I want to be emperor

Chapter 1156 Agricultural Development Company

While the Cuju battle between the Xicheng team and the Jiangdu team was being staged in Songjiang City, a Cuju competition that almost 99% of Chu people didn't know was also being staged in a small stadium in distant Cadiz.

This is not even a formal professional game, just a game between two amateur clubs.

The Jiuchuan Cuju team from Dover, England, came all the way to challenge the Strait Cuju team from Cadiz.

These two Cuju teams are both commercial Cuju teams in Europe. They are not large in scale and naturally not very strong. They are both Cuju teams invested and established by local Chu State enterprises... These enterprises do not organize Cuju teams for To make money, after all, there are not many Chu people in England, and these Chu people alone cannot earn much ticket money. As for the indigenous people... there are some people, but they are also poor, but they are reluctant to spend a small amount of money. Dozens of cents, sometimes hundreds of cents, were spent to buy tickets to watch the game.

Cuju competitions in these overseas territories where there are not many Chu people are mostly activities organized by companies or governments to enrich the lives of their employees.

It's just that if some people do it, they will do better, attract some people to watch, and thus obtain part of the commercial income.

However, this does not change the fact that these Cuju teams are all internal Cuju teams within the company.

In today's Cuju match, the Straits team at home is a typical corporate Cuju team. It is affiliated to the European Straits Trading Company and is mainly engaged in the energy business. It is also engaged in the export trade business of civil industrial products and some indigenous specialties and import business. .

In addition to some private shareholders, the shareholders behind it also control a considerable number of shares in the hands of several oil companies. For example, the Royal Petroleum Company, a royal industry, occupies 36% of the shares of the Straits Trading Company.

Although the Dachu Empire did not specialize in petroleum-related industries, due to the particularity of the petroleum industry, the major large enterprises in the petroleum industry were actually enterprises affiliated to the Ministry of Industry, or had official capital or royal capital behind them.

European Channel Trading is no exception.

As an energy sales company, European Channel Trading Company has a relatively large presence in Europe. It has a complete channel network in the UK, Spain and France. In addition, it also has a certain presence in Northern Europe and Central Europe. sales channels, and even the largest one among the many energy companies in Europe in the Da Chu Empire.

How to put it this way, their kerosene sales account for more than 30% of the total kerosene sales in the European market.

Such a company is naturally not short of money... Naturally, it is willing to provide a good working environment for its employees. On weekdays, organizing Cuju competitions is a relatively common sports and entertainment project...

After doing this a lot, I gained experience and achieved good results. Naturally, I gradually started to have some friendly competitions with Cuju teams from other companies. These competitions attracted some ordinary citizens to come and watch.

Finally, the competition of the Strait Cuju Team under the Strait Trading Company will not only allow corporate employees to participate in the competition, which is expected to be free of charge, but will also sell tickets to the outside world. The ticket prices are also quite cheap. After all, it is just a business event.

In addition, there will be competitions with other Cuju teams in the surrounding area.

The Jiuchuan team that came from Dover to compete is similar. It is also a typical corporate Cuju team and is affiliated with the Jiuchuan Agricultural Development Company.

This 'agricultural development' seems very old-fashioned at first glance, and is very different from the Straits Trading Company, which is engaged in oil, but when it comes to the size, influence and even earning power of the two companies, Jiuchuan Agricultural Development Company is inferior. Hit Straits Trading Company.

The agricultural development companies in the Dachu Empire...especially the companies with this brand in overseas territories are basically giants with money, guns and land...

For example, the Congo Agricultural Development Company in Africa has acquired large swaths of land in the middle and lower reaches of the Congo River, covering an area of ​​more than one million square kilometers, through various methods such as leasing land from indigenous people by force and directly seizing it.

Of course, according to the relevant laws of the Dachu Empire, although the Congo Agricultural Development Company owns these lands, it only has property rights and no sovereignty.

This place falls under the jurisdiction of Congo State of the Great Chu Empire.

These agricultural development companies are actually colonial enterprises, and they are basically supported by the officials of the Dachu Empire...or to put it more simply, these agricultural development companies are actually local colonial officials who manage these for better development. A business established as a colony.

There are also private agricultural development companies, but most of them are not legal, at least not effectively covered by the imperial legal system... These so-called private agricultural development companies are often colonial enterprises established directly in indigenous-controlled areas. The nature and scale are actually similar to the West African kingdom established by Chen Jingyun in the early days... Basically, a group of Chu people went to the indigenous territories outside the Chu territory to open up private territory, and then opened plantations to mine ore, and in order to protect the assets, they would build There are no-name armed forces such as company guards, and at the same time, so-called administrative agencies within the company will be established to manage the indigenous people in the territory.

The difference between the Kingdom of West Africa and the Kingdom of West Africa is nothing more than whether it has been officially recognized by the Empire... For a long time, the Empire actually did not recognize the legitimacy of the Kingdom of West Africa. It was only later that the top leaders of the Empire saw that the Kingdom of West Africa still had its merits and recognized their status as a vassal state.

But whether it is an official agricultural development company or a private agricultural development company that walks in the gray area... there are all colonial enterprises or institutions whose core business is to operate colonies.

For example, the Congo Agricultural Development Company was wholly owned by the Department of Industry under the African Governor's Office of the Great Chu Empire. Commercial affairs were guided and managed by the Ministry of Industry; administrative affairs were guided and managed by the African Governor's Office; specific armed services were managed by the African Garrison Command. Guidance and management.

The company supervisors and co-organizers there are several high-level officials, serious imperial officials, the kind who have class...

Another example is the Jiuchuan Agricultural Development Company. The name is low-key, and almost most people in Chu have never heard of the name of this company. However, in fact, the Jiuchuan Agricultural Development Company is affiliated to the European Governor and is managed and operated by the company. With a large amount of land in the British area, he has opened up many plantations and pastures, and is also engaged in mining development business.

Let’s put it this way, there are ten percent of arable land in England today, sixty-seven percent of which is in the hands of the indigenous nobles, and a small amount in the hands of some small landowners and farmers, and two or three percent of it is in the hands of war reparations and fines. Various means such as purchasing were eventually controlled by many Chu enterprises.

As for this part of Chu State's enterprises, a considerable part is in the hands of Jiuchuan Agricultural Development Company.

To summarize, Jiuchuan Agricultural Development Company controls approximately 10% of the arable land in the entire British region.

This is a quite terrifying number... Because in this way, Jiuchuan Agricultural Development Company is actually the largest landowner in the British region.

Jiuchuan Agricultural Development Company has opened up a large number of plantations on the land it controls to produce food and various economic crops, and is exploring and developing local minerals.

By the way, Jiuchuan Agricultural Development Company controls a large number of coal mining areas and produces about 40% of the coal in the entire British region...

In order to protect its own assets, Jiuchuan Agricultural Development Company also has a company armed guard officially approved by the empire, with approximately more than 2,000 armed forces under its jurisdiction. The armed force of more than 2,000 people is actually similar to the Foreign Legion. It is composed of retired officers from the Chu State as commanders, and the soldiers are selected from the indigenous people. Moreover, they are not natives of the British area, but hired all the way from West Asia. indigenous soldiers.

Recruiting troops from other places is the basic principle for Chu people to manage foreign legions and many company armed forces.

As for corporate armed forces, it is actually not that unusual. Many large companies operating overseas in the Dachu Empire have obtained corresponding armed licenses and can establish corporate armed forces with various restrictions in designated areas. Used to protect company assets and imperial interests.

But without exception, the armed forces of these companies, regardless of whether they are official or private enterprises, or even the armed forces of professional security companies, must be managed and commanded in accordance with relevant military regulations.

All commanders, even low-level officers, must be served and commanded by retired soldiers recognized by the military, and all indigenous soldiers must be recruited from other places and serve.

When the company's armed forces receive a military call-up order, they must unconditionally obey the military orders and perform various military tasks... Of course, the military will also provide corresponding recruitment subsidies and weapons and equipment logistics supplies.

To put it bluntly, these company armed forces are actually supernumerary troops of the Chu Empire's military... They are just affiliated with various companies. They can only operate in areas outside the direct jurisdiction and administrative territories of the Chu Empire, and are maintained by the companies themselves for protection. The property safety of Chu State enterprises and the safety of overseas staff of Chu State enterprises.

It's probably similar to the security teams established by companies, except that these security teams have guns and cannons... and can only operate in overseas indigenous areas, and are not allowed to enter Chu State territory, including administrative territories.

Only professional security companies with stricter management and dual management by the military and administration can enter the administrative territory to carry guns.

So despite the fact that there are so many overseas civilian armed forces, in fact the top management of the Dachu Empire has very strong control over the armed forces, and they do not allow the emergence of truly independent civilian armed forces that can act freely.

Even the West African Kingdom, a vassal state of Chu origin, is no exception... The West African Kingdom and the Empire have established a common command system. In fact, the military command of the West African Kingdom is not in the hands of the West African Kingdom, but in the hands of the West African garrison commander. In the hands of the Ministry...

Of course, the military will not interfere with your free movement on a daily basis. This command will only be exercised when there is a threat to the interests of the Chu State. It is just that the West African Kingdom can decide on its own for daily combat operations, and only needs to notify West Africa. Just call the garrison headquarters, and the West African garrison command will not interfere after receiving the garrison... You can do whatever you want.

However, although the empire has very strict management of corporate armed forces, these agricultural development companies have direct armed forces after all... which makes it much easier to do things on weekdays.

After all, in overseas areas, you can't rely on the military to provide you with daily security for everything, right?

Why, you still want the military to send troops to guard the gate for you?

The military provides strategic deterrence overseas and does not directly provide daily security services to enterprises... However, enterprises or individuals operating overseas will always encounter various threats and troubles. At this time, Some more flexible armed forces are needed to supplement it.

Professional security companies and corporate armies established by large enterprises play this role.

As for an enterprise like the Agricultural Development Company, it is even more necessary to build its own armed forces... After all, as an enterprise that develops plantations and mines, there is a lot of demand for suppression.

Jiuchuan Agricultural Development Company belongs to such a company...it is not well-known, but its actual scale is very large and its influence is great.

Of course... these are all hidden under the water, but above the water, at least in the imperial territories such as Dover and Cadiz, Jiuchuan Agricultural Development Company is a very ordinary enterprise, located in Dover The people in Er's company headquarters are basically civilian employees... After all, the indigenous soldiers among their company's armed personnel cannot enter directly governed territories like Dover.

In order to enrich the entertainment life of employees, Jiuchuan Agricultural Development Company also established a Cuju team, which is pretty good... Because Dover is more remote and backward, and there is no professional Cuju team, so the amateur Cuju team of such a large enterprise The competition will also attract many people to watch.

By doing this, just like the Straits Trading Company's Cuju team, it evolved into a semi-professional Cuju team.

The year before last, some Cuju teams in Europe sat down to form the European Cuju League in order to have more and better competitions. There were a total of 45 semi-professional Cuju teams from England, Spain, France, etc. team participation.

Of course, although the European Cuju League has the name of a league and also engages in commercial operations, because the market size is too small and there are no professional teams, they are all teams owned by some companies and business teams established spontaneously by the private sector. Lord.

Therefore, the gold content of the competition is not high, and the commercialization is not very good.

But after all, there is a systematic league competition. However, due to factors such as distance, this European League competition is actually a knockout match similar to the East Asian Championship. The winner is determined after two home and away games. Those who failed continued to participate in Hu's subsequent events, and those who failed naturally went back to play lower-level business events in the region.

This has also led to the fact that the density of these so-called leagues in Europe is very low. For many teams with average strength, they only play two games throughout the year...one at home and one away.

Therefore, the few local Chu fans still attach great importance to this event. After all, if their strength is average or they are unlucky and are eliminated quickly, they will not be able to watch a few games in a year.

The same is true for today's match between the Straits Team and the Jiuchuan Team. This is the third cross-regional championship game that Cadiz fans can see this year. If they are unlucky and are eliminated, then this year's championship game will be the same. No need to watch.

In the future, we can only watch the local business teams in Cadiz continue to learn from each other.

Therefore, in today's game, the number of fans who came to watch the game reached a record of 5,000... Don't think there are few people. You must know that there are not many Chu people in Cadiz.

Although Cadiz in Europe is already a territory directly under the Central Government, it is also the residence of the European governor, and its political status is equivalent to other territories directly under the Central Government. However, in the eyes of contemporary Chu people, Cadiz is a remote and backward area... The impact on immigrants The appeal is actually very poor.

As of now, excluding the local garrison, the population of Cadiz is only a few tens of thousands.

Five thousand people can come to watch the game, which is already a quite large proportion. Many fans come from whole families, young and old, to watch the game.

Fortunately, this was a competition held on a ten-day holiday. Many people simply took advantage of this opportunity to go on a family trip and have a large-scale party.

Five thousand people watched the game, which was considered a top event among European Cuju competitions. The players and coaches of the Jiuchuan team who came from Dover couldn't help but look at the dense crowd in the auditorium. jealous……

You know, there have never been so many people watching a game in their home stadium of Dover!

Because the population of the entire Dover Territory, not including the garrison, is less than 10,000... It is already amazing that a championship game can be watched by thousands of people.

Five thousand people, I dare not think about it!