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Volume III: Aftermath 137 Continues the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway (Part I)

In Hong Kong, a familiar but not so popular guest came to Li Yutang's house, he was Chen Shaobai, and Sun Yat-sen, Yin Lie and Yang Heling were called the "Four Great Kou" by the Qing government, and they were an important figure in the late Qing National Revolution.

He is a good friend of Li Yutang, and in the past, in order to prepare funds, he ran the Li family very diligently. However, since he abducted the only young master of the Li family to die in the revolution, he has come to the door less often.

That was more than ten years ago, but now that I think about it, Chen Shaobai feels sorry for Li Yutang, the huge Li family, the family has a lot of money, and it is a pity that there is no heir.

He looked at Li Yutang, who was silent, and felt a lot of emotion in his heart, picked up the tea, and put it down heavily.

"When I was young and vigorous, I was bent on overthrowing the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and I didn't think too much about it, but now that I think about it, I still feel a little guilty in my heart!" Chen Shaobai sighed.

Li Yutang raised his head, his squinted eyes opened a lot, glanced at Chen Shaobai, and lowered it again, Chen Shaobai's words aroused the pain in his heart again. After a pause, he said in a deep voice: "I can't completely blame you for this matter. Every man has his own life, and did I not stop him then? It's been so long, so let him pass! ”

"Hmm." Chen Shaobai nodded, took a sip of tea, and stopped talking.

"Is there anything you have to do with this time?" Li Yutang asked.

"I heard you're going to build a railroad? Is there such a thing? Chen Shaobai asked. Recently, there have been rumors that the Bank of Guangdong organized gentry and businessmen to raise funds to build the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway to connect Guangdong Province with the Hunan section, which has attracted the attention of public opinion.

"Hmm. Indeed! Li Yutang nodded, a little curious why Chen Shaobai suddenly asked this question.

"Is that enough?" Chen Shaobai said again.

"It's fine!" Li Yutang looked at Chen Shaobai with some vigilance. Every time he talks about money, this guy takes money from himself, although he is greedy for a penny, but for a long time, Li Yutang feels like an unguarded ATM, Chen Shaobai can take money without an account password, because he has the word revolution written on his head.

Seeing the vigilant appearance of his old friend, Chen Shaobai suddenly suddenly, feeling that his image was too deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. He smiled bitterly and said, "Don't worry, I didn't care if I asked for money this time, I sent you money." ”

"What do you mean by that?" Li Yutang was stunned, raised his head, and looked at Chen Shaobai with some consternation, as if this guy was a little abnormal today?

"I just sold the steamship company, I have some money, and I just heard that your bank is going to invest in the railway, and I think it will cost a lot of money, so I will see if I can help?" Chen Shaobai said and sighed lightly, "I owe you, I can't pay it off in this life." It's a little bit of my care! ”

Chen Shaobai took out a check from his pocket and handed it to Li Yutang.

Li Yutang took a look, good guy, 500,000! For Chen Shaobai's generosity, Li Yutang had to be impressed.

"Who did you sell the company to?" He asked.

"The British wanted it too, but I sold it to a Nanyang merchant, and now the West Pier has become the Nanxing Steamship Company." Chen Shaobai said. After the success of the Xinhai Revolution, he resigned from his official position, devoted himself to the cause of transportation, and founded the Guangdong Airlines Company.

"Southern Star Steamship Company?" Li Yutang's heart brightened, Chen Shaobai unknowingly sold the company to Meihua, and his Guangdong Bank Company was also a partner of Meihua Company, which was really a coincidence.

Li Yutang smiled slightly, put down the check, "I can't ask you for this money!" You might as well stay and do something else! ”

"Why? I know that although your bank has developed well in the past few years, building railways is not an ordinary thing, and the more funds you have, the better. It's a big deal, my investment! Chen Shaobai became anxious when he heard Li Yutang's refusal.

"You have received your kindness, but this investment is not trivial, you may not make money for several years when you invest in it, and you may lose money, so thank you." Li Yutang insisted.

"What do you still have to do in the bank if it doesn't make money? It's not ?????? Chen Shaobai said that there was a pause here, this already involved trade secrets.

"Don't worry! We will give out part of the money, but most of the money is from others. Li Yutang smiled. Then he asked, "Are you still messing with those people?" ”

"What do you mean?"

"Don't you always think about brain revolution?" Li Yutang reminded.

Chen Shaobai immediately understood, it turned out to be those people in the Alliance. He smiled and said, "All these years of disturbance, you come and go, I have seen through it, in fact, I am not that important." Besides, I'm a handful of old now, do you think it's possible to go and finger mold to be loyal to someone? I'm old, I'm going to see you this time, and I'm ready to go back to the countryside. Over the past few decades, I have received a lot of help from the villagers, but unfortunately I have not been able to do anything for them. ”

Chen Shaobai smiled faintly, feeling suddenly enlightened. He was a native of Jiangmen, Guangdong, and when there was a revolution in the past, he ran around to prepare funds and raised a large amount of money from villagers in Xinhui, Taishan and other places. It was the funds of overseas Chinese that contributed to several vigorous revolutions in the late Qing Dynasty and laid the foundation for the later Xinhai Revolution.

"Can I do me a little favor?" Li Yutang looked at Chen Shaobai, and felt a feeling of "crossing the catastrophe and brothers, meeting with a smile and enmity".

"Please!"

"Help me with the construction of the railway. We have set up the Preparatory Committee for the Guangdong-Hankou Railway, and we are in need of a well-connected, flexible-minded, and prestigious person to make contacts. Li Yutang said, "Now that the chairman of the Guangzhou Protector Military Government is Cen Chunxuan, he has a wide range of people, and with his support, the railway matter will be more certain." ”

"What? Do you want me to go to Cen Chunxuan's butcher? Forget it, you'd better kill me! Chen Shaobai shook his head again and again. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the three most important feudal officials Zhang Zhidong, Yuan Shikai, and Cen Chunxuan were respectively called Qian Tu (very good at spending money, no bottom), Ren Tu (suppressing the Boxer Rebellion), and Guan Tu (severely cracking down on corruption).

Cen Chunxuan's ups and downs in the sea, several ups and downs, are as vicious as hatred with him, and the corruption of officialdom is the most invisible. When he was the governor of Sichuan, he impeached 300 officials at one time! Almost all the directors of the neighborhood office were impeached.

When he was the governor of Liangguang in Guangdong, it was even more excessive, and 1,400 officials followed his path and obediently went home to farm. Therefore, the officials under his rule all talked about Cen Sebei. Such a person was really a big outlier in the officialdom of the late Qing Dynasty! It's so terrible that the name of Guantu comes from this. (If he were to be put in charge of the party in a hundred years, it is estimated that half of the party's officials would die, and the remaining half would have defected to foreign countries.) ）

As for why Chen Shaobai is afraid of Cen Chunxuan? That's because someone in Hong Kong offered a reward of 1 million taels of silver to buy Cen Chunxuan to step down. The charm of silver has a fatal temptation for Chen Shaobai, who worked hard to raise revolutionary funds, and he used the remake technique to take a photo of Cen Chunxuan, Kang Youwei, and Liang Qichao, and they looked like they were talking happily.

Although there is no computer, Chen Shaobai's PS technology is still quite powerful and vivid. At that time, it was the time when Cixi killed Guangxu and killed the reformers, Chen Shaobai sent the photos to the newspapers in Shanghai, and suddenly put Cen Chunxuan on the cusp, well, mainly under the knife of Lafayette. Who doesn't know that she hates the royalists the most, but fortunately Cen Chunxuan's brother Li Lianying (who is a brother with the eunuch?) After all the rounds, Cen Chunxuan saved his life, otherwise??????

Although after so many years, Cen Chunxuan is not easy to pursue now, but he is still very weak when Chen Shaobai walks in front of Cen Chunxuan. Now that people are in power, who knows if they will be in a bad mood??????

Thinking of this, Chen Shaobai's heart tightened, and he looked at Li Yutang with some grievances. But this is the first time in decades that an old friend needs his own help, and he can't bear to refuse.

"Yutang, you better let me go! There are two people I am most afraid of in this world, one is you and the other is him, you are all my nemesis. Chen Shaobai said pitifully.

"Haha! I didn't expect you to be scared too? Li Yutang laughed heartily, "Don't worry! Guangzhou City is about to fight, and Cen Chunxuan's scenery will not be a few days away. Someone from the official side of the railway will come forward to deal with it, so you don't have to worry about it. Just kidding you. ”

"That's good!" Chen Shaobai felt relaxed for a while, just now he almost agreed to the request that made him "frightened". Listening to Li Yutang's tone, as if he knew that something big was going to happen in Guangdong's political arena, Chen Shaobai immediately became sensitive, this old friend rarely asked about these things before, and this time it seems a little different.

"Yutang, do you have something to hide from me?" Chen Shaobai asked.

Li Yutang looked at Chen Shaobai's clear eyes, and said in a deep voice: "Liangguang is going to fight, the Guangdong army is going to fight back, and the Gui army is going to withdraw from Guangdong, and then the whole Guangdong will let us control it." ”

"We? Who are you? Chen Shaobai asked, he found the secret.

"It's pretty much the same as you've done before, but it's very different. We're ready to experiment with something on our own turf. Li Yutang said, "Do you remember Situ Meiden?" You used to go to the United States to ask for money. You'll know when you see him, but I hope we're on this side this time. ”？？？？？

After a night of deep talk, Chen Shaobai sighed with emotion. "I'll just say why Jiangmen has developed so rapidly in recent years, and at the same time, a large number of young people go abroad every year, and they are all organized to leave. When they came back a few years later, they were either hairy, or they were strong and capable, and I was secretly surprised by the changes in between. You're in a big game! I didn't expect that I had been running for half my life, and when I was old, I realized that my pattern was still small. ”

"Yes! That's all I have left for now, let's talk about teenage madness! Li Yutang sighed. The light in his eyes shimmered, he had no children, no daughters, no worries, rather than waiting for old death, it was better to be vigorous.

"Alright! Count me in, let me go crazy with you again! I may not be able to help with the railway, but I can still use my old bones in the revolution. I hope this old face is still useful. Count me to you. Chen Shaobai said with a smile.

Situ Nan humorously referred to Li Yutang's move as a "sunset revolution". After a generation of wealthy businessmen from Nanyang and Guangdong joined as partners of the Meihua Company, many people joined the Zhi Gong Party.

For the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway, Meihua Company has done a lot of work behind the scenes. First of all, the U.S.-China company used a foreign banking group to open up the relationship between the Ministry of Communications of the Beijing government, Cao Wu and Feng Zhang jointly governed, and just drove out Duan Qirui, they all need foreign support, and it is also a good thing to build a railway, so they don't need to pay a penny, why don't they agree?

The Department of Communications is a major faction in Beiyang, including the 'Old Transportation Department' headed by Liang Shiyi and the 'New Transportation Department' headed by Cao Rulin.

He also holds the leadership of railways, steamship shipping, telephone and telegraph, postal services, and other undertakings, and also controls large banks and enterprises such as the Bank of Communications, Jincheng Bank, Zhonghua Huiye Bank, Yanye Bank, Zhengfeng Coal Mine, Zhongxing Coal Mine, Beipiao Coal Mine, Liuhegou Coal Mine, Longyan Iron Mine, and Wutong Navigation Company.

Therefore, the warlord factions such as the transportation department and the Anhui Zhifeng faction constitute the two major factions of the Beiyang government, one literary and one military. Because of its heavy interests, the Department of Communications, or the Ministry of Communications, is also a relevant department that is particularly prone to betraying the country. If a foreign company wants to build the Guangdong-Hankou Railway, how can the Ministry of Communications say no? Moreover, more than ten years ago, the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway signed a contract with the British and American consortium.

Zhao Hengti, the overseer of Hunan, was controlled by Wu Peifu, so it was easy for the Meihua Company to settle Zhao Hengti and get him to agree to build the Hunan section of the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway.

Zhao Hengti agreed, and the squires of Hunan also agreed to build the railway, but there were different opinions on who should build it, involving foreign companies and other troubles.

The same is true for Hubei. Song Weicheng, Liu Xinsheng and other leaders of the chamber of commerce expressed their welcome for the construction of the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway, but the interests of national capital should be considered.

This is a very troublesome matter. As the initiator, the Meihua Company has to negotiate with all parties, and the transaction compromise involved cannot be said in one or two sentences. Even Situ Nan wondered if he was asking for trouble, and the same thing was done in a dictatorship country such as Venezuela, as long as the government was in place. But in China, the U.S.-China company has to face a basket of negotiating opponents.

According to Situ Nan's design, the construction of the Hubei-Hunan section of the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway will be jointly undertaken by China and foreign countries, with foreign banks and China holding half of the shares. Situ Nan estimated that this would be acceptable to both sides.

Citibank is easy to talk to, after all, the American company is a latecomer, it came in under the banner of open doors, and it just wants to make money, and there are not many other requirements, and it rarely asks for the right of way and mining rights, just like the Meihua company.

Just imagine, after the road is repaired, it is not difficult to obtain the resources on both sides of the railway with the advantages of foreign companies in terms of capital, technology and other aspects, as long as a part of the profits are given to Chinese businessmen.

Isn't this the case with the so-called Sino-foreign joint ventures? The so-called 50% of the Chinese shares are often controlled by people from the upstream and downstream, and finally become a link in the production chain of others.

The so-called persistence is just a matter of face. However, the construction of railways and economic development are also good things in terms of a certain process.

HSBC initially made a number of excessive demands, but after being rejected by Meihua and the Chinese side, it asked for half of the shares, and only agreed to leave no less than one-third of the shares to the Chinese side.

This is not the year of Gengzi. Wouldn't it be in vain for the British to let the British do this? Although most of the interests are controlled by foreign companies in the end, at least you have to look good on your face!

On several occasions, the negotiations broke up unhappily. In order to convince the stubborn, greedy British, the American Chinese Company constantly reduced its share, but the British just didn't nod. This made Lin Yimin, who was in charge of the negotiations, very mad, and wanted to hang the stubborn British.

Fortunately, after a long period of hard work, things finally progressed.

On this day, Lin Yimin confidently walked into William's Garden with the joy of success on his face. He walked briskly into Situ Nan's study,

!d@t

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