Ye Zuwen picked up the napkin and wiped his mouth, then crumpled the napkin into a ball and gently put it on the table, Wang Zhenyu knew that this was going to talk to him about business. He also ate a piece of Italian macaroni with great interest, wiped his mouth gently, and then looked at Mr. Ye Zuwen with a smile.

Ye Zuwen: "Brother Zhang, brother, I have some acquaintances in the concession, and I am doing the business of this weapon, but I don't know how much arms Brother Zhang has in his hands?" If it's convenient, it's best to tell us what the source is? After all, there are some risks involved in this transaction. ”

Wang Zhenyu smiled and stretched out a finger, Ye Zuwen smiled faintly: "100? ”

Wang Zhenyu shook his head with a smile, still a finger, Ye Zuwen was a little surprised: "1000? ”

Wang Zhenyu continued to shake his head, then retracted his fingers and said slowly: "The new Hanyang made 10,000 pieces!" As for the way to come, Wang Mouming doesn't say code words, Mr. Ye, you'd better not ask, there are still some people and things involved in all aspects, and the less you know, the better. ”

Wang Zhenyu was a salesman in his later life, and he knew that in order to maximize profits, there were several points that must be paid attention to:

You must not tell each other everything, because cooperation and competition are actually inseparable;

Don't always tell lies, no sincerity is no business, nine out of ten sentences are preferably true;

Don't let people know your hole cards, sometimes the more mysterious, the better.

Hanyang made 10,000 pieces, hearing this number, Ye Zuwen was extremely shocked. Looking at the entire concession, the current arms added up may be less than one-third of this amount, and the annual output of the Hanyang Arsenal, which is known as the largest arsenal in the country, cannot reach this amount. What a big deal, is it real? Ye Zuwen's brain began to spin rapidly.

After human beings entered the industrial civilization, as soon as the cannon sounded, the golden ten thousand taels became an immutable iron law. This point is not exempt from vulgarity even if it is a revolution, otherwise when the revolution broke out, the father of the nation, Weishenme, did not return to China first, but went everywhere to raise funds and donations.

This Wuchang incident plunged the entire Qing Dynasty into chaos, and the already few military industries were divided into two, among which the most important Hanyang Arsenal in the south and the Shanghai Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau fell directly into the hands of the people's army from the beginning of the revolution. With the capture of Nanjing by the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai coalition forces of the People's Army at the beginning of this month, even the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau fell into the hands of the People's Army.

And what about the military industry in the north? The Beiyang Department headed by Yuan Shikai was firmly in his hands. Arms suddenly became scarce.

It is worth mentioning that after all, there are still a few people like Prince Qing Yixuan, and most of the Manchu princes are still struggling before the end of this dynasty. But no matter how much they tossed, it had little effect, firstly, most of the army fell into the hands of Yuan Gongbao, and secondly, all the weapons and ammunition were also mastered by Yuan Gongbao. Under this circumstance, how can the princes of the Zongshe Party who decided to protect the Qing Dynasty not be in a hurry.

In terms of the army, the princes took a fancy to two people, one was Feng Guozhang, who was crying for his father and mother in Wuhan, and the other was Zhang Xun, the acting governor of Liangjiang, who had fought with the people's army in Nanjing for several months. The princes have no power at this moment, so what do they have? Only those people who were scavenged by them when they were in power did not know whether to live or die.

Feng Guozhang has been replaced by Duan Qirui of the old Yuan faction, and now he can't count on it. Although Zhang Xun suffered a defeat and lost Nanjing, he retreated to the Huaihe region, but he still had thousands of men and horses under his hands, and the princes of several Zongshe parties supported him as soon as they combined. They decided to help expand Zhang Xun's army against Yuan Shikai, who looked more and more like Ao Bai in their eyes.

But to expand the army, you can't just have money, you have to have guns.

This can make the princes of the Zongshe Party sad to death, and the Qing Dynasty's own military factories were either seized by the revolutionary party, or dragged by Yuan Shikai in his hands. What is even more odious is that the consuls of Britain, France and other countries actually announced that they would not intervene in the Chinese civil war, and at the same time imposed an arms embargo on both warring sides.

The only way to do this is to find all the ways to buy weapons at a high price.

So there were a group of people in the concessions of Shanghai, Wuhan, Tianjin, and Qingdao who spoke the official dialect of the north, and these people were the backbone of the Zongshe Party and the special henchmen of the princes, and they were probably the kind of family slaves. They came to the concession for only one purpose, to get arms at all costs. Ye Zuwen also listened to his acquaintance, a friend who worked as a comprador at Latham & Watkins.

The foreign banks have made a fortune, and the original 40 yuan Hanyang made a piece for them to speculate for 100 yuan. It's a pity that there is no market like this. There are so many firearms in the hands of foreign companies, although they are trying to find ways to make munitions, but the effect is very unsatisfactory.

Now, the young man in front of Ye Zuwen actually said that he had 10,000 guns in his hand, or was it brand new, what did this mean? That's a million dollars! God, Ye Zuwen, who believes in Christ, sincerely thanks Jesus, you must have heard my prayer and sent me this young man in front of me to save me.

Ye Zuwen now looked at Wang Zhenyu's eyes and began to emit strange colorful light...... What Wang Zhenyu didn't know was that Ye Zuwen's life was really hard now. Since the establishment of Yip's Trading five years ago, the entire Yip family has been thriving.

Ye Zuwen is very cautious and very organized, and he is familiar with foreign trade business, coupled with the ability of his subordinates, basically every ticket is smooth. Although it doesn't make much money, it is rare to have a profit from all tickets. In this way, in the past five years, Ye Zuwen has been a rich man with a net worth of 600,000 yuan, although he dare not say that he is the first in this Hankou concession, he is also a well-known figure.

At the same time, in the Ministry of Industry of the Concession and the Yamen of the Governor of Huguang, Ye Zuwen is a delicate character in all directions, pulling the line in the middle, crossing the river and building bridges, and he has done a lot of things to facilitate transactions between all parties, and he naturally took no less commissions, and his connections have also increased over time.

Two years ago, the imperial court sent Ruicheng to serve as the governor of Huguang, and Ye Zuwen, who was eating the bowl of rice of officials and businessmen, naturally posted it again. As long as you are a trader, as long as you want to be big, it is impossible to be vulgar.

But the result of this post really corresponds to an old Chinese saying: blessings and misfortunes depend on them, and blessings and disasters accompany each other.

Relying on the special care of Ruicheng, the governor of Hunan, Hubei and other places, the military affairs, food and salary and governor (the full name of the governor of Huguang), the Ye family has been prosperous on the ground in Hubei for several years, and the name of the Ye family in the concession has become more and more famous.

Back at the beginning of this year, our governor, Lord Ruicheng, has been in office for a long time, and his courage is getting fatter and fatter. He actually handed over two very important purchases to Ye Zuwen, and Ye Zuwen was shocked at that time. Specifically, the Hanyang Arsenal needed to replace a set of military equipment, involving the manufacture of bullets and smokeless gunpowder; At the same time, Pingxiang Coal Mine and Hanyang Iron Works purchased a set of excavation equipment and a set of steel furnaces, which are all projects of Hanye Ping Coal and Iron Works and Mines Co., Ltd. This company is headquartered in Shanghai and has always been managed by Sheng Xuanhuai Shengda. However, after Sheng Xuanhuai was ordered to supervise the national railways last year, his term of office was about to expire, and Ruicheng was eager to make a fortune, so he still managed to find a way to catch these three major procurement items in his own hands. But after all, he is an upstart, and there are not many minions in his hands to use. As soon as such a large procurement project arrived, he naturally thought of Ye Zuwen, a person who had been a comprador and often tinkered with import and export business for himself.

The specific operation is not that complicated, how to operate there in Shanghai Hanyeping Coal and Iron Works and Mines Co., Ltd., there is no need for Ye Zuwen to ask, it is the matter of the Governor. Ye Zuwen was only responsible for talking to the Americans about the introduction of equipment, because Ruicheng also wanted to set up a cigarette factory in Wuchang, so he added an additional set of cigarette equipment, and all the problems were in the cigarette equipment.

The procurement contract signed by Hanyeping Coal and Iron Works and Mines Co., Ltd. and Ruicheng is as high as 10 million yuan, while Ye Zuwen only needs to pay 4 million yuan for the actual purchase, and the price difference is as high as 6 million, which is probably also Chinese characteristics.

Rui Cheng is not too dark, and he knows what it means to be a combination of grace and power. At that time, he promised to give one million of them to Ye Zuwen as a reward for his errands. And he Ruicheng took the lion's head of 5 million, and Ruicheng also knew that Ye Zuwen didn't have so much money to pay the advance, so he directly allocated 3 million yuan from the Huguang Governor Yamen and the new army to make a down payment for Ye Zuwen. This era is no more than the era of highly developed market economy and international trade in later generations, and the proportion of down payment deposits in commercial activities at this time is very high, accounting for almost 60% to 80% of the purchase price.

After the whole sale was negotiated, it became a contract with a total value of 4.5 million, and Ye Zuwen paid 3.5 million, of which 500,000 was advanced by Ye Zuwen with his own funds.

The Americans are also very trustworthy, and the goods were told that four sets of equipment had been shipped from the United States on October 9, which made Ye Zuwen excited to dream of becoming a millionaire.

It was really unpredictable, and no one would have thought that just one night, the day after receiving the telegram, the Wuchang Uprising, which shocked China and the world, broke out. Governor Mizumitsumi-sama fled overnight, and it is said that he fled to Japan to avoid trouble.

Naturally, this transaction became a headless case, and the biggest characteristic of Americans with German blood is that they like to strictly follow the contract. According to the original contract between the two parties, if Ye Zuwen could not effectively pay the balance of 1 million yuan before January 1, 1912, then sorry, the ownership of this batch of goods would have to be recovered by the United States, and the 3.5 million yuan paid in advance would also be lost.

Lord Rui Chengrui can leave him alone for now, after all, even if the Qing army comes back, this governor who escaped from the battle will also fall out of favor and castrate, and there will be no tomorrow. But there is a huge amount of 500,000 yuan in this advance payment, which is the Ye family's money, this is all the income that Ye Zuwen has worked hard for more than ten years, and it is really wasted.

The only feasible way now is to raise enough 1 million and get the four sets of equipment in hand first, otherwise the Ye family's defeat is just around the corner.

Everyone knows the truth, but the question is where is the money? Ye Zuwen used almost all of his connections to raise money everywhere. But as soon as the war ended, all walks of life were significantly affected, and tightening the monetary system was an inevitable choice for major firms. Ye Zuwen: This will be if he wants to, he can't borrow it. As for borrowing usury, you are not afraid of high interest rates and dare to borrow, but who can lend you 1 million usury, you must know the price of this era, 3 silver dollars can buy 44 catties of flour, 1 million, how many catties of flour does it have to be?

Ye Zuwen has been busy for more than a month, looking for all his relationships, but he still has no clue, and he is almost desperate at this time, and even this morning he has the idea of breaking the jar, but now Wang Zhenyu's unexpected appearance has brought him hope again.