Chapter 857 The King Returns

Under the hazy sky, thick clouds rolled like waves, slowly moving toward the east.

Gray clouds opened and closed in the sky overhead, so low that people could reach out and touch them.

The pine trees on the mountains stretched out their branches from the clouds and let the drizzle wash away the dust. The raindrops are very light, so light that they can dance freely in the mountains and forests with the mountain wind, but do not want to fall into the arms of Mother Earth easily.

It is already late autumn, snowflakes are flying on the northern prairie, and the earth is covered with white clothes; the leaves in the north are also withered and yellow, and it is desolate; but at the foot of the mountain in front of us, there is still a patch of green.

Tonglu is really a good place, with beautiful mountains and clear waters. It is located in the middle reaches of the Qiantang River, and the Fuchun River runs diagonally through the county. The geographical location is very good, bordering Zhuji to the east, Pujiang and Jiande to the south, Chun'an to the west, Fuyang to the northeast, and Lin'an to the northwest.

In later generations, Tonglu was well-known as the most economically powerful county in western Zhejiang. But in today's era, this is just one of the many wealthy urban and rural areas in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, a land of plenty.

It's just that there is a bit of commotion in Tonglu today, because the Li Group is going to hold a conference in Tonglu. The heads of its branch companies, large and medium-sized companies, and groups are all gathered here.

In front of the private manor at the foot of Daqing Mountain, hundreds of neatly dressed security guards and corporate executives lined up waiting in front of the manor. The gongs and drums team in the distance were all dressed in red and decorated, waiting all the time.

The senior executives standing at the front were all looking forward to it.

As the eldest prince rushed to America, the Li Group not only did not become quieter in the past two years, but its external performance became even stronger.

This was not because Li Kun was dizzy, but because he was worried about his nephew.

Chen Ding left the mainland. Regardless of whether his title changed or not, he left.

The left Chen Ding and the present Chen Ding are two different concepts. Many things that Chen Ding and others could not do before can now be done.

If Chen Ding did the same thing when he was in Nanjing, it would be a formal war and a quarrel; but with Chen Ding gone, it would be a fight tacitly allowed by the rules.

As the eldest prince, Chen Ding entered society when his younger brothers were still young. Several years of leading time really created a lot of favorable conditions for him. Now it is time for Chen Sui and the others to take back these advantages.

After the initial shock and the shock of the title, more and more people in Chen Han's political circles began to regard Chen Ming's assignment of Chen Ding to America as a strategy to 'balance his son'.

You, Chen Ding, have the lead, so let’s go ahead and ‘waste’ two years; the younger sons below are short of time, alas, now dad will give you this opportunity to catch up.

As for changing the two-character knighthood to one-character king, that is just a compensation, and going to America for two years can indeed train people.

In this case, Li Kun had to support the eldest prince family for his departing nephew.

It was like a guard dog whose owner had left, wary of anyone approaching, baring its teeth, roaring, intimidating everyone, and loyal to its duties.

Now that Chen Ding is about to return to the mainland, Li Kun summons all the leaders of the current "Li Group", that is, to wave flags and beat drums to cheer for His Royal Highness the King of Yu who is about to return.

The Li Group is also an important force in the First Prince's family, or more accurately, the money bag of the First Prince's family. Even if you don't win over the army or corrupt officials, if you want to run a faction, it must be inseparable from wealth.

A very simple example, how do officials move up?

Then it depends on whether there are political achievements, and how can you achieve political achievements without money?

Officials who have the support of money bags have a much easier road than those who do not.

After the former takes office, he can immediately perform the 'Great Summoning Spell', and then implement investments one by one in the areas under his jurisdiction, such as land and water transportation, processing of local specialties, and the construction of labor-intensive industries such as textile factories. Whether it is a textile factory, spinning mill or food processing factory, it can greatly increase the local economic development.

In addition, there are a series of charitable funds, such as student funds, medical funds, and donations for raising orphans...

As long as they are willing to invest money, the local government will soon be able to achieve corresponding political achievements.

Therefore, the support of wealth plays a huge role no matter what age it is.

What's more, Li Kun is the uncle of the eldest prince. During Chen Ding's absence for the past two years, he was the representative of the eldest prince's family.

Now Chen Ding's two-year 'exile' career is finally over.

But his opponents are also stronger. Li Kun had two contacts with Chen Ding, and then this meeting was held. Chen Ding, who had been away from Chen Han's political core for two years, needed a massive 'shock' to mark his return.

Li Kun arrived in Hangzhou yesterday and took a boat trip. He was able to arrive here at noon today. But it's almost one o'clock now.

"Mr. Fan, how long does it take for the meeting to arrive? Didn't it say that the boat trip only takes three hours? Why haven't we arrived yet?" Wang Da, the shopkeeper of a chain pawnshop in Dehengdang, quietly took out his pocket watch, looked at the time and asked road. He came over from Ningbo after a long journey yesterday. As soon as he arrived in Tonglu early this morning, he followed Fan Zhong and others to the private villa outside the city to welcome Li Kun. He didn't sleep all night. After standing for several hours, the shopkeeper felt soreness in his back and numbness in his limbs, making him unsteady on his feet.

"Wait a little longer, it should be here soon. Or you can go down and take a rest first?" Fan Zhong also said slightly tiredly.

He has been a little busy and dizzy these days. As the chief steward of the Li Group, Fan Zhong was making preparations to welcome King Yu and prepare everything for the meeting. On the other hand, he was also keeping records of all the members of the entire interest group. Small events, actions and personnel changes.

The eldest prince is coming back. The 'loyal ministers' in the system whose interests have been damaged in the past two years need condolences. The officials and business people who have recently planned to defect to the system need to be 'visited'. In addition, the small hills within them need to work for their own interests. The constant quarrel gave Fan Zhong and Li Kun a headache. And so many things were placed on Fan Zhong's shoulders before they fell into Li Kun's hands. Now he doesn't even have time to sleep for five hours a day. He can only take a break during the day to close his eyes and take a nap. nap.

However, Fan Zhong would not be lazy at all.

He was a former Jinshi of the Qing Dynasty - Xin Mao Enke, who was ranked third in the first class in the 36th year of Qianlong's reign - Tanhua. If Li Kun hadn't helped him, his family would still be worrying about their livelihood.

Therefore, his loyalty to Li Kun is extremely high.

Even Chen Ding, the big boss of the Li family, is not his first allegiance.

Although Fan Zhong had only been away from Li Kun for five days, he came to Tonglu first to take care of the manor here and prepare everything for the reception. Now he has to deal with his boss!

Fighting back his sleepiness, Fan Zhong reluctantly opened his bloodshot eyes and looked north. He touched his pocket out of habit, only to realize that it was empty. Seeing that shopkeeper Wang from De Hengdang was standing next to him with a look of sleepiness on his face, Fan Zhong asked in a low voice, "shopkeeper Wang, do you have any cigarettes with you? Give me one."

Fan Zhong is a long-time smoker and likes to smoke dry cigarettes, but his status is different now. Except for holding a pipe and pot in his hand at home, he smokes cigarettes everywhere else, and they are high-end cigarettes with filters.

The latter is a new technology that has just been promoted by the China Tobacco Administration. It uses cotton as the main raw material. Although it requires manual manipulation and the production efficiency is low, it also applies to the fact that rare things are more expensive.

It was mainly the emperor who first started smoking filter cigarettes, and then the invention spread across the country instantly. In recent years, the Tobacco Bureau has made a lot of money just from patent licensing, and its sales are more popular than bread.

Shopkeeper Wang carries cigarettes with him, and they are also filtered. The latter has become a status symbol in China, and the 'Panda Brand' cigarettes, which are exclusively for the royal family, are not available except for the rich and powerful.

"Well, Mr. Fan, I think you should go down and rest. How can you just smoke to refresh yourself? It's better to smoke less cigarettes. The emperor has said that smoking too much of these things will harm your body!"

Chen Ming set a good start for Chinese society. Although he did not smoke at first, when he got into trouble during the war, he inevitably had one in his mouth. Many middle-level officers who don't see him often think that their leader is a heavy smoker who smokes all day long. This also caused smoking to become common among the Fuhan Army and the National Defense Forces, and then this phenomenon was passed on to the government. In today's Chinese society, everyone with some status has a cigarette in their mouth. As for whether Chen Ming, the instigator, is really a heavy smoker who never leaves his mouth every day, it is not that important.

Many Europeans living in China can't stand this kind of 'custom', and the feeling of chaos is really bad. Fan Zhong is relatively moderate. Among the people behind him, there are some who are so powerful that they can smoke two to three packs a day. They really want to get into the cigarettes and not get out.

"It's okay, I just smoked two more cigarettes, nothing serious."

Although Chen Ming has high prestige in China, few people believe him when he says that smoking is harmful to health. At least Fan Zhong is one of them.

"By the way, Shopkeeper Wang, you just came from Ningbo. What is the evaluation of our rubber plantation in Ningbo's business district? Is anyone willing to spend money to buy stocks?"

After ten or twenty years of development, the cultivation of rubber in Nanyang has initially yielded results.

Raincoats, a very practical product, make the future of rubber bright.

Although Chen Ming provided 'vulcanization', the key to unlocking the treasure of natural rubber, Chen Han's efforts over the years have only peeled off the first layer of veil on the surface of natural rubber.

He already had a raincoat, but he still had no success with rubber shoes and rubber-soled shoes, let alone the self-made inner tubes and outer straps he wanted. This also shows that there is still a long way to go before natural rubber can be put into practical use.

But now with the invention of raincoats, natural rubber has no worries about sales.

"There are a few people who are optimistic about the prospects of this rubber plantation..." Shopkeeper Wang Da started talking.