Late Ming sea owl

Chapter 292 Board of Directors Meeting

At the beginning of February in the first year of Chongzhen, Xu Yilong and Ou Zuoji arrived in Jinhe one after another. Also arriving with Ou Zuoji was Joseph, the second generation of Miura Anzhen.

Since Zhang Pu would leave for Beijing within the month, Xu Yilong could not stay in Jinhe for too long, so Lin Hai did not have time to meet Joseph. After talking with Ou Zuoji alone, he immediately convened an enlarged meeting of the board of directors.

In the first phase of the meeting, in addition to the existing board members, there were also Director of the Financial Department Chen Yaozu, as well as Li Guozhu, Xu Yilong, and Ou Zuoji. The main agenda was to negotiate the equity of the three companies.

Li, Xu and Ou explained to the board of directors the asset situations of their respective companies and the amount of cash they planned to inject into the company's general ledger. After evaluation, the board of directors formulated a preliminary equity distribution plan.

Afterwards, Lin Hai, on behalf of the board of directors, introduced the company's revenue and profit data for the past two years to Li Guozhu and others, and appointed Chen Yaozu to communicate with Li, Xu and Ou respectively on the equity distribution plan.

Lin Hai sent Chen Yaozu to do this, but in fact, it was just to pass on a message. He was mainly afraid that if he showed up, the three people would not be able to ask for conditions.

As a result, after only a short cup of tea, Chen Yaozu returned to the meeting room: "CEO, fellow directors, the three of them agreed immediately without any objection."

Hearing this, Lin Hai clapped his hands and smiled, "Very good, they are all straightforward people, which saves a lot of trouble."

Shibi couldn't help but say, "Boss, I don't think anyone is as straightforward as you."

What he said obviously meant that Lin Hai gave too much shares to those three companies. In fact, the other two people in the Navy Department had the same idea, but only Shibi dared to say it out loud.

The equity distribution plan was proposed by Lin Hai, and the result of the board of directors' secret ballot was four to three, and it was passed by only one vote.

Among them, two of the four votes in favor were cast by Lin Hai himself. Lin Hai guessed that the other two were cast by Zhu Niang and Wu Guoyi, because Zhu Niang unconditionally supported Lin Hai, and Wu Guoyi only wanted to avenge his country and family, and did not care about personal interests.

According to the company's articles of association, the proportion of shares held by board members does not affect their voting weight, but it does affect their dividend weight. The more shares are distributed, the more the dividend rights of existing shareholders will be diluted.

The equity that Lin Hai gave to Li Guozhu and others was somewhat too high, so it was understandable that the three people from the Navy Department expressed opposition.

"That's right. If I wasn't a straightforward person, how could you all get so many shares?" Lin Hai gently avoided the question and continued, "Well, the result of the vote is the resolution. I think the new directors should be invited to participate in the next agenda."

After Li Guozhu and others rejoined the association, Lin Hai signed an order on the spot, appointing Xu Yilong and Ou Zuoji as deputy ministers of the Ministry of Transport, the former in charge of the Immigration Department and the latter in charge of the Trade Department.

Prior to this, the Ministry of Transportation had already been established. In addition to the two original departments of immigration and trade, a general affairs department was added, with Zhang Yong, who had just returned from North Korea, as the director.

The General Affairs Department is mainly responsible for coordinating all affairs of the Ministry of Transport. When the Minister of Transport is on a business trip, the Director of the General Affairs Department will take charge of the daily work of the ministry.

There is also a special department under the General Affairs Department, called the Investigation and Statistics Bureau. In the future, the Bureau will station specialists in the company's various clubs, trading houses or other foreign institutions to compile statistics and organize local news, prices and other information, and communicate with the company headquarters regularly.

The Investigation and Statistics Bureau is headed by Zhang Yong, Director of the General Affairs Department, and reports directly to the company's chairman.

After the Ministry of Transport signed the personnel order, Lin Hai proposed to elect Feng Yidao and Fang Xiu'e to the company's board of directors.

Since the selection of Feng and Fang did not involve any changes in equity, this proposal encountered almost no resistance. Only one person voted against Fang Xiu'e's entry into the board of directors, while Feng Yidao passed it unanimously.

Judging from this result, as the founder of the company, Lin Hai’s personal will is almost equivalent to the board of directors’ resolutions most of the time.

Even so, his earlier equity distribution plan was still almost rejected. This fully demonstrates that superiors must represent the overall interests of their subordinates. Once this interest is violated, the leadership foundation will inevitably become loose.

That afternoon, the plenary meeting of the board of directors continued. Lin Hai publicly announced the "Jianhe Plan" for the first time at the board meeting and made it clear that his strategic goal was to drive the VOC out of the east of the Strait of Malacca by the end of next year - that is, within the second year of Chongzhen.

There are two reasons for setting this time point:
First, in the autumn of the second year of Chongzhen, Sultan Matalan will mobilize the whole country to besiege Batavia for the second time. After experiencing a failure, the arrogant Susuhunan has no reason to refuse the alliance with Jinhe Kingdom; second, at the turn of spring and summer in the third year of Chongzhen, after the Jisi Incident, the Ming court will use Sun Chengzong as the commander-in-chief to recover the four cities of Zun, Yong, Luan and Qian occupied by the Later Jin in the interior. Lin Hai intends to use this battle as a starting point to intervene in the Eastern Affairs.

This was the only strategic victory achieved by the Ming army during the Ming-Qing War during the Chongzhen period. For Lin Hai, this battle was risk-free and could provide him with practical experience in fighting against the elite troops of the Later Jin Dynasty. There was no better entry point than this.

Therefore, before that, he had to complete the decisive battle with VOC as much as possible to avoid the company being caught in a situation of fighting on two fronts.

It was naturally inconvenient to elaborate on these reasons at the board meeting. Lin Hai only put forward his own goals and continued, "Everyone, in order to achieve this strategic goal, in addition to cutting off the Red Hair's strongholds in the Southeast Asian countries, the most critical point is that we must win a decisive victory at sea and completely destroy the Red Hair's maritime power in Asia!"

Except for a few people who knew about Lin Hai's plan, such as Zhu Niang, Li Guozhu, and Ou Zuoji, everyone present held their breath when they heard this. Miguel said in a deep voice: "Boss, with the current strength of the company, this may be difficult to achieve."

"Don't we still have a year and a half? We must strengthen our navy as soon as possible, and at the same time seek allies at sea. In my opinion, the decisive battle with the Reds will definitely be a battle between the cruiser fleets, and other ships can only play a supporting role. Therefore, the allies that can enhance our strength are nothing more than the following: the Ganjin La people in Luzon, the Portuguese in Goa, the Inggui Li people in Surat..."

Lin Hai took out three letters from his sleeve: "I wrote a personal letter to each of these three companies. Considering the long distance, diplomatic actions must begin as soon as possible. The Ministry of Transportation is responsible for diplomacy, so please tell me your plan, Minister Li."

Li Guozhu has been in Jinhe Kingdom since the end of the Battle of Xiamen. He was personally involved in the establishment of the Ministry of Communications and has a good understanding of the company's affairs.

He stood up and said, "What the president said is a serious matter. I think the company's directors must be sent as envoys. Goa and Surat are far away in India, and the distance between the two places is not far. As the Minister of Transportation, I have no choice but to volunteer to go. As for Luzon in the East, since Vice Admiral Mi of the Navy went there once before, he might as well represent the company this time."

"Minister Li's words are very much to my liking." Lin Hai then said to Miguel, "Diplomacy is the responsibility of the Ministry of Transportation, but Manila is the top priority of this diplomatic operation. I think it would be more appropriate to ask you to go there."

Miguel nodded and said, "The president has given orders, and I shall obey them."

Lin Hai then said to Ou Zuoji, "Zuoji, you will also go with Miguel and serve as the deputy envoy for this mission. The deputy commander of the navy cannot always be a part-time envoy. You will still be responsible for the subsequent diplomacy of Luzon. You will also be on the East Ocean route. After Manila, you will go directly to Makassar and Surabaya."

Ou Zuoji asked, "Aren't you going to Sulu this year?"

"Sulu is Manila's enemy. Now that you have joined the company, it is not appropriate for you to go there again in the future..." Lin Hai stopped here. He certainly would not give up the arms and slave labor trade with Sulu, but this matter needed to be done more secretly and it was not appropriate for the company's merchant ships to come forward.

Lin Hai then said to the three people who were about to go on the mission: "You three can directly present our demands to the leaders of the three countries in the west and King Matalan, and inform them that we will capture Dayuan in the second half of this year. Please send envoys to watch the battle and negotiate on trade matters. I have mentioned the specific contents in my personal letter.

The three nodded in agreement. Lin Hai then said to Li Guozhu and Miguel, "Besides that, there is one more thing you two need to do, and that is to buy ships. To destroy the Red Hair's maritime power, it is important to seek allies, and the strength of the Navy itself is more important, because it will determine the distribution of benefits after the war."

Several people from the Navy Department became excited when they heard this. Shi Bi asked, "The president is saying that we should order cruisers from the foreign shipyard?"

Lin Hai nodded and said, "As far as I know, the Hongmao and Yingguili people build ships in the West and send them to the East, but the Ganxi La people and the Portuguese can build cruisers locally. We can buy ships from these two companies, as long as they are newly built cruisers, around 800 tons or 1000 tons. We will buy as many as they can sell, even if the price is a little higher."

With the iron mold casting gun technology, the production capacity of naval guns is no longer a problem, but due to the limitation of the wood drying cycle, the production capacity of the company's cruise ships cannot be increased no matter what.

If they want to quickly improve their naval strength within a year and a half, they can only buy ships from the Spanish and Portuguese shipyards in Asia. Large-scale arms purchases are themselves a show of strength, which will make Manila and Goa re-evaluate the strength of the friendly companies, thereby increasing the possibility of a successful alliance.

In addition to the Spanish and Portuguese shipyards, Lin Hai also set his sights on the VOC ships that were seized by Japan, but this matter required him to take time out to discuss it with the shogunate.

It just so happened that Ou Zuoji brought the latest news from Japan. The matter of enthroning the king of Japan had been approved by Tokugawa Hidetada. Lin Hai planned to wait until the autumn of this year and take Wang Minzheng to Japan to handle this matter. By then, it would be no problem to buy a few ships.

If that is still not enough, then they can only purchase large armed merchant ships from Western merchants, and then install naval guns on them to use as warships. This is also a common practice in the navies of current Western European countries.

In short, no matter what, the number of cruisers of the Anti-Dutch Alliance must overwhelm the VOC, and the number of naval guns must achieve a decisive advantage. Only in this way can we compete with the contemporary overlord of the South Seas on the raging sea!

(End of this chapter)