Back to the Republic of China as a commander

Ye Zuwen picked up the napkin and wiped his mouth, then rolled the napkin into a ball and placed it gently on the table. Wang Zhenyu knew that he was about to discuss business with him.He tactfully ate the last macaroni, wiped his mouth lightly, and looked at Mr. Ye Zuwen with a smile.

Ye Zuwen: "Brother Zhang, brother, I have some acquaintances in the concession, who are in the business of this weapon, but I don't know how many arms are in the hands of Brother Zhang? If it is convenient, it is best to tell what it is. Road? After all, this business is also somewhat risky."

Wang Zhenyu smiled and stretched out a finger, Ye Zuwen smiled faintly: "100 pieces?"

Wang Zhenyu shook his head with a smile. It was still a finger. Ye Zuwen was a little surprised: "1000 pieces?"

Wang Zhenyu continued to shake his head, then withdrew his fingers and said slowly: "New Hanyang made 1 pieces! As for the origin, Wang Mouming doesn't say secret words, Mr. Ye, you'd better not ask, there are still some people and things involved in all aspects. The less you know the better."

Wang Zhenyu's later generations are in sales anyway, and he knows that in order to maximize profits, there are a few points that must be paid attention to:

Don't tell the other party everything, because cooperation and competition are actually inseparable;

Don't always tell lies. Without sincerity, you can't negotiate a deal. It is best to have nine out of ten sentences be true;

Don't let people know your hole cards, sometimes the more mysterious the better.

Hanyang made [-] pieces. Ye Zuwen was shocked when he heard this number.Looking at the current munitions in the entire concession combined, it may not be one-third of this amount, and the annual output of the Hanyang Arsenal, which is known as the largest arsenal in the country, cannot reach this amount.Great deal, is it true?Ye Zuwen's brain began to spin rapidly.

After human beings entered the industrial civilization, once the cannon was fired, the golden ten thousand taels became an unchanging iron law.This point is unavoidable even for a revolution, otherwise, when the revolution broke out, why didn't the founding father go back to China first and instead went around to raise funds.

Together with the incident in Wuchang this time, the entire Qing Dynasty fell into chaos. The military industry, which was originally a small number, was divided into two. in the hands of the army.As the Soviet-Zhejiang-Shanghai Allied Forces of the People's Army captured Nanjing earlier this month, even the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau fell into the hands of the People's Army.

And what about the military industry in the north?The Beiyang faction headed by Yuan Shikai is firmly in its hands.Arms suddenly became a scarce commodity.

It is worth mentioning that there are still a few people like Prince Qing Yikuang, and most of the princes of the Manchu Qing Dynasty are still doing their last struggle before this dynasty is about to die.But no matter how hard he tried, there was little effect. First, most of the army fell into the hands of Yuan Gongbao, and second, all the weapons and ammunition were also controlled by Yuan Gongbao.Under such circumstances, how can the princes of the Clan Socialist Party who decided to protect the Qing Dynasty be in a hurry.

In terms of the army, the princes took a fancy to two people. One was Feng Guozhang, who was crying for his father and mother when the civilian army fought in Wuhan, and the other was Zhang Xun, the acting governor of Liangjiang who had fought bloody battles with the civilian army in Nanjing for several months.The princes have no power at this moment, so what else do they have?Only the people's fat and people's fat and people's anointing were anointed when they took power.

Feng Guozhang has been replaced by Duan Qirui sent by the old Yuan, and now he is definitely hopeless.Although Zhang Xun lost the battle and lost Nanjing and retreated to the Huaihe area, he still had thousands of troops under his command. Once the princes of several clan and social parties combined, they supported him.They decided to help expand Zhang Xun's army to fight against Yuan Shikai who looked more and more like Oboi in their eyes.

But to expand the army, it is not enough to have money, but also to have guns.

This made the princes of the Socialist Party worry to death. The Qing Dynasty's own military factories were either taken by the Revolutionary Party or held by Yuan Shikai.What's even more damning is that the consuls of Britain, France and other countries actually announced that they would not intervene in the Chinese civil war, and at the same time imposed an arms embargo on the two warring parties.

The only way is to find all the ways to buy weapons at a high price.

As a result, a group of people who spoke northern Mandarin came to the concessions in Shanghai, Wuhan, Tianjin, and Qingdao. These people are the backbone of the Zongsha Party, the special confidantes of the princes, and they are probably the kind of family slaves.They came to the concession with only one purpose, to get arms at all costs.Ye Zuwen also heard from his acquaintance, a friend who works as a comprador in Ruisheng foreign company.

Foreign firms made a lot of money one after another, and Hanyang made 40 yuan a piece, but they were fired up to [-] yuan.It's a pity that there is still no market in this way.There are only so many firearms in the hands of foreign companies. Although they are trying to find ways to obtain arms, the effect is not ideal.

Now, the young man in front of Ye Zuwen actually said that he has 100 guns in his hands, and they are still brand new. What does this mean?A full [-] million yuan!God, Ye Zuwen, who believes in Christ, thanked Jesus very sincerely. You must have heard my prayer and sent me this young man in front of me to save me.

Ye Zuwen's eyes looking at Wang Zhenyu now began to emit a strange colorful light. . .What Wang Zhenyu didn't know was that Ye Zuwen's life is really difficult now.Since Ye's business was founded five years ago, the entire Ye family has been thriving.

Ye Zuwen is very cautious and organized, and he is familiar with foreign trade business, coupled with the ability of his subordinates, basically every transaction goes smoothly.Although they don't earn much, all the rare votes are profitable.After five years like this, Ye Zuwen has become a rich man with a net worth of 60 yuan. Although he dare not say that he is the first in the Hankou Concession, he is still a figure that can be counted.

At the same time, in the Concession Bureau of Industry and the Huguang Governor's Yamen, Ye Zuwen is an exquisite figure. He is in the middle of the match, crosses the river and builds bridges. He does a lot of things to facilitate the transactions of all parties. The passage of time has increased.

Two years ago, the imperial court appointed Ruicheng as the governor of Huguang. Ye Zuwen, who was fed by officials and businessmen, naturally posted it again. Originally, the collusion between government and businessmen, oh, is not the cooperation between government and businessmen, it is the characteristic of China for thousands of years.As long as you are a businessman, as long as you want to become bigger, it is impossible to avoid customs.

But the result of this post really echoes an old Chinese saying: good fortune depends on misfortune, and misfortune is accompanied by good fortune.

Relying on the special care of Ruicheng, the governor of Hunan, Hubei and other local admirals who are in charge of military affairs, rations and governors (the full name of the governor of Huguang), Ye's business has been doing well on the ground in Hubei for a few years. The name of the concession also became more and more famous.

Time goes back to the beginning of this year, our Governor Ruicheng has been in office for a long time, and his courage is getting fatter and fatter.He actually handed over two very important purchases to Ye Zuwen, which shocked Ye Zuwen at that time.Specifically, the Hanyang Arsenal needs to replace a set of military equipment, which involves the manufacture of bullets and smokeless gunpowder; at the same time, Pingxiang Coal Mine and Hanyang Iron Works purchased a set of excavation equipment and a set of steel furnaces. Project of Ping Coal Iron Factory Co., Ltd.The company is headquartered in Shanghai and has been managed by Sheng Xuan Huaisheng.However, after Sheng Xuanhuai was ordered to supervise the national railway last year, his term of office was about to expire, and he was eager to make a fortune. Ruicheng still relied on his connections to find a way to get these three major procurement items into his own hands.But he is an upstart after all, and he doesn't have many minions to use.As soon as such a large procurement project was in hand, he naturally thought of Ye Zuwen, a former comprador who often handled import and export business for him.

The specific operation is not very complicated. Ye Zuwen doesn't need to ask how the Hanyeping Coal and Iron Factory and Mine Co., Ltd. operates in Shanghai. It is the governor's business.Ye Zuwen was only in charge of negotiating with the Americans about the introduction of equipment. Since Ruicheng wanted to set up a cigarette factory in Wuchang, he added an additional set of cigarette equipment. All the problems lay in the cigarette equipment.

The purchase contract signed by Hanyeping Coal and Iron Factory and Mine Co., Ltd. and Ruicheng was as high as 1000 million yuan, while Ye Zuwen only had to pay 400 million yuan for the actual purchase. The price difference was as high as 600 million yuan. This is probably also a Chinese characteristic.

Ruicheng is not too dark, and he knows what it means to be kind and powerful.At that time, he promised to give Ye Zuwen 100 million of it as a reward for running errands.And he, Ruicheng, took the big 500 million yuan, and Ruicheng also knew that Ye Zuwen didn't have that much money to pay the advance payment, so he directly allocated 300 million yuan from Huguang Governor's Yamen and Xinjun to make the down payment for Ye Zuwen.This era is not comparable to the era of highly developed market economy and international trade in later generations. In commercial activities at this time, the proportion of down payment deposit is very high, accounting for almost [-]% to [-]% of the purchase price.

In the end, after the whole deal was negotiated, it became a contract with a total value of 450 million. Ye Zuwen paid 350 million, of which 50 was advanced by Ye Zuwen with his own funds.

The Americans are also very trustworthy. It was told that the four sets of equipment had been shipped from the United States around October 10th, which made Ye Zuwen excitedly dream of a millionaire.

It is really unpredictable. No one would have thought that only one night later, that is, the second day after receiving the telegram, the Wuchang Uprising broke out, which shocked China and the world.Governor Ruicheng fled overnight, and later it is said that he fled to Japan to avoid disaster.

Naturally, this transaction has become a headless case. The biggest characteristic of Americans with German ancestry is that they like to strictly follow the contract.According to the original contract between the two parties, if Ye Zuwen cannot effectively pay the final payment of 1912 million yuan before January 1, 1, then sorry, the US side will take back the ownership of the goods, and the 100 million yuan paid in advance will also be sold. Float.

Lord Rui Chengrui can leave him alone for now, after all, even if the Qing army came back, the governor who fled the battle would also fall out of favor and lose power, there would be no tomorrow.But there is a huge sum of 50 yuan in the advance payment, which is the Ye family's money. This is all Ye Zuwen's income from more than ten years of hard work.

The only feasible way now is to raise enough 100 million and get the four sets of equipment first, otherwise the fall of the Ye family will be imminent.

Everyone knows the truth, but the question is where is the money?Ye Zuwen used almost all of his contacts to raise funds.But once the war broke out, all walks of life were obviously affected, and tightening money is an inevitable choice for major firms.Ye Zuwen couldn't borrow even if he wanted to.As for borrowing usury, you are not afraid of high interest rates and dare to borrow, but who can lend you a usury loan of 100 million? You must know the price of this era, 3 silver dollars can buy 44 catties of flour, 100 million, how much is that? A catty of flour?

Ye Zuwen has been busy for more than a month. He has searched all his connections, but he still has no clue. At this time, he is almost desperate. He even had the idea of ​​breaking the jar this morning, but now Wang Zhenyu However, the unexpected appearance brought him hope again.