Chapter 10 Chapter 5 1900: Merchants in the Revolution

Stimulated by the national humiliation of the Sino-Japanese War, and with the help of the Kangliang Restoration, a small climax appeared in the empire's Westernization.However, only three years later, the situation changed again. On September 28, 1898, Tan Sitong and other "Six Gentlemen" were questioned and executed in Caishikou, Beijing. The leaders of the reformers Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao fled overseas. The beginning of the change occurred in the winter of last year. In November, Germany occupied Jiaozhou Bay in Shandong. Kang Youwei wrote a letter stating that the powers to carve up China was imminent.He immediately initiated the establishment of the National Protection Council in Beijing. On June 11, 1898, Emperor Guangxu promulgated the "Ming Ding Guo Shi" edict, announcing the reform.In the next three months, Guangxu issued a series of reform edicts and decrees.The main contents are: economically, the establishment of the Bureau of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, the General Administration of Roads and Mines, and the promotion of starting industries; the construction of railways, the mining of mineral deposits; the organization of chambers of commerce; the reform of finance.In politics, open up the way of speaking, allowing scholars and people to write letters; eliminate green camps, and train new troops.Culturally, stereotyped writing was abolished, Western learning was promoted, and the Imperial University was established; a translation bookstore was set up to send overseas students; scientific works and inventions were rewarded.

All the content of the reform has been repeatedly discussed many years ago, and most of them have reached a consensus between the government and the opposition. However, during the implementation process, they were regarded as "personnel purges" by conservatives and princes and relatives. For a time, the "imperial party" The "rear party" has become an incompatible situation. In September, the reformers sent a secret report to Guangxu, suggesting that Yuan Shikai, the right servant of the Ministry of Industry and the governor of Shandong, who holds military power, should be reused, so that Yuan could kill Cixi's most trusted Manchu general Ronglu.Yuan informed his old boss Ronglu. In the early morning of September 21, Empress Dowager Cixi rushed back from the Summer Palace to the Forbidden City, went straight to Guangxu's bedroom, and imprisoned her in Yingtai, Zhongnanhai.Immediately afterwards, he announced the "political training" of the court, abolished almost all the New Deal laws, and hunted down the reformers. From June 11 to September 21, the 103-day Reform Movement of 1898 was declared a failure. Tan Sitong, a 33-year-old man from Hunan, wrote a poem on the wall in prison, saying, "I smile to the sky from the sword, and go to Kunlun with my liver and gall." !” His generosity of ambition and his sadness moved the whole country.

The bloody end of the Hundred Years Reform means that the reform has been difficult to complete within the normal system of the empire.After the Westernization Movement and the Reformation Party lost their dominance successively, the mainstream of reform began to shift from bureaucrats, gentry, and literati within the system to forces outside the system, and the reform method changed from peaceful and gradual to violent and subversive. Revolutionary transfer.In the words of Liang Qichao, "Revolutionaries are those who aim to destroy the current government. Those who are in the current government are also creating one of the big factories of the Revolutionary Party."

Just over a year after the Reform Movement of 1898, the precarious country suffered another catastrophe. In 1900, the Boxer Rebellion broke out in northern China. Tens of thousands of secret groups composed of poor farmers, peddlers and handicraftsmen suddenly launched attacks on foreigners in China. They destroyed churches, stormed concessions, and killed Chinese and foreign believers. Humiliation turned into a raging fire of nationalism.The slogan put forward by the Boxers was "Help the Qing and Destroy the Foreign". In early June, they destroyed the Changxindian Railway and the Fengtai Railway, and attacked foreign engineers who were repairing the railways in Baoding. However, they marched to Beijing and Tianjin and attacked the embassies of various countries in Dongjiaomin Lane. On June 10, more than 2,000 people from the Allied Forces of Britain, Russia, Japan, France, Germany, the United States, Italy, and Austria invaded Beijing from Tianjin, and a fierce battle broke out between the two sides near Langfang.The boxers of the Boxers were full of gods and monsters. They claimed that they would be invulnerable after wearing a piece of clothing with a spell on it or drinking a kind of "sacred water". At the beginning of June, Empress Dowager Cixi sent Gangyi and Zhao Shuqiao, ministers of military aircraft, to Zhuozhou to personally inspect the authenticity of the various "magic skills" of the Boxer Regiment. , so he made up his mind to go to war with the other countries.This is very similar to Lin Zexu's belief 60 years ago that the knees of British soldiers would not bend, and that a single misjudgment could change the fate of a country.Empress Dowager Cixi issued an edict to declare war with other countries, calling on "the righteous people to form a group and protect themselves from foreign aggression". On August 14, 20,000 people from the Eight-Power Allied Forces captured Beijing, ransacked it for three days, stormed into the Forbidden City, looted a large number of treasures, and committed the most barbaric and despicable crimes of the so-called "civilized people".Empress Dowager Cixi disguised herself as an old lady from Northeast China and fled westward in a hurry with Emperor Guangxu.Later generations called this very sad and strange history the "Gengzi Kingdom Change".

While Beijing was looted, warships from various countries were also aggressively cruising in Shanghai Port, Guangzhou Port and along the Yangtze River.At this time, Sheng Xuanhuai, an official businessman, and Zhang Jian, a scholar businessman, jointly performed a wonderful "mutual protection drama". In May, when the Boxers made troubles in Beijing, Sheng Xuanhuai felt that something was wrong. He went to Shanghai to "inspect the current price of goods" and quietly went south, taking care of practical affairs while paying close attention to the current situation.Regarding the Boxer Movement, he strongly advocated the suppression, and believed that "the fist will spread, and it will be difficult to disband unless the punishment is accelerated." His views were recognized by the leaders of the Westernization Movement.At that time, Li Hongzhang was sent to serve as governor of Guangdong, Zhang Zhidong was in Huguang, Liu Kunyi was in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and Yuan Shikai was in Shandong.When the old lady brazenly declared war on the Eight Kingdoms, the four governors-general knew that disaster was coming. On the same day when the imperial decree was issued, Zhang Zhidong played the imperial court electronically, "Please strictly prohibit the mob, comfort all countries, and ask the United States to mediate." , He directly said to the officials in his jurisdiction that the telegram from Beijing was sent by mistake, "This is a disorderly order, and Guangdong will not obey the edict."However, everyone is still at a loss as to how to solve the crisis.

At this time, Sheng Xuanhuai proposed the "Southeast Mutual Protection" plan.Specifically, the four governors assured the ministers of various countries that they would "follow the imperial edict" to protect their own territory. The lives and properties of foreigners in the Yangtze River and the interior of Suzhou and Hangzhou would be protected by the governors, and the lives and properties of Chinese and foreign business people in the Shanghai Concession would be protected. It is jointly protected by all countries, "this border, the two will not interfere with each other."

The mutual protection plan is obviously contrary to Cixi's imperial edict of declaring war. According to the Qing law, it is a heinous crime of extermination.Sheng Xuanhuai boldly proposed, but got responses from Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and others.Zhang Jian, the "No. 1 Entrepreneur" who runs a spinning mill in Nantong, heard of this discussion, and he also recognized it very much, and actively participated in its promotion.Among the governors-general, Liu Kunyi is the most at both ends. He can't judge the situation clearly, and has conflicts with Li, Zhang and others.At this time, Zhang Jian, who had the deepest friendship with him, came forward to persuade him. Zhang had a wonderful description of this passage in his memoirs: Liu hesitated, and then quoted Yu to ask: "The two palaces will be in the northwest. Which is more important, the northwest or the southeast?" Yu said: " Without the northwest, the southeast is not enough, because its name is not enough; without the southeast, it is not enough to survive the northwest, because it is not enough.” Liu Qiran said, “I’m determined.” He told his guest, “The head is Liu’s surname. . "That is to say, it is decided, and the electricity E Yue Zhang (Zhang Zhidong) is discussed.It can be seen from this that after hearing Zhang Jian's suggestion, Liu Kun finally decided to engage in mutual protection with his head up.

After Zhang Jian took care of Liu Kunyi, Sheng Xuanhuai circled among the ministers of various countries for days, "worried and anxious", trying to persuade.Sheng has been a businessman for many years, and his status is both official and businessman. In the eyes of ministers from various countries, he is one of the most trustworthy people in China.Moreover, they do not want the war in the south of the Yangtze River to damage existing commercial investment.Mutual protection motion has been implemented.After the efforts of Sheng, Zhang and others, when Beijing was full of gunpowder, there was finally no war in the south. The "Drafts of Qing History" recorded this matter, affirming that "Xuanhuai advocated mutual protection."

"Southeast Mutual Protection" is a landmark event in Chinese political history. The imperial decree is regarded as "random", which means that the supreme authority of the central government has collapsed, and the imperial power has fallen. It seems that it is only a matter of time and method.What is surprising is that the people who promoted this matter were a group of government officials and merchants who paid attention to industry. Sheng Xuanhuai's official rank at that time was only a "Taoist" with the top rank of the second rank, and Zhang Jian was just a businessman who had already entered the sea. The champion, other active people include Tang Shouqian and Shen Zengzhi. Tang was the principal of a school in Zhejiang at that time, and later jointly founded China's first private shipping company Dada Lunbu Co., Ltd. with Zhang Jian. Shen is from Nanyang Public School (later Shanghai Jiaotong University) supervisor (principal), and later founded a paper mill.

In a sense, this is the first time in modern history that the emerging entrepreneurial class has demonstrated its wisdom and ability in politics.Their success is due to their enlightened ideas, social prestige, accumulation of business practice and unique wisdom of compromise. After the change of the Gengzi Kingdom, Cixi was terrified and changed from "extreme left" to "extreme right". Later, she said "do all the power of the country and marry foreigners", "I would rather be with foreigners than with my family." Slave" and other famous gossip.In order to negotiate with the big powers, she thought of Li Hongzhang again, so she hurriedly ordered Li to return to the post of governor of Zhili and went to Beijing from Guangzhou to negotiate with the big powers.

Li Hongzhang was ordered to go north, passing through Shanghai on the way, and specially summoned Sheng Xuanhuai who had just finished the mutual insurance matters.The two held a knee-to-neck conversation for two days and nights in Shengjia Garden located on Baochang Road (now No. 1517 Huaihai Middle Road).The candles are flickering and the moon is dimming, and the God of Heaven is silent to the dry chess. The emotion and scene are even more sad than the night talk between Zeng Guofan and Zhao Liewen 30 years ago.Parting, the 77-year-old Li Zhongtang and Sheng Xuanhuai, who was 20 years younger than him, held hands and looked at their tearful eyes, leaving six words saying, "If the peace agreement is reached, I will die." In the winter of 1901, Li Hongzhang signed the largest indemnity treaty in Chinese history, the "Xin Chou Treaty". The indemnity to the great powers totaled 450 million taels of silver, paid in 39 years, and the principal and interest totaled 980 million taels. In other words, Xin Chou's compensation is equivalent to the sum of the national fiscal revenue for 11 years. (The amount of compensation was calculated based on the population of about 450 million people in China at that time, and each person was apportioned one tael of silver as a punishment for the Chinese people.) On November 7, Li died in depression at Xianliang Temple in the suburbs of Beijing. "The eyes are still piercing." Li Hongzhang passed away, and the Qing Dynasty lost its last pillar. The building was crumbling due to bitter wind and rain.Li Hongzhang tried to summarize himself as follows: "I have been doing things all my life, including military training and the navy. They are all paper tigers. How can I really let go of them, but they are barely painted, and they are ostentatious. They can be perfunctory if they don't expose them. The dilapidated house was repaired by the paper craftsman, and it turned out to be a clean room. It is clearly pasted with paper, but it is not sure what kind of material is inside. Even if there is a small wind and rain, a few holes are punched, and it can be repaired at any time. I hesitate to deal with it. I want to tear it apart, and I haven’t prepared any repair materials and transformation methods. Naturally, the truth is revealed and it’s out of control, but how can the paper poster take responsibility?” His mortal enemy, reformer Liang Qichao believed that Li's limitation lay in his lack of understanding and determination to reform the system, "I thought that China's political and religious customs are all superior to other countries, and the only things that are inferior are gun ears, cannon ears, ship ears, and machines. ears." Liang Qichao therefore said, "I respect his talents, cherish his knowledge, and feel sorry for his encounters." The day before Li's death, the Russian minister forced him to sign the treaty. He presented a poem "Desperate Poem" to the Empress Dowager Cixi, saying, "You will know that you will die before you leave the saddle. Three hundred years ago. Come to hurt the country, hang people eight thousand miles away. Autumn winds and swords, lonely ministers tears, sunset banners and generals altar. Overseas dust and atmosphere are still lingering, please don't just wait and see." The words are miserable, like the leaves falling in the autumn wind. Like his mentor Zeng Guofan, he devoted his entire life's talents and failed to save the empire that brought him supreme glory and shame.Scholar Liu Guangjing's basic judgment on him in "Cambridge History of China" is: "Li has always been suspicious of foreign intentions throughout his life. In all his dealings with foreigners, he insisted on safeguarding China's interests." Thinking back to 1842 59 years ago In the summer, Li Hongzhang, an Anhui talent in his prime, went to Beijing. That year, the Sino-British "Nanjing Treaty" had just been signed. The young Li Hongzhang was worried about the national crisis, and wrote a poem "Into the Capital". Three thousand miles away, I want to be a Marquis", which was passed down in the capital for a while.However, in the next sixty years, he signed the "Yantai Treaty", "Sino-French New Treaty", "Shimonoseki Treaty", "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty" and "Xin Chou Treaty" successively, becoming everyone's favorite. The "No. 1 Traitor", the 1979 edition of "Ci Hai" called him "a typical figure in the modern history of China who flattered foreign countries."Good fortune tricks people, so far. (Li Hongzhang has another poem "Twenty Self-Reports": "Waste the past and let it go, and the twenty autumns of time. When you are blue-eyed, invite celebrities to reward you, and talk to them with your heart as rewards for old friends. You pretend to be true through the ages, and the ups and downs of the world are only one. For a long time. Ashamed to be a guest of Penglai Xiandao, most of the hairpins are on the heads of young people.”) After the death of Li Hongzhang, someone once predicted that Sheng Xuanhuai, his "No.Unexpectedly, he is still repeatedly responsible for the important task.There are many reasons for this, but the most important one is that there is no one in the empire who is better at handling business than him. In December 1901, he was awarded the title of Prince Shaobao. In February of the following year, he was awarded the title of Zuo Shilang of the Ministry of Industry and entered the central decision-making body. From the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898 to the Gengzi National Revolution, the majesty of the central government was completely lost.The power of change shifted from inside the system to outside the system. In the following ten years, Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary party continued to revolt, and radical thoughts spread day by day.The mainstream of the growth of Chinese enterprises has also changed from the top-down Westernization Movement to the bottom-up private entrepreneurial boom. After 1900, Zhang Jian's Dasheng Cotton Mill entered its heyday.During the Boxer Rebellion incident, the north was in turmoil, but the south was not affected. However, the turmoil caused the import of foreign yarn to decrease significantly, and the market price of machine yarn was quite good.In the autumn of this year, Zhang Jian happily wrote in his diary: "The factory has resumed business and the sales are booming." By the end of the year, Dasheng had made a net profit of 118,000 yuan.From 1901 to 1907, Zhang Jian founded 19 large and small enterprises in one breath, and became the largest private enterprise group in China. Zhang Jian was very successful in business, but as a representative of scholars and merchants, he didn't have this ambition. After Mian tried his best in the "Southeast Mutual Protection", he then drafted a "Peace Discussion on Reform" and put forward 42 specific reform opinions. After submitting to the court, there was no follow-up.Disappointed, he decided to start with industry and education to realize his ideal of transforming society at the civil level.He tried to say to people, "I know that our government is absolutely hopeless. It's just me doing my best within the limits of my ability." Zhang Jian's wholehearted idea is to completely transform his hometown Nantong County by himself.The way to implement it is "education from the father, industry from the mother", and Nantong will be built into a model city with an autonomous nature. In the spring of 1903, Zhang Jian founded a primary school in Nantong. At that time, it was generally called "Xuetang". Zhang Jian said that the "school" was very advanced. Ten years later, the new Ministry of Education of the Republic of China issued an order to change the name to schools nationwide.Zhang Jian's primary school is divided into undergraduate and lecture subjects. On April 23, he personally drafted the questions for the re-examination for undergraduates. The topic of classics and Chinese was "Interpretation of Prophecy and Foresight", the topic of history was "Overview of the Three-Generation Educational System", and the topic of Geography was "Overview of China's Industrial Products". There are two arithmetic problems. According to records, on the day of the exam, it was raining heavily, and the students all came with oil-paper umbrellas. Among the invigilators were the famous master of Chinese studies, Wang Guowei, and many other Japanese instructors. every student.On the eve before the school started, Zhang Jian and an assistant inspected the student dormitories one by one. The moon was dark and the stars were thin. The assistant held up a candle, and he took a hammer to nail nameplates on the door of each room, and hammered the nails firmly until midnight.The school motto he set up for the school is, "Stand hard, be self-reliant, be faithful and not bully".In order to increase the income of teachers, one year, he proposed at a shareholders meeting that the original 3,000 shares of a farming company under his company should be distributed as 4,000 shares, and the extra nearly 1,000 shares would be used as bonus shares to give 450 shares to Nantong Normal School. Staff 460 shares. Nantong was originally a small town in a remote corner. Before Zhang Jian set up a factory, the city’s population was only 40,000. There was no industry, only sporadic handicraft workshops. People lived a traditional way of life according to the rhythm of an agricultural society.The small town is surrounded by a river called Hao River. For thousands of years, it has been said that "the west gate of the rich, the east gate of the poor, and the south gate of beggars". Badlands.He vowed to build the best model city in China here. With the increasing number of his enterprises, the deserted south of the city has gradually become a phenomenon. The houses in the old city of Nantong are small and dense, and the streets are narrow, no more than two rooms wide, and can only pass through rickshaws. The new city in the south has wide roads and can be used by cars. Along the Haohe River and Mofan Road, Nantong Normal University, Library, Museum, Gengsu Theater, Nantong Club, Youfei Hotel, Taozhihua Hotel, and Women's Workers' School, Tonghai Industrial Bank, Embroidery and Weaving Bureau and other enterprises and public facilities prospered next to each other, and Nantong showed its most modern side to the outside world. Zhang Jian has been in business all his life, and has accumulated millions of taels of wealth, most of which are used for education and local construction.His daily life is very frugal, with only one meat, one vegetable and one soup for each meal, no special guests, and no killing of chickens and ducks. In 1903, he was invited by the Japan Expo to visit Japan and bought the cheapest third-class ticket. Some people were amazed at his frugality. Talking with them all the way to revitalize the industry is an excellent opportunity, and I wished for it.” He once calculated that during the more than 20 years of business, the wages and dividends spent on public utilities can be recorded at more than 1.5 million taels, plus the time spent with him Donated by my brother who runs a business, the total amount exceeds 3 million taels. Zhang Jian has many famous sayings left in the world. He once said, "Heaven's birth of man is no different from grass and trees. If one or two useful things are left behind, they will grow with grass and trees, that is, they will not rot with grass and trees. Therefore, those who actively follow the public should be a A share is a share, and an inch is an inch." The vision and mind of the Sri Lankan people are only seen in EMI. From Zhang Jian and others, we can see the fact that in times of national calamity, the new entrepreneurial class is not a group of people who only know how to protect their own interests, nor is it a group of people who have been reformed and follow the trend. Manifesting a courage and a reason which no other class of men can match or even comprehend, they form a special force by their cause.There are moments when it seems that they may be truly brave men. In the late Qing Dynasty, Zhang Jian and Sheng Xuanhuai were the two representatives of private enterprises and state-owned enterprises. It is very interesting to compare the career patterns of the two. Since 1895, Sheng Xuanhuai’s attention has been focused on steel, mining, railways, and banks. These companies are all resource-based industries that require strong government policy support and are profitable due to monopoly.Zhang Jian's career is in the textile industry, marine farming and other livelihood industries. In these fields, there are no barriers to entry, and international capital gathers, making it a fully competitive market.The business of the two men had a clear distinction between upstream and downstream, which became a law. In the next hundred years of Chinese economy, state-owned capital mostly followed the Sheng-style path, while private capital followed the Zhang Jian-style path. After 1900, when the business of Zhang Jian's spinning mill was booming, private capital in Jiangsu and Zhejiang also caught up with the trend and invested in modern livelihood industries one after another.Among them, the Wuxi Rong family brothers had the greatest influence on the future. In March 1902, a Baoxing flour mill quietly opened on a mound beside the Liangxi River outside the west gate of Wuxi. It covers an area of ​​17 acres and has 30 workers. The large stone mill with a 60-horsepower engine produces fine and white flour, which can produce 300 bags of flour every day and night.Its main investors were brothers Rong Zongjing (1873-1927) and Rong Desheng (1875-1952), who raised a total of 39,000 taels of silver.The Rong family brothers were born in poverty. During the Taiping Rebellion, Wuxi was hit by war, and the Rong family was almost extinct. His father survived because he was an apprentice in a Shanghai iron shop. When they were more than ten years old, the two brothers carried a small package to the village. Guangzhou, Shanghai and other places to make a living.Because of their active minds and diligence, they gradually accumulated some savings. In 1896, they opened a Guangsheng Bank in Shanghai with their father, and became small bosses themselves.A few years later, the bank's business was sluggish, and their father passed away due to illness. The brothers decided to switch careers to become a flour mill. At that time, there were 12 mechanical flour mills in operation in China. The most famous one was Fufeng Flour Mill run by the old champion Sun Jianai's family, and Baoxing was the smallest one.The factory was not going well from the day it opened. The local gentry sued the Rong family brothers to privately enclose the farmland, and also complained that they built a big chimney facing the school palace, which hindered Fengshui.A lawsuit turmoil hit Liangjiang Governor's Mansion. Fortunately, Governor Liu Kunyi was a Westernization faction, so he dismissed the lawsuit.After the flour was produced, the market was also very poor. In the first month, thousands of bags were backlogged. Because people in Jiangnan mainly eat rice, flour is sold in the north. The Rong brothers have never crossed the river. His eyes darkened.After opening the factory for more than a year, other shareholders got discouraged and withdrew their capital. The two brothers had to change their name to Maoxin and go through the registration process again. All business in the world is done through gritted teeth.The Rong family brothers gradually showed their talents in business. They first searched for capable people in marketing to open up the northern market. In order to bring unexpected surprises to consumers, this kind of promotional trick is still valid after many years. In 1904, the Russo-Japanese War broke out in the Northeast, and the demand for flour increased suddenly, and the business suddenly improved.The two brothers also attached great importance to the investment of new technology. In 1905, they learned that the noodle making equipment in England was better than that in France. They immediately decided to purchase six British steel mills, which immediately doubled their production capacity. Soon after, they had Knowing that the United States has developed a new flour machine with better performance, he decided to borrow money to purchase. The Rong family brothers are a very strange combination. The elder brother Rong Zongjing has thick eyebrows and a square face. keep.The difference in clothing between the two is also obvious. The eldest likes to wear suits and has shiny waxed hair all day long, while the second wears green shirts and long coats all the year round, dressed like a country gentleman.This completely different and quite complementary personality is also fully reflected in business, and has even become the most important guarantee for the growth of Rong's business.Rong Zongjing boldly expanded, and he jumped at the opportunity whenever he saw an opportunity. His business philosophy is "as long as someone is willing to borrow money, I will dare to take it; as long as someone is willing to sell the factory, I will dare to buy it." He is a typical radical strategy obsessed .When importing American-made flour machines, 120,000 taels of silver was needed, and Maoxin simply could not afford that much money. Rong Zongjing insisted on borrowing from foreign banks, paying 20% ​​first, and paying off the rest in two years.Rong Desheng was a little hesitant, but he decided, "Only when you owe money and earn money and repay the money, can you have a prosperous day." In 1905, just after the flour mill was on the right track, he immediately proposed "Eat two ends, and then do another game." ", and set up another cotton spinning factory.Since then, the Rong family started from flour and spinning, "both food and clothing", and built an amazing business kingdom.Of course, his aggressive personality often led the company into huge crises. In 1907, Rong Zongjing failed in financial speculation in Shanghai, causing huge losses of tens of thousands of yuan. Forced to close down.At the juncture of life and death, Rong Desheng, who was in Wuxi, rushed to Shanghai with his own land and house deeds, and used them as a guarantee to pull Rong Zongjing out of the mud. Over the next 20 years, this critical situation happened many times. Rong Zongjing licked his wounds and continued to fight and rush, while Rong Desheng covered the rescue from behind, pulling his brother and the company back from the cliff every time.In this way, the Rong family's business expanded rapidly and miraculously between radical and conservative. Around 1900, another big event happened in the Chinese business circle, that is, the Kaiping Mining Bureau, the most important mining industry of the Westernization School, was cheated away by the British.This scam involved Britain, Germany, and the United States, and was even run by a young man who later became the president of the United States. Kaiping Coal Mine was decided by Li Hongzhang and founded by Tang Tingshu, a big comprador. After 1895, like the China Merchants Bureau, it fell into the hands of officials and businessmen wearing top hats. The supervisor was Prince Gong's confidant Zhang Yi.The development of coal mines required continuous funds, and the imperial court had no capital injection, and Zhang Yi was unwilling to allow commercial shares to have an advantage in the total share capital, so he chose to borrow money from outsiders. In September 1899, Zhang Yi borrowed 200,000 pounds from the Merlin Mining Company of the United Kingdom through the German consultant De Trilin, using all the assets of the Kaiping Mining Bureau as collateral. On behalf of Molin, a 25-year-old, A young American named Herbert Clark Hoover.Thirty years later, he became the thirty-first president of the United States. During his tenure, the famous American Great Depression broke out in 1929. Hoover, who graduated from the Department of Geology at Stanford University, came to China a year ago. He was full of interest in exploring gold mines. With the help of Zhang Yi, he once traveled around North China under the protection of 120 Qing cavalry. Expedition, he also gave himself a Chinese name: Hu Hua.After becoming the representative of Molin Company in Tianjin, he wrote a "Report of the Kaiping Mining Bureau", which stated, "This industry is definitely worth investing one million pounds. This enterprise is by no means a speculative enterprise, but a Industrial enterprises that generate very high profitability.” In June 1900, the Boxer Rebellion started in Tianjin and soon spread to the north, causing panic in Beijing and Tianjin.Like many foreigners, Hoover was besieged in Tianjin Mansion for more than a month.At this time, Zhang Yi also hid in his home in the British Concession.More than a month later, the Eight-Power Allied Forces captured Beijing. On a certain day, the British Consul in Tianjin personally led troops into Zhang's house. On the grounds that Zhang's family had a large number of pigeons, he believed that Zhang Yi was "suspected to be related to the Boxers" and arrested Zhang Yi. Closed in an old kitchen of Swire Pacific. At that time, Cixi had already fled to the west, Beijing and Tianjin were controlled by the coalition forces, and "Tongquan Bandit" was a crime that could be killed without a trial. Zhang Yi was frightened out of his wits.After being imprisoned for two days, the German Detriline appeared. He told Zhang that the coal warehouses in Tianjin had been burned and the Tangshan mining area was in chaos.He immediately took out a pre-drawn "Mine Protection Manual", which contained the appointment of De Trilin as the general agent of the Mining Bureau, and "appointed Gusta von De Trilin as the brokerage industry and general director of the Kaiping Coal Mine Company." It should be the general office, and give it the right to do things cheaply. Let him use the best method he can plan to protect the interests of mining shareholders." That is to say, Detriline can handle all matters by himself.De Trilin said that as long as Zhang Yi signed, he would guarantee his life to the embassies of various countries.Zhang Yi signed and was released the next day. On July 30, Detriline, who was given the "right to do things cheaply," sat down with Hoover. The former represented the Kaiping Mining Bureau, and the latter represented the Molin Company, and signed a sale contract at a symbolic price of eight pounds.According to this contract, "The real estate, docks, railways, houses, machinery, and goods owned by the Kaiping Mining Bureau, as well as the rights and interests they belong to, receive, control, or enjoy, shall be approved, transferred, handed over, and transferred. With Hoover... Hoover has the right to transfer and hand over all the rights, data, and benefits he has obtained from this contract to Kaiping Co., Ltd." After Hoover brought the contract back to Molin Company, he received a reward of 5,000 US dollars , which was a lot of money back then.Then, Mo Lin changed hands and sold Kaiping to a British consortium called "Oriental Syndicate". On December 28, the newly formed Kaiping Mining Co., Ltd. was registered in London.When signing the official "handover agreement", the stupid Zhang Yi was tricked again. There was an obvious difference in expression between the Chinese contract and the English contract.In order to appease this generous official and businessman, Hoover promised Zhang Yi that he could serve as a lifelong "resident in China" supervisor. The 3,000 old Kaiping shares he held could be exchanged for 77,000 new shares. RBI up and down.In late February of the following year, the British army entered the mining area and hoisted the Union flag. Hoover was appointed as the general office of the new company and received 8,000 shares of the company.He engaged in the takeover work for half a year, and said in a report to the board of directors, "Our mission has been accomplished satisfactorily, and what is left to our successor is a company with a promising future." (Hoover later stayed in China For many years, in 1904, he also exported Chinese laborers to the Smut gold mine in South Africa, and received a commission of 430,000 silver dollars. So far, he became the first millionaire in the United States to make a fortune in China. In 1913, Hoover brought a large number of The property returned to the United States, opened his own company in San Francisco, and became a well-known figure in the business world. From 1921, he served as Secretary of Commerce for 8 years. On November 6, 1928, he was elected President of the United States.) After the Kaiping Mining Bureau was cheated away, Zhang Yi, who caused a catastrophe, deliberately concealed the matter until November 1902, when he was stabbed out because of a "flag lowering incident".At that time, the yellow dragon flag of the Qing Dynasty and the British Mizi flag were hoisted in the coal mine. The British thought that the resale matter had been settled, so they forcibly lowered the yellow dragon flag, which caused strong protests from the miners.Someone reported the matter to Yuan Shikai, and the scam was revealed to the world, which immediately shocked the government and the public. At that time, public opinion said, "Not only is it rarely heard by the world, but it is also laughed at by all nations."The Qing court ordered Zhang Yi to go to England to sue the Molin Company for defrauding the coal mine. Yan Fu, a famous scholar who was famous for his translation of "Tianyan Lun" and advocated "Natural Selection" and "Survival of the Fittest", went with Zhang. .This international lawsuit lasted until the end of 1905. Zhang Yi spent millions of silver. After several months and 14 trials, the final judgment of the court was that Mo Lin had cheated, but still regarded it as "unenforceable". Reasons to award the coal mine to the British side.The Qing court did not dare to offend Britain, so the matter was left alone. When Hoover cheated Kaiping, the only person who protested was a Chinese businessman who was 8 years older than him. His name was Zhou Xuexi (1866-1947), who was then the head of the Mining Bureau.According to regulations, the "handover agreement" must be signed by the supervisor and the general office. Zhou refused to sign and resigned angrily.In the next ten years, in order to regain Kaiping, Zhou Xuexi planned a layout, opened and closed, and the business war was fought from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, but in the end it still fell short.