Shanghai, Zhennan Wangfu, Changle Book House.

Zhao Liewen walked into the room with a telegram on his face, glanced at the father and son who were talking, and said happily: "Big shopkeeper, Transvaal telegram, the gold mine has been put into mining, and it is expected to produce twenty-five tons of gold per year. ”

Twenty-five tons? Yi Zhizu took the telegram and glanced at it a few times, and said with a smile: "How many ounces is twenty-five tons?" 800,000 ounces, what was the situation at the California gold mines? ”

"California gold was discovered in 1848, and in the first year of mining it produced only 400,000 ounces, which exploded to two million ounces in 1849, and by 1853 it had reached more than three million ounces." Zhao Liewen said casually: "The Transvaal gold mine is expected to produce 800,000 ounces in the first year, which is far more than the California gold mine. ”

Transvaal gold reserves exceed California gold mines, there is no doubt about this, the two can be described as worlds apart, South Africa's gold reserves claim to account for more than half of the world's gold reserves, this is not blown, Yi Zhizhi smiled contentmently, said: "South Africa uses troops, it costs a lot of money, and it has to be stationed for a long time, just this output, I am afraid it is difficult to convince the public."

In addition, the implementation of the gold standard is urgent, now the gold reserves of Yuanqi is insufficient, if you want to implement the gold standard as soon as possible, you need the Chinese people to have full confidence in Yuanqi, this production is still insufficient. ”

Speaking of this, he paused and said: "Call back, speed up the exploration and exploitation of gold mines, and do everything in our power to support gold mining in South Africa, and next year's gold production must be as high as 100 tons!" ”

One hundred tons is 3.2 million ounces, if it is really able to achieve this output, the Qing Dynasty will become a major gold producer in the world, and more importantly, 100 tons of gold is equivalent to 70 million taels of silver at the current gold and silver exchange ratio, which is definitely an extremely terrifying income!

Seventy million a year, Yi Zhengxing's heart beat wildly, and he hesitated: "With an annual output of 100 tons, how many years can the Transvaal gold mine be mined?" ”

"It depends on the reserves of the Transvaal gold mines." Yi Zhishu smiled: "If you want to come to mining for thirty or fifty years, it should be no problem." ”

He didn't dare to tell the truth for fear of scaring the other party, I remember very well that the gold reserves of South Africa are as high as 50,000 tons, and the output of 100 tons a year can not be mined for hundreds of years, as far as he knows, the South Germany gold mine is not only the world's largest gold mine, but also rare in terms of high gold taste, and the annual output has reached 1,000 tons at the highest time!

Thirty or fifty years! Yi Zhengxing and Zhao Liewen were still taken aback, thirty or fifty years means three or five thousand tons of gold!

Seeing the expressions of the two people, Yi Zhixiang secretly amused, changed the topic, and said: "Feng Zicai mentioned that the Transvaal needs to buy arms to form an army, and he called back to warn him that he needs to be extra cautious, although the Boers are not many in number, they are brave and good at fighting, gold mining in South Africa is not an overnight thing, and it is necessary to curb the growth of the Boers, and it is best to borrow the hands of the British army to weaken the power of the Boers to the greatest extent." ”

After recording the telegram, Zhao Liewen pondered and said: "The students don't understand, why don't they destroy the Boers, follow the example of England, and directly turn the Transvaal into a colony of our country in South Africa." ”

Yi Zhixiang smiled: "I also want to annex the Transvaal directly, but this is not realistic. After a pause, he continued: "If we destroy the Transvaal, the war with the British in South Africa may be endless, and the British will not only covet the Transvaal gold mines, but also fear that our further expansion in South Africa threatens their colonies in South Africa, and they will definitely not give up."

In addition, the European countries that are hungry for gold mines will inevitably attack and denounce us for destroying the Transvaal, which may lead to the joint dispatch of European countries to South Africa, so we don't need to take this risk.

With the Transvaal, we can continue to weaken the strength of the Boers by provoking a war between the Boers and the blacks, and then support the blacks, so that we can gradually control the entire Transvaal, which is much safer than directly destroying the Transvaal. ”

"Tick Ring" The crisp phone rang, Yi Zhengxing hurriedly got up and picked up the phone, and asked a few words before turning around and saying: "It was King Gong who called, saying that the constitution was about to be established, and asked if my father would enter Beijing to participate in the official inaugural meeting of the Information Administration Yuan?" ”

"Reply to King Gong, I won't join in the fun." Yi Zhixiang smiled: "At that time, I will send them a congratulatory message." ”

As soon as Yi Zhengxing put down the phone, Lin Meilian reported at the door: "The big shopkeeper, Hu Guangyong and Huo Qi are asking to see each other outside." ”

"Let them in." Since the outbreak of the American Civil War, Yuan Qi has successively transferred capital to stir up trouble in the financial markets of the Americas and Europe, and has made a lot of money, to say that European capital is not aware of it, it is purely self-deception, for European capital to come to the Qing Dynasty, he is naturally very vigilant, he does not want the financial market that he has cultivated with great difficulty to be stirred up by European capital.

After Hu Guangyong and Huo Qizheng came in to greet and sit down, Hu Guangyong directly reported: "After these days of covert investigation, there is indeed a large amount of European capital flowing into Guangzhou and Shanghai, and it is roughly estimated that the amount should be about 10 million pounds, and it is still flowing in large quantities. ”

Huo Qizheng continued: "The stock market has stabilized and rebounded, and the foreign capital flowing into ......the stock market is not large. ”

What opportunity await? War breaks out in South Africa? Wait for the stock market to plummet before taking the opportunity to enter the market? Yi Zhizhi ordered a cigarette without saying a word, it seems that the other party has calculated that the Qing Dynasty will not give up the gold mines in the Transvaal, and has full confidence in the Qing Dynasty's victory in the battle of South Africa........ Wrong!

No, except for a few people, can they be confident in the battle of the Qing Dynasty in South Africa? How could European capital be confident in the Qing Dynasty? If this were the case, England would not have rashly declared war on the Transvaal!

There's something strange about this! After knocking on the ashes, he said in a deep voice: "Is the capital flowing into the stock market really not big?" ”

After hesitating, Huo Qizheng said: "As far as we know so far, it is indeed not big, it is estimated to be around four or five hundred thousand pounds, most of which are eaten at a low level, and we don't dare to dig into ...... carefully in order to avoid startling the snake." ”

Hu Guangyong said: "Generally, if the funds are too large, they are dispersed into the market through large and small brokerages and brokers to avoid exposure, and brokers and brokers are also strictly confidential to customers, and it is difficult to check by general means." ”

After a pause, he continued: "The subordinates secretly thought that the large-scale inflow of European funds when England declared war on the Transvaal was nothing more than two purposes, one was to hit the Guangzhou and Shanghai stock markets, once the stock market collapsed and a large-scale financial crisis broke out, Yuan Qi would inevitably be unable to take care of South Africa. Then there is the pursuit of profit, capital is profit-seeking, and such a large-scale flow of funds must come for profit. ”

Make hay? How to make money? Zhao Liewen said with a puzzled face: "Those bankers in Europe will never think that our Qing Dynasty can win the war in South Africa, right?" ”

Yi Zhizhi said in a deep voice: "Gold and silver exchange ratio!" ”

"The Great Shopkeeper Mingjian." Hu Guangyong nodded, "After Germany implemented the gold standard, the gold-silver exchange ratio in Europe has steadily fallen, and now it has fallen back to 1:20, but China's gold-silver exchange ratio is still maintained at a high level of 1:22, and all the pounds that flow into Guangzhou and Shanghai have been converted into silver." ”

Zhao Liewen was stunned and said: "The pound can be freely exchanged for gold, and they are so kind to promote the implementation of the gold standard in our country?" ”

"Where are they kind!" Yi Zhizhi said coldly: "They want to cause a large-scale and large-scale run!" ”

"It's still the big shopkeeper who sees it thoroughly." Hu Guangyong took over and said: "Their continuous large-scale exchange of silver, once a war breaks out, it will inevitably cause panic, which will lead to a large-scale and large-scale run, at that time, the stock market will also fall sharply because of the outbreak of war, and one impact will inevitably lead to a serious financial crisis!" ”

Zhao Liewen gasped, "A plan to kill two birds with one stone? ”

"Not bad." Hu Guangyong nodded and said: "It is indeed killing two birds with one stone, which can not only cause a run, but also suppress the stock market, and they can make a steady profit without losing money, and they can also make a steady profit by shipping silver back to Europe. ”

There was silence in the room, and the European capital was not a conspiracy, but an upright conspiracy, which was due to the serious outflow of silver caused by the continuous improvement of the gold and silver exchange ratio in order to exchange gold in the Qing Dynasty over the years. To put it bluntly, this is purely smashing people with gold, if you want to absorb gold, let you eat a lot of it, eat until you spit it out! And once you spit out, the loss is not ordinarily large!

Seeing that no one was silent, Yi Zhengxing said: "How about taking the initiative to reduce the gold-silver exchange ratio?" ”

"There's no need." Yi Zhizhi laughed and said: "The gold that came to the door on the initiative, how can there be any reason to push it out, continue to eat, I want to see how much capital they have." ”

Zhao Liewen hesitated and said, "Don't worry about the run? ”

"Worried about what?" Yi Zhizhi said in a deep voice: "As long as we win this battle in time, we can stabilize the situation, and there is nothing to worry about." ”

Hearing this, Yi Zhengxing said worriedly: "There are too many unknown factors in war, especially naval battles, will this cause too much pressure?" ”

"The pressure is there, but it's not too much, don't worry." Yi Zhizhi said and looked at Hu Guangyong, "Just pretend not to notice it, and let them toss." ”

Hu Guangyong said with a somewhat solemn expression: "Big shopkeeper, do you temporarily stop lending ...... foreign countries?" ”

This is worried that the other party will borrow a large amount of money, and then run on it when the situation comes, Yi Zhishu thought for a little before saying: "Now that the end of the year is approaching, if you stop lending, it will inevitably cause all kinds of suspicions and even panic, but the more you lend, the greater the pressure of the run when the situation comes, raise the interest rate and control the scale of lending." ”

Although it is an undercurrent, but on the surface it is calm, because of the intentional misleading of Yi Zhi, the government and the opposition are determined that the Qing Dynasty will not break out a war with England in South Africa for a gold mine, with the strong rebound of the stock market, the run on the situation has quickly subsided, Yuanqi Bank suddenly raised the lending rate, the government and the opposition did not cause any reaction, but the securities market is quite sensitive, the momentum of the strong rebound suddenly fell, and the stock index began to turn down.

In the blink of an eye, on New Year's Day in 1872, the Qing Emperor Qixiang, who had already been in power, issued an edict to the world, officially announcing the constitution of the Qing Dynasty, and also promulgated the "Qing Constitution".

On the same day, the Beijing Teacher Administration Institute was officially established, and the provincial and county three-level advisory bureaus were also set up, the Qing Dynasty and the opposition were celebrating, Shanghai was no exception, all the yamen, schools, and factories were on holiday for three days to celebrate, regardless of the old city and the new city were immersed in the festivities, the sound of firecrackers at the door of the Jiangsu Consultative Bureau was endless, and all kinds of celebration activities emerged in endlessly, which was more lively than the Spring Festival and the Lantern Festival.

There are not many entertainment activities in these years, so the people also prefer to watch the lively, usually rare unified holiday Baoshan workers, school students are all flocking to Shanghai joint, although several streets in Shanghai are wide and not like words, but also are still crowded with water, at a glance, densely packed with people.

Yi Zhizhi stayed quietly in the Zhennan Palace, in this case, unless it was very necessary, he generally couldn't go out, mainly because the security was too difficult, and once he was recognized, it would be an absolute disaster.

After sending a few congratulatory telegrams, he returned to the backyard to accompany several wives and concubines to play horse hanging, which is a new popular entertainment in Shanghai's high society, however, compared to the mahjong of later generations, the current mahjong tiles are a little smaller, but the material is not to say, low-end dominoes, high-end with ivory, jade carefully carved production, naturally will not be big.

Yi Zhisuff has no time to play mahjong at all, and the mahjong of this year is also complicated, accompanied by a few wives and concubines, he is purely a gift boy, several wives and concubines are full of joy, the family is having fun, a maid timidly came in and reported: "Lord Wang, Mr. Zhao came to report, saying that Xiao Mingliang asked to see." ”

Hearing that Xiao Mingliang was coming, Yi Zhixiang smiled and said, "He will pick a day." After playing a game, he got up with a smile, "You guys play first, and I'll come back to you later." As he spoke, he glanced at a few maids in the room and said, "Today's constitution is established, and the whole world celebrates together, and there are rewards, and all the maids and miscellaneous servants will be rewarded for a month." ”

Listening to the reward for a month and a month, several maids in the room were immediately overjoyed, and hurriedly saluted and said in unison: "Thank you, Lord Wang." ”

Yi Zhizhi smiled, waved his hand and walked out slowly, and when he came out of the door, he caught a glimpse of Lin Meilian standing in the yard, he couldn't help but be a little surprised, and walked up to him before he smiled and said, "Didn't you go shopping?" ”

"The streets are full of people, and the shops are overcrowded." Lin Meilian said with a smile: "So I came back earlier, but I didn't want to meet Xiao Mingliang at the door." ”

Yi Zhizhi smiled contentedly, "I'm wondering, Mr. Zhao also went out early in the morning to meet friends, why did he come back so early, it turned out to be you." ”

Lin Meilian said with a smile: "I heard the laughter from afar, and my subordinates didn't want to be evildoers, so I had to borrow Mr. Zhao's name." ”