Before Liu Qishan arrived, Wang Zhenyu discussed the Military Intelligence Department with him. Wang Zhenyu planned to upgrade the Military Intelligence Department to a Military Intelligence Bureau, but this organization would shift from being above ground to underground. Its reconnaissance scope would expand from Xiangxi to the whole country, and the personnel of this organization would also need to be greatly increased. The latest plan for the newly established military academy would set up an independent intelligence department, and in the more distant future, a separate intelligence school would be established. This blueprint made He Jian's blood boil with excitement, but he was still worried about one thing: whether it was recruiting personnel or dispatching agents on a large scale, neither could be done without money; how could the commander's financial resources support this?

  The result is that Commander has already solved this worry, with 20% of the annual cigarette tax, as long as he strictly supervises Liu Qishan, this income will definitely be over 2 million and will only increase. He Jian suddenly saw himself rising to prominence, he secretly made up his mind, determined to do a good job, build up the military news system, and become the most important pillar of the Wang Zhenyu Group.

  Let the military department join the anti-smoking bureau, Wang Zhenyu also needs a bit of courage, and this is also the result of his careful consideration. In his memory, the CIA of the United States in the future would openly sell drugs to raise military funds, so Wang Zhenyu simply omitted the transaction link and let the military system directly share the profits from drug sales. Moreover, the military system will inevitably become a behemoth that ordinary people cannot afford to provoke, and by letting it participate in the anti-smoking bureau's profit-sharing, it can also avoid the anti-smoking bureau becoming too powerful and overstepping its bounds. Wang Zhenyu has indeed put thought into balancing the various departments, but these are not enough to be shared with outsiders.

  The three of them chatted for a while and then went together to the main hall next door, where it was also bustling with excitement. Apparently, the idea of Xiangxi Development Company had triggered everyone's enthusiasm for construction.

  According to Wang Shouling, the father-in-law of Wuhan magnate Ye Zuowen, the so-called Xiangxi Development Company is actually a comprehensive interest group. It was established to avoid vicious competition among various parties, to better utilize political power, military strength, business associations and other forces, integrate existing resources, and work together for the prosperity of Xiangxi.

  This company not only allows everyone to gain more benefits, but also guarantees the stability of the industry to a certain extent, and the latter is precisely what people like Zhu Zhi are concerned about.

  Everyone present is an old Jianghu, how many storms have been experienced to get to today, at this stage of life, what else can be sought? However, we are getting older after all, and we will eventually leave this world. What about our children after we're gone? As Mr. Zhu said, if they are better than us, that's fine, but if not, what then? Can't just let them squander the family fortune and beg on the streets!

  At over seventy years old, Zhu Zhida thought more than others on this point. His eyes dimmed and he asked with extreme sadness: "What's the use? Not knowing how to do business, besides eating away at our resources, there is no other way."

  Ye Zuwen burst out laughing: "Mr. Zhu's words are not wrong, but it's not really unsolvable. Westerners have long seen this problem and come up with a solution."

  Zhu Zhi and others immediately came up with a clever idea: "Oh, what's the plan?"

  "Professional agents and joint-stock companies." Ye Zuwen replied firmly: "Joint-stock companies are to divide the company into several shares, shareholders hold these shares, enjoy corporate dividends, but do not participate in specific operations. Then who will operate this company? Who will make deals? It is these professional agents, they understand business, they contribute their abilities, we contribute our capital, each taking what they need, and naturally, the business will thrive."

  In just a few words, these people immediately understood and all nodded in agreement, praising it as a great kindness.

  With this as a foundation, what follows is easy to say, and everyone roughly knows what kind of routine they're going to get.

  The concept of Xiangxi Development Company was thrown out, first the company has a board of directors, and the chairman is our Wang Zhenyu Wang Shuai (who else is willing to take on this role), followed by the directors.

  The number of directors depends on the capital situation. Specifically, the chairman represents zhèngfǔ and the military holding half of the shares, which can be said to be dry shares. It is the foundation of the existence of Xiangxi Development Company, the source of strength, and everyone has no objection to this. Moreover, Wang Zhenyu has already allocated Yuanjiang Shipping and Jingzhou Cement Plant to this company.

  The other half of the shares are divided into 50 equal parts, each worth $2 million, and the subscribers are the directors. The company's shares can only be transferred internally, and external transfers are not allowed without the consent of all directors. Shares can be inherited.

  The company's business scope is very broad, and Ye Zuowen mentioned several projects on the spot:

  Xiangxi Construction Bank, Yuanjiang Development Bank and Hongjiang Commercial Bank project. Currently, all the qianzhuang in Hongjiang, Jingzhou and other places have been reorganized and merged into three banks. The shares of the three banks are also clear, except for 50% which must be owned by Xiangxi Development Company, the remaining shares will be distributed to the forcibly merged qianzhuang based on their existing capital.

  Xiangxi Industrial Company, responsible for the construction of industrial projects throughout Xiangxi, including Jingzhou Cement Plant and future steel mills and textile mills. The equity is 100% controlled by the company, unlike banks.

  Three Xiangxi business companies, tung oil, pig bristles, opium, timber and tea leaves are all priced and operated by the company to avoid malicious price-cutting. To avoid the drawbacks of a planned economy, the company is only responsible for the unified sales of export goods, and does not allow monopoly operations for imports. In addition, some future large-scale commercial market construction projects also belong to it.

  Xiangxi Construction Company, mainly responsible for railway and highway projects as well as urban construction projects.

  Xiangxi Energy Company, mainly responsible for mineral mining and hydropower construction.

  Yuanjiang shipping, adopting the banking enterprise model, will merge the current boat gangs on Yuanjiang. At the same time, it has the construction and management rights of major domestic ports.

  Everyone counted with their fingers, these projects are all profitable. Among them, Xu Dongpu explicitly stated that he would be responsible for the industrial company, and Wang Zhenyu didn't want to dampen people's enthusiasm, so naturally nodded in agreement.

  Ye Zuowen immediately reorganized the company structure, setting up a general manager under the board of directors of the parent company, and three deputy general managers: administrative, operational, and financial. Under the subsidiary companies, a general manager was set up, and under the subsidiary companies, factory directors and managers were established.

  Everyone suddenly became interested and put forward their own suggestions. Wang Zhenyu couldn't even get a word in edgewise, which also saved him the trouble of explaining himself.

  Zhu Zhi seemed to be unconcerned about these things, and with just one sentence, he pushed the atmosphere to a new high: "Mr. Ye, I'm old Zhu, and I don't have much interest in this business anymore, but I'll subscribe to five shares. However, I'll pay 120 million, and the extra 20 million will be considered my donation to the company."

  Wang Zhenyu walked happily in front of Zhu Zhida, shook his hand and said: "Thank you for your support, Mr. Zhu. Tomorrow will be a better day for Hongjiang."

  As soon as Zhu Zhi made a move to subscribe, everyone immediately changed from watching to actively subscribing, fearing that they would miss the opportunity. Among them, Liu Qishan, who had just become the director, seemed the most excited. He took the lead in subscribing for five shares, but it turned out to be 150 million, and the voluntary donation quota was only 50 million. Liu Qishan also specially announced that he didn't want to steal Zhu's thunder, but hoped to make more contributions to the development of Hongjiang. This awareness, this spirit, Wang Zhenyu looked more and more satisfied.

  Ye Guoxuan wrote down the names one by one: Zhu Zhi, Liu Qishan, Liang Xiangfan, Zhang Jingkun each bought 5 shares. Xu Dongfu, Liu Songxiu, Chen Kunshan, Yang Zhuaqiu, Zhou Zhicun and Yang Jingsheng six people had limited financial resources, they only bought 3 shares each. This left 12 shares unsold. Ye Zuwen happily bought 3 more shares, leaving the last 9 shares to Wang Zhenyu who was not worried at all. He decided on the spot that these shares could be sold to other merchants for joint investment and would elect one representative later. In fact, Wang Zhenyu had already talked to Chen Hongji from Jingzhou Prefecture, the remaining 9 shares worth 18 million would be jointly purchased by the Jingzhou Chamber of Commerce, with Chen as the director. With this, the 13 members of the board of directors of Xiangxi Development Company were basically determined. Ye Zuwen was shocked by the enormous wealth accumulated by the merchants over the past five hundred years, while Wang Zhenyu casually said: "Father, you have no idea how rich the Jiangzhe financial group is! Our current earnings are just a grain of rice in their warehouse."

  Ye Zuwen was shocked once again...

  Starting from tomorrow, Ye Zuwen will be in charge of negotiating the management approach and various systems with other shareholders, and finally King Zhenyu will approve them.

  Through Xiangxi Development Company, Wang Zhenyu successfully excavated a wealth of over 100 million silver dollars from the entire Xiangxi region. To put this into perspective, at that time, the annual customs revenue of Zhongyangzhengfu was only over 40 million yuan, and even with salt tax, it barely exceeded 100 million. In fact, Yuan Shikai couldn't even get his hands on this money because it had been mortgaged to foreign powers as compensation and was withheld until Yuan signed the Goodwill Loan, borrowing high-interest loans from the Five-Nation Bank (six nations before the US withdrawal). Only then were these taxes transferred to Beijinzhengfu. So, the purpose of Yuan Shikai's Goodwill Loan in history was not to borrow money but to gain recognition from foreign powers for his government through this interest-based cooperation and obtain tax revenues that originally belonged to China. As for the borrowed money from the Goodwill Loan, Yuan himself wasn't very interested; the interest rate was too high. However, this didn't stop the Nationalist Party from using it as an excuse to attack him for being a traitor.

  The above has nothing to do with Wang Zhenyu, he only knows that the one hundred million white silver dug up from three feet underground will make his next days better.