The current kerosene business in Qingshan Town. Even though there are still some costs in the process of mining crude oil, refining kerosene, transportation, and sales, these costs are nothing compared to the money gained from selling kerosene.
According to Lin Ziran's own estimates in recent days, based on the current production, the current operating costs of the oil fields, refineries and Qingshan Commercial Bank combined are only two thousand yuan per month at most, most of which are labor costs.
Mechanical equipment losses, coal and other costs.
As for this cost, we are still just starting out, with relatively large investments in various aspects, and because the channels have just been laid out, the initial operating costs are relatively high.
When it stabilizes in the future, the cost can be further reduced.
However, according to the current kerosene production capacity, they can earn at least more than 10,000 hengyuan per month. Compared with more than 10,000 hengyuan, the operating cost of only 2,000 yuan is nothing at all.
If 10,000 yuan is not too much, then when a few more oil wells are drilled and the refinery's production capacity is increased, profits can increase further.
By then it won't be tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands.
Even in peacetime, money is enough to move people's hearts, let alone in this troubled time.
Ordinary businessmen would not have the guts to trouble Lin Ziran, but what about those powerful people?
If the powerful can ignore it, then what if Luoan County officials directly intervene?
This is not impossible; on the contrary, it is very possible.
The Daheng Dynasty has fallen into an era of feudal rule since its beginning decades ago.
The vassal towns in various places are working hard to expand their territory and then compete for hegemony in a state or even the entire Daheng.
As the saying goes, if you always lose your deer, the whole world will chase it away.
To expand their territory and unify the world, what do these feudal towns need?
A stronger army is needed!
And what does a strong army need?
People, equipment, training and other aspects, all of which require money to support.
The methods of raising armies among vassal towns in various places are different. Most of them rely on developing the local economy and people's livelihood, and then collecting taxes to support the army. At the same time, in order to directly reap the profits of economic development, these vassal towns often directly invest in industry and commerce to make money.
Fuyuan Ordnance Factory is a very typical example. The big owner of Fuyuan Ordnance Factory is not a businessman, but the Luohai County Yamen.
In addition, Nanzhou Machinery Bureau, known as the largest factory in the entire Nanhai Prefecture, is also a government-run enterprise of Luohai County.
This is not only the case in the prefecture, but in fact the situation in each county is also very similar. Many large enterprises are basically government-run enterprises, especially in important or profit-making industries such as arms and machinery. They are either government-run or run by powerful people.
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There are many purely commercial enterprises, but they are generally small in scale and concentrated in the light industry.
In the current petroleum industry, the core product is kerosene.
This thing, like whale oil and candles, are almost ordinary consumer goods, so they can't be said to be very important.
But I can’t stand this thing, it’s too profitable!
Therefore, Lin Ziran was also worried that after he started doing this, he would be noticed by others, especially by the Luoan County officials.
Considering the risks in the future, Lin Ziran also decided to speed up the implementation of his plan.
The first is to expand the army. It was said before that the army would be expanded to 150 people, but now it seems that it is not enough.
Although he was constrained by insufficient funds, Lin Ziran still wanted to expand three more platoons. In this way, together with the original four infantry platoons of the patrol battalion, the two infantry platoons he ordered to expand two days ago would be able to make up nine infantrymen.
Already lined up.
Nine infantry platoons are organized into three infantry companies.
Then we will buy two more artillery pieces, plus the existing two five-pound artillery pieces, and we will be able to make up four, and we can train a platoon.
At the same time, the existing more than 20 riding horses can also be gathered together and trained into a cavalry platoon.
Let’s do another logistics arrangement.
In total, there are twelve platoons with four five-pound artillery pieces.
Adding in Lin Ziran's bodyguard, there are more than 600 people.
Although more than 600 people may seem like a small number, they are already quite a few for a small place like Qingshan Town.
After two months, when funds are no longer so tight, he will expand the number by another five to six hundred people to reach a thousand people.
In two or three months, he would dare to expand the number by another thousand people.
Try to create an army of about 2,000 men within half a year.
In this way, even if someone is jealous of his kerosene business, they will have to weigh the two thousand people under his control.
After having a plan in mind, Lin Ziran called Wu Dajiang over!
"You continue to recruit people, and recruit another two hundred people."
"It's still the same old rules for recruiting people. After you recruit people, you have to keep up with the training!"
Wu Dajiang naturally said: "I understand the humble position!"
Wu Dajiang has always had the temperament to do whatever Lin Ziran said, and there was never any doubt.
Lin Ziran is also relieved about him. If it were someone else, Lin Ziran would be really worried.
Now that people have been recruited, the ordnance will naturally follow suit, so Lin Ziran urgently sent people to Sanhe Ferry to find Zhou Li from Hongxiang Trading Company, directly renew the ordnance at the last price, and purchase another batch of ordnance.
However, the agreed delivery time can be later.
Because there is no money on hand for the time being, Lin Ziran has no money to give them now that the shipment has been delivered. As for arms dealers like Hongxiang Trading Company, they have always paid the money and delivered the goods, so don't expect them to allow credit or installment payments.
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When Lin Ziran made urgent arrangements for these matters, Luo Mazi also acted according to Lin Ziran's instructions.
That night, a fire broke out in the governor's mansion, and the fire was extremely fierce.
The flames soaring into the sky turned almost half of the night sky red.
After hearing the news, Mr. Lin Ziran, the officer of the town patrol camp, rushed to put out the fire with soldiers from the patrol camp. However, the townhouse was a wooden building, and the fire was extremely fierce. Even though he tried hard to put out the fire, it could not prevent the townhouse from being destroyed.
It was burned to the ground.
After dawn, the battalion officer Lin Ziran, who led the soldiers to fight in the middle of the night, had to announce the bad news: the respectable guard Wang was unfortunately killed in the fire.
The guard Wang died unfortunately, and Lin Ziran, as the battalion officer of the patrol battalion, was temporarily responsible for the follow-up aftermath.
This included quickly deciding to raise donations to rebuild the town hall, and at the same time sending people to the county town to report the bad news of Mr. Wang's unfortunate death.
The next day, several sheriffs in the town also jointly reported that the fire in the townhouse was caused by candlelight and was purely accidental.
After dealing with such a mess, Lin Ziran felt relieved.
After such a fire, Wang Jinquan is considered dead if not dead. Even if he comes out later and says that he is Wang Jinquan, who dares to say that it is Wang Jinquan who is guarding Qingshan Town? Rather than a bandit?
Besides, the people sent by Lin Ziran to search for him were still on the move. As long as Wang Jinquan dared to show his face, death would be waiting for him.
But Lin Ziran didn't know that Wang Jinquan had transformed into a wealthy businessman and took a few confidants on a southbound passenger ship to Luohai City, the city of Nanhai Prefecture.
Only a fool would go back to that shitty place in Qingshan Town!