"This is the reason, I am afraid that Zhao Dagui has no city government on the surface, and he is loyal, but secretly there are countless calculations.

I inquired about the railroad with the foreigners, saying that it was to lay two rails made of wrought iron on the ground, and then walk on them, which was much faster than the ox-drawn carts now, and could pull more goods.

It is said that when laying the railway, the rails and laying labor costs are added together, about 5,000 yuan per mile (according to 10,000 yuan for a kilometer of railway, which is considered a conscience price, and when the Qing court laid the railway in later generations, at least 20,000 yuan for a kilometer), the car on the track will be specially built, and it will cost 7,000 or 8,000 yuan.

These costs, plus the cost of buying land, from the magic capital to Suzhou and Huzhou and other places, will cost at least four or five million yuan, which is extremely expensive.

Zhao Dagui said that he would prepare about 2 million yuan in the early stage, and he would contribute 1 million yuan, and the other half would have to rely on raising funds from other commercial banks to raise shares. ”

"It costs five thousand yuan for one mile, and seven or eight thousand for the front of the locomotive, is this railway made of gold?" When the butler heard this, he opened his mouth wide and was surprised.

"I have never seen the so-called railways in the Qing Dynasty, but there are many of them in the UK, and they are said to be first-class good business, and those who are not really wealthy cannot get involved.

I thought that Zhao Dagui proposed to spend such a big business, and the foreigners would definitely not buy it, even if it was not a detour, at least they would not think of throwing money into this bottomless pit, but the result was completely opposite to what I thought.

Both Jardine Matheson and Taichu were particularly interested in this railway, and even our Americans in Qichang also attached great importance to this matter, saying that as long as this thing began to be done, we must bring them with us.

He also patted his chest and said that he could buy machinery and prepare funds and give them everything, and Zhao Dagui only needed to be responsible for communicating with the government, recruiting workers, and buying the land needed to build roads.

He also said that as long as this thing is done, their business will be closely related to Dagui Commercial Bank, and there is no need to worry that Dagui Commercial Bank has no business to do because of this matter. ”

"And such things, what does this foreigner think?" the butler didn't know what to say when he heard this.

"Then the old man doesn't know what he thinks, is it really a partnership with Zhao Dagui, and it is not possible to do this Laoshizi railway?" The housekeeper looked at Wu Jianzhang's face was a little wrong, so he asked tentatively.

"This railway is said to be good, but we don't understand anything about the doorway inside, how can we easily throw money into it? Besides, this is proposed by Zhao Dagui again, can we still give people the icing on the cake?

I'm just worried that Zhao Dagui proposed the railway, but in fact, it has another deep meaning, and it may not be based on any good intentions. ”

"Hmm, what do you mean by that?"

"Zhao Dagui doesn't look at the business for a long time, he is the most thoughtful, if he didn't never touch opium, Lin Aqin, who was promoted to the righteous, would never have developed, and now he is on an equal footing with Zhao Dagui.

What worries me is that the real purpose of Zhao Dagui's proposal for the railway is to use this to whet the appetite of foreigners and let them do more business for him.

Not to mention anything else, as long as he wants to do the railway business on the surface, he secretly does not move, looking at the posture of those foreigners, I am afraid that he will have to rush to entrust the business to Zhao Dagui without knowing it, in order to occupy more shares when the railway is really done in the future. Wu Jianzhang expressed his biggest concern.

"There is also this kind of operation, if this is the case, this Zhao Dagui is really a bastard. This is the third time that the housekeeper was shocked, but he felt that his master was reliable, if there was really such a very profitable business to be carried out under the auspices of Zhao Dagui, the British and American foreign firms were probably very willing to give more business to Dagui Commercial Bank in exchange for the qualification to intervene in the big business.

Although this kind of business is rare, but in Guangdong before, it is not unseen, the most important thing is that there is no cost to this thing, the upper lip touches the lower lip, blow a big cow, first encircle the business, even if you don't do that big business in the future, you have already earned your own benefits, and the businessman who was fooled will just laugh, can you still because others have bragged, and you can't lose money.

"However, if that's the case, Zhao Dagui said that he would clear the millions of yuan of foreign cloth and foreign goods on hand, and he would go to the UK to come back, how much sincerity did he have?"

"It's hard to say, that Lin Aqin dared to speak, as soon as Zhao Dagui said that he wanted to do this business to occupy funds, he asked Dagui Commercial Bank if he was willing to transfer.

However, Zhao Dagui was not a fool, he refused on the spot, and said that even if the railway was to be built, Dagui Commercial Bank would continue to operate. ”

"This bastard. ”

Wu Jianzhang discussed with the housekeeper for a long time, and felt that there seemed to be many opportunities in this matter, but there seemed to be many traps, and he couldn't figure it out for a while.

"Can we test it and see what Zhao Dagui thinks?" the housekeeper suddenly thought of a good idea, and brought it up.

"What's the idea?"

"Didn't Zhao Dagui say that he wanted to clear the foreign goods at hand, can we ask him if all these foreign goods can be made by our Wu family?

By the way, can his properties in Suzhou and the magic capital also be sold?"

"Didn't Zhao Dagui say that Dagui Commercial Bank would not be transferred, oh, no, if it was just Suzhou Industry and the Zhao Family Compound, it would be really...

Well, that's a good idea. Wu Jianzhang originally wanted to deny it, but suddenly understood the essence of the housekeeper's words, like an empowerment, stood up and paced and thought.

"This batch of goods from Dagui Commercial Bank must be carried out normally according to the warehouse, because the quantity is too large, and it will take at least half a year to sell out.

If he just uses the railroad to hang people's appetite, he can rely on the past six months to pull a lot of business.

If we are willing to buy his goods in one go, he will have no excuse to delay, that is, if he agrees, it means that he really has the intention of reducing the investment in supporting the business and developing towards the railway;

If not, then this thing is a scam from beginning to end, just an excuse to pull business. ”

"But what if Zhao Dagui agrees to sell the goods?"

"Well, let's buy it. Our Wu family is actually the strongest among the compradors in the magic capital, but it has not been able to do business, which makes some businessmen who don't know the details think that our Wu family's background is not as good as Zhao Dagui and Lin Aqin, the two nouveau riche, and it is similar to Yang Fang.

This batch of foreign goods is actually a sought-after goods, if we take them and sell them slowly, one can show strength, two can monopolize the foreign cloth business in the past few months, and three can make some money, which is very beneficial to long-term development.

Moreover, if we can take down Zhao Dagui's business in Suzhou and the magic capital by the way, it is equivalent to us completely obtaining the current business status of Dagui Commercial Bank, and we can surpass other compradors at once, even Lin Aqin is slightly worse than us. The butler talked eloquently.