Chapter 12 It's time to fight

Not long after the court was lowered, Ye Mingchen, the governor of Liangguang and the minister of trade of Wukou, also arrived. The content of the pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info is really a matter of the four countries foreigners to change the contract, count the days, Ye Mingchen's recital was halfway through the court, and the court already knew about the exchange of the four countries foreigners alliance.

This time can be stabbed in the court, the two classes of civil and military ministers have shouted that they want to fight to the death with Yangyi - in fact, in the face of the four-nation coalition army, there is indeed no way to retreat, along the river and coastal are under the guns of the British, as for the northwest and northeast are under the iron cavalry of the Russians, Kangxi sent thousands of troops to besiege hundreds of Russian militia after the tragic victory of the signing of the Nebuchu Treaty, everyone understands in their hearts.

However, the struggle in the court was divided into two factions on the matter of changing the treaty, and one faction believed that since it was necessary to start fighting whether the contract was changed or not, it was better to agree to the treaty as much as possible.

The other side believes that it is necessary to fight anyway. Moreover, there is a clause in the treaty that each country sends ministers to station troops in the capital, which does not leak all the news of the court. Moreover, even if there are hundreds of foreign soldiers in one country, it can't stand the many foreign countries on the side of Europa, and a dozen Europa countries require one comrade, and hundreds of foreign soldiers in one country, so there are thousands of foreign soldiers in the capital, and this is worth it -- the Forbidden City can't station tens of thousands of soldiers and horses every day to guard against foreign soldiers.

One of the reasons why the court was full of confidence was that we also had the foreign guns, foreign guns, and ironclad ships that foreigners relied on in the Qing Dynasty, although they were Oriental goods. But it's no worse than Western goods, and everyone will use it after training. Another reason is that from Xianfeng to the following, the original group of big smokers changed to Oriental snuff ghosts, a group of princes and ministers of civil and military affairs are dancing swords and guns at home every day, I heard that this foreign ghost is going to hit the door, and he gritted his teeth with hatred, if it weren't for the fact that the capital would have been out of the country a long time ago, the foreigners would have to have diplomatic problems now.

In the end, he finally did not forget the Japanese envoy who brought the news, Song Haiping was too lazy to go to the court to perform three bows and nine knocks, and this arduous task was handed over to the envoy Yu Deqian to do.

According to the secret agreement between the two sides, the ironclad ships will have a combined displacement of 11,000 tons and 110,000 taels of silver, 50 tons of secret and vigorous scattering will be worth 100,000 taels of silver, 50,000 guns will be worth 200,000 taels of silver, and 100 guns will be worth 100,000 taels of silver.

Of course, Japan, the country of silver, did not need so much silver, but exchanged it for Chinese specialties such as silk, cotton, porcelain, tea, and brown sugar at market prices.

For the Qing Dynasty, this business was very profitable, and even if those arms were sold for scrap iron and scrap steel, they were more than this price. Besides, there is no need for the imperial court to pay silver, silk, cotton, porcelain, tea, sugar, and other imperial merchants under the name of the Zongren Mansion are all available - isn't raising fattening pigs just to kill meat for the New Year.

Because the price of Oriental arms was much cheaper than the price of domestic steel, the Manchu court had the idea that it was better to buy it. In the capital for more than a month, Song Haiping and Yu Deqian also received a large number of orders for arms (including military stimulants) from the imperial court and local governors.

Among them, in order to revitalize the martial arts of the Eight Banners and defend the defense of the Beijing Division, Emperor Xianfeng once again ordered 100,000 high-quality Oriental singles and one rear-loading rifled guns, 800 90-mm guns, and two 100-ton and 5,000-ton ironclad ships. All arms will be delivered within one year.

In order to deal with the long-haired sailors, Zeng Guofan, the leader of the Hunan army, ordered 10 600-ton inland river ironclad gunboats, 200 90-mm mountain guns, 200 field guns, 200,000 high-quality guns, and 10 tons of vigorous dispersal from Song Haiping.

In order to stabilize the local area, guard against Changmao, protect the territory and the people, and guard against foreign invasions, the governors of other places in the Qing court also ordered 500,000 guns, 3,000 field mountain guns, 20 600-ton inland river ironclad gunboats, and 300 tons of Dalisan.

The reason is that the main reason is that the arms are sold too cheaply and are not even worth the addition of steel, and the second is that they can be bartered, and silk, cotton, porcelain, tea, sugar and so on are produced in many places.

As for the cost of manufacturing munitions for industrial ships, it can be ignored, Song Haiping calculated that the money he made this time is really old, and some of these goods are allocated to the Japanese shogunate, so that the shogunate will reward them layer by layer to support the shogunate regime. The other part was put into the market at a low price, breaking the monopoly business of the Japanese wealthy merchants, and most of the silver exchanged from the Japanese market was used to buy rice in the South Seas, where the price of rice was surprisingly low.

Exactly, there is food in the hand and there is no panic in the heart. The Japanese shogunate is now recruiting troops on a large scale and recruiting workers on a large scale, and without the support of Song Haiping and Lin Haiyang in terms of money and food, it will go bankrupt in a few months.

After provoking the arms race in the Qing Dynasty, there was an endless stream of orders placed by the Japanese Pavilion every day, and Song Haiping had little time to leave the capital, so he had to use the Japanese Pavilion given by the Ministry of Rites as an Oriental arms dumping office.

In addition to privately minting silver coins, this Nissin bank also started a private microcredit business, collecting private deposits, giving interest ranging from 3 to 6 percent according to the time of deposit, and at the same time carrying out loan business, with low interest rates ranging from 7 percent to 1 and 2 cents, it defeated other Qing Dynasty money banks that opened loan business in Beijing.

As for the deposit interest, it is a new thing in this Qing Dynasty, and the bank deposits of foreigners in this era only have interest, and Sijiu City has never seen this good thing. As soon as they heard that the silver could give birth, many people were suspicious and took out some of the silver hidden in the wall and put it in the bank to test the water.

In this era, it is normal to have a monthly interest rate of three cents. If you change places like pawnshops, the exploitation can only be higher. This time, it must have moved the interests of some people, but now that it is the honeymoon period of Nissin, no one will pick this time to come out and make trouble.

After arguing with the Manchu court for more than a month, he finally made the most decisive decision and asked Ye Mingchen to agree to the conditions of the foreigners to revise the contract to a limited extent. For example, the opening of ports, the legalization of the opium trade, tariff preferences, etc., can all be promised. However, it is not allowed to come to the capital to garrison the minister and send foreign soldiers to protect it.

In the eyes of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the court had already paid a lot of sincerity to the foreigners, and it was the increase of treaty ports, the legalization of opium trade and the preferential tariffs, and the foreigners should agree even if they had a little conscience. Unless, as the Japanese envoy said, the foreigner's intention to change the contract was originally the drunkard's intention not to drink, and it was necessary to die with an iron heart to kill the Qing Dynasty, so he would refuse this condition.

After more than a month of official document circulation, Ye Mingchen sent the foreigners' opinions again: the foreigners said that the Qing court could not change a word of the treaty drawn up by the foreigners, and they would immediately agree to change the treaty in the capital, otherwise what awaited the Qing court would be war.

Xianfeng fell directly to the ground after watching Ye Mingchen's recital, and scolded angrily: "The foreigner is really a wolf's ambition, and the heart of the Qing Dynasty will not die." I and Yangyi swear not to be separated. ”

The military planes raised their fists one after another and shouted: "Swear not to stand together, swear not to stand together!" ”

Xianfeng took a sip of Oriental snuff: "Yangyi still looks at me with old eyes, and this time he will definitely not come back." ”

Military aircraft: "There is no return, there is no return!" ”

Xianfeng: "It is decreed that from next month, there shall be no more vacancies in the battalions of the Eight Banners in Beijing." Every time I exercised, I practiced with the soldiers. Then let the imperial merchants of the Zongren Mansion prepare a batch of goods to buy ammunition from the Orientals and reserve them, and once this battle starts, there will be no worries about arms. ”

Military aircraft: "Scum." ”

The military department is not in a hurry - the three major battalions in the capital are overcrowded, and the anxious thing to turn around is the household department Shangshu Weng Xincun, who was born in a family of eunuchs and is now also a veteran minister of the two Jinshi and two dynasties, and in terms of knowledge, it is also top-notch, but he has never learned the method of pulling gold and urine and silver - and he has not taught it in the sage book, because the sage himself will not pull gold and urine silver.

The problem now is that several major tax-paying provinces in the south are in trouble, and the transportation of water has been cut off, and now the officials and bannermen in the capital are receiving half salaries -- this is also an important reason why Dongyang Dali can take advantage of the situation to smoothly replace opium, and the price is cheaper.

Of course, it is only the low-level officials, banner people and ordinary people who suffer from the life of Mi Gui in the capital, and the officials at the level of Weng Xincun are enough to maintain a decent life just by relying on the ice respect of the local officials.

In this dark age, both in China and the West, they are using facts to propagate an idea -- labor is shameful, and it is glorious to get something without work. Compared with the laborers, there is a distinction between the glory of mental work and the shameful of physical work.

Just when Weng was circulating in the clean bank of the household, an old official of the household department gave Shangshu an idea: "The Oriental people have opened a silver account on Niu Street, and the interest on a large long-term loan is only seven percent." Adults may wish to try the water. ”

It was the Qiao woman who was difficult to cook without rice, not to mention Lord Weng, who had not even learned the scriptures, Weng thought for a while: "It's okay." ”