Chen Zikun also worked as a bookmaker, and he made a lot of money by speculating on the stocks of Jiangdong Industrial Bank, and he had a clear understanding of financial profiteering, but he really didn't have money to buy Mu Yichen at this time, because the money from the provincial treasury was used to buy guns and guns to prepare for war.

A few days later, Mu Yichen sent a telegram again, saying that it was fortunate that he didn't buy the bottom last time, and this time the New York stock market fell even worse, and the price of first-class securities fell by sixty percent!

Chen Zikun gasped, fortunately he didn't copy the bottom, otherwise he would have lost everything.

Mu Yichen and Che Qiuling are married, and they travel to the Americas on a cruise, and they happened to find that the stock market has plummeted, and they are itchy for a while because they don't have a large amount of money at hand, so they asked Chen Zikun for support, but Chen Zikun replied that the stocks are all virtual, and there are suitable bankrupt factories that can pack a few back.

Ordinary people don't care about the economic crisis that broke out in Europe and the United States, after all, it's just a bunch of bankrupt speculators jumping off the building on the other side of the ocean, China can't finish its own affairs, how can there be time to manage others, the Kuomintang is in a civil war, and every few months a new central committee is set up, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Nanjing, as well as the Gui family, Feng Yuxiang and Yan Xishan, none of which are willing to be left behind.

In the past, the Beiyang wars were all symbolic, the troops fired their guns into the sky, and the marshals played mahjong and smoked opium in the concession to decide the outcome of the war, and now the Kuomintang civil war is all played really, artillery and planes are all in battle, and thousands of people are embarrassed to say that they are fighting after a battle.

Chen Zikun obtained information from friends in the banking circles that as of last month, the Nanjing Government's military expenditure liabilities had reached as much as 138 million yuan, and it was not enough to use all the tax revenues for military spending, and it was all sustained by the issuance of public bonds, with 50 million public debts, 24 million cigarette public debts, 50 million remediate treasury volumes, and 80 million salt tax treasury volumes, most of which were subscribed and written off by Shanghai's banking circles.

Such a huge amount of expenditure, in the end did not fall on the heads of the people, Chen Zikun couldn't help but sigh, even if the people work hard, no matter how rich the resources are, they can't withstand this kind of toss, I thought that the Northern Expedition was completed, the Northeast changed banners, and the people would be able to live a life of stopping, it seems that he is naïve.

Fortunately, Jiangdong Province is in a special position of listening to the tune and not listening to the propaganda, although Chen Zikun is not a descendant of the central government, he has always supported the central government, and Chiang Kai-shek is also kind to him, and he still receives a monthly military salary of 1 million.

Seeing that the war was approaching, Chen Zikun had to buy arms and armed forces, and his funds were stretched, so he planned to issue bonds, but Shanghai's fragile financial market was no longer bloody, and at this time, the news of the financial crisis in Europe and the United States came out, which gave him a wake-up call.

If you don't have money, you can get things done.

Chen Zikun sent Lin Wenjing on a passenger ship to Fujian, and held a bidding meeting at the Chinachem Hotel in the Shanghai Public Concession, and invited the bosses of foreign banks from various countries in Shanghai to attend.

The theme of the bidding meeting was to build a modern industrial city, and the chairman of Jiangdong Province, the mayor of Beitai County, the president of Jiangdong Industrial Bank, and officials from the Jiangdong Provincial Department of Finance, Civil Affairs Department, and Industrial Department all attended the conference.

Jiangdong Province plans to build a series of factories and mines in Jiangbei, including a coal mine, an iron mine, a gas coking plant, a foreign soda plant, an acid plant, a steel mill, an arsenal, a power plant, and a water plant.

Beitai County Railway Station, City Hall, Racecourse, Jiangbei University Hall, as well as dozens of apartment buildings, four asphalt main roads, as well as the county's electric lights, telephones, and water lines, are all open for bidding.

The whole Shanghai is boiling, the economic crisis in the West, overproduction, unemployment of workers, the sharp decline in international trade volume, the capitalists are in panic, even the Far East has been affected, China was originally the best dumping place for products, but due to the civil war and the contraction of consumption capacity, their life is not easy, and now a big cake of hundreds of millions of yuan suddenly emerges, who does not want to take a bite.

At the tender meeting, Gong Zijun, the governor of Beitai County, spoke in Chinese, and the bosses of foreign banks were a little displeased; in Shanghai, all Chinese spoke English, and besides, the bidding meeting was held in the concession, and the international language was not adopted, which hurt the arrogant self-esteem of the capitalists to some extent.

Gong Zijun said that the Beitai project requires Party B to advance the full amount, and 10% of the money is reserved as a deposit, and then settled after 50 years.

As soon as these words came out, the nest immediately exploded, and the bosses in high-nosed and blue-eyed suits and leather shoes left the venue with their compradors one after another to show their protest and contempt.

In these years, only foreigners pit Chinese, where is the opposite, and they also advance in full, when they are melons.

The bidding meeting ended hastily, the ground was full of waste paper, Gong Zijun looked helpless, Gong Jiaxiang was silent, Chen Zikun sat on the rostrum, and his face was bright: "Let's go, let's go, look at it after a while, don't blame Lao Tzu for not giving them face when the time comes." ”

……

Normally, the economic crisis will only last for a few months before recovering, but this time it is different, there has been no sign of improvement, according to Mu Yichen's letter from the United States, the real economy of the United States will be set back by at least 20 years, a large number of factories have gone bankrupt and closed, and it is said that the Soviet Union took the opportunity to buy a number of production lines from the United States at a low price.

Chen Zikun immediately made a decision and remitted money to Mu Yichen, asking him to hire engineers and skilled technicians to come to China and quickly build Jiangdong's industrial system.

The bosses of foreign banks who quit protesting a few months ago secretly came to Chen Zikun to ask for the project to be done one by one in a low voice, but Chen Zikun really didn't give them a good look, and if you want to take the project, you should compete first.

Don't give you face last time, this time even the public bidding is saved, all the black box operations, who has the best design, the lowest price, who wins the bid, the bosses of foreign banks in Britain, Germany, and the United States have to compete to lower prices and kill each other for the sake of interests.

Beitai's factory project was the first to be launched, a large number of engineers from Europe and the United States gathered in Jiangbei, every train was full, everywhere were sheds and foundation piles, crowds of people, whistles were endless, a large number of cheap workers from Henan, Shandong, Anhui generally poured into Jiangbei, and the temporary rolling dragon nest shed was lined up one after another, and it was seen from above by plane, like a ten-mile company camp.

……

The plane landed at the newly completed Jiangbei Airport, which was flattened by the people with stone grinders, the runway is longer than the provincial airport, and the tower is a three-story brick and wood structure, next to the hangar, ground staff dormitories, and oil depot are farther away.

Landing on the ground was a German-made Junker F13 passenger plane of Jiangdong Airlines, the pilot was a graduate of the Jiangdong Army School, and later learned to fly with the American master Pierce, and the plane carried Jiangdong Provincial Chairman Chen Zikun and Mu Yichen and his wife who had just returned from the United States.

Gong Zijun, the magistrate of Beitai County, and Xiao Lang, the commander-in-chief of municipal construction, came to greet them, there was no red carpet, no guard of honor, only sand and dust and a few lonely ground crews.

Chen Zikun introduced Mu Yichen to Xiao Lang: "Mu Yichen, graduated from St. John's University, studied steelmaking in Germany, this is his wife Che Qiuling, and she is also St. John's younger sister, engaged in chemical engineering, you will be colleagues in the future." ”

Gong Zijun is responsible for deploying migrant workers and coordinating the relationship between all parties, Xiao Lang is responsible for civil construction and the construction of residential areas and municipal functional areas, and Mu Yichen and his wife are responsible for the construction of industrial zones.

"After three years of studying steelmaking in Germany, it finally came in handy." Mu Yichen rubbed his hands and said.

"Without a chemical foundation, without coke, what do you do to make steel?" Che Qiuling squinted at him.

Everyone chuckled, but they felt a lot in their hearts, China's industrial base is too weak, everything has to start from scratch, Beitai is even more lacking in everything, even a screw has to be imported, fortunately, coal and iron resources are abundant, the construction of coking plants and steel mills nearby, even the cost of transportation has been saved, and the war has caused a huge surplus of labor, and you can recruit labor force by managing rice, and you don't even need to pay wages.

Chen Zikun proposed to look around, and Mu Yichen drove a big Ford and dragged them straight to the riverside.

Adjacent to the Huai River is Liberty Avenue, a road named by Chen Zikun himself, with six lanes of French plane trees and street lamps planted on both sides, and the road is paved with asphalt, spacious and tidy, and cars can be seen speeding by, and you can see rows of camphor trees on the river beach, and workers are wrapping warm hemp ropes around the trees and brushing them with insect-proof lime water.

Gong Zijun introduced: "It is more beautiful at night, the street lights are lit, it looks like Europe or the United States." ”

Chen Zikun said: "The electric light factory was built so quickly? ”

Gong Zijun said: "Not yet, just use the diesel engine to temporarily generate electricity to try the effect, the electric light plant is still under construction, the installed capacity of 100,000 horsepower, the use of an open alternator, the steam engine is the British Philips company's double-barrel vertical tie rod engine, the boiler is a Ba Bo Ge water tube chain hearth, 400 tons of coal per hour, after the completion of not only can supply the city's electric lights, but also provide enough electricity for the industry. ”

The car follows Liberty Avenue and passes an overpass to the industrial area, which is full of scaffolding and fences, and there are many foreign technicians with high noses and blue eyes, and more Chinese coolies in black cotton jackets and wicker helmets.

"The workers are hard-working, and the construction of Beitai is inseparable from them." Gong Zijun said.

Chen Zikun said: "Be kind to the workers, if people with ulterior motives incite the labor uprising, you will regret it too late." ”

Gong Zijun said yes.

Chen Zikun said again: "Let's go, go to Xicheng and see how the coolies live." ”

Gong Zijun hurriedly dissuaded: "Chairman, you don't have to go over there to see, that place is smoky, messy and unhygienic." ”

Chen Zikun said: "You underestimate me, I have lived in a miscellaneous courtyard, and I have cleaned the toilet, and I am afraid of this." ”

Xiao Lang interjected: "Actually, County Magistrate Gong didn't mean that, the focus of the West District is not dirty. ”

Chen Zikun looked suspicious.

"If the East End is a dream city, the West End is a sin city." Xiao Lang explained.