In Mr. Liang's study, the grandfather and grandson have been chatting for a long time.

The old man's face was not good, and his grandson was too bold, so he went to buy guns and cannons without making a sound. To tell the truth, a big family like them also has a few short guns and a dozen long guns at home, but tens of thousands of rifles and dozens of cannons, if this is placed at home and let the government know, it will be a big crime to kill the head! Maybe even the imperial court will be alarmed, and people will definitely say that the Liang family wants to rebel. A few years after the Longhair Rebellion was put down, the imperial court was very sensitive to these matters. Fortunately, the contract has not yet been signed, there is no evidence in black and white, and there is still room for redemption. As for the two ships that can be bought, the Liang family wants to expand outward, and this new type of sea freighter is really needed. The Qing Dynasty implemented a monopoly on salt and iron, and the government needed to approve this kind of business, and the large-scale steel plant in the Qing Dynasty did not have it, and the private bid was not expected to be approved, so the steel plant could not be done at all. There is no cement factory in Daqing, but this does not need special approval from the government, after all, it is just a building material, and it seems that the market demand will be bigger and bigger, but it can be done.

The Liang family is a family of traders, and there are only some small workshops below, and there is no experience in running a new large-scale factory, so everything has to be done slowly. Old man Liang is still cautious.

"Grandpa, I also know that these things need to be very careful, so I didn't talk about it when we discussed it together, and I came to report to you separately today."

"That's right, because our family is a big family, and it is a matter of life and death for thousands of people, so we can't mess around", the old man looked serious.

"Actually, these things I talked about are connected to a plan, you listen to me and I will report to you slowly", the old man nodded in agreement.

"When I was studying in Hong Kong, I knew a British missionary, and I met him when he had just returned from Qiongzhou, but he died of an emergency shortly after he returned, and I was given a copy of his notebook, and when I read it, I found that it recorded many conditions in Qiongzhou. I guess this missionary is not only going to preach, but also has the task of scouting the resources of Qiongzhou. This is not surprising, most of the missionaries who came to the Qing Dynasty had the identity of part-time spies, after all, it is certainly not possible to blatantly investigate everywhere, and it is very appropriate to use the identity of a missionary as a cover. "Young Master Liang can only make up stories slowly, and the old man can only listen to him.

"He recorded an important thing in his notebook, this missionary found a large iron ore in the area of Changhua County in the west of Qiongzhou, in his opinion, this iron ore is relatively easy to mine, and the grade of iron ore is relatively high, grandpa, do you think this matter is important"?

"Well, it's an important thing, this Qing Dynasty has a lot of land and resources, and there must be a lot of iron ore and coal mines like this", Old Man Liang's thoughts are still limited by the times and he doesn't pay much attention to it.

"Grandpa, there is no real steel factory in the Qing Dynasty so far, because in the past, the demand for steel in the Qing Dynasty was not large, that is, the army of the imperial court made knives, guns and weapons, as well as farmers' farm tools, and kitchen knives and iron pots used by the common people. However, the times are developing, and now the Qing Dynasty is also learning from Western countries to develop industry, and also build steamships, foreign guns and cannons, and will also open railways in the future, and the demand for steel will increase greatly, and it will not be satisfied by relying on those workshops to make iron, and the quality of ironmaking in the workshops is too poor to make guns and ships can not be used, and now the iron used in these factories is bought from foreigners at a high price."

Old Man Liang nodded and said, "I also know this, but the government will not approve the private steel plant."

"The question is, if the British know about this iron mine, they enclose land there, and ask the imperial court to buy it, will the imperial court dare to disagree? Qiongzhou is lonely overseas, the southwest is barren mountains and mountains, there are no people, even the exiled prisoners will not go there, that kind of place the imperial court will not pay attention to at all, even Hong Kong said that it will be ceded, the British want a piece of barren mountains and mountains, they will definitely agree, the current imperial court is most afraid of the British."

"Han'er, this is not something that our people should worry about, we have our own government to take care of it, and we can't manage it even if we want to", the old man said helplessly.

"No, grandpa, I have a way, my plan is related to these", Young Master Liang looked confident.

"Okay, then you can talk about it", the old man didn't believe it.

"First of all, the missionary's notebook has been read by no one but me, and the missionary has died, and the notebook has been burned and destroyed by me, which means that the iron ore matter is kept secret for the time being. My plan is for us to build a base there, and that place is deserted, and the people of the government will not go there, except for a small number of Li people in the mountains, no outsiders will go there, so our occupation of that place is also quite secret. Also, after the occupation, we will be bandits, so who will know except ourselves? ”

"Then we will open mines, build steel plants, cement factories, and most importantly, we can build a training base for the Liang family's escort there, and the guns we buy will not have to be transported to Guangzhou, but can be unloaded on our own ships in Hong Kong and transported directly there."

"Grandpa, we want to build a dart bureau, we need a large number of martial artists, but a large number of reliable martial artists are not easy to find, and the martial artists with great skills are often mostly unruly, and there may be endless troubles after use, it is better not to use them, if we train a group of escort teams like the foreign army, the combat effectiveness is strong, and it is easy to manage, wouldn't it be better. Such an escort is the most reliable to defend the money and the trading houses. Of course, we also want reliable martial artists, when escorting goods, the martial artists are in the open and the escort is in the dark, and such armed forces are afraid of bandits and robbers on the ground of the Qing Dynasty. ”

After saying a lot in one breath, Young Master Liang was a little dry, and drank herbal tea to moisten his throat.

Old man Liang figured it out, it turned out that this kid had a premeditated plan, buying machinery and equipment from the steel factory and cement factory, buying ships, and buying guns, all of which were connected together, all in order to occupy that piece of land, what base to build, and then train troops and set up an escort team, this step by step was designed, and he was an old man, how did he find that this grandson's scheming was deeper than him.

Old Man Liang also picked up the teacup and took a sip of water, he needed to calm down, and after a while he said, "You go back first, let me think about it carefully."

Well, Young Master Liang can only agree, who made him his grandson.