Zhu Qiang is the son of an ordinary wealthy family in Baoshan, Shanghai, because of his short stature, he was often bullied by the township when he was young, but he had great ambitions and was unwilling to live a dull life. Before the age of 20, he devoted all his possessions to the 16th Shop in Shanghai, and opened a shop to handle the trade between the North and the South Seas. He went to sea three times a year and accumulated tens of thousands of taels of silver. Later, he broke up with others, and built a large sand boat with his younger brother Zhu Qizhao. In the past few years, the number of sand ships has grown to 60 with more than 3,000 personnel. The Zhu brothers became legends in the Shanghai area.

In the tenth year of Xianfeng (1860 in the Western calendar), he partnered with the Americans to set up Qingmei Foreign Bank in Yantai, Shandong, and operated trade between Shanghai, Yantai and Tianjin ports. Fu also in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangdong set up Huayu, Fenghui Yinhao, undertake shipping for many years, as the general office of Zhejiang Cao Transport Bureau, shipping committee.

In the business circle of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, Zhu Qiang is not inferior to Hu Guangyong.

Li Hongzhang has been operating in Shanghai for many years, and has known Zhu Qiao for a long time, and if he wants to set up a modern steamship shipping company, the first thing that comes to mind is naturally Zhu Qiao.

Sheng Xuanhuai was only put into Li Hongzhang's command not long ago, as a talent to help Li Hongzhang participate in foreign affairs, his talent is extraordinary, highly appreciated by Li Hongzhang, and now only a year has been walking with the title of four-grade prefect.

He went to Shanghai to discuss with Zhu Qiao the affairs of the Steamship Bureau. Zhu Qiang did not agree to change the sand boat into a steamer, because it would cause thousands of shipwrights under his command to lose their jobs and would inevitably cause trouble. In fact, Zhu Qiang did not agree, and his cronies already had backlashers, otherwise how could Wang Qingtan hear some news and finalize Li Hongzhang's intentions.

However, Zhu Qiang's concerns will eventually be dispelled. Because the China Merchants Administration of Steamship has done it in history, there is no reason why Li Hongzhang can't do it now. What's more, in addition to financial reasons, Li Hongzhang's handling of the steamship China Merchants Bureau also took care of the transportation of grain.

Today's grain no longer takes the canal, but directly arrives at Tianjin Port. During this period, in addition to shipping tycoons like Zhu Qiang, many foreign companies also participated. Beijing is quite worried that China's shipping industry will fall completely into the hands of foreign companies, and that grain shipments will be constrained by others. That would be tantamount to Beijing being controlled by others. Although the current prime minister, Yamen, is still quite wary of preparing for the establishment of a new steamship enterprise. But Prime Minister Yamen could only instruct: the steamer must be owned by the Chinese. So much so that Li Hongzhang built yì 'official supervision and business office'.

"My lord, the news from Wang Qing is not optimistic. Swire, Jardine Matheson, and Changqi have joined forces, and even if Li Zhongtang sets up the General Administration of Steamship and China Merchants, it is two to say whether he can survive the two-year suppression. It would not hurt if the three of them were always nailed to the line from Shanghai to Hong Kong. I'm just afraid that they will suppress the China Merchants Administration of Steamship and come to compete with us again! ”

Fan Debang is the general manager of Qin Jun and the general manager of Liu Xian's specific business. You must know that many things in the officialdom and reality need to be finalized by Liu Xian, and for industrial matters, Liu Xian only sets a general policy. Vanderbang is the CEO who is specific to execution.

But now Fan Debang is obviously a little wrong when he says this. What does it mean that the three companies join forces to compete with Nanyang Shipping Company? That is the Nanyang Shipping Company to compete with Swire, Jardine Matheson, and Changqi. It must be known that as soon as the ten new steamships of the Nanyang Shipping Company arrived, the strength was only under the three companies of Swire, Jardine Matheson, and Changqi. The single refers to the Liangguang shipping area, and the strength is second to none, far away in Hong Kong's comprador Kwok Ganzhang, the so-called 'Hong Kong Chinese first-generation ship king' who delivered food and water to the British army in the first Opium War, and then settled in Hong Kong.

The real problem is that Liu Xian plans to develop the Guangzhou-Shanghai route together with the new ship, and he is taking the initiative to compete with foreign companies. But in the past, Liu Xian definitely did not expect that the three competitors of Taikoo, Jardine and Changqi would join forces strongly.

……

In the city of Tianjin, Li Hongzhang's mansion. At the same time that Liu Xian was considering the China Merchants Administration of Steamship, Sheng Xuanhuai also attracted Li Hongzhang's attention to Nanyang Shipping Company.

"Zhongtang, the two Cantonese ships used to be concentrated in Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Guangxi is isolated from the sea, there is no port, and naturally there is no such thing as shipping. The proportion of Lianzhou in Guangdong's shipping is extremely low, and it cannot be on the table at all. In addition to some of the commercial transportation in Guangxi Province to the west, the land route to the north is the inland waterway, which can reach Guangzhou along the river. No one will go to see the Lianzhou Mansion near the sea. After all, there is a difference in ownership. Now Liu Junmen has developed Hongji Port and Qinzhou Port, Guangxi, which can also be said to be the Sixing of Lianzhou Shipping.

In the past, Nanyang Shipping Company was profitable, but everyone can see clearly that the profitability of Nanyang Shipping is not driven by the commercial goods of Lianzhou and Guangxi, but purely by the strength of the Qin army. With Hongji Coal in their hands, there is no reason for the shipping company to lose money.

But now that there are ten new steamers, new routes must be opened. And Liu Junmen is not a family guard, he ordered ten steamers in one fell swoop, and he knows what his intentions are. ”

Li Hongzhang stroked his beard and meditated. "Xingsun wants to lure Liu to help?" Sheng Xuanhuai is not bad, if Nanyang shipping wants to expand, it must impact the three of Taikoo, Jardine and Changqi. Now these three companies have been staring at the China Merchants Administration of Steamship, but they have not paid attention to Nanyang Shipping Company.

The reason why it has not yet been half a minute, and even Swire is still doing its best to complete Liu Xian's order, is just to concentrate on destroying the steamship China Merchants Bureau first. After all, the route here in Shanghai is the main plate of these three foreign shipping companies. As early as 10 years ago, a foreign businessman said: Shanghai is the heart of China, and the rest is only the blood vessels that transport blood vessels to the heart. Swire, Jardine Matheson, and Changqi are the basic market for Shanghai, and they will not give in at all. The basic situation of the Nanyang Shipping Company is much smaller than that of the three foreign companies.

Li Hongzhang attached great importance to the threat of Taikoo, Jardine Matheson, and Changqi, but he would not give up the establishment of the China Merchants Administration of Steamships because of the alliance of these three companies. Even though Taikoo, Jardine Matheson, and Changqi tried to crush the China Merchants Bureau by drastically reducing freight rates, Li Hongzhang responded by borrowing official funds, allocating more grain, and transporting official goods. Just as the Nanyang Shipping Company undertakes 60% of the transportation volume of Hongji coal, the sailors in Qiongzhou Town contract 30% of the remaining 40%, and the sugar refinery in Guangxi, all of which are in the same vein.

The difference is only that Liu Xian has some money in his left hand into his right hand. Li Hongzhang used the money of the Qing government to subsidize the steamship China Merchants Administration. Of course, there is also a prerequisite for this - that is, there is no conflict of interest between Nanyang Shipping Company and China Merchants Steamship Administration. At least in the short term, there is no entanglement of interests.

"So Xingsun will go to Liuzhou." R1152