Naturally, the entry into the French Concession could not be achieved overnight, and both Keswick and de Gray needed plenty of time to think about it. This is not an ordinary investment project that can invest tens of thousands of dollars and then leave it alone and enjoy the results, the reason why Gao Yi invited the two of them to participate is to come in handy, Keswick wants to solve the problem of financing, although de Gray is a director in the public concession, he is also the head snake in the French concession.

Gao Yi left the Licha Hotel at about five o'clock, and there was still some time before it got dark.

"Go to Gu's house." When he got into the car, he instructed that since he had bought the land, he felt itchy for a day without looking at it.

The carriage ran along the Bund, crossed the Waiyangjing Bridge and continued straight until it turned right all the way west to cross Zhoujing Bangbang from the South Baxian Bridge when it was on Gongguan Road, the main east-west road of the French Concession. Zhoujing Bang is later the South Tibet Road, since last year the river has been cut off, the French Concession is filling in the river to build a road, now under the bridge is a big mud pond, by the June sun, a foul smell of silt at the bottom of the river came, even if the car windows are closed tightly, can not be blocked.

After crossing the South Baxian Bridge, only 100 meters away, there is a small road that winds from the racecourse of the public concession in the north, Mark Polo Road, which is later known as Longmen Road. This small road connects the Mansion Road with the Eight Immortals Bridge Foreign Tomb Mountain, the Huaihai Park in the later generations.

After passing the Baxian Bridge Cemetery, and then going to the Xu Land, it is the junction of the newly opened Luban Road and Baochang Road.

Lvban Road and Baochang Road each have a small road leading to the Gujiazhai barracks, the one on Lvban Road is called "Officer Road", and the one on Baochang Road is called "Military Camp Road", which is later Nanchang Road and Yandang Road.

Gao Yi's carriage walked on the barracks road, and from the intersection, you could see a playground on the field of Yima Pingchuan, and at the northeast end of the playground, the wooden frame of a two-story building had been erected.

The first time Gao Yi saw the Gu Jiazhai barracks was at the paper hunting competition more than a month ago, because it was from the field in the southwest direction, so the whole barracks looked like an ordinary Chinese village, but if you turn to the direction of Baochang Road or Luban Road, this barracks has already been quite large-scale after four years of construction. At least, if Gao Yi wants to build a house on it now, there will be no problem with the three links and one level, just start building directly.

The two-storey building under construction is a temporary brick and wood structure. The barracks plan will not be vacated until next year, and Gao Yi will need a while to carefully consider how to develop the land in the most efficient way, but he can't wait to enjoy the life he can enjoy in advance, so he will think of building a simple but functional temporary house to live in first, and when the official new house is built in the future, it can also be used as a dormitory for servants or a guest room for less important guests.

The construction company responsible for the construction of this small building is an American company called Youheng Yangxing, and Gao Yi chose this company because its designer, Mr. Dunn, had experience in building septic tanks and drainage pipes when he was in the United States. Gao Yi wanted his new home to have a modern sewage treatment system, but in the concession of this era, flush toilets, like curtains and electric fans, were considered "harmful to health". Gao Yi estimates that the main reason is that it is too expensive to build an urban sewage pipeline system, and now the Ministry of Industry and the Health Department will bid for the right to clean up the feces in the concession every year, which is an income of at least 5,000 oceans per month, so the professional opinion from the Health Department is that the establishment of a sewage treatment system is unnecessary, and the flush toilet is "harmful".

The brick and timber houses were built very quickly, and the construction team has just entered the site five days ago, and the wooden beams of the small building have been completely erected, and now the concrete floor has begun. Gao Yi signed a contract with Youheng Yang Company to deliver the house within 50 days, which means that he will be able to live in this "modern" house completely of his own by the end of next month.

Gao Yi walked to the construction site of pouring concrete and took a look, and found that on part of the cement floor that had been dried, workers had begun to lay copper pipes on it, which was a floor heating system designed by Gao Yi himself. In addition to the floor, the walls and eaves are also covered with copper pipes, but not for heating, but for cooling down on hot days.

In addition to the construction team responsible for the main building, there are two other teams on the site, one is responsible for the construction of the swimming pool, this residence, there is a swimming pool indoors and outdoors, the indoor is a 50-meter standard swimming pool with two lanes, and the outdoor is a landscape swimming pool with a fountain that is 30 meters long and 25 meters wide; Another team is building water towers, including a 50-cubic-meter cold water tower, a 10-cubic-meter hot water tower, and a circulating water tower dedicated to underfloor heating. Gao Yi also specially designed a set of hydraulic temperature control system for this circulating water tower, the principle is to use a bimetal thermometer made of copper and zinc sheets, drive a hydraulic mechanism to adjust the opening and closing degree of the circulating water inlet valve, a part of the cooling water will not be heated, but directly into the water tower to adjust the temperature.

In about half a month, there will be a third team to join in, this team and equipment are directly hired by Gao Yi from the United States, it is a drilling team. Gao Yi naturally did not let them come to find oil, but to dig deep wells to find groundwater. If all goes well, he will be able to use the cold water from the deep well to cool down in the coming summer day. And if he is unlucky and can't get deep well water, then he can only consider buying an ammonia refrigerator to make cool water instead of deep well water, but in this way, whether this water cooling system can be used this summer needs to be a question mark.

******

After returning from the construction site, Gao Yi did not go back to Shanghai for dinner, but went back to Yaxian Ju first. Yesterday, when he went to the board of directors to testify, he also brought the deed as evidence. After the testimony, he had a meal with the directors of the Board of Directors and chatted for a while, but it was late when he went back, so he did not go to the Shanghai General Assembly again, but went directly back to Yaxian Ju to rest. Therefore, the Dao Deed was also brought to Yaxian Ju by him, and today happened to be the day of the party, and he didn't have time to put the Dao Deed back to the General Association in the morning, so now he can only go to Yaxian Ju to go around and take out the Dao Deed. There is no safe in Yaxian Ju, although there are always people there, but mainly on the ground floor, the second floor is actually very easy to steal, and important documents are very unsafe here.

The kraft paper bag that put the deed was resting on the head of the bed, and Gao Yi opened it to check it, a photo, two documents, and everything was there.

The photo reads:

The Qing Dynasty ordered the supervision of the Jiangnan Customs Sub-Inspector Su Songtai Bingbei Road in order to give the lease of the land deed to the consul general of Dafa Lu in the note to open a note according to the "National Board of Directors" to rent a section of the local name Gu family house in Shanghai according to the peace agreement, Yao Chunquan, Lu Guanbao, north to the French merchant Daluo and Jiang surnamed land, south to Chen surname land, southwest No. 4039 land, east to the road, northeast bay corner to Jiang surname land, west to the northwest corner to Luban Road, under the permanent lease of the bureau, an area of 153 acres, a total price of 76,000 taels of silver, Its annual rent is 1,500 wen per mu, and the annual advance payment of silver numbers and so on. The brigadier will lease the land to the public board of directors for use, and the regulations shall be complied with after the license. The public board of directors shall check that the land and the land shall be leased according to the peace agreement, but it shall not be transferred to a person who has not been allowed to live in China from another country, and the Chinese official constitution and the consul general shall check that the land and premises rented by the Chinese government are not hindered before they are allowed to rent. In addition, although foreigners have the benefit of accommodation, they are not allowed to rent land and rent houses and sell goods with Chinese people, and if Chinese people want to rent land and houses, they must be stamped by the Consul General and the Chinese official constitution before they can do so. In the event that the Bureau does not sublease to the person in charge of the business in the future, and does not pay the annual rent of 1,500 yuan per mu without the approval of the French Consul General, this deed shall be used as waste paper, and the land shall be returned to the official and the deed of lease shall be obtained.

June of the twenty-seventh year of Guangxu

Dao Seal

……

This photo is taken with the deed of the Shanghai Provincial Government. The deed is kept by the Shanghai Provincial Bureau, and the two copies of the upper and lower deed are handed over to the consulate, and the consulate is numbered, the upper deed is filed by the consulate, and the other deed is paid to the tenant for receipt.

The so-called "road deed" is the certificate of "renting land" for foreigners after the opening of Shanghai.

Since the concession is called the "lease" realm, the land inside naturally cannot be a permanent property right, but a form of "permanent lease", which literally means "permanent lease", which is actually no different from the permanent property right in terms of use, but it sounds better than the transfer of property rights.

Expatriates "lease land in perpetuity" in the place of residence, and the rent is fixed at 1,500 wen per mu per year. After the land "perpetual lease" must be registered with the respective consulates, the consulates are numbered in order according to the registration order, and then sent to the Shanghai Provincial Administration for the record, and the Shanghai Provincial Provincial Department will send special personnel to the site to measure together with the staff of the consulate to determine the actual area, location, and four stops of the "permanent lease" land, which is marked one by one in the deed, and then stamped with the Shanghai Provincial Administration's mark, which is a land certificate notarized by the Shanghai Provincial Administration, so the land certificate of the Shanghai Concession is called the "Taoist deed".

However, the word "Title Deed" is actually just a common name for the people, and the official name has not been given to it, but its foreign name is fixed, "Title Deed" in English, "Traduction Titede Propriete" in French, and "Land Certificate" in Japanese.

In addition to the photo of the "middle deed" in the brown paper bag, the remaining two pieces of paper are genuine "deeds" that are handed over to the tenant himself for safekeeping. The Chinese and French characters of the deed are one page each, and the content is similar to that of the deed, except that the name of the tenant on the deed has been changed from "National Board of Directors" to "Gao Yi" and "William Cowie" - when the deed is transferred, there is no need to change the deed of the provincial office, as long as you go to the consulate to set up a new deed for the "upper deed" and "lower deed".

As for the "deed", since it is kept in the French consulate, there is naturally no need for Gao Yi to file it, and the board of directors has already prepared it before Gao Yi testifies.