Although it was unlikely that he would have to follow the army's supply forces to move around, it was still an eye-opener for Guedes along the way, and he really saw what a prosperous place was.

Jiangnan caused him a greater shock than in Guangzhou and Zhaoqing.

Guangzhou and Zhaoqing brought him more novelty, such as all kinds of messy novelties, clean and tidy cityscape, but the land south of the Yangtze River made him feel the wealth of this place, and the people's living standards were much higher than what he had seen in other places.

And it's densely populated!

Dense population, coupled with affluence, represents purchasing power, and purchasing power is the market!

At this time, Guedes couldn't help but fantasize that if he could earn one or two pieces of silver from one person, then there were at least two or three million people in this place, wouldn't he be able to earn more than twenty million silver from it?

At the thought of so much silver, Guedes couldn't help but feel excited in his heart!

This trip to Jiangnan is definitely the right one, their own Geddes Trading Company must open to Jiangnan, not only to set up a branch in Shanghai, but also to set up a branch in Jinling, and completely penetrate their own trading company distribution network into Jiangnan.

Today, his Geddes Trading Company is doing a more complicated business, in addition to his own merchant ships participating in maritime trade, he also participates in many messy things, but in essence, he is still a second-class dealer, using his unique identity to do business.

Although it sounds like just a second-class dealer, but he has been in the past two years, he has made a lot of money, and now after seeing the prosperity of Jiangnan, he naturally wants to develop his business network to Jiangnan.

And it is not the simple establishment of acquisition and sales channels in the past, but is ready to get involved in a more high-end silk business!

According to the information he got from some reliable sources, the upstream enterprise in the industry of the Tang Dynasty, Zhaoqing Machinery Company, has developed a machine that can quickly process raw silk, and it is also a complete set of solutions.

It is rumored that the state-owned textile company under the Ministry of Industry of Datang is already purchasing this kind of machinery and equipment to improve production efficiency, reduce costs, and improve the quality of raw silk.

He knew very well how popular silk from the ancient Oriental countries was among the European magnates, and the largest purchase commodities for foreigners and maritime merchants who came to China were silk and porcelain.

In the past, he was only a second-hand trader, buying finished silk products directly from all over the world, but now, he saw the middle of the silk industry directly involved: raw silk.

Therefore, Guedes is naturally unwilling to give up easily, so even if he has not seen any machine-made raw silk and silk products yet, Guedes still decided to take a gamble.

And Geddes didn't know that it was not only him who wanted to gamble, after Zhaoqing Machinery Company developed a complete set of mechanical drawing machinery and equipment, in addition to the state-owned textile factory of the Ministry of Industry ordered it for the first time, several private textile companies also quickly followed up and directly ordered this machinery.

Even he is not the only one who plans to open a raw silk factory in the Jiangnan area, the state-owned factories of the Ministry of Industry and private factories have such plans, and they have already begun to do so.

China's first steam-mechanical raw silk factory near the Shanghai Business Zone, the raw silk factory under the Jiangnan Textile Company under the Ministry of Industry, has already begun the stage of plant construction and equipment installation.

Guedes's news is a bit behind, but it still doesn't affect his investment plan!

However, these investment plans still have to be done after he goes to Jinling and settles down other affairs, and the investment in preparing for the raw silk factory is huge, and his financial resources are still a little lacking, so he is still trying to find a way to raise funds.

The investment in the preparation of the raw silk factory is large, on the one hand, the raw materials are expensive, the raw materials of the raw silk factory are silkworm cocoons, and the silkworm cocoons are very expensive.

The other is that the equipment is expensive, all kinds of machinery and equipment in the Zhaoqing Arsenal are never cheap, especially this kind of machinery and equipment that has just been launched and has great prospects, which are often expensive.

Of course, if you don't purchase from Zhaoqing Machinery Company, you have no place to purchase, because at present, under the rule of the entire Tang Dynasty, and even around the world, only Zhaoqing Machinery Company specializes in providing these machinery and equipment.

Such a complete set of equipment, coupled with the plant, worker training, and then raw material procurement, etc., the initial investment is not tens of thousands of taels that can be done, not to mention 100,000 taels of silver.

Although Guedes has made a lot of money in recent years, a lot of it has been invested in the expansion of trading companies and merchant fleets, and he really can't get it on hand for a while.

Otherwise, before going north, he would have placed an order for equipment directly.

With all kinds of messy thoughts, he finally arrived in Jinling City, and according to the usual practice, he was shocked again.

After the shock, he bought real estate, registered with the Ministry of Commerce, and prepared to open a company in Jinling City, but he generally did not come forward in person because his appearance was too peculiar, and in order to avoid trouble, he let his entourage deal with it.

Guedes's trip to Jinling City did not last long, only three days later, he left Jinling City, but before leaving, he had already purchased a property in Jinling City, and the shelves of the branch were also erected, and he himself was preparing to return to Shanghai to deal with other affairs.

On the way back, he did not follow the military team, but went to Shanghai on his own, of course, in order to avoid trouble on the way, he usually did not show up much in the carriage or on the ship, just watched quietly, and many affairs were handed over to his subordinates.

Sometimes when he encounters an interrogation, after he takes out his serious household registration certificate, he can also calmly leave under the shocked eyes of the patrol officers everywhere.

When Guedes returned to Shanghai, Li Xuan also listened to the industrial layout of the Ministry of Industry in the Jiangnan area.

"At present, the Ministry of Industry has been preparing to build the Jiangnan Arsenal, Jiangnan Shipyard, Jiangnan Iron and Steel Plant, the three core enterprises, in addition to the Jiangnan Shipyard deployed in Wusong Military Port, Jiangnan Arsenal, Jiangnan Iron and Steel Plant are ready to be deployed in Dangtu. In addition, according to His Majesty's instructions, we have found a large open-pit iron ore area near Dangtu, the quality of the iron ore is quite good, and it will be able to provide a large amount of cheap and high-quality iron ore to the Jiangnan Iron and Steel Plant in the future. ”

"The Jiangnan Arsenal will refer to several arsenals such as the Zhaoqing Arsenal, the Guangzhou Arsenal, and the Foshan Arsenal, and accept the technicians of the above-mentioned arsenals, and prepare to build this arsenal into a super-large arsenal, and according to the construction plan, once completed, the output of guns in this arsenal will reach the total output of the existing one, and the monthly output of 3,000 muskets will be achieved."

Li Xuan nodded slightly: "Yes, it seems that your Ministry of Industry has also worked hard!" ”

In the past, at present, and even in the future, the most important task of the Datang Ministry of Industry has always been to provide sufficient and advanced weapons for the army, navy, and guards of the Tang Dynasty.

Therefore, many state-owned factories of the Ministry of Industry of Datang, the core is also around military production, even the textile industry, the initial purpose is to produce military uniforms, but after it has become bigger rapidly, it has turned to the civilian market, and now it has gradually developed two major textile companies, namely Guangzhou Textile Company and Jiangnan Textile Company.

But the textile companies of the Ministry of Industry only aim to make money and then supply national defense construction.

The core of the Ministry of Industry has always been the defense industry, and the arsenal is their core, and the relevant factories supporting the arsenal are their focus.

As for the civilian industry, the Ministry of Industry has never deliberately intervened, of course, sometimes it will be unintentionally inserted, such as the imitation industry, and Zhaoqing Machinery Company.

At the beginning, Zhaoqing Machinery Company was only a subordinate branch of Zhaoqing Arsenal, mainly to support many arsenals of the Ministry of Industry, design, research and development, and production of various types of machinery and equipment, but there wanted, and the people's demand for these machinery and equipment was also so huge.

Therefore, the Ministry of Industry later simply made the Zhaoqing Machinery Company independent, and its various mechanical products were supplied to national defense enterprises such as major arsenals, as well as to various private factories.

After a few years of development, it has basically become the upstream enterprise of Datang Industry, providing more than 80% of all kinds of machinery and equipment for major factories, and behind the mechanization of every industry in Datang Dynasty, it is inseparable from the efforts of Zhaoqing Machinery Company.

Machine-made rice, machine-made flour, tea bricks, machine-made cloth, machine-made raw silk, shipbuilding equipment, steam engine......

The machinery and equipment used in these emerging industries are all from Zhaoqing Machinery Company.

The scale is getting bigger and bigger, the turnover is getting higher and higher, and the profits are getting more and more, which is also leading to the larger and larger scale of Zhaoqing Machinery Company, and the pace of launching new products and improvements is also frequently accelerated, and Zhaoqing Machinery Company has embarked on the road of take-off!

But what makes them feel a little embarrassed is that even if Zhaoqing Machinery Company has vigorously recruited technical talents and carried out its own research and development in recent years, it still can't escape the influence of the Royal Institute of Technology in terms of core technology.

Almost 80 percent of the advanced equipment produced by Zhaoqing Machinery Company was developed by the Royal Institute of Technology and then authorized to be produced by them.

And I don't know how long it will take to get rid of the influence of the Royal Institute of Technology.

The national defense industry is extremely important, so Li Xuan is also very concerned, at the meeting of the Ministry of Industry, he directly participated in the discussion, and directly said that I will strongly support the various projects of the Ministry of Industry.

But soon, the people from the Ministry of Industry are going to support it!

What support?

Money!