The truth is always surprising.

The Qing Dynasty's feudal officials were not able to communicate with each other, but after the telegraph, the exchange of information and information between them became very close, especially after the Qing government obviously intended to take back the real power of the provinces through the new policy and the constitution, and once again implemented the centralized rule, the exchanges between the feudal officials in various places became more secret and frequent.

In the past six months, Song Biao and the two feudal officials have exchanged the most telegrams, one is Yuan Shikai and the other is Zhang Zhidong, and it is surprising that the frequency of telegrams between Zhang Zhidong and Song Biao is the highest, almost to the extent of one per week.

The cause of this incident was that Zhang Zhidong gave Song Biao some advice and persuasion on the demonstration of the Fengtian New Army, and after the matter subsided, Zhang Zhidong and Song Biao asked about the preparation and supervision of the New Army, and after that, a large number of discussions were held about the new policies of the three eastern provinces.

Regarding Song Biao's proposal that "the wealth of the country starts with the net income of silver", Zhang Zhidong agrees very much, but how to do it makes it difficult for Zhang Zhidong to find a good solution.

As the two discussed more and more questions with each other, Zhang Zhidong finally made a few reluctant requests to Song Biao, one was to ask him to participate in the road of the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway, which was a barrel of explosives, which cost too much money, and Song Biao couldn't afford to play, so he decisively declined; The second is to ask him to send another person to take over the Hanyang Iron Works and the Hubei Textile Bureau, and agree to change it to a commercial office.

With Sheng Xuanhuai's official position getting higher, his reputation growing, and his relationship network in Beijing is wider, Zhang Zhidong and Sheng Xuanhuai's various contradictions in Hanyang Iron Works have gradually become difficult to settle, and both sides have reached the point where they must break up and tear their faces.

These two things are quite crucial to Zhang Zhidong, and with his prestige, he is definitely not worried that the cooperation with Song Biao in these matters will affect his career, so Zhang Zhidong strongly invited Song Biao to send Far Eastern Commercial Bank to take over the two factories during this time to negotiate the official stock business.

Song Biao was not clear about the affairs of the Hubei Textile Bureau, but the Hanyang Iron Works must be a good deal, and Song Biao immediately asked Wu Yangzeng, Shen Deyao, and Pan Sichi of the Far East Commercial Bank to go to Huguang to inspect the two factories.

In the afternoon of that day, Wu Yangzeng returned to Mukden first.

It is not difficult to get from Mukden to Wuchang, and after taking the train to Dalian, you can catch a cargo ship from the Far Eastern Commercial Company to Huguang, and you can make a round trip within two weeks.

Because there were many affairs of the Far East Coal and Iron Company, Wu Yangzeng only went for 20 days and then hurriedly returned, and went directly to the military headquarters to report to Song Biao, and it happened that Song Biao was in the office listening to Zhang Kangren's report on the preparations of the Northeast Bank, and these two were not outsiders, so Song Biao asked Wu Yangzeng to sit in the office and wait for a while.

As the governor of the three eastern provinces, Song Biao's various rules are increasing, and his standard for meetings is that no more than half an hour is allowed, and no subordinates are allowed to report for more than a quarter of an hour.

Under this extremely tense compression, Zhang Kangren also reported the preparations as concisely as possible, and spoke very quickly.

Listening to his report, Song Biao still took the preparatory summary submitted at the same time in his hand and looked through it, carefully scrutinized these figures, Zhang Kangren predicted that about 200 million yuan of silver yuan would be cast and printed in Kanto every year, and after negotiating the import quotation of equipment from various countries, it was finally determined to introduce equipment from the United States, and the total number of machinery and facilities of various sizes totaled 217 units, ranging from printing mills to small manual die tables, grinding machines, and even the wrench hardware and electric lights of the factory must be imported.

The various import lists add up to more than 4,000 catalogs, which are divided into three installments and have a total amount of about $3 million.

Song Biao looked at it with a little headache, he closed the report, and asked Zhang Kangren: "If our printing volume exceeds this scale, what are you going to do?" ”

Zhang Kangren said: "I have contacted the American Currency Foundry, and with the approval of the American political axe, they can urgently use the printing plate we submitted to print silver dollars for us, and the number of prints will be approved by us, on the condition that American silver and other metals must be used, and the processing fee must be paid. So, I'm going to add a spare silver dollar version, indicating that the place of origin is the United States. ”

After a pause, he added, "Even if there is no additional version, the silver dollar itself is a precious metal currency of real gold and silver, and it is actually not profitable to mint silver dollars. ”

Song Biao thought for a moment and asked, "Are you sure there are no problems?" ”

Zhang Kangren said: "There is no problem, but the processing fee may not be too low, in fact, compared with our large number of foreign imports, plus workers' water and electricity expenses, etc., the cost of casting silver dollars may not be much lower than this processing fee." Considering that our current silver dollar casting and printing business has not yet been carried out, in fact, we can import customized silver dollars from the United States first, which is convenient for the trial operation of various banks. ”

Song Biao nodded and said, "Okay, then you can speed up the work in this area!" ”

There are many factors that Song Biao is not very sure in his heart, but he chooses to believe Zhang Kangren, after all, the other party knows more than himself in this field, and their customized standard Kanto silver yuan and Mexican silver yuan are roughly the same, three silver yuan and two taels of silver.

In the system of the silver standard, the criterion for determining the market value of the currency is the silver content, not anything else, for the professional currency casting and printing factory, the so-called printing plate is actually very easy to counterfeit, and there is no point in preventing it, not to mention that there is basically no such dirty thing in this era.

Let Zhang Kangren leave first, Song Biao immediately asked Wu Yangzeng: "How is the situation in Hubei?" ”

Wu Yangzeng immediately replied: "Back to the Governor, it is better for me to have less to do with Pan Sichi and Shen Deyao, the machinery of the Hubei Textile Bureau is too old, and it is basically useless except for more skilled workers. Governor Zhang presided over for a long time, and a large number of old people and related households were placed in the factory, even if they were rented to Cantonese merchants, Cantonese merchants had to continue to be retained, so whoever rented it suffered a loss. As for the matter of the Hanyang Iron Works, Shen Deyao intends to take it, and I also have the intention, but the struggle between the two factions in the factory is very fierce, there are people from Governor Zhang, and there are also people from Sheng Xuanhuai, the former people are not good people, basically just a group of people who are dragging their feet, and the latter is even more non-good. As long as you invest a large amount of money, you can definitely get immediate results. ”

Song Biao, who heard these words, nodded slightly, motioned for Wu Yangzeng to sit in front of him and speak, and asked the orderlies to pour tea for Wu Yangzeng.

In Song Biao's office, pouring tea for guests and subordinates means that the time for negotiations is relatively relaxed, exceeding the limit of a quarter of an hour.

Song Biao pondered calmly for a moment, and Wu Yangzeng asked, "Do you mean not to consider investing in Huguang's coal and iron industry and textile business?" ”

Wu Yang once replied: "Whether we can invest or not, the key is to see whether Master Zhang Zhidong can cooperate and assist more, such as reducing the price of the restructured commercial office, and whether he can transfer out the waste people he arranged before, so as to give us a better room for management and improvement." In addition, the scale of this investment is very large, whether we have sufficient capital and ensure that it will not affect the investment of Far Eastern Commercial Bank in the three eastern provinces. After all, the foundation of Hanyang Iron Works and Hubei Textile Bureau is very good, much better than starting from scratch, and if we transfer some skilled workers to the three eastern provinces, it will also be conducive to our industrial expansion in the three eastern provinces. ”

Song Biao continued to ask him: "Then how much investment do you think Hanyang Iron Works and Hubei Textile Bureau need at present?" ”

Wu Yang once said: "Before leaving, I calculated with Shen Deyao and Pan Sichi that the re-investment scale of the Hanyang Iron Works is relatively large, and if the coal mine and the iron ore plant are taken into account as a whole, the total investment before and after is about 2.5 million pounds, and the Hubei Textile Bureau needs to invest about 600,000 pounds." The problem of Hanyang Iron Works is that its steelmaking furnace is not matched with the actual iron ore, and it takes a lot of money to rebuild the furnace, in addition, its steel design capacity exceeds the total production capacity of pig iron, so it is necessary to invest in multiple sets of pig iron furnace smelting equipment on a large scale, in order to meet the demand for railway rails, we have to produce the most popular high manganese steel in the world, which requires a large-scale investment in manganese ore plants. Hanyang Iron Works' iron and steel business is basically loss-making, which is closely related to its management system, marketing system, production costs, and technical level, and it is difficult to reverse it within two years, and its profit is mainly from selling coal, iron ore, coke, and pig iron. At present, pig iron is in short supply in the domestic market and the Asian market, and pig iron itself has a wide variety of different kinds of products, which requires very good technology, as well as multiple sets of different pig iron blast furnaces. Shen Deyao and I mean to take the approach of three phases of investment, first of all, to carry out the first phase of technical improvement of the Hanyang Iron Works, change the technical type of the blast furnace, from a sour furnace to a Martin furnace, and at the same time increase the investment in basic mining such as coal, iron and manganese, which will require about 700,000 pounds, in fact, the more the better; On this basis, the second phase of investment is to re-invest in Daye to build a larger-scale pig iron smelting base, completely introduce new equipment and technology from the United States, as well as management experience and operation system, at this stage, the second phase of technical transformation of Hanyang Iron Works, reuse gas, waste materials and waste residues in the production process, and establish supporting gas boilers and self-provided power plants, cement factories and brick factories; The third phase is to gradually expand production capacity and technology types in five years, set up a metallurgical and mining institute in Hubei, train talents, and increase the exploration of coal, iron and other metal mines. Even if we don't talk about the long-term investment in the third phase, the investment in the first two phases will require two and a half million pounds, or even three million pounds. When the Krupp plant was preparing to build a steel plant, the total investment and support loans given by the German government before and after the axe were as high as 30 million pounds, and we wanted to expand a steel plant to the scale of the Krupp steel plant, and the scale of investment was probably not less than theirs. ”

Speaking of this, Wu Yangzeng also added with feelings: "Therefore, heavy industry is indeed not a small country and a poor country can support it, in Wuchang, I also talked about this matter with Lord Zhang Zhidong, he is very supportive of the general plan we proposed, and how to negotiate in the end depends on how much the Governor has thoughts on this." The key may still depend on the problem of funds, the basic conditions of our Liaoyang Iron and Steel Plant are much better than those in Hanyang, and the scale of investment must be larger, not less, both sides at the same time, the gap in funds is inevitably too big. ”

Song Biao nodded slightly, but he still decided to fight this matter down and handle it together, and asked Wu Yangzeng: "What is the situation over there in the Hubei Textile Bureau?" ”

Wu Yangzeng said: "The scale of this textile factory is very small, there are more than 1,000 skilled workers, and there are more than a dozen technicians trained in this factory. In terms of production, their scale in the field of hemp textiles is still very good, and there are profits at present, but in general, the machine is still too old, most of them are old machines 20 years ago, because the machine is old, it needs to be repaired all year round, and it is necessary to invite people from foreign countries and buy spare parts, and the operating costs are very high. In general, they mainly spin cotton yarn, and there is no foreign cloth, and most of the cotton yarn is sold to foreign factories in Shanghai. Pan Sichi means to change part of the machine, add a weaving factory and a printing and dyeing factory, and it is enough to invest 600,000 pounds at a time, because the workers, factories, etc. are ready-made, and the loss can be reversed next year. ”

Song Biao carefully calculated in his heart, and Wu Yang once instructed: "Then take down the matter of Hanyang Iron Works first, as for the Hubei Textile Bureau, don't worry about it for the time being, there are too many taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and if you do it, it is equivalent to not doing it, not to mention that we ourselves will also invest in the textile industry on a large scale in the three eastern provinces." You go to the secretariat to discuss with Yuan Jinkai and them, and send electricity to Zhang Zhidong in my name, and propose according to the conditions we discussed, if he agrees, then we will set up a coal and iron company to operate in a unified manner, and invite someone to come forward to serve as the general director and recruit merchant shares. ”

Wu Yangzeng nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go to the Secretariat to finish this matter." ”

After saying this, Wu Yangzeng hurriedly got up and left, while Song Biao continued to ponder this matter in the office.

Although the Far East Coal and Iron Company is seizing the time to prepare for its own iron and steel plant, the scale of this investment is not small, from investment to production, there are at least two years in the middle, the iron and steel industry in the three eastern provinces started from scratch, there are no people, no technology, if it can be based on the Hanyang Iron Works first, maybe it can be smoother.

There is only one problem, and that is the problem of money.

Where to find all this money?

The three eastern provinces need money for the new policy, the new army in the northeast, the industrial and agricultural construction in the three eastern provinces, and even more money for education...... Relying on this pitiful tax revenue of the three eastern provinces cannot be sustained.

Song Biao has money in his hands, and his personal capital mainly comes from two aspects, one is a large amount of land, real estate and property rights obtained through the sale of grain during the war, and the other is a large number of military and merchant assets seized in the war, as well as materials and military salaries that the Russian army continues to support.

The two major companies under his name are Far East Commercial Bank and Yufeng Bank, which hold a working capital of about 31.5 million taels of silver in the three eastern provinces, 42,000 hectares of agricultural land, 13,500 acres of industrial and commercial land, more than 7,000 shops in Shenyang, Liaoyang and Dalian, 21 wharves, coal and iron franchises in Liaoyang, Fushun and Tonghua, magnesite franchises in Liaoyang and Haicheng, 14 copper, lead and zinc mines, 11 gold mines, 7 silver mines, and oil franchises in Daqing and other regions. and the right to issue the currencies of the three eastern provinces held by the Far Eastern Bank.

The sum of these items alone is more than 70 million taels of silver, which is actually definitely much exceeded, but the total scale of these minerals has not yet been determined.

If the Northeast New Army is also counted as Song Biao's personal property, his net worth can be roughly doubled, and the fixed assets of the Northeast New Army, such as artillery, machine guns, rifles, horses, military pastures, military reclamation areas, and battalion headquarters, will definitely exceed 70 million taels of silver.

In other words, if Qing Zhengaxe wanted to build an army of the size and strength of the Northeast New Army, it would have to invest 70 million taels of silver to reach such a level.

As soon as the machine gun rang out, there were 10,000 taels of gold.

Just by fighting a war between Russia and Russia, Song Biao's income has reached this scale, and theoretically speaking, Song Biao is definitely not short of money to spend, but his capital is stretched thin in the construction of the entire three eastern provinces, and it is a drop in the bucket.

The net worth of 70 million taels of silver is about 10 million pounds, and all of them may not be able to complete the first phase of the construction plan of the railway in the three eastern provinces, let alone run two first-class steel plants in Asia at the same time, and the input and output of heavy industry are usually not necessarily proportional, which is also the reason why the national capital in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China did not dare to set foot in heavy industry.

Although Song Biao had begun to fully prepare for the soybean industry and the sugar beet industry in the three eastern provinces at this time, trying to earn his second pot of gold from them, the profitability of these two industries could not be too high, and it was very smooth to earn six million pounds a year.

The profit of six million pounds a year was obviously not enough to be used to run factories, education, water conservancy, and to maintain the steady construction of the army.

Song Biao thought silently in the office for a long time, he became more and more soberly aware that he had to think of a shortcut to make money, even if it was a very shameless strategy, even if the soybean and sugar beet trade could allow him to earn a huge profit of 10 million pounds a year, this was not enough for the simultaneous development of the two lines, and the Northeast New Army alone would spend at least 7 million pounds a year to continue to develop and expand, so that he could have the military capital to destroy the Qing Dynasty and command the whole country after three to five years of steady development.

After thinking about this clearly, Song Biao called Zhang Kangren again, who had returned to the new political situation, and asked Zhang Kangren to go to his office to discuss another very important matter -- Song Biao had already made up his mind to be shameless, to earn a vote before the nationalization of Petromexicanos, to invest a lot of money to build a few oil wells and sell them to foreign countries, and to run away after getting a vote, and let others sit in Mexico and continue to cry.

(To be continued)