Fukang Company is the family company of the Hu family.

Therefore, Hu Chuyuan did not have one person to make decisions many times, and he did not really manage most things in the company.

Since it is a family company, there are naturally a large number of family heirs involved in the management, Hu Chuyuan pays special attention to these young people, and searches for those who can entrust important tasks.

More often, Hu Chuyuan is very bland and laid-back.

He was like a fisherman, with cages everywhere, quietly waiting for the fish to take the bait.

He was more like an observer, standing silently in the garden, watching every move of the Fukang Company and China, and he cared more about the army than the Fukang Company.

If the Fukang company is considered to be the one who produces bayonets, the army is the one who uses bayonets.

After the reorganization of Fukang Company, Hu Chuyuan continued to retreat into the background, letting his cousin Hu Weiyuan and younger brother Hu Xuanyuan manage the company, while he lived a plain life and pondered the taste of life itself.

He likes to chat with his youngest son Hu Weixin, talking about the new things in Shanghai and the changes in the world, inspiring Hu Weixin to think about the world and observe the world more steadily.

He likes to play chess with Wu Shuzhen, and likes to discuss the next development plan of Chi Wah Tong with Pan Limei.

Life in Yongyuan is so leisurely and peaceful, and China's current situation is also particularly stable, gradually rising in stability.

At the end of 1905, according to the statistics of the Auditing Bureau, the annual output value of industry and agriculture in China had surpassed that of Germany, second only to the United States, and with the policy of large-scale agricultural economy and the spread of new agricultural technology, the total output value of agriculture as a whole increased by 11 percentage points over 1904.

In the past few years, with the gradual increase of scientific and technological talents, the technical level of the domestic national industry has been increasing, the number of national enterprises in the fields of electrical, machinery, shipbuilding, automobile, engine, metallurgy, mold and other fields has increased rapidly, and the traditional textile, porcelain and paper industries continue to maintain an absolute advantage in Asia.

The number of new factories related to automobile and truck manufacturing alone has increased to 114, and the technology of the shipbuilding industry has further developed, and the total domestic ship export volume has surpassed that of the United Kingdom, and the total domestic steel production has also surpassed that of the United States, and it has become the world's largest exporter of steel rough-processed products such as steel bars and rails.

In this year, the aircraft produced by the Zibo Aircraft Factory officially entered service with the army as reconnaissance aircraft, the Dreadnought-class battleship entered service with the domestic navy, the 320-horsepower TZA-5 type was put into service, the first domestic natural gas pipeline was completed in North China, and the first group of 75MW units in China was successfully ...... in trial operation in Shanghai.

In this year, the National Industrial Research Institute began to officially operate, independently undertaking the industrial technology research work of the original National Academy of Sciences, and the National Academy of Sciences turned to natural science research.

In this year, Quang Nam Province was officially established, and the original name of North Vietnam was abolished.

This year, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tianjin, and Yanjing were set up as municipalities directly under the central government.

In this year, the free trade treaty between China, Britain and the United States was formally signed, within the scope of the trade treaty, the three parties gave each other the most favored nation treatment, China and Britain continued to sign a new "Sino-British Colonial Cooperation Renewal Treaty" on each other's colonies, further expanding the economic opening plan of the two colonies, including Africa and the Middle East, and expanding the area of Singapore's territory to Johor, Batam, Riau Islands, and Lingka Islands, expanding the area by 13.7 times, and the two sides continued to share the suzerainty of Singapore.

In this year, taking advantage of the principle of the Berlin Conference (all countries must have militarized garrisons and actual occupation in the territories occupied by Africa, in fact, they are aimed at a weak country like Portugal, which has no troops and only relies on shouting to occupy territory), after five years of gradual adaptation in Africa, China began to send three divisions of the Central South Corps (the source of troops from Quang Nam Province on the basis of the original Liangguang Corps) from the Central Congo and Guinea, and more than 50,000 Nanyang Coalition Forces and local indigenous mercenaries to march towards the Kingdom of Congo occupied by Nigeria and Belgium. And in July, Belgium was forced to sign a colonial merger treaty, and the Belgian Congo was included in the Central Congo and merged into the new Congolese Overseas Colonial Province.

After occupying the whole of Congo and Nigeria, China continued to use the Macao issue to send the Marine Division of the South China Fleet to forcibly occupy Mozambique and Angola, and continued to send troops from the Congo deep into Angola to completely occupy Angola, creating an established fact.

In this year, China continued to consolidate its position as the world's largest territory and the second colonial country, and at the same time it was also the world's most populous country and the second largest economic power, with 1.47 million active army members, 14 mechanized reorganized divisions, 3.55 million reserve forces, and a total tonnage of 753,000 tons of naval fleet.

This year, China's total investment in domestic education reached 340 million yuan, with the central government accounting for 45%, the local government accounting for 55%, accounting for 10.3% of the total annual fiscal revenue, and the total private investment was about 845 million yuan, initially reaching the first phase of the target of 20 primary schools and 10 middle schools in each county on average.

This year, the total number of Chinese students studying in Germany, the United States, Britain and France reached 11,000, 78% of whom were college students and above, the total number of domestic college students and vocational students reached 95,700, and the total number of high school students and secondary vocational students reached 1.33 million.

China still looks very strong, and of course, its overall level of education and average quality is still at the low level among the great powers, especially compared to Germany, which still takes ten or even twenty years of long-term effort to make up.

For this point, whether it is the political axe, the media, or the public, everyone is still very clear.

It is precisely for this reason that the vast majority of capitalists, including the Hu family, concentrated their main funds in the field of education in their tax-exempt donations, and the Fukang Company alone donated 158 million yuan to education in 1905.

1905 was also a watershed year, with the development of the entire country's economy, the total industrial index of the Fukang system in the country began to decline, but the total ratio in the financial sector continued to maintain an upward trend.

In fact, under the control of Hu Chuyuan, Fukang Company began to gradually adjust in the direction of the financial oligarchy, and its shareholding ratio in major domestic industrial companies was gradually reduced.

Taking Jiangnan Heavy Industry Group as an example, the total shareholding ratio of Fukang Company has been gradually reduced to 33%.

At the same time, the major domestic enterprises also began to strengthen their investment in Nanyang and the entire colonial economy under the control of Fukang Company, and expanded the total export volume of domestic enterprises through investment in Nanyang.

In this regard, Chinese and British outbound investment have very different objectives.

In 1905, the total investment of British and American foreign capital in China also increased by 873 million pounds, of which British capital continued to occupy more than 50% of the share, Swire & Co., Jardine Matheson, Wanqi Group...... It's all the bellwethers.

In 1905, 54% of the world's total iron ore production, 72% of gold production, 77% of silver production, 42% of total oil production, and 87% of total aluminum mining were under the control of the American Consortium, the Swire Consortium, and the Fukang Consortium.

The Fukang Consortium controlled the three companies of China Metallurgical, China Iron and Steel Union and Rio Tinto, and began to occupy the international raw material market to a large extent, and cooperated with many affiliated enterprises such as Standard International, BHP, Wanqi Group, BASF Chemical, etc., to achieve a monopoly on the entire world raw material market.

This is Hu Chuyuan's plan for the Fukang consortium, the first is finance, the second is raw materials, and on the basis of ensuring these two monopoly positions, it will hold shares in major large international industrial companies.

1906, March.

Princess Kaorani of the Hawaiian royal family arrived in Shanghai for treatment, and she had diphtheria, which was both common and tricky in this era, with a high fatality rate, and a strong contagious surname, and her complications were more severe pneumonia and signs of myocarditis.

After arranging her in the best ward of Tongji Hospital in Shanghai, Hu Chuyuan personally summoned several of the best Chinese and Western medicine experts in China to determine the course of treatment for her, and temporarily determined that she would use a combination of triamsulfonamide and berberine, and wait until the pneumonia was suppressed before taking Qingguo Zhenre decoction and continue to use sulfaminamide.

Because the complications were more serious, and there was a certain delay in the course of the treatment in San Francisco, Princess Caorani's condition was not optimistic, which made Hu Chuyuan feel a little sad.

Walking out of the conference room, Hu Chuyuan saw Pan Limei.

Pan Limei had diphtheria in her childhood, has lifelong immunity, and will not be infected, and she and Princess Kaorani are also friends, so she visited her on behalf of Hu Chuyuan's family.

At this time, she had just come out of the ward, and when she saw Hu Chuyuan's gloomy expression, she couldn't help but ask, "How is the situation?" ”

Hu Chuyuan sighed and said, "It's hard to say! ”

Hearing this, Pan Limei seemed to know a lot of things, she sighed silently, walked to Hu Chuyuan's side, held his arm, and calmly accompanied Hu Chuyuan along the hospital corridor to the balcony.

Walking to the balcony, she comforted Hu Chuyuan and said: "Shanghai's medical technology is the best in the world, and Director Yang and I also asked, and he said that Tongji Hospital is still very high in the treatment of diphtheria, and is especially good at the combination of traditional Chinese and Western medicine." What's more, the experience of antibiotic treatment in China is also richer than that in the United States. ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded.

In China, the use of aminosulfonamide, berberine, andrographisin and allicin has always been ahead of the world, especially berberine, a natural plant-derived antibiotic, which has a stable inhibitory effect on most of the infected viruses.

Even so, no one can guarantee that Princess Caorani's condition will be under control, and if she had not gone to San Francisco first, but had come directly to Shanghai, the situation might have been better.

After thinking about it, Hu Chuyuan and Pan Limei said: "You talk to Director Yang of the hospital, arrange a suitable time, and let me meet her." ”

Pan Limei nodded slightly and said, "The hospital is already arranging, and the isolation window will be placed in the ward at that time." I watched her and talked to her, and I felt that she looked pretty good. I heard Director Yang say that the stewed soup of green fruits, white radishes and green olives is very effective in the adjuvant treatment of this disease, so let's go home and let someone arrange it...... People, as long as you are in good health, you won't get sick, and even if you get sick, you can recover quickly! ”

"yes!"

Hu Chuyuan also sighed with special feelings.

He has always paid attention to exercise and maintenance, for so many years, even colds are rare, and there has always been a famous Chinese medicine doctor in Shanghai at home.

At this moment, he felt more that life was too fragile.

Perhaps, if you are not careful, you will leave this world!

He thought he would have to contribute a little more if he could.

Back at Yongyuan, Pan Limei went to stew soup in person, and Hu Chuyuan went back to the big study.

In the past two days, he has been busy arranging the medical treatment of Princess Kaorani, and there has been a backlog of reports in the large study.

Taking advantage of the fact that it was still early, Hu Chuyuan opened these reports and read them one by one, and as soon as he was halfway through them, Liang Qichao, the general secretary of the Confidential Secretariat, walked in in hurriedly and quickly, and said as soon as he entered the door: "Chairman, really...... To tell you right, Germany has made a move in Senegal, and France is at war with the non-colonial army, and the two countries are also rapidly concentrating their forces in Europe, and it looks like ...... I'm afraid the war is going to expand! ”

Hu Chuyuan thought silently for two seconds, then suddenly raised his eyes to look at Liang Qichao, and said: "Send a telegram to Li Kaiye, Ye Zuqi and Wei Han respectively, and hold a meeting in Shanghai on the development plan of the navy and army equipment for the next ten years...... In addition, you call Huang Zhongying and Zeng Zongying over first, I have something to discuss with them! ”

"Yes!"

Liang Qichao immediately agreed, turned around and went back to do errands.

When Qu Hongji's cabinet surfaced, in order to achieve the effect of a larger-scale change of political axe, Hu Chuyuan withdrew from the political axe with Lu Han and Lu Guangquan, including many former cabinet ministers, and everyone went into the opposition together.

Lu Han served as commander of the new Indian Ocean Fleet, while Lu Guangquan served as a senator in Congress, served as director of the Foreign Aid Committee, and served as director of the Military Policy Advisory Committee at the National Academy of Social Sciences.

Of course, as long as the ecumenical party still controls China, they can return to politics at any time, just waiting for a new cabinet, and one day it may be their turn to come out and form a cabinet.

In fact, as long as Hu Chuyuan is still alive, no one dares to covet the prime minister's throne, and who will do this position is, in the final analysis, a matter of his words.

At present, the Minister of War in the Cabinet is Li Kaiye, the Minister of the Navy is Ye Zuqi, and Wei Han is the Director of the Department of Science and Industry of the Navy, with the rank of rear admiral, in charge of the supervision of naval armaments.

When Huang Zhongying and Zeng Zongying entered the big study, Hu Chuyuan talked to them first.

In recent years, the most important domestic military equipment development and production plan is the Dreadnought-class battleship, after these years of steady development, the domestic warship manufacturing capacity has long been on par with Britain and Germany.

This is an international recognition that China's warship manufacturing is at the first-class level in terms of quality and design, and the scale of warship exports far exceeds that of Britain, Germany and France, of course, this is mainly due to the war.

Although China's warships are not necessarily higher than those of Britain in terms of quality, the warships exported by China have been tested in the war, and their reputation is outstanding and obvious to all, not to mention that the prices are relatively low, at least lower than those of Britain, France and Germany.

Speaking of the issue of warships in China, Huang Zhongying talked with Hu Chuyuan: "There is just one thing I want to tell the chairman of the committee that after the Dreadnought class entered service in China and Britain, the navies of the two countries are very satisfied. For more reasons, at present, Britain has been working with us on the preparatory development of the 22,000-ton Duke-class battleship, and these things are still going well. However, there is a very big difference between Britain and ours in the design of the new type of battlecruisers that are compatible with the Dreadnought-class battleships, and the original plan to jointly develop supporting battlecruisers may not be carried out. ”

Hu Chuyuan snorted, he already had a general understanding of this matter in the report submitted to him by the State Military Commission.

Considering that the tonnage of the main battleships will become larger and larger in the future, and the price of a single ship will be very amazing, the Chinese Navy has always adhered to the principle of unifying the main artillery, pursuing the use of dense and unified main gun firepower in the same formation to defeat the opponent, and then considering the issue of speed, the Chinese Navy intends to abandon second-class battleships similar to the Jinju class, and by improving the defense of the battle cruisers, so that in wartime, the battle cruisers can be used to expand the firepower of the main fleet.

This idea is actually the idea that Hu Chuyuan and Lu Han finalized before they went into the field together.

The British Navy adhered to the original policy, they insisted that a cruiser is a cruiser, that is, a fast warship, and that it is necessary to maintain high firepower and increase defense, so there is no difference between a cruiser and a battleship.

It is understandable that the main opponents of the British Navy in Europe, whether it is France, Germany, Italy, or Austria-Hungary, have a large number of cruisers, and the armored cruisers that Britain needs are responsible for hunting these cruisers.

The Chinese Navy is different, the Chinese Navy has no opponents in the Asian region, and does not need to face a large number of cruisers, only cruisers and destroyers of larger tonnage are enough to complete the defense and patrol work of the Pacific Ocean, and China needs more battlecruisers to accompany the main battleships to cooperate in combat.

After listening to Huang Zhongying's words, Hu Chuyuan replied very simply: "Then separate it from the British, we still have to stick to our own principles and ideas." For us, a battlecruiser should be a battleship that can become the main force in the local battlefield and assist the battleship in the main battlefield. Our navy has always been very flexible, and there is no need to be limited by the traditional thinking of European navies. If the battleship is sacrificing speed in pursuit of the strongest defense and firepower, our cruisers are in pursuit of balanced speed, firepower and defense. ”

Huang Zhongying nodded and said: "Yes, I think it is normal for us and Britain to have disagreements on this issue, for us, it is enough to complete the patrol of the conventional sea area with ordinary armored cruisers and destroyers of larger tonnage, including hunting the opponent's cruisers." ”

Speaking of this, Hu Chuyuan and Huang Zhongying instructed: "You and Wei Han should contact in advance, before the Shanghai meeting is held, the Admiralty will come up with the plan for a new 4,500-ton destroyer in advance!" ”

Huang Zhongying continued to nod.

The Chinese Navy can be said to be the father of destroyers, creating a situation of destroyers in the navy, and has always been ahead of the whole world in the design and manufacture of destroyers.

After the Chunyu class, Chunyu 2, Shower class, and Chunlu class, China's latest generation of Chaoyu-class destroyers directly chose a design displacement of 4,500 tons to replace the existing lower-tonnage cruisers, and at the same time rebuilt the Shower 2 class on the basis of the Shower class.

After the Chunlu-class, Shower-2 and Chaoyu-class destroyer systems took shape, the Chinese Navy's patrol guard work in the open and offshore waters was mainly undertaken by destroyers, and the cruiser system was readjusted to become a new series of warships with the ability to read the ocean-going quasi-main combat capability.

In this series of adjustments, the Yangyuan-class cruisers with a displacement of 7,500 tons and the Weiyuan-class cruisers with a displacement of 10,500 tons are both battle cruisers, which are responsible for hunting the opponent's cruisers and destroyers, while the larger tonnage of the Far East-class cruisers pay more attention to the balanced design of defense and speed maneuvering, so that they can assume the role of assisting the main battleships in combat.

In any case, China's military spending is still relatively tight, especially at this stage of large-scale domestic construction, and it is the path that the Chinese Navy must choose to build the most powerful navy with less money.

(To be continued)