Ye Zuwen said, "General Wang, this Liu Hongsheng is young and promising, and has been friends with me for about three years. When he first started out, he did some work at a law firm, and helped me with some things."

  Wang Zhenyu said: "You praise him so much, what is his ability?"

  Ye Zuwen said "Please rest assured, General, this person's ability to handle matters is also one of the best in the industry. He has vision, courage and means, and can be called a modern-day Shen Wansan."

  Wang Zhenyu nodded: "Anyway, there's nothing big going on in Nanjing, it's also good to go to Shanghai and meet this business genius."

  Wang Zhenyu suddenly thought of another thing: "Ye Lao, there's also a piece of news that I think is an opportunity. I heard that after the handover in Nanjing, the temporary government will move north and set up a garrison, with Huang Xing as the commander-in-chief. At that time, it's estimated that 300,000 militia will be disbanded and dispersed on a large scale. Don't be surprised, I've calculated it - even if each person gets 10 taels of silver, the dispersal fee would still be around 3 million."

  Ye Zuowen didn't quite understand what this large sum of disbursement had to do with him, but since the first transaction he had been full of confidence in the young man in front of him, so although he was a little puzzled, he didn't interrupt rashly.

  "It's been nearly half a month since we came to Nanjing, and from my observation, even if our boss Huang sells all his possessions, he still won't be able to come up with such a large sum of money. If he can't guarantee it, something will go wrong." Wang Zhenyu said as he stood up and paced back and forth in the room.

  Ye Zuwen couldn't help but speak up: "General, your meaning is that you want to help Huang Zonglang?"

  Wang Zhenyu was taken aback, laughing and waving his hand: "I don't have such great skills, but in my opinion, once these troops are dispersed, the large amount of military equipment left behind can be exchanged for money. If these goods were in Huang's hands, I estimate they wouldn't be able to exchange them for a lot of cash, and as a result, they would either be left to rust in the Nanjing arsenal or become someone else's spoils of war in the future. But Ye Lao, if they were in your hands, I estimate you could get at least 7 or 8 million yuan out of them."

  Ye Zuwen was stunned. He roughly understood "General Wang, your meaning is that we are still looking for those princes to trade with, but the Qing dynasty has already been overthrown!"

  Wang Zhenyu smiled and said, "Hehe, the Qing emperor has abdicated, but the Imperial Clan Party is still around. We can offer a discount, 100,000 rifles, each for 80 taels of silver. As for those princes, you're in charge of contacting them, I reckon they'll definitely be willing to trade with us."

  This passage is clear about the history of Wang Zhenyu, the princes of the Qing dynasty were all rich and powerful, such as that shameless, ancestor-less, money-grabbing Prince Qing Yi. When he fled to the concession, he was worth a full 100 million taels of silver. Other princes, even if they were honest and upright, would not have been much less wealthy, it's just that their time in power was shorter, and they couldn't compare to Prince Qing's ability to make money. Embezzling a few million to buy some military equipment wouldn't be a big problem. After the Qing emperor abdicated, the Royalist Party had bought up large quantities of military equipment and transported them to the Northeast, preparing for a comeback, but unfortunately, they were all confiscated by Zhang Zuolin, resulting in their failed restoration, but helping the Fengtian warlord complete the original accumulation of capital.

  This statement is indeed extremely ironic when turned around. If one had known today, why bother with the past?

  Why did the regent have to give power to Yuan Shikai? It was not entirely because Yuan Shikai had prestige in the Beiyang Six Divisions, but because the imperial court had no money to mobilize the Beiyang Six Divisions to suppress the revolution.

  Thus, the strangest scene in history appeared: on the one hand, the largest vested interest group, the Manchu royal family, was extremely wealthy; on the other hand, the court was so poor that it had to empty the entire inner treasury and only managed to scrape together 80,000 taels of gold.

  To give an inappropriate example, suppose that at that moment the princes could have made some sacrifices and thought about the ancestors of the Aixinjueluo family, Nurhaci, and then considered the idea of "one honor for all, one loss for all". If they had taken out their own silver to support this court that had fattened them up, just the wealth of the Qingwang family alone could have sent the Beiyang Six Towns to suppress the revolution several times. Unfortunately, they had enjoyed privileges for too long, and it had been so long that people had become pigs. Everyone thought in their hearts that this Qing dynasty was a matter of the Zongshi Wangfu family, what did it have to do with us? Our silver was also hard-earned, not easily obtained. In the end, it was a mess.

  Reflecting on history, the great Qing dynasty was not overthrown by the revolutionaries, but was defeated by its own greed and shamelessness.

  A single word, rotten, rotten to the bone.

  However, after losing their privileges, the kings who had lost their qualifications to continue being pigs and returned to the human world suddenly woke up. Unfortunately, it was too late, looking at themselves, what else did they have besides the silver obtained by using their privileges? Restoration was naturally put on their agenda, and power is only precious when it has been lost.

  Wang Zhenyu's idea was immediately recognized by Ye Zuwen, but it wasn't that easy to put into practice. The most crucial point was how to persuade Huang Xing to agree to sell the military supplies to fill the gap in the disbandment expenses. It is necessary to know that Huang Xing's greatest hope at present is to complete the post-war loan on the other side and then send down the disbandment expenses as promised. As long as this hope remains, the biggest obstacle to selling the military supplies is not someone else, but Huang Xing himself.

  Good things come to those who wait, and Wang Zhenyu was not in a hurry. He first sent Ma Xicheng to ask for leave, leaving the training of the troops to Yang Wanguo, Xu Yuanquan, Wan Yaohuang and others. He himself changed into casual clothes and brought Ma Xicheng, Zhao Dongsheng and other guards to follow Ye Zuwen to Shanghai to pay a visit to Liu Hongsheng, a business genius who was strongly recommended by Ye Zuwen.

  Just out of Nanjing, Wang Zhenyu thought of Liu Guojun, the owner of Hefeng general merchandise store in Changzhou. Although he is still a small boss of a general merchandise store now, in Wang Zhenyu's eyes, it's just that the time hasn't come yet. A golden scale is not an ordinary thing in the pool, once it encounters wind and rain, it becomes a dragon.

  He had Ma Xi Cheng bring his own token (the jade pendant given by Liu Guojun) to find this Jin Lin. In Wang Zhenyu's view, this was also a business genius, and since he had already agreed to recruit for himself, he might as well use him this time too.

  Wang Zhenyu has been in this world for almost half a year, and his thoughts have gradually cleared up. To achieve something, the two most important things are money and talent.

  Among them, talent is far more important than money. Not only do we need people who can fight, but also those who can strategize and make plans, as well as those who can earn money for us, and so on and so forth, none of which can be missing.

  Masicheng and Liu Guojun had not yet arrived in Shanghai, when Wang Zhenyu met Ye Zuwen's old friend Liu Hongsheng at the train station. This person was surprisingly young, only 24 years old, and was only two or three years older than himself. His features were very delicate, with phoenix eyes and clever eyebrows, and he was not tall, wearing a well-fitted suit that exuded a refined air. If you didn't look carefully, he actually bore some resemblance to the photos of the four great dan actors in Peking Opera. This appearance shocked Wang Zhenyu, who couldn't help but think that if this young man were to become an opera singer, he would definitely be famous, provided he was allowed to lip-sync.

  What surprised Wang Zhenyu even more was that through Ye Zuwen's introduction, he learned that three years ago, 21-year-old Liu Hongsheng was just a small clerk. However, this person had the audacity to take over the business of the British-owned Kaiping Mining Bureau in Shanghai and became its sales representative there. It is worth noting that at that time, Kaiping coal could not even open up a market in Shanghai, but Liu Hongsheng took it on and not only succeeded but also achieved some small successes, occupying a certain share of the market within three years. As the saying goes, "heroes emerge in youth", Wang Zhenyu admired this somewhat effeminate Liu brother with nothing but admiration.

  Liu Hongsheng's impression of Wang Zhenyu was not very good. Before meeting him, Liu had already received a telegram from Ye Zuwen. Liu had a bad habit when doing business - he didn't like to socialize with important figures in the military and political circles, because in his opinion, these people were greedy animals, and among them, generals who held powerful armies were particularly distasteful to him. In his view, what was the point of a businessman like himself going to see a rough and unrefined military man?

  However, Ye Zuwu did pull himself up by his own bootstraps when he first started out. Not only did he introduce himself to the right people, but also borrowed money to help him secure the Shanghai agency for Kaiping Coal. Such kindness is not to be taken lightly, and no matter what, one must show respect.

  Recently, I have been thinking of expanding my coal business, but funding has become a major problem. After some thought, under the current turbulent situation, the only way to raise funds is through Mr. Ye, who has recently risen in Wuhan and is known as the "Eastern Yu and Western Ye". So, he decided to meet with Wang Zhenyu.

  The first time Liu Hongsheng met Ye Laoban, he was very polite to Wang Zhenyu, but this politeness was clearly accompanied by a sense of distance. As someone who had been through the vicissitudes of life, Wang Zhenyu didn't mind these things, after all, having done real estate for so long in his past life, he knew what it was like to interact with people. It was absolutely impossible to follow the usual pattern of transmigration, where one would emit a strong aura and then many heroes would come to offer their allegiance.

  This world is very realistic, it all depends on strength, without strength, no matter how eloquent you are, it's just nonsense.

  Wang Zhenyu was very confident in his ability to subdue Liu Hongsheng, but it wasn't because of the small amount of military power he had at his disposal.

  Because if it's compared to military strength, the person with the most value in China at present is Yuan Shikai, and as for Wang Zhenyu this guy doesn't even have a territory... Hmm, he can't even be considered a small warlord, only a small military leader. And with the actual power in his hands, I estimate that nationwide he would rank outside of 700 or 800. (Wang Zhenyu asked tearfully: "Am I really that bad?") As for attracting talent, I estimate it's just slightly stronger than a local tyrant or evil gentry.

  Wang Zhenyu's confidence came from a message conveyed by Ye Zuwen, that Liu Hongsheng now seems to need money, a large sum of it. At this time of turmoil, all those with some money are tightening their purse strings and exchanging them for foreign currency to store away without moving. Even banks are being cautious about lending, and even someone as powerful as Yuan Shikai is having trouble negotiating a post-war loan with foreigners, let alone others. This isn't the foreigners being stingy, but rather the situation is unstable and the future uncertain, making it possible that money lent out may not be recovered. Therefore, the most difficult thing to do now is to borrow money.

  Wang Zhenyu believed that at present, apart from himself who was wealthy and powerful, no one else could help Liu Hongsheng.