Chapter 1232: Other intentions!
Listening to Qiqige's story, An Miaoyi nodded slightly and then looked at Qiqige's excited expression, and asked with some doubt:
"So what does this have to do with us?"

Qiqige continued to whisper:
"Madam, there is a huge business opportunity here..."

Hearing the word "business opportunity", An Miaoyi also became interested and asked:
"Can you tell me more about it?"

Qiqige organized her words and said:

"Madam, I heard that the content of the negotiation between the Coordination Office and Zhang Dapeng, in addition to Zhang Dapeng's protection of the Great Zhou merchant ships, also includes the court providing Zhang Dapeng with firearms, supplies, and troops!"

"This Zhang Dapeng dares to call himself the King of the Pure Sea. He is also a tyrant in Nanyang and is very powerful in the Nanyang region. Therefore, if he gets the support of the imperial court now, he is likely to unify the Nanyang region!"

"And if that's the case, under his protection, it's foreseeable that the overseas trade of the Great Zhou will show rapid development, so if you make some arrangements in advance, Madam, you will definitely make a lot of money in the future!"

Hearing Qiqige's words, An Miaoyi was also moved. She had lived a life of luxury in the marquis' mansion since she was a child. Therefore, despite considering the overall situation, An Miaoyi reduced her spending in the past few years and used the saved money to support the army in fighting.

But now that the world has been pacified, An Miaoyi has returned to her old ways, and even because of the change in her status and position, she has become more particular about ostentation, so An Miaoyi's own expenses are also very high, although as the eldest lady of the Ye Mansion, all of An Miaoyi's expenses can be paid into the Ye Mansion's account.

However, in order to maintain her reputation as a virtuous woman, An Miaoyi only paid half of these expenses from the Ye Mansion's account, and the remaining half came from her own small treasury...

In addition to spending money for her own enjoyment, An Miaoyi also has to take care of her mother's family, especially after several old guys like An Hetu were convicted and exiled, and her younger brother An Tianyu became the head of the An family, An Miaoyi also increased her support for her mother's family, so An Miaoyi's own small treasury has been under a lot of pressure recently.

Although she was very interested in Qiqige's proposal, An Miaoyi did not agree easily but smiled and said:

"Qiqige, when did you know so much?"

Qiqige felt a little embarrassed after hearing this, and after hesitating for a while, she still said truthfully:
"Madam, please stop laughing at me. These are all what Ren Hai told me!"

"Ren Hai? This name sounds familiar!"

Upon hearing this, Qiqige introduced:

"Madam, this Ren Hai was the original shopkeeper of Dadongsheng Company who was responsible for the trade with Jiangnan. However, because he had offended Ye Baode before, he was transferred to Yunbing. Now that Ye Baode has been arrested, many of his subordinates have also been implicated!"

"So Ren Hai was transferred back to the headquarters of Dadongsheng Company and is currently the shopkeeper in charge of the banknote business of Dadongsheng Company!"

"It was Ren Hai who solved our previous business problems. He has always admired you, Madam!"

An Miaoyi nodded slightly, and then asked directly:

"He wants to be the chief manager?"

Qiqige nodded and said:
"I think so. He has been hinting to me that if he could become the chief manager of Dadongsheng, he would be able to serve you better, madam..."

After hearing this, An Miaoyi was also somewhat tempted. With the support of Ye Mingsheng, the Dadongsheng Company has become an economic giant involved in various people's livelihood industries. Under the current rule of the Yijing court, it can be said that it has a pivotal position!
Ye Mingsheng naturally wanted to keep a firm grip on such an important institution, so the two previous general managers, Ye Hongsheng and Ye Baode, were both members of the Ye family, and were related to Ye Mingsheng and were trusted by Ye Mingsheng!

With the support of Ye Cui and a series of actions by An Miaoyi to win people's hearts, An Miaoyi is highly respected among the Ye family members. Everyone respects and loves the eldest lady of the Ye family. So under such circumstances, both Ye Hongsheng and Ye Baode have a very good relationship with An Miaoyi!
Therefore, for some things, An Miaoyi only needed to say hello and Dadongsheng Company would do it for her. Even during Ye Baode's period, An Miaoyi didn't even need to say hello, as Ye Baode would take the initiative to get things done for An Miaoyi.

It was precisely because of this good relationship that Ye Baode rebelled under the banner of An Miaoyi at the beginning of the year!

After Ye Baode's rebellion was suppressed, Ye Mingsheng took advantage of this incident to conduct a major audit of the increasingly inefficient and bloated Dadongsheng Company in order to eliminate the remnants of Ye Baode, so Ye Mingsheng had decided not to appoint a chief manager before the audit was completed.

And because the current Dadongsheng Company is so huge, it is involved in almost every industry, with more than tens of thousands of employees, so the audit workload is very large, and the entire audit requires the abacus to be moved one bead at a time, so even though the audit has lasted for several months, it has not yet ended...

During such a special period, the leaders of Dadongsheng Trading Company did not dare to make any small moves, so An Miaoyi lost the special care she had received from Dadongsheng Trading Company in the past. Because of this, An Miaoyi's small treasury had some problems with capital turnover during this period.

So there is no doubt that An Miaoyi undoubtedly hopes that the general manager of Dadongsheng Trading Company is one of her own, so that she can continue to enjoy the special care of this economic giant!

However, the development of the matter was not determined by An Miaoyi's will. An Miaoyi knew very well that although she had informed Ye Baode in advance during Ye Baode's rebellion, she had drawn a clear line with Ye Baode and cleared her suspicion in the matter, and Ye Mingsheng did not pursue the fact that she had financial dealings with Ye Baode. But Ye Mingsheng's decision not to pursue the matter did not mean that he did not know about it, so she had better not exert any influence on the matter of the general manager of Dadongsheng!

And the most crucial thing is that when Ye Mingsheng returns to Yijing after his southern tour, it will be a question whether the Dadongsheng Company can still exist!
Although Ye Mingsheng is usually a little elusive, but as Ye Mingsheng's bedside companion, An Miaoyi and Ye Mingsheng have been together for so long that she can more or less understand some of Ye Mingsheng's thoughts and make some predictions about Ye Mingsheng's next idea·························
Ye Mingsheng acquired the Dadongsheng Company in Liaoyang and granted it a special status because Ye Mingsheng was implementing economic reforms at the time, so he needed a company that could resolutely implement his ideas, reflect his will, stabilize the market, and at the same time open up financial resources for the Fengwu Army and support Ye Mingsheng in continuing the war!

It is for this purpose that, under the instruction of Ye Mingsheng, Dadongsheng Company has become an economic giant involved in various industries today.

During the Fengwu Army's struggle for supremacy, the Dadongsheng Company played a very crucial role. Not only did it support the Fengwu Army's war regardless of profit, but it also served as a ballast in Ye Mingsheng's economic reforms, ensuring the stable development of the economy!
However, everything has its pros and cons. Although Dadongsheng Company has made many contributions, its development to this day has also presented many problems!

The first problem is that the scale of the Dadongsheng Company is simply too large, and it has its own internal system. It might even be exaggerated to say that it has already become an independently developed small kingdom economically.

Therefore, in the past, although the chief manager of Dadongsheng Trading Company looked like just a businessman, in fact, his influence on the economy of Da Zhou was second only to that of the Minister of Revenue Cui Shao!

Moreover, such a business involving national strength and people's livelihood is not subject to the jurisdiction and restrictions of the six ministries. Its general manager is directly responsible to Ye Mingsheng, so this leads to the Ministry of Revenue having great opinions on the Dadongsheng Business.

Even though Ye Mingsheng later handed over the jurisdiction of Dadongsheng Company to the Ministry of Revenue, because the then chief manager Ye Baode was surnamed Ye and a relative of the Ye family, he had a special status in the Yijing court...
Therefore, Ye Baode was quite respectful to the Minister of Revenue Cui Shao, but he was too lazy to even greet the two assistant ministers of the Ministry of Revenue, and often reported directly to Ye Mingsheng over his head!

So when Ye Baode died and the Dadongsheng Company was in crisis, there was a strong voice from the Ministry of Revenue that the Dadongsheng Company should be split up and then put under the unified management of the Ministry of Revenue!

In addition, many of the industries that Dadongsheng is involved in are LD industries. Therefore, due to the lack of external competition, the efficiency of the business has become increasingly low, the structure is bloated, and there are also serious FB problems internally.

In terms of management, due to the lack of external competition, the internal promotion system is becoming more and more focused on relationships and background rather than ability.

So based on these questions, An Miaoyi boldly guessed that Ye Mingsheng might have already thought of splitting up the Dadongsheng Company under the advice of the Ministry of Households!

It was for this reason that Ye Mingsheng was not in a hurry to appoint a manager of Dadongsheng Company, and conducted an unprecedented large-scale audit of Dadongsheng Company. Ye Mingsheng always planned before taking action, so it was very likely that he wanted to thoroughly understand how deep the water of Dadongsheng Company was, and then prepare for the subsequent split of Dadongsheng Company.

And if the Dadongsheng Company no longer existed, then Ren Hai's idea of ​​becoming the chief manager would be completely shattered!
However, An Miaoyi was still very interested in Ren Hai. First of all, since Ren Hai had offended Ye Baode before and was squeezed out to Yunbing by Ye Baode, it meant that he was clean politically, and there was no need to worry about him being taken down due to any involvement with Ye Baode!

Secondly, although An Miaoyi did not have enough understanding of Ren Hai, she knew clearly that no matter he was previously responsible for the trade with Jiangnan or was currently in charge of the bill exchange business, these were both very important jobs in the Dadongsheng Company. Being able to successively become the person in charge of this aspect for the Dadongsheng Company showed that Ren Hai had absolutely no problem with his personal ability!

Even if An Miaoyi really guessed correctly in the future and the Dadongsheng Company was to be split up by Ye Mingsheng, then Ren Hai, with his clean political background and outstanding abilities, could also take on an important position. So since he was willing to join, An Miaoyi would naturally welcome him!
However, the problem now is that the current situation of the Dadongsheng Trading Company is still unclear. Although An Miaoyi is somewhat confident in her guess, she cannot tell Ren Hai about this matter. If Ren Hai spreads it, it may disrupt Ye Mingsheng's deployment!

So after careful consideration, An Miaoyi instructed Qiqige:

“Tell Ren Hai that I know about his situation. Ask him to work hard and not let the court down…”

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Just when An Miaoyi was calculating for her own interests, in the Plum Blossom Cottage in Lin'an, Jiangnan, Ye Mingsheng took over a memorial from Song Haibo.

After opening the memorial, Ye Mingsheng smiled and shook his head and said:

"This bandit Zhang Dapeng has a big appetite. He actually wants me to make him a king and also wants 50% of the overseas trade!"

Song Haibo also said upon hearing this:

"In my opinion, Marshal, Zhang Dapeng is asking for an exorbitant price and testing the bottom line of the imperial court!"

Ye Mingsheng nodded slightly. He believed that the biggest problem that Jiangnan and even the entire Da Zhou encountered in developing overseas trade was the chaotic situation in Southeast Asia.

After summarizing the suggestions of all ministers and staff, we reached two consensuses!
The first point of consensus is that we cannot turn back just because we encounter difficulties, nor can we shrink back and temporarily give up developing overseas trade. We must face up to challenges and actively solve and deal with problems.

The second point of consensus is that we need to take a two-pronged approach to solve the problem. First, we need to vigorously develop the navy of Da Zhou, build ships, and train naval officers and soldiers so that they can form combat effectiveness as quickly as possible to protect Da Zhou's merchant ships and overseas interests from infringement!
The second point is that because development takes time, we must respect reality and the laws of development of things. Under the current reality that the Great Zhou navy is unable to protect the Great Zhou merchant ships in Southeast Asia, it is necessary for the court to recruit some pirates who can be won over, so as to ensure that the Great Zhou overseas trade can continue!

Under the advice of Wang Xuecheng from the Coordination Office, Ye Mingsheng instructed him to contact Zhang Dapeng. According to Wang Xuecheng himself, he had contact with Zhang Dapeng when he was planning Nanyang before, and the two sides even reached some cooperation. Wang Xuecheng believed that Zhang Dapeng, as a Zhou person, had a sense of family and country of the Great Zhou and could be won over. Therefore, under the leadership of Wang Xuecheng, a negotiation on recruiting was launched...
(End of this chapter)