Chapter 8 Huge Family Business

Holding the thick account book, Huo Shan rushed back to his bedroom, and didn't even bother to say hello to Xiao Ping'er, which made the little girl who missed the young master very angry. But he couldn't care about any of that. What Huo Shan wants to know most now is how much money his cheap father inherited from the treasury of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

You must know that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, which plagued China for nearly 20 years more than ten years ago, plundered most of China, and it was the richest place in China, such as Huguang and Jiangsu, Zhejiang, etc., and the gold, silver and money obtained from it must be unimaginably huge.

Don't look at the current Qing zhèngfǔ cowardice and incompetence, but before the Opium War, it has always been the world's largest economy, jīng beautiful porcelain, splendid silk, huge amount of tea, so that China has been in a superior position for hundreds of years, most of the silver plundered by Western colonizers from all over the world flows into China, you can imagine how huge a wealth it is for hundreds of years.

Quickly closed the door, put the thick account book on his desk, took a long breath, and forced his mood to calm down, Huo Shan slowly read it from the first page.

Time passed little by little, and he was completely immersed in the surprise and shock brought by the huge family business of the Huo family, and he couldn't feel the passage of time at all.

The sky outside has slowly brightened, and Huo Shanshen, who has not slept all night, is excited, and there is no trace of fatigue on his face at all. 'Rich and rival country' had only been heard before, but now he finally understood the meaning of this idiom.

Now he understands that the Huo family factories that Fu Bo took him to see are really nothing in the entire family industry, and the Huo family is involved in almost all the money-making industries in Taiwan, such as sugar, grain, salt, coal mining, shipping, and fishing. From the account books, it can be found that through the gold and silver inherited from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the family controlled 80% of Taiwan's sugarcane cultivation and more than half of the paddy fields in the past 20 years. This is not counting, the huge salt industry is the gold mine of the Huo family, the salt works near the sea are almost controlled by the Huo family, millions of deniers of sea salt every year, through the Huo family's own fleet to the mainland on the other side of the sale, think about the wealth of the salt merchants in the Qing Dynasty, you can understand how huge the wealth contained in it.

From these account books, Huo Shan found that his family was really a super big landlord! Although the Huo family's industries together had an annual income of nearly five million taels of silver, the bulk of them were still land and salt, accounting for more than three-quarters of all the Huo family's profits. It's been a little fight for more than ten years.

From this account, it seems that the Huo family's shipping is still very strong, in order to sell their own things, plus Taiwan itself is also an island, the development of shipping has become inevitable, so the Huo family's investment in it is also sparing. There are already 100,000-ton ships, 20 5,000-ton Helen, and hundreds of 1,000-ton freighters, and the Huojia fleet is all over the South China Seas, China, and the region, and its strength is second only to the shipping companies of Britain and France and other powers in the Far East.

Of course, with such a huge family business, there is also a lot of money spent on security, after all, this is the era of bandits and bandits, just like rich people will spend money to hire bodyguards, the Huo family cares for the home and protects their own industry, in addition to the 5,000-person militia group directly controlled in hand, there are tens of thousands of guards equipped with German Type 71 Mauser rifles, which are directly controlled by the Huo family. It is precisely with such a huge armed force in hand that the rapid expansion of the Huo family's industry is ensured, and there is a lot less trouble.

Looking at these records, Huo Shan couldn't help but feel a little interested in this security force of his family, and secretly decided in his heart that he would go and see it in a few days.

The Taiping Army's ability to loot was really extraordinary, with 50 million taels of gold, hundreds of millions of taels of silver, antiques, calligraphy and paintings, jewelry, jade, and precious wood, including the firewood kiln whose name they had only heard of in their previous life, the five famous kilns of the Song Dynasty and other jīng porcelain; the famous calligraphy and paintings of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties; the precious jewelry such as jade, pearls, and cat's eyes, and precious wood such as red sandalwood, Hainan huanghuali, and ebony. The sheer number of people who came from the future and claimed to be well-informed was also a little dizzy. Huo Shan secretly calculated that there were about 1,500 tons of gold and 3,000 tons of silver, which was more than that, but when the Huo family started, they spent a lot of silver, although the family's industry has become larger and larger in recent years, and they have earned a lot of silver, but the annual expenses are also a lot, so up to now, the family business for nearly 20 years has earned 30 million taels of silver.

Closing the thick account book, Huo Shan took a long breath, leaned softly on the back of the chair, there were too many surprises, now he was numb, and the huge wealth was enough to support his huge plan in the early stage.

Looking at the scorching sun rising in the east, suddenly, Huo Shan's chest was full of infinite confidence, his right fist was clenched, and he didn't feel the slightest fatigue after not sleeping all night.

He rubbed his temples, looked down and thought for a while, then shouted, "Leizi, come in!"

"What's the matter, young master?" the honest young man who was devoted to his duties pushed the door and walked in.

"Go get Fauber! I'll be waiting for him here! Remember to close the door when you go out!"

"Got it, I'll go!"

After seeing Lei Zi go out, Huo Shan picked up the ledger, put it with his laptop, and put it away.

After about ten minutes, the sound of hurried footsteps was remembered in the corridor outside the door.

"Young master, are you looking for me?"

"Fu Bo, sit down! I came to you so early to ask how we planned to recruit workers from the machinery factory and the steel factory!" Huo Shan said with a deep groan.

"According to the young master's orders, I have asked the people below to secretly recruit people from almost all the foreign factories of the Qing court, such as the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Bureau, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, and the Anqing Ordnance Institute! In addition, the young master has given a lot of wages, so we already have more than 8,000 workers, including their families, have already brought them to Taiwan!"

"Well, it's a good job, we recruited people on such a large scale, didn't attract the attention of others, right?" Huo Shan then asked.

"Young master, don't worry, the current court is very strong, those who manage the factory are almost all full of corpses and vegetarian meals, as long as they keep their official positions, they have money every month, how can they care about the life and death of the workers!" said the old man with a disdainful face.

"If it takes longer, we will spend money and recruit more workers!"

"Well, since this is the case, then continue to recruit, people are not afraid of many, and they are not afraid of spending money, but the workers recruited must have real talents and real learning! In addition, send people to Hong Kong, contact foreigners, and recruit workers from Europe and the United States.

After listening to his words, the old man said hesitantly: "Young master, will there be too much, even if we buy the machine from Europe, we won't need such a person!"

"Hehe, it's still far from this person! Here, take it and take a look!"

Fu Bo took it with some curiosity, and handed it over to his young master, a paper full of small characters, and when he looked at it, he saw that it was neatly written: "A set of coal mining equipment with an annual output of 500,000 tons; a set of iron ore mining equipment with an annual output of 500,000 tons; a set of shipbuilding equipment with an annual output of 500,000 tons; a set of large-scale iron and steel equipment with an annual output of 200,000 tons of iron and 50,000 tons of steel; an oil refinery with an annual output of 50,000 tons, and 20 sets of industrial machine tools including lathes, milling machines, and planers! All equipment procurement requires 10 million taels of silver and 10,000 workers!"

"Young Master, this ...... Isn't that too much!" Looking at the thin paper in his hand, the old man couldn't help but ask with some dumbfoundedness.

"How can it be, young master, I'm still too little, if there are not enough workers, or even ten times more, the young master is willing!" Young Master Huo muttered dissatisfiedly.

Young Master Huo, who has just mastered his own wealth and is so rich, is deeply affected by the big industry of later generations, if the conditions are not allowed, he would like to buy the entire Qing Dynasty and frantically build his own heavy industry!

"It's a pity that the conditions don't allow it!" Huo Shan thought a little unwillingly in his heart.

A little funny waved his hand, and the young master Huo said a little weakly: "Don't worry, Fu Bo! Last night, my mother had already handed over the Huo family's family business to me to take charge of, and you should find a few more countries for the things on this order, and try to keep the price down! But the equipment must be bought back as soon as possible! Like last time, we also want old equipment this time!"

"Alas, I know, young master!