Hanyang Iron & Steel Plant is located in the north of Hanyang City, backed by Gushan Mountain, facing the Han River, not far from the Yangtze River, standing on the south bank of the Yangtze River, you can see the billowing black smoke coming out of the chimney of the plant.

This factory was also founded by the governor of Huguang, Zhang Zhidong, completed in 1893 AD, was the largest iron and steel enterprise in Asia at that time, two years earlier than Japan's Hachiman Iron Works, this factory is not only the most glorious stroke of the Westernization Movement in the late Qing Dynasty, but also the greatest credit left by Zhang Zhidong to posterity.

But unfortunately, compared with Japan's Hachiman Iron and Steel Works, Hanyang Iron and Steel Works had a bumpy fate from the beginning of its construction, like a microcosm of the weakness of China in the late Qing Dynasty, which in addition to the invasion of foreign powers, the mistakes in decision-making at the beginning of the construction of the factory are also important reasons: first, Zhang Zhidong rejected the suggestion of his staff to set up the factory near the iron mine or coal mine, and stubbornly placed the site at the confluence of the Han River and the Yangtze River, which is convenient for transportation and can show his political achievements, and second, it is also convenient for him to sit in Wuchang to monitor. Whenever he opened the window after work, he could see the billowing black smoke from Hanyang, and Governor Zhang was in a good mood, but it directly led to the high steelmaking cost of the factory, and the competition could not be compared with foreign steel; Second, when ordering the blast furnace, the British factory had asked for iron ore and coal mine samples, but Zhang Zhidong contemptuously rejected this request as "China's vast land and abundant resources", and as a result, the acid blast furnace bought back to China could not handle the excessive phosphorus in Daye's iron ore, and the steel smelted was brittle and easy to break, not to mention that the arsenal did not dare to use it, even the railway could not use it, which led to poor sales, and the steel could not be bought, and could only be maintained by pig iron.

The inevitable outcome of the layman's guidance to the insider is that this once Asia's largest iron and steel company declared bankruptcy after more than 30 years of dismal operation, while its subsidiary Daye Iron Mine fed Japan's Yawata Iron Works with its ore, and China's iron ore turned into cannonballs and fell back to China's land, dyeing this hot land red.

In fact, as early as the time of the governor of Zhang Zhidong, Huguang, the Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant has fallen into the dilemma of insolvency, if it were not for the Qing Dynasty did not have the "Bankruptcy Law", the steel plant would have been finished, Zhang Zhidong from the navy Yamen to ask for the official silver, plus the "commercial silver" looted everywhere, barely maintained the operation of the steel plant until after the First Sino-Japanese War, and then, Governor Zhang could no longer hold on, in the face of the impeachment of the official, in the face of the people's criticism of his "money slaughter", he had to give up the stubborn official position, and the "business wizard" that he had always looked down on Sheng Xuanhuai invited him to the iron factory and ordered him to preside over the "official supervision and business office".

Sheng Xuanhuai, who is good at dancing with long sleeves, is not polite, and immediately exerts his means, through borrowing foreign debts, looking for coal mines, changing blast furnaces and other measures, after several years of hard work, the iron plant has recovered some vitality, coupled with the new policy at the end of the Qing Dynasty, overhauling the railway, and finding a market for the iron and steel works, in recent years, although the iron works are still in debt, but they can finally maintain their operations, Sheng Xuanhuai is also full of ambition, just this year, under his single-hand planning, Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant, Daye Iron Mine, and Pingxiang Coal Mine merged to form "Hanye Ping Coal and Iron Works and Mines Co., Ltd.", The headquarters is still located in Sichuan Road, Shanghai, and the company has been completely reorganized into a commercial enterprise, and the official shares have been replaced by private shares. After the establishment of the company, Sheng Xuanhuai served as the general manager, planning to raise 20 million silver dollars in shares to enrich the company's funds and enrich his own pocket.

Now, this general manager Sheng is in a signing room in the iron factory, but the look of ambition has long disappeared without a trace, replaced by a look of anxiety, accompanied by a few men wearing dresses and top hats, they are all Japanese, the leader is called Nishizawa Gongo, who was originally the Japanese consul in Ningbo, and was sent by the Japanese government seven years ago as the supervisor of Daye Iron Mine, resident in the lime kiln, the reason why such a strange appointment occurred is precisely because Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant borrowed a large amount of foreign debts, The Japanese government, on the other hand, was the largest creditor, and one of the conditions for borrowing the debt was to send permanent personnel to the iron ore mine to "help" the Chinese merchants to operate, and to guarantee that the best quality ore produced by Daye Iron Mine would be supplied to Yawata Iron Works on a priority basis for 3 yen per ton of ore for a contract of 30 years.

In fact, General Manager Sheng was still working as his waiter in the capital a few days ago, and the reason why he is now trapped in the Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant is because of these Japanese. The news of the Jiujiang Revolutionary Army's westward expedition reached the capital, and Sheng Xuanhuai, who had a very thorough understanding of the current situation, immediately realized that Wuhan might fall soon, and at that time, the Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant would definitely fall into the hands of the revolutionary army. The Han Yeping Company must be temporarily handed over to the Japanese Government for "protection," and with the support of the Japanese Government, the revolutionary army will certainly have some scruples.

Sheng Xuanhuai thought about it again and again, but he didn't dare to make his own opinion, and went to Zhang Zhidong to discuss, but Zhang Zhidong was afraid of being infamous as a traitor, so he left it alone, and when he was hesitating, the secret report of the revolutionary army leaked out of the military aircraft, Sheng Xuanhuai couldn't sit still anymore, gritted his teeth, and his heart was crossed, so he sent a telegram back to Nishizawa Gongxiong, agreeing to his suggestion, but at the same time asking for a formal contract, stating that once the war was over, the Hanyeping Company would be returned to the Chinese businessmen as a return for the "protection" of Japan, after the war ended, It is possible to consider selling a portion of the company's shares to Japanese businessmen at a discounted price.

As early as the Sino-French War and the First Sino-Japanese War, he played this trick and "sold" the steamship China Merchants Bureau, a government-supervised, commercial-run enterprise under his control, to foreign companies to protect the company's assets from war damage.

However, this time, the Japanese were not as talkative as the Europeans, and Sheng Xuanhuai's call back was rejected by Nishizawa Kimio, who invited Sheng Xuanhuai to go to Hanyang in person to negotiate in order to communicate and conclude a contract that would satisfy both parties. Sheng Xuanhuai didn't want to go to Hanyang to take an adventure, but Nishizawa Gongxiong assured him that with Japan to protect his safety, no one could hurt him, Sheng Xuanhuai then hung an express train, from the capital to Xinyang, from there to the Beiyang Army to reinforce the train of Wuhan to Hankou, in the revolutionary army attacked Wuchang City artillery sent to Hanyang, and met with Nishizawa Gongo and others who had already rushed to the iron factory, but just as the two sides were bargaining for the draft contract drawn up by the Japanese, Zhao Bei had led the Republican Army to land in the upper reaches of Hanyang, Sheng Xuanhuai wanted to run, but the Japanese detained him in the ironworks and declared that they would not let him go unless the contract was signed.

Sheng Xuanhuai was greatly annoyed, and his stubborn temper also came up, and he clearly told the Japanese that if they didn't go to Hankou, they wouldn't want to sign any contract!

The two sides were at a stalemate until the Han Dynasty recovered, the Qing army was completely annihilated, and the Republican Army had occupied most of the iron works, but the Japanese still did not let go and refused to escort Sheng Xuanhuai to the Hankou Japanese Concession. Soon, they were surrounded by the revolutionary regiments, fortunately it was Yang Wangpeng's troops who attacked the iron factory, and saw the Japanese flag erected outside the signing room, as well as the dozens of Japanese sailors guarding the flag, the revolutionary army did not attack, if Zhao Bei was present, I was afraid that it would be captured immediately.

Yang Wangpeng was worried about the excuse for the interference of the powers, and did not order to attack the signing room, but he did not dare to let these Japanese leave, and the Japanese had no intention of leaving, Zhao Bei's military order was strict, he knew, so he sent troops to surround this factory, and sent people to report to Zhao Bei, Zhao Bei did not immediately order an attack, after figuring out who was in the signing room, Zhao Bei ordered Yang Wangpeng's troops to withdraw, replaced with his guard battalion and Revolutionary Guards, and watched the Japanese.

Now, the two sides have confronted each other all night, and have fired some cold guns on each other, but they have some concerns, and they did not dare to really fight, and the revolutionary army has occupied all the strategic places in the factory area, and the Japanese are not polite, and have built improvised fortifications outside the signing room, and also set up a Hatch Chase machine gun, which is barely in line with the two field guns of the revolutionary army set up a few hundred steps away. The two sides had made several representations, but the Japanese still refused to retreat, and the last negotiation had just ended, and the envoys of the revolutionary army still had nothing to gain and had to give up their negotiation efforts.

"Mr. Sheng, please sign. Just sign it and we'll protect you from it immediately. If we don't sign it, we on the Japanese side will retreat alone, and you will have to stay here and talk to the revolutionary army. Nishizawa pushed the draft contract to Sheng Xuanhuai, who had been in China for so many years and had spoken Chinese very fluently.

Sheng Xuanhuai glanced at it and snorted: "I have already said it, and I will talk about it when I get to Hankou." Your Excellency is inevitably a little indiscriminate, and now the artillery of the rebels outside is pointing at us, and just now they are shouting outside, if we don't retreat, they will open fire. You didn't think about how to deal with it first, but you came to force me to sign, isn't it a bit of a profit? If you retreat alone, the old man will not beg you to take the old man away, it's just a big deal to be martyred. ”

The draft contract of the Japanese was very harsh, not only demanding more than half of the shares of Hanyeping, but also demanding that the price of Daye iron ore, which supplied Yaman Iron Works, be reduced by half, which in Sheng Xuanhuai's opinion was simply a robbery! He understood why Zhang Zhidong pretended not to know about this matter, and at the same time regretted why he came to Hanyang to negotiate with the Japanese, knowing that the Japanese were so greedy, it was better to give this iron factory to the rebels, and whether the iron factory was prosperous or declining at that time had nothing to do with him Sheng Xuanhuai.