Chapter 48 Four New French Talents

At this time, it is already the New Year's Day of 1879 in the Western calendar. The foreigners celebrate their New Year's Day, and the Chinese people continue to wait for the arrival of the Spring Festival.

The famine in northern China is still continuing. The imperial court has long banned the export of grain from Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hunan, Guangzhou and Guangdong and Guangdong. For Jiangnan commercial banks, this is a great good news. More grain has also been trafficked to Shandong and Hebei. The situation in the two places has also greatly improved, and agricultural production is slowly recovering.

The only exception is Shanxi.

After all, Hu Chuyuan is a businessman, and he has to settle accounts.

After the first batch of food transported was forced to be used for relief. After losing 700,000 taels of silver, he stopped transporting grain to Shanxi, concentrated his financial and manpower to restore Shandong's agriculture, and changed all the fields he controlled into grain, mainly spring wheat and potatoes. After the summer harvest, he changed to corn and soybeans.

At this time, the land in Shandong directly controlled by Jiangnan Commercial Bank was 3.4 million mu, almost all of which were originally used to grow opium. They were concentrated in the southeastern region of Shandong, with Yantai and Qingdao as the main transportation destinations.

In Hebei, commercial banks also have 1.25 million mu of land.

In order to avoid trouble, the assets of these fields were separated before the official shares entered the Jiangnan Commercial Bank. They were divided into more than 600 rice villages, and then the rice villages were concentrated into more than 20 grain cooperatives, which were finally controlled by Yufeng Grain Cooperatives.

The accounts of Jiangnan Commercial Bank must be reported to the imperial court. If these fields are left in the commercial bank, it is really not good to report it, and it is not good not to report it. The surname is not set in the commercial bank.

To be honest, Hu Chuyuan has the courage to do this business, and he doesn't have the courage to read the accounts.

As soon as he saw the specific number, even he was scared.

In order to avoid emergency, he also hid Yufeng Grain Society. All the sales of the rice market were handed over to more than 20 grain societies, and Yufeng Grain Society was only responsible for dividend distribution.

The national disaster is indeed very evil. All his investments are only 4.75 million taels of silver, including the one in Shanxi. In previous years, he bought a maximum of 700,000 mu of fertile land.

The rate of return on land purchase and rent collection is very low, and a large amount of manpower and material resources have to be invested in fine management. In the case of drought and flood, it is a loss to the end. In the late Qing Dynasty, it was particularly popular to eat large households. Once the poor people around them are hungry, they will flock to large families to grab food. Therefore, it is a disaster, and they will suffer heavy losses when they encounter drought and floods.

farming is like this. It depends on God's face.

Hu Chuyuan just wants to hold on for a few more years. When farmers from all over Shandong get over the current difficulties, he will gradually sell the land and collect the funds as soon as possible.

......

After more than a month of tossing, the 300-hole Ruo Guade has been imitated, because there are many differences in stress between wood and iron. It is impossible to imitate it as I said. According to the rich experience of carpenters, Master Qian and Master Zhao have made several changes to the structure.

This 300-hole Guard wood loom is very easy to use, and the cost is not high. 20 taels of silver can make two frames.

On the basis of the original, Master Qian added a knife stick in traditional weaving, which improved the efficiency and technological level of the loom.

The new spinning machine is very good. The advantage is that the efficiency is twice as fast. As long as it is skilled, the quality of the silk woven is similar and stable. It is not as obvious as using an air inducedting machine.

also has two disadvantages. First, it is completely different from the air guide. No matter how skilled the weaver is, it is difficult to learn again. Second, it is that it is difficult to weave the highest effect of the air guide.

Hu Chuyuan changed the name of this imitation wood loom to Jiangnan loom, and asked Master Qian to stay and cooperate with Xu Shou to improve the Jiangnan loom. Master Zhao returned to Hangzhou to recruit skilled carpenters and continue to build a 100-hole entry-level version of the Jiangnan loom and a 300-hole practical version of the Jiangnan loom.

With these foundations, Hu Chuyuan decided to go back to Suzhou to meet Zuo Zongtang for the time being. The matter of education in Shanghai can only be put on hold.

In Shanghai, he has reached the point where he is lonely. No matter what he talks about, as long as others see him, they will hide. Even Fu Lanya and Xu Shou seem to have been secretly talked to and intimidated, and they are not as enthusiastic about him as at the beginning.

Helpless!

Let Hu Rong take charge of packing. Hu Chuyuan quietly sat alone in the back garden of Hu Mansion, silently thinking about countermeasures.

He is single-minded for the public, but Sheng Xuanhuai and Tang Yanshu don't think so.

He thought that he should have thought that people like Sheng Xuanhuai had done everything. In order to defeat Hu Xueyan, this person contacted all the foreign banks in Shanghai, joined hands not to buy Hu Xueyan's raw silk, and also contacted merchants from all over Jiangsu and Zhejiang to go to the Hangzhou general store in Fukang Qianzhuang.

He was sighing that he was indeed a little young and forgot that there were some unconventional means in the world. Hu Rong hurried in and told him, "My host, Lord He, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, has sent five ship administration students here and is waiting for you in the living room!"

It's so fast!

Hu Chuyuan thought for a moment and said to Hu Rong, "Let them come to the back garden. I'll meet them here!"

"Okay!" Hu Rong agreed and immediately went to the living room to hire someone.

In a short time, five young people in Qing army uniforms came from the front yard of the Hu Mansion. They said they were official uniforms, but they were not gradeless. These were the students of Fuzhou Ship and Politics School.

The leader is more than 20 years old, with a great body, red lips and white teeth, and a cold look. At a glance, he knows that he is a very strange person. The other four people are either handsome or great, but they can't compare with this person.

As soon as the five people came forward, the cold young man took out a letter from his arms and said to Hu Chuyuan, "Captain, this is a letter of personal recommendation from the Governor. I hope you can have a look!"

Hu Chuyuan nodded and took the letter and opened it.

He and He Jing asked for four "smart people" who are proficient in French, who are proficient in mechanical arithmetic and Western studies, or have a business background. He will arrange four people to learn paper painting, mechanical work, chemical dyeing and silk reeling respectively. The four of them will go to Japan to study for a few months, and then go to France to study for a year. After returning to China, they can Commissioned with heavy responsibilities.

It is not very difficult to find such a person in Fuzhou Ship Administration School. The Ship Administration School itself teaches two foreign languages, English and French, as well as mechanics, industry and mining, boilers, shipbuilding, driving and other courses.

The five people recommended by He Jing generally meet Hu Chuyuan's requirements.

In addition, He Jing also asked people to choose a special talent in the school. This person is Zhang Lingpu, a young man in front of Hu Chuyuan.

Zhang Lingpu, four years of Xianfeng, because he was born in the Tiger's year. He was 22 years old this year. He practiced boxing with his father at home since he was a child. At the age of 17, he was a middle-aged scholar. After that, he abandoned his pen and was admitted to Fuzhou Ship Administration School to study English and ship driving.

He, with excellent grades, had the opportunity to be sent to the United Kingdom for further study, but he was temporarily transferred out by He Jing and sent to Hu Chuyuan.

Hu Chuyuan raised his eyes and looked at Zhang Lingpu carefully, thinking that this person should be available.

He asked curiously, "What kind of boxing did you learn?"

Zhang Lingpu hugged his fist and said, "Lieutenant, what I learned is the local five ancestral fists in Fuqing County, hard bridge and hard horse, learn from the tiger and imitation of the crane!"

"Oh!" Hu Chuyuan raised his eyebrows slightly and guessed the meaning of He Jing's sending this person here.

It is estimated that the hooligans in Shanghai Beach are too noisy, and they have heard of it in Fuzhou.

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly and said, "Well, you can stay with me first and deal with some chores. I hope I don't wrong you!"

Zhang Lingpu said, "Thank you for your support."

Hu Chuyuan smiled and asked the other six people one by one. He also found a French book for them to read, and the results were not bad.

Because he is leaving for Suzhou tomorrow, Hu Chuyuan sent these four people to Japan first, accompanied by Pan Limei.

After arranging this matter, Hu Chuyuan asked Hu Rong to go out to find Chen Xiaobai and others, and he took Zhang Lingpu to the study and took a draft of 2,000 yuan.

After giving the bill of exchange to Zhang Lingpu, Hu Chuyuan secretly ordered, "You are a living face, and no one knows your origin. During this period, you should first use the name of learning from teachers to learn more in the Shanghai martial arts world, and contact the Shanghai hooligans along the line of the martial arts world to find out which hooligan leaders have been struggling with me recently.

Zhang Lingpu nodded silently and said, "Captain, don't worry, the little one will definitely get this done!"

Hu Chuyuan said, "It's not too late. You should go to do something now and rent a house in the concession for the time being. Don't reveal your origin, just say that you are a martial artist in Fuzhou."

Zhang Lingpu said, "Your Excellency, don't worry, you must do it without leakage."

Hu Chuyuan said, "Then you can go first."

Zhang Lingpu swered and quickly exited the study.

In fact, Hu Chuyuan has already asked Chen Xiaobai to secretly send someone to inquire about the hooligan trouble. Chen Xiaobai has also been on the beach for more than ten years. It is not difficult to find out this matter, but he deliberately asked Zhang Lingpu to take another way, that is, to test the depth of Zhang Lingpu.