Chapter 54: The Concept of a Company

Who dares to go?

Who doesn't know that the young master of the Liu Family is currently leading troops to stabilize the situation in Yangzhou! For the County Marquis to go and take office at a time like this, wouldn't that be sticking his neck out to be slaughtered?

"My lord, I... my family's sow just gave birth to a litter..."

"My mother has a severe cold, the physician says she cannot be left without care!"

"My lord..."

One by one, their excuses were all much the same.

Chen Ping was so angry his face turned green: "Useless, useless, all of you, get out!"

The crowd scrambled away in a panic.

Chen Ping was somewhat exasperated.

The current situation was truly a headache. Sending a County Marquis was possible, reasonable, and legal. But who would go? Who dared to go? And how would they go? Going alone—wouldn't that be like a sheep entering a tiger's den? In these chaotic times, a bandit popping out halfway to rob and kill—that would be perfectly normal, wouldn't it?

Send an escort?

Send how many people?

Five people? Then a larger scale of bandits would come; after all, that group of Scattered Soldiers hadn't all died off, most had just fled.

Send thousands of Yinzhou Army troops to escort him?

That would be a joke... Luo Xiongchao's Scattered Soldiers had entered Yangzhou under the name of the "Yinzhou Army" in the first place. If you sent thousands more, it would be a miracle if the common people didn't revolt!

So, this young master of the Liu Family was truly planning every step, having considered and calculated everything.

"Liu Dahao, oh Liu Dahao, you have truly sired a good son!"

Chen Ping shook his head with a bitter smile, picked up pen and paper, and chose someone at random. Someone had to be sent, after all. Back then, the young master of the Liu Family entered Yinzhou with two donkeys, yet now he had already gained a firm foothold. Perhaps there was such a talent in Liangzhou as well?

For the time being, Liu Zheng had indeed not considered the reaction from Liangzhou.

Because every winter, the barbarians of the Beijing would invade on a large scale due to a lack of food, plundering Liangzhou. At such times, the border was always under intense military pressure, and the Liangzhou Prefecture simply had no time to spare for this side.

Even if they could free up their hands and wanted to manage the affairs of Yangzhou, Liu Zheng would have already established a firm foothold.

The chaos of yesterday had passed. In these past two days, with the support of the Powerful Clans, Liu Zheng had launched a sweeping "layoff" operation at the Yangzhou County Marquis Mansion!

Everyone belonging to Lu Zhengyi was removed!

With the support of the Yinzhou Army and the Yangzhou Army, this task was successfully completed on the very first day.

Those newly appointed were all recommended by the various Powerful Clans. In this way, everyone was happy; the Powerful Clans who welcomed the new master into Yangzhou received their first dividend. Liu Zheng, of course, cared even less about this—anyway, with the Liangzhou Prefecture there, neither he nor his old man could ever truly become the County Marquis of Yangzhou!

Then...

How to control Yangzhou?

Like Jiang Xuan said, openly confronting the Liangzhou Prefecture was pure nonsense.

In fact, Liu Zheng had long since reached a conclusion in his heart. As his sphere of influence slowly developed, these were all things that needed to be resolved. At least before the world truly fell into chaos, wanting to be both legal and reasonable while truly controlling a territory required the perfect art of a ruler.

Unlike Yinzhou, although the common people were now inclined toward Liu Zheng, he was not the County Marquis by law. Therefore, Liu Zheng could only treat Yangzhou as a "colony" to govern for the time being! Since ancient times, there had been several methods for governing colonies to achieve the goal of true rule.

First, completely wipe them out... This was too unrealistic for Liu Zheng.

Second, control and support an oligarchy, that is, a puppet government, while maintaining their original laws and customs as much as possible. Liu Zheng could only manage to ensure that the Counselors and Executives of the County Marquis Mansion became people from the Powerful Clans. After all, in this era, the rule of the Powerful Clans over the people sometimes even exceeded that of the County Marquis Mansion! As for the County Marquis, that was definitely a person from the Liangzhou Prefecture; he couldn't achieve that, so he chose to hollow out the power as much as possible!

Third, one must personally go to the colony to manage it, and that was exactly what Liu Zheng intended to do! Because Yinzhou was already his and his father's territory, even if the Liangzhou Prefecture wanted to replace them, they would have to weigh the public sentiment. But Yangzhou was different; to keep this place in his hands, Liu Zheng had to stay here.

"Brother Liu is busy with ten thousand matters, yet you still have the leisure to summon Yue Ru?"

Liu Zheng was deep in thought when Zheng Yueru arrived.

Liu Zheng smiled, welcomed her to a seat, and poured hot wine.

Zheng Yueru said with a chuckle: "Brother Liu, I heard the Powerful Clans of Yangzhou gave Brother Liu quite a lot of help this time. What are Brother Liu's thoughts on this?"

It had come, as expected!

Liu Zheng knew that Zheng Yueru, or rather, those Powerful Clans in Yinzhou, were definitely worried about this matter. Because since there was help, there naturally had to be a return. What they were worried about was that Liu Zheng would become one with the Yangzhou Powerful Clans, and then wouldn't they be abandoned?

Liu Zheng smiled: "I asked you here today to discuss the establishment of a company."

"A company?"

Zheng Yueru was completely confused.

Liu Zheng nodded. This was the very method he intended to use to rule Yangzhou! A company! The role this thing had played in history was simply too important! From ancient Rome, the Great Age of Discovery, the Netherlands, England, Spain, to the merchant groups of the late Ming Dynasty, all appeared in the nature of a "company." What is a company? To put it thoroughly, a company is a new way to aggregate resources and capital!

And in the current Longyan Dynasty, or rather, since ancient times, the business models on this land had all been independent individuals, narrow spaces, solidified resources, and narrow horizons. Even the most advanced business model, which was these Powerful Clans, was family-based management! But even so, they could not achieve true resource integration or capital aggregation. It could be said that people of this era still relied on the heavens for their livelihood; if the heavens were not favorable one day, they might not have enough to eat for the year.

And were the Powerful Clans not the same?

One encounter with bandits and they might lose a year's worth of profit. This easily made these business families, which developed based on blood relations, become chaotic.

At this time, a company was truly needed!

With the inevitable conflicts that would arise between the Yinzhou Powerful Clans and the Yangzhou Powerful Clans, Liu Zheng could only use this method to reconcile them. He was a ruler; he could not rely on guns and cannons to solve everything. He needed these people to make money for him and pay taxes to him! Therefore, he needed them to live better than they did themselves; this was mutually beneficial!

"Brother Liu... could you explain in detail?"

Zheng Yueru was somewhat shocked by the advanced ideas Liu Zheng came up with from time to time.

Liu Zheng also patiently explained: "I intend to establish a joint-stock company in Yangzhou! Of course, you can also understand it as establishing a massive commercial firm or Chamber of Commerce! The number of participants could even exceed tens of thousands!"

Zheng Yueru gasped: "A massive commercial firm?"

Which kind of commercial firm was the most massive?

The Royal Commercial Firm in Jinghua was massive enough, right? Even that only had a few thousand people!

Liu Zheng paused; he knew it was very difficult for Zheng Yueru to understand, so he could only explain it in a concise and comprehensive way.

"Yue Ru, this might be more direct to explain."

He chuckled: "Our Chamber of Commerce

, anyone can buy shares! No matter what kind of investment it is, we accept it; it can be silver, it can be a merchant caravan, it can be a production workshop, raw material supply, or even an idea or a theory—all will be measured through a value-exchange relationship!"

Zheng Yueru nodded.

She understood this. After all, she was someone who had been educated by Liu Zheng's "advertising," and she knew what turning Intellectual Property Right into profit was all about.

Liu Zheng continued, "In this way, we can cooperate with more strangers, rather than limiting business to within the family or our own caravan... This way, our Chamber of Commerce can become a living entity!"

"Think about it, could the Zheng Family caravan reach Jiangdong, which is controlled by the Cheng Family? Could our Perfume be sold there?"

Zheng Yueru shook her head.

Liu Zheng smiled broadly: "Once the Chamber of Commerce is established, these resources can be integrated and shared!"

Zheng Yueru was shocked, unable to speak for a long time.

A company?

A Chamber of Commerce?

This Young Master Liu's ideas were truly too bold, yet she felt they were feasible!

Liu Zheng smiled without a word, then wrote down some concepts of a limited company on the paper. The ideas within it made Zheng Yueru feel alarmed and amazed as she read. To a certain extent, debtors might not have to pay back? Sharing risks to protect the interests of investors to the greatest extent!

These rules, which were too shocking to one's concepts, were difficult for Zheng Yueru to digest.

Liu Zheng was not in a hurry; he drank wine while waiting for Zheng Yueru.

In reality... he had not yet mentioned that the establishment of such large companies could integrate idle social capital, knowledge, resources, land, and labor, and could gradually influence the superstructure of politics, Military Advisor, and systems through economic power, and this influence would become increasingly prominent! This was the best Method Liu Zheng had come up with to rule Yangzhou, or rather, to rule the cities under his banner in the future! Once such a firm was established, the cohesion of the Powerful Clan and the common people would be greatly strengthened, and that so-called County Marquis would be nothing!

This was what Liu Zheng wanted to do now.

As for deeper theories, Zheng Yueru could not understand them, and other Powerful Clan members could not understand them either. In fact, the existence of a company mainly expounded the value of exchange, the value of the market, and the value of production and consumption... Of course, these abstruse things would not be discussed for now.

Zheng Yueru looked at it for a full two hours before looking at Liu Zheng with a bitter smile.

Shocking!

The shock in her heart at this moment was beyond words!

How exactly was this Young Master Liu's brain grown?

"Does Brother Liu mean that this company... Chamber of Commerce, takes Yinzhou Prefecture as the legal person, we Powerful Clan are shareholders, and even the common people can become investors?"

Zheng Yueru said uncertainly.

Liu Zheng nodded: "That's right, that is exactly it!"

This was not just a reform of the distribution model, but even a Method to unite people's hearts! Just imagine, if Liu Zheng led the people of the entire Yinzhou and Yangzhou to start getting rich and conquering territories, who would still care about a mere County Marquis? And by using Yinzhou Prefecture as a credit endorsement, combining officials and merchants, it could guarantee the development and expansion of the firm to a greater extent!

And the logistics and support capabilities of the Chamber of Commerce could further promote the efficiency of future military campaigns!

Mutual Assistance, truly a win-win!

Zheng Yueru stood up with a bitter smile and bowed deeply to Liu Zheng.

"Young Master has great talent; Yueru feels inferior!"

"A mere Liangzhou is not a place for Brother Liu to lower himself!"

Liu Zheng was stunned.

This evaluation was too high.

【Author's Note】

The requests for updates have increased significantly today; thank you for your support, brothers. I am adding a three-thousand-word chapter today, coming up shortly!