Chapter 255 War and Development

No businessman likes competitors. Hu Chuyuan is an exception. He is convinced that competition is a good thing for both sides.

It is not a good thing to allow the entire Asian rich countries to control the entire Chinese industrial system. In the long run, Hu Chuyuan will only retain one of the four major groups.

In the whole international world, many of the companies he currently holds... After reaching a certain market value, he will choose to cash out and leave.

Business... Take your time.

Hu Chuyuan is not in a hurry.

Chinese people understand the market economy and always understand it as an institutional problem and an institutional problem. In fact, the core of the market economy is the market, that is, consumption capacity.

Hu Chuyuan stayed in the governor's government of Shanxi these days. The most discussion with Yang Shiqi is the issue of average wealth, which is the most difficult problem in Shanxi.

His advice is to let Yang Shishan pay due attention to the development of animal husbandry and forestry, a variety of local dry grain, reduce dependence on water resources, and do a good job in water and soil protection.

The political axe should formulate local economic policies with the characteristics of various places, support the development of agricultural cooperatives, and help all regions get rid of poverty and become rich.

After sitting in Shanxi for nearly a month, Hu Chuyuan took the train back to the capital from the north line. This time, he passed the Yanmen Pass, changed the county to Yanmen County, and set up Yanmen Prefecture.

As the prime minister of this empire, this kind of thing has always been Hu Chuyuan's welfare.

He can re-determine the names of some areas according to his preferences and history, and formulate new development strategies.

Compared with the south, the northwestern mountains are poorer and backward, and there are barren mountains everywhere, which is heartbreaking, which also makes Hu Chuyuan more soberly realize that China still has a long way to go to become a real world power.

I'm afraid he can't see it in his office.

When he left Shanxi, he had already decided... After this term, he transferred the position of Prime Minister to Qu Hongji, and he retained the position of party chairman of the Dagong Party and withdrew from the Prime Minister's Office.

However, the only thing I don't want to hand over is military power.

The more he thinks so, the more Hu Chuyuan wants to do his best in his term of office and do his best to leave a good situation for the next prime minister, especially to completely defeat the French-Russian Triple Agreement.

When he decides to think so, there will be no more military spending.

He doesn't need to cash out and sell assets at all. As long as he keeps mortgages in the banking institutions he controls and buys treasury bonds in exchange for funds, he can buy as much as he wants.

I was scared to death when I bought it.

The train traveled through the mountains and fields. Hu Chuyuan closed his eyes to refresh himself. Pan Limei sat opposite him, holding his cheek and thinking about something.

Inadvertently, Pan Limei suddenly laughed.

Hu Chuyuan opened his eyes curiously, looked at her joy, and asked puzzledly, "What are you happy about?"

Pan Limei smiled and said, "I... I wonder what kind of business I'm going to do?"

"Oh?"

Hu Chuyuan was a little curious and asked, "What business?"

Pan Limei said, "Milk powder. When you are at home, you drink a cup of fresh milk every day. We seem to be used to it, but in Shanxi, you can only drink milk powder. Didn't Yang Shiqi's wife just give birth? She hired a wet nurse, but think about it, how many people have hired a wet nurse, so milk powder is very important. Think about it again, there are many pastures in Northeast China and Mongolia... This business will definitely do well, right?

Hu Chuyuan nodded and said, "It can indeed be said. This business is good. If you really want to do it, I will give you a sum of money. You can first open a small factory in Yanjing, find out the technology and equipment, reserve personnel, train them, and then go to Mongolia to open a branch factory.

Pan Limei said, "I also plan to let the herdsmen raise the cows we introduced from the Netherlands through cooperation with CITIC."

Hu Chuyuan smiled. He also thought that the business was quite good. Since Pan Limei wanted to do it, let her do it.

It doesn't matter now. In a few years, he will not be the prime minister, and he will come back to business, let alone his wife.

... During the period when Hu Chuyuan was not in Beijing, the world situation was just a chaotic period.

In the Northeast Asian battlefield, it is said that the army has invaded North Korea, and the front-line troops are only 60 kilometers away from Seoul. The Russian army started from Manzhouli and Vladivostok, flocked to the northeast on a large scale, and forcibly recruited the Chinese in the northeast to build the last part of the Far East Railway. It also built a connection between Manzhouli and Qiqi in the Daxing'anling area. Hal's railway.

At this time, Russia has publicly regarded the Northeast as its territory, even the joint governor of Northeast Asia has been dispatched, and the main force has rushed to Harbin.

Hu Chuyuan was not surprised by such a situation.

He came back on the scheduled date. When he returned to Yingtai, he went directly to the conference center of the National Military Commission of Yingtai.

As soon as they entered the hall, all the generals in the meeting suddenly got up and saluted with Hu Chuyuan.

He walked straight and indifferently to the center of the conference room. Lv Han, who was sitting in the chief position, hurriedly gave up his seat. He sat down rudely and asked Lv Han, who stood aside respectfully, "How's the situation now?"

Lv Han replied, "Your Excellency, most of the remaining French troops in Vietnam and Cambodia retreated to Thailand and were detained by the British as refugees in Thailand. At present, the Nanyang region has been basically stable. Considering that the fleet might cross the Strait of Malacca, France and Russia decided to take a detour from Argentina into the eastern Pacific Ocean, resupply in Chile and Colombia respectively, and then enter the Japanese Sea. We are considering intercepting their possible surnames halfway.

Hu Chuyuan listened calmly and looked at the report on the table.

At present, Cambodia and Vietnam have signed a new protection treaty to become China's protectorate again. According to his plan, Vietnam has also been temporarily divided into two parts: North Vietnam and Vietnam.

The temporary excuse is to protect the regent's regime in the north of Yue. Of course, he must take the part of Yuebei in his hand. He has even identified the name of the province as "Guangnan Province", and Guangdong and Guangxi are collectively known as the Sanguang region. Chinese immigrants in Guangnan Province also take Guangdong and Guangxi as the main body.

I'm not in a hurry to ask this question at the time.

In a word, Nanyang has stabilized.

The main forces of the Fujian and Zhejiang Corps and the Liangguang Corps, which were originally deployed in Nanyang, began to withdraw from the north to prepare for landing in Japan, while the Nanyang coalition forces scattered and returned to places to prevent disturbances in various parts of Nanyang.

The problem in the northwest battlefield is not too big. Hu Chuyuan knows in his heart that Li Kaiye has not really exerted his strength.

Hu Chuyuan's instruction to Li Kaiye is to "hold but not retreat". He keeps all key positions and resolutely does not give in, but does not counterattack on a large scale.

In this way, when the Northeast battlefield is full of crises, and the main forces of France and Russia are absorbed into the Northeast battlefield, as long as Li Kaiye suddenly cuts off the supply line of the Far East Railway... There is no room for manoeuvre.

Of course, the navy... certainly can't let the French-Russian Far East joint fleet join the Russian and Japanese navies in the Far East.

Hu Chuyuan looked through Lv Han's information and looked at the number of commanders of the French Far East Joint Fleet one by one, which was not very surprising. The main battleships were 14 10,000-ton battleships, four in Russia, ten in France, and more than 100 warships, mainly ironclad ships and ironclad cruisers.

Basically, all armored cruisers are from the Russian Navy.

The Russian Navy is the founder of the armored cruisers. They have also insisted on building armored cruisers, which are still under construction today, and even the first batch of waist armored cruisers have not been retired.

Of the more than 60 ships sent by Russia, the old ships account for almost more than half. Although the French ships are new, the number is not particularly large.

Hu Chuyuan took a general look and said to Lv Han, Lan Jianshu and other admirals: "It can be seen that the Franco-Russian Far East Combined Fleet formed by France is still very conservative and has not taken out all its family background."

Lan Jianshu, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Admiralty, said: "Yes, France is indeed relatively conservative. They are facing the naval oppression of Germany and Britain at the same time. If they want to take all the navies out to fight with us, they do have to take a very big risk. This is the main reason why France refused to participate in the war in the early days. This time, they took out all the main battleships and cooperated with a large number of old Russian ships to form a seemingly very powerful joint fleet... I think that the French's intimidation is heavier. It's not the same thing to really pull them out. First of all, there is a big difference in the caliber of the main gun, and the difference in speed is even greater. There are too many ironclad cruisers. They are simply the live targets of the Weiyuan class.

Hu Chuyuan looked up at more than a dozen naval officers present. He could see that everyone wanted to fight this battle... The opponent was just superficially strong, and it seemed to have a total displacement of nearly 500,000 tons. In fact, it was not fought at all.

If this battle is won, in the navy, even if the Ally is completely defeated, it will not get the right to control the sea at all.

However... the premature decisive battle is not conducive to China's overall interests.

If this battle is a big victory, even if China does not want to have peace talks, Britain, Germany and the United States will try their best to intervene and ask China for peace talks... The reason is very simple. Who can tolerate the emergence of an overly powerful China?

Hu Chuyuan didn't think about it for too long, because he had thought about it many times. He just gently combined the information and the report and said, "Let's break up the meeting first."

Hearing this, everyone was a little surprised, but they did not dare to go against Hu Chuyuan's will. They got up again and saluteed and left the conference room one by one.

When everyone left, Lv Han asked puzzledly, "Your Excellency, do you have any doubts?"

Hu Chuyuan hummed and said, "My goal is not to defeat France, but Russia!"

"But...?"

Lv Han was puzzled for a moment, and then seemed to understand. He sighed with a little regret, "It's a pity that it's such a good opportunity. Once this coalition army enters the Japanese sea area, the problem will be troublesome."

Hu Chuyuan said, "It doesn't matter if you sacrifice a little, but you must destroy these warships at the most critical time."

Lv Han hummed and said, "Ok, then I understand. I'm going to redeploy it and let the Navy be ready to fight in the waters of the Beiyang Fleet."

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly.

In fact, this decisive field has been settled for a long time... Jeju Island.

The three-million army plan is true. The French army has begun to enter Central Asia and Northeast China on a large scale through the Far East Railway, and nearly 600,000 troops are concentrated in North Korea.

At this time, the Far East United Fleet of the Russian Ally is bound to protect the supply line from Japan to North Korea.

As long as Jeju Island is still in the hands of the Beiyang Fleet of the Chinese Navy, this supply line will never be safe. As long as he sends the main fleet to gather on Jeju Island, a decisive battle will be inevitable.

Take your time.

Hu Chuyuan is not in a hurry. He has a lot of patience.

When he is ready, he will completely end the war.

After the Nanyang battlefield has completely calmed down, China's economic exports will no longer be restricted, and the average price of the Shanghai stock market is also recovering.

Especially stimulated by large-scale war military spending and orders, in the first half of 1901, China's economy increased by 17.3% compared with the same period last year, and industrial growth played a major role.

With the emergence of French and Russian restrictions on China, China's exports to France and Russia have declined significantly, but in the prosperity of the Nanyang market, the total amount of exports is still maintained at the standard of 1900.

There is no special battle for the time being. Only Yang Zong Li has worked hard in the northeast. The national supplies have been completely tilted to the northeast, and he will not suffer for too long.

After returning to Yingtai, Hu Chuyuan focused on the construction of large agricultural economies in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Sichuan and Huguang.

This is the second front of China's economic construction. Only when this front succeeds can China's economy truly succeed.

The National Economic Development Commission focuses on the issues of talents and funds, extracts spare energy from the eastern economy, develops the second front of China's economy, supports small and medium-sized enterprises in the development of local capital, and large enterprises develops new production bases to the second front in accordance with policies.

Agricultural reform must be given priority. The big agricultural economy and the rich peasant economy are more and more publicized and advocated. Farmers farm and squires build factories, which has become a slogan, although there are many dark places.

It is undeniable that in this process, the economy of the second front has indeed begun to improve.

A large number of agricultural loans are issued to farmers, which are used to buy land, while the more open-oriented landlord class uses the funds to invest in minerals, build factories and open shops.

Of course, uncivilized accounts for the majority after all.

Then we have to do ideological work. Hu Chuyuan also did this. He recruited a large number of college students and high school students in the Dagong Party to form a propaganda team to persuade him everywhere.

The key problem is to give capital a better flow channel and investment place. Therefore, industrial and mining enterprises, textile factories and rice noodle processing plants in various places, especially these industries with low technical difficulty and low entry threshold, should encourage capital intervention.

While capital intervenes, the government should increase its efforts to build railways and roads, repair rivers, encourage the emergence of small ship companies and truck consignment companies, encourage private individuals to buy trucks and small steamboats, and give support for installment loans.

These things have basically been done in a round in the six provinces of Jiangnan, Shandong and Liangguang in the east, which are relatively easy to implement in the mainland. As far as the Prime Minister's Office and the State Economic Commission are concerned, they are more experienced in handling these things.

As the prime minister of the empire, what Hu Chuyuan really wants to control is the problem of new currency. The key is to mobilize the surplus capital and residents' deposits in the east to the central and western regions, rather than relying on the total amount of new currency to solve the problem.

Therefore, the real leader is the commercial banks everywhere.

Therefore, as long as the financial families in Shanxi Province are willing to cooperate, it will be very easy for Shanxi Province's economy to start up. The reason is very simple... Capital is flowing along the rules of the market and constantly making more profits.

Considering some long-term problems, Hu Chuyuan also allowed Wells Fargo and HSBC to intervene, increasing the scope of capital availability, especially for Wells Fargo. Hu Chuyuan converted the registered capital into a Chinese main bank, allowing Wells Fargo to intervene in the financial market in mainland China.

In this period of war, in this period of instability in the border areas, the Chinese nation is experiencing a new test and change.

Under the oppression of the national survival crisis, the strong internal reform did not produce too many internal contradictions, nor did it produce more radical regional rebellions.

Starting from March 1901 to August 1901, Shanxi Province has basically completed the preliminary middle-agricultural economic index. 73% of farmers have reached the middle-agricultural index of 10.5 mu/household, and 7% of farmers have reached the index of rich farmers of 30 mu/household.

The situation in the two provinces of Huguang is better. At present, it is mainly excessive to the indicators of rich farmers, and the situation in Sichuan, Henan and Shaanxi is more complicated. In order to prevent excessive capital flooding and run crisis, the Prime Minister's Office's lending efforts in these three provinces is relatively low.

According to the estimates of the Prime Minister's Office, it is expected that these three provinces will also achieve basic agricultural economic indicators by the end of next year.

It is meaningless to suddenly expand to the index of rich farmers. In the central and western regions where mechanized farming is not popular, the cultivation area of the population is relatively limited, so we must provide loans at the same time to buy cattle and iron ploughs, and guide them to use pesticides and fertilizers correctly, and rent mechanical harvesting and transplanting from CITIC. , dry.

Due to the relatively developed banking system and the rich deposits of eastern residents, the time for agricultural construction is very ripe.

As of August 1901, the total agricultural loans of domestic banks to the second front in the central and western regions have reached 770 million yuan. These funds have begun to flow to the consumption and investment markets within the control of the political axe.

China's landlord class is actually quite smart, because their education level is also relatively high. Many landlords do not directly invest in factories, but choose to buy agricultural machinery and hire people to drive tractors, transplanters and harvesters.

The policy is relatively supportive of these behaviors, and the installment loan is also done quickly.

At this time, several large domestic groups are desperately increasing the production equipment of tractors and agricultural machinery, recruiting workers, fitters, turning workers, milling workers, grinding workers... These are very large, including emerging welders.

It should be said that the large agricultural economy is very powerful in driving the whole economy in China. For example, in Changjiang City, behind a tractor contract are more than a dozen factories in joint production, some are factories of Jiangnan Group, and some are factories of other investors.

Many accessories are produced by small factories, because large factories are too busy.

In addition to the four major groups, factories invested by foreign capital in coastal cities are also increasing their production.

The production of tractors will inevitably promote the chemical and petroleum industry, and the pump is also a boost to the power industry. China's major economies have basically been electrified, and a large amount of power generation load is also required at this time.

Domestic electricity has always had a large surplus of construction scale, in order to prevent the load from increasing during the war. Now it seems that it is not enough... Shanghai and Fuzhou have begun to limit power, and many factories start construction at night.

Everyone wants to invest in power plants on a large scale. The good news is that the construction scale of the current power plant is relatively small, the equipment is simple, and the power generation can be completed in four or five months. After the completion of the 30KV transmission line system, the construction of long-distance transmission lines has also begun to expand, and the mining of coal has been expanding.

Because the basic views of economics between the two sides are different, the changes in China's economic index during this period have basically exceeded the understanding of the Allies.

Throughout the world, the sudden development of China's economy at this time makes almost everyone feel incredible.

Moreover, this development is very, very fast.

The most amazing thing is that its total capital supply has not changed significantly. The only disadvantage is that it increases the run risk of capital banks. Because the stock market index is soaring, commercial banks keep using the stock market to fill their actual money.

In fact, there is a problem, that is, banks pay each other's loans, and then whitewash each other's business data beautifully.

This problem is not particularly big for Hu Chuyuan, because if there is a problem, the central bank will definitely increase the money supply as soon as possible. If there is deflation, the central bank will also increase the money supply immediately.

Hu Chuyuan is also looking at it step by step, mainly looking at the domestic consumer index, which is the most direct. Secondly, it is necessary to monitor the loan offset index of various banks.

His CITIC Bank is still very stable. Of course, the total capital and total deposits and loans of CITIC Bank are also indisputable hegemony in China. The credit index of China Tongshang Bank is a little dangerous, while the risks of Changjiang Bank, Sichuan Bank and Jinshang Bank are greater.

About September, he felt that the data was dangerous, so he urgently asked the Central Bank (Daqing Bank) to increase the money supply of 1.4 billion yuan based on the treasury bonds purchased by various banks.

Hu Chuyuan is playing with fire, but fortunately, as the prime minister of this empire, he is a master of playing with fire.

1901.

It is a very big year of change for China. The whole world lacks an understanding, and the whole world does not know what kind of changes are taking place in China.

Hu Chuyuan is clear.

With the total imports and exports reduced by 14%, China's total economy surged by about 23% this year, and this trend will continue for five to seven years.

If this is not a time of war, there will be a huge economic crisis in any peacetime, even during which there will be a strong inflation crisis.

Very, very lucky, Hu Chuyuan controls the entire Chinese financial system. He can control the inflation coefficient through the internal regulation of the banking system, and finally transfer the entire inflation crisis abroad through the change of the gold standard.

The French have no feeling, saying that they don't know, and the Russians don't understand.

They still think they can defeat China, but it won't be as easy as in the past, especially the Russians, but they don't understand at all that Hu Chuyuan prepared for them is a real abuse and **.

What Hu Chuyuan has to do is very simple. He wants to use a comprehensive generation in the history of weapons and equipment development to fight the three countries of France and Russia, even his parents. By the way, he took advantage of the existential crisis of nationalism and the awareness of national crisis to complete a nationwide land and economic reform.

(to be continued)