In the early morning of June 20, the summer heat had come early, and when the sky was bright, in front of a simple factory on the west side of the cloth road near the Bund in the British Concession, dozens of newsboys in shabby coats were queuing.

At this time, as soon as the door of the factory opened, a young man with a mustache and a rather comprador came out, saw the middle-aged man, and immediately greeted loudly: "Brother Rongjie, why did you come?" Today's newspaper has been printed, come and take a look! ”

The man with tortoiseshell glasses obviously heard this man's greeting, but there was no happy expression in his expression, but a worried look, nodding at the man, and the group hurried into the factory gate, and the guys immediately began to greet the newsboy outside at the door.

When he got inside, the mustache immediately took out the newspaper of the day for the tortoiseshell to look at, and the four men in the newspaper with a large and vertical row of "Yiwen Bao" indicated that this was a Chinese-language newspaper, but this name was obviously not a big newspaper...... In fact, there were quite a few newspapers in Shanghai in this era, but real Chinese-language newspapers were really scarce.

As one of the earliest and most developed overseas commercial ports, the "Universal Gazette", "Declaration", "News" and the English newspaper "Zilinxi Bao" ...... In fact, these famous newspapers were founded by foreigners, and there were a few Chinese newspapers founded in Shanghai in the early years, but this new thing is obviously not easy to survive, flowers bloom and fall, grass grows and grass withered, even if it is a Chinese-language newspaper that has been difficult to achieve success after 30 years of Westernization, it is more of a stifled by the government, and this "Yiwen Bao Bao" is just a touch of grass that is about to wither......

As one of the third batch of children studying in the United States in the Qing Empire, the old woman in the palace heard that all the students were recalled after hearing only a few words, and after he returned to China, he began to devote himself to the development of China's newspaper industry with enthusiasm.

However, his obviously bad luck is obviously far inferior to his seniors Zhan Tianyou, Tang Shaoyi and others who have won a place in the Westernization Movement with their professional skills after returning to China, and the survival of the media is really worrying when the government does not pay attention to it at all, or even comprehensively suppresses it......

Kuang Qi took care of the newspaper, there were not many news and comments on it, but more of a small digest introducing Western technology and natural knowledge, and this typesetting was also decent, his partner was very dedicated, thinking of this, he also sighed with some regret, "Brother Zheng, thank you for your hard work...... Did the newspaper settle the accounts yesterday, how many copies were sold? ”

The mustache next to him is named Zheng Tong'an, but he is also an alternative guy, he doesn't do it with a good foreign comprador who doesn't do it, he came to tinker with him about the newspaper, looking at the slimming board, obviously he was not lightly destroyed, and when he heard Kuang Qizhao ask about it, he shook his head and said in a helpless tone: "Brother Rongjie, there were a few more copies yesterday than before, and there were only about 500 copies in total!" ”

Kuang Qizhao had been mentally prepared for this result, but after hearing it, he still couldn't help but feel deeply disappointed, more than 900 newspapers, simply not enough to maintain the newspaper, printing and workers' salaries and other expenses, so the newspaper has been losing money, he looked at the guys who were distributing newspapers outside, this newspaper has been running for more than two years, but the result is getting worse, seeing that the funds are becoming more and more difficult, so he has to go on the road of closing...... Thinking of this, I can't help but sigh!

The two muttered about the current predicament, but the more they discussed, the worse the situation became...... And Zheng Tongan suddenly remembered something, "Lao Cai, who patrolled the house yesterday afternoon, accompanied two people to look for you, you happened to be absent, and they said to come back another day...... Rong Jie, we won't have anything to do again! ”

This news immediately made Kuang Qizhao a little puzzled, and opened the newspaper in the concession, which naturally means a place outside the law, after all, the officials of Shanghai County will not run into the concession, so it can save too much trouble...... After thinking about it for a while, I don't have a clue!

When the two of them were confused, a guy ran in outside, "Mr. Kuang, there are a few messengers from the patrol room who want to see you!" ”

Kuang Qizhao was stunned, he didn't expect this to say Cao **, Cao **, he immediately took Zheng Tongan out to take a look, and when he got outside, he saw that there were indeed two Chinese police officers patrolling the room at the door, however, it is obvious that today's protagonist is not these two police officers, but another young man next to him wearing a light-colored robe and a civilized hat, and what surprised him even more was that the young man obviously had a background, because there were two burly men behind him, although they were wearing civilian clothes, they were not ordinary people at first glance.

Lu Hong naturally saw Kuang Qizhao who came out of it at this moment, he has been concentrating on finding some social mouthpieces that can be mastered, of course, at present, this can be said to be an optimized investment, because he knows one thing very well, although the power of ** has never grown under the suppression of the Manchu political axe, but it will soon become a deadly weapon to destroy the foundation of the Manchu Empire.

However, even on the beach, the current situation of Chinese newspapers still surprised him, most of them are run by foreigners, and even many newspapers only have English editions, and there is no Chinese version at all, so this "Yiwen Report", which is regarded as an authentic pedigree and has an average business situation, quickly entered his field of vision, and more importantly, he is no stranger to the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, Kwong Qizhao.

Although he was suppressed by the Manchu government and ordered to suspend publication many times, he became more and more courageous...... And such a talent is undoubtedly what he urgently needs at present, and the situation of "Yiwen Report" has made him see a great opportunity.

Therefore, he took two steps unhurriedly and arched his hand towards the two people who had just come over, "That is Mr. Kuang Rongjie?" ”

Kuang Qizhao naturally couldn't figure out where this one came from, but when he saw the police officer and the two bodyguards behind Lu Hong, he also knew that this man had a lot of origins, but it was inconvenient to offend him recklessly, so he arched his hand and smiled: "It's Kuang Qizhao below, dare to ask who you are?" ”

Lu Hong looked at this four-eyed brother, but he was quite a bit of a scholar, it seems that as the first generation of students studying in the United States, this group of people does have a lot of insight from this era, he stretched out his hand and handed over the famous thorn, and then introduced himself: "In Xia Lu Hong, I just returned from Europe a few months ago, and after reading "Yiwen Report", I came to visit Brother Kuang!" ”

Kuang Qizhao opened the name thorn and looked at it, and was immediately stunned for a few seconds, after hearing Lu Hong's self-introduction, he was even more surprised, and hurriedly turned around and let Lu Hong into the back room, and he immediately noticed that Lu Hong's two subordinates had reached out and sent the people who patrolled the room away, which also proved that this person's identity was really different.

When he arrived at the house, Lu Hong also noticed the simplicity of the furnishings here, and the open door was open to the 5 rotary printing machines discharged in the small factory, and the huge crank runner was an obvious sign, which was a good American product, which showed that this mining classmate had a sense of identity with American products.

Seeing the nervous appearance of Kuang Qizhao and his colleagues behind him, Lu Hong naturally understood the reason, after all, his thorn was promoted from the fifth grade, in this era, it was also the middle-level bureaucrat of the entire empire, and the fifth grade had already entered the bureaucratic class!

He immediately walked quickly to the printing press in the factory and asked with a smile: "Brother Rongjie, I am not here today for official business, but for state affairs...... These presses are quite good, and they must cost a lot! ”

Kuang Qi looked at Zheng Tongan beside him, the two of them obviously didn't know the meaning of this person, and when they saw him asking, they hurriedly responded: "Lord Lu, this is a Huo Yi printing press bought from a foreign company in the United States, using live lead characters, and each machine can print 3,000 copies!" ”

Lu Hong sighed softly, 3,000 copies is not a small amount, you know, he briefly inquired, the newspapers with the largest circulation in Shanghai in this era, such as "Universal Gazette" and "Declaration", at most sold more than a few thousand copies per issue......

"Brother Rongjie, I don't know how many librarians you have? Can there be a journalist who writes the article? Lu Hong was silent for a moment, and immediately threw out an interesting question.

Kuang Qizhao was not surprised by Lu Hong's question, after all, Lu Hong had just introduced himself as returning from studying in Europe, he thought about it, and then said: "Lord Lu, the sales of this year's "Yiwen Report" are not as good as last year, so there are only less than 10 librarians, and the printing plant is also limited, as for this reporter...... Our newspaper librarians are all qualified journalists! ”

Lu Hong immediately understood what this meant, the Chinese newspapers of this era are indeed limited in their living space, and the "Beijing Daily", which copies the concerts and decrees of the Yanjing Imperial Court, is not a serious newspaper at all, but it occupies the mainstream of the media in the Qing Dynasty......

As for reporters, reporters are no longer a new thing in Shanghai in this era, and the "Declaration", which occupies half of Shanghai's country, has sent reporters to report on the battlefield during the Taiwan conflict in 1874, the Korean coup d'état in 1882, and the Sino-French war in 1884, but ...... Because the "Declaration" is run by British, it is obvious that almost all of these participating reports are British.

Ten years later, in Shanghai, the newspaper industry went up and down, but in Chinese newspapers, reporters are all part-time workers, even foreign newspapers, and those editors and editors-in-chief often do part-time on-site reporting in most cases......

However, although this is the information that Lu Hong wants to know, it is not the focus of his visit today, what he needs is a cross-era Chinese war correspondent......

He beckoned Kuang Qizhao to sit down, and asked directly: "Brother Rongjie, I am now under the command of King Renkan of the Qincha Dynasty, and I am going to North Korea to inquire about the situation of the Sino-Chinese dispute, and I need someone who can objectively transmit what happened there to the country......

Lu Hong's words, for Kuang Qizhao, are tantamount to a feeling of rain falling from the sky, this kind of opportunity is definitely not something that ordinary newspapers can get, you know, the rise of "Declaration" back then, and the editor-in-chief of the year, Imeister? Mei Cha personally went to the front line of Taiwan to investigate and send back the report, which has an extremely important connection, because in the report, it is said that the Taiwan dispute, the "Declaration" has recorded an astonishing performance of 8,000 copies in a single period, which is absolutely scary data in this era! (To be continued.) )