Chapter 25 of Part 3: Big Events Have Happened

As Sheng Xuanhuai expected, Chen Congyun learned that Li Hongzhang was going to build a railway, and a telegram was sent to Li Hongzhang's place, saying, "Congyun was always worried about the favor of the Zhongtang. Recently, he heard that Zhongtang wanted to build a road to Shanhaiguan. Such a great cause that benefited the country and the people was not afraid to fall behind. He was willing to use one tael of silver per kilometer of railway tracks to relieve his worries for the Zhongtang."

One tael of silver per kilometer is for free. Chen Congyun's heart was really painful, but as long as Li Hongzhang did not object to the Luhan Railway, even if it was built for five years, once Chen Congyun needed to send troops to North Korea, it would be faster than a ship. This silver must be spent. Of course, Li Hongzhang proposed the trick of unified procurement of railways, which was called hitting the snake and hitting seven inches, and hitting the key points of Chen Congyun and Zheng Guanying in an instant.

This move in history was played by Sheng Xuanhuai after he entered the Hanyang Iron Factory. Now history has changed a little bit. Zhang Zhidong did not build the Hanyang Iron Factory, so Sheng Xuanhuai used this trick to impress Chen Congyun. If he simply asked Chen Congyun to give out some money, this thing would not be impossible. Sheng Xuanhuai did this in fact, it was a win-win situation. He made a profit himself, and Chen Congyun would not have to worry about the 300,000 yuan he would not sell any steel every year in the future.

The key question is, can the railway be built?

The construction of the two railways was proposed by three of the most influential governors in the country, which was very popular. Chen Congyun also gave the court a comment and directly proposed that the railway should be built to Fengtian. Once something happened in the northeast, the Beiyang soldiers could quickly rush to support.

Chen Congyun's memorial made the court's clear streamers apply a book, especially Li Hongzao, who directly said that once the railway practices the Taoist fengtian, it will shake the tomb of Kowloon City. Chen Congyun's heart can be punished!

Emperor Guangxu looked at Li Hongzao's comments and sneered, "I'm worried about it all!" Weng Tonghe closed his mouth in time when he heard Guangxu say this. After reading the comments, Cixi called military ministers Yihuan and Sun Yuwen in front of Guangxu, and asked what they meant. Sun Yuwen knew Cixi's attitude from Li Lianying before, and then he premiered: "Shen Zigui was originally a man who came back from the West, but now he is leading troops. He naturally started from a military perspective. A man who grew up overseas did not understand some of the rules of the court. If he put forward such a comment, it is not worthy of criticism from a large number of troops, right?"

There is a reason why Cixi didn't use this to hit Chen Congyun. Seeing that Gangyi was going to transfer back to Beijing, Chen Congyun promptly posted a secret note and asked Gangyi to transfer it to Cixi. In the secret note, Chen Congyun said that he had started some factories and mines in Vietnam, and the money he earned was enough to maintain expenses. At present, the old Buddha had no money to build a garden. Chen Congyun was anxious and was like a fire. The court allocated 600,000 yuan a year to train Shen Congyun, and Chen Congyun decided to take out five of the train training silver every year. One hundred thousand is coming, and I respect the Empress Dowager. Why is it 500,000? Of course, the 100,000 of them is the benefit of entrusting Gangyi to give a message. Otherwise, Gangyi was so attentive to help and use a secret copy. Gangyi was about to leave Guangdong and Guangxi, and the 600,000 yuan of silver per year was about to fall into someone else's pocket. Gangyi was naturally very distressed. Chen Congyun meant that he gave Gangyi a chance to shoot Cixi's horses, and could he collect 100,000 taels of silver every year. Can Gangyi not be active?

With Sun Yuwen, a flatterer, who was leading the way, Cixi followed this sentence: "It's still Lord Sun's words. Didn't he just say that the railway should be built to Fengtian? What's wrong? Chen Congyun has been in Vietnam for several years and has trained 50,000 elite soldiers. The French are so arrogant and have never dared to cross the line in recent years. Now there are not many such capable ministers in the court, but fewer. According to me, the railway needs to be built, but it can't be built to Fengtian, or Jinzhou?"

Cixi said this, but it was just a temporary idea. Her original meaning was to open up Chen Congyun and support Li Hongzhang and Yi Li. Unexpectedly, she said this, including Guangxu, misunderstood Cixi's proposal to overhaul the railway, and set the tone for the construction of two railways proposed by the three governors. The original plan to build a railway from Tangshan to Shanhaiguan, Cixi said this, but now it has been planned to build it to Jinzhou. This is the Chinese government! No matter what, Cixi decided to make a decision. As for whether there is any money to build a railway, Cixi would ignore it.

Guangxu and a group of ministers had the words of Cixi and had to say goodbye. At this time, a nun quietly came to Cixi and whispered a few words in Cixi's ear. Cixi smiled on her face.

The people recognized this nun and showed a pity to each other, and stood up and left.

Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong wanted to build a railway, but the court approved it. However, the Ministry of Revenue had no money, so what should I use to build it? Weng Tonghe even called poor in front of Guangxu all day long, and Guangxu was annoyed.

"This is a major event that the Empress Dowager decided to benefit the country and the people. If there is money, it must be repaired, and if there is no money, it must be repaired." Guangxu said, and Weng Tonghe had no choice but to squeeze out two million taels in aggrieved manner. Li Hongzhang and Zhang Zhidong each had one million, and there was no more son.

It is good for the court to have silver. Whether it is Li Hongzhang or Zhang Zhidong, they did not put their hopes on the Ministry of Revenue, and they all found another way to get silver. Li Hongzhang's foundation was solid, and the problem was not very big. Zhang Zhidong had a headache. In history, Zhang Zhidong, who forced a Hanyang iron factory to write a tribute and sold it for 100,000 taels, and the construction of the Luhan Railway was not tens of millions of taels, which was just empty talk. Where can I get money? Zhang Zhidong followed Chen Congyun's footsteps, made silver dollars, and issued currency. Since the Opium War in the Daoguang period, "Yingyang" flowed into China in large quantities, and Zhang Zhidong imitated "Yingyang". In fact, before Daoguang, there were many types of silver dollars, such as "Guangban", "Fuban", "Hangban" and "Suban", all because they were mixed with too much copper and lead, and the quality was much worse than Yingyang, and the people refused to use it.

The silver dollar game opened by Zhang Zhidong imitates the form and color of Yingyang. The four characters "Guangxu Yuanbao" are cast on the front and the dragon pattern in the middle of the back, so it is also called "Longyang".

By making silver dollars alone, the money raised by Zhang Zhidong was not enough to build the Luhan Railway. Zhang Zhidong had his own way. On the one hand, he started construction first and settled the matter. On the other hand, Gu Hongming went to Shanghai to find Hu Xueyan. The silver of the God of Wealth did not fall from the sky. Hu Xueyan took out 500,000 taels of assistance in accordance with Zuo Zongtang's intention, which was given in vain. Gu Hongming was naturally not satisfied. When he proposed to borrow the silver, Hu Xueyan sighed: "There was a little silver, but unfortunately he was all taken to the ship company."

The freighter is not a warship, so it naturally doesn't cost much money. With Hu Xueyan's joining, Zheng Guanying doesn't have to worry about the money. The only thing he is worried about is Stephen, who is leaving China again.

This time Stephen did not leave alone, but brought more than 100 young men who were sixteen or seventeen years old and had experience in sea homework. These teenagers were found by Tang Shaoyi according to Chen Congyun's meaning and worked hard everywhere. At least the minimum requirement was to read a few days of books. Tang Shaoyi spent a lot of money and took half a year to find these people from Nanyang, Guangdong and other places.

Stephen was very puzzled by the fact that Chen Congyun said that these teenagers were to cultivate talents for the future ship company, but he insisted that Stephen use his family relationship and arrange for these teenagers to study at the British Naval School for two years. For this reason, Chen Congyun spent hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. Stephen was sensitively aware that things were not as simple as they seemed. The British Navy is the world's number one, and went to the UK to learn the navy and come back to drive a ship in the future? Is it possible?

Another thing that Stephen wondered was how Chen Congyun knew that there was an Edison in the United States. He actually asked Stephen to find all the United States and found such a person. No matter how much it cost, he had to sign an agreement with Edison. Shen Congyun invested in providing Edison with invention, and then Chen Congyun obtained 50% of Edison's patent. If Edison already had a certain patent, Stephen would have to spend money to buy it. Such a somewhat brainless mission made Stephen very confused. It was better what Zheng Guanying said. Chen Congyun considered the problem and looked at the future, ten years, or even twenty years later.

If Stephen knew that Edison became a rich man by inventing it alone, he would not know how he would understand Chen Congyun’s current approach. Regarding the matter of ordering ships, Chen Congyun simply said, “You can do it.”

A very trustworthy word made Stephen feel very satisfied.

1889 was a busy year. After pacifying the Xining rebels, the railway from Hanoi to Saigon began to enter the stage of laying the tracks. The terminal in Guangning was officially completed and large cargo ships could be parked.

Due to the junction of Vietnam and Guangxi and Yunnan, and Chen Congyun's deliberate actions in secret, the reputable Chinese silver dollars flowed into the two provinces in Vietnam, and a large number of silver dollars were used in the public. The Guangxi governor's official had nothing to say, so the Yunnan Governor Cen Yuying couldn't do it, so he directly submitted a memorial to Chen Congyun's book. He said that Chen Congyun privately cast silver dollars.

When the memorial arrived at the court, he was quickly beaten back. Guangxu criticized the news on it: "Chen Congyun issued silver dollars in Vietnam to train troops, what's the matter?" Cen Yuying suddenly lost his voice and had to knock down his teeth and swallow it in his stomach.

Cen Yuying did not move Chen Congyun, but Chen Congyun's courage became increasingly stronger. Bank of China's silver dollars began to spread out from Guangxi and Yunnan provinces. Guizhou and Guangdong provinces soon appeared in large quantities of silver dollars. Because the bank of China's silver dollars looked good and had sufficient quality, it was very popular among the people. By the end of 1889, the branch of Bank of China had already opened to four important towns in Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan provinces.

With Cen Yuying's example in front of it, everyone dared to join Chen Congyun again, but Chen Congyun did this simply to grab silver from other people's territory, and no one would be happy to replace him.

The new governor of Guangdong and Guangxi Li Hanzhang sued his brother Li Hongzhang. Li Hongzhang had just gained the benefits of Chen Congyun, so he naturally had to help Chen Congyun speak, but his brother's interests also need to take care of him, so Li Hongzhang mediated in the middle and reached an agreement that the bank of China's bank dollars could be circulated in Guangdong and Guangxi, but he had to go to Guangzhou to set up a silver dollar factory, and everyone would make money together.

Chen Congyun, who was desperately trying to save money from home and abroad, was also having a headache about offending people. Li Hongzhang proposed such a model, and Chen Congyun immediately understood it and took the initiative to take the initiative to shoot Ouyang Quan to visit Yunnan and Guizhou, and proposed the intention of co-organization.

Originally, the governors of Yunnan and Guizhou had no choice but to use Chen Congyun. After all, the silver dollars were circulated privately by the people, and Chen Congyun did not go to Yunnan and Guizhou to make silver dollars. Now Shen Congyun proposed to jointly establish this, which is the way for everyone to make a fortune. The governors of both provinces felt that the silver that had slipped out was back. Although Chen Congyun was jealous of the silver that was quickly reaped, he still accepted the model of Chen Congyun, which was quite happy.

Silver dollars were just a plundering policy implemented by Chen Congyun in Vietnam. With the start of production of various factories in Shanghai, a large number of cloth, cigarettes, and matches poured into the Vietnamese market. Chen Congyun was still troublesome in transportation and started to build factories, weaving factories, match factories, and cigarette factories in Guangning. There was an army in Vietnam, and there was still holding the Vietnamese royal family. A large number of preferential policies led to the French goods, the main competitor in the Vietnamese market, being squeezed into a place without a standing cone.

Although the French government was very angry about this, France was unable to look east when facing the encirclement of the three alliances of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia built by Bismarck. At present, it was focusing on taking advantage of the conflicts between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia during the Berlin Conference in 1878. The conflicts arose between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia were resolving the encirclement of the three alliances. For this reason, the French finance fully supported the Russian industrialization process and had no time to worry about the Vietnamese market.

The huge sweetness brought by the Vietnamese model is also the reason why Chen Congyun extended his hand to the country. When Chen Congyun also dug up Liang Pu through various relationships, Liang Puzhao, two railway and mining talents who returned from studying abroad, and Zhan Tianyou, the bank president, could only continue to work. It was not that Chen Congyun didn't want to find someone to replace Zhan Tianyou, but unfortunately there was no talent in this field. He wanted Stephen to find a foreigner to help manage the affairs of this business several times, but whenever he thought of the infamous Rothschild family, Chen Congyun gave up this idea.

In China, Chen Congyun did not dare to do too much. After dealing with the four provinces, Chen Congyun stopped expanding, and it was unwise to make too many enemies. In fact, Chen Congyun did not want to do this, but with the expiration of a large number of machinery and equipment and arms orders, and the issue of providing free rails to Li Hongzhang, even if Chen Congyun squeezed the Vietnamese people like a bone-knocking marrow, he would not be able to make more money to pay in the short term, so he had to make this decision.

Time quietly came to 1892. Eight years have passed since Chen Congyun's ten-year plan to sharpen his sword. In Vietnam, Chen Congyun now has an army equipped with the most advanced weapons today, with a number of more than 50,000 people per army. This does not include other technical troops such as medical, telecommunications, engineering, etc., and if all of them are included, there will be 70,000 people.
Chapter completed!