When the financial storm broke out in the Far East, Wang Chenhao's fleet was docked at the pier in the port of Saronic Gulf in Athens, and as before, all the members of the salvage team were busy auctioning off the antiques on the ship.

Wang Chenhao had planned to stay in Athens for a day and set off at night. However, because King George I of Athens was interested in Wang Chenhao's auction of antiques from the Tang and Song dynasties in China, his help increased the auction proceeds in Athens by 200,000 pounds. As a token of appreciation, Wang Chenhao spent an extra day in Athens and visited George I's royal palace and some of the city's famous buildings. Wang Chenhao gave George I several pieces of fine porcelain, and in return, George I entertained Wang Chenhao and his subordinates in the royal palace of Athens.

April 6, 1896 was the time when the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece, the home of the Olympic Games. A total of 311 athletes from 13 countries will participate in the Games. At the invitation of King George I of Athens, Wang Chenhao, on behalf of the Qing Empire, promised him that he would send a team to participate in the first modern Olympic Games in Athens, to which King George I of Greece was very happy.

Since Wang Chenhao did not have time to stay in Athens and wait to watch the Olympic Games, Wang Chenhao asked the Qing Imperial Consulate General in Eastern Europe to send a consul, a number of embassy staff, and some students studying in Eastern European countries to form a 20-member team to participate in the Olympic Games in Athens. The funds required by the team are borne by Wang Chenhao alone.

On March 20, Wang Chenhao left Athens and sailed on the Mediterranean Sea, where the climate is pleasant, and visited Naples and Rome in Italy, Toulon in France, the most developed city in the Mediterranean, and Cartagena in Spain. A week later, it passed through British-controlled Gibraltar and entered the Atlantic.

Subsequently, Wang Chenhao's fleet advanced along the Bay of Biscay and the Celtic Sea along the coastline of Western Europe on the Atlantic coast, successively docked at Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, Deportivo La Coruña, the largest city on the Atlantic coast of Spain, and Brest in France, and finally entered the English Channel and docked at Portsmouthport, the most important shipbuilding and naval base in Britain, where Wang Chenhao visited the two Dengyun-class battleships Dengyun and Tayun, which were under construction, as well as a Haiqi-class armored cruiser built at Wang Chenhao's own expense. The materials and equipment needed to build her sister ship, the Haitian, had arrived at the Gaochang Temple in Shanghai, where Wang Chenhao's Shanghai Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd. was being built by Wang Chenhao's Shanghai Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd., while Wei Hanhe and the shipyard's engineers were apprenticed to the shipbuilding engineers sent by the British to learn the shipbuilding techniques and experience of the Haiqi-class armored cruisers.

When Wang Chenhao arrived in Portsmouth, a huge team of 600 students sent by Shanghai Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd. was learning relevant shipbuilding knowledge and technology in the shipyard. They are composed of students recruited by Wang Chenhao from the Tianjin Naval Academy, the Jiangnan Naval Academy, the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Academy, and the Guangzhou Huangpu Naval Academy; among them, there are not only those who are specially involved in the construction of warships in the front hall, but also reserve officers who are specially involved in the construction of ships in the back hall, and those who are specialized in the piloting class of the back hall who are going to serve on ships in the future; they also come to the shipyard to study in order to familiarize themselves with the overall construction process of warships, so that they can accurately judge all kinds of damage and problems of warships when they command warships in the future, and improve the comprehensive ability of commanders at all levels.

Among these students from the four major naval ship academies are a large number of future celebrities in the naval field. For example, Lin Jianzhang, Du Xigui, Wang Shouchang, Chen Qingping, Gao Erqian, You Xuekai, Chen Changling, Lin Fan, Chen Jiliang, Chen Shaokuan, Zhao Sheng, etc., are all pillars of the country's future.

Among them, the young naval officers represented by Lin Jianzhang and Du Xigui will study at the Royal Naval Academy for one to two years in addition to learning the knowledge and technology of ships. The expenses they need are all funded in Wang Chenhao's personal name, and this group of officer students will naturally become Wang Chenhao's wings after returning to China after completing their studies in the future.

Li Jingfang was promoted to minister to Britain at a young age, and all Wang Chenhao's itinerary in the UK was naturally arranged by him.

As the world's third largest economy, the UK's huge wealth averages 29.3 million people, making it one of the richest countries in the world in terms of per capita wealth. And Wang Chenhao naturally will not let go of this opportunity to pass through the United Kingdom, he still has more than 60,000 antiques in his hand, he is ready to sell 40,000 pieces in the richest auction house in London, England, and then sell the remaining 20,000 pieces at the auction house in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and then happily go to St. Petersburg with a huge amount of money to attend the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II.

Li Jingfang received a telegram from Wang Chenhao half a month ago, and Wang Chenhao asked him to help contact the London auction house, and he had already done it.

Founded in 1659, the London auction house is the largest auction house in the United Kingdom, with more than 300,000 antiques and curiosities auctioned annually and more than £100 million sold. Such a large auction house has to take 30% of the profit's handling fee, but its extensive network and sales channels can increase the price of the bidding items by 3 to 40%, for Wang Chenhao, he is still profitable, which is the result he wants.

The publicity of the London auction house is very strong, and London, as an international financial center, is home to countless wealthy families and wealthy businessmen, for whom the extravagant life makes them prefer to collect antiques, and the older they get, the happier they are. And Wang Chenhao's large number of antiques from the Tang and Song dynasties in his hands are in line with their appetite, although the owner of the auction house has raised the auction reserve price by three to four percent or even several times, but these rich people don't care at all, and even the more expensive they are, the more they like it. In this atmosphere, the goods in Wang Chenhao's hands were basically sold at a good price. Wang Chenhao originally planned to sell only 40,000 pieces, and the other 20,000 pieces were taken to Amsterdam. However, under the persuasion of the owner of the auction house, Wang Chenhao sold the remaining 20,000 pieces in London, and in return, the London auction house only charged 20% of the commission for this batch of goods.

The London market can eat all the goods left by Wang Chenhao, so Wang Chenhao canceled his trip to the Netherlands and Germany. But it takes two weeks for the London auction house to advertise the bidding items and inform celebrities outside of London, so Wang will stay in London for two weeks until the auction is over before going to St. Petersburg. According to the auction estimate provided by the owner of the auction house, Wang Chenhao's last more than 60,000 antiques will receive about 13 million pounds because they are all high-value antiques in the finale. At that time, Wang Chenhao will receive a huge income of 30 million pounds from the salvage of the shipwreck treasures in the water, and Wang Chenhao was excited and did not sleep all night.

During his stay in London, Wang Chenhao received telegrams from China one after another, in addition to Wang Shizhen's report on the situation of the Beiyang New Army, there were also some things about the Zhili Iron and Steel Company. On the whole, all aspects are running very well, and they have not been affected by Wang Chenhao's departure. Among them, the first phase of the project of Zhili Iron and Steel Company is progressing rapidly, and several iron ore mining plants and coke plants have been built and put into operation, and ninety percent of the blast furnaces of the ironmaking plant have been completed, and more than half of them can already produce molten iron. The infrastructure for the blast furnace at the most important steel mill has been completed, and the second phase of the project is expected to be completed a month ahead of schedule.

Beiyang Ordnance and Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry are also under construction as planned, and the reconstruction will be completed by the end of the year.

Tang Shaoyi called and said that the banking industry in the Americas had been reorganized, and because of its good credit in New York and the excellent management of the new president, Gordon, the bank deposits continued to increase, and the current bank reserve funds reached $100 million. Godener suggested entering Wall Street and buying a plot of land on Wall Street to set up the Bank of America headquarters building to increase its influence and popularity.

As we all know, Wall Street in New York is the most prosperous and luxurious street, with high-rise buildings on both sides of the street, all of which are the real estate of corporate giants from the United States and European countries. The turnover on that street was far below the sales, and all the companies were losing money there. However, the advertising effect there is very good, and being able to buy a piece of land there to set up a company landmark is extremely beneficial to the company's future development. Therefore, the major corporate giants are buying land and real estate on Wall Street at any cost, just to make a name for themselves.

Wang Chenhao knows the effect of advertising, and if he wants to make the company bigger and stronger, he has to do whatever it takes to advertise. Therefore, Wang Chenhao agreed to Godener's proposal and spent $7 million to buy a 24-storey 300,000-square-meter business office building at 66 Wall Street as the headquarters of the Bank of America, and the tallest building on Wall Street at this time was the 28-story Morgan Building of the Morgan Consortium.

Wang Chenhao thought very openly, he knew that the land on Wall Street would continue to grow wildly, especially after World War I, where it would become the world's financial center, so Wang Chenhao supported the purchase of land on Wall Street, and even the idea of going to the United States to speculate on land came to his mind.

Well, Wang Chenhao admits that he has fallen into the eyes of money.