Liu Chang's extra enthusiasm made Zhu Jinlei's previous performance seem too frivolous, so Huo Qiu inevitably felt a little resentful in his heart, but he also knew that Zhu Jinlei couldn't afford to offend for the time being, and Liu Chang respected himself, and he also respected Liu Chang, and he could put on a score in front of others, but not in front of King Yan, so he hurriedly gave a military salute, and at the same time explained the reason for his delay: "Your Highness, we are late, I'm really sorry, this time there was something wrong with the Ziwei Star in Wuhu, so ......"

Before he finished speaking, Liu Chang had already pulled him into the Heavenly King's Mansion: "What are you doing so much, everyone is waiting for you to come over, the three of you are here, and our Hong Army's all-army combat meeting can be held!" Come in, come in! ”

The Tianwang Mansion of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is an unfinished project built by hundreds of thousands of concubines, palace maids, and female soldiers, after the Hongjun took over here, although it was used as a permanent Yan Wang, but it did not invest too much manpower and material resources to continue to build, but it was handed over to the women's camp after a simple repair, but it still retained some of the habits of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom period, for example, the guards here are generally female soldiers, and some female soldiers even served as guards here during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Therefore, Huo Qiu and they came all the way, and they didn't see a few beautiful women, not to mention what kind of decisions they were concerned about at this combat meeting, so Feng Sixian relied on his very good relationship with Liu Chang, and immediately asked: "Your Highness, but are you going to prepare for the use of troops?" ”

Liu Chang didn't deny it: "Yes! It's time to make a move, of course, when did we not use troops, but in the past few months, we have concentrated on reorganizing the army and building the government, and have not vigorously conquered abroad, so that some people think that our rainbow army can ......be bullied."

"What's it!" Huo Qiu immediately grabbed a cylindrical fist: "Your Highness, please rest assured, our Second Army will obey His Highness's dispatch at any time!" ”

Liu Chang did not answer directly, but under the escort of several guards and adjutants, he directly led them into the conference room, and shouted in his mouth: "Commander Huo, Brigade Commander Shi, and Brigade Commander Feng are here!" ”

"Well done! Well done! ”

Everyone came over to say hello and shake hands with Huo Qiu. When old comrades-in-arms meet, they naturally have endless words.

This conference room is very spacious and bright, even if dozens of people are crammed in now, it is still the case, Huo Qiu also politely accompanies everyone: "Something is late, something is late, let everyone wait for a long time, make amends to everyone!" ”

The officers present can be said to be the elite of the high-ranking officers of the Rainbow Army. A large number of army commanders, division commanders, brigade commanders, plus staff officers from the headquarters, as well as a very few particularly top-notch regiment commanders, Huo Qiu deliberately shook Qu Jie's hand and said hello.

Qu Jie, the commander of the First Army, can now be said to have not held any administrative positions such as overseers, and has been stationed in Suchang Hangjia for a long time, but everyone knows it. His weight in the Hong Army still exceeds that of Huo Qiu, not to mention that although the First Army has transferred a lot of troops, its strength is still the first in the whole army.

Everyone politely sat down for a while in the position that had been indicated, and at this time there was still some early summer heat in the room, and there was not even a cup of tea prepared on the table, but everyone did not mind the simplicity of the conditions to participate in this meeting. It is a great honor in itself, a symbol.

Especially the regiment commanders and brigade commanders, they straightened their chests even more proudly, and Shi Huiji saw that Fu Wendao, the commander of the 11th Regiment of his Marine Brigade, was also here, and Liu Chang sat on the top, waved his hand to everyone, and then announced the beginning of the meeting: "Brothers, I haven't seen each other for a while, and some brothers haven't seen each other for more than a year. It's very rare. But if you want to talk, I'll talk about it later. Let's get down to business! ”

As soon as Liu Chang's words came out, the atmosphere in the audience was so quiet that even a needle could be heard falling on the ground, and everyone was waiting for Liu Chang's next sentence very seriously.

You must know that although many officers do not know what the telegraph is all about, this does not affect their familiarity with the use of the telegraph, a revolutionary tool of warfare, and now from top to bottom, the protection of telegraph lines has been regarded as a fundamental combat task.

"Originally, I wanted to open it later, but suddenly there was a change in the situation, and I had to hold it early!" Liu Chang continued: "So it's not Captain Huo that they're late, it's me who arrived early!" ”

The officers below unanimously replied: "Understood! ”

But everyone was full of curiosity, speculating about what Liu Chang's so-called "change in the situation" was, and Liu Chang quickly uncovered the mystery: "We have been negotiating with the British and French for more than half a year, and thank God, since we took Nanjing, the negotiations have finally gone smoothly, and now an agreement has been reached." ”

In fact, at the beginning of the year, the two sides had reached a preliminary consensus, but they still fought for the sake of interests at the negotiating table, especially Britain and France both want to monopolize the huge interests of trade with China, squeeze out the other side, and even threatened that "this is the final bottom line of our country, if you do not agree, we can only let Beijing achieve the final victory." ”

Even after the capture of Nanjing, Britain and France still maintained a tough attitude, trying to get from the negotiating table what they could not get on the battlefield, and in order to maintain the shock and momentum, the main force of the First Army had to stay in northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu for a long time, and now the situation has finally changed, not because Britain and France have recognized the situation, but because the United States has openly announced that it will intervene in the negotiations.

The negotiations with the United States have only just begun, but the negotiations with the British immediately reached a final agreement, and Liu Chang announced the results obtained by the Hongjun: "The British have agreed to lend us three loans, the first of which is 2.5 million pounds, but all of them must be used to buy British industrial products, and we will pay off the debt with export goods." ”

"Good!" Huo Qiu immediately exclaimed: "Great, how much silver is 2.5 million pounds!" How many foreign guns and cannons can we buy! ”

Indeed, if 2.5 million pounds sterling is converted into silver yuan, it is enough to reach the level of 10 million, you must know that this is definitely a big number, you must know that the British in this era, as long as a few dozen pounds a year, can live a life of a high class, 2.5 million pounds is enough to fight a conventional war of ordinary intensity, if it were not for Liu Chang who promised to provide Shanghai customs taxes as collateral, and the interest rate reached an astonishing eleven percent, according to the fact that such a loan with the British government as a creditor could not be borrowed.

Liu Chang continued: "Two and a half million pounds, this is indeed a lot of money, but everyone still has to save money, and spend it well, the key is that now we are on the same position as the British and French!" ”

This is the greatest significance of reaching an agreement, although the official text of the agreement is still pending the final approval of the two governments, but it also means that on the road to unify the whole of China, the Hong Army has not been able to find a real threat of enemies, you must know that more than ten years ago, just a British country, the entire Qing Dynasty ceded land and paid reparations for peace.

And now that the Hongjun has stood in alliance with the British and the French, and will also reach an alliance with the Americans, this makes everyone confident, they are no longer those country readers or farmers who have not seen the world, they learn war in war, learn management in management, although they have paid a lot of costs, but they have become the most knowledgeable Chinese in this era - you must know that war and practice have forced them to grow up rapidly, and they have learned more in a month than everything they have learned in previous decades.

And Qu Jie smiled even more: "It's just the first installment of the loan, and there are second, third, and even third installments in the later stage, which is a great thing!" ”

Liu Chang changed his words: "I discussed with my eldest sister and Tinglan some time ago, this first loan is not used to order arms, but to order cotton cloth, cotton yarn, machinery, steam ships, and British industrial products......"

This result was unexpected by most people, so Huo Qiu was the first to shout: "Your Highness, how can you use it to order arms?" Everyone is short of foreign guns and cannons! ”

Liu Chang's horizons were much broader than theirs, and he said: "Ordering foreign guns and cannons now is of course beneficial to the war, but with this loan, our finances will be much more generous, not to mention that our public bonds are in good stock during this time, and they are also being issued well!" ”

Hongjun's public debt fell all the way after the French army sent troops, so it made many big speculators like Hu Xueyan, and also made many local rich people in the south of the Yangtze River get rich overnight, and even made many nouveau riche who had just risen burst into bankruptcy at the snap of their fingers, becoming a real tragic role, like Hu Xueyan in this wave of public debt market and re-became the leading red-top businessman in Zhejiang Province, and after defeating the French, Hongjun successfully won Jiangning and southern Anhui, which promoted a new wave of public debt market, and even has a saying, Now even the money of the Governor's Office of Hong Kong is involved in the public bond market.

Therefore, continuing to apportionment of public bonds to the localities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, or even directly issuing a new public bond to the market, is acceptable to the market, as long as the Hongjun continues to maintain the current momentum militarily, the deficit of the Hongjun will not go bankrupt, and Liu Chang decided to repay the British government with this public debt borrowed from the British.

Contrary to everyone's imagination, the purchase of a large number of British arms does not make the British government and British citizens rejoice, the sun never sets on the empire at this time, the empire is more concerned with the sale of imperial industrial products and raw materials, especially the steel industry, textile industry, shipbuilding industry, machinery industry, which are the pillars of British industry, you must know that these industries provide employment for most of the British industrial workers, and the focus of newspaper editors and civilians is not on how many barrels of gunpowder the empire sells, but on how many industrial and agricultural products are sold to the outside world. How much welfare was created for the British Empire.

But Liu Chang did not know how much of a wave his actions had brought to history.