In addition to the Deutsch-Hua Bank, the foreign banks with which he came into contact were the Oriental Bank, the Favorable Bank, the Macquarie Bank, the HSBC Bank, the Banque de France, the Sino-Russian Daosheng Bank, the Yokohama Zhengjin Bank of Japan, and the Citibank of the United States.

When he borrowed money from every foreign bank, he asked the other party to keep the matter confidential, but in fact he did not mention this request, and the foreign bank would automatically keep it secret, after all, no one wanted their trade secrets to be leaked.

With the addition of the Dehua Bank, Xiao Zhenlei borrowed a total of 22 million taels of silver from these nine foreign banks in Shanghai, while he borrowed 13 million taels from the Qianzhuang industry in Shanghai, and he sent to take rubber stocks to major banks and banks to borrow 10 million taels, and these three items add up to a total of 45 million taels in his hands!

This is really a terrifying astronomical figure, even the richest red-topped merchant in the Qing Dynasty, Hu Xueyan, only controlled about 20 million taels of wealth in his heyday. Prior to this, no one had been able to borrow so much from the money banks and banking industries in Shanghai, and the market value of Xiao Zhenlei's Zhenhua Company and some other industries was only worth about 13 million taels at most.

However, the people in Shanghai didn't know about it, and Xiao Zhenlei injected all the 45 million taels into the Zhenhua Commercial Bank he opened, and then he was ready to do a big job.

Shanghai's financial industry was drained of blood by Xiao Zhenlei. In order to ensure that its bank was unexpectedly run, the money bank had to mobilize positions with other banks or banks. But these banks and banks have no extra money to lend out, and they have to borrow money from other banks and banks. Therefore, Qian Zhuangye had to mobilize funds from other cities to Shanghai, and foreign banks also had to mobilize funds from their own countries, but this took time, and the ability to mobilize funds was limited, because Shanghai was the largest financial market in the country at this time, how could other cities compare with Shanghai?

Ward Road Villas.

Xiao Zhenlei sat behind a desk in the study, and there were two thick stacks of newspapers on the desk, one stacked of foreign newspapers, including English, French, German, and Russian. The other stack is a Chinese-language newspaper. On the upward page of these newspapers there is a report circled in red pen, which is the same for both foreign-language and Chinese-language newspapers, but the difference is that the content keywords of the foreign-language newspaper report are completely opposite to the content of the Chinese-language newspaper report.

The British "Times" reported: "Due to pests and diseases in the United Kingdom, India and other places, cotton production has been greatly reduced!" ”

The French newspaper Le Figaro reported: "Due to the rainfall, the autumn cotton production in most European countries such as France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary today has dropped significantly compared with previous years!" ”

In addition to these newspapers, other newspapers, such as German and Russian newspapers, have reported on the decline in cotton production, albeit in very small lengths. Ordinary people don't pay attention to such news when they read the newspaper, but Xiao Zhenlei noticed these reports in the process of reading the newspaper.

Contrary to these foreign-language newspapers, Chinese-language newspapers have reported that this year's cotton harvest in most parts of northern, central, and eastern China has been bumper, but cotton farmers are not happy.

What does this mean? First. Cotton production is generally reduced throughout Europe, and there is a shortage of cotton, so it needs to be imported from China, a major cotton-producing country. Second. China's cotton harvest is bumper, but cotton farmers are not happy because cotton cannot be sold at a high price. If China's cotton is not exported, and the cotton is harvested. The price of cotton will definitely fall, but now Europe and the United States need to import from China because of the lack of cotton, and in this case, China's cotton still cannot afford to sell at a price, which is a problem.

In fact, this question has been in zài for decades, what is this problem? Since the domestic merchants engaged in the silk and cotton trade fought their own battles, the foreign merchants controlled the price power.

At that time, the red-topped businessman Hu Xueyan opened a silk factory in Shanghai, which cost 20 million taels of silver, and the price of raw silk fell day by day. In the history of a century-old enterprise, the first Sino-foreign business war began. At the beginning, Hu's collected millions of quintals of domestic new silk at a high price and gained the upper hand. Both sides have reached the limit of patience, and when they see the winner or loser, who knows that the "celestial phenomenon" has suddenly changed greatly. The sudden bumper harvest of raw silk in Europe and Italy, coupled with the outbreak of the Sino-French War, the market changed drastically, and the financial crisis suddenly broke out. The matter has come to this, and Hu Xueyan has no power to return to heaven. In the summer of the following year, he was forced to sell cheaply, with a loss of 10 million taels, half of his family assets were removed, the turnover was not effective, and the rumors spread everywhere. Bureaucrats in various localities competed for deposits and started extortion. In November, businesses in various places closed down, family property was sold, and Hu Qingyutang changed hands, announcing its closure. Then, the Empress Dowager Cixi ordered to be dismissed from her post and investigated, and the crime was strictly pursued.

The reason for Hu Xueyan's failure is not all because of the bumper harvest of raw silk in Italy and the outbreak of the Sino-French War, which caused the drastic changes in the market, resulting in the outbreak of the financial crisis, and not all because of his hoarding of raw silk and angered foreign merchants.

Everyone knows that Hu Xueyan is Zuo Zongtang's person, and the reason why Zuo Zongtang was able to climb to such a high position is inseparable from Hu Xueyan's financial support, and Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang have always been on good terms, and he unfortunately became a victim of Zuo Zongtang's political struggle with Li Hongzhang, and became a victim of Li Hongzhang's strategy of ranking left first and reversing left first.

In fact, it was Sheng Xuanhuai who carried out the execution to deal with Hu Xueyan, Hu Xueyan raised funds in advance to hoard raw silk, and before starting a Sino-foreign business war with foreign businessmen, he first asked Xi Zhengfu, the comprador of HSBC, to help him borrow a sum of money from HSBC, and then asked Shanghai Daotai to borrow a sum of silver from the Daotai Domain, and these two things happened to be known by Sheng Xuanhuai, Sheng Xuanhuai found Xi Zhengfu when Hu Xueyan was fighting with foreign businessmen, and asked him to come forward to find the manager of HSBC to find Hu Xueyan to recover the loan, and then came forward to say hello to Shanghai Daotai. After receiving Sheng Xuanhuai's instructions, Shanghai Daotai immediately found Hu Xueyan and asked him to return the silver of the Daotai Domain, you must know that the money of the Daotai Domain is the money of the imperial court, which cannot be misappropriated lightly, once it is found out that the head is light, Hu Xueyan did not dare to slack off, and immediately found a way to embezzle the last working capital from his own bank, Sheng Xuanhuai immediately sent people to spread rumors after learning the news, saying that the Hu family was deeply involved in the foreign business war, and all the money saved by the people was misappropriated to buy raw silk, and the raw silk was backlogged and could not be soldWhen the people heard the news, they were worried that their deposits had been lost, and they immediately rushed to Hu's money bank to run, and when things came to this point, Hu Xueyan's capital chain was broken, and bureaucrats from all over the country competed for deposits, and they started extortion. He couldn't hold on any longer, and a generation of financial hegemons was defeated.

Xiao Zhenlei has decided to have another battle with foreign businessmen since he discovered the mystery in the newspaper, and now he has 45 million taels in his hand, and he has abundant funds, which no one can match in Shanghai, and he has half a year to worry about being chased by the bank and the bank, because when the loan agreement is signed, the agreement stipulates that the bank shall not recover the money if the repayment period is not reached, otherwise he has the right to default and not repay.

There were two people standing in front of the desk, one was Cheng Yusheng, the general manager of the textile factory, and the other was Li Shulin, the assistant general manager of the electric light company, and they were all waiting for Xiao Zhenlei's instructions.

Xiao Zhenlei smoked a cigarette while looking at the telegrams, these telegrams were all taken from the provincial capitals, the telegrams were written about the cotton harvest in various places, and the people who took the telegrams were all members of the Iron and Blood National Salvation Society distributed in various provinces.

After reading all the telegrams, Xiao Zhenlei got up and walked to the window and pondered for a long time, just when Cheng Yusheng and Li Shulin felt that their legs were numb, and he finally spoke: "Has the money been remitted to the heads of the provinces?" ”

"The remittance has passed, and now there are ticket numbers everywhere, as well as banks, and they can be received soon, if the funds are insufficient, we can remit it again at any time, and it will not be delayed for long!"

"Very good, this time we must not let foreigners control the price of cotton, if we can't buy cotton to make cotton clothes, I think how many people in Europe will freeze to death this winter? Notice, starting tomorrow, all localities will immediately purchase a large number of cotton, as long as the price does not exceed 20 taels per quintal, how much to want, give me all the cotton that can be harvested on the market, if the price of each quintal exceeds 20 taels, immediately send a telegram to report the situation! ”

"Yes!"

Xiao Zhenlei began to sit in a high-profile village, after his instructions were issued, the price of cotton in the domestic market is a price a day, sometimes it is a few prices a day, cotton farmers see that the price has been rising, and they are not busy shooting, which can make those foreign businessmen engaged in the cotton business anxious, the longer the cotton farmers hoard cotton, the higher the price is naturally higher, if the foreign businessmen want to buy must pay more costs and funds than before, but the foreign businessmen have been urging them to buy cotton and ship it back to China. Now it has entered December, the tenth month of the lunar calendar, winter has come, and the temperature is dropping more and more. There is no cotton clothing on the market, so that the price of cotton clothing is constantly rising, you must know that the European winter is too cold at this time, and there is no thick cotton clothing. (To be continued......) R1292