Zhang Jian said: "I won't hide it from you, but I really have the heart to open a branch factory in Qingdao." Dasheng Yarn Factory is a textile factory founded by Zhang Jian, opened in 1899, located in Nantong, and is also the first factory founded by Zhang Jian in business, when it was first established, the capital was only tens of thousands of taels of silver, and now it has surged to more than 30 thousand taels.

Sheng Xuanhuai smiled and said, "Brother Ji, it's decided so quickly." ”

Zhang Jian nodded and said to everyone: " In fact, what you have seen and heard in the past few days, you have all seen it, how the governance ability of overseas Chinese is, everyone also knows in their hearts, and I am not afraid to say it directly, in our Qing Dynasty and other places I am afraid it is difficult to compare, and overseas Chinese attach importance to industry, everyone has also seen it, just look at the factories opened by overseas Chinese, you can see that overseas Chinese not only attach importance to industry, but also know how to run industry, so I think that opening a factory in Qingdao will inevitably have a good future for development. I wonder what you think?"

Sheng Xuanhuai nodded and said, "I don't know how much Brother Ji plans to invest?"

Zhang Jian said: "I haven't thought about this yet, and I have to negotiate with overseas Chinese in detail before I can decide, but I always have to invest 2 or 300,000 silver." I wonder what Brother Xingsun thinks?"

Sheng Xuanhuai said with a smile: "I think that since I want to do it, I might as well make it bigger, just invest 1, 2 million, and set up a large yarn factory, integrating cultivation, spinning, silk reeling, weaving, dyeing and printing, and even making ready-to-wear garments. Systematic production, if Brother Ji Zhi's capital alone is not enough, I am willing to invest 200,000 taels of shares, as long as Brother Ji Zhi decides, I can immediately let Shanghai send money over, and with you and me coming out, and then find some other people to invest, it is not difficult to get together the capital of 2 million. ”

Zhang Jian couldn't help but be surprised when he heard it, in fact, his relationship with Sheng Xuanhuai was very ordinary, and it could even be bad. Unlike Sheng Xuanhuai, who was a businessman and an official, Zhang Jian was born as a standard scholar, and was Wu Changqing's staff in his early years, worked with Yuan Shikai for a period of time, and later devoted himself to the imperial examination. Since the chief examiner that year was Weng Tonggong, Zhang Jian became Weng Tongyong's protégé and belonged to the Chunliu lineage.

Although Zhang Jian was admitted to the top prize, he was worried at home because of his father's funeral, so he did not participate in the attack on Li Hongzhang after the First Wu Dynasty, but Weng Tongyi and Li Hongzhang are sworn enemies in the political arena, while Sheng Xuanhuai is Li Hongzhang's hardcore, and Zhang Jian is Weng Tongxi's protégé, so the relationship between the two is naturally not better.

It was precisely because of Ding Wei that Zhang Jian escaped the storms of the Qing court politics from 1895 to 1898, and at the same time he was disheartened by officialdom and turned to industry, putting forward the concept of "industry to save the country". But when the Dasheng Yarn Factory was first established, Zhang Jian went through difficulties in order to raise funds. The name of the champion did not bring him any convenience, but was put on the table by Sheng Xuanhuai. At that time, Sheng Xuanhuai had promised Zhang Jian to raise funds, but when the funds of Dasheng Yarn Factory were in an emergency, Sheng Xuanhuai did not contribute money to invest, and as a result, Zhang Jian not only failed to raise money, but also had no travel expenses back to Tongzhou, so he had to sell words on Shanghai Sima Road for three days to earn travel expenses.

Later, after several twists and turns, Zhang Jian finally established the Dasheng Yarn Factory, but after the yarn factory was put into operation, there was not enough money to buy cotton as raw materials. Later, Zhang Jian broke the kettle and sank the boat, and the credit was fully put into production to maintain operation. And with the income from the sale of cotton yarn in the future to repay, fortunately, in the following months, the market of cotton yarn is optimistic, the yarn mill's funds continue to expand, so that the factory can produce normally There is still a slight surplus, Dasheng yarn factory finally survived with difficulty, and gradually grows. And with the support of Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, the coastal barren beach was reclaimed at the junction of Lusi and Haimen, and the cotton planting base of the yarn factory was built, which solved the raw materials needed to run the yarn factory, so that the Dasheng yarn factory could enter a good operation.

However, after several years of hard work in the business world, Zhang Jian's bookish spirit has basically disappeared, and he is quite a little moody, so this time he and Sheng Xuanhuai led a team to Qingdao, and on the surface it was still a group of harmony. Of course, Sheng Xuanhuai has also intended to show goodwill to Zhang Jian in the past few days, and seems to want to ease the relationship between the two. But now he suddenly expressed his willingness to invest in Zhang Jian's yarn factory, which still surprised Zhang Jian.

But Sheng Xuan Huaiken investment, of course, is a good thing, because he has abundant capital, and has a wide range of contacts, he has come forward to invest, so he will not worry about attracting other people to join the shares, in fact, Zhang Jian does not want to be bigger, if he can really raise 2 million shares, then the scale of this new yarn factory will far exceed the Dasheng yarn factory he established in Nantong, so Zhang Jian immediately said:" Okay, if Brother Xingsun wants to invest in shares, it is naturally better, as long as Brother Xingsun invests in shares, then I can decide now to invest 400,000 yuan in shares, and this yarn factory does not have to use the name of Dasheng anymore, let's take another name and build a new yarn factory. ”

Others listened to it and became interested, so they all said that they were also willing to participate in the shares, of course, this is mainly because everyone is also optimistic about the development of Qingdao, so when the next week Shunqing is willing to invest 200,000 shares, and Zhu Baosan, Ye Yiquan, Yan Xinhou are also willing to invest 150,000 shares, plus Zhang Jian's 400,000 and Sheng Xuanhuai's 200,000, this time 1.15 million shares have been gathered, so it is really not difficult to raise 2 million shares.

Originally, Sheng Xuanhuai didn't think about investing in Qingdao at all, but just wanted to take a look at the style of overseas Chinese, because now Sheng Xuanhuai's name has enough industries, and most of them are money-making industries monopolized by officials and businessmen, so he has already gone through the era of investing everywhere; in addition, although Sheng Xuanhuai is an outstanding businessman and has quite strong organizational ability, he has taken the route of a red-top businessman and relied on the monopoly of the government to operate, and these conditions are obviously impossible for the East China government to have。

But just five days ago, Sheng Xuanhuai received a telegram from Li Hongzhang, planning to invest 300,000 silver to invest in Qingdao in the name of Li Jingfang, Zhang Peilun, and Li Jurong, and asked Sheng Xuanhuai to help Zhang Luo. After seeing the telegram, Sheng Xuanhuai couldn't help but be shocked, although he could not fully understand Li Hongzhang's intentions, but he could also understand that this meant that Li Hongzhang was showing goodwill to overseas Chinese, indicating that he was optimistic about the future of the East China government.

Of course, Sheng Xuanhuai knows that although the imperial court is already Bo Xishan, he thinks that after all, it has a deep foundation, and as the saying goes, a hundred-legged insect dies but does not stiffen, so it is easy for overseas Chinese to divide one side, but it is not so easy to replace the Qing court. But Sheng Xuanhuai still has a lot of trust in Li Hongzhang's political vision, and since Li Hongzhang intends to show goodwill to overseas Chinese, Sheng Xuanhuai also thinks that it is necessary for him to follow up.

However, it is not excluded that Li Hongzhang is betting on both sides, so Sheng Xuanhuai still has some scruples, in case overseas Chinese and the imperial court meet each other in the future, I am afraid that he will be implicated, after all, he and Li Hongzhang are different, to put it mildly, as long as Li Hongzhang does not openly rebel, no matter how big a thing he committed, the imperial court will not do too much, and if it is just a shareholding, Zhang Jian will come forward, then the risk is much smaller. Moreover, Sheng Xuanhuai also planned to suggest to Li Hongzhang that it would be better to invest the 300,000 silver he invested in Zhang Jian's yarn factory.

Seeing that more than 1 million shares of silver were raised at once, Zhang Jian was also very happy. Although these are only verbal promises, Zhang Jian believes that there will not be much problem in implementing them, because these people are people with status and status, and they will not easily lose their trust; and now Zhang Jian is different from when he founded the Dasheng Yarn Factory, when he was just a novice in the shopping mall with the title of champion, and the rich people may not dare to invest in him, so it is reasonable that he could not raise funds at that time, and now the success of the Dasheng Yarn Factory also proves Zhang Jian's ability; in addition, Zhang Jian can see the benefits of investing in Qingdao, and others can naturally see that who would not want to do a profitable business？

At this moment, I saw a person hurriedly walked into the teahouse, and after seeing everyone, he said, "The old man is really here? ”

When everyone looked at it, it turned out to be a personal entourage brought by Sheng Xuanhuai, Sheng Xuanhuai glanced at him and said, "Is there something wrong?"

He said: "Master Zhang Zhenxun Zhang has come to Qingdao, and he has an urgent matter to see the master, and he is waiting for the master in the hotel." He glanced at Zhang Jian again and said, "He also said that if you see Master Zhang, please meet us too." ”

It turns out that this Zhang Zhenxun is a native of Dapu, Guangdong, at the age of 17 because of the famine in his hometown, he crossed the ocean to Batavia to survive, and after more than 30 years of hard work, he has become a huge rich man in Nanyang. However, Zhang Zhenxun still did not forget his homeland after becoming rich, and the Dutch colonial authorities valued his influence in Nanyang and wanted to appoint him to an official position, but Zhang Zhenxun refused. In 1893, Gong Zhaoyu, the Qing court's minister to Britain, was ordered to inspect Europe and the United States, passing through Singapore, and Zhang Zhenxun gave him a warm reception. Later, Gong Zhaoyu sent a letter to Li Hongzhang, praising Zhang Bishi for being "very usable". So the Qing court appointed him as consul general of Singapore. Since then, Zhang Zhenxun has become a businessman and an official, running between China and Nanyang, and has served as the general office of the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway and the general office of the Foshan Railway, and has invested in many industries in China. Now Zhang Zhenxun is also one of the chief directors of China Commerce Bank, so he knows Sheng Xuanhuai, Yan Xinhou, Zhu Baosan and others.

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Zhang Zhenxun was not included in the Shanghai industrial and commercial delegation this time, not because he was unwilling to come, but because Zhang Zhenxun was in Guangzhou at this time to deal with the affairs of the Guangdong-Hankou Railway. I didn't expect him to find Qingdao, it seems that something big must have happened. So Sheng Xuanhuai said: "Everyone, since it is the Bishi who is here, and the time for us to come out has continued, I think we should go back." ”

Naturally, the others had no objections, so everyone paid for tea and left, hired two donkey carts, and hurried back to the hotel. As soon as they entered the door of the hotel, they saw Zhang Zhenxun sitting on the sofa in the hotel lobby waiting for them. Seeing them coming in through the door, Zhang Zhenxun immediately got up from the sofa and greeted them.

Sheng Xuanhuai said: "Brother Bishi, you ......"

Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Zhang Zhenxun and said: "Brother Xingsun, Brother Ji Zhi, please make arrangements, I want to meet with the leaders of overseas Chinese." ”