After talking about the canal loan and Cao Jingwen, Mei Qizhao and his son left the Hu family compound.

In the following days, Hu Chuyuan continued to be busy with the affairs of Jiangnan Commercial Bank, and Yan Shizhang wrote several letters of recommendation and continued to ponder his turtle board.

The general office of Jiangnan Commercial Bank is Hu Chuyuan, the deputy general offices are Tan Yiyun and Liu Chengxiang, and the general ledger is Zheng Xitai, the shopkeeper of the Shanghai Public Concession Branch of Fukang Qianzhuang, which is a candidate recommended by Chen Xiaobai.

At present, the firm only does business in the five provinces south of the Yangtze River, and has five branches, all of which are old courtiers left by Hu Xueyan, sitting on one side and dredging and managing the relationship and operation of various places.

Under the secret care of the two governors, the merchant house developed very quickly in the salt, rice and tea trade, and there was almost nothing to worry about Hu Chuyuan, and his task was to count the money at home, and it was a net profit of nearly 20,000 taels of silver a day.

Such a speed of making money, I am afraid that Hu Xueyan did not expect it.

Strange to say, even so, the businessmen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang still look down on him, and they all think that Jiangnan Commercial Bank is a gift from Zuo Zongtang to the Hu family, without Zuo Zongtang, Hu Chuyuan's idiot and evil little can do anything.

In other words, the businessmen in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are very unconvinced, the same errand is handed over to them to do, it can be done more beautifully, how can Hu Chuyuan be virtuous, isn't it just stained with Zuo Zongtang's immortal spirit?

Just when people were talking, Wang Yirong came, and it came very suddenly.

He held the invitation letter left by Yan Shizhang, and his behavior and speech were quite extraordinary, and Hu Rong, the steward in charge of guarding the gate of the Hu family, immediately invited him into the Baishi Tower.

At this time, Hu Chuyuan was discussing with Liu Chengxiang about holding the Jiangnan Business School, while Yan Shizhang continued to fiddle with those turtle boards in the east study.

"The owner, this distinguished guest surnamed Wang is from the capital, holding Mr. Yan's prayer post." Hu Rong stepped forward to pray.

Hu Chuyuan looked up and saw a rich son, who looked about twenty-seven or eighteen years old, and seemed to be thirty years old, slightly rich, fair and elegant, wearing a plain white horse coat and long shirt, although it was not a very noble material, but it was also very exquisite.

The rich boy stepped forward, hugged his fist with Hu Chuyuan and said: "Captain Hu, down is the ...... of Wang Yirong of the capital!" ”

Without waiting for him to finish speaking, Hu Chuyuan laughed happily, and immediately stepped forward to greet him: "I have admired the name for a long time, under Hu Chuyuan, Brother Wang, please take a seat!" ”

After saying this, he asked the steward Hu Rong to invite Yan Shizhang out.

"Don't dare to be!" Wang Yirong smiled and sat down on the seats on both sides.

Feeling that Hu Chuyuan was very interested in this Wang Yirong, Liu Chengxiang estimated that there was no way to talk about serious things today, so he got up and said goodbye to Hu Chuyuan, and went back to Jiangnan Commercial Bank to take care of affairs first, and Hu Chuyuan asked him to call Shen Furong, the fourth shopkeeper, by the way.

Liu Chengxiang left with his front foot, and Yan Shizhang walked out of the east study with his back foot, and said with a smile when he saw Wang Yirong: "Ah, you are finally here, come and see these good things with me!" ”

"This ......!" After all, Wang Yirong is the son of an official eunuch, and he has just arrived at the Hu family as a guest, and according to the number of courtesies, he should always be polite with Hu Chuyuan first.

Hu Chuyuan smiled and said, "Let's go, Brother Wang, Mr. Yan and I really have a few questions to ask you!" ”

"Don't dare to be!" Wang Yirong continued to be polite, but he became more and more curious in his heart, so he said again: "Ladies and gentlemen, then let me also increase my horizons?" ”

His Beijing accent is very heavy!

"Let's go."

Hu Chuyuan was really not polite to him, and immediately led him into the east study.

In the study, in addition to the desk, there is a long case for stacking books, which is now used to place the turtle board, plus the female keel recently purchased from various medicine stores in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the more legible handwriting of the turtle board has reached hundreds.

Among these newly acquired female keels, most of the turtle plates have been smashed, Yan Shizhang has been gluing with facial glue these days, and some of them are complete, which is very convenient to study.

There is a difference in time between oracle bone inscriptions, most of them are in the early Wuding era, and the entire calligraphy style has tended to be unified, with the prototype of stereotyped calligraphy, with the basic calligraphy aesthetics, and the glyphs are relatively unified.

As long as the turtle plate is large enough, it is easy to tell that it is written - provided that the existing rigid understanding of writing is broken.

Yan Shizhang immediately found a few of the clearest turtle plates for Wang Yirong to look at, and said, "Zhengru, you take a closer look at me, are these words?" I've been pondering it these days, and I always feel that this is probably an earlier script than the Great Seal, and maybe even earlier than the Shigu Script and the Western Zhou Jin Script. ”

"Oh......?" Wang Yirong seemed to be taken aback by Yan Shizhang's words, and he also looked at it more carefully, thinking about Yan Shizhang's words.

After a while, the more he looked at it, the more excited he became, and without saying a word, he picked up the other turtle plates as if he was crazy, and carefully grinded them one by one.

Yan Shizhang has already made some research results these days, he took out dozens of paper manuscripts, on which hundreds of oracle bone inscriptions were transcribed, and corresponded to the small seal, and then simplified from the small seal to the Han script.

In this way, the entire evolution process of Chinese characters is clear at a glance.

Speaking with a conscience, it can help them discover and study the oracle bone inscription earlier, Hu Chuyuan felt very happy, but he had no special interest in these words, so he sat back at the desk.

He admits that the two men had gone crazy and didn't even think he existed.

He asked for the surname to continue yesterday's work, translating the English version of "Accounting", he discussed with Liu Chengxiang, the biggest problem of Jiangnan Commercial Bank at the moment is the lack of people, because the shops are too wide and too wide, even Hu Xueyan left behind the talent is not enough.

The problem that worries Hu Chuyuan the most is that the main person in charge is too old, among the four major shopkeepers, except for Tan Yiyun, who has just turned fifty, the other three are close to fifty-five years old.

How many years can such old arms and legs be tossed?

Therefore, at the same time as preparing for the establishment of the Zhejiang Academy, he also set up the Jiangnan Business School, and the initial conditions were simpler, so he temporarily rented a private school - the most troublesome problem was the teaching materials, for this reason, he had asked people to go to Fuzhou Shipyard to borrow people, borrow a few translators who were proficient in English and French, and be responsible for compiling business textbooks in the Jiangnan Business School.

Hu Chuyuan translated two more chapters, and Shen Furong, the big shopkeeper of the pawnshop, also came in, and as soon as he entered the door, he smiled with Yan Shizhang: "Mr. Yan, what are you busy with, yo, and distinguished guests!" ”

Yan Shizhang hurriedly introduced him, and then took a few turtle boards for him to ponder.

Shen Furong took the turtle board and knocked on it, scraped it, and said, "Look at this pulp, how can it be an old thing before the Western Zhou Dynasty, where did it come from?" ”

"Western Zhou?"

Wang Yirong suddenly woke up, and Yan Shizhang smiled: "Yes, this is the writing of the Shang Dynasty, and the Jin Wen of the Western Zhou Dynasty was developed from here...... Let's call it a business text, right? ”

Hu Chuyuan finally couldn't help it, and said: "It's called the oracle bone inscription, the golden inscription is engraved on the tripod, the stone drum inscription is engraved on the stone, and this thing is engraved on the turtle plate, then it is called the oracle bone inscription!" ”

"Good...... What an oracle! ”

Yan Shizhang and Wang Yirong applauded in unison, and said to Hu Chuyuan: "Congratulations, Hu Ye, you are the first person to discover the oracle bone inscription, and from now on, you can also be regarded as an academic master of gold and stone science!" ”