of personnel, the organizers of the meeting still let the militia group impose martial law on the periphery, and idlers were prohibited from walking around the venue within 30 meters. All the conference supplies and the supply of meals and tea are also arranged by special personnel.

These things are naturally nothing special in the well-organized Haihan system with a clear division of labor, and everything has a corresponding system and person in charge, and the efficiency of operation is naturally much higher than that of the traditional employment system. However, in the eyes of those who have joined the Haihan business system, they are amazed by this efficient work arrangement. Especially on such an occasion to discuss business, there are hundreds of soldiers standing guard outside with loaded guns and ammunition, which is completely the treatment of high-ranking officials of the imperial court, which is an unprecedented experience for many people.

The main content of the shareholders' meeting is not much different from the time and space before the time-traveler came, and it is also focused on deliberating various proposals. First of all, the master of ceremonies announced the number of attendees, the main attendees, and the proportion of major shareholders to determine the effectiveness of the meeting.

The next step is the complicated review process, first of all, the work report proposal of the previous year, and then the financial final account proposal, profit distribution proposal, daily related party transaction proposal, etc., a total of more than ten proposals. After these proposals are read out by the drafters, the shareholders and representatives present will vote on the spot, and then count the votes to decide whether to get the tongguò. And the proposal of each of these bills will involve the interests of most of the people present, or even everyone, so no one will doze off on such an important occasion, and all of them will pricked up their ears and listen carefully to the people on the stage reading out the content of the bill.

The Ministry of Commerce of Haihan is basically responsible for drafting these bills, and the content of the calculation of money is specially reviewed by an audit team composed of major shareholders, which can be said to be quite formal and rigorous. Of course, shareholders can also put forward their own proposals, but the starting point of shareholders is basically for their own interests, and it is difficult to propose proposals that can satisfy other shareholders as well, so there are not many of them.

Since the institutional and power structure framework of "Qiong Lianfa" was basically formulated by Haihan at the time of its establishment, it has a very high degree of control over the development direction of this joint-stock firm from the very beginning, and the content of the annual shareholders' meeting is basically carried out in accordance with the script prepared by the Ministry of Commerce. Although there are more than a dozen major shareholders, the actual control has always been in the hands of the Haihan Ministry of Commerce.

And the shareholders did not express their dissatisfaction with this situation, after all, Haihan's strength is here, whether it is more money or more daring and ruthless, no one dares to challenge Haihan's authority.

This year's general meeting of shareholders also followed the trend of the previous two years, and the discussion and deliberation of the proposals were relatively smooth. Of course, part of the reason for this is that shareholders are focusing on the surprise announcements that have become the norm at shareholders' meetings, hoping to make the boring deliberation process come to a faster end.

The first day of deliberation was calm, the shareholders did not have anything to find fault with the annual work report, and the various commitments made by Haihan personnel to the investment projects have basically been realized, and everyone is more concerned about how much money these projects have earned for their own families, and how the profits will be distributed.

After the end of the meeting, the organizers of the conference also opened more than a dozen tables of banquets to entertain the participants, and all kinds of exquisite glass tableware, cooking spices, drinks and even some ingredients used in the banquet were specially transported from Sanya. This is undoubtedly a very high enjoyment for wealthy people who have already regarded the Haihan lifestyle as a new trend. And after the banquet, each attendee was given a beautiful souvenir - a glass paperweight engraved with the words "Commemoration of the General Meeting of Shareholders of Qiongzhou Joint Development Group Company in the Third Year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty". Although this thing does not have too high economic value, it is also a limited edition product from Sanya Glass Products Factory, and it can show the identity of the holder, and the collection value is still quite high.

The content of the next day's deliberations was the profit-related bills that everyone was concerned about, and dozens of shareholders also received large differences in income according to their shareholding ratios and investment projects. Of course, the specific income figures of each shareholder will not be announced at the meeting, and the public figures are only the total income of each project and the corresponding profit distribution ratio.

However, it is not difficult for those who are interested to deduce the general business scale and profitability of "Qiong Lianfa" from the figures announced at the meeting. And one thing that all business projects have in common is that the profitability is not bad. Except for some crop projects with a long income cycle, other industrial manufacturing-related, shipping, commerce, culture and other projects have almost all achieved good returns. A major shareholder like "Fu Ruifeng", who has invested money in almost every project, can get a notice of receiving profit dividends after the earnings report of each project is read, which is really the envy of many people.

After Haihan successively developed Wanshan Port and Zhennan Port, there were more choices for the delivery of goods with maritime merchants from all over the world, which involved the cost of warehousing and transshipment, so the relevant departments made appropriate changes to the previous transaction regulations.

At the end of the third day, the participants finally waited for their long-awaited "surprise announcement". Of course, there was nothing surprising about it, because after the meeting, everyone's eyes were already locked on Schneider. As the chief treasurer of Haihan's foreign trade, he is responsible for the task of reading out the content of the speech every year.

Sure enough, this year, Schneider also lived up to expectations, and walked to the podium in front of him with a booklet.

Schneider raised his hand and raised the black book in his hand and said, "I know it's actually it, not me, that you've been waiting for!"

There was a good-natured laugh from the audience, and Schneider continued: "At the end of the annual shareholders' meeting, we announce some of the development projects for the following year, but every year, there seems to be no surprises. And I've heard that this year everyone has been speculating about the next area we are going to spend money into, and many of us probably already have their own answers in mind......"

Schneider looked around at everyone and said slowly: "But what I am going to read next may be beyond the expectations of most of you, whether it is surprise or joy, the investment projects we have prepared will continue to bring considerable economic benefits to everyone." The investment projects announced below will start raising funds in three days and will be implemented in 30 days. The Ministry of Commerce of Haihan occupies at least 50% of the shares of all projects, and if the part of the public offering is not sold out, the difference will be made up by us. ”

Schneider opened the cover and began to read out the first project: "North of Qiongzhou Fucheng, Nandu River Estuary New Commercial Port Project, with a total cost of 500,000 taels of silver and a total construction period of 18 months......"

Before Schneider finished reading the content, everyone in the audience was in an uproar. There were many conjectures and speculations about Haihan's next investment location, but no one thought that this location would be placed near the power center of Qiongzhou Island.

For maritime merchants, Haikou Port near Fucheng is naturally a well-known place, before the emergence of the two ports in Sanya, this place was the largest and most prosperous port on Qiongzhou Island, and it was also the trade distribution center of Qiongzhou Island. However, in recent years, due to the impact of Sanya, Haikou Port has gradually begun to decline, and its old port facilities and sediment sediment hydrological conditions are indeed not comparable to the two large ports built by the Haihan people in Sanya. If it weren't for the important place of Fucheng next to it, with such a population of tens of thousands of settlers, maybe the speed of abandonment would have been even faster.

However, no matter whether this place is prosperous or abandoned, it is a vital area under the nose of the Ming government, guarding an important position in the Qiongzhou Strait in the north of Qiongzhou Island, how can the government be handed over to a group of businessmen to run it? Not to mention that these people are not from the Ming Dynasty, but the remnants of the Han people who have drifted from overseas.

Throughout the history of the Haihan people, it seems that they have not had such radical behavior before, and almost all of the investment projects are implemented in their spheres of influence, such as the Sanya area in Qiongnan. In this kind of place, the Ming government is often beyond the reach of the whip, and the Haihan people can implement their own set of land public ownership in the local area, concentrate the land in their own hands, and then carry out large-scale development. And if this practice is moved to the capital city, will the government still pretend to be deaf and dumb and turn a blind eye?

There are probably only two reasons for this abnormal behavior of the Haihan people, one is that the fever burns out the brain, which is obviously not in line with their always rational style of acting. The second possibility is that they have been able to control the situation around the city, but this means that the Ming government has lost the ability to control the strength of this area.

Of course, there has been a similar situation before, the Yacheng government near Sanya has long been hollowed out by the Haihan people, which is not a secret in the Haishang circle, as long as the local people have been to the local area in recent years, almost everyone knows how much influence the Haihan people have in Qiongnan. But after all, the place in Qiongnan is vast and sparsely populated, and even the Li Miao people are only tens of thousands of people, and the foundation of the Ming Dynasty's rule in the local area is not particularly stable. Besides, the Haihan people have not done anything excessive after controlling the local area, let alone rebellious actions, and their minds are to make money and make money again, so in the eyes of Daming maritime merchants, although the momentum of Haihan's expansion is very strong, it does not seem to pose any threat.

It wasn't until recently that the Haihan people sent troops to Qiongbei to recover several cities captured by the pirate army for the government, and most of them realized that the power at hand of the Haihan was far more than just controlling Qiongnan, and as long as they were willing, it seemed that it would not be a problem to expand the territory of the control of Qiongnan several times more.

However, before the conference, the vast majority of people were still very optimistic, believing that the Haihan would rationally control their sphere of influence in the area dominated by Qiongnan. But now that the Haihan people have publicly placed the location of the "Qionglianfa" investment and development for the next year, near the capital city of Qiongzhou, it seems to prove that this disturbing direction of development is becoming a reality.

Schneider read something later, and at least half of the people in the hall didn't hear it too well. After Schneider finished reading this paragraph, he put down the book, smiled and asked the attendees, "Everyone, are you interested in participating in our new program?"