In the 11th year of Guangxu, that is, in the year of 1885, Zhou Ying, who was only 17 years old, married Wu Pin of Wu 'an Town, Jingyang County under the arrangement of his brother and sister-in-law, in order to "celebrate his birthday" for this seriously ill person. At this time, the Wu family was in full swing, and Wu Weiwen, Wu's father, was appointed as a court doctor and a second-class official. He has served as a post in Hubei Houtaotai and Shanxi Ningwu Magistrate. At the same time, he also engaged in salt monopoly in Jiangsu, Anhui, Jiangxi and other places, and was a "red-top businessman" at the same time as Hu Xueyan. At that time, with the help of the introduction of hundreds of kinds of salt in Huai Salt Affairs, he set up the salt general number "Yu Longquan" in Yangzhou and set up semicolons in various places. He earns millions of dollars a year and is a famous salt merchant.
After marrying the Wu family for three years, she died unfortunately. During these three years, Zhou Ying and Wu Pin had a daughter, but unfortunately, she died before she was one year old. When Wu Pin was alive, Zhou Ying adopted Wu Yucheng, a nephew of the Intermediate People's Court who was two years older than him, as his adopted son, and changed his name to Huai Xian, meaning to remember his ancestors. Zhou Ying also adopted a daughter named Xiuqiao when Wu Huaixian/Kloc-0 was 0/0 years old, because she missed her daughter very much.
After her husband died unfortunately, Zhou Ying became a widow at a young age. Although she felt sad and helpless, she didn't hesitate or shrink back. Because there are no other adult men in Wudong Hospital, the burden of developing family business falls on Zhou Ying, a 20-year-old girl. He was ordered to handle her husband's funeral very calmly, and then won the support of the Wu housekeeper, accountant, martial artist and others with his enthusiasm and firm belief in revitalizing the East Hospital industry, and took over all the businesses, shops, land, real estate and other industries of the Wu family, and officially became the head of the Wu East Hospital, known as "Wu An Widow".
Honest management casts an empire
Was ordered to take over the Wu family's property. In the process of doing business, she began to realize that managing land and developing agricultural economy can only support the family, and only developing commercial economy can reverse the decline of family business and create the glory of Qin merchants again.
Know people, make good use of them, and manage good people
Zhou Ying's success in business mainly lies in her wisdom of employing people and good management ability. When he became the president of Wudong Hospital, he found that the shopkeepers, accountants and clerks of many firms under his command were capable businessmen, especially Luo Tianzeng, Yang, Wang Younong, the four main managers, who were resourceful and well managed. Therefore, she tried every means to arouse the enthusiasm of her business people. Relying on these business talents, she went out of Jingyang, set up branches of Huaiyan Corporation in Shanghai, Sichuan, Shaanxi and other places successively, set up a business firm focusing on medicinal materials in Gansu, and set up a shop focusing on cloth in Hubei, which quickly revived the declining business of Wujia Dongyuan.
He also gave full trust to the housekeepers and staff around him, but he was also far-sighted and courageous, and carried out a "reform" on Wudong Hospital, allowing the housekeepers and staff at home to participate in the operation and share the dividends. For example, if a boy earns 20 taels a year, he can support 10 taels from the counter for a lifetime, and the remaining 10 taels can be used as a share dividend. This is the earliest joint-stock family business in history. At the same time, the pension system has been established, and the management system of the Wu family business has been gradually improved, thus improving the enthusiasm of all employees in business operation.
Zhou Ying regards his followers as brothers and sisters and managers as brothers and sisters. He took good care of the servant girls who followed him for a long time, not only for their marriage, but also for their education. A few years later, all the major commercial ports and docks in the north and south of the Yangtze River had Wu's business. Jingyang, Sanyuan and Gaoling have Wu's pawn shops and pharmacies, and Chunhua and Kouzhen have Wu's oil mills, restaurants, grain shops and rice shops. At that time, there was such a jingle among the people: "The Wu family's buddies went from state to county, did not eat other people's meals, and did not live in other people's shops." The Wu family's workshops are widely distributed, and the rapid accumulation of capital and financial resources is amazing!
Integrity-based, careful management
Zhou Ying believes that only by adhering to the commercial tradition and reputation of Qin merchants can the Wu family's business flourish. Therefore, Zhou Ying insists on doing everything by himself. When selling vegetables, she must personally check and pick the sand herself; When selling cloth, she has to re-measure it herself so as not to be short of feet and inches; When selling tea, she wants to taste it herself and identify the freshness.
It can be said that Zhou Ying regarded the reputation of Qin merchants as his own life from the day he did business. At that time, it was the late Qing Dynasty, with social unrest, rampant bandits and poor people. In such a turbulent situation, the number of businesses sticking to goodwill is gradually decreasing, and some businesses even engage in activities that are short of weight and drive up prices. However, Zhou Ying does not agree with this. She never increases the price when she sells grain for thousands of miles, which has won unanimous praise from the people. However, this aroused the hatred of some grain merchants and called her a loser. Hearing this, Zhou Ying smiled: "Food is the most important thing for the people. If you have no scruples about profiteering, then the person who really breaks the bowl is yourself. "
In the 29th year of Guangxu, namely 1903, an art dealer came to Anwubao with several flower and bird paintings said to be Song Huizong, and sold them to Zhou Ying for collection at a high price, but they were identified as fakes by a famous painter. Zhou Ying found an art dealer and said, "You shouldn't make money by cheating. Who dares to do business with you in the future? Remember, smashing signboards is the most shameful stupid behavior of businesses! " However, shortly after this incident, the Wu family's Gaoling Nantang Salt Shop mistakenly sold sea salt as golden Daqing salt. After an old man found it, he found the shopkeeper of the firm and questioned it. After Zhou Ying knew it, he immediately ordered the salt shop to post a notice to admit his mistake and compensate the elderly at three times the price, which was well received by the people of Gaoling County. In this way, the sales of Wu's salt shop quadrupled almost overnight, accounting for more than 70% of the county's salt sales. Later, Zhou Ying ordered people to hang a wooden plaque with the eight characters "Honesty, no fraud, honesty and self-discipline" in front of the store as a warning. It is said that this is one of the only two "no deceit tablets" in the ancient commercial history of China, which is extremely precious, while the other tablet was made by Hu Xueyan, a "red-topped businessman".
Grasp the law and adapt to change.
After years of groping in the ever-changing business sea, Zhou Ying knows the way of doing business, grasps the laws of the market skillfully, can adapt to the changes of the market and make scientific predictions about the market. In many years of commodity management, she has always focused on local native products. The cotton-woven homespun in Guanzhong, brick tea in Jingyang and Polygonum cuspidatum in Sanyuan have all become sharp weapons to conquer the world, which not only revitalized the Wu family business, but also made outstanding contributions to promoting local economic prosperity and increasing people's income.
One autumn, cotton got a bumper harvest. Some unscrupulous merchants joined hands to bargain and depress cotton prices, which caused strong dissatisfaction among cotton farmers for a time. However, Zhou Ying insisted on buying cotton at the market price in previous years, and let cotton farmers sell all their cotton to her. As a result, she monopolized the cotton industry, and Xi 'an's leading cotton industry leader had to turn to Zhou Ying for help because he could not supply customers, so he had to buy cotton from Zhou Ying at a high price. The following year, the cotton crop failed. As the cotton was still in stock the year before, Zhou Ying became the biggest winner in the cotton buying and selling market. In seven years, she went in and out of more than 3000 tons of cotton every year to buy more than 3000 tons of cotton every year 1 10000, and finally became a major cotton marketer in Guanzhong area.
Similarly, the vagaries of the tea market also tested Zhou Ying's courage and wisdom. One year, the tea market plummeted and tea was unsalable. After analyzing the market situation, Zhou Ying invited Deng Jiantang, who was once all-powerful in the western tea market, to guide the marketing business. Under the guidance of Deng Jiantang, Zhou Ying grasped the law of price rebound, resisted the downward pressure of the market, and insisted on hoarding goods for sale. In this way, after a few months, the price of tea suddenly rose, and tea suddenly changed from a slow-moving product to a best-selling product. Selling the hoarded tea quickly can earn tens of thousands of taels of silver at a time, making the Wu family's "Yuxingchong" the largest tea brand in Jingyang.
Zhou Ying is known as the "sage of businesswoman" in Shaanxi Province because of her excellent operation and management.
Write a legend first.
During her life, Zhou Ying was often praised for her good management and honest management, but her relationship with Cixi was the most talked about. 1900, Eight-Nation Alliance went to Beijing, and Empress Dowager Cixi took refuge in xi 'an. Zhou Ying, who was at the forefront of business, generously donated 65,438+20,000 silver to Empress Dowager Cixi, who held the highest power, and was deeply moved. She immediately recognized Zhou Ying as her adopted daughter and personally gave her a gold plaque. Zhou Ying also became the only Han adopted daughter of Empress Dowager Cixi. Soon after, Zhou Ying paid tribute to Empress Dowager Cixi, expressing his willingness to go to the national disaster, and was named as "the Royal Decree of Lady Yipin" by Empress Dowager Cixi.
Zhou Ying is even more charitable to the village and has become a well-known "living Buddha". At that time, due to war and natural disasters, a large number of victims appeared in Guanzhong area. Zhou Yingguang set up a porridge farm, and at the same time opened a warehouse to release grain to help the victims who came from all directions. She set up porridge farms in places where Wu firms are located, such as Gaoling, Sanyuan, Jingyang, Chunhua, Doujitai and Kouzhen, so that all grain stores in Jingyang, Chunhua, Sanyuan, Pucheng and Fuping can open warehouses to release grain. At the same time, she set up day and night porridge farms on 5 mu of land outside Anwubao to distribute the stored grain to poor households who can't open pots around. Jingyang County specially recorded these stories of Zhou Ying in the history books when compiling the county annals.
While helping the victims, Zhou Ying also donated money to drill dozens of deep wells in Jingyang County, which solved the water shortage problem of more than 20,000 people and thousands of livestock. Later, Zheng Baiqu was introduced into the border area between Gaoling County and Jingyang County, and a drainage channel was dug at Zebo, which led to the underground saline-alkali water flowing into Weihe River, which reduced the groundwater level and the saline-alkali erosion. Zhou Ying not only provided relief to the victims, but also provided education, built Confucius Temple and donated military salaries. There are countless charitable acts and good deeds. This made people around her respect and appreciate her, so the beautiful story about Zhou Ying has been passed down to this day.
As the saying goes, the weather is unpredictable. In the second year, that is, 19 10, after more than 20 years of hard struggle and career ups and downs, he devoted his life to revitalizing Wu's industry and benefiting Mulberry came to the end of his life, at the age of 42. She distributed her huge property to all the maids, and the land was also owned by the villagers. The locals said that on the day of her funeral, as many as 80,000 neighbors spontaneously came to attend the funeral.
Zhou Ying spent all her possessions, benefited her hometown and won the respect and admiration of countless people. However, her death was as unfortunate as her marriage. Even though the Wu cemetery covering an area of 50 mu at that time showed the momentum of a big family, there was no room for childless widows like this. It is said that she was finally buried 200 meters northeast of Wu Jiazu's tomb, and now her grave is gone. Only the records in Jingyang County Records and the legends of neighbors are left to future generations. (Wang Zhongya)