Xie Yuxi is still very good at doing things. With the experience of Beiman Girls' High School, after coming to Tianjin, she also found Chengmei Church, a church middle school opened by the Wesleyan Protestant Church in Tianjin.
This school has also been followed to this day, and its name has become today's Tianjin Huiwen Middle School. Ma Sanli, the master of cross talk, graduated from this school.
The Wesleyan missionaries managed this school well. It was not as short of money as Beiman Girls' High School in the capital, so they did not want to go out independently.
However, Wesley Zong recommended people to Xie Yuxi who were on the board of directors of the British Concession Industry Bureau. Through them, Xie Yuxi finally contacted someone who was interested in selling the land.
——Xu Run, a large real estate developer. Xu Run knew about Li Yu. He had experienced the tragic ups and downs of the business world. After making money for most of his life, he still wanted to do some education and do some good.
Xu Run also wanted to meet Li Yu with his own eyes and get to know the most famous Chinese person abroad.
But if Xie Yuxi wants to rent or buy the land in his hands, he still needs to get the nod from the Tianjin Concession Industry Bureau.
Like Xu Run, Breeden, the director of the British Concession Industrial Bureau, also wanted to meet Li Yu. When the time comes, let him appear and talk to Breton in person, and there will be a certain probability of obtaining the consent of the Industrial Bureau.
Xu Run was a man who knew how to get things done, so he immediately started a fight at the famous Cheesewood Restaurant in the British Concession, and invited Breeden, director of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Bureau, Tang Shaoyi from the Tianjin Customs Department, Yan Fansun and Zhang Boling, celebrities in the education industry, to appear.
Tang Shaoyi came because of Li Yu's sake. Xu Run knew this, but it would be more beneficial to him to take this opportunity to get to know senior officials.
So Xie Yuxi sent a telegram to Li Yu, inviting him to open the Shilin Restaurant in the British Concession in Tianjin.
After Fengling at home received the telegram, she translated it and immediately gave it to Li Yu. After reading it, Li Yu had nothing to say. Anyway, Tianjin is so close, so just go.
After tidying up a little, he called Zhao Qian and took him to the train station. After buying the ticket, Li Yu still sighed: "It would be great if I could buy an annual pass now." Train tickets at this time are not cheap.
Li Yu has been to Tianjin several times and is very familiar with it. According to the address they gave, we found the Cheeseline Restaurant.
This restaurant is located at the northeast end of the famous Tianjin Fifth Avenue and has been passed down to future generations as a time-honored restaurant.
Chishilin Restaurant is one of the earliest Western restaurants and is a very tasteful place in today's Tianjin Concession.
Li Yu came to the door of the restaurant, looked at it, and asked the security guard: "Is this the Chishilin Restaurant?" The security guard glanced at Li Yu and didn't want to talk to him.
So Li Yu asked again: "Excuse me, is this Qi Shilin Restaurant?" The security guard finally raised his eyes and looked at Li Yu: "Yes, what are you doing?"
"That's right." Li Yu raised his legs and wanted to walk in, but the security guard shouted angrily: "Stop!" Li Yu was stunned: "Stop?" The security guard looked at him: "Chinese?" Li Yu He wondered: "Yeah, what's wrong?" The security guard said: "This is a Western restaurant specially opened for foreign adults. Chinese people are not allowed to enter unless they are accompanied by foreign adults."
"Do you need a foreigner to accompany you?" Li Yu asked in shock,
"Where did this ridiculous rule come from?" The security guard raised his belt and said, "That's it! Chinese people are too dirty. If you just go in casually, you might disturb the interest of the foreign adults." Li Yu almost laughed in anger. : "Isn't this nonsense!" The security guard snorted: "I don't have time to bullshit you, hurry up, hurry up!" Li Yu said: "If Chinese people have to go in accompanied by foreigners, wouldn't they be led in like dogs? "The security guard said: "You can understand it this way."
"Are you Chinese too?" Li Yu asked. The security guard said, "Yes."
"You are a watchdog here and you actually stop Chinese people. Don't you feel ashamed?" Li Yu said.
"Who are you scolding! You are the dog!" the security guard said loudly,
"Anyway, you have to be led by a foreigner to go in!" Li Yu asked: "Do you know who I am?" The security guard said: "I don't care who you are, my duty is to prevent random people from entering at will. This place is too close to the pier. , there are always Chinese people begging in, so the hotel has this rule.”
"Damn!" Li Yu felt like he had met a fool. But think about it, although Li Yu has gained a lot of fame, most people who know him are literate. And how many people in China are literate now? Most people don't even know about Li Yu's existence. .
In other words, apart from the county magistrate and the emperor, most Chinese people basically don’t know anyone outside of their place of residence.
During the Gengzi National Disaster, the Eight-Power Allied Forces caused chaos in Beijing and Tianjin. Many farmers fled to relatively safe concessions.
Unexpectedly, not long after, many foreign venues have set up strange rules. Li Yu once saw the so-called
He didn't expect to encounter the shameful sign "Chinese people and dogs are not allowed". The key lies in the Chinese territory.
The saddest thing is that the person who stopped him turned out to be a Chinese! Discrimination is not terrible, but the strange looks from compatriots are the most harmful.
If Li Yu hadn't wanted to keep the appointment, he would have turned away long ago, so he had to endure the explanation. But before he could say anything, two more children begging came over and said to the security guard: "Master, please do a good job. Are there any leftovers? Give us two bites." The security guard was annoyed: "This is the third time today, don't you bother me! Don't delay the hotel's business!" The older children said: "Master, just let me Can my brother take just two bites? We’ve been hungry for four days and we just can’t stand it anymore!”
"Get out of here, get out of here, if Mr. Yang sees this, I will be punished too!" The security guard immediately drove them away.
Li Yu didn't want to explain who he was now, and the security guard might not be able to understand his explanation, and thought he was fooling him.
Li Yu looked around and saw that there seemed to be a steamed bun shop along the street in the distance, so he said to the two beggars, "Come on, I'll take you to eat steamed buns." The Haihe River in Tianjin had been dredged three years ago, and along the canal and There are many people coming from Haihe, but due to the influence of the Gengzi Incident, their lives are very difficult, and beggars are common.
The two little beggars immediately said to Li Yu: "You are the eldest master, you are the eldest master!" Li Yu sighed, said nothing more, and took them to the bun shop.
I looked up and saw it was
The signboard of "De Ju Hao" means that if this is not Goubuli's bun shop founded by Gao Guiyou, it is at least his branch shop.
Gao Guiyou has been running a steamed bun shop for decades, and his steamed buns have long been famous in Tianjin.
Even Yuan Shikai knew about his buns when he was training the Beiyang New Army in Tianjin. In this era, there is no advertising. It is not easy to be known on the streets. It depends entirely on your true ability.
As for
The origin of the name "Goubuli Baozi" is actually because Gao Guiyou's nickname is
"dog". His business was so prosperous that he had no time to collect money, so he asked people to throw the money into the bowl. So everyone spread the word: "If a dog sells buns, don't pay any attention to it."
From passing to passing, it becomes like a dog ignoring the buns. The two little beggars looked at the buns eagerly and drooled.
When the shop owner saw it, he said, "Wait a minute. I've specially steamed some bran wowo, and I'll bring you a few." The shop owner was also kind-hearted, but he was at a loss by giving them steamed buns, and for beggars, eating bran wowo was too much. The vegetable is no different from eating steamed buns made from yeast dough, as long as it can quench hunger.
Li Yu understood what he meant, so he said: "No, boss, let them eat steamed buns this time. I will pay for how much they eat. In addition, give me a few." When the two beggars heard Li Yu's words, they were completely shocked. Unable to wait for the shop owner to agree, he grabbed seven or eight buns with each of his four hands and started devouring them.
The shop owner didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "There is water next to it. Go ahead and drink it yourself." Then he brought a plate to Li Yu and said, "Sir, please take it easy." Li Yu tasted it and found that it tasted pretty good.
The shop owner said: "In this world, good people like you are really rare." Li Yu smiled bitterly: "It helped for a while, but I don't know what will happen tomorrow." There are too many street children today, and there are even more on the other side of the Haihe River. Every day There are people who risk their lives by swimming over.
The shop owner said: "From what you said, you have returned from studying abroad, right?" Li Yu nodded: "That's right. May I ask if your surname is Gao?" The shop owner said: "Yes, I am Gao Jinming." It turned out to be a dog. The son of Gao Guiyou, the founder of Ignore Baozi, or rather his adopted son, used to be a clerk in the store.
"Is it good business to open a shop in the concession?" Li Yu asked casually when he had nothing to do. Gao Jinming said: "It's really okay. I didn't expect foreigners to also like to eat this. In the beginning, our business in the French Concession was only okay. After moving to the British Concession this year, it was really good." Li Yu said with a smile: "It's a good relationship." Gao Jinming said, "It's really strange. Why do you think these foreigners still like to eat our steamed buns when they are so rich?" Li Yu said, "If you eat British food a few times, you might understand. They don't know what food is." Gao Jinming didn't know the British food culture. He just thought that foreigners were so good and they must eat better.
In fact, nowadays in foreign countries, they also love Chinese soup dumplings very much. Li Yu's buns are delicious here, but it's different in Qi Shilin Restaurant.
Xu Run and Tang Shaoyi were already in Tianjin and had arrived early. Even if Breeden, the director of the Tianjin British Concession Industry Bureau, did not come with him, the security guards would not dare to stop the dignified Tianjin Customs Commissioner.
To put it bluntly, it's up to others to order the dishes. Xu Run deliberately curried favor with Tang Shaoyi and said politely: "Tang Daotai, it's a great honor for you to come today." Tang Shaoyi smoked a cigar in his signature manner and said, "It's also for the cause of education." Xu Run immediately praised: "Tang Daotai Gaoyi!" Tang Shaoyi asked: "Your business seems to be improving recently?" Xu Run smiled and said: "Doing a small business, you can't compare with Tang Daotai." Tang Shaoyi puffed out a cigarette: "What if you It is also called small business, and there is no big business." Xu Run was a super real estate developer in Shanghai back then. It should be said that he was the first generation of big real estate developers in Shanghai, earlier than Hartung.
Xu Run was one of the four major compradors in the late Qing Dynasty. He started out in the tea business and became very big. He was known as
"Shanghai Tea King". Later, when Shanghai opened as a port, Xu Run had a very sharp vision. He saw early on the popularity of real estate in Shanghai in the future, so he spent all his wealth to buy real estate in the Yangzijiang Road area.
The situation where "you can have as much money as you want". For more than a hundred years, the model of real estate speculation has been like this. Xu Run’s model may sound familiar to everyone: Xu Run uses the money he earns from running tea to purchase land and real estate; then he mortgages the real estate and borrows money from a bank or bank Get the loan, continue to buy real estate...and the cycle repeats.
The key is that this person saw it very accurately. He had a thorough understanding of the expansion trend of Shanghai's concessions, and then bought land at a low price in a traffic thoroughfare. After operating it to a semi-developed state, he sold it at a high price, and then purchased more land from other places.
On the eve of the Sino-French War, he already owned more than 3,000 acres of land in his name. Among them, 300 acres have been built with houses, with a total of more than 2,000 rooms.
Xu Runguang collects 120,000 taels of silver in house rent every year. Therefore Xu Run is also known as
"Shanghai Real Estate King". However, after the Sino-French War, Shanghai housing prices fell to the bottom. He suffered heavy losses and had to sell a large number of assets to Hartung at a low price.
you could say so
"Xu Run is down, and Ha is full". In the same year, another Anhui businessman Hu Xueyan also encountered a similar problem.
The company was completely defeated in the "raw silk war" and suffered a huge loss of 10 million taels of silver. It has been unable to recover since then. However, Xu Run was not discouraged, and instead took a fancy to Tianjin real estate, purchasing nearly 2,000 acres of land at a low price.
After 1900, Tianjin's investment environment was greatly improved as the Haihe River channel was dredged and the excavated sand filled up large swamps in concessions in various countries.
Business activities in the Tianjin Concession have also become more prosperous, which has led to the boom in real estate. Xu Run once again made a lot of money.
This man can be called a wizard in business. In addition, he also founded China's first insurance company; he also participated in the establishment of the Steamship Merchants Bureau and Kaiping Coal Mine.
Real estate is naturally booming, and Tianjin concessions are also expanding. Tang Shaoyi whispered worriedly: "Britain and France are desperately trying to expand the scope of the concession. At the beginning of this year, the British succeeded, and I am afraid France is not far behind." Last year, the French Consul in Tianjin, Luo Tuge, sent a note to Tang Shaoyi of the Tianjin Customs Department, requesting that the area should reach The 4,000-acre Laoxikai area was classified as a French concession, but Tang Shaoyi ignored it and made no reply.
However, at the beginning of this year, the British Concession was expanded first, acquiring almost 4,000 acres of land. Affected by this, France is eager to try again.
Xu Run also replied: "Indeed, a lot of land in my hands did not originally belong to the concession. Now it has been forcibly managed by the concession. If you want to sell it, you must get the approval of the board of directors of the concession industry bureau." But Xu Run, as a businessman, In fact, he was already happy. When he bought the land, he was sure that the area of the concession would expand.
However, although the Concession Ministry of Industry Bureau did not take back his land, any further transactions would require the approval of the Ministry of Industry Bureau.
To put it bluntly, you have to pay taxes to the Ministry of Industry. They chatted for a long time, waiting here and there but couldn't wait for Li Yu, and they were puzzled.
Tang Shaoyi asked Xie Yuxi: "The time was agreed upon, right?" Xie Yuxi nodded: "Yesterday we agreed on 12 noon today, it can't be wrong." Xu Run said: "Could it be that the train was delayed?" Tang Shaoyi said: "Even if it is delayed, it won't be wrong." When it’s time, we can’t let the train blow up.”
