"There is a man named Chen Kangnian in the exploration team led by Bei Zhi. He was a student in the United States and majored in geological exploration courses. He has talent, but he is not valued. Why should adults choose him to inherit this honor?"

Wang Chenhao thought for a while, nodded and said, "Okay, Chen Kangnian and the exploration team rewarded each other. You can arrange it yourself and don't let them talk nonsense."

"I understand!" Wang Shizhen now has an inexplicable admiration for Wang Chenhao, but he will not ask too much. In his opinion, Wang Chenhao can hand over such a secret matter to him, which is obviously used as his confidant. In addition to his heavy use of him during this period, Wang Shizhen was naturally even more grateful.

"Sir, Bei Zhi has already greeted the prefect of Yongping Prefecture and bought all the mining rights of Qian'an and Luanzhou counties. I'm waiting for the adult to give an order to build an iron ore and a coal mine factory."

Wang Chenhao smiled and said, "Shizhen, you are indeed thoughtful. I will get the help of Shizhen to do twice the result with half the effort."

Wang Shizhen quickly replied modestly: "My lord has been praised, but I really don't dare to take the role of a humble official. This is the duty that a humble official should do."

"Shizhen, you don't have to be too humble. I know your talents." Wang Chenhao knew Wang Shizhen's ability, so of course he didn't dare to look down on him.

Since Wang Shizhen has encircled the iron mine area in Qian'an and the coal mine area in Luan County, the next step is to strike while the iron is hot to build a complete steel consortium in Qian'an, including steel, iron smelting, casting and forging, coke firing, etc.

However, it takes a lot of money to build an iron and steel consortium. Compared with the Hanyang Iron Plant, it costs 5 million taels of silver. If it is necessary to do business, it will cost three million taels of silver. At this time, the Hanyang Iron Plant has an annual output of 40,000 tons of iron and 20,000 tons of steel, which is far from meeting the domestic demand. Therefore, the steel consortium that Wang Chenhao wants to build will have at least a large steel company with an annual output of 10,000 tons of pig iron and 20,000 tons of steel. The funds required are astronomical.

Hanyang Iron Plant introduced Luxembourg's steel smelting technology. Although the construction cost is low, the production efficiency and output are too low, so it is not cost-effective to operate. In the next twenty years, Germany's open furnace smelting technology will be the most advanced and it will be relatively easier to operate, but good things are always expensive.

In history, Japan used 1.92 million yen (13.44 million taels of silver) war compensation after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 tonnes of steel to build a German-style Hachiman Iron Factory with an annual output of 60,000 tons of steel. Then Wang Chenhao estimated that the construction cost of at least 30 million taels of silver would be needed to reach the production scale of 20,000 tons of steel.

Wang Shizhen was frightened by Wang Chenhao's huge idea. After a while, he came to his senses and asked: "Sir, such a large steel company is indeed very attractive, but I'm afraid that Lord Zhongtang would not be able to pay for such a high cost."

Wang Chenhao waved his hand and smiled, "I didn't plan to ask the Zhongtang for money. I want to be the head of this company by myself. So you have to help me contact me whether it is a loan from the bank or a private fundraising. In short, I want to get the money as soon as possible."

This huge sum of money was really shocked by Wang Shizhen's help to raise it. However, what made Wang Shizhen's concern was that Wang Chenhao wanted to open a steel company by himself, which means that Wang Shizhen's intelligence quickly figured out what it means.

Since Wang Shizhen chose to assist Wang Chenhao, he naturally supported Wang Chenhao's idea of ​​working alone. He was happy and asked, "Since you want to work alone, how much money can you pay?"

Wang Chenhao interrupted him and said, "I have 100,000 taels of silver in my hand. You can buy all the iron ore reserves around Qian'an. As for the coal mines in Luanzhou, you can put them in the future. After all, Luanzhou is not too far from Kaiping, so you can use Kaiping's coal first."

Wang Shizhen swallowed his saliva and suddenly felt sad. Only 100,000 taels of silver were not enough to waste it.

Wang Chenhao ignored his expression and continued, "First encircle the land, then register a short company, and publicize it to the outside world. There are many wealthy businessmen in Tianjin, who sell their company stocks to them, and after raising money, they first build more low-cost iron ore factories to build the infrastructure. Then, using the company and the mine as a guarantee, they borrow from banks in various countries respectively. There are more than ten banks in Tianjin, and it is not a problem to apply for millions of taels of silver from each bank in the name of the government. It is enough to raise 50 million taels of silver to operate."

Wang Shizhen looked at Wang Chenhao in surprise. For the first time, he heard such a clever way to raise funds by making money by making money, and was very impressed. However, he asked worriedly: "But how can the bank allow us to mortgage it multiple times?"

Wang Chenhao smiled and said, "The task has been issued to you, and the method has been told. As for how to complete it, it is your business. No matter what method you use, you can trick you and let me see the money for the factory within a week."

Wang Shizhen looked at Wang Chenhao with a look of defeat. However, as a subordinate, it is worthy of sharing his worries for his superiors, not to mention that Wang Chenhao has a good reputation for him and is kind to use it. Wang Shizhen can only bite the bullet and cannot do it.

Wang Shizhen then took the order and took the starting funds of 100,000 taels of silver given to him by Wang Chenhao, and seized the time to find a way to raise money.

Fortunately, Wang Chenhao did not tie the reins to Wang Shizhen and allowed him to use any method to raise money. Using official positions to make money, the most effective way to make money in the Qing Dynasty, I believe that with Wang Shizhen's intelligence and talent, I only need to use my brain to raise money, the fundraising matter was done, and Wang Chenhao was not worried about this.

Wang Chenhao has his own little Beiyang shogunate, and it is impossible to do everything by himself. He just needs to formulate the general direction and arrange the rest of the details to complete.

Wang Chenhao closed his eyes and took a nap. When he thought, he suddenly felt a familiar fragrance blowing in his face. When he opened his eyes, Li Youyi rushed into his arms like a whirlwind and kissed Wang Chenhao quickly, saying in a sweet voice: "Youyi has been tired of your husband for a long time."

"What are you saying?" Wang Chenhao hugged Li Youyi's delicate body, looked at her jade face, and said lovingly: "How can I not know that Youyi, you have been secretly helping me, thank you for your hard work."

A plain sentence made Li Youyi feel warm in her heart, and she said softly: "Youyi is so happy that she can share your worries for your husband."

Then Li Youyi told Wang Chenhao the identities of the three noble ladies who came to visit today, one was Decuilin's wife, one was Hed's wife, and the other was Decuilin's son-in-law Hannagan's wife.

Wang Chenhao couldn't help but be surprised and asked, "Youyi, when did you understand foreign literature?"

Li Youyi smiled and said, "How can I understand foreign languages? They always speak Chinese."

Wang Chenhao nodded. De Cuilin, Hurd and Hannagan lived in China for a long time, and it was not surprising that their families knew Chinese.
Chapter completed!