The Sea Queen of 1985

Chapter 284: Chapter 284: The Origin of the Seabed’s Silver and Gold

Ye Feng sipped his tea, then leaned over and whispered to Han Xiaorui, ”Want to take a guess at the treasure we salvaged from Coordinate No. 1?”

’For Ye Feng to be this eager to show off, the amount of treasure must be beyond imagination.’

”The ocean is vast, but I only saw one shipwreck. Even if it were filled with ingots and porcelain, it wouldn’t be that much!”

Ye Feng shook his head. ”If there were only one ship, your assessment would be correct. Now, I want you to guess how many ships there were in total.”

Han Xiaorui blinked. ”Since you said ’how many’ and you’re showing off like this, I’m guessing at least seven!”

Ye Feng smiled. ”I have to say, you’re very smart. You didn’t guess correctly, but you were very close!”

”We searched the area around that shipwreck again and successfully found eight more shipwrecks.”

”The shipwreck at the coordinates you gave was filled with Silver Ingots. But among the others, three were filled with gold ingots, and five were filled with Silver Ingots.”

Han Xiaorui looked astonished. ”That’s so much money! But this must have only been part of the original investment. I can’t believe it sank to the bottom of the sea!”

These gold and silver pieces were all cast and transported as ingots, which is a distinctly Hua Country style.

This gold and silver was either being shipped into the country from abroad, or out of the country.

Ye Feng replied, ”According to the captain’s log, this was a private fundraising effort under the Qing Government to invest in the United States.”

Han Xiaorui was dumbfounded. ”The late Qing Dynasty? Are you sure it was for investment and not war reparations?”

Ye Feng nodded. ”Reparations are paid directly to governments! Those are all on record, and there are no records of any sunken ships.”

”This money was shipped from Shencheng. They had raised funds from many of the powerful officials, nobles, and wealthy people of the late Qing Dynasty.”

Hearing this, Han Xiaorui gasped. ”Wasn’t that just throwing good money after bad, with no hope of ever getting it back?”

The country was so weak back then. Even if you were a wealthy person in Hua Country, how could you expect anyone to repay such a huge loan?

Ye Feng’s expression darkened. ”According to the records from that time, they loaned two hundred million taels of silver from Hua Country to build railways over there.”

”With principal and interest, plus the value of other investments, it was worth nearly one billion taels of silver. But the foreign devils didn’t want to pay it back. Instead, they loaned money to the Japanese, supporting their war against the Qing Government.”

”You know what happened next. The Qing Government was defeated, and they simply refused to repay the debt. It’s the foreign devils’ usual trick—teaming up with others to kill off their creditor.”

Han Xiaorui was aghast. ”Now that I think about it, those treacherous foreign devils do have a history of this! Despicable, shameless, and faithless. No wonder they’ve been hunted down for thousands of years.”

Ye Feng nodded. ”Historians in the country are now tracing the origins of this captain’s log, trying to find out exactly who loaned out this silver.”

Han Xiaorui laughed out loud. ”I want to know too! Were these people clever or just stupid? What on earth were they thinking?”

”The Qing Government was so weak, it had no ability to protect their money! They sent their silver away, dreaming of interest, while the others were dreaming of taking it all.”

Ye Feng said with emotion, ”That’s right! An old professor once told me a story. Back in the day, the largest shareholder of the East India Company was a man from Guangzhou.”

”Wu Bingjian was actually a creditor to the British East India Company, the infamous vanguard of the invasion of Hua Country. When the East India Company had cash flow problems, it often borrowed from the Wu family. Over time, Wu Bingjian became a shareholder in the East India Company.”

”He became their largest shareholder. But once they started making money, they did everything they could to get him killed.”

”They plan to use others to make money, use their money to make more money, and then kill them so they don’t have to pay it back.”

Han Xiaorui thought for a moment. ”That’s just what goes around, comes around. It’s karmic retribution. In the future, when we have money, we’ll buy technology from abroad to develop our own country.”

”Once our country’s technological level improves and we become stronger, they’ll finally respect us instead of looking down on us with such arrogance.”

Ye Feng looked concerned. ”Did someone give you a hard time at the trade show?”

Han Xiaorui shook her head. ”Not exactly given a hard time. It’s just that those people from Europe and America were so high and mighty, completely arrogant.”

”I can understand why—they’re wealthy, powerful, and advanced right now—but it made me very uncomfortable. Anything we don’t have, they sell at an exorbitant price.”

”That feeling really bothered me. If you fall behind, you get beaten down. After our country developed its nuclear deterrent, major wars probably won’t happen, but the conflict will shift to competition in technology, economics, culture, and education.”

Ye Feng nodded. ”Yes, it’s not life-threatening, but it’s just as difficult. But so what? We just have to rise to the challenge and keep at it! When have we Hua Country people ever been afraid?”

Han Xiaorui smiled. ”You’re right, we’re not afraid. Let’s both keep that in mind. I found a lot of clients at this trade fair. Once they start placing follow-up orders, we should be able to hit twenty million US Dollars for the full year next year.”

Ye Feng was shocked. ”I bet the higher-ups will be coming for another inspection soon. Do you have any idea how much technology and equipment twenty million US Dollars can buy?”

”Heh, the country benefits, and I benefit. The state will exchange it all into RMB for me. When that time comes, I’m not just going to let that money sit in a bank. I’m going to invest it.”

Ye Feng was curious. ”Do you have any investment projects in mind?”

Han Xiaorui shook her head. ”Seafood farming... with the scale we have here at Jinshan Bay, it probably won’t get much bigger. It’s just so-so. In the future, I might focus more on ornamental fish and develop both domestic and international markets.”

”If you have any good projects, you can tell me. I’ll invest money and take dividends, but if you expect me to worry about management, I refuse.”

’A person only has so much time.’

’Han Xiaorui didn’t want to wear herself out like this. If she was busy with work all day, how could she enjoy life?’

’Her days in the apocalypse had taught Han Xiaorui that a good life was the most important thing—eating, drinking, and having fun.’

’There are so many capable people out there. You can just pay them to do the work.’

Ye Feng nodded. ”Alright, I’ll look for good investment opportunities on my end. Our salvage company pays out dividends at the end of the year. It’s done annually, not per job.”

”Okay. I know you won’t cheat me anyway.” Han Xiaorui knew that the salvage business was complicated. Even though the salvaged items were incredibly valuable, dealing with them was also a huge hassle.

The gold ingots and Silver Ingots would be melted down directly and sold to institutions that purchase precious metals. The rest of the process was slow and had to be taken one step at a time.

”Are you free this weekend?” Ye Feng asked, his eyes crinkling with a smile.

Han Xiaorui thought for a moment. ”Not sure. Why?”

”We’re getting engaged soon, and I want to take you to buy clothes, to pick out something you like,” Ye Feng said, adding that it was his grandmother’s suggestion.

Han Xiaorui’s face flushed slightly. ”If it’s for that, then I’m free. By then, the clients should have finished their inspection, so I’ll have time to rest.”

”Then it’s a date,” Ye Feng said with a nod, hoping everything would go smoothly.

But things in this world rarely go according to plan.