Chen Shanyuan, who was by Hu Chuyuan's side, was very puzzled.

As soon as Yan Xinhou left, he couldn't wait to ask Hu Chuyuan: "Boss, what are you...... Pedal on two boats? ”

Wu Shuzhen smiled, and replied quietly for Hu Chuyuan: "This is called not offending people, as for whether to help others do business, that is a matter for the future!" ”

"Oh?"

Chen Shanyuan is still a little unclear.

Hu Chuyuan did not answer, and he was still weighing the specific pros and cons.

After waiting for a while, Chen Shanyuan left, and Wu Shuzhen and Hu Chuyuan comforted: "Don't think about these brain-consuming things now, rest assured to recuperate, and talk about it when the injury is healed." ”

"Hmm!"

Hu Chuyuan agreed obediently, and looked at Wu Shuzhen carefully, and the more he looked at it, the more beautiful and atmospheric he felt.

In the afternoon, Wu Shuzhen went to rest for a while, and Hu Chuyuan called Chen Shanyuan over and asked him to secretly go back to Shanghai to do some errands, and let him go back quickly.

After two days of recuperation in the British Concession Ministry of Industry, the imperial court also sent a physician to prescribe two pairs of medicines for him, one paste and one soup, to invigorate blood and remove stasis and remove saprophytic muscle.

Subsequently, he moved to the property in Li Hongzhang's name.

This is a newly built large courtyard, covering an area of more than three acres, and it can indeed accommodate more than 200 people, and it is estimated that other businessmen took advantage of the increase in the land price of the concession to bribe Li Hongzhang.

felt that this house was still very good, so he bought the house and named it Zhenyuan.

Li Hongzhang wants to give you a gift, you can't refuse to accept it, it's just a matter of how much you have to pay.

The foreign doctor came to change the gauze for Hu Chuyuan every day, disinfected the wound, treated it very carefully, and the medicine of the imperial doctor was also very effective, and after more than half a month, Hu Chuyuan had already healed, but there was a circular scar on his abdomen.

At this time, the Tianjin gun and bandit case had not yet been investigated, and the government and the opposition were quite angry, and Li Hongzhang and the Tianjin British Concession Bureau of the Ministry of Industry were under very great pressure, and both sides were working hard to investigate, but the group of robbers seemed to have suddenly disappeared, and there was no more news.

It's really a mystery.

Hu Chuyuan understood in his heart, listening to what the robbers said inadvertently, they were generally like people in Ningbo, Taizhou, Zhejiang, and they looked more like pirates.

The other party is a pirate, this is basically decided, but how did these pirates get into Tianjin, where did the weapons come from, how did they escape, or where were they hiding...... It's all a problem.

He offended a lot of people, such as the foreign bank, himself, the Ningbo merchant gang, and Sheng Xuanhuai...... Everyone could have done this.

Hu Chuyuan believes that this is just the beginning, the bigger haze is still rolling, accumulating, and one day he will see clearly who is behind the scenes, so he is not in a hurry to take revenge.

Just in case, Zuo Zongtang sent a general manager surnamed Xiao to Tianjin with more than 200 elites of the Hunan army, specifically responsible for protecting Hu Chuyuan.

With such a guarantee, Hu Chuyuan officially went to Beijing to report his post, and what was waiting for him was naturally a generous reward.

His achievements over the years are obvious, one after another, although he was not a Jinshi, the imperial court still corrected him as the Minister of Fuzhou Shipping and took over the Fuzhou Shipping Yamen.

At this time, the Minister of Fuzhou Shipping had no right to directly manage the Fujian Naval Division, and his rank was lowered by one order, and he became an official of the third grade, and was directly under the jurisdiction of the Prime Minister's National Affairs Yamen, and was also in charge of the Governor of Fujian and Zhejiang.

Hu Chuyuan also met the legendary Empress Dowager Cixi and Emperor Guangxu, and rewarded him with a yellow coat and blue feather in person.

As the Minister of Fuzhou Shipping, this is a good thing, which means that Hu Chuyuan does not have to report to anyone, and he can decide the affairs of Fuzhou Shipping Administration, and there are also disadvantages...... He had to stay in Fuzhou for a long time, and he couldn't go anywhere without an order from the imperial court.

But it's not a big deal, and with a well-developed telegraph network, he can do his own thing anywhere.

Mid-May.

Hu Chuyuan returned to Shanghai from Tianjin.

Shanghai is going back after all, and this is his base camp.

Shanghai in May is already very hot, from time to time there will be a heavy rainstorm, but the temperature of the Shanghai concession real estate is surprisingly high, the British Bund, the American Bund, the French Bund, Nanjing Road, Hongkou Square land prices have broken through the 150,000 yuan per mu mark, Ningbo Road, Sichuan Road followed.

In other words, to buy 10 acres of land in these areas to build a Hu family compound, the land cost alone is as high as 700,000 taels of silver.

The increase in land prices in Hongkou District and Yangpu District is the most obvious, under the joint efforts of Zhongrun Company and Wanqi Foreign Bank, the area around Hongkou Square, Huizhou Road, Hangzhou Road, and Emei Road after the transformation have risen sharply, especially Hangzhou Road, which is based on the original Nanxun Road, has become a commercial area comparable to Nanjing Road.

Hongkou Plaza, located at the junction of Huizhou Road and Changzhi Road, and the surrounding area are designed as Shanghai's future CBD, from Hongkou Square along Huizhou Road to the east is the Bund Changjiang Road in the US Concession.

However, Zhongrun Company and Wanqi Foreign Bank have cashed out most of the lots, and only concentrated on the prime locations such as Hangzhou Road, Huizhou Road, and Changjiang Road around Hongkou Square, plus the bustling shops in Emei, Wusong, Yangpu and other sections, as well as a small part of Nanjing Road and the Bund land in the British Concession, and the rest have been sold.

Zhongrun Company has accumulated arbitrage profits of 247 million yuan, and Wanqi Foreign Bank has arbitraged about 94 million yuan.

The funds were injected into China CITIC Bank, which issued a baht in China, and Wanqi Bank, which was exported back to the United States through the issuance of US dollars by the Chinese China Bank, further freeing up capital space.

Which market is this money going to go into?

Do you need to ask?

Tea industry, of course!

Whether it is losing or earning, Hu Chuyuan always has to gamble.

As soon as he returned to Shanghai, Hu Chuyuan didn't have time to go home, so he first gathered all the offices, shopkeepers, and managers of the Jiangnan Commercial Bank and the Jiangnan Cooperative in Shanghai, and held a meeting in the building of the headquarters of the commercial bank.

According to the new Sino-US trade agreement, Fujian and Jiangxi should be the new focus of investment, and the tea, porcelain, and shipbuilding industries in Fujian should be invested, and the hemp, bamboo, tea, and silk industries should be invested in Jiangxi.

Yes, hemp and bamboo.

Hemp textiles, bamboo weaving products, hemp mats, bamboo mats...... Even bamboo baskets and bamboo baskets can become part of foreign trade with the United States, and the point is not whether the Americans have bought them before, but whether the United States needs them, whether China can make them, and whether only China can make them.

That's the point.

On the basis of handicrafts, we should fully introduce small machine tools, improve the processing technology, and strive to increase the added value of these handicrafts.

There are many ways to make money, not necessarily by investing in heavy industry, industry, handicrafts can also make money, and it is easiest to directly convert wealth to the people, and enhance the purchasing power of the entire Jiangnan market.

Under the control of a huge amount of capital, it became easy for Hu Chuyuan to invest in these industries.

While JP Morgan was keen to invest in railways, steel, and electricity, Hu Chuyuan was keen to invest in traditional agriculture, tea, silk, and hemp industries...... The difference between the two is still very big.

After the meeting, Hu Chuyuan asked the shopkeepers, managers and provincial commercial banks to follow these ideas.

The steel industry is going to be invested, but it has to wait for Hu Chuyuan to go to Fuzhou.

After checking the accounts in the commercial bank for a day and confirming that the operation of each branch was not bad, Hu Chuyuan returned to Yongyuan in his carriage.

It's still good in Shanghai, one day at a time.

Looking at the street scenes on both sides of the street, Hu Chuyuan couldn't help but sigh in his heart, after Wanqi introduced reinforced concrete technology to Shanghai and opened the Wanqi cement plant in Shanghai, Shanghai's construction speed was significantly accelerated.

In the relatively new Hongkou, Wanqi has begun to invest in power plants, sewer systems and tap water systems are being laid in an orderly manner, and even large communities have appeared.

These factors are also the reasons why Hongkou land prices have risen by leaps and bounds in the past two years.

If it weren't for the fact that the Sino-French War had an astonishing impact on Shanghai's land price, and the bubble factor in this land price was too big, Hu Chuyuan would really be reluctant to arbitrage and leave so early.

After several years of construction, the Yongyuan Garden has also changed a lot, and after three years, the new Hu Mansion was finally completed, adopting the Gothic Revival Victorian style, with a brilliant spirit and a towering dome. The main building has three floors and has three annexes, the third floor of the main building is significantly smaller than the second floor, and a large number of vacant balconies are designed as sky gardens.

The overall color of the whole Hu Mansion is mainly black, a large number of black five lotus stones in granite, with agate red marble and white marble, and the peripheral part uses reinforced concrete technology in order to shorten the construction period, with a total design living area of 22,459 square meters.

Seeing this brand-new Hu Mansion, Hu Chuyuan had a feeling of bitterness.

After staying up for so long, he finally got through.

In order to welcome his return, the Hu Mansion has been renovated, and the antique decorations arranged inside are worth a lot of money, and there are no fakes or imitations.

The hall of the Hu Mansion is very amazing, it can accommodate six or seven hundred people, using magnificent sculptures, integrating the Victorian Baroque retro style, with majestic wall carvings on the four walls and the top, Hu Chuyuan's office is located on the east side of the second floor, with an area of 258 square meters, which is not only a small exhibition room, but also a library, or a conference room, and a small lounge connected to the large balcony garden on the east side.

In his office, there are more than 20 works in the classicist and realist styles that Hu Chuyuan loved, and on the wall behind his desk, there is a famous painting by Jacques Louis David, "Napoleon Crossing the St. Bernard Pass in the Alps".

Hu Chuyuan liked Napoleon, so he took a fancy to this painting at a glance and paid a price of 160,000 francs for it.

If it had been done a little later, the painting would have been re-included in the Louvre.

The three annexes of the Hu Mansion are located on the left, right and the back of the center, the annex on the back side of the center is Hu Chuyuan's personal treasure spot, the west side of the annex is his personal bedroom, and the east side of the annex is the office of the staff and other entourage.

Moving into a new house naturally has a new atmosphere, all the furniture is imported from the Philippines black branch mahogany, the wooden floor is made of dark and light two kinds of South Sea mahogany, wall panels and other parts of the decorative board mainly choose golden silk nanmu, red sandalwood, some special parts, such as the bathroom selection of camphor wood, teak and sandalwood mix, moisture-proof, deodorant.

How much did it cost...... Don't ask about that.

Anyway, I won't tell anyone, connoisseurs see for themselves!

It's definitely bigger than you can imagine, the carpets are imported from Persia, the crystal chandeliers are all imported from France, these are not the biggest expenses, and the dozen or so porcelain statues in the hall are all fine products from the Kangqian period.

Hu Chuyuan said that he has no special fun in his life, building a garden and buying antiques, just two things.

Every year, more than 100,000 taels of silver are used to bribe officials, so why can't he give 10 million taels of silver for himself to enjoy?

Life?

Who can live a second time?

He seems to be able to ...... But I can't guarantee that there will be a third time!

(To be continued)