Chapter 1184 - The Shanghai Headquarters

Zhao Yingong was overjoyed, but he still needed to make the proper gestures. He immediately stated that waiving rent in exchange for a share was perfectly acceptable, but four large sand junks plus their sailors would be braving wind and waves—even if Master Shen was generous, he personally could not fail to provide the Shen family with some assurance. He promptly produced six De Long bank notes of 1,000 taels each, offering them as a deposit for the crew and ships in advance. If they returned safely, he would collect it back.

A brand-new large sand junk had a cargo capacity of about 4,000 shi—roughly 500 tons—and cost around 1,500 taels. The Shen family's ships could not all be new, so paying a deposit at new-ship prices demonstrated more than sufficient sincerity.

"This won't do!" Shen Tingyang waved his hands repeatedly and firmly refused. The two tussled for some time, but Shen Tingyang still would not accept the notes.

"However, I hear ships going to Japan all need to purchase sailing permits from Zheng Zhilong. Has Brother made preparations for this?"

"I made arrangements long ago. Brother Jiming need not worry." Zhao Yingong spoke with full confidence. Zheng Zhilong's permits? Once the route opened, there would be no more Zheng Zhilong permits.

The drinking continued until evening, and that night Zhao Yingong stayed at the Shen residence. The next morning he returned to Shanghai.

Back in Shanghai, Zhao Yingong immediately threw himself into preparations. Having secured the Shen family connection, his next priority was operations in Shanghai.

He had already reached an agreement with Shen Tingyang, asking him to quietly prepare ships and sailors. What exactly they would do had to remain secret for now—Jiangnan was not Old Zheng's territory, but his commercial agents might well be present.

Zhao Yingong's temporary office in Shanghai was located at Baodai Gate in Shanghai County town, commonly called the Little East Gate, outside the walls. This was the site of Ming Dynasty waterway docks, and the Qiwei Escort Company's Shanghai headquarters was situated here. The headquarters was not large, because according to long-term plans, the future headquarters would relocate to the Bund along the Huangpu River. This was merely a transitional location.

Though transitional in nature, the buildings were still quite elegantly constructed. It was a compound combining modern and traditional styles—not to appear different, purely because modern construction was far superior in both functionality and space efficiency compared to traditional methods. The design was said to have come from the hand of the personal secretary and female disciple of a certain Elder architect at the Construction General Corporation. But the Elders all scoffed at this—it was obviously just a ploy to build credentials for eventually making his little secretary famous and successful.

Zhao Yingong had originally planned to build Qiwei's new headquarters on what would become the Bund, using that as a starting point to rebuild the waterfront. But after an on-site survey, he found the development difficulty was quite substantial: the terrain here was mostly tidal flat, and the Huangpu River, being connected to the sea, was greatly affected by tides—daily tidal range could reach four meters. With his current financial resources and this timeline's commercial conditions, building a "New Bund" would be a Great Leap Forward-style mistake. So ultimately he chose to purchase land and build near the mature dock area outside Little East Gate in Shanghai County.

The Shanghai headquarters retained the traditional Jiangnan great merchant's entrance hall design, with a front courtyard for sedans and carriages. Above the main gate hung a large black lacquered plaque inscribed with "Qiwei Depot"—written through Shanghai church connections by Xu Guangqi himself. Through the main gate lay another large courtyard, entirely paved with stone slabs, with only two osmanthus trees planted. Within the courtyard rose three two-story European-style buildings—offices above, business hall below.

The main hall housed the freight bureau, the east side hall the private letter bureau, and the west side hall De Long Bank's Shanghai office. It was now approaching noon—the busiest time for business. Zhao Yingong went directly through a side passage to the rear.

The rear courtyard held rows of warehouses for storing cargo and mail in transit. Zhao Yingong passed straight through to the third courtyard.

The three rows of two-story office buildings in the third courtyard housed the "Ren Division" of the "Sea Route"—the back-office departments of the Qiwei Escort Company system's Shanghai headquarters. Zhao Yingong also maintained an office here.

Mao Sansheng was waiting in the entrance hall—he held two positions simultaneously: head of the Shanghai headquarters and head of the Qiwei Depot Shanghai branch. Actually one team with two signs. Mao Sansheng single-handedly controlled the entire Jiangnan "Ren Division"—an extremely crucial figure. For this reason, both the Political Security General Bureau and the Cheka had planted personnel through their respective channels to monitor him and the entire organization.

Mao Sansheng did not know he was being monitored, but the simple principle that one must express full loyalty when wielding great power—this he understood perfectly. Thus after being appointed head of the Shanghai headquarters, he had arranged for his family in Jiangxi to all relocate to Lingao.

These days he had been busy integrating Jiangnan's logistics system—extremely complex work requiring not just effort but also time. Over the past year or so, he had traveled to nearly every county town and most market towns in Jiangnan and northern Zhejiang. Wherever boats could navigate, he had been. He had grown dark and thin, but he had preliminarily established a logistics system stretching from Nanjing all the way to Hangzhou, relying on inland river shipping.

This system was now beginning to turn a profit, especially the "private letter" business. Jiangnan and northern Zhejiang had prosperous commerce, industry, and agriculture, with many absentee landlords living in cities, plus numerous commercial employees—demand for sending letters was substantial.

Previously, these letters were all entrusted to shipping boats, with high and arbitrary postal fees and weak security. And generally they could only go short distances; slightly farther or more complex routes could not be served. The Qiwei Depot's private letter business operated according to modern express delivery company models—not only more efficient but with broader coverage. Generally, all towns in Jiangnan and northern Zhejiang could be reached within one week of posting. They also offered special "express" service with dedicated personnel and boats, cutting delivery time by half.

It was precisely because of this system that Zhao Yingong could conveniently direct Hangzhou Station's activities in various locations while moving between Hangzhou, Shanghai, and Nanjing.

Zhao Yingong exchanged a few words with Mao Sansheng, asking about the Shanghai headquarters' recent operations. Then he went to his dedicated office. He maintained dedicated offices at each of the Hangzhou Station's external branches and sub-stations—usually locked, with only himself holding keys.

He had just entered the office when Fenghua came in with letters from various branch stations. His itinerary was circulated by his current location's branch to all Hangzhou Station subordinate branches, ensuring all branches knew his whereabouts and could send reports accurately and promptly. This allowed him to stay informed of conditions everywhere and issue timely instructions from any location. For Zhao Yingong, who had to conduct multiple operations simultaneously, this was essential.

The first letter Zhao Yingong opened was from the Hangzhou Station, written by Fenghua, reporting on the silkworm breeding situation at Phoenix Mountain Villa.

After purchasing the Shen family estate, Zhao Yingong had begun experimental sericulture at Wanbi Villa. A special mulberry garden was established, managed by the Shen family. Wanbi Villa had much hilly terrain suitable for mulberry trees. Zhao Yingong had the Agricultural Committee ship several hundred quality mulberry saplings and a batch of silkworm eggs, preparing to develop quality sericulture in Hangzhou.

The largest share of Sino-Japanese trade during the Edo period was raw silk. Japan needed vast quantities of raw silk annually. Besides a small amount for domestic use, most was made into export silk and velvet for sale to the Dutch—essentially export-oriented processing with both ends abroad.

Lingao could not provide that much raw silk. The silk purchased from the Pearl River Delta through Wanyou and commercial partners was mostly sold directly to the Dutch and English. So Zhao Yingong had to focus on locally purchasing Zhejiang silk.

Zhejiang silk sources were quite abundant—with silver, obtaining enough export-grade raw silk was straightforward. But Zhao Yingong was dissatisfied with the quality of domestic silk—or rather, Wu Nanhai and Si Kaide's provocations had made him dissatisfied. Zhao Yingong actually knew nothing about sericulture or silk weaving, but he had heard enough of these two men's disdainful comments about domestic silk. So as soon as he obtained Wang Siniang and her daughter in Hangzhou, he ambitiously began developing the silkworm breeding business.

Though China was the origin country for sericulture, the industry had fallen behind by the Qing Dynasty. Due to neglected breeding, domestic silkworm strains constantly degenerated, and silk yields and quality continued worsening. After Japan's Meiji Restoration, to expand exports, they invested heavily in silkworm breeding research, sericulture guidance, and reeling equipment improvement. They quickly rose as a dark horse, stealing the dominant market share that Chinese domestic silk had held internationally. And from then on, Japan maintained its leading position in sericulture: high yields, excellent quality. By the 1920s, when visionaries like Fei Xiaotong hoped to revive domestic silk, they had no choice but to import everything from Japan—silkworm strains, technology, and equipment. The first generation of modern sericulture professionals were almost all Japan-returned students.

Japan maintained this sericulture advantage into the 21st century. The Agricultural Ministry's silkworm breeding station's temperature and humidity-controlled hatcheries housed dozens of excellent silkworm strains brought from the old timeline. These included special varieties for making export neckties, kimonos, evening gowns, and chiffon fabrics—most developed in Japan and raised in Brazil and Southeast Asia. These strains had originally been strictly controlled for import into China. Fortunately, during the prolonged economic malaise in early 21st century Japan, with a few workarounds they had been obtained. At Wu Nanhai's request, the North American branch had even acquired transgenic silkworms containing spider silk protein genes. These were currently being selected at the Agricultural Committee's silkworm breeding station, with hopes of eventually producing bulletproof vests.

Lingao's climate was not suitable for large-scale sericulture, so once Phoenix Mountain Villa's breeding station was established, the Agricultural Committee had shipped most of their silkworm strains to Hangzhou. With a stable breeding base, all these strains—including adapted hybrids crossed with ancient domestic strains—could be cultivated at scale. Whenever orders came in, they could be contracted out to sericulture households for rearing.

(End of Chapter)