Year: I had a good time when I was young

Chapter 838: Contrast is more convincing

After Chu Xiangqian and Duan Hongchun exchanged pleasantries, his eyes turned to the middle-aged man and two young men behind Duan Hongchun.

Cao Wenjing looks a bit plump, but with a pair of glasses, he looks very amiable when he smiles.

But Chu Xiangqian knew that he was just taking the initiative, and others had to beg him, so he had to lower his posture.

And since Zhao Congyan hates Cao Wenjing so much, there must have been something dirty between them.

It would be too one-sided to judge Cao Wenjing's character based solely on this, but it would be foolish to say that Cao Wenjing is really kind and amiable.

As for the two people behind Cao Wenjing, they must be the two heirs of the Cao family.

Chu Xiangqian quickly stretched out his hand and shook it tightly with Cao Wenjing, saying, "Thanks to Mr. Cao and his father and son for looking up to me and not letting me lose face."

Cao Wenjing laughed, shook his head and said, "Mr. Chu, you are wrong. It's not that Mr. Dong and Mr. Bao don't want to see you, but the shipping companies under their names have complicated shares and interpersonal relationships.

Unlike the shipping company under my name, which has only been established for more than two years.

Although the capacity has increased year by year, the business is relatively good.

But I am the only shareholder in the company, so I can make all the decisions.”

Chu Xiangqian knew that Old Man Cao had entered the negotiation state, and he was saying it openly. He had already guessed that this meeting was related to shipping.

But his Cao family's shipping business has always been good. It is not easy to swallow up his company without sufficient benefits.

Chu Xiangqian doesn't care about the Cao family's shipping, whether its capacity is 15 tons or 20 tons.

In his eyes, they are all the same.

This time, he brought out 30 Victory ships with a total tonnage of 45 tons.

Considering the new routes and financial resources, it would be a shame not to take 45% of the shares.

He also shook hands with the two young masters of the Cao family. The two brothers of the Cao family admired Chu Xiangqian but felt a little embarrassed.

In fact, the age difference between us is not that big, but the difference in achievements is really huge.

After entering the large private room on the second floor and ordering the signature dishes, Duan Hongchun, who wrote the menu himself, began to introduce to Chu Xiangqian several new dishes that the restaurant had recently introduced.

Duan Hongchun has run this restaurant for two generations, so he knows that if you eat a dish too many times, especially one with heavy oil or meat, you won't want to eat it too much no matter how delicious it is.

However, because the father and son have been running this restaurant for twenty or thirty years, Duan Hongchun's father knows better that changing dishes is like changing knives.

Since the taste of the old dishes has been refined for more than ten or twenty years, there is no need to make major changes.

The safest approach is to add or reduce some cold dishes, vegetarian dishes, and non-signature meat dishes.

Moreover, the dishes that were added or reduced can be replaced again after a few years, which can attract the memories of old customers and stir up the taste in their memories.

Chu Xiangqian tasted the three dishes that had only been added in the last six months and they were indeed delicious.

The dish of venison meatballs was especially delicious. The soup was fresh and the meat was tender, without any smell of mutton, which made Chu Xiangqian very satisfied.

Duan Hongchun finally felt relieved.

After that, we had dinner and chatted, but no one talked about business.

Chu Xiangqian had guessed before the meal that the negotiations would not go smoothly, so he was naturally not in a hurry now.

Zhao Congyan, who was acting as a guest at the side, hoped that the talks between Chu Xiangqian and the Cao family would fail.

Unfortunately, Zhao Congyan was a little too happy. Cao Wenjing hesitated for a long time at the table. He originally thought that there was no need to be too hasty. Since they had eaten together, it meant that they had the intention to cooperate.

Next, the two sides can talk a few more times to find out the other party's bargaining chips, which will also allow them to gain some advantages in the final negotiations.

But Zhao Cong acted like he would be as successful as Zheng Yutong in the future, which was unbearable for Cao Wenjing's two sons and even Cao Wenjing himself.

The eldest son of the Cao family couldn't help but mocked Zhao Congyan. Zhao Congyan wanted to keep silent, but glanced at Chu Xiangqian.

Seeing him looking at me with a smile, I couldn't help but curse him in my heart.

But despite the scolding, Zhao Congyan knew that it was better for him to behave himself.

When they mentioned the 30 Victory ships, the new financial route, and the condition that Chu Xiangqian's international shipping would not intervene in this route, the two young masters of the Cao family immediately showed joy on their faces.

But Cao Wenjing sighed and said that 30 Victory ships have a transport capacity of 45 tons.

If I refuse this time, it will take at least two or three years for me to catch up with Zhao Congyan in shipping capacity, let alone compete with Chu Xiangqian in international shipping.

And once Chu Xiangqian invested in Zhao Congyan’s shipping company.

From now on, Chai Wan Wharf will be no different from the home port of Zhao’s shipping.

Not only will getting in and out of ports be faster, the cost of docking will be lower.

With lower costs and greater fame, gradually more cargo owners will be willing to entrust their goods to Zhao's shipping company for transportation.

And since Chu Xiangqian originally wanted to have dinner with himself, Dong and Bao.

If he refuses, Chu Xiangqian can just go find Dong and Bao again.

Or they could cooperate with the brothers He Zanyuan and He Zanxian in Macau. After all, the He family also has a shipping company in Macau.

The scale is also not small.

So Cao Wenjing only thought about it for a few minutes, then stood up and said to Chu Xiangqian with a smile, "Mr. Chu, if you had mentioned this condition right away, I would have agreed without hesitation.

It also saves you from the problem of not being able to eat good food no matter how delicious it is.”

Chu Xiangqian laughed. The conditions he offered were indeed good, but wanting to take away 45% of the other party's shares was no different from selling the company in the eyes of many people.

These bosses who have been able to work their way up to the top all have a strong desire for control.

Not to mention selling the company that you worked so hard to build to outsiders?

Since Chu Xiangqian promised that the company would still be handed over to the other party for management, management and being one's own boss are two different things.
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Now that the agreement has been reached, all that remains is for the lawyers to discuss the details, including Zhao Congyan's contract.

Chu Xiangqian originally thought that this guy had the same interests as Cao Wenjing this time, and no matter how bad their relationship was, they would discuss together how to get more benefits.

But Zhao Congyan ignored Cao Wenjing's suggestion to sit down together.

After Cao Wenjing shook his head helplessly and left with his two sons, Zhao Congyan muttered, "Mr. Chu, don't be fooled by the man named Cao.

This guy is best at showing concern and pretending to be affectionate.

When you trust him, you will suddenly find that he has been eyeing your family business for a long time. "

Chu Xiangqian didn't waste any more words, just nodded with an expression that said, "You are right."

A person who could become a tycoon in Hong Kong Island and leave a strong mark.

Naturally, each of them has their own strengths and personal charms. Chu Xiangqian only needs to listen to Zhao Congyan's words in reverse order to understand Cao Wenjing's attitude towards life.

Of course, Chu Xiangqian didn't know whether it was really "false feelings" as Zhao Congyan said, but it was certain that Zhao Congyan had suffered at the hands of Cao Wenjing.

Chu Xiangqian stopped trying to persuade Zhao Congyan. The bad relationship between the two families was, to some extent, a good thing for him as an investor. In the afternoon, he took Zhao Congyan to the horse farm to see the preliminary test results of the 120 purebloods, Arabian horses and Arabian horses.
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In the past, Chu Xiangqian would just let the horse run on the track.

After all, not every horse can reach the level of participating in the competition.

So in order to avoid some horses being unsold, Chu Xiangqian had asked the riders to control the speed of the horses and prevent them from running wildly in the past two years.

But two years ago, a horse trainer who was quite famous in the horse racing world in Magnesium came to Hong Kong Island alone to participate in the auction.

He actually bought a thoroughbred horse that performed poorly in all aspects.

This horse received about a year of training and after participating in the competition in the second half of last year, it won seven second-level and first-level championships in a row.

If the horse had not been auctioned at the age of 3 and then trained for a year, it would not have been able to participate in the Triple Crown after it turned 3.

Many people and media outlets speculated that this horse would finish in the top five, if not at Triple Crown level.

This incident also made Chu Xiangqian realize that the buyers who came to the auction were no longer enthusiasts.

The vision and perspective of those professional and experienced practitioners are often very different from those of enthusiasts.

So Chu Xiangqian simply let this year's 120 horses of three bloodlines run 400 meters at full speed on the track under the control of the riders.

If they just run 400 meters, they will be like dragons.

Moreover, the riders riding these horses are assigned temporarily, so coordination is bound to be a problem, which will further affect the performance of the horses.

If you want to see the true strength of a horse, it really tests your professional ability and vision.

This also attracted hundreds of people to the viewing stands of the large training ground at the Kowloon Racecourse.

However, Chu Xiangqian also played a little trick.

40 pure-bloods, 40 Arabian horses, and 40 pure-bloods were put on the track.

Moreover, the 40 horses that were out of order will finish running this afternoon, and the remaining 80 horses will run tomorrow.

All the senior horse racing practitioners immediately admired and envied Chu Xiangqian.

They are all professionals, so they can naturally see that the 40 horses this afternoon, whether they are purebreds, Arabian horses, or other horses, are of extremely high quality.

Some of the horses were the best that most of these trainers had seen in the past year or two.

When the afternoon test was over, the number of calls outside Hong Kong Island suddenly increased by hundreds.

Most horse trainers strongly recommend that stables or their employers send a higher-level team.

The reason, of course, is that there were several horses of extremely high quality this year.

Moreover, these horses should only account for one-third of this year's special auction.

There will be 80 horses left to race tomorrow, and there is a high probability that a few good horses can be found.

Many of them are horse trainers, take last year’s thoroughbred horse as an example.

Now many horse farms and buyers had no time to sit still and flew to Hong Kong Island as quickly as possible while there were still two and a half days left before the auction.
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Chu Xiangqian had originally planned to go to Zheng Shufen's house for dinner in the evening, but Zhao Congyen had been watching the horses for the entire afternoon and learned from many horse trainers and professionals that the prices of several of the 40 horses would definitely not be less than 300 million US dollars.

In the past, Chu Xiangqian sold at an average price, striving to sell every horse.

But now, after careful calculation, he found that even if there were some horses that performed poorly among the 120 horses, it was still relative.

After all, the three-dimensional attributes are there, and the minimum is 1.3 strength or physique.

As for agility, they are all 1.4 and 1.5.

This agility alone is one or two levels better than most similar horses on the market.

Individual agility 1.6.

Those horses whose physique or strength reaches 1.5 and whose agility also reaches 1.5 or above are the best among this batch.

One horse is worth three horses, and even if the horse’s performance is not that good, the price is unlikely to drop in half.

If that were the case, Chu Xiangqian would rather let the horse go unsold, and then wait until the special auction was over and the ordinary auction was over, and then have people compare the horses of different schools.

Next time I participate in the monthly auction, the auction price will at least not be cut in half.

Even if the price was cut in half, Chu Xiangqian calculated that the final total auction amount should be more than last year's 8 million US dollars.

Zhao Congyan is now madly jealous of Chu Xiangqian.

It’s not uncommon for newspapers to report that Chu Xiangqian’s annual horse racing auctions have repeatedly set auction records, but at the time people were just envious, after all, it had nothing to do with them.

But I saw the foreigners shouting and screaming in the horse farm with my own eyes, and then you said that this horse would cost at least 200 million US dollars, and they said that you could never buy it for less than 300 million.

And this situation happened more than once, and it was impossible for Zhao Congyan not to be envious.

So after the afternoon test was over, this guy immediately pestered Chu Xiangqian and asked him all kinds of questions.

Chu Xiangqian listened for a few minutes before he realized that this guy was actually planning to build a farm on Hong Kong Island to breed foals.

Yes, it’s not a horse farm or a stud farm, but they raise racehorses like cattle and sheep.

The cost is lower, and within one or two years, if you produce a horse that can race on the track, you can make back all your investment.

Chu Xiangqian rolled his eyes after hearing this and asked, "Do you know how many ranches there are in Magnesium Country and Turkey?"

Zhao Congyan shook his head in confusion, and then Chu Xiangqian continued, "In total, there are at least 15 or even 18 ranches in the two countries.

On these ranches, each family raises at least three to five horses, and some even raise hundreds.

Out of millions of horses, there are always going to be 10 or 20 that can compete in championship races, right?"

Zhao Congyan thought about it silently and felt that what Chu Xiangqian said was right, but he knew in his heart that this matter must be listened to in reverse.

Chu Xiangqian patted Zhao Congyan's arm and said, "But in reality, there are probably less than 500 professional purebred and Arabian horse farms in the world.

And the annual capital expenditure starts at at least one million US dollars.

Old Zhao, you can think of it. The ranchers who have been raising horses and cattle for generations have also thought of it a long time ago.

It is wishful thinking to rely on quantity to achieve good results in a speed race.

He looks at the bloodline, that is, except for purebloods and sweatbloods, even if the Arabian horses and other bloodlines are powerful, they will be nothing on the track. "

After that, Chu Xiangqian smiled and said, "Besides, if you want to raise horses, you have to buy a few purebred horses and Ferghana horses.

As far as I know, even horses that are not even eligible for auction are priced at tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

Zhao Congyan immediately became timid. If he was asked to buy a few horses, he could still withstand the financial pressure.

But if he bought a dozen or dozens of horses, he wouldn't be able to raise enough money from selling them.

Chu Xiangqian saw that Zhao Congyan instantly wilted. While he was amused, he suddenly remembered that Margaret sold three offspring of champion knights last year.

(End of this chapter)