Chapter 176: The Banquet (I)

As a traverser, and also as a pseudo-military fan, Zhao Bei certainly knew what the characters were, and when he received the invitation, he thought it was the same name, but later sent someone to check, and then he realized that this Mr. Hannagan was the German army captain who presided over the construction of the Lushun and Weihaiwei batteries.

Speaking of the forts in Lushun and Weihaiwei, Chinese who study the history of the Sino-Japanese War will certainly be distressed, for the simple reason that they have a fatal flaw: all the batteries have no fortifications on the land-facing side.

The forts were supervised by Captain Hannagan.

Therefore, when the fort fell and the Beiyang Naval Division was annihilated, some people held Hannagan responsible, but the German lieutenant resolutely denied this accusation, and put all the responsibility on the Beiyang bureaucrats who presided over the construction of the fort, because it was these bureaucrats who insisted that the rear land of the military port was absolutely safe, guarded by the Huai army of the Qing Dynasty, and the back road of the military port would never be attacked by land, so there was no need to build fortifications, rather than building useless fortifications. It is better to save the silver and build a garden for the queen mother of the Qing Dynasty.

Of course, as for whether the saved silver was used to repair the garden in the end, Captain Hannagan couldn't say clearly, after all, the water in the officialdom was too deep, and he was an official for thousands of miles just for money, and there were still 100,000 snowflakes of silver in the Qing Governor's Mansion in three years, and foreign consultants couldn't block other people's financial paths.

Since Hannagan had already targeted the Empress Dowager of the Qing Dynasty, it was indeed not appropriate to pursue further responsibility for the inferior construction of this fort, so Captain Hannagan's reputation was preserved, and the Beiyang bureaucrats continued their careers, and the ending was that everyone was happy, and some of the parties soon forgot about those forts.

Perhaps this is one of the important reasons why he can thrive in China, in a sense, he has integrated into the Chinese officialdom culture and seen the tricks behind those benevolence and morality.

But then again, when it comes to the responsibility for the design defects of the fort, Hannagan really can't absolve himself of his responsibility, after all, he is the engineering supervisor and the drawings are provided by him.

Originally, the commander-in-chief was interested in Hannagan, a German officer, but when Liu Renxiang appeared, the commander-in-chief's interest immediately shifted to this person, because this is a very business-minded talent.

Seeing Liu Renxiang's cautious appearance, Zhao didn't understand what he was thinking, but he still put his meaning together and said: "Since Mr. Liu has been engaged in the banking industry for many years, he must be no stranger to bank operations?" ”

"I know a little bit." Liu Renxiang nodded. The mind is racing. Speculating on the Commander-in-Chief's intentions.

"I wonder if Mr. Liu is interested in coming forward to set up a bank for the Republican Army?" Zhao Bei simply got straight to the point.

Zhao Bei has been preparing for a long time. The last time Wuxi businessman Zou Tingbi met with the commander-in-chief, the two sides discussed this issue. Although Zou Tingbi agreed. But so far. There was still no progress in the bank's affairs, and Zhao Bei had to cast a wide net. Let's see if you can find a knowledgeable talent nearby. In fact, banks are only one aspect. The stock exchange is the main concern of the commander-in-chief at the moment. With this exchange. It was possible to carry out capital reorganization of a number of Qing government-run enterprises such as Han Yeping and the Fourth Bureau of Gauze and Linen Silk through financial means, so as to squeeze profits to the greatest extent. Cash out these assets.

At present, there is no stock exchange in China. Businessmen trade their local stocks in teahouses, and there are no such financial institutions in Shanghai. Zhao Beidi's vision was to build Hankou into China's local financial center and control the country's economic lifeline through financial means. Holding the power of the army in one hand. Holding the power of wealth in one hand. There is no escape from the commander-in-chief's grasp in this world.

Of course. It's just an idea. Whether it can be achieved is not guaranteed. After all. Compared to Hankow. Shanghai's advantages are more obvious. It not only controls the entire trade route along the coast and in the Yangtze River basin. Moreover, the power of foreign merchants is also the strongest. The Chinese business consortium in the southeast region also uses Shanghai as the preferred financial hub.

But for now. The commander-in-chief could not control Shanghai. Then you have to settle for the next best. Hankow was chosen as the financial field command.

Hearing the commander-in-chief's suggestion on the establishment of a bank, Liu Renxiang pondered for a long time and said: "A bank cannot be opened just after it is opened, first, it must have abundant funds, second, managers are indispensable, third, it has a good reputation, and fourth, it is peaceful. Although he ran a bank and was a comprador of the Bank of France, he did not actually preside over the affairs of the bank, but only took money from the Bank of France at a low interest rate and then lent money at a high interest rate to make the difference, which was far from the banking industry. ”

"I see." Zhao Bei was stunned.

This is a financier, in fact, it is to operate usury, the means are indeed clever, but the risk is also large, if there is no certain courage and capital guarantee, it is indeed impossible to engage in this kind of speculative business, it can also be seen that this Liu Renxiang's speculation is much stronger than that Zou Tingbi.

Although Liu Renxiang did not agree to set up a bank for the commander-in-chief, his mind was lively. His current business is not only limited to the real estate industry, fur, oil extraction, coal mines, copper mines, he has been involved in these industries, after the "Xushen Revolution" because of the turbulent situation, the price of land in Hankou plummeted, it is a good time for real estate predators to eat in, but at this time Liu Renxiang lacked liquidity, the money bank suffered a run cháo, and the Bank of France also temporarily stopped going to China

As soon as the planning map was announced, the land price in Hankou immediately rose, and the merchants who ate the land at a low price made a windfall, which made Liu Renxiang's eyes red.

Of course, Liu Renxiang didn't know that the merchants who profited from the rise in land prices in Hankou did not really exist, in the intelligence department of the Republican Army, their code names were "straw men", and the land that was eaten in large quantities after the Battle of Hankou never fell into the hands of ordinary merchants, and those lands were just changed names, and after the local price rose again, these lands that were actually in the hands of the Republican Army returned to the hands of real businessmen again, and it was the commander-in-chief in front of him who did all this behind the scenes.

As an outsider who has been hiding in the Shanghai Concession, Liu Renxiang certainly does not know the inside story, and he only blames the failure of speculation on the lack of liquidity in his hands.

If you can master a large commercial bank, the financial problem that plagued Liu Renxiang can be solved, and now the commander-in-chief has made an invitation, if this bank can be formed, who else can the manager of this bank be besides him Liu? However, this was just an idea, and Liu Renxiang couldn't make up his mind at this time, the attitude of the French was very important, and the French had always been close to the British, and the anti-British stance of the Republican Army did affect the mood of the French.

Before Liu Renxiang could make up his mind, the carriage had stopped.

"Stand upright! Salute! ”

Tian Jinfu shouted at the side of the car.

Zhao Bei looked out the window, except for Wei; In addition, there were more than 100 people standing outside Liujia Garden, and many of the guests were waiting for the commander-in-chief, and there were even more than a dozen foreigners, led by the German technician Kolff who sent the invitation to the commander-in-chief.

The guards of the carriage quickly dismounted, lined up according to the password, strengthened the sentry posts, and the captain of the guard, Tian Jinfu, personally opened the car door for the commander-in-chief.

Zhao Bei stepped out of the carriage, and before he had time to show a professional smile, the German technician Kolf had already walked in front of him, bowed slightly, and said: "As a part-time commercial counselor of the consulate, I would like to welcome His Excellency the general on behalf of the German business and industrial circles. ”

"Polite, polite. It is a great honour to work with your business community to promote commercial prosperity in the Far East. ”

Zhao Beiqi said a few words and bowed in return, and was wondering when Hannagan would appear when he heard another blunt foreign tone: "The American business community, which is willing to join hands with the commander-in-chief to jointly promote the prosperity of trade in the Far East, also welcomes the arrival of the commander-in-chief." ”

Zhao Bei looked up and saw that the person who was talking was another foreigner standing beside Colf.

"This is the business promoter of Texaco Petroleum Company in the United States, Mr. JV ~ Merry, who is now responsible for developing the Central China market and is negotiating with the German foreign bank on the issue of agency rights." Colf introduced.

"Business promoter?"

Isn't that a salesman? Peers. The commander-in-chief couldn't help but look at the American a few more times, and it was indeed strange that the commander-in-chief could see an American businessman in a group of German businessmen.

"Fortunately, fortunately." The commander-in-chief greeted Merry and immediately expressed his views on the prospects for the oil industry.

"American businessmen and German businessmen join forces, I believe that it will not be long before they can occupy the Central China oil market, if you do not object, the contemptible people are willing to participate in the shares, this oil is a good thing, lighting the lamp is still a small use, cars, airplanes are the big users of oil, the future world, will definitely be crazy because of oil."

Seeing that the commander-in-chief was full of interest, Mei Rui squinted his eyes and said, "If the commander-in-chief wants to participate in the shares, the contemptible people can provide convenience." Originally, the company planned to join forces with the foreign company to deal in petroleum products, but because the army blocked the concession, it turned to the German foreign company to seek cooperation. ”

"Rì Ben Yang Xing? Rì himself is unreliable, but fortunately you didn't join forces with Rì himself. "The commander-in-chief is serious.

"What Rì himself does best is theft."

Colf immediately chimed in, not hiding his disgust for Rì himself, raising his hand and making a gesture, saying, "When they learn your technique, they will in turn take your job." ”

A few years ago, the Qing court wanted to take Rì as a teacher, so the Hanyang Arsenal and Iron and Steel Factory fired a large number of German technicians and replaced them with rì Ben technicians, which won the favor of Rì Ben, but at the same time made the Germans very dissatisfied.

Although Kolf was not fired, he was also told that the contract would not be renewed after the expiration of the contract, and the German technical personnel suffered the same as the German military advisers, many German instructors of the new army who had served in China for many years were also unemployed, and some people because they had no savings in peacetime, after losing their jobs ~ the concession, some of the previous rìzi Zhao Bei had hired some down-and-out German ** officers through those military purchasers who were sent, and now they are rushing to Wuhan one after another.

Not only that, after the "Qizhou Massacre", Zhao Bei had dismissed all the technicians in the arsenal and planned to invite the German technicians back, which was also one of the purposes for him to attend the dinner.