"It's really a blessing to know Brother Jingfang this time, please be sure to stay in the magic capital for a few more days, I still have a lot of things to ask Brother Jingfang for advice."

By the way, Mr. Maddos, we agreed to go to Pidgin to see the land, but it seems to be late today, so how about we go tomorrow?" The four of them talked about it very late, and when it was very late, Zhao Dagui got up to say goodbye, and made an appointment with Maddox about the next day.

"You can see the land at any time, so let's talk about it tomorrow. Maddox was not too anxious about the land, so he nodded and said.

After Zhao Dagui left, Li Xinlan was very excited, praised Zhao Dagui for a few words of profound knowledge, and finally asked Wang Tao: "It is really a great blessing to meet this Mr. Zhao Dagui this time."

It's just that what this Mr. Zhao usually does, I haven't heard of it in the Western academic circle before. ”

"This, this is the official comprador of the British Consulate, and he usually does not mix with the Western academic circle, but with the comprador circle. Wang Tao thought to himself that he only knew that Zhao Dagui was a nouveau riche who was good at doing business, how could he have thought that the other party had studied Western studies so deeply: "The Dagui firm in Yao's alley, I mentioned it to Uncle Ren before, do you remember?"

"Hmm, that's the richest one?" Li Xinlan suddenly remembered this person, and her jaw was about to fall to the ground.

Zhao Dagui doesn't like to wear silk and satin clothes, and he never wears gold and silver, he only likes to wear well-made cotton clothes, which can be called simple by the standards of this era, so Li Xinlan didn't see what kind of rich and noble task Zhao Dagui was, but he didn't expect to be one of the richest people in the magic capital.

"The one who sold all the goods for more than a million a few days ago, and then the one who was going to build the railway. Wang Tao nodded and said.

"It's the practice of people in my Western study circle, and when I make some money, I want to introduce Western studies to China. Li Xinlan likes to read Western books, and she knows what the railway is for, so she couldn't help but say with emotion.

"This, Zhao Dagui is actually a person who wants to spread Western learning and is worried about the country and the people? Hearing this, the corners of Wang Tao's mouth twitched involuntarily.

The next day, Zhao Dagui arrived as promised, took out a few calculus questions to ask Li Xinlan for advice, saw that the other party did not have much effort to solve, and praised this problem ingeniously, very interesting, and finally understood that his mathematical ability with the other party was not on the same plane at all, and he stopped the idea of comparing with the other party in the field of mathematics.

After that, Zhao Dagui wanted to go to the pidgin with Maddox to survey the land, and when he left, he also warmly invited Wang Tao and Li Xinlan to go over, but the two were a little curious about what Maddox and Zhao Dagui had been talking about the land, what they were going to do, so they followed the two to the pidgin here.

Coming out of the north gate of the county seat, walking two or three hundred meters to the north, is the small river of pidgin, there are many stone bridges on the river, and after that, it is the future British lease location.

Zhao Dagui and four others, as well as a number of men from Dagui Commercial Firm, went to the future British Concession together, only to see that there was mostly farmland here, and some places were still barren places that were not used, and there was nothing special about it.

Of course, this is only for Wang Tao and Li Xinlan, Zhao Dagui and Mai Dusi are both experienced people, who can imagine how this land will develop in the future, how roads will be built, where and what kind of houses are better.

After looking at it for a while, Maddos took a fancy to a piece of land of more than ten acres, and as soon as he told Zhao Dagui, Zhao Dagui nodded and asked the guys who went with him to mark it on the map.

"This land is quite good, how much does Zhao Comprador want to charge for renting this land to build a printing factory and a hospital?" asked Meadox, pointing to the field.

"Naturally, I don't take a penny, and I donate it to the church. Zhao Dagui said nonchalantly.

"What's so embarrassing... Okay, I am ashamed of comprador Zhao's wishes, and I would like to thank comprador Zhao for his sponsorship. "Maddox was very single, and he was not very polite, and immediately climbed down the pole and pocketed the land.

"This, I'll just be polite, can't the priest be polite?" At this time, it was Zhao Dagui's turn to smile bitterly.

"Hehe, comprador Zhao has always been rich, and he made a fortune some time ago, so I don't have to be polite when I take your land.

Don't you still have an old saying in China, called "big eaters?" said with a smile.

"Our Zhao family is only three people, and we can't be called a big family. Zhao Dagui also laughed and said.

In fact, Maddox had a vague feeling before that this land was only one or two hundred yuan (calculated according to today's land price), and with Zhao Dagui's always bold and generous, he would not ask him for money.

From Zhao Dagui's point of view, he also felt that he had to support Maddos, and that people had to pay for their own money to build hospitals, build printing houses, and translate and publish Western science and technology books, which were all good things for the benefit of the country and the people.

"Actually, the priest wants to build a printing house here, as well as a hospital, and I, Zhao Dagui, support it.

There is just a small request, that is, in addition to printing the Bible, you can also find time to translate some Western science and technology books, print them and distribute them, and our firm can also help in this regard.

At the same time, after the hospital is built here, the fees can be lower, and more people will be cared for, so that more Chinese people can become healthy. Zhao Dagui said after laughing.

"This, dare not obey your fate. Maddox also became serious, learning from the Chinese, and bowed his hands.

Li Xinlan secretly observed beside her, and couldn't help but be secretly surprised when she saw that the two of them decided the whereabouts of more than a dozen acres of land so easily, and did not take the land price of one or two hundred yuan in their hearts at all.

Although Li Xinlan's family is also wealthy, otherwise she would not have the leisure to study mathematics, but she was not generous enough to say that she would send it to more than ten acres.

"Actually, I still have an idea, next to these lands circled by the priest, I also want to separate hundreds of acres of land to build a school, what do you think?" Zhao Dagui pointed to the side of the land circled by Maddos, drew a large circle, and asked the other three.

"Building a school is naturally a good thing, but it's just a lot of money, right?" Li Xinlan and Wang Tao glanced at each other and couldn't help asking.

"I have calculated, the price of this land is at most 7 or 800 yuan, recruiting 50 or 60 teachers and 5 or 600 students, plus the cost of building a house, it is less than 20,000 yuan a year.

This amount of money can still be obtained by our noble firm. Zhao Dagui nodded and said.

"Where can I use 20,000 yuan, the cost of county schools and government schools in the entire Liangjiang is less than 10,000 yuan.

However, this school is a matter of only seeing investment and no return, is it meaningful for you to do this?" Wang Tao asked a little incomprehensible.

"Education is a hundred-year plan, and it is a matter of sooner rather than later.

I want to make this school a special school for Western studies, which only teaches students Western scientific and technological knowledge and foreign languages, and does not teach any Bagu literature, and does not accept those who want to be officials, but only those who want to do practical learning.

Several of my younger siblings also know about it, and I don't want those corrupt people to mislead people, so I invited Father Maddox to teach knowledge, and now it seems that they have made great progress.

In the future, I want more people to receive such Western education, such as asking Father Maddox to teach English, Brother Jingfang to teach mathematics, and Brother Wang Tao to accept local history and Chinese, so as to make students useful talents, rather than sour Confucians who want to be officials.