Zhang Jian said: "I'm going to hide it from you. I really want to open a Dasheng branch in Qingdao." Dasheng Spinning Mill is a textile factory founded by Zhang Jian. It opened in 1899 and is located in Nantong. It is also the first factory founded by Zhang Jian in business. When it was first established, the capital was only tens of thousands of taels of silver, but now it has surged to more than 300,000 taels.

Sheng Xuanhuai smiled and said, "Brother Ji Zhi, I decided so quickly."

Zhang Jian nodded and said to everyone: "Actually, you all have seen what you have seen and heard in the past few days. Everyone knows the governance capabilities of overseas Chinese. I am not afraid to say it directly. It is probably difficult to compare in other places in the Qing Dynasty. Moreover, overseas Chinese attach importance to industry. You can see only those factories opened by overseas Chinese, and you can see that overseas Chinese not only attaches importance to industry, but also knows how to run industry. Therefore, I think that opening a factory in Qingdao will inevitably have a good future. I wonder what you think?"

Sheng Xuanhuai nodded and said, "I wonder how much does Brother Ji Zhi plan to invest?"

Zhang Jian said: "I haven't thought about this yet, and I have to negotiate in detail with overseas Chinese before I can decide. However, I have to invest 2300,000 silver. I wonder what Brother Xingsun thinks?"

Sheng Xuanhuai smiled and said, "I think since I want to do it, I might as well make it bigger. I might as well invest 12 million yuan and set up a large yarn mill, integrating accumulation, spinning, silk reeling, weaving, dyeing, and making ready-made garments. As overseas Chinese say, achieve large-scale and systematic production. If Brother Ji Zhi's capital is not enough, I am willing to invest 200,000 taels of shares. As long as Brother Ji Zhi decides, I can immediately let Shanghai remittance money. And with you and I come forward, and find some other people to invest, it is not difficult to raise the 2 million yuan of capital."

Zhang Jian was surprised when he heard this. In fact, his relationship with Sheng Xuanhuai was very average, and it was not good to be good. Unlike Sheng Xuanhuai, he was a literati and a literati. Zhang Jian was a standard scholar-official. He worked with Wu Changqing for a while in his early years. Later, he joined the imperial examination and failed the four exams. It was not until the fifth time that he won the top scorer in 1894. Since the examiner that year was Weng Tonghe, Zhang Jian became Weng Tonghe's disciple and belonged to the pure and simple family.

Although Zhang Jian was at home after his father was admitted to the top scorer, he did not participate in the attack on Li Hongzhang after the Sino-Japanese War, Weng Tonghe and Li Hongzhang were mortal enemies in the political arena, and Sheng Xuanhuai was Li Hongzhang's iron-core, and Zhang Jian was Weng Tonghe's disciple, so the relationship between the two was naturally not good.

It was because of the sorrow that Zhang Jian escaped the ups and downs of the Qing Dynasty's political arena from 1895 to 1898. At the same time, he was also discouraged by the officialdom and turned to industry and proposed the concept of "industry to save the country". However, when the Dasheng Spinning Mill was initially established, Zhang Jian went through hardships in order to raise funds. The title of top scholar did not bring him any convenience, but was even presented by Sheng Xuanhuai. At that time, Sheng Xuanhuai promised Zhang Jian to raise funds, but when the Dasheng Spinning Mill was in a hurry, Sheng Xuanhuai did not invest. As a result, Zhang Jian not only failed to raise money, but also lost his travel expenses to return to Tongzhou. He had to sell his characters on Sima Road in Shanghai for three days to earn travel expenses.

Later, after many twists and turns, Zhang Jian finally set up the Dasheng yarn mill, but after the yarn mill was put into production, there was not enough funds to buy cotton as raw materials. Later, Zhang Jian burned his boats and put money into full production to maintain operation. He also used the income from selling cotton yarn in the future to repay the debt. Fortunately, in the following months, the cotton yarn market was optimistic, and the funds of the yarn mill continued to expand, allowing the factory to produce normally and had a slight surplus. The Dasheng yarn mill finally survived with difficulty and gradually grew stronger. With the support of Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, the coastal deserted beach was reclaimed at the junction of Lusi and Haimen, and the cotton planting base of the yarn mill was built, solving the raw materials needed to run a yarn mill, so that the Dasheng yarn mill could enter a good operation.

However, after several years of hard work in the business world, Zhang Jian's scholarly aura was basically gone, and he was quite happy and unrestrained. Therefore, this time he and Sheng Xuanhuai led a team to Qingdao together, and on the surface was still harmonious. Of course, Sheng Xuanhuai also intended to show kindness to Zhang Jian in the past few days, as if he wanted to ease the relationship between the two. But now he suddenly expressed his willingness to invest in Zhang Jian's styling mill, which still surprised Zhang Jian very much.

But Sheng Xuanhuai is willing to invest, of course, because he has a strong capital and a wide network of contacts. With him coming forward to invest, he will not worry about not being able to attract other people to invest. In fact, why doesn’t Zhang Jian want to be bigger? If he can really raise 2 million shares, the scale of this new yarn mill will be far greater than that of Dasheng yarn mill he established in Nantong. So Zhang Jian immediately said: "Okay, Brother Xingsun wants to invest in shares, it will be better. As long as Brother Xingsun invests in shares, I can decide now to invest 400,000 yuan, and this yarn mill doesn’t have to use the name Dasheng. Let’s take another name and build a new yarn mill."

When the others heard this, they became interested, so they all expressed that they were willing to participate in the shares. Of course, this was mainly because everyone was optimistic about the development of Qingdao. So Zhou Shunqing was willing to invest 200,000 yuan, while Zhu Baosan, Ye Yiquan, and Yan Xinhou were willing to invest 150,000 yuan. In addition, Zhang Jian's 400,000 yuan and Sheng Xuanhuai's 200,000 yuan, he immediately raised 1.15 million yuan, so raising 2 million yuan was not difficult.

There is naturally a reason for Sheng Xuanhuai to do this. Sheng Xuanhuai had never thought about investing in Qingdao, but just wanted to see the appearance of overseas Chinese. Because Sheng Xuanhuai now has enough industries under his name, and most of them are money-making industries monopolized by officials and businessmen, so he has already passed the era of investment everywhere. In addition, although Sheng Xuanhuai is an excellent businessman and has quite strong organizational capabilities, he has taken the route of a red-top businessman and relied on the monopoly of the government. These conditions are obviously impossible for the East China government to have.

But just five days ago, Sheng Xuanhuai received a telegram from Li Hongzhang, intending to invest 300,000 silver. In the name of Li Jingfang, Zhang Peilun and Li Juou, he proposed to invest in and build a factory in Qingdao, and asked Sheng Xuanhuai to help him arrange it. After seeing the telegram, Sheng Xuanhuai was shocked. Although he could not fully understand Li Hongzhang's intention, he could also understand that this means that Li Hongzhang was showing kindness to overseas Chinese and that he was optimistic about the future of the East China government.

Of course, Sheng Xuanhuai knew that although the court was now a poor person, he believed that it had a deep foundation after all. As the saying goes, a century-legged insect will not be rigid. Therefore, it is easy for overseas Chinese to want to seize the Qing court, but it is probably not so easy to replace it. However, Sheng Xuanhuai still trusted Li Hongzhang's political vision. Since Li Hongzhang intended to show kindness to overseas Chinese, Sheng Xuanhuai also believed that he needed to follow up.

However, it is not ruled out that Li Hongzhang is betting on both sides, so Sheng Xuanhuai is still a little worried. If overseas Chinese and the court meet each other in the future, he may be implicated. After all, he is different from Li Hongzhang. To put it bluntly, as long as Li Hongzhang does not rebel publicly, the court will not do too much no matter how big the matter is. If only the investment is made and Zhang Jian comes forward, the risk will be much smaller. Moreover, Sheng Xuanhuai also plans to suggest to Li Hongzhang that it would be better to invest the 300,000 silver he invested in Zhang Jian's sponge mill.

Zhang Jian was very happy when he raised more than 1 million shares of silver at once. Although these were just verbal promises, Zhang Jian believed that there would not be much problem in implementation, because these people were all people with status and would not easily break their trust. Now Zhang Jian is different from when he founded the Dasheng Spinning Mill. At that time, he was just a novice in the shopping mall with the title of top scholar, and rich people might not dare to invest in him. Therefore, it was reasonable that he could not raise money at that time. Now the success of the Dasheng Spinning Mill also proves Zhang Jian's ability; in addition, Zhang Jian could see the benefits of investing in Qingdao, and others could naturally see that who would not be willing to do a profitable business?

At this moment, a man hurried into the teahouse. After seeing everyone, he said, "It turns out that the man is here? It's so easy to find a villain."

When everyone looked at it, it turned out to be a close friend brought by Sheng Xuanhuai. Sheng Xuanhuai glanced at him and said, "Is there anything wrong?"

He followed him and said, "Mr. Zhang Zhenxun and Mr. Zhang have come to Qingdao. If you have urgent matters, you are waiting for the master in the hotel." He looked at Zhang Jian again and said, "He also said that if he meets Mr. Zhang, please meet him together."

It turned out that Zhang Zhenxun's courtesy name was Bishi. He was originally from Dapu, Guangdong. At the age of 17, he crossed the ocean to Batavia to survive due to a famine in his hometown. After more than 30 years of hard work, he became a wealthy man in the South China Sea. However, after his wealth, Zhang Zhenxun still did not forget his homeland. The Dutch colonial authorities valued his influence in Nanyang and appointed him to his official position, but they were all rejected by Zhang Zhenxun. In 1893, Gong Zhaoyuan, the Minister of the Qing Dynasty to Britain, was ordered to inspect Europe and the United States. When he passed through Singapore, Zhang Zhenxun gave him a warm reception. Later, Gong Zhaoyuan sent a letter to Li Hongzhang, praising Zhang Bishi for being "a talent".

So the Qing court appointed him as the Consul General of Singapore. From then on, Zhang Zhenxun became a businessman and an official, running between China and Nanyang, and served as the General Office of Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway and Foshan Railway. He also invested in many industries in China. Now Zhang Zhenxun is one of the general directors of China Commercial Bank, so he met Sheng Xuanhuai, Yan Xinhou, Zhu Baosan and others.

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This time, Zhang Zhenxun was not in the industrial and commercial delegation in Shanghai. It was not that he was unwilling to come, but because Zhang Zhenxun was dealing with the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway at that time. Unexpectedly, he actually found Qingdao and came. It seemed that something big must have happened. So Sheng Xuanhuai said: "Everyone, since it is Bi Shi, we have been out for a long time. I think we should go back."

The others naturally had no objection, so everyone paid the tea money and left, hired two more donkey carts, and rushed back to the hotel. As soon as they entered the hotel gate, Zhang Zhenxun sat on the sofa in the hotel lobby waiting for them. Seeing them coming in through the gate, Zhang Zhenxun immediately stood up from the sofa and greeted them.

Sheng Xuanhuai said: "Brother Bi, you..."
Chapter completed!