Chapter 97 Hua Yufang and Taigu Yangxing

Hua Hefang is a thin middle-aged man from Wuxi. He is 46 years old and is good at mathematics. He can be regarded as one of the best mathematicians in China at present. He is also proficient in mechanical engineering. He is currently teaching in Jiangnan Engineering Museum and Gezhi College.

Seeing that Hu Chuyuan didn't speak for a long time, Hua Hefang couldn't help asking, "Hu Ti, what are you going to do?"

"Oh...!" Hu Chuyuan came to his senses and said to Hua Hefang, "I have a lot of things to do, but I still have to do something urgent first."

Then, he communicated directly with Rawls and Feinz in English: "If I want to buy a full set of new production machinery and facilities for Fuzhou Shipping Administration, as well as the supporting related process patents, how much does it cost?"

Fenz replied politely: "Mr. Hu, that will require a huge amount of money. The renewal of the facilities of the Shipping Bureau will cost the most money. The cost of rectification of the three docks alone may be as high as nearly a million dollars. If you want to make better artillery, you also need to buy equipment from the United Kingdom and the United States. If you just want to maintain the existing The cost of the scale of production is about 300,000 US dollars. However, you must also consider artillery, shells, etc. Such a complete set of investments will be amazing. I think it's better to resell steel mills and copper smelting factories to other merchants and raise funds for renewal by themselves. Fuzhou Military Factory only needs to buy ready-made steel and copper from them.

Hu Chuyuan's idea is also roughly like this.

He plans to resell the iron factories and copper factories under the Fuzhou Shipping Administration to Jiangnan Commercial Bank. Jiangnan Commercial Bank will set up the Jiangnan Mining Bureau. Through the Mining Bureau, various metallurgical factories, steel mills and chemical factories are set up to concentrate the raw material mining and smelting business in Jiangnan Commercial Bank, taking advantage of scale to reduce costs.

Feeling that Feinz did not calculate the total amount of funds needed in advance, Hu Chuyuan said to him, "Well, you can reorganize the communique after you go back, initially calculate the required expenses according to the idea you put forward, and make a list of the new facilities and patented technologies that need to be purchased."

Fenz nodded slightly and said, "I'm very happy to help you."

He, Rawls and others still belong to the Jiangnan Technology Bureau co-organized by Qichang Yanghang and Jiangnan Commercial Bank. At present, they are only temporary private advisers to Hu Chuyuan, which has nothing to do with Fuzhou Shipping Administration.

Hu Chuyuan didn't think too much about these people, between trust and distrust, and just paid them to do things.

When Feinz and others left, Hua Yanfang and Hu Chuyuan sighed, "Your Excellency, foreigners can't be trusted. Every group of people will criticize the equipment introduced by the last batch of foreigners and ask us to introduce new equipment. It costs a lot to come and go. In fact, I think many facilities can be used if they are changed. Besides, the main artillery guns in China are mainly black gunpowder and brown gunpowder. Everyone's shells can't match each other, which is quite a waste!"

Hu Chuyuan hummed and thought about it in his heart.

The main advantage of brown gunpowder is on long-range artillery. Due to the slow combustion speed, it has a low chamber pressure on large-caliber artillery, which is more suitable for large-caliber shells. The export speed of this kind of shell will be relatively low. If the barrel of the gun is extended to a certain extent, the range of using this kind of shell will increase a lot.

Its shortcomings are similar to those of black gunpowder, mainly because there are more residues left, and there is a lot of white smoke produced by combustion.

At this time, brown gunpowder has an advantage, especially on forts and ships, but from 1890 onwards, it will be replaced by smokeless gunpowder.

Considering that the Sino-French war was approaching, Hu Chuyuan still decided to use brown gunpowder, even if it was just a transition.

Thinking of this, he said to Hua Changfang, "You are responsible for the improvement of the facilities, but you still need to use brown gunpowder, at least Fuzhou shipping administration has to use it first. As for other equipment, it's time to change it. My goal is to make Fuzhou Ship Administration the first shipyard and military factory in Asia. It doesn't matter if you spend more money.

Huahengfang said, "Well, I'll go to Lord Wu Zhengbing and Wu to discuss this matter."

Hu Chuyuan nodded and saw him leave.

Immediately, he continued to pick up the communique and browse it again. While reading it, he felt that it was necessary to transcribe the communique so that every official of Zuo Zongtang, He Jing, Shen Baozhen and the ship's government government knew how far the gap was and everyone's responsibilities were.

Thinking of this, he directly called Zhang Baixi, who was the secretary of the General Affairs Office at that time, and ordered Zhang Baixi to do this matter.

As soon as he finished talking with Zhang Baixi, Hu Rong hurried in and said, "My husband, Mr. Delano III and Miss Wu Shuzhen have come. They have arrived at the dock and brought more than a dozen foreigners."

Hu Chuyuan was overjoyed and immediately got up and went out to meet them. When he arrived at the gate of the government, he saw those people.

There are really a lot of people. Wu Shuzhen and Fister Delano III are walking in front. There are more than a dozen foreigners behind them, all with a lot of luggage. It seems that they will stay here for a long time!

Seeing Hu Chuyuan, Fist Delano III stepped forward quickly and said to Hu Chuyuan in half-baked Chinese, "Master Hu, how have you been recently?"

"Blessed to you, everything is fine!"

Hu Chuyuan smiled and invited the group to enter the ship's government office first. Fist Delano III gave priority to introduce a friend for Hu Chuyuan - RS Butterfield, the chief partner of Taikoo Yanghang.

In addition, those foreigners are all technical engineers recently recruited by Wanqi Yanghang in the United States. Most of them are Hu Chuyuan, who is in urgent need now. Come with them together and go to Fuzhou Ship Administration to strengthen his momentum and help him.

Hu Chuyuan smiled happily. As for RS Butterfield coming to him at this time, it was just for Xia Si's acquisition.

Let Hua Yanfang, Feinz and others entertain the new technical advisers. Hu Chuyuan first entered the flower hall of the government office with Wu Shuzhen, Fist Delano and others.

Wu Shuzhen is still so beautiful and elegant. She wears a white gauze skirt and a beautiful hat to block the hot sun in the south. Her eyelashes are long, and her lips are covered with milky crystal red cream, which looks more unique and noble.

When people served tea, she asked Hu Chuyuan with a smile, "I heard that Minnan people are not easy to mess with, and I don't know if you can sit firmly in the position of Fuzhou Ship Administration?"

Hu Chuyuan smiled and said, "It's very stable. It's a coincidence that you came here. I almost just cleaned up the personnel here and dismissed nearly 40 officials in one go. The rest of them are very capable, and I'm almost all gathered."

"Well...!" Wu Shuzhen didn't say anything. She was not familiar with the officialdom of the Qing Dynasty, but she also knew that Hu Chuyuan was not a reckless person. He dared to do it, which showed that he was absolutely sure.

After a while, she and Hu Chuyuan smiled and said, "Fuzhou should be a very beautiful place. If you are free, can you accompany me around? It's rare to go back to China. Of course, I really want to see more of those beautiful scenery!"

Hu Chuyuan smiled and said, "Why not?"

Wu Shuzhen also smiled and looked at Fister Delano III and said, "Let's talk about business first. Mr. RS Butterfield should be in a hurry to reach an agreement, right?"

Fister Delano III nodded, and then said to Hu Chuyuan, "Hu Shao, today's Xia Si acquisition is your world again. Almost 90% of the shares of the special-grade raw silk and first-class raw silk in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are concentrated in your hands, and what our foreign banks want is these raw silk. Mr. RS Butterfield is my friend in China. He really wants to buy more raw silk from you.

Hu Chuyuan nodded with a smile and said to RS Butterfield in English, "I'm glad that Taikoo Yanghang came to me directly. You want to buy more raw silk. I support this. As long as Taigu Yanghang is willing to offer higher prices and better payment terms, I will be happy to sell raw silk to you. "

RS Butterfield said, "Hu Shao, you are a very powerful businessman. For the whole foreign bank market, you also know that Taikoo Yanghang can only be regarded as a medium-sized one in British foreign banks, but if you are willing to give us a preferential price for a long time to support the development of Taikoo Yanghang, we are very willing to The shares are transferred to you. Moreover, I know that you also have some special needs in the political arena of the Qing Empire, and Taikoo Yangxing is willing to provide this help.

Many years later, Taikoo Foreign Bank may be very powerful, but at this stage, they are far inferior to the two British foreign banks of Shasun and Yihe, and can't be compared with Jiangnan Commercial Bank at all.

Listening to these words, Hu Chuyuan thought quietly and knocked on the table with his fingertips from time to time.

After a while, he raised his eyes and asked RS Butterfield, "How many shares is Taigu Yanghang willing to transfer to me?"

RS Butterfield stretched out two fingers and said, "Tempt of the shares is the limit we can bear."

"Oh?"

Hu Chuyuan couldn't help but be a little suspicious.

He was not in a hurry to agree or refuse, so he slowly considered it.

Seeing that he didn't speak, Fist Delano III, an intermediary, couldn't help asking, "Master Hu, what do you think?"

Hu Chuyuan thought for a moment and said, "20% of the shares are a little less!"

RS Butterfield couldn't help asking, "So, how many shares do you want to get?"

Hu Chuyuan said, "Although I will always maintain a low price of raw silk, not all foreign banks can buy it. In the future, I will gradually control many foreign banks. Only the foreign banks I hold can buy a sufficient amount of raw silk, and use the advantages of price and quantity to compete in the markets of various countries and squeeze out other foreign countries. OK. In addition to raw silk, I will also enter the tea and sugar industries, and will give Taikoo Yanghang enough funds to help Taikoo Yanghang develop in various countries and colonies. Taikoo Yanghang acts as an agent in the UK, and can also give priority to sales through my domestic commercial channels. In short, there are many benefits of working with me, but the cost of working with me is also very high. Mr. RS Butterfield, you can think about it for a few more days.

"Is this...?" RS Butterfield quietly felt particularly surprised.

The cooperation proposed by Hu Chuyuan is broader than he expected, and it will provide so many benefits, which is far beyond his expectations, but the premise is to transfer more shares.

Hu Chuyuan was not in a hurry to settle down, so he talked with Fister Delano III and RS Butterfield about his ideas for cooperation.

In his plan, the foreign banks that cooperate with him do not need to retain too many people in Shanghai, and convert more trade profits into domestic and colonial investments. As long as he continues to hold foreign bank shares, he can continue to sell raw silk and tea to them.

In addition, the Jiangnan Agricultural Cooperation Society under Jiangnan Commercial Bank has gradually become the largest banking business in the five provinces of Jiangnan, which can provide a stable silver supply for both sides.

Third, the trade between the two sides can instead of using silver transactions, but using the national currencies of both parties to trade directly according to the exchange rate.

Not only this, Hu Chuyuan will gradually control a number of foreign banks, and the positioning of each foreign bank is also different. German foreign banks are biased towards investment in military machinery, chemical industry and heavy industry, French foreign banks focus on investment in textiles, chemical industry and minerals, and British foreign banks are biased towards Shanghai and Hong Kong's land industry, international shipping, petroleum and minerals, original For material investment, Wanqi Yanghang mainly develops in the financial direction, and also involves the local industries of Shanghai and Hong Kong, Far East maritime shipping and international trade agents.

If everyone has a different division of labor, the greater the benefits of cooperation.

There are not many people who are qualified and have the opportunity to cooperate with Hu Chuyuan, but there is no doubt that as long as they start to cooperate with him, the business will become bigger and bigger, and the benefits are also very obvious.

Hu Chuyuan is actually a person who is very good at provoking others with seemingly casual gossip, because he is more far-sighted than normal businessmen. He makes a plan for Wanqi Yangxing and Taigu Yangxing, which may last for a hundred years.

Compared with normal businessmen, Hu Chuyuan is more daring to think, more dare to do, and has more ambition and ability.

He clearly told Fister Delano III and RS Butterfield that he had to control at least six to seven foreign banks, one in Britain, the United States, France and Germany, and the rest depended on the situation.

If he can't acquire a large-scale foreign bank, then support the small foreign bank and make it a big ocean bank in five to ten years.

In so many foreign banks, he can also coordinate with each other to ensure that each company's main attack direction is different, and to ensure the profit and future of each family.

His great courage and ideas not only made Fister Delano III and RS Butterfield feel suffocating fear, but also made Wu Shuzhen sincerely admire - this man is too powerful.

In this big China... I can't find a second person like this.

Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. They just open dozens of stores and run a medium-sized business. Hu Chuyuan is definitely not Qiao Zhiyong's opponent, nor is he necessarily Xu Run and Sheng Xuanhuai's opponent.

However, when you give Hu Chuyuan Jiangnan Commercial Bank and CITIC Company such a big stage, and a large number of business talents such as Chen Xiaobai, Tan Yiyun and Liu Chengxiang to help manage the business, he only needs to plan and design ideas carefully.

In today's China, no one can be his opponent.

Moreover, he can do all the things he said.