In 1912, the Imperial Central Cabinet had only one goal, and that was to strive to turn China into the world's largest debtor country.

Borrowing is always the easiest and most direct way to obtain international capital, but for any country, actively developing its export business is the real first choice for its economic development.

Although Germany is very dissatisfied with the signing of a military mutual assistance pact between China and Russia and France, Germany also lacks the means to implement countermeasures on trade, although Germany is the largest seller of Chinese soybeans, but also the largest importer of China, and the surname is very interdependent.

It is a good thing that Germany has no further measures, but Song Biao must consider another thing, that is, once the First World War broke out, Germany's trade with China will be completely stopped, and it will not be able to import machinery and equipment and electrical appliances from Germany, nor can it export soybeans, tea, and raw silk to Germany.

History left Song Biao with only two years.

It was precisely under this urgent situation that after signing the "Sino-French-Russian Agreement on Mutual Assistance in Matters," Song Biao personally set off for Shanghai before he had time to have an in-depth conversation with France on the issue of the latest military technology and equipment.

In the past, the two emperors of Kangqian were known to the world about how the two emperors visited the south of the Yangtze River several times.

This time the Song Emperor's trip to the south of the Yangtze River is also the same momentum, after the Xinhai War, the worship of the emperor has reached the point of no addition, almost in the eyes of all the people, the emperor is tantamount to a generation of enlightened ancestors, there is an emperor, the rejuvenation of the whole country, the rejuvenation of China is said to be waiting, it is because of such a strong public opinion, for the emperor's trip to the south of the Yangtze River, the cabinet political axe also attaches great importance to it, as early as last year, Song Biao decided to go south when he began to do a lot of preparations.

Due to the restrictions of the railway, Song Biao arrived in Shanghai directly on the auxiliary cruiser Liaohe and under the escort of the navy's warships.

Shanghai.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Shanghai Tang was so glorious, and there was no more glorious than the thirties, which was the golden age of Shanghai.

It's just that this year's Shanghai is a little depressed and tragic, and everyone is crazy about the rubber turmoil at this time last year, and now there are sad people on the strange road.

The pillar of Shanghai's financial industry is the money bank, and in the rubber turmoil bankrupt Shanghai money bank as many as 100, known as the two major financial pillars of the late Qing Dynasty Yuan Fengrun and Yishan Yuan also fell in response, involving the loss of tens of millions of taels of silver in money banks all over the country, leading to the most tragic depression in China's financial history, until the Far Eastern Bank returned to Shanghai business, with its strong strength and the role of foreign banks, so that China gradually got rid of this financial crisis.

It was in this context that Song Biao came to Shanghai, and the purpose of his trip was to trade China's raw silk and tea.

In 1911, China's largest export of soybeans, coal, raw silk, sugar, textiles, tea, soybeans to the northeast soybeans, last year's total export sales of 2.234 million tons, accounting for 2/3 of the international market, the total annual foreign trade of 55.87 million pounds, mainly supplied to Germany, France, Britain, the United States and other countries, Germany's total imports accounted for half of China's total exports.

As for how much money Germany will make from exporting soybeans after buying soybeans from Northeast China for oil processing, it is really unknown.

Considering that the German import market may be interrupted at any time, in the past two years, the Northeast has begun to build a large-scale oil industry, from Germany and the United States and other countries to introduce small and medium-sized foreign-funded enterprises to cooperate, and at the same time increase the purchase of equipment from Germany and the United Kingdom, trying to improve the entire industrial chain, but at this stage, not to mention that it cannot compete with the German oil industry, even the United States and France are far inferior.

Coal exports totaled 37.3 million tonnes last year, with a total foreign trade of £38.573 million.

These two are the two major products of the empire, and the third place under these two items is raw silk, which exported 4,192 tons last year, and the lower price of tussah silk accounted for half, with a total export value of only 4.727 million pounds, only 10% of coal exports, and 1.04 million tons of sugar exports, with a total price of 4.51 million pounds.

Soybeans, coal, raw silk and sugar are the four major commodities, and the total export of textiles barely reached the amount of a million pounds, while the total export of tea in the once glorious world did not even reach a million pounds. As for the export of steel, hardware, cement, wood, glass, camphor, flax, sesame, fur, porcelain, wrapping paper, pencils, kerosene lamps, straw hats, milk powder, etc., they are all considered small items, which are also related to China's current industrial level.

So, this is a very crazy era, completely breaking through the conventional understanding of the 21st century, in fact, the degree of perversion of the soybean oil industry is completely a special stage in the past 30 years, and it is accompanied by the rise of the German oil industry, just like the price of oil rose to $300 per barrel.

After World War II, with the full rise of the petrochemical industry, soybeans and coal were completely reduced, and they were not the opponents of the petrochemical industry at all, and even silk was decayed by the oil industry.

It seems that there is a certain number in the dark, and China's destiny is in the middle of the 20th century, when the United States began to dominate the world, completely losing all its natural export advantages.

Separated by the Pacific Ocean, China and the United States seem to be natural mortal enemies.

The soybean industry has already made arrangements, and the development of the coal industry does not need to worry about it for the time being.

The world raw silk market has an annual trade volume of nearly 15 million pounds, and the associated textile industry is even larger, while the world tea market continues to maintain an annual trade volume of 30 million pounds, but China, the tea kingdom, has been completely thrown out.

In fact, compared with these two fields, the scale of the sugar industry is even larger.

These are all ways that China can work hard, and the reason why Song Biao pays more attention to raw silk and tea is more related to the dignity and symbol of the country, as well as the damage to the economy.

After arriving in Shanghai, Song Biao and his wife Shu Xuan stayed in Yu Garden, because they had long planned to come to Shanghai, the General Administration of the Inner Court bought a part of the western garden of Yu Garden in advance through the Far East Commercial Bank and Yu Qiaqing, and renovated it after isolation, renamed East Yu Garden, and set up the imperial property managed by the Inner Court for separate custody, as the emperor's palace after arriving in Shanghai.

Due to the limited funds, the renovation of the East Yu Garden was carried out very simply, and the only way to basically restore the original appearance was to make decoration modifications in the emperor's living room, study and living room.

The French Concession and the American Concession are being converted into the Shanghai Special Economic Zone, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still selecting suitable Chinese and foreign directors.

The Shanghai Hotel and the Far Eastern Plaza Hotel in Shanghai in the British Concession are both authentic hotels, although the conditions are good, Song Biao also can't go, as the emperor of China, in his own imperial territory, but to live in the country of the country set up by other countries, probably there is nothing more humiliating than this.

From this point of view, Song Biao hates Britain very much.

There is never a shortage of absurd and unexplained things on the world political stage, and the way of exchanging special zones for concessions proposed by the Imperial Central Cabinet is actually a real win-win policy, and China needs this kind of policy to attract foreign talents and capital, increase import and export trade, and foreign countries can also get real benefits and profit from it.

The reason is this, but Britain just did not agree to merge the Shanghai Concession into a special zone.

Wouldn't it be beneficial to the exchanges between the two sides to leave a scar cut by the British Empire in the financial capital of the Chinese Empire? Or does it make the British Empire feel more and more that it is the Celestial Empire, and that it can humiliate other countries at will?

Although Song Biao also said that this was a small matter, he knew in his heart that sooner or later it would become a big thing, and he would sooner or later make Britain regret it, and one day, he would tell the British - you are cheap and deserved.

Now it is still weak, especially the weak navy, which is not even a fishing boat in front of the British Empire, Song Biao can only endure it no matter how angry he is.

After settling in the East Yu Garden, Song Biao did not meet anyone for the first two days, so he felt the winter in the south in Shanghai.

The Spring Festival is approaching, and there is no sign of snow in Shanghai this year.

Song Biao has been to the south for a long time, and he doesn't know much about the south, and he doesn't know if it will snow in Shanghai in winter, it is said that it will snow occasionally!!

Yu Garden this place is still very good, the pure style of the Jiangnan water town garden is not common in Beijing, exquisite and chic, quite a little novel, is a little old, has suffered from war and destruction many times before, the General Administration of the Inner Court because of limited funds, can not be repaired.

In addition to the entourage of the Secretariat and the Secret Service, the Minister of Agriculture of the Prime Minister's Office and the Director of the Silk Tea Industry Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture Wang Shuhan came, and Shu Fangxin was also here.

Song Biao also played two games of chess with Chen Qimei, the young director of the Secretariat, in his spare time, Chen Qimei's level was good, so that the two sons could have a tie with Song Biao, and if they didn't let the sons, it was basically a tie, losing more and winning less, anyway, Song Biao was satisfied.

It's definitely not okay to lose everything, and it has to be a narrow win to win.

Chen Qimei knows the emperor very well, and the emperor never asked him to play chess for practice, but for entertainment and leisure, so he can't make the emperor sad, let the emperor win a small victory, and let the emperor win a big victory depends on the opportunity.

Therefore, Song Biao really admires Chen Qimei in the past two years, after all, he is a cultural person who has come out of the bottom, has the means and scheming, has education and culture, and is indeed a rare talent.

That afternoon, the two were playing chess in the study, and Shu Fangxin was silent while watching the chess.

When Song Biao lost one game and won two games, he decided to go out for a walk and enjoy the scenery, just as the Minister of Agriculture Wang Yongjiang came to meet him.

Wang Yongjiang is a talent, in the past when he served in the Secretariat there was a reputation of "genius", this person is originally from Shandong, born in Jinzhou, Liaoning, at the age of 20 the first selection of the county examination for Yougong, when he was young, he had read a lot of books, and he had learned people.

When Song Biao served as the governor of the three eastern provinces, he specially appointed Wang Yongjiang to be responsible for the promotion and export of soybeans, and his political achievements were amazing, and no one was dissatisfied, even Song Biao and Tang Shaoyi and others were quite surprised, and after the Governor's Office officially set up the Department of Agriculture, Wang Yongjiang became the first choice of the director of the Department of Agriculture.

When Tang Shaoyi formed a cabinet, many people thought that the Minister of Agriculture was just an idle post, and that he could not hold a lot of power compared to the Minister of Communications and Finance, and that he could be distributed to foreign party personages to form a cabinet for the coalition, but Tang Shaoyi tried his best to elect Wang Yongjiang as Minister of Agriculture against public opinion.

Although there are many seats for cabinet ministers, there are principal and deputy ministers, the ministerial-level cabinet is the cabinet minister, and the general administration and the general administration are all deputy cabinet ministers.

Huang Xing was also a person with a very revolutionary reputation, and Song Biao was inconvenient to simply shirk it, so he asked Tang Shaoyi to write a letter to explain the reasons for the election of Wang Yongjiang as Minister of Agriculture, and said that how important agriculture is to China and how big the gap between China and the United States in agriculture is, Yongjiang must be used.

After reading this letter, Huang Xing didn't know whether he was angry or ashamed, anyway, he directly announced his resignation from the cabinet.

Now it is the world of the imperial party, and the imperial party comes from three places, one is the Northeast Army, the second is the Governor's Office of the three eastern provinces, and the third is the Restoration Society.

The weather in the garden is slightly cold.

Song Biao wore a dark brown military coat and gloves and walked on the cobblestone road, accompanied by Wang Yongjiang as a cabinet minister, taking a step back, while Zhang Futian, Shu Fangxin, Chen Qicai and two chamberlains accompanied him a few steps behind.

Entering the quiet and dense bamboo forest, there is no wind on both sides, Song Biao sat down in a small pavilion here, and the attendants placed two glass screens at this time, and presented tea sets, Song Biao, Wang Yongjiang, Shu Fangxin and others made tea here with fine charcoal boiling water.

Waiting for the hot water to boil, Song Biao and Wang Yongjiang said: "Raw silk, tea in the long run is still very good bulk foreign trade, although the share is not as good as soybeans, coal, but international trade is like this, there are always some unpredictable risks, as the old saying goes, eggs can not be put in one basket, can do a good job should be done, not to mention these two are related to the symbol of our country's rejuvenation, if even the export of raw silk and tea can not reach the heyday of the previous dynasty, how can the country be called a recovery?" ”

Wang Yongjiang paused silently and said: "The emperor is sage, it is related to the reputation and dignity of the country and the nation, even if the amount is not as good as in the past, your subordinates should do their best." ”

Song Biao asked him: "How many do you think it is possible for these two things to be restored to their heyday, and if they can be done, it will take a few years of hard work?" ”

Wang Yongjiang thought for a while and said: "There are many disadvantages and too many bad habits, and it is almost impossible to restore the status and strength of the past in a few years. It's just that there are special methods and countermeasures for surnames in everything, and if we only want to restore the share of foreign trade, as long as we grasp a suitable method, it can still be done in a short time. ”

Song Biao was a little curious.

At this time, the whole country is extremely concerned about the decline of China's silk tea trade, there are various theories, Wang Yongjiang also put forward some comprehensive plans after serving as the Minister of Agriculture, Song Biao has roughly seen it, and does not feel that there are too many novel methods.

After thinking about it for a while, Song Biao still couldn't figure out Wang Yongjiang's new countermeasures, so he said, "Let's talk about it." ”

Wang Yongjiang said: "Your Majesty, why do you think our Northeast soybeans can dominate the international soybean market? ”

Song Biao said: "Naturally, it is the quality and output, as well as the cost advantage!" ”

Wang Yongjiang paused again and said, "The emperor is sage." His Majesty used to be in charge of the soybean work in the three eastern provinces, and the results were very good, and many people attributed the credit to me, which is actually wrong, and the biggest credit in this matter should also belong to the Far Eastern Grain and Animal Husbandry Corporation and Rong Dong. In the 32nd year of Guangxu in the previous dynasty, Dong Rong and I went abroad to inspect the soybean market, and at that time, we were invited to visit a number of tank oil leaching factories in Germany. Before we arrived in Germany, we thought that Germany was the same as us, and we used to buy soybeans to make tofu and the like, but when we arrived in Germany, we learned that soybeans are the main raw materials for the oil industry, and only then did we know that soybean oil can be made into Chengren cream after hydrogenation, and other waxes, oleic acids, and glycerin all come from here. Rong Dong and I only know that this industry is so powerful, even if countries like Italy and Russia are generally extracting oil from it, Germany, Britain, France, the United States and other countries can continue to refine various derivative products from it, and can also hydrogenation, oxidation, etc., there are dozens of kinds of oil extraction equipment, oil immersion and centrifuges alone, all countries are different, and the technical gap is large or small, but there is one point, the requirements of factories in various countries for soybeans are high oil rate, as well as the stability of size and weight. The German experts we hired said that all industrial production, everything needs to be of the same standard, the more stable and the same quality, the more conducive to industrial large-scale production, after returning to the Northeast, Rong Dong and I have done a lot of work based on this, the most important thing is to monopolize the export right, by the Far East Commercial Bank unified standards for export, but if it does not meet the standards of the commercial bank, will not be acquired. ”

Song Biao is more familiar with these things, it should be said that the Governor's Office of the three eastern provinces had the most comprehensive understanding of the entire oil industry at that time, and appointed a special delegation to investigate in Britain, France, Germany and the United States, which not only played a huge role in the promotion of soybean planting at that time, but also laid an important foundation for the promotion of the oil industry in the past two years.

Wang Yongjiang continued: "Monopolizing export rights and forcibly enforcing high-standard exports is our initial approach, and in recent years, we have signed purchase agreements with farmers to use our seeds in a unified manner, increasing the compliance rate year by year, and increasing the oil yield and quality year by year." So far, the Far East Grain and Animal Husbandry Corporation and the commercial bank have monopolized the entire Northeast soybean export, and the Northeast soybean is also a symbol of the highest quality in the international market, with moderate price, the best quality, and the highest degree of unification. It stands to reason that the level of agriculture in the United States is higher, and soybean cultivation is also strong, but it is still not as uniform and high-quality, high-quality and high-quality as the level of our exports. The principle of the silk tea industry is the same, the cabinet and the Congress are unstable, and His Majesty can only do some basic work before, and introduce some popular policies that do not need to be reviewed by the Congress, but if you really want to quickly grasp the export work of the silk tea industry, you must still follow the example of the soybean industry in the three eastern provinces, monopolize the export rights in several companies, forcibly unify the planting, production and export standards, and export directly across the foreign bank at foreign ports. Doing business depends on shopping around and reputation. The goods have a bad reputation and the price is high, what's the use of that? Your Majesty, although we have reduced taxes on silk tea, provided support terms, and solved the price problem, the goods are still mixed, and there are many big and small liars in the industry, no business is not annihilated, the reputation is extremely poor, and we must introduce hard measures to forcibly control and supervise. ”

Song Biao bowed slightly.

He turned to Shu Fangxin and Chen Qicai, who were accompanying him, and asked, "What do you think?" ”

Shu Fangxin replied: "Silk tea export can be included in the scope of franchise business, only part of the company is allowed to operate, requiring the company to ensure quality, unified price, strictly abide by the provisions of the political axe, the company and silk farmers, tea plantations all signed an agreement, the total export sales are a little less It doesn't matter, in the long run, the quality must be controlled, everything to restore the reputation of Chinese tea and raw silk first." ”

Chen Qicai said: "I just don't know if Congress can pass the supplementary provisions of the "Franchise Act" to include raw silk and tea in the scope of franchising? I think it is very difficult, there are many foreign companies and firms operating the silk tea trade at home and abroad, and once this bill is passed, the impact in China will be too great. ”

Wang Yongjiang and Song Biao sighed: "Back to the emperor, his subordinates have not dared to do this without permission. ”

Song Biao pondered for a moment and replied: "Different things have different ways to do things, first start from public opinion, raise the height of the silk tea industry to the level of national dignity, and then explain the root cause of the decline of China's silk tea industry one by one, don't deliberately blame foreign countries for the reasons, foreign countries are only part of the reasons, and their own problems are the most important." ”

Speaking of this, he asked Wang Yongjiang again: "Have you talked to Premier Tang about this?" ”

Wang Yongjiang said: "Back to the emperor, His Majesty and the Prime Minister have discussed this matter three times, although the Prime Minister has the intention to reverse the decline of the silk tea trade, but he has no intention of using such an extreme method. ”

Song Biao sighed lightly and said, "After my trip is clear, I have a definite idea, you can go back and talk to the prime minister." ”

Wang Yongjiang immediately said yes.

He knew in his heart that as long as the emperor nodded and agreed on this matter, Tang Shaoyi, as the prime minister, did not dare to stop it at all, and could only support it vigorously, and he didn't even have the courage to disobey the yang and the yin. After years of observation, he also feels that the emperor and the prime minister are actually not the same person, the emperor is not afraid of accidents, he is afraid of slowness, and the prime minister is just the opposite, not afraid of slowness, he is afraid of accidents, but this is a good thing, because the emperor is anxious, and he does not really ask things wholeheartedly, and it is a good assistant to have such a prime minister who is afraid of accidents.

The key to Song Biao's trip was to deal with the problem of the silk tea industry, but he knew in his heart that the silk tea industry was gradually withdrawing from the ranks of mainstream commodities in international trade, especially raw silk, which completely withdrew from the ranks of bulk commodities after the Great Depression in 1929.

The silk tea industry and the porcelain industry are only issues related to the dignity of the nation, and it is soybeans and coal that really determine the life and death of this nation.

The coal industry is not in a hurry, after all, there will be no major problems in a few decades, what worries Song Biao is actually the soybean industry, and just talked about this matter today, he and Wang Yongjiang also chatted for a while.

The soybean oil industry in the three eastern provinces has developed rapidly in recent years, especially the Far East Oil and Oil General Plant under the Far East Grain and Animal Husbandry Corporation, which has introduced a screw press from the United States on a large scale, and a centrifuge from Germany while adopting the latest continuous oil alkali refining process to improve the oil yield and quality, and introduced hydrogenation technology from Germany, and a vacuum steam oil deodorization process and filter from the United States to produce higher specifications of soybean oil, margarine and shortening.

In the development of the oil industry, the three eastern provinces mainly learn from Germany, adopt joint ventures, the introduction of patented technology and the purchase of a complete set of equipment, and constantly improve the level of tank type oil leaching technology.

In the past few years, based on soybean oil processing, Far East Grain and Animal Husbandry Corporation has continued to expand into the processing field of cottonseed oil and peanut oil, and is currently the largest oil processing enterprise in Asia.

In 1911, the total output of soybeans in the three eastern provinces was about 9 million tons, exports accounted for 2.23 million tons, and the local industry consumed 4.7 million tons.

The current plan of the cabinet is to gradually raise the level of the oil industry in the three eastern provinces and the whole country in the 175 plan, and gradually increase the market rate and technical level of domestic equipment.

After listening to Wang Yongjiang's report, Song Biao did not say too many thoughts and opinions, he knew in his heart that this speed is still too slow, although the market has the objective law of the market, but the soybean industry in the three eastern provinces wants to further develop, we must seize the blank cycle of the First World War, to give a larger scale of investment, large-scale introduction of the most advanced machinery and equipment to improve the level of technology and product quality, variety.

As long as the First World War began, the export of the German oil industry will be hit hard, and it will be an excellent opportunity for China's oil industry, not only to meet domestic demand, but also to take the opportunity to expand its share of the international market, from the soybean industry's agricultural export to the basic industrial export.

After talking with the emperor for a while, Wang Yongjiang said with feeling: "Your Majesty, your subordinates and the prime minister talk about the rejuvenation of China and the nation, and the first thing to talk about is agriculture, our country has 1.4 billion mu of arable land, and now it seems that it is being reclaimed year by year, and it is possible to increase to 2 billion mu in 20 years, in terms of output, if you do not count the Kanto, the average yield per mu in the country is less than 120 kg, and there are factors in the south of the country in two seasons a year, I couldn't believe it when I first saw such statistics, but it is true. According to our experience in increasing the yield per mu in the three eastern provinces, I expect that in five years, the average yield per mu in the whole country except for the Kanto region will reach at least 155 kilograms, and strive to achieve an average yield of 170 kilograms per mu. In fact, as long as we do this, the tax burden of the empire can be doubled. Now many people are keen on the development of large industrial plans, I calculated, the total number of industrial products included in the 175 items is about 4,000, but if you include traditional Chinese medicine and food, the total number of domestic agricultural products can also reach 3,000. Therefore, China's agriculture is really important, not to mention that almost all of our 450 million people are farmers, so agriculture is simply the foundation of China, or even the whole of it. In particular, comparing the development path of Germany and the United States, it can be said that agriculture does not rise, and even if industry develops, it is controlled by others, and our country is large, which is most similar to the situation in the United States, and the United States is not very dependent on foreign markets now, because their agriculture has developed the best and the internal market is the largest. In the past two years, His Majesty has always told others that he may not understand how to govern the country after studying history for 30 years, and he can basically understand half of it in one year when he goes to the United States for an investigation. ”

Song Biao didn't feel like this, so he said to Wang Yongjiang: "That's why you are asked to be this Minister of Agriculture, talents are rare, this position is very suitable for you, and doing a good job is the first credit for governing the country." ”

Wang Yongjiang immediately stood up solemnly and paid homage, and said: "Your Majesty will never dare to live up to the emperor's high expectations. ”

Song Biao was very confident in him, and ordered him to continue to sit down, saying, "I know." ”

In the past five years, Wang Yongjiang has made great achievements in the development of agriculture in the three eastern provinces, and has also accumulated abundant experience in learning from the agriculture of France, the United States and other countries and improving China's agriculture.

As the emperor, all Song Biao needs to do is to support Wang Yongjiang as much as possible, let go and let Wang Yongjiang do his best.

(To be continued)