Chapter 111 Maginot
It is not always possible to fulfill one's wishes, just as Qi Xuansu's flying boat always crashes, Qi Xuansu always encounters accidents when visiting Hu Songting.
He had just arrived at Hu Songting when a message came from Tianfu Palace saying that the representative of Xiposuzhou Company wanted to meet the chief deputy palace master.
Speaking of this representative, it was not the first time Qi Xuansu had dealt with him. However, the last time he dealt with him was not a direct deal, but an indirect deal, not in Shenglong Mansion, but in Fenglinzhou.
This representative was named Maginot, a great duke in the West. During the war in Fenglinzhou, he went to Xiujing to meet Qingwei Zhenren, who was the military master, because of the issue of prisoners of war.
Although Qingwei Zhenren did not meet him, he still appointed Li Tiangang, the second deputy palace master of Fenglinzhou Daofu, to meet him on his behalf.
It can be seen that the status of this Grand Duke Maginot was quite high. He thought he was qualified to meet Qingwei Zhenren. Even if Qingwei Zhenren did not want to meet him, he sent a second deputy palace master.
In other words, Qingwei Zhenren believed that the Grand Duke was about the same level as the Second Deputy Palace Master. He wanted to meet someone from the Dao Mansion now, and Xu Jiaorong was not in Lion City, so only Qi Xuansu would be the most suitable person to come forward in person.
Xie Jiaofeng was not suitable. Besides, with Xie Jiaofeng's slippery personality, even if he was suitable, he would not rush to come forward.
Qi Xuansu had some understanding of Maginot. The year before the fall of the Wei Dynasty, the Xiposuzhou Company was officially established. The original official full name was
"The Company of Rune Merchants Trading in Xiposuzhou". It was composed of a group of influential businessmen who obtained the 15-year trade patent franchise for Xiposuzhou granted by the Rune Royal Family in 1600 AD.
The company had a total of 125 shareholders and a capital of 80,000 gold crowns. In the following 100 years, the Xiposuzhou Company continued to grow and soon transformed from a trading company to a separatist force, or even a country.
The composition of its shareholders became more and more complicated. Most of the initial merchants were squeezed out, and the new shareholders were mostly big merchants, big nobles, big workshop owners, a small number of princes of Xiposuzhou, and the clergy from the Holy Court.
Soon, the clergy and nobles completely took control of the Xiposuzhou Company, and under the promotion of these clergy and nobles, Xiposuzhou obtained some assistance in governance and military functions.
According to the Western corporate system, the highest decision-making level is the board of directors, which is composed of directors, in charge of company affairs internally, and represents the company externally. The management decision-making body is elected by the shareholders' meeting.
Generally speaking, elections are held every three years. Today, the board of directors of Xiposuzhou Company has a total of thirteen members. White, who once secretly funded the Zunrang faction in Fenglinzhou, is one of the directors, and Maginot is also one of the directors.
However, there is a difference between the two. White is an independent director, and Maginot is an executive director. Executive directors are relative to non-executive directors.
The so-called executive director is a director who participates in the operation of the company. Independent directors have no relationship with the company, can express their own opinions independently, and independently express opinions on the company's board decisions, including some major issues.
Their status is relatively detached and will not be too much involved in the interests of internal factions. Generally speaking, the number of independent directors cannot be less than one-third of the total number of board members.
As a priest of the Holy See, White mainly performs various duties of the Holy See, and naturally cannot deeply participate in the operation and management of the Xiposuzhou Company, so he is an independent director and generally plays a supervisory role.
As a great noble, Maginot's primary goal is to make money. In addition to a large amount of investment, he also personally participates in the operation and management, so he is an executive director.
The behavior of the two in Fenglinzhou also reflects the difference in their identities. White funded the Zunrang faction, and the apostle Torronus was behind him, which was obviously to implement the strategy of the Holy See.
Maginot wanted to engage in slave trade and buy prisoners of war from Fenglinzhou. He did not care about the outcome of the war in Fenglinzhou. He was obviously doing business from the standpoint of the Xiposuzhou Company.
However, this does not mean that Maginot will not obey the instructions of the Holy See. It can only be said that there is a different division of responsibilities among these directors.
In addition, although the board of directors makes decisions based on one person, one vote, including the chairman of the board, the board of directors is determined by the shareholders' meeting, and even many directors are concurrently appointed by shareholders themselves, and the chairman of the board is generally concurrently appointed by the largest shareholder.
According to the procedure, the shareholders' meeting is the company's highest authority, and the board of directors is the highest executive body.
In the resolution of the shareholders' meeting, votes are not counted by headcount, but by capital majority, that is, those who invest more bear greater risks, so their words carry more weight, that is, the shareholders' meeting votes according to the shareholding ratio, and those who hold more than half of the shares will have absolute control over the company.
Maginot's identity is very special. He is a shareholder, and his shareholding ratio is very high. Although he is not the largest shareholder, he is also a major shareholder. He is also an executive director and the highest decision-maker of Xiposuzhou Company in Nanyang and Fenglinzhou. Therefore, his status is higher than that of ordinary directors. He cannot be compared with ordinary deputy palace masters, but with the level of chief and second.
Qi Xuansu had intended not to meet him, and had asked fellow Taoists from the ancestral hall to meet him on his behalf. However, considering the impact and the fact that Qingwei Zhenren took this person very seriously, he had to change his schedule temporarily and go meet the director, the Grand Duke first.
In fact, the power of seeing or not seeing is completely in the hands of Qi Xuansu. It's not that Qi Xuansu has to see, but Qi Xuansu also wants to use Maginot, a big shot in the Western world, to find out what's going on in the Holy Court. After all, he also has other responsibilities on his shoulders. One mission is to deal with matters related to the Holy Court.
Trade itself is a kind of exchange. You come and go, and the penetration that comes with trade exchanges is always unavoidable, so weeding needs to be done regularly.
As for how to weed weeds without scaring away ordinary merchants or affecting normal trade, it will be a test of methods.
However, after Qi Xuansu arrived in Borneo, the Holy Court did not take much action. Even when Chen Shuhua made a fuss in Shenglong Mansion, the Holy Court did not come forward.
Of course, we cannot rule out the possibility that the situation changed so quickly that the Holy Court failed to react. After all, the Taoist government, as the party involved, almost did not react. In addition, the Shenglong Mansion is in a special location, and the Holy Court is relatively weak, and it is powerless to participate. .
The Lion City is different. This is the most developed place in Nanyang for commerce and trade. The foreign population is even equal to the local population. Therefore, the Lion City is a place seriously penetrated by the Holy Court. Many people from the Holy Court can do business under the banner of doing business. Coming to the Lion City openly, the situation is more complicated.
Now, the Holy Court finally couldn't hold back anymore and jumped out. This will undoubtedly bring some variables to the situation.
After Qi Xuansu returned to Tianfu Palace, he let Xiao Yin play by himself and took Chen Jianchou to see the director. Chen Jianchou is actually a very talented person. He is proficient in five languages. In addition to the Mandarin of the Central Plains and the Borneo dialect, there are also Runeese, Ibia, and the Borneo dialect.
He and Chen Jianqiu can communicate normally in Runeese, which is a huge plus because they can also act as translators when necessary.
However, after meeting Maginot, Qi Xuansu realized that it was unnecessary. As the top decision-maker of the West Borneo Company in half of the Eastern world, Maginot was naturally proficient in the Central Plains Mandarin, and his accent was authentic, and he was familiar with the various wording habits of the Central Plains people. There is absolutely no weird feeling like ordinary Westerners speaking in Chinese Mandarin. If you close your eyes and listen, you will still think that a Central Plains person is speaking.
"Qi Zhenren, to use the Chinese dialect, I have admired him for a long time, but I only met him once." Maginot was arranged in a Western-style living room. Maginot, who was originally sitting on the sofa, saw Qi Xuansu in front of his daughter. After entering the living room under the guidance of the Taoist priest, he immediately stood up and enthusiastically gave Qi Xuansu a hug.
Qi Xuansu politely declined this overly intimate Western etiquette and said: "I have heard about Mr. Maginot's reputation as early as when I was in Fenglinzhou. That time, Li Cixi of Fenglinzhou Taoist Palace received him. Mr. Maginot.”
"By the way, Master Qi was also working under Master Qingwei at that time." Magino said suddenly,
"It's just that the real person Qi at that time was not a real person." Qi Xuansu smiled and said: "So he couldn't get into Mr. Maginot's eyes."
"Master Qi is making fun of me." Maginot also smiled and said,
"It's sarcastic that I don't recognize the real person in front of me."
"I don't mean that." Qi Xuansu waved his hand and said,
"At that time, I didn't expect that I could become a second-grade Taiyi Taoist priest in such a short period of time. It can be said to be a coincidence, or it can be said to be a coincidence. There are no heroes, so Zhuzi became famous." Maginot said. Wearing the unique smile of a Western aristocrat, his eyes were cold and calm, but the lower half of his face was very enthusiastic: "Master Qi is too modest. There is an old saying in the Central Plains that a hero emerges from his youth. Judging from the length of a hundred years, Today's Master Qi is still a teenager. "Ma Qi Nuo should be a flattering word, but Qi Xuansu is not very happy, because many people now criticize his age, it is nothing more than his lack of ability to do things, Ma Qi. Nuo also wanted to count Qi Xuansu among the young people. Qi Xuansu had no interest in Hedong for thirty years.
So Qi Xuansu said: "There is an old saying in the Central Plains, which is: Don't bully a young man into being poor. If I call him poor now, someone should scold me. So this young man should just be inappropriate." Maginot also realized that he might be flattered. On the horse's hooves, he skipped this topic: "In any case, Master Qi is the youngest official second-grade Taiyi Taoist priest in the entire Eastern world." Qi Xuansu made a gesture to sit down: "Mr. Maginot, Let's sit down and talk." After the two sat down, Qi Xuansu said: "Mr. Maginot is a man who has many things to do. If you are anxious to see me this time, you won't be drinking tea with me, so you might as well say so." Kino slowly suppressed his smile and said seriously: "I heard that the Taoist government plans to seal down the Nanyang United Trading Company. Is there such a thing?"