Although the imperial appointments were made, since Yangzhou was still in the hands of the Taiping Army, Wei Yuan's prefect's Yamen and Dong Shuheng's Admiral's Yamen could only be placed in Gaoyou City. There were not many Yamen in Gaoyou City, so Dong Shuheng simply shared offices with Wei Yuan.
Moved into the original Zhizhou Prefecture.
In the back garden of the government office, Wei Yuzhen was concentrating on reading a book. At this time, a hand suddenly put on her shoulder from behind, which immediately shocked her. When she turned around, she saw that it was Dong Shuheng, a prostitute. This
Ever since this guy moved into the government office, he has treated this place like his own home, appearing everywhere and playing pranks on himself whenever he has nothing to do.
"Are you very free?" Wei Yuzhen asked, glaring at him fiercely.
"Hey...Yuzhen, what are you reading? Hey...don't cover it up." Dong Shuheng stretched his head to look, but Wei Yuzhen reacted faster than him and hid the book behind his back.
"Hey, aren't you watching "The Golden Lotus"?" Dong Shuheng asked deliberately.
"You're talking nonsense. Only a scoundrel like you can read that kind of book. I'm reading a book newly translated by our bookstore. It was written by a Frenchman and it's called "La Traviata"." He said and held up the book.
Take it out.
"Is our bookstore very busy now and still has time to publish foreign novels?" Dong Shuheng asked doubtfully, but he had high hopes for the bookstore.
"Don't think too much. In addition to publishing "Hai Guo Tu Zhi", the bookstore has published more than a dozen foreign natural science books during this period. We have even translated some textbooks from English and French schools. However, the profit of these books is very low.
It spread among some scholars. In order to spread quickly, we deliberately set the prices of these books very low." Wei Yuzhen explained.
"Later, an editor we recruited from Shanghai suggested that we could publish some foreign novels to increase the bookstore's income. There were very few domestic novel writers, and existing novels were also available on the market. So we tried to publish a few books.
Foreign novels. Unexpectedly, they received very good responses and were sold to a wide range of people. Books like this one are deeply loved by wealthy daughters," Wei Yuzhen continued.
"Oh, I see, it turns out that this book is a female channel. But we must remember to give priority to the translation and publication of natural science books. These are what we need most at the moment." Dong Shuheng also took out a book as he said it.
"A Brief History of the Modern West" was written boldly, signed by Dugu Shangyue.
This book is a history of the development of modern Western capitalism compiled by Dong Shuheng based on his own memory and some recently collected materials. He hopes that through this book, some people can understand the development process of the West, and most importantly, understand the nature of the great powers.
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"Did you write this book?" Wei Yuzhen asked.
"That's right. Show it to the editor. If possible, we will arrange for publication in the near future." Dong Shuheng said, "I'm going out for a trip now. Do you want to come with me?"
"Can I, will it affect your business?" Wei Yuzhen asked shyly. Due to the chaos of war, she has not been out much recently.
"No problem, it's just a regular meeting of Huaihai Group, no outsiders." Dong Shuheng said.
The two of them arrived at the top floor of Lanzhu Building together, which had been reserved for Dong Shuheng. The senior executives of Huaihai Company, led by Lao Liu, stood up to greet Dong Shuheng. When they saw a young girl beside Dong Shuheng, everyone was stunned.
This made Dong Shuheng quite unhappy, "I brought a little secretary out, and you guys reacted like this? I'll give each of you a female secretary another day."
"The person next to me is the daughter of the prefect, and he is also one of the leaders of our newly established Huaihai Bookstore." Complaints are complaints, but Dong Shuheng gave a brief introduction to avoid embarrassment.
Since arriving in Gaoyou, Dong Shuheng has seldom interfered with Huaihai Group's affairs. However, Huaihai Group has been developing rapidly according to Dong Shuheng's plan. Thanks to the special team, Dong Shuheng later injected 1 million taels of silver into the group. With massive funds,
With the support of Huaihai Group, the development is blowout. Due to the large amount of purchasing funds invested in Shanghai, even ministers from various countries have now noticed this company in northern Jiangsu. The foreigners are very happy, and the Chinese landlords finally know how to take out the money.
Shopping.
After Lao Liu's introduction, Dong Shuheng had a general understanding of the company's recent development. First of all, the company's human resources department has hired a large number of talents familiar with foreign affairs in Shanghai in recent months. There is an American gunmaker named John Radford.
The firearms manufacturing process of the military factory has been improved, allowing the military factory's rifle production to reach 1,200 rifles per month. Of course, since the barrels still need to be imported, the unit price is not much cheaper than imported guns.
The current main restriction on the development of military factories is the lack of skilled workers. The Ministry of Manpower has now gone to Huaibei in order to recruit blacksmiths.
With the help of the drawings drawn by Dong Shuheng, John Radford successfully manufactured the first repeating shotgun. This gun has a caliber of 17.3 mm and uses copper-cased fixed bullets. The tubular magazine is manually fed.
There are 18 steel balls in each bullet. If you have seen the escort on the armored vehicle, you will find that this gun is a complete copy of the domestic 97-1 anti-explosion gun. This gun is very powerful at close range, and the steel balls are fired after firing.
It flies out in a fan shape with an effective range of 50 meters. The most powerful thing is that it can shoot five bullets in 10 seconds, which can be said to be a close combat weapon. Under John's suggestion, the arsenal has registered patents for this gun in Western countries through foreign practices.
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In addition, silk reeling factories and cotton spinning mills have also been built, and the women among the refugees have been recruited into the factories. Now the cotton spinning factory in Taipei Industrial Park has more than 50,000 spindles, more than 100 spinning wheels, and more than 1,000 workers.
The silk reeling factory purchased more than 100 French co-twist silk reeling machines. But now the machinery manufacturing factory in Taipei has hired a large number of foreign technicians and has been able to copy them.
Let’s talk about the machinery manufacturing plant, which is a department that is focused on development. There is a French technician in the plant named A. More. It is said that he once worked in the Crusoe factory in France. It was this man who successfully manufactured a 30-ton machine.
A steam hammer and a 1,000-ton hydraulic press. With these sharp tools, many mechanical equipment that originally existed on the drawings can be manufactured.
Taipei Industrial Park is now full of towering chimneys. A large amount of coal came here from Xuzhou and southern Shandong through canals, and became a continuous source of power for steam engines.
In order to ensure a stable supply of coal, Dong Shuheng planned to place a special garrison group in Xuzhou to guard his energy route.
When steelmaking equipment and cement equipment from the United States arrive, Dong Shuheng plans to place the new steelmaking plant and cement plant in Xuzhou, which is rich in coal and iron resources and is suitable for the construction of a heavy industrial city. The only disadvantage is that it is a military location.
A large number of troops must be invested in defense.
In addition to industrial construction, Huaihai Group's trade volume has also been greatly increased. Through the purchase of equipment, Huaihai Group has maintained good relations with many foreign companies. Taking advantage of the banditry in the south and the sharp rise in raw silk prices, it exported a large amount of raw silk.
Northern Jiangsu has always been an important raw silk production area, and the mulberry-based fish pond model has been popular in the Dongtai area of Gaoyou.
After listening to the report, Dong Shuheng said: "Today's meeting, there are two new tasks to be handed over to everyone. One is to establish a salt industry company. Some of my suggestions are written in this report. Old Liu, I hope
Improvements will be made based on the preliminary preparations. In addition, before the new salt production model is established, the original factory cannot be stopped to ensure the continuous supply of salt."
"The second thing is that the sales department can try to contact the Taiping Army. There are so many people in Tianjing City who also need to eat and drink. We can see what their needs are and evaluate the safety of the trade."
"What? Shuheng, do you want to do business with the bandits?" Wei Yuzhen asked in surprise. On the contrary, the people from Huaihai Company were not surprised.
"Yes, whose money is not money? Besides, if there is no salt to eat in Tianjing City, will it be the common people who suffer?" Dong Shuheng asked rhetorically.
Finally, he reorganized some departments of the company. Both the Information Department and the Armed Forces Department will be transferred to the Admiral Yamen. In the future, the company's main departments will be administration, finance, auditing, human resources, procurement, sales, technology...
After finishing his business with the Huaihai Group, Dong Shuheng sent Wei Yuzhen back. He himself had to hold a preparatory meeting for the Yangtze River Group. Wei Yuzhen discovered for the first time that Dong Shuheng was so busy. Maybe every time he met him in the garden, he was his only
Relaxation time.
Before the meeting, he first went to meet a 20-year-old young man. His name was Hu Guangyong, a native of Huizhou, who had been living in Hangzhou. Although he was only 20 years old, he had been working hard in the bank business in Hangzhou for many years, and he was a businessman.
Amazing talent.
Hu Guangyong felt extremely honored to be personally received by Dong Shuheng. You must know that Dong Shuheng is now also a high-ranking official.
Dong Shuheng tested Hu Guangyong on some of his banking knowledge. Judging from the standards of people in the Qing Dynasty today, Hu Guangyong is definitely an expert in this field. It is no wonder that since foreign banks entered China, they have been rivals of Chinese banks. For opponents
Of course Hu Guangyong needs to understand clearly.
Although the newly established Yangtze River Bank will hire some professional managers from foreigners, they are not from my race and their minds must be different. After all, the bank involves large amounts of funds and must be managed by itself. Hu Guangyong will become the business manager of the new bank.
He was very satisfied with this position, especially when he heard about the bank's equity. At the same time, he was also Dong Shuheng's representative in this bank, which meant that he, Hu Guangyong, also had a background.
Of course, each shareholder will also send its own representatives to join the bank. They are basically old accountants of each company, and many of them have experience in running banks. The bank's headquarters is temporarily located in Gaoyou, but it will open its first branch in Shanghai.
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Yangtze River Industries will build an industrial zone on the bank of Gaoyou Lake. Some of the factories overlap with the industrial park in Taipei. However, for the Qing Dynasty, which is currently completely blank in industry, this addition will not cause a surplus problem. Mr. He's eldest son is from Huzhou
Through this relationship, the company plans to build a large-scale silk reeling factory there. After all, the coast of Taihu Lake is the largest producer of raw silk. If it controls this place, it can basically control the entire China's raw silk export market.
According to the plan, the Yangtze River Education Fund will build 200 new primary schools in northern Jiangsu by the end of 1853. Each town and each farm of the Huaihai Group will have one. 20 new middle schools will train some relatively professional talents. There will also be 5 professional schools.
Colleges. These schools will continue to provide talents to Dong Shuheng and his business empire in the future.