These days, Hu Chuyuan is doing a new thing, he has set up a gun and artillery battalion in the Fujian Naval Division, which is attached to the Naval Division and stationed full-time at Mawei Port.

The general of the gun battalion has also been selected, and it is Ye Bojun, who has just returned from studying at the Royal Army College in the United Kingdom.

Before the imperial court fully approved it, the matter was almost done, the cannon was bought, the soldiers were recruited, and they were secretly placed in Luoyuan Bay for training......

In addition, Hu Chuyuan spread the telephone system to all the forts at the mouth of the Minjiang River, including the eleven hidden forts behind the bank of the estuary—these forts were strangely built, all hidden among the hills, and the locations were all hidden halfway up the mountainside, covered with shade and green canvas.

The cannon has not yet been fully delivered, and half of it is still in production at Krupp.

The seven batteries in Ming continued to be built with Armstrong long-caliber guns, which were replaced at the end of last year with guns ranging from 180 mm to 320 mm.

On this day, Hu Chuyuan inspected Luoyuan Bay, and returned to the Harbour Administration Yamen with great satisfaction, and as soon as he arrived at the Yamen, he heard that Wu Shuzhen had come, along with Pfister Delano and Albert Russell.

My wife came to inspect it!!!!

Hu Chuyuan sighed happily, smiled evilly, walked into the flower hall in a hurry, and saw Wu Shuzhen and Pan Limei sitting in the corridor chatting, smiling, I don't know how happy and speculative I am.

didn't know why, but Hu Chuyuan had a feeling of uneasiness.

He walked over hard-headed, and said with a smile to Wu Shuzhen: "Darling......!" ”

Before he could finish speaking, Wu Shuzhen interrupted with a faint smile: "Okay, let's go and entertain other guests first, I have Sister Limei with me here!" ”

"This ......?"

Hu Chuyuan hesitated slightly, and then walked into the flower hall on the west side of the yamen.

Pfister Delano and Albert Russell were in the flower hall, chatting with Rawls and other old advisors to the Wanqi Technology Bureau. Now Rawls is also mixing well, becoming a technical consultant to the Fuzhou Iron and Steel Plant of the Jiangnan Heavy Industry Bureau, and is also an invisible partner, taking share dividends from Hu Chuyuan alone.

Seeing Hu Chuyuan, Pfister Delano smiled exaggeratedly: "Oh, I finally saw you, we waited for you for an afternoon." ”

Albert Russell saluted very politely and said, "Mr. Hu, we meet again." ”

Hu Chuyuan smiled, invited everyone to sit down, and asked Pfister-Delano "Wells Fargo Investment Bank's business is not bad, right?" ”

Pfister-Delano smiled a little complacently and said, "Don't worry, Hu, I'm doing everything according to your orders." We have now consolidated our controlling and shareholding banks, reorganized with Hanhua Bank to form the new National Trust of the Americas Savings Bank, and formed the new BofA Insurance Company and BofA Securities Company through mergers. ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly and asked, "What about Wells Fargo?" ”

Pfister-Delano said: "It's also according to your intentions, let Wells Fargo operate alone in the west, merging the National Bank of San Francisco and the Intercontinental Bank of Los Angeles, these two banks are not very affected by the financial turmoil, so the acquisition price is a bit high." Anyway, Wells Fargo is doing well, and San Francisco Gulf Investments is doing well, and everything is going well. ”

Hu Chuyuan smiled and said, "There is no basis for the words, what about the financial report?" ”

Pfister-Delano said: "I have handed it over to your bookkeeper, they are in the process of reviewing, because it is an English account statement, it may take a while to complete the review. ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly, and continued to ask: "Is it still smooth to cash out on the New York stock market?" ”

Pfister-Delano hummed and thought for a moment, then Rawls got up and left for the time being with the other technical advisors.

When they left, Pfister-Delano said in a low voice: "In addition to the stocks in the six areas of steel, railway, chemical, machinery, mining and finance, the rest have been cashed out one after another, and the recovery of 192 million US dollars, in order to strengthen the control of Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Wanqi Bank, we have also recently absorbed the shares of three companies through share exchanges." In the steel industry, in addition to maintaining our stake in United Steel, we are also working with Carnegie Steel in Pittsburgh to integrate the Pittsburgh Coal Mining Company and form a new Carnegie Steel Company by the end of the year, if all goes well. In terms of chemicals, both DuPont and Soseen Chemical have a lot of resistance to us, so I am considering looking for new small chemical companies to invest in, using our capital effect and the partnership with the German company Chanson to establish a new large chemical company. Of course, this still requires your consent. ”

Hu Chuyuan thought about it, and always felt that there was still a gap in DuPont that could be drilled, and if the opportunity was right, it could hold a large share.

But he decided to respect his partner's opinion.

He said, "Okay, you look for another chemical company." Since it is a re-establishment, my opinion is to find the best operators, and the best technicians, and integrate them together. The new company will enter multiple fields at the same time, namely pharmaceuticals and medical auxiliary products, household toiletries, oil extraction, processing and sales, and then enter the field of dyes, paints, pigments through cooperation with the chemical dye company controlled by Chanchen Foreign Company, and of course, the field of gunpowder is also a focus. ”

Pfister-Delano listened silently, and after a long while, he said: "This means that we have to compete with DuPont and Standard Oil for the market, and it is still difficult." Personally, I think that the pharmaceutical, detergent and oil dyeing industries will be easier to open up the market in the United States, followed by the gunpowder field, and the oil market is the most troublesome. Recently, I've tried to launch a small buy-out of Standard Oil with JP Morgan and Andrew Mellon, but it didn't work much. Standard Oil is first and foremost a large-scale oil sales company, similar to Jiangnan Commercial Bank, with a complete system and a strong sales network, and it is unique to the United States in the construction of oil pipelines and oil ports. Using this network, he has always been able to control other oil companies with a small stake, and there are a lot of monopoly clauses in them, for example, how many years these oil companies must sell their oil to Standard Oil, and they have been investing more since last year to try to control their own oil companies. ”

Hu Chuyuan laughed.

If the person who can be easily caught in the loophole is still Rockefeller?

He thought for a moment and said, "I don't think that the United States only has oil in Pennylvania, so I might as well go to other places to explore for oil, Florida, Texas, and Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico...... Such a large field, I don't believe there is no oil. If there is oil in this Gulf region, we can build our own oil pipelines to the major port cities, concentrate on the port cities for chemical refining, and then transport the main chemical raw materials to New Jersey. However, go to California first, it doesn't matter how much you invest......! ”

At this point, he paused.

Money is not always a problem, the question is how to occupy the oil industry on a larger scale.

After weighing it up in his mind, he organized a new way of thinking and said to Pfister-Delano "I mean to grab an oil company anyway, use it to expand its technician, managerial, and sales teams at a very large scale, and prepare it for expansion in California." Then, secretly explore in California, and once an oil field is discovered, it is a relatively low-key situation to quickly ramp up investment. If you can't find oil in California, take a little risk...... Worth! ”

Pfister-Delano knew Hu Chuyuan's current financial resources, and this risk could be afforded.

If it doesn't work, it will lose millions of dollars, and if it does, it will really break through the blockade of Standard Oil.

Albert Russell suddenly asked: "Mr. Hu, we have expanded so much in a chemical company at the same time, and attacked in multiple fields at the same time, so which industry should we focus on?" ”

Hu Chuyuan laughed and said: "We want to operate this company with a different way of thinking, first of all, we want to establish a professional investment company, establish the same brand, invest in various target companies and people, and operate multiple companies on multiple fronts at the same time." Finally, we put them together to form a unified company. At this time, the investment company will change from a parent company to a subsidiary of a large company, and continue to make new investments in the entire industrial chain. ”

"It's a perfect plan!"

Albert Russell exclaimed, adding, "Moreover, it seems that we can avoid the attention of JP Morgan and Rockefeller, who have paid special attention to us since we began to force our way into the oil market, always keeping an eye on our every move in the capital markets." ”

Hu Chuyuan thought for a moment and said, "That's it, Albert, I'll leave this matter to you, I'm very confident in your ability." ”

Albert Russell asked puzzledly, "What about the American News Newspaper Company, where all my money is in it?" ”

He also invested more than 200,000 US dollars in the American news newspaper company, which is his entire net worth, in fact, he is very interested in this company.

Hu Chuyuan didn't care very much and said, "Let them run on their own!" While its impact will be significant, it will remain a small company for a long time to come, from a capital perspective. The chemical company we're starting now is going to be terrifying, it's an unprecedented big plan. ”

Albert Russell had to admit it, and then, he smiled: "Thank you for your trust, I will try my best to submit a perfect plan to you these days." So, are you going to name this company with your name? ”

Hu Chuyuan shook his head and did not express any more opinions.

Pfister-Delano suddenly proposed: "I think we can transform Wanqi Bank, and Wells Fargo Investment Bank already holds nearly 70% of Wanqi Bank's shares." On the other hand, although there was a lot of resistance in the process of acquiring DuPont, I was in contact with PG in Cincinnati, a candle and soap company that made French soaps that were selling very well. As far as I know, it seems like we could annex them if the bid reaches three million dollars. ”

"Oh...... pg？ ”

Hu Chuyuan couldn't help but be a little interested, if he was lucky, he thought, this should be the legendary Procter & Gamble.

He thought for a while and decided to adjust his strategy, saying: "We can indeed let Wanqi Yang Company transform and enter the textile, chemical, pharmaceutical and petroleum fields in the United States." It is possible to acquire this PG company and develop cosmetics and toiletries separately as a subsidiary of Wanqi & Co., and make it a leading company in cosmetics and toiletries. Wanqi itself concentrates on the petroleum and chemical sectors, the former for individual consumers, while the latter is entirely for industrial customers, and pharmaceuticals and medical devices can be operated by another company separately for a professional operation. ”

Pfister-Delano immediately asked, "Is that an outright acquisition, or is it a major stake?" ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "Hold the main shares first, continue to let the original manager operate, and gradually hold all the shares, or go public." ”

Pfister-Delano said, "Then I'll understand. ”

Basically, Hu Chuyuan's idea is a kind of BASF-style Kangtzeen company, which unites all chemical-related fields around the source of the oil industry, reduces the average cost of various products, and forms a unique competitiveness.

This decision is very important, because it means that Wanqi Bank's banking business was merged by Bank of America, and its international shipping business was merged by Swire International Shipping Company, and its business in China was completely in line with Jiangnan Commercial Bank's situation, and it found a new direction.

Similarly, under the Wells Fargo Investment Bank in North America, a new system is taking shape, with Wells Fargo and Bank of America being the financial core, and Carnegie Steel, Wanqi & Co., San Francisco Bay Company, and American News & Press Corporation forming four major industrial clusters of steel, petrochemicals, real estate, and media.

After finalizing these things, Pfister-Delano remembered another thing, and said to Hu Chuyuan: "I came to you this time, and by the way, I also want to talk about the Auckland Arsenal." The United States has agreed that we will transfer some of our technology to Auckland to invest in the construction of a factory, and will purchase new Armstrong-type artillery from this arsenal, and will also consider purchasing guns here. In addition, we searched for some firearms designers in the United States and wanted to ask them to work as designers at the Oakland Arsenal, and here is a list of them that you can take a closer look at. ”

Hu Chuyuan took the list and looked through it carefully, there were seven candidates for the main designer, including Mr. Christopher Spencer, and the list of young designers was even more.

Among these people, Hu Chuyuan was surprised to find John Moses Browning from Utah.

He estimated that this was the famous John Moses Browning, so he drew a five-pointed star on the list and said: "This person can be picked, and you are still responsible for who to choose, I don't know much about this." For the whole Auckland military factory, I still mean that, divided into three parts, steel is the basic department, followed by the firearms department and the artillery department, and the guns have to be manufactured, so there must be two or three chief designers. ”

Pfister-Delano nodded silently and said, "Okay, I'll do what you want." ”

Hu Chuyuan still couldn't forget John Moses Browning, so he said: "You can let this person preside over the design of the new repeating breech rifle and revolver, the requirements are very simple, stable, reliable, advanced, and beautiful." I won't ask about the specific technical standards. ”

Pfister-Delano continued to nod.

(To be continued)