After several waiters put the tea and juice in front of Yan Shao, Li Liang, Duan Qirui and others, they were silent and quietly withdrew from the conference room, leaving only the top level of the more than ten national social governments in the room, discussing national affairs...

Seeing that the waiters had already gone out, he sorted out the text in his hand, and Gu Weijun was the first to speak.

"Just got the news from Washington that the ban ......... It seems that it has been confirmed that it will be executed, but the exact time is not yet known..."

In fact, the first person to find out about this news should have been the Special Affairs Bureau, but it is obvious that the special nature of the Special Affairs Bureau cannot negotiate with the US Government. After learning of the situation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs came forward to make some representations with the US Government.

In the past, because of the common enemy of Japan, the relationship between the government of the Kuomintang and the United States government has always been good. In addition, successive presidents have received the support of the Yushi Group, and there are some friends in the US government who can speak.

This time, the minister to the United States contacted these people and wanted to know the details of the ban and whether it was possible to stop it.

As mentioned earlier, at this time, China actually already had the ability to produce smelting equipment, but after all, it had just begun to master, and the production capacity was also very weak. At present, when the initial 'Seventh Five-Year Project' in China, the smelting equipment that was ordered has basically arrived, so you don't have to worry about this, but what next?

Including Xiangshan Iron Works, there are currently nine large-scale steel plant projects in China, of which Hanyang Iron Works and Xiangshan Iron Works are expanded, while others such as Anshan Iron Works and Benxi Iron Works are under construction. Because of the current sharp increase in the demand for steel in the Entente countries, the Ministry of Industry has begun to consider the issue of expanding the scale...

Nine large steel plants were expanding at the same time, and the smelting equipment required was definitely not a small amount. What's more, in addition to these nine. There are also many private capital in China that intend to invest in the steel industry, such as the Guizhou Qingxi Iron Works mentioned earlier.

Qingxi Town in Yuan County, Guizhou Province is rich in mineral resources, with iron, lead, zinc, phosphorus, silicon, copper, gold, and calcite distributed throughout the town, especially limestone with good quality and large reserves. This is also the reason why there are people in history who built an iron plant in Qingxi, even earlier than the Hanyang Iron Works in terms of time.

In addition to Qingxi Iron Works, there are also private capital in some other areas that intend to invest in iron works.

To run an iron factory, you need to have smelting equipment. Otherwise, what kind of iron and steel will be used?

But now that Europe is bustling, it is impossible to import smelting equipment from Europe. At present, the only country that can import is the United States. But it is clear that relations between China and the United States have become somewhat unavoidable after Japan has been crippled, and the Foreign Ministry has not received very good news from the United States. If the United States had issued such a ban...

"Trouble..."

――――――――――――――――――――

Rubbed his head. Yan Shao felt a little headache.

At present, China is in a state of ruin, although it is not impossible to rely on itself, but it is certainly not as quick as 'internal and external repair'.

At this time, Zhang Jian also stood up from his position, just trembling, but people couldn't help but worry that he would fall to the ground.

Because of his high prestige in China, Zhang Jian now holds the post of Minister of Commerce within the Nationalist Government. There is no way, in fact, Yan Shao has always felt that Zhang Jian is not suitable for this position, which can be seen from his failure in business.

That's right. In the beginning, Dasheng Yarn Factory was indeed very profitable, before Yan Shao founded Yushi. It is also the largest private industrial group in China.

But to be honest, the old people are really not very good at business.

At the beginning, Dasheng Yarn Factory made money, but the diversification that took on the later days made Dasheng bear a heavy burden, and it can be said that almost none of these diversified projects made money. In addition, I don't know what to think, Zhang Jian has never included depreciation in the cost, and the provident fund is even less pitiful, and the first and second factories are only 1.2 million taels together, and every time they make a full profit, they leave very little.

The problem is that Yan Shao has no suitable candidate in his hands at all, and Zhang Jian's business is booming at this time, and he is not at a low point like in 22 years, and the reputation of the people is very high, so Yan Shao can only choose him as the Minister of Commerce.

Having said that, although the old gentleman is in his 60s, it seems that he is not a small official addict. When the government of the National Society was established, Yan Shao had just said hello to him, and he immediately ran from Nantong to Beijing by boat, and even his big life in Nantong was put down...

Although he is over 60 years old, Zhang Jian's body is very strong, and after coughing lightly, he took a document and raised his voice. "According to the information of our joint investigation by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Industry..."Speaking of this, Zhang Jian glanced at Huang Hao, nodded for a moment, and then continued. As a result of the war, there was a massive decline in steel production in almost all the countries of the Old World, especially those directly related to the war, and the demand for steel in these countries was also increasing day by day, so if we could take advantage of this opportunity to develop the steel industry, then there would be no need to worry about sales as in the past..."

The people here who Zhang Jian said just now are no strangers, especially Yan Shao, the information in Zhang Jian's hand was brought back from the Old Continent by the Special Affairs Bureau, and of course he knows what is written on it.

There is no way, who called the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Industry are departments that have just been established for a short time, let alone foreign countries, and even the domestic situation has not yet been figured out, and it is impossible to have the ability to find out the industrial situation of various countries.

Only the Special Affairs Bureau, a special department that has been developing since the Anhui period and receives large sums of money every year, has the ability to carry out operations in various countries.

According to the information obtained by the Special Affairs Bureau, the steel production of the major belligerents in the Old Continent has almost all fallen in some way because of the war, and it is clear that the impact of the war on these countries is very great.

Russia, for example. The 'European Steam Roller' on the Eastern Front produced 4.79 million tons of crude steel in 1913, according to the forecasts of the Special Bureau. Affected by the war, Russia's crude steel output this year can be maintained at 4.7 million tons is already very good―――――― you must know that in the past, Russia's crude steel production has been in a state of growth, from 1900 to 1913 in 13 years, a total of 2.581 million tons...

This is already relatively good, and in the second year of history, in 1915, Russia's crude steel production even fell to 4.116 million tons. The worst was in 1918. Only 402,000 tons of the original output of more than 4 million tons remained, and in 1919 and 1920 only 199,000 tons and 162,000 tons remained...

Historically, Germany has been affected by 18.935 million tonnes of crude steel. In 1914, it dropped to 14.946 million tons, and the following year it fell to 13.258 million tons...

The most affected was France, with a production capacity of 4.678 million tonnes in 1913, compared to 1.59 million tonnes in 1900. That is, 13 years. France's crude steel production increased by more than 3 million tons, but by 1914 it fell to 2.802 million tons due to the impact of the war, and the following year it fell to 1.111 million tons...

Even the United States, which had not yet participated in the war, also because of the war, crude steel production fell from the original 31.8 million tons to 23.89 million tons, but the following year, that is, in 1915, because the demand for steel in the Old World quickly skyrocketed to 32.66 million tons, and in 1916 it rose directly to 43.46 million tons...

As for the United Kingdom, which has never been mentioned...

Although Britain was also a major belligerent. But since the homeland has not been damaged much (some empty ships or something, it is not yet possible to create any decisive problems). As a result, Britain became the only remaining steel growth country among the participating countries.

From 7,787,000 tons in 1913, to 7,961,000 tons in 1914, to 8,687,000 tons in 1915 and 9,136,000 tons in 1916...

Although this is not a large number compared to Germany, it is quite a large number considering that Britain is one of the major belligerent countries.

However, it can also be seen from this that the Entente countries really need steel to the extent of the demand.

After all, the steel production of Russia and France has fallen a lot, and someone has to fill this part, plus the demand for steel increased dramatically during the war. As I once said, at this time, there is no need to worry about the sales of steel at all, and this is also the most suitable period for the development of industry.

At present, China's crude steel production has reached more than 2 million tons (Xiangshan Iron Works, Hanyang Iron Works, etc.), and if this opportunity can be seized, it will not be difficult to surpass Russia and France before the end of World War I, and it may even be close to British crude steel production.

But this first requires Yan Shao to be able to build a steel plant, otherwise, it can only be regarded as empty words.

"That's it..."With a hint of fatigue on his face, Yan Shao raised his glass and took a sip. Later, a telegram was sent to the United States to prevent the United States government from complying with the ban as much as possible. At the same time, Minister Huang..."

Looking at Huang Hao, Huang Hao, who served as the Minister of Industry, stood up consciously.

"At the moment the Ministry of Industry is in charge of these projects, and later you can contact the companies in the United States and ask them to speed up the delivery and make sure that the goods are delivered before 1915..."

Speaking of this, Yan Shao said with some joy. "Fortunately, the original liquidated damages were high enough, otherwise..."

Since the liquidated damages were set high enough, those American businessmen naturally had to be more careful. What's more, now that the government has only paid some advance payments, and there is still a large amount of money to be paid, those businessmen are probably in the same hurry in this case.

In fact, there are still some solutions in Yan Shao's heart, although they can't completely solve the problem, but it's okay to delay for some time. But this kind of thing is definitely not something that can be said in public, so after everyone discussed it for a while, Yan Shao got up and left the conference room, and the others also left the room one by one, intending to return to their own department.

They also have a lot of things to do every day, and of course they can't stay here all the time.

More than a year after its establishment, the division of the state and social government departments at this time was actually relatively detailed.

Initially, such as the period of the Nanjing Provisional Government. At that time, the Cabinet consisted of only 10 departments.

Such as the Ministry of the Army, the Ministry of the Navy, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Communications, the Ministry of Industry, and the General Staff.

By the time of the Beiyang government, the number of departments had increased to 11.

Most of them remained unchanged, mainly because the industrial division was divided into the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.

And the national government at this time. If you count one special bureau, there are 19 departments, but the special bureau is not in the cabinet, so there are only 18 departments.

Compared with the Beiyang period, the government of the Nationalist Republic of China mainly had more Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Science and Technology Research, Ministry of Industry and Commerce became Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Industry, and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry became Ministry of Agriculture.

As for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the eyes of people in Yan Shao's time. The Ministry of the Interior is usually somewhat linked to a department such as the Special Service. In international police terminology, the term is generally used to refer to the police services of some countries in Central and Eastern Europe and the CIS, because the 'Ministry of Public Security' in these countries is called the 'Ministry of the Interior' (theInteriorMinistry). Within the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Further down the system, there are also the General Directorate of Internal Affairs, the Internal Affairs Bureau and other institutions. Such internal affairs agencies also tend to have a large number of paramilitary forces, commonly known as Interior Troops.

But in reality, in the early days of China, the Ministry of the Interior had similar powers to the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The difference is just the name. There are also some differences in terms of authority. At that time, the Ministry of the Interior was originally established by the Nanjing Provisional Government and was under the jurisdiction of the President. The head is the general chief, with the deputy minister as the adjutant, and there is a government department, which is in charge of the secretary-general, and there are six departments of civil governance, police affairs, etiquette and education, civil engineering, Xinjiang management, and health, and each has a director. After the establishment of the Beijing government, the Ministry of the Interior and all ministries were part of the cabinet. The Seichi Office was renamed the General Affairs Office. There is no secretary-general, and it is still divided into six divisions. The name was slightly changed, the people's rule was changed to civil affairs, etiquette and religion were changed to etiquette and customs, and Xinjiang was changed to the title of the staff. For three years, it was changed to four divisions: civil governance, policing, staffing, and performance appraisal (appointment, rewards and punishments, and inheritance of local officials). The following year, the ceremonial division was added.

However, because Yan Shao set up a separate Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Civil Affairs no longer has police responsibilities.

In addition to the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Science and Technology Research, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Public Security, and the renamed Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture, there are also new ministries of clean government, water resources, and urban construction.

That is to say, the government has added a total of seven departments (the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Commerce are from the industrial department, so one should be cut), of which the Ministry of Water Resources will not say, after all, whether it is farming or others, water conservancy is a very important item, and for example, flood control, drainage, etc. are also related to the Ministry of Water Resources.

The Ministry of Urban Construction, at present, most of the slightly larger cities in China, are carrying out some expansion projects, the least is to renovate the main roads in the town, and the most, not only roads, but also water, electricity, housing and even underground waterways, etc., which need to have a more professional department to be responsible.

From a certain point of view, although the Ministry of Urban Development does not seem to be a very powerful department, it is currently the busiest department among the eighteen departments, after all, there are too many cities that need to be managed, and it is estimated that there will be no way to stop in ten or twenty years.

The Ministry of Science and Technology Research, you can know what it does when you hear the name, but what is really surprising is that the head of this department is concurrently served by Yan Shao. And this is Yan Shao's initiative to ask, there are many people who originally aimed at this department, some of them are not as famous as Zhang Jian, but they are also well-known scientists. But since Yan Shao asked to be the head of this department, others naturally had to give in.

And Yan Shao's reason for asking to be the minister of this department is also very simple, although he is just an ordinary person in the later life, but after all, he knows the development direction of science and technology in the later generations, and he is worthy of the name of this minister―――――― so he can be a guide.

And because Yan Shao had made a lot of inventions in the early days, the scientists in the department were more convinced of Yan Shao.

As for the Ministry of Integrity, there is no need to say more about what exactly this department does.

When this department is built, the most surprising thing is probably not anything else, but the choice of the head of this department...

Song Jiaoren...

If you want to work in the Ministry of Integrity, you must be smart, after all, if you are not smart enough, how can you fight those corrupt officials. But more importantly, this person must be upright, otherwise if a person who has problems in his own right is put in charge of the Ministry of Integrity, it is basically impossible to expect this department to produce results.

Song Jiaoren may be relatively naïve in politics, but Yan Shao is absolutely trustworthy in terms of character. What is particularly important is that at present, the Kuomintang government is dominated by the Kuomintang Socialist Party, and it is obviously difficult for people from the same party to supervise each other, after all, no one can escape the word 'favor'.

The National Socialist Party is like a tree, and in addition to living to the end, there are usually only two reasons why a tree will die, one is because of external forces, such as slashing with an axe or burning with fire, etc., and then there are insects inside the tree.

Moth.

It may not be much at first, but when there are enough bugs to hollow out the tree, that's when the tree is alive.

The problem is that the tree itself cannot get rid of bugs, and even some defense mechanisms are of limited use, at most to alleviate some situations, in which case a woodpecker is needed.

In Yan Shao's eyes, Song Jiaoren is this woodpecker.

Song Jiaoren is not only not a member of the National Socialist Party, but at the same time he is an upright person, and he will not do dirty things for the interests of the party, such as cleaning up insects and pecking at trees in a mess.

Let such a person lead the work of the Ministry of Integrity, how can Yan Shao not be at ease.

What's more, it is impossible for all of the people in the Ministry of Integrity to be Song Jiaoren's people, and at the same time, there is also a special bureau to monitor, even if something really goes wrong, it can be solved in a short time. (To be continued......)