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Volume 2 Beijing Story Chapter 161 Railways, Banks and Charity

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    Update time: 2012-08-15

    July 1917 was destined to be an extraordinary month. Another defeat of the Russian army on the Eastern Front brought Russia's domestic situation to the brink of collapse. The armed march in Petrograd caused strange divisions in the Soviet itself. On the 24th of last month  The Central Committee of the Soviets (vtsik) was elected by the First All-Russian Conference of Workers¡¯ and Soldiers¡¯ Representatives, and was actually led by members of the Mensheviks and the Socialist Revolutionary Party.

    First, at the end of June, in order to cooperate with the Russian army's upcoming offensive against Germany and Austria, the Soviets stopped the Bolshevik demonstration movement originally planned to launch in Petrograd. On July 1, an official Soviet demonstration held for unity appeared.  The slogan was the Bolshevik slogan to overthrow the bourgeois ministers.

    With the Russian army's another defeat on the front line and the end of the offensive on July 15, Trotsky and his district alliance faction, who had been in exile for ten years and rushed back to Russia via Canada after the February Revolution, joined the Bolsheviks. This past life  The emergence of the so-called founder of the Soviet Red Army made the Bolsheviks extremely strong.

    A large-scale armed demonstration was held in Petrograd on July 15 and 16. The Bolshevik slogan demanded "do everything possible for the Soviets", which was called the "July Crisis" at the time. Immediately afterwards, Lvov, the head of the provisional government, resigned and  Called for Kerensky to be prime minister and form a new government.  The second cabinet of the Russian Provisional Government was established on July 25.

    In July 1917, the western front of the European battlefield was relatively calm. The previous landing of the US advance detachment in southern France had a more symbolic meaning. As for the Chinese advance detachment, it was also escorted by the troop transport Princess Mary.  The fleet floated in the Indian Ocean.

    The Japanese government now feels that it is caught in a dilemma. On the one hand, the 200 million yen loan from China has enabled domestic capital to find a way out of the vast Chinese market. Not only has the Manchuria-Mongolia 5th Railway Construction Plan been strengthened and recommended,  The extension section of the Beijing-Suiyuan Railway, that is, the railway construction project from Zhangjiakou to Guisui was restarted, and Japan received priority for construction.

    On the one hand, Japan has felt a bit of panic and worry about the continuous growth and armament of the Chinese participating armies. Especially after more than 300 British fighter planes arrived in Nanyuan and began to prepare to form an army, do the Chinese really want to join the war in Europe?

    The construction of the 240.3-kilometer Feng-Sui section from Fengzhen to Suiyuan has begun, and the railway line has entered Suiyuan. What¡¯s even more terrible is that Wang Geng is claiming that the war troops will go to Europe by land to join the war. Does anyone believe it?  Only God knows. Anyway, Wang Geng asked Japanese contractors to expedite the construction of the Zhangjiakou to Guisui section of the Beijing-Suiyuan Railway with maximum investment and fastest speed.

    Wang Geng's requirements for the construction period of the Beijing-Suiyuan Railway are exaggerated to the extent that one kilometer of paving is completed every day. The reason is that the Beijing-Suiyuan Railway has completed the exploration and route design a few years ago, and the Americans can build 6,000 kilometers in a year in the country.  There are 3,000 kilometers of railways and 3,000 kilometers of highways. Judging from the general progress of railway laying projects in China at that time, it was a remarkable speed to lay 4 kilometers of rail tracks in one month.

    In fact, in Wang Geng's previous life, the historical construction speed of the Zhangjiakou to Guisui section of the Pingsui Railway created a railway construction miracle at that time. Construction started in August 1919, and the 240.3-kilometer railway was fully completed on May 1, 1921.  and completion.  It only took 20 months, and the average monthly mileage was 12 kilometers, which is almost two and a half days to lay one kilometer.

    Wang Geng¡¯s current requirement for Japanese contractors is to reach one kilometer a day. The cost of manpower and material resources is not a problem. In fact, if the funds used did not come from borrowing from Japan, Wang Geng would not want to waste words with the Japanese. Zhan Tianyou  When the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, designed and constructed by a Chinese company, was opened to traffic in 1909, it set a record for the fastest and lowest cost domestic railway construction at that time.

    Since the construction of these railway projects under the leadership of Wang Geng only used loans from Japan as construction funds, rather than using railway rights of way as mortgage loans for construction, these proposed railway projects will all belong to state-owned railways after completion, and Japanese construction companies will only  Under the same conditions, we have obtained the priority to contract construction. Of course, Japanese suppliers of raw materials and equipment also have priority to purchase at the same price.

    In order to speed up the construction progress of the Beijing-Suiyuan Railway, Wang Geng also started the widening and reinforcement project of the Beijing-Suiyuan Highway. Both projects were carried out in parallel. Firstly, it ensured the transportation of raw materials for railway construction. Secondly, it would take half a year at the fastest for the entire Beijing-Suiyuan section to be completed.  After that, Wang Geng hopes that the road transportation and transportation capacity between Beijing, Zhangjiakou and Zhangsui can be successfully guaranteed. Until the main artery of the railway is not connected, the small artery of the road network can only bear greater responsibilities.

    As the major investors of the Beijing-Suiyuan Railway Company, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Communications each hold 50% of the shares. In addition, the Bank of China and the Bank of Communications each hold 25% of the shares. The Bank of China and the Bank of Communications, which have completed the capital increase and share expansion at the end of April, this time  At that time, each had a capital of 30 million yuan. What is surprising is that the two banks, Bank of China and Bank of Communications,??The largest shareholder is the newly established China Charity Foundation, which holds 50% of the shares in Bank of China and 30% of the shares in Bank of Communications.

    The China Charity Foundation alone holds equity capital of 25 million yuan in Bank of China and Bank of Communications. In addition, the China Charity Foundation also holds 80% of the equity in Shanghai Commercial Savings Bank, one of the three southern banks acquired by Wang Geng.  This acquisition was also completed quietly at the end of April. Wang Geng¡¯s fellow Jiangsu fellow, Chen Guangfu, a native of Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, could not refuse the conditions given by Wang Geng:

    Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank¡¯s net assets increased capital and shares at a premium of 1:5. The total capital of Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank from the original seven shareholders was less than 200,000 yuan.  After the premium, the price was 1 million yuan, and Wang Geng invested an additional 4 million yuan, making Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank's registered capital reach 5 million yuan, making it a heavyweight bank among private commercial banks in the country.

    The acquisition of Shanghai Commercial and Savings Bank would have had no chance of success without Wang Geng's two brothers, Song Hanzhang and Zhang Jiayao, as introducers. As a member of the Tongmenghui, Chen Guangfu was determined to open a completely private commercial bank that would not be restrained by the government.  and squeezing commercial banks.

    But when the Bank of China itself was transformed into a commercial bank with mainly private shares under Wang Geng's leadership and promotion, coupled with its trust in two old friends, Song Hanzhang and Zhang Jiayao, Wang Geng, a recently rising national elite, had  A trace of expectation made Chen Guangfu accept Wang Geng's olive branch.

    In particular, Wang Geng promised that the daily operation and management of Shanghai Commercial Savings Bank will be dominated by Chen Guangfu and his management team. Chen Guangfu was appointed as the first lifelong president in the history of Shanghai Commercial Savings Bank!

    As for the China Charity Foundation, which holds equity in three banks, has 2 million yuan in liquidity, and has total assets of 32 million yuan, it is managed by a 12-member board of directors, and the chairman is Wang Geng, the palace on Shihuma Street in Beijing.  The former resident of the hotel, the famous Xiong Xiling, the first democratically elected prime minister of the Republic of China, had no reason to reject Wang Geng's request for the former prime minister who was determined to withdraw from officialdom and politics and devote himself to charity industry.

    In fact, Wang Geng unknowingly became the founder of China's largest charity foundation in this era. Of course, after this guy hired Xiong Xiling to manage the charity foundation for him, he still became his hands-off shopkeeper.  They all happened quietly in the three months from May to July 1917.

    Turning back to the railways, while the Zhangsui section of the Beijing-Suiyuan Railway was in full swing at the end of April, the exploration and design work for the second extension section of the Beijing-Suiyuan Railway: from Guisui to Baotou has also been restarted after several years of interruption.  Zhan Tianyou, the railway technical director of the Ministry of Railways, also serves as the chief engineer of the Beijing-Suiyuan Railway Company.

    At the end of July 1917, the 240-kilometer railway line from Zhangjiakou to Guisui, which was officially started in early May, had been laid to 100 kilometers. The exploration team led by Zhan Tianyou also successfully completed the exploration of the 149.6-kilometer line from Guisui to Baotou.  Then Zhan Tianyou¡¯s exploration and design team was divided into three. The first team set out from Baotou to the north to explore and design a 100-kilometer branch line to Bayan Obo, and the second team set out from Baotou to the south to explore and design a 90-kilometer branch line to Ordos.

    The third detachment is even more outrageous. It starts directly from the middle of the Guisui and Zhangjiakou railway lines, which is where the project is currently being laid, at Ulanqab Station, all the way north. The first target is Erenhot on the border of Inner and Inner Mongolia!  The mileage of this main line is more than 310 kilometers.  And according to Wang Geng's plan, exploration and construction were carried out at the same time. The reason was also the same as the old one: to connect with the Siberian Railway as soon as possible and open up a railway artery from land to the Eastern Front of the European War as soon as possible!

    Everything the War Participation Supervision Office did seemed to be to enable China to substantially participate in the European battlefield as soon as possible, and to work with the US military to save the precarious situation of the Allied Powers in the European War, especially in July 1917 when Russia showed signs of collapse.
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