At this time, it was the New Year's Day of 1879 in the Western calendar, and the foreigners celebrated their New Year's Day, and the Chinese continued to wait for the arrival of the Spring Festival.

The famine year in northern China continued, and the imperial court had long banned the export of grain from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Huguang, and Guangzhou, which was a great good news for the Jiangnan Commercial Bank, and more grain was trafficked to Shandong and Hebei, and the situation in the two places also improved greatly, and agricultural production was slowly recovering.

The only exception is Shanxi.

Hu Chuyuan is a businessman after all, and he also has to settle accounts.

After losing 700,000 taels of silver, he stopped transporting grain to Shanxi, concentrated financial and manpower resources to restore Shandong's agriculture, and converted all the fields under his control to grain, mainly spring wheat and potatoes, and corn and soybeans after the summer harvest.

At this time, the 3.4 million mu of land in Shandong under the direct control of the Jiangnan Commercial Bank was almost all good land originally used for opium cultivation, concentrated in the southeast region of Shandong, with Yantai and Qingdao as the main export areas.

In Hebei, the firm also owns 1.25 million acres of land.

In order to avoid trouble, the assets of these fields were separated before the official shares entered the Jiangnan Commercial Bank, divided into more than 600 rice farms, and then concentrated the rice farms into more than 20 grain cooperatives, and finally controlled by the Yufeng Grain Cooperative.

The accounts of the Jiangnan Commercial Bank must be reported to the imperial court, and if these fields are left in the commercial bank, it is really not good to report them, and it is not good not to report them, and the surname Suo is not set up in the commercial bank.

To be honest, Hu Chuyuan has the courage to do this business, but he doesn't have the courage to look at the accounts.

When he saw the specific number, even he was scared.

In order to avoid any accidents, he hid Yufeng Grain Cooperative, and all the sales of the rice market were handed over to the more than 20 grain cooperatives, and Yufeng Grain Cooperatives were only responsible for dividends.

The national disaster is indeed very evil, all his investments are only 4.75 million taels of silver, including the loss in Shanxi, and he bought a maximum of 700,000 mu of fertile land in previous years.

The rate of return on the purchase of land to collect rent is very low, and a lot of manpower and material resources have to be invested in fine management, and in the event of drought and flood, it is a loss to the end, and the late Qing Dynasty is also particularly popular to eat large households, and once the poor people around are hungry, they will go to the big households in groups to grab grain to eat, so it is a disaster, and they will have to suffer heavy losses in the event of drought and flood.

That's how farming is, it depends on God's face.

Hu Chuyuan just wanted to hold on for a few more years, and when the peasants in Shandong had eased the current difficulties, he would gradually sell the land and collect the funds as soon as possible.

……

After nearly a month of tossing, the 300-hole Ruoguade has been imitated, because there are many differences in the stress between wood and iron, it is not possible to imitate according to the drawings like I did, according to the rich carpenter experience, Master Qian and Master Zhao have made several changes to the structure.

This 300-hole Guard wooden loom is very easy to use, the cost is not high, and two can be built for 20 taels of silver.

On the basis of the original, Master Qian added a knife and stick in traditional weaving, which improved the efficiency and craftsmanship of the loom.

The new textile machine is very good, the advantage is that the efficiency is twice as fast, as long as it is a skilled worker, the quality of the silk woven is about the same, very stable, not like the use of air guide machine as obvious gap.

There are also two disadvantages, one is completely different from the air guide machine, no matter how skilled the weaver has to re-learn, and it is difficult to get started; The second is that the highest effect of the air guide machine cannot be woven.

Hu Chuyuan renamed this imitation wooden loom Jiangnan loom, and asked Master Qian to continue to stay, and cooperate with Xu Shou to improve the Jiangnan loom, Master Zhao returned to Hangzhou to recruit skilled carpenters, and continued to build a 100-hole entry-level Jiangnan loom and a 300-hole practical version of the Jiangnan loom.

With these foundations, Hu Chuyuan decided to go back to Suzhou to meet Zuo Zongtang for the time being, and the matter of running education in Shanghai could only be put on hold for the first time.

In Shanghai, he has reached the point where he is lonely and lonely, no matter what he talks about, others will hide as long as they see him, and even Fu Lanya and Xu Shou seem to have been secretly talked to and intimidated, and they are not as enthusiastic as they were at the beginning.

Helpless!

Let Hu Rong be in charge of taking care of the luggage, Hu Chuyuan quietly sat alone in the back garden of the Hu Mansion, silently thinking about countermeasures.

He is dedicated to the public, but Sheng Xuanhuai and Tang Yanshu don't think so.

In order to defeat Hu Xueyan, this person contacted all the foreign companies in Shanghai and joined forces not to buy Hu Xueyan's raw silk, and also contacted businessmen from all over Jiangsu and Zhejiang to go to the Hangzhou head store of Fukang Qianzhuang to run.

He was sighing that he was indeed a little tender, forgetting that there were still some unconventional methods in this world, so Hu Rong hurriedly walked in and said to him: "Boss, Lord He, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, has sent five shipmaster trainees over and are waiting for you in the living room!" ”

It's coming so fast!

Hu Chuyuan thought for a while, and said to Hu Rong: "Let them come to the back garden, I will meet them here!" ”

"Okay!" Hu Rong agreed and immediately went to the living room to invite someone.

After a while, five young people wearing Qing military uniforms came from the front yard of the Hu Mansion, saying that they were official uniforms, but they were also classless, this was the students of the Fuzhou Shipbuilding School.

The leader was in his twenties, with a majestic figure, red lips and white teeth, and a cold look, and he knew at a glance that he was a very peculiar person. The other four were either handsome or mighty, but none of them could compare with this man.

As soon as the five people stepped forward, the cold young man in the lead took out a letter from his arms and said to Hu Chuyuan: "Lord Cavalry, this is a letter of recommendation from the Governor, I hope you will see it!" ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded, took the letter and opened it.

He and He Jing asked for four "smart and clever people who are proficient in French, familiar with mechanical arithmetic and Western studies, or those with a business background are preferred", and he will arrange for four people to learn paper painting, mechanical making, chemical dyeing and silk reeling, and the four of them will first go to Yueben to study for a few months, and then go to France to study for a year, and then they can be entrusted with important tasks after returning to China.

Such a person is not very difficult to find in the Fuzhou Shipmaster School, which itself teaches English and French, as well as mechanical, industrial and mining, boilers, shipbuilding, driving and other courses.

The five people recommended by He Jing generally meet Hu Chuyuan's requirements.

In addition, He Jing also specially asked people to select a special talent in the school, this person is the young Zhang Lingpu in front of Hu Chuyuan.

Zhang Lingpu, Xianfeng four years, because he was born in the Year of the Tiger, the word Boyin, 22 years old this year, since he was a child, he practiced boxing with his father at home, and at the age of 17, he showed his talent, and then gave up his pen and was admitted to the Fuzhou Shipbuilding School, studying English and ship driving.

With excellent grades, he had the opportunity to be sent to the UK for further study, but he was temporarily transferred by He Jing and sent to Hu Chuyuan's side.

Hu Chuyuan raised his eyes, looked at Zhang Lingpu carefully, and felt that this person should be usable.

He asked with some curiosity, "What kind of boxing did you learn?" ”

Zhang Lingpu hugged his fists and said: "Lord Cavalry Captain, what I am learning is the five ancestor boxing that is spread locally in Fuqing County, hard bridges and hard horses, and learning tigers and imitation cranes!" ”

"Oh!" Hu Chuyuan raised his eyebrows slightly, and roughly guessed what He Jing meant by sending this person over.

It is estimated that the hooligans in Shanghai are making too much trouble, and everyone in Fuzhou has heard of it.

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly, and said, "Okay, you can stay by my side first and deal with some chores, I hope I haven't wronged you!" ”

Zhang Lingpu said: "Thank you for the help of the cavalry." ”

Hu Chuyuan laughed, and asked the other six people one by one, and also found a random French book for them to read aloud, and the results were not bad.

Because he was going to leave for Suzhou tomorrow, Hu Chuyuan first sent these four people to Yueben, accompanied by Pan Limei.

After arranging this matter, Hu Chuyuan asked Hu Rong to go out to find Chen Xiaobai and others, while he took Zhang Lingpu to the study and took a bill of exchange of 2,000 yuan.

gave the bill of exchange to Zhang Lingpu, and Hu Chuyuan secretly ordered: "You are a fresh face, and no one knows where you come from." During this time, in the name of apprenticeship, you will first walk around the Shanghai martial arts world, follow the line of the martial arts world to contact the Shanghai hooligans, and check which hooligan leaders are having trouble with me recently. ”

Zhang Lingpu nodded silently and said, "Don't worry, Lord Cavalry, the little one will definitely handle this matter!" ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "Without further ado, you go to do things now, rent a house in the concession for the time being, don't reveal your origins, just say that you are a martial artist in Fuzhou." ”

Zhang Lingpu said: "Don't worry, you will definitely do it." ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "Then you can go first." ”

Zhang Lingpu chirped and quickly exited the study.

In fact, about the hooligans' troubles, Hu Chuyuan had already asked Chen Xiaobai to secretly send someone to inquire, Chen Xiaobai had also been in Shanghai for more than ten years, and it was not difficult to find out about this matter, but he deliberately let Zhang Lingpu go another way, just to test Zhang Lingpu's depth.