Chapter 206 Business Empire
Also, Suisui is so dedicated to his work, so of course he, the King of Li, cannot fall behind!
The issue of tariffs must be put on the agenda as soon as possible, because after the spring, Yan will officially trade with the northern border.
Therefore, during this period in Yanzhou, Gu Changxiao moved directly into the governor's mansion and held discussions with Li Heng and other officials every day.
Li Heng was so terrified! He was worried that Gu Changxiao would not be able to come back from the Northern Frontier, so he acted like a fence-sitter again, not providing any help to Cheng Yu, ignoring the request for help from the border town, and watching Cheng Yu maneuver among the nobles with cold eyes.
He wanted to take the opportunity to cut ties with Biancheng and King Li, fearing that King Yu would later hold him accountable for his help to King Li, so he acted like a fence-sitter.
The result was beyond his and everyone else's expectations. Not only did Prince Li come back alive, he also killed Prince Zuo Xian and sent an envoy to Chang'an to make things difficult for Prince Yu.
To be honest, when Li Heng got the news, he wished he were 20 years older so that he could retire and return home immediately to escape from this vortex.
He was restless day and night, thinking about how the Li King would punish him! Compared to the methods of the real Li King, he was more afraid of the mad fake Li King. The fake Li King had warned him that if he acted like a fence-sitter again, he would shave his grass!
When he went to welcome King Li back to the city, he was mentally prepared to be beaten half to death by the fake King Li.
What he didn't expect was that His Royal Highness the King of Li completely ignored him! It's good that he ignored me! It's better to treat me as a fart and forget about it.
The fake Li King was not seen either. Did he stay in the Northern Frontier? Or was he sent to another place by the prince?
That’s great! It’s no exaggeration to say that the madman, the monkey, the scoundrel, and the idiot has left Yan. It’s not an exaggeration to hold a banquet to celebrate!
Li Heng didn't feel at ease for a few days, as Yan Shiyi came in person to tell him that King Li was coming to Yanzhou City and asked him to go to greet him.
He immediately asked with a trembling heart: "Which Li King?"
Unexpectedly, Yan Shiyi understood him very well and patted his shoulder: "Both of them will come! So, be fully prepared."
Li Heng almost cried at that time! He was not afraid of the real Li King coming. The prince still had a sense of propriety towards the court officials. Moreover, the Li King still needed him to restrain the nobles.
He was afraid it was the fake King Li! He was a lawless man who dared to kill anyone when he was red-eyed! Frightened, he went to the city with the Yan family to welcome him. Li Heng looked around the team with wide eyes, and his heart dropped back into his stomach. The fake King Li didn't come.
Although Yan Shiyi's attitude towards the woman beside King Li was strange, he had no intention of looking at the beauty. King Li couldn't deal with it. It was like a knife hanging around his neck. He felt uneasy!
It was not until the King of Li moved into the governor's mansion that the hanging sword finally fell. That is, the King of Li wanted to reform the tariffs, and he and the officials needed to come up with regulations.
Li Heng instantly became energetic. As long as the prince still used him and as long as he could handle this matter well, the issue of being a fence-sitter would be over!
The result was the new law on tariffs. Li Heng was more concerned about it than Gu Changxiao. He led the officials to look through the Xia Shang Law, striving to come up with a border commercial tax law that would satisfy the prince before the spring.
Of course, Gu Changxiao's waiting at the mansion was not in vain. When Jinsui was free, he would talk to her about commercial taxes, including the terms Jinsui proposed, such as "luxury tax", "local industry protection", "import and export taxes", and other terms that were used to explain tariffs in later generations.
Gu Changxiao felt that listening to your words was better than reading for ten years. He immediately had a new idea and went to discuss it with Li Heng and others. He tried to draft a comprehensive tariff law in one fell swoop.
Later, basic labor laws were added: "The more products the northern border needs, the more workshops will be built in Yandi, and the number of workers needed by the gentry will also increase.
If they used their own slaves or put their workers under death indenture, they could escape the protection of the court's laws. So when we set tariffs, we included laws to protect workers.
Basic wages, working hours, overtime pay, the most important thing in the past, we must not let business hurt farmers. If there are behaviors such as persuading farmers to abandon farming, or benefiting farmers by doing business, we can punish the nobles openly! "
"Don't forget that we have another important goal, which is to use the prosperity of commerce to make the nobles willing to give up their land for the merchants, curb land annexation, and fundamentally limit the expansion of the nobles."
This era is not like later generations. Capitalists can flee abroad, but the gentry have no place to flee. It is also because Gu Changxiao’s military capabilities are not good enough now, otherwise we would not use such gentle means to deal with the problem of the growing strength of the gentry.
"We must take advantage of this trip to Yanzhou to work out the tariff issue."
This was Gu Changxiao's job, and Jinsui's job was to take advantage of this visit to the Yan family to finalize the wool textile workshop and then plan the sailing route.
Everyone was busy, even Shi Er Niang was busy with the expansion of Yanzhizhai. The market in Northern Xinjiang was too big, and she wanted to take this opportunity to make more money for Sui Sui. She also wanted to make money for herself to buy back the Han slave. She also had to sponsor the poor female students in the college to enroll.
The trip to Northern Frontier has made Twelve Niang grow a lot. She has completely stepped out of the life of a lady from a wealthy family. A new kind of responsibility has fallen on her shoulders, but it does not make her feel heavy, but gives her motivation.
She admires Sui Sui. No matter whether she was the fake King Li when he was pretending to be a man in the past, or Miss Ji now, Twelve Niang admires and likes her.
She wanted to learn from Sui Sui, become a unique woman in the world, and make a distinctive career, instead of waiting to be a lady of a wealthy family who would marry and raise children.
Yan Shiyi soon discovered that since Miss Ji moved into the house, his elder brother and younger sister had become different people. His elder brother often kept the lights on until midnight, and the steward would come in and out every day to discuss matters with him.
And now, the lamp is often on until dawn. Some maritime merchants who were placed in the old house by the eldest brother and were not allowed to enter Yanzhou City also sneaked into the city to discuss matters with Miss Ji.
Only I seemed to have become the second Yan housekeeper, busy every day with preparing banquets, running errands, and looking for things.
In the past, Yan Shiyi liked this very much. He wanted to be a playboy who didn't care about anything, hang out with a bunch of friends, and ask his eldest brother for some pocket money.
But now Yan Shiyi doesn’t like it anymore. He feels that everyone around him has changed, and he is the only one left behind.
He felt confused and frustrated. He had no interest in his friends' activities. He wanted to join in the conversation between his elder brother and Miss Ji, but found that he could not understand anything.
"What should I do? When Witch Ji comes to our house, I become stupid."
Twelve Niang was copying a new perfume formula. This was the recipe given by Sui Sui, but she wrote it in a hurry and her handwriting was sloppy. Twelve Niang copied it in small regular script, explaining the steps to the person in charge of each link, and sealed the secret recipe with wax for preservation.
Hearing her second brother's "whining without reason", she wanted to say, "You have never been smart, okay!"
But when she turned around and saw that her second brother was really depressed, she could only comfort him: "Second brother is not stupid! But second brother, everyone is busy expanding their business, you can also expand your business!"
Yan Shiyi was chewing a raw tomato. He learned this from Jinsui. Every time they met before, Jinsui was chewing a tomato. He asked curiously if Jinsui got tired of it.
Jin Sui teased him: "You will become smarter if you eat more."
From then on, Yan Shiyi would eat three raw tomatoes every day. When his eldest brother was not at home, he ate five every day!
"But the restaurant I'm cooperating with Ji Mo Nv is the restaurant that's the largest in Yanzhou City because of hotpot. I can't open a restaurant in Northern Xinjiang, so how can I expand this business?"
Twelve Lady rolled her eyes at him and said, "Can you please stop calling me Witch Ji? Miss Ji will be angry if she hears it."
She thought of how she had occasionally heard Sui Sui tell Grandpa Ling that they wanted to turn Zhongyuan Restaurant into a "chain brand". She didn't know what a chain brand was, so she just listened for a while and thought it meant the same menu, decoration, and store, opened in different states.
She immediately said to her second brother, "You can open a chain of hot pot restaurants! Not only will it be the largest restaurant in Yanzhou City, but you can also open restaurants in all the sixteen states of Yan!"
She thought she was exaggerating: "I heard from Sui Sui that some chain stores have opened a hundred stores!"
But few people know that this is the fact, Maimai and KenKen have over 10,000 stores around the world.
Yan Shiyi sat up straight instantly: "Can it be like this?"
"Why not? Tomatoes, peppers, and potatoes are only available in the border town. If you open them in other state capitals, they are unique ingredients, and you can beat other restaurants!"
“I’ll give you a suggestion. If you’re worried that Sui Sui won’t help you with any ideas, then you can bring Master Ji’s Zhongyuan Stew with you and tell him directly that you can go to a hot pot restaurant every day and leave the shop next to it for Zhongyuan Stew.
Sui Sui will definitely help you write a business plan right away, and you can open hot pot restaurants all over Da Xia without any problem!"
Yan Shiyi suddenly perked up, feeling that his previous vision was too narrow-minded, and he was actually complacent about his restaurant becoming number one.
Even my sister wants to expand her rouge business across the northern border, but I am so narrow-minded! Big brother is right, I haven't read enough books!
Yan Shiyi went to look for Jinsui immediately, only to see Jinsui leaving in a carriage.
He was shocked. His elder brother didn't tell him! "Are you leaving today? Have you finished talking to your elder brother?"
Jinsui shook his head: "No, there is a greenhouse in Tuantianying where tomatoes and peppers are harvested today. I will go and take a look at the situation and come back in the evening."
Yan Shiyi said hurriedly: "Then I'll go with you."
Jin Sui didn't comment, and watched him get on the carriage. He said like a child, "Don't mess with the tea stove, be careful not to burn yourself. I'll do the math, and you can have fun."
Yan Shiyi: ...
He suddenly felt a little sad. Maybe in the heart of Ji Mo Nv, she didn't see me as a man who could stand on his own! He watched Jin Sui doing the calculations with an abacus, frowning and thinking from time to time, and writing down notes from time to time.
She is really smart and busy. She can keep so many things in order and knows a lot. The old stewards and accountants in the mansion, who are full of young people, are all convinced by her.
I heard yesterday that she had modified the account book, just like the one used to register refugees, by drawing several lines horizontally and vertically. My eldest brother announced on the spot that the Yan family would use Miss Ji's accounting method from now on.
She is obviously not even as old as me! Smart people are really scary! Yan Shiyi's gaze was so scorching that Jin Sui couldn't focus on the information. He closed the notebook in his hand and asked with a smile: "Is there something wrong with you?"
She is not so narcissistic that Yan Shiyi likes her and is looking for an opportunity to be alone with her. That is Mary Sue literature, not our Tian Jijian literature.
Moreover, she believed that Yan Shiyi was more afraid of her than liking her.
"Indeed, there is something."
Jin Sui smiled at him encouragingly, which made Yan Shiyi feel very guilty. He shouldn't have called her "Witch Ji" in private.
If Jinsui knew about this, she would definitely comfort him and say, “It’s okay. I also call you a stupid turtle in private.”
When Yan Shiyi mentioned the chain model that Twelve Niang mentioned, Jin Sui instantly understood his plan and changed her mind. She said approvingly:
"It's great that you have this idea! I've probably been too busy in the last one or two years to focus on the restaurant business. Since you have this idea, let's have a good chat."
"First, tell me what you think?"
Jin Sui looked at Jin An with encouragement. This gave Yan Shiyi a big boost of confidence, and it was much easier than answering in front of his elder brother.
Because when his elder brother gave him a look or frowned, he would lose his confidence, become hesitant, or speak with a tone full of hesitation.
I didn't expect that Witch Ji would be so gentle and calm when she was in a good mood. Talking to her felt like a spring breeze.
"I thought about it. If I open a restaurant in another state, it will be too far from Yanzhou. If something goes wrong, I won't be able to take care of it. If I send a butler there and encounter local nobles causing trouble, it will also be troublesome.
How do you train the workers? Do you train them in Yanzhou and send them there? Or do you recruit people locally for training?
"How do we transport the ingredients? The distance is so far that our vegetables will go bad if they travel there. If we buy them locally, the recipes will be different."
Jin Sui praised: "You can think of so many things, which shows that you have put in a lot of effort."
Yan Shiyi immediately raised his chin slightly, like a proud rooster.
Jinsui tried to hold back his laughter. Sometimes it was quite fun to coax children.
Then she told Yan Shiyi about the "franchise" model, and Yan Shiyi was shocked: "Isn't that giving profits to others?"
Jin Sui said: "But this way our risks are much smaller! We only need to play a supervisory role and collect money. The brand is our own, and the hot pot base and some special ingredients are also our own.
In comparison, the other party has invested more financial and human resources, but we have gained more benefits. It is so good. "
"I believe that with the capabilities of your Yan family, it will not be a problem to open ten restaurants in ten states. What about a hundred? A thousand?"
"One, one thousand!" Yan Shiyi's eyes were as wide as Black Cat Sheriff's.
Jin Sui said exaggeratedly: "Don't you think you can do it? The world is so big, and there are only a thousand families."
Yan Shiyi thought she was crazy, but then he thought again, Witch Ji has always been crazy, so he had to follow her thinking.
Swallowing the saliva produced by excitement: "Is this possible?"
"Why not?" Jin Sui drew a circle on his forehead and said, "Expand your thinking and be bolder. We can definitely build a business empire!"
She gave Yan Shiyi some time to digest the idea, and started writing about the franchise model: "If you're worried that the hotpot won't be able to get out of Yandi, you can open it in the Sixteen States of Yandi first! I believe you can find people willing to join in these Sixteen States."
"We can also do this. As long as they join the hot pot franchise, we can sell them tomato and pepper seeds and teach them how to make potato and sweet potato noodles, but the secret recipe for cooking the hot pot base must be in your hands."
Hei Hu's voice came from outside the window: "The boss is here."
Jin Sui was surprised: "So close? You guys have already opened up the land to the edge of Yanzhou!"
Happy New Year! I wish you all the best in the Year of the Snake! Good health! Lots of money!
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