Just after the oceanic calendar, a snow fell in Shanghai from the north, and even thin ice was born on the Huangpu River, and some fog also rose on the river, and the fog made the Huangpu River somewhat confused, but the river ships and warships on the river were also hidden in the fog.

Looking from the window towards the opposite bank, the fog made the three-story industrial building hazy at all, and there was no reason to see it at all, and then, he strode back to his desk, and Chen Moran, who was in a good mood, sat on the luxurious leather chair next to the table again, and glanced at the report spread out on the table. The report was sent in a large envelope, and it was divided into two parts, one on company letterhead, and the other copy was a laboratory report in French.

The report of the French laboratory is accompanied by a Chinese report, which in addition to the translation of the French laboratory report, Chinese also contains a sample analysis report by Dr. Charles, the director of the laboratory of the Jianghuai Road Mining Company, who is the director of the mineral sample laboratory hired by the Jianghuai Road Mining Company, which is located in Ma'anshan.

The samples were sent to Shanghai by speedboat by Hu Nianzu, general manager of the Jianghuai Road Mine, and the samples tested in the laboratory were brought back from the Sha'er Lake area of Shanshan County by a driver named Chen Yuan when he got lost in Xinjiang Province three months ago.

The driver of the team, Chen Yuan, like the other drivers in the team, is an amateur, he is a technician of the road mining company, he has studied geology in the self-improvement school, and has a certain understanding of minerals, which is why he discovered the mine.

Dr. Charles doesn't have a word of nonsense in the report. The summary of the report is brief and to the point. Since the middle of the last century, Chilean saltpeter has been used by European countries to make fertilizers, and it is the only source of gunpowder and nitric acid extraction used by various arsenals in Europe and the United States to make gunpowder and extract nitric acid, as an important raw material for the chemical industry, it has extremely high strategic value.

Compared with Dr. Charles's test report, Chen Yuan's report is the most important, he mentioned in the report that a large number of ubiquitous sodium saltpeter mines that are common with gypsum, miscanthus salt, and rock salt have been discovered, and the reserves of sodium pin are preliminarily determined to be more than one million tons.

At that time, he dug up some samples, including samples associated with miscanthus nitrate and gypsum, as well as pure sodium saltpeter, and when he asked the French to test in France, he used those saltpeter samples, and the chemical verification showed that the quality and content of sodium saltpeter samples were better than those of Chilean sodium saltpeter.

White gold! If it weren't for the figures in the report, Chen Moran would never have thought that in this era, saltpeter would have the name of white gold, and it was also the only source of industrial extraction of nitric acid.

Leaning back in his chair, looking at the figures mentioned in the analysis report, Chen Moran whistled lightly.

"A soda saltpeter mine worth billions of dollars!"

Recently, Chen Moran is in a good mood, the Mustang team first won the race from Yanjing to Paris, almost the first time to win the race, the first batch of Mustang cars arrived in Britain and France, and the Mustang cars sold in the European market are light convertibles that have been improved on the basis of the Mustang prototype.

As you would have imagined from its rudimentary structure and modest appearance, this car used many of the technologies that were original in the automotive industry of this era. In addition to the extensive use of vanadium steel, the installation of a planetary gear drive and the use of a well-developed electric ignition system, the new technology includes a splash lubrication system and a unique rear drive shaft with a three-point suspension operating principle. Naturally, the body still bears that distinctive "Mustang" logo, and China's cheap labor costs make cars sold at only one-third the price of European and American cars.

With the Mustang team driving the "Mustang car" to win the race. Although the press cautiously praised and said that it must be a reference to European and American technology and parts, otherwise the Chinese would never be able to build such a good car.

But the vast number of consumers in Britain and France were fascinated by this superior, inexpensive, and easy-to-maintain product, and the first batch of 1,000 Mustang cars for 200 pounds were sold out in the French and British markets in a short time.

And when the Mustang team won the New Jersey Standard-sponsored rally from New York to San Francisco, the American people were also conquered by this cheap, superior car, and orders flew to the Mustang Motor Company like snowflakes. And those customers who bought Mustang cars in advance also submitted articles or called newspapers and companies to tell them about their praise and love for Mustang cars.

Within a few days, the news media joined in, and all kinds of praise were overwhelming, so that the whole United States was drowned in the frenzy of Mustang cars, and even a reporter wrote an article pointing out.

"Silent? Mr. Chen's greatest joy brought to people by the superior and inexpensive Mustang car was to read the car out of the entertainment tools of the rich and show people such a glorious prospect: the problem that has plagued people for thousands of years is about to be solved, and a new life is about to begin! ”

In October last year, less than two months after the mass launch, in the face of orders for more than 30,000 cars, the company had to publish announcements in various media through cooperative agents in the United States and Europe, announcing that all the inventory of Mustang cars had been sold.

But even so, the enthusiasm of the European and American people for the Mustang car is still unabated, the order of telephone, telegram, letter one after another, and even just after the foreign calendar year, dozens of salesmen from the United States rushed to China by boat, sitting at the Pudong Mustang Automobile Company, on the one hand waiting for the company to ship, on the other hand, to negotiate with the company for agency.

But those who try to make a fortune selling Mustang cars don't know that the agency of Mustang cars has been handed over to a car sales company under the name of Rockefeller, and that Standard Oil Company of New Jersey has mature sales channels all over the world.

The large-scale export of Mustang automobiles, perhaps since the end of the tea and silk era, China's export products, for the first time, won orders from all over the world, and it is increasing unabated, but limited by production capacity, Mustang Automobile Company can only produce up to 8,000 cars this year, unless the main factory of the annual Mustang Automobile Manufacturing Plant is put into use, it is impossible to meet the increasing orders.

On the other hand, the news from the capital that the position of the governor of Liangjiang was fiercely contested by all parties, and the officials in charge of the southeast region did not want to see Liangjiang being touched by the imperial court, so that the governor of Liangjiang was temporarily subordinated to Zhang Zhidong, which also made Chen Moran, who had been worried, breathe a sigh of relief.

What's more, Zhang Zhidong also specially sent someone to Shanghai to tell him, "Everything can be assured, and the promise of Da Zhuang will not be wasted!" This sentence is undoubtedly not a reassuring pill, the only concern is that with the position of the governor of Liangjiang hanging, it is always like a sharp sword hanging in the heart, but on the whole, everything is fine.

Now that the company has discovered a "big gold mine", people are stimulated by this silver, and their mood naturally becomes better Chen Moran picked up the phone from the table.

"Zheqin, you come right away."

Since becoming the general manager of the industrial company, although he has adjusted the development direction of the industrial company, the car craze is beyond his expectations, and the only surprise is that Chen Moran used his oil field to successfully "tie" Rockefeller to his car.

For Rockefeller and even the bankers in Britain who got shares in Mexico's oil fields, how to expand the application of oil is the only thing they need to consider, the increase in the number of automobiles, so that after the oil is extracted, the gasoline that was discarded as waste oil has a place to use, and naturally they are willing to help the sales of "Mustang cars" in Europe and the United States, and even Rockefeller's oil tankers, only at cost price to help the industry to transport cars to the United States.

As of New Year's Day, Mustang Automobile Company only received a deposit of up to 10 million US dollars, which could not help but make Guan Mingtang sigh.

When Guan Mingtang walked into the room, Chen Moran had already stuffed the report on Hell Island and Whampoa Sports School on the table into a drawer, and only Chen Yuan's report on albite saltpeter was placed in the record book.

After showing a kind smile to Guan Mingtang, Chen Moran pointed to the table in front of him.

"Zheqin, sit down, I have one thing I need you to help me think about!"

Without waiting for Guan Mingtang to speak, Chen Moran handed him the report.

"Well, you see, there is a report from the Jianghuai Road mine, our people have accidentally discovered a large sodium stone mine, that is, Chilean saltpeter, it is estimated that the saltpeter there can be worth billions, or even more......"

When Chen Moran spoke, although Guan Mingtang only flipped through a few pages hastily, he noticed that some key terms were mentioned in the report.

"Chairman, have we sent someone to conduct a detailed exploration?"

"There has been no detailed exploration yet, I am preparing to send some people over to explore there first, or buy the land there first, in short, we are going to build this mine, this is a big mine worth billions of yuan!"

Guan Mingtang just continued to look at the report, he was not an expert in doing this, but he was an expert in some other aspects.

"Hmmm! Chairman, this may indeed be a big gold mine, I know a little about sodium saltpeter, and it is called "white gold" in the outside world. ”

"That's right, you see, if we go to explore this saltpeter mine, we may find a big mine similar to the Chilean saltpeter mine!"

"Hmm!"

After a cursory look at the report in his hand, he closed the report, but Guan Mingtang looked at Chen Moran.

"To start this mine, we must consider two things!"

"Two o'clock?"

"One is transportation, the mine is in Xinjiang Province, if you want to mine and export on a large scale, you need to build a transportation railway, this railway is roughly calculated...... It should be more than 2000 km, and an investment of about 100 million yuan is required! ”

Guan Mingtang's words changed Chen Moran's face in shock, he only thought about the "white gold" but forgot that the white and yellow gold was buried in Xinjiang Province, that place was not Huainan, and the ore was transported out by building a railway of hundreds of kilometers.

"Also, of course, do you know about the saltpeter wars!"

Almost after reading this report, Guan Mingtang recognized that the company's mining of this sodium saltpeter mine was simply wishful thinking, but he couldn't say it directly, so he said so much as a foreshadowing.

"Saltpeter Wars?"

Chen Moran was stunned, when will there be a saltpeter war.

Twenty-three years earlier, Chile had wanted to annex the saltpeter resources of neighboring Peru and Bolivia in order to monopolize this economically valuable mineral, so in 1879, Chile declared war on Bolivia and Peru at the same time, which was the "Pacific War" fought by the three Latin American countries. As a result, Chile won the war and the Treaty of Ancon was signed in 1883. The treaty stipulates that the entire Atacama Desert will be transferred to Chile, that is, the part of the world's largest saltpeter mines owned by Bolivia and Peru will be ceded to Chile, and Chile will become the only saltpeter producer and exporter in the world, which is why albite is called Chilean saltpeter.

Sodium saltpeter, also known as Chilean saltpeter, does derive huge economic income from the export of saltpeter. In the decade from 1879 to 1889, Chile paid nearly $600 million in export taxes on nitrate alone, with a total value of more than $1.4 billion. This is a staggering fortune indeed, and the return is far greater than Chile's military spending. ”

Glancing at Chen Moran, Guan Mingtang continued to speak.

"Sodium saltpeter is an extremely important strategic resource, the industrial countries use Chilean saltpeter as a raw material for the manufacture of explosives, chemical products and fertilizers, however, Chile can fight a saltpeter war for saltpeter, Xinjiang Province, Xinjiang Province is bordered by Russian Turkistan in the west and British India in the south, these two countries need to import a large amount of saltpeter every year, if there is a large saltpeter mine there, chairman, who can guarantee that they will not fight a saltpeter war, not to mention, Russia has always wanted to get involved in Xinjiang Province, saltpeter mines will become the best economic motivation, Therefore, it remains to be cautious. ”

Guan Mingtang's words made Chen Moran wake up, fighting for mineral resources, even after a hundred years, it is not uncommon, not to mention now, if there is really a saltpeter mine, in the face of billions of returns, how can Russia not get involved in Xinjiang Province, with the weakness and incompetence of the Manchu Qing, now even their so-called "ancestral land" Northeast is occupied by the Russians, and they don't even dare to let go of a fart, let alone Xinjiang Province.

"What do you mean ......"

Before he finished speaking, Chen Moran stood up, paced back and forth, walked to the window, and once again stared out the window at the other side of the window After the fog cleared, the construction site of the Industrial Bank Building had already appeared.

What have you done since you came to this plane? In the face of helpless reality, he constantly sacrificed short-term interests in exchange for so-called long-term interests, exchanged oil fields for large sums of liquidity, and Rockefeller and British financiers supported automobiles, and even in Fisher's 20-year oil supply guarantee, on the one hand, for himself, and on the other hand, it was not used to obtain the "friendship" of the future British Admiralty.

Although the return to a certain extent far exceeded that of the oil fields, Rockefeller and British financiers helped the Mustang gain a foothold in Europe and the United States for the sake of the market, and how could Fisher ensure that when that day came, Britain's minimum intervention seemed rich, but it was also somewhat helpless.

This is the helplessness of national strength! If the Qing Dynasty was a strong country, how could it sacrifice some external interests again and again, and even the minerals on Chinese soil could not be mined, just because they were afraid of Russia's interference or triggering a war, if it was really because of saltpeter that Xinjiang Province was annexed by Russia, then he would really be a national sinner.

"Hey!"

With a long sigh, Chen Moran's expression became a little complicated, and he said stiffly to Guan Mingtang behind him.

"What misfortune was born in China!"

After hearing this sentence spit out of Chen Moran's mouth, Guan Mingtang frowned, looking at Chen Moran's back, his eyes became a little complicated, but after the complexity, it was light.

"What misfortune was born in China!"

How unfortunate it is to be born in this country, even if you want to achieve a career, but you still need to worry about foreign interference, is this country really still a country?

"I want to do a big business, Pudong, Ma'anshan, Huainan, Mustang Motors, well! And our Yangtze River shipbuilding, I tried to use my own strength to save the country's decline, but what was the result? Look at ......"

Perhaps provoked by this incident to the anger that had been suppressed in his heart, Chen Moran pointed his hand towards the bridge building not far away.

"The Jews who were being squeezed in Europe pressed me, forced me to pay a tael of silver, forced me to build a bridge into this spiral bridge, and even now they are still thinking about how to make it impossible for me to build a bridge. Now we have found a saltpeter mine, but we still have to worry about those Russians and British, for the sake of saltpeter, to occupy the province! This country, it should have been fucking finished sooner! ”

Chen Moran had anger on his face, calculating and calculating, since he came to this era, almost every frustration was more or less related to the weakness and incompetence of the "Great Qing Kingdom", and the hatred in his heart naturally increased, perhaps because he was afraid of poverty, so he valued money.

Turning around, ignoring the surprise on Guan Mingtang's face, Chen Moran said hatefully when he sat back on the leather European-style chair.

"Sooner or later, one day, I have to turn this captive Qing Dynasty upside down!"

Hearing these words, Guan Mingtang, who was in shock, stared at Chen Moran with his eyes, as if he wanted to find out if he was joking, or, but the result made him find that Chen Moran said this sentence, it was definitely not as simple as talking, thinking of some unknown situations in the company, he suddenly realized something.

"And then...... And then! You can't say these things outside, I don't know how many eyes are staring at you now! ”

Raising his head and staring at Guan Mingtang, Chen Moran asked coldly.

"What about you? Zheqin, will you be staring at me? ”

(To be continued)