Chapter 1156: Why would I know you?

Finally, Wang An asked Qiao Xiaohu how he planned to transport the goods to other regions, as the transport capacity in this era was truly lackluster; land transport relied primarily on trains.

To his surprise, Qiao Xiaohu replied:

"Once I've gathered enough for a full train car, I'll give him a call, and he'll send people over. They handle the transport issues themselves."

Wang An asked casually:

"Who is this person you know? Are they really that powerful? They can even arrange for train cars?"

In his previous life, Wang An had never dabbled in trading local mountain goods; by the time he realized there was money to be made in it, he had already moved to the south.

By then, the entire market for mountain goods had already been carved up by others. Trying to enter the market then would have been fine for small-scale peddling, but large-scale trading was completely impossible.

Therefore, Wang An didn't know much about the logistics of mountain goods.

Wang An had originally intended to ask Wu Dong and Zhang Shu to use their connections to look into the railway situation, but he hadn't expected Qiao Xiaohu to have already handled it.

This left Wang An feeling quite surprised, even shocked.

After all, no matter the era, anyone capable of chartering a train car was definitely no ordinary person.

Qiao Xiaohu chuckled and said:

"His name is Li Xinhao. He's from Yandu and works on the railway."

Clinking glasses with Wang An, they each took a sip of liquor before Qiao Xiaohu continued:

"Once, when a few of us were bringing goods back, we ran into a group of peers from out of town on the train. They were taking goods toward Yandu."

At this point, Qiao Xiaohu suddenly looked quite awestruck:

"Brother, you have no idea how fierce those people were. Back then, I thought my group of six or seven people bringing goods was pretty impressive, but look at them—every time they moved goods, an entire train car belonged to them."

Wang An was quite puzzled by this:

"With that much cargo, didn't they have to register it for shipping? If an entire train car was filled with goods, where would anyone else sit?"

Qiao Xiaohu said nonchalantly:

"Yeah, one car wasn't enough, so they ended up occupying space in the passenger section too. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known they were in the same business as us."

Wang An nodded without speaking, though he was already feeling a sense of admiration for those people.

As someone who had been reborn, Wang An knew that trading goods from the south in this era could make money, but those people had already been doing it for a long time, becoming the first wave to reap the dividends of the era.

Seeing Wang An nod silently, Qiao Xiaohu continued:

"We started chatting just like that. Later, toward dusk, this guy named Li Xinhao came out, and that's when I realized that whole group worked for him."

Seeing Wang An listening, Qiao Xiaohu suddenly said with a laugh:

"At the time, as soon as Li Xinhao entered the carriage, his people all greeted him and called him 'Brother Hao.' But our group just sat there in silence, ignoring him. Brother, you didn't see the scene—it was hilarious, hahahaha..."

Before he could finish, Qiao Xiaohu started laughing himself; one could only imagine what the expression on that so-called Brother Hao's face must have been.

Seeing Qiao Xiaohu laughing so heartily, Wang An couldn't help but chuckle along. Once Qiao Xiaohu stopped laughing, he continued:

"That Li Xinhao was pretty confused too. He asked us, 'Who are you people working for? Don't you know who I am?' When he asked that, it left us completely baffled. So I just said, 'These guys are all working for me, so what? Why would I know who you are?'"

Wang An imagined the scene and couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Northeasterners were known for being blunt. While the accents of the three provinces were similar, there were subtle differences in tone. Combined with Qiao Xiaohu's delivery, it was clearly in the vein of the classic "What are you looking at? You want a fight?"

Qiao Xiaohu continued:

"Brother, you have no idea—as soon as I said that, especially with my thick Northeastern accent, Li Xinhao was stunned too. He stared at me with his big eyes for a long time before he finally said, 'Damn, brothers from the Northeast!' Hahahaha..."

As soon as he finished, Qiao Xiaohu started laughing again, slapping the table until tears came to his eyes.

However, it was clear from Qiao Xiaohu's words that this Li Xinhao ran a massive operation, as he didn't even recognize all his own employees.

After laughing for a while, Qiao Xiaohu calmed down and added:

"That's how we met. We exchanged ages and names, and he said he was 22 this year. We started talking about small commodity trading and then got onto the topic of mountain goods."

"Later, I don't know what he was thinking, but he became so fascinated by our side. He kept asking about things in the mountains. If he hadn't been busy with work back then, he would have followed me straight back to our county."

Following this, Qiao Xiaohu told Wang An more about Li Xinhao, mostly regarding the decision to trade in mountain goods.

Through Qiao Xiaohu's account and the dialogue between the two, Wang An felt a spark of curiosity about this Li Xinhao.

Most importantly, Wang An didn't find anything suspicious about Qiao Xiaohu, so he concluded that Li Xinhao was likely someone worth cooperating with.

Finally, Qiao Xiaohu said:

"Oh, right, Brother. I mentioned you to him. I told him you were the one who had me start this business and told him a bit about you. He said that when he comes over, he definitely wants to have a drink with you and have a good chat."

Wang An nodded:

"Sure, a chat sounds fine. Hearing you talk about him, I'm actually a bit interested in meeting him now."

Wang An then chatted with Qiao Xiaohu more about the mountain goods business. After calculating how much money a single train car could bring in, Wang An generously took out 3,000 yuan and handed it to Qiao Xiaohu, saying:

"We'll still split the profits from this business fifty-fifty. I'll put up more of the capital, and you do more of the legwork. Also, if we establish a company later, it'll involve a lot of things. If we ever run into any major issues, you have to listen to me."

As soon as Wang An finished speaking, Qiao Xiaohu immediately expressed his sincerity:

"Brother, we don't even need major issues. As long as you say the word, I'll listen to you on everything. If it weren't for you, I'd still be struggling to get by."

Before Qiao Xiaohu could finish, Wang An said with a smile:

"Alright, alright. If you weren't that kind of person, I wouldn't be bringing you along. But people change, so we have to lay the ugly truths out on the table first. Otherwise, if that day ever comes, heh heh heh heh..."

Wang An didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was clear: he would not be soft-hearted.

Thanks to "Black Brother Niu" for the tip, thank you, thank you!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1157 =====