"It is said that Benzheng Axe sent 147 ninjas and assassins to break into the shipmaster's yamen in the middle of the night to assassinate Hu Chuyuan, the shipmaster of Fuzhou"

Almost overnight, the news spread throughout China, and the Oriental Press Company's newly launched "Guardian" in the Tianjin Concession, Shanghai's "Declaration" and "Jiangnan Daily", and Hong Kong's "Huanhuan Bao" were all talking about it.

Last time, it could be said that it was a mystery case, but this time it is not.

This is a truly big case, and the whole country is shocked.

Beginning in 1880, China's raw silk landed in the U.S. market on a large scale, and at the end of 1881, it completely formed a monopoly operation, accounting for 97% of the U.S. raw silk import market.

After a short period of warmth, Bunsen silk quickly entered an ice age.

Lacking other export resources and markets, the short-lived economy suffered a sudden and fatal blow. After they tried to break up Hu Chuyuan's monopoly alliance through an act of instigation in May 1881, they became clear that Hu Chuyuan would not give way.

It is almost impossible to defeat Hu Chuyuan, Rockefeller, and JP Morgan commercially, but it is not very difficult to assassinate them by some means.

Even the president of the United States can be assassinated twice, how many people in this world cannot be killed?

A few days later, it was called Tokyo.

In Chiyoda Ward, in Nagata Town, a few kilometers away from the Emperor's Imperial Court, and in a private hall in a hill park just a few kilometers away from the National Assembly, the walls are painted with exaggerated ukiyo-e paintings, proclaiming the longevity of the Imperial Family.

On the fine and smooth wax wood floor, Shibusawa Heito is prostrate on the ground like a sinner, and behind him is his samurai Matsukawa Takamasa, whose father, Shibusawa Eiichiro has the status of the father of the nation in the economic world, and at this time he also knelt on the side seat like a sinner, bowed his head, and did not dare to say a word.

The atmosphere is so solemn that it seems that the slightest movement will lead to murder.

However, Shibusawa Heito was not deterred by this.

That one was almost perpendicular to the floor...... The face against the floor is still so young and resolute, without fear.

Sitting in front of him was a middle-aged man with a serious face, his face was as gray as a dead corpse, as if he had smeared the dead to use that kind of white powder, wearing a very gorgeous black kimono embroidered with a phoenix-like pattern, and behind him sat two middle-aged samurai, respectful, for fear of the slightest negligence and disrespect.

The middle-aged man was silent, looking extremely angry, but he was suppressed by a powerful personal aura.

After a long while, he asked Shibusawa Heito coldly: "In this way, you have missed for the second time...... What a fool, don't you know what a frightened bird is? Because a bird that has been scared once is ten times more difficult to hunt than a normal bird. When we ask you to do it, you should use all the power you can muster the first time. ”

Shibusawa Heito continued to kowtow and said, "I'm very sorry, Mr. Inoue, I originally hoped to complete the assassination without revealing all my strength and identity, and before the second assassination, I also tried to find out his defense forces, which is really not worth worrying about, but the actual situation is completely different. ”

"Hmm...... What a sinister Shina man! ”

The middle-aged man sighed silently, and said: "Although this is the case, if you continue to think of a way, if you don't kill this Shina person, for Mitsui, it will be a threat that cannot be ignored for the entire Great Empire." ”

Shibusawa Heidong said: "I have already arranged a small one in advance, but it seems that it is still difficult to form a reliable assassination opportunity. ”

The middle-aged man gradually suppressed his dissatisfaction, but said arrogantly: "So...... Ping Dongjun, we must continue to work hard. If you can't kill such a Chinese people, even if you can become a great power, you will not be able to successfully defeat China, annex Korea, and expand to Manchuria. While it will be difficult to continue the assault and expose our motives, it must be done. There will always be an axiom in this world, as long as you are diligent and keep paying, you will always be successful. ”

Shibusawa Heito asked, "So, ...... for the things they brought up about the political axe level?" ”

The middle-aged man interrupted him and said, "There shouldn't be any worries, the empire has indeed not officially intervened in this matter, and with the cowardice and incompetence of the Qing Dynasty, as long as it is resolutely rejected at the level of the political axe, then there will be no problem." ”

Shibusawa Heito bowed his head and said, "Then, I understand, Mr. Inoue." ”

…… For himself, assassination was originally an act that bordered on righteousness, and in the Warring States Period, the Shogunate Period, and the Shogunate Era, such assassinations became crazy and never stopped.

Now, they are only aiming at another target that is blocking the development of Yuben -- Hu Chuyuan.

As the "Mr. Inoue" said, the Qing court obviously did not dare to cause trouble, even if the opponent was Yuben, they were unwilling. Before there was definite evidence, they strengthened the rectification of Fuzhou's military strength, promoted Sun Kaihua, a famous general of the Hunan army, to the governor of Fujian, stationed in Fuzhou, and gave Hu Chuyuan a little military power to protect himself, and at the same time reminded Hu Chuyuan to "choose his words carefully and not disturb state affairs."

Seeing this treatment, Hu Chuyuansuo no longer sent someone to pretend to be an assassin to provide false news, nor did he count on the poor diplomatic ability of the Qing court, but completely relied on himself.

In order to appease Hu Chuyuan, the Qing court gave a vacancy in the Fuzhou Ship Administration Yamen a vacancy in the Fubiao battalion, and also agreed to build another gun battalion for the Fujian Naval Division.

With this batch, Hu Chuyuan quickly promoted Xiao Boquan, whom he was familiar with, to a general, through Zuo Zongtang, and transferred more than 1,000 elite people from the Hunan army to be stationed in Mawei.

In addition, he set up his own guard battalion to strengthen the protection of his side and his family.

He took out a large sum of money to absorb intelligence spies in Yuben through the Jiangnan Translation Agency, and to investigate information in the economic and political circles of Yuben, especially to investigate the surrounding areas of Shibusawa Pingdong, and then secretly set up the Fuqing Society through the Huameng Association to cultivate assassination spies.

Hu Chuyuan has never been a good person, since he decided to do this, he must be very crazy, saying that he invested one million taels of silver, and he invested five million taels of silver.

In the brief silence, both sides were secretly accumulating new strength, saying that he was planning a new round of assassination, and Hu Chuyuan also planned to launch an assassination ambush against Shibusawa Heito and Toray Foreign Companies, who had returned to Shanghai.

Hu Chuyuan invested more money, and he also got more information.

In October 1882, Hu Chuyuan was preparing to return to Hangzhou to prepare for his wedding, and Wu Shuzhen was also waiting for him in Hangzhou...... At this moment, Hu Chuyuan received the latest information.

He decided to carry out the hijacking case against Hu Pinyuan and his younger sister Hu Yulan, who were studying in Shanghai, and continued to do so through a group of Zhejiang pirates and local gangsters in Shanghai.

Hu Chuyuan could only act in the front, and carried out an ambush assassination in the French Concession against Shibusawa Heito and six people who were said to be in the foreign company, and carried out a surprise attack on the pirates who had already found out the specific hiding place.

The two sides fought in the French Concession, Shibusawa Heito was shot twice, narrowly escaped from the siege, his fate is unknown, and the rest of the five people, including Matsukawa Takamasa, as well as 27 pirates from Zhejiang and more than a dozen local Green Gangsters were assassinated.

Since the patrol house in the French Concession had already been dredged, all the bodies were secretly transported by car to a factory on the banks of the Suzhou Creek, dissolved with nitric acid, poured with cement, and buried under the factory.

There is not even a corpse, so what is there to talk about filing a case?

At best, it's a case of disappearance.

Even so, Hu Chuyuan did not dare to be careless.

He knew that he had shifted his target to his family when he was unable to deal with him for a while, and wanted to use a kind of deterrent assassination to convince him and intimidate him.

He immediately asked Hu Pinyuan, Hu Yuanyuan, and Hu Yulan to take the alias Wu Siguang, Wu Siyuan, and Wu Siwei to disguise themselves as distant cousins of the Wu family and quietly go to the United States to live in Boston.

At the end of October, Hu Chuyuan got married in Hangzhou, although he had full preparations in advance, he was still assassinated when he was greeting his relatives on Yuanbao Street, six of the Hu family's nurses were killed and one was injured, and more than 10 people in the Hunan army were killed by explosives.

He asked the proficient Chinese to disguise himself as a Chinese and continue to assassinate Hu Chuyuan, putting explosives in a gift box and sending them to Hu's house, which also told Hu Chuyuan that regardless of whether Shibusawa Heito died or not, the spy network he had originally established in China could still continue to operate.

In retaliation, after Hu Chuyuan returned to Fuzhou with his wife Wu Shuzhen, he soon had Fuqing Society assassinate Shibusawa Heito's father, Shibusawa Eiichiro.

He had already secretly smuggled four small-caliber flowering cannons through various channels, set them up in the field, and bombed the villa where Shibusawa Eiichiro lived, resulting in Shibusawa Eiichiro being seriously injured, and Shibusawa Heito's wife also died in this bombing case.

Both sides have sufficient funds and manpower, and the assassination operation is also going on without interruption, from the initial national feud to a clear family feud, even the old, weak, sick and disabled.

Soon, a gap was also blown up in the Hu family's compound, and Mrs. Luo and six domestic servants were injured.

The Hu family compound was no longer safe, Hu Chuyuan moved all the Hu family to Shanghai Yongyuan and gathered for protection, and the Hu family compound was empty overnight.

The Qing court finally reacted at this time, and wanted to strengthen the protection of the Hu family, but what did it mean, even the political axe that he didn't dare to offend...... It can't be described as a nest bag anymore.

Living almost alone in the Fuzhou Ship Administration's Yamen, Hu Chuyuan knew very well in his heart that as this kind of revenge assassination continued, he would sooner or later die in the assassination of Yu himself.

He stood in front of the road to domination in Asia, and if he was not blown to pieces, he himself would not stop.

But he will not back down because of this, and for this reason, he has even written a will.

Once he finally dies in this endless assassination, all the wealth will be divided into seven parts, which will be inherited by Hu Jinyuan, Hu Pinyuan, the All-American Chinese Association, the Chinese League, Wu Shuzhen, and Hu Weiyuan.

Among them, Wu Shuzhen, Hu Pinyuan, and Hu Jinyuan will inherit most of the assets, while the All-American Chinese Association will inherit the shares of United Steel and United Railroad in the name of the Wells Fargo Investment Bank, and the Huameng Association will inherit another fund of about 100 million US dollars to overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Hu Weiyuan inherited Zhongrun Company.

The last one was given to the Fuqing Society alone, dedicated to revenge.

He knew that death was near, close at hand.

1883, January.

New Year's Day has just passed.

Hu Chuyuan and Wu Shuzhen, who have been married for more than three months, still seem to be very calm, their lives are as quiet as in the past, and they still live in the heavily guarded Fuzhou Ship Administration Yamen.

Hu Chuyuan moved the yamen to Pingding Mountain, where there were about four acres of flat land on the top of this more than 50-meter-high mountain, and many French-style manors were built in the era of Shen Baozhen.

The Hunan army surrounded the perimeter of Pingdingshan, while Hu Chuyuan's guard battalion was responsible for the defense of Pingdingshan and the mountaintop complex.

In order to further ensure security, Hu Chuyuan asked the Xinghua Society, a branch of the Chinese League, to secretly integrate into the guard battalion, which mainly chose to recruit people in Huizhou, Fuqing, and Shenzhou, with a total number of more than 400.

Life has to go on after all.

On this day, Hu Chuyuan handled a day's official and private affairs in the yamen, and was about to go back to the backyard to have dinner with Wu Shuzhen, under the guidance of Chen Shanyuan, a middle-aged rich gentleman who seemed to be familiar walked in quickly.

Entering the gate of the yamen, the middle-aged rich gentleman stepped forward to pay homage and said: "Lu Wenjin, a grass man, has seen the master of the shipmaster!" ”

"Oh? Is that you? ”

Hu Chuyuan chuckled, and then remembered that he had seen him when he first went to Yuben to participate in the auction, and at that time, wasn't he fighting with Sheng Xuanhuai?

Sheng Xuanhuai recently set up the Beiyang Bank in Tianjin, and the banknote printing paper used is almost the same as the Yuan banknote, and even the pattern of the printing is roughly the same, and there must be his own help in the middle.

Seeing this Lu Wenjin, Hu Chuyuan remembered this incident, and it is estimated that Lu Wenjin was also involved in it.

Perhaps, he was the one who connected Sheng Xuanhuai and himself.

In China, there is no shortage of Han anniversaries at any time.

"Sit down, they're all acquaintances!" Hu Chuyuan remained silent and asked Lu Wenjin to sit down and speak.

Lu Wenjin was not polite, so he really sat down, and arched his hand again: "The grass people came to visit the adults this time, in fact, they were entrusted by Mr. Zhidao, this gentleman is a master behind the scenes of the political and economic circles, and he is extremely powerful, so he asked the grass people to talk to the adults about something. ”

Hu Chuyuan chuckled and asked, "Why, this kind of big man is also interested in talking to me?" ”

Lu Wenjin smiled and said: "My lord, you don't need to be arrogant, you and Mr. Zhidao can also be the strongest people in the world today." Mr. Zhidao said that some radical groups have misunderstood with you, and there have been many unnecessary conflicts between the two sides. If you are willing to raise the price of raw silk by a small amount of 20% this year, Mr. Chi Dao assures that he is willing to intervene to coordinate and ensure that those radical groups and the Socialist Party will no longer target you, let alone make any outrageous moves. ”

Hu Chuyuan chuckled again and said: "Wouldn't that let the Bensheng silk merchant take advantage, not to mention, I have already made agreements with various foreign companies that I will not raise the price within ten years, wouldn't this be a reversal." ”

Lu Wenjin said with a smile: "My lord, foreigners are all barbarians, and China says that the two countries are at the turn of a thousand years and are both big countries in Asia. If the raw silk industry of the two countries can live in peace, and the two sides can sell at the same price, and conspire to earn the real money of foreigners, wouldn't it be a great thing for the benefit of the country, the people, and themselves? ”

Hu Chuyuan immediately said: "I'm sorry, I am honest in business, I will not regret my promise!" ”

Lu Wenjin suddenly sneered and said, "That's not very good, my lord, we understand that people don't talk nonsense." We have found it very clear that you have shares in major foreign companies, and raw silk is sold at a low price, allowing foreigners to make money in vain, which is also your money! Damage to the people and the court in the south of the Yangtze River, if this kind of thing spreads, it will not be good for your reputation! ”

Hu Chuyuan also sneered and said, "You let me gossip." It is true that I hold shares in several foreign firms, but I have already told Lord Zhongtang and Prince Su about these things, and these foreign firms do not earn much profit from the silk industry, and they have to extract a large amount of profits every year for publicity and advertising, and the accounts are clear. ”

Lu Wenjin's face was gloomy, but he smiled again: "My lord, why do you bother, if you really tear your face, no one will have a good time." Some of my friends are also very powerful, and after checking around, they actually found that you might still be ...... If you are an American citizen, if the imperial court knows, I am afraid it will be unfavorable to you, right? You have been safe and sound all these years, but for those of us who are living in Yue, our business in Yueben has been greatly affected, and we are constantly threatened by others, so you have to consider us more or less, right? You are making money, we can be pitted by you, you don't go to the book to inquire, the Chinese are full of complaints about you! ”

Hu Chuyuan sneered: "What's the matter with me? If you are willing to do business in this business, then you have to do it at your own risk. Just to take care of you, can I ignore the interests of the people of the country? You overestimate yourself, Lu Wenjin, without my support, what can you be to me? ”

"You're ......!"

Lu Wenjin's face turned red and angry, but he shouted: "Okay, Master Hu, I see that you are toasting and not eating and drinking, then let's go and see ......!" ”

Hu Chuyuan smiled evilly and said, "Let's see, don't walk, this official is also an envoy of the same province, how can he be humiliated by you for such a plain reason?" Come on, drag it down and hit the twenty boards, and hit me hard! ”

Don't fucking treat the shipmaster's yamen as a yamen.

This is the yamen of the Fuzhou Shipping Minister, which is much more powerful than the yamen of the prefect and the prefect.

What if I have my own support, and what about Sheng Xuanhuai and Li Hongzhang's support?

It's right!

Chen Shanyuan listened to the fire next to him, and took matters into his own hands, dragging the sighing Lu Wenjin down, and hit the 20 boards fiercely, and he was basically about to die, and then he was thrown out of the shipyard yamen.

It is very painful to fight Han Annihilation, however, the real disaster has just begun.

Hu Chuyuan knows this.

He knew that he was only one last step away from breaking with the Qing court.

(To be continued)