When the icy sunset is completely submerged under the icy horizon; When there was only a magnificent sunset left in the western sky, Huang Huiyun, president of the Industrial Bank, known as the "God of Wealth", took more than a dozen attachés and embarked on a cruise ship bound for the United States that stopped at the Whampoa River wharf.

When the whistle sounded, the cruise ship spewing smoke slowly rowed across the river and headed in the direction of Wusongkou, Huang Huiyun did not say goodbye to the people on the side of the cruise ship like everyone else, but stayed in the cabin, quietly thinking about the plan to sell bonds to this trip.

"The state urgently needs at least 500 million yuan to build railways, highways, and ports, and such infrastructure facilities can only rely on foreign debt ......"

"This is a major event that is urgent and even determines the fate of the country in the future!"

"The current situation is extremely unfavorable to our country's foreign debt collection"

Money is often of unexpected use, and although in the ruling axe, the ruling is talking about 500 million yuan, but Huang Huiyun believes that when he goes ashore in San Francisco 17 days later, this 500 million may increase to 700 million, or even more.

The ruling government had revealed his intentions a long time ago, and if it was not necessary, he would not use his own money to build railways, and good steel would be used on the blade. The two indemnities of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Jiawu and Gengzi, had already offset all the customs duties and salt taxes to outsiders, and it was difficult to borrow foreign debts without specific guarantees.

Industrial enterprises are not accepted by the financial circles of various countries as guarantees, and the government money will be used to buy public bonds, while bonds with physical collateral such as railways and ports are generally accepted by all countries, and foreign loans can be borrowed directly. The construction of public bonds for the domestic and the mortgage of public bonds for foreign countries, this is a borrowing strategy formulated by the ruling axe, borrowing an extra 10 million from abroad, and the domestic can use an additional 10 million for investment enterprises.

"It's hard!"

Huang Huiyun, who has lived in the United States for 20 years and worked as a clerk at the City Bank of New York in the United States, and has worked his way up to the deputy head of the investment department, naturally knows the difficulties he has to face. This difficulty is manifold, on the one hand, and the financial markets on the other.

For a long time, the world's financial capital was concentrated in Britain and France. After the Russo-Japanese War, Takahashi Shikiyo, vice president of the Bank, was dispatched, and his job was to raise foreign debts from Britain and France, that is, to cut off the channels of funds to flow to Russia and divert them to Japan. In other words, he not only raised military funds for the sake of Russia, but more importantly, he wanted to cause a shortage and depletion of Russia's war funds, so as to greatly change the situation of the war in Russia.

It was Takahashi who did his excellent work to raise funds for the war to continue, but what about himself? The first time China penetrated into the international bond market, it wanted to snatch limited financial capital from the mouths of the country and Russia, and what should be used to convince them?

Because of his experience in investment work at the City Bank of New York, Huang Huiyun is no stranger to international foreign debt transactions, and if he wants to open up the situation, he must break through from his fellow bankers, and if he does not make a breakthrough with his fellow bankers, he will negotiate with the banks on the underwriting conditions, and the work of raising public bonds will not open up the situation at all.

"The U.S. also lacks experience in issuing foreign bonds. And for the sake of the development of the United States itself, it is in a situation of insufficient funding. ”

Thinking about the reason why Takahashi is Qing is going abroad to raise public debts and only staying in the United States for a short time, the corners of Huang Huiyun's mouth finally grinned, although Takahashi Shiqing had stayed in the United States, but he was sold into slavery, he didn't know the United States at all, let alone the capital of the United States.

The European financial community may be a traditional capital exporter, but even the wealth of the whole of Europe combined cannot be compared with the United States, and the work experience at the City Bank of New York makes Huang Huiyun know the American financial industry better than Takahashi, and they are not eager to open up channels for undertaking foreign public bond issuance?

Huang Huiyun, who finally let himself relax, lay on his desk and began to think that after he arrived in San Francisco, he should invite those bankers first, and the first in line was not his old employer, the City Bank of New York, but another bank, a family that built a financial empire that controlled the American economy with bonds, maybe they could give themselves some help, if ...... Enough benefits!

"Yunda is leaving!"

Chen Moran, who was lying on the desk looking at the documents, asked without raising his head.

"If the time is right, it's just out of the Yangtze River estuary!"

Guan Mingtang reported that in the past two months as the Minister of Finance, he has been negotiating new tariff treaties with various countries in Beiping, just as the initial ruling expected, the fortress was conquered from within, and after conquering a tower, the rest could not last long, and now the Ministry of Finance has signed new tariff treaties with Britain, Germany, and the Netherlands, and only after signing new tariff treaties with all countries, tariff autonomy can be realized.

"Zheqin, what do you think of Yunda's trip to the United States this time?"

Putting down the pen in his hand, Chen Moran looked at Guan Mingtang sitting in front of him, he, like Yunda, has the experience of living in the United States all the year round, Yunda understands the financial market in the United States, but Guan Mingtang understands all aspects of the United States.

"Not optimistic?"

"Oh? Why? ”

"We are not a book, so we can't use Takahashi is Qing's income, and so on, the task assigned by the ruling government to Yunda is a bond of 500 million Chinese dollars, compared to the United States' absorption of bonds, it can be described as a drop in the bucket, but in power, we are not a book after all!"

Guan Mingtang repeatedly mentioned the book, but Chen Moran was curious, what was going on?

"Contempt!"

As soon as the ruling party revealed his doubts, Guan Mingtang spit out two words between his lips.

Chen Moran, who was aroused by curiosity, sat on the circle chair, holding the armrests with both hands, looking at Guan Mingtang in front of him, the two words he said were indeed the truth.

"Tell me about it!"

"In power, because the United States first reached a new tariff treaty with China, most of the people know about US President Roosevelt, and Roosevelt also knows China, and as the decision-maker of US policy toward China, he has to pay attention to China's situation and absorb knowledge about China. In addition to various American publications, he obtained information about China, mainly American personnel and scholars who studied China. The Americans, some of whom were his friends, told him a lot about China; He also regularly discusses China issues with scholars who have a long history of Chinese studies. ”

Nodding slightly, Chen Moran waited for him to continue, this is the inevitable foreign policy of a country, as the head of state, he must understand this country, just as he is doing everything possible to understand those countries.

Even for themselves, they need to know their country better than the other side, and if China wants to rise, it must have the ability to play six balls in the air at the same time, at least for now, the diplomatic ball is playing well.

Roosevelt's contempt for our country was in his bones, and over the past few years, as president of the United States, he has repeatedly warned Americans that China is using her misfortune ...... Teach us a living lesson that if a nation is both rich and unable to defend itself, it is foolish to seek to survive as a nation! ”

Guan Mingtang's voice was not loud, and he showed any emotions in the future, he seemed to be talking about something that had nothing to do with him, and Chen Moran would be full of helplessness.

"When I was in the United States, I also knew that Roosevelt was a man who achieved success through tenacious self-struggle, so among his value standards, fighting spirit and self-reliance were the most valuable, and he believed that the Chinese lacked these qualities, so he could not help but feel contempt, and in contrast to his view of China, he greatly appreciated his national surname. When Roosevelt used China as a negative teaching material to remind Americans, he used the book as a positive teaching material to tell Americans what the United States should be! ”

"He despises us and praises us, and this directly affects the judgment of the Americans, and this affects the enthusiasm of the Americans for our bonds, right?"

Chen Moran asked without thinking, listening to Guan Mingtang's words, he really began to worry about Huang Huiyun's trip to the United States.

"Not only that, but Roosevelt's views were even more acerbic when we began to boycott foreign goods in general on the issue of the right of way and tariffs, especially during the right-of-way period, when he made a statement in the newspapers accusing us of being inferior to the Russians in arrogance and dishonesty!"

At this time, a young guard officer walked in and served Chen Moran and Guan Mingtang a small glass of milky white paste. After the fall of Beiping, he drank a cup of such paste every night as usual, which was a prescription prescribed by an old imperial doctor in the palace by a former Qing official, and boiled with tonic such as deer antler, ginseng, tiger whip, and honey. Relying on two small cups of mush in the morning and evening of the day, he always maintained his vigorous energy when dealing with this complicated state affairs.

After drinking a cup of slightly sweet honey paste, Guan Mingtang continued, "Of course, in power, Roosevelt's attitude towards China is changing, and I personally prefer that this is a change that has occurred out of the needs of the balance of power in Asia, and this change is difficult to affect the impression that Roosevelt himself and the vast majority of Americans have on our country, well...... The impression is very important, just like the book, every time they win a victory, they can be cheered by the people of Europe and the United States, their bonds are naturally welcomed by the people, and even Takahashi himself is too tired because of too many signatures, and his right hand is once overtired, causing inconvenience! Impression, the impression of a country directly affects his bond issuance! ”

"Impressions!"

Chen Moran listened carefully. Guan Mingtang's words aroused his great interest, and he muttered these two words in his heart, Chen Moran's brows were locked together, and the poor impression of Roosevelt and the Americans on China was caused by the decay, weakness and incompetence of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

"The Chinese seem to be cowardly and inefficient", "Chinese-style [***]", it is this impression that makes Roosevelt full of contempt for China, and when congressmen oppose naval funding, he criticizes those people, saying that they actually want to bring down the United States. to the level of China.

"China's main problem is the lack of national cohesion and the inability to show a strong fighting spirit in unison." Some experts even say that the birth rate of the Chinese population is too high and will pose a threat to Caucasians; Roosevelt also thought this was nonsense, because the birth rate and the size of the population did not determine the "national surname", and it was not possible for the Chinese [***] team to launch a war against the Europeans, and in China, "the military career is despised by others", and China did not have the so-called "central sense of direction", and the state was only a temporary collection of provinces, so it was impossible to have a belligerent and aggressive orientation after a revolution like the original one, and thus rank among the ranks of civilized countries.

"In power, on the issue of tariffs, what is the reason why you are tough, and even put on a posture of not hesitating to fight? It is nothing more than the image of the country, and you want to use this way to tell the European and American powers that the country has changed, and the national unanimity shown by the provinces at that time also shocked the world! It is this shock that has contributed to the change in their attitude towards China, but all this is far from enough! ”

While thinking about Guan Mingtang's words, Chen Moran habitually touched his beard. His beard was originally in the usual figure-of-eight style, but he changed to a Prussian beard, that is, the ends of the tail were upturned like the horns of a buffalo. The change of beard style caused a chain reaction, the officialdom has grown a horn-style beard, the hobby of officialdom affects the fashion of society, the officialdom affects the gentry, the big gentry affects the small gentry, and now almost half of China's middle-aged men are wearing this kind of beard, and the promotion of Hanfu, new clothes and Han rites are the same, often only Chen Moran needs to play an exemplary role.

After muttering for a long time, Chen Moran raised his eyes and looked at Guan Mingtang in front of him.

"Zheqin, then tell me, how does China need to change its national image?"

Although Chen Moran already had an answer in his heart at this time, he still needed to listen to Guan Mingtang's opinion.

"Ruling you, you have lived with your father in Europe, Africa and all over the United States, I would like to ask the ruling power, in your opinion, how did the so-called great powers of Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States change their national image and international status, and in what way did they do it?"

Silent! Guan Mingtang's rhetorical question was exchanged for Chen Moran's silence, do you still need to ask? There is only one way.

"In power, the United States is the world's largest economic power, but on many issues, the voice of the United States has never been listened to by other countries, just like when Xin Chou negotiated peace, the United States' propositions will not be listened to by other countries, in the final analysis, what makes the United States have a first-class economy, first-class industry, but no first-class influence?"

Guan Mingtang's series of questions were exchanged for a wry smile from Chen Moran, didn't he think about fighting a foreign war to change China's status? Thought!

But the question now is......

(To be continued)