The day after the feast, Alice came to the Waldorf Hotel, dressed in black fur, with a big black fur on her head, and a silk jacquard scarf, looking very ladylike, but when she entered the door, she kicked off her shoes, threw her hat to the servant, leaned on the sofa and lit a cigarette, and swallowed the clouds. After many interactions, Yang Rui understands very well that she actually has nothing to do with the lady at all, and is completely a little ruffian. According to what was learned, her mother was Roosevelt's beloved, and after her mother's death after giving birth, Roosevelt was so grief-stricken that he completely ignored her, and she was raised by her aunt. Although Roosevelt doted on her when she grew up, the lack of fatherly love in her childhood made her personality have a lot of rebellious things, and her kindness to Yang Rui was completely due to her yearning for revolutionary life, which she thought was a stimulating life, just like the beauty of a western cowboy.

"Alice, if your fiancé saw you now, he would be shocked." After discussing things last night, Yang Rui returned to the Waldorf Hotel, although it was extremely expensive, it was a façade, and he got up early, "After yesterday's banquet, did your father say anything?" ”

"He said the idea was fantastic." Alice said, "Yang, we're going to make a lot of money." My fiancé's hometown is in Cincinnati, Ohio, and he thinks we can put the refinery there and his family can invest in it. ”

"Oh. Cincinnati is it," Yang Rui thought of Procter & Gamble, whose headquarters seemed to be in Cincinnati, and he was worried that he didn't lead the way. Actually there was one here, "This is very good! Alice, but we were the first partners. Your fiancé's family is a latecomer, and they can only get involved in the refinery, not the New York head office. What do you think? ”

"Yang, why is this happening?" Alice doesn't know much about business. "He wouldn't want to."

"No, he willing, and after three years, we can give him the technology for free, even before the patent is published. At that time, he will be able to produce his own shortening. "In addition to getting a good reputation. Yang Rui does not want to get involved in cottonseed oil at all, and the best way to quickly increase the price of cottonseed oil is to repeat the authorization in cotton-producing areas. Let countless oil refineries go to grab cottonseeds,

"Even though you explained to me about patents, I still can't imagine that so did my father. He thinks your character is commendable. Alice had always been worried that her father would prevent her from doing business with the Qing Revolutionary Party. But that worry disappeared completely last night.

"Business is business. It has little to do with character. Yang Rui said a little frankly at this time, "Besides, your father must not like to see a shortening trust suddenly appear in the United States, and those American businessmen do not want a Chinese to completely occupy this market, so the patent must be abandoned." By the way, Alice, is the company registered? ”

"Yes, the next week will be totally fine. But. But is this really good? I mean, 'Alice' after it. "Alice. Roosevelt was Yang Rui's favorite partner, and he felt that this woman was much more naïve than other businessmen and politicians, and in order to make her work harder, the brand of shortening was "Alice".

"yes, I think it's a great idea!" Yang Rui said with a smile, "The people like your father very much, they will like you, and they will like the 'Alice' brand shortening." As he spoke, he picked up a can of shortening, pointed to the figure on it, and said, "Look, this is a goddess in total!" Think about it, Alice, if it sells all over the United States, then all the people in the United States will know you, and if it sells to the whole world, then the whole world will know you. ”

Alice, who is completely a woman who likes to be in the limelight, took the canned box and laughed, "Well, although I prefer to sell silk rather than ghee, it's a good thing to let people all over the United States know about me, and by the way, I also find that I like to be called 'Boss', which makes me feel like a big guy." ”

"Hehe, you're a big guy." Yang Rui looked at her somewhat intoxicated appearance and smiled.

"No, I'm just a woman. I... I can't run for president or anything, I can't even be a congressman. Alice shook her head and complained that she had lived in the White House for several years, but in two years she was moving out with her father. Young, my fiancé, Mr. Longworth, would like to see you to-day or tomorrow evening, when do you have time? ”

"Tomorrow, I'm going to have a meeting during the day today, it's very important! There is a good chance that it will be open until the evening. Yang Rui not only came to the United States by himself, but also brought Yu Qiaqing and a group of people related to the silk industry to the United States, Zhang Jian was also going to come, but he suddenly fell ill before leaving, so he only sent his son to see the cotton.

After Yang Rui sent Alice away, Yu Qiaqing and his group arrived, and as soon as he entered the door, he collapsed on the chair undignifiedly. As soon as I arrived in the United States last month, I was rushed by Yang Rui to see raw silk, and even went to the silk weaving factory in the United States. When she was in Shanghai, Yu Qiaqing felt that foreigners were already very remarkable, but when she arrived in the United States, she felt that the things of foreigners were too amazing: rampaging trams, towering skyscrapers, and dense foreign cars, this qiē seemed to be a different world.

Yu Qiaqing is like this, and the other gentry are even more unbearable, but those young gentry are still a lot of anger, after all, they can see foreign women abroad who are different from those in China. Yang Rui just asked Yu Qiaqing to bring a few people who knew silk to come in January, who knew that as soon as he said that he was going to the United States to see raw silk, and someone came out of Sichuan, many people rushed to come over.

"Brother Ade, how do you feel about watching it in Japan for more than ten days and the United States for more than half a month?" Yang Rui brought him a cup of tea and asked with a smile.

"Too big! Too rich! Too silly! Yu Qiaqing was stunned for a while and spit out these words, Yang Rui laughed when he heard it, but Yu Qiaqing finally said, "But it's also very difficult to do business here." The anti-Chinese style is prevalent, and some places don't let us in, if you hadn't found someone to lead us in. I'm afraid I'm going to be sold to work as a coolie in a factory. ”

Yu Qiaqing and his gang are bustling, all dressed up in Chinese standard clothes, they are extremely conspicuous wherever they go, and the anti-Chinese style is relatively good in the eastern part of the United States, if it is in California, it is estimated that there will really be a vicious incident. Yang Rui understood his worries and said, "Don't worry about this. It's all settled on my side, and President Roosevelt's daughter will partner with us, and she will be there when the time comes. Discrimination should not be so severe, besides, the raw silk used by Americans is imported from China and Japan, so why should they discriminate against us. ”

"The president... daughter. It did. You've taken the relationship to heaven, huh? Yu Qiaqing almost jumped when he heard this, Chinese pay attention to relationships in business, and the biggest thing in the relationship is the connection with the superior, now looking at Yang Rui since he has a relationship, his mind can't help but turn.

"The president of the United States is not the emperor of China, it is useless to even be on the throne, and he will step down after a few years." Yang Rui corrected.

"But he's been president anyway. There must be a lot of protégés who are old and have this relationship. This business can be done, no one else cares. We Ningbo people dare to come. Yu Qiaqing swept away the decadent appearance just now, full of indescribable motivation, he has always wanted to make foreigners' money, but that is in China, if you can go to a foreign country to earn foreigners' money, then it is the real ability.

Looking at his appearance, Yang Rui asked, "Then what are you going to do?" ”

"Ahh Yu Qiaqing said suddenly, "It's not that you say you can do what you do?" ”

Yang Rui has a big head, and he is not bad for oil, it is nothing more than a process of planting soybeans, harvesting soybeans, extracting oil, refining oil, and selling goods. First of all, silkworm breeding should first plant mulberry, and after having a mulberry garden, there should be silkworm seeds, silkworm breeding, cocooning, killing pupae, and silk reeling, each of which is extremely complex, and the quality of silk is different from place to place...... Anyway, there are all kinds of things, it doesn't take a year and a half, and I can't figure out the clues inside, Yang Rui has a month's time, and there is absolutely no half a year, as for the graduates of the management training course, they are mainly management-oriented, and they don't know too much about technical things.

"I don't really have an idea of this." Yang Rui said a little embarrassed, "This time, I invite everyone to come, I just want you to see if there are any opportunities in this market." Japan's raw silk has been extremely fast in recent years, and it is estimated that it will surpass China this year, and the silk company opened to New York ten years ago. ”

Yu Qiaqing has a lot of things in Shanghai, the reason why he came to think that Yang Rui found a way to make money, who knows that Yang Rui does not know much about the silk industry, fortunately the oil matter is negotiated, otherwise it will run away in vain - Jiangsu and Zhejiang capital will invest in the immigration cause of the Northeast, the ultimate reason is to be lured by the profits of soap, value the income of bean planting, Yang Rui in the United States to do it, I think there will be more people in Shanghai to invest in the Northeast, the bean industry is much better than the silk industry, at least this is a blank industry, There will be no local gentry who will run out against it.

"It turned out that the silk industry is not so easy to fiddle with, not only the gentry from all over the country are involved, but also a lot of foreign banks in Shanghai are involved, one is not good, Hu Xueyan's matter is going to be repeated." Yang Rui of the silk industry has a headache because he doesn't understand, and Yu Qiaqing has a headache because he understands too much, this is not something that ordinary businessmen can play.

"Hu Xueyan, that's a hard-top foreigner, we don't do this. Let's hear what the experts have to say first. Yang Rui is troubled by the fact that he does not understand the raw silk industry, and he is even more troubled that he cannot find a model that does not meet with foreigners. If a mature industry wants to innovate, it can only be driven by guò model innovation, but what is the new model?

In the evening of the same day, after having dinner with the gentry, Yang Rui had a discussion with Yu Qiaqing and two professionals, one of them is called Jin Bingsheng and the other is Jiang Shengjin, both of whom are from Ningbo, and were once sent by the official to study in the French Sericulture Institute, which can be regarded as the earliest sericulture student in China.

The talks first started with Jiang Shengjin, but his news was extremely not optimistic, "China's raw silk has always been used by the United States, but in recent years, the amount of Japanese raw silk has risen rapidly, and the quality of silk is also better than that of Chinese silk, so American businessmen began to switch to Japanese silk, which has a great impact on China's silk industry." ”

"What is the poor quality, and where is the Japanese silk better than us?" Although Jiang Shengjin is the chief teacher of the Zhejiang Sericulture Museum. But there are still some habits of this officialdom, and when they speak, they always look at the expressions of Yang Rui and Yu Qiaqing, if a person who is a scholar is too clever. I'm afraid that it is difficult to do too well in learning, so after he finished speaking, Yang Rui began to ask.

Jiang Shengjin is also looking at Yang Rui, when he first arrived in the United States earlier, he had not met Yang Rui alone, just watched from afar, and now he saw that Yu Qiaqing respected Yang Rui enough, and heard that the Sichuan capital, passport, and itinerary for coming to the United States were all arranged by Yang Rui. couldn't help but wonder what the origin of this person was, he thought at first that this person should be a person in the officialdom, but he saw Yang Rui dressed in a Western-style dress. It's not like the lord of the court at all.

Seeing Jiang Shengjin's doubts, Yu Qiaqing introduced, "This is Master Yang, and his relationship in the United States is clear. He is our own man. Say whatever you ask. ”

It turned out to be this kind of relationship, Jiang Shengjin and Jin Bingsheng hurriedly got up to greet the salute, and Yang Rui had to return the salute, only feeling that China's dealings were very strange -- if the other party's status was not high, then the conversation was likely to be only general, and when dealing with people, the first thing that came to mind was what kind of background this person had and what his origin was. It doesn't matter if it's male or female.

After confirming that Yang Rui was very big, Jiang Shengjin and Jin Bingsheng knew everything and said everything. "Master Yang, Chinese silk is of different thicknesses and stiffer than Japanese silk, while American factories weave silk, all of which are machine, with different thicknesses and uncertain quality, and often broken silk and coiled silk, which is naturally disliked by American businessmen, and Japanese silk is very popular with American businessmen because of its uniform quality."

"Why is the quality of Japanese silk uniform?" Since he didn't understand, he simply asked to the end, and as soon as he finished speaking, Yang Rui said again.

"The silk quality of Japan is the same, one is the silk reeling utensils, such as the silk reeling machine, such as the knot, so that the raw hands can also reel the silk of the familiar hands, so the quality is very good; The second is that the quality of silkworm cocoons is high, a machine with warp wire, Chinese cocoons, need twelve, but also experienced hands to do, if you use Japanese cocoons, eight to nine cocoons are good. ”

"Then why is there a difference between four or five cocoons, is it not a difference in silkworm species?"

Seeing that Jiang Shengjin had been answering, Jin Bingsheng hurriedly interjected: "Silkworm seeds are not the main reason, in fact, they are still in different ways of raising. China's peasant women, silkworm raising is only a sideline, not to understand mathematics, silkworms in the cluster before, because there are many mulberry leaves, so do not hesitate to leaves, so that the silkworm is full of food every day, when the upper cluster, mulberry leaves are not enough, so the silkworm cocoon is weak and thin, silk is less than Japan. This is the woman's pregnancy, before the pregnancy is full, but when she is pregnant to give birth, she often does not have enough to eat, and the child she gives birth to is rarely strong. ”

It's good to understand the reason, Yang Rui seems to feel that there is still some hope for this silk industry. He said, "Then just improve the feeding method." ”

Jiang Shengjin and Jin Bingsheng looked at each other, both shaking their heads, and Jiang Shengjin said: "It has been more than ten years since the Silkworm Academy mentioned this matter, but very few silkworm households will improve the method of breeding, even the improvement of silkworm seeds cannot be implemented." More than 50 years ago, France had a great damage to the silkworm industry because of the silkworm plague, and then someone used a microscope to find that the female silkworm with the disease could not breed, since then the silkworm plague has been controlled, I went to France to learn, that is, to learn the method of preventing the silkworm plague, but after returning to China, no one listened to this good law, when people are following the old habits, unwilling to improve, even if there is a plague, it is regarded as the destiny of heaven, unmoved. China's method of improving sericulture and silk industry has long been clear, but the people don't obey it. ”

After the two finished speaking, Yang Rui didn't need to ask any more, and Yu Qiaqing waited for a while before arranging for them to go down, he looked at Yang Rui, who was still pondering, and smiled bitterly: "Actually, China's silk industry can't compare with Japan, because the mulberry silkworm industry can't compare with Japan, after all, the silk comes from the cocoon, and the cocoon is not good, the silk can't be compared, and the mulberry silkworm industry can't compare with Japan, because the people who grow mulberry and raise silkworms can't compare with Japan." Most of the peasant women in China are ignorant, and the last time I went to Japan, it was said that the primary school penetration rate was already 100 percent, and most of the peasant women who were educated in the past few years were already in charge of the family business, and we ...... Hey, it is extremely difficult to improve the silkworm industry, people can't do it, and they still follow old habits and superstitious ancestors, and they don't want to improve at all. I think that after we go back, we should go to the Northeast to plant beans. ”

Yu Qiaqing said funny, but also very helpless, China's things are not ideals can be changed, the biggest resistance is the old ideas of the people, the old school, Yang Rui waited for him to finish planting beans and came back to his senses, said: "Brother Ade, planting beans is to make money, but the silkworm industry can not be lost, now the annual export of raw silk is 60 million taels a year, is this market not big enough?" There will always be an opportunity to make money by looking slowly. ”

Seeing that Yang Rui was still bent on this, Yu Qiaqing just shook his head, "It is actually done, it is precisely because of the large scale of the silk industry that so many people are staring at, so we have to do a good job in this business, not to mention the problem of whether it can be done, even if it is done, it will be hated by many people, this is not better than monosodium glutamate, not better than soybean oil, it is a business that no one does." ”

What Yu Qiaqing said is very reasonable, but Yang Rui still feels that there will be opportunities here, but he is not familiar with this industry and cannot find a good solution immediately. After a pause in the discussion, Yu Qiaqing said again: "Actually, this will be March soon, and when we return to China by boat, it will be April, when will we go back?" ”

"Come on, just wait for the railway to be negotiated. Brother Ade, what's the matter? Do you want to go first? "The last time I negotiated with Harriman, I only talked about intentions and plans, Yang Rui resolutely did not sell the Antongmei railway, and was only willing to lease the right to use the railway to Harriman for a period of ten years, and after the expiration of ten years, the conditions were renegotiated and then leased; There are also two kinds of rent, one is an annual fixed rent, which is paid in a lump sum for ten years, Yang Rui's offer is 3 million US dollars, and the annual rent is 300,000 yuan; The other is the sharing system, the basic plan is 64 points, Tonghua Railway takes 60% of the turnover, and the remaining 40% goes to Harriman, and the railway operating costs are also among them. On the whole, the second option is actually extremely black, and Yang Rui wants the Americans to pay first, and then put them on it for ten years.

Yang Rui thought about the Tonghua Railway, Yu Qiaqing thought of the five ministers returning to China, last year when the five ministers went abroad, he was responsible for receiving Duanfang and others in the name of the Shanghai gentry only representatives, Duanfang and others were very happy with his stammer, and took him to Japan to visit, Yu Qiaqing Japan felt that after seeing it, he still had to run a big industry in the future.

"There is indeed something going on, the five ministers are about to come back, I sent them when they left, and I will also entertain them in Shanghai when they come back, otherwise it will not be complete." Considering that the Revival Society supports the constitution, Yu Qiaqing is not afraid that Yang Rui will know about his friendship with the five ministers.

"Oh, when are they going to come home?" Yang Rui, the five ministers going abroad, is also paying attention, but the days when they return to China are completely uncountable.

"I've been out for almost half a year, so I should be back. As early as the end of March, as late as the beginning of April. I'm going back to Shanghai by late March. "Relationship is the lifeblood of doing business, especially the relationship with officials and foreigners, Yu Qiaqing attaches great importance to it.

"Okay, no problem, I'll arrange someone to buy you a ticket tomorrow, the fastest ship doesn't stop in Honolulu, it will be in Shanghai in more than ten days, and it will definitely not delay your big event." Seeing him like this, Yang Rui couldn't persuade him, and said, "What is the domestic trend now, are there many ministers who support the constitution?" ”

"There were not many times to come, but the original support for the constitution, Lord Yuan and Lord Sheng, were also stopping to watch, and the champion was worried, so he became ill. It's just that public opinion is very strong, and the government and the opposition unanimously believe that our Qing Dynasty must be constitutional. I don't think this constitution will be successful, and it should be between five and five. "When it comes to constitutionalism, Yu Qiaqing is dignified, he is a businessman, and what he is most afraid of is that the situation is turbulent.

"Then it depends on how the palace decides. If the constitution is really established, it will be a blessing for the people of the world. Yang Rui said the opposite in the face of Yu Qiaqing, a picture of worrying about the country and the people.

"Actually, do you really agree with the constitution?" If there are too many lies, it is true, and Yu Qiaqing is already more convinced that Yang Rui really supports the constitution at this time.

"Isn't this nonsense, you see, I'm either running a business or running an education now, and if I don't agree with the constitution, I would have raised the banner and rebelled a long time ago, so how could I stay in the United States." Yang Rui feigned anger, Yu Qiaqing suddenly stopped questioning, and hurriedly said to make amends. Yang Rui was happy when he saw that he had completely coaxed him, and discussed with him about the matter of raw silk until late at night. (To be continued......)