Master Yuan, start!

It was a very common practice in the late Qing Dynasty for local military and political officials to have a consultant whose sole purpose was to amass wealth.

This is the case with Zuo Zongtang to Hu Xueyan and Li Hongzhang to Sheng Xuanhuai.

Yuan Xiangcheng originally wanted to portray Zhang Jian as such a character, but Zhang Jian's reaction was somewhat unexpected.

"Ji Zhi, you are also from Jiangnan, why..." Yuan Xiangcheng didn't finish his words, but his meaning was very clear.

"It's good that I was born in Jiangsu, but if I say I was from Jiangnan, I'm afraid some people will not recognize me." Zhang Jian was very calm, as if he had already thought of the answer.

"Oh?" Yuan Xiangcheng's eyes were filled with curiosity when he heard this: "Nantong, isn't it considered Jiangnan?"

"Of course not. Jiangnan is Jiangnan, and Nantong is north of the Yangtze River. How can it be considered Jiangnan?" Zhang Jian said this very seriously, so seriously that he spoke word by word with a sound of gritting his teeth.

"Weiting, as the saying goes, if a rich man does not return home in finery, it is like walking in brocade at night." Zhang Jian took a deep breath. "But when I went south to set up a factory with the intention of uniting the merchants of Jiangnan, I encountered repeated difficulties."

"Supporting one's hometown is a good deed, who would dare to stop it?" Yuan Xiangcheng shook his head. "Could it be Liu Kunyi? But I've never heard of him ordering the closure of factories run by northerners."

"Liu Kunyi may want to confer the title, but he may not do it himself." Zhang Jian's mood has calmed down, but he still sighs when talking about his previous experience: "Three years ago, my fellow townsmen Sha Yuanbing and Gu Xijue came to join me outside the Great Wall because they were grateful to Wei Ting for abolishing the customs and changing the business system.

"Although many industries outside the Great Wall were underdeveloped at the time, they were in urgent need of various raw materials. Therefore, I persuaded the two of them to return to Jiangnan and set up a trading company specializing in the north-south trade."

"What then?"

"Later, as their business expanded, they decided to set up their own factory, as they didn't want others to take advantage of the profit margin.

At first, he planned to build a factory in Rugao, Nantong, first purchasing land and then constructing the factory. However, setting up a factory was extremely expensive, so he planned to raise funds from outside.

The Changzhou merchants agreed to raise 25 taels on behalf of the government, but on the condition that it be built in the Suchang area.

It could also be built in Changzhou as long as the funds were received in full. However, after the factory was built, the Changzhou businessmen said that they had huge expenses and were unwilling to pay the money.

Sha and Gu ran around everywhere, not wanting the factory to close down, but after sending several letters for help, there was no response.

"How could this be?"

Yuan Xiangcheng was a little surprised. In his impression, although Jiangsu has always been in bulk, it shouldn't be so bulky.

Just across the Yangtze River from Nantong, how dare people from Changzhou make fun of people from Nantong over a matter of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver?

"Someone is really interfering!"

Zhang Jian gritted his teeth and said, "I only found out later that Sheng Xuanhuai didn't want me to interfere in Jiangnan's business affairs, so he ordered his fellow townsmen from Changzhou to work together to deceive us."

"Sheng Xuanhuai, isn't he in Guangdong and Guangxi, working for Li Hongzhang? How can he still interfere in the affairs of Jiangnan?"

"The Hunan Army is incompetent and doesn't care about business!"

Zhang Jian's eyes revealed contempt: "The Westernization Movement is nothing more than the cooperation of officials, businessmen, foreigners and the people.

The people are the ones in the middle of this. As long as they are engaged in foreign affairs, whether they are officials, businessmen, or foreigners, they must obtain money from the people and sell their own products to the people.

After you, Wei Ting, took charge of the areas outside the Great Wall, officials, businessmen and foreigners basically each accounted for 30% of the power, and they checked and restrained each other, which can be said to complement each other.

But Liu Kunyi was not familiar with business affairs. He only knew to make merchants pay enough taxes and he did not care about the rest. Therefore, in the past few years in Jiangnan, officials did very little, while merchants and foreigners did a lot.

Although Sheng Xuanhuai was in Lingnan, he did not want to give up his Jiangnan base. After all, Jiangsu and Zhejiang were where he started his business, and there was no telling when Li Hongzhang would have the chance to come back.

Therefore, he certainly doesn't want the Jiangnan merchants to be used by the National Defense Army!"

What Zhang Jian was talking about was something that had happened in the original time and space. At that time, a man wanted to open the Dasheng Cotton Mill in Nantong. Sheng Xuanhuai, a native of Changzhou, took the initiative to agree to provide financial assistance, but when it came to building the factory, Sheng Xuanhuai repeatedly refused, forcing Zhang Jian to borrow money from many sources before finally opening it with great difficulty.

Therefore, the relationship between Zhang Jian, Sheng Xuanhuai, and Li Hongzhang behind Sheng Xuanhuai has never been very good.

"So that's how it is. The Jiangnan merchants would rather believe Sheng Xuanhuai's lies than lend money to Sha and Gu to help them out. How foolish!"

Seeing Yuan Xiangcheng's rebuke, Zhang Jian's expression eased slightly: "Weiting, so we must use the power of this great victory in Xuzhou to teach the Jiangnan merchants a severe lesson and let them know who has the final say!"

"Okay, then it's as you say!"

Yuan Xiangcheng was eager to agree.

Why wouldn't he be happy to do something if he could create a rift within the ranks of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang businessmen who would dominate China in the future?

Although the Red Confucian Society had its own ideas, it could not rashly implement a planned economy when the technological level was not high enough. It had to rely on commercial activities to solve the food problem for 4 million people.

Commercial activities are inherently highly regional.

But businessmen are still profit-driven and don’t feel safe using things from a place that is not their own.

Yuan Shikai intended to cultivate commerce outside the Great Wall, hoping to compete with the south, but he could not surpass it in a short period of time. Therefore, he allowed the merchants from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to split into merchants from the south and north of the Yangtze River. This would undoubtedly give merchants from outside the Great Wall more room for maneuver in future competition.

"Then what is the appropriate amount of this public debt?" Zhang Jian felt that he had let out a gust of anger and was in great spirits.

"How about starting with 1000 million taels?" Yuan Xiangcheng pondered for a moment and said cautiously, "Let's use the land rights of the railway outside the Great Wall as collateral, and offer an annual interest rate of 4%."

"4 points?" Zhang Jian frowned upon hearing this. He hadn't expected Yuan Xiangcheng to give him such a high score. "Isn't that too high? How about 9 points?"

"Is it high?"

Yuan Xiangcheng shook his head and said, "I've asked around. The interest rate on loans from banks is only about 10 cents, while the interest rate on British government bonds is generally only 2 cents. The very few bonds issued for wartime purposes only have an interest rate of 3 cents.

If it gets any lower, people will just save their money in banks and money houses."

"Deposit it in the bank?"

Zhang Jian looked at Yuan Xiangcheng with a strange look and said, "Weiting, there is a custody fee for depositing money in the bank, but there is no such fee for buying government bonds."

"Storage fee?"

Yuan Xiangcheng suddenly realized that he had taken it for granted.

It seems that depositing money in the bank and earning interest only became popular after World War I. In the late 19th century, there was no such thing as interest in banks. They were lucky enough to help depositors keep their principal, so where did the interest come from?

"3 cents?" Yuan Xiangcheng pondered for a moment, then decided to stick with his previous plan. "Brother Ji Zhi is right. 3 cents is already the wartime level of the British. But China is not a powerful country after all, and this is the first time it has issued government bonds. If there is no high interest rate, who would be willing to buy it?"

"Thinking so," Zhang Jian sighed and nodded, "That's not bad."

"Four percent, then so be it. However, if the interest rate is four percent, I'm afraid there's no need to apportion it. I'm afraid all the merchants in Jiangnan will buy some."

Zhang Jian felt somewhat helpless. He had originally wanted to take this opportunity to retaliate against the Jiangnan merchants, but it seemed that this time it would not work.

"Brother Ji Zhi, don't worry."

Yuan Xiangcheng noticed the change in Zhang Jian's expression, and he naturally would not let Zhang Jian down: "Government bonds can be purchased without restrictions in the north.

However, in the south, it was only sold through the Northeast Border Industry Bank. If Jiangnan merchants wanted to buy it locally, they had to first purchase Northeast Dragon Yuan and banknotes from the Northeast Border Industry Bank branch in Shanghai before they could buy government bonds.

After all this, wouldn’t the exchange money make up for the interest rate difference?

If Jiu doesn't want to be profited from the interest rate difference, 8 can also use 2 coins to support the Hunan Army.

But after the National Defense Army reached Jiangnan, as you said before, without the protection of government bonds, it is hard to say whether it is treasury or not."

Zhang Jian was stunned at first when he heard this, then he burst into laughter.

"Weiting, you really are..." He thought about it and finally said: "You are a genius."

Zhang Jian thought to himself, how could a military general from the Central Plains who had never even been selected as a scholar think about things so carefully and take care of every aspect? Although he had passed the imperial examination, he could never compare to this man.

After 300 years, a figure like this finally appeared among the Han people!

The treatment of British soldiers

Early winter, a small Hunan town north of Jiangning City.

After the defeat of the Hunan Army in Xuzhou, the Jiangnan Governor Liu Kunyi urgently recruited new troops in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, hoping to alleviate the shortage of troops.

Today, he led a group of generals to the north of the city to inspect the training of new recruits.

The Yangtze River rolls eastward, its waves washing away all heroes. The scene of every household in the town holding up white flags a few months ago is no longer seen.

They were replaced by new soldiers recruited from all over Jiangnan. Every few steps, you could see groups of soldiers holding their newly-issued wages, looking around and walking through the streets of a small town in Hunan.

The town seemed to have regained its pre-war vitality.

The Hunan town was originally a "Hunan buffer zone" constructed by Liu Kunyi. He regarded it as a support for the defense of Jiangning City. It is distributed in Yuhuatai, Yanziji, Zhongshan and other places near Jiangning.

Although the idea is good, when the army outside is completely wiped out, the buffer zone becomes a powder keg.

Although the New Hunan Army adopted the Western military system and established hierarchies such as towns, associations, and battalions from top to bottom, the same battalion no longer had the old method of fellow townsmen leading fellow townsmen, classmates leading classmates, and people with the same surname leading people.

But looking at the entire army, Hunan soldiers still account for more than 6%, and the number of generals above the battalion level is even more exaggerated, with 8% being from Hunan.

Therefore, after the news of the Xuzhou accident came out, the small town in Hunan was the area that suffered the most severe backlash.

At one point, a female army entered the city to demand justice. There was even a sixty-year-old woman with bound feet who entered the city, knocked on the drum of the Jiangnan Governor's Office, and demanded that Liu Kunyi seek justice.

As the "head of the family" of the Hunan people in Jiangnan, facing this situation, Liu Kunyi could not and dared not suppress the source of his power. After all, the Hunan troops in Anhui, Jiangxi and other places were still watching. If he handled things improperly, it would inevitably shake the morale of the army.

So he could only come forward to appease them and promised to rescue the captured Hunan Army. Only then did he calm the turmoil about the woman entering the city.

After that, in order to recruit new soldiers, he handed over the matters related to pacifying the Hunan town to Yu Lianyuan.

Today, Liu Kunyi, dressed in plain clothes, visited the small town in Hunan again. Seeing such a prosperous scene, he couldn't help but look at Yu Lianyuan beside him twice.

"Jin Shan, I never thought that the aftermath of Xuzhou's fall would disappear in just a few months." Liu Kun's eyebrows lit up with joy, and he patted Yu Lianyuan's shoulder behind him. "You truly deserve to be the most capable official in Jiangnan. I trust you to do your job."

"General Xian, you are too kind. I cannot live up to your compliment." Yu Lianyuan said a few humble words and then explained his way of governing.

"Jiangning is where the Yangtze River and the Grand Canal meet. It's no exaggeration to say it's a thoroughfare between the north and the south. The previous bleak situation was simply because the soldiers were drafted, making it seem unpopular. Furthermore, the Xuzhou incident implicated close family members, causing some chaos.

After General Xian issued the order to recruit soldiers, I decided to place the training ground near Jiangning. Therefore, this small town must be their first choice for leisure after their rest period, so that the town can recover its vitality.

Since ancient times, the vicinity of military camps has always been a prosperous commercial area. Thousands of soldiers have considerable spending power. How could Yu Lianyuan think of using such a magical wine? [Sizzling Scar Tuo Qia] "[-% Forward:] It's quite clever of him to restore the vitality of the Hunan town.

Seeing the streets regain their former bustling appearance, Liu Kunyi felt very relieved. However, as he walked, he couldn't help but frown.

He sensed something amiss in this prosperous atmosphere.

Some recruits ate fish soup from street vendors;

Some of the new recruits were frequenting tailor shops, hoping to buy themselves some winter clothing to keep them warm;

But more recruits walked out of the thatched houses with half-open doors with their legs spread wide. When they came out, they did not forget to tighten their belts, with a satisfied smile on their lips.

"Those people, they're drunk all day and staggering, even the buttons on their uniforms are crooked. What on earth are they doing?"

Liu Kunyi thought of something in his mind and pointed forward, wanting to find out more.

Without waiting for the guards to come forward, Liu Kunyi took the initiative to walk towards the thatched hut where the drunk soldier came out. He took two steps at a time and soon arrived at the half-open door, leaving everyone who was with him behind.

With a "creak", Liu Kun stepped over the threshold. The light dimmed and a faint cold wind blew. Before he could see the situation inside the house clearly, a tired and hoarse female voice was heard.

"Is the kid here? Wait for me to have a drink of water. I've already taken three at noon, and my throat is really dry."

I saw a middle-aged woman in disheveled clothes in the house. She put on her underwear, crawled out from the quilt, and casually put on her collar to keep warm. She fiddled with her fingers up and down, buttoning a few buttons without even noticing that she buttoned them crookedly. She put on her cloth shoes and walked towards the wooden bucket by the back door.

Pick up the wooden ladle, scoop half a ladle of freezing cold water in early winter, open your mouth and drink it.