The collapse of the German Empire was ultimately at home, and the revolt of the navy soldiers spread the crisis throughout the country, forcing Kaiser Wilhelm II to abdicate and the new German political axe to negotiate an end to the war with the Entente.

At this time, all countries were busy dealing with internal affairs and piling up military debts, and all the battleships under construction and the military supplies orders that had been signed had to be stopped, and the gold content and gold reserves of their national currencies should be stabilized, only the Chinese Empire was still strengthening its preparations for war, and signed military material repurchase agreements with Britain, France, the United States and other countries to recover military supplies from the European theater to maintain the imperial expeditionary force's second preparation in Europe.

At this time, the empire was also willing to be used as a gun by Britain, France, the United States and other countries, actively provoked Soviet Russia, and with the support of the Entente, used the Soviet-German "Brest Treaty" to send troops into the two countries in the name of guaranteeing the freedom of Poland and Ukraine.

At this time, the Chinese and Soviet sides really no longer considered a negotiated solution, and the Russian Red Army concentrated all its forces to eliminate the White Army at home, while the Central Army also stepped up the construction of fortifications and stockpiled supplies in Novosibirsk, and at the same time supported the White Army inside Russia to delay time.

As the situation continued to change, the Empire repeatedly adjusted its strategic plan, and finally set the start date of this Sino-Soviet war in the middle of 1919, and it was most appropriate to start the war around June. General Maltos and other Imperial Staff officers of Polish origin formed a Chinese advisory group to provide Poland with army training and improvement programs.

Because the empire lacked the ability to send troops and maintain supplies to Europe on a large scale, it was unrealistic to rely entirely on Britain and France, and the Polish army was not a very reliable military ally, so the empire's military deployment in Europe could only adopt the strategy of elite main forces to assist Poland in the war, and after the end of World War I, the empire reduced the imperial expeditionary force in Eastern Europe to 600,000, the garrison in the Middle East and the Balkans remained at 150,000, and the expeditionary force in East Africa only had two new regiments.

In order to ensure that Russia could not attack Novosibirsk and Eastern Europe before the first half of 1919, the empire continued to adopt a posture of support for the White Army, sending only some new formations to occupy the disputed territories with Russia, and at the same time sending a large number of new formations into Central Asia to expel the Russian and White forces here.

On January 18, 1919, Tang Shaoyi, the Prime Minister of the Imperial Cabinet, personally led a delegation to Paris to participate in the Paris Peace Conference to be held at the Palace of Versailles.

The task of the Reich's trip was very simple, that is, to obtain as much war reparations as possible, in order to reduce the pressure on the Reich's military spending when it attacked Soviet Russia at the same time, and at the same time to protect the occupied areas of the Middle East, and finally to win the colonies that the Reich had won from Germany in Asia, and this delegation hoped to obtain all the German colonies in Asia with the support of Britain.

Britain is obviously a country that has gone back on its word, and to this day it is still dreaming of asking China to agree to Britain to continue to lease Hong Kong, instead of returning Hong Kong after the end of the war, as previously agreed, and even sending the foreign secretary to Portugal to negotiate and "suggest" that Portugal should not return Macao.

Britain strenuously opposed the Chinese occupation of the Middle East, although it agreed early on, and the British maneuver was to oppose the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire and to try to sign a protection agreement with the Ottoman Empire, placing the entire Ottoman Empire under British protection.

France wanted to dismantle Germany and strive for land hegemony in Europe, and Britain opposed the dismantling of Germany and wanted to maintain the balance between Britain and Germany.

There is no doubt that the most important victorious powers were Britain and France, followed by China, the United States and Italy, and finally the other Entente powers.

Therefore, Britain is a very rogue old empire, and this peace conference was destined to be talked about for half a year, or even longer, from the beginning.

When the leaders of Europe and the United States were arguing in Paris, Song Biao quietly stayed in China, continuing to carefully arrange the battle plan and various preparations, and at the same time focusing more attention on the advancement of some new weapons.

In March 1919, after the first Spring Festival after the end of World War I, Song Biao took a special train to Shanxi to inspect, and an important goal of this trip was, of course, to inspect the Shanxi Iron and Steel General Plant in the 175 National Industrial Plan.

It can be said that it was on a large scale thanks to the impetus of the First World War, and the 175 National Industrial Plan went very smoothly, which was many times smoother than expected, and at this time the empire had established five large-scale iron and steel industrial zones, located in the Northeast, Zhili, Shanxi, Hubei, and Shandong.

The total amount of iron ore reserves in Zhili is not only greater than that of the Northeast, but also the ore content rate is higher, especially the iron ore level in Handan is very good, and the technology transferred from Germany makes China's iron and steel industry have the ability to refine poor iron ore, but the rich iron ore resources are obviously more conducive to reducing the cost of steelmaking.

Poor iron ore is not bad, the key is that the cost is too high.

At present, Zhili has established two large iron and steel plants, namely Luanzhou Iron and Steel General Plant and Handan Iron and Steel General Plant, but these two steel plants, like Shanxi Iron and Steel General Plant, actually belong to the Far East Iron and Steel Corporation.

After reaching an agreement with Shanghai businessmen, the Far East Iron and Steel Corporation transferred the main controlling stake of Han Yeping Company to Jiangnan Industrial Corporation, so far, the country has basically formed two major steel giants, the north is the territory of Far East Iron and Steel, but there are also investment steel plants in Fuzhou and other places, along the Yangtze River is the territory of Han Yeping Company, and at the same time in Laiwu, Shandong Province investment in steel plants, there are other steel companies throughout the country, joint ventures, private capital, foreign capital, but in the total scale are not as good as the two giants, and Han Yeping is far inferior to the Far East.

The huge investment from the Far Eastern consortium, coupled with the joint stock operation of local Jin businessmen, Shanxi Iron and Steel Plant was not very short of capital and technology from the beginning, which made the development of Shanxi's iron and steel industry much faster than Shandong, and through industrial support and transfer policies, a new Liaoshen Industrial Zone was quickly rebuilt in Taiyuan.

Considering the special surname of the military industry, the empire established the Shanxi Machinery and Vehicle Factory here, specializing in the production of armored vehicles, and the Taiyuan Arsenal also produced firearms and artillery, and the Imperial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Bureau held a part of the shares in both companies at the same time to ensure the bottom line of the operation and management of the two companies.

Shanxi is a good place, surrounded by mountains, easy to defend and difficult to attack, even if the northeast falls, if Shanxi has a more powerful military industry, then it can continue to support the imperial army to fight.

Shanxi's location is also good, it is right in the center of the north, and it can not only support the four northern provinces, but also support Zhili, the northwest, and the Central Plains, and the development of the military industry here is simply the best.

When he arrived in Shanxi, Song Biao went to Shanxi Machinery and Vehicle Factory to inspect the new model of the TANK-4 tank, that is, the TANK.SY4 tank designed by the Armored Vehicle Research Bureau of the Central Military Department, combined with the advantages of the Whipbit A tank and the FT-17 tank, the turret became larger and more flexible, and the armor was more reliable, because of the use of two engines with greater horsepower, the speed was still maintained at the level of 14 kilometers per hour, but compared with the Whipbit A tank, there has been a more breakthrough progress.

Of course, if Song Biao personally presided over the entire design work, the T-4 tank could obviously be more advanced and unique, but that was not necessary, Song Biao did not want to have too much impact on the development of the entire tank too early, on the whole, the T-4 tank is still more like a large FT-17 tank, and a 47mm gun is installed, and the barrel diameter is longer.

Song Biao hoped to have a larger barrel, but there was no ready-made 55mm or 60mm artillery in China, and the temporarily developed 55mm tank gun technology was not yet mature, including the technical limitations of gasoline engines, so he could only continue to use 47mm tank guns for the time being.

This tank gun itself was copied from the infantry cannon, only to adapt to the use on the tank and made more modifications, a larger modification of the French was to truncate the double diameter, while the Chinese modified to slightly truncate the double diameter to further enhance the range and power.

In order to accommodate this new design, the turret of the tank was moved back slightly from the FT-17 tank, which was more similar to modern tanks, because the gasoline engine was very high, and the two units took up a lot of space together, so they were moved to the rear of the turret, which led to the problem that the turret that could rotate could not be turned to the back and could not fire at the rear.

This is to make full use of one of the advantages of the transmission design of the Whippet tank, like the Whippet tank, the T-4 tank can also rotate in place, which is to make full use of the advantages of two engines.

The T-4 tank has been designed and formed for half a year during this time, and it has been adjusted again after the army test, and it is currently produced in Taiyuan and Shenyang at the same time, which is conducive to the Shenyang Automobile Company to manufacture more military trucks, because the overall production capacity is still limited, General Motors and Renault are both producing the same model of military trucks.

At this stage, military trucks may not be much better than later pickup trucks, at most they can only ensure the transportation volume of about 1.5 tons, which is normal, you must know that France also used a large number of Renault taxis as a means of transportation during World War I, and this kind of taxi is basically the same as Ford's Model T, which can only transport five or six people at a time, or more than 600 kilograms of materials.

The only good news was that the war was over and the price of rubber began to fall sharply, allowing Vostok military trucks produced in the Far East to use thicker rubber tires.

……

Really, the impetus of the First World War for Chinese industry was indeed too great, unimaginably large.

After inspecting the Shanxi Machinery and Vehicle General Plant and the Iron and Steel General Plant, Song Biao's only feeling was that he was grateful from the bottom of his heart for the world war provoked by Germany and Austria.

After leaving Taiyuan, Song Biao continued south to Qi County.

During the First World War, the Jin merchants donated 14 million yuan of national bonds for the empire, and also donated 20 heavy artillery and 40,000 rifles for the army.

Overjoyed, there must be fear, because the empire is now clearly going to continue to fight, the emperor is here in person, and the Jin merchants may continue to donate and buy treasury bonds, which makes the merchants very stressed.

The Jin Merchants Conference was originally intended to be held in Pingyao County, but Song Biao had something to do in Qi County, so he chose to hold it in the Qiao family compound in Qi County, Song Biao arrived in Qi County by train this afternoon, and then took a carriage to Qiao's compound and stayed in Qiao's house first.

The Qiao family was at its peak during the Qiao Zhiyong period, and Qiao Zhiyong was also known as the richest man in the world, and later Song Biao wrote a letter to the Qiao family, inviting them to develop in the Northeast and invest in industry.

Qiao Zhiyong's later years after the Qiao family has always been his third son Qiao Jingyan is in charge of the family business, in the past ten years, Qiao Jingyan and Song Biao also had several contacts, especially when Song Biao served as the governor of the three eastern provinces, and later under the recommendation of Yu Qiaqing, Qiao Jingyan also joined the Anglican Church, which is basically his own people, Qiao Jingyan's talents are also working, and they are generally invested with Yu Qiaqing and the Far East consortium, and the Qiao family's own industry is nothing more than minerals, leather and sugar, and also does some small business, many of which are small businesses abandoned by the Far Eastern consortium back then, the discount was sold to the Qiao family to take over.

The reason why Song Biao came to Qiao's house and stayed here at night was another thing.

Regarding the matter of setting up a side concubine, the General Administration of the Inner Court has been busy for two years, and more than a dozen young women have been selected in batches of four times to serve in the secretariat, and only one from Shanxi named Qiao Wanting is really favored by Song Biao.

She is Qiao Jingyan's niece, she is very beautiful, she has studied and painted in Qiao's private school with the children of the Qiao family since she was a child, she is good at painting ink and wash, and she is known for liking to paint plums.

Although Qiao Wanting is not a stunning beauty in the country and the city, she is also very beautiful, with a graceful figure, an open-minded surname, knowledgeable books, and good calligraphy and painting. Song Biao had a very good impression of her, and she also felt that she was very suitable for herself in several conversations with the General Administration of the Inner Court, and she was also devoted to being the emperor's side concubine, and this thing was done.

The process in the middle is very fast, from Song Biao's selection of Qiao Wanting to the concubine, it is only two months in between, this time to Shanxi, Song Biao originally considered bringing this concubine back to Qiao's house, which can be regarded as letting her return to her hometown.

As a result, the young girl was pregnant quickly, and she stopped menstruating when she said to stop, obviously she was pregnant, and she didn't dare to let her take the train when she was pregnant, so she had to stay in Beijing to protect the baby, Shu Xuan has always had no interest in foreign tours, let alone going to Qiao's house, so Song Biao could only continue to patrol Shanxi alone.

Qiao's Courtyard is a very typical northern residential compound, "Red Lantern Hangs High", "Qiao's Courtyard" and many other famous film and television dramas have been filmed here, back in 1919, standing outside the Qiao's courtyard at this time will be a very special feeling.

History is brutal.

The Qiao family reached the peak of China's commercial society at the end of the 19th century, and then ushered in a rapid decline, without Song Biao's strong invitation when he was the governor of the three eastern provinces, the Qiao family first suffered heavy losses during the Xinhai Revolution, and then entered a very painful period of decline when the warlords were fighting, and later, the Qiao family had very few people doing business, and most of them followed the Kuomintang to Taiwan.

Qiao Zhiyong's cousin Qiao Zhiyuan had a great-granddaughter who became famous later, she was a Mou girl and acted in "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

Qiao Wanting is Qiao Zhiyong's granddaughter.

At this time, Qiao Zhiyong has long passed away, Song Biao still remembers that Qiao Jingyan was still wearing filial piety when he went to the Northeast to invest in the rice business, Qiao Jingyan was really a distinguished guest to Song Biao at that time, Song Biao also sincerely hoped that the Qiao family would invest in the Northeast industry, and the two had a long talk all night, which should be said to have inspired Qiao Jingyan a lot.

When Song Biao arrived at the Qiao family's compound, more than 100 members of the Qiao family went out to greet them together under the leadership of Qiao Jingyan's uncle Qiao Zhiyuan, and all etiquette affairs were handled in strict accordance with the requirements of the General Administration of the Inner Court.

In short, there must be no Manchu symbolism, everyone can only be greeted on both sides of the gate, unmarried young women and children can be inside the gate, wives and wives can stand with their husbands, and lonely elders above the ancient rarity can be exempted from courtesy.

Under the whole world, the shore of the desert land, it is not the king's land.

The emperor went to live in the Qiao family compound, which became a palace, and the General Administration of the Inner Court also paid the Qiao family a gift money according to the specifications and area, the emperor is the master here, and your Qiao family is now a guest.

Even if the Qiao family is now considered a relative of the emperor, it is not qualified to entertain the emperor, the emperor's food, clothing, housing and transportation in the compound are all responsible for the General Administration of the Inner Court, there is no place for your Qiao family to ask, your Qiao family should rent a house for the emperor as a palace, nothing else has anything to do with you, you don't expect to entertain the emperor with the friendship of the landlord, you are not qualified yet.

Who qualifies for this?

Tsar, Kaiser, British Empire, French Republic...... They have this qualification, they are at the same level, and nothing else.

Of course, etiquette is etiquette, rules are rules, law is law, and legal principles are nothing more than human feelings.

Song Biao is still a very nostalgic person, and he is also a reasonable emperor, after arriving at the Qiao family, because the side concubine Qiao Wanting failed to make the trip this time, he went to the ancestral hall of the Qiao family as a junior to burn three pillars of incense for the ancestors of the Qiao family, hoping that if they have the spirit in the sky, they will also bless Qiao Wanting to give birth to the prince and daughter smoothly.

As a father-in-law, he naturally hopes that everything will go well and that the mother and son will be safe.

After the incense, Song Biao didn't have to take Qiao Jingyan seriously because he was the emperor, and when he lived in the North Courtyard House he occupied, it was already evening, and he invited Qiao Jingyan and Qiao Wanting's surviving biological mother, Mrs. Shen, over.

Qiao Wanting's father is Qiao Jingyan's second brother, who passed away in the first year of Xuantong, Mrs. Shen is a side room, and her status in the Qiao family is not high, so when Qiao Wanting was sent to the inner court, Qiao Jingyan deliberately continued Qiao Wanting to the eldest lady of the second room, but Song Biao didn't care about this matter at all.

The queen was born in the side room of the Shu family, and now that the empire is up and down, who dares to point fingers behind her back?

The inner court prepared a small imperial banquet with local characteristics of Shanxi, four main dishes and two soups, two dim sums, one salty and one sweet, delicate, not much, except for Qiao Jingyan and Mrs. Shen, Song Biao did not invite a third person.

This is still a very simple imperial banquet, which must be different from the royal style and the Manchu and Han banquets in Mrs. Shen's heart.

After dinner, after the guards served tea and wet wipes, Song Biao gave a little try, rinsed his mouth with tea, and then changed to a cup of Qimen black tea that was good for the stomach, and also invited Qiao Jingyan and Mrs. Shen to serve a cup each.

At this time, Song Biaocai thanked Mrs. Shen: "Thank you Mrs. for giving birth to a good daughter, Wanting's surname is good, gentle and generous, the queen is also full of praise, and now she is pregnant, as a husband, I am naturally more happy." ”

As soon as they heard the emperor's words, Qiao Jingyan and Mrs. Shen were so happy that they almost knelt down to thank them.

Without the emperor's mercy, how could their concubine Wanting get pregnant?

Qiao Jingyan was so excited that she was almost speechless, and Mrs. Shen was also so excited that she fainted as soon as her eyes were closed.

Song Biao continued to say to Mrs. Shen: "I heard that you only have such a daughter as Wanting, and it seems that it has not been easy these years, so I asked the General Administration of the Inner Court to buy a courtyard in Yanjing City and invite you to live in it, of course, if you don't want to go to that strange place in Yanjing, it doesn't matter, I will regularly send someone to pick you up and take you to the palace, and when it is convenient in the future, you can also let Wanting go back to her parents' house to visit you." ”

Mrs. Shen was very regular, turned around and replied: "Back to the emperor, since the folk woman married into the Qiao family, she never planned to leave the threshold of the Qiao family in this life, although she was worried about her daughter, but the married daughter was the water that was spilled, even if it was a pot of golden water, it was still spilled, and now she is a mother, how dare the woman enter the palace to see her?" ”

Song Biao nodded slightly, each family has a scripture that is difficult to read, and everyone has their own ideas, since Mrs. Shen's concept is relatively conservative, he will force it.

Song Biao said to Qiao Jingyan again: "Then you have to take care of Mrs. Shen more, there will be a maintenance fee every year on the inner court's side, which will be paid monthly, the amount is not much, if there is any shortage, you can discuss it with the inner court to solve it." ”

Qiao Jingyan immediately replied: "Please rest assured that the people will take care of the concubine's family." ”

Money and alimony are a trivial matter for the inner court and the Qiao family, and Qiao Jingyan doesn't dare to boast or show off in this matter, let alone overstep, so it is the best choice not to mention this.

A woman's weight is light.

Mrs. Shen is also a woman who knows the general situation, guessing that the emperor and Qiao Jingyan still have something to discuss, so she got up and said goodbye, not daring to show off here as the emperor's mother-in-law, and left the banquet hall in a hurry.

After she left, Song Biao and Qiao Jingyan sighed: "We have known each other for many years, but I didn't expect to marry a woman from your Qiao family, which is quite interesting." Actually, I originally meant to ask the Secretariat to arrange some women from the Northwest Hui and the like, and wanted to appease the Northwest by marriage, but I also looked at some of them, but in general, there are still very obstacles to communication, and marrying a wife is sometimes not something that can be done by being beautiful. ”

Qiao Jingyan replied cautiously: "What the emperor said is yes, so, we have an ancient saying called fate to meet thousands of miles away, but not to meet each other without fate, the matter of husband and wife is still destined by heaven." The moon and the old thread in the sky are connected, and how many men and women in the world fall in love with each other. ”

Song Biao laughed out loud and agreed: "That's wonderful...... It's a pity that the matter in the northwest is still a big thing that can't be avoided after all, I heard that since the Soviet Russian Revolution, your Qiao family has suffered a lot of losses in Russia, is there really such a thing? ”

Qiao Jingyan replied: "The loss of more than 4 million rubles was lost, and last year the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an announcement asking each company to summarize the losses list in Russia and Germany, and I have already reported it." The losses directly confiscated by Soviet Russia from private banks and properties are not small, but foreign trade with Russia has not recovered in the past two years, and the losses are even more. ”

Song Biao bowed slightly.

China and Russia have always been important trading partners, Russia imports tea, sugar, soybean oil, raw silk, cotton and textiles from China, and also imports a large number of military products in the past few years, while China's imports from Russia are mainly based on raw materials and furs.

Shanxi merchants accounted for a very high proportion of Sino-Russian trade, after the establishment of Soviet Russia, Sino-Russian trade was interrupted, basically even if it was a fatal blow to Shanxi merchants, fortunately, the transformation of the Qiao family was relatively fast, and the main investments in the past ten years were concentrated in the northeast.

In the early years, at the suggestion of Song Biao, the Qiao family and Qu Benqiao and other Shanxi businessmen jointly ran the Jinshang Bank, which gradually became one of the leading banks in Sino-Russian trade, second only to the Sino-Russian Daosheng Bank, and now has branches in Moscow, Kazan, and St. Petersburg.

In fact, Soviet Russia was also bad, and the assets of France and Britain were not in a hurry to confiscate, first of all, they tried to test from China and other countries, and after the confiscation, they have been watching the wind, and now they have even confiscated the capitalist assets of Britain, France and other countries in Russia, and in any case, Russia's assets abroad have also been confiscated by other countries.

So one thing came out later, that is, Zhang Xueliang wanted to confiscate the railways of Soviet Russia in the three eastern provinces, and as a result, a series of major events were caused, but this incident was obviously impossible to happen, and the empire had forcibly confiscated all Russian national assets in China, including railways and the Far East Fleet set up by Russia in Lushun, and made a small profit on a few old ironclad ships.

The Sino-Russian Daosheng Bank was naturally within the scope of confiscation, so the empire did not lose money on the whole, but just waited for a war with Soviet Russia, and then demanded that Soviet Russia compensate for all the losses of Chinese enterprises.

Song Biao asked Qiao Jingyan: "In general, the Qiao family shouldn't be a big problem, right?" ”

Qiao Jingyan thought for a while and said: "Relying on the business of the three eastern provinces and Shanxi, I can generally survive and survive, but I have to find a way, the risk of international trade is still too great, I have been thinking about it recently or I have to continue to collect capital in Shanxi to engage in industry, at the end of last year, Jinyang's coal and iron bidding, I think I want to buy it separately, but I don't know what Shanxi Coal and Iron Corporation will say." ”

Song Biao felt very strange and said: "When Far East Trip first purchased Shanxi Coal and Iron Corporation, it didn't let you buy shares?" ”

Qiao Jingyan said: "That being said, it's always like doing business, you can make more money, especially Shanxi's side of Russia's losses are terrible, you have to find another way out." ”

Song Biao thought about it and suggested: "When I first ran the 175 project, Tang Shaoyi was willing to ask you to run your own coal and iron in Shanxi, but when you saw that the bottom line of the cabinet's investment was too high, everyone was unwilling to invest too much, saying that it was going to start from a young age, that was nonsense, and the cabinet had a cabinet plan." In the end, there was no way, the cabinet was cheaper Far Eastbound, if you were willing to invest in the joint venture to set up this large Shanxi coal and iron company, where are there so many things today? ”

Qiao Jingyan nodded yes and said: "The emperor's lesson is that the merchants in Shanxi are not like the past now, the business we are familiar with is gradually withering, and the newly profitable business is not familiar, everyone just wants to seek stability in their hearts, and I have persuaded my uncle of the Qu family several times, and everyone is not willing to invest too much." Nowadays, these people see that the Shanxi Coal and Iron Company and the Iron and Steel Corporation are becoming more and more popular, and they are making money, so they feel that Shanxi's coal and iron cannot be cheap to outsiders, so they want to jointly run a large enterprise to compete with the coal and iron company. ”

Song Biao smiled and said, "That's your own business, I can't take care of it." However, I don't think there is any need for the Qiao family to do these businesses, first, you don't know how to do it, there are too many technical problems here, you can't understand all of them; Second, although the profits of coal and iron are large, they cannot make money in a day or two. Therefore, I suggest that the Qiao family should run the bank well, in addition to running a bank, department stores and real estate are all old business experiences, and they are relatively easy to run, and the turnover is faster than coal and iron. The business of liquor, vinegar, sauce, oil, and sugar is also good, depending on whether your family can do it. I'll give you an example, Qiao's family can still run more warehouses, all over the place, and reinvest in liquor, vinegar, oil and sugar, mainly as shares, and fund others to do a big job. If you really can't think of a way, I suggest you go abroad for a year and a half to see how foreigners do business, especially the United States and the United Kingdom, and now the United States and the United Kingdom, which is China in ten years. For example, the cigarette business can also be done, Far Eastbound is ready to sell the Far East cigarette factory, this business is very profitable, but for Far Eastbound, it is actually an outward business, rather than continue to disperse the capital here, it is better to concentrate on the main business. ”

Qiao Jingyan nodded again and again when he heard this, and said, "What the emperor said is very true. ”

He knew in his heart that Song Biao did not want Shanxi businessmen to be unable to get along with the Far East in the coal and iron business, and today's Shanxi businessmen are not as good as they used to be, only Qiaoqu and the two families have not been affected because of their investment in the three eastern provinces, and the strength of the rest of them has been greatly damaged, as long as Qiaoqu continues to cooperate with the Far East consortium in a stable manner and does not reach out to Shanxi's coal and iron business alone, other Shanxi businessmen will not be able to compete with the Far East even if they join forces.

Song Biao gave Qiao Jingyan some ideas, and then said another thing, saying: "I have another problem when I come to Shanxi this time, I need you and Qu Benqiao to come forward to beat a side drum for others." At present, there are three major prohibitions in the empire, one is the prohibition of opium, the second is the prohibition of foot binding, and the third is the prohibition of smuggling silver and gold. It can be said that Shanxi's problems in these three major prohibitions are the most serious, and the bad habits are the most serious. Shanxi has been the largest opium cultivation area in the country since the beginning of the Guangxu year, and since the establishment of the empire, it has been repeatedly banned, and the fields outside cannot be planted, so they will go to the mountains to plant, and they will reclaim new land for heavy opium, and they will be bastards. As for the problem of private bank and private gold, I don't need to say it explicitly, you rich gentry in Shanxi also understand in their hearts that every household has cellar silver. Originally, the governor of Shanxi Province was a native of Shanxi, and his actions were too weak, and the law was not strictly enforced, and the management was not tight, so I transferred a more ruthless governor from Sichuan, and from this year onwards, I will forcibly grasp the problem of Shanxi. If it's ugly, I don't want to say it publicly, but you'd better communicate with everyone else, don't give me a chance, if you catch the opportunity, you will want to look good, it's not that you donate money to the imperial political axe to buy a national debt, and the political axe will not be tolerated and annihilated, and there is no door. ”

Qiao Jingyan sneered in his heart, in fact, he was very gloating.

The status of the Qiao family in the Shanxi business gang is not high, and it is only in the previous generation that it has become financially strong, so Qiao Jingyan has repeatedly admonished his peers in the Chamber of Commerce, but it has generally had no effect, and he has even been ridiculed.

If the central government was going to conduct a strict investigation in Shanxi, Qiao Jingyan would be happy to watch from the wall and watch the other families make jokes.

According to the verification and speculation of the Central Investigation Bureau, the total scale of Shanxi's silver cellars is close to 20 million taels of silver, and in addition to the difficulties in the management of Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi and other southwestern regions, Shanxi's illegal opium production still occupies the first share of the inland provinces, and it can even be said that it is half of the northern provinces.

The Empire's strict inspection of opium has caused the price of opium to skyrocket, and the number of opium-addicted drug addicts in the country is too large, and the smuggling of opium from Vietnam, Burma and other places has become a kind of huge profit, and the profits from illegal cultivation and operation in the country are also getting higher and higher, making it even more difficult for the empire to further crack down.

In order to make local officials turn a blind eye, illegal businessmen bribe officials very crazy, especially in Shanxi, where the collusion between officials and businessmen is so strong that the local governors and patrol chiefs are helpless.

The General Investigation Bureau of the Central Committee, which Song Biao directly controlled as the emperor, was basically equivalent to the Jinyiwei of the Ming Dynasty, and in Shanxi, he was even more dense to investigate various illegal affairs.

Things were better at the beginning of the empire, but during the First World War, China's industry was accompanied by local chaos, bureaucracy, and the Great Restoration of collusion between officials and businessmen.

It's just that for the time being, it has not yet reached the situation of forcing Song Biao to carry out a comprehensive purge, especially when a large-scale military conflict between China and the Soviet Union is about to break out, and the emperor has a lot of debts, Song Biao still intends to continue to take a tougher line, but not too drastic to deal with these problems.

After the Sino-Soviet War is fought and the foreign military and politics are stable, Song Biao will consider turning around and strictly investigating domestic politics, completely replacing a group, cleaning up a group, and even taking a step forward in the system.

(To be continued)