In fact, even if there is no telegraph office and China Merchants Bureau, the wealth accumulated by Sheng Xuanhuai will not be used up in a few lifetimes. But this incident made Sheng Xuanhuai realize that after losing Li Hongzhang's protection, he was the puppet of Huaibi, and the huge wealth he held was the fat meat that everyone wanted to bite into.

Of course, when he is alive, the court may still have some scruples, but he is in his 60s, and he can still live for a few years, and there are no outstanding talents among his children, and when he dies, his children will definitely not be able to keep the family business. Therefore, now I must find a new, powerful, and reliable backer. And only the East China government meets this condition. At this time, Sheng Xuanhuai thought that Li Hongzhang entrusted his children to the East China government for shelter before he died, and he probably saw this.

Although Sheng Xuanhuai is a businessman, he also has the status of an official. Although Hu Xueyan was known as a red-topped businessman back then, he was only awarded the title of three-rank political envoy by the Qing court, and he was rewarded with a yellow jacket, and the official hat could be worn with a two-poinsettia crown. The yellow coat and the poinsettia crown are just honors, so Hu Xueyan is not a real official. And now Sheng Xuanhuai's official position is the Zuo Shilang of the Zhengerpin Ministry of Industry, and the title of Reward and Prince Shaobao, which are all official titles, plus he has followed Li Hongzhang for a long time, and his views on officialdom and the political situation are far better than those of ordinary businessmen.

After careful thinking and separation, Sheng Xuanhuai believed that although he had been on discord with the East China Government for a period of time, after all, he had no formal bad relations, and he had not done anything unfavorable to the East China Government, so as long as he intended to rely on the East China Government, the East China Government had no reason to refuse. After all, his identity and status are here, although his financial resources may not be as good as Zhang Zhenxun, but his identity, status, and influence in China are much heavier than Zhang Zhenxun.

Sheng Xuanhuai was not worried that overseas Chinese would target their family property, first, because the East China government's regulations were strict, and officials would not dare to act so blatantly; second, the East China government's ultimate goal was to replace the Qing court and change the dynasty, so that it would be more meaningful for him to defect to the East China government.

Of course, he wants to take refuge in the East China government, and he can't go empty-handed, he always has to bring a little meeting gift, or a first name, Sheng Xuanhuai originally planned to transfer the business of the telegraph office and the steamship China Merchants Bureau to the East China government, which is not only a gift for his own insight, but also to dig a pit for Yuan Shikai and throw Yuan Shikai a mess. I didn't expect that the overseas Chinese were more ambitious and wanted to unify the Shanghai business community, but this was good news for Sheng Xuanhuai, and if he did his best to help the overseas Chinese to do this, this credit would be not small. Moreover, Sheng Xuanhuai also made up his mind, once he negotiated the terms with overseas Chinese, he would buy houses and land in Shanghai New Area and Qingdao, and help his family members and others, so that there would be no worries.

Although after Li Hongzhang's death, Sheng Xuanhuai lost his political umbrella, but he is still the first person in China's business circles, and he still has a huge influence in the business circles, so he took the initiative to take refuge, which is a great help to the East China government to unify the Shanghai business community.

Sure enough, after Sheng Xuanhuai made a statement, Zhang Jian, Zheng Guanying, Ye Yiquan, Zhang Shuhe and others at the same table also expressed their willingness to participate, and soon other people at the table also expressed their willingness to join, and the effect was very obvious. In the end, 92 of the 125 businessmen present expressed their willingness to join, while the other 33 said that it was not that they did not want to join, but that they had a great stake and that they could not be completely in charge, and that they needed to go back and negotiate with their families to decide

Li Songchen also expressed his understanding and agreed to give them three days to consider, and after three days, it will be officially decided that the Military Supply Federation will start preparations, and as long as they sign up to join before the same day, they can be counted as the first batch of members. Subsequently, Zhao Weizhong, Yang Yuxin, Zhang Zhenxun, Sheng Xuanhuai, and Zhang Jian were elected as the preparatory directors, who were fully responsible for the preparatory activities of the Military Supply Federation. The five preparatory directors decided on the spot that each of them would take out 30,000 taels of silver as the start-up capital for the preparation of the Military Supply Federation. Of course, after the official establishment of the Military Supply Federation, this money will be deducted from the membership fee.

And three days later, not only all the businessmen who participated in the banquet participated, but also brought more than 100 small and medium-sized businessmen to join, so that the number of members in the first batch reached 238 people.

Immediately after that, 120 preparatory directors were elected from among the crowd and were responsible for assisting the five preparatory directors in formulating various rules and regulations. For the discussion and formulation of various rules, although the Shanghai New Area Government has put forward some suggestions, but it did not participate, all of them were discussed by 5 preparatory directors and 120 preparatory directors, and finally voted on the decision, and some controversial clauses were passed by a majority vote, but because the votes were too close, they were also temporarily shelved, and then discussed slowly. Moreover, the government of the Shanghai New Area also emphasized that it is necessary to distinguish between large and small merchants and pay attention to protecting the interests of small merchants, after all, small merchants have a lower ability to bear risks and need more support.

In terms of the procurement and distribution of materials by the East China government, it is also very fair, and fully takes care of the interests of the majority of businessmen. The actions of the Shanghai New Area Government during the preparatory period have also reassured many businessmen, and the East China Government has indeed not made a statement and imposed its own opinions and demands. Therefore, during the preparation time, a large number of businessmen joined, although they could only be counted as the second group of members, among which there were many small merchants with assets of only a few hundred taels or a few thousand taels. As a result, a month later, when the Military Supply Federation began to enter the trial operation period, the number of members had reached 453, and the membership fee received was as high as more than 50 million taels of silver.

Although the Shanghai New Area has always emphasized that the Military Supply Federation was set up for the purpose of the war in Liaodong, foreign businessmen are not easy to fool, and everyone can see that this so-called Military Supply Federation is actually a means for the East China New Area to unify Shanghai's business circles.

While it is true that China's economic lifeline is now controlled by foreign businessmen, this control is premised on the weakness of China's government institutions and the inability of the business community to form a unified force. In a sense, this kind of control is quite fragile, and as soon as a strong government emerges to unify the business community, this dominance of foreign businessmen will collapse immediately. Because after all, this is on Chinese soil, and foreign businessmen are not deeply involved in Chinese business, and a large number of Chinese businessmen are needed to act as agents or intermediaries.

The East China government is undoubtedly a powerful government, when the Shanghai New Area was first established, Shanghai's foreign businessmen once wanted to join hands to squeeze the Shanghai New Area, but it did not take long to give up the hostility, and instead compromise and cooperate with the Shanghai New Area, and even made concessions, because the Shanghai New Area is not an enterprise, but a political group, but also a political group that is being industrialized, foreign businessmen can squeeze through commercial means to squeeze across an enterprise, but can not deal with a political group, Bi Jing East China Government to the Shanghai New Area The industrial products exported by the East China Government to the Shanghai New Area are all-round, it is simply impossible to prevent it, and the East China Government has a geographical advantage, and the transportation cost of foreign businessmen is hugeThis is also a congenital disadvantage for foreign businessmen. As a result, the Shanghai New Area soon gained a foothold in Shanghai's business community.

Although foreign businessmen have also taken some measures, such as spreading rumors that the East China Government is uneasy and well-intentioned in setting up the Arms Supply Federation, and has threatened some businessmen to prevent them from joining the Arms Supply Federation, they have no choice but to achieve little results, first, because the general trend is irreversible and irreversible; second, they are not threatened by foreign businessmen such as Zhang Zhenxun, Sheng Xuanhuai, and Zhang Jian. Moreover, after the Shanghai New Area noticed it, it also issued a solemn warning to foreign businessmen, so foreign businessmen did not dare to go too far.

At this time, the British and French consuls in Shanghai also took the opportunity to gather foreign businessmen to discuss and suggested that a chamber of commerce should also be formed to confront the Military Supply Association. As a matter of fact, Britain and France have long been mobilizing foreign businessmen in Shanghai, demanding that they rush to buy the goods needed by the East China government, raise prices, force Chinese businessmen to ban supplies to the East China government, and deal an economic blow to the East China government.

However, the foreign businessmen did not respond to this, the businessmen are all shrewd people, knowing that this is the country to push themselves to the front line of confrontation with the East China government, if they accept the domestic demand, they will not only lose a lot, but also be retaliated by the East China government, naturally no one will do it. But now it is different, if the foreign businessmen do not take any action, when the East China government has integrated the business community in Shanghai, the good days of the foreign businessmen will be over.

As a result, many foreign businessmen also began to respond to the consul's call to negotiate matters related to the formation of the alliance, but the negotiations of foreign businessmen were not as easy as those of the Military Supply Association, and foreign businessmen attached more importance to their own interests, and they demanded that the country compensate for the losses caused by their economic blows to the East China government, so the business atmosphere in Shanghai became increasingly tense.