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The morning light gradually emerges on the horizon of the land in the distance of the Huangpu River, cutting through the night that envelops Shanghai. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

At this time, the street lights on the road in the concession had not been extinguished, and even the merchant ships on the Huangpu River and the warships of various countries would still have their masts lit. Compared with the deserted concession in the past, the current concession is becoming more and more lively -- just six days ago, a group of wharf coolies from Guangdong formed the "Little Knife Society" to seize Shanghai County, but in just a few hours, Shanghai County was defeated, and the "Ming Kingdom" was built in Shanghai County, and the leader of the Little Knife Society, Liu Lichuan, went to the concession on the day he captured Shanghai, and he promised the consuls of various countries: The Little Knife Society is only aimed at the Qing government, not at foreigners, and the killing outside is shocking, and the concession is as safe as Mount Tai, and will never let a soldier enter the concession to make trouble. This promise kept the foreigners neutral for the time being, and made the concession the only remaining island of peace in the war.

On the day when the Little Knife Society and the Qing army tore apart, 20,000 Chinese people poured into the British Concession. In order to find shelter, the refugees had to rent a house from a foreign landlord. Houses are in short supply, refugees do not hesitate to spend a lot of money, people are flooding for a while, rents are rising sharply, and foreigners with big houses are all paid. Savvy foreigners took the opportunity to build simple houses and rent them to Chinese at high prices to make high profits. However, this seems to be a good thing for Liu Yixuan of Oriental & Co. - not only does he own more than 20 acres of good land, but also has a large number of simple houses built on those lands. Naturally, it is very profitable.

But renting a house is just a side hustle for foreign companies. The "Bank of East Asia", which he opened a few months ago, is the real main business of the bank, and although the Bank of East Asia is barely afloat now, for Liu Yixuan, all he needs is to maintain this "business".

When the day was about to be released, when his wife was still asleep, Liu Yixuan got up quietly, walked out of the bedroom, and came to the study, he first looked at the English newspaper that he had just delivered today, there seemed to be no news in the newspaper, and suddenly, an inconspicuous news in the corner made him stunned.

"On July 8, U.S. Navy Commodore Perry led a fleet into Uraga and Kanagawa in Edo Bay, and asked the Japanese shogun to open the port......"

Although it is just an inconspicuous little news, it makes Liu Yixuan's heart pound, maybe for outsiders, this is just an inconspicuous news, but he has been waiting for this day, and even the establishment of the Bank of East Asia is for this day!

"It's going to open the port, it's going to open the port!"

The reason why he was so excited was because Zhu Yifeng, who was in Wuchang, had told him in a letter that the Americans would ask Japan to open a port when he was in Shanghai a few months ago, and his reason was very simple: the American whaling fleet needed to supply ports. That's exactly what Perry sailed to Shanghai for. It was at that time that at his request, the Bank of East Asia invested 100,000 taels of silver to establish the Bank of East Asia.

"The purpose of opening a bank now is not to absorb deposits, but to enter Japan in the future to do business and do silver business!"

What kind of silver business do you do?

Naturally, they took advantage of the gap between the Japanese gold and silver exchange rate and Shanghai to engage in reselling, which was nearly three times the huge profit, and the bank was just a stepping stone!

At first, Liu Yixuan was even a little skeptical about this matter, but after several inquiries, he confirmed the matter from the merchant who was qualified to enter the Japanese trade.

"Japan opens, Shanghai ......"

Looking at the news from two months ago, which was published in the newspaper only today, it is because the Perry fleet "visited" Japan on the way back to the United States, and it is very likely that this news was even transmitted back from the United States.

can think of a few months ago, this matter has been expected by Zhu Yifeng, and even the incident of the Shanghai Knife Club, which was also expected by him, thinking of his unpredictable ability, Liu Yixuan's mind was in chaos, and his awe of him increased a little.

"I don't know what his plans are for this incident in Shanghai?"

Thinking of the letter that had been sent, Liu Yixuan secretly thought to himself, as an agent, all he needed was to do a good business, but that didn't mean he wouldn't think.

"Could it be that the Metropolitan Governor is preparing to surrender the Little Knife Society?"

When this thought popped up in his heart, Liu Yixuan was nervous again, this knife would stay away from Wuchang, even if it was surrendered, what could it do? Besides, how could it be possible for it to return to Wuchang, after all, there was a Taiping Heavenly Kingdom between the two!

The Metropolitan Governor should not be seriously preparing to surrender this little knife meeting!

When Liu Yixuan thought like this, Zhu Yifeng, who was far away in Wuchang, didn't know that the Little Knife Society had revolted at all, and for him, almost as soon as he entered the lobby, he got the good news from Daye.

"That Fresen is also really capable, and he is willing to do it. It is only a few days before Dazhi that coal mines have been discovered in Hujiawan, and the preliminary estimate is that Hujiawan coal is buried in the area of Huajing Mountain, and its coal seedlings are exposed, and the preliminary estimate is that the reserves are 2 million tons. ”

"Three million tons, what is a ton?"

Zhang Liangji, who joined the army as the governor's office, interrupted Chen Duan's words. In the governor's mansion, there are always many things to learn, and in this regard, he is different from Luo Bingzhang, although Luo Bingzhang has not yet entered the palace, but he is looking at Western books that have been translated into Chinese characters borrowed from Wenshan Yishu every day.

"Ton is the name of foreigners."

Chen Duan hurriedly explained.

"One ton is almost 2,000 catties, 10,000 tons is 20 million catties, and 3 million tons is 600,000 catties!"

Hearing this number, Zhang Liangji gasped in surprise and muttered.

"How are there so many!"

Is it much?

For the Chinese people of this era, I am afraid that 3 million tons is indeed a big number, but for Zhu Yifeng, these 3 million tons of reserves are not even a small coal mine in later generations.

"And the quality of the coal is good, comparable to the fine bituminous coal of England, although it is not the fine anthracite required by the steamers, but it is enough to be used to make coke for iron-making, and according to the head of Xi, he has already acquired thousands of catties of iron ore in Daye. Obviously, the local area is indeed as contained in the gazetteer, not only there are exposed ore seedlings, and the reserves are also quite rich, and after preliminary testing, it can be seen that its mineral quality is also very good, and the iron content is also very high, and the iron content is also very high, and the iron ore contains about 600 catties of iron in 1,000 catties, which can smelt high-grade iron. ”

This time was different from before, when Chen Duan explained, he deliberately changed the unit from tons to catties that were easier to understand, but his change fell on Zhang Liangji's ears, which made his brows slightly raised, and he seemed to be a little unhappy.

"Daye should have good iron."

Zhu Yifeng, who so quickly determined the coal and iron in Daye, was naturally quite happy,

"Several books, such as "Taiping Huanyu Ji" and "Fangyu Minutes", have recorded that there is an iron mountain near Daye. Since Sun Quan, the king of Wu of the Three Kingdoms, he set up a furnace to make iron here, and until the Ming Dynasty, there were people who constantly mined and smelted iron. Yue Fei forged a batch of extremely sharp swords here, known as the Sword of Daye. The sword of Daye was the sword of the time. I think there must have been people who did this kind of thing before Sun Quan. Where does Daye's name come from? Of course, it is because there was a large-scale iron smelting here! ”

This is just an excuse, for Zhu Yifeng, the reason why he chose Daye is because of the famous "Hanyang Iron Works" in history, but in this time and space, Hanyang Iron Works may never exist again, and in the future, China's first modern iron works will be located in Daye's riverside highlands, not Hanyang, as for Hanyang...... Well, maybe an arsenal will be built in the future.

"What the Governor said is very true. Daye Daye must be related to smelting. If it weren't for the Governor's previous instructions, how would the ministers know about this? ”

Chen Duan hurriedly nodded and complimented.

"Since the coal mine and iron ore have been found in Daye, in the opinion of the minister, the land should be immediately requisitioned to organize mining, after all, the governor's government now uses more than 100,000 catties of iron every month, and the need for coal is more than 1 million catties, although the iron-making equipment ordered from abroad has not yet arrived, but in the opinion of the minister, it can be made in a Western-style iron furnace like the arsenal!"

As the Ministry of Industry Chen Duan, the reason why he proposed to mine Daye's coal and iron ore now, on the one hand, is because the governor needs a large amount of coal and iron, on the other hand, there is also his selfishness, in the case of Xi Zhimo is not the head of the Ministry of Industry, now the head of the Ministry of Industry is vacant, in this case, the Ministry of Industry in the number of people also have room for promotion, with the presiding salt mine into the eyes of the metropolitan governor Chen Duan naturally hopes to be able to preside over the coal and iron mining to get promoted. That's why he seized the opportunity in front of him!

Everyone has selfishness, and sometimes selfishness and public selfishness always overlap.

"In addition, whether it is to build a Western-style iron-making furnace or to use a foreign-style iron-making method, it can train technicians, and when the foreign machine arrives, he will not have to worry about the shortage of furnace builders, nor will he be disturbed by the shortage of iron-making workers, so it will not be conducive to the construction of an ironworks in the future!"

Chen Duan's words were very reasonable, and Zhang Liangji nodded in agreement on the side.

"What Chen Dushi said is extremely true, the governor of the capital, in the opinion of the minister, since this mine was discovered by Xi Dushi, and he is proficient in the Western iron-making method, and the iron furnace of this factory was also built by him, he might as well hand over the matter of the iron factory to Xi Dushi......"

When a seemingly fair suggestion came out of Zhang Liangji's mouth, it only made Chen Duanmao's self-recommendation suffocate back to his stomach, and even secretly thought about how he offended him Zhang Liangji and let him treat himself like this.

"Well, I think it's okay!"

Regarding the intrigue between his subordinates, Zhu Yifeng didn't think it was any different, in fact, to a certain extent, he was happy to do so, the power technique itself lies in balance, if the subordinates are ironclad, it will pose a threat to him.

After discussing the matter of coal and iron mines, Zhu Yifeng took out another official letter, looked at everyone and said.

"There's one more thing to discuss!" (To be continued.) )