Huangpu Yutou Street, close to Huangpu Wharf, is not far from the western district of Huangpu where foreigners gather. In the early morning of April 17, the third year of the Holy Dao, this street was crowded with tens of thousands of people, and thousands of black-clothed ** who maintained order were pressed to the chest and back.

A bell rang, a store opened somewhere on the street, and a stream of people swarmed in, as if they were on the battlefield. These people's eyes were red, and they were muttering two words in their hearts: stocks!

The establishment of a joint-stock company and the public sale of stocks have been issued for several months, and the newspapers and the people have discussed it very thoroughly, and there is one conclusion: make money!

How can you not make money? See who are the companies that have been approved to go public?

Nanyang Company, not to mention that, monopolized the sea trade from Siam to Cochin, and also monopolized the industrial and commercial tax rights of Funan, which is a piece of fat. In the past, only the big players in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry could squeeze in, but now they are openly selling the sovereignty of the East, so most people are eyeing the shares of Nanyang Company.

The Bo Ni Company, which colonized Borneo, monopolized trade and industrial and commercial rights. Although Jia Hao is in charge, I heard that the capital of the first installment is too large, and it has not been profitable. Moreover, the war with Luzon is imminent, and the route on this side is still unstable, and everyone regards it as a high-risk business, and not much attention is paid to it.

Foshan iron smelting, separated from the Foshan Iron and Steel Company, focuses on the industry of raw and wrought iron smelting, although the profit is not high, but the operation is stable, it is said that the annual profit is close to 20%, buy such stocks, it is better than money lending.

Dongguan car industry, sold all over the country of "set sail for the water", is now not any small workshop can be imitated, but also a stable industry.

In addition, there are Qingtian infrastructure, Sanjiang investment and other industries, which were all government-run industries in the past, but now they are openly selling stocks and have been converted into commercial offices. According to the official newspaper, all companies that have been converted to a shareholding system must regularly report their business conditions, and it is no longer the private business of a small number of proprietors.

In addition to the government-run industry, there is also a large number of private industries listed this time. For example, Lingnan Salt Industry is a group of salt merchants who jointly listed in order to fight against the Shen family, a big salt merchant in Chaoshan. There is also South China Mining, which is jointly carried out by a group of tin, lead, copper and other miners in Yunnan and Guizhou.

In addition to colonial, trade and industry, there are many private ticket houses, such as Guangfa, Xiangsheng and other numbers are also on the market, and also attract large votes of Fujian businessmen to get Fuhai, Minxing and other ticket houses listed. Even following the example of Sanjiang Investment, he made an investment in building buildings.

In everyone's opinion, the stocks that can be listed are reputable. Because each listed company must deposit 100,000 taels of margin in Anglo-Chinese Bank, and at the same time undertake a different number of treasury bonds. It is generally 100,000 taels, and Nanyang Company even contracted 4 million taels. This means that even if there is any problem with the company, there is still the court behind it.

But more people are not interested in stock dividends, but on the stocks themselves, which is different from treasury bonds. At present, treasury bonds are not allowed to be transferred publicly, and can only be bought and sold privately, and the annual interest rate of treasury bonds is not seventies or eight percent. Stocks not only generate a lot of profits, but they can also be bought and sold at will, which changes hands,...

For clever people who have long had experience in speculating and buying all kinds of things, this stock is simply a cash cow for Chiguoguo!

In the Huangpu Stock Exchange, the shopkeepers lined up behind the counter, waiting for the first batch of more than 30 stocks, with a total principal of more than 20 million taels. The tax officer who was guarding the deed tax department of the Ministry of Commerce next to him also had red eyes, as long as all the stocks were sold, according to the tax amount of 5/1000, the deed tax alone could collect 100,000 taels.

And the other 3 to 5 thousandths of the commission is for the exchange and traders, and the shopkeeper and the guys are even more purple-eyed.

Before the bell rang to open the door, the flow of people rushed into the trading hall, all of them stretched out their long hands, eager to grasp all the stocks that still exuded the scent of ink.

At the same time, thousands of miles away, two hundred miles northwest of Manila, the sea was full of cannons and gunsmoke, like thunderclouds descending from the sky, and the thunder was denser than raindrops.

Through the pungent smoke and mist, I saw hundreds of warships divided into two sides, about to collide together. To the southeast, more than 50 warships stretched out in a horizontal formation, pouring artillery fire into the group of ships rushing down from the northwest.

"Rush down! Rush to the end! Crush the Spaniards' ship! ”,

On the flagship Golden Shark, Xiao Sheng shouted loudly.

This is the mouth of the bay called "Subic Bay" by the Spaniards, and Xiao Sheng's predetermined battlefield. After Hu Hanshan defeated the Spanish detachment, he went all the way south and held here. Then Xiao Sheng led the team to arrive, sent the three officers and soldiers of the right division of the Fubo army ashore, and captured the small port called Olongapo at the bottom of the bay without much effort.

The task of the Fubo Army was to hold on to this place and wait for the subsequent land of the army. Whether it can be held or not is not on land, but in the naval battle at the mouth of the bay.

This is the battle plan drawn up by Li Shi and Xiao Sheng at the same time, at this time, the Spaniards did not pay much attention to Subic Bay, built it into a military port, and set up cannons to guard the sea route, which was more than a hundred years later.

Olongapo is small, but it's a port that can load and unload supplies. From here, it lands southeast and plunges into Manila, less than 200 miles. This battle is to ask the Black Tiger to dig out his heart and fight the Spaniards head-on on land and sea.

The Spaniards reacted quickly, and within three days of the Fubo army coming ashore, they set up the temporary breastwork of the outer defenses, and the Spanish army had already arrived, and the Spanish fleet also poured out of the nest and killed the mouth of the bay.

Spanish Rear Admiral, commander of the improvised Manila fleet, Pedro, was both shocked and dismissive.

Shockingly, the Chinese people who "set sail for the water" advanced by land and sea, and their own side obviously underestimated the strategic intentions of the Chinese people who were determined to occupy Luzon and drive out the Spaniards. Looking at the sixty or seventy large and small battleships in front of him, the scale far exceeds the report of the cruisers that returned from defeat before.

What is disdainful is that although the other side has many ships, the formation is messy, whether it is the commander of the fleet or the captain of the battleship, it is obvious that he has no quality in regular naval warfare. In his opinion, this is just a bunch of pirates with good ships and guns. Spanish Navy, when will it be defeated by pirates?

Rear Admiral Pedro stood on the helm of the flagship battleship "Royal September" and directed the battleship to be arranged in an orderly manner, while another battleship, the "Rose of Verona", accompanied him. These two battleships are enough to crush each other's heavy bargaining chips, and then form the usual horizontal formation of the Spanish Navy, and the "pirates" of the unorganized "set sail" country will be completely crushed.

As his enemy, Xiao Sheng had no second choice, so he gave an order to break the opponent's position, divide the enemy with a large group of small ships, and isolate the two battleships of the Spaniards.

Xiao Sheng led two sea shark ships to charge forward, and another arrow went down in parallel, and the Yinghua battleship group, deflected from northwest to southeast, caught the upper wind, and fiercely cut into the Spanish ship formation that was following the downwind formation.

"The big husband is fighting! Come on! ”

Bai Yanding, who was really a pirate in the past, shouted happily, and took his wingman to march with Xiao Sheng's detachment.

"Boss Xiao and Big White Bird are so shameless! Took my flagship, and let me watch the show on the side!? ”

Hu Hanshan could only hate why the leader injured a Sea Shark ship, resulting in only four Sea Shark ships in the whole army participating in the battle. As a punishment, he could only find a turtle ship as his flagship, and he also lost the opportunity to lead the charge with a large ship. In such a magnificent battle, he couldn't rush to the front, which made him uncomfortable.

Xiao Sheng didn't know that his start was exactly the same as the beginning of the British Navy Admiral Nelson in the Battle of Trafalgar, and only God knew how it would end. And since the start is the same, the price of charging forward is naturally expensive. In order to gain the upper hand and insert themselves into the enemy's position, the four Sea Shark ships suffered dozens of shells, but they could not return fire because the bow of the ship was facing the enemy position.

A cannonball grazed the helm of the Golden Shark diagonally, splashing large pieces of debris and broken wood, under the impact, Xiao Sheng and his subordinates fell to the ground, Xiao Sheng supported his body and wanted to get up, but found that large pieces of broken wood on his back and shoulders penetrated deeply.

"Chief!"

The subordinates exclaimed in surprise, but Xiao Sheng stopped the move to lift him off the helm.

"Tie me to the mast, and I will stand in this battle......

Cannonballs rained down, the hull of the ship kept shaking, and the screams of the crew could still be vaguely heard, but Xiao Sheng's eyes no longer had a little emotional fluctuation.

"Flashing lights! Raise a flag! Honk! Tell all the battleships that after entering the battle, they will fight separately! ”

As the chief of the navy, what he can do is to aggregate all the resources given by Li Shi into combat power and put them on this battlefield. As the commander of the fleet, what he can do is set a strategy and pour out his strength. He has fulfilled both of these duties. Now that he is no longer able to control the battle situation, the only thing he can do is to let his fourth brother know and let his subordinates see that he, Xiao Sheng, is the commander-in-chief, and he will never flinch at all. Even if he was defeated, he had to see with his own eyes how the navy he had pulled up with his own hands for several years fought with glory and pride until the last moment. ,

Fight for yourself!

Four scarred Sea Sharks rushed into the Spanish formation, and the twenty-pound guns, which were more powerful than the Eurosian two-pounder naval guns, roared violently from less than two or three hulls of the enemy ships. The sea turtle ships that came one after another were like heavenly maidens, expanding to the left and right along the gaps in the Spanish ship formation. They worked in groups of two and bravely plunged down towards the formation of ships.

"Fighting on their own!? Good,",. "Rush! Rush up! ”

Hu Hanshan looked violent, and drove his turtle ship into the Spanish ship fiercely.

The Spanish ship formation was based on two battleships, and even if they were separated by more than a dozen ships and three or four miles away, the posture of those two battleships was clearly reflected in Hu Hanshan's eyes. is like two big men in a group of children, full of oppression. The blazing flames of the hull and the sound of the cannon were much longer and more powerful than their small ships.

The four Sea Shark ships led by Xiao Sheng and Bai Yanding came specifically to find these two battleships, but Hu Hanshan could see and hear clearly that the artillery fire of his four Sea Shark ships could not suppress these two battleships. When his turtle ship blasted a Spanish cruiser with twenty guns and turned the rudder, he saw with his own eyes the mainmast of a sea shark ship toppling down.

"What a funeral! Hurry up and clear the surrounding boats! Don't let them hold the hands and feet of Boss Xiao and Big White Bird! ”

The subordinates cried out in grief, Hu Hanshan shouted loudly, and then scanned the battle situation around him.

It's not good." Diao, Ajing, "Again." Peel "Your Majesty."