The Chinese businessmen in this period were the most knowledgeable about current affairs, because the businessmen who did not know the current affairs had long been swallowed up by the bureaucrats at the end of the Qing Dynasty, so the rest of the businessmen who could survive and live better were the kind of good hands who could keep up with the trend of the times and see the wind and steer.

That is to say, the people who can Li Zhigao's business exhibition this time originally had the intention of currying favor with Li Zhigao, even if they didn't have the prestige of the previous military demonstration, and didn't have those high-end equipment and new technologies, these businessmen would not refuse, and even at the beginning they discussed how much money they wanted to donate and how much they were slaughtered, but now Li Zhigao didn't forcibly apportion, and gave them so many good things.

Therefore, because both sides were very sincere, Li Zhigao's demonstration and new technology exhibition was quite successful, and after Li Zhigao said his cooperation plan, none of the 123 businessmen at the scene expressed any objections, and all of them expressed a very interested expression, and before they could figure out the quality and function of those equipment, they patted their chests and expressed their approval of cooperation.

Li Zhigao is also very satisfied with the "enthusiasm" of these businessmen, but he knows that the reason why these businessmen are so good is that they are afraid of him, so in order to let these people really understand the benefits of these new equipment and new technologies, he specially asked them to stay here, under the leadership of those commentators, according to their own interests, abilities and current industries, to choose those related machinery and equipment and cooperation projects.

Not to mention, after seven days of visiting and studying, the businessmen present all exhaled and were fully excited, because among the Chinese in this era, no one is more sensitive to new technologies than them, after seeing the efficiency and function of those new technologies and new equipment. dispelled the last scruples, and began to carefully consider what equipment and technology they should import, and what kind of company they should set up with Li Zhigao.

At present, most of what Li Zhigao shows is equipment with relatively high technical content in this era, so it is necessary to engage in joint cooperation. This is because after the joint operation, Li Zhigao will send some people from the Internal Investigation Bureau to be responsible for confidentiality work, and in addition to sending some skilled workers. In addition, having Li Zhigao's joint stock can also give these businessmen some confidence, after all, although this is not a formal government-business joint venture, but because Li Zhigao is the supreme leader, he has a joint venture with the supreme leader, which is better than a joint venture between the government and business. At least those petty officials won't come looking for trouble.

It is in consideration of so many benefits that after understanding these new equipment and new technologies, the businessmen present have successively signed cooperation contracts with Zhao Jiayi, the representative of Li Zhigao, for the new company.

In other words, one hundred and twenty-three new companies will be born through this fair, including cement factories, brick kiln factories, hardware foundries, match factories, flour mills, spinning mills, weaving factories, garment factories, sugar mills, canning factories and other civilian industries.

Eighty percent of these new companies chose to be in the new Taiping City, that is, Li Zhigao was outside the original Taiping Mansion. Relying on the new city built in the Ma'anshan area, the factory was set up, and the other two percent set up the factory in Shanghai.

The company and factory are set up in Taipingfu New Town. Mainly cement plants, brick kiln factories, hardware foundries, canning factories, monosodium glutamate factories and other light industry companies that rely on heavy industry support and do not have high technical content, put the factory here, taking into account the nearby technical support of the core industrial area, and also have the support of electricity, policy and other aspects, which can greatly save costs. And the environment of the new city is good, so it is most suitable to set up a new factory here.

The companies set up in Shanghai are mainly some steamship shipping companies, import and export trading companies, ship repair and manufacturing companies. These companies are set up in Shanghai, mainly considering the special geographical location and special circumstances of Shanghai, which can facilitate the import and export of goods and capital turnover.

Among them, Li Zhigao, Cheng Yonghe, Zhang Jian and others co-founded the Donghua Transportation Company, and is one of the representatives.

The shipping is mainly based on the steamship company that Li Zhigao originally incorporated the Jewish speculative merchant Mai Bian, and then obtained 100 barges and 20 tugboats from modern society, mainly by water transportation on the Yangtze River, of which cargo transportation is the mainstay, supplemented by personnel transportation; At present, land transportation is mainly horse-drawn carriages, mainly a number of four-wheeled carriages with shock-absorbing springs and tires imported from later generations, plus a number of mules and horses, these carriages mainly take the short-distance passenger transport between the two cities, mainly to transport people.

As for the shareholders, Zhang Jian will not mention it, and Cheng Yonghe was originally the commander of the Yangtze River Naval Division, and he belonged to the first high-ranking officials of the Qing Dynasty who relied on Li Zhigao.

After the anti-Qing Dynasty, his Yangtze River Naval Division underwent some rectification, eliminating the weak and retaining the strong, among which the hot-blooded young people who were affected by the restoration and the people whose moral character was still good, were reorganized into the new Yangtze River Naval Division, which totaled less than 500 people, and is currently equipped with six refurbished Type 62-1 frigates purchased by Li Zhigao from later generations, which is the so-called Shanghai-class frigate, in addition to a refurbished Type 65 frigate, and twenty civilian speedboats equipped with 12.7 mm machine guns, fiberglass structure, and a speed of 40 knots. Except for the speedboats, which are used to intercept smuggling on the Yangtze River waterway, other units such as the 62-1 frigate and the Type 65 frigate are currently only conducting closed training, and their reputation is not obvious.

As for most of the people who are not suitable for being soldiers, except for some of them who are paid and dismissed, most of the others have entered this Donghua transportation company and become commercial transportation personnel in the company, which can be regarded as having a good livelihood.

In short, this was a successful conference, a victorious conference, and although the participants were not very large, only 123 people, these 123 people were the most rich and powerful people in Li Zhigao's jurisdiction, that is, the so-called big capitalists.

In fact, many of these people used to be sympathetic or supportive of the Alliance, but after experiencing this series of turmoil, these people have long changed their posture and began to fully support their Li Zhigao.

These people were willing to come over to attend Li Zhigao's exhibition. In fact, it was to come and stand in line, saying goodbye to the past and going all out to support Li Zhigao in the future, and Li Zhigao reciprocated Li for giving so many benefits, which also made these businessmen sigh that the trip was worthwhile, and they strengthened their determination to stand with Li Zhigao.

Other than that. These businessmen are all industrial-type businessmen, and there are few in the financial industry, and it is not that Li Zhigao does not attach importance to the financial industry, but that the chamber of commerce in the financial industry has other arrangements.

Sure enough, after talking to these industrial businessmen, Li Zhigao secretly held a financial seminar without stopping, and the people invited were all the owners of the famous Qianzhuang Yinhao in the Jiangnan area.

Actually, after that rubber turmoil. China's financial industry has not eased up so far, and most of the bosses of those big money banks and big banks are struggling to catch their breath, but on the contrary, some small and medium-sized money bank owners have a chance to take the lead.

For example, Zhu Zenggui and Chen Jingtang, who contacted Li Zhigao early in the morning, originally did jewelry and jade business with Li Zhigao, but later with the rise of Li Zhigao, their business also rose, and gradually started the silver number of Qianzhuang, and now the Taiping Qianzhuang jointly established by them is already a well-known leader in the industry. He has the demeanor of a rising star.

Of course, all this is inseparable from Li Zhigao's support. To know. Before Li Zhigao opened the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China through Li Huade, the main role of Taiping Qian Zhuang was to use the silver and minting machine that Li Zhigao obtained from later generations to privately mint silver dollars, mainly Mexican Yingyang.

Later, after the establishment of Huaxia Industrial and Commercial Bank, out of suspicion, ICBC did not mint its own silver coins. Instead, it is to issue banknotes such as silver dollar rolls, and the other is to carry out normal exchange business, and the work of privately minting silver coins is still done in Taiping Money, that is. Taiping Qian Zhuang is the place where Li Zhigao single-handedly supported money laundering, and it is also a powerful supplement to ICBC.

In addition to these people from the bank, Liang Shiyi from the Bank of Communications also came, and he came not only to respond to the call, but also to find the home of the Bank of Communications.

Speaking of which, the history of the Bank of Communications is very long, this was originally a Qing court in 1908 established by the government and business, the original general manager is Li Jingchu, that is, Li Hanzhang's second son, Li Hongzhang's nephew.

Although Li Jingchu is a second-generation official, he is also a capable person, and he originally handled the Bank of Communications very well, but in the rubber turmoil not long ago, Li Jingchu privately embezzled the deposits of the Bank of Communications, and gave his own Yishanyuan ticket number turnover, and finally suffered heavy losses, not only let the Yishanyuan ticket number go bankrupt because of poor capital turnover, but also owed the Bank of Communications more than 280 taels of silver, so that the Bank of Communications suffered great losses, and finally Li Jingchu was forced to resign under the interference of Sheng Xuanhuai, and the Bank of Communications was controlled by Sheng Xuanhuai, and the actual manager was Liang Shiyi.

In all fairness, Li Jingchu is actually incompetent, although he has some achievements in the early stage, but it can't all be counted on his own head, and Li Jingchu is the general manager of the Bank of Communications at the same time, he also runs a money bank, embezzling funds privately, in the future generations, his behavior is not as simple as resigning, that is, relying on his good identity and weak country, he can retreat with his whole body, compared to Sheng Xuanhuai and Liang Shiyi, he is not half a point.

Of course, Sheng Xuanhuai is not a good bird, the reason why he forced Li Jingchu to step down was not for the sake of the country and the nation, in fact, what he did at that time also intensified the harmfulness of the rubber turmoil and missed the last opportunity. Sheng Xuanhuai took a fancy to the Bank of Communications and wanted to take it for himself, in fact, he did succeed most of the time after the rubber turmoil, after all, the Bank of Communications at that time was controlled by Sheng Xuanhuai, but he didn't expect the situation to change later, especially Li Zhigao's anti-Qing uprising, after the Qing Dynasty collapsed, which ruined his good thing.

Speaking of which, after Li Zhigao opposed the Qing Dynasty and seized Shanghai in one fell swoop, although he came and went in a hurry at that time and swept away the funds of various institutions in Shanghai, such a key protection unit as the Shanghai head office of the Bank of Communications was still not swept away, but sent a platoon of troops to occupy it. After that, Chen Qimei thought about interfering, but finally had to give up because of the troops guarding and the intervention of Li Huade, a British.

After occupying the Shanghai head office of the Bank of Communications, it only sealed the treasury and carried out some commercial rectification, and soon reopened two months later, but as soon as it opened, it encountered the seizure of power by the League, and was involved in a storm.

At that time, the League set up a provisional government in Nanjing, and there was a shortage of money everywhere, but although Tao Chengzhang was the head of the government at that time, he couldn't take out the money directly, after all, he had to report to Li Zhigao or Liu Runsheng and others if he wanted to spend money, and secondly, he found out that Sun Wen became the president. I was also dissatisfied, so I asked for money from the Provisional Government led by the League.

couldn't get money from Tao Chengzhang's side, and those businessmen who originally supported the alliance suddenly became ambiguous and stopped giving money, and the Japanese began to change their minds. The lack of funds made the League of Men and Women have no choice but to target other areas, and there is no doubt that the Bank of Communications in Shanghai has entered the eyes of the League.

Sun Wen once personally went out and contacted Liang Shiyi more than once, wanting the Bank of Communications to fund the provisional government, but Liang Shiyi was also an old slipper. When Sun Wen was in person, he refused on the spot based on his feelings and other factors, but he just said that it was difficult and talked about the difficulties, and cried in front of Sun Wen, and finally had to say that he was doing his best, which was actually using a procrastination trick.

Of course, in addition to the provisional government, Yuan Shikai also kept wooing him. And the person who wooed him was Sheng Xuanhuai.

After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, Sheng Xuanhuai, who was in the north, decisively changed the foyer. He took refuge in Yuan Shikai and became the Minister of Finance of the Beiyang Government, and he has always been thinking about the Bank of Communications, so he sent people over several times to lobby him to take the funds north and move the head office to Beijing.

Not to mention that the feasibility of such an act is almost zero. After all, there is a platoon of guards in the Bank of Communications, and there are also a large number of personnel from the Internal Investigation Bureau, and even Liang Shiyi himself is accompanied by one, so it is basically an impossible task to silently transfer all the silver dollars and gold bars in the head office.

In addition to the difficulty of the task. In terms of personal future, Liang Shiyi will not listen to Sheng Xuanhuai. You must know that once Liang Shiyi goes to the north, not to mention that he is not familiar with the place, he will definitely be under Sheng Xuanhuai, and it is difficult to say whether he can continue to be the assistant of the Bank of Communications at that time. But if he continues to be in Shanghai, he is familiar with all aspects, and the Jiangnan government is seriously short of people, so he has many opportunities.

That is to say, from the very beginning, Liang Shiyi recognized Li Zhigao's government, but because Li, Yuan, and Sun had no obvious victory or defeat at that time, especially Li Zhigao did not give him a clear identity and answer, so he was not easy to express his position clearly, just playing Tai Chi back and forth, delaying time.

Of course, while dragging out time, he was also speculating everywhere, for example, Liang Shiyi told Sun Wen and Sheng Xuanhuai's wooing plan to the internal investigation bureau personnel around him, and after the people from the internal investigation bureau obtained this information, they transmitted it to Sun Shun, Sun Shun didn't dare to slack off, but he didn't understand this aspect of things, so before Li Zhigao came, he just pressed this part of the information, and asked Liang Shiyi to continue to drag it out and wait for Li Zhigao to deal with it.

Liang Shiyi was also capable, and he used various means to delay Sun Wen's provisional government and Yuan Shikai's Beiyang government for a month, and waited until Li Zhigao came back, and waited until Li Zhigao appointed him as the president of the Bank of Communications, and then he was relieved.

In other words, the moment Li Zhigao came back to appoint Liang Shiyi as the president of the Bank of Communications, Liang Shiyi completely fell to the Jiangnan government, and since he had already taken refuge in one side, he no longer played Tai Chi, but followed the leader Li Zhigao wholeheartedly, so as soon as the leader summoned him, he immediately ran over.

Although this financial seminar was convened by Li Zhigao, it was Zhao Jiayi who actually presided over and explained it, and in fact, the seminar itself was also held by Zhao Jiayi at the suggestion of Li Zhigao.

According to Zhao Jiayi, although Li Zhigao has successively plundered a large amount of funds at home and abroad, hoarded a lot of gold and silver, and on the surface it seems that the finances are very surplus, but in fact the financial problems are very crude, and there are many problems, of which there are two biggest problems, one is the problem of not separating public from private, and the other is the problem of monetary chaos.

First of all, there is no distinction between public and private.

This mainly refers to the intersection of Li Zhigao's own private finances and the Jiangnan government he leads. In the past, Li Zhigao made his fortune from business, came from a militia group, and used the ** of the late Qing Dynasty government to climb up little by little, and then seized power through armed rebellion.

Because the time is too fast and the administrative manpower is insufficient, in terms of finance, Li Zhigao almost always relies on his own business wealth to feed back the local finances, such as the army's military expenses, as well as the cost of various infrastructure construction, almost all of which Li Zhigao pays out of his own pocket.

But the problem is that many of the things Li Zhigao did were originally things to be done by the government, and Li Zhigao used his own money to support it, but this account must be explained. Otherwise, people will not think of you in the future, but when you withdraw money from these projects, you will only think that you are stealing the wealth of the country and give the opposition an excuse. Although these things would not have been a problem during the dictatorship of Li Zhigao, they were a hidden danger after all. Therefore, it is the safest and most important thing to distinguish between public and private as soon as possible, to give the government's problems to the government, and to calculate the public and private accounts clearly.

To put it simply, in the future, military spending and infrastructure construction will be counted on the government's head and the government's financial expenditure, but the government does not have so much money, what should we do? It can only be the issuance of bonds. Li Zhigao, on the other hand, can lend his own money to the government through the situation of buying bonds, and lead the government to run all this. In this way, it is equivalent to the government borrowing money from Li Zhigao, and Li Zhigao is a creditor of the government, so it is a formal and decent model. In doing so, not only can it give a good explanation to outsiders, but also the issuance of bonds can attract more investment. It plays a very important role in alleviating the massive amount of money needed for the four major programs.

Second, there is the problem of monetary confusion. A means for a government to acquire wealth. There are three kinds, the first is to collect taxes, which is the most basic, the other is to issue bonds, that is, to borrow money, and the third is to issue money. The first two are easy to say. For money, this is the most important power of a government, because money is almost equal to the credibility and strength of a government.

At present, the currency that is popular in the Gangnam area is very confusing. It is mainly based on copper coins and silver dollars, not to mention copper coins, as for silver coins, they are mainly Mexican eagles, supplemented by various other silver coins. In history, before the appearance of Yuan Datou, the silver coins on the market were indeed dominated by Mexican eagles, and only after the appearance of Yuan Datou swept everything and became the main silver dollar currency.

Although Li Zhigao himself issued silver dollar rolls, it was mainly recognized in the Taiping area, and the recognition of this kind of banknotes in the newly occupied areas was still very low, even if the Bank of Communications and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China uniformly exchanged this kind of silver dollar roll banknotes that others could not counterfeit, the common people still did not trust them. It's no wonder, after all, this is an era of war and chaos, no matter how anti-counterfeiting paper money is, it is not as safe as silver coins.

Therefore, monetary reform is imperative, because Li Zhigao has the support of cheap silver in later generations, so Zhao Jiayi suggested that monetary reform may continue to implement the policy of silver coins and paper money in parallel, the only change is in silver coins, in order to make circulation smoother, it is recommended to mint silver coins with the same high silver content as Yuan Datou in history.

It is said that Yuan Datou is a failure in history, saying that it is because of the high silver content that it has caused a financial whirlpool and formed a monetary contract, but as long as the silver is sufficient, the market is flooded with a large number of high-quality silver coins, in addition, in the process of silver coins, such as using modern coins, the pattern is also more complicated, so that the cost of imitation remains high, then the situation will be different.

In addition, while issuing a large number of silver coins, strictly follow the process of exchanging banknotes, and let this exchange be extended to the entire occupied area, then slowly, after everyone has established confidence and habits in banknotes, they will gradually like more convenient banknotes, and no longer use troublesome silver coins.

Li Zhigao is always good at these two problems, and this financial seminar, to put it bluntly, is aimed at solving these two problems. In other words, at the meeting, Zhao Jiayi wanted to inform the financial industry people attending the meeting, so that they could use their own banks, money banks and banks to issue government bonds of the Jiangnan government, and at the same time issue new silver dollars and banknotes.

That is to say, after this meeting, the government will use the new Jiangnan silver dollar with a silver content of 90% and the Huayuan banknote with anti-counterfeiting marks in future procurement and expenditure, and the banks will also strive to issue these new silver dollars and banknotes, and strive to make the new Jiangnan silver dollar and Huayuan dominate Jiangnan in the short term, and even spread to the whole country.

If this problem is really done well, then Li Zhigao will be invincible in the future financial war, because no one would have thought that he would have a world's cheap silver to rely on, so once his silver dollar with high silver content is snapped up, when the number of panicked purchases is enough to make the price of silver fall, then it will only be Li Zhigao who will benefit in the end!

After all, no matter how the price of silver in this world falls, it can't fall the price of silver in the modern world, in other words, Li Zhigao and Zhao Jiayi are ready to use a large amount of silver as a weapon to fight a hard-fought financial war. (To be continued......)