Chapter 413 Public-Private Partnership!

Shen Jianzhong turned a blind eye to the murderous intent and hatred that unconsciously flowed from Wang Kangxin's eyes. Since he came here, he had already put life and death aside. However, he knew that Wang Kangxin wanted to skin him alive and eat his flesh, but this man was an extremely patient and restrained person. As long as his goal was not achieved and he was still of use to him, he would be safe by his side...

"What do you want to talk to me about?" Looking at Wang Kangxin, Shen Jianzhong asked calmly:
Resisting the urge to draw his sword and kill Shen Jianzhong, Wang Kangxin asked in a deep voice:

"How many people has the Black Dragon Society recruited from our army?"

Shen Jianzhong seemed to be prepared for Wang Kangxin's questions and handed him a list.

Looking at the names on the list, Wang Kangxin's heart suddenly tightened, but in front of Shen Jianzhong he still pretended to be calm and said:

"You have these?"

Upon hearing this, Shen Jianzhong sneered and asked:

"General Wang, what do you think?"

Wang Kangxin pondered for a moment, and for some reason he shook his head and did not continue to argue with Shen Jianzhong on this issue. Instead, he asked:

"How is the preparation of the firearms factory going?"

Shen Jianzhong started to introduce:

"It has already started production. The factory can now produce fifty Po Lu guns every month. As for the craftsmen who make Wei Yuan guns, they are becoming more skilled. In another one to two months, we will be able to start mass production..."

Upon hearing this, Wang Kangxin frowned and said with dissatisfaction:
"Why so little?"

This time, Wang Kangxin chose to suppress the hatred in his heart and agreed to the deal with Shen Jianzhong. Part of the reason was because of the advanced firearms technology that Shen Jianzhong could bring to him and promised to produce firearms for him continuously.

It was precisely because of Shen Jianzhong's promise that Wang Kangxin provided all the resources related to firearms manufacturing in his hands to Shen Jianzhong, hoping that Shen Jianzhong could help him form an army built with firearms. However, the current production of fifty guns a month is obviously not enough!
Fifty guns a month, that's only six hundred guns a year. Even if the firearms are not equipped to the new army in Gongdu, at least one to two thousand guns are needed to equip the Andong Army. How long will it take to achieve this goal at the current speed?
Sensing Wang Kangxin's dissatisfaction, Shen Jianzhong shook his head and said:

"General Wang, don't be upset! With the level of the craftsmen you found for me in the palace, it's already very good to be able to produce fifty guns a month!"

“The technology of the Po Lu Gun and the Wei Yuan Gun is not much different from that of the bird gun in principle. However, compared with the bird gun, they have also had many improvements in details and manufacturing processes. The craftsmen in Gongdu have never even made bird guns before. If it weren’t for the craftsmen I brought to teach them the skills, I’m afraid they would still be in a mess now and don’t know what to do…”

While fleeing from the Coordination Office after being defeated by Ye Mingsheng, Shen Jianzhong had been thinking about why Ye Mingsheng was able to rise in such a short time.

After repeated thinking, Shen Jianzhong believed that the biggest factor for Ye Mingsheng's rise, in addition to Ye Mingsheng's ability to know his subordinates and assign them to the right positions and accurately grasp opportunities, was that Ye Mingsheng got powerful firearms such as the Po Lu Gun and the Wei Yuan Gun from somewhere, which greatly improved the combat effectiveness of his army!
Although he didn't know where Ye Mingsheng got these firearms from, Shen Jianzhong, who had no answer, tried every possible means to obtain the finished products of Weiyuan Gun and Polu Gun through various channels.

In the past year, in order to improve the combat effectiveness of his army, Ye Mingsheng ordered the craftsmen's camp to work at full capacity and work overtime to produce firearms. Nearly 20,000 of the two types of muskets were produced in one year. With such a large number, especially in the context of fierce competition in the war, it was not difficult for a big intelligence chief like Shen Jianzhong to get a few muskets.

After getting the musket, Shen Jianzhong secretly found some firearms craftsmen and asked them to imitate it. After a long period of unremitting efforts, Shen Jianzhong really achieved some results, which became one of the bargaining chips for the transaction between Shen Jianzhong and Wang Kangxin...
Shen Jianzhong's explanation at this time did not improve Wang Kangxin's mood at all. He stared at Shen Jianzhong and said word by word:

"Shen Jianzhong, I don't care what you do, the firearms factory must produce at least 100 guns per month!"

Seeing that Wang Kangxin had no respect for objective laws and wanted to double the output right away, Shen Jianzhong frowned. Before he set up the firearms factory, he thought, like Wang Kangxin, that he could easily make firearms by investing manpower and material resources.

But when he really started to prepare, he found that things were not as simple as he had imagined. Many technical problems could not be easily solved by simply saying "there must be a brave man under a big reward". Even if you have a master to teach you the technology, those craftsmen in the palace also have a process of learning and practice. It does not mean that if you give him the technology today, he will immediately become a skilled worker tomorrow... Although he wanted to explain it to Wang Kangxin in detail, seeing that Wang Kangxin had made up his mind and would not listen to anything, as if to turn against him if he dared to do it again, he wisely gave up the plan to persuade Wang Kangxin and said,
"If that's the case, General Wang, find me a hundred firearms craftsmen!"

Hearing Shen Jianzhong bargaining with him, Wang Kangxin suppressed his anger and said:

"I found all the craftsmen in the palace who could make firearms for you last time. Now where do you want me to find another hundred craftsmen for you?"

Shen Jianzhong said calmly:

"I say, General Wang, Lord Wang! Can you please not be so stubborn and be more flexible? You can't even find the palace, so why don't you go back and look for it somewhere else? Don't I need to tell you where there are skilled craftsmen?"

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Dongning, Military Governor's Office.

Yun Hanjie came to Ye Mingsheng's study for the second time on behalf of the Yun family to negotiate with Ye Mingsheng. Out of the traditional virtue of respecting the elderly and loving the young, and also out of respect for the Yun family behind Yun Hanjie, Ye Mingsheng still asked the guards to move a seat for Yun Hanjie to sit down and talk, just like last time.

After exchanging pleasantries with Yun Hanjie and chatting about some family matters, Ye Mingsheng looked at Yun Hanjie with a smile on his face. If it was as he expected, Yun Hanjie came to him for the public-private partnership. Therefore, Ye Mingsheng was looking forward to Yun Hanjie bringing him a satisfactory plan...
Feeling Ye Mingsheng's gaze, Yun Hanjie, who had already understood Ye Mingsheng's style, organized his words and spoke;
"Your Excellency, in order to support your reform of public-private partnership, our Yun family is willing to donate 20% of the shares of Jinfusheng Company, 30% of the shares of Chenji Grain Shop, 30% of the shares of Sunji Salt Shop, 20% of the shares of Guangtaichun Company, and 20% of the shares of Quanrentang!"

Listening to the five business names that Yun Hanjie blurted out in one breath, Ye Mingsheng picked up the teacup and slowly sipped the tea, but in his mind he was quickly calculating the value of these shares.

The public-private partnership launched by Ye Mingsheng this time was not a random application of future policies. Before launching this policy, Ye Mingsheng had asked the government and the Coordination Office to prepare an in-depth investigation report for him on the current business situation in Liaoyang and the key industries related to people's livelihood.

In this report, the government introduced to Ye Mingsheng in detail the business, scale, etc. of various large businesses in Liaoyang. If Ye Mingsheng remembered correctly, the Jin Fusheng Business was the leading large business in Liaoyang, involved in all walks of life...
However, as can be seen from the name, Jin Fusheng's main business is gold, silver, jade, and antiques. Especially in the business of gold, silver, and jade, his family occupies nearly 30% of the market share in Liaoyang!
Their gold, silver and jade wares are of good quality and exquisite workmanship. Countless old ladies, young girls and young wives in Liaoyang are proud to own a piece of jewelry produced by Jin Fusheng. In addition to gold, silver and jade wares, cultural relics and antiques, Jin Fusheng also has a good reputation and goodwill in the banknote business, and traveling merchants are willing to trust them.

As for Chenji Grain Shop, there is no doubt that it is a large business engaged in grain trading. Although it is called Chenji and the owner is also surnamed Chen and his name is Chen Wanan, but for a business to be so large in grain trading, there must be a backer behind it!

The three Liaoyang clans all have shares in their business, but the most important backer is still the Yun family. Chen Wanan's wife is Yun Hanjie's second daughter, and the bulk of Chen's grain shop's profits are also taken away by the Yun family.

According to rough statistics from the survey report, Chenji Grain Store has a market share of about 20% in Liaoyang. Their sales outlets and grain storage warehouses are mostly concentrated in Dongning Prefecture, Guangning Prefecture, and Xuantu Prefecture. In other places such as Posuo Prefecture, Lelang Prefecture, and Changqing Prefecture, their stores and warehouses are very few...
The situation of Sun's Salt Shop is similar to that of Chen's Grain Shop. It is also deeply tied to the Yun family, but its market share is slightly larger, accounting for about 25% of Liaoyang Salt Industry's sales, and has sales revenue of nearly six figures of silver every year.

As for Guangtaichun, their main business is cloth and leather. They have several weaving factories and dyeing factories in Liaoyang, with hundreds of workers working for them. It is said that for every three pieces of cloth sold in Liaoyang, one is from them. As for the leather business, it is even more impressive. Half of the cowhide and sheepskin business is from them, and the most impressive is the mink fur business. Guangtaichun is almost in a monopoly state in the mink fur business in Liaoyang, and they firmly control the market pricing power. It can be said to be very domineering!
The last one, Quanrentang, is no worse than the above four. They are the largest medicine shop in Liaoyang. Many of the top-quality medicinal materials like ginseng and deer antler are sold to Quanrentang by the people in the mountains, and then distributed by Quanrentang. The medicinal materials they collect may only cost one or two taels of silver, or even a few cents of silver, but when selling them, they may ask you for several taels of silver, or even dozens of taels of silver. However, in terms of profit margin, Quanrentang may have the highest profit margin among the five businesses!

The combined value of the five shares donated by the Yun family is conservatively estimated to be at least 600,000 taels of silver, which can be said to be very sincere...
Looking at Ye Mingsheng who was slowly sipping tea, Yun Hanjie seemed to want to see some clues from his facial expression. At this time, Yun Hanjie was also a little nervous. He didn't know whether the list he wrote out could satisfy Ye Mingsheng!

Ever since hearing Cui Shao's thoughts during their last meeting, Yun Hanjie has had a lot of feelings. Among the three clans in Liaoyang, the Cui family has the strongest overall strength, the Gongsun family has the greatest influence in the military, and their Yun family has the most money. Unfortunately, over the past thousands of years, they have experienced countless changes of dynasties and emperors have changed one after another, but what has never changed is the official-oriented society.

Therefore, although the Yun family has the most powerful financial resources among the three clans in Liaoyang, their political status is the lowest. The highest ancestor of the Yun family was only a fourth-rank official, which is far behind the Cui family and the Gongsun family. Therefore, whenever the three clans in Liaoyang are mentioned, everyone regards the Yun family as the youngest.

Despite this, the Yun family did not interfere with the status quo. Several generations wanted to change this situation. Unfortunately, their efforts never broke the fate of their family. After hearing Cui Shao's ideas that night, Yun Hanjie was deeply touched and drove back to the family late at night to discuss with his nephew Yun Guanjing. After the discussion, the two of them became anxious to discuss with other important figures in the family.

It is precisely because of this that Yun Hanjie only came to Ye Mingsheng now to discuss the public-private partnership with Ye Mingsheng.

Although Yun Hanjie thought that his plan was enough to impress Ye Mingsheng before meeting him, but now looking at Ye Mingsheng's calm face, he still felt a little nervous and uneasy...

Ye Mingsheng, who had no idea of ​​Yun Hanjie's inner thoughts, was somewhat surprised by Yun Hanjie's plan, but he also felt the Yun family's scheming from the plan. Chenji Grain Shop and Sunji Salt Shop, to which the Yun family gave the largest shares, were both industries closely related to the government and needed strong support from the government to survive.

The businesses of Jin Fusheng, Guangtaichun and Quanrentang have relatively fewer connections with the government, so Ye Mingsheng was only given 20% of the shares!
(End of this chapter)