Yu Qiaqing has a reason to hate the Far Eastern consortium, Zhang Bishi also has it, and the capitalists have even more reason to say that the reason why the Sino-Chinese economic and trade war, which had started since 1872, suddenly became extremely fierce in the first year of Xuantong (1909, the 42nd year of the Meiji era) was the rapid expansion and development of the Far Eastern consortium...... In almost every field, there is a dispute with the industry.

Under the pressure of the increasingly fierce economic and trade war between China and China, the annual meeting of the Far East Foundation in the first year of Xuantong was forced to be held ahead of schedule.

Because Shu Xuan, the wife of the governor of the three eastern provinces, was already eight months pregnant, and it was inconvenient for Song Biao to go to other places for too long recently, the annual meeting of the Far East Foundation, which was originally scheduled to be held in Changchun, could only be held in the guest house of the military headquarters.

Song Biao is very confident in the economy of the three eastern provinces, after all, the overall situation is favorable to the three eastern provinces, and he has basically completed the layout and preparations for waving his troops into the customs, and now is the final stage of mobilization, the Northeast New Army and the patrol army of the three eastern provinces have a lot of things to do during this time, plus the three eastern provinces are recently preparing to build the air force and navy in the name of the air police bureau and the coast guard bureau, and Song Biao is too busy.

No matter how busy you are, you still have to attend the annual meeting of the Far Eastern Group Foundation.

In the afternoon of this day, Song Biao first went to the new area to inspect the Shenyang Aircraft Factory, after all, it was the first aircraft in Asia, although the engine was imported from Germany, but he still had to go to congratulate him.

After returning from the aircraft factory, Song Biao went home directly to accompany Shu Xuan for a walk in the garden, and after dinner, he and Shu Xuan explained that they were going to the New Army Guest House in the evening, and they would not come back until very late, so that Shu Xuan could rest early and not wait for him.

Shu Xuan's mother, Mrs. Lu, is the second lady, and the relationship with Shu Gaoli has been relatively cold in the past few years, so she moved to the Song Mansion with the old maid under the pretext of taking care of Shu Xuan.

Because someone at home took care of Shu Xuan, Song Biao was not very worried, and after explaining to Shu Xuan, he took a carriage to the military guest house of the Northeast New Army.

Rong Xingqiao and these people naturally hope to have dinner with Song Biao, at least it can be regarded as the owner to pick them up and wash the dust, after all, this year, everyone has been fortunate, but no matter how big it is, it is no bigger than Shu Xuanniang, who is pregnant with a dragon and a phoenix.

There is no way, everyone can only have a lively meal at the military guest house, and then stretch their necks and wait for Song Biao to come over, this meal is still very early, you can't wait for Song Biao to come over, all the big shopkeepers and general managers are still entertaining themselves drinking and chanting poetry, right?

When the secretariat called, Rong Xingqiao, Zhang Kangren, Wu Yangzeng, Pan Sichi, Zheng Guiting, and Shu Fangxin ...... These people all hurried out and lined up in three columns at the door of the military headquarters guest house to wait for General Song's arrival.

A total of 46 people attended this year's annual meeting, four more than last year, namely Rong Kui, Rong Yaoyuan, Li Guipan, and Tang Yuanzhan.

These 46 people are all overlords of the industrial and commercial circles in the three eastern provinces, and this is the time when they meet the boss, each of them is a director of the Far East Foundation, Rong Xingqiao and Zhang Kangren are the executive vice chairmen of the board of directors, and Song Biao is the chairman of the board of directors.

After the carriage stopped, Song Biao got out of the car, looked up and glanced at these people, and the directors were very excited to see the chairman coming.

Everyone was very excited, which was understandable, but order could not be chaotic, Rong Xingqiao and Zhang Kangren walked in front and led everyone to bow to Song Biaoshen first.

Etiquette is a very important foundation for a country and an organization.

The Far Eastern Group Consortium is not only the most high-end Kang Caien monopoly organization in the world economic industry, but also has the characteristics of traditional Chinese culture and etiquette.

Rong Xingqiao and Zhang Kangren saluted on behalf of "thank the owner for their trust in the past year, as well as their loyalty and respect for the owner", and Song Biao also returned the gift in the same way, thanking everyone for their hard work in this year.

This moment was both excited and serious, after the two sides saluted, Rong Xingqiao and Zhang Kangren led the fourteen oldest directors to surround Song Biao into the military guest house, at this time the military department guest house is not worried about outsiders, because it has been completely martial law, and the guest house is their own people.

This year is different from the past, at this time Song Biao can already write like this on his personal resume - Song Auror, also known as Song Zhizhong, formerly known as Song Biao, and his wife Shu Xuan is the daughter of Shu Gaoli, a famous translator in China, and a famous translator of poetry and fairy tales.

Song Biao formed his own family and had a real Song Mansion, and on this occasion, Song Biao represented his family, and one day in the future, his position here would be inherited by his children.

The Chinese say "the country of the world", these four words are very appropriate for the Song government.

Song Biao originally planned to take Shu Xuan to attend this year's annual meeting, but Shu Xuan is really inconvenient now, Song Biao still participates in the annual meeting alone as the owner, and the other directors live in the left and right rows in accordance with the original regulations, and follow Song Biao, Rong Xingqiao, and Zhang Kangren to officially enter the venue.

Tonight is an early meeting, the official agenda is to start tomorrow, or a total of a week, in addition to reviewing the implementation of each company this year, to discuss the general direction of next year, the next year's plan of each subsidiary should also be preliminarily formulated during this period.

There are also two special items on the agenda for this year's annual meeting, that is, the preparatory plans for the establishment of the Far East Shipbuilding Corporation and the Shenyang Aircraft Industry Corporation, which are also in parallel with the plans for the construction of the navy and air force of the Northeast New Army.

The entry threshold of the shipbuilding industry is too high, the technical requirements are high, the start-up capital is high, the Far East consortium is also preparing for five years, starting from the two fields of ship maintenance and steel, in Dalian, Jinzhou, Jinzhou, Haicheng, San Francisco, Incheon, Nagasaki have ship repair plants and docks, in recent years through recruitment, commissioned training, schools, external hiring, trial manufacturing, and cooperation with the United States, Germany, and Russian enterprises have also accumulated a certain amount of management experience, talent reserves, next year will be ready to officially open the modern shipbuilding industry in the three eastern provinces.

Aircraft manufacturing is still in its infancy on a global scale, and the Far Eastern consortium has been preparing for two years, even investing in two aircraft companies in the United States, and sending more than 40 trainees to study abroad.

The conditions for the Far Eastern consortium to enter these two industries are already perfect, and now the question of how much money will have to be allocated.

After entering the conference room, Song Biao sat in the chairman's position, and everyone else had fixed seats, the only change was that Rong Kui and Li Guipan, who participated in the annual meeting for the first time, sat in the first row, which was also expected by everyone.

There are not many projects invested by the Far Eastern consortium in the United States, but the total amount is very amazing, and the profits contributed are even more amazing; this year's economic and trade war between China and China has been fought so fiercely that every director present does not have the feeling of fear that Yu Qiaqing has, and it is nothing more than that the Far Eastern consortium's investment returns in the Americas are very strong, and it can fully withstand this bloody war with the chaebols.

Because this is the fourth annual meeting of the Far Eastern Group Foundation, various rules and procedures have been very perfect, and the meeting before the annual meeting is mainly to introduce the new members, as well as the general situation of the three eastern provinces and the Far East Foundation this year.

Rong Xingqiao is responsible for formally introducing Rong Kui, Rong Yaoyuan, Li Guipan, and Tang Yuanzhan to all colleagues, in fact, 27 of the 46 people here are young children studying in the United States, and everyone is familiar with each other.

After introducing the new members, Rong Xingqiao, as the executive vice chairman of the Far East Federation of Industry and Commerce, first briefly reported to everyone the overview of the companies of the Far East Consortium this year, some industries are relatively small in scale and have little impact, such as clocks, matches, glass, coal stoves, kerosene lamps, enamels, knives, water pipes, mirrors, toothbrushes, ...... Song Biao usually doesn't hear these things except at the annual meeting, and for this kind of small company in a non-main industry, Rong Xingqiao just says a word to each company.

These industries are not the core industries that the Far Eastern consortium intends to hold and develop for a long time, and many times they will only invest in the industrial development of the entire three eastern provinces and the reasons for reducing imports, including long-term competition with the local economic circles.

The unification of these industries is characterized by low profit margins, low thresholds for technology and investment, fierce competition, and the inability to withstand large-scale shocks.

Rong Xingqiao talked about it all the way, and 70 percent of the more than 100 industries involved in the Far Eastern Group Consortium were operating at a loss this year, although the losses of each small industry were not much, and the total number was not low, not to mention the efficiency of the American branch, the net benefit of the Far Eastern Consortium this year fell by 1/4 compared with the same period last year.

1/4 is a big number, close to £4.25 million.

Rong Xingqiao's general talk was prescribed to be five minutes, and he reported on the stage according to the manuscript prepared in advance, and everyone listened to it on and off the stage, and they were very worried, because it was not to say which one was losing money, but that basically half of the companies in charge of the directors present were losing money.

At the end of the five-minute general conversation, Rong Xingqiao concluded: "Ladies and gentlemen, subject to this year's economic and trade war, in the past five years, the three eastern provinces have for the first time had a large-scale economic crisis, up to now, as far as we know, more than 400 small and medium-sized enterprises have gone bankrupt and collapsed, and the credit pressure of the Far Eastern Bank is very large, so in terms of the general policy, next year's internal credit support may be reduced." In the past five years, this may also be the first time that this has happened, and I would like to ask you to be fully prepared to speed up the return of funds, reduce unnecessary losses, improve production efficiency as much as possible, and reduce costs, otherwise, for some small industries, we will be forced to transfer at a low price to avoid further losses. ”

What he said was very shocking, and the subtext was that if you don't do well next year, I'm afraid that a group of you won't come to the annual meeting.

Hearing this, everyone became more and more worried.

Song Biao didn't have too many expressions at this time, because he lost and lost.

Waiting for Rong Xingqiao to report a bunch of bad debts, Zhang Kangren was a little nervous, fortunately, the overall economic situation of the three eastern provinces is good, he took the back of Rong Xingqiao to introduce the financial and economic situation of the three eastern provinces this year, what he wants to say is very familiar to Song Biao, Song Biao basically did not listen carefully, closed his eyes and pondered some things in his heart.

The Far Eastern Group has indeed lost a bit more this year, which is completely beyond Song Biao's initial expectations.

With the economic development of the three eastern provinces and the large inflow of silver, the world silver price rose slightly by 3 points, which made the exchange rate of the Kanto silver yuan (equivalent clear yuan) against the pound sterling, which was originally 10.512 to 1 pound sterling, and now it is 10.04 to 1 pound.

4.25 million pounds is exactly 42.5 million Kwantung silver yuan, and the total number of 330,000 patrol troops in the three eastern provinces is not so much in the two years.

If Song Biao is not angry, it is a lie.

When Zhang Kangren said those nonsense, Song Biao pondered the reason and countermeasures in his heart, the reason is very simple, the Far Eastern consortium has too wide investment scope and too many investment lines, so in the entire Sino-economic and trade war, the Far Eastern consortium has suffered the most losses.

If you really have the 4.25 million pounds in hand, it will be easy for the Far Eastern consortium to kill the eight major textile societies.

The problem is that these small companies really can't be thrown away immediately, because as long as there are no problems in management and technology, and the economic environment is good, they can also make money.

The industrial base of the three eastern provinces was basically zero five years ago, and it is not easy for each of these small factories to develop.

Zhang Kangren wants to talk about the current economic situation of the entire three eastern provinces, although the economic and trade war broke out very violently in the first year of Xuantong, but in terms of the total economic volume of the whole province, the economy of the three eastern provinces is stronger than the original, except for the spindle, the other major economic data are the three eastern provinces have an advantage, such as the total grain output, the total output of coal and iron, and even the length of the railway, the total amount of power generation, these figures are also the advantage of the three eastern provinces.

The economy of the three eastern provinces is a planned economy at the overall level, but the three institutions of the three eastern provinces, the Governor's Office, the General Administration of Military Reclamation, and the Far Eastern Federation of Industry and Commerce, have fulfilled the duties and work of the "Planned Economic Committees of the Three Eastern Provinces."

The rapid growth of the economy and tax revenue of the three eastern provinces mainly comes from agriculture, animal husbandry, and the coal industry, and the growth of these three major industries is forcibly promoted in the form of planning and overall planning, and it is very difficult for each industry to develop at the same time, but it is not difficult to ensure that these three major industries grow at a rate of 30 percent per year in the means of planned economy, and it can even be said that it has doubled the growth.

In the past five years, the total area of cultivated land in the three eastern provinces has increased from a rough estimate of 5.5 million hectares to 12.275 million hectares; under the general policy of comprehensively learning from the United States, through large-scale hiring of American agricultural experts to improve the planting technology of large-scale agriculture, the use of huge preferential credit to promote horse farming and agricultural machinery, the promotion of water conservancy projects, the improvement of transportation conditions, the promotion of the use of chemical fertilizers and improved seeds, and the adjustment and popularization of high-yielding and high-priced crops. The average grain yield per mu also increased to 158.14 kg (excluding sugar beet), and was expected to reach the standard of 187.5 kg per mu by the end of the Second Five-Year Plan in 1915, which was the level of the United States in 1870, and the total arable land area would reach 15 million hectares.

In the past five years, the total pastoral area of the three eastern provinces has increased to 4.45 million hectares, and the total number of livestock in the pastoral area is 5.156 million, plus the space for comprehensive development of forest areas, according to the standard calculation of the United States in 1905, there is at least 70 million head of growth space in the future, which is the main direction of the next five-year plan of the governor's office of the three eastern provinces.

In the past five years, the total annual coal mining in the three eastern provinces has increased to 32.58 million tons, and it is expected to maintain an annual growth rate of 15% in the next five years.

The planned economy is a good thing, especially for the three eastern provinces at this stage.

Compared with the five-year new policies of the three eastern provinces, the 40 years of the Meiji Restoration are a complete tragedy, and for the politicians and chaebols, it is indeed a tragedy of their powerlessness.

The total area of cultivated land in the province is only 6 million hectares, which is still the highest peak in the history of agriculture, with a population of 42.8 million and 2.1 mu of cultivated land per capita; the three eastern provinces have 12.275 million hectares of cultivated land, and the population has increased to 25.3 million through the recruitment of a large number of laborers from the Guannai in the past five years, and the foreign population is only 27.4 million, with a per capita cultivated land of 6.7 mu.

Under normal circumstances, in the process of transforming an agricultural country into an industrial country, industrial growth can reach an annual growth rate of 20%, or even 30%, for example, during the First Five-Year Plan period of the Soviet Union, and agriculture basically remained unchanged.

This is the case at this stage, especially after the First Sino-Japanese War, the growth rate of the industry has been very high, because of the special situation of Song Biao in the Russo-Japanese War, the growth of the industry in 1905 and 1906 was relatively slow, and in 1907 and 1908 it was another two years of rapid industrial expansion.

First of all, the industry of the three eastern provinces is also surging at an annual rate of 30 percent, but the same is true for the development of agriculture; within five years, the total grain output of the three eastern provinces has increased by three times, the development rate of forestry and animal husbandry is roughly the same, and the total output value of agriculture has increased to 3.2 billion yuan, which alone has exceeded the total GDP of the capital.

In the industrial and mining industry, the conditions of the three eastern provinces are also beyond the reach of the three eastern provinces, only the production capacity of the four major open-pit coal mines developed by the three eastern provinces has exceeded the total coal output of the three places, North Korea and Taiwan, and the iron ore resources of the three eastern provinces are also very abundant, and in only five years, the three eastern provinces will increase the pig iron production capacity to 3.7 million tons, and the steel production capacity is 1.15 million tons, with national capital and foreign capital accounting for half each.

After 1900, the world has been carved up, the major industrial countries have also completed the progress of the industrial revolution, capital output began to replace military partition as the main means of expansion of the capitalist powers, and the rapid development of the three eastern provinces and the capital are the products of this round of capital expansion, in terms of total international capital imports, the three eastern provinces are 2.7 times that of the capital, and the total foreign capital absorbed in five years is 635 million pounds, about 3.09 billion US dollars, of which 34% comes from France, 23% from Britain, and 15% It comes from Germany, 13% from the United States, Russia accounts for only 7%, and the capital accounts for 2.5%.

France's investment in the three eastern provinces is mainly based on usury, and most of them are mainly loans to the Northeast Bank, the Agricultural Bank of the three eastern provinces, the Far Eastern consortium, the railways, the political axe bonds of the three eastern provinces, and other banks. In the same way, through such a series of political axes and loans between consortia, France also effectively controlled the relationship between France and Russia and the alliance of the three eastern provinces, and clamped down on the expansion of the British alliance, Germany, and the United States in the three eastern provinces.

Zhang Kangren wants to talk about these things, and explain the overall situation to these directors of the Far East consortium from the three fields of economy, finance, and politics.

Song Biao, of course, is the one who knows these things best, so he thinks that what Zhang Kangren said is all nonsense, and in the final analysis, it is just two sentences -- although China said that the economic and trade war was very tragic and we lost a little more, but from the perspective of the overall situation, we still occupy a real long-term advantage.

After Zhang Kangren finished talking, the directors couldn't help but applaud warmly with joy, at least happy for the economic development of the three eastern provinces.

At the annual meeting of the Far East Consortium every year, there are usually not many things to be discussed, and the opinions of the directors are basically asked, and several important agendas and topics that were originally determined to be discussed, and if there are new topics, they are to vote, or to see the opinions of several members of the Standing Committee.

In the Far Eastern consortium, Song Biao is a bit like the emperor of the constitutional monarchy, he generally doesn't speak, and he doesn't need to speak much, which is very similar to the business characteristics of the Shanxi merchant gang, the big treasurers discuss by themselves, and the owners don't ask about things.

Everyone had a heated discussion, and everyone wanted to add their ideas to the new topic, so Song Biao sat next to him and watched coldly, listening attentively. As for the main topics of this year's annual meeting, there is no need for new discussions, which are basically three major events: first, to discuss the countermeasures of the economic and trade war between China and China; the second is the new plan of the Far East Grain and Animal Husbandry Corporation; The third is the investment scale and long-term planning of the four new industries of shipbuilding, machinery, automobiles, and electrical manufacturing.

Second, as the development of the coal mining industry gradually reaches a bottleneck, a large amount of capital will have to be transferred to other industries, and there is too much room for the development of grain and animal husbandry in the three eastern provinces, and there is no problem in quadrupling the agricultural output value.

In the past five years, the metallurgical industry has invested not the largest, but it is not small, and about eight million pounds of capital has been invested before and after, although the economic and trade war in China has been very tragic, but the two pillar areas of iron and steel metallurgy and coal are basically unaffected, and the profits are still huge, and the rational use of international credit is enough to support its own continued development.

With the development of metallurgy and iron and steel industry, shipbuilding, machinery, automobile three major industries can certainly expand investment, electrical manufacturing also needs to expand investment, now the problem is not technology, but the scale of investment, because the technology is basically by the introduction, directly from the United States to purchase a large number of technology patents, and then through the purchase of equipment, machinery from Germany, France, Russia, the United Kingdom to introduce a part of the supplement, the main technical consultants, technicians and some management personnel are also from the United States, followed by Germany, France and Russia as a supplement.

If the Far Eastern consortium wants to invest in an industry, it is certainly not as simple as setting up a factory, but it will involve a large number of issues, including education, long-term training of talents, estimation and training of the domestic market, estimation and development of foreign markets, supply of raw materials, transfer of technology, training of workers, and so on.

This is the case at the annual meeting of the Far East consortium every year, where a new direction of the main industry and a large number of long-term policies are decided to ensure the long-term profitability of the core industries.

More than 40 directors gathered to discuss the main agenda and new topics for the coming week, and the discussion lasted until 11 p.m. before the four new topics were identified.

It was not too late to see the time, and the things that should be discussed at the meeting were also decided, and Rong Xingqiao, who was in charge of presiding over the meeting, asked Song Biao: "Zhongtang, do you have anything else to add to the directors?" ”

Song Biao didn't say much, and usually ended up with two sentences at this time, but today, he still thought about it for a while before he said to Rong Xingqiao and Zhang Kangren: "There are more loss-making enterprises this year, because of the large economic environment, as well as the problems of consortium investment decision-making and enterprise management, as well as the problems of the local industrial environment in the three eastern provinces. Even if so many enterprises lose money, they should take time to explore the causes, analyze them thoroughly, and rectify them within a time limit. As for some small enterprises and smaller industries, they should be let go, and they should be transferred; Part of it depends on the situation, and strives to transfer it to the partner at a better price, and then support others to operate. At present, the industrial base of the three eastern provinces is relatively comprehensive, and I believe that the current task of the Far Eastern consortium should be shifted to concentrating on doing big things and making a lot of money, rather than continuing to follow the line of doing everything and doing everything. ”

His words were not loud, but they startled everyone when he said them.

If you remember correctly, these words are probably the most powerful words Song Biao said in all the annual meetings, and after these words, it means at least that there will be ten fewer people at next year's annual meeting.

(To be continued)