The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Qianyuan three years, the first day of July.

The sun is scorching and the heat is rising.

At the pier outside Suzhou city, an official ship docked.

Shen Tingyang and Zhou Lianggong disembarked the ship with several accompanying officials and a group of guards.

Li Qing, the magistrate of Suzhou Prefecture, had been waiting at the pavilion on the dock for a long time with several officials and attendants. When he saw the official ship docking, he hurriedly came to greet it.

"Brother Shen, I haven't seen you for many years, but do you still recognize Qinghu?"

Shen Tingyang stepped forward and returned the gift with his hand, and said with a smile: "Xinshui (characterized by Li Qing) and I are good friends who traveled together when we were young. We have been separated for many years, how can I not recognize him?"

"Hahaha." Li Qing laughed happily, pointed to the pavilion and said, "The weather is hot and it is easy to suffer from heat stroke. Come on, Brother Shen and everyone will go to the pavilion to drink a bowl of herbal tea first, and I will go to the government office later."

"Very good."

Immediately a group of people walked towards the pavilion.

In the pre-Ming Dynasty, Li Qing was a native of Xinghua, Yangzhou Prefecture, and Shen Tingyang was a native of Chongming, Suzhou Prefecture, both of whom belonged to Nanzhili.

Shen Tingyang is four years older and liked to travel around when he was young, so he and Li Qing have known each other for a long time.

However, Li Qing was a scholar in the Tianqi period and a Jinshi in the fourth year of Chongzhen. He successively served as a pedestrian, a county magistrate, and an official in Ningbo.

After entering Wei, he was appointed as the magistrate of Suzhou Prefecture due to his outstanding performance during the period of observing the government.

Shen Tingyang failed many attempts in Qianming and has always been a scholar.

However, Shen Tingyang's family was wealthy (his ancestors were suspected of being maritime merchants), so he used money to operate and was admitted to the Imperial College. Later, he took the initiative to raise food and grass for the Ming Dynasty. He was known by Chongzhen and was appointed as Zhongshu Sheren.

Later, Shen Tingyang presented the "Shipping Guide" and "Shipping Map", etc., and advocated shipping to solve the problem of grain transportation in Liaodong and ease the pressure of grain transportation on the Grand Canal. Chongzhen paid more attention to it, so he appointed him as the head of the Ministry of Household Affairs to trial the shipping of grain and grass.

When the matter was completed, he was promoted to doctor and was responsible for grain transportation to the capital and shipping grain and grass to Liaodong.

At this time and space, when the Shun army attacked Beijing, Shen Tingyang was raising food and grass outside.

After hearing the news, they hurriedly urged Shandong civil and military officials to raise troops to serve the king. Unfortunately, before the king of Qin could gather his troops, news came that Beijing had been breached and Chongzhen had hanged himself to die for his country.

Shen Tingyang and his shipping fleet were trapped in Denglai.

Later, along with the remaining civil and military forces from the Qianming Dynasty in Shandong, they surrendered to Dawei.

Previously, Shen Tingyang had overseen and served in the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Civil Affairs. At the highest official position, he was just a principal and was not conspicuous.

However, after the establishment of the "Da'ei Railway Transportation Company", he was summoned by Liu Sheng. After some discussion, he was promoted to a member of the Ministry of Transportation, and was assigned as the "General Office of the Damei Railway Transportation Company".

They came to Suzhou on business this time to build the first railway in Jiangnan.

After the group went to the pavilion to drink tea, Shen Tingyang remembered to introduce his deputy.

"Zhou Lianggong, courtesy name Bo'an, was born in Xiangfu, Kaifeng. He was a Jinshi in the twelfth year of Chongzhen's reign. He was once the magistrate of Weifang. He is now the director of the Ministry of Transportation and the co-organizer of the railway transportation company."

Zhou Lianggong was in his thirties, more than ten years younger than Shen and Li, and he was also a latecomer in terms of fame.

But after all, he was the "capital official" of Dawei, so Li Qing did not dare to entrust him, so he immediately met again and exchanged a few words.

After a few people chatted for a while, Shen Tingyang straightened up and asked, "Xinshui, tell me the truth, how many gentry and merchants are attending the meeting in Suzhou now?"

However, as early as ten days ago, the imperial court asked local officials to release the news that "common people" could purchase shares of the railway transportation company, especially in the Jiangnan area.

Literally speaking, it refers to "common people", but it actually targets wealthy groups such as gentry, merchants, and big landowners in the pre-Ming Dynasty. Because, according to the plan of the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Finance, each share of the railway transportation company's externally sold shares is worth a thousand taels and is not allowed to be split and sold privately.

It is equivalent to setting a threshold for "common people" to buy shares in railway transportation companies.

This is done out of many considerations.

First, after all, this was the first time that the Da'ei imperial court had used private funds to build a railway. It was uncertain what kind of problems it would cause in the future. If too many people were involved, if something went wrong, it would easily lead to civil unrest.

Second, setting a threshold will actually allow those who are truly wealthy to cherish this opportunity.

Just like some luxury goods, their own value is not high, but they are popular among wealthy people because of their inflated prices.

Because they do have this need to show their identity and status with money.

The wealth in Jiangnan is the best in the world, and the number of rich people in Jiangnan is the best in the world.

Therefore, the railway transportation company regarded this place as the focus of fundraising. Shen Tingyang, the general manager of the railway transportation company, came with a co-organizer to host the "share buying conference".

Once the to-do list is completed, it can also be used as a model for other places to learn from.

What Shen Tingyang is most worried about now is that those rich people do not realize the value of the railway company's shares, so not many people buy the shares.

If this happens, this "share buying conference" will not be easy to hold.

Li Qing smiled and said, "Brother Shen, don't worry. There are already many wealthy people in Suzhou. Ever since the local government announced that the court would allow people to buy shares in the railway transportation company, wealthy people from other places have been arriving almost every day."

"According to preliminary statistics from our Suzhou government office, there are currently at least forty or fifty wealthy people in Suzhou who want to buy railway shares."

In Li Qing's view, forty or fifty rich people buying shares is obviously a lot.

Even if each person contributes 10,000 taels, the total amount is four to five million taels, which is already quite a lot of money.

Unexpectedly, Shen Tingyang frowned after hearing this and murmured: "Only forty or fifty people? Not enough."

Li Qing wondered after hearing this, "Is it possible that the amount of funds the imperial court requires to be raised is very large?"

Shen Tingyang shook his head, "The court has not set any hard requirements, but the country wants to overhaul the railway, so the more funds, the better."

"Jiangnan is not only the richest place in the country, but this is also the first 'share buying conference'. If less funds are raised, wealthy people in other places may think that railway transportation shares are worthless in the future and will inevitably buy less. So. Once this happens, it will have a huge impact on the country’s plan to overhaul the railways.”

Li Qing thought for a while and suggested: "It is better to postpone the conference for a few days - some places are far away from Suzhou. Even if someone wants to come and buy shares, it will take time to get there."

Shen Tingyang put down his tea bowl and said, "We'd better go to the city first and make plans after we learn more about the situation."

Li Qing said no more and immediately led Shen Tingyang and others into the city.

As local officials, even if they have the imperial decree, they only play a supporting role in this matter. What to do specifically depends on Shen Tingyang and other Tieyun Company officials.

···
Zuixian Tower.

In a private room on the second floor, several wealthy middle-aged people were also discussing the purchase of shares in the railway transportation company.

"Do you think this is reliable? If we buy those shares, can we really get our money back or even make money in the future?"

The person who said this was the fattest person in the box, his name was Huang Liansheng. He was a well-known wealthy family in Suzhou Prefecture. His family owned thousands of acres of fertile land, plus more than 2,000 acres of mulberry gardens, and more than a dozen shops.

Huang Liansheng himself was only a scholar in the early Ming Dynasty, and he was nothing in the literary land of Jiangnan.

However, he is good at running a family and has a little vision in business. In recent years, the Huang family's assets have increased a lot. (End of chapter)