The truth always surprises.

The Qing dynasties were unable to communicate with each other, but after the telegram, the exchanges between them and intelligence became very close, especially when the Qing government obviously intended to pass the new policy and

After the constitutional government took back the real power of various provinces and implemented centralized rule again, the exchanges between the officials in the border areas became more secretive and frequent.

In the past six months, Song Biao and two officials from the border have had the most telegram exchanges, one is Yuan Shikai and the other is Zhang Zhidong. What is surprising is that the frequency of telegram exchanges between Zhang Zhidong and Song Biao is

The highest is almost as high as a weekly letter.

The cause of this incident was that Zhang Zhidong gave Song Biao some advice and persuasion regarding the Fengtian New Army demonstration. After the incident subsided, Zhang Zhidong asked Song Biao about some preparations and supervision of the new army. After that, it was

A lot of discussions on the new policies of the three northeastern provinces.

Zhang Zhidong agreed with Song Biao's statement that "national wealth starts with the purity of silver" advocated, but how to handle it makes it difficult for Zhang Zhidong to find good solutions.

As the two discussed each other more and more questions, Zhang Zhidong finally made several unhappy requests with Song Biao. One was to invite him to participate in the Guangdong-Hankou Railway Road. This was a bucket of money, which consumed too much money.

Song Biao couldn't afford to play, so he decisively declined; secondly, he asked him to send someone else to take over the Hanyang Iron Factory and Hubei Textile Bureau and agreed to change it to a commercial office.

As Sheng Xuanhuai's official position grew higher and his reputation grew, and his network of relationships in the capital became wider, the various conflicts between Zhang Zhidong and Sheng Xuanhuai at the Hanyang Iron Factory were gradually difficult to calm down, and both sides reached the point where they had to break up. Hubei Textile

The bureau made money in the early years. With the large-scale dumping of Japanese and American textiles in China, the government had many bad problems and gradually became less profitable. In recent years, they have been rented to Guangdong businessmen for business operations.

These two things are quite critical for Zhang Zhidong. With his reputation, he is absolutely not worried that his cooperation with Song Biao in these matters will affect his career, so Zhang Zhidong strongly invited Song Biao to send him during this period.

When Far East Commercial Bank came to take over the two factories and negotiated on official stock trading.

Song Biao is not sure about the matter of Hubei Textile Bureau. But Hanyang Iron Factory must be a good deal. Song Biao immediately asked Wu Yangzeng, Shen Deyao and Pan Sichi of the Far East Trading Company to visit two factories in Huguang.

That afternoon, Wu Yangzeng returned to Fengtian first.

It is not difficult to get from Fengtian to Wuchang. After taking the train to Dalian, you can take a cargo ship from Far East Trading to Huguang, and you can travel back and forth within two weeks.

Because Far East Coal and Iron Company has a lot of affairs, Wu Yang once went there for only 20 days and hurried back. He went directly to the military headquarters to find Song Biao to report. It happened that Song Biao was listening to Zhang Kangren's report on the preparations of the Northeast Bank in the office. Neither of these two were the two

Outsider, Song Biao asked Wu Yang to sit in the office for a while.

As the governor of the three northeastern provinces, Song Biao's various rules are increasing. His meeting standards are not allowed to exceed half an hour, and his subordinates' reporting work must not exceed one quarter of an hour.

Under this extremely tense compression, Zhang Kangren also reported the preparations as concisely as possible, and spoke very quickly.

After listening to his report, Song Biao still took the preparation summary submitted at the same time and carefully pondered the numbers. Zhang Kangren predicted that he would cast about 200 million yuan in Kanto silver dollars every year. He negotiated the import quotations for equipment from various countries.

Afterwards, it was finally confirmed that the equipment was introduced from the United States, and the total number of mechanical facilities was 217, ranging from printing mills to hand-made mold tables and grinders. Even factory wrench hardware and electric lights were imported.

The various import lists total more than 4,000 catalogs, with three years of installments, with a total amount of about three million US dollars.

Song Biao had a headache when he saw it. He put the report together and asked Zhang Kangren: "If our casting volume exceeds this scale, what do you plan to deal with it?"

Zhang Kangren said: "I have contacted the US currency stamping factory. With the approval of the US government, they can use the printing plate we submitted to print silver rounds for us. The number of stamps is approved by us, on the condition that the United States must be used.

Silver and other metals, and the processing fee is paid. So, I plan to add another spare silver round version, indicating the origin of the United States."

After a pause, he added: "Even if there is no additional version, the silver circle itself is a precious metal currency of real gold and silver, and it is actually not profitable to mint the silver circle."

Song Biao thought for a while and asked, "Are you sure there is no problem?"

Zhang Kangren said: "No problem, but the processing fee may not be too low. In fact, compared to our large amount of imported foreign equipment, plus the workers' water and electricity expenses, the cost of casting silver rounds may not be much lower than this processing fee.

. Considering that our current silver round casting business has not yet been launched, we can actually import custom silver rounds from the United States first to facilitate trial operation of each bank."

Song Biao nodded and said, "Okay, then you can speed up your work in this area!"

Song Biao was not very sure of many factors, but he chose to believe in Zhang Kangren. After all, the other party knew more than he did in this field. Their customized standard Kanto silver balls were roughly equivalent to Mexican silver balls, three silver balls combined with two taels of silver.

In the silver standard system, the standard for determining the market value of the currency is silver content, not other things. For professional currency minting and printing factories, the so-called printing plate is actually very easy to forge, and there is no point in preventing it, let alone this

There is basically no such dirty thing in the times.

When Zhang Kangren left first, Song Biao immediately asked Wu Yang: "How is the matter in Hubei?"

Wu Yangzeng immediately replied: "Report to Governor General, Pan Sichi and Shen Deyao's meaning is to be less involved. The machinery of Hubei Textile Bureau is too old, and except for the many skilled workers, it is basically useless. Governor Zhang presided over for a long time,

A large number of old people and related households were placed in the factory. Even if they were rented to Guangdong merchants, Guangdong merchants would have to continue to retain them, so whoever rented them would suffer. As for the matter of Hanyang Iron Factory, Shen Deyao intends to take them down, but I also intend to do so.

The two factions in the factory have a fierce struggle, including Governor Zhang and Sheng Xuanhuai. The former people are not good people, basically just a group of people who are dragging their backs, while the latter is not good people. They use all kinds of tricks to fight for power and profits without any lively.

So although the intention of recruiting for investment was to come and go, many people who saw the situation clearly had basically run away, and no one dared to wade into this muddy water. But if you say that, this factory has been operating for a long time and the workers have all made it ready.

, as long as a large amount of money is invested, it will definitely take effect immediately."

After hearing this, Song Biao nodded slightly and signaled Wu Yang Zeng to sit in front of him and talk, and asked the orderly soldiers to pour tea for Wu Yang Zeng.

In Song Biao's office, pouring tea for guests and subordinates means that the negotiation time is relatively relaxed. It can be more than a quarter of an hour limit.

Song Biao thought calmly for a moment and asked Wu Yang: "What do you mean is not to consider investing in Huguang's coal and iron industry and textile business?"

Wu Yang once replied: "Whether we can invest, the key is to see if Lord Zhang Zhidong can cooperate and assist more. For example, lower the price of the reorganized commercial office, and whether all the wasteful people he arranged before can be adjusted.

Leaving out gives us a better room for management and improvement. In addition, the scale of this investment is very large. Whether we have sufficient capital and ensure that it does not affect the investment of Far East Commercial Bank in the three northeastern provinces. If it is not a problem in terms of funds,

If Lord Zhang Zhidong cooperates with him, he can invest. After all, the foundation of Hanyang Iron Factory and Hubei Textile Bureau is very good, which is much better than starting from scratch. If we draw some skilled workers to the three northeastern provinces, it will also be beneficial for us to be in the three northeastern provinces.

Industrial expansion.”

Song Biao continued to ask him: "Then how much investment do you think Hanyang Iron Factory and Hubei Textile Bureau need at present?"

Wu Yang once said: "Before leaving, I calculated with Shen Deyao and Pan Sichi, the reinvestment scale of Hanyang Iron Plant is relatively large. If both coal mines and iron ore plants are included in the overall consideration, it will take about 250.

The total investment of 10,000 pounds is required, while the Hubei Textile Bureau needs to invest about 600,000 pounds. The problem with Hanyang Iron Plant is that its steelmaking furnace is not suitable for the actual iron ore. A large amount of money is invested in re-changing the furnace. In addition, its

The steel design capacity exceeds the total production capacity of pig iron, so a large-scale investment of multiple pig iron furnace smelting equipment is required. In order to meet the demand for railway rails, we need to produce the most popular high-manganese steel in the world. This requires an increase in manganese ore plants.

Large-scale investment. Hanyang Iron Plant's steel industry is basically a loss, which is closely related to its management system, marketing system, production cost and technical level. It is difficult to reverse within two years, and the profitable part is

Mainly selling coal iron ore, coke and pig iron. Currently, pig iron is in short supply in the domestic and Asian markets, and pig iron itself also has a variety of different types of products, which requires very good technology and multiple sets of different sets of different

Pig iron blast furnace. Shen Deyao and I mean to adopt the third phase investment method. First, we will improve the first phase of the Hanyang Iron Plant, change the technical type of blast furnace, change the acidic furnace to the Martin furnace, and increase coal iron and manganese

For basic mining investment, it will cost about 700,000 pounds, and the more the better. The second phase of investment on this basis is to reinvest and build a larger pig iron smelting base in Daye, completely from the United States.

Introduce new equipment and technologies, as well as management experience and operation systems, and at this stage, the second phase of the Hanyang Iron Plant must be transformed. The gas, waste and waste slag in the production process must be reused to establish supporting gas.

Boilers and self-provided power plants, cement plants, and brick plants; the third phase will take five years to gradually expand production capacity and technology types, establish a college of metallurgy and mining in Hubei to cultivate talents, and increase the scope of coal, iron and other metal mines.

Even if the long-term investment in the third phase is not discussed, the investment in the first two phases will require 2.5 million pounds, or even 3 million pounds. When the Krupp Factory was preparing for the steel plant, the German government gave it a total of

The total investment and support loans are as high as £30 million. We want to expand a steel plant to the size of the Krupp Steel Plant, and the investment scale is probably not less than that of them."

Speaking of this, Wu Yangzeng also added with emotion: "So, heavy industry is indeed not something that a small country or a poor country can support it. In Wuchang, Lord Zhang Zhidong and I also talked about this matter, and he asked us.

The general plan is very supportive, and how to negotiate in the end depends on how much thought the Governor has on this. The key is probably still dependent on the issue of funds. The basic conditions of our Liaoyang Iron and Steel Plant are much better than those in Hanyang.

The scale of investment must be larger, not less. If both sides handle it at the same time, the funding gap will be too large."

Song Biao nodded slightly, but he decided to fight this matter and do it together. He asked Wu Yang again: "What's the situation with Hubei Textile Bureau?"

Wu Yang Zeng said: "The scale of this textile factory is very large, with about 1,000 skilled workers. Our factory trains more than a dozen technicians. In terms of production, their scale in the field of hemp textiles is still very good.

Yes, there are profits at present, but in general, the machines still seem too old. Most of them are old machines from twenty years ago. Because the machines are old, they need to be repaired all year round. They also have to ask people from foreign countries and buy zero

The operating cost of accessories is very high. In general, they mainly spin cotton yarn. Without foreign cloth, most of the cotton yarn is sold to foreign factories in Shanghai. Panschi means changing some machines and adding weaving factories and printing and dyeing factories.

Sex investment of 600,000 pounds is enough, because workers, factories, etc. are ready-made, and the losses will be reversed next year. It is just that foreigners' foreign cloth, especially Japanese foreign cloth, the price is extremely low, and Huguang has many levies and taxes, so I want to go with Japan.

It is indeed not easy for people to compete, and it is great to maintain a loss."

Song Biao carefully thought about it in his mind and ordered Wu Yang: "Then let's take down the Hanyang Iron Factory first. As for the Hubei Textile Bureau, don't worry about it for the time being. Too many levies and miscellaneous taxes, it means not to do it.

What's more, we have to invest on a large scale in the three northeastern provinces. You go to the secretariat and discuss with Yuan Jinkai and the others. In my name, we will propose according to the conditions we discussed. If he agrees,

Then we will build up the Hanyang Iron Factory and the Coal and Iron Mine Factory to set up a coal and iron company to operate it in a unified manner, and ask someone to come forward to serve as the general director and recruit commercial shares. If we can't recruit it, we will handle it uniformly."

Wu Yang once nodded and said, "Okay, I'll go to the secretariat to get this done."

After saying this, Wu Yangzeng hurriedly got up and left, while Song Biao continued to think about this in the office.

Although Far East Coal and Iron Company is speeding up the time to prepare its own steel plant, the investment scale is quite large. From investment to production, there are at least two years. The steel industry in the three eastern provinces starts from scratch, requiring no one, and technology.

Without technology, if it can be started first based on Hanyang Iron Factory, it may be easier.

There is only one problem, that is, the money issue.

Where to find so much money?

The new policies of the three northeastern provinces require money, the new army of the northeastern provinces require money, the industrial and agricultural construction of the three northeastern provinces cost money, and education costs even more... Just relying on this pitiful tax revenue from the three northeastern provinces cannot be sustained.

Song Biao has money in his hands. His personal capital mainly comes from two aspects: one is the large amount of land, real estate and property rights obtained by selling grain in the war, and the other is the large number of Japanese troops seized in the war.

Japanese business assets, materials and military pay that the Russian army continues to support.

The two major companies under his name are Far East Commercial Bank and Yufengxing. The two major companies hold about 31.5 million taels of silver in the three northeastern provinces, own 42,000 farmland and 13,500 mu of industrial and commercial land, in Shenyang and Liaoyang

, Dalian owns more than 7,000 stores, 21 wharfs, Liaoyang, Fushun and Tonghua, Liaoyang and Haicheng's magnesite franchise, 14 copper, lead and zinc mines, and 11 gold mines.

There are 7 silver mines, as well as oil franchises in Daqing and other regions, as well as the issuance rights of the Fengtian currency of the three eastern provinces held by the Far East Bank.

Together with these items alone, the total capital scale exceeds 70 million taels of silver, which is actually far more than that, but the total scale of these minerals has not yet been determined.

If the Northeast New Army is also calculated as Song Biao's personal property, his net worth will probably double. The Northeast New Army's artillery, machine guns, rifles, horses, military ranch, military reclamation areas, battalions and other fixed assets will also add up.

It is definitely more than 70 million taels of silver.

In other words, if the Qing government wanted to build an army of the size and strength of the Northeast New Army, it would have to invest 70 million taels of silver to reach such a level.
To be continued...