Li Hongzhang was very excited when he went to see Wei Ze, and it was not easy for him to judge whether he was more uneasy or expectant, but the fact that Wei Ze was able to see him in person had a deep meaning. Li Hongzhang has seen big people, and he has also been a big person, so it is not easy for those who have too many things to take care of to meet in person. If the big ones are not interested, where will they have time to meet the insignificant little people? It's not necessarily that they're really arrogant. For anyone, a day is 24 hours, and it will not become 48 hours just because he is an emperor. A person's energy is not limited, and the emperor himself is a human being, and he also needs to rest. Historically, diligent emperors generally did not live long.

It's easy to meet. With Li Hongzhang's talent, it is not difficult to explain complex things clearly or even easily. During the talks, Li Hongzhang made witty remarks, vividly showing all kinds of ugliness and ignorance in the Goryeo Kingdom under the feudal system, which made Wei Ze laugh.

After talking for more than half an hour, Li Hongzhang expressed his merits and talked about his construction of the futures market and his ideas for using the futures market to operate in Korea, Vietnam, Siam, and even Japan in the future. After finishing speaking, Li Hongzhang couldn't help but feel a little bit in his heart that he had caught Wei Ze's bottom. After all, Wei Ze is a high emperor, and at the level of an emperor, Wei Ze is already extremely proficient in the situation below. Even the proficient ones are somewhat appalling. But the emperor is the emperor after all, and from a professional point of view, Wei Ze cannot be regarded as a real professional.

At this time, Wei Ze said: "Lao Li, the futures matter will be carried out in China in the future, and the use of financial means to serve real production is the inevitable direction, and no one can stop this." However, for your work, the HR department is not simply groundbreaking. ”

Hearing Wei Ze talk about the part that Li Hongzhang cared about the most, Li Hongzhang pricked up his ears and listened carefully. Having determined the status of futures in Wei Ze's heart, Li Hongzhang did not feel any surprises. Many of Wei Ze's speeches are said in the documents every year, and there is nothing "groundbreaking" either, but about the reasons why Wei Ze and the personnel department agree with Li Hongzhang, Li Zhongtang from another time and space is very, very concerned.

"There are several important tasks of a leader, and one of the most important is to develop a succession team. If the leader does not consider the question of the successor at all, and acts arbitrarily in his position alone, trying to maintain power until his death, such a person is not qualified. You are in Goryeo, and you can use young people boldly. Although I personally think that you are also because in the face of new problems, you may not dare to take the responsibility of messing things up. But overall, if you actually build a team and make it work, I think it's pretty good. Wei Ze slowly recounted his evaluation of Li Hongzhang's work, and slapped Li Hongzhang hard by the way.

Li Hongzhang's opinion in his heart that Wei Ze was "not professional enough" immediately flew out of the clouds, if from the perspective of an emperor, it was obviously inappropriate to talk to his courtiers like this. It's not that he humiliated Li Hongzhang, but that Wei Ze actually told the truth. At least in the Manchu era, telling the truth was the least desirable option. His subordinates cannot tell the truth to the emperor, and the emperor cannot tell the truth to his subordinates. Once this iron rule is broken, the Manchu order is gone.

But in the Min Dynasty, this kind of thing seemed a little indifferent. What the Manchus needed was to use all sorts of rhetoric to defend their personal privileges, and the criteria for judging everything in the Min dynasty had long been clear. So lies were an indispensable necessity for the Manchus, and lies were very harmful to the Min dynasty, which was now trying to maintain.

Because he has enough knowledge of this, Li Hongzhang is very unhappy in his heart, but he can also say calmly: "It seems that Your Majesty does not agree with my personal work performance?" ”

Wei Ze has enough understanding of Li Hongzhang himself, the so-called nature of the country is easy to change, Li Hongzhang's nature lacks the adherence to the concept, and his insistence is the insistence on having power. First-rate politicians use power to realize ideas, second-rate politicians aim to grasp power, and third-rate politicians strive to seize all opportunities to gain power. To put it more colloquially, first-class politicians, power is a tool in their hands. Second-rate politicians, they themselves are the power itself. Third-rate politicians, whose fantasy of power is what they crave most. Materialism, mechanical materialism, and idealism can probably be used as labels on the heads of these three.

Li Hongzhang can probably be regarded as a second-rate politician, because of the level of garbage in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Li Hongzhang himself can probably be attributed to the third-rate power sometimes. Because he may not be able to understand the true face of power in industrial society. In Weeser's understanding, the reason why third-rate people in power are always able to cause terrible damage is because the power in their hearts is their own imagination, and when unrealistic people hold political power, when people who do not know the difference between reality and fantasy stand above everyone, it is always the beginning of disaster.

"There are some improvements that you can't go back to. Just like the era of backward productive forces, the sub-feudal system has been maintained for thousands of years. After the development of the productive forces to the point of centralization and the abolition of the feudal system, although there were several minor restorations of the feudal system, it was no longer the mainstream of Chinese politics after all. Just like Lao Li, no matter what the reason is, you can build a team, I personally hope that you can maintain the progress you have made, and don't drive backwards. I don't doubt your ability to do your job as an individual, but how far you can go is up to you. Wei Ze also said something lightly. After all, there are regulations in the system that Li Hongzhang's position is managed by the Ministry of Personnel, not Wei Ze's "golden mouth" to promote Li Hongzhang. At this time, you can only speak lightly.

With Li Hongzhang's cleverness, how could he not know this. In order to forcibly suppress his excitement, Li Hongzhang's voice trembled a little, "Your Majesty, what other instructions do you have at work?" ”

"Naturally, the comrades in charge of financial work will talk to you about this matter, and I have nothing to say. If there's anything to say, it's a cliché. The Liberation Party is first and foremost an organization, and it is easy to understand that individuals want to be above the organization, but this is not something that is acceptable to the organization. In this regard, I hope you will be able to put yourself in the right position. Wei Ze gave Li Hongzhang a very cliché piece of advice, and let him go.

Got Wei Ze's official position promise to a certain extent, and Li Hongzhang almost walked like the wind when he went out. This other "Li Zhongtang" in time and space did not go to celebrate, but ran to meet Liu Bufan, secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee. With a calm attitude and a decent tone, Li Hongzhang said: "Secretary Liu, I personally still want to continue working in the ministry, and I can only thank you for your invitation." ”

Liu Bufan was very unhappy in his heart, and he and others had also tried their best to win over all parties in recent days. The results are very few, and the people in the ministries and commissions will naturally not choose to stand with the province. Although there are some people who want to try to change the environment, they can really play a very limited role. And Li Hongzhang, a swing faction, so far, only Li Hongzhang has given him an unambiguous explanation, and the others are ambiguous and silent, and it seems that they are ready to observe again.

If I am unhappy in my heart, I will naturally bring it out on my face. However, most of Liu Bufan's unhappiness is actually not aimed at Li Hongzhang, compared with this kind of direct notification, those guys who are waiting for the price to sell are really hateful. There was unhappiness in his tone, and Liu Bufan said the scene, "Then we will cooperate more in the future." ”

"There's a lot of room for collaboration." Li Hongzhang did not walk away from each other because of Liu Bufan's unhappiness, he said quite sincerely, "By engaging in this futures, we can not only buy foreign goods with reliable standards, but also sell Chinese products to foreign countries." Tea produced in Hunan, in fact, tea trading in foreign countries is not a small business. ”

Of course, Liu Bufan knew that the tea trade was a very big deal. China exports a large amount of tea, and Hunan, as a tea town, has finally taken advantage of the withdrawal of state-owned enterprises to take the production of tea from the hands of the ministries and commissions to the local hands of Hunan. However, the overall operation is not as good as expected. The ministry did not completely abandon the tea industry, and the southern Tibetan region and Ceylon, which were seized from the British, were rich in tea, which was still very much in line with the taste of the British. Hunan tea, as the largest tax revenue in Hunan, was "high hopes" by Hunan Province, and the price could not be reduced, and there were also problems with the brand, which led to a new predicament for Hunan tea.

However, since Li Hongzhang is willing to cooperate, Liu Bufan cannot be completely cold-faced. He said a little perfunctorily: "It's good to cooperate." ”

Seeing Liu Bufan's perfunctory attitude, Li Hongzhang hurriedly explained: "Secretary Liu, how many years have you been drinking tap water?" Fifteen years, twenty years? ”

This strange question made Liu Bufan feel a little insulted, and it was naturally a city person who drank tap water. Now that even the larger towns and villages are starting to have water companies, he replied angrily: "What? Director Li thinks I'm a countryman? ”

Li Hongzhang shook his head again and again, "In Korea and Japan, a lot of tea is not for its use. I have also seen Korean people drink tea, and those high-ranking people of Goryeo also like rare tea, and although Hunan tea is good in their eyes, it is not rare enough. ”

Looking at Liu Bufan's annoyed energy, Li Hongzhang accelerated the progress of his narration, "In Goryeo and Japan, tap water is a rare thing. After boiling the water they make themselves, it is inevitable that there will be a peculiar smell, and if they boil tea to drink, the taste of the tea can effectively mask the peculiar smell. If Hunan can come up with tea that can be affordable for Japan and Korea, and if it can do a good job in this regard, then I believe that this kind of tea will definitely sell well. ”

didn't expect Li Hongzhang to teach himself to do business, and Liu Bufan was even more unhappy. The aroma of wine is not afraid of deep alleys, and if the tea leaves in the dignified tea town can't be sold at a price, wouldn't it be too faceless. Liu Bufan was very unhappy with Li Hongzhang's suggestion. However, when he thought about it, he also felt that this statement was not necessarily unreasonable. When the central government was engaged in tea trading, the price of tea sold to foreign countries went all the way down, and the one that sold very well was the very cheap Anhua black tea.

However, after Hunan Province seized the right to manage tea, in order to be able to collect more taxes, the price of various types of tea slowly increased. In the first few years, Hunan's tax revenue did increase greatly, but now the tea of Anhui, Fujian, Yunnan and Guizhou has frantically hit the market, so that Hunan's tea has encountered unprecedented challenges, and Hunan's fiscal revenue has fallen rapidly. Now listening to Li Hongzhang put forward such a detailed matter, where is Liu Bufan willing to think more. As long as Hunan tea sales can return to the level of previous years, this amount of money for external sales is a penny.

"If I have news here, I will contact you." Liu Bufan gave an eviction order.

Li Hongzhang was not discouraged, his teacher Zeng Guofan once won the approval of Emperor Xianfeng with the words "repeated defeats and repeated battles", although Li Hongzhang did not have the courage of his teacher, but he also had the courage to learn from his teacher. At this time, he received a certain recognition from Wei Ze, and Li Hongzhang knew that what he wanted to do was no longer to "not make mistakes", but to "be able to do things". The question about tea was raised by Wang Shizhen, but Li Hongzhang also raised a common problem at the meeting, how to sell Chinese goods to Korea through the futures market. More than a month later, Wang Shizhen came up with an investigation report, believing that among the things such as firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar and tea, firewood, oil and tea have a lot to offer. China can sell these products in this country at a price that is acceptable to Koreans.

The report looks a bit whimsical, but it's actually backed up by good data. Improving the quality of drinking water with tea is undoubtedly a good idea. Yuan Weiting had another performance, Wang Shizhen found the feasibility of selling tea in large quantities during the investigation, and Yuan Weiting dug up a few moths when he participated in the investigation. Tea is one of the most popular supplies in the Korea Railway and Telegraph Company, and the staff likes to carry a pot of tea water in a thermos pot every day. The guys in the logistics office used the method of applying more and brewing less to leave the tea leaves, and then took advantage of the convenience of the train to sell them at various stations at prices that were acceptable to the Koreans.

The drastic reform of this supply loophole is the credit and courage of Yuan Weiting. These incidents have given Wang Shizhen's investigation enough data to support. It's not that the Koreans don't want to use it, they just can't afford it. When they can afford it, these people are willing to pay for it.

Since Hunan Province didn't look down on it, Li Hongzhang went to Anhui Province. Anhui Province also produces tea, although the quality is not as good as Hunan, but it also effectively reduces the psychological price of its own tea in Anhui Province. Even so, after listening to the price proposed by Li Hongzhang, the governor and vice governor of Anhui Province frowned.

Vice Governor Zhang Haiyang, who is also in charge of tea production, said with a bitter face: "Director Li, your price is too low. ”

Li Hongzhang said with a smile: "The price is low, do you make any money?" ”

"If you earn those walnuts and dates, can you also call it earning? It's a shame to say it. Zhang Haiyang shook his head again and again.

"The Koreans are so poor, and they can't afford it because the price is high." Li Hongzhang tried his best to persuade.

But Anhui Province's reaction to this was to shake his head again and again, "The price is too low, and I sold it in China at this price." Not to mention the price, even if it is twice as high, I can sell more than this in the domestic market. The price is that the more you sell, the less you earn, and you can't do it. ”

Not only Anhui, but also representatives of Fujian, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces all have such an attitude. When Li Hongzhang began to think about whether to find a way to open a tea factory in Goryeo, Li Shixiong, secretary of the Henan Provincial Party Committee, approached Li Hongzhang.

"Director Li, I heard that you are buying tea?" Li Shixiong asked.

"The price is low." Li Hongzhang has been communicating with these provincial-level cadres for a long time, but he has lost confidence. He came up and took out the most difficult part, and the province talked for a long time full of hope, and finally ended in displeasure.

"What's the price?" Li Shixiong asked.

After listening to Li Hongzhang tell the price, Li Shixiong also frowned, just when Li Hongzhang thought that the matter was no longer a show, he heard Li Shixiong ask in a difficult tone: "How much can you buy?" ”

A glimmer of hope returned to Li Hongzhang's heart, and he told Li Shixiong about the operation of the futures market. After explaining for a while, Li Shixiong said suspiciously: "How does this sound the same as selling green seedlings?" ”

Li Hongzhang's head shook like a rattle, and his tone sounded a little exaggerated, "This is definitely different, there is no way to buy green seedlings, and you have to sell them after planting." Now you have a plan before you plant, for example, one catty is counted as one piece, and one thousand catties is counted as one, and you take it out and sell this contract. At this time, the person who wants to buy can buy one, or ten, or half one, or even less according to the regulations. Pay the deposit first. When it's time for the delivery date, pay all the money. If they default, then the deposit will be withheld, and the rest will be paid to you in addition to the operating fee of our operator. Of course, if your side defaults, there will be penalties accordingly. ”

"Isn't that similar to ordering?" Li Shixiong still grasped the point.

Li Hongzhang continued: "It's still different from ordering. Order you know who ultimately bought it, and it is this voucher that futures are bought and sold. Zhang San bought the voucher, and if Li Si bid higher, Zhang San might have sold the voucher to Li Si. Wang Wu bid higher, and Li Si sold this voucher to Wang Wu halfway through. Perhaps the final cash-out period is when the person who buys and sells seven or eight lots finally comes to pay. It has nothing to do with you. Just ask us for money. We may be able to give you money, or we may be able to give you liquidated damages. ”

"Why does it sound so unreliable?" Li Shixiong showed a crying and laughing expression.

Of course, Li Hongzhang felt that it was unreliable, but in fact, when Goryeo was doing this, the Goryeo people also felt that this market was very unreliable. If it weren't for the Chinese behind it, and the Koreans were really short of money, they would not have come to the futures market to participate in trading. Li Hongzhang has accumulated considerable experience in this process, and he did not say something about the clouds, mountains, and fogs, but replied frankly: "The futures market is like this, it does not rely on buying and selling, but on capital and credit. Credit in particular, is more important than anything else in the futures market. Therefore, the futures market should also establish a credit rating system, and we will not allow those who have no credit to enter the market for trading. The first requirement of participants is that they must trust the funds and creditworthiness of the futures market itself. If you don't believe in the futures market itself, don't come. Because the futures market is this kind of operating system, operating model. ”