Chapter 5 Painful Late Qing Politicians and Businessmen

Zuo Zongtang has a lot of things on his mind.

China's politics has always been the bloodiest and cruelest struggle in the world. One move is wrong and lost, one mistake is hated for thousands of years. Even national affairs and the rise and fall of the people are not as important as the life-and-death struggle between political enemies.

Take the dispute between Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang as an example. Zuo Zongtang believes that the affairs of Xinjiang Province are related to the national community, while Li Hongzhang believes that coastal defense is the first priority of the country. In the end, Zuo Zongtang's opinion prevails. The court also agreed that Zuo Zongtang would send troops and determined that Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Shanxi provinces will mainly bear the military pay. Anhui With Shaanxi as a supplement.

Good.

As soon as Zuo Zongtang sent troops, Li Hongzhang secretly added fuel to the flames with the case of "Yang Naiwu and Little Cabbage", provoked the officials of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang faction and the Hunan faction to fight, and confiscated all the direct officials left by Zuo Zongtang in Zhejiang, and then recommended Wu Yuanbing and Mei Qizhao of the Qing school to serve as Jiangsu governors and Zhejiang governors, and then let the Qing The officials of the school took the lead in building the Hanhai Shitang, drained Zhejiang's taxes, and drained Jiangsu's salt tax on the grounds of increasing capital in coastal defense.

In this way, Zuo Zongtang has no military pay. Since there is no military pay, Zuo Zongtang can only admit defeat.

At that time, when Zuo Zongtang was defeated, Li Hongzhang could take advantage of the situation to completely defeat Zuo Zongtang, and all the left officials would be purged.

Zuo Zongtang is not so easy to be plotted. Without military pay, he asked Hu Xueyan and foreigners to borrow usury.

The two of them bet on this breath.

Now it is Zuo Zongtang's great victory, recovering countless lost lands, which also gave him the upper hand in the court.

When Hu Xueyan died, it was difficult to borrow more loans. Coupled with the severe famine in the north, Shanxi, Shandong, Hebei, Henan and Shaanxi were the most seriously affected. Shanxi has reached the point where there is no harvest, and it is impossible to raise food and pay.

Zuo Zongtang can only collect it as soon as he sees it is good. He can return to the two rivers to clean up the mess. First, he has to take all the taxes and rice grain of the two rivers. He doesn't give Li Hongzhang a penny. Let's see what money Li Hongzhang takes to buy a warship.

At this moment, Wu Yuanbing and Mei Qizhao are all people who Zuo Zongtang wants to liquidate, but these two people are not Li Hongzhang's people. They are just chess pieces secretly used by Li Hongzhang and thrown after using them up.

As long as the imperial examination system in the court, how many such chess pieces are needed for Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang!

This is the politics of the late Qing Dynasty, and Chinese politics has always been like this for thousands of years.

The battle between Zuo Li is too cruel. If you don't pay attention, you will become cannon fodder for the two. You don't know how to die.

In the case of no choice, Hu Chuyuan can only try his best to be careful. He knows that no matter how careful he is, it is always necessary to keep another way back.

After coming out of Rongdongyuan, Hu Chuyuan returned to the study in the main hall. Wang Baotian, Chen Xiaobai, Liu Chengxiang and Tan Yiyun were all there.

Chen Xiaobai casually asked, "What's the order of Lord Zhongtang?"

After thinking about it, Hu Chuyuan closed the door of the study tightly, and then said the whole thing and his own countermeasures. He whispered to the three people, "Although I don't know what Dad thinks, I really don't want to be involved in the dynasties of the two middle halls... I can't help it. Dad is too deeply involved. Even if it's my turn to make the decision, I Don't want to quit!"

Among the four people, Chen Xiaobai is a really capable and powerful role. Even Hu Xueyan sighs that his ability to run Qianzhuang is not as good as himself. Wang Baotian, Liu Chengxiang and Tan Yiyun are all old ministers, loyal and diligent.

Chen Xiaobai said, "Master, it's not that the master doesn't know, but the profits here are too big, and Lord Zuo Zongtang is a person who can give heavy profits. Among other things, the money borrowed by the master and the Standard Chartered Bank was more than 12 million yuan for a period of six years, with an interest of more than 6 million yuan, from which the master charged a guarantee fee of 2.7 million taels at a time. If there is no instruction and nod of Zuo Zhongtang, how dare the master take this money?

Hu Chuyuan thought for a moment and said, "It's not my father's ability to make this money, but Zuo Zongtang's way of control over people and holding other people's seven inches."

Chen Xiaobai asked, "What should I do now?"

Hu Chuyuan didn't know what to do for a while.

After a moment of meditation, he and the four people asked, "Uncles, how does our Hu family treat you?"

After only listening to this, the four hurriedly replied, "Master, the master treats us like brothers, go through fire and water, and die!"

"Yes!"

Hu Chuyuan felt that Wang Baotian, Liu Chengxiang and Tan Yiyun were Hu Xueyan's earliest confidants, which can also be said to be 20 years of adversity. Chen Xiaobai was Hu Xueyan's main opponent in Qianzhuang's business in his early years. When he was young, he also worked as a clerk in Qianzhuang together. Later, he was rescued by Hu Xueyan in danger and met each other. More than ten years.

They are all people that the Hu family can completely trust.

Although he and these people have not really established a trustworthy friendship, they are just doing things for him in terms of Hu Xueyan.

Thinking of this, Hu Chuyuan sighed, "Four uncles, then I'm here to say something that can't be spread. We must never forget the lesson of the Wu family in Guangdong. As the saying goes, the rabbit is dead and the dog is cooked, and the birds are all hidden. After all, we will have a day when it is no longer useful.

Chen Xiaobai and the four of them took a breath of cold air, and Wang Baotian asked, "Dong, what do you mean...?"

Without waiting for Hu Chuyuan to answer, Liu Chengxiang said, "Even if we don't plan to do this, we should take precautions. We can't put all the eggs in one basket!"

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly and said, "That's true, but I'm not in a hurry at the time. Then again, the mantis catches the cicada, the yellow finch is behind, and the Xiang faction and the Huai faction may die in front of us.

Chen Xiaobai sighed and said, "Who can say the world clearly? The way is clear. There is the reincarnation of the five virtues. Each of them has been in charge of the world for three hundred years. In my opinion, it is hard to say even the number of the Qing Dynasty. China is not prosperous, and the little ghost jumps. Nowadays, foreigners are becoming more and more arrogant. I'm afraid that the old story of foreign invaders entering the Central Plains will be repeated again, just from the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty to an overseas foreign country!"

Wang Baotian exclaimed, "Master Chen, you can't talk nonsense. If you hear it to outsiders, you will cut off your head!"

Chen Xiaobai said, "It's all my family here. I just say it casually!"

Hu Chuyuan also smiled bitterly and did not continue to talk about this topic. Instead, he talked about what he discussed with Zuo Zongtang and discussed it with several shopkeepers again.

Wang Baotian is a housekeeper and doesn't participate in business. Chen Xiaobai said first, "This can be done. Let's first offset the spring silk money owed by the British and French foreign bank to the two foreign banks in Germany, and then withdraw 2.44 million taels of silver from the bank to the Qiao family. The rest is to find a way to draw the money in the pawnshop and the rice bank, move the bank's deposits, and transfer three million taels of silver to the Xiangjun. If there are still five million taels of silver, this year's Xia Si can continue to collect it.

Raw silk trading is different from ordinary business. It is ordered and sold one by one. When harvesting spring silk, give the silk farmer a deposit to pre-order summer silk. When the summer silk is finished, the deposit will be kept until next spring, and it will continue to be used to harvest next spring silk.

In Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the purchase price of spring silk is generally 3.7 taels per catty, 4.6 taels per catty for foreign banks, and Xia silk is collected in September. The purchase price is 3 taels per catty, and the selling price is 3.8 taels per catty.

Every year, the output of spring silk in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is at least 4 million catties, and the output of summer silk is not less than 2 million catties. One catties is one catty, and the total output is between 60,000 catties and 70,000 catties.

After the spring silk is collected, the foreign bank can't settle the bill. The local silk merchants have to continue to invest money to buy Xia silk. The small businessman can't lift it. Hu Xueyan's capital is more and more year by year. Last year, he almost monopolized half of the two silks in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and summer.

The taxes of Jiangsu and Zhejiang are high. When a load of silk is shipped from Huzhou to Zhejiang, it is subject to additional taxes, Zhengli, Liangjiang military fees, Tanggong's guarding fees, dredging lake funds, aftercare fees, donation fees, and local charity fees in Huzhou, a total of 18.7 taels of silver. When entering Shanghai, a similar miscellaneous tax of 18 taels of silver will be levied from Shanghai Daotai.

The so-called Qing Dynasty never added gifts, and the low taxes are pure bullshit.

On average, there is an increase of 0.36 taels of tax per catty of raw silk, and then the freight is deducted. The merchant can only earn 0.4 taels of silver per catty of raw silk.

On the other hand, not all of this raw silk is exported to the United Kingdom and the United States. About half of them will refine mature silk in a foreign silk reeling factory in Shanghai and then resold it to China, and the price has risen to 7 taels of silver per catty.

For this reason, Hu Xueyan raises the price with the foreign bank every year. If he raises the price of one more yuan per catty of raw silk, he can earn an extra 300,000 taels.

Hu Xueyan also understands in his heart that no matter how he makes money, the real most profitable person is the foreigners. Therefore, if he wants to monopolize the whole Jiangsu and Zhejiang silk city with financial resources and power, foreigners have to discuss with him if they want to buy silk.

But whether it is a foreigner or other silk merchants in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, no one wants him to do this.

Later, Hu Xueyan's capital turnover was not good, and he wanted to borrow money with other merchants. The major silk merchants did not borrow money, hoping that he would go bankrupt and go bankrupt.

As a result, he really went bankrupt.

It is ridiculous that Hu Xueyan's bankruptcy directly caused the bargaining power of the entire raw silk industry to fall into the hands of foreigners. The silk merchants who could rely on Hu Xueyan to raise prices before were no longer popular and became vassals of foreign banks.

Hu Chuyuan saw more and more clearly and understood that the merchants and politicians in the late Qing Dynasty, including Hu Xueyan and Zuo Zongtang, deserved to be bullied by foreigners.

After discussing with the three big shopkeepers, he ordered the matter first. Chen Xiaobai returned to Shanghai to talk about the mortgage of the debt. Tan Yiyun was responsible for raising money, and Liu Chengxiang continued to be responsible for the acquisition of Xia Si and transportation.

To be honest, without the help of these big shopkeepers left by Hu Xueyan, Hu Chuyuan really didn't know what to do.

It's easy to say something, but I really want to deal with those things. I don't have more than ten years of experience and experience, and I don't have the contacts, relationships, reputation and doorway... Who can do things properly? A little mistake can toss Hu Chuyuan to death.

However, Zuo Zongtang came to the Hu family compound at this time, which really helped Hu Chuyuan a lot.

Within his position, it is almost impossible for Hu Chuyuan to take charge of the Hu family business smoothly.

Without Zuo Zongtang, how could Hu Xueyan have such a big family business?

What's more, Zuo Zongtang is also a scholar of the Qing court, the governor of Liangjiang and the minister of Nanyang, and the leader of the Hunan army after Zeng Guofan.

As long as Hu Chuyuan talks to him and has a relationship, Hu Chuyuan's position in the Hu family is unbreakable.