Song Xiaofei rushed back to Yantai from Seoul, Rong Rong wore a white dress with pearls on her chest, and took two little maids to wait at the dock, she stayed in Yanjing after returning to China, and wanted to go to Shanghai, which is known as the "Paris of the East", Song Xiaofei considered that this "Hu Xueyan" will mainly be a business war, there is no danger, Rong Rong is knowledgeable, and may be able to help, so he took care of both public and private affairs, and promised to go to the "Ten Mile Ocean Field" with her after finishing his errands.

The reason why Li Hongzhang let Song Xiaofei and Sheng Xuanhuai go to Shanghai was because Hu Xueyan often traveled to and from Ningbo, Shanghai and other treaty ports where foreigners gathered to do raw silk business as an official and a businessman, and the old Shanghai was also the financial center of the Orient at that time, with all kinds of foreign banks lined up, and also built railways and telegraph lines, and the annual trade volume at that time reached 100 million US dollars, worth about 80 million taels of silver. It can make people rich overnight, and it can also make people "lose all their money" in two or three days.

In the morning, the "Valliang" sailed from the Yangtze River into the Huangpu River, Song Xiaofei and Rong Rong went to the deck for sightseeing, the moist river breeze blew in the face, the golden sunshine spread all over the river, the Wusongkou area was full of thousands of sails, the dense mast towered into the sky like a forest, and a fort was built nearby, and some cargo ships with a short draft were unloaded near the fort.

Twenty minutes further on, they saw the bustling city of Shanghai, lying quietly on the bend of the Huangpu River, with a dozen foreign steamships and barges moored on the winding banks, and many blonde and blue-eyed foreigners from London and New York visiting the shore with great interest. There are also rows of staggered warehouses on the shore, and many Chinese shipwrights with braids on their heads and vegetables on their faces are struggling to unload their cargo.

On the wharf, Sheng Xuanhuai, who supervised Tianjin Customs, and Shao Youlian, who was in charge of Shanghai Customs, were already waiting on the shore early. Their official ranks are equivalent to the Sanpin Daotai at this time, Sheng Xuanhuai is just in his early forties, Shao Youlian is slightly older than Sheng Xuanhuai is three years older, but Sheng Xuanhuai is a big celebrity next to Li Hongzhang at this time, so Shao Youlian is very respectful to Sheng Xuanhuai, seeing that Sheng Xuanhuai has dark circles under his eyes and didn't sleep well, and was shivered by the cold wind, he hurriedly handed over a trace of silk and asked with concern: "Master Sheng, what kind of big man is here today?" Thank you, welcome here early in the morning? ”

Sheng Xuanhuai said: "Lord Shao, you shouldn't ask, it's better not to ask." Just be careful. Li Zhongtang intends to cultivate him, and he will definitely be a big man in the future. ”

Shao Youlian smiled and said: "This is natural, in the territory of the lower officials, it must be a little bit of the friendship of the landlord." ”

Song Xiaofei and Rong Rong went ashore, Shao Youlian saw that Sheng Xuanhuai greeted such a young couple, and was a little suspicious that Song Xiaofei was Li Hongzhang's son or the prince's Belle Ye, so he hurriedly stepped forward to perform a big salute and welcomed them into a super luxurious foreign carriage, the four horses were all British purebred white horses, with manes like snow and no miscellaneous hair. In Shanghai at that time, the luxury carriage was equivalent to today's Rolls-Royce, and there was no good carriage with a Yanmar, so they were embarrassed to go out.

The carriage walked slowly on the street, entered the city from the north gate of the old city of Shanghai, advanced more than a mile, Song Xiaofei lifted the silk curtain of the carriage, and saw a pidgin, which was a tributary of the Huangpu River, the boundary river of the British and French concessions, the British Concession in the north, the French Concession in the south, and the American Concession in Hongkou. At that time, various countries built bridges and paved roads in the concessions, and built churches, foreign shops, hospitals, teahouses, restaurants, and places for dogs and horses.

After half an hour, the carriage arrived at the official guest house, which is a traditional blue-lime tile mansion, symmetrical layout, the central axis area is the living room, composed of the sedan hall, the hundred lion building, the four-sided hall, the right is the courtyard, planted with Nanzhu, there are rockery hot springs, bubbling and flowing, the environment is quiet.

Shao Youlian's carriage also arrived later, and he ran over politely: "Originally, Xiaguan had ordered someone to book the best Westin Hotel on the Bund, but the grand man said that the two of them like to be clean, this inn is simple, condescending to the noble body, especially Mrs. Jin Zhi Yuye, don't wronged yourself, if you are not used to living, Xiaguan will immediately change the two of you to a foreign hotel." ”

Rong Rong smiled, revealing a good-looking little dimple, looking downright and generous, and said, "With Lord Lao's trouble, I think it's already very good here." ”

Song Xiaofei said to Shao Youlian: "I have heard for a long time that Lord Qing understands European and is good at business, Hu Xueyan has also visited you many times, in the evening, I have important matters to discuss with Master Sheng and a few friends, if you have no other official business, you may as well come to participate, some things also need your participation." ”

Shao Youlian was flattered and said: "My lord, take a good rest first, the lower officials must come on time, there is a place for the lower officials, and the lower officials are willing to follow the work of dogs and horses." ”

In a guest room on the east side of the inn, Song Xiaofei, Sheng Xuanhuai, Shao Youlian, as well as Zhang Jian and British friend Margery, who rushed to the inn in the afternoon, sat around a wide square table, and there were one-person-high paper materials on the square table, all of which were Song Xiaofei's preliminary information to collect Hu Xueyan.

Song Xiaofei opened his mouth and said, "Except for Lord Shao here, everyone must know what we are going to do. Master Shan, please briefly introduce Master Shao. ”

Sheng Xuanhuai opened his mouth and said: "To put it simply, we want Hu Xueyan's family to be ruined. ”

When Shao Youlian heard this, he smiled and said: "This person is from a humble background, and after the outbreak, he is arrogant, and he dares to be extravagant in the ten-mile foreign field, I have long wanted to investigate him, but he is also a second-class member of the imperial court, and there are people in the imperial court, so he can't be moved." Xia Guan heard that he had overhauled the first house garden in Hangzhou in the past two years, and the turquoise flowers and trees he placed were extremely rare. The concubines were in groups, and the thirteenth floor was built to store them. He started a garden, indulged in sound, lived luxuriously, was too princely, and was arrogant and luxurious, and spent a lot of money to build a garden, boasting that it was the first mansion in the south of the Yangtze River. ”

Song Xiaofei asked Zhang Jian: "According to your visit, how much money does Hu Xueyan have?" ”

Zhang Jian replied: "It is rumored that Hu Xueyan has a family business of nearly 30 million taels of silver. According to the investigation of the lowly position, he does have tens of thousands of acres of land, manors, etc., and there are more than 20 pawn shops, joint operation ticket number money villages, and Huqing Yutang Pharmacy across the country, involving about 20 million taels of raw silk business. However, I heard that the price of raw silk has plummeted in the past two years, and he has lost more than 10 million taels of silver. ”

Song Xiaofei thought to himself, at this time, one stone of rice is only one tael of silver, converted to modern times, one tael of silver is sold for 200 yuan, and 30 million taels of silver is worth 6 billion yuan, Hu Xueyan is really a big tyrant, but he can lose 2 billion yuan for making raw silk, so how much raw silk does he get, so he asked Zhang Jian: "Hu Xueyan lost 10 million taels of silver?" ”

Zhang Jian said, "Listening to what one of his buddies said, it is just a rumor, and it is also possible that Hu Xueyan himself falsely reported his losses and deliberately exaggerated himself as a hero who defended the national silk industry." ”

When Zhang Jian said this, he reminded Margery that he said in blunt Chinese: "Hu Xueyan definitely didn't lose that much." According to the data I got from the British consul and friends of the foreign bank, Hu Xueyan began to hoard raw silk three years ago, with a maximum of 15,000 bales, and in October last year, he sold 2,000 bales of raw silk to Jardine Matheson, selling each bag for 380 taels, and then sold the remaining raw silk to Tianxiang & Co. at a price of about 370 taels. ”

Song Xiaofei asked: "Hu Xueyan has lost money in the raw silk business all these years without making money, so what does he mainly rely on to make money?" ”

Sheng Xuanhuai took out an account book from the information, handed it to Song Xiaofei, and said, "My lord, just look at this account book, I got it from the household department." Hu Xueyan's main backer is Zuo Zongtang, Zuo Zongtang was ordered to conquer Xinjiang Province in the west, because the military expenditure was not available, under Hu Xueyan's planning, Zuo Zongtang persuaded the Queen Mother to borrow from foreign banks, a total of six times, a total of 16 million taels of silver, all handled by Hu Xueyan. I learned from my foreign bank in Shanghai that the interest rate on borrowing is generally 3% per annum, and rarely exceeds 5%. However, the lowest annual interest rate of these six loans for the Western Expedition was 9%, and the highest was 18%, that is to say, Hu Xueyan embezzled more than 6 million taels of silver from the state only through the interest difference of these six floating reports. The strangest thing is that the last two borrowings were the last two loans, when the military operations in Xinjiang Province had obviously stopped, and there was no need to get military salaries at such a high interest, but Hu Xueyan still borrowed correctly. In addition, he purchased more than 10,000 rifles for Zuo Zongtang, as well as artillery, grain and grass, etc., and the total rebate is estimated to be more than 10 million taels of silver. ”

Shao Youlian took the case and said impassionedly: "It is difficult to make money in the country, this Hu Xueyan is really a businessman for profit, and the sick people are in the country, although he has no assets, he is guilty of Han annihilation, and it is not in vain!" ”;