In the hearts of the vast majority of businessmen, in fact, they hope that there will be such an organization, so that there will be a fair code of conduct for business internally, everyone will compete fairly, and there will be a lot less trouble in business; Moreover, the East China government has accumulated enough prestige in recent years, acting fairly, doing what it says, being honest and honest, and being inefficient, so that the businessmen can be convinced by the fact that they have come to preside over the establishment of such an organization. Moreover, since the establishment of the Shanghai New Area, there have been several small business conflicts with foreign businessmen, all of which ended in the two taking a step back, which also made the businessmen see that foreigners really dare not provoke overseas Chinese.

However, the businessmen who have achieved a net worth of more than 100,000 are all shrewd people, of course, they are not fooled casually and cannot find the north, although the proposal of the East China government does have a huge attraction to them, but there are still a lot of concerns, first of all, Chinese businessmen have always distrusted the government, although the East China government is expected to return, but after all, the establishment time is still short, although the reputation is high, but the foundation is still somewhat insufficient. Some time ago, a certain newspaper maliciously commented on the East China government with "Zhou Gong is afraid of rumors, and Wang Mang is a virtuous and virtuous scholar", which has also aroused some resonant voices.

Businessmen may not really believe that the current East China government is Corporal Lixian's Wang Mang, but it is inevitable that they will have some concerns, after all, the distrust of the government by businessmen cannot be reversed in a few years. Once the Military Supply Federation is established, fairness may be guaranteed during the war in Liaodong, but no one can say whether they will be able to maintain such a humble attitude after the end of the war, and it is difficult to guarantee that the East China government will not use the Military Supply Federation as its own tool. What's more, now everyone knows that the East China government is unwilling to live under the Qing court for a long time, in fact, now they claim to be an independent government, and the Qing court is fighting against each other, so sooner or later there will be a war, some people have predicted that if the East China government defeats Japan and Russia in Liaodong, the next step is to raise troops to attack the Qing Dynasty. Although in the competition between the East China government and the Qing court, most of the people will bet on the side of the East China government, but when the two sides have not completely torn their faces, most of the businessmen will not easily take sides.

There are also some businessmen who know that "there is no such thing as a free lunch" For example, if the Military Supply Federation really has a conflict with foreign businessmen, the two sides may deliberately lower the price to run on each other, or deliberately raise the price to buy the goods needed by the other party, so that they will inevitably suffer a lot of losses, and when the business war is really fierce, it is no different from war, and both sides will do everything they can, and even cause human life, it is not impossible. Businessmen naturally want to enjoy the benefits of membership, but they are not willing to bear the cost of membership.

Of course, if the benefits outweigh the costs, it is also feasible, but now no one is sure, whether it is more beneficial or more expensive after joining the association, and some businessmen have thought about whether they will not visit and wait for a period of time to see what the situation will be after the operation of the Military Supply Federation, and then decide whether to join. However, this idea was immediately rejected, because everything comes first and comes first, and if the Military Supply Federation really works well, those who join first will naturally enjoy more benefits, and those who join later will probably have to bear more obligations.

In fact, if someone else makes this suggestion, even if the Qing court government comes forward, the businessmen will not be so entangled, for the sake of prudence, look at it, don't see the rabbit and don't scatter the eagle, after all, the Qing court in the eyes of the businessmen, basically has no credibility, but the East China government is different, the credibility of the East China government is still very strong, and in recent years, the businessmen who have cooperated with the East China government have basically made money, and some people still make a lot of money, so if this is a good opportunity, then it would be a pity to miss it, so the businessmen discussed with each other, and wanted to agree, but they were hesitant。

This situation was also expected by Li Songchen, so he said: "Today is just to give you a breath, we will never force whether to join or not, and if you are not sure now, you can go back and think about it for a few days before making a decision." ”

At this time, Zhang Zhenxun stood up and said: "Old man, don't think about it, as long as the Military Supply Association is established, I will be the first to join." ”

Li Songchen nodded, and was about to speak, when he saw Sheng Xuanhuai also stand up and said, "As long as it is beneficial to the war in Liaodong, I have no credit, so I am also willing to join the Military Supply Federation." ”

Zhang Zhenxun glanced at Sheng Xuanhuai, and was also very surprised, it turned out that he thought that Zhang Jian and Zheng Yingguan might follow in his footsteps and also announced to join, but he was not optimistic about Sheng Xuanhuai at all, but he did not expect Sheng Xuanhuai to follow him and take the initiative to announce that he would join the Military Supply Federation.

In fact, even Li Songchen was very surprised, it was reasonable for Zhang Zhenxun to join the Military Supply Federation, but he didn't expect Sheng Xuanhuai to take the initiative to join. When the Shanghai New Area was first established, Sheng Xuanhuai was quite hostile to the East China Government, because the East China Government's operation in Shanghai harmed many Sheng Xuanhuai's interests, although later Sheng Xuanhuai did not become an enemy of the East China Government, but invested in Qingdao and Shanghai New Area, and Li Hongzhang's investment in the East China Government was also handed over to Sheng Xuanhuai to take care of, so now Sheng Xuanhuai is also a big investor in the East China Government, but Sheng Xuanhuai's relationship with the East China Government has always been not salty and indifferent, not as close as Zhang Zhenxun.

Sheng Xuanhuai's attitude towards the East China government has changed, there is also a process, the East China government's full involvement in Shanghai's business circles is an irresistible trend, so Sheng Xuanhuai can only accept, and Li Hongzhang also advised Sheng Xuanhuai when he was alive, not to go against overseas Chinese, Sheng Xuanhuai changed his hostile attitude towards the East China government, and turned to cooperation, the East China government does not care about Sheng Xuanhuai's attitude change, as long as it is a person who comes to invest, they are all welcomed with both hands, not to mention that Sheng Xuanhuai has a huge prestige and influence in China's business circles, and his investment in Qingdao can also improve the prestige of the East China government。

However, after setting up a factory in Qingdao, Sheng Xuanhuai found that the management level of the East China government was indeed far better than that of the Qing court, Sheng Xuanhuai was still a businessman in nature, and naturally hoped to have a good business environment, so his attitude towards the East China government was also greatly changed, and after the East China government Javanese protection of overseas Chinese, Sheng Xuanhuai was also quite touched, after all, Sheng Xuanhuai is also Chinese, of course, he does not want to see Chinese bullied, he also has to admit that now there are really only overseas Chinese who can protect Chinese, and the imperial court is really unreliable。

Of course, it was Yuan Shikai who prompted Sheng Xuanhuai to decide to completely fall to the East China government. It turned out that when Li Hongzhang was alive, Sheng Xuanhuai and Yuan Shikai's relationship was not bad, and the two were once so good that they could be called brothers, but after Li Hongzhang's death, Yuan Shikai immediately turned his face and suggested to the Qing court that the telegraph office and the steamship China Merchants Bureau should be recovered from the imperial court. It is in charge of Beiyang.

The Telegraph Bureau and the China Merchants Steamship Bureau, two of Sheng Xuanhuai's most profitable companies, are still profitable despite the impact of the East China government. However, although these two enterprises are operated by Sheng Xuanhuai, they are in nature run by the government and the government, and they are jointly operated by the government and the people, and although the shares held by the government do not account for the majority, the private shares are all loose shares, so the government has the most shares, so it leaves a back hand for the government to recover these two enterprises. When Li Hongzhang was alive, Sheng Xuanhuai was naturally not worried, but now that Li Hongzhang was gone, Yuan Shikai immediately grabbed this back hand and challenged Sheng Xuanhuai.

Yuan Shikai also has his own hardships in doing this. Yuan Shikai has always regarded the Beiyang New Army as his own private army, and to maintain the loyalty of the Beiyang New Army to himself, it is necessary to ensure that the military salary is in place, and in addition to the purchase of weapons and military supplies, although the imperial court has a fixed amount of money for the Beiyang New Army, but the silver comes out of the household, everyone handles it, the goose has plucked the feathers, and finally falls into the hands of Yuan Shikai, it is good to have half of it, and the missing part can only be made up by Yuan Shikai's private pocket.

But in the past, when Yuan Shikai was training at the right station, there were only 7,000 troops, and at that time, the Qing court was eager to train a new army, so the new army was also in place, and Yuan Shikai didn't need to post much. And now the Beiyang New Army has expanded to 6 towns, except for the 1st town, the remaining 5 towns are all led by Yuan Shikai's cronies, so naturally Yuan Shikai is in charge.

It's just that there are 5 or 60,000 troops in 5 towns, and although Yuan Shikai has 10,000 family fortunes, he can't fill this bottomless pit, not to mention that he still needs a lot of silver in the court, so Yuan Shikai also considered that he must master a stable source of wealth in order to ensure the success of his great cause, so Yuan Shikai set his sights on Sheng Xuanhuai, and wanted to take the telegraph office and the steamship China Merchants Bureau from Sheng Xuanhuai's hands.

On the surface, Yuan Shikai is fighting for the interests of the Qing court, and the two most profitable enterprises are completely owned by the imperial court, but once the recovery is successful, Yuan Shikai intends to elect his own people to take over, in recent years, Yuan Shikai has not only made great achievements in military training, but also done a good job in foreign affairs, and now Yanran has become the number one foreign affairs officer of the Qing court, and the candidates recommended by Yuan Shikai, the Qing court will basically not object, so that the telegraph office and the steamship China Merchants Bureau will actually fall into the hands of Yuan Shikai.

Although Sheng Xuanhuai also tried his best to solve the mixed body puzzle in order to keep the telegraph office and the steamship China Merchants Bureau, but now without Li Hongzhang's support, Sheng Xuanhuai's energy has also been greatly reduced, which can compete with Yuan Shikai. It turned out that when Zhang Zhidong founded the Hubei weaving layout in Hubei, Sheng Xuanhuai had helped Zhang Zhidong and had a bit of incense. So Sheng Xuanhuai wrote a letter to Zhang Zhidong, hoping that Zhang Zhidong could come forward to make peace. But Zhang Zhidong was reluctant to intervene, but persuaded Sheng Xuanhuai to let go, which also made Sheng Xuanhuai completely disappointed in the Qing court. Although the final situation is not yet final, Sheng Xuanhuai also knows very well that it is impossible for him to keep the telegraph office and the steamship China Merchants Bureau.