"Congratulations, sir, you are now rich and rivaled."

Directly under the New Army Army Yamen, Wang Shizhen took the fund-raising accounts of the past month to Wang Chenhao. The accounts record the sales of 5 million shares issued by the Zhili Iron and Steel Company, raising a total of 50 million taels of silver, and you can feel its heaviness in your hand.

"It's all people's money, I just borrowed it for emergency purposes first, and I will have to pay it back to others in the future."

Wang Chenhao just smiled faintly, his face was calm just to give his subordinates a good impression, in fact, he was already happy in his heart. The money from the issuance of shares is not repayable, and the person who bought the shares cannot sell the shares back to the company, but can only sell them to the next company. In other words, Wang Chenhao used a shell company and five million non-cashable stocks to cash out 50 million taels of silver from a group of inexperienced rich people.

It wasn't until 1920 that China had its first stock exchange and related laws and regulations, and before that China's stock market was quite chaotic, and any company could issue shares to make money by buying off the government. Under the control of the feudal bureaucratic system of the Qing political axe, the shareholders did not have the right to manage the company, so how to use the 50 million taels of silver was only Wang Chenhao's own calculation, and the money was the same as his own.

Wang Shizhen is one of the few people who knows the inside story, hearing Wang Chenhao say this, what he feels in his heart is admiration, I am afraid that other officials have already rolled up the 50 million taels of silver and run away, who cares about the life and death of the shareholders?

"My lord is righteous and respectful."

Wang Chenhao smiled implicitly and said, "Rongma scholar is worthy of his reputation. I really didn't mistake you at the beginning, Shizhen, you are my lucky general. ”

Wang Shizhen bowed down and humbly replied: "It's all adults who are trustworthy and humble in their duties." It's just that the lowly job is not good at running the company, and this credit is the result of Cao Fuzhen's advice, without his help, it would be difficult for the lowly job to raise this money so easily. ”

"Cao Fuzhen really looks like he has two hits, I don't know what his character is?"

Wang Shizhen replied: "We are fellow villagers, and Cao Fuzhen has some personal problems, but he is still upright and can be entrusted with important tasks." ”

Wang Chenhao nodded and said: "Since it is Shizhen, your hair is small, honest and talented, and some small problems have nothing to do with the overall situation, so let Cao Fuzhen be the manager of Zhili Iron and Steel Company." ”

Wang Shizhen was stunned for a moment, Wang Chenhao did not hesitate for such a heavy task, and entrusted Cao Fuzhen with the important task just by listening to his words, which was obviously his full trust in Wang Shizhen.

"Your Excellency—"

Wang Shizhen was about to say something to think twice, but Wang Chenhao waved his hand to stop: "I treat you Shizhen as my right-hand man, I believe in you." ”

Wang Chenhao's words made Wang Shizhen suddenly irrepressible excitement, there were thousands of words to say in his heart, but he didn't know how to express the words to his mouth, and immediately lifted his robe to the end, and said loudly: "The adult treats Shizhen's kindness, Shizhen has nothing to repay. ”

That's what I want.

Wang Chenhao hurriedly stepped forward to help Wang Shizhen, and said with a happy face: "I have Shizhen to help, why worry about the big thing in the future?" Let's go out for a drink. ”

How big is the big thing in Wang Chenhao's mouth? Wang Shizhen doesn't know this, but judging from what Wang Chenhao has done in the past year, any of them can be called a big deal. Since he chose to follow Wang Chenhao, Wang Shizhen naturally hopes that Wang Chenhao can achieve greater things, so that he can also win a name in front of and behind him.

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Cao Fuzhen was reused by Wang Chenhao and appointed him as the manager of Zhili Iron and Steel Company, so much favor Cao Fuzhen was naturally grateful to Wang Chenhao, and meticulously implemented the things that Wang Chenhao had explained.

After having sufficient funds, Cao Fuzhen immediately carried out an overall plan for the company in accordance with the requirements put forward by Wang Chenhao, and implemented them one by one.

At the beginning of its preparation, Zhili Iron and Steel Company planned to establish a large-scale enterprise with an annual output of one million tons of pig iron and 200,000 tons of steel, and all the equipment and technical personnel required were imported from Germany. It is planned to build 6 large-scale steelmaking open-hearth furnaces of 100 tons, with an annual output of 200,000 tons of steel; 6 large-scale iron-making blast furnaces with a capacity of 700 cubic meters, with an annual output of 1 million tons of pig iron; 4 fuel plants with an annual output of 150,000 tons of coke, a large-scale slag plant specializing in the production of synthetic slag agents, and a preparation plant for the production of oxidants, reducing agents and carburizers; In addition, there are derivative factories such as forging mills and foundries that specialize in the production of various steel and iron products for domestic needs, and the overall first phase aims to meet domestic demand.

The construction goal of Zhili Iron and Steel Company is based on the design of the world's most advanced German Völklingen Iron Plant at the end of the 19th century, covering an area of 600,000 square meters, the whole project is expected to be completed in 28 months, with a preliminary budget of 35 million taels of silver, the first phase of the project investment of 20 million taels, the second phase of 12 million taels, and the third phase of 3 million taels.

The Verklingen Iron Works in Vörklingen, Sark, Germany, was the only integrated steel plant built and equipped in Western Europe and North America in the 19th and 20th centuries. Although the Zhili Iron and Steel Company was built in imitation of the Volklingen Iron Works, the original investment in the Volklingen Iron Works exceeded 100 million taels of silver, Wang Chenhao did not have so much money, and there was no need for that large steel plant in China for the time being, so the Zhili Iron and Steel Company was only a smaller version of the Volklingen Iron Works. Later, with the expansion of domestic demand and international competitiveness, it can be expanded again.

The factory of Zhili Iron and Steel Company is located at the southern foot of Yanshan Mountain in Qian'an County, on the bank of the Luan River, with a superior geographical location. It is 160 kilometers away from Tianjin in the west, 75 kilometers away from the Qinhuangdao estuary in the east, and less than 30 kilometers away from the Kaiping railway transportation line in the south. Raw materials are easily mined, allowing the various factories to be brought together. With abundant water, developed transportation, and proximity to Tianjin, the center of Beiyang, it has all the conditions of a heavy industrial base, and once completed, it is the most important in terms of economic benefits and strategic position.

The construction of a large number of buildings in the Qian'an area, the scale of which far exceeded that of the Hanyang Iron Works and Daye Iron Mine in Zhangzhidong, soon alarmed the Quartet.

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Shanghai, Jiangnan Machinery Manufacturing Bureau.

After Li Hongzhang ordered the Dengyun-class battleship from the British shipyard, Li Hongzhang personally went over to deal with a series of malaises such as the Dengyun-class battleship and the production of related maintenance equipment when the Dengyun-class battleship returned to China for service two years later, and at the same time in order to rectify the serious corruption of officials in the manufacturing bureau and a series of shortcomings such as the production cost of equipment being higher than that of direct outsourcing and perennial losses.

This is all thanks to Wang Chenhao's "Self-Blame Fold" some time ago, which violently criticized a series of shortcomings of domestic Western-style enterprises under the government-run system, although the original text was to criticize a series of factories set up by Zhangzhidong in Nanyang, and did not criticize Beiyang by name, but Li Hongzhang knew that Wang Chenhao saved face for him. Since the First Sino-Japanese War, a series of Western-style factories founded by Li Hongzhang for decades could not support the Beiyang Naval Division, and the relevant maintenance equipment and ammunition supplies were all choked by the foreigners.

Li Hongzhang has been away from Tianjin for more than a month, but he always pays attention to the work of Zhili, and reports it every day.

Recently, Li Hongzhang received all the information about the Zhili Iron and Steel Company. Since the failure of the Cizhou Iron Works plan, Zhang Zhidong's latecomer founded the Hanyang Iron Works, and his Lao Li dreamed of running a steel company every day, and the province let Zhang Zhidong see his jokes. But he has been running Zhili for more than 20 years, and he never knew that Qian'an County actually buried huge iron ore deposits.

Li Hongzhang immediately sent someone to verify the situation, and when he learned that there were indeed a large number of iron ore veins on the boundary of Qian'an, Li Hongzhang almost jumped up with joy. However, when he sent someone to investigate Cao Fuzhen's background, he unexpectedly learned that it was Wang Chenhao, which made him unhappy, because Wang Chenhao didn't tell him first.

Yang Shixiang was in charge of Li Hongzhang's intelligence sources, and he was unhappy when he saw that Li Hongzhang was unhappy, and he was also a little dissatisfied with Wang Chenhao's actions this time. However, Yang Shixiang was very optimistic about Wang Chenhao and cherished his talent, so he secretly sent a telegram to Wang Chenhao to report the matter.

Wang Chenhao realized this after receiving the telegram, and secretly said that he was a little too complacent, and now he was fledgling, and he had to rely on Li Hongzhang's support to develop his strength, and he must not make Li Hongzhang unhappy.

So Wang Chenhao immediately sent a report to Li Hongzhang in Shanghai, and honestly reported to Li Hongzhang about the construction of the Zhili Iron and Steel Company this month. and said that the reason why he didn't tell him first was because he wanted to surprise Li Hongzhang, and at the same time, because Wang Chenhao himself was not sure that it would be done, and he was afraid that he would not do it if he told Li Hongzhang first, and he would lose face. Now that it has succeeded, it will be reported to Li Hongzhang as soon as possible.

The telegram was sent to Shanghai, and after reading it, Li Hongzhang wrote most of the letter, and added Yang Shixiang to say good things to Wang Chenhao from the side, which made Li Hongzhang discouraged and called back to praise Wang Chenhao.