While giving lectures to these people, Qiao Yu prepared to build other factories, and placed an order of 300,000 taels from Buscht, including fifty sewing machines, as well as a batch of printing and dyeing equipment, and Qiao Yu also asked Busst to get him a batch of arms, 100 pistols, 300 rifles, all of which were the most advanced Mauser guns in Germany, and a number of bullets.

Now that the shelves have been erected, it is necessary to strengthen the strength in their hands, in fact, both the Qiao family and the Bai family have a large number of guards, and those big businessmen are also armed to varying degrees, after the Qing Dynasty reached the late stage, especially after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, it obviously lost its ability to control the place, and it was able to maintain it for so long, completely relying on the complex balance between local governors.

Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, Liu Kunyi and other old-school Chinese, in the face of changes unprecedented in 3,000 years, focused on the Western Ocean and did not watch the imperial power, which caused the situation that the Manchu Qing could maintain.

In the Xuantong period, the Manchu Qing Dynasty was more like a bottomless broken ship, the local power continued to grow, up and down, a little power businessmen will hire a considerable number of guards to ensure their safety, many chambers of commerce in Jiangsu and Zhejiang have their own arms, the old and new armies are seriously corroded by the revolutionary party, it can be said that there is no reason for such a court to not die.

Now there are more than 30 guards in Limin Textile Factory, led by Han Yong, and it is enough to protect the safety, but Qiao Yu knows that this point is far from enough, so he took the opportunity of establishing an investment company to expand his strength.

Qiao Yu thought about it carefully, forming his own team is the most important thing, loyalty is the most crucial, he must not mix in the people of the party, he must ensure purity, and secondly, he must try his best to choose some people with cultivation value, the first batch of teams is ready to become officers in the future, it is too stupid and absolutely not.

It seems that only shrewd young talents can be selected from the countryside, and if they are recruited in Yucheng, it is inevitable that they will not be infiltrated by the party, so Qiao Yu found his eldest brother Qiao Cheng, Qiao Cheng has not been idle these days, he is mainly responsible for raw materials, and now he has barely straightened things out, so he was found by Qiao Yu.

"Big brother, I have placed an order with the Germans, I am ready to buy a batch of arms, and I am ready to set up a factory protection team!"

"Shunqing, I think it's completely okay, as our production increases, more and more cloth will be transported to other counties, and more and more raw materials will be needed, and the ground is becoming more and more turbulent, our existing guards are indeed insufficient, you have the final say on how much the third child wants to recruit, don't ask me!"

"Big brother, this matter is going to bother you, I think that since we are recruiting guards, we must find those who are loyal to us, those who will be in party robes must not be mixed in, I think we can only select innocent young people from the countryside, who are sixteen or seventeen years old, do not have any bad habits, and must have good physical fitness, and it is best to be able to recognize a few words! I'm going to train myself. ”

Qiao Cheng listened to Qiao Yu's request, but it was a bit high, although there are a lot of surplus laborers in the countryside, but as a last resort, they will not come out to dance and play with guns, so now the army recruits mostly some idle people, hooligans and ruffians and the like, the children of good families will not be easy to become soldiers, let alone guards, suddenly a thought flashed in Qiao Cheng's heart, and his face immediately changed color.

"Third brother, you don't want to train your own army, what are you going to do?"

Qiao Cheng still knows a lot about the third brother, Qiao Yu's surname is more impatient and reckless, but when he comes back from a foreign country, it seems that he has changed a person, of course, he only thinks that Qiao Yu is influenced by foreign countries, and he is also worried that Qiao Yu and the revolutionary party will get together, but seeing Qiao Yu doing his best to run a factory, Qiao Cheng is also relieved, but today Qiao Yu suddenly proposed to recruit guards, and the requirements are so high, Qiao Cheng immediately became vigilant, his third brother is afraid that he is going to rebel!

Qiao Yu also knew that he had to pull the eldest brother down to his side, and said: "Big brother, to be honest, I recruited guards this time, in fact, it is to train a military generation, and control it in my own hands, I don't deny that there are plans to rebel, but the main thing is to protect ourselves, we have so many factories, this family business has attracted the covetousness of the elder brothers, and now the imperial court is also in financial crisis, it is difficult to guarantee that they will not hit us with their ideas, big brother, once that situation occurs, how should we deal with it?" ”

As soon as Qiao Cheng heard Qiao Yu's explanation, he also lowered his head and pondered, he participated in the preparation of the textile factory throughout the process, and naturally knew how much effort was poured into it, and where he was willing to fall into the hands of others, and the situation that Qiao Yu said had indeed appeared, and some cloth shops had already faced the blackmail of some hooligans, but the amount was still relatively small, and it was ruined.

"The third child, I don't object to recruiting troops to protect yourself, we do have the strength to deter Xiaoxiao, but after all, the court is powerful, everything must be thought twice, you must know that the blessings and misfortunes of the family are in your hands!"

Qiao Yu grabbed the eldest brother's hand and said solemnly: "Big brother, don't worry, I will definitely plan and then move, the troubled times are just around the corner, the Qing Dynasty has been stormy, last year the imperial court signed a contract with the great powers to borrow money to build roads, there are already rumors that the railway will be nationalized, big brother, you know the stakes in this!" ”

Qiao Cheng didn't seem to understand a little, but then his face changed wildly, and his hands trembled.

"Third child, are you saying that the imperial court wants to move the hornet's nest on Chuanhan Road? Isn't that the birthday boy always eating arsenic? ”

"Big brother must have guessed it, once the imperial court moves the Sichuan-Han Road, even if the world is not in chaos, then Sichuan will definitely not be peaceful, so I hurry up and want to master a little military power in case of emergency!"

Qiao Cheng nodded frequently when he heard this, talking about the Sichuan-Han Road, this is really a hornet's nest, the railway can be said to be the lifeblood of transportation, it is very important, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, China's right of way fell into the hands of Westerners, and became an important means of plundering China's resources.

In order to cope with the invasion of foreign powers, in 1904 the establishment of the Sichuan-Han Railway Corporation, later changed to private, to rely on private funds to build the railway, it can be said that the idea is very good, but then there is a big problem in the issue of fund-raising.

In order to raise funds, the governor of Sichuan, Xiliang, actually approved a seemingly ridiculous method of financing, that is, to collect rents and taxes like ordinary people, and convert this forced money into the company's share capital, and at the same time let the Sichuan people become shareholders of the company.

The problem arose at this time, the Sichuan-Han Railway Company is a private enterprise, but it has the tax power that the political axe can have, and it has become a second political axe, and the political axe has not effectively managed the company's operation, and soon these funds were squandered by a small number of major shareholders, and the deficit was serious, and the railway was not repaired at all, the most serious problem appeared in 1910 when the Shanghai rubber stock market crash, some shareholders actually played with stocks, resulting in a deficit of millions of taels, and it was precisely because of the huge deficit, The Manchus wanted to nationalize the railways, of course, the Manchus also had their own plans, and in the stock market crash, the political axe also fell into a financial crisis, and wanted to use the Sichuan and Han rights of way as collateral to borrow from the foreign powers.

But if you want to nationalize, the assets must always be accounted for, who should you find for the deficit, the imperial court has no money, and it still points to the railway loan, how can you bear this deficit, those major shareholders are the gentry and heroes of Sichuan, and the people who really control the local area, can they vomit blood and cut their flesh? But you can't let tens of millions of Sichuan people carry this black pot! That is the hard-earned money of the people, and the Sichuan-Han Road is also the hope of the people of Sichuan.

Although the Qiao family has little to do with the railway issue, Qiao Cheng also knows a thing or two about the problems of the upper echelons of the railway company, and knows how dangerous it is to nationalize, and he is undoubtedly fighting with the gentry class of the entire Sichuan, and if he doesn't do it, he will meet each other, so cold sweat is also soaked on his forehead.

"Third brother, it's just a rumor now, I think maybe the imperial court will come up with a proper way to prevent it from causing a catastrophe!"

"Big brother, do you still believe that this imperial court can do things well, there are a few of those Eight Banners masters in Yanjing City who know the problems of the Sichuan Railway Company, Sheng Xuanhuai and those people have selfish desires, plus the foreigners are forced behind their backs, there is no doubt that they will sacrifice the interests of the people of Sichuan, it is just a matter of time!"

Qiao Yu is very confident in his judgment, this is a thing written in history, and after his own personal feelings, he has also strengthened his judgment, at this time, the so-called Baolu, the responsibility lies with a small number of major shareholders, they should be punished and keep the property of the people, but the Qing court's control over the local area is too weak, and it has no strength to deal with Haoqiang, so it was forced by the shareholders to join forces, and the Qing court carried the black pot, Sichuan was in chaos, and then the world was in chaos.

Now that it is February, it is four months before the outbreak of the Baolu Movement, Qiao Yu must speed up the pace of preparation, Qiao Cheng carefully thought about the stakes, and agreed with the judgment of the third brother, and hurriedly began to recruit guards.