At this stage in the late Qing Dynasty, there were three and a half characters that Yang Chao admired, Li Hongzhang, Yuan Shikai, Zhang Zhidong and Zhang Jian. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

The first is Li Hongzhang, the second is Yuan Shikai, Zhang Zhidong can only occupy half, but Zhang Jian can occupy one.

The reason is very simple, Yang Chao feels that he is closest to Zhang Jian's mental state.

Zhang Jian is the champion of the late Qing Dynasty, and this champion is said to have come from the wrong place, but the name is placed there, and if he becomes an official, he will inevitably rise step by step.

But they did not enter the officialdom, but gave up their careers and devoted themselves to business.

He is not a pure businessman, but an experiment in ideas, because no matter how you look at it, he is not to make money, he runs a yarn factory, and the profits are not only used for dividends, but also to run schools, reclaim wasteland, relieve the people, and improve transportation.

He was an advocate of industry to save the country.

It is clear that this person is a person with ideas, ambitions, and the courage to act.

Yang Chao believes that what the Qing Dynasty lacks is this kind of person, not a bureaucrat like Li Hongzhang, not a tyrant like Yuan Shikai, not an official and businessman like Sheng Xuanhuai, but an idealist like Zhang Jian who can put it into action.

So he came to invite Zhang Jian to go north to set up a factory.

Speaking of which, Zhang Jian is not the only one who has experience in running a factory, Sheng Xuanhuai has set up such a company, and his experience is much richer than Zhang Jian, but when Yang Chao met Sheng Xuanhuai, he didn't mention a word.

The reason is that Zhang Jian can catch money when he runs a factory, but Sheng Xuanhuai can only ask the court for money when he runs a factory.

Of course, Sheng Xuanhuai is running heavy industry, making steel and making machines, but in the era of a large number of imports of steel and machinery, can heavy industry really not make money?

Speaking of mentality, Zhang Jian is doing business as saving the country, while Sheng Xuanhuai only does foreign affairs as an official, the two have different starting points, pay different energy, pay different attention, Sheng Xuanhuai's factory is corrupt, and people who come in through the back door to eat dry food abound, but Zhang Jian can never find a redundant here.

Not to mention Sheng Xuanhuai, it is Lu Runitch, who founded Sulun Yarn Factory at the same time as Zhang Jian, is much worse, and the difference is that the other party's industry is also run in the form of an official, and running an industry is just his political achievement, but Zhang Jian is out of ideals.

"Lord Yang has been looking up for a long time!"

Zhang Jian personally greeted Yang Chao at the Nantong wharf with a very sincere attitude.

Yang Chao already has a great name at this time, not to mention that the government and the opposition have heard of it, at least the officialdom knows such a number one person, well-informed businessmen, and scholars in big cities like Shanghai have also heard of Yang Chao's name, after all, it is difficult not to be known by others when they make shocking events again and again.

"The champion is polite."

Yang Chao hurriedly replied.

Zhang Jian straightened up, looked directly at Yang Chao, and sighed in his mouth.

"Young!"

Yang Chao looks like he is in his teens and twenties, who can know that he will also live to be an old fox in the future.

"Huh."

Faced with Zhang Jian's exclamation, Yang Chao didn't know how to answer.

Zhang Jian suddenly felt that he was rude, and saying that people are young in the officialdom is tantamount to saying that people are young and ignorant.

When Yang Chao saw Zhang Jian's embarrassment, he immediately changed the topic and immediately asked, "I don't know what Zhang Gong is thinking about?" ”

Inviting Zhang Jian to set up a factory in Shandong had already been communicated in the telegram, but Zhang Jian never agreed.

"Lord Yang, rest assured, the old man should set up a factory in Shandong!"

Zhang Jian said very decisively.

Yang Chao was very surprised, he had always refused to agree before, how could he suddenly agree.

Zhang Jian saw Yang Chao's doubts and explained: "Lord Yang's disaster relief is really a great good deed, and the government and the opposition praise it. ”

Yang Chao figured out that Zhang Jian saw that he had mobilized tens of thousands of people for disaster relief at that time and spent a lot of money to buy supplies, and knew that Yang Chao was sincerely working for the people.

Well, good deeds do have good rewards.

Then Zhang Jian invited Yang Chao to his business to have a look.

Dasheng Yarn Factory is indeed not small, with a plant area of hundreds of acres and more than 40,000 spindles, accounting for more than one percent of China's spindles.

Then I went to the saline-alkali land occupied by Zhang Jian on the seaside of Nantong, and saw thousands of acres of fertile land connected together, divided into pieces, each piece of 25 acres, with a house on it.

After Zhang Jian opened up these saline-alkali barren beaches, he divided the land into pieces and rented each piece to a family, thus giving a family a livelihood.

It's just that Yang Chao feels that this is not a dispersal of land resources, not the general trend of history, but at this time the Chinese population is very rich, there are too many unemployed people, and the population problem is the most important social problem, so what Zhang Jian did is put into the present, and Yang Chao does not know whether it is right or wrong.

Yang Chao came to see Zhang Jian's wasteland, another purpose is to learn, he also has a large number of saline-alkali land in his hands, he doesn't know how to deal with it, local farmers don't know how to open up wasteland, Yang Chao even less knows.

After asking Zhang Jian, I learned that the trouble is not something that ordinary people can do.

Zhang Jian's method is called: spreading grass and covering grass, preventing salt and protecting seedlings.

The so-called paving is to dig up raw soil from other places and cover it on saline-alkali land, spread a layer on the mowing grass, isolate it from the original saline-alkali soil layer, and then dig up the soil in other places to pave the way, so as to grow crops.

Obviously, this is a very laborious job, and if a small farmer is not able to do it, because before they can open up an acre of land, they will starve to death. It must be a person with capital and strength to operate, Zhang Jian is preparing to set up a Tonghai reclamation and animal husbandry company, hiring people to open up wasteland and farming land by the sea, and then lease the wasteland to the people.

Seeing the continuous and excellent cotton fields, Yang Chao thought about it, where the barren beach in Dongying Village is not less than that of Nantong's generation.

Nantong all the way north to Haizhou (Lianyungang) used to be a salt field, but the river silted up, the coast moved to the sea, and many salt works were abandoned, resulting in a saline-alkali wasteland that stretched for hundreds of miles, with an area of more than 5 million mu.

There is only a lot of wasteland in Shandong.

"There are countless barren beaches off the coast of Shandong, and if Zhang Gong goes, he will definitely be able to make a difference."

Yang Chao said to Zhang Jian.

Zhang Jian said with a smile: "I still have to rely on Lord Yang to support a lot." ”

Yang Chao smiled: "Gong Zhang is polite. Zhang is open to the public, living a side of the people. I dare not support it under it! ”

Yang Chao's attitude made Zhang Jian very satisfied.

Under China's ancient political system, if you want to find someone to solve the problem, you can't find anyone, but if you want to do something practical, there is always someone to take care of this and that.

It is rare to meet someone who is so supportive of Yang Chao, so to set up a yarn factory, it can only be done by a person like Zhang Jian who has deep connections and a deep background in both the government and the civilian world.

When Zhang Jian raised shares, he repeatedly assured businessmen that he would bear all official problems, and only then did he attract some commercial shares, but even so, businessmen were still very worried, more than eighty percent of Zhang Jian's shares were official shares, and the spindles were all government-run spindles allocated to him by Zhang Zhidong and Liu Kun successively.

"I don't know when Gong Zhang will go north to set up a factory?"

Yang Chao took the opportunity to ask, wanting to settle this matter as soon as possible.

Zhang Jian said: "When the old man has raised enough shares and silver, he can go." ”

Yang Chao smiled: "If it's another problem, it's fine, if it's just a silver problem, then leave it to you." Zhang Gong just takes people there, is three million taels enough? ”

Zhang Jian was stunned: "Enough!" Just three million. I have heard for a long time that what Lord Yang said is true. ”

Yang Chao said with a smile: "If it is anything else, there is no silver, and if it is a factory, then there is." ”

Zhang Jian sighed: "I only hope that Lord Yang will not sell the house again, otherwise the old man will not dare to ask for this money." ”

After saying that, the two laughed.