Time has come to the winter festival, which is the longest day of night in the entire year. As long as this day is passed, the night time will gradually shorten, and the day time will gradually lengthen. So this day, is
It is regarded by the lost people as a good day to conquer the darkness and bring the light.
Such a good day is also the day when the Gia Long Chamber of Commerce (Note), that is, the chamber of commerce established by the Ruan family, holds its official annual meeting. All previous transactions and discussions were conducted under the table; most of them were just to ventilate the atmosphere first and raise awareness.
Conditions, just testing each other's attitudes and limits.
But before these verbal agreements are nailed down, they still have to be discussed openly and honestly at the annual meeting. After all, we are all a family. Especially after a conclusion is made, the entire family and the entire chamber of commerce still have to abide by and maintain it together.
Of course, if you want to have a fight, the best time is when all the important people in the family gather together. Who comes to power and who falls into the dust can be decided on the spot.
The location of the annual meeting is not fixed each year. Before the end of the previous year's annual meeting, all attendees select the organizer for the following year; the organizer then decides the location within half a year and informs everyone.
The following year's annual meeting is usually held at the sponsor's branch headquarters, but there are occasional exceptions. The branch responsible for hosting will be regarded as the first-ranked family branch that year.
The Jialong Chamber of Commerce has maintained this method for hundreds of years without a main family, with each branch taking turns to be the banker. The main purpose is to avoid such an obvious target as the 'capital' in the past kingdom period. Nowadays,
The Chamber of Commerce is like a multi-headed snake, it will chop off one or two heads, but it will not completely die.
The venue for this year's Winter Festival Annual Meeting is a beautiful white castle nestled between mountains and lakes. This was the property that was mortgaged to the Chamber of Commerce by the former lord here. Now that nobleman has died, and the successor sent by the king
They did not dare to take back the castle at the risk of offending the Jialong Chamber of Commerce. Therefore, it was logical that the castle became the property of this branch.
The current speaker of this branch is Nguyen Yong Minh, a nobleman whom Lin met through the White Sword Master William Greco in the Vida Military Kingdom in the past, the wife of Baron William Engels, and the grandfather of Nguyen Thi Huy.
In terms of seniority, he is one generation older than the Nguyen Van Viet brothers. In terms of seniority, the branch he heads has often served as the host of the annual meeting. This time, he has even served as the host for the fifth consecutive year. Although the chamber of commerce system is recommended this year and the following year
candidates, but there is no prohibition on re-election.
The reason why this branch of the family can be so strong is because it is located in the traditional cultural circle of Midi, with a vast territory and fertile land. Moreover, the love and vanity of the nobles in the center of Midi makes their financial needs higher than elsewhere.
Even bigger. However, for the nobles, money like this is either taxed or borrowed. When they can't repay it, they just mortgage it with real estate. It's not a big deal.
As an old and powerful branch of the Chamber of Commerce, Ruan Yongming has always taken the right path and convinced others in an upright and upright manner, leaving no one with anything to blame. In addition, his style of conduct is impartial. So no matter what happens today
The annual meeting is different from the past. There is an unpleasant undercurrent flowing. Ruan Yongming does not support it, but he does not suppress it either.
Because everyone comes to White Castle often, there is no need for servants to guide them. People naturally walk to the banquet hall of the castle to talk about the various branches of the chamber of commerce. There are five long tables, arranged one horizontally and four vertically. The long table on the small steps
As the host, except for Ruan Yongming, there are children of the Ruan family from the same branch to his left and right, serving as assistants and handymen.
The four rows of long tables below are occupied by the Ruan family's descendants from all over the country. They arrange their seats according to the chronological order of their respective speakers, and sit together in the same family. However, if both parties agree, they can change seats, as long as they tell the host
Just give it a shout.
Therefore, one of the foreplays of the annual meetings over the years is the question of who wants to sit next to whom. Of course, the branches united by each branch will try to sit together as much as possible. On the one hand, it is to show their position and attitude, on the other hand, of course
It's because we sit close together that we can discuss things privately.
In such a seat-changing game, there will of course be some attractive stars. Specifically, the more resources you have, the higher the demand from others for you, and the more popular you will naturally be. And such a person can easily become a star in the coming years.
The organizer of the meeting.
The opening was a routine report of each branch's achievements over the past year.
What is different from the past is that thanks to the rise of forums in recent years, the chamber of commerce's report format has been changed from paper documents to forum format. This saves the manpower of copying multiple reports to all branches and participants.
A large water mirror screen is used for display; those who need more details can open their own water mirror screen and read the documents on the forum.
They don't know how to conduct overly complex statistical analysis, but at least they know how to compare last year's output with this year's to see if it has increased or decreased, and what are the reasons behind it. The most eye-catching one is, of course, this year's performance with Nguyen Van Viet
Trading, selling a large amount of grain to separate families.
Their income has increased several times that of last year. In previous years, there was so much grain that it would rot in the fields. This year, not only was it all put into the granary, but they also almost sold their own grain for the winter, causing people in the grain-producing areas to starve to death.
dilemma.
Before the annual meeting, everyone only knew that this year's branch was happy from top to bottom. However, how much money was earned was not as clear as the clear numbers in front of them, so many people couldn't help but glance secretly.
Xiang Ruan Wenyue brothers. Seeing the two of them with an attitude of not being shocked by honor or disgrace, everyone is thinking about where their butts should be placed to be more advantageous.
When it was the turn of Nguyen Van Viet's branch to prepare to report this year's income, the people who were impatient to listen to others boasting about themselves and who were talking in whispers also shut up. Everyone wanted to see, this year,
How is this branch developing?
On this day last year, the performance of Nguyen Van Viet's team was even worse than in the past. The main reason was that there was a huge investment in the automobile manufacturing and R&D center that no one understood, and there was no immediate improvement.
Repay. At that time, other people in the separation family were the talkers, even though they had no right to interfere in other people's affairs, they were still unavoidable with harsh words.
This year, accustomed to the practice of a certain magician, Nguyen Van Viet used an illustrated income and expenditure curve chart and an industry classification pie chart to give a good expression of the rapid development he achieved through the automobile center. Everything
The numbers are reasonable and well-founded.
In the final part of the income, they are also very different from other branch families. Most of the others reported how much food they harvested, who they exchanged with, and what materials they got. The focus is on how much stuff they can give to other branch families.
To exchange or communicate.
Ruan Van Viet was straightforward and gave a figure that blinded everyone. The income from the automobile manufacturing and R&D center was not a few cars or a few large trucks, but real coins of the five empires. It was not something that no one wanted.
, or bad money that has to be used at a discount.
Note: I forgot that this chamber of commerce had an official name before - Jialong Chamber of Commerce. I would like to add it here.