So the next day, Li Songchen met with several businessmen who had signed the petition, saying that in five days, a consultation meeting would be held with the participation of representatives of the East China Government and the concession to hold consultations on an equal footing, and asked them to come forward to organize a group of representatives of businessmen and ordinary workers, with 20 representatives of businessmen and 30 representatives of staff, so that there would be a certain degree of representativeness.

In fact, before attacking the Shanghai Concession, Li Songchen had already drawn up a preliminary plan to guide comprador businessmen to invest in industry and settle ordinary workers, some of which could be achieved under the conditions of the Shanghai New Area, but some of them had to be approved by the East China Government, so Li Songchen set aside five days for himself to make adequate preparations.

When these businessmen heard this, they were also shocked. After handing over the petition, most of the people who signed the petition were a little uneasy in their hearts, after all, this is a certain risk to take, and now the East China government did not use administrative authority to suppress, but still continued the previous open-minded attitude, and businessmen and ordinary staff to negotiate, this is different from the Qing court, and it can be regarded as a temporary reassurance, but whether they can negotiate a conclusion that satisfies themselves, it is difficult to say, after all, these businessmen also know that they are doing things for foreigners, and they are not popular. However, it is already satisfactory to be able to obtain such a result, because after all, the East China Government is still willing to negotiate on an equal footing, and the only way to achieve what it can achieve is to do its best to obey the destiny of heaven.

Five days later, Li Songchen met with representatives of businessmen and workers in the former public concession building of the Ministry of Industry Bureau and held a consultation meeting.

Li Songchen spoke first: "We have read your petition, and I know your thoughts very well, but I would like to first explain the attitude of our East China government, this time we confiscated the assets of the businessmen of Britain, France, Japan and Russia, not like the Boxers, otherwise we should confiscate the assets of all foreigners, not limited to Britain, France, Japan and Russia." As everyone knows, in order to compete for China's northeastern region, Japan and Russia fought a major war in Liaodong, which caused great harm to the Liaodong region, and our East China Government could not bear it any longer, so it sent troops to participate in the war, defeated the Japanese and Russian troops, and now basically drove the Japanese and Russian troops out of our country. However, Japan and Russia were not willing to lose, and in the Putsmouth negotiations, they put forward all kinds of unreasonable demands, which led to the failure of the negotiations, and now the two countries are raising troops at home, buying weapons, and preparing to make a comeback, while Britain and France are Japan, Russia's allies and backers can not sit still now that they see the defeat of their allies, and they want to go to war in person, having declared war on our East China government a month ago, so the four countries of Britain, France, Japan, and Russia are all our enemies, and since they are enemies, then of course we can use all means to attack them, and we will take back the concession and confiscate the assets of the merchants of the four countries of Britain, France, Japan and Russia, which is a counterattack to the four countries of Britain, France, Japan and Russia, and let them know the consequences of being enemies of us. Moreover, not only the Shanghai Concession, but also all the concessions of Britain, France, Japan, and Russia in China, including the merchants and industries of the four countries in China, and even all the colonies in Asia, are also the targets of our attack. ”

At this time, the deputies participating in the consultations also had a burst of discussions, because Li Songchen raised the matter of confiscating the assets of businessmen from Britain, France, Japan, and Russia to the level of national struggle, which meant that there was basically no room for recovery, but some people were quite unhappy in their hearts, and didn't they say that they would negotiate well? According to Li Songchen's statement, there was no room for negotiation at all, so what were these people going to do? Could it be that he had just heard Li Songchen say this? Others thought that it would be enough to strike at Britain, France, Japan, and Russia and recover the concessions, but the confiscation of the property of the merchants would be excessive, since the merchants were neither soldiers nor representatives of the government. Therefore, there are many people who want to speak, at least to say these things.

Li Songchen raised his hand and made a virtual motion, signaling everyone to be quiet, and said, "I know you all have something to say, but please listen to me first, and there will be a chance for everyone to speak later." ”

Hearing him say this, everyone naturally didn't want to speak anymore, so they all quieted down and listened to what Li Songchen had to say?

Li Songchen said: "Of course, in addition to the hostile relationship, there is another important reason why we confiscated the assets of businessmen from Britain, France, Japan and Russia, that is, these industries have seriously damaged the development of China's private industry, so they must be confiscated and eliminated. Except for a small part of the manufacturing and service industries, most of these industries we have confiscated are engaged in import and export trade and finance, which is to import foreign goods into China and buy out China's raw materials and minerals, and the merchants are helping foreigners to earn money and employment money. However, although you have made your fortune by relying on the import and export trade of foreigners, you have introduced a large number of foreign goods into the country, but the goods produced by our country cannot be sold, and the factories have collapsed. ”

Saying that, Li Songchen gave several examples of national capital setting up industries, but due to the squeeze of similar foreign products, the final competition and failure, but these examples occurred in the Songhu area, and many businessmen still know, Li Songchen finally said: "The Qing court does not want to take care of these things and can't manage them, so let us East China Government take care of it, we will never allow this situation to continue." ”

After Li Songchen finished speaking, everyone talked again, and after a while, a businessman finally stood up and said, "District Chief Li, there are some different opinions about what you just said, and I don't know whether to say it or not." ”

Li Songchen smiled and said, "I invite you to come over to negotiate today, naturally I want you to speak freely, and it doesn't hurt if you have anything to say." ”

The merchant said: "I'm not talking for foreign goods, the quality of these foreign goods is good! The things made in our country are indeed not as easy to use as foreign goods, and the price is more expensive than foreign goods." If the things we make ourselves are better than foreign products, and the price is not higher than foreign goods, I will definitely be the first to take the lead in using them, but that's not the case!

The merchant's speech immediately aroused a voice of approval, and another businessman stood up and said: "District Chief Li, I know the Hanford Weaving Factory you mentioned, but the cloth woven by their family is too poor, and the thread will be opened in one year, while the cloth sold by foreigners will be fine for two or three years, and the price is 3 percent more expensive than foreign cloth. ”

"That's right! If we want to blame, we can only blame ourselves for not being angry, we can't make good things, and we can't buy more expensive than foreign goods. ”

"That is, foreign goods are cheap and easy to use, why can't they be introduced to China, so that the people in China can also benefit. ”

Li Songchen listened to the rambling speeches of the businessmen, and his expression was still very calm. In fact, this kind of remarks was expected by Li Songchen, in various forums in the old time and space, Weibo, and public accounts, it has been torn countless times, although Li Songchen is not a keyboard warrior in the old time and space, but after all, he is a young man and a person in the system, so he has seen a lot of it on the Internet, so he has already had a response to it, so he patiently listened to it.

After the speeches of the businessmen came to an end, Li Songchen said: "Very good, what you just said is the truth, and I also admit that foreign goods are indeed better than domestic goods, and the goods produced by our East China government are slightly inferior to foreign goods." ”

As soon as he said this, someone immediately said: "There, there, to be honest, the goods produced by the East China government are not much worse than foreign goods, and the prices are basically close, if other domestic products are about the same level as the East China government, we have nothing to say, don't you say?"

Immediately, many businessmen also agreed: "Yes, yes, if we are like the East China government, even if we want to bring in a large number of foreign goods, we will not be able to sell them." ”

Li Songchen said with a smile: "You have already talked about it, there is still a gap between the products we manufacture and foreign goods, and we still need to work harder, but what I want to say now is not this, but have you considered it, how many years have foreign countries developed, and how many years have we developed? If we count from the Industrial Revolution, there are 150 years, even Germany and the United States, which developed a little later, have more than 100 years, and we have only been more than 40 years since the beginning of the Westernization Movement, how can we compare with foreign countries? It's like wrestling with an adult as a child who hasn't grown up yet, do you think that's fair?"

At this time, another businessman said: "But Japan also started to engage in foreign affairs at about the same time as us, why can Japan do a good job while we can't?"

Li Songchen said: "Japan did start to develop at about the same time as us, but Japan is called 'Meiji Restoration', not 'Westernization Movement', just from these two words comparison, we have fallen behind, not to mention how our Westernization Movement is doing, I don't need to say, Li Zhongtang's plastering is enough to explain the problem." And is it because the goods we produce are not as good as foreign goods for the time being, so we will not develop our nation's industry and our nation's manufacturing industry? Have you found a phenomenon that as long as we can produce our own things, the same type of foreign goods will be particularly easy to buy, even if the price was very high before, but as long as there are domestic products of the same type, no matter how poor the quality is, the price of foreign goods will immediately be reduced, and foreign loans without the same type of domestic products will often be sold at a high price. It's not that foreign goods are really convenient, but because there are the same type of domestic products that make foreigners lower their prices. If one day, we can't make anything, everything has to buy foreign goods, then it is not up to them to set the price, to set as much as they want, 20 years ago, the shipping competition between China Merchants and Swire and Jardine Matheson, everyone has not forgotten it. ”