Since the first year of Zhongzheng, North Manchuria, according to the contract signed with the imperial court, has become more than ten trade zones along the river from Shanghai to Wuhan, collectively known as the Jiangnan Trade Zone. The original intention of the establishment of this trade zone was to facilitate the procurement of raw materials and materials from Jiangnan in North Manchuria, and at the same time to invest in the construction of factories and industrial facilities in the interior, so as to change the customs of the people in Jiangnan in a subtle way. This idea is very good, but the Jiangnan Trade Zone has been half-dead, not only did not promote people-to-people exchanges between the two sides, but also greatly deepened the contradictions between the two sides.

Xu Youfu, a former pioneer in eastern Mongolia, is one of the few Chinese Imperial merchants whose entire family business is in the Jiangnan Trade Zone, and is also an active disseminator of bilateral folk hatred. In the past, Xu Youfu had a lot of family business in Mengdong, and he was very familiar with the ground and people, he was not a rich man, and he was also a small man on the ground in Northern Manchuria. But now that he has begun to drink porridge, not only does he owe bank loans, but also has a lot of personal debts, if it weren't for the fact that old Mongolian friends such as Uliji often helped him and never asked him to pay back, Xu Youfu would have jumped into the Yangtze River long ago.

When the trade zone began to be established in the first year of Zhongzheng, Xu Youfu thought that his fortune had come again, and he could go to Jiangnan to develop an industry like he had driven into Mengdong at the beginning. After selling his properties in Mengdong and Jilin, Xu Youfu went to Jiangnan with a large amount of money. When he was a child, Xu Youfu heard the elders say that Huguang is a few days old, and Jiangnan is rich in the world, so he has always thought that Jiangnan is a fertile land full of gold.

When Xu Youfu first arrived in Jiangnan, it was indeed good, this side is densely populated and the land is fertile, and it is indeed a good place for farming and prospering. Xu Youfu didn't dare to go too deep, so he bought a shop in Ningbo and started his own business. He started as a grocery businessman, so when he entered Jiangnan, he still focused on groceries. The seafood and canned fruits in southern Liaoning, the puffed snacks in Changchun, the matches and kerosene lamps in Jilin, the stoves and tools in Haicheng, the instant noodles and rubber shoes in Changchun, and all kinds of Manchurian goods are sold well.

Xu Youfu, who made money selling groceries, began to buy houses and land in Ningbo, and he wanted to rebuild the small town of Mengdong that he was familiar with, and move all the hotels and fast food restaurants in the town. Within a year, Xu Youfu became the leading figure in Ningbo, and he was nicknamed Xutong Street because he bought a whole street. Xu Youfu was full of pride and wanted the villagers in Ningbo to see what Manchurian industrial civilization was. He brought in an engineering team from the mainland, rolled up his sleeves and began to break ground in Ningbo, preparing to build the first five-story building in Ningbo, and then he was unlucky.

"You've gone too far! Boss Xu, wealth is not exposed, don't you understand such a simple truth? After a meal in Xu Youfu's restaurant, the head of the Ningbo government office led a large group of people to talk with squinted eyes while picking their teeth.

"Fantou, I'm Lu Fu! It is to build a small building and decorate a façade, and it will be convenient for everyone to live in the store in the future! Xu Youfu accompanied the smiling face, he couldn't help it, this place was not Mengdong, and there was no Manchurian police covering him.

There were some minor problems with the signing of the treaty in the trade zone, and the Manchurian merchants only had the right to enter the area along the river to buy and do business, and had no other privileges, and the local governance still belonged to the Qing court. Therefore, Xu Youfu and a large number of other businessmen had to face the officials of the Qing Dynasty, which was also a helpless thing. The officials in the south of the Qing Dynasty even dared to knock on the bamboo poles of foreigners, not to mention the Manchurians of the same skin color, and they were very indiscriminatory in terms of making small money.

"This house is built too high, blocking the sunlight in an alley behind, and everyone has come to me to complain, so don't build it!" Distant relatives are not as good as close neighbors, so why bother to offend your neighbors! The muscles on Fan Bantou's face trembled slightly, waiting for the price given by Xu Youfu.

"This ...... Fantou, please help and take care of it! It's not easy for us to do a little business! Xu Youfu took out a full ten taels of silver and stuffed it into Fan Tou's sleeve.

"Hey! It's all acquaintances on the street, you're welcome! This neighborhood! It's all trivial, I'll just persuade it! Fan Bantou took the money and went with a smile.

sent away Fan Bantou, Xu Youfu ushered in Jiang Shi again, then Governor Chen, and then Master Liu, anyway, he kept collecting money under various excuses. Xu Youfu spent enough money to sell a yard, and finally sent away a group of cows, ghosts, snakes and gods. It was easy to build the Ningbo Hotel, which integrated the hotel and restaurant, Xu Youfu thought that it was finally dawning, but he didn't want a bigger pit waiting for him.

On the afternoon of the opening of the restaurant, a group of wolf-like servants rushed into the hotel, confiscated all the cash at the front desk, and directly grabbed Xu Youfu to the prison of Ningbo Mansion. Not only was the person arrested, but Xu Youfu's Ningbo Hotel was also sealed by the Ningbo government, covered with a seal printed by the Ningbo prefect, and Xu Youfu in prison could only open a big hurry. The family made a lot of money, but they couldn't get Xu Youfu out, because it was none other than Qian Mingji, the prefect of Ningbo, who was making trouble for him this time.

"You are a foreign businessman, why dare you use the name of Ningbo? A mere businessman dares to build a high building for five battles, I don't know if he should be killed? Master Qian Mingji gave Xu Youfu a lot of face, and directly gave him a three-class trial, and his voice was so strong that he almost didn't scare Xu Youfu out of illness.

"I ...... This ......" Xu Youfu stammered, unable to answer the two straight sentences.

"It's really bold for a businessman to dare to call himself me in front of this government, and he won't be severely punished, so why should he set an example?" Master Qian kept picking on Xu Youfu's problems.

Xu Youfu couldn't reply, naturally everything was said by Lord Qian, and after the first trial, he directly asked him to be beheaded in prison, and he had no family property. Of course, Master Qian is not a fool, he also knows that Northern Manchukuo is not easy to provoke, where will he really kill Xu Youfu, it is just to scare people, otherwise he would have tortured Xu Youfu a long time ago. With no family property, Master Qian did it very neatly, and copied all of Xu Youfu's properties in Ningbo on the same day, and made a windfall. The Xu family urgently transferred money from their hometown in Jilin to redeem Xu Youfu from the prefect's yamen, and the so-called beheading of prisoners or something was gone.

It was easy to get out of the cage, Xu Youfu looked at the seal of the entire street, and the whole person was not good. After settling down in the family, he immediately rushed to the consulate in North Manchuria, Shanghai, where the robbers in Ningbo Mansion were unreasonable and had their own place to be reasonable. Leng Yunhe, the consul of Shanghai, was a clerk, and met Xu Youfu that night, and after listening to his crying, he took Xu Youfu to Nanjing the next day to find Zeng Guoquan, the governor of Liangjiang. Leng Yunhe scolded and made trouble in the governor's yamen, and completely conquered Zeng Jiushuai, who was known for his bravery. The governor of Liangjiang gave a way to deal with it, returning all of Xu Youfu's finances, and at the same time lifting the ban on Xu Youfu's trading, and the pedantic Ningbo prefect Qian Mingji was immediately transferred out of Ningbo and went to Nanjing to wait for participation.

Xu Youfu is very satisfied with this result, although he suffered a small loss, he can be regarded as keeping the family business, and everything can continue. But when he returned to Ningbo, he realized that he was too naïve, and these officials were much more ruthless than he imagined. Xu Youfu's property was returned, only property but no property, and the Ningbo government only returned the property, not even a copper plate to Xu Youfu. And these properties are already miserable, except for the pillars, everything in the house has been emptied. The newly built hotel was almost demolished into a clear water room, with tiles on the walls and floors, white porcelain basins and toilets in the bathroom, beds and furnishings in the house, everything was looted.

"Lord Qian has already gone to Nanjing, we don't know what he is doing, you want things and money, you go to Nanjing to find Lord Qian!" Xu Youfu went to Ningbo Mansion to ask for it, but everyone pushed it to Qian Mingji, and they didn't know anything.

Xu Youfu went to find Leng Yunhe again and went to Nanjing again, but the answer was not ideal. Qian Mingji called out to hit the sky, and he claimed that everything he did was in accordance with the laws of the Qing Dynasty and did not have any selfish intentions. Moreover, Xu Youfu's property was sealed by the Ningbo Mansion at that time, and all the accounts and things were in the Ningbo Mansion, he had not touched anything, Xu Youfu should have gone to the Ningbo Mansion, not his expired prefect.

Leng Yunhe accompanied Xu Youfu back to Ningbo again, made a big fuss about the Ningbo Mansion, and finally asked for two thousand taels of silver for Xu Youfu, but the other losses could not be recovered. Ningbo Mansion has played enough, Xu Youfu only has five hundred taels of money sealed in their accounts, and Xu Youfu can't report a detailed list, so naturally what they say is what. As for what was missing from the storefront, they said they didn't know. After the seal was affixed, they never went again, and they didn't care if Xu Youfu's store was stolen by thieves. Later, they really couldn't withstand Leng Yunhe's huge pressure, so they took out another 1,500 taels aggrievedly, which could be regarded as compensating for Xu Youfu's loss. Moreover, for Fan Bantou, who was not good at taking care of the sealed materials, he was dismissed from public office, which can be regarded as a sigh of relief for Xu Youfu.

After a turmoil, Xu Youfu was completely disheartened with Ningbo, he sold everything in Ningbo, scraped together a sum of money, and prepared to make a comeback in another place. After selling everything, Xu Youfu calculated an account, and then found a big joke. He worked in Ningbo for a year and made a great name, but in the end nothing changed. At the beginning, he came to Ningbo with 30,000 taels, and this time he sold out his belongings and just took back 30,000 taels, and all the money he earned in the past year or so was cheaper than the bastards in the government.

Xu Youfu, who was full of grievances, left Ningbo in a gloomy manner. He worked hard in Ningbo for a year, and in addition to making the net worth of officials up and down Ningbo skyrocket, he only left a strange dilapidated building. Moreover, Xu Youfu met Fan Tou, who had just been dismissed from public office, at the gate of Ningbo, and he is now the ambassador of the Tax Department, so beautiful that he doesn't want it. Xu Youfu is almost angry, is this a punishment or a reward, and is there any heavenly reason.