Shaanxi is not only the birthplace of the Chinese nation, but also the birthplace of Qin Shi Huang, who unified the world and dominated the four seas, looking at the loess slopes full of depression, do you know that the culture of the Three Qins is permeated with pure and simple folk customs, and the history of the Three Qins also contains legends that are stacked on top of each other.
Today I want to talk about the rich merchants of the Three Qins, who were recognized by Cixi as a righteous daughter, and were named "Lady Yipin" and "Lady Protector", and were also respected by the people as "living god of wealth", the legendary life of Zhou Ying.
Zhou Ying came from a shabby family of rich people, and her great-grandfather Zhou Meicun was a wealthy merchant during the Jiaqing period. The Zhou family, on the other hand, is a family friend of the Wu family. When Shaanxi and Gansu returned to chaos, the Zhou family fell in the middle of the road. Out of the words of the matchmaker, 17-year-old Zhou Ying married into the Wu family and became Wu Cheng's wife.
Wu Cheng's father, Wu Weiwen, was an official from Erpin to handle quasi-salt affairs and control the convenience of salt introduction, and sold salt for an annual income of one million silver taels. In other words, Wu Weiwen is an official and businessman. Later, Wu Weiwen went out and was killed, and the family road began to fall. Wu Chengwei was also a sick straw man, who died after three years of marriage, and what was even more tragic was that Zhou Ying's daughter in wedlock also died prematurely.
Such a series of disasters, coupled with the Wu family's lack of prosperity, and there is no one in charge to turn the tide, seems to indicate that the collapse of the Wu family's huge industry is also logical. At this moment, Zhou Ying, who was still ignorant of business affairs, had to face the extremely dangerous and declining family fortunes alone.
Maybe it was helplessness, maybe it was impossible to hide, and the business genes of the family were quickly revived in Zhou Ying. In the actual battle, it first appeared, and under extremely difficult circumstances, it brought the Wu family out of the trough of fate. Establish a business empire that spans the whole country and reaches Eurasia.
Because readers are contemporary, it is easy to ignore two problems,
First, in ancient times, it was not easy for widows to be in charge, and it was even more difficult to be the leader of the business;
Second, although the late Qing Dynasty was an era of frequent collapse of the feudal centralized system, it was still in the era of feudal totalitarianism, which was a feudal society, and the policy orientation was bound to be to emphasize agriculture and respect and suppress business;
These two points of secular prejudice naturally increase the difficulty of Zhou Ying's efforts to turn the tide.
Soon, Li Hongtu, the director of the Chengdu Mountain Goods Medicinal Materials Store, which supported half of the Wu family's business, took the lead in challenging Zhou Ying.
He falsely claimed that Wu Weiwen had given him the business name before his death. Zhou Ying's counterattack, although decent, did not leak.
1. Deny the matter as a big boss first, and put the gift into public doubt;
2. Before Li Hongtu, heavy money to do the Chengdu government yamen, provide incomplete relevant evidence, obtain official recognition and understanding, which is equivalent to holding the official blade, fighting with Li Hongtu with bare hands, since ancient times the people do not fight with officials. Victory or defeat is self-evident;
3. Promote loyal and strong guys to fill the gap in the management of the firm.
Quick victory and defeat change hands. And this move is of great strategic significance, shocking the managers of the rest of the unscrupulous Wu family business and comforting those who are willing to share the future with the Wu family.
One gain and one loss, to turn the tide of the tide from both falling, to help the building to fall, the Wu family fortune is also full of anger at once.
Zhou Ying's business talent gave her the best opportunity to revive the Wu family, because she knew the business law of "monthly profit and loss, and moon obscurity is clear", which gave her the courage to implement the acquisition strategy of "making up for the arrears with abundance".
Cotton harvest, the price is killed, cotton farmers are dissatisfied, Zhou Ying business to buy cotton at a slightly higher bargaining price. With strong strength, monopolize the acquisition channel. In the coming year, the cotton harvest is not harvested, and the hoarding wins. It should be known that the strong strength comes from Zhou Ying's victory in the first battle and preserves the Wu family's business strength.
To calm people's minds and activate potential. She not only increased the salary of the guys by 20%, accompanied by year-end dividends, but also pioneered the "Yang And Yin" system for the welfare of contributors.
The so-called "Yang Feng" refers to the pension paid to retired people without income (in ancient times, there was no retirement, there was no income when they were old, but the contributors of zhou Ying's business name were solely entitled to "Yang Feng"), and the so-called "Yin Feng" refers to the fact that after the death of the contributors of the business name, the Wu family paid the living expenses of the survivors month by month.
These two points alone are many times better than modern private enterprises (Zhou Ying does not need to pay pensions on the job), such generous and generous, labor-capital and forward-thinking, is no longer a business talent.
It is simply to win the hearts of the people, take the conscience of the full strength of the guys to roast on the fire, this trick at first glance looks benevolent, in fact, the trick is old and spicy, one hit will be won, people's hearts, talents are both in the pocket.
Of course, this still depends on Zhou Ying's first victory and the Wu family's strong financial resources.
Wu Jialiang's land was hundreds of acres, and Zhou Ying allocated the right to use the land to tenants free of charge. Reducing the annual rent and leaving the sharecroppers to bear the profit and loss of their own pockets, this move instead gets more annual rent.
In today's parlance, the reform of the relations of production has led to the emancipation of the productive forces, which spew out not only the morning sun in the eastern sky, but also the productive forces on the hundred acres of fertile land of the Wu family.
With the integrity of management, the tentacles of the Wu family business name extend to the whole country, and then do business abroad; the Wu family industry types extend from cotton, tea industry, salt industry to weaving, medicinal materials, silk, etc., the image of the business empire is becoming more and more plump, more and more three-dimensional, and the industrial chain is becoming more and more self-consistent.
At that time, there was a folk slip of the tongue, called "Wu family guys go through the state and county, do not eat other meals, do not live in other stores, eat and live in their own business."
With the help of the heart and the lack of wealth, the Wu family opened a warehouse to release grain, gave porridge to relieve disasters, donated silver to dig wells, diverted water to repair canals, built education, and built a temple of literature.
When the counties of Jingyang and Sanyuan were compiling the county chronicle, their good deeds were recorded in the county chronicle. There is even a saying in the Guanzhong area, "If the widow says it, let's do it!" ”
With the red heart of serving the country, Cixi took refuge in Xi'an, Zhou Ying offered 100,000 taels of silver in her hand, and after Cixi laughed, she gave a plaque of "Lady Protector of the Country" and accepted Zhou Ying as a righteous daughter.
After the signing of the "Xinugu Treaty", the country needed to pay indemnities to cut the land, Zhou Ying relieved the country's difficulties, and hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, "Lafayette" was happy, and super-named Zhou Ying as "Lady of a Pint of Commandments".
But Wu Cheng, who died early, was not a Yipin official, and according to the official system of the Great Qing Dynasty, the "Lady of Yipin Commandment" had a Feng Lu, which showed how happy the "old demon woman" was.
Everyone loves peace, but who loves peace the most? Not a peace dove, but a businessman. The old saying cloud, "And anger makes money". From Zhou Ying's vision, she donated funds and indemnities for the relief of the country, and of course, the original intention was to pray for peace and prosperity in the country.