A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 627 Managing the Heavenly Group
The First World War also made Li Yu a lot of money. Judging from the telegrams sent back from the United States, Li Yu made at least more than 20 million US dollars from pure profits.

Radio contributed half, and the other half was car patent fees, sales profits, etc.

Ford's cars have been sold out, and Europe's production capacity has been completely stretched. Ford's automobile output in one year is 14 times that of Germany, Britain, France and other countries combined.

Not only were sales in the United States booming, but the domestic stimulus from World War I was also considerable. Li Yu helped make the layout in advance, and major national enterprises made a lot of money, especially Fan Xudong in Tianjin and the Rong brothers in Shanghai. They have achieved unprecedented scale in the soda ash, textile and flour industries respectively, and are second to none in Asia.

Li Yu's domestic auto parts factories and radio factories had more orders than they could produce. Fortunately, the land allocated at that time was large enough to expand production capacity.

But as the industry grew bigger, Li Yu became more and more worried that he would not be able to devote all his time to production.

Fortunately, Tesla is coming to China again, and Davis, an American executive from LY Radio, is also a cousin of Morgan Jr.

Li Yu is also planning to use the professional manager system in China, allowing Davis and Tesla to serve as nominal general managers, while he hides behind the scenes.

No matter how courageous the warlords are, they dare not directly touch the companies involved in Europe and the United States.

In addition, Li Yu's relationship with warlords and senior officials is considered good, so there will be no serious tensions.

Tesla brought the assembly drawings of the car factory by the way.

Li Yu and others approached Acting President Feng Guozhang, hoping to allocate another piece of land in Shanghai to build an automobile factory.

When he came to the Presidential Palace this time, Li Yu secretly took a look at Sanhai, but he couldn't see how many fish there were.

The Anfu faction has not yet won a big victory in the general election, and the research department still has a large political stage; the great warlords during the Republic of China had great respect for masters in the cultural field, not to mention an internationally renowned person like Li Yu.

Feng Guozhang formally received Li Yu, Tesla and Davis in the living room.

"Academician Li, it hasn't been long since we last met." Feng Guozhang said with a smile.

"President Feng looks good," Li Yu said.

Feng Guozhang said to Tesla and Davis again: "Ste, Pulis."

Tesla replied: "Thank you, Mr. President."

Feng Guozhang was shocked: "You can actually speak Chinese?"

Tesla was very smart and said: "If you just speak Chinese, it's not too difficult and you can master it in about a year; but if you ask me to write, it might take another year or two."

"Being able to speak Chinese is already very good." Wu Peifu said at the side.

Li Yu asked: "General Wu is back from the front line?"

Wu Peifu said respectfully: "Teacher Hui, I very much agree with the president's peace proposition and am willing to restore peace to Hunan, so I will leave the front line temporarily."

The current situation has seen another confrontation between the North and the South, which is the Dharma Protector Movement in the history books.

Although this movement was initiated by Mr. Sun, he was unable to control the major warlords in the southwest, and eventually evolved into a melee between the northern and southern warlords.

It was because of this war that a new battle between the government and the government—Feng Guozhang’s presidential office and Duan Qirui’s cabinet.

The previous dispute between Duan Qirui and the previous president Li Yuanhong could only be regarded as a conceptual dispute, which was a remnant of the dispute between the cabinet system and the presidential system since the early years of the Republic of China.

Duan Qirui and Acting President Feng Guozhang are in a dispute over political opinions.

Relying on the reputation of "rebuilding the republic", Duan Qirui wanted to monopolize power and use strong force to unify the phalanx in the south.

But after Yuan Shikai's death, the Beiyang warlords split, and no one could unify the overall situation. In order to preserve the strength of his Anhui clique, Duan Qirui took advantage of the situation and ordered Feng Guozhang's direct troops to enter Hunan to fight against the southwestern warlords.

Feng Guozhang was not stupid, and he was definitely not happy, so he secretly contacted the southwestern warlords in various ways, and then put forward the slogan of "peaceful reunification".

Since the whole country had been longing for peace, Feng Guozhang's peaceful line suddenly gained the upper hand, and Duan Qirui had to resign as prime minister again.

There was no more fighting on the front line, and as a first-class frontline general of the Zhili clique, Wu Peifu had time to return to Beijing.

Li Yu echoed: "The president is far-sighted."

Feng Guozhang was very satisfied with his ambition: "What everyone hopes for is what everyone hopes for."

But Li Yu knew in his heart that Feng Guozhang could not hold on for long.

Duan Qirui quickly contacted the Japanese secretly and sent Xu Shuzhengla to join Zhang Zuolin. Under heavy pressure, Feng Guozhang was forced to reappoint Duan Qirui as Prime Minister, gave up his peace proposition, and continued to fight against the southwestern warlords.

Li Yu could not control the chaos of the warlords' melee and stated the purpose of his trip: "President, before I leave, I will discuss with Mr. Tang Shaoyi to build an automobile factory in Shanghai. I hope you can approve a piece of land."

The entire Jiangsu and Shanghai area belongs to the direct territory, so it is best to contact Feng Guozhang directly.

"Automobile factory? What a good thing!" Feng Guozhang said, "Shaochuan (Tang Shaoyi) mentioned it to me a few months ago, but I didn't expect you to move so quickly. Tell me, which piece of land did you like?"

"The Xujiahui area." Li Yu took out a map and drew a picture for Feng Guozhang.

Li Yuxuan's location is close to the concession, but it is not part of the concession. The land tax is not collected by the concession, and the price is correspondingly much cheaper.

The last thing the warlords lack is land. As long as they can contribute tax revenue, they will definitely support it. Moreover, it is a company in Shanghai with American participation.

Feng Guozhang waved his hand: "No problem! I will ask Jiangsu Governor Li Chun to greet the Shanghai County Magistrate, and Brother Shucai will just go ahead and do it."

Before Feng Guozhang left Nanjing and came to Beijing to serve as acting president, he specially transferred his confidant Li Chun to serve as the most important governor of Jiangsu.

Li Yu cupped his hands and said, "Thank you, President."

Feng Guozhang stroked his beard and said with a smile: "When it's finished, I'll build one and try it out."

Li Yu said: "One of the first batch will be sent to you."

There aren't many marketing tools at this time, so letting a big shot with a big head and a good reputation is better than any kind of advertising. Moreover, in the chaotic era of the Republic of China, you could only have a good relationship with the warlords, otherwise you would not be able to accomplish anything.

With Feng Guozhang's support, the approval of the automobile factory was given the green light all the way.

Li Yu had to consider looking for an executive in the south who would be responsible for the entire automobile business.

When he came to the Shanghai Industrial Association, Li Yu happened to meet an industrial tycoon-Liu Hongsheng, who later became the match king, wool textile industry king, and coal industry king.

Liu Hongsheng also recognized Li Yu: "Mr. President, I am honored to meet you!"

Li Yu shook hands with him and said: "The recent coal business is very good."

Liu Hongsheng said with a smile: "In the past few years since the European War, the sales of Kailuan Coal have been extremely good, and I have made a small profit."

He is not just making a small profit.

Liu Hongsheng studied at St. John's University and spoke English. As early as 1909, he joined the British Shanghai Kaiping Mining Bureau as a streetwalker to promote coal, mainly to Laohuzao and Huashang Cotton Mills, and gradually expanded to kilns in nearby places. Industry. He had an excellent business acumen and was a natural businessman. It didn't take long for him to become the comprador of British businessmen.

The process was naturally quite arduous. The kiln industry in Jiashan, Yixing and other places originally used firewood, so coal was used instead of firewood, which deprived many local people of their livelihood. One time Liu Hongsheng went to collect a bill and was told that thousands of firewood farmers wanted to "have tea" with him. When he heard this, he quickly escaped in a dung boat.

Later, Liu Hongsheng spent tens of thousands of yuan to design and build a new coal-burning kiln in Yixing, and hired firewood farmers to work as kiln workers. Only then did the firewood kilns be gradually replaced by coal kilns.

After World War I started, because the ships of the Bureau of Mines were requisitioned by the British mainland, Liu Hongsheng simply rented dozens of ships to transport coal from Qinhuangdao to Shanghai.

The delivery in Qinhuangdao is 6 taels per ton, the freight is 3 to 4 taels, the cost to Shanghai is 9 to 10 taels, and the sales price is about 14 taels, which means you can earn 4 to 5 taels per ton. It lasted for about three years, and Liu Hongsheng earned an estimated more than one million taels of silver.

Liu Hongsheng is very rich now.

He has achieved financial freedom, but he is obviously not satisfied with being just a comprador for foreigners.

"Seeing everyone in full swing, I came up with the idea of ​​building a new factory of my own." Liu Hongsheng said.

Li Yu asked casually: "What factory?"

Liu Hongsheng said: "It is temporarily designated as a match factory."

He will definitely build a match factory, because Liu Hongsheng has a knot in his mind: his father-in-law is the director of a match factory. Liu Hongsheng and his wife were not yet prosperous when they fell in love, and his wife did not agree with the marriage. If Liu Hongsheng's wife hadn't insisted, the marriage might have fallen through.

From then on, Liu Hongsheng made up his mind to build his own match factory, and then buy out his father-in-law's match factory! ——This matter has actually been done in the future.

Moreover, it is relatively easy to run a match factory with low capital, low risk, simple machinery and equipment, and most of it relies on manual labor.

"In addition to the match factory, sir, do you have any ideas about building an automobile factory?" Li Yu asked.

"Automobile factory?!" Liu Hongsheng said in shock, "That's a big business that only Europe and the United States can do!"

Li Yu said easily: "I bought a car factory from the United States and immediately moved the entire plant there. I also received approval from the Presidential Palace."

"The chairman's handiwork is really amazing! The automobile factory has huge investment, and the threshold for key technologies is too high..." Liu Hongsheng paused, "I almost forgot that the chairman's most important thing seems to be technology."

Li Yu has almost all the major patents in the automobile industry. As long as he invests money, he can get started. It’s just that he understands that cars are too risky and has been unwilling to do so.

Although there was strong support from Tang Shaoyi, Liang Qichao and others, they could not withstand the rapid change of the King's Flag on the city wall of the Republic of China.

The only option is to recover costs as early as possible and then rely on American capital and managers to support the situation.

If done carefully, it can indeed cultivate a large number of outstanding talents.

Li Yu said: "There is a production line model, and the profits from cars are considerable. If we can open up the Japanese market, it will be even more unlimited."

Liu Hongsheng knew that this was a huge industry and asked, "What does the president want me to do?"

Li Yu said: "How about being a senior manager?"

"The president thinks too highly of me." Liu Hongsheng couldn't believe it.

"Your business acumen is the best in Shanghai," Li Yu said. "To be honest, I am just a layman on the specific business level; and Mr. Davis of the Morgan family is not familiar with Chinese business, so he must have A Chinese person takes charge of specific affairs.”

Liu Hongsheng clasped his fists and said, "Since the president loves me, I will give it a try."

Li Yu has great confidence in him and will not delay him from continuing to work in other factories.

After the site was selected and the foundation stone was laid, Li Yu published a newspaper to recruit people. The next day, someone came to apply.

"Mr. Li Yu! It's really you!"

"Song Ziwen?"

Li Yu was stunned when he saw the other party.

Song Ziwen said: "I just graduated from the United States and returned to China. According to my father's arrangement, I went to Sheng's Hanyeping Company, but it was not suitable there... After returning to Shanghai, I happened to see a new automobile factory in the newspaper. News, come here to see it.”

Song Ziwen graduated from Columbia University and was an alumnus of Hu Shi.

As for why he resigned from Han Yeping, it was actually because he fell in love with Sheng Xuanhuai's daughter Sheng Jinru. In order to break up the lovers, Han Yeping Company transferred Song Ziwen to Hanyang, and Song Ziwen announced his resignation angrily.

Li Yu said: "You majored in finance and economics at Columbia, how did you think of coming to the automobile factory?"

"Isn't the automobile just an economic category? It is also a brilliant industry." Song Ziwen said.

"Your family didn't arrange bank work for you?" Li Yu asked.

"It's arranged. I will soon be the general manager of Lianhua Commercial Bank," Song Ziwen said. "With this background, I can help the car factory with financing."

He quite wanted to get involved in the automobile factory.

"This..." Li Yu hesitated.

Song Ziwen immediately said: "Mr. Academician, I admired you very much when I was in the United States. The newspapers there often reported on you. You are the only Chinese who has done this. Moreover, you have done great things. , The vision and courage are like the top financial experts on Wall Street! I don’t know science, so I can only work with you in economics. It would be a great honor for me!”

Go ahead, Song Ziwen said these rainbow farts that made Li Yu feel a little carried away.

But then I thought about it, letting this guy get involved, although it was a double-edged sword, maybe a lot of trouble could be avoided through him.

Li Yu had no favorable impressions of the four major families. Song Ziwen was indeed not greedy, but his reputation in the industry and commerce of the Republic of China was not good at all, because many of his practices could be described as plundering.

For example, Song Ziwen once wanted to add insult to injury to China Merchants Bureau and Liu Hongsheng's properties many years later, and then take possession of them as his own.

After all, this guy has a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University, and he does things differently from the other four major families. He doesn't like the "vulgar" and "unskilled" methods of corruption, but wants to use economic means to expand his own interests.

However, his approach is obviously still bureaucratic capitalism, because without an official background, he would not be qualified to swallow up national industries.

"Okay," Li Yu agreed first, "but some things need to be discussed with Mr. Davis and Mr. Liu Hongsheng."

Song Ziwen immediately said: "Of course important matters must be reported directly to Mr. Li Yu!"

Well, this kid is really difficult to control.

Fortunately, he is a pro-American faction, and Davis should be able to suppress him somewhat.

Li Yu said to Song Ziwen: "You are responsible for finance, accounting and public relations affairs."

"This is all my expertise," Song Ziwen said. "By the way, if you are still lacking someone, sir, my little sister Meiling can also come to help. She came back from the United States with me."

Li Yu smiled and said, "We have enough people now."