Chapter 871 - Qiwei Depot

Qiwei's original breakthrough in Guangzhou owed much to Zhang Xin's introduction of modern transportation concepts: providing convenient, comfortable, and safe passenger and freight services at relatively affordable prices.

Though Shanghai was merely a small county town in this timeline, it occupied a crucial position in the Planning Commission's transportation plans. Setting Qiwei's Jiangnan General Office in Shanghai rather than Nanjing or Hangzhou fully demonstrated Wu De's emphasis on this location.

When the naturalized citizen manager of the Shanghai General Office, Mao Sansheng, learned through coded scroll messages from the General Management Bureau that his superior had arrived in Hangzhou, he didn't dare delay. Shortly after arranging for the inspection team to proceed to Hangzhou, he personally brought his staff to report on operations.

As the Hangzhou Station chief, Zhao Yingong held supreme supervisory authority over the entire Shanghai General Office's operations. But in terms of external identity, he had no connection whatsoever with Qiwei Escort Bureau's Shanghai General Office. So Mao Sansheng's visit to Hangzhou wasn't a subordinate meeting a superior, but rather a business owner paying respects to a major client. Zhao Yingong's actual identity was unknown to everyone in the General Office except Mao Sansheng himself—naturalized citizens included.

Zhao Yingong received Mao Sansheng at his private residence in Qinghe Ward. Between building Phoenix Mountain estate, preparing the sericulture operation, and opening the bookshop, he was already overwhelmed. But he also had to attend to the long-distance transportation company—after all, the coming phase of refugee collection and transfer would rely entirely on Qiwei's network.

From Mao Sansheng, he learned that Jiangnan transportation relied primarily on boats. Travelers going long distances, regardless of wealth, rarely took overland routes. The sedan business could be deferred for now; they should concentrate on water transport.

Inland river boat services in Jiangnan were basically individual operations—one family running one vessel. Larger boats capable of carrying dozens of passengers traveled between towns and counties; smaller ones were like the swift Wuxi boats. Besides individual operators, some boat companies existed, but they were small-scale, mainly operating on the Grand Canal and Yangtze River.

But entering the shipping business wouldn't be easy. The most valuable route for north-south transport in Southern Zhili and Zhejiang was the Grand Canal. Countless people depended on this waterway for their livelihoods. The most formidable were the tribute grain transport boats—in the Ming Dynasty there was no "Tribute Transport Gang." The personnel responsible for tribute grain transport were officially soldiers, belonging to the garrison battalions of counties along the river. Each garrison had fixed quotas for tribute boatmen, as well as designated official farmland.

Tribute boatmen bore heavy transport duties. Due to various systemic flaws, they often suffered losses when transporting tribute grain and were greatly burdened. But they had official status and enjoyed special privileges of passage and toll collection on the canal. Whether hauling grain northward or returning south with empty hulls, taking on cargo and passengers along the way was a vital source of income. If Qiwei's boat company were to operate on the canal and compete for their business, it would certainly face resistance.

The tribute boatmen were numerous and united, and possessed official status as tribute grain carriers. Once conflict arose, whether through official channels or private fighting, Qiwei would surely lose.

Zhao Yingong frowned. "So you're saying we can't touch this canal at all?"

Mao Sansheng replied, "Hangzhou to Nanjing and Yangzhou is manageable. Tribute boats heading north are heavily loaded—even carrying passengers and cargo, their capacity is limited. People with any money don't want to squeeze in among grain sacks. But from Yangzhou southward, the boats travel empty. That business, they definitely won't surrender."

Whether heading north or south, tribute boats took on cargo and passengers as a matter of course, keeping their fees relatively low. They could compete effectively with Qiwei's mass-market approach. Even if the tribute boatmen caused no trouble, pure competition wouldn't guarantee Qiwei's victory.

After arriving in Shanghai, Mao Sansheng had already toured the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region, investigating local conditions. He wasn't confident about starting a boat company.

"If we're to start one, we probably can't get involved in canal business. There are too many squeeze payments at the locks and checkpoints," Mao Sansheng said.

Zhao Yingong said, "Since the canal is difficult for us to enter, we'll start with the Yangtze."

Mao Sansheng said hesitantly, "The Yangtze probably won't be easy either."

The Yangtze was a natural golden waterway, but in this timeline, navigating it involved considerable risk. Besides the water bandits roaming its waters, the Yangtze channel had never been dredged, nor were there any hydrographic records. Everything depended on sailors' orally transmitted experience. Those unfamiliar with navigation conditions risked running aground or striking rocks even in the broad, deep Yangtze section.

The sailors who worked the Yangtze similarly formed cliques and stuck together. Recruiting navigators and sailors capable of piloting boats wasn't something that could be accomplished overnight. Ancient society's structure possessed super-stability—ordinary people rarely left their groups to join outsiders, let alone complete strangers like Qiwei.

"No matter," Zhao Yingong said. "Others can sail boats. They've just spent a few more years on the river, that's all. Just a bit of experience. If they won't apply, we have ways to survey the channel ourselves."

Surveying the Yangtze channel was already one of the Hangzhou Station's important missions. So Zhao Yingong wasn't concerned about possibly lacking pilots—they had channel surveyors trained with modern technology. They didn't need purely experience-based traditional sailors.

After a full day of discussion, Zhao Yingong and Mao Sansheng finally decided to first establish directly-operated branches in five cities: Shanghai, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Suzhou, and Huzhou.

The directly-operated branches would primarily handle passenger and freight transport. They would display the name "Qiwei Depot" with small characters underneath noting "Qiwei Escort Bureau Alliance."

Each Qiwei Depot would include a warehouse, an inn, sedan and porter services, and boat services. Besides transportation, they would also provide accommodation for travelers and merchants, and storage for cargo. In the future, they planned to add Delong remittance services and mail services at the depots, creating true one-stop service.

According to Zhao Yingong's instructions, wherever possible, each branch should be located as close as possible to waterway docks—preferably building their own docks to facilitate ready access to boats.

Since building their own fleet couldn't be accomplished overnight, at this stage the boat company's business would primarily adopt an "alliance" model. Boat owners would provide their own vessels for alliance participation, with Qiwei Depot responsible for soliciting business. Passenger and freight transport would follow unified prices set by the General Office.

Boat owners would transport according to passenger and freight manifests issued by each branch, delivering along specified routes to designated destinations. They would collect no fees from shippers or travelers—all payments would be made directly to the branch. From the Guangdong era onward, Zhang Xin had abolished the custom of "tips." The rule was that all charges would follow the price list, with no collecting or demanding of gratuities.

The reason vehicles, boats, inns, and porter services were so universally despised was largely because owners paid workers extremely meager wages—some provided no wages at all, with workers' income depending entirely on tips. So whenever they had leverage, workers would inevitably demand tips, until it became industry custom. Escort bureaus never demanded tips, though customers giving gratuities after completing an escort was also customary and an important source of escort income. When Zhang Xin abolished the practice, he explicitly built personnel salaries and allowances into transportation prices, thoroughly eliminating this abusive custom.

After boat owners completed deliveries, they would present stamped manifests from the destination station to the dispatch station for fare settlement, calculated monthly. From each month's settled fares, 2% would be deducted as transportation accident insurance: if a boat operating on designated routes and schedules encountered sinking, damage, bandit robbery, or accidental death of owner or sailor, Qiwei would provide compensation.

This insurance fund was actually collected and underwritten by Delong Bank's Shanghai branch. Besides shipping insurance, Qiwei also sold cargo damage insurance and passenger personal accident insurance on consignment. Insurance premiums were included in transport prices, and compensation would be provided immediately if accidents occurred.

Originally, when Zhang Xin promoted this insurance system in Guangzhou, he had wanted to list the insurance premium as a separate explicit charge, allowing travelers and shippers to freely choose whether to purchase. But Sun Kecheng thought it unnecessary. In this timeline, boat transport operators had no obligation to ensure the safety of cargo and passengers. When cargo damage or death occurred, whether boat owners compensated depended first on the shipper's status—if they were officials, gentry, or powerful local figures, boat owners would have to pay even if it bankrupted them; if they were ordinary people, it depended entirely on the boat owner's reputation and conscience, with no enforcement of compensation amounts.

Escort bureaus, by contrast, had always maintained rules about compensating for lost escort items. Of course, escort bureau fees were considerably higher than boat and porter services. So Sun Kecheng suggested there was no need to mention insurance fees explicitly—just build them into the transport prices, then clearly state that cargo damage would be compensated and injury or death would receive condolence payments. This way, not only would they avoid arguments about whether to purchase insurance, but it would also build Qiwei's commercial reputation.

Boat owners participating in alliance transport had to uniformly accept dispatch from the dispatch center and branches, loading passengers and cargo according to branch-issued manifests, with no private carrying. Boats had to navigate on designated routes and schedules. Departure and return times were logged, with clear arrival and return windows for each trip. If returns were delayed without justifiable reason, "delay fees" would be deducted—ensuring alliance boat owners didn't take detours for private carrying.

Boats would receive "minor maintenance" every three months and "major maintenance" annually according to condition. Maintenance included not only hull repairs but also repainting and refurbishing, keeping vessels consistently clean and orderly. During maintenance periods, Qiwei's boat company would pay living expenses, and maintenance costs would also be covered by the company.

Boat owners would be paid according to output—more work, more pay. To encourage long-term service without frequent turnover, Zhao Yingong stipulated that during the slow season, when there were no trips, Qiwei Depot would still pay basic living expenses.

Every boat participating in Qiwei Escort Bureau's "alliance" would fly Qiwei's escort flag, with Qiwei's insignia uniformly embedded at the bow, indicating the branch it belonged to and whether it carried passengers or cargo. Boats would also be numbered using the Thousand Character Classic for easy identification at a glance.