"What! Boycott Chinese goods? The news of the foreign companies reached Yang Rui's apartment an hour later, and he was discussing with Xu Huafeng and Shen Zicha of the Commercial Intelligence Bureau how to open the situation as soon as possible and sell the goods. Shen Zicha's construction yì is a high-profile participation in next year's Panama World Expo, as a world business event, the exhibited goods will be concerned by businesses all over the world, I don't want to this side has not been discussed, there is news of a boycott of foreign banks.

"Yes, Prime Minister. Originally, it didn't work, but then Li Deli, the general office of the Bneimon Foreign Bank, tried his best to propose, he is the chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, and the relationship with the consul general in the UK is also very close, and he came to preside over this matter, then ...... "Cheng Ziqing, director of the Shanghai branch of the Security Bureau, introduced the details of the foreign bank's boycott of domestic products, and his words were very uneasy.

"It's Li Deli again." Xu Huafeng's eyebrows also raised, he was very impressed by this person. "The year before last, the chemical company was asked to hand over the soda ash agency to Bu Neimen, but at that time, Tianhua Company was only a small-scale trial production, and last year because of the war, the output has not come up, and now I heard about the company's soda ash energy production, and he monopolized it to make a stumbling block."

"Soda ash is not a problem, the key is the military industry." Yang Rui said. On the first day of the opening of the expo, 400 planes were sold, and this is because if the machine gun firing coordinator technology is transferred, it will be necessary to tie in the sale of 200 aircraft or pay 1 million taels of silver alone, Britain, France and Russia in order to obtain this technology, and considering that the performance of the aircraft is indeed more advanced than the performance of the domestic active aircraft, they each bought 400 units, but this is actually only more than 6 million taels. In addition, the Grand Duke of Russia ordered millions of pounds of smokeless gunpowder and artillery shells, shell fuses, and other military supplies. There are really no other big deals.

"Can you find out what the foreigners want to do?" Xu Huafeng said to Cheng Ziqing of the Security Bureau.

"This should be possible, the lower official will go and inquire." Cheng Ziqing nodded. He was fully aware of the importance of the matter. Only then did I come to report in person. After he finished speaking, he saw that a few adults had nothing else to say, and immediately hurried away.

"Is it possible to find a way from within Britain and France?" Yang Rui suddenly thought of Tianzihao's branches in various countries. He didn't like those foreign companies in the first place, and hoped that the manufacturers could directly contact the customers or distributors in the market location.

"Maybe a civilian product like soda ash is fine, but it's hard like smokeless gunpowder. Different countries use different gunpowder ratios, artillery firing tables are also different, if nitric acid can be exported directly, it would be better, but this nitric acid is difficult to transport long-distance, too easy to accidents. Xu Huafeng said worriedly.

"If there is an accident, there will be an accident, it is better than not being able to sell." Yang Rui was crazy thinking about money, "Don't open the situation now." It will be too late to sell them after countries have increased their equipment plants in order to process saltpeter more. When the time comes, with our nitric acid, the previous investment will be in vain, and it will give those factories one more concern. The more the war is fought, the more there is a shortage of shells, and when all countries do not use saltpeter to use nitric acid, that is when we raise prices. ”

"This ......" Xu Huafeng didn't want to do business and did this, especially when this came out of the mouth of a country's prime minister, it was really inappropriate; And next to him, Shen Zicha just smiled. But then he covered it with a teacup.

"Steel, soda ash, nitric acid, tin, tungsten, antimony, these are ordinary industrial raw materials, as long as the battlefield needs, foreign companies want to resist but can't resist." Yang Rui said. "Airplanes, trucks, artillery shells, these are relatively difficult, but they are not unsellable. The key is to look at the intensity of the war. Don't talk about medicines, but it's better to wait until next year to sell them. That's right. I remember that our planes seem to have a longer lifespan than those of other countries? ”

"It's going to grow several times longer." Xu Huafeng said. "The life of a cylinder-rotating engine is only fifty hours, or even less than fifty hours. Our engine crankshafts are forged by hydraulic presses and have a life of more than one hundred and fifty hours. ”

"Cut it off. Now the British and French planes on the European battlefield are being pressed and beaten by the Germans, and the planes are basically wiped out. Even if they have a machine gun that can fire from the front, the life of the aircraft will not be too long, fifty hours is enough! Yang Rui said.

"Good. I'll relay that to them. Xu Huafeng agreed. He laughed and said: "I didn't expect the Germans to protest about it." ”

"They have nothing to protest about, we have done enough for them." Yang Rui said. "Okay, let's continue the topic just now, how to arrange the merchant fleet? The Japanese will come to them by name, so what do they want? ”

Yang Rui was talking about the Japanese, and in the aircraft exhibition hall of the expo, a group of Japanese people were talking about torpedo bombers.

"Oh, this is the water lightning strike that defeated the Hiei!" Japanese men in suits and 'oh, hey, hi' are talking excitedly in Japanese around a torpedo bomber.

"Nakajima-kun, this is the Shina plane!" Finally saw the enemy's plane, the navy Captain Kaneko Yozo was very emotional, not to mention the horsepower far beyond the French aircraft equipped by the navy, at a glance the appearance of this aircraft is far better than those domestic wood and canvas, carefully observe the fuselage, and you can also find that the plane uses a silver-white metal. Jin Zi Yangsan didn't know what it was, so he could only guess that it should be aluminum, but how could such a soft metal as aluminum be used on an airplane?

Pointing to the aircraft's movable ailerons and tail, as well as the closed fuselage and simple appearance, Navy Captain Tomohishei Nakajima agreed, "This is really unimaginable! This will change the design of all aircraft in the world. It's perfect, it's at least ten years ahead of the planes of the Omian countries, is this the technology of the only people? ”

Underneath the plane was an eighteen-inch fake torpedo, and although the weight of the torpedo was unknown, it could be judged by visual inspection alone to be more than a thousand pounds, which was by no means capable of being carried by a wooden plane. Kaneko Yozo thought of this problem, so he squatted on the ground to take a closer look at the place where the fuselage was loaded with torpedoes, but at this time, a voice suddenly whispered: "Stand... Correct! He immediately stood up reflexively, only to see a young man with a stern expression coming in front of everyone, this was the crown prince Hirohito.

"This is China...... Planes for the Chinese? Although Hirohito was young, under the education of Heihachiro Togo, he knew what happened to the battle between Shanghai and Shanghai. This time to participate in the fair. The first thing he wanted to see was the sea mine plane of the China Navy, and he was invited by Zhu Kuanji after the opening ceremony. Only now at this time.

"Yes, the temple ......" the word "palace" has just been exported. The crown prince's attendant coughed, and he immediately stopped, only introducing: "The three here are torpedo bombers of the China Navy, and the three over there are ...... It's called a fighter jet, and it's used to destroy enemy aircraft; The next three were bombers, all of which had two engines and could carry 500 kilograms of bombs......; These are military aircraft, and on the other side there are civilian aircraft, which can spray pesticides, deliver mail, and even carry passengers......"

"Are they advanced? Gold? Hirohito was told the name of Yozo Kaneko, and asked very kindly.

"Yes." Even in the air-conditioned room, Kaneko Yozo was covered in sweat, thinking that if these planes were used against the Empire, the result would be unimaginable, but fortunately now that the two countries have concluded a peace treaty.

"Can we buy it?" Hirohito looked around the torpedo bomber and was intrigued.

"We can buy it." Jin Ziyangsan said happily, and frowned again after speaking: "But the people of China stipulate that if you want to get machine gun shooting technology, you must buy at least two hundred aircraft. Or pay a million taels of silver separately. ”

Someone thought that Hirohito had introduced the importance of front-firing machine guns, and after taking a closer look, he pointed to the two Maxim machine guns in the nose and asked, "Is this it?" ”

"Yes. So that the machine gun could be aimed at the front to fire. "Gold raises three ways." Now the independent country is full of such planes, and the machine guns of the British, Foshan, and Luguo planes are all mounted in the rear, and there is no way to shoot at the enemy planes in front of them. Now Britain and Lu Guo have each purchased two hundred aircraft. It is estimated that Foguo may have shared this technology with the United Kingdom and did not buy it. ”

"And what if you don't want a machine gun?" Japan may not need so many planes for 200 planes, and 1 million taels of silver is too expensive. Hirohito couldn't help but think of another way.

"If you don't want a machine gun, that person will sell it too." Tomohei Nakajima, who finally caught the opportunity to speak, said. "Airplanes are as vital to the life and death of the empire as warships, and Britain and Lu Guo bought them because of the needs of the battlefield. The empire does not need so many planes for the time being, and the money should be used to study the Shina planes. We can't always hope to buy, we should also learn to make. ”

Although Nakajima Chikuhei spoke without Hirohito's permission, the meaning of his words was to say the hearts of the Japanese present, Hirohito looked at him, looked at him, and then said, "You are ......"

"Navy Captain Chikuhei Nakajima has seen...... Excellency. Nakajima's face flushed, and he was thrilled to have His Royal Highness the Crown Prince ask for his name.

"Good! Very good! Hirohito-sama approved, but didn't say anything more, just went to the next exhibition hall after taking a detailed tour of all the planes, accompanied by Yozo Kaneko.

Hirohito visited as much as he could, but Inoue Xin and others in the Consul General were waiting anxiously, but they were anxious, since the crown prince liked to see the expo, he had to wait for him to finish visiting. The chief shopkeeper of Mitsui and Mitsubishi in the Consulate General briefly visited the exhibition in the morning, and both of them were very worried about the strength of China Industrial.

"Your Excellency, if the Empire does not subsidize the shipyards to build ships, then the tonnage of merchant ships in China next year will surpass that of the Empire, reaching 1.8 million tons, and if they launch another 800,000 tons of merchant ships the year after, then there will be 2.6 million tons of merchant ships...... Iwasaki Koyata has been worried about the size of China's merchant fleet, which will be an extremely deadly threat to Japanese shipping.

"There is no need to worry about the merchant ships of the Chinese people, Britain has more than 20 million merchant ships, if the British merchant ships return to Asia after the war, then the merchant ships of China can only operate in the country, and even the country will not be able to accept freight because of the boycott of foreign banks and customs. According to the pre-war price, each ton of merchant ship required 100 taels of silver, and 2.6 million tons of merchant ships was 260 million taels of silver. Inoue sat on the tatami mats, not at all worried about the Shina merchant ships.

"Your Excellency, as long as the control is done properly, the government of China can solve the bankruptcy problem by printing more banknotes. Moreover, most of the shipbuilding related to state-owned enterprises do not need money for transactions between enterprises, they only need to pay workers' wages, and only those private shipyards need to pay money. "Iwasaki Koyata still doesn't give up, and he insists that the government interfere in the shipbuilding industry in China.

"So what do you think needs to be done?" Inoue Shin looked at Iwasaki Koyata with a slightly unhappy expression.

"A shipping company should be set up with China, or it is better to charter a merchant ship from China for a long time. Wait until the end of the war to return the lease. In this way, the empire could control shipping throughout Asia. Iwasaki Koyata said, his eyes were extremely hot.

"Then what if the people of China don't agree? Or. What should I do if the conditions of the lease are very high? Inoue asked, looking at him.

"Then ask Britain to prohibit the Chinese merchant ships from calling at their colonial ports, or not to distribute cargo and refuel the Chinese merchant ships." Koyata Iwasaki said his way. He thinks this is the most reasonable and feasible.

"Britain will not say yes." Inoue Shin said. "And this will make the empire and China hostile, and they will eventually find out that the empire is behind the scenes."

"No, the Empire doesn't need to intervene in this matter, and Swire Steamship and Jardine Steamship don't like to see the Shina build so many merchant ships, they will come forward." Iwasaki Koyata Road. "Your Excellency, shipping is the lifeblood of the empire, and since the government cannot support the shipbuilding institute, then the momentum of shipbuilding in China should be curbed." After Iwasaki Koyata finished speaking, he stood up and bowed deeply. said: "Please! ”

The chaebol and the politician are originally a family, and after asking Inoue to meditate, he said: "Tomorrow we will meet with Yang, we can add this topic to the agenda of the meeting, you can put forward your ideas, but it is not successful, then we will consider other methods." ”

"Hay!" Seeing that this matter had won Inoue's support, Iwasaki Koya sat down happily, his mind already drifting to tomorrow.

The business cooperation talks between China and Japan were held on the second day of the expo. It was also the idea of several chaebols, who wanted to see what kind of goods the Chinese would show this time, so that they could make relevant demands during the talks. But this had a certain impact on Yang Rui's itinerary, and he originally wanted to return to Beijing overnight by airship after attending the opening ceremony. to arrange the things of land reform. But now, in order to wait for the Japanese, he had to stay in Shanghai for another day, and he was waiting. With nothing to do, he suddenly wanted to go to the Tongji University Hall on the other side of the river, although the time and space were different. He still thinks it's his alma mater.

Yang Rui, who was dressed in simple clothes, just wanted to walk around the campus and feel the atmosphere of the campus. But Ye Yunbiao and Cheng Ziqing of the Shanghai Security Bureau are like big enemies, especially Cheng Ziqing thinks that there are many auditors on campus recently, these people have no student status, it is difficult to verify the origin, in case there are assassins mixed in, it will be difficult to clean up.

Others were shocked, Yang Rui didn't care about it, he just wanted to go to the campus for a walk, not to meet with students to give speeches, and probably didn't even show his face. At his request, all the guards changed into civilian clothes and found a boat to Zhangjiabang.

When Yang Rui and his entourage arrived at the south gate of Tongji University, it was already dark, and most of the students had already eaten dinner, or rushed to the classroom for the ninth class, or went to the library and classroom for self-study, and the most unexpected thing was that there were still some students exercising on the playground.

Looking at the students who were running on the playground, Huang Yanpei, the school manager who urgently received a notice to accompany him, was afraid that Yang Rui would say that the students were not doing their jobs, so he explained embarrassedly: "Sir, the food in the canteen is too good, the oil and water are enough, and there is meat at every meal, and the students are ......."

Strictly speaking, Huang Yanpei was not a student of Yang Rui, although he dropped out of school with everyone that year, he did not join the Patriotic Society, but returned to his hometown to run an education. He is a native of Chuansha, with the unique meticulousness and gentleness of Shanghainese, but he also has a well-behaved person who is not liked by Yang Rui. Hearing him say this now, Yang Rui just smiled: "It's nothing, is it eaten in Tongji?" ”

Yang Rui said about the characteristics of the major famous schools in Shanghai in the future, and felt a little melancholy after speaking, Tongji, Fudan, and Jiaotong University are now there, cute in China Normal University, where is China Normal University? And Yin is at Shangda, where is Shangda?

"There are still too few universities in Shanghai." Yang Rui suddenly said, "At least one normal university and one Shanghai university are missing." And these schools have moved to Pidgin, and when the time comes, a university town will be built here, where students can communicate with each other, the library can be shared, just eat, and if you are not tired, you can also ride a bicycle to change to a canteen to eat......"

Huang Yanpei was extremely excited that the prime minister of a country personally planned the Yangjing University City, and now there are national and private universities in Shanghai, such as Tongji, Nanyang, Fudan, Datong, and Shanghai American College, as well as church universities such as Aurora, St. John's, Hujiang, and Harvard Medical School. If there is a university that can be named 'Shanghai', it is really the pride of Shanghainese.

Huang Yanpei hurriedly said: "Sir, I will report to Mr. Cai of the school department immediately, but Mr. Cai has been thinking about universal primary education, the addition of two new universities, and the planning of Shanghai University City, this money is ......."

"You can report it. Shanghai originally planned an East China Normal University, and there will be such a normal university in all regions of the country; And go to university in Shanghai? Yang Rui pondered, "Since Shanghai will be a municipality directly under the central government like Tianjin in the future, it is not inappropriate to establish a Shanghai university, I will tell Brother Xiao Min about this matter, and he is very likely to agree." ”

"Yes, sir, I'll report to the school department when I get back." Huang Yanpei was overjoyed when he got Yang Rui's words, but he still remembered another thing, and said at the moment: "Then may I ask sir, how to plan this university town in Shanghai?" How big is it to build? ”

"In the short term, it will be built according to 100,000 students, and in addition, it will leave room for development, and in 30 years, it is estimated that there will be more than 500,000 college students in Shanghai, which will be a bigger place. Although the pidgin is large, it is still not enough, and the university town will be expanded to the east, where it can be used as reserved land, and the school will have to be moved away after the expansion of the school. Yang Rui said: "Of course, this side is a little barren, so the infrastructure, roads, and living facilities of the university town must keep up." There is also the greening industry to keep up with ......"

In the last afterglow, Yang Rui looked up at the linden tree that had grown extremely thick on the side of the road, and he didn't like it very much, so he said: "If the linden tree transplantation is too expensive and the planting is too slow, then you can use plane trees." The streets of Shanghai are the same, plane trees I think are more beautiful than linden trees, and they grow faster. ”

"Yes, yes." Huang Yanpei was pleasantly surprised and kept agreeing. It's not hard to imagine that there are 100,000 students in a university town, but if there are more than 500,000, it would be terrifying. However, this Pudong land, in addition to the wharf along the river, is good for running schools. The only trouble is that it is very troublesome for students to cross the river.

Thinking of this, he said: "Sir, the university town is built in Pidgin, which is really good, that is... It's just that the ferry is very inconvenient, and last year there were a few students who accidentally fell into the water and died...... it is best to build a bridge on both sides of the Huangpu River......"

"The bridge?" Yang Rui shook his head, the foundation of Shanghai is unstable, even the seven-story building of the Shanghai Stock Exchange has been built with great effort, and the Nanpu and Yangpu bridges seem to have been built in the nineties, "It is not easy to build a bridge on the Huangpu River, and this matter is still handed over to the students who graduated from the university town." Whether to build a bridge or dig a tunnel at the bottom of the river depends on what they think......"

Yang Rui stood on the edge of the playground and talked to Huang Yanpei, while Ye Yunbiao and other seven or eight guards stood or walked more than ten meters around him, waiting for an opportunity to protect. Even though these people were dressed in civilian clothes, the demeanor of the soldiers was still clear at a glance, but the school was not fenced, and the students and patrolmen in the school saw that these people were well-dressed, and they thought that the gentry who were participating in the exposition from other places came to visit the campus by the way, and when they saw them standing by the playground and talking, they took a few glances and left.

After a while on the playground, it was dark, and all the street lamps were lit up in an instant, and the brightly lit library, the school building, the neat and smooth cement road, the lush lime trees, the manicured lawn, and the students who were rushing by but were full of youth, all of which were intoxicating. Ye Yunbiao suddenly lost his mind at this time, this is a school that is more beautiful than the Prime Minister's Palace, what kind of person can come in and study.

"Stop! Hold it!! "The moment he lost his mind, one of the guards outside suddenly shouted loudly, followed by several abrupt, resounding gunshots that resounded through the school - 'Bang! Bang, bang! ’。

His envy of the campus was suddenly interrupted by the sound of gunfire, and at the moment when he drew his gun to protect people, by the bright street lamp, he saw two approaching students holding short guns, knocking down one of the guards outside, and someone on the other side of the afterglow was rushing in a hurry. The soldier's acumen caused him to turn the muzzle of the gun and fired two shots at the man who was running, both of which hit the target, but the student threw a black object before falling to the ground, and he was about to fire it again, but the bomb fell to the ground without flying far because of the lack of speed, and exploded with a 'boom'. (To be continued......)