At this time, France had emerged from the shadow of the Prussian War, and its capital, Paris, had become more prosperous and lively.

Even in March, when the weather is still cold, Paris is a beautiful city, at least much more beautiful than London, full of romantic colors.

Hu Chuyuan and his entourage of more than 20 people stayed in a luxurious hotel in Paris, not far from the Louvre. The next day, he couldn't wait to invite the beautiful Miss Wu Shuzhen to visit the Louvre.

Walking in the long corridor, Hu Chuyuan looked very leisurely, and Wu Shuzhen was also very happy, and the two of them discussed each other and watched those rare treasures.

Especially in front of the Mona Lisa, a world famous work, they stayed the longest.

While watching and chatting, Wu Shuzhen couldn't help but be a little curious, she felt strange, and didn't understand how Hu Chuyuan could be interested in these European artworks.

Going all the way, when he arrived at the part of the Modern Art Museum, Hu Chuyuan finally saw another famous painting he liked more - "Freedom Guides the People", but the always elegant Miss Wu Shuzhen also looked a little embarrassed.

Probably because of the beautiful woman in the center of the oil painting.

Wrong, it's because of that beauty's exposed breasts.

Hu Chuyuan watched it with a taste, and seemed to be able to get a strange power from it, which made him want to do something big like the women and children in the painting, and become more courageous.

He liked the painting very much, but unfortunately he couldn't get his hands on it.

Delacroix himself was already a very famous painter, he had been dead for more than ten years, and the number of works was not large, the main works are in the Louvre, and the rest of the works are also at a high price in the current European art market.

It's a little late to invest in him now.

Rather than this, it is better to invest in the paintings of Van Gogh, Manet, Monet, Cézanne and others, these people are miserable now, basically belong to the state of eating the last meal without the next meal, buy and buy casually, you can make a fortune in the future, and you will not have to worry about eating and drinking for a lifetime.

"Forget it, don't look at it!"

Hu Chuyuan suddenly decided to leave with the surname Ren.

Wu Shuzhen couldn't help but be a little surprised, and asked, "What's wrong with you, is there anything urgent?" ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "No! ”

Wu Shuzhen asked again: "Then why are you leaving, wasn't you quite interested just now?" ”

Hu Chuyuan sighed very seriously and said, "I can only see it, I can't buy it, I'm very depressed, let's go and see what we can buy." You think, as long as they are a little famous painters now, when they die, the price of their paintings can be increased several times, what a good business this is. Taking advantage of the money in my hand, I decided to buy a little more for my children and grandchildren to show off. ”

Wu Shuzhen burst out laughing on the spot, giggling non-stop, her cheeks flushed and she was about to breathe.

She finally stopped, but said, "You are so interesting, you are only thinking about children and grandchildren at such a young age...... However, what you said does make some sense, you can only watch, not buy, so let's find some places where you can buy things! ”

"Huh......?"

She thought about it again, and suddenly asked Hu Chuyuan with some interest, "Let's go to the jewelry store, shall we?" ”

Hu Chuyuan was puzzled and asked: "Why, with my status, I still need to go to the jewelry store, let's buy the best gems directly and ask someone to customize them." ”

As a businessman who will surely leave a prominent reputation in history, he is too aware of the profits of jewelry stores, and if he enters, he will be slaughtered, not to mention, he is ready to invest in a jewelry store by himself.

What a profit margin in this industry!

Wu Shuzhen couldn't help laughing out loud and said, "Okay, knowing that you have money, then continue to look for a place where you can buy art!" ”

Hu Chuyuan smiled and said, "It's okay to go to the jewelry store, anyway, I'm going around today." ”

The two then agreed to visit the nearby jewelry store and then visit the antiquities and art collection market.

However, Mademoiselle Ng visited almost all the jewellery shops in the neighbourhood, but only bought a pair of diamond earrings for only four hundred francs.

This efficiency really made Hu Chuyuan stunned.

Having managed to leave the whole street of the jewelry store, the two took a horse-drawn carriage to another neighborhood, around the Seine, where a Parisian train station was located, and where a large number of salon galleries gathered, especially the official salons of the French Art Council.

There, year after year, a large number of paintings are exhibited.

Sure enough, in the first small gallery, Hu Chuyuan had good luck and saw "The Pied Boy" at a glance.

When he inquired about the price, the owner of the gallery apprehensively gave a price that seemed to be discountable—200 francs, or 8 pounds, or 32 taels of silver.

Oh my God!

Hu Chuyuan exclaimed in his heart, it is too easy to make money, and if you keep it at home for 130 years, the value of this painting will rise to 800 million RMB.

The opportunity came so easily, which made Hu Chuyuan's heart full of suspicion, so he couldn't help but question the gallery owner several times, and finally determined that it was really the work of a down-and-out painter named Édouard Manet.

It is estimated that Édouard Manet is dying, and this opportunity is resolutely not to be missed.

Hu Chuyuan immediately bought it.

This time he was really lucky, there were hundreds of galleries in the area, and there were too many painters in France at this time, most of whom would never become famous.

With his artistic vision, it is really difficult to get a fine product out of it.

So, he only talks about people to buy.

Through difficult communication with the gallery owner, Hu Chuyuan finally figured out the original French names of Manet, Monet, and Cézanne, and he also felt that the gallery owner was a very good businessman, so he asked the other party to help purchase the works of these three people.

He wanted to know Van Gogh's French name, but Van Gogh was so unknown that the gallery owner had no idea who he was.

Walking out of the gallery, Wu Shuzhen asked Hu Chuyuan curiously: "How do you know these people, I don't think the gallery agent knows very well?" ”

Hu Chuyuan thought for a while and prevaricated: "I saw it in an old newspaper a few days ago, it is said that I was scolded very badly by the French art world, you don't know, the more scolding you are now, the easier it will be to become famous in the future, and when they die, their paintings will be valuable, and the more you are scolded, the more valuable it will be." ”

Wu Shuzhen couldn't stand it, and she couldn't straighten up when she laughed.

After a long while, she sighed and exclaimed, "You're so funny." ”

Hu Chuyuan said with a smile: "It's not worth anything anyway, just treat it as gambling, if you win the bet, I will be developed." ”

Wu Shuzhen sighed, but smiled again: "Please, you have already developed." Even if you win the bet, when their paintings are worth their money, it seems like it's time to bury them and sleep! ”

Hu Chuyuan became more serious and said, "Then it can also be left to children and grandchildren." I thought about opening an art museum in the future, which would specialize in exhibiting my collection of art treasures, and collect admission fees to keep these works of art. After thinking of the name, it will be called Jiangnan Art Museum. ”

Wu Shuzhen sighed and said, "Seriously, you are really a curious man, and you think really far." Well, then let me devote myself to this project, and you will give me a salary of five hundred pounds a month to invest in art, and then my things will have to be displayed in the museum. ”

Hu Chuyuan said with a smile: "You just ask your family for money to invest in a business with me, I promise, when we die, your investment will rise to an astonishing level." ”

Wu Shuzhen smiled and said: "For the sake of me helping you so much, you can lend me hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, if it is really as profitable as you said, it should not be a loss?" ”

Hu Chuyuan sighed and thought, the wool is out of the sheep!

He asked for his surname to be generous, and said: "Then I will lend you a million taels of silver, and invest another million taels myself, let's do business together, I don't know what business you want to do!" ”

Wu Shuzhen immediately became interested, what a good thing.

She thought longingly for a while, and then asked Hu Chuyuan: "Have you noticed, the price of gold in Europe is twice as high as the price of gold in China, the gold to silver here is 20 to 1, and the domestic gold is 10 to 1 ......!" ”

"Don't do it!" Without waiting for her to finish speaking, Hu Chuyuan refused, and said: "First of all, the Qing court strictly prohibits the outflow of gold, and it is impossible to sell domestic gold at all, and secondly, even if it can be sold, I will not do it." One day, China will also become a gold standard, and we will need gold more than anyone else. ”

Wu Shuzhen said with a smile: "Yes, one day, the domestic gold price will also rise to 20 to 1, we invest in gold now, store a lot of gold, wouldn't we be able to make a lot of money." ”

Hu Chuyuan sighed and said: "If you talk about the law, you are really not so rational in doing business, if you think about it, I don't know how many years you have to wait, if you have to wait for twenty years, the return on investment will be too low." Unless I have enough capital to hoard half of the gold in the country and artificially drive the price of gold soaring, it is not a good time to invest in gold for the time being. ”

Wu Shuzhen had to admit it, saying: "When it comes to doing business, there are indeed few people who can compare with you." Juno City in Alaska seems to have gold mines, and there are quite a few of them, but it's too cold there, and the development has not been smooth. ”

Hu Chuyuan thought for a moment and said, "I really can't bear to let you go to such a cold place, so stay by my side!" ”

Hearing this, Wu Shuzhen was secretly happy in her heart, and a flush welled up on her cheeks, and she whispered ashamedly: "What are you talking nonsense? ”

Hu Chuyuan laughed and said: "This business can be done, and in about half a year, I can invest a large amount of money in the United States, and then I can let Wanqi Foreign Bank handle it." ”

Wu Shuzhen asked, "Then what kind of business do you say I want to do?" ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "We invested in a jewellery house in Shanghai, which also deals in gold and silver, imports gemstones from Sri Lanka and Africa through Swire & Co., imports platinum, and purchases gold in China for design and processing. ”

Wu Shuzhen couldn't help but be overjoyed, and said, "Really, aren't you afraid that I will steal from me and quietly swallow all the best jewelry?" ”

Hu Chuyuan smiled and said, "That's better than you spending money to buy it from someone else, right?" ”

He is a man who thinks long-term, and opening his own jewelry store will definitely save a lot of money in the future.

Wu Shuzhen was also quite happy, and there was an indescribable sweet taste in her heart.

Back at the hotel, Wei Yuan, who was in charge of negotiating arms sales in France, had already rushed over from the province of Phoenixe to report to Hu Chuyuan on the progress of the negotiations with the French side.

Under the influence of the "Anglo-Fu Arms Sales Agreement", the negotiations with the French side suddenly became very smooth, Wei Yuan and others had already made good progress, Hu Chuyuan did not plan to get involved too much, and tried his best to let people like Wei Yuan who really understand technology to negotiate.

Hu Chuyuan himself devoted most of his energy to collecting works of art, and through his contacts in Britain and France, he obtained a list of the personnel of the Anglo-French alliance at that time, and secretly bought back the national treasures looted from the Old Summer Palace from those people, as well as their descendants and successors—this had to be done in secret, of course, and if the imperial court knew that he had bought these things, something might happen again.

Not only that, but he also bought Édouard Manet's Breakfast on the Grass, Olympia, Monet's Utter Impressions, and some other works by the two.

At this time, Van Gogh also became a professional painter, and no real works came out, which should be regarded as a regret of Hu Chuyuan's trip to Europe.

Hu Chuyuan has his own aesthetic tastes, he actually does not like impressionism, he prefers romantic colors and aesthetic style paintings, especially admires the works of the British Lord-Leighton and the French painter Courbet, although before this, he had not even heard of the names of these two people.

He doesn't care how much these two people's works will be worth in the future, as long as he likes them.

He asked Sir John Brooke and the French art dealer Paul Nadafy to act as his agents, and at a time he paid £600,000 for twelve of Lodleiden's most famous works, "The Music Lesson", "The Greek Girl by the Sea", and "Klinna, Dagger's Nymph".

Like the national treasures he secretly repurchased, as well as Monet's "Impressions", these works were carefully treasured in his Belize mansion.

He thought that it would be interesting if one day, the British and the French, wanted to buy back these works of art from him! While these paintings may not have appreciated in value in the end because of his collection, he doesn't seem to care too much.

He is more focused on his own liking, and the kind of psychological pleasure, if he can really buy most of Van Gogh's works, he thinks, in the future, he can rely on his identity and so-called enthusiasm to keep driving up the price.

Even if it's Van Gogh's work, he probably doesn't care very much, the only exception is "Klina, Dagger's Nymph", because he likes it very much.

I don't know why, this painting is like a kind of magic, which deeply attracts him and awakens a kind of ** in his body.

He thought that if there really was such a beautiful spring fairy in the world, he would rather give up everything and live in seclusion by the spring in the mountains and forests, just to see her.

...... in half a month!

The "French Arms Sales Agreement to China" was finally reached, and on the basis of France's transfer of the manufacturing technology of the La Roche-class coastal defense ships to the Fuzhou Shipyard, the Fuzhou Shipyard purchased four Weijiang-class defense ships with a displacement of 1,350 tons from France, and the requirement was that all of them must be completed and handed over by March 1882.

The French Navy agreed to the invitation of the Fuzhou Ship Master and sent six technical experts, mainly Bai Laoyi, to the Fuzhou Ship Administration for a four-year consulting work, and was willing to continue to accept and train the students of the Ship Master School.

At this time, Minister Li Fengbao was still constantly arguing with the British for the ultra-long ship, the Yangwei ship, and the main reason was that Jin Denggan, the messenger, was too exaggerated, and the warship boasted too well, inducing Li Hongzhang to sign the contract, but the result was not the same thing at all.

Hu Chuyuan handed over the specific technical negotiation and supervision matters to Wei Han, Lin Yiyou, and Yang Lianchen, headed by Wei Han, and set up Fuzhou Shipping Offices in Brest and London, with Wei Han and Lin Yiyou serving as secretaries, and Chen Zhaoao and Zheng Qinglian returning to Fuzhou Shipping Administration.

Among the many talents cultivated by the Fuzhou Shipbuilding School, Sa Zhenbing, Chai Zhuoqun, Ye Chen, Jiang Chaoying, and Zheng Puquan, five naval generals who studied in the United Kingdom, will also return to Fuzhou together, and Fang Boqian, Lin Yingqi, and Chen Jinrong have been recommended by Li Fengbao to Li Hongzhang's Beiyang Naval Division.

Ye Fu, Deng Shichang and other nine people got their wish to study at the Royal Naval College in the United Kingdom, Ye Bojun and Huang Jianxun wanted to transfer to the army artillery tactics in the United Kingdom, Hu Chuyuan thought of a lot of ways, and finally recommended them to the Royal Army Academy for further study through the relationship of Armstrong.

Luo Fenglu, who studied chemistry in the UK, Yan Fu, who studied social science, Luo Zhenlu, who studied chemistry in France, Chen Jitong and Wang Qiaonian, who studied law and politics, and Hu Chuyuan also successively recommended them to Oxford and other universities for further study for two years.

After completing these things one after another, it was the middle of April 1880, Hu Chuyuan originally wanted to go to Germany to lay the foundation for future cooperation, but Tan Yiyun sent a telegram through the Danguo Dabei Telegraph Company, forcing him to suspend his trip to Europe, and quietly chartered another clipper ship to return to China with only a few people.

(To be continued)