No businessman likes competitors, and Hu Chuyuan is an exception, and he is convinced of one thing...... Competition is a good thing for both parties.

Nor is it a good thing to allow the entire wealthy Asian system to control the entire Chinese industrial system, and in the long run, Hu Chuyuan will only retain a stake in one of the four major groups.

Throughout the international world, he currently holds many companies...... After reaching a certain market value, he will choose to cash out and leave.

Business...... Take your time.

Hu Chuyuan was not in a hurry.

When Chinese understand the market economy, they always understand it as a system problem, a system problem, in fact, the core of the market economy is the market, that is, consumption capacity.

Hu Chuyuan stayed in the yamen of the governor of Shanxi these days, and the most discussed with Yang Shipai was the issue of average wealth, which was the most difficult problem in Shanxi.

He suggested that Yang Shipai should pay due attention to the development of animal husbandry and forestry, diversify the local dry grain, reduce dependence on water sources, and at the same time do a good job in protecting water and soil.

The political axe should formulate local economic policies according to the characteristics of each locality, support the development of agricultural cooperatives, and help all localities get rid of poverty and become rich.

After sitting in Shanxi for nearly a month, Hu Chuyuan took a train back to Beijing from the northern line, this time, he passed through Yanmen Pass, and Dai County was re-changed to Yanmen County, and Yanmen Mansion was set up.

As the prime minister of this empire, this kind of thing has always been Hu Chuyuan's welfare.

He can rename areas according to his preferences and history, and develop new development strategies.

Compared with the south, the northern part of Shanxi is poorer and more backward, and there are barren mountains and mountains everywhere, which makes people feel distressed, which also makes Hu Chuyuan more soberly aware...... China still has a long way to go if it wants to become a true world power.

In his tenure, he is afraid that he will not be able to see it.

When he left Shanxi, he had already decided...... After this term, he transferred the position of prime minister to Qu Hongji, and retained the position of party chairman of the Grand Ducal Party and withdrew from the prime minister's office.

It's just that the only thing I don't want to hand over is military power.

The more he thought about it, the more Hu Chuyuan wanted to do his best during his term of office, do his best, and leave a good situation for the next prime minister, especially to completely defeat the Franco-Russian Triple Entente.

When he decided to think so, there would be no more military spending in China.

He does not need to cash out his assets at all, as long as he keeps pledging them in the banking institutions under his control in exchange for funds to buy treasury bonds, he can buy as much as he wants.

I bought it until I was scared to death.

The train traveled through the mountains and fields, Hu Chuyuan closed his eyes and rested, and Pan Limei sat opposite him, holding her cheeks and thinking about something.

Inadvertently, Pan Limei suddenly laughed.

Hu Chuyuan opened his eyes curiously, looked at her joy, and asked puzzledly, "What are you happy about?" ”

Pan Limei smiled: "Me...... I thought about what business I was going to do. ”

"Oh?"

Hu Chuyuan was a little curious and asked, "What business?" ”

Pan Limei said: "Milk powder." When you are at home, you have to drink a glass of fresh milk every day, and we seem to be used to it, but when you are in Shanxi, you can only drink milk powder. Didn't Yang Shipai's wife just give birth and invited a wet nurse, but if you think about it, how many people invite a wet nurse, so milk powder is very important. Think about it again, there are a lot of pastures in Northeast China and Mongolia...... This business must be able to do well, right? ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded and said, "It can indeed be said that." This business is good, if you really want to do it, I will give you a sum of money, you first open a small factory in Yanjing, find out the process and equipment, reserve personnel, train, and then go to Mongolia to open a branch. ”

"I also plan to work with CITIC to allow herders to raise the cows we have introduced from the Netherlands," Pan said. ”

Hu Chuyuan smiled, he also felt that this business was very good, since Pan Limei wanted to do it, let her do it.

It doesn't matter now, in a few years, he will no longer be the prime minister, and he himself will have to come back to business, not to mention his wife.

…… During the period when Hu Chuyuan was not in Beijing, the world situation was precisely a period of chaos.

In the Northeast Asian theater, the army has already invaded Korea, and the front-line troops are only 60 kilometers away from Seoul; The Russian army set out from Manchuria and Vladivostok and poured into the northeast on a large scale, and forcibly requisitioned the Chinese in the northeast to build the last section of the Far Eastern Railway, and also built a railway connecting Manchuria and Qiqihar in the Greater Khinganling area.

At this time, Russia had openly made the Northeast its own territory, and even the United Governor of Northeast Asia had been dispatched, and the main force was rushing to Harbin.

For such a situation, Hu Chuyuan did not feel anything surprised.

He came back on time, and when he returned to Yingtai, he went directly to the conference center of the State Military Commission in Yingtai.

As soon as they entered the hall, all the generals who were in a meeting suddenly got up collectively and saluted Hu Chuyuan.

He walked straight and somewhat indifferently to the center of the conference room, Lu Han, who was sitting in the chief position, hurriedly gave up his seat, he sat down unceremoniously and directly, and asked Lu Han, who was standing respectfully on the side, "How is the situation now?" ”

Lu Han replied: "My lord, most of the remnants of the French garrisons in Vietnam and Cambodia retreated into Thailand, were detained by the British side, and stayed in Thailand as refugees. At present, the Nanyang region has been basically stable. France and Tsarist Russia, considering that the possibility of their fleet crossing the Strait of Malacca was too low, decided to make a detour from Argentina into the eastern Pacific Ocean, and then enter the Sea of China after resupplying Chile and Colombia respectively. We are considering a possible last name for intercepting them halfway. ”

Hu Chuyuan listened calmly and looked at the report on the desktop.

At present, Cambodia and Vietnam have signed a new protection treaty and re-established themselves as protectorates of China, and Vietnam has also temporarily split into two parts, North Vietnam and Vietnam, according to his plan.

The temporary excuse was to protect the regent regime in the northern part of Vietnam, of course, he had to take the northern part of the country, and he even determined the name of the province to be "Quang Nam Province", which was called the Sanguang region together with Guangdong and Guangxi, and the Chinese immigrants in Quang Nam Province were also mainly Guangdong and Guangxi.

There is no rush to raise this question at the moment.

In short, the South Seas have stabilized.

The main forces originally deployed in Nanyang, the Fujian-Zhejiang Corps and the Liangguang Corps, began to retreat north to prepare for the landing, while the Nanyang Allied Forces scattered and retreated to their respective localities to prevent turmoil in various parts of Nanyang.

The problem in the northwest battlefield is not too big, and Hu Chuyuan knows in his heart that Li Kaiye has not really exerted his strength.

Hu Chuyuan's instructions to Li Kaiye were to "hold on to it and not retreat", hold on to all key positions, and resolutely not back down, but also not to counterattack on a large scale.

In this way, when the Northeast Battlefield is full of crises and the main forces of France and Russia are absorbed into the Northeast Battlefield, as long as Li Kaiye suddenly cuts off the supply line of the Far Eastern Railway...... The Entente would have had no room for manoeuvre.

Of course, the naval side ...... The Franco-Russian Far East Combined Fleet must not be allowed to join the Russian and Japanese navies in the Far East.

Hu Chuyuan looked through Lu Han's information and checked the number of commanders-in-chief of the French Far East Combined Fleet one by one, which was not very surprising, the main battleships were 14 10,000-ton battleships, four Russian, ten French, and the rest had more than 100 warships, mainly ironclad ships and ironclad cruisers.

Basically, all the ironclad cruisers came from the Russian Navy.

The Russian Navy was the originator of ironclad cruisers, and they also insisted on building ironclad cruisers, which are still being built today, and even the first corporal ironclad cruisers have not been decommissioned.

Of the more than 60 ships sent by Russia, almost half are old, and although the French ships are newer, they are not particularly numerous.

Hu Chuyuan took a general look at it, and said to Lu Han, Lan Jianshu and other admirals: "It can be seen that the Franco-Russian Far East Combined Fleet formed by France is still very conservative, and it has not taken out all its family resources. ”

Lan Jianshu, deputy chief of staff of the Admiralty, said: "Yes, France is indeed relatively conservative, they are facing the naval oppression of Germany and Britain at the same time, and they want to take out all their navies to fight us, and they do have to take a very big risk, which is the main reason why France is unwilling to participate in the war in the early days." This time, they took out all the main battleships and, together with a large number of old Russian ships, formed a seemingly very powerful combined fleet...... I think that the intimidation of the French is more serious, and it is not the same thing at all to really pull it out and fight, first of all, there is a big difference in the caliber of the main gun, and the difference in speed is even greater, and the number of ironclad cruisers is too large, and it is simply a live target of the Weiyuan class. ”

Hu Chuyuan looked up at the more than a dozen naval staff officers present, and it could be seen that everyone wanted to fight this battle...... The opponent is only powerful on the surface, and it seems that it has a total displacement of nearly 500,000 tons, but in fact, it is not fought at all.

If this war is won, in terms of navy, even if the Entente is completely defeated, it will not be able to control the sea at all.

However...... A premature decisive battle is not conducive to China's overall interests.

If this battle is won by a great margin, even if China does not want peace talks, Britain, Germany, and the United States will try their best to intervene and demand peace talks from China...... The reason is simple, who can tolerate the emergence of an overly powerful China?

Hu Chuyuan didn't think about it for too long, because he had thought about it many times, he just gently put together the information and the report, and said, "Let's dismiss the meeting first." ”

Hearing this, everyone couldn't help but be a little surprised, but they didn't dare to go against Hu Chuyuan's intentions, so they got up and saluted collectively again, and exited the conference room one by one.

When everyone was gone, Lu Han asked puzzledly, "My lord, do you still have any doubts?" ”

Hu Chuyuan snorted and said, "My goal is not to defeat France, but Russia!" ”

"But ......?"

Lu Han was puzzled for a while, and then he seemed to understand, and sighed with a little regret: "It's a pity that such a good opportunity, once this coalition force is allowed to enter the sea area, the problem will be troublesome." ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "It doesn't matter if the sacrifice is big, but we must destroy these warships at the most critical time." ”

Lu Han snorted and said, "Okay, then I understand, I'll redeploy and let the Admiralty prepare for a decisive battle in the waters of the Beiyang Fleet." ”

Hu Chuyuan bowed slightly.

In fact, this decisive battle field has already been decided...... Cheju.

The plan of 3 million troops was indeed a reality, and the French army had begun to enter Central Asia and Northeast China on a large scale through the Far Eastern Railway, and nearly 600,000 troops were concentrated in Korea.

At this time, the combined fleet of the Far East of the French and Russian Entente countries was bound to protect the supply line to Korea.

As long as Jeju Island is still in the hands of the Chinese Navy's Beiyang Fleet, this supply line will never be considered safe, and as long as he sends the main fleet to gather on Jeju Island, a decisive battle is inevitable.

Take your time.

Hu Chuyuan is not in a hurry, what he has is patience.

When he is ready, he will put an end to this war once and for all.

After the Nanyang battlefield was completely calmed, China's economic exports to the outside world would no longer be restricted, and the average price of the Shanghai stock market was constantly recovering.

In particular, stimulated by large-scale war military spending and orders, China's economy grew by 17.3% in the first half of 1901 compared with the same period last year, with industrial growth playing a major role.

Due to the emergence of Franco-Russian restrictions on China, China's exports to France and Russia have declined significantly, but in the prosperity of the Nanyang market, the total export volume has remained at the standard of 1900.

There is no special major battle for the time being, only Yang Zongli has worked hard in the northeast, and the national materials have been completely tilted to the northeast, and he will not suffer for too long.

After returning to Yingtai, Hu Chuyuan focused his main efforts on the large-scale agricultural economic construction in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Sichuan, and Huguang.

This is the second front of China's economic construction, and only when this front is successful can China's economy truly succeed.

The State Economic Development Commission has taken the lead in the issue of qualified personnel and funds, and has drawn surplus forces from the eastern economy to develop the second front of China's economy, and has supported local capital in developing small and medium-sized enterprises, and large enterprises have developed new production bases on the second front in accordance with policies.

Agricultural reform must be promoted as a priority, and the big agricultural economy and the rich peasant economy are being more and more publicized and promoted, and the peasants farm the land and the squires build factories, which has become a kind of slogan, although there are many dark places in it.

It is undeniable that in this process, the economy of the second front has indeed begun to improve.

A large number of agricultural loans were granted to peasant households, which were used to buy land, and the more civilized landlord class used the funds to invest in minerals, build factories, and open shops.

Of course, the uncivilized is the majority.

He recruited a large number of college students and high school students in the Dagong Party and formed a propaganda team to persuade them in various places.

The key issue is to provide a better channel for the flow of capital and a place for investment, so industrial and mining enterprises, textile mills, and rice and flour processing factories in various localities, especially these industries with low technical difficulty and low entry thresholds, should encourage capital to intervene.

At the same time as capital involvement, the government should intensify efforts to build railways and roads, repair rivers, encourage the emergence of small steamship companies and truck consignment companies, encourage private individuals to buy trucks and small steamboats, and provide support for installment loans.

The six provinces south of the Yangtze River, Shandong, and Liangguang in the east have basically done a round of these things, and it is relatively easy to implement them in the hinterland, and as far as the Prime Minister's Office and the State Economic Commission are concerned, they are quite experienced in handling these matters.

As the prime minister of the empire, what Hu Chuyuan really wants to control is the problem of adding currency, and the key is to transfer the surplus capital and residents' deposits in the east to the central and western regions, rather than relying on the political axe to increase the total amount of money to solve the problem.

Therefore, the real dominant players are the commercial banks everywhere.

Therefore, as long as the financial families in Shanxi Province are willing to cooperate, it will be very easy for Shanxi Province's economy to get off the ground, for the simple reason that ...... Capital is flowing according to the rules of the market, constantly obtaining more profits.

Considering some longer-term issues, Hu Chuyuan also involved Wells Fargo and HSBC, increasing the scope of capital available, especially for Wells Fargo, Hu Chuyuan converted the registered capital into a Chinese-funded bank, allowing Wells Fargo to intervene in the Chinese mainland financial market.

In this war-torn period and in this period of instability in the frontiers, the Chinese nation is undergoing a new test and change.

Under the oppression of the existential crisis of the nation, strong internal reforms did not produce too many internal contradictions, nor did they produce more radical regional rebellions.

Beginning in March 1901 and ending in August 1901, Shanxi Province had basically completed the initial economic target of middle peasants, with 73 percent of the peasant households reaching the middle peasant index of 10.5 mu per household, and 7 percent of the peasant households reaching the rich peasant index of 30 mu per household.

The situation in the two provinces of Huguang and Guangzhou is better, and at present it is mainly due to the rich peasant index, while the situation in Sichuan, Henan, and Shaanxi is more complicated; in order to prevent excessive capital flooding and running on the crisis, the Prime Minister's Office has issued relatively low loans in these three provinces.

According to the estimates of the Prime Minister's Office, it is expected that by the end of next year, the three provinces will also be able to achieve the basic middle-peasant economic indicators.

It is meaningless to suddenly expand to the rich peasant index, and in the central and western regions, where mechanized farming is not widespread, the cultivated area of the population is relatively limited, so it is necessary to provide loans at the same time, let them buy ploughing cattle and iron ploughs, and also instruct them on the correct use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and rent machinery from the CITIC Agency for harvesting, transplanting, and drying.

Since the banking system is relatively developed and the residents in the eastern part of the country are relatively rich in deposits, the time is very ripe for agricultural construction at this time.

By August 1901, the total amount of agricultural loans to the second front in the central and western regions had reached 770 million yuan, and these funds began to flow to the consumer and investment markets within the control of the political axe.

China's landlord class is actually quite smart, because the education level is relatively very high, and many landlords do not directly invest in factories, but choose to buy agricultural machinery, hire people to drive tractors, rice transplanters and harvesters.

The policy is relatively supportive of these behaviors, and the installment loans are also handled quickly.

At this time, several large domestic groups are desperately increasing the production equipment of tractors and agricultural machinery, recruiting workers, fitters, turners, millers, grinders...... These numbers are very high, including the emergence of welders.

It should be said that the scale of the large agricultural economy is very powerful for the entire domestic economy, such as in the Yangtze River, behind a tractor contract is more than a dozen factories in joint production, some are the factories of the Jiangnan Group, and some are the factories of other investors.

Many accessories are produced by small factories because large factories are too busy.

In addition to the four major groups, factories invested by foreign capital in coastal cities are also increasing their production.

The production of tractors will inevitably pull the chemical and petroleum industry, and the pumping machine is also a pull for the power industry.

The scale of construction of the domestic electricity surplus, which has always been large, is to prevent the load increase during the war, and now it seems that it is no longer enough...... Power rationing has begun in Shanghai and Fuzhou, and many factories are operating at night.

The good news is that the scale of power plant construction is relatively small, and the equipment is simple, and power generation can be completed in four or five months. After the completion of the 30kV transmission and transformation line system, the construction of long-distance transmission lines has also begun to expand, and coal mining has been expanded.

Because the basic views of economics on both sides were different, the changes in China's economic index during this period were basically beyond the scope of the Entente's understanding.

Throughout the world, the sudden development of China's economy at this time has surprised almost everyone.

And it's been very, very fast.

The most amazing thing is that there is no major change in the total supply of funds, and the only drawback is that it increases the risk of a run on the capital banks, because the stock market index is rising, the commercial banks are constantly using the stock market to fill their real money aggregates.

In fact, there is a problem, that is, the banks lend each other offset, and then whitewash each other's business data beautifully.

This problem is not particularly big for Hu Chuyuan, because if there is a problem, the central bank will definitely increase the money supply at the fastest time, and if there is deflation, the central bank will also increase the money supply immediately.

Hu Chuyuan is also taking a step by step at present, mainly looking at the domestic consumption index, which is the most direct, and the second is to monitor the loan index of each bank.

His CITIC Bank is still very stable, and of course, the total capital and total deposits and loans of CITIC Bank are also the undisputed hegemony in China. The credit index of China Commerce Bank is a bit dangerous, while the Yangtze River Bank, Bank of Sichuan and Jinshang Bank are even more risky.

Around September, he felt that the data was already dangerous, so he urgently asked the central bank (Daqing Bank) to increase the money supply by 1.4 billion yuan based on the treasury bonds purchased by various banks.

Hu Chuyuan is playing with fire, but fortunately, as the prime minister of this empire, he is a master of playing with fire.

1901 year.

It was a very big year of change for China, and there was a lack of awareness throughout the world, and the whole world did not know what kind of changes were taking place in China.

Hu Chuyuan is clear.

With a 14 percent drop in total imports and exports, China's economy surged by about 23 percent in the year, and this trend will continue for five to seven years.

If this were not a time of war, there would have been a huge economic crisis in any time of peace, and even that time would have manifested itself in a strong inflationary crisis.

Very, very lucky, Hu Chuyuan controlled the entire Chinese financial system, and he could control the inflation coefficient through the internal control of the banking system, and eventually transfer the entire inflation crisis abroad through the change of the gold standard.

The French don't feel it, they don't know it, and the Russians don't understand it.

They still think that they can defeat China, but it will not be as easy as in the past, especially the Russians, but they do not understand at all that Hu Chuyuan has prepared for them only a real abuse and ravage.

What Hu Chuyuan wanted to do was very simple, he wanted to use a comprehensive generation difference in the history of the development of weapons and equipment to defeat France and Russia to the point that he did not even know his parents, and by the way, he would take advantage of the nationalist existential crisis and the sense of national crisis to complete a nationwide land and economic reform.

(To be continued)