Perhaps Cheng Gengchi thinks that Li Mu will be very resistant to setting up a factory in order to maintain profits. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

In fact, it is impossible, what Li Mu wants now is scale, using scale to open the market, promote the accelerated upgrading of the former world, and replace black powder with smokeless gunpowder, under this premise, it is not impossible to open a factory in the Qing Empire.

The Horse Arms Company has recently expanded rapidly, and only smokeless gunpowder patents in the United States are sold to the National Gunpowder Association, and European ones are not included, so the Horse Arms Company has reached an agreement with Krupp in Germany and Enfeld in the United Kingdom to open smokeless gunpowder factories in Germany and Britain respectively.

The Far East is also an important area for arms sales, even if Cheng Gengchi does not come to the door, Li Mu is ready to do business in the Far East, and now it just so happens that with the cooperation of the governor behind Cheng Gengchi, the factory should be unimpeded.

Cheng Gengchi probably didn't expect Li Mu to agree so happily, so his expression was very shocked for a moment, but it immediately turned into ecstasy, and then struck while the iron was hot: "Then does Mr. Reem want to open a weapons factory in the Qing Empire?" ”

Weapons!

It's a bit of a big step, but it's not impossible.

"Of course, if the conditions are favorable enough, Junma Investment Company will not refuse any form of cooperation." Li Mu did not hesitate, there were many benefits to opening the weapons factory to the Qing Empire, and Li Mu would not let go of such an opportunity.

The Qing Empire is no longer the Qing Empire before the Taiping Rebellion, although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement failed, but objectively destroyed the ruling system of the Qing government, coupled with the rise of the Han people, the Qing government's control over the local area was greatly reduced, and the local governors in order to protect their rights, the next few years will vigorously develop armaments, which will definitely require a large number of weapons and ammunition, so it is very beneficial to open weapons factories to the Qing Empire.

Li Mu is a businessman, just like Li Mu said, open the door to do business, all the people who come are customers, so Li Mu's customers must not only be the ruling class, if there is someone else to buy weapons, as long as the price is high enough, Li Mu will not refuse, as for what trouble this will bring to the Qing government, this is not something Li Mu has to consider.

Even if there is no Li Mu, the Qing government will not be able to grow a rabbit's tail.

"So very good, so very good-" Cheng Gengchi was a little incoherent, this time the harvest greatly exceeded Cheng Gengchi's expectations.

Cheng Gengchi must know that Li Mu's status before becoming an American citizen was a schoolboy in the United States, and Li Mu's behavior was tantamount to treason in Cheng Gengchi's eyes, so Cheng Gengchi was not sure of Li Mu's feelings for the Qing government, and even before Cheng Gungchi came to see Li Mu, he was ready to be rejected by Li Mu.

Li Mu's current attitude is obviously not in line with the rumors, and in any case, this is good news for the Qing government.

If Li Mu was still that little schoolboy studying in the United States, of course the Qing government could not care about Li Mu's attitude, even if Li Mu betrayed the Qing Empire, the Qing Empire would not care.

But now Li Mu's influence is increasing day by day, the horse arms company has become a new force in the United States military industry, the horse investment company is also developing rapidly, legend has it that it has now set foot in the banking industry, to set up its own bank, as for Li Mu himself, rumors have a certain influence on Washington, for such a Li Mu, the Qing government dare not ignore.

Of course, the Qing government still doesn't know what Li Mu has done in Cuba, and when Old Man Chen's report is handed over, I'm afraid that the Qing government will raise Li Mu's threat level.

Sending Cheng Gengchi away, Li Mu called Henry and assigned a task to Henry.

"Go to the Qing Empire to set up a factory - Reem, do you know how far the Qing Empire is from here?" As soon as Henry's words fell, he knew that he had said the wrong thing.

Li Mu came from the Qing Empire, how could he not know how far the Qing Empire was.

"Setting up a factory in the Qing Empire will have an impact on our ability to control, not to mention whether the raw materials over there are complete, it is estimated that we will not find enough workers over there, and if we transfer people from Springfield, it will increase our labor costs, so I don't think this is a good choice." Henry did not approve of Li Mu's idea.

"There are no raw materials we can ship from the United States, as for the workers, since the Chinese in the United States can become workers, the Chinese in the Qing country can also be trained to a certain extent, in my opinion, setting up factories in the Qing Empire is just conducive to us to control costs, the customs of the Qing Empire are now under the control of the British, so do you think that from the tax aspect, it is more cost-effective for us to sell rifles to the Qing government, or it is more cost-effective to sell steel?" Li Mu didn't think so, Li Mu knew very well that in the next few decades, the Qing government would always be in turmoil, and now setting up a factory was tantamount to taking the lead, as long as the horse brand rifle and python pistol became famous, it would not be sold in the Qing Empire.

"Well, if that doesn't matter, have you considered Washington's reaction? You know, there's some people in Washington who are pushing for a new tariff agreement, and if we do that at this time, we might be the target of public criticism. Henry still insisted.

"It doesn't matter, I know who they are, don't worry, we're not their target." Li Mu is not worried, it is the American industrialists led by Carnegie who are lobbying in Washington, and they want to push the US government to collect more import tariffs so that American companies can be protected.

Strictly speaking, Li Mu is also one of the promoters, so Li Mu is not worried about this issue, the United States is to protect domestic enterprises, and the Junma Investment Company is increasing exports, and Washington will only approve and not oppose.

"Well, if you insist, then what am I going to do?" Henry no longer talks nonsense, Li Mu is the boss of Junma Investment, and the final decision is up to Li Mu, and Henry only has the right to suggest.

"What you have to do is to strive for more favorable conditions in the negotiation with Cheng, to grasp several key points, one is that the management power must be firmly controlled in our hands, especially the right to transfer personnel, which is not negotiable; The second is taxation, which should be tax-exempt for a certain period of time, then halved for a certain period of time, so that we can further reduce our costs, and finally the factory site, which is preferably located in Shanghai, where is now a treaty port, and the factory should be located in the public concession, so as to ensure our control over the factory. Li Mu determined a few key points, and the rest was left to Henry to play freely.

Li Mu's idea is that this factory can be the best joint venture, so that if it is not good, the Qing government will even have to pay Li Mu's money, which is equivalent to an empty glove white wolf.

Once the joint venture factory is built, the Qing government will inevitably interfere in the management of the factory, which is the last thing Li Mu wants to see, so Li Mu must insist on the right to personnel, as long as the right to personnel is in his own hands, the horse investment company will have full initiative.

In terms of taxation, if the factory is built in the concession, the tax revenue is not the Qing government's business, but as long as the products in the factory are out of the lease gate, it will face the Qing Empire's harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and this tax exemption is very important.

"Okay, I'll try to-" Henry didn't dare to say anything, in Henry's opinion, as long as the Qing government's braincase was not broken, the Qing government should not agree to such a condition.

"Do it well-" Li Mu was confident that if Li Mu guessed wrong, the governor behind Cheng Gengchi would have such a lot of energy.

Seeing off Henry, Li Mu got into a carriage and went to the Kuobin Reservoir.

Since the construction of the Kuobin Reservoir began, this is the first time Li Mu has come to the scene.

Thirty kilometres north of Springfield is the boundary of the Broadside Reservoir.

Looking at the big sign of "Private Territory, No Trespassing" within the border, Li Mu smiled happily.

Although the Kuobin Reservoir is funded by the Springfield government, the land around the Kuobin Reservoir now belongs to Li Mu, so it can be described as "Li Mu's pond".

Sidney Johnny, the person in charge of the Kuobin Reservoir project, and he and Ford Benjamin came to greet Li Mu for his inspection.

Sitting in the carriage, Sidney Johnny couldn't wait to report to Li Mu.

"We now have a total of 32,000 workers, and despite the bad weather lately, workers arrive at Springfield Station every day, and we have a reception station at Springfield Station, and we will get people to Broadside Reservoir as quickly as possible as soon as new workers arrive." Sidney Johnny, like Nelson in Cuba, was also a frustrated person after the American Civil War, and when Li Mu recruited Sidney Johnny, he slightly revealed that he could help Sidney Johnny return to politics, and then Sidney Johnny moved his family from warm Florida to Springfield.

"What about the placement of workers? Are there any questions? Li Mu is not worried about finding someone, he is worried that someone has brought it, but he has not taken care of it.

"No problem, we have taken out some of the workers to set up a logging plant, their work place is in the Green Mountains, where there is a large forest, as long as the wood is cut, if the weather is right, it can be used to build houses in a month at most, we have a special construction team, ten young men can build a new house in three days, at present, in the entire Kuobin Reservoir, there are three residential areas with a size of more than 5,000 people, they are either working in the reservoir or working on the farm, everyone is very happy, In their words, at least here, they don't feel the strange stares - "Sidney Johnny is quite proud, if the Kuobin Reservoir is a national project, Sidney Johnny has further capital with these achievements."

"Pick out some of the ones who want to run the farms and send them to Illinois and Indiana, where more and better farms are waiting for them." Li Mu did not forget that he had a larger area of land in Illinois and Indiana, and compared with these two states, the farm in the Broadside Reservoir could not be described as a farm at all, at most it was a small vegetable garden.