The next morning, Zhao Hao drove to the Xishan Company headquarters in Dazhalan to attend the interim board meeting.

There are four corridors. On the three-story bronze patterned canopy is a plaque inscribed with the emperor's handwriting - "Royal Xishan Coal Industry", and the gilded font sparkles in the sunlight.

Under the plaque, well-dressed gentlemen and merchants kept walking up the black marble steps.

Next to the open colorful glass door, there stood a security guard wearing uniform black clothes, leather boots, and a thorny iron rod, watching the people coming in and out vigilantly.

Seeing Zhao Hao's carriage stop outside the store, Wu Yu, who had been guarding the door since early morning, hurried forward to open the door and whispered to Zhao Hao: "There are many people in front, please enter from the back door."

"No need. Let's go and see the excitement first." Young Master Zhao jumped out of the car by himself. He wore a fluttering scarf on his head, a sexy light red Taoist robe, a pair of silk cloud shoes, and walked into the company lobby with a folding fan in his hand.

Entering the store, the view is suddenly clear. The morning sun shines through the intricately patterned glazed roof, illuminating the three-story high lobby, making it bright and spacious.

In the hall, there were rows of long chairs, most of which were occupied by people. A waiter was walking around with a tea tray, pouring water for the customers.

The customers chatted among themselves while nervously looking at the signs hanging behind the mahogany counter.

On the white painted sign were the stocks registered for sale today. Each sign was a separate order, with the number of stocks to be sold and the reserve price per share written on it.

The stockbroker behind the counter will call out the price in turn, and the customers will bid to buy, and the one with the highest price will win. Then the broker will take down the corresponding water card from the wall and invite the buyer to the counter to trade. The broker will continue to call out the next water card.

These were all figured out by Fatty Sun and the others. Zhao Hao didn't know about them beforehand, so he found an empty seat and sat down with great interest to see how the buyers bid.

At first, he saw that the buyers were quite enthusiastic in bidding, and thought that Xishan Company was deliberately raising the price through auction. But after watching for a while, he found that it was not the case, because all the stocks entrusted for sale today, the odd numbers and the reserve prices were all hung on the wall.

This transparent operation makes it impossible for buyers to bid too high for a particular order. If the price exceeds the psychological estimate, just wait for the next order. There is no need to fight for a single order.

So although the buyers were eager to bid, they raised the price in moderation. Zhao Hao sat there for a cup of tea, but he didn't see anyone offer more than sixty taels per piece.

This made him sigh again that there were indeed capable people in the Ming Dynasty. This system, at least for now, could prevent stock prices from fluctuating too much to protect the interests of both buyers and sellers.

The only drawback is that currently there are only two stocks listed in the hall, namely Xishan Company and Lugouqiao Company, and there are no stocks of the third company for sale.

When Zhao Hao was in Jiangnan, he clearly heard that many businesses in Beijing followed suit and transformed into joint-stock companies and began to try to issue stocks. He didn't know whether Xishan Company was exclusive or those companies were unwilling to get involved. In short, at present, this is not a stock trading center, but only an exchange for its own stocks.

Zhao Hao timed it silently. In about a quarter of an hour, seven or eight orders of Xishan Company's shares were completed, totaling more than 100 shares. Lugouqiao Company also completed 60 or 7 orders, 70 or 80 shares, and the stock price was close to the level of Xishan Company, almost 50 taels of silver per share.

This is quite ridiculous. After all, Lugouqiao Company is just a processing and sales enterprise. How can its valuation be similar to that of a resource-based enterprise like Xishan Company?

Zhao Hao asked this question to the buyer nearby, and the answer he got was that because Lugouqiao Company was the major shareholder of Xishan Company, owning shares of Lugouqiao Company was equivalent to owning shares of Xishan Company, right? Therefore, the stock prices of the two companies were similar, which was very reasonable.

Mr. Zhao was actually confused by what he heard. This is exactly the same as the fact that Yahoo's stock price is supported by Alibaba. It seems that the naivety and cuteness of investors are not limited by time and space.

He wanted to continue chatting with these "lovely investors", but the directors had already arrived, so he had to get up and leave the trading hall, preparing to go upstairs.

There were two security guards standing at the stairs, and no one was allowed to go up. If Fatty Tang and Sun Dawu hadn't come down to greet him, Zhao Hao wouldn't have been able to go up to the second floor.

~~

On the third floor, the directors and supervisors of Xishan Company were all at the door of the meeting room, welcoming the long-missed Mr. Zhao.

Zhao Hao smiled warmly, greeted them one by one, and walked into the conference room surrounded by everyone.

Duke Dingguo Xu Wenbi, Zhu Shimao with his neck tilted, Li Fang from the Imperial Household Department, Eunuch Ji, Zhao Xian, Wu Kangyuan, Tang Youde, Sun Dawu, Guo Da and other board members, as well as Duke Yingguo, Zhang Qianfa and other supervisory board members who were attending the meeting, all sat down at the long mahogany table.

Her Royal Highness the Princess was tired today, so Zhao Hao gave up the first chair and sat down on the second chair next to her.

After the maids served tea to the directors and supervisors, Wu Yu led all the irrelevant people away and personally stood guard outside the meeting room.

The bright sunshine of the capital city shines through the large glass windows, making people feel warm. Mr. Zhao smiled and praised everyone, saying, "The trading hall on the first floor is well done. It seems that the transactions are quite active."

"Before the year-end dividend, the transaction volume was much higher than it is now." Xu Wenbi on the opposite side said with some dissatisfaction: "After the New Year, it has been flat, with only two to three thousand shares traded a day."

Several directors nodded in agreement.

"The turnover rate is not low." Zhao Hao made a quick calculation. Xishan Company has a total of 1.4 million shares, and no more than 200,000 shares are in circulation. A turnover rate of more than 1% is definitely not low at this stage.

"I think you are dissatisfied with the stock price not rising enough?" He immediately understood what these guys were really thinking.

The directors were exposed and laughed. The company's stock price had been soaring for a year, which had already spoiled their appetite. Now that the stock price has entered a plateau, they are starting to get anxious.

"Don't worry, I'll come back this time and help you at least double the stock price, how about that?" Mr. Zhao said with a smile.

"That's great!" The directors were delighted to hear this. They had been dreaming of seeing the stock price go up even in their dreams.

"Sir, do you also want Xishan Company to produce cement?" Zhu Shimao asked with his neck tilted.

Suddenly, everyone's eyes were fixed on Master Zhao, and their gazes were warmer than the sunlight outside the window.

The fame of cement concrete has long been spread from the south of the Yangtze River to the capital. In Beijing, where the political atmosphere is more intense, cement, a magical tool for infrastructure, is naturally more attractive.

Moreover, the inventor of cement was Mr. Zhao, the founder of Xishan Company, and all the directors had been drooling over it for a long time.

"Well," Young Master Zhao played Tai Chi and said to the directors with a smile, "It's not up to me alone. Because I have already transferred the patent to Jiangnan Group. Such a strategic asset must of course be decided by the group's board of directors."

Jiangnan Group does not issue shares publicly, so all the company's conditions are opaque. The outside world does not even know who the group's directors are, let alone the group's equity structure.

In the eyes of the directors of Xishan Company, Mr. Zhao had been in Jiangnan for less than a year, and he had been able to rapidly expand and strengthen the Jiangnan Group, so he must have given up a large part of his interests in exchange for the full support of the powerful families in Jiangnan. Therefore, they all believed Zhao Hao's excuses, and no one thought that he was actually going backwards in the Jiangnan Group, and had a one-man show, and had no decentralization and openness at all in Xishan Company.

Mr. Zhao, a pragmatist, will not stick to any form and will only choose the most suitable one.

"Of course, of course." The directors all understood, and then Baba requested, "Then please ask the Jiangnan Group Board of Directors. If they have any requests, just let them know. We can all make money together, so we can discuss it."

"Because I have shares in both parties, I must avoid this matter." Zhao Hao replied seriously: "However, I can be a mouthpiece for both parties, but I will not interfere in the decision-making of Jiangnan Group or Xishan Company."

"Understood." With the previous experience of merging with Lugou Bridge Company, the directors all knew the 'principle of avoidance of related shareholders', so Mr. Zhao didn't need to waste any more words on it.

~~

After adding more water, the rather masculine Eunuch Li asked, "It seems that besides cement, you have other ways to make money?"

"Director Li, this 'way to make money' is very good." Zhao Hao nodded and smiled to everyone, "Yes, this way of making money for me comes from the road. Not the dry road or the river road, but the sea road!"

"Transporting rice from the south to the north by sea?" Li Fang blurted out. The shareholders did not show any surprise. Apparently, the scene of Master Zhao and his godmother entering Beijing in a grand manner the day before had already spread throughout the capital.

"We are all family. There is no need to be so cautious." Young Master Zhao looked at Li Fang with a smile, and a burst of laughter rang out in the conference room.

"We just want to transport grain by sea!" Zhao Hao slammed the table and stood up, saying firmly: "Jiangnan Group has made a decision and formally invites Xishan Company to cooperate with the north and south to make this happen!"

"When we were in Jiangnan, I had already discussed this with the chairman, and she agreed." Everyone heard Zhao Hao say in a deep voice, "She also personally went by sea to conduct an actual survey. In just ten days, we arrived at Tianjin Dagukou from Chongming."

Eunuch Ji nodded, indicating that the princess fully supported the cooperation with Jiangnan Company and had authorized him to vote in favor. She was absent today just because she didn't want to put pressure on everyone, so that the directors could vote as they wished.

The directors all thanked the princess for her thoughtfulness. This matter really requires careful consideration before making a decision.

Everyone started whispering to each other. Although shipping grain by sea had great benefits, it could also cause a lot of trouble.

Zhao Hao had anticipated their reaction and announced:

"In addition, the sea transportation of grain is just a means. The real purpose of Jiangnan Group is to break the maritime ban in Jiangnan and restore maritime trade!"

He swept his sharp eyes over the crowd and said word by word: "So the future shipping company will have the exclusive overseas trade rights in the Jiangnan region!"

With a cry of "Wow...", all the directors were excited, and there was no more hesitation.

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