Chapter 8: The Vast Family Enterprise

  Chapter 8: The Vast Family Enterprise

  Hugging the thick account book, Huo Shan flew back to his bedroom, without even greeting Xiaoping, which made the little maid who missed her young master very angry. But he couldn't care about these things anymore. What Huo Shan most wanted to know now was how much wealth his cheap old father had inherited from the treasury of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

  To know that the Taiping Rebellion, which ravaged China for nearly twenty years more than a decade ago, swept through almost half of China, and all of them were in Huguang and Jiangzhe, the first-class fertile lands in China. The gold, silver and money obtained from it must be unimaginably enormous.

  Don't look at the current Qing government's weakness and incompetence, but before the Opium War, it was always the world's number one economy. The exquisite porcelain, brocade silk, and massive tea leaves made China a superpower for hundreds of years. Most of the silver plundered by Western colonizers from all over the world flowed into China, and it can be imagined that after hundreds of years of accumulation, this is a huge fortune.

  He quickly closed the door, put the thick account book on his desk, and took a deep breath to calm himself down before slowly starting to read from page one.

  Time passed bit by bit, and he was completely immersed in the surprises and shocks brought about by the Ho family's affairs, feeling no passage of time at all.

  The sky outside had gradually brightened, and Huo Shan, who hadn't slept all night, looked excited with not a hint of fatigue on his face. The phrase "rich enough to rival a nation" was something he had only heard before, but now he finally understood the meaning it represented.

  Now he finally understood that the factories of the Huo family, which Uncle Fu had taken him to see before, were actually nothing in the entire family's industry. The Huo family was involved in almost all of Taiwan's lucrative industries, including sugar, grain, salt, coal mining, shipping, and fishing. From the account books, it could be seen that the family had used the gold and silver inherited from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to control 80% of Taiwan's sugarcane plantations and more than half of its paddy fields over the past twenty years. Just these two items, sugar and grain, brought in hundreds of millions of silver dollars for the Huo family every year. This was not all; the vast salt industry was the Huo family's gold mine. The coastal salt pans were almost all controlled by the Huo family, producing hundreds of millions of dan of sea salt every year, which was transported to inland areas for sale through the Huo family's own fleet.

  From these account books, Huo Shan discovered that his family was indeed a super large landlord! Although the total income of the Huo family's industries was nearly five million taels of silver per year, the majority of it still came from land and salt, accounting for three-quarters of the Huo family's profits. This shows that the Huo family is still a traditional Chinese rich family, although they also realized the wealth brought by modern industrial development, but did not have the kind of lavishness of throwing money around on land. For over a decade, it had always been small-scale operations.

  Looking at this account, the Ho family's shipping industry is still very powerful. In order to sell their own goods, and Taiwan itself is an island, the development of shipping has become a necessity. Therefore, the Ho family's investment in this regard is also unstoppable. The Ho family fleet already has ten 10,000-ton ships, twenty 5,000-ton ships, and hundreds of 1,000-ton cargo ships, covering the South China Sea, China, Japan, and other waters. Its strength is second only to the shipping companies of Britain, France, and other powers in the Far East.

  Of course, with such a large family business, the money spent on safety is also considerable. After all, this is an era of mountain bandits and pirates, just like wealthy people spend money to hire bodyguards. The Huo family's guards who protect their property are numerous, in addition to directly controlling a 5,000-strong militia, there are also tens of thousands of guards equipped with German Mauser rifles under the direct control of the Huo family. It is precisely because of this large-scale armed force that the Huo family's industry has been able to expand rapidly while avoiding many troubles.

  Looking at these records, Huo Shan couldn't help but have some interest in this defensive force of his own family, and he secretly decided to go and experience it for himself in a few days.

  The Taiping Army's ability to plunder was indeed extraordinary, with 50 million taels of gold, over 100 million taels of silver, antiques, paintings, jewelry, jade stones, and precious woods all accounted for. This included the famous Chai kiln, one of the five great kilns of the Song Dynasty, as well as other high-quality porcelain; famous calligraphy and paintings from the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties; precious jewels like jadeite, pearls, and cat's eye stones; and valuable woods like purple sandalwood, Hainan yellow rosewood, and ebony. The sheer quantity left him, a man from the future who prided himself on being worldly, feeling somewhat dizzy. He calculated in secret that there was approximately 1,500 tons of gold and 3,000 tons of silver. Originally, there had been more, but when the Huo family first started out, they spent a large amount of silver. Although their business had grown significantly over the years, earning them a lot of money, their annual expenses were also substantial. As a result, after nearly twenty years of hard work, they had only managed to accumulate around 30 million taels of silver.

  He closed the thick account book, and Heshan took a long breath, his body leaning softly against the back of the chair. The surprise was too much, now he was numb. The enormous wealth was enough to support his grand plan for the time being.

  Watching the sun rise in the east, suddenly, Huo Shan's chest was filled with infinite confidence, clenching his right fist, he who had not slept all night did not feel a bit of fatigue.

  He rubbed his temples and thought for a moment before shouting: "Lei Zi, come in!"

  "What's wrong, young master?" The loyal and diligent young man pushed open the door and walked in.

  "Go get Uncle Fu! I'll wait for him here! Don't forget to close the door when you go out!"

  "Got it, I'm going now!"

  After seeing Leizi leave, Huo Shan picked up the account book and carefully put it together with his laptop, then closed them.

  About ten minutes later, there was a sudden sound of footsteps in the corridor outside the door.

  "Master, you're looking for me?"

  "Fu Bo, sit down! I called you over so early just to ask, how's the recruitment of workers for our planned machinery and steel factories going?" Ho Shan said thoughtfully.

  "As instructed by the young master, I have secretly recruited people from almost all of the Qing government's foreign affairs factories, including Fuzhou Shipyard, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, and Anqing Arsenal. With the generous wages provided by the young master, we have already brought over a thousand workers, along with their families, to Taiwan!"

  "Hmm, it's done quite well, on such a large scale recruitment, hasn't it attracted other people's attention?" Huo Shan asked further.

  "Young master, don't worry. The current imperial court is very corrupt. Those who manage the factories are almost all Manchu officials who do nothing but hold their positions and collect a salary every month. They won't care about the lives or deaths of workers!" The old man said with disdain.

  "If we had more time, we would spend more money and hire even more workers!"

  "Em, since that's the case, let's continue to recruit then. Don't be afraid of having too many people or spending too much silver, but the workers we recruit must have real talent and skills! Also, send someone to Hong Kong to contact foreigners, and recruit workers from Europe and America. Don't worry about the numbers, we're opening up!"

  "After listening to his words, the old man hesitated and said: 'Young master, won't this be too many? Even if we buy machines from Europe and bring them back, we can't use that many people!'"

  "Haha, there are still so few people! Here, take a look!"

  He took over the paper with small characters handed over by his young master, and saw that it was written neatly: "A set of coal mining equipment with an annual output of 500,000 tons; a set of iron ore mining equipment with an annual output of 500,000 tons; a set of shipbuilding equipment with an annual output of 50,000 tons; a large steel production line with an annual output of 200,000 tons of iron and 50,000 tons of steel; a refinery with an annual output of 50,000 tons, including twenty sets of industrial machine tools such as lathes, milling machines, and planers! All equipment purchases require an investment of 10 million taels of silver, and 5,000 workers are needed!"

  "Master, is...isn't this too much!" The old man couldn't help but ask with a stunned expression as he looked at the thin paper in his hand.

  "Too little? How can that be? I, the young master, still think it's too little! If there weren't enough workers, even if it were ten times more, the young master would still be willing!" Mr. Huo said with some discontent.

  Just grasping the family's wealth, the rich and oily Mr. Huo wants to buy the entire Qing dynasty if conditions permit, crazily building his own heavy industry under the influence of modern large-scale industry!

  "What a pity, but conditions don't allow it!" Huo Shan thought with some regret in his heart.

  With a somewhat listless wave of his hand, Young Master Huo said with some helplessness: "Don't worry, Uncle Fu! Last night, Mother has already handed over the management of the Huo family business to me. For this order, find several countries and try to lower the price as much as possible! But the equipment must be purchased at the fastest speed! Like last time, we want used equipment again!"

  "Alright, alright, young master! I'll go and take care of it right away!"

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