Shanghai, within the British Concession. (Full text reading, all in. (.i. Want. Wen. Learning Network)

At the door of a three-story house, two signs were hung at the same time, one was the China * International Commercial Bank, and the other was Huasheng Textile Factory.

The reason for this situation is that these two well-known companies headquartered in Shanghai belong to one person, Sheng Xuanhuai.

If it is said that in the late Qing Dynasty, which city in the mainland of China is an economically active area, then it must be Shanghai, which is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River for only a hundred years, because the Yangtze River waterway shipping has become increasingly important and has become busy.

This is the first generation of China's early open city, there are too many concessions of foreign powers, there are also a large number of buildings with European and American styles, the streets and alleys of foreigners go back and forth, even if the Haimen across the river has been controlled by China, it has not been able to curb the vigorous vitality here, but because it is a bridgehead for northern capital to enter, it seems to be more and more prosperous.

In addition to those profit-seeking foreigners, there are also some Chinese businessmen who work hard here, among which the famous one is undoubtedly Sheng Xuanhuai, who defeated Hu Xueyan and was known as Li Hongzhang's small treasury.

But today, the representative of the Chinese businessman seems a little absent-minded.

In particular, the depositors who saw the long queue at the bank gate to run on the bank were two big heads, and their brows were worried.

He was not worried about the current situation in the south, in fact, he was very satisfied, because the emperor had appointed him as the minister of commerce, and he was responsible for liaising with various countries to do business in China, which gave him a lot of room for development, and Hua on the other side of the river was obviously still busy with Mongolia in the northwest and north, as long as they could be dragged there for a few years, then the unified regime in the south would grow rapidly, and it would not be impossible for the United Westerners to recover the rivers and mountains!

But just when the officialdom was proud, his business suffered a very big twist and turn, the raw silk business snatched from Hu Xueyan encountered the embarrassment of upstream farmers unwilling to sell, and the bank and mining business at the beginning encountered an unprecedented predicament, the other shareholders of the mine almost all resisted him, the headache is the bank, and I don't know who revealed the depositor information, at present, a large number of people began to absorb deposits directly from the depositors at high interest rates, and then those deposit receipts came to Shanghai to concentrate on the run!

That's a big problem! Depositors are the root of the bank, and now others are directly working on the root, and the sudden run on the bank has forced him to withdraw funds from all over the country to plug this loophole, but the more this happens, the more depositors do not trust the bank, forming a disgusting circle.

Who is behind this crisis? Sheng Xuanhuai thought about this question repeatedly, and he also had some bottom in his heart, "But the strength of the other party is obviously too unexpected for him, just like a stream to fight against the sea, he has no power to fight back at all, he can only stupidly watch the funds being siphoned off point by point!"

Today, at the juncture of this half-side contest, if we can't stop the run on depositors here in Shanghai, then the Commerce Bank, which has just been established for three years, will have to announce its collapse!

So can we plug this loophole?

Sheng Xuanhuai took a breath, and the long crowd downstairs aroused his determination to win, and he didn't believe that anyone could cover the sky with one hand, "So he transferred millions of taels of silver from Hunan and Guizhou, and these silver taels will arrive today under strict protection, as long as this huge amount of money arrives, then he is still the winner!"

Just as he regained his confidence in the mall for decades, a panicked footsteps suddenly came from outside.

"My lord" is not good, when he escorted Hunan and Guizhou to Shanghai, he was intercepted! "What! Sheng Xuanhuai's face suddenly lost his blood, "He thought that the other party might have other means behind him, and he might continue to dig into his corner from business, but he didn't expect those people to directly use force and not play commercial games with themselves at all!"

It seems that the bad news is not over, there are several bad news downstairs almost at the same time, the last bit of cash reserved in Shanghai has been fully run, and the depositors began to panic" and the workers of Huasheng Textile Factory suddenly announced their resignation, and all the workers were poached by a large-scale textile company opened with high salaries!

Gu Jie ......, the old Sheng Xuanhuai had just fallen to the ground, and the excited shouts of the depositors began to sound downstairs, and the crowd poured into the bank like a tide, "Even a few specially invited foreign bodyguards couldn't stop it." ※※※※※ I ※ I ※ ※

"Your Majesty, an urgent telegram has been sent from Shanghai*......"

Ogna glanced at the telegram quickly, and his face suddenly stiffened.

After a large number of mobs entered the concession and attacked the bank without getting the money they deserved, they finally set fire to the headquarters of the Commerce Bank building, and burned the place clean.

After the fire ignited, the businessman surnamed Sheng escaped from the building, but was suddenly arrested by several big men, fortunately, the patrol room also rushed there, and the arresters and Sheng Fuhuai were arrested by the concession police.

After reading the telegram, Ogna felt as if someone had stuffed a muffled thunder in his heart, Tang Shaoyi on the other side squinted his eyes, and the sharp light was like a stinging needle, which made him restless, because the few people arrested were actually people from the General Procuratorate of the Chinese Police!

Li Mo, this bastard, actually sent someone to the British Concession to arrest people! Ogner's face suddenly turned blue, what is a concession? What is privilege?

If the plundering of resources is only the external interests of various countries in China, and even some losses are acceptable, then the concession is the bottom line of all countries in China

If even the interests and power in the concession cannot be guaranteed, then it is better to honestly return to Europe and leave this place to Li Mo, anyway, he treats merchants well, as long as he does not violate local laws, he will not trouble merchants from various countries for no reason.

But at this moment, Li Mo and Hua are undoubtedly challenging this bottom line!

Because he believes that with Li Mo's strength at the moment, if he wants to kill or arrest a person, then he can use many unknown methods, and even if he sends people into the concession to kill people in broad daylight, as long as it is not from his own country, then all countries will turn a blind eye.

And now he has come with great fanfare to ask to enter the concession and arrest people!

Although Sheng Xuanhuai was the Chinese who promoted mutual protection in the south and gave countries the opportunity to intervene in the Far East, "but he is not important enough to sacrifice!"

You must know that the bullshit emperor who just read a book can be sacrificed in exchange for the south to continue to return to the original status quo, let alone a Chinese businessman? And he believed that Li Mo also knew this!

At this moment, he deliberately proposed to enter the concession to arrest people, it was fundamentally Xiang Zhuang's sword dance with the intention of Pei Gong, and what he wanted was not the Chinese businessman, but to test the bottom line of various countries!

This cunning spoiler "In front of these minions at home, they are testing the bottom line of various countries again and again!"

He must not be given this chance!

"Lord Tang, that's the leased land of the British Empire! Unless we wait until the lease contract expires, according to the agreement, our country has the right to administer justice within the concession! Ogna's eyes swept coldly: "For the practice of returning to China and sending police officers to enter the concession to arrest people, please forgive me for not agreeing, they must be judged!" "Trial?! ”

Tang Shaoyi pretended to be panicked, but in fact, he had already scolded huā in his heart, Sheng Xuanhuai is a fart? A businessman actually united the entire southeastern provinces, if this continues, won't everyone think that he is Lü Buwei?

Whatever his purpose, it is unforgivable, because he essentially contributed to the division of the country!

A businessman is a businessman, doing business honestly and doing politics!

Hum!

As early as after learning that Sheng Xuanhuai had promoted mutual protection in the southeast and vainly attempted to split the country, "the Ministry of Intelligence launched a series of secret operations against him, not only strangling the upstream source of raw silk, but also using high interest rates to attract all his depositors and forcibly run on them, and returning all the tricks he used to deal with Hu Xueyan back then."

Coupled with the fact that the property under his name is constantly being acquired and embezzled, in fact, he is not as good as before, and it is not an exaggeration to describe it as a phoenix with hair loss, is it worth sending someone to the concession to arrest him?

In fact, this action was instructed by the General Staff Officer, "to test the attitude of various countries towards the concessions!" Now Ogna's insistence on sending the few people sent to stand trial shows that the bottom line of these powers has not been loosened in the slightest.

Tang Shaoyi knew Li Mo's mind very well, and the reason why he put on a posture to take advantage of the war in the northwest to fight Russia to the death was actually to deter the south, and in addition, he sent himself to attach this condition, which was to tell Britain and France and other countries that the Far East had entered an era "Let them reconsider the interests here."

Now that Ogna has said that he will send his people to trial, he obviously still has the slightest idea of not wanting to give up in the concession, "This is extremely detrimental to speeding up the settlement of Nanzhi."

However, now is indeed not the time to make a difficulty, the last three divisions are all thrown into the north, the emperor's determination to accelerate the north has been decided, from the perspective of the Russians' intervention in Xinjiang, although the Chinese era has begun, and the navy has been in an active offensive posture, but the army is stepping up to regain lost ground because of the huge territory and territory, and it has always been in an active defensive posture against Russia.

Few people understand that when the mobilization of roads and materials is difficult, when a country's army is only on the defensive, it is difficult to have the heart to devote itself to national construction, the long border needs to be defended, the military station needs to be built, and the railway road needs to be put first by military needs, which will swallow up a large amount of national resources, and only when the defensive situation changes to the offensive, the defensive line is pushed to the enemy's territory, and a special military space is demarcated, so that space can be exchanged for time, and once a war breaks out, the enemy will still be the first to enter their own territory.

"The strength of an army does not depend on how many weapons you are equipped with, but there are two hard indicators, one is the ability to control the battle situation, and the second is the ability to master the choice of the battlefield!"

This is what the young master said to officers at all levels on last year's Army Day, so when he was just starting to build the country, he insisted on speeding up the war in the north and northwest, in fact, few people know that the Prime Minister's Office is not in favor of such a large-scale military transfer, although this is the recovery of the country, in the case of limited funds, it is a great test to take care of the country's construction and the consumption of the army at the same time. However, Li Mo insisted that while speeding up the calm in the north and northwest, stationing a large number of troops to ensure local safety, and deterring those local people who still did not give up, it was necessary to keep the land threat as far outside the national border as possible.

Britain, France, and other countries in the south are just clowns, although their navy is strong, but there is always a big weakness, that is, the army strength in the Far East is seriously insufficient, and the total strength of Britain, France, and Germany in the Far East does not exceed 40,000 people.

And most of France's troops are in Vietnam, maybe there are still some ways to deal with Yungui, "but they are a little powerless to let them go north, the key is that these two army units, which are known as the first and second in the world, are seriously incompatible, and they can't work together at all!"

In this way, only Britain remains, but Britain has always given priority to the navy, and the total size of his naval fleet has always been the sum of the top three in the world, with an annual investment of no less than 50 million British pounds, coupled with the small area of the British Isles, which makes it impossible for him to free up a large amount of money for army construction" Otherwise, a Boer War would not have been fought for three years, and troops were drawn from Australia, India and other colonies

In this way, even if the three are temporarily reconciled, they are unable to work together, and if the south makes people's minds change, there are calls for national reunification in various places, although it is still a little weak, but this trend has been difficult to stop, especially the rapid changes in the north, and the Prime Minister's Office is dedicated to safeguarding the interests of most ordinary people, ensuring that the country is stable and excessive, and actively developing the economy and a series of governance measures, so that many people of insight in the south have finally begun to reflect on "whether the southeast mutual insurance should continue to be maintained."

Although there is mutual protection in the south, as long as a unified regime does not emerge, then there will not be much of a threat" At most, the economy will be destroyed by various countries, but the Prime Minister's Office has long been secretly promoting the work of maintaining economic stability in the south, and is considering extending the northern railway network to the south in the name of the railway investment company, and strive to unify transportation as soon as possible, so that the railway and transportation network can also be used to accelerate the transformation of the south into grass.

Therefore, the south is not a big problem at all, as long as there is a few years of infiltration, the change is certain: "When the north and northwest are truly stable, even if Britain and France and other countries really join hands, it will be impossible to stop the pace of national reunification."

After some bargaining, Tang Shaoyi and Ogner reached an agreement, promising to dispose of the few people sent to arrest in accordance with the British law of the concession, but not to harm their bodies, and reached an agreement on extradition of Sheng Xuanhuai.

Ten days later, the Shanghai British Concession Court formally opened a trial of the case of Chinese public servants entering the concession without authorization and arresting them, and announced in court that they would be sentenced to three months' imprisonment.

This case caused a sensation in the whole Shanghai and the south, and many people thought that it was a signal that the foreigners were fighting back against Li Mo and determined to protect the southeast, but everyone did not expect that only three days later, Hua issued an announcement in Shanghai, listing Aijue Luo Pulun as the most wanted criminal! and offered a reward of 10,000 blue coins for capture.

This news surprised everyone, Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and others were shocked, they were not worried about a wanted criminal, but that this announcement was actually issued in the French Concession of Shanghai!

On the same day, Britain, France, Germany and other countries also expressed that they could not accept the result of having an emperor in the southeast, and demanded that Pu Lun immediately go into the field and restore the status quo on the southeast coast.

This news was like a thunderclap that hit Li Hongzhang and other foreigners hard, and at this time they really understood that the foreigners were only concerned about the interests of the southeast coast, not the Qing Dynasty that had disappeared for several years!

After Sichuan was controlled by the Chinese army, Yunnan and Guizhou took the lead in launching the southeast mutual insurance, while Hunan became the source of the chaos, and a large number of students took to the streets to demand an end to the southeast division and maintain national unity.

Even the coastal areas of Guangdong were scalded by this chaos, and Britain, France, and other countries increased their blackmail against the southeastern provinces.

In order to prevent the turmoil from continuing, Li Hongzhang had to drag his sick body to Shanghai to personally consult with the representatives of various countries, and try to make future efforts. Just when the southeast coast suddenly fell into chaos, Li Mo quietly came to Jiangsu after arranging the construction of roads and administrative structures in Sichuan and began to prepare for his first global visit.

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