Kowloon City is about a mile away from the wharf, and at the strong request of Liang Pengfei, no walls were built, but what was revealed in front of people's eyes was a patchwork of beautiful houses, all of which were made of masonry and concrete, each of which was two to three storeys and four or five storeys, and the side facing the street was all storefronts, filled with a dazzling array of goods, and the vendors were in and out, bargaining and arguing. 【】

The streets are far smoother than one might think, with gray-white concrete pavements as wide as four feet, and in the middle of the pavement, there are beautiful and narrow flower beds as signs in the middle of the road, and all kinds of horse-drawn carriages are running in an orderly manner on both sides of the flower beds, including two-wheeled carriages, four-wheeled carriages, and rickshaws that rely on human power to pull them.

There are also wide sidewalks on both sides of the road on which pedestrians can safely stroll, and at intervals, or at the end of the street, a man in uniform counts the time according to the hourglass that is placed beside him, stopping the galloping carriage and allowing pedestrians to pass.

And Liang Pengfei and his entourage just walked on the sidewalk, the first time they came to Hong Kong Island, Wu Guoying couldn't help but open her mouth wide when she saw Kowloon City, and her cloudy and shrewd old eyes were full of childlike curiosity.

And Na Pan smiled and explained to the old gentleman the purpose of all kinds of objects here, there are fruit peel garbage bins, people's garbage can be thrown directly in the garbage bin, and as for why there is no ditch to see, it is because the ditch is all buried in the ground, and every other distance, there will be a straight well for people to clean up.

There are also pillars that stand on the side of the street, the style is very similar to Huabiao, that is the lamppost, there is a glass cover on the top to prevent the wind, and on the outside of the glass cover, it is also specially tied with iron wire, this kind of lamp post is specially used for lighting at night.

And the fuel used in it is not candles or ordinary grease, but kerosene. Today, Liang Pengfei has a large area of coal fields in his hands, in addition to meeting the needs of large-scale steel making, a considerable part of it is used for sale, and kerosene is also the masterpiece of the Xiwangdao Coal Deep Processing Research Institute.

In fact, the real kerosene is one of the oils refined from oil, but for Liang Pengfei, a self-righteous 205, what can the oil refined in coal be called if it is not called kerosene? Believe it or not, I'll fork you!

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As a result, this kind of oil distilled from coal was quickly named kerosene by the staff of the research institute, but the cost was extremely high, and about five tons of coal could only be refined into less than 2,000 catties of oil. In those days, the price of coal was not low, so the output and income of this oil, which was nearly 10 times higher than the cost of coal, could not be compared.

The main reason is that there are really not many people who are willing to pay such a large amount of money, but it is not nothing, at least those Westerners feel that the light of this grease after lighting is even more than that of candles, and there is very little smoke, so Liang Pengfei's original intention of domestic sales was immediately changed to export.

Nearly ten tons of kerosene were sold to Western colonizers every month, and the money earned was not made in vain, and the money earned continued to be invested in research to find ways to reduce costs.

For this reason, apart from the lighting street lamps in Kowloon City, there are almost not many left, and they are sold to those Westerners. However, as early as half a year ago, Liang Pengfei had already sent those experts to spend a lot of money to buy oil from Shaanxi in the mainland to start researching, if feasible, I believe that in the near future, more suitable lighting oil and fuel oil will appear in thousands of households.

"Maybe the father of the internal combustion engine was born in my research institute." Liang Pengfei's face was arrogant and proud.

And under those beautiful street trees, there are also beautiful benches for people to rest, watching those old people sit on chairs in the shade of the trees, with a satisfied smile on their faces and watch their grandchildren play on the side.

Most of the residents living here are craftsmen, they should be called workers, and most of them work in the shipyards and related industrial factories there, and nearly 40,000 of them have relocated from Nanyang, they have long shaved off the braids on their heads, that kind of very modern hairstyle, and the kind of shirts and trousers that Liang Pengfei first designed and wore for convenience, and many other daily necessities with the atmosphere of later generations, making Liang Pengfei feel like he has returned to the later generations, back to the era of peace.

Many artisans from the mainland also lived here, and today Kowloon City has grown into a small and medium-sized town with nearly 70,000 inhabitants, but the atmosphere is far greater than that of any other city of its time.

"If one day I say, all my Chinese land will live and work in peace and contentment, this life is enough!" Liang Pengfei sighed half emotionally, half satisfied.

"Definitely, virtuous son-in-law, in just a few years, you have been able to make so many achievements, and have given us too many surprises, I believe that what you want to do, you can definitely do." Pan Youdu, who was walking beside Liang Pengfei, raised his eyebrows and was full of spirit.

"It's not enough, in fact, what I've done is far from enough, it's all due to everyone's efforts and the help of your father-in-law." Liang Pengfei's face was full of pride, and he looked very sincere and authentic, which made Pan You feel extraordinarily useful.

"Okay, virtuous son-in-law, you let us come here with you to go shopping, I'm afraid the purpose is more than that, right?" Pan Youdu turned his head back, and saw that his daughter and two other Liang Pengfei's wives were going in and out of the shops on those streets. I couldn't help but smile and said.

"Hehe, of course, I heard that my father-in-law's banking business, in the past six months, has suppressed the Jin merchants a lot." Liang Pengfei walked slowly with his hands behind his back, quite meaningful.

"It can't be called suppression, it's just that they always feel that we are robbing their money bank's business, and it's normal to have some small frictions." Pan Youdu showed a faint trace of worry on his face. "Moreover, those Jin merchants are not easy to mess with, our bank's current business, but only set foot on the Yangtze River, they have already ......."

"Huh. My father-in-law doesn't need to be in a hurry to explain, I know that you and my uncle have been able to open the bank so hotly, and I have no intention of stopping you from reaching inland. Liang Pengfei smiled and waved his hand, signaling that Pan Youdu didn't have to explain, many things, although he didn't ask, it didn't mean that he didn't know.

And the formation of a bank was the first thing he thought of, but it was thanks to the Venetian merchant Max who was rescued by Liang Pengfei. Luo, he told Liang Pengfei, that banking was formed in the West hundreds of years ago, and that Venice became a trading center due to its special geographical location. In 1580, a bank with a relatively complete system of financial services was established: the Bank of Venice.

After more than 200 years of development and more than 200 years of testing, it has fully matured and has a complete system, and it is not like the money village in the East, which is still stagnant.

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It is precisely because of his reminder that Liang Pengfei recruited a lot of talents in the financial industry from Nanyang, and also let Max. After returning to Venice, Luo helped him hire a group of financial talents.

After nearly two years of preparation, after persuading Pan Youdu, Ye Shanglin and others, Liang Pengfei invested 50 million taels of silver, and Pan Youdu, Ye Shanglin, and Lu Hengguan each contributed 15 million taels of silver to form the first Oriental bank, which was named Industrial and Commercial Bank by Liang Pengfei.

The implication is that the banks that serve the industrial and commercial people, in this era, the real need for currency circulation and exchange is mainly this group of people. After that, Wu Guoying also invested 15 million taels into the shares, and many businessmen also enthusiastically invested in the shares, making the share capital rise from the initial 95 million taels to 130 million taels, this huge amount of money made Liang Pengfei realize how rich the wealth of the Chinese people is, and this is only two broad and one place, which made Liang Pengfei more determined to establish a bank.

At present, the general manager of this bank is none other than Ye Shanglin's eldest son, Liang Pengfei's cousin Ye Zhengqing, who is shrewd, and has also been in the business world for more than ten years.

Soon, I became familiar with the bank's operating procedures, and with the help of those veterans who came from the West and had been engaged in the banking industry for a long time, ICBC soon officially embarked on the track and started business.

In addition, there is the support of these business giants openly and secretly, so in less than half a year, all the money banks and ticket numbers in Liangguang have been squeezed out, and they are also expanding and developing rapidly with an extremely rapid momentum.

Even in the Nanyang area, the branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has been established on several densely populated islands such as Mindanao and Java, just like the egg of a prehistoric giant beast hatched, the original small thing that was just a little bit of it swelled like a blow, and it has begun to show its immature, but it has already fainted the cold light of the minions, which has made the surrounding creatures dare to a kind of fear from the heart.

If it weren't for their good reputation and reputation, coupled with the hesitation and worry of the Chinese about new things, I am afraid that the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, as a new thing, would have been crushed by the trend of destruction and decay.

And now, Liang Pengfei suddenly mentioned this matter, which made Pan Youdu a little uneasy while curious, because Liang Pengfei is almost just the master who does not care about the dividends, but he has always known the surname of his son-in-law, as long as everything is mentioned, something must happen.

(To be continued)