"Tell me what you think, Jenny." Wu Guohua said to his daughter in English with a smile.

"This young general is a strange man, and what he calls the 'right starting point' is actually the focus of his 'thesis'." Wu Jiayuan said, "The reason why our business group has been able to stand in the world for hundreds of years without collapse is because it has always stood on the 'right starting point'? ”。

"Yes, there is a saying in China, called 'one wrong step, one crooked step', indeed, as you said, we have come through this difficult way, and the word 'correct starting point' has been summed up." Wu Guohua remembered the difficult past, and the corners of his eyes couldn't help but moisten for a while.

"Now, there are almost not many people in China who can remember us." Wu Jiayuan sighed, still speaking English.

At this time, no one would have thought about what the previous identities of these Chinese, who had been completely "Westernized", were.

There is a Qing generation, there have been three commercial groups in history, namely the two Huai salt merchants, Shanxi Jin merchants and Guangdong merchants, the salt merchants of the two Huai are engaged in the salt industry, the Jin merchants are engaged in the ticket number, and the main business of the merchants is foreign trade. Among them, the history of Guangdong merchants is the most glorious, but it is also the least known to future generations.

After Emperor Kangxi abolished the ban on the sea, four major customs offices were set up in Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu, allowing trade with the outside world. However, the Qing court at that time did not have a well-formed foreign trade system and could not afford to receive foreign merchant ships. Therefore, in 1686, the Guangdong Customs Government recruited thirteen more powerful trading houses to act as agents for overseas trade business, which was later commonly known as the "Thirteen Lines". Later, the number of merchants fluctuated, as little as 4 and as many as 26, but the "Thirteen Lines" has become the customary title of this merchant group, and it can be said that the "Thirteen Lines" is the "Special Foreign Trade Zone" of the Qing Dynasty.

In 1757, Emperor Qianlong ordered "one port of trade", and only one of the four major customs was retained in Guangdong, and the "Thirteen Lines" reached its heyday, which had an important impact on China's later economic development and even world trade. Almost all major countries and regions in Asia, Europe, and the Americas have had direct trade relations with the "Thirteen Lines", and a large number of tea, silk, ceramics and other commodities have been shipped from Guangzhou to all over the world. For the next 100 years, the Thirteen Banks of Guangdong provided a large amount of tariff revenue to the Qing government.

Among the "Thirteen Lines", the four richest people, Pan Shaoguang, Lu Guanheng, Wu Bingjian, and Ye Shanglin, founded Tongwen Xing, Guangli Xing, Yihe Xing, and Yicheng Xing are the most famous. Among them, the Jardine House run by the Wu family has an annual trade volume of millions of taels of silver with British and American merchants, and its reputation in Chinese and foreign business circles is the loudest.

Among the three major business groups of the Qing Dynasty, the salt merchants, the Jin merchants and the merchants, the assets of the merchants were more concentrated, and the Wu family, which had been operating for a hundred years, made the assets of the merchants reach the peak of history. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Wu family's Jardine House became the leading merchant in Guangzhou. In the forty years between 1810 and 1850, Wu Bingjian, the "Second Emperor of Wu Haoguan", mastered the Wu family, and the power of the Wu family in the mainland reached its peak. With the efforts of Wu Guohua's uncle, the business genius Wu Bingjian, Jardine Hong has become a leader in the business. Wu Bingjian was described by American businessmen as "honest, kind, careful, generous, and wealthy", and the British praised him as "good at managing money and clever people". The Wu family was not only a feudal official and merchant, but also made a fortune by trading with Western merchants. They had the closest ties with foreign merchants, and the Wu family was able to move between the East India Company, retail merchants, and American merchants. What is not known is that Wu Bingjian is also the "banker" and largest creditor of the British East India Company. The person in charge of the East India Company, when he went to Macao for a temporary residence after the end of the Canton transaction every year, always entrusted a large amount of deposits, gold and silver to Wu Bingjian for safekeeping. The East India Company sometimes had poor cash flow and also borrowed money from the Wu family. Unlike other traders, Mr. Ng is willing to try new areas of investment, holding U.S. securities and investing in railroad construction in the U.S. The multi-faceted investment has brought him more benefits. By the time the Opium War broke out in 1834, the Wu family's fortune had reached a staggering 26 million silver dollars (a total value equivalent to 5 billion yuan today). In the eyes of Westerners at that time, Wu Bingjian was the richest person in the world, and Western scholars called him "the richest man in the world". As a result, Jardine has become a veritable multinational consortium. …,

Before 1840, it can be said that it was the heyday of Guangdong merchants, but after the outbreak of the Opium War, the glory of the Guangdong merchant group represented by the "Thirteen Lines" declined in the war.

But an astonishing fact is that the Guangdong merchants, led by the Wu family, did not die out, but moved overseas to take root.

Just when the Wu multinational consortium was at its peak, an undercurrent was quietly surging. At this time, Wu Bingjian, who was already old, was also keenly aware of the impending crisis.

Since most of the business of the Thirteen Lines was with another monopolist, the British East India Company, which was the plenipotentiary trade representative of the British Empire, however, the trade monopoly of the East India Company was abolished by the British government in 1834. At that time, China's "one-stop trade" approach could not meet the growing foreign trade activities, and the trade friction between the "Thirteen Lines" and British free merchants escalated, which gradually became the focus of the crisis in Sino-Western relations in the 19th century.

The Wu family's Jardine House has always been a serious business, and tea trade is the most important business of the Wu family. However, some foreign merchants sponsored by the Wu family often carried opium in their goods in order to make huge profits. For the Wu family, on the one hand, it is the imperial court, and on the other hand, it is a business partner who has traded for many years, and both sides cannot afford to offend. Therefore, they can only do their best to resolve these crises in the middle.

After Lin Zexu went to Guangzhou to ban smoking, the Wu family actively cooperated and handed over more than 1,000 boxes of opium handed over by foreign merchants to Lin Zexu, but Lin Zexu believed that these opiums were handed over by the thirteen merchants in collusion with British merchants to deceive the government, so he sent someone to lock up Wu Bingjian's son Wu Shaorong to the minister of the Qin mission for interrogation. In the face of the prestige of the government, the Wu family could only compromise and expressed their willingness to repay the service with their family resources. Although Wu Bingjian once donated a huge amount of money to the imperial court in exchange for the three-grade top, this could not save his career in the slightest. Due to his inextricable ties with British businessmen, he was reprimanded and punished by Lin Zexu many times, and Lin Zexu even ordered Wu Shaorong, who was involved in the case, to be removed from all positions and arrested and imprisoned. Wu Bingjian had to sacrifice huge sums of wealth to the Qing government again and again in order to obtain temporary peace. After so many tosses, Wu Bingjian lost face, and it can be said that Sven was swept away.

In June 1840, the British Expeditionary Force blockaded the Pearl River Estuary, and the Opium War broke out. The efforts of Wu Bingjian and his son to find a peaceful solution to the opium problem were a complete failure. Wu Bingjian clearly knew that the root cause of the British war was dissatisfaction with Guangzhou's "one-stop trade" and the monopoly trade position of the Thirteen Merchants, and once the British army won, there was no doubt that the unique trade position of the Guangdong merchant group would be completely lost.

In order to win this war, the Wu family and other merchants contributed huge amounts of wealth to this war. As soon as the war began, Wu Bingjian and the merchants of the Thirteen Lines actively raised funds to build fortress forts, build new warships, and make artillery and firearms. Even so, the Qing army, which had fallen behind the times, was still defeated on all fronts. In May 1841, when the British army marched straight into the city of Guangzhou, the Qing army under the command of Yishan, the minister of the Qin Mission, was unable to resist. Outside the city of Guangzhou, Wu Shaorong and the merchants who were ordered to act began to bargain with the leader of the British army, Yilu. In the end, the two sides signed the "Guangzhou Peace Treaty", according to the agreement, the Qing army withdrew 60 miles outside the city of Guangzhou, and handed over 6 million yuan in compensation within a week; The British retreated beyond the Humen Fort. One-third of the huge sum of 6 million yuan was funded by the thirteen merchants, of which Wu Bingjian contributed the most, totaling 1.1 million yuan.

It is a pity that this act of redeeming the city did not bring any honor and gratitude to Wu Bingjian, but more criticism. From the very beginning of the war, businessmen who did business with foreigners were labeled "traitors" by the Chinese. No matter how many taels of silver they donate, how much they have contributed to the country and the people, they can't take off this hat. …,

In 1842, the Opium War ended with the defeat of the Qing court. After the signing of the "Treaty of Nanjing", in the subsequent indemnity, the Wu family was extorted to pay 1 million yuan, the merchant office subscribed 1.34 million yuan, and the other merchants apportioned 660,000 yuan. In 1843, the Qing government also ordered merchants to repay 3 million silver dollars in foreign debts, and Wu Bingjian alone undertook 1 million silver dollars.

At this time, Wu Bingjian had realized that in such an environment, the wealth he had accumulated was destined not to last long. In the war, the Wu family lost no less than 2 million taels of silver. But this figure is not heartbreaking for the world's richest man, who claims to have 26 million taels of silver. At this time, the far-sighted Wu Bingjian had already expanded his business overseas, and business was no longer the only lifeline of the Wu family. However, after completing the overseas capital transfer plan, Wu Bingjian was already disheartened at this time. In September 1843, Wu Bingjian, the richest man in the world, died suddenly at the age of 74.

After Wu Bingjian's death, the Thirteen Lines of Guangdong, which were once rich in the world, began to gradually decline. With the implementation of the "five-port trade", Guangdong lost its advantage in foreign trade, and the privileges enjoyed by the 13 banks in Guangdong also came to an end. Many merchants could not bear the endless oppression of the Qing government, and they also learned from the Wu family and transferred their capital overseas.

Today, these merchants, who have been dead in Chinese mainland for many years, have fully integrated into the Western world.

No one could have imagined that the Wu family is now the majority shareholder of HSBC and the Royal Bank of England, as well as a major investor in the Pacific Railroad, the City Bank of New York and the Morgan consortium

And Wu Guohua, the "Earl of Baben" who was awarded the title of "Earl of Barben" by the British royal family, is actually one of the executive directors of the Royal Bank of England, and this bank controls the issuance of the "world currency" British pound

Today's Wu family can be said to be the same "invisible empire" as the famous Rotchild family

"Maybe it's a good thing that no one remembers us in our homeland." Wu Guohua retracted his thoughts, patted his daughter's hand, and comforted her, "That Manchu court regarded us as fake foreigners who turned their backs on our homeland, and there was nothing to be nostalgic for, and we were loyal to our country, and now we have been richly rewarded, proving that our choice is correct." This can be said to be the 'right starting point' as you just mentioned. ”

"We should be like the Rothschild family and try not to get involved in politics." Wu Jiayuan held her father's hand and said, "I think the Fu family seems to have gone a little too far this time. ”

"The situation of the Fu family is different from ours, they are based in China, and if they want to survive, it is simply impossible not to participate in politics." "My concern now is that they may have chosen the wrong person. ”

"Do you think that General Duan Qirui is incapable of stabilizing China?" Wu Jiayuan asked.

"Based on my observation, Duan Qirui's military talent should be above that Emperor Yuan Shikai, but his political talent is far inferior to that emperor." Wu Guohua said, "He is a soldier, if he is engaged in his own duties as a soldier, he will do a good job, but as a politician......" Wu Guohua shook his head, a trace of worry flashed in his eyes, "Perhaps, now is not the time for us to return to our homeland." ”

"Then this General Xiao Yang, what do you think? He is also a military man, but he does not seem to have come from a serious military school. Wu Jiayuan pointed to the letter on the table and asked curiously, "Is it possible for him to become a good politician?" ”。

"This man is a rare genius who seems to know everything." Hearing his daughter's question, Wu Guohua's eyes flashed with a strange light, "It's just that there are too many mysteries about his life experience, and there is too little information we can collect about him, and with his age and experience, it is too incommensurate with the career he has established now......"...,

"There is an old Chinese saying, called 'Since ancient times, heroes have come out of youth', and a person can achieve so many achievements, and it may not have much to do with age." Wu Jiayuan said, suddenly remembering her fiancé, and her pretty face couldn't help but blush slightly.

"Maybe you're right." Wu Guohua seemed to be talking to his daughter, and seemed to be talking to himself, "We still need to observe him carefully for a while......

At this moment, a servant walked in, delivered the day's newspaper to Wu Guohua, and then bowed and withdrew.

Wu Jiayuan looked at her father who was gradually falling into contemplation, smiled slightly, she did not disturb her father's thinking, but took the newspaper and opened it casually.

And when her eyes fell on the front page of the newspaper, her gaze immediately became focused.

Xinhuamen Square, Beijing.

"The nickname is Gu Pinzhen, Tang Chenggong has occupied Yunnan, and Tang Jiyao's whereabouts are unknown"

"Fu Liangzuo, nicknamed Wai, was appointed as the governor of Xiang"

"German submarines were spotted off the east coast of the United States"

"Nickname Outside the Russian Violence * Intensified and Spread Throughout the Country"

"The four countries of the Entente jointly agreed to jointly send troops to Vladivostok"

"The nickname of the foreign country will be reopened again"

Liang Qichao, who was worried, heard the sound of the newsboy's selling, stepped forward and handed a banknote to a newsboy, who took the banknote and happily handed him a roll of newspaper, and then continued to sell.

Liang Qichao didn't open it immediately after taking the newspaper, he looked at his watch, beckoned a rickshaw, and told the rickshaw driver where he was going. Listening to his address, the rickshaw driver was afraid, but after Liang Qichao stuffed him with another banknote, the rickshaw driver no longer hesitated, but loaded Liang Qichao on the car, and then pulled him away.

After a while, Liang Qichao came to Yang Du's Prime Minister's Mansion.

To Liang Qichao's surprise, there were no more murderous soldiers with loaded guns at the gate of Yang's Mansion today.

Liang Qichao got out of the car and came to the door, knocked on the door, the door opened with a "squeak", and the porter carefully poked his head out of the crack in the door, after he saw Liang Qichao, he obviously recognized who he was, and there was an unnatural smile on his originally nervous face.

"It's Mr. Liang, please come in and wait, I'll report to you right away."

Liang Qichao nodded, and followed the porter to the living room, and the porter hurriedly went in to report, and after a while, Yang Du came out.

"I didn't expect that the days of captivity were over today, and the first person to come to see me was you, Liang Rengong." Yang Du looked at Liang Qichao and said with a smile.

"The complexion of the blue man looks good, but he has lost some weight." Liang Qichao looked at Yang Du, who was emaciated, and knew that he should have endured a lot of hardships in this "captive" Japan, and couldn't help but sigh.

"Seeing the blue like this, my heart finally fell to the ground." Liang Qichao said.

"Yes, I am the first rebel of the Hongxian Empire, and it stands to reason that I shouldn't have lived so well." Yang Du smiled bitterly without self-deprecation and sat down in front of Liang Qichao.

"Duan Zhiquan is not going to do things so desperately." Liang Qichao smiled a little embarrassedly and handed the newspaper in his hand to Yang Du.

"I haven't seen the newspaper for many days, thank you Zhuoru for sending me this good salary." Yang Du smiled and took the newspaper from Liang Qichao's hand, opened it and read it.

"Gu Pinzhen succeeded in overthrowing the Tang Dynasty, and announced that Yunnan Province would be attached to the government, and the southwest rebellion finally came to an end." Yang Du glanced at the newspaper and sighed, "It's a pity that Emperor Daxing and Emperor Hei can't see it." ”

Hearing Yang Du talk about the dead Yuan Shikai father and son, Liang Qichao couldn't help but sigh.

"Xiang Chenggong's generation of heroes, who have made great contributions to the country and the people, is really sad and sad to end up like this."

"What I suffer is the sacred constitutionalism, and after this sacrifice, there will never be a day when China will be seen again. I am sad and desperate, and there is no way to save the country. From then on, he should go into the mountains, and he didn't want to hear about the world anymore. ”……，