The Liang family's family meetings were held for two nights in quick succession.

At the second meeting, Mr. Liang reported the results of his negotiations with those old friends in the past two days, and the original leader of the thirteen lines was the Wu family, and the Wu family is still unwilling to put down his body and invest in the Liang family's business network. The strength of the Pan family in the thirteen lines is actually no less than that of the Wu family, and the Pan family occupies three commercial houses in the thirteen lines, and they have a great right to speak, but the Pan family has basically withdrawn from the shopping mall now. However, this time, the Pan family actually took out three million taels of silver to buy shares, which proves that the Pan family has not really withdrawn from the rivers and lakes, and is very optimistic about the Liang family's plan, because the old man Liang explained to them that the Liang family will contribute 10 million taels of silver, everyone is an old friend, and each other's family backgrounds are almost counted, and 10 million taels of silver is estimated to be the vast majority of the cash that the Liang family can come up with.

Young Master Liang's grandmother's family, that is, his mother's maiden family, and the Shunxing Wu family contributed 1 million taels, and the Dongchang Xingluo family and the Xuetai Xingyi family each contributed 500,000 taels, and what was surprising was that the Rong family of Anchang Xing actually took out 2 million taels of shares, and the strength of the Rong family was not strong, which was estimated to be most of the cash they could use.

In fact, the Liang family can raise so much funds this time, first, the Liang family has a good reputation, the Chinese in this era value credibility and face, the second is optimistic about this plan, and the third is that the Liang family is strong, including financial strength and talent strength, the second generation of the Liang family is full of talents, and the seven brothers are very united, which is unique among the thirteen lines. Like the Pan family and the Rong family, because there is no successor in the mall, it is useless to have empty funds. It seems that if you want to succeed in your career, having a son is also a necessary skill.

In terms of funds, the Liang family actually took advantage, after all, the Liang family's 10 million taels of silver could not be taken out at one time, and the Liang family could only gradually withdraw funds from the current business and gradually invest, while the others were all invested in cash, but this plan was proposed by the Liang family, and the Liang family was a holding company, and the others did not care.

The Liang family business network has a total investment of 17 million taels of silver, the Liang family accounts for 58% of the shares, the Pan family accounts for 18% of the shares, the Rong family accounts for 12% of the shares, the Wu family accounts for 6% of the shares, and the Luo family and the Yi family each account for 3%.

Young Master Liang began to prepare for the establishment of his telegraph company, and he again came to the Shamian Concession with two followers.

Now the most powerful Western power in the Qing Dynasty is the British, who are greedy behind their backs, pretending to be gentlemen on the surface, and talking about civilization in their mouths, but in fact they are hypocrites. Now the opium of the Qing Dynasty is rampant, most of them are smuggled in by the British, doing such a lucrative business, but they even refuse to hand over the customs duties to the Qing government, and the dignified "I Daqing" is just not seen! Presumably, this imperial court has been frightened by the cannon of the giant ship, and the truth is indeed within the range of the cannon!

The current British Empire is a real empire on which the sun never sets, with colonies spread across five continents, and Canada and Australia are its dominions, so the British Empire is no longer so keen on encroaching on land, and more wants to earn a lot of gold and silver.

Therefore, if Young Master Liang wants to set up a telegraph company, he must bring the British in. But if you only cooperate with the British, maybe one day the British will become greedy, take the telegraph company for themselves, and the monks will be driven away by the incense burners, it will be ugly. The British were even able to let the navy pretend to be pirates to rob at sea, so they had to guard against people.

The rest of the powers also have France, the United States, the current Prussia, the future Germany and other European and American countries, it is better to bring these three countries in, then it is estimated that the British will pretend to be gentlemen in front of everyone. As for whether these countries will join in, there is no doubt that no one will refuse the money sent to the door, and they have come to China thousands of miles to earn money for nothing.

Young Master Liang found a British foreign firm in the Shamian Concession: Swire & Co. The largest British company here is Jardine Matheson, but this Jardine Matheson is too ugly, opium smuggling is the most rampant of them, and the first opium war was also promoted by the owner of Jardine Matheson, the British Jardine, who lobbied the British Parliament behind the scenes, so Master Liang vetoed it. Another reason for choosing Swire & Co. was that they had a good relationship with the British Navy, and their main business was steamship shipping, as well as the promotion of British textiles and the purchase of Chinese silk and tea. The reputation in the industry is much better than that of Jardine Matheson.

Young Master Liang used the same routine as the last time in Lihe and the foreign company, and soon met the Taipan of Swire & Co.: Luo Bin, whose name is very similar to the Chinese, is an authentic Englishman, and he is full of curiosity about the Chinese teenager in front of him who can speak fluent English. Young Master Liang introduced himself by the name Ronnie, which sounded like a brother to Luo Bin, and to paraphrase a common phrase: "fate"!

"Mr. Robin, I want to buy a few boats, and I heard that you are the most reputable merchant in the concession, so I came here to look for you." Young Master Liang's way of speaking is in line with the taste of the British, who doesn't like a high hat.

"Oh buy Ka, Ronnie, you're trading at such a young age"? The Englishman asked not so politely.

"Mr. Luo Bin, I represent the Liang family of Guangzhou Tianbao Xing, do you think I can talk to you about business?"

"Oh, I think there should be no problem with this", Luo Bin thought for a moment, he must know about the Tianbao Xingliang family, "I beg your pardon, I'm just not used to talking about business with a young friend like yours."

"It's okay, it's normal, it's not the first time I've encountered this situation", Young Master Liang smiled "I pay more attention to reputation and profit in business, what do you think"?

"Of course, I think we agree on this point of view," the Englishman laughed too, "Please sit down, young sir, are you going to buy a few ships"?

"Yes, buy two first, and then two more by the end of the year, an iron-hulled ocean freighter of about 3,000 tons, with two types of power of sails and steam, and a speed of no less than ten knots, I don't know if you can buy it here"?

"Sir, I have to say that you are a knowledgeable person, please rest assured that the British Empire has the best shipbuilding industry in the world, and your requirements will definitely be met". The attitude of the British has noticeably become polite.

"Then I need you to give me a reasonable offer".

"No problem, please be patient for a few days, I need to contact the shipyard in China".

"Okay, if there is a reply, please send someone to send a letter to Tianbao Xing, and I will come to you immediately", Young Master Liang knew that he could only talk so much for the first time, and then said goodbye and left. Buying ships is incidental, anyway, the expansion of the Liang family also needs more ships, and two are definitely not enough. Today I came to ask for directions.

Let's go to the Americans next.

The largest American-funded foreign firm in the Shamian Concession is Qichang Foreign Company, which is also a foreign company mainly engaged in steamship shipping, but Qichang Foreign Company's other businesses include steel smelting and ship repair, and it is also a large-scale foreign company.

But Master Liang has encountered a problem, what kind of business is he talking about this time, he can't buy a ship, a fleet of ships is best built by the same manufacturer, otherwise the maintenance in the future will be more troublesome, and now at this time the shipbuilding industry in the United States is still a little rough, much worse than the British, but the United States is developing rapidly, and in another twenty or thirty years, they will be able to catch up, after all, they have a good industrial base, and the United States' perfect education can provide a large number of talents. In the Qing Dynasty, where I am located, these two aspects are basically blank. China has a long way to go in order to develop and catch up with the pace of the great powers.