On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month of the fifth year of Wanli, in the magnificent hall of Xingang Castle, more than a thousand group representatives gathered to attend the Jiangnan Group box sealing conference... Oh no, the tenth anniversary conference!

Amid the thunderous applause, senior leaders of the group appeared on the rostrum.

When Zhao Hao held the old chairman Hua Cha in the main seat, the applause became more enthusiastic. The applause was dedicated to Hua Cha.

Chairman Hua is 80 years old this year, and he can't do anything even if he is a mascot. The group's board of directors has accepted his resignation and he will retire gloriously by the end of this year.

As for his position, Zhao Hao took over. Now Mr. Zhao is a mature man, so there is no need to worry that he is too young to convince the public. Moreover, he is the leader of the Jiangnan Group, and it is a well-known secret, so there is no need to hide it anymore.

As for the director position that Huacha had released, it was given to Fatty Tang...

Zhang Han, the Minister of Personnel who just retired, was invited to serve as the independent director of the group. In fact, he was given a generous reward and asked him to serve as the group's mascot.

So Zhang Han did not return home immediately after he left his post. He stayed in the capital just to wait and came to the group conference with Zhao Hao.

The number of independent directors is unlimited. In fact, it is a revolving door for the political and businessmen who have stepped down after the Jiangnan Gang left the world. Otherwise, how could the big guys treat the Jiangnan Group as their own treasures to maintain it?

For example, Pan Sheng, the current Minister of Rites, also held this position of high money and low busyness during his time in his resignation. He was elected as the chief minister of the court in the previous episode, and he had just stepped down from his position in the group. When he retired in the future, he would probably come back...

There is never new things under the sun. It is bustling. To put it bluntly, it is profits that come and go. It will not change in another thousand years.

~~

After playing music, raising flags, and singing the group song, Zhao Hao announced the decision and asked the old chairman to give a speech on his job.

The applause sounded again, and Hua Bozhen's father came to the podium with a loudspeaker. Hua Cha held the podium with both hands, looked at the thousands of group management and outstanding employee representatives below the stage with affectionate feelings, and said slowly after a long time:

"In the blink of an eye, ten years have passed. I can still clearly remember that in the summer of the second year of Longqing, my third son took Mr. Zhao to Wuxi to find me, invited my family to invest in a Jiangnan company that I had never heard of before, and also invited me, who had lived in seclusion for many years, to serve as chairman. I refused in my heart at that time, and I had never heard of any chairman. If this young man was my son's master, I would not even be able to invest in the stock."

"It's right to be cautious. Later we found out that Mr. Zhao's Jiangnan Company had no sign at that time." Wang Mengxiang interrupted with a smile: "He fooled us one by one to have Jiangnan Company!"

There was a burst of laughter in the venue, and the shareholders of the group's subsidiaries were even more envious, thinking that why did Mr. Zhao not come to us at the beginning? It really made these guys get a big advantage.

"I didn't join at the beginning because I didn't trust Mr. Zhao. At that time, he had already established Xishan Company and successfully issued stocks. Even the blind man could tell that he was the God of Wealth who came down to earth." After the laughter stopped, Huacha continued:

"It's just because I was afraid of being beaten by the Yan Party. I was already trembling as the 'richest man in Wuxi' and couldn't sleep at night. I often say to my sons, 'The benefits of the world belong to the world, and it's not appropriate to monopolize them. If you divide some with others, you can harm the whole body'. It's too late to disperse money, and you don't have much interest in making more money."

Listening to the old chairman's Versailles, everyone couldn't help laughing again.

"It was Mr. Zhao who convinced him. He said that the career he wanted to do was to 'the world' benefit belongs to the people of the world'. We must allow all the people of the world to get food and clothing, and let those who follow us to do our careers live a prosperous life. Finally, we can achieve prosperity and strength in the Ming Dynasty and teach the Ming Dynasty to be great again!"

When the old chairman mentioned Zhao Hao, the scene was silent and no one dared to cough.

"Although I didn't understand it very much, I was shocked. Although I didn't believe what he said, I finally became interested - I knew that he must not just make money, but to do something different." Huacha continued:

"I was seventy years old at that time, and it was the boring situation of life. In order to see something new, I finally agreed to invest. At that time, I never expected that this freshness would be ten years, and the more I looked, the more I became more and more excited I became. I became more and more convinced that the young master could really turn the boastful bull into reality."

When the old chairman said this, he was a little excited: "For ten years, under the leadership of the young master, you have united and ambitious, overcome all obstacles, expanded your territory, and achieved unprecedented achievements. He has really brought the people of Jiangnan to prosperity! I am really proud every day!"

"I really can't bear to leave..." Hua Cha took out a veil to wipe the corners of his eyes, and his voice became even more swallowed: "I often think, it would be great if my young master had found me earlier. Then my unemployed time would have been in our career? Unfortunately, I was not born before I was born, and I was old. The group had just started for ten years. When I was about to enter the glorious era, I was already old. I was already old and I could not stand it. I could only leave first and watch you pick your glory and create your chapter!"

Huacha raised his right fist and shouted with all his strength:

"You guys, the wheel of the times is already unstoppable. The young master will lead you to earth-shaking and create a better new Ming Dynasty! In the upcoming soul-stirring epic, each of you is the protagonist. Don't let this era down and strive for the new life of the Ming Dynasty!"

Zhao Hao took the lead in standing up, and everyone stood up and applauded, and extended applause to the old chairman.

~~

Afterwards, Zhao Hao gave the "Report on the Completion of the Second Five-Year Plan" to the conference for the first time as the chairman of the group.

The goal of the Second Five-Year Plan is to strive for the best on the basis of the First Five-Year Plan and strive to bring the group economy into the fast lane of rapid development.

After five years of unremitting efforts by the group, the Second Five-Year Plan also exceeded the task!

First of all, the group's GDP has maintained a rapid growth of more than 30% per year. In the past five years of Wanli, it has reached 200 million taels of silver, accounting for one fifth of the total GDP of the Ming Dynasty...

This is mainly because the group's GDP is also included in the Ming Dynasty's GDP. If not included, the proportion will be as high as one-quarter!

Specifically in agriculture, during the Second Five-Year Plan period, the group opened 2 million mu of rice fields, 1 million mu of cotton fields, 2 million mu of sugar fields, and 2 million mu of tobacco fields, which is twice the plan!

Eighty percent of these newly opened arable land comes from Taiwan and Luzon, and the majority of them come from Taiwan, which has been reclaimed for more than seven years. It can be seen that if the group's arable land area wants to maintain rapid growth, it can only continue to expand overseas!

Moreover, in all overseas reclamation areas, farm-based operations have been adopted, and the food rations have been self-sufficiency and a slight surplus have been achieved, which has greatly reduced the economic burden of large-scale immigration to the group.

In addition, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian regions have completed the promotion of double-season rice. Taiwan and southern Guangdong have begun to promote the planting of three-season rice. Although the taste of three-season rice is slightly worse than that of double-season rice, in this era, in addition to high-ranking officials, only the people who became rich first in the Jiangnan region will pick on the taste of rice.

Ninety percent of the people can’t afford pure brown rice, so they have to cook them with mixed grains and wild vegetables. They are far from picky texture.

With the good weather, the weather was good during the 25th Five-Year Plan period, the grain harvest year after year, and the output hit new highs.

If I had changed the past, I would have no idea where the rice price would have fallen.

However, in order to avoid low grain damage to farmers, Jiangnan Group has been purchasing rice at a protective price. Over the past few years, the group's inch of rice in various warehouses in Jiangnan have accumulated like mountains.

Mr. Zhao had to build super-large granaries to accommodate the purchased grains in Danluo, Ryukyu, Taiwan, Luzon, Sanya and other places where coast guards were stationed. It was a huge expense every year.

Of course, it is not all good news. For example, localized planting of corn, potatoes and sweet potatoes has encountered adaptability problems. The yields of various test fields are degrading significantly every year.

But there is no way to do this. We can only select and breed seeds year after year. I hope these South American visitors can adapt to the Ming Dynasty as soon as possible...

~~

In terms of business, during the Second Five-Year Plan period, the group still firmly grasped the monopoly of the Ming maritime trade and basically established its dominance on the Nanyang sea surface.

Nowadays, from Malacca to Luzon, they are under the control of the coast guard fleet. Although the pirates in the South Ocean are like weeds, nothing can become a climate and cannot threaten the group's shipping. Instead, it effectively prevents the emergence of smugglers and allows the group to enjoy monopoly trade.

During the Second Five-Year Plan period, the freight revenue of Royal Shipping and South China Sea freight increased year by year and had already achieved profitability. In the fifth year of Wanli, Royal Shipping alone contributed more than 10 million taels to the group. South China Sea freight also had about 2 million taels.

Today, the Jiangnan Group camp has 4,000 thousand sand ships and 3,000 sea ships with 2,000 materials, of which 2,000 were built in the Second Five-Year Plan.

In fact, compared with the 1955 period, the construction tonnage of cargo ships has dropped a lot. However, the scale of the Southeast shipbuilding industry has doubled. The number of ship workers and related upstream and downstream employees in the three major shipyards has exceeded 100,000!

This is because most of the skilled craftsmen were sucked away by the Jiangnan Shipyard and the newly built Yongxia Shipyard in Luzon. These two major shipyards are used to build ships!

During the Second Five-Year Plan period, the Jiangnan Factory built a total of eight new battleships, sixteen cruisers, thirty-two destroyers, and sixty-four frigates.

All battleships and 80% of cruisers were allocated to strategic fleets that monitored the Portuguese and the Spaniards in Luzon. Destroyers and frigates were used to change the water police stations in each security area.

After Yongxia Shipyard can also achieve such production capacity, with the support of the two shipyards, the Coast Guard fleet can completely hit Portugal, kick Spain, dominate Asia, and go to the world!
Chapter completed!