The journey starts from the Titanic

For the Yuehan Railway, Meihua Company has done a lot of work behind the scenes.First of all, Meihua Company used a foreign bank group to open up the relationship with the Ministry of Communications of the Beijing government. Cao Wu and Fengzhang jointly ruled, and they just drove off Duan Qirui. They all need foreign support. Besides, it is a good thing to build the railway. Money, why don't you agree?

The Transportation Department is a major faction in Beiyang, including the “Old Transportation Department” headed by Liang Shiyi and the “New Transportation Department” headed by Cao Rulin. It is both a financial consortium and a political faction.

In his hand, he holds the leadership of railways, shipping, telephone and telegraph, postal services, etc., and also controls the Bank of Communications, Jincheng Bank, China National Bank, Salt Bank, Zhengfeng Coal Mine, Zhongxing Coal Mine, Beipiao Coal Mine, Liuhegou Large banks and large enterprises such as coal mines, Longyan Iron Mine, Wutong Aviation Company.

Therefore, the traffic department and the warlord factions such as Anhui Zhifeng constitute the two major factions of the Beiyang government, with one culture and one military.Because of its great interests, the Department of Transportation, or the Ministry of Transportation, is also a relevant department that is particularly prone to betrayal.If foreign companies want to build the Guangdong-Han Railway, how can the Ministry of Communications say no?Moreover, the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway signed a contract with the British and American consortium more than ten years ago.

Hunan Supervisor Zhao Hengti was under Wu Peifu's control, so Meihua Company came forward and easily settled Zhao Hengti and asked him to agree to the construction of the Hunan-Guangdong-Han Railway.

Zhao Hengti agreed, and the squires in Hunan also agreed to build the railway, but there were disagreements about who would build the railway and other troubles involving foreign companies.

The same is true in Hubei.The heads of chambers of commerce such as Song Weicheng and Liu Xinsheng expressed welcome to build the Guangdong-Han Railway, but the interests of national capital must be considered.

This is a very troublesome thing.As the initiator, Meihua Company has to deal with all parties, and the transaction compromise involved is not clear in one or two sentences.Even Situ Nan wondered if he was looking for troubles. The same thing is in Venezuela and other dictatorial countries, as long as the government is fixed.But in China, Meihua has to face a basket of negotiating opponents.

According to Situ Nan's design, the construction of the Hubei-Hunan section of the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway was jointly organized by China and foreign countries, with foreign banks and Chinese parties each taking half of the shares.Situ Nan estimated that this is acceptable to both parties.

Citibank is easy to talk. After all, American companies are latecomers. They came in under the banner of open door. They just want to make money. Other requirements are few. They rarely ask for rights of way and mineral rights, just like Meihua.

Imagine that after the road has been repaired, it is not difficult to get the resources on both sides of the railway with the capital and technology of foreign companies and other advantages, as long as part of the benefits are given to Chinese businessmen.

Isn't the so-called Sino-foreign joint venture all the same?The so-called 50% Chinese shares are often controlled by people from upstream and downstream, and eventually become a link in the production chain of others.

The so-called persistence is just a matter of face.However, railway repairs and economic development are also good things to some extent.

HSBC made a lot of excessive demands at the beginning, but after being rejected by Meihua and the Chinese side, it asked for half of the shares and only agreed to leave no more than one-third of the shares to the Chinese side.

This is not Gengzi Year.Isn't it a waste of work for the British to do this?Although in the end most of the interests are controlled by foreign companies, at least you have to look good on the face!

Several negotiations broke up unhappy.In order to persuade the stubborn and greedy British, Meihua Company kept reducing its share, but the British just did not nod their heads.This drove Lin Yimin, who was in charge of the negotiations, very crazy, wishing to hang the stubborn British.

Fortunately, after a long period of hard work, things finally made progress.

On this day, Lin Yimin walked into William Garden confidently, with the joy of success on his face.He walked into Situ Nan's study briskly.

Chapter 138 Renewal of Guangdong-Han Railway (Part 2)

"Master, it's done! The British agreed! They agreed to rebuild the Guangdong-Han Railway at the investment ratio of 2.5:1.5:1:5." Lin Yimin walked happily with a document.

"Let me see!" Situ Nan "robbed" the document from Lin Yimin. This is a draft agreement. The four parties to the contract are HSBC, American China Bank, Citibank and China.

After the Gengzi, the international banking group controlled most of China’s railways, especially Jinpu Road. After the May Fourth Movement, it was more sensitive to cooperate with foreign countries. If there is no justifiable reason, even Duan Qirui would not dare to blatantly hand over the railway. foreign company.Therefore, Situ Nan insisted that China's shares must be no less than ordinary, so that the opera can continue to sing.

When Lin Yimin was negotiating with HSBC representatives, he insisted that if the British stopped playing, Meihua would play with Citibank, Agricole and Chinese companies.

HSBC immediately clamored that without the consent of the British, the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway would not be successful.

Indeed, the British are the strongest in China. They do not nod, nor the Beiyang government dare to nod. The Canton-Han Railway cannot be built.However, this does not mean that HSBC can easily veto Meihua's efforts.

Meihua is disdainful of HSBC's threat.After Lin Yimin got the hint from Situ Nan, he insisted that if HSBC is stubborn, Meihua will bypass HSBC and directly find other local consortia in the UK to cooperate. I believe local consortia in the UK will be very interested, such as Barclays Bank.

Behind Meihua is the William Consortium of the United States. It is indeed capable of finding a British consortium to cooperate. There will be nothing for HSBC.HSBC knows this well.After thinking about it inside and out, they agreed to return to the negotiating table.

However, he couldn't let go of the face of the largest bank in China and insisted that HSBC should take the most shares in the newly constructed railway section. After Lin Yimin asked Situ Nan for instructions, he decided to give in.

Secretly, Meihua plans to invest heavily in the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway through the Guangdong Bank, which is secretly controlled, so as to maintain its actual control power not lagging behind HSBC.

HSBC is a little aware of this, and after ensuring their own interests, they no longer demand too much.Maybe they have the same idea.

HSBC is the British company with the largest investment in China and controls the largest share of Chinese railways. The Guangzhou-Kowloon-Kowloon Railway is also in their hands. It is self-evident that the construction of the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway will benefit the United Kingdom. The Hankou Concession and Hong Kong were connected to consolidate and strengthen economic control over the area south of the Yangtze River.

Meihua Company is a latecomer, but by virtue of its alliances with Chinese businessmen in Nanyang and Guangdong, it holds a large number of shares in the Guangdong section of the Guangdong-Han Railway. Connected, the control of railways in Guangdong is no less than that of HSBC.

Cooperation benefits both.After agreeing with HSBC, things went smoother.Except for the government holding half of the shares in China, most of the remaining shares are raised from public offerings.

The total investment in the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway is initially set at 20 million. After HSBC, Meihua and Citigroup are divided into half, the remaining 10 million investment will be subscribed by the Chinese.

Businessmen from Guangdong, Hubei, and Hunan are the most enthusiastic and have subscribed.The three provinces subscribed for 6 million yuan all at once, and the rest fell into the hands of businessmen in Shanghai, Tianjin and other places.

Guangdong Bank subscribed for 500,000 of them, and the Hong Kong Commercial Savings Bank subscribed for 200,000, which is less than 1 million. However, the two banks have overseas backgrounds, behind which are Chinese businessmen in Guangdong and Nanyang.Through the hands of these two banks, the Chinese businessmen in Nanyang subscribed for 1.5 million yuan in shares of the Yuehan Railway.

Lin Lin, together with the 15% of the shares directly held by American China Bank, Situ Nan controls 26% of the shares of the Guangdong-Han Railway, faintly surpassing HSBC.

Of course, HSBC also arranged for some agents to hold shares in the Guangdong-Han Railway, but Situ Nan didn't care. He cared more about building the railway.

"Master, this time we worked so hard, and we were taken advantage of so much, so I was a little unwilling to think about it." Lin Yimin said.For the railway, Meihua Company has made a lot of concessions in other areas. In order to win over the relationship between the central and local people, the cost is not low.

In particular, the most difficult Shaoguan to Zhuzhou section of the railway was constructed by Meihua Company. The complex terrain and dense mountains and rivers resulted in high construction costs. Actually undertaking such a construction project is unprofitable.

"So? Meihua has been eating meat for a long time. It's easy. Now it's about to be a bone. Don't you adapt?" Situ Nan looked at Lin Yimin with a smile."There is really not much oil and water in this railway repair, but you have to look farther. The loss of the project can actually be earned from elsewhere. Don’t you invest in cement and other building materials in Foshan? And our Hanyang Iron Factory, through the project Offering a variety of products, the money has gone around, isn't it back in our pockets?"

Situ Nan smiled and said, "Do you know why I want you to undertake the most difficult section of the railway project? This is a test and a trial. In the future, whether you are building here or in Nanyang, you will encounter various For engineering problems like this, this time it’s an opportunity to learn and hone! It is also worthwhile to spend a little money to train a group of engineering and technical personnel. Now we lack people and money, but it is not the most important thing."

"I understand!" Lin Yimin nodded.In fact, he thought about these principles, but he didn't expect it to be that far away.

In Situ Nan's plan, after the Guangdong-Han Railway is fully connected, the next step is to build the Shao-Jiang Railway, and then connect the Jiangsu-Zhejiang area.From Guangzhou and Shanghai to the south and the north, the two major economic belts, the Yangtze River Basin and the Pearl River Basin, the richest in China, are controlled.

Situ Nan told Lin Yimin about these ideas, so that he would have a bottom line in the heart of China's housekeeper.

At the same time, Situ Nan is also preparing to build the Yangtze River Bridge to connect the Guangdong-Han and Jing-Han railways, but that will be a long time later.

After talking about the railway, Situ Nan remembered Meihua's most profitable real estate project in Guangzhou. He asked, "How is the situation in Guangzhou?"

"Not bad! Meihua Road will be completed in one month, and a neat and wide commercial street will appear on the streets of Guangzhou. The shops we built are all sold out and rented out. Land prices and house prices there are now rising. Had it not been for the purpose of recovering the funds to build the railway, I would not be willing to sell part of the property!" Lin Yimin said with a little heartache.

"Yes! It's a pity to buy the property built with hard work all at once. But you can't make money. It's more interesting to invest money in other places than to develop real estate." Situ Nanyu smiled.

"Well, just like the Hanyang Iron Factory, at the beginning, we knew that we had to throw money in when we lost money." Lin Yimin knew, he knew that Situ Nan put himself in China not only to make money, otherwise it would be faster to make real estate development in the US It.

"However, the iron factory doesn't have to lose money this time! Instead, it took the rail to fly into the sky." Lin Yimin smiled.Long before Meihua acquired the Hanyang Iron Factory, he was in Guangzhou to discuss the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway with representatives of HSBC, so he failed to get out of the iron factory's acquisition.

When he learned that the company was going to acquire Hanyang Iron Works, Lin Yimin realized that iron plants and railways were Situ Nan's two established strategies.

"Not only iron plants, but also machine manufacturing, mineral development and other investment will be made around the Guangdong-Han iron wheel. In this regard, our competitors are British, but the British are greedy for convenience. They like investment and trade and sell all kinds of goods. , And the purchase of native products such as silk tea bristles.

Our goal is in steel, machine manufacturing, mine development, electricity, etc. We may not make money in three to five years, but these investments will not be wasted.Especially this place is a major focus of our investment after Wuhan."

Situ Nan clicked on Zhuzhou, Hunan on the map, "Zhuzhou is a railway node, and more railways will pass through here in the future. It is a major railway hub in the south and has great investment potential. At the same time, there is convenient water transportation in the lower reaches of the Xiangjiang River. It is very likely to develop into the second largest city after Changsha. If you control this place, you will control the economic lifeline of Hunan. Although it is backward, there are many valuable things. Look at this!"

When Lin Yimin was thinking about enclosing land near Zhuzhou's main traffic road, Situ Nan handed him an investigation report.The report shows that Zhuzhou has rich coal and iron resources, including coal, iron, tungsten, lead, zinc, gold, tin, uranium, molybdenum, copper, silver, and niobium.

At the end of the report, there is a line of red pen instructions: grain, coal and iron, and non-ferrous metals.

Lin Yimin is familiar with Situ Nan's crooked handwriting, which has become a scene in his heart.Lin Yimin didn't know that in history, there were people who wrote ugly, but they became a self-contained person and were modeled by others.

After thinking about it, Lin Yimin said, "I will arrange for Pingxiang Mining Company to invest in Zhuzhou, and to invest in a machine repair factory near the station, and the rest will move forward slowly."

"Very good." Situ Nan nodded."If you have any questions, you can find Liu Chengmin. Nanhua Food Company is developing well in Hunan. I think he can provide you with some convenience."