In the tenth year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty, in 1871 in the Western calendar, Germany was so high-spirited at this time. =.Their army marched into Paris this year, and their king was crowned emperor in Versailles, the pride of France.

Little Germany was united, and the new Second German Reich became the new overlord of the European land routes. It has completed the historic transformation of European politics from a supporting role to a leading role.

What a place to be proud and proud of such an achievement for the people of this country! For a country, for a nation, what an inspiration! Their people are proud of their country and proud to be German.

Inspired national cohesion, national cohesion; Soaring national self-esteem, national self-esteem. All Germans are passionate and confident, and they are full of energy.

At this moment, in Huo Guangzheng's eyes, the Germans should be like this. The whole city of Hamburg is full of energy and vitality. Where is it like China, the twilight is gloomy, mourning. Too many people are confined to a fixed mold as soon as they are born, and go through their poor lives. Too many people have lost the confidence and courage to strive for progress, and they are living in the endless twilight. Compared with Germany in Huo Guangzheng's eyes, China is like a pool of stagnant water.

There are too many confinements and dogmas that bind people, and people dare not look up into the distance. Slowly, people no longer look up, forget to look up.

Of course, the vastness and prosperity of the Port of Hamburg also shocked Huo Guangzheng. When I entered the port, I looked at the steamers moored on the water, and looked at the modern freighters that were many times larger than Chinese sailing ships. His whole body was wooden.

Because the entire port of Hamburg covers an area of nearly 70 square kilometers, which accounts for 1/5 of the total area of the entire city of Hamburg. There are more than 20 large and small wharves here, which can berth hundreds of large cargo ships at the same time. The water depth of the channel is also more than 11 meters at low tide. Huge ships of several thousand tons can also easily sail from the North Sea to the port along the 120-kilometre Elbe channel. The port has more than 100 international routes to Asia, Africa and the United States, and maintains contact with hundreds of large ports in the world, and is known as "Germany's gateway to the world".

Huo Guangzheng's most familiar big port before was Guangzhou, compared with the two, how big the gap is, and where the gap is, it can be imagined. Although on the way to Europe. He has also been through many large ports, such as Alexandria in Egypt, where the Suez Canal was opened two years ago. The passenger ship they were on was via the Suez Canal. But Alexandria, although larger and more prosperous, also had quite a few sailing ships inside. Where like Hamburg, you can hardly find a sailboat. All are steamers.

The current Huo Guangzheng is very aware of the power of the steamer. Thinking about the Nanyang Shipping Company prepared by Liu Xian, there are only six small steamers, and then look at the scene here, you can know how huge the shock in Huo Guangzheng's heart is. Because he sees an almost irreparable gap. [When Huo Guangzheng left, the shipping company had not yet been established]

"Martin, this is General Liu's assistant, Huo." Angela. Merkel introduced Huo Guangzheng to the person sent to greet him at the headquarters of Lihe Foreign Bank. "This is the senior business Martin of the headquarters of the foreign bank. Philikol. Then he introduced Huo Guangzheng to the person opposite. The translator on the side paused for a moment and translated to Huo Guangzheng.

"Mr. Martin!" Huo Guangzheng stretched out his hand. The etiquette of shaking hands in Europeans. He's still acceptable. What is not acceptable is hugging, kissing the face and kissing the back of the hand, especially when it comes to men and women. In Huo Guangzheng's eyes, it was really immoral.

"Mr. Huo." Martin and Huo Guangzheng met for the first time, but they were not familiar with Angra. Merkel, like her, directly called Huo Guangzheng 'Huo'. "We welcome you. I believe that you will have a pleasant journey in Germany. ”

"I hope it is as you say, Mr. Martin." Huo Guangzheng solemnly said this sentence to Martin.

The formal trade agreement between Qin Jun and Lihe has not yet been formally signed, and all they have signed before is a commercial memorandum. If the Qin army was not satisfied with the machinery of Lihe and the foreign company, it would be able to completely overturn the previous covenant. Of course, this is something that neither side wants to see.

A big business of millions of taels of silver, a big business that Lihe & Co. has never encountered since the establishment of a merchant house in Guangzhou in the 40s. After all, the China of today is not the China of 20 years from now, and the Germany of today is not the Germany of the First World War.

At the end of November 1871, the life of a group of Chinese in Germany began. At the same time, Lihe also began his own activities in Germany, not for the steel mills, but for how to stuff the hundreds of students requested by Qin Jun into various schools in Germany.

This is the second business that Lihe Foreign Bank received from Qin Jun. Hugh is just a group of international students operating, and the interests and emotional investment during the period are not something that Lihe Foreign Bank, which has not yet fully developed, can refuse.

……

The gaze turned back to the country in the East.

In Hongji Port, bags of rice have been unloaded from more than a dozen old-style canton ships, and in the distance, more than 20 small and large grain carriers are berthing or sailing away. On the other side of the wharf, there are countless laborers carrying bags of rice onto the six Nanyang Shipping Company steamers docked aside.

The chimneys of the six steamers were all emitting black smoke, and they had already started a fire. As soon as the last bit of rice is loaded, they will take advantage of the sunset to embark on a long journey of thousands of miles.

High-quality polished rice, two pieces of eagle and three stones. Indochina is truly an incredible blessed land. Vietnam's national situation has obviously rotted into what it is now, and the rice produced in Zhongqi and Beiqi is not only enough for people to eat, but also can be traded abroad in large quantities, and the price of rice is incredibly low. Of course, this reason is not only because of Vietnam, but also because of the bumper rice harvest in Siam [Thailand] this year, the domestic rice price has plummeted, which has brought a lot of pressure to Vietnam, and then the rice price of Vietnam's foreign trade has to be lowered.

Rice, which is traded abroad every year, is a major source of income for Vietnam and Siam. The price of rice in the two countries has a profound impact. And the rice trading is so lucrative that Liu Xian can't help but come up and get a piece of the pie. Hongji Coal and so on, let the sailors in Qiongzhou Town work harder. Although the current sailors in Qiongzhou Town are really going to be transferred to ship sailors. But the soldier has the money, and he is not pleased.

Qi Dalin's Qiongzhou battalion also recruited thousands of people in Hainan, organized and trained into two integrated brigades, and stared at the name of the Yong battalion in Qiongzhou Town under the battalion headquarters.

For a whole month and a half, six steamships traveled between Vietnam and Guangzhou and Shanghai, transporting no less than 300,000 stone of high-quality polished rice, deducting costs and transportation expenses, earning a small 300,000 yuan for the company. By the time of the New Year, Liu Xian had already placed an order for ten more steamships with Swire & Co. It has only been three months since it was officially put into operation, and the capital of Liu Xian's 200,000 taels of silver has been recovered.

Nowadays, how many businessmen in the Liangguang area still don't know that Nanyang Shipping Company is a hen that lays golden eggs? Although there are some wealthy people who are ready to sing in their own classes. However, some people who have money but no power, or who are inconvenient to show their heads in person, have taken shares in Nanyang Shipping Company.

This company, which had only 200,000 taels of silver shares three months ago, has now expanded to more than 500,000 taels. In Hongji Port and Qinzhou Port, they have their own wharves and warehouses. It's just that because of Liu Xian's 'strength', the profits of Nanyang Shipping Company for at least ten years of Tongzhi are still owned by Liu Xian himself.

And taking advantage of the expansion of shares, Liu Xian invested the money he earned into more than 100,000 taels of silver. Not to mention the intangible assets of the shipping company, just real gold and silver, it maintains its share at more than 50% of the total capital. The ten steamers he had ordered from Swire would no longer be the smaller ones he had before, they would be much larger. With a total capital of 7,800,000 taels of silver, Nanyang Shipping Company has also become one of the first-class shipping companies in the Liangguang area. Because in addition to the traditional Chinese shipping gangs, there are also many foreign shipping companies. For example, Swire & Co., Ltd., which Liu Xian ordered a steamer, is mainly engaged in the shipping industry, and organized the China Aviation Company four years ago, with a total capital of more than 1 million pounds. In addition, there are the Jardine Steamship Company and the Qichang Steamship Company, which are not comparable to the current Nanyang Shipping Company.

And Liu Xian also heard that Li Hongzhang was also preparing to establish a shipping company, that is, the historical steamship China Merchants Bureau. This is almost a year ahead of history. It should have been stimulated by the Nanyang Shipping Company.

Of course, this news was reported to the Military Intelligence Department by Wang Qing in Shanghai, and then the Military Intelligence Department relayed it to Liu Xian.

From the time he was sent to Shanghai to today, Wang Qing has not seen Liu Xian for many years. Even, his appearance became blurred in Liu Xian's mind. However, today's Wang Qing's position in the Qin military system is becoming more and more important, and Shanghai's position in the military intelligence department is also second to none.

The shape of Shanghai is complex. Wang Qing's ability to stand firm can be said to be his own ability, although his current identity is still black and shiny, and he can't be on the stage. But that's only because the Manchu Qing Dynasty still has some strength, and if they don't follow the same class as the Republic of China, those who mix black can become so-called 'tycoons'.

But Wang Qing's roots are very deep, and he has a lot of contact with all walks of life. The amount of news reported by the Shanghai station every day is twice as much as that of the rest of the military intelligence department's substations combined.

For example, this time Li Hongzhang's incident. The Zhang family, who had many ears in the court, did not hear any news, but Wang Qing came to Shanghai from Li Hongzhang's staff Sheng Xuanhuai to meet with Zhu Qiang, the Shanghai shipping tycoon, and got some clues.

In the intelligence industry, you may really need talent. But does Wang Qing have the talent for this? Why did he come to Shanghai? What did he do before?

Regarding Wang Qing's recent achievements, Liu Xian only has two points. One is forced, and the other is excited.

What was the situation of the Wang family at the beginning, no matter how hard Wang Qing worked, there would still be a prosperous day for the Wang family? It was the persecution of the cruel reality and the belief in his heart to revitalize the Wang family, both of which prompted Wang Qing today! (To be continued......)