Doing business in the Qing Dynasty is actually a tiring thing, because the so-called centigold system, from the initial 100 miles to 1, has already broken through the boundary of "one", as little as 2 or 3 percent, as much as 4 or 5 percent. The problem is that taxes need to be collected when landing in one place, and taxes are also charged when transporting a centicard, so a businessman can imagine the weight of taxes when buying and selling over long distances. However, whenever he sees this, Wang Yi will always unconsciously think of the so-called highway toll stations in later generations, and the feelings of the family are in the same vein as the centijin system at the end of the Qing Dynasty.

However, how to say that later generations are also stronger than the end of the Qing Dynasty, the most important of which is that the highway toll booth can discriminate against domestic merchants and foreign businessmen together! There is no specialization! At the end of the Qing Dynasty, however, there was a lot of money, and after the unequal treaties were signed, the great powers only had to pay 5% of the customs duties to the Qing Customs, led by the British, Hurd, and then they no longer had to be charged local fees. The entry and exit of this quickly wiped out the local advantages of local merchants and the cost advantage of the Qing Dynasty's cheap labor, and gave the foreign powers conditions and privileges for dumping products in the Qing Dynasty......

As an aside, if you live in the late Qing Dynasty...... Dude, if you want to buy an Iphone or ipad3, can it be cheaper?

It is precisely because of the difference in the tax system that Wang Yi firmly acquired most of the shares of Qichang Foreign Company, on the one hand, he can obtain stable domestic and foreign trade shipping capabilities, and on the other hand, he can be regarded as obtaining a free gold license.

The big merchants are now taking two trade routes, one is the real foreign trade, exporting the high-tech products of the big merchants themselves to foreign countries. The other is the export to domestic sales route, but this is also an expedient method after being forced to be helpless.

Wang Yi himself has nothing to worry about tax evasion and disguised tax resistance, and he is very at ease. He did not harm the common people, but only indirectly put the centigold that should have been taken away by the local government of the Qing court back into the pockets of the people. Most of the products of big merchants have no foreign competitors, and many of them do not even have foreign competitors, so it is not possible to talk about hitting local businesses.

Dashang's income in the past few years is very gratifying, relying on the brand of Qichang to walk the north and south of the Qing Dynasty. However, the most profitable ones are not those product manufacturers, but the silver furnace of Dashang.

Since the discovery of extremely large-scale silver mines in the western part of the Americas in 1873, the major powers have successively implemented the gold standard, and the demand for silver has gradually decreased, which has led to a sharp decline in the value of silver around the world, and the gold-silver ratio of the Qing Dynasty has obviously not kept up with the changes in the world.

Li Yuzhen took advantage of the backward situation of unreasonable comparison of silver coins in the Qing Dynasty to turn the river and the sea in it. He used the brand of Qichang Foreign Company, and at the end of 1876, he began to gradually start the copper furnace business similar to the nature of silver furnaces in the Qing Dynasty. The silver furnace was originally used to smooth out the different fineness of the silver and caused the difference in value, but now the Qing Dynasty indiscriminately issued auxiliary coins to make money, and finally became different colors and prices between different types of copper coins.

What Li Yuzhen did was to use the abundant silver resources of the merchants themselves to purchase all kinds of high-priced copper coins, which were generally copper coins before the Qianlong Dynasty, and millions of strings could be purchased from Hubei every year.

Some of them were transported back to Yingkou, and the merchants could extract about one tael of silver from each string of copper coins, and the gold and silver in them were retained by the merchants, and the remaining copper pieces were either sold to the factories that needed the copper bullion, or sold back to various places for money production. Because after such an acquisition, the circulation of copper coins in the world will be reduced, and the price will rise. Therefore, in the process of selling copper nuggets back to various places, the big merchants can also make another copper price difference.

As for the other part of the copper coins, Li Yuzhen kept them in the local area to engage in the business of exchanging huàn between different copper coins, and could earn a small amount of difference. In this process, the Dashang Silver Furnace would be built, and each merchant would use the silver dollars minted by the Dashang themselves as an intermediate medium of exchange. To put it simply, it is to recommend the use of Dashang silver dollars to merchants across the country. However, in the very beginning, not many people actually choose this method. Generally, merchants who have trade relations with the three eastern provinces or have trade relations with Qichang will choose this method. However, over time, with the gradual rise of Dashang Qichang's business in various places, coupled with the fact that Dashang Yinlu began to open new branches in major treaty port cities across the country, and from time to time also provided small loans to local governments to improve its own reputation. Gradually, the common people discovered that the price of the Dashang silver dollar seemed to be relatively stable, far better than the use of inferior copper coins issued by local governments.

The first of these two policies implemented by Dashang Silver Furnace in the country is short-term high returns, and the second is to control the financial control of the Qing Dynasty. Of course, the second is not something that can be done in the short term, and with a bunch of foreign competitors, there is a long way to go.

That being said, the Dashang Silver Coin now has quite a name!

In the sixties of the nineteenth century, foreign banks set up 11 branches and agents in Shanghai, and their main business was to handle foreign exchange for foreign businessmen. Later, with the development of the economy, China's local money banks needed to inject capital in order to expand their scale. One of the main sources of funds is the credit loans provided by foreign banks, which are settled every two days and generally have an interest rate of 7%. When local banks lend to other physical merchants, the interest rate is 10%. There is a difference in the middle, and this is the source of profit pursued by local money banks. It is precisely because of this difference that local money banks are gradually being controlled by foreign banks.

In June 1872, the export of tea silk from the Qing Dynasty entered the peak season, but suddenly there was a foreign bank holding 8 or 900,000 taels and refusing to release it. The scale of foreign banks' credit loans to local banks in Shanghai is about 3 million taels, but now it has been cut off by nearly one-third. The interest rate suddenly rose to one tael five, which is equivalent to an annual interest rate of 49%. At the same time, foreign merchants also began to raise the exchange rate, so as to exert pressure on the Chinese merchants who exported silk tea, and in the case of extremely heavy interbank rates, they had to start selling their bills of exchange, as a result of which the export of silk tea was halted in 1872.

At the beginning of 1873, according to the previous practice, the Shanghai money was released in the spring, and the new silk was returned after the opening. As a result, in May of that year, the interbank rate rose again, hovering at one or two 4 for a long time. And because of the financial crisis in Europe and the United States, the silk tea was unsalable, so Qianzhuang was unable to recover the loan. At the peak of loan recovery in September, foreign banks suddenly announced that they would refuse loans and threatened to withdraw all the credit loans that had been taken out. At this time, the interest rate soared to 2 taels 8, which is 90% per annum. So at the end of the year, there were fifty or sixty stores in Shanghai, with a loss of 2 million taels of silver, and the number of openings in 1874 was less than half of that in 1873.

In 1872~1873, the actions of foreign banks may have been due to the self-protection actions of the financial crisis in Europe and the United States, but then they began to eat the marrow. After several attempts, we began to find the law of Shanghai's financial market. When the amount of silver in the market exceeds its needs of more than 300,000 taels, the daily interest rate is 2 yuan, or 8% per annum, but once the foreign bank withdraws the bill, the daily interest rate will immediately increase to 1 tael, or 33% per annum.

In 1878, the silk tea trade became dull again, the money village was dragged down, and the foreign banks contracted to lend 2 million taels, and the market immediately panicked. By the end of the year, twenty or thirty Chinese money banks had closed down. In 1879 trade picked up, but in May the foreign banks began to do it again!

At this time, Dashang Yinlu saw the opportunity, suddenly entered the market on a large scale, and used Dashang silver dollar as a means of payment, and joined hands with Qichang Foreign Bank, not only to purchase raw silk from all over the country at a low price, but also to lend loans to local merchants in Shanghai, as well as more than 10 big money banks with friendly relations with Dashang. In just a few days, the Dashang silver dollar has become an important payment currency medium in Shanghai from its original auxiliary status. The low-priced raw silk that was purchased was shipped to the newly established textile production base in Andong (Dandong), Mukden, and then their low-end textiles began to be sold in Korea, Southeast Asia and the Qing Dynasty, and the mid-section textiles began to be shipped to Japan for dumping, squeezing their local production enterprises, while high-end textiles entered Europe and the United States. In addition to raw silk, Qichang also acquired some of the finest new tea, which was processed and some of it was left in the northeast, and some of it was transported from the Bedounatong guò caravans to various parts of Mongolia to compete with the dwindling Dashengkui.

After the sudden intervention of big businessmen in Shanghai's financial market, it not only seized a part of the market share, but also effectively ensured the stability of Shanghai's financial market. In just a few days, the newcomer Dashang Bank won the goodwill of all walks of life in Shanghai. Ding Xiaoyu, the president of the Shanghai branch of Dashang Bank, has also become a well-known local figure, often attending some fundraising charity dinners, which are warmly sought after by rich daughters and socialites.

Wang Yi is now holding the financial report of the third quarter of 1881 submitted by Qiu Yan'er, looking at the operation of each factory, and he is very pleased. But see the overhead later...... He was very sad again, it was too expensive to fight!

Speaking of which, the Outer Northeast Battlefield was now in a strange state, and Skobelev deployed his three corps from south to north and east in turn, and deployed them on the west bank of the Gelbitsy River and the Ergun River. This is the border between Qing and Russia that year demarcated by the Treaty of Nebuchu. To the east of the Gelbiqi River is the Outer Northeast Region, and to the east of the Gelguna River is the territory of the Heilongjiang River.

Just as the Central Asian butcher was about to show his strength on the land of the Qing Kingdom, God seemed to play a joke on him, and the continuous rain caused the two rivers to flood. His three-way army is powerless in the face of such a situation. And taking advantage of this opportunity, Zheng Haitao even asked people to put up barbed wire on the east bank of the Gambitsy River, and constantly built bunkers and trenches, so angry that Skobelev could cry out in vain and could not do anything.

In contrast, Rajetz is more comfortable, he has come to the north side of the Trans-Khing'an Mountains, and there are two paths to choose from:

The first is 1649~1658 Khabarov * Stepanov, along the Ulkma River through the Outer Khingan Mountains, but if you take this line, you will go out of the Outer Khingan Mountains to the west side of the Gelbitsy River, unless Rajets wants to meet the Skobelev army, otherwise he will not choose this side. And the second is that in 1643~1646, Boyakov chose to cross the Outer Khingan Mountains from the south of the middle road.

According to the telegram sent back by the reconnaissance team that crossed the border into the north side of the Outer Khing'an Mountains, Rajecs chose the second route, which was consistent with the judgment of Wu Xiao and others.

In order to gain time for the establishment of an interception position, Wu Xiao sent 500 people, armed with Bao 1 carbines, Bao 1 general machine guns, Bao 1 sniper rifles, 60mm mortars, explosives, and mines, divided into five company squads, and began to attack and harass the Rajec army that entered the Outer Khingan Mountains.

After entering the Transkhinganlin, Rajetz's army began to be unlucky, and the five squads were all in charge of middle-level officers who graduated from the military academy, which made the Russian army frequently overwhelmed and anxious.

Just now, a bullet shot from nowhere almost killed Rajetz, if it weren't for the sudden need to relieve him and get off the horse. It's three to five seconds slower...... Looking at the young staff officer whose head was shattered, Rajetz himself did not dare to imagine.

"These cowardly and despicable mosquitoes, what an abomination!" Rajetz pretended to be calm, comforting the somewhat flustered military around him. But having said that, he no longer dared to sit on his horse and wander among the infantry. This is clearly death!

"Rest assured, those bandits only dare to use this kind of sneak attack, as soon as we get out of the mountains, they will become cowards who lick* the shit on the soles of our shoes. Let's get up to speed! ”

Before they had gone three miles, the advance troops had just crossed a narrow mountain road between two mountains, and the follow-up artillery units had walked into it in less than half an hour. Rajetz heard several earth-shattering noises from the mountains in the distance.

Half of the hill beside the mountain road was blown down, and an artillery unit, which had been alive and well a few seconds ago, was overwhelmed by the boulders that were falling all over the sky in an instant. Except for the flying dust, there was no trace of it, and there was no sound at all.

In the distance, there was another fierce gunfire in the mountains, which was the direction of the vanguard of the pathfinder on the Guò mountain road, and now it seemed that they were also very lucky!

The captain of the fifth field squad, named Peng Changjin, was burly and had camouflage painted on his face. He was followed by a fellow villager named Yin Tian, who was tall and thin. The rest of the warriors were hidden in the mountains and forests, and like Wang Yi, they did not have braids.

Yin Tian said at this time: "The explosives of the second squad have just buried seven or eight mountain cannons of the Russians, and the third and fourth squads have also completed the siege of the remnants of the front road, and have now withdrawn to the south. The first squad is monitoring the movements of the Russian army. We are now in the rear of enemy troops, what are we doing? ”

"In the place where the north has just entered the outer Xing'an forest, it is the Tianhe Beach, and the Russian army has built a temporary grain depot."

"But there are five hundred Russian troops stationed there! It was equipped with a Hatch Kes machine gun that Russia had purchased from France......" Yin Tian said with a frown. "The main thing is that there is an open space around and there is no cover! How can we rush over there with a hundred of us? ”

"I didn't say who hit ...... there"

"What do you mean?"