Chapter 129: The Official’s Life Is Not Easy (Part 2)
When Xu Youlin left, he expressed his pessimistic forecast for the business in the next two years. Huo Chong said that he fully agreed with Xu Youlin's judgment. As soon as Xu Youlin left, Huo Chong continued the meeting that was interrupted by Xu Youlin's arrival.
With the latest intelligence, Huo Chong became more confident. The pressure from the eight representatives on the other side also decreased a lot. In terms of status, these eight representatives have different statuses. They are basically state officials.
"Mr. Huo, is it such an urgent matter? Do you have to make us wait for so long?" The person representing his master's family spoke sternly.
Huo Chong smiled slightly, "Your family heads have their own national affairs to deal with, and I, a commoner, have my own family affairs to attend to. We are all equally busy." Although Huo Chong was also a commoner in an official's guise, he was also a reserve governor after all. Even the governor could not kill Huo Chong directly.
Although the people on the other side looked unhappy, they stopped probing him verbally when they saw that they could not overwhelm Huo Chong. However, this group of people probably felt that they were in numbers, and another representative of the state officials asked, "Mr. Huo, do you think that charging 300 coins per mu of land is too much?"
"Of course it's too much. One mu of land is at most 200 coins. I can't afford to borrow more than that." Huo Chong continued with his previous attitude. These officials were too shady. They said they were renting land to Huo Chong, but they wanted 300 coins for one mu of land. Even Huo Chong couldn't agree to it.
Huo Chong only made a few dozen coins per pound of rabbit skin. If one acre of land was turned into a rabbit farm, how much would the rabbit skins harvested in a year be sold for? This was one of Huo Chong's fastest sources of income. The net profit of most other industries was less than 100 coins per acre.
So the eight representatives on the opposite side united and put all kinds of pressure on Huo Chong. Huo Chong was the one who decided to rebel, and at this time he didn't take these people seriously at all. While responding calmly , Huo Chong discovered something interesting. These people could still speak very fiercely before, but when Huo Chong vaguely threatened these corrupt officials by writing a letter to the Fourteenth Master, these people were obviously scared. It seems that Yongzheng's means of rectifying the officialdom have a strong pressure on their master.
They didn't dare to force Huo Chong to surrender by talking nonsense, and it was even more impossible to make Huo Chong surrender by reasoning. Huo Chong didn't want to embarrass these people, so he just threw out the final calculation method.
In Shandong, an ordinary farmland can only yield 100 catties per mu in a good climate. That is, 60% of the rent is collected. The corrupt officials can only harvest 60 catties of grain per mu. At this time, the price of grain has reached the price of one dan of inferior rice. The price of unmilled wheat is a little higher. In other words, under the best circumstances, one mu of land can only earn 350 coins.
Huo Chong had just sent people to provide relief once, so he didn't dare to believe that there would be such a high return. As long as something went wrong, the income would drop directly to 200 coins.
Since he had asked County Magistrate Dong to pass on the message that he understood business, Huo Chong showed his business knowledge and talked about all the problems he would encounter.
"Everyone, these grains need to be harvested, dried, and stored. All of this costs money. You only use paper accounts to explain to me. Do you think I have never been to the fields? What's more, I said that the money can be paid first. The money you are talking about is the money earned by selling the grain after the harvest. How can it be the same?"
After Huo Chong pointed out the key points one by one, the two sides were deadlocked again. Huo Chong saw that there was nothing , so he adjourned the meeting. The reason why he had abandoned these people by adjourning the meeting was largely because these people were too annoying.
Just as I went out to rest for a while, my subordinates brought a representative over. Probably for a private meeting, this person was already nodding and bowing, "Mr. Huo, 200 is too little. I can't go back and explain!"
"How much do you want?" Huo Chong looked at him coldly.
"220 wen. I don't want more, just add another 20 wen." The negotiator stated his bottom line.
Huo Chong thought this was acceptable. Although the increase of 20 coins per mu greatly increased Huo Chong's risk, such a risk was still acceptable.
Just after he had reached an agreement with this representative, another representative arrived. This representative's request was similar, 250 Wen per mu of land. Huo Chong was so angry that he retorted, "250? Do you think you are 250 or I am 250? 220, no more!"
In this way, the five companies were settled. These five companies were straightforward and did not even attend the next meeting. The other three companies looked at the half-empty negotiation table, and one of them suddenly laughed, "Haha, Mr. Huo, now that these troublesome people have left, let's talk about the truth. How much can you give?"
After sending these people away, the platform immediately started to calculate. The eight corrupt officials rented more than 9,000 acres of land to Huo Chong for money. If Huo Chong hadn't known how much money the officials in Shandong could make, he would probably have been scared by these small corrupt officials.
The Chen family of Haining, who was called the biological father of Emperor Qianlong, had been a high-ranking official in Shandong for several years and had purchased tens of thousands of acres of contiguous land in Shandong. Compared with them, these state officials were nothing.
"Sir, can we trust them?" Lei Hu asked.
Huo Chong smiled, "If they can be trusted, even sows can climb trees. This time it depends on how capable we are. First send someone to take over the land. Then quickly send someone to contact the tenants on the land. Explain this matter to the tenants. Don't let those officials continue to collect rent from the tenants and count the part that they didn't collect from the tenants as ours. If the tenants don't eat or drink, will they agree?"
The young people were very surprised. Lei Hu asked in astonishment: "Sir, I thought those people would not use such troublesome means, right?"
"Struggle! Comrades! Struggle!" Huo Chong said with high spirits: "Struggle with them until we can get what we want. In fact, I still want to cooperate. Only through cooperation can the people of Shandong know about our Zhongfu platform and let them know that we are capable and can be relied on!"
The young men all looked puzzled. Huo Chong did not want to explain any more. It had been two or three years since he decided to rebel, and Huo Chong had all kinds of ideas. In the end, reason told Huo Chong that since he had successful experience, there was no need to create a new path.
There are so many smart people in this world. If there is a new way to go, they would have found it long ago. In reality, any attempt that does not rely on the people will fail. Just like in the capitalist system, any policy that harms the interests of capital will fail.
Therefore, Huo Chong did not want to shrink back and not be seen. Those powerful people were circling in the sky like vultures, and their eyes, after long training, could easily judge anything edible. You can't hide if you want to.
If we act openly now, we can let the people see Huo Chong. Nine thousand acres of land, how many people will live on it. Letting these people know Huo Chong's ability and character should be a huge help in the future...if Huo Chong can live to that stage.
