Xiao Zhenlei thought about the method he came up with and then picked up the phone and called the general manager and editor-in-chief of Shumin Daily, but the phone rang for a long time and no one answered. Or socializing outside? Xiao Zhenlei hung up the phone and dialed again, this time to the newspaper's editor-in-chief's office.

The phone rang a few times and was picked up, Zhang Jirao's voice came, and sure enough, he was still working overtime, "Hey, I'm Zhang Jihuan!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei immediately said: "Editor-in-chief Zhang, it's me!" ”

"Mr. Xiao?" Zhang Jihuan on the other end of the phone was a little surprised, "Are you calling now???????? ”

Xiao Zhenlei pondered for a moment and said, "I have something for you to do, can you come to me?" ”

"Now?"

"Yes, now!"

"Okay, I'll come right over!"

"Wait!" Xiao Zhen hurriedly said, "Have you had dinner?" ”

Zhang Jihuan on the other side of the phone felt his stomach rumbling when he heard this, and said a little embarrassed: "This, not yet!" ”

"That's right, I didn't eat either, let's meet in the Chinese restaurant of Huizhong Hotel, and talk while eating!" After Xiao Zhenlei finished speaking, he hung up the phone, put on his coat, and then greeted Opiyin, who had already eaten, and drove out of the Xiao Mansion.

This time the matter is not trivial, if it is not for no other way, Xiao Zhen is absolutely amazing! I don't want to stir up the common people's daily, this is the only way he can think of now, using the power of public opinion! Whether this method will work, he is really not sure, but he is unwilling not to give it a try, you must know that he has made a heavy bet this time. Huge sums of money have been invested, and failure is a small matter. At most, he lost some money, but he didn't want to be laughed at by those foreign businessmen for not being able to do anything for himself. What's wrong with not being able to do it yourself? Now in terms of the abundance of capital, he is thinner than his family? If those foreigners hadn't taken advantage of the weakness of the Qing court officials, how could they be in the current situation?

This time he wants to use the power of public opinion to weaken the influence of the government on the people, for who to sell the cotton in hand, the government can not issue an administrative order, those Qing court magistrates are not all wine bags and rice bags, if this kind of thing has to be issued an administrative order, it will really be a big joke in the world, so the local officials are only on the notice to build a purchase point set up by the common people and cotton merchants to sell the cotton in their hands to foreigners. If the purchase price of the two parties is the same, of course, the people do not need to offend the government, sell personal favors, and sell the cotton to the purchase point of the foreigners, but if the price given by Xiao Zhenlei is slightly higher, the people will hesitate, but at this time, the construction of the government is very critical, if the price of the two parties is the same, and the outside world has a public opinion that is extremely unfavorable to the government. After the common people learn about it, they may resist the pressure of the government, this is the power of public opinion, the power of the people to resist the pressure of the government!

Xiao Zhenlei asked for a private room in the Chinese restaurant of the Huizhong Hotel, which was convenient for conversation. When he ordered all the dishes and ordered another bottle of liquor, Zhang Jiyao also arrived. He was not polite, and sat directly opposite Xiao Zhenlei.

Maybe I feel that Xiao Zhenlei may have something important to find him this time. Therefore, Zhang Jihuan just took a sip of tea and smelled: "Mr. Xiao, do you have something for me to do?" ”

"There's no hurry. We'll talk while we eat! Xiao Zhenlei said and took out a cigarette case and took out two cigarettes, threw one to Zhang Jihuan, and both of them lit their own, smoking while talking about the situation of the newspaper.

It didn't take long for the waiter to serve the food, and the dishes were quickly served, Xiao Zhenlei picked up the wine bottle and opened the lid to fill the two small wine cups.

"Come, let's go!" Xiao Zhenlei said and drank the wine glass, Zhang Jihuan also swallowed it in one gulp, this kind of small wine cup took a sip of a cup, and the two of them had no problem.

After drinking three glasses in a row, Xiao Zhenlei got up and closed the door of the single room, then turned around and sat down, picked up a peanut with chopsticks and threw it into his mouth, and said while chewing: "You are a journalist, and you should be sensitive to some things that happen in the outside world, I don't know if you have noticed that in recent days, there has been a price war between Chinese businessmen and foreign businessmen hoarding cotton for each other?" ”

"A war between Chinese and foreign business? It's kind of interesting, this is a fierce material! Zhang Jihuan was a little surprised when he heard this, he nodded, took a sip of the wine cup, put down the wine glass, put a chopstick dish into his mouth and chewed, and then said: "I got the news of the continuous rise in cotton prices a few days ago, and I felt that this matter was strange and strange, maybe there was an insider, so I sent reporters to various places to look for clues, but the reporters sent by our newspaper have not yet gotten the relevant details, and all have not been reported for the time being, what?" Could it be that the gentleman came to me this time to have something to do with this matter? ”

Xiao Zhenlei put down his chopsticks, lit a cigarette and took a few puffs, thought for a while before speaking: "That's right, in fact, the Chinese businessman who is hoarding cotton in the price war with foreign businessmen this time is me, and I am sitting in the village!" ”

"Mr. Xiao? You? When Zhang Jihuan heard this, it was like a kitten seeing a small fish, and his eyes lit up, and his reaction completely showed the excitement of being a journalist to dig up a heavy news.

"Mr. Xiao, what the hell is going on? Can you elaborate on that? ”

"What else would I do with you today?" Xiao Zhenlei was smoking a cigarette, and was thinking about where to start, when he saw Zhang Jihuan take out a small notebook and a pen from his briefcase at a very fast speed.

Xiao Zhenlei didn't care, and continued: "A week ago, by chance, I saw a newspaper brought by someone else from Germany, and that newspaper reported an extremely inconspicuous news, which said that this year, most other European countries such as Germany and France have greatly reduced cotton production, which is said to be due to the weather and rain, this report is very small, only the size of a tofu block, if you don't pay attention to it, you really won't see it, maybe others won't pay attention to such a news, But I saw that this was unusual, and then, in order to confirm my thoughts, I sent people to find other foreign newspapers, and I found English newspapers, French newspapers, and Russian newspapers, all of which had such a piece of news about the reduction of cotton production in my country, and I concluded that the authenticity and reliability of this news were beyond doubt! ”

After all, Zhang Jihuan is just a scholar, just a journalist, he didn't realize the importance of this news, nor did he realize the business opportunities in it, he was puzzled: "Sir, I don't understand a little, does this mean anything?" ”

Xiao Zhenlei said with certainty: "Of course, it can explain the problem, and there is a big problem, you should know that foreign businessmen have to buy a lot of cotton from our country every year, and transport the cotton back to China to be woven into cotton yarn or further woven into cotton cloth. In previous years, the price of one stone of our cotton was only two taels of silver, and at most it was only three taels, but the price of transporting that cotton back to be processed into cotton yarn or cloth and then transporting it back to our people was more than ten times the price of cotton.

"Hiss-" Zhang Jihuan involuntarily gasped when he heard this, "Is there this, so much of the price difference?" Just a little processing and more than 10 times? Oh my God, this is a money grab! ”

Xiao Zhenlei spit out a puff of smoke with a helpless expression, "No way, who made their textile machines and technology better than my country's?" If the people don't buy it, what will they wear? So although we know that the price is very high, we can only endure the pain, this is the helplessness of reality, this is caused by the gap in science and technology! This is also something that cannot be done for the time being! Let's go back to the matter of the reduction of cotton production in Europe just now, I just said, those news should be true, that is to say, now Europe is short of cotton, in the past their cotton can be self-sufficient, but this year can not meet their own needs, must import cotton from other places to meet the needs of Europe, but you see, some time ago, the export price of cotton on our side has not changed from previous years, but lower than the previous price, that is, regardless of whether Europe lacks cotton, They all harvest cotton from us at a price that is not much different from previous years, and we can't help but sell it, why? Because the foreign businessmen are united and powerful, and we can't digest so much cotton in China, we can only sell it to them if we don't want to rot at home, so they have the pricing power of cotton! And this year, our domestic cotton finally had a bumper harvest, is it so exploitative by foreigners? Those cotton farmers finally had the opportunity to make a lot of money, but they didn't make more money because the foreign merchants banded together to deliberately lower the price! What is the difference between this harvest and no harvest? Don't you think that's too unfair? Why should we be exploited by foreigners? Why can they grasp the pricing power and let them make a lot of money for themselves, and let our people be disappointed, but as long as this court has a little blood, a little bit of hardness, the people will not live so hard! ”

Zhang Jihuan kept smoking, from his deep affection and body movements, it can be seen that he is now very indignant and angry, yes, many things have no borders, but there is no doubt that journalists have nationality, Xiao Zhenlei's words just now made him very angry, angry at the shameless behavior of foreign businessmen who unscrupulously exploited the blood and sweat of the Chinese people.

He smoked a cigarette and cursed, "Damn it, these vampires are just too deceitful!" While cursing, he clenched his fists and slammed them on the table, the dishes and chopsticks on the table jumped up, and the soup and water were spilled everywhere. (To be continued......) R1292