Hua Yufang is a thin middle-aged man, a native of Wuxi, 46 years old, proficient in mathematics, arguably one of the best mathematicians in China at present, also proficient in mechanical engineering, currently teaching at the Jiangnan Institute of Technology and Gezhi Academy.

Seeing that Hu Chuyuan didn't speak for a long time, Hua Yufang couldn't help but ask, "Hu Tituo, what are you going to do?" ”

"Oh......!" Hu Chuyuan came back to his senses and said to Hua Yufang: "I have a lot of methods, but I still have to do urgent things first." ”

Immediately, he directly communicated with Rawls and Feyntz in English: "If I want to purchase a full set of new production machinery and facilities for Fuzhou Shipyard, as well as supporting related process patents, how much will it cost?" ”

Feyntz replied politely: "Hu Shao, that will require a huge amount of money, the renewal of the facilities of the shipping bureau will cost the most money, the cost of rectification of the three docks alone may be as high as nearly one million dollars, and if you want to make better artillery, you also need to purchase equipment from Britain and the United States, if you just want to maintain the existing scale of production, this cost will be about 300,000 dollars." However, you also have to take into account artillery, shells, and so on, such a complete set of investments can be quite staggering. I think it's better for the steel mills and copper smelters to be resold to other businessmen and raised their own funds to renovate, while the Fuzhou military factories only need to buy ready-made steel and copper with them. ”

Hu Chuyuan's thoughts are roughly like this.

He planned to resell the iron and copper factories under the Fuzhou Shipbuilding Administration to the Jiangnan Commercial Bank, and the Jiangnan Commercial Bank would set up the Jiangnan Mining Bureau, and set up various metallurgical plants, steel mills, and chemical plants through the Mining Bureau, so as to concentrate the raw material mining and smelting business in the Jiangnan Commercial Bank, and take advantage of the scale advantage to reduce costs.

Feeling that Feyntz had not calculated the total amount of funds needed in advance, Hu Chuyuan said to him: "In this way, after you go back, you will reorganize the communiqué, and according to the idea you proposed, you will preliminarily calculate the required expenses, and make a list of the new facilities and patented technologies that need to be purchased." ”

Feyntz nodded slightly and said, "I'm very happy to help." ”

He, Rawls and others still belong to the Jiangnan Technology Bureau, which is jointly established by Qichang Foreign Bank and Jiangnan Commercial Bank, and is currently only temporarily serving as Hu Chuyuan's personal adviser, and has nothing to do with Fuzhou Shipyard.

Hu Chuyuan didn't think too much about these people, he was between trust and distrust, and just spent money to ask them to do things.

Waiting for Feyntz and the others to leave, Hua Yufang and Hu Chuyuan sighed: "Raise the master, foreigners can't be trusted, every group of people will criticize the equipment introduced by the previous batch of foreigners, and ask us to introduce new equipment, which comes and goes, and costs a lot." Actually, I think that many facilities can continue to be used if they are changed. Besides, the main artillery and foreign guns used in China are mainly black powder, and brown powder is used instead, and everyone's shells cannot match each other, which is quite a waste! ”

Hu Chuyuan snorted, and also pondered in his heart.

The main advantage of brown powder is that it has a lower chamber pressure on large-caliber artillery due to its slower combustion rate, which is more suitable for the propellant of large-caliber artillery shells. The exit velocity of such shells will be relatively low, and if the barrel of the gun is extended to a certain extent, the range of such shells will increase a lot.

Its disadvantages are similar to those of black powder, mainly because there is more residue left and a lot of white smoke is produced by combustion.

At this point in time, brown powder had an advantage, especially on batteries and ships, but from 1890 onwards it would be replaced by smokeless powder.

Considering that the Sino-French war was imminent, Hu Chuyuan still decided to use brown powder, even if it was only as a transition.

Thinking of this, he said to Hua Yufang: "You are responsible for the improvement of facilities, but brown powder still needs to be used, at least the Fuzhou Shipyard has to use it first." As for the rest of the equipment, it's time for a change, and my goal is to make Fuzhou Shipyard the No. 1 shipyard and military factory in Asia, and it doesn't matter if you spend a little more. ”

Hua Yufang said: "That's okay, I'll go to Master Wu Zhengbing Wu to discuss this matter." ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded and watched him leave.

Immediately, he continued to pick up the communiqué and read it again, and while reading and thinking, he felt that it was necessary to transcribe this communiqué in many copies, so that Zuo Zongtang, He Jing, Shen Baozhen, and every official of the Harbour Administration Yamen understood how far the gap was and how heavy everyone's responsibilities were.

Thinking of this, he directly called Zhang Baixi, who was the secretary of the General Affairs Office at the time, and told Zhang Baixi about this matter.

As soon as he finished talking to Zhang Baixi, Hu Rong hurriedly walked in and said, "The owner, Mr. Delano III and Miss Wu Shuzhen are here, and they have already arrived at the dock, and they have brought more than a dozen foreigners." ”

Hu Chuyuan was overjoyed, and immediately got up and went out to greet him, and when he arrived outside the gate of the yamen, he saw those people.

There are really a lot of people, Wu Shuzhen and Pfister Delano III walked in front, and there were more than a dozen foreigners behind them, all with a lot of luggage, it seemed that they were going to live here for a long time!

Seeing Hu Chuyuan, Pfister-Delano III stepped forward quickly and said to Hu Chuyuan in half-baked Chinese: "Hu Shao, how are you doing?" ”

"Thanks to you, everything is fine!"

Hu Chuyuan smiled and invited the group to enter the Harbour Master's Yamen first, and Pfister-Delano III gave priority to introducing a friend to Hu Chuyuan, RS Butterfield, the chief partner of Swire & Co.

In addition, those foreigners are all technical engineers recently recruited by Wanqi Foreign Bank in the United States, most of whom are urgently needed by Hu Chuyuan now, and they came with them together, and first went to Fuzhou Shipmaster to strengthen his momentum and help him a little.

Hu Chuyuan smiled very happily, as for RS Butterfield will come to him at this time, it is nothing more than for Xia Si's acquisition.

Let Hua Yufang, Feyntz and others entertain those new technical advisers, and Hu Chuyuan first entered the flower hall of the yamen with Wu Shuzhen, Pfister-Delano and others.

Wu Shuzhen is still so beautiful and elegant, wearing a white gauze skirt and a beautiful hat to shield herself from the scorching southern sun, with long eyelashes and a milky red ointment on her lips, which looks more unique and noble.

After the people served tea, she asked Hu Chuyuan with a smile: "I heard that the Hokkien people are not easy to mess with, and I don't know if you can sit firmly in the position of Fuzhou Shipmaster?" ”

Hu Chuyuan said with a smile: "It's very stable, the timing of your arrival is really coincidental, I almost just cleaned up the personnel here, and laid off nearly forty officials in one go, and the rest of the people are all very capable, and I have almost collected them." ”

"That's ......!" Wu Shuzhen was noncommittal, she was not familiar with the officialdom of the Manchu Dynasty, but she also knew that Hu Chuyuan was not a reckless person, and he dared to do it, which means that he was absolutely sure.

After a while, she and Hu Chuyuan smiled and said: "Fuzhou should be a very beautiful place, if you are free, can you accompany me around, it is rare to be able to return to China, of course I want to see more of those beautiful scenery!" ”

Hu Chuyuan smiled and said, "Why can't it?" ”

Wu Shuzhen also smiled slightly, looked at Pfister Delano III again, and said, "Let's talk about business first, Mr. RS Butterfield should be in a hurry to reach an agreement, right?" ”

Pfister-Delano III nodded, and then said to Hu Chuyuan: "Hu Shao, today's Xia Si acquisition is your world again, almost 90% of the shares of the premium raw silk and first-class raw silk in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are concentrated in your hands, and what our foreign companies want is these raw silk." Mr. Butterfield is a friend of mine in China and he is very keen to buy more raw silk from you. ”

Hu Chuyuan smiled and said to Butterfield in English: "I am very glad that Swire & Co. came to me directly to negotiate, you want to buy more raw silk, I support this, as long as Swire & Co. is willing to offer higher prices and better payment terms, I will be happy to sell raw silk to you." ”

RS Butterfield said: "Hu Shao, you are a very powerful businessman, for the entire foreign market, you also know very well, Swire can only be regarded as a medium-sized British foreign firm, but if you are willing to give us a preferential price for a long time to support the development of Swire & Co., we are willing to transfer part of the shares to you." Also, I know that you have some special needs in the political arena of the Qing Empire, and Swire & Co. is happy to help with them. ”

Many years later, Swire & Co. may be very powerful, but at this stage, they are far inferior to Sassoon and Jardine Matheson, and they are not at all comparable to Jiangnan Commercial Bank.

Listening to these words, Hu Chuyuan thought quietly, tapping the table with his fingertips from time to time.

After a while, he raised his eyes and asked Butterfield, "How many shares are Swire willing to transfer to me?" ”

RS Butterfield stretched out two fingers and said, "Twenty percent of the shares, this is the limit of what we can bear." ”

"Oh?"

Hu Chuyuan couldn't help but be a little suspicious.

He was not in a hurry to agree, or refuse, but thought about it slowly.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Fester Delano III, who was an intermediary, couldn't help but ask, "Hu Shao, what do you think?" ”

Hu Chuyuan thought for a moment and said, "20% of the shares are a little less!" ”

RS Butterfield couldn't help but ask, "So, how much stake do you probably want to get?" ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "Although I will always keep the price of raw silk low, but not all foreign companies can buy, in the future, I will gradually control a number of foreign companies, only the foreign companies I control can buy a sufficient amount of raw silk, and use the advantages of price and quantity in the market competition in various countries, crowding out other foreign companies." In addition to raw silk, I will also enter the tea and sugar industries, and will give Swire & Co. enough funds to help Swire & Co. develop in various countries and colonies. In short, the benefits of working with me are very numerous, but the cost of working with me is also very high, Mr. Rutfield, you can think about it for a few more days. ”

"So......?" R.S. Butterfield was quietly surprised.

Hu Chuyuan's proposed cooperation was more extensive than he expected, and it would provide so many benefits, which was far beyond his expectations, but only if more shares were transferred.

Hu Chuyuan was not in a hurry to settle down, so he chatted with Pfister-Delano III and RS Butterfield about his thoughts on cooperating with foreign companies.

In his plan, the foreign companies he cooperated with did not need to keep too many personnel in Shanghai, and more of the profits from the trade could be converted into investment in the country and the colonies, and as long as he continued to hold shares in the foreign companies, he could sell them a steady stream of raw silk and tea.

In addition, the Jiangnan Agricultural Cooperative Society, a subsidiary of Jiangnan Commercial Bank, has gradually become the largest banking business in the five provinces of Jiangnan, which can provide a stable supply of silver for both parties.

Third, trade between the two sides can be carried out directly at the exchange rate instead of using silver, but using the currencies of each country on both sides.

Not only that, Hu Chuyuan will gradually control a number of foreign firms, each of which has a different positioning, the German foreign firm is biased towards military machinery, chemical industry and heavy industry investment, the French foreign firm concentrates on textile, chemical and mineral investment, the British foreign firm is biased towards Shanghai and Hong Kong's real estate, international shipping, petroleum and minerals, raw material investment, Wanqi foreign firm is mainly in the financial direction, but also involves the real estate industry in Shanghai and Hong Kong, the Far East marine shipping and international trade agency.

The different division of labor between everyone and the greater the benefits of cooperation.

There are not many people who are qualified and have the opportunity to cooperate with Hu Chuyuan, but there is no doubt that as long as you start cooperating with him, the business will get bigger and bigger, and the benefits are very obvious.

Hu Chuyuan is actually a person who is very good at provoking others with seemingly casual chatter, because compared with normal businessmen, he is more far-sighted, and he made a plan for Wanqi and Swire Foreigners, which may be as long as a hundred years.

Compared with normal businessmen, Hu Chuyuan is more daring to think, dare to do, and have greater ambition and ability.

He told Ffister-Delano III and R.S. Butterfield that he was to control at least six or seven foreign firms, one each in Britain, the United States, France and Germany, and the rest, depending on the situation.

If he can't merge and acquire a larger foreign bank, then support the small foreign bank and let the small foreign bank become a big ocean bank in five to ten years.

In so many foreign firms, he can also coordinate with each other to ensure that each company's main direction of attack is different, and to ensure the profits and future of each company.

His great courage and ideas not only made Pfister Delano III and RS Butterfield feel suffocated and frightened, but also made Wu Shuzhen sincerely admire - this person is too powerful.

In this great China...... There is absolutely no second such person.

Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, just opening dozens of stores and running a medium-sized business, Hu Chuyuan is definitely not Qiao Zhiyong's opponent, nor is it necessarily Xu Run and Sheng Xuanhuai's opponents.

However, when you give Hu Chuyuan Jiangnan Commercial Bank and CITIC such a big stage, and a large number of management talents such as Chen Xiaobai, Tan Yiyun, and Liu Chengxiang help take care of the business, he only needs to plan and design ideas carefully.

In today's China, there really is no one who can be his opponent.

Moreover, he can do all these things he says.