So on the next day, Li Songchen met with several businessmen who signed the petition and said that in five days, a consultation meeting between the East China government and the concession representatives would be held to conduct equal consultations and asked them to come forward to organize a group of business representatives and ordinary staff representatives. The number of business representatives was 20 and the number of staff representatives was 30, which was a certain representative.

In fact, before attacking the Shanghai Concession, Li Songchen had already formulated a preliminary plan to guide compradors to invest in industries and resettle ordinary staff. Some of the conditions can be achieved in the Shanghai New District, but some must be approved by the East China government. Therefore, Li Songchen left himself 5 days to make full preparations.

After hearing this, these businessmen were also shocked and confused. After handing over the petition, most of the people who signed the petition were a little uneasy. After all, this was a matter of taking certain risks. Now the East China government did not use administrative authority to suppress it, but continued its previous enlightened attitude and negotiated with merchants and ordinary staff. This behavior was different from the Qing court, which made people feel at ease for the time being, but it is hard to say whether they could negotiate a conclusion that satisfies themselves. After all, these businessmen also knew that they were doing things for foreigners and were not popular. The East China government might not easily give up their resolutions, otherwise where is the administrative authority of the government? However, it is satisfying to get such a result. After all, the East China government is willing to negotiate equally and can achieve any results, and it is hard to leave people to do their best.

Five days later, Li Songchen met with merchants and workers' representatives in the concession at the Works Department Building in the former Public Concession and held a consultation meeting.

Li Songchen first spoke: "We have read all the petitions, and I know your thoughts, but I must first explain the attitude of our East China government. This time we confiscate the assets of merchants from Britain, France, Japan and Russia, which is not the same as the Boxer Rebellion's goal of exclusion and expulsion. Otherwise, what we confiscate should be the assets of all foreigners, not limited to Britain, France, Japan and Russia. Everyone knows that in order to compete for our northeastern region, Japan and Russia, the war in Liaodong caused great harm to the Liaodong region. Our East China government could not bear it, so we sent troops to participate in the war and defeated the Japanese and Russian army. Now we basically drove the Japanese and Russian army out of our territory. However, Japan and Russia were not willing to fail. During the Putsmao negotiations, they put forward various unreasonable demands, which led to the failure of the negotiations.

Now the two countries are recruiting troops at home, purchasing weapons, and preparing to make a comeback. Britain and France are allies and supporters of Russia. Now seeing their allies fail, they can't sit still and want to come to the scene in person. A month ago, they declared war on our East China government. Therefore, Britain, France, Japan and Russia are our enemies. Since they are enemies, we can certainly take all means to attack them. We take back the concession and confiscate the assets of the merchants of the four countries of Britain, France, Japan and Russia, which is a counterattack against Britain, France, Japan and Russia, so that they know the consequences of being enemies with us. And not only the Shanghai Concession, but all the concessions in China, including the merchants, industries of the four countries in China, and even all colonies in Asia are also the targets of our attacks."

At this time, the representatives participating in the negotiations also had a lot of discussion, because Li Songchen raised the confiscation of the assets of merchants from Britain, France, Japan and Russia to the level of national struggle, which means that there is basically no room for recovery. However, some people were quite unhappy. Didn’t they agree to negotiate? According to Li Songchen’s statement, there was no room for negotiation at all, so what should we do? Could it be that they just listen to Li Songchen’s words? Some people think that it would be enough to crack down on Britain, France, Japan and Russia and take back the concession, but confiscating the property of merchants is too much. After all, merchants are neither soldiers nor representatives of the government. Therefore, many people want to speak, at least they have to say these words.

Li Songchen raised his hand and made a false move, signaling everyone to quiet, and said, "I know you have something to say, but please listen to me and finish it first. There is still a chance to let everyone speak later."

After hearing what he said, it was natural that everyone could not speak anymore, so they all calmed down to hear what else Li Songchen had to say?

Li Songchen said again: "Of course, in addition to hostile relations, there is another important reason for us to confiscate the assets of merchants from Britain, France, Japan and Russia, which is that these industries seriously damage the development of China's private assets, so they must be confiscated and removed. Among the industries we confiscated, except for a small number of manufacturing and service industries, most of them are engaged in import and export trade and finance. Import and export means introducing foreign goods into China and buying out Chinese raw materials and minerals. Merchants are helping foreigners make money and hire money. However, although you made a fortune by foreign import and export trade, you introduced a large amount of foreign goods into the country, which caused our country's own production to be unable to sell the goods and factories to die. The industry development of our own nation is difficult, and we can only rely on others to live a life."

As he said that, Li Songchen cited several examples of national capital building industry, but failed due to the squeeze of similar foreign products and competition. These examples occurred in the Songhu area. Many businessmen still knew about it. Li Songchen finally said: "The Qing court is unwilling to manage these things, and then let our East China government manage them. We will never allow this situation to continue."

After Li Songchen finished speaking, everyone was talking again. After a while, a businessman finally stood up and said, "District Mayor Li, I will give you some different opinions about what you just said. I don't know whether to say it or not."

Li Songchen smiled and said, "I'm going to come and negotiate today, so I'll let you speak freely. It's okay if you have anything to say."

The merchant said, "I'm not talking to foreign goods. The quality of these foreign goods is good! The things we make in China are indeed not as easy to use as foreign goods, and the price is more expensive than foreign goods. Who sells things, but they are not cheaper to use? If the things we make ourselves are easier to use than foreign goods and the price is not higher than foreign goods, I must be the first to take the lead in using them, but that's not the case! Everyone said that is the reason I said?"

The merchant's speech immediately aroused the consent, and another merchant stood up and said, "District Mayor Li, I know the Hanfude Weaving Factory you mentioned, but the cloth weaving in their house is too bad, and it will be opened in one year. The cloth sold by foreigners will be fine for 2 or 3 years, and the price is 30% more expensive than foreign cloth. I should say that the Hanfude Weaving Factory will die."

"Yes! If you want to blame, we can only blame ourselves for being unsuccessful and unable to make good things. We buy more expensive than foreign goods. We should be unable to compete with foreigners."

"That's right, foreign goods are cheap and easy to use, why can't they be attracted to the country and let the people in the country benefit."

Li Songchen still looked very calm when he listened to the merchants' speeches. In fact, this kind of remarks had been torn countless times in various forums, Weibo, and public accounts in the old time and space. Although Li Songchen was not a keyboard warrior in the old time and space, he was a young man and a person within the system. Therefore, he had read a lot on the Internet, so he had already responded to it, so he listened patiently.

After the speeches of the merchants ended, Li Songchen said: "Very good. What you said just now is the truth. I also admit that foreign goods are indeed better than domestic products. The goods produced by our East China government are also slightly inferior to foreign goods."

As soon as he said this, someone immediately said: "There, there, to be honest, the goods produced by the East China government are not much worse than foreign goods, and the prices are basically close. If other domestic goods are almost the same as those of the East China government, we have nothing to say, right?"

Many businessmen immediately followed and said, "Yes, yes, if they are like the East China government, even if we want to bring in a large amount of foreign goods, we can't sell them."

Li Songchen smiled and said, "Everyone said that the products we manufacture are still far from foreign goods, and we need to work harder. But what I want to say now is not this, but have you considered how many years have foreign countries developed and how many years have we developed? If we count from the Industrial Revolution, there are 150 years, even if it is a little later in Germany, the United States has more than 100 years. But since the Westernization Movement, it is only more than 40 years. How can we compare with foreign countries? This is like a child who has not grown up and wrestled with an adult. Do you think this is fair?"

At this time, another businessman said: "But Japan also started to do Westernization at about the same time as us? Why can Japan do it well but we can't?"

Li Songchen said: "Japan is indeed beginning to develop at the same time as us, but Japan is called the Meiji Restoration, not the Westernization Movement. Just compared these two words, we are at a disadvantage. Besides, how is our Westernization Movement going? I don't need to say anything, Li Zhongtang's theory of papermaking is enough to explain the problem. And is it because the goods we produce ourselves are not as good as foreign goods for the time being, we will not develop our national industries and our national manufacturing industry? Have you discovered a phenomenon, as long as it is something we can produce ourselves, the same type of foreign goods.
Chapter completed!