When things finally saw the hope of success, Yu Huizu was overjoyed, got up and shook it deeply, and said, "Thank you so much......

"Thank you, you are all fellow villagers, and I am happy that you can have today's life." Zhu Baosan also laughed at this time, and said, "Besides, don't make trouble with you and Xiangmao, don't always lose money and make money, it's good for the two to find a time to negotiate a price." And Xiangmao's boss Burkiel said last year that he would be selected as a director of the Ministry of Industry Bureau, although he did not enter, he will always enter in a few years, what is good about you offending a director of the Ministry of Industry. ”

Yu Huizu's Jiangnan Bureau is hopeful, so he can't care about fighting with Xiangmao, and said at the moment: "Yiqiē still listens to the arrangement of his predecessors. ”

Zhu Baosan was overjoyed when he heard this, and he only felt that he had done another thing today.

After the Jiangnan Bureau was arranged, Zhu Baosan was about to send off the guests, but Wang Xiaoxu spoke, "Mr. Baosan, we actually want to set up an iron factory, so we have come to ask Mr. for advice." ”

Tossed for a long time, Zhu Baosan was already a little sleepy, but suddenly heard that Wang Xiaoxu was going to run an iron factory, and suddenly came to the spirit again, he has been dealing with hardware since he was 14 years old, and after he was 30 years old, he did no longer small hardware, but big hardware, that is, steel, steel plate, steel pipe some of the base materials, although he said that he had a reputation and others to do a lot of business, but the real business belongs to him is only Shenyu hardware store. The question happened to scratch Zhu Baosan's itch, and he smiled: "Xiao Xu, you speak slowly, if the old man knows, he should say everything." ”

Seeing that he seemed to be very concerned about the iron factory, Wang Xiaoxu said: "Today, the price of foreign pig iron is more than 20 taels, the cheapest steel price is also more than 40 taels, the price of steel plates for shipbuilding is even higher, the price per ton is more than 60 taels, and the price of others such as steel bars and nails is even higher. Now in China, Jinzhen, Shanghai-Nanjing, Shanghai-Hangzhou, Yuehan and other roads are about to start. Hanyang's production itself is small, and even after expansion, its annual output of iron is only 100,000 tons and steel production is 20,000 tons. This kind of production is not enough to meet the domestic level, let alone sell foreign samples, so it is extremely necessary to set up another large iron plant in the country. ”

Zhu Baosan thought that Wang Xiaoxu was talking about the iron factory outside the Guan, although he knew that Wang Xiaoxu meant to set up another iron factory, he thought: "Xiao Xu, I know that you don't have to worry about money, but it's not enough to run an iron factory. Iron ore is extremely important, more important than the mine is coal, Hanyang is to suffer the loss of no coal, and no one can do it, earlier Hanyang cost nearly forty taels per ton of pig iron is because of these two. You're right. The price of foreign pig iron is more than 20 taels, and the price of steel is more than 40 taels. Did you know that British pig iron costs only two pounds and nine shillings per tonne? Seventeen taels of silver; steel billet, alkaline martin furnace for three pounds and fifteen shillings, or twenty-six taels of silver; rails, five pounds a shilling and a penny, thirty-five taels and four pennies of silver; Steel plates, six pounds, fourteen shillings, seven pence. Forty-seven taels of silver. ”

Zhu Baosan is worthy of having been doing hardware for decades, not only for the price, but also for the cost of foreign iron, he finished quoting the price of this pile. Then he asked: "Hanzhang, Xiao Xu, if you can reduce this cost lower than the British, then this iron factory can be done, if you can't do it, then after the domestic railway is built, you and Hanyang will not be able to get along." ”

When Zhu Baosan was talking about the price, Wang Xiaoxu was estimating the cost of the Ma'anshan Iron Works against his own side, and calculated that the pig iron was still about one or two or five dollars less, and the prices of other steel billets, rails, steel plates, etc. were basically the same as those of foreigners, while steel plates were about one or two more expensive than those in Britain. He knew that it should be a technical difference, and if the iron plant had been running for a long time, the cost would naturally not be so different. In fact, the cheapest coal price is low, and the cost of a ton of coke will not exceed three taels, but according to the market price, it will cost nine taels in the iron factory, and even if Ping coal is used in Hanyang, the price of coke transported to Hanyang will also be eleven taels; As for iron ore, Ma'anshan also has open-pit iron ore, although the quality is poor, but it is not much more expensive than Daye.

"Mr. Bao San, it is estimated that the cost of pig iron is lower than that of the United Kingdom, but the steel plate is higher. Moreover, the investment in the iron plant is huge, and the total of coal mines, railways, iron mines, and iron works is estimated at 12 million taels. Wang Xiaoxu said very honestly, he didn't know the British price before, and he was very confident in the cost of the iron factory, and now it seems that it is basically a tie.

Although it was not the first time Yu Huizu had heard the figure of the iron factory's investment, he was still only trembling in his heart, but Zhu Baosan had indeed seen the world, and when he heard him say 12 million taels, he was not surprised at all, but closed his eyes and pondered for a while and asked, "How is the output?" ”

"In the early stage, 100,000 tons of iron and 50,000 tons of steel were produced annually." Wang Xiaoxu replied.

"That's not expensive!" Zhu Baosan said frankly.

"Not expensive?"

"yes. Not expensive! Compared to Hanyang, it is not expensive at all. The Hanyang Iron Works spent more than 5 million taels to set up the factory, and then added 3 million yen gold after the commercial office, and then opened the Pingxiang Coal Mine, which led the way with the mine, and has already smashed down more than 2 million taels, and then counting the money to be rebuilt in the future, this will be more than 12 million. For the same price, different things, this iron factory can be opened. Zhu Baosan has always paid attention to hardware and knows a lot about Hanyang, but after a pause, he said: "However, as soon as your iron factory opens, you will offend Shanda." ”

"This is not going to be, I checked the customs information, now imported 440 million taels of foreign goods, hardware over the years accounted for about 5 percent, that is, there are 22 million taels, although this hardware also contains copper and other metal materials, but no matter how much, it will not exceed 5 million taels, 17 million taels of iron, even if it is all steel, that year is more than 300,000 tons, and Hanyang at most a year of steel is 20,000 tons, which can be described as a drop in the bucket." Under the influence of Yang Rui, Wang Xiaoxu knew the customs number by heart, and he didn't know it before he didn't calculate it carefully, but once he analyzed the number in depth, he knew a lot of things.

Although Zhu Baosan is in the hardware industry, the price and quality are very clear, but if he is asked to say the country's annual steel consumption, he can't say, now seeing Wang Xiaoxu analyze the number jù so carefully, he can't help laughing, "Xiao Xu really deserves to be a good hand at doing business, no wonder Hanzhang can have today's scale." ”

It is rare for Zhu Baosan to praise people, Wang Xiaoxu became modest, but after he praised it, he said: "In this way, 100,000 tons of iron and 50,000 tons of steel are still not enough, and it is best for me to have one million tons of iron and 500,000 tons of steel in China." It's good to drive all the foreigners' iron out of the country. Zhu Baosan was a little angry, but after being angry, he said: "Hanzhang and I are fellow villagers, we are all our own people, and it is useful to be old, although you can say it directly." ”

As soon as he said this, Yu Huizu was overjoyed and said: "The Ministry of Coal Mine and Iron Ore has been approved this month, and has given a two-year prospecting period, but the railway connecting coal and iron ore has not yet been approved......

When Yu Huizu said this, Zhu Baosan smiled. "You have a good relationship with the bus in the palace, and Beizi Zaizhen of the Ministry of Commerce still has shares in your Tianbao company, isn't it very simple to get a railway."

"If you say that other railways are fine, but this railway is connected to Jinzhen Road, which will involve Britain again."

"Do you want to rely on the Jinzhen Road to transport coal?"

"It's not. The coal mine is in Huainan, Anhui Province, and the railway is to connect from Huainan to Bengbu Station on Jinzhen Road. However, the coal from the iron ore does not go to the Jinzhen line. Instead, it was transported from Huainan to Hefei in the south, and then transported from Hefei to the Yangtze River facing Wuhu, and then transported to Dangtu by barge. Yu Huizu did not hide it from Zhu Baosan, and told the specific route of the railway.

As soon as Zhu Baosan heard Yu Huizu say that Huainan and Hefei knew what he was going to do, and now Jinzhen Road is Chinese's own, but the money for repairing it is borrowed from foreigners. It's not hard to pick it up. He said: "How many shares do you plan to occupy in this iron factory, and what benefits are you going to give to those Hui merchants?" ”

"Twelve million taels, as long as six and a half million taels are in my hands, the rest can be released. As for the Hui merchants. I also asked my seniors to advise me on this. "I'm worried that Britain is one, but it's more difficult than Britain is the Hui businessmen, and now all over the country are recovering the right of way and mining rights, and you Zhejiang people go to Anhui to run a railway, and it is estimated that land acquisition will not be possible.

"Hey. This Hui businessman is actually the same as Li Zhongtang, although he has been there for several years, but the shelf is still there, and they have always been tight, I am afraid that it is not easy to talk than our Ningbo businessmen. Although Zhu Baosan was well-known in Shanghai, he still had a headache when he heard that Hui Shang was still a little troubled, and he began to ponder.

Throughout the late Qing Dynasty merchants, the small ones are not counted, the big ones are the Jin merchants, the Hui merchants, the Guangdong merchants, the Zhejiang merchants, the Jin merchants have a court background, without this Jin merchants, the world is not full of people, but after Gengzi, the Beijing ticket number was robbed, which made the national financial affairs transferred to the Shanghai Money Industry Association with a foreign capital background, and the Jin merchants were official businessmen; And the Hui merchants for several dynasties and generations, most of them were born in business, long-distance trafficking, mainly engaged in salt, dian, tea, wood, capital is a little bit of a base, after making money and pay attention to poetry and book heirlooms, it should be regarded as a gentleman businessman, Qianlong Jiaqing was the most prosperous, and then the Qing court rectified Huai salt, so that it was very badly damaged, Hong Yang was in a mess, it completely hurt the vitality, and finally to Hu Xueyan when he lost to the foreigners, it was a complete decline. The Cantonese businessmen, Zhejiang businessmen and the official Jin merchants and the literate Hui merchants are different, most of them are born at the grassroots, both of which are near the sea, so they rely on foreign trade compradors to start and carry foreign self-respect, which is not the same road as the Jin merchants and Huizhou merchants at all. Although the iron factory is not brain-dead in Shanxi, it is also very important to run in Anhui.

"Hanzhang, isn't your Luxing's chlor-alkali factory going to buy Huai salt, why don't you start with salt merchants, there are a lot of two Huai salt merchants." Zhu Bao three ways.

"At that time, because he wanted to open the Changxing Coal Mine with Mr. Zhang Si, Mr. Zhang Si also opened a salt factory himself, so he used his salt, and the salt merchants he talked about before were broken." Yu Hui Zu said. At that time, he strongly advocated this matter, after all, it was also face-saving to be able to do business with Zhuang Yuanlang.

"Then you can only go to Wang Houzhuang." Zhu Baosan couldn't think of anyone else.

"Ahh He is also a Hui merchant? Isn't he a homespun cloth seller? Yu Huizu remembered that this Wang Houzhuang was the owner of Xiangtai Cloth Village, and his cloth village sold cotton cloth and sold well in Shanghai, but he did not expect that he was a Hui businessman.

"He sells homespun cloth and pawns. Several big pawnshops such as Hongxing and Hongshun in Shanghai were opened by him. The ticket number of the Jin merchants, the pawnshop of the Hui merchants, our money bank, alas, and the foreigner's bank, don't you open a bank with a chapter. I don't know how your business is done. Zhu Baosan taught Yu Huizu that he was really not a businessman.

"The railroad is not busy beforehand, and I will consult with them another day. What if they wanted to build the railroad themselves? ”

"This ......" Yu Huizu didn't know much about the details inside, so he only looked at Xiang Wang Xiaoxu.

"No! They can participate in the shares, but they cannot control them, let alone monopolize them. Wang Xiaoxu said, "Once they monopolize or control, then it is very likely that they will not build the road at all, and only want to occupy the road construction money and put it in the money bank to earn interest." Although there is their money in it, it is more of the money of the minority shareholders. ”

"So how many shares can they have in it? Is it less than half? ”

"Yes. We just want the railway to be built as soon as possible and put into operation as soon as possible, because we are afraid that they will occupy the name and not start construction. Coal mines, iron mines, iron works, railways, all four must have a plan, if the beat is messed up, then even if three are built, it still can't be used, and when the time comes, the big investment loss will also be hit, this risk can not be taken. Wang Xiaoxu said.

"Good! I understand. Railways are a matter of importance. It's better not to spread the word. Zhu Baosan said.

"Sir's right." Wang Xiaoxu said.

"And Master Sheng has to talk to him well, otherwise once he misunderstands, things will not be easy to handle." After saying so much, Zhu Baosan was still interested.

The two hurriedly nodded yes. It's just that everything that needs to be said is finished, and what to do now is to wait for the Jiangnan Bureau to explode. The other is to wait for Zhu Baosan and Hui Shang to discuss the results, so the two got up and said goodbye.

Just went back to the scientific instrument tube here. But I heard the guy say that Master Zhang was looking for it. When I entered the living room, I saw Zhang Meiyi sitting inside, he was originally Sheng Xuanhuai's copywriter, but now he is the promotion of Nanyang College, and he is also a native of Ningbo.

Yu Huizu saw him sitting alone in the living room. It should be an important matter, and hurriedly stepped forward and said: "Oh, it's really a capital crime, and the third prince has been waiting for a long time." ”

Zhang Meiyi has indeed been sitting for a long time. But he didn't have anything important, and after he was polite, he said, "Hanzhang, I'm here to give you a message this time." The British merchant Xiangmao went to Beijing to find a relationship, probably because he wanted the Ministry of Commerce to pay you a salt tax. ”

"Ahh Yu Huizu and Wang Xiaoxu said in unison, this trick foreigners can also think of, what a head. Caustic soda is needed to make soap, and salt is needed to produce caustic soda, and now Lu Xing is a big trust, and the oil and caustic soda used in soap are all their own, and the soybeans used to make oil have also begun to grow themselves, and on the caustic soda side, the coal used for power generation is in their own coal mines, and the salt has to be purchased. It's just that the price of salt is very low, and doubling the tax will not affect the cost much. The foreigners are not calculating, but demonstrating.

"Niang Xipi, the little red guy just can't negotiate peace, I still have to give them some color to see, tomorrow I will reduce the price!" King Yu was angry when he saw it, but Wang Xiaoxu calmed down, and he asked, "Let Sangong, what do you say about the capital?" ”

"Hehe, what else can I say, aren't the Shangshu Zaizhen of the Ministry of Commerce all your people." Seeing Yu Huizu angry, Zhang Meiyi felt quite interesting, and laughed when she touched her beard. He doesn't like serious people, he has been in school for a long time, and many times he will come to the scientific instrument tube to have tea with Yu Huizu.

Hearing Zhang Meiyi talk about Zaizhen, Yu Huizu was helpless when he smiled, now there are several people in the company who eat dry stocks, and there are those who want to be honored, and then there are all kinds of reimbursements, and seven or eight hundred thousand yuan will always go out in a year, which is really annoying and annoying. He remembered that Yang Rui seemed to have said that it was easy to do business under the Manchu Qing Dynasty, which was really nonsense.

"Let Sangong, it doesn't matter if this matter matters. You're here...... Is Shanda out of money? Yu Hui Zu said.

"Sheng Daren is rich, that is, after Li Weige went abroad to investigate, he took out the method of rectification of the iron factory, and he needed a lot of money, Sheng Daren wanted to order a machine here, but he was afraid that you would ...... it" Zhang Meiyi asked.

"Isn't it not yet May, and July will definitely pay Hanyang." Yu Huizu said, "Let Sangong, let's be honest, the railway company doesn't have much money in its account, even in the Tianzihao account, and the money has been borrowed." It will be possible to turn around in July. When the time comes, you must transfer the money to Shanda. ”

Wang Xiaoxu knew that Yang Rui's purpose was not to borrow money from the Japanese, and seeing that he was urging him to pay again, he added: "Let Sangong, July is the latest estimate, and it is possible that he will come back in mid-June." ”

Zhang Meiyi just passed the word on behalf of Sheng Xuanhuai, and there was nothing else to do, so she sat down for a while and left. After Zhang Meiyi left, Yu Huizu said: "It seems that Master Sheng is a little anxious. Xiao Xu, tell me the truth, the money will come back at the end of July? ”

"Yes, Brother Han, you can rest assured." Wang Xiaoxu said yes, but he didn't think so in his heart. Although I heard Yang Rui say that after the Russo-Japanese naval war, there will be nothing left in the bond market, and all funds will be withdrawn at that time, not only the white money earned in London, but also the black money earned by India will flow back to Shanghai. However, he did not know what would happen in the naval battle between Japan and Russia, and now it was May, and the Russian fleet had already arrived in Cam Ranh Bay in Vietnam, and it was not clear when it would sail to Vladivostok, and it was not clear what the outcome of the naval battle would be. Originally, according to his intentions, he wanted to withdraw some of the money, especially the principal of two million pounds, first, and use the money he earned to fight again, but Yang Rui disagreed, saying that he was completely sure that Russia would be completely defeated. He also said that this battle could not surprise everyone like the Battle of Mukden, but there was still some oil and water to be fished.

"How much money will we have then?" Although Yu Huizu is the boss of Tianzihao, he is also confused about many things, especially when he saw the zeros in the telegram before, his eyes were spent. Earning money is happiness, but there is always some anxiety without pocketing.

"By then, if the income is good, it will be five million pounds." Wang Xiaoxu only talked about London's profits, and as for India, he didn't count it at all.

"Pay back the money that Ard borrowed, it's enough to repair the railway outside the border, and the rest will be subtracted from the expenses of the Jiangnan Bureau, and the ironworks will be a lot worse." Yu Huizu calculated carefully, feeling that the money was not enough.

Seeing Yu Huizu's earnestness in calculating one by one, Wang Xiaoxu couldn't help laughing, it's better that he doesn't know anything, he said in his heart. (To be continued......)