President Jiang's confidence is not without reason, because the freight charged by Royal Shipping is only two-thirds of that of grain transport. Moreover, Royal Shipping has clear prices and no shady practices. There is no need to go through customs and taxes during shipping, and the biggest expense is to pay tribute.
You won’t know the result until you calculate it. Once you do the calculation, you will be shocked. The cost of transporting the same goods from Suzhou to Tianjin by sea is only one-third of that by canal transportation.
In addition, the entire sea transportation process only takes ten days, which is only a quarter of the time of canal transportation!
How could merchants from the north and south not love such an efficient, fast and cheap freight channel?
When there are competitors, the face of capital is always so warm and affectionate, making people want to call it daddy...
Now even the big merchants who had cooperated with the Caoyun Group for generations and hundreds of years secretly dumped their former lovers and ran to find new ones. As a result, Royal Shipping was established only for a quarter, and it carried more than 80,000 tons of goods from the north to the south! This was the result of insufficient transportation capacity, which severely limited business volume.
Although Jiangnan Group has no intention of wiping out the bank, at least it has not expanded its business along the canal, Hengtongji has already suffered from huge deposit losses, a continuous decline in depositors, and widespread losses. Now Song Xiaoming is too busy cleaning up the mess to care about fighting Jiangnan Bank again?
"There's one thing I haven't told you. According to Pu Chengxing, the one who ordered him to attack our grain transport fleet was most likely this Manager Song." Zhao Hao told Jiang Xueying another shocking secret.
"What? How dare you, thief?!" Jiang Xueying, who had curled up in Zhao Hao's arms like a docile little lamb, turned into a little tiger after hearing the words. "It seems that I didn't give him a light punishment! Next year, I will shut down Hengtongji!"
Then hang the man surnamed Song at the canal dock... Of course, the second half of the sentence would never be said in front of her brother, because Xueying was a kind and weak little girl.
"No, no, don't move yet. We haven't found any hard evidence yet." Zhao Hao shook his head and said, "Besides, shipping has just won a battle against grain transport. If we start to fight and kill, the government and the public will have a very bad impression of us. So the effect of playing this card now is average, and it may even do more harm than good."
"It's better to hold back first. Manager Song knows that we have the upper hand, so he won't act rashly." As Zhao Hao spoke, he subconsciously put his arms around Jiang Xueying's slender waist. His fingers skillfully passed through her white jacket with a gold collar, and felt her silky skin through the thin clothes.
"Let's wait until the time is right. I have a feeling this card will be very useful in the future!"
"Of course I will listen to you, brother..." The little girl's ears immediately turned red, and her body softened again. "Brother, don't... stop."
Mr. Zhao finally realized that he had subconsciously mistaken Sister Xueying for Sister Xianglan. She is still young, what a beast!
Alas, it’s all because of the past few months at sea, with too few entertainment options and I have to go to bed early every night.
"My hands are cold, sister, please warm them up for me." He quickly smiled shyly and stopped.
"Then...you must not move." Xueying said in a trembling voice shyly.
"Hmm." Zhao Hao did not move, but the heat from his hands passed through the thin clothes and reached Xueying, making half of her body hot. Xueying quickly diverted her attention and said:
"Our group's headquarters has been renovated... we're just waiting for you to come back and unveil it for us to move in... I think we can open it on the 15th day of the twelfth lunar month, okay?"
"Well, then our group meeting this year will be held in the new headquarters." Zhao Hao's voice became more and more erratic, and his hands unconsciously tightened their grip around Xue Ying's slender waist. "My sister's waist is too thin, you have to eat more."
Xueying moaned, supporting her chest with both hands, and looked up at Zhao Hao with a dazed look. Their faces were so close that they could feel each other's breathing, which was gradually becoming more rapid and hotter.
At this point, words had become superfluous. Xueying seemed to have realized what was going to happen. She slowly closed her misty, watery eyes. With a bit of anticipation and a bit of uneasiness, she waited for what was to happen next with trembling eyelashes...
"So be it, you are a beast..." Seeing Xueying's shy look, Zhao Hao completely lost his principles, lowered his head, and kissed her lips.
It is true that the meeting of spring breeze and jade dew is better than countless things in the world.
~~
The fleet sailed on the sea for two days and arrived at Sansha Port on Chongming Island on the second day of the twelfth lunar month.
Compared to when Zhao Hao first came here, Sansha has changed tremendously today.
The original dilapidated stone pier and wooden pier of Shachuanbang have been completely rebuilt into a cement concrete structure. The scale has been expanded nearly ten times, and the entire pier is more than four miles long.
At the pier, more than a dozen long piers extend vertically into the river. Beside the piers, there are densely packed merchant ships, cargo ships and passenger ships of all sizes, hundreds and even thousands of them!
Chongming Island, which had been ignored for more than a hundred years, has become very popular in such a short period of time.
The reason is simple: this place became the starting point for the sea transportation of imperial grain. At the beginning of each month, a large fleet loaded with imperial grain and various products from the south of the Yangtze River would set sail from here, and at the end of the month, they would return loaded with goods from the north.
Merchants from all over Jiangnan and even Jiangxi and Huguang gathered here to sell and buy goods from both north and south China. A prosperous market with abundant goods and a wide variety of products was formed here, which naturally restored the scene of Yingzhou in the East China Sea.
This is what we mean by hard work is important, but opportunity is the key to making pigs fly.
Who wouldn’t want to be the pig on the vent? Originally, Taicang wanted to compete with Chongming, but the problem of Liujiagang Port being shallow was beyond human control before the Taihu Lake Basin was completely rectified.
Wang Zhizhou, the governor of Taicang, refused to believe it and insisted on dredging and opening the port. However, after mobilizing a large number of troops, it was all in vain - the large ships carrying thousands of tons were still unable to enter or leave the port, so they had to give up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
In fact, Chongming is not a good choice either. The biggest problem with outlying islands is that they are separated from the mainland by water, which seriously affects their radiation effect and their ability to drive the development of surrounding areas is much weaker. Moreover, many people, especially ordinary people, will subconsciously think that going to an island means being away from their homeland, so they choose to stay on the mainland, which naturally limits the growth of the population on outlying islands.
But the problem is that although there are countless river ports from Nanjing to the Yangtze River estuary, they are all similar to Liujiagang. Affected by the Yangtze River and Taihu Lake, they are seriously silted up and there is no suitable port at all.
Otherwise, Zheng He's fleet would not have stopped at Chongming and used small boats to transport supplies from Liujiagang. More than a hundred years later, the siltation in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River has become more serious, which is why flat-bottomed sand boats are still popular here.
~~
At Sansha Wharf, the eight piers with the best location have been cleared for use by the returning shipping fleet.
However, the Oriental Beauty did not dock here, but was towed by four sand ships into the Jiangnan Shipyard not far away.
Jiangnan Shipyard was expanded from the original shipyard of the Sand Ship Gang, and its scale has also expanded more than ten times. It is said that in order to welcome this delicate "Oriental Beauty", Elder Ma dug a new pond according to the standards of Longjiang Treasure Shipyard, just waiting for "her" to enter the bridal chamber.
However, Mr. Zhao had already left the Oriental Beauty in advance and transferred to the Science that came to pick him up, heading for Sansha Wharf.
Seeing the boat approaching the dock, Jiang Xueying pleaded with Zhao Hao softly, saying that she should not go ashore. There were still a lot of things waiting for her in Suzhou City, and she had to go back and prepare for the headquarters unveiling on the 15th day of the twelfth lunar month...
Seeing the cold female CEO, who was shy and flustered like a newly married young wife, Qiaoqiao was puzzled and asked Sister Ma quietly, "Did we miss any plot?"
"That's not true." Ma Xianglan shook her head slightly. Keeping an eye on all directions and listening carefully to all directions are the special skills of a secretary's wife. If the young master had an in-depth communication with Miss Jiang, how could it be hidden from Sister Ma's sight?
"Then she'll just kiss...it won't have to be like this, right?"
"She is still young and can't bear it." Ma Xianglan stroked her lips gently. She is not young anymore.
"Oh." Qiaoqiao suddenly understood, and then suddenly realized that after her trip to the sea, how come she became so shameless under the guidance of the Young Master and Sister Ma?
No, no, no, from now on we must not play kissing games with three people together. It's too ridiculous!
Miss Qiaoqiao didn't realize that she seemed to have already regarded kissing as something shameless...
~~
Young Master Zhao naturally would not force Xue Ying, so he let her take his Science back.
Before he went home, he had to go to Pudong to keep an appointment with Hai Zhongcheng. The Science, which was full of the smell of money, would probably not please the Sea Warriors.
After getting off the boat, Chu Liuxiang also said goodbye to Master Zhao. There weren't too many boats traveling between the states and counties here, so he could just take a boat home, so there was no need to bother Master Zhao anymore.
Zhao Hao waved his hand to stop Chu Liuxiang from thanking him profusely, and said with a smile: "Go back early, and remember to bring us wedding candy when you return to the team."
"Yes!" Chu Liuxiang quickly put his legs together, and suddenly remembered that according to regulations, police salutes were not allowed in the country. And according to the "Regulations", police uniforms must be kept clean at all times, so kneeling on the ground was not allowed, so he had to bow deeply instead.
At this moment, Zhao Hao's guards also changed out of their cool black uniforms and put on their original navy blue cloth servants' uniforms to avoid being too eye-catching.
Zhao Hao also asked Secretary Ma to write down Chu Liuxiang's address. Since he knew that the boy was going to get married, he would have to show some appreciation and send him a gift.
Chu Liuxiang was so happy that he thanked the young master profusely and left, but he even forgot to take his backpack. As a result, he ran a long way and turned back, embarrassedly took the big blue backpack handed over by the young master's guard, and left with a red face.
"This kid." Zhao Hao was amused by his flustered look. After Chu Liuxiang walked away, he said to Secretary Ma: "Find out when he gets married. If we are free, we can go and join in the fun."
"Yes." Sister Ma nodded, indicating that she had made a note of it. She just didn't like watching people get married...
ps. I confess that I ate ant melons all day. I just finished one and finally calmed down, but there was another big melon. Oh, it's amazing. Don't worry, I will definitely write another chapter, but it will definitely be very late, so read it tomorrow.