was praised by Cai Yi and Jiang Baili's attention, and then made a splash at Zhu Qichao's daughter's birthday banquet, the little-known son-in-law Zhang Hanqing really became famous in Beijing: he can be literate and martial arts, and he is bold and stunned. In particular, earning the first gold in his life made him happy for a few days.

However, it was quickly diluted by new pressures.

People have no far-sighted worries, there must be near-term worries, if just to earn these tens of thousands of dollars, directly through a few days ago, the latest lottery won the good, but also need to run so far! Our Young Master Zhang is ambitious, right?

It's not that there is a problem with his living expenses, but that he has been planning for a long time, and many projects in his mind to develop the Northeast can only stay in his mind. Talking about martial arts halls and arsenals, the cheap dad who spent the money in advance had to prepare by himself, and he couldn't just let his son contribute. What Zhang Hanqing cares about the most is still the things that can make Fengtian finance make money. I don't have the money to reorganize the army, and it is very appropriate to describe it with one word, "poor soldiers---- huh? The word seems to exist specifically for it?

Now that Japan's control and infiltration of the Northeast is not as tight as it was later, Tsarist Russia is about to have an earth-shattering change. How can the Feng army, which has grown stronger in the future, have a steady stream of financial resources to support its position as one of the three parts of the world, and wait for an opportunity to end the future dispute between the three kingdoms? Zhang Hanqing was very troubled, you must know that the reason why Wei finally annexed Shu and Wu in the history of the Three Kingdoms is inseparable from its strong economic power.

Wealth when the clothes return to the hometown, China has always had such a tradition, and there is no shortage of giants who benefit the township after being rich. Such as the Chaoshan Gang, such as a considerable number of overseas Chinese who supported the construction of their hometowns in the early days of reform and opening up in the later world.

If Fengtian wants to develop, it needs a considerable amount of start-up capital, and it also needs a "golden nest" that can lay golden eggs. In order to introduce these wealth-making industries into Feng, it is necessary to play the card of contacts and feelings with the Northeast.

At that time, most of the identities of the few industrial giants in northern China were complicated: such as Xiong Xiling, a famous educator, social activist, industrialist and philanthropist, who was also the first democratically elected premier of the Republic of China; Zhou Xuexi, who was known as the "Southern Zhang and Northern Zhou" together with Zhang Jian in the south of the Yangtze River, was a pioneer of new industry and commerce in North China, and also the "money bag" of Yuan Shikai's government, and he served as the Minister of Finance of the Central Committee. Also, in the early years of the Republic of China, without an official background, the so-called "collusion between officials and businessmen", ordinary people could not make achievements in the economic field.

Zhu Qichao also instructed him to find Zhou Xuexi, thinking that with Zhou's influence, if he succeeded in moving him, he would have an example for others, and it would be relatively easy to raise funds.

Who is Zhou Xuexi? His father, Caifu, followed Li Hongzhang to run foreign affairs for more than 30 years, and praised many paintings and was deeply relied on. He was then moved from the alternate county to the governor of Liangguang, and became a figure of considerable achievement and influence in the Huai group, and was widely regarded as Li Hongzhang's successor, rather than Yuan Shikai.

He himself is an industrial tycoon, known as "North Zhou and South Zhang". Nanzhang is Zhang Qian of Nantong.

There is no competent person to recommend, with Zhang Hanqing, a hairy boy with a bad reputation, he came to the door and was beaten out, but what do you want to do, why? Fortunately, General Cai has a wide range of connections, and on the land of the capital, he is basically invited in and out, so that Zhang Hanqing is smooth and abnormal. Of course, General Cai is not aimlessly supportive, in his opinion, the stronger Zhang Zuolin's strength, the greater the momentum caused by the anti-Yuan in the future, and the higher the chance of success.

In business, Zhang Hanqing decided to visit Zhou Xuexi first.

Zhou Xuexi was the Minister of Finance and the General Office of the Technology Bureau in Yuan Shikai's cabinet, and is currently the manager of the Industrial Bank of China, with 15 enterprises under his name, and is regarded as Gaogui by the northern industrialists and businessmen. The shining point of his life was to become a famous "cement king" in the early days of the Republic of China.

In 1906, Zhou Xuexi prepared to establish the "Qixin Ash Company", which was sold very smoothly due to the good quality of the products. Qixin cement was soon used in major construction projects across the country, such as the Huaihe Railway Bridge and the Yellow River Bridge on the Tianjin-Pudong Railway, the Luohe Iron Bridge on the Jinghan Railway, the Weishui Iron Bridge on the Beining Railway, and the dams and wharves in Qingdao, Yantai, Xiamen, Weihai and other places. Famous buildings at that time, such as Beijing Library, Fu Jen University, Yenching University, Continental Bank, Bank of Communications, Hebei Gymnasium, and Shanghai General Post Office, were also built with Continental cement. After decades of ups and downs, most of these buildings are still intact, standing side by side with modern high-rise buildings.

Foreign businessmen, especially Japanese businessmen, have waged a desperate battle with Qixin in order to compete for the Chinese cement market. Japanese businessmen relied on the high output and good quality of Japanese cement and the fact that it was closest to China, so they shipped a large amount to China for dumping. In order to crush the company, they are desperate to keep the price down. Their cement was sold in Japan for 2.97 taels of silver per bag, and the shipping cost to China was 2.5 taels of silver per bag, but they sold it for 3 taels of silver per bag, which meant a loss of 2.47 taels of silver for each bag sold. This is a war in which there is no sword and blood, and there is no shouting and killing. Qixin Company also took timely countermeasures, reducing the original price of 2.25 taels of silver per barrel to 1.55 taels of silver, and the bagged cement from 1 tael of silver to 0.7 taels of silver per bag.

Because Zhou Xuexi attaches great importance to the renewal and improvement of production equipment, Qixin's cement production has been continuously improved in terms of output and quality, and the cost has been continuously reduced, and it has won medals and certificates in international competitions, expos and domestic exhibitions for many times. Qixin has monopolized China's cement market for 14 years, and its sales volume has reached more than 92% of the country's total cement sales. The success of Qixin Company has won glory for China's national industry, which has suffered many disasters, and has also won valuable honor for the Chinese in the international community.

Zhou Xuexi's national backbone of killing 10,000 enemies at the expense of 3,000 foreign competitors is not cultivated in a day, and it is certainly not invincible.

Or compete with foreign counterparts, this time against the British.

From 1905 onwards, British businessmen intensified their plundering of China's mining rights, not only mining the pits belonging to the Kaiping mining area, but also keeping an eye on the mineral sources of Luanzhou, which was adjacent to the Kaiping mining area. Zhou Xuexi believes that if Luanzhou mineral sources are not exploited first, the mining rights in this area will inevitably be lost, and all the resources of Beiyang will be plundered by foreigners. So he won the consent and support of Yuan Shikai, the minister of Beiyang, and established the Luanzhou Coal Mine. Prepare to recover rights through the development of resources, that is, "to Luan to open up"

Because people from all walks of life were angry at the British for defrauding the Kaiping Coal Mine by despicable means, they actively supported the Luanzhou Coal Mine run by the Chinese, and invested in it one after another, and within a few months, the "Luanzhou Coal Mine Co., Ltd." was established, with Zhou Xuexi as the general manager. He did not wait for the arrival of new coal mining machinery, so he first started mining by soil method, the first to be built was the Chenjialing mine, and then in Yinzigou, Taoyuan, Zhaogezhuang, Langweigou and other places to excavate the mines, and built a special railway between the mines, and installed telephones. He also sent people to Germany to use the latest coal mining machinery suitable for Luanzhou coal mine, so that the quality of coal greatly exceeded Kaiping, and it was very popular in the market, posing a great threat to Kaiping coal mine.

In addition, in view of the fact that the Kaiping coal mine was about to be exhausted, Zhou Xuexi decided to first mine the coal seams of the mines near Kaiping, so that the Kaiping mine could not be extended outward. Faced with the dilemma of running out of coal to mine, British businessmen repeatedly coerced and enticed Zhou Xuexi, but Zhou Xuexi ignored it.

Since the Luanzhou Coal Mine had tightly surrounded the Kaiping Coal Mine, and the Kaiping Coal Mine itself was about to be exhausted, the British merchants exerted pressure on Chen Kuilong, the then governor of Zhili, through their consuls, and they were also resisted. No, after half a year of negotiations with the British Foreign Office and the British company, the two sides finally reached an agreement: Britain would return the Kaiping coal mine to China, and China would pay the British 1.78 million pounds. At that time, the market price of Kaiping Coal Mine's shares had reached 1.7 million pounds, and together with the company's other property rights, it had actually exceeded 1.78 million pounds, which shows that the recovery of Kaiping Coal Mine not only safeguarded the country's sovereignty, but also benefited the country economically.

However, because Zhang Yi, who sold the Kaiping Coal Mine, sabotaged it, the regent who held the power of the state listened to Zhang Yi's nonsense and did not agree to the state to pay the 1.78 million pounds, and the Luan Mine could not afford this cost, and the opening was a failure.

When the British businessmen had no choice but to do so, they made a last resort, relying on the strong support of the British consortium in the economy, to provoke a coal price war, reducing the price of coal per ton by almost half, and also according to the sales volume, with gifts, in an attempt to crush the Luanzhou coal mine. Zhou Xuexi decisively accepted the challenge and also took the same price reduction measures. The two companies competed to reduce the price, and in the end, for every ton of coal sold, both companies had to lose a lot. Under such circumstances, the Qing government did not give any financial support to Zhou Xuexi's struggle. After nearly a year of price wars, both sides are in a difficult position. Eventually, the British businessmen changed their tactics and began to trumpet "Kailuan cooperation". They created public opinion in the newspapers of Tianjin and Shanghai, and even spent special money to set up a "Northern Daily" in Tianjin to raise the banner and shout for "Kailuan cooperation." At the same time, they divided and disintegrated from within the Luanzhou Coal Mine, bribed the shareholders of the Luanzhou Coal Mine, and asked them to propose at the board of directors to abandon the struggle and cooperate with the Kaiping Coal Mine. Some shareholders of Luanzhou Coal Mine are also in favor of cooperating with Kaiping because the company is losing money and making no profits.

In the face of many difficulties, Zhou Xuexi gritted his teeth and withstood the pressure from all sides, ready to fight Kaiping Coal Mine to the end. When the Xinhai Revolution broke out in 1911, the shareholders of the Luanzhou Coal Mine, fearing that they would lose their vested interests because of the revolution, advocated surrendering to the Kaiping Coal Mine in an attempt to protect their interests by relying on foreign forces. Zhou Xuexi was alone, and finally had to painfully accept the negotiation of cooperation with Kaiping Coal Mine. When the shareholders unanimously nominated him to serve as the superintendent of the General Administration of the Kailuan Mining Bureau, which was established after the merger, Zhou Xuexi resolutely resigned. It was Zhou Xuexi's wish to take back the Kaiping Coal Mine, but it was not realized in his lifetime in the official history.

This is an amiable and respectable backbone Chinese and an outstanding representative of the Chinese national bourgeoisie. Zhang Hanqing wants to cooperate with him, not only to admire his character, but also to use the power of the government in the future to enable these patriots who have been bullied by foreigners to raise their chests again and become Chinese. If he can govern China in the future, he thinks and firmly believes it.