Shanxi businessmen are rich, and there is no need for Yang Shiming to say this.

There is only one point in Shanxi's problem, that is, the thinking is conservative and rigid, according to reason, the thinking of people who do business should be flexible, but Shanxi merchants have occupied the first place in the silver empire of the Qing Dynasty for too long, and they are not willing to change at all.

In addition, the problem of Shanxi merchants cellaring silver is too serious, and the government has repeatedly ordered residents to exchange the silver in their hands for clear yuan, or apply for precious metal reserve certificates.

Shanxi merchants are very powerful, and the more they feel that troubled times may come, the more crazy they are, and they don't handle the voucher at all.

Jin merchants like to talk about the ancestral system and like to talk about rules, which is a good thing, but they themselves are bound by the rules.

Or rather, they are too arrogant.

Hu Chuyuan's visit to Shanxi this time was very secret and low-key, and he decided who he wanted to meet in advance, and he asked Yang Shijian to arrange it in advance.

When the car arrived at the Yamen of the Shanxi Governor, he and Yang Shipai entered the West Flower Hall in the backyard together.

In the crowd, there was also an eighty-three-year-old gentleman, wearing the official uniform of a second-class official of the Qing Dynasty, wearing a poinsettia top.

He is none other than Qiao Zhiyong.

Qiao Zhiyong is really old, there are too many old age spots on his face, his silver hair is too sparse, and his eyes are cloudy, but his hearing is not bad, his body is also tough, and he doesn't need help when he walks around.

Seeing Hu Chuyuan's figure vaguely, Qiao Zhiyong walked in front and wanted to lead others to worship together.

After all, it is such an old gentleman, Hu Chuyuan stepped forward quickly and helped him, among the dozen or so people who were going to have a secret meeting this time, Hu Xuanyuan, Ye Tongguang, Lu Sanyuan, and Li Hongling were also present.

If we want to talk about Shanxi's economic problems, we can't talk about it without them.

A group of people sat down, and Hu Chuyuan asked Qiao Zhiyong to sit in the second seat on his right, and glanced at everyone, especially Qiao Jingyan, Qu Benqiao, Chang Lixun, and Cao Zhongyu.

These are the bigwigs of Shanxi's business circles, they are easy to deal with, but the difficult ones are those businessmen and squires in Pingyao, Jiexiu, Taigu, Qixian, and Pingyang.

In Shanxi, the local squire is the businessman, and the merchant is the local squire, which is extremely difficult to deal with.

After a little brewing in his heart, Hu Chuyuan said to Qiao Zhiyong: "Old Qiao, I summoned everyone here this time to talk about the construction of Shanxi. Shanxi is a good place, rich in coal and iron resources, and the data surveyed by the political axe is very gratifying, and it wants to build Shanxi into a heavy industry base. Technology and equipment are not the problem, the current issue is investment. ”

Qiao Zhiyong heard it very clearly, but he was old and thought about it slowly.

After a while, Qiao Zhiyong and Hu Chuyuan agreed: "Lord Shoufu, don't worry, money is not a big problem. ”

Hu Chuyuan smiled, but said, "Wrong, money is a big problem." The money I'm talking about here is not money invested in heavy industry, and even if you don't invest, others can invest. The key issue is that we must first do a good job in the construction of agriculture in Shanxi, and in recent years, the political axe has contributed some money, but it is far from enough. I would like to ask you to help us run the local agriculture together, and we will contribute money and efforts together! ”

Qu Benqiao replied: "My lord, don't worry, our Qu family does not dare to say that it is rich, but we are also willing to do our best to serve the imperial court. ”

As soon as they heard this, others also hurried to donate money.

Hu Chuyuan waved his hand and said, "I don't want you to donate money, if you donate for a while, you can't donate for a lifetime." I want you to give me the Shanxi Rural Credit Cooperative, and do it seriously. If you can't do it, then let someone else do it, and if others can't do it well, then I will send troops to break up all the land in Shanxi, and divide the land from house to house, with ten acres of land for each family. Don't look at the fact that I'm still at war with Russia, I'm in a hurry, and the troops of 70,000 or 80,000 people are still drawn. You send me back to all parts of the country, and tell the squires and rich gentry in those places that I have no time to spend with them, and that within three years, I will produce the fruits of a large agricultural economy in Shanxi, and that Shanxi will have at least 1 million rich peasant households. ”

Speaking of this, he suddenly looked at Yang Shipai next to him, and said angrily: "Yang Shipai, you give me a full twenty points of spirit, who continues to pinch the land and does not let go, and dares to give me illegal opium without filing taxes, all of them will be confiscated and severely cracked down." ”

Yang Shipai immediately got up, stepped forward and said, "Yes, the subordinate official will be strictly investigated and punished." ”

Hu Chuyuan continued: "You first check the matter of illicit cigarettes, and then check the cellar silver, whoever does not register or does not register, will be confiscated." ”

The domestic precious metal control law is very strict, gold and silver are not allowed to circulate as currency, only political axe currency is allowed to be used in the market, private holdings of gold and silver must be registered if they exceed a certain amount, and they must pay taxes for a long time according to the amount of gold, and they do not need to pay taxes when holding silver, but they must also be registered.

In the Jiangnan and Zhili regions, the gold and silver control has been very strict, and in the southwest region, it is a bit chaotic, which is mainly an ethnic issue, but in Shanxi, the chaos is even more outrageous.

Hu Chuyuan didn't have the energy to take care of Shanxi's problems before, so he first let Yang Shipai serve as the governor and secretly prepare, and now he is going to kick off the prelude to Shanxi's big investment, and naturally he will also rectify the Shanxi market and investment environment.

Listening to Hu Chuyuan's successive mantras, Qiao Jingyan and the others were all scared for a while, the money of the descendants of the cellar and the silver cellar could not be left behind, this was the rule of the ancestors.

However, the cellar silver is not a big problem, everyone passed on each other, and the silver was deposited in Jinshang Bank and Commerce Bank to exchange it for Qingyuan to avoid the rumors.

Dividing land is a hassle.

Looks like it's really going to be divided!

Hu Chuyuan is now enforcing a kulak economic policy, but instead of forcibly expropriating other people's land, he uses tax laws and agricultural subsidies to let the market do it on its own.

However, this place in Shanxi has to do something real.

The phenomenon of Shanxi merchants buying land is very serious, which is a common problem for all Chinese in this era, as long as they have a little money, they always want to buy some land and rent it out for people to plant and collect rent.

The income of this money may not be high, but the benefit is stable, but the risk of doing business is too great, and in case the children and grandchildren do not manage well, there are at least thousands of acres of fertile land that can be cultivated.

Hu Chuyuan put forward another viewpoint, that is, the consumption power of one landlord is not necessarily stronger than that of 10 rich peasant families, and in order for China's industry to develop, the rich peasant economy must first develop.

Of course, before he put forward this idea, the large areas of land held by the Hu family had already been digested through the CITIC Agency.

The current Hu family does not have a single acre of agricultural land under their name.

Today, since Hu Chuyuan has arrived in Shanxi, he will not go back empty-handed.

He was not in a hurry to speak, he drank tea silently, waiting for Qiao Jingyan and the others to give an answer.

Everyone was silent, no one spoke, Hu Chuyuan was not in a hurry, but Qiao Jingyan and Qu Benqiao were dripping with cold sweat, and now it was not the richest man in Jiangnan who was sitting here.

Back then, they were all businessmen, but Hu Chuyuan was richer.

Now, Hu Chuyuan is already the prime minister of this empire, under one person, above ten thousand...... Wrong, it is simply the first person above 40,000, and there is no other semicolon.

At this time, everyone's eyes were on Qiao Zhiyong, hoping that he could stand up and say a few words, and maybe there would be room for relaxation...... It's no longer time to let the market change on its own, Hu Chuyuan is forcing the squires from all over Shanxi to give up the land in their hands that exceeds the standard.

Eighty-three-year-old Qiao Zhiyong looks old, but he is still shrewd in his heart.

He quietly raised his cloudy eyes, looked at the people in front of him, and said, "This matter...... Your Excellency is right. The imperial court has the laws of the imperial court, and our people should do things according to the laws of the imperial court, not to mention that this matter is beneficial to the people of the world. We must not only occupy the benefits of the land, but also rejuvenate the country and set up factories, how can we get the best of both worlds? Besides, the Prime Minister's house is not avoidable, how can we make a mistake? ”

Hearing this, Hu Chuyuan secretly praised in his heart, Qiao Zhiyong is worthy of Qiao Zhiyong!

You can't have it both ways!!

This is a good thing to say, I want to be a big landlord and a big capitalist, and there is no such good thing in the world.

Qiao Zhiyong is a real leader of Jin merchants, highly respected, as soon as he speaks, everyone knows it...... This matter has been decided, and the families will find a way to sell the land when they go back.

Qiao Zhiyong said to Hu Chuyuan: "Lord Shoufu, if the old man is not mistaken, there are clear rules in the "Land Management Law" promulgated by the imperial court the year before last, where each household has less than 45 acres of land, and the average person is only 7 acres and 5 cents, the grain tax will be preferential by 2%. If every household in the world is less than 45 acres of land, wouldn't the imperial court's grain tax be greatly discounted by 20%? ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly, and said to Qiao Zhiyong: "Old Qiao, your algorithm is almost right." I won't tell you the truth that there will be some room for revision in the future of this "Land Management Law," and the key depends on the political axe's setting of the standard for rich peasants. As far as the current level of economic development is concerned, we believe that if 70 percent of the country's peasant households are rich peasants, that is, each family has three to four laborers, and the amount of land held by each family is about 30 mu, the market purchasing power of the common people can at least double, and the total output value of China's iron and steel mills, coal mines, machinery factories, and textile factories can be doubled. ”

Qiao Zhiyong nodded silently while listening, and said, "Lord Shoufu is high." However, the field is the foundation of our Shanxi people, and over the years, our Shanxi squires have contributed a lot to the imperial court, I don't know if the imperial court can be a little lenient? ”

Hu Chuyuan heard what Qiao Zhiyong meant, but said: "No, the world is the same." Not to mention that there is no difference between Shanxi and Hebei people, even if it is a Manchu and a Han person, there is no difference between a Han and a Hui person. ”

Qiao Zhiyong didn't know how to answer for a while.

He was old, and he also looked down on these things, and after thinking about it, he said, "Then let's stop it." ”

After a pause, he said to Hu Chuyuan again: "Now that the imperial court and the Three Kingdoms are at war, we are waiting for a rich gentry, and we should contribute to the country. ”

When he said this, Qiao Jingyan, the youngest son in the family, took out a bill of exchange and wanted to present it to Hu Chuyuan.

Hu Chuyuan said: "Old Qiao...... Ladies and gentlemen, you don't have to follow the old routine. Now is the era of constitutional monarchy, the political axe does not fight for the interests of the people, even our Hu family did not donate military salaries. If you are interested in serving the country, you can actively buy treasury bonds. Treasury bonds are also a very stable debt, and the annual income of the political axe last year was 1.07 billion yuan, and the national debt will be repaid in 10 years, plus the official stock assets held by the political axe, at least 7 billion yuan of total military spending and national debt. Everyone contributes to the purchase of treasury bonds, and at the same time, they can also mortgage the treasury bonds to borrow a sum of money from the bank to continue to operate. The country has money to fight, and everyone still has money to do business, which is a good thing that kills two birds with one stone. ”

Hearing this, Qiao Zhiyong couldn't help but sigh a little, and said: "The times have changed dramatically, Lord Shoufu's new policy is old and refreshing, and now the national strength is so rich, this is all the credit of Lord Shoufu." ”

"yes!"

The rest of the Jin merchants also echoed and patted Hu Chuyuan's ass together.

Hu Chuyuan nodded quite flatly, and said to Qiao Zhiyong after a while: "Jin Shang is the head of the world's merchant gangs, holding Beiyang Bank and Beiyang Commercial Bank, as well as Jinshang Bank and Shanxi Bank, and there are many other ticket numbers, so we should contribute more to the country and sell more treasury bonds to the people." I still have that point of view, one yuan to save the country, as long as the people can buy a few yuan of national bonds, we can fight foreigners to the end. ”

Qiao Zhiyong bowed slightly, and said: "Lord Shoufu rest assured, Dadefeng Ticket Number and Beiyang Bank first bought 30 million Qing Yuan of treasury bonds, and the old man personally contributed another 100 million Qing Yuan, and bought Treasury bonds with bankrupt wealth to support the imperial court to start a war with foreign powers, and he was endless. ”

"Good!"

Hu Chuyuan sighed, his heart was quite happy, and then he looked at the other families.

There are eight major Jin merchants, however, the number one in these years must be the Qiao family, Hu Chuyuan sold Beiyang Bank and Beiyang Commercial Bank that year, and the Qiao family used up all their belongings to buy it, and the shareholding ratio in both was more than 40%.

Now that you count the family background, the Qiao family is far better than the four Changqu Hou Kang, and the assets have already exceeded hundreds of millions, and the remaining four families would have been even bigger if they hadn't joined forces with Qiao Zhiyong to buy the assets of the Beiyang system.

When Hu Chuyuan looked at the past one by one, the four families of Changqu Hou Kang also promised to buy treasury bonds and vigorously sell treasury bonds.

Together, 300 million yuan of treasury bonds have been sold.

Tapping on this number, Hu Chuyuan sighed in his heart, Shanxi businessmen are still very rich, but ...... It is indeed incomparable with Hui merchants and Cantonese merchants.

After talking about the national debt, Hu Chuyuan brought the topic back to the Shanxi Rural Credit Cooperative.

Talking about this, Hu Yuancai suddenly spoke, and Qiao Zhiyong and others: "Everyone, counting the history of Shanxi Agricultural Cooperatives, it has been 20 years since the establishment of the Rural Credit Cooperatives, but there has been no success. In this way, our CITIC Cooperatives are willing to purchase land at a guaranteed price of 40 yuan per mu of land and eat the Rural Credit Cooperatives. ”

Hearing this, Qiao Zhiyong didn't speak, while Chang Lixun and the others lowered their heads and drank tea, silent.

What is called yang and yin, this is called yang and yin.

They felt that they had already funded the purchase of national bonds, and the imperial court could no longer entangle with them on the issue of land, but they did not expect it...... The Hu family is so ruthless.

At this moment, Hu Chuyuan's face did not have any expression, his eyes were lowered, he was holding a tea cup in his hand, and he was gently scraping the tea soup foam.

The guaranteed reserve price of 40 clear yuan per mu of land was negotiated by him and Hu Xuanyuan in advance, and with the quality of the fields in Shanxi Province, this price is already very fair.

If the rich gentry are not happy, it can only mean one thing...... The gang had no intention of giving up the land they held at all.

(To be continued)