"Brother Xingsun, how have you been feeling these days?"

"Brother Ji, haven't you been visiting all along? And at yesterday's lecture, you asked the most questions, so you must have a fixed opinion in your heart, so why ask me?"

"I do have some ideas, but I still want to hear Xingsun's opinion first!"

After listening to the words of the two, the other people in the seats also gathered around, and Yan Xinhou said: "Brother Xingsun, just tell me your opinion, we all want to hear it." ”

After Sheng Xuanhuai heard this, he smiled and said: "This is what Brother Ji Zhi asked me first, and he also said it just now, he already has some ideas in his heart, why should he let Ji Zhi say it first, and it won't be too late for me to say it when he finishes speaking." ”

The others also nodded one after another, and Zhu Baosan turned to Zhang Jian again and said, "Ji Zhi, you can tell me what you think first." ”

Zhang Jian nodded, didn't excuse himself, and said, "Okay, then I'll talk about it." ”

At this time, the Shanghai industrial and commercial delegation's inspection in Qingdao had already reached the 10th day, except for the first day of visiting the launch of the warship, the next six days were all visiting various factories in Qingdao, which also gave the businessmen a relatively intuitive understanding of the industrial development level of the East China government. In fact, these factories of the East China government have not been established for a long time, only two years at most, and their development is limited, so in terms of scale, they are not as good as some large enterprises founded during the Westernization Movement, such as Hanyang Iron Works and Jiangnan Machinery Bureau. However, it is indeed very rare to reach such a scale in less than two years, and the operation, management, production efficiency, and even technical level of these factories are not comparable to those of the factories and enterprises founded by the Westernization Movement.

After visiting the factory, the East China government arranged for a business delegation to visit the Hope School in Qingdao and several rural villages in the suburbs of Qingdao.

Of course, there is more than one school in the East China government, but the Hope School is the earliest school established by the traversers, and it is also the school where the traversers teach the most, and it is also a place for short-term training of staff, so it is still the school that the East China government attaches the most importance to. At this time, there were more than 3,000 students in Qingdao Hope School, ranging in age from 7 to 16 years old, divided into 3 major grades and 9 primary grades, and more than 1,000 of the students were orphans, and the rest were the children of the staff and soldiers of the East China government, as well as the children of local gentry who had a close relationship with the East China government, so it can also be regarded as an important institution for the East China government to cultivate its own backbone team. Moreover, more than 200 students have graduated from the school and are working in various institutions and factories of the East China government.

The business delegation visited the school's school building, library, laboratory, auditorium and other places, and watched the students' recess gymnastics, as well as a sports competition, labor practice, and also listened to a few classes, and the common feeling to the businessmen is that both men and women, young and old, are a group of students full of vitality, vitality, diligence and progress, whether it is study, activities, entertainment, and practice, they are full of vitality.

In fact, the Qing court also opened a lot of schools at this time, from Liutong to Fujian Shipbuilding School, as well as Yuan Shikai's Beiyang University Hall and Baoding Army Military Academy, which were also cultivating some talents, but no matter which school, I did not see such energetic students. Therefore, many businessmen have lamented that, as the name of the school suggests, these students really give people hope for the future.

The visit to the countryside shocked the merchants, at this time it was the spring ploughing season, and the fields were almost everywhere with the figures of peasants working, but everywhere you could hear the sound of laughter, and even singing, and even the joy could be heard in the speech and calling, just like the current season, everywhere seemed to be vibrant.

Most of these businessmen are from rural areas, they grew up in the countryside when they were young, and even if they are not businessmen from rural areas, they also have old houses and land in the countryside, and they have lived in the countryside for a period of time, so of course they know the situation in the countryside. Even though they have not seen the most tragic side of the countryside, they have never heard so much laughter in the countryside.

Gao Shi, a member of the agricultural committee who accompanied them on the tour, explained to them that the land policy of the East China Government has enabled every peasant household to own its own land and not have to be exploited by the landlords, and that there are no other harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes other than agricultural taxes.

When the merchants heard this, they fell silent. It turns out that the land policy of the East China government has always been a rather controversial topic in Shanghai, with some people supporting and some opposing it, and most of the people who support it are the middle and lower classes, and those who oppose it are the upper class as the mainstream. Although these merchants are not big landlords, each of them has more than 1,000 acres of land, of course, they do not make money from rent, so the exploitation of hired farmers and tenant farmers is not high, and they all look down on those landlords who harshly exploit peasant households, but they also do not agree with the land policy of the East China government. It's just that none of them are people who make money from the land, and the reaction to this is not strong.

But now seeing the rural appearance of the East China government, but also many businessmen's original ideas are a little shaken, although the means of overseas Chinese are not worth talking about, but they do have some ability to govern the countryside, [Peach Blossom Spring] described in the rural scene: "The land is flat, the houses are like houses, there are good fields, beautiful ponds, mulberry and bamboo. Qianmo traffic, chickens and dogs smell each other. Among them, the men and women are dressed like outsiders. Yellow hair hangs down and is happy. That's just it. In this way, the land system of overseas Chinese still has certain merits.

After the visit, the East China government organized a lecture, and Qin Zheng gave a speech on the topic of "Industrialization and National Development". Starting from the beginning of the industrial revolution, taking the industrial development of the four countries of Britain, the United States, Germany, and Japan as examples, it shows that the development of modern countries, that is, the development of industrialization, without industrialization, there is no strong country, and industrialization is not the establishment of a few factories, but the industrial production activities in a country or region to achieve a dominant position, the industrial and commercial class to become the dominant strata of society, and the establishment of a complete set of industrial production activities. In order to achieve industrialization, it must be led by the government and the whole society participate, which is the only way for a modern country to become rich and strong. The East China government is committed to building an industrialized country, and at the same time, it also hopes that all businessmen can assist the East China government to build China's industrialization together.

This speech brought a great shock to the businessmen, although the Chinese society of this era has also realized the great role of industry, Zhang Jian put forward the concept of "industry to save the country", but after all, China in this era is still a feudal autocracy-based society, although the industrialists and businessmen are no longer the lowest level of society, but still the social status is still not high, and the top of the society is still the scholar class. Just like Sheng Xuanhuai, although he entered politics from a businessman and held an official position from the second grade, he is not small, but he is still regarded as a businessman by the officialdom, not an official. Some businessmen knew that among the European countries, merchants had a very high status and could even influence the policies of the state, and that the officials of many countries, even the prime ministers or commanders of the country, were all businessmen, which was unthinkable in the Qing court.

But no one expected that the East China government would indeed be much more radical than the imperial court in this regard, and that it would elevate the industrial and commercial class to the dominant stratum of society, which was a really astonishing leap. Although all the businessmen are rational and realistic people, and they are not easily fooled, they can't help but be excited at this time, and they seem to see a little hope.

Later, the East China government made a surprising move, giving the businessmen three days to act on their own, to move around the suburbs of Qingdao and nearby villages at will, and to visit and inspect the government-invested factories at will, but of course not to affect the normal production of the factories. The East China government will also send people to protect it, but it will never interfere with the actions of the merchants.

Ye Yanfu, who was responsible for arranging their visits, said that the early visits were all organized and arranged by the East China government, which would inevitably make the businessmen think that they were prepared, and allowing the businessmen to move freely could allow them to see the most authentic side of Qingdao.

After hearing this decision, the businessmen were also quite interested, although they were quite shocked when they visited, but the businessmen Bi Jing was well-informed, and when they came back and thought about it seriously, I am afraid that the overseas Chinese must have made arrangements in advance, and only five or six points of what they saw were true at most. Merchants who have worked in factories run by officials and merchants are also accustomed to this kind of thing, because in the factories founded by the Westernists, officials often come to inspect them, and every time before the inspection, the factory must be prepared for a few days so that the officials can see the brightest side. Of course, even if the factories of overseas Chinese are only five or six points real, they are very good.

So the next day, the businessmen were three three and two two, each of them walked together, wandering on the streets of Qingdao, Sheng Xuanhuai, Zhang Jian, Zhu Baosan, Ye Yiquan, Yan Xinhou, and Zhou Shunqing. They don't want to investigate anything more, they just want to see the cityscape and customs of Qingdao. Although the degree of prosperity of Qingdao is not as good as that of Shanghai, the spiritual outlook of the citizens is very different, and even after turning several streets, there are no beggars in ragged clothes, nor can you see idle ruffians, although there are many pedestrians, they are orderly, shops are bought and sold, and retreat in an orderly manner.

After a few turns, everyone also had some understanding of Qingdao's market style, and they were all a little tired, so they found a teahouse, ordered a few pots of good tea, and chatted while resting.