Chapter 12 Ding Wuqihuang

After negotiating with Yan Shizhang about gift-giving, Hu Chuyuan couldn't help thinking about another thing... the barren years in the north.

From 1876, there was a severe famine in Shandong, and then began to spread. By 1877, the famine began to break out in Shanxi.

This year, the disaster situation has not only not subsided, but has become more serious. More than a million people in Shanxi Province alone have starved to death, and large local households have been robbed.

Yan Shizhang has just returned from the north and has a deep understanding of this.

He said bluntly that these two years were indeed a great drought, but the real cause of the disaster was that all the fertile fields in Shanxi Province were planting opium.

After the Opium War, the Qing Dynasty could not ban smoking, so they had to grow opium in China, and promulgated the Regulations on the Collection of Local Medicine Tax, which semi-publicly encouraged the cultivation of opium in various places in exchange for a large amount of taxes, while reducing the outflow of silver.

Today, Shanxi Province and Shandong Province are the largest opium planting areas in China. All the good fields in the two provinces are planting opium. Only those inferior fields grow wheat, sorghum and corn, and the management is very low.

Opium taxes are high and profits are high. Local officials, rich gentry and people are keen to grow opium. This situation has lasted for nearly 20 years, making food reserves across the country very low.

In the past few years, there was no problem with the smooth weather. In the past two years, when there was a slight drought, Shandong and Shanxi fell into an unprecedented famine. All households did not have food, and so were the rich gentry from all over the country. The drifters were thousands of miles away and hungry.

Hearing Yan Shizhang say these things, Hu Chuyuan couldn't help sighing in his heart.

He said, "Mr. Yan, my family actually has a little spare power to help the disaster victims in Shanxi and Shandong. When you go to the north this time, I will send a few more people. You might as well get this matter done."

Yan Shizhang sneered and said, "My lord, I just told you that Lord Zhongtang is bottomless when he is turbid. He doesn't know that you still have the strength to help Shanxi, but you should understand that he just wants to retaliate against Li Hongzhang, seize the salt government, and regain control of the two rivers. He and the court said that your family was almost bankrupt in order to do these things. Now you suddenly take out so much money to help the disaster victims. Isn't it against him and clearly telling others to lie to the Lord Zhongtang?

Hu Chuyuan was speechless for a moment.

He closed his eyes silently. He had a lot of words in his heart, but he really couldn't say a word.

He finally understood.

Yes, Zuo Zongtang is also bottomless when he is turbid.

Local opium defeated imported opium and brought nearly 10 million taels of silver to the Qing Dynasty every year. What a great victory!

Seeing that he was speechless, Yan Shizhang said, "My employer, you are still young, but since you are a businessman, you have to be like a real businessman. Don't be worried about these things for the time being. Do you think that the Qing Dynasty itself doesn't care. What else do you care about?

At this point, he paused for a moment, and suddenly lowered his voice and said, "My master, you just believe what I'm going to say. In my view, I'm afraid that the reincarnation of the five virtues is coming. You have to make more plans early. In the last years, when the war broke out, thousands of rogues, you should think about saving people. If you can save it for a while, you can't save a lifetime!"

Hu Chuyuan was unwilling, but he had to admit Yan Shizhang's judgment.

He also understood that Yan Shizhang's heart was very sober. Years of hardships and experience, as well as those experiences, made him more and more clear that China in this era was terminally ill, and the Qing Dynasty was no longer the Qing Dynasty at the beginning of the founding of the country.

He decided to ignore the things outside for the time being and manage his own affairs first. Only in this way can he stabilize his feet before a bigger disaster comes.

Without Hu Xueyan, it is very difficult for him to support such a situation alone.

He is so rich, but he is like a mud bodhisattva.

The north has long been in chaos, the people are disturbed, and the thieves are rampant. Although the official road from Tianjin to the capital is also protected by the Huai army and the green camp, it is barely safe, and Hu Chuyuan does not dare to be careless.

He asked Wang Baotian to choose a few of the best nurses, followed Yan Shizhang all the way to the Beijing Normal University for activities, and also wrote a letter to the shopkeeper of Fukang Qianzhuang Jingshi Branch, asking him to cooperate with Yan Shizhang. If he didn't have enough money, he could withdraw 30,000 taels of silver from the Beijing Normal University Branch.

When he wrote the letter, Yan Shizhang sighed, "My employer, 100,000 taels is too much, and 50,000 taels is almost enough."

Hu Chuyuan said, "If you go to Beijing this time, if you have any old friends, you can also go and have a look and run through the door. When I am really free, I will also go to the capital in person. If I want to do something big, I can't be afraid of spending money. As for gift-giving, you officials have the rules of being officials, but we businessmen also have the rules of businessmen, or if you don't give gifts, you have to scare people. Only in this way can we make the relationship as reliable as iron.

Yan Shizhang was very grateful for Hu Chuyuan's trust and said, "Well, it's just that I have been away from the government for many years, and there are still big cases in me, so I can't walk around. Now that I go to the capital to dredge the host, I can only find two people, one is the benefactor Wan Shangshu, and the other is the top grandson of the same year. Now he and Weng Tonghe are the same emperor, and the dignitaries of the capital want to make friends with them. Sun Jiaqi and I are in the same year. In the early years, we had a good personal relationship when we were editing in Hanlin Academy.

Hu Chuyuan said, "I'll leave all these things to you. I'm not as careful as you know what to do. There are several cargo ships from Hangzhou to Shanghai every day. You can go to Shanghai first, and then take a ship to Beijing. I will tell someone to do some for you along the way!"

Yan Shizhang arched his hand and said, "Thank you, my host. Then I'll pack my luggage now!"

Hu Chuyuan nodded silently and got up and left.

Back to his room, he immediately invited Tan Yiyun over and asked Tan Yiyun about Mi City.

He is a very sober person who knows what he can do and what he can't do. Since you can't save it, let's be a anniannior and do a good business.

When he is richer, we will talk about the future!

Due to the disaster in the north, the price of rice has been more than four or five times higher than in previous years. Of course, Yufeng Rice has made a lot of money. It has been shipping rice to Tianjin, but more places dare not go.

There are groups of people everywhere to grab rice everywhere, and there are more bandits like cattle. As long as the convoy transporting rice comes out of the city gate, it will definitely be robbed. Not to mention the convoys carrying rice, even the convoys carrying stones will have to be robbed.

Hu Chuyuan thought about it calmly for a moment and asked Tan Yiyun, "How much rice do you think we can buy from Jiangsu and Zhejiang?"

Tan Yiyun said, "The north grows opium and the south grows silk tea, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang have not produced a lot of rice. If you really want to buy rice, you have to go to Huguang. Now there are enough rice markets in Huguang. There should be a lot of room in Jiujiang and Wuhu rice markets. The price is not low, which is at least 30% higher than in previous years. The problem is that there is no way to transport it. The rice markets in Tianjin and Yanjing did not rise too high, because everyone was sending rice to Tianjin. The official roads from Tianjin to Yanjing were also protected by the Huai Army, and other places could not do it. The convoy of transporting rice did not dare to go out of the city gate at all, and they were robbed as soon as they came out.

Hu Chuyuan gritted his teeth and calculated that he knew that he could not do this business directly.

If he did it, it would prove that his family still had a lot of money and was not crushed to death by debt, which was equivalent to slapping Zuo Zongtang in the face.

Even if he does this business in a different way, he has to consider the safety issue.

The green camp of the Qing court has been unable to suppress the banditers, and they have tried their best to avoid "useless sacrifices". If the first-class banditates occupy the county and town to make a big deal, they have to count on the Xianghuai army to take action.

Some time ago, the Qing court asked Zuo Zongtang to return to Beijing to resign and stay in the capital, just to pull back Zuo Zongtang's Hunan army at a critical moment to suppress the possible "Shanxi Uprising".

As long as it does not become a real uprising, the Qing court will not care about it. Just grab it, just grab it, and don't rob the court.

After thinking about it in his heart, Hu Chuyuan quietly said to Tan Yiyun, "Mr. Tan, I estimate that this year's Xia Si's business must be very difficult to do. Everyone will come to grab the territory. The purchase price will be squeezed very high, and you may not be able to make much money by selling it to foreigners."

Tan Yiyun said worriedly, "The owner has a high opinion. In fact, the shopkeeper Liu and I also have this opinion. Among other things, the raw silk around Huzhou has to be speculated for a sky-high price. There is another problem this year. Although the drought in the south of the Yangtze River is not serious, it has an impact on the growth of mulberry leaves. The production of raw silk in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces has fallen by about 10 percent compared with previous years. Everyone is expected to be bullish, which is even more troublesome.

Hu Chuyuan said, "Mr. Tan, I think business should be flexible. We only keep the silk of Hangzhou and Jin Qu this year. If we can keep Huzhou, of course it's the best. Forget about other places. Let's concentrate the financial resources we can collect to do a rice market transaction. Let's make a profit first. Later, we will sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight and watch others compete for the territory. If they lose, let's come back next year.

Tan Yiyun smiled and said, "The owner is shrewd, but there is a problem. The price of rice in Tianjin and Beijing is not too high. Although the price of rice in other places is high, we dare not go!"

Hu Chuyuan said, "Don't worry for the time being. Let people go to Huguang and Jiujiang to negotiate the purchase of rice first, and then negotiate with the shipping company to charter rice. You can pay the deposit in advance. If we can't do it, we will make a small loss. If we do it, we can make a lot of money today!"

Tan Yiyun thought a little deeper.

As an old businessman, of course, he understands that there are always risks in doing business, but the higher the risk, the higher the profit.

After thinking for a moment, he felt that he could bet and agreed with Hu Chuyuan's idea.

Hu Chuyuan has no control over Yufeng Mixing at present, but as long as Tan Yiyun agrees, Mixing can do things according to his ideas.

After dinner in the evening, Hu Chuyuan wandered around the garden alone, thinking about how to talk to Zuo Zongtang.

Let's not talk about the disaster in the north for the time being. He still has another account in his heart.

In addition to Standard Chartered Bank, Xiangjun also owed a large amount of money to other foreign banks and domestic businessmen. All of this part of Mr. Lin Lin was pressed on the Hu family. In addition, he recently lent three million taels of silver to Liu Kunyi, and Xiangjun owed 12.94 million taels of silver to the Hu family.

The interest of this debt is 12% annual interest, and the court pays the interest on a monthly basis.

Even the Hu family has a sense of difficulty in shouldering such a large amount of debt.

Hu Chuyuan really wants to raise more funds by reforming the Qianzhuang business, but this kind of thing is easy to think about and difficult to do.

There are five main profit sources in the traditional money bank, namely, equality, loan interest, water exchange, remittance and exchange. The common name is that the standard of silver warehouses varies from place to place, and a certain handling fee is charged after the exchange of money bank; the interest is the interest of the loan; the exchange of water is the handling fee for copper money for silver, or the exchange of insufficient silver for full-colored silver; the remittance is the handling fee for remittance in different places; the exchange of tickets is the handling fee for silver tickets for silver.

At this time, Qianzhuang also has the concept of "deposit", which is called "posting". However, since Shanxi people started the ticket number business, each Qianzhuang has not made small household's stickers. All the tickets are negotiated before the New Year, and they must be stored within one month after the end of the year, just like entering a fixed-term shares. It was not until the end of the second year that it was approved.

Shanxi people have set a lot of rules for ticket numbers, and these rules have gradually spread to the whole bank business field. For example, the owner is not allowed to handle the bank business in person, and the big and small rights must be handed over to the big shopkeeper. Even if the account is checked in the bank, the owner is not allowed to stay overnight.

Hu Chuyuan really wants to reform the business of Fukang Qianzhuang, but like Yufeng Mihang, he can't control Qianzhuang without the consent of the big shopkeeper.

If Chen Xiaobai and others do not agree with the reform, it will cause new contradictions.

Weighing the pros and cons, Hu Chuyuan decided not to adjust Fukang Qianzhuang for the time being, so he considered it from the perspective of officials and businessmen and chose another method to operate.

After thinking about the new name in his heart, he asked people to call Yan Shizhang, Liu Chengxiang and Wang Baotian to discuss it.

As he was speaking, Shen Furong, the fourth shopkeeper, rushed in. As soon as he entered the door, he couldn't kneel with Hu Chuyuan and cried bitterly, "My master, I deserve to die!"

A big housekeeper and four big shopkeepers of the Hu family, Wang Baotian and Tan Yiyun are the youngest, but they are also 45 or 16 years old. Chen Xiaobai and Hu Xueyan are the same age, while Liu Chengxiang and Shen Furong are both about 50 years old.

Hu Chuyuan pulled him up in surprise and asked, "What's wrong with you?"

Shen Furong was in great pain and cried, "I just heard that the national treasure I bought last time when I accompanied my old employer to Dongyangguo was actually a forgery, and I lost 60,000 yuan from my boss for nothing. My old boss saved me from danger and wanted to repay my kindness, but I didn't expect to do such a rout. I want to die!"

Hu Chuyuan was puzzled in his heart that only he, Yan Shizhang and Wang Baotian knew about this matter. He didn't intend to say it at all. Yan Shizhang was not a talkative person, so only Wang Baotian leaked the news!

He glanced at Wang Baotian complainingly, and then smiled with Shen Furong and said, "It's okay. It's not easy for Master Shen to look at the goods. Mr. Yan said that it is Shen Shichong's boutique, and the price is not low!"

Shen Furong said with hatred, "The owner, not to mention Shen Shichong's, even if it is Zhao Zuo's, the scribe is a scribe. The price is one less than the boss, at most 3,000 taels of silver. I hate those oriental dwarfs. I hate them. I'm sorry for my old boss. I'm sorry for you!"

Hu Chuyuan laughed and said, "Master Shen, don't hate this and that. No one did it on purpose. Just let him go there and just talk about it as a matter of mischief. If you are really sorry, make an IOU first. Let's lose half of the money. You owe me 10,000 taels of silver. You can pay me back when you make money in the future!"

Shen Furong was eager to make up for his mistake and immediately said, "My employer, I'll pay for it now."

Hu Chuyuan smiled even more and said, "To joke with you, there is no way to do business without compensation. Just think of it as a gain of knowledge. In the future, you should be more careful when you meet Dong Qichang's Mobao. Don't worry, I have a lot of things to ask you to take care of in the future. As long as we do things with one heart, let alone 60,000 yuan, even 10 million yuan can be recovered!"

"Thank you for your understanding!" Shen Furong suddenly became much more silent again, as if he gritted his teeth and swore in his heart.

Yan Shizhang, who stood aside, immediately sighed, "The benevolence and righteousness of the owner, the father and son are passed down from generation to generation, and the world industry is even better!"

Shen Furong said, "Mr. Yan, in the future, I will buy calligraphy and paintings in the pawnshop, and I also ask for your attention. I have a background in antiques. Porcelain and jade are slightly rough, and my ability to play calligraphy and painting ink treasures is really not worth mentioning."

Yan Shizhang arched his hand and said, "Gate each other and help each other!"

Hu Chuyuan smiled beside him. He already cared about the loss of tens of thousands of yuan. In the future, he will use pawnshops and antique shops as a cover. He will definitely be able to buy a large number of precious antiques at a low price

If he has a chance, he can buy the worthless Yuan Qinghua now.

If he has the opportunity to go to Europe, he also wants to buy all Van Gogh's paintings. In a hundred years, each painting will be worth 100 million US dollars.

Leaving these Eastern Tibet provinces at home to their children and grandchildren is much more useful than burying 3 million taels of silver, and they can continue to increase their value!