"Young Master! Other than the five million taels that you brought back last time, there are only four hundred thousand taels left in the residence. It's mainly because our factory has been expanding a little fast these days and we need more money! I've put it on my tab wherever I spend it!”
As Li Hongfu spoke, he handed the account book to Li Donghan. He was also amazed in his heart. He felt that this young master of his was not an ordinary person at all.
When he had just returned to the country, he had wanted to gather his family's money to set up a textile factory. Li Hongfu, who had a more moderate personality, did not think much of this at first. He thought it was too risky.
However, Li Donghan was still in charge of the Li family, so he could only support him on tenterhooks. However, he did not expect Li Donghan to give him a surprise in just three months.
The income of the textile mill had even reached the sum of the other industries in the Li Residence. Half a year later, it had become the main profitable industry of the Li Residence.
Then, under Li Donghan's orders, they set up other fire factories and lime factories. They even started preparing to set up a steel factory a year ago. This was a gold-devouring beast. They hired foreigners as technicians. Just the preliminary work alone had invested a lot of money.
If Li Donghan hadn't specifically instructed them to leave five million taels of silver untouched, the steel plant would have been built!
In fact, Li Donghan had brought back 10 million taels of silver last year, leaving behind 5 million taels. The rest was invested in the Li family's business.
Although Li Hongfu was a little curious about the origin of the 10 million taels, he consciously did not ask much. He only cared about the things he was responsible for!
When Li Donghan heard that there were only less than 400,000 taels left in the residence, he frowned slightly. Although this money was already quite a lot, Li Donghan felt that it was still not enough for a position of assistant general.
Then he could only take the money from the five million taels. In fact, the money was prepared for the uprising soon.
After all, the soldiers of this era were not like the soldiers of the future. They were true professional soldiers. Beliefs and ideals were not useful in their eyes!
Moreover, Li Donghan was in the business of beheading people. Even though he was already very strict with the 98 bids, he still had to be prepared.
There must be brave men under the heavy reward. If he wanted the soldiers to rebel with him, he had to show them the benefits. There was nothing more impactful than silver!
Moreover, after the uprising, many things could not be done without money. Li Donghan had to take these things into consideration. In his opinion, five million taels was just barely enough to cope with for a while.
And now, he could only draw from this!
"Give me a million taels. I have a use for them. Don't touch the silver in the residence anymore. Then, keep the silver in the factory for your own use and take back the rest! Exchange another 100,000 yuan and keep it for my orders!”Li Donghan ordered in a deep voice.
Li Hongfu wanted to say something but hesitated. If they followed Li Donghan's instructions, the development of the Li family's factories would definitely be affected. Under such a good situation, he did not understand why Li Donghan would suddenly use so much cash.
His personality was also because he was worried that Li Donghan would be at a disadvantage. However, he thought about how all the decisions Li Donghan had made over the past few years had turned out to be correct.
With this thought in mind, Li Hongfu did not say anything else. After he left, he prepared the silver according to Li Donghan's instructions.
Li Donghan was the only one left in the hall. He sat on the chair with his eyes closed, quietly recalling everything.
The 10 million taels he got back last year was earned from trading stocks in Songhu. That was because at that time, the 'rubber stock trend' had just broken out. People were crazily buying rubber stocks as if they were injected with chicken blood.
But Li Donghan, who clearly knew this history, knew that this was a conspiracy by foreign capital against China. When the rubber stock price reached an extreme point, the market collapsed, and the stocks in many people's hands became a pile of waste paper.
Too many people had exhausted their savings and committed suicide. This was completely a plundering of the country by foreign capital. A large amount of silver flowed out, and the domestic financial industry was devastated.
Although Li Donghan knew the root of all this, he was powerless to change anything. Should he tell those people not to buy it?
They would only be treated as fools by the crazy shareholders. Greed had already swallowed their rationality. The only thing that could save them was the Qing government. Unfortunately, those people's arrogance and short-sightedness condoned all of this.
Li Donghan had no choice but to join this bloody feast. In the end, he earned back 10 million taels. Although it was also the blood and sweat of the Chinese stockholders, it was better than falling into the hands of foreigners.
Five million taels of silver was given to the factories below to expand their scale. They even built a steel factory, which was the most used up.
However, Li Donghan knew that no matter how much money was invested, this steel plant had to be built because it was the backbone of the Chinese people. If they could not produce a large amount of qualified steel, the Chinese would never be able to stand up.
However, the construction of the steel plant would have to be delayed for the time being!
The one million taels that he was going to take out was intended to be used to bribe Zhang Mingqi and Feng Shan. This was a huge sum of money because in this era, the salary of an ordinary worker was only one yuan.
Even the new soldiers only had three silver coins. Last year, the tax revenue of the whole of eastern Guangdong was only about 30 million taels of silver. This one million taels of silver was more than enough for Li Donghan to build a 49-association from scratch.
However, if he really used his own money to do this, the Qing court would definitely think that he was going to rebel.
After all, officials were all trying their best to earn money. If you filled it with money, there would be a problem at a glance!
Although Li Donghan was also preparing for this, now was not the best time. If he launched an uprising at this time and succeeded, then the eyes of the whole country would be on East Guangdong.
The Qing court would definitely gather all its forces to destroy him. Just think about the two uprisings last year. He was not confident that he could withstand the attacks of the Qing soldiers from the surrounding provinces with just the strength of one target in his hand.
Even though they had survived the initial difficult period, other provinces had also revolted. The South was in chaos, and Li Donghan did not feel that he had gained any advantage. He had been the vanguard of the revolutionary party for nothing.
He was a pragmatic person. He didn't care about the name of the revolutionary leader at all. Keeping a low profile and quietly developing his own strength was the right path!
They would only act after the uprising in Jiangcheng. They would let the revolutionary party charge forward and block the attack of Beiyang. Li Donghan would develop his army in eastern Guangdong in a low-key manner. When Li Donghan showed his fangs, no one could do anything to him!
(To be continued)
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