Chapter 1415: Using force to force others (Second update, please subscribe)

"United Chamber of Commerce..."

Li Jingye closed his eyes and frowned more and more as he repeated these words.

When he took over the order, he imagined all kinds of possibilities, but he never thought that the Chamber of Commerce would step in at the end.

Huaxia United Chamber of Commerce.

On the surface, it looks like a chamber of commerce, but this chamber of commerce is different from ordinary chambers of commerce. Not only are the top leaders of the chamber of commerce closely connected with the dignitaries of the two countries, they can even influence the government to a certain extent.

The more important reason is that many large banks including the Imperial Bank, HSBC, China Construction Bank, Industrial Bank and Industrial Bank are its members. The Chamber of Commerce may only have its own China Construction Bank, but the Chamber of Commerce's board of directors influences the empire's finances.

It’s not about influence, it’s about influence!

And President Zuo... is the president of the Chamber of Commerce.

Now that he suddenly came to Ningbo and even made a special appointment to meet him, how could Li Jingye not be nervous?

"There is no good banquet!"

The reason why Li Jingye felt so emotional was because of... Hong Kong's order for twelve merchant ships.

Is that an order from Hong Kong?

Anyone who understands knows that what is happening in Hong Kong is just a sleight of hand, that is the British order!

Britain is the enemy of the Ming Dynasty.

Enemy country...but who doesn’t like golden gold?

Now President Zuo comes to me, why?

With his brows furrowed, Li Jingye felt a little melancholy.

…

"Li Jingye was one of the first batch of students sent by the Heavenly Kingdom to stay in the Ming Dynasty. He graduated from the Department of Naval Architecture of Nanhua University in four years of Shengde. After returning to China, he has been working in the Ningbo Shipyard of the Heavenly Kingdom. He has served as an engineer and chief engineer. Ten years ago, when the Tang army conquered Nanjing, with the consent of the factory director Wang Zili, he signed a contract to transfer the shipyard to Xingye Company at a low price. This company was founded by Ming merchant Song Jieyun in Haizhou Concession half a year ago. She is..."

Without waiting for the secretary to finish, Zuo Xiaoxun spoke.

"Song Jieyun is Li Jingye's wife. Although Ningbo Shipyard is the official property of Heavenly Kingdom and should be confiscated, Xingye Company is a Ming Dynasty company registered by Ming people. At that time, the Tang Dynasty was concerned about the empire and did not investigate the matter. With this transfer of ownership, the shipyard founded by Heavenly Kingdom at a cost of nearly two million taels was named Xingye Shipyard, and thus became the largest private shipyard in the Tang Dynasty."

Zuo Xiaoxun was very clear about the background of Xingye Shipyard. After all, it involved...

"President, I have to say that Li Jingye played this trick beautifully! I heard that he promised to remit 100,000 yuan to Wang Zili every year, but Wang Zili didn't receive a penny after arriving at Chenggong Islands. This guy almost got this shipyard without spending a penny."

Secretary Chen sighed and said.

"He used the banner of our Ming Dynasty to take possession of this shipyard. President, can he let the reputation of our Ming Dynasty go to waste?"

"Secretary Chen, what do you think we should do?"

"We tolerated him in the past, but now that the Empire has declared war on Britain, he has accepted British orders without authorization. This kind of "uncivilian behavior" must be severely punished. In my opinion, we should ask him to return the orders and investigate his behavior of embezzling public property."

Listening to Secretary Chen's advice, Zuo Xiaoxun sighed and said.

"Hey, so, you can only be a secretary for the rest of your life. Sometimes, things just don't work that way!"

Then Zuo Xiaoxun gave him a meaningful look and stopped talking, which made Secretary Chen feel embarrassed.

"Public property... that public property doesn't belong to our Ming Dynasty, so why should we worry about it? We can't kill the goose that lays the golden eggs! As for the British order, I have other plans."

After saying that, Zuo Xiaoxun struck a match, lit a cigar, and slowly started smoking.

About half an hour later, Li Jingye, feeling uneasy, walked into the Tianzi Suite on the top floor of the hotel. Facing Zuo Xiaoxun, he was already feeling guilty and couldn't help feeling uneasy, especially when Chairman Zuo never talked about orders but asked about the size of the shipyard, its shipbuilding capacity and other matters. He became even more nervous.

"…In addition to the four old docks and four old slipways, I plan to build two more docks with a length of more than 240 meters and two slipways that can build 10,000-ton merchant ships, and add corresponding machinery and equipment. The land expansion acquisition has been completed. According to the current plan, after the expansion of the shipyard is completed, the production scale of the shipyard can be more than doubled. By then, Xingye Shipyard will be the largest shipyard in Jiangnan."

Although he was a little nervous, Li Jingye's expression couldn't help but carry a hint of pride when he mentioned the expansion of Xingye Shipyard. This was indeed his pride. Ever since he took charge of the shipyard, the scale of the shipyard has continued to expand.

When he took over the shipyard, it only had two stone docks, one was only 100 meters long, and the other was only 120 meters. There was only one slipway that could only build ships with a displacement of 3,000 tons. Ten years later, the current Xingye Shipyard has more than doubled in size under his hands. A 220-meter dock is known as the best dock in Jiangnan, and a 160-meter dock and three slipways can build 10,000-ton ships. In addition, it also has two floating docks for repairing ships, and the staff has expanded to more than 4,000 people, which is not much inferior to Haizhou and Qingdao Shipyards. A factory of this size is definitely a large heavy industrial enterprise in the entire Tang Dynasty.

"Indeed, in terms of shipyard scale, Xingye may not be the largest shipyard in Jiangnan at present. It is a little worse than Mawei. However, in terms of production capacity, you are much better than Mawei. Apart from other things, the merchant ships built by Xingye are not only welcomed by domestic merchants, but also by foreign merchants. They also praise the quality of Xingye merchant ships!"

Foreign businessman!

In an instant, cold sweat broke out on Li Jingye's back. What was supposed to come finally came!

He smiled bitterly and then said.

"President, I, I... Regarding the Hong Kong order, I was indeed not thoughtful enough. At that time, I only thought that the Tang Dynasty had not declared war on Britain, but I ignored the fact that the Ming Dynasty and Britain had already declared war, so I rashly accepted the Hong Kong order..."

Li Jingye, who originally wanted to explain, thought about it and said with gritted teeth.

"Although I was wrong first, let's put aside the facts. The contract has been signed, the Hong Kong businessman has paid the down payment, not only have the materials been purchased, but even the ship sample has been made. In addition, the shipyard has obtained a loan from the bank to expand the shipyard. If the contract is terminated now, Xingye will probably go bankrupt. I hope that the president will allow Xingye to complete the order for the sake of my dedication to China's industry over the years..."

After saying this, Li Jingye was like a prisoner waiting for trial, waiting for his fate with a solemn expression.

Looking at him, Zuo Xiaoxun silently took a puff of his cigar, and after a while, he spoke.

"What will you do if I don't allow you to?"

The old group is down, so I created a new book club group: 739209015. Everyone is welcome to join and discuss and deduce the plot together.

(End of this chapter)