Hu Chuyuan's performance in the negotiation of the Anglo-French arms sales agreement surprised the Qing court, and compared with him, Li Fengbao, who was the Qing Dynasty's minister to the five European countries, seemed useless.

Hu Chuyuan had no intention of accepting the praise of the officials, and he did not even stop in Fuzhou, but hurried directly to Shanghai.

Hu Chuyuan was surprised by Tan Yiyun's telegram to Europe, which Xu Run had accepted the invitation of Zhang Shusheng, the governor of Liangguang, to go to Guangzhou to open the Zhongguang Commercial Bank.

In addition, due to the Jiangnan Commercial Bank's full entry into the sugar industry, and the agreement to act as an agent for Mobil Foreign Company's diesel and kerosene, coupled with various contradictions in the money business, the Ningbo Commercial Gang and the Guangdong Commercial Gang, with the support of Jardine Matheson, Sassoon and other giant foreign firms, will have to fight to the death with the Jiangnan Department in this year's raw silk acquisition war.

Whether it is the loss of Xu Run, or the loss of the raw silk market in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, this is an irreparable huge loss for Hu Chuyuan.

Shanghai in May is warm, the Huangpu River is surging with dark green torrents, the noise of new tea listing has not yet dissipated, and the spring silk will also make a hot debut, attracting all the capital to chase.

Businessmen, treacherous also.

The steamer docked quietly on the shore, without attracting a trace of attention, and without anyone paying attention, Hu Chuyuan quietly entered the dock and boarded the carriage only accompanied by a few entourages.

He only arranged a most ordinary carriage and silently disappeared by the noisy Huangpu River.

After throwing 100,000 taels of silver to Prince Gong, the Jiangnan Commercial Bank successfully obtained the imperial court approval for the opening of the Jiangnan Telegraph Office, and repaired while reporting, and has already completed the laying of the main line around the sea from Tianjin to Shanghai and Hong Kong, and is concentrating manpower to lay the main line of the Yangtze River.

With his own telegraph network, communication has become much easier, Hu Chuyuan sent a telegram to Tan Yiyun as soon as he arrived in Fuzhou, and it was Tan Yiyun who came to pick him up.

When the carriage drove out of the dock, Hu Chuyuan calmly asked Tan Yiyun: "What is the current situation?" ”

Tan Yiyun sighed and said, "Boss Xu is definitely leaving, this news has already spread throughout Shanghai." Probably because he was leaving, you didn't return, the Ningbo Merchant Gang and the Guangdong Merchant Gang were particularly arrogant, and they decided to take the raw silk of Suzhou Mansion, Jiaxing Mansion and Ningbo Mansion, I heard Pang Yunhong say that they also came to contact him and Liu Yong, but he and Liu Yong immediately refused. In fact, these two business gangs are terrible to join forces, but they may not be our opponents, the key is that there are still two foreign companies behind Jardine Matheson and Sassoon, and the strangest thing is that he is also involved. ”

Hu Chuyuan couldn't help but be a little curious, and asked, "Myself, what's going on?" ”

Tan Yiyun said: "At the end of last year, I opened a Dongli foreign store on Nanjing Road, operating an antique business, importing and exporting, buying coal and iron ore, and selling some miscellaneous pseudo-foreign goods. I sent someone to observe, and the business is very bad, but the owner of this foreign company is afraid that he knows it! ”

Hu Chuyuan asked, "Who?" ”

Tan Yiyun said: "Shibusawa Pingdong, Wang Baotian said that he had seen him, and he came to the courtyard to invite you to participate in the antique auction of Yuben. He also often went to our Rong Bao Zhai to see the goods, and bought a few gadgets, which were not very valuable. ”

Hu Chuyuan frowned slightly, thinking to himself, this matter is really a bit troublesome.

There is no doubt that those chaebols also know that they do not yet have the strength to gain a foothold in Shanghai, and they have neither superior commodities, nor preferential country treatment, nor much money.

The reason why they squeezed into Shanghai at this time was that they wanted to find out intelligence, and second, they had to find a way to solve the problem of silk prices in Jiangnan.

After Hu Chuyuan took control of the Jiangnan silk industry, the price has been very low, and in the United States to increase sales, the impact on the economy of the province is very great, last year, the export of raw silk fell by about 10 percent.

If Hu Chuyuan continues to lower prices this year, it will have a real impact on the economy.

He rubbed his eyebrows, sighed, and thought, this is probably the so-called butterfly effect, right?

Tan Yiyun continued: "Boss, I told Boss Xu before, and the others are waiting in the Yinghua Pavilion in Yongyuan!" Before I keep him, I have to show you another thing, this matter, I think it is more urgent than Boss Xu's departure, maybe more urgent than the purchase of raw silk! ”

As he said this, he took out a locked vermilion lacquered mahogany box, and when he opened it, he took out a thick account book with a purple cover.

Hu Chuyuan felt strange and thought, why don't you make it clear in the telegram at one time, are you still afraid of spending that extra money?

But as soon as he looked at the cover, he knew that it wasn't like that, and he really could only say it in person.

Because this account book is the general ledger of Yufeng Society...... It's very secret, Hu Chuyuan has only seen it twice before, in fact, he doesn't want to watch it at all, watch it once, and have a headache once.

Hu Chuyuan couldn't help but ask Tan Yiyun, "What is the matter?" ”

Tan Yiyun smiled bitterly: "Owner, just take a look!" ”

Hu Chuyuan had no choice but to take the Yufeng General Ledger, endure the feeling of headache and flcan it, and soon, he pulled to the last page, but this time, a thin layer of cold sweat broke out on his back.

It turns out that after two years of development, the land held by Yufeng Society in Shandong has increased from 3.4 million mu to 4.77 million mu, and the land held in Hebei has also increased from 1.25 million mu to 2.2 million mu.

Hu Chuyuan gasped, he didn't understand, and he couldn't help but ask Tan Yiyun with some blame: "Didn't I ask you to sell it when the time is right?" Why do you buy more and more? ”

How can this be, the shopkeeper Tan is not an unreasonable person, how can he be so aggressive?

He couldn't figure it out.

Tan Yiyun was not very anxious, and said: "Speaking of which, it's also my fault, the things in the business bank are too busy, and I can't take care of the affairs of the grain society for a while." Later, I singled out Hu Dazong and put him in charge of this matter. ”

"Hu Dazong?"

Hu Chuyuan took a little effort to think about it, and he could probably think of this person.

Hu Dazong is a native of Hujiazhuang, Jixi, Huizhou, and Hu Xueyan is the same clan and fellow villager, he was thrown out by his parents at the age of fourteen, and was left in Hu Xueyan's Yufeng Rice Store as an apprentice, and later worked as a pawnshop, and also ran a silk shop and a money village.

is only in his thirties now, but he has been the shopkeeper of the Hu family for six years.

Hu Chuyuan was a little dissatisfied, and said, "Even if he is a little reckless, you should control the fire?" In case Li Hongzhang and Sheng Xuanhuai know about this matter, and use this issue to play me a reckless seizure of fertile land and plot against the field, even if I don't lose my head, I will have to peel off my skin. ”

Tan Yiyun nodded silently and said: "I know, I have already let the bulk deal with it, he found more than 20 fellow villagers in Hangzhou and the commercial bank Jixi shopkeeper and steward, let them go home and recruit more than 30 people to be stewards through relatives and friends, about 600 before and after." The bulk is a one-line contact with the shopkeeper, and the shopkeeper contacts the steward with a single line, presses these fields to them to operate, and the title deed is also given to them, but there is another contract that presses them. Everyone has bought houses in various places, but it is only said that Jixi rice merchants are engaged in crop trading in Shandong and Hebei, and everyone has more than 10,000 acres of land in their hands. ”

Hu Chuyuan couldn't help but nodded, and said, "This method is good, when I finish this period of time, you let Dazong come to see me, I have to reward him with a bonus." ”

Tan Yiyun said with a smile: "I have already asked him to wait in the trading house, if you want to see him, we can go to the trading house first." ”

Hu Chuyuan shook his head and said, "Things have been a bit weird recently, don't say I'm back, I'll go first for the time being...... Wanqi Bank. ”

Tan Yiyun nodded and said, "Okay." ”

Immediately, he knocked on the glass window of the carriage, whispered a few words to the coachman, and asked the driver to go to the headquarters of Wanqi Bank on Huangpu Road.

Hu Chuyuan looked at the general ledger of Yufeng Society for a while, and then asked Tan Yiyun: "What is Oshida?" ”

Tan Yiyun said with a smile: "This is also a new trick made by Hu Dazong, he issued loans and released grain to local farmers, and the farmers mortgaged the land deeds to him, and the land still belongs to the farmers, but the right to handle it is in our hands, and we have to decide what to plant, and we have to be responsible for purchasing." ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly and praised: "This method is good." ”

Tan Yiyun said with a smile: "That is, Dazong can think that he is an old buddy of the rice shop, a good farmer, and has worked in the money bank, pawnshop and silk shop." On this basis, the bulk has also made a set of rules, first of all, we have to decide what to plant, and the harvest must be sold to us at the market price, and we lend low-interest loans to the farmers to grow grain, and the rest of the things are the same as the Jiangnan Agricultural Cooperatives, but we are taking the dark road. ”

Hu Chuyuan asked curiously, "What kind of secret path method?" ”

Tan Yiyun said: "We don't do business under the name of Yufeng Club at all, on the surface, we are all scattered, each doing its own thing, everyone is secretly a one-line contact, and each steward cooperates with the local squires alone." ”

Hu Chuyuan continued to ask: "What about the accounts?" ”

Tan Yiyun said: "It's all the business of the villagers, and no one dares to take it personally, but at the end of the year and the autumn harvest, more than a dozen master bookkeepers from the money village are selected to check the accounts in various places." ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded again and said, "This business is interesting, but how did he bet so much land?" ”

Tan Yiyun said with a smile: "Owner, the deposit price we opened is quite fair, and the deposit per mu of land is four dollars of silver a year." I thought that the bulk of this business was very interesting, so I agreed that he would use all the grain of Yufeng Society to charge the land, the grain prices in the north are still very high, and the places have not returned to the level of a few years ago, which gives us an excellent opportunity, at the end of last year, it was more than 10 million mu, and at the beginning of the year, it continued to be more than 2 million mu. ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "The deposit method is indeed an interesting business, but the yield is still low. Let's calculate according to the annual output of six quintals of grain per mu of land, deducting the ding tax and rations, the farmer will sell us at most two quintals, collect five taels of silver per quintal at the average price, sell six taels of silver, and deduct taxes, taxes, cents of gold and labor, and each quintal of grain will earn at most two taels of silver, 10 million mu, and 20 million quintals of grain can earn 4 million taels of silver. It doesn't seem low, but if you think about it, how much do we invest, on average, it will take ten years to recover the cost! ”

Tan Yiyun said with a smile: "The owner, the deposit is a long-term deposit, which has to be deducted from the annual grain payment, so we can earn four dollars per load of grain." As long as we operate well, the average annual yield per mu will definitely be more than six quintals of grain. Even if it is calculated according to six quintals, after deducting costs and investment, the net income is 10%. The interest is not high, but after all, it is a large transaction, small profits and quick turnover, and you can also make a lot of money, not to mention that our initial investment is only 4.7 million taels of silver, which also includes the 700,000 taels of silver smashed in Shanxi! ”

After a pause, he said: "In case of famine, we have also signed a contract with the villagers, and we must collect at least two loads of grain every year, otherwise, the deposit will continue to roll over for another year." ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded, basically by default.

It was not very far from the pier to the headquarters building of Wanqi Bank at 16 on the Bund, and the carriage deliberately went slower, and now it has arrived.

Tan Yiyun first went to the bank to find someone, and then the carriage went around the backyard, and Hu Chuyuan walked down and entered the bank building.

To everyone's surprise, he also holds 42% of the shares in the 100% American bank.

Pfister-Delano happened to be in the bank, and when he learned that Hu Chuyuan had returned in a flash of lightning, he immediately asked people to open a reception room that he didn't usually use, and waited for Hu Chuyuan here alone.

As soon as the two met, Pfister Delano smiled happily: "Hello, hoosir, I heard that you are very beautiful in Europe, and you have bought a very beautiful mansion, which is really enviable to me!" ”

Hu Chuyuan smiled bitterly, sat down without waiting for Pfister-Delaenau's invitation, and said to him: "Don't be polite to me, you won't know the reason why I'm in such a hurry to come back!" ”

Pfister-Delano nodded and said, "A few days ago, Butterfield came to me to discuss this matter, and there is no doubt that we will definitely support you 300%. Once the price of silk is speculated, the most pitiful ones are actually me and him. The two of us made a division of labor, I kept in touch with Sassoon and Jardine Matheson on the front, and he contacted French and German foreign companies in the dark! ”

Hu Chuyuan asked, "Who is the main one this time?" ”

Pfister-Delano said: "It is very strange to say, if my news is not wrong, it should be that the Beiyang Commercial Bank of your country is sending people to contact, and it is also very strange that there are one or two merchants of Yuben, who first contacted Sassoon and Jardine Matheson, as well as the merchants of Guangdong, and finally the merchants of Ningbo. The strategy they put forward was that the major foreign banks banned the purchase of raw silk and tea from the Jiangnan Commercial Bank, causing a shortage of funds in the Jiangnan system, and the foreign banks then borrowed money, and the Ningbo merchants funded the loans, and joined the Guangdong merchants and other Jiangsu and Zhejiang silk merchants to speculate and buy raw silk, and when the price was high enough, the foreign banks first bought the raw silk of these merchants, and then reached a very low-price purchase agreement with Yueben, forcing the Jiangnan Commercial Bank to sell the raw silk at a low price. Perhaps, there is a lot more to come, but in short, Mr. Butterfield thinks it is a very powerful commercial fraud tactic. ”

After hearing this, Hu Chuyuan couldn't help but sneer.

It's a pity, it's a pity that he has already completed the layout in advance, and secretly won 42% of the shares of Wanqi and 55% of the shares of Swire & Co.

(To be continued)