In 1883, the Qing Empire fought a fierce battle with France in Vietnam. No one expected that the butterfly effect triggered by a distant war would drag Hu Xueyan, the 60-year-old richest man in jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, into the quagmire, and the 20 million two-pocket business empire he had built in 30 years collapsed in just 20 days. Behind this, there is also a round carefully designed by the old rival Sheng Xuanhuai.
Sheng Xuanhuai, known as the "Father of Chinese Businessmen", actually did not start by doing business. He was the second generation of orthodox officials, and his father Sheng Kang was in charge of salt administration in Hubei and also in charge of education and finance. With such an old father who holds real power, Sheng Xuanhuai's starting point in life is half a mountain higher than Hu Xueyan, who was born a poor boy.
Sheng Xuanhuai has been practicing with his father since childhood, and is well versed in the various unspoken rules of the officialdom. Unfortunately, his learning ability is not outstanding, and after barely passing the 23-year-old exam, he stood still and said that he could not pass the exam.
In desperation, Sheng Kang entrusted the relationship in 1870 and sent the 26-year-old Sheng Xuanhuai to the command of Li Hongzhang, the first minister of the Qing Dynasty.
Figure | Sheng Xuanhuai, a foreign affairs officer under Li Hongzhang (front row, left)
Li Hongzhang's men were full of talents, and Sheng Xuanhuai's diploma was not high, and although he entered Li Hongzhang's door, he did not receive any preferential treatment. In front of the lowest military camp secretary, he either drafted documents or rode horses to pass on messages from various military camps, and there was no light on his career path.
In 1871, a flood directly under The DirectLy Affiliated (Baoding) finally washed out the light of Sheng Xuanhuai's gold. Due to the shortage of materials, Li Hongzhang organized a large-scale non-governmental donation and relief activity. As an aide, Sheng Xuanhuai actively maneuvered among the celebrities in Shanghai, and used the silver donated by persuasion to purchase a large number of cotton clothes, which solved Li Hongzhang's urgent needs and was favored by his superiors.
Li Hongzhang repaid Li with a peach and in 1872 elected Sheng Xuanhuai to be promoted to prefect. Although at the end of the Qing Dynasty, due to too many officials and too few vacancies, Sheng Xuanhuai only got a fictitious position, but in just two years, he was able to climb from a high school student to a departmental cadre (equivalent to the secretary of the municipal party committee) from Sipin, and his promotion speed was comparable to that of a rocket.
While Li Hongzhang promoted Sheng Xuanhuai, he also put the burden of establishing the Steamship Merchants Bureau on his shoulders.
At that time, the domestic coastal line and the inland waterway of the Yangtze River were all controlled by foreign fleets, and even the imperial court had to transport grain through foreign companies. Seeing a large amount of silver money flowing out of the country, Li Hongzhang was worried, and he set up a China Merchants Bureau with the intention of snatching the steamship transportation back from the hands of foreigners.
Sheng Xuanhuai boldly put forward the new concept of a joint venture between officials and businessmen, which was supervised by the official shareholding and handled by the main businessmen. The overall operation of China Merchants was basically implemented according to Sheng Xuanhuai's suggestions, and it was indeed very profitable, and it also annexed its old rival, the American Qichang Company, and once became the most powerful shipping group in Asia.
Unfortunately, sheng Xuanhuai, who worked hard for the China Merchants Bureau, finally only got a symbolic assistant position, equivalent to today's manager assistant. It seems that from decision-making to execution, there is a voice, in fact, the first-in-command Tang Tingshu and the second-in-command Xu Run are a group of sperm, and no one pays attention to his suggestions.
Figure | Sheng Xuanhuai
Li Hongzhang had his own considerations, Sheng Xuanhuai was only 28 years old at the time, his qualifications were too shallow to convince the public, and he still needed to practice well. So just when the China Merchants Bureau was in the limelight, Sheng Xuanhuai was sent to Hubei and looked around for coal and iron ore in the mountains.
Mining is also an important part of the foreign affairs movement planned by Li Hongzhang, but in Hubei the prospecting thing is extremely unsmooth, the people shouting mining alarmed the souls of the ancestors, the engineer hired from the British high salary is a liar, the mountains are dug by him to sewage, iron ore and coal ore have not seen a few pieces.
Just when Sheng Xuanhuai was in a state of anxiety, rumors of extremely serious losses at the Guangji Coal Plant in Hubei Flew into the ears of Empress Dowager Cixi, and it was Sheng Xuanhuai's "yearless friend" Hu Xueyan who spread the news everywhere.
In 1871, at the fundraising event directly under Dashui, the fledgling Sheng Xuanhuai was impressed by Hu Xueyan's generosity, and Hu Xueyan also gave Sheng Xuanhuai a rather valuable gift, and the two almost became brothers of the opposite sex.
Soon Sheng Xuanhuai will understand that there are no friends in front of interests. Moreover, Hu Xueyan approached him, in fact, he wanted to connect with Li Hongzhang through his ladder.
Hu Xueyan and Sheng Xuanhuai belonged to two camps. Hu Xueyan was attached to Zuo Zongtang, one of the four famous ministers of the late Qing Dynasty, and Zuo Zongtang and Li Hongzhang, although they were both protégés of Zeng Guofan, were full of contradictions. Hu Xueyan tried his best to improve his relationship with Li Hongzhang, but Li Hongzhang did not pay any attention to him at all.
During Li Hongzhang's great western affairs campaign, Hu Xueyan astutely perceived that the China Merchants Bureau and the Hubei Mining Bureau would be a big piece of fat. Unfortunately, in addition to investing money in the shares to obtain a little profit, he can only dry his mouth most of the time.
It was too difficult to collapse Li Hongzhang, and it was a piece of cake to throw a flying knife at Sheng Xuanhuai. Hu Xueyan once invested 100,000 taels of silver into the Guangji Coal Plant, and also sent many secret agents to watch Sheng Xuanhuai's every move, and soon grasped the inside information of the coal yard's losses. Thus a plan to bring down Sheng Xuanhuai and forcefully intervene in mining affairs was born.
In August 1879, at the instigation of Hu Xueyan and others, the imperial court sent special personnel to check the accounts. When a bill with a loss of up to 158,000 taels of silver was sent to Li Hongzhang, he had deep doubts about Sheng Xuanhuai's ability.
Figure | Li
The Guangji Coal Plant was established by order of the imperial court, and it is reasonable to say that if the money is lost, the state should also pay the loss in advance. Sheng Xuanhuai saw that the ministers were attacking Li Hongzhang in droves, and in order not to burden the old leaders, he chose to pay for the deficit himself.
Although the Sheng family has some family foundation, the debt of more than 100,000 taels of silver still makes the inheritance of the three generations of the ancestors disappear, and Sheng Xuanhuai is also angrily accused by his father of being "the first loser in the world".
Originally, Sheng Xuanhuai thought that as long as he desperately plugged the hole, he could rely on Li Hongzhang's status and connections to smoothly cover up this matter. Who knows, Hu Xueyan did not intend to give up raising his noble hand, and he once again offered a fierce move to make Sheng Xuanhuai never turn over.
Hu Xueyan's second move was to shake out that when the steamship China Merchants Bureau acquired the American Qichang Company, Sheng Xuanhuai collected 50,000 taels of benefits. He found two inspectors who were close to him, and asked them to go out of the mountain to hand over the bullet to Empress Dowager Cixi.
Just as the so-called misfortune is not alone, and at the time when Sheng Xuanhuai is anxious to deal with it, Shen Baozhen, the former governor of Liangjiang, who gave strong support to the steamship Merchants Bureau and the Hubei Guangji Coal Plant, has passed away.
Shen Baozhen was the son-in-law of the famous patriotic general Lin Zexu, and spoke with great weight in the imperial court. Originally, relying on the two mountains of him and Li Hongzhang, Sheng Xuanhuai's career could be smooth. Now, Shen Baozhen has died of illness, and Li Hongzhang has a great prejudice against him because of the opening of mines, and Sheng Xuanhuai's future is as black as a fog that cannot be dissolved.
Coincidentally, a severe drought in North China reminded Li Hongzhang of Sheng Xuanhuai's brilliant performance in disaster relief in those years. After Sheng Xuanhuai was reactivated, he did not bear the heavy trust, set up a textile bureau to work for relief, perfectly solved the problem of resettlement of disaster victims, and properly handled the "Jingzhou Relief Case" that had a great impact.
At this point, Li Hongzhang finally forgave Sheng Xuanhuai's negligence in running a mining business in Hubei.
Good luck finally began to favor Sheng Xuanhuai. Hu Xueyan originally wanted to rely on two inspectors to overthrow him, but before the two men could find an opportunity to do it, one of them went to prison for selling officials and knights, and the other was sent to Shandong to become an official.
What is even more wonderful is that Xu Wenda, the key witness of Sheng Xuanhuai's bribery, accidentally fell into the water and died after eating flowers and wine on the boat, and all the human and physical evidence disappeared into the water. Tang Tingshu, the general office of the China Merchants Bureau, at the suggestion of Li Hongzhang, wrote to Baosheng Xuanhuai, describing him as a great hero who saved the China Merchants Bureau, causing Hu Xueyan to be busy.
Is Sheng Xuanhuai really not corrupt at all? Since Hu Xueyan dared to join him, it meant that he had conclusive evidence in his hands. Sheng Xuanhuai was not a great sage who was not moved by silver money, and when he was in charge of the national railway work, he built 2,100 kilometers of roads, borrowed 10.65 million pounds from foreign banks, and ate 5 percent of the kickbacks, equivalent to 4.4 million taels of silver.
Li Hongzhang knew this very well. At that time, the late Qing Dynasty was chaotic, full of mischievous moths, and Sheng Xuanhuai could do some practical things for the country and the people in addition to making money, and he could barely be counted as a good public servant.
Under the vigorous protection of Li Hongzhang, Sheng Xuanhuai took over the work of organizing the telegraph bureau in 1881, which was a fat difference, and he also greatly increased his strength. Of course, the old rival Hu Xueyan did not give him a trip.
Originally, Sheng Xuanhuai planned to set up 7 telegraph sub-bureaus in Zizhulin, Dagukou, Jining, Qingjiang, Zhenjiang, Suzhou, and Shanghai, but unexpectedly the plan to erect the Yangtze River power line was accidentally detained by Zuo Zongtang.
Hu Xueyan is well aware that telegraphs can play an important role in transmitting military information and issuing operational orders in the future. To this end, he instigated Zuo Zongtang to use the power in his hands to obstruct it, and insisted on snatching a piece of meat from Sheng Xuanhuai's mouth.
At this time, Sheng Xuanhuai's economic strength and official experience have soared, and it is no longer the small transparency that Hu Xueyan slaughtered 9 years ago. He negotiated with two monopoly telegraph companies, the Danish Great North Company and the British Great East Company, and said that as long as they did not sell products to Hu Xueyan, they were willing to buy wire equipment at three times the price.
Hu Xueyan was also very resilient, constantly sending people to negotiate with the two companies, and finally the Great North Company agreed to supply Hu Xueyan, but it took more than a month to slowly transport a batch of equipment.
Hu Xueyan happily began construction, completely unaware that Sheng Xuanhuai had already joined forces with the Great North Company to stab him in the back, and these high-priced purchased wires and equipment were all inferior products, and the project was only one-third of the way through before it was forced to stop.
The news of Hu Xueyan's failure to erect a wire was impeached by Li Hongzhang, and the imperial court ministers followed suit and demanded his replacement. Zuo Zongtang could not withstand the pressure and had to return the erection of the Yangtze River power line to Sheng Xuanhuai.
Figure | Sheng Xuanhuai is in Japan
After Hu Xueyan fell a big heel on the telegraph line, he temporarily put an end to the flag and devoted all his energy to the traditional tea and silk business. Sheng Xuanhuai did not let down his vigilance in the slightest, he knew that this person was his greatest opponent, and if he did not find an opportunity to defeat him, he would definitely have endless troubles in the future.
Soon, when he heard that Hu Xueyan was busy buying raw silk at a high price, Sheng Xuanhuai made up his mind to compete with Hu Xueyan in the raw silk market.
Hu Xueyan was worthy of being a business wizard, and he quickly hoarded raw silk when the merchants in all provinces were eyeing the mining business and the silk industry was greatly neglected. After everyone reacted, the raw silk had been swept away by him, and he could sell it as much as he wanted.
Seeing Sheng Xuanhuai's hand, Hu Xueyan, who was rich and powerful, immediately mobilized a large amount of funds from the Fukang Qianzhuang he had opened to meet the battle. After the silver of Fukang Qianzhuang was emptied, he mobilized funds from various semicolons to emergency.
Who knew that just 4 months later, Sheng Xuanhuai suddenly withdrew from the competition.
It turned out that Zeng Jize, the Qing Dynasty's envoy to Britain, France, and Russia, was a sharp-headed and far-sighted diplomat, and he found that because of the war, western countries began to show signs of financial crisis, so he urged Li Hongzhang to be cautious in project investment and try to avoid this financial storm.
After carefully analyzing the external situation, Sheng Xuanhuai decided to give up the contest with Hu Xueyan and gave him the hoarded raw silk at a high price. At the same time, he contacted businessmen and foreign compradors from all over the world and told them not to buy Hu Xueyan's raw silk this year.
Hu Xueyan did not perceive that danger was approaching. He learned from an Italian that because of the low production of silk in Italy, "people all over the country can't wear pants." The huge temptation of interests made Hu Xueyan dizzy, and he could not consider the reason for Sheng Xuanhuai's withdrawal, and exchanged all the cash in his hand for raw silk, which was enough to hoard as many as 15,000 bags.
In 1883, the French army suddenly attacked the Qing army stationed in Vietnam, and the Sino-French War broke out. Zuo Zongtang, who could fight well, led his troops to meet the battle, and Hu Xueyan was very busy for him to run before and after running.
Hu Xueyan, a businessman, what role can he play in this war?
It turns out that fighting a war is a rather expensive thing. At that time, Hu Xueyan raised 100,000 stones of military food for Zuo Zongtang in 3 days, and since then he has won the trust of Zuo Zongtang. He also took advantage of the opportunity of frequent dealings with foreigners to take the initiative to train a well-equipped foreign mercenary army for Zuo Zongtang.
When Zuo Zongtang was transferred to the governorship of Shaanxi and Gansu to invade Xinjiang in the west, Hu Xueyan borrowed 18.7 million taels of silver from foreign banks on his behalf, solving the urgent need. However, Hu Xueyan will not work in vain, and he has demanded huge kickbacks from foreigners from this ridiculously high interest loan, and has also earned a spread of 2.88 million taels.
Seeing that this Sino-French war was profitable, Hu Xueyan was once again very busy, what he did not know was that the financial crisis was flapping its wings and flying towards him, and the old rival Sheng Xuanhuai was also sharpening his knife behind his back.
Originally, Hu Xueyan was ready to transport all the hoarded raw silk to Italy, but the Italian raw silk was suddenly harvested, and the outbreak of the Sino-French War led to a sharp drop in silk prices. In the blink of an eye, Hu Xueyan's loss reached more than 1 million taels of silver.
At this time, Sheng Xuanhuai was like a cheetah lurking motionless in the grass. He knows very well that although 1 million is not a small amount, it is not a huge amount of Hu Xueyan, and he needs to be patient and wait for the best opportunity.
Hu Xueyan is also really busy enough, the huge deficit here has not been made up, and the repayment date of HSBC every six months has arrived.
Hu Xueyan's connection with HSBC was mainly due to the fact that when he raised military expenses for Zuo Zongtang, he borrowed two loans from HSBC in his personal name, totaling 10.5 million taels of silver.
Although the money was borrowed in the name of Hu Xueyan, the actual repayment was the Qing Dynasty. Every time HSBC collects money, the Shanghai Daotai government will give the silver to Hu Xueyan, who will return it to HSBC.
This repayment process seems to have no opportunity on the surface, but Sheng Xuanhuai believes that the opportunity to collapse Hu Xueyan has come.
Figure | Hu Xueyan
He first sent a telegram in the name of Li Hongzhang to Shao Youlian of the Shanghai Daotai, asking him to hand over the silver to Hu Xueyan after 20 days. Shao Youlian was a subordinate of Li Hongzhang, and after 20 days of slow hair and no loss, he promised to accept it.
Immediately afterward, Sheng Xuanhuai found HSBC and other foreign banks, told them that Hu Xueyan was about to go bankrupt, and quickly asked him for money.
HSBC is well aware that the money was borrowed by the Qing government, but the person who handled it was Hu Xueyan after all. Therefore, they desperately pestered Hu Xueyan to collect debts, and Hu Xueyan had no choice but to draw 800,000 yuan from Fukang Qianzhuang to advance the payment.
Because the cash flow is occupied by raw silk and advance payments, Hu Xueyan's capital chain is not working well for a while. At this juncture, Sheng Xuanhuai once again trumpeted to various foreign firms and depositors, officials, and wealthy businessmen that Hu Xueyan's money house was about to go out of business.
The crisis broke out, and the big households who had saved money in the money bank poured into Fukang to withdraw money, ranging from thousands of taels to tens of thousands of taels, and the professional term was called a run. The money houses and banks that are rich and powerful will tremble when they mention the word "run". In just 20 days, Hu Xueyan's money houses and pawnshops snowballed and declared bankruptcy.
It is reasonable to say that Hu Xueyan spent a total of 4.8 million taels on hoarding raw silk, and only lost 1.5 million taels on raw silk, and he had a net worth of tens of millions, so how could he not embark on the road of rapid decline.
The main reason is that at that time, there was a boom in China to build railways, open coal mines, and build steamships, and many people borrowed money from Qianzhuang to buy and sell stocks, and Hu Xueyan spent most of his funds on lending in order to earn high interest.
When the financial crisis came, these large amounts of money that were loaned out became bad debts and bad debts that could not be recovered. If Sheng Xuanhuai moved a little slower, Hu Xueyan could calmly cope with the working capital. Partial Sheng Xuanhuai adopted the method of blitzkrieg, tightly clamping down on the key to the temporary interruption of Hu Xueyan's cash flow, causing his huge foundation to suddenly collapse.
The soldiers were defeated like mountains, and Hu Xueyan's old corrupt accounts were turned over one by one. By the end of 1885, before Hu Xueyan's death, raw silk worth ten million taels of silver was plundered at a low price, and pawnshops and other industries were all sold, and in this way, he also owed the Qing court 208,000 taels of silver.
Before dying, Hu Xueyan, who was poor and hateful, called his children and grandchildren to him and told them: "The white tiger (silver) is terrible!" ”
Text | Snow