"This is common sense, and the central government should bear the interest from the central government." Yuan Shikai agreed, he couldn't help it if he didn't agree! Moreover, it is very good for him.

With this loan, his Beiyang political axe will be able to sustain it.

Zhu Xiaocheng then took out a letter, "This is a letter from our chairman to Yuan Gong. ”

The real thing is still in the letter.

After Zhu Xiaocheng left, Yuan Shikai opened the letter, only to see that Xia Jun said his ambition on the letter: "Jun Pingsheng has only two wishes, one is to make the country rich and strong, and the people will not be oppressed, and the other is to be rich in the world, with enough food and clothing...... Now that the Republic of China has been established, the country has not yet risen, and Fang seeks autonomy to display his ambitions, but the central government is still the center, and the local government is still the locality. Only by supporting the central government with the three autonomous provinces of East China, and separating the territory with peace, I hope that Yuan Gong and Jun will work together to establish a strong and prosperous Republic of China, and when the country is strong and prosperous, Jun will be rich and prosperous, and then he can retire from the ......"

Then, Xia Jun talked about the system again, and saw him write in the letter: "The sound of Ming Cooking in China is noisy today, but the wisdom of the Chinese people has not been opened, what does Ming Cook have to do with the people? The so-called open boil is actually the name of the revolutionary party's struggle for power. At present, China needs a dictatorship leader like Yuan Gong most of all to lead the national rejuvenation. ”

"Furthermore, although Jun loves money, he also takes it in a good way, and never collects the people's fat for his own use, and Jun Yi sets up factories widely, one is to expel foreign goods, and the other is to make guns and cannons for the Republic of China, then the Republic of China will be strong. However, it is difficult to do business in China today, one is the corruption of the Yangtze River water police, the second is the difficulty of repairing the railway, and the third is the chaos of the currency. If Yuan Gong can serve as the governor of the Yangtze River to control the water police of the five provinces of the Yangtze River, and entrust Jun with the right to freely open railways, and make the Fuxing currency the legal tender of the Republic of China, then Jun is willing to serve Yuan Gong to death......"

Xia Jun repeatedly lowered his political ambitions in the letter, just to dispel Yuan Shikai's defenses, as long as Yuan Shikai is defenseless, then with Yuan Shikai's generosity, Xia Jun can achieve many of his desired goals by cooperating with Yuan Shikai.

The reason is very simple, Xia Jun has no political ambitions, and Yuan Shikai naturally lowered his guard against him. Moreover, the autonomous political axe of East China has strong strength, so Yuan Shikai will inevitably win over Xia Jun everywhere.

Following Yuan Datou to have meat to eat, this is the law of this historical period. Moreover, Xia Jun can use Yuan Shikai's wooing to protect the people of other provinces from warlords.

After reading the letter, Yuan Shikai looked up to the sky and laughed ecstatically. He likes this kind of person who has no ambition, is full of childish ideals, and loves money.

"He Xia Jun loves money and doesn't love the world, and I, Yuan Shikai, love the world and don't love money!" Yuan Shikai laughed and said, shaking his head and saying proudly: "Sure enough, the world's wealth is scattered with the people of the world, and the world will fall into my hands." ”

If others write this letter, Yuan Shikai will definitely not believe it, even if Sun Wen is full of worries about the country and the people in his telegrams and letters, and pretends not to care about the position of president, he will not believe it.

Yuan Shikai only believed in Xia Jun, because Xia Jun had stopped in the territory of the three autonomous provinces of East China before, and he did not fight for the president, and his political ambitions were not strong in Yuan Shikai's opinion.

How could Yuan Shikai, who thought he had figured out Xia Jun's true intentions and surname, not be overjoyed?

Xia Jun's strategy to drive away the wolf and the tiger was a great success, but the next day, Yuan Shikai granted Xia Jun the post of governor of the Yangtze River in the name of the central government, and had the right to build railways freely in the country.

As for the fiat currency issued by the East China Autonomous Political Axe as the legal tender of the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai still had to think about it, which made Yuan Shikai very entangled.

In his opinion, to deal with a person like Xia Jun, who loves money, he should use money to get around, but if he doesn't agree, Yuan Shikai can't guarantee that Xia Jun belongs to a person who loves money to what extent.

Last time, Yuan Shikai didn't agree to his request, and as a result, people ran to support the Nanjing Temporary Political Axe.

Political adviser Morrison told Yuan Shikai: "Although the East China Autonomous Political Axe has not shown much ambition, the seigniorage is an important national finance, and it cannot be easily handed over to the local political axe. ”

Listening to Morrisun's words, Yuan Shikai thought about it for a few days, and soon Yuan Shikai also figured it out, now he is short of money, and he has to borrow money from others, what money does he use to envelop others, the only thing that can envelop him is to open a convenient door for him.

So Yuan Shikai wrote a letter and asked him to send it to Hangzhou.

It's not safe to use a telegraph, it's safer to send a message. In order to borrow money, Yuan Shikai no longer said anything about borrowing money to the East China Autonomous Government on the telegram.

…… Hangzhou, West Lake.

Xia Jun sat outside his small villa, reading the letter that Yuan Shikai gave him, at this time, the spring breeze was light, and the green waves of the West Lake were rippling, and the scene was beautiful.

Recently, Xia Jun said that he was living comfortably, and the administration was basically operating according to the framework he set, because of the existence of newspapers, it was not so easy to deceive him below, so he basically didn't care much administratively.

Li Shijing, who was sitting comfortably drinking coffee, poked her head over and asked Xia Jun, "Husband, what did Yuan Shikai say in the letter?" ”

"Huh!" Xia Jun handed the letter to Li Shijing with a smile and said, "What else can he say, naturally he has borrowed money." He has a big appetite, and wants us to borrow 30 million pounds to the central government, and we have to pay it off in 70 years. ”

"He also said that as long as we are willing to lend money to the central government, we will set the revival currency we issue as the only designated legal tender." Xia Jun lay on the chair and shook his head.

"Husband, don't you want to borrow money, or do you have any other plans?" Li Shijing looked at the letter, tilted her head to look at Xia Jun, and then said: "But in my opinion, if this money is loaned out, it may not be recovered!" Anyway, Yuan Shikai doesn't decide that our revival coin is legal tender, and we will still issue it. ”

"It's a mess, but we can consider it, but we don't have to pay for it! Let the foreigners pay for it in a few months. Xia Jun had already planned, Li Shijing glanced at Xia Jun charmingly, and asked, "What are you thinking?" ”

"After a month, after the first payment of the Four Nations Bank arrives, we can talk to Yuan Shikai openly, and then we will have to make them so anxious.

Now the Four Nations Bank seems to accuse Yuan Shikai of not being trustworthy and putting on a posture of not taking out loans, but in fact, it sees that Yuan Shikai is short of money and thinks that he can only borrow money from them. And then use this as an excuse, as if you have been wronged, and the next thing is to increase the weight, if we intervene sideways, then they will be in a hurry. ”

Xia Jun has been scheming recently, fiddling with the Four Nations Bank and Yuan Shikai in capital, and at present, his calculations are going well.

"And then?" Li Shijing asked.

"Then, if the price of the Four Nations Bank is right, it will be nothing for them to sign with Yuan Shikai, if it doesn't work, it will be nothing to pay the 30 million pounds, and then some conditions will be attached."

At this moment, Mei'er ran over and shouted to Xia Jun: "Uncle, the military factory called and said that the mortar was made." ”

"Oh! Is it? So fast! Xia Jun stood up from his chair, he originally thought that the manufacture of mortars would take a month or two, but he didn't expect it to be made so quickly, which really surprised him.

Xia Jun walked into the villa, picked up the phone and dialed the phone of the military factory.

…… The scale of the Jian'an Military Factory at this time was already very large, and it was constantly producing weapons and ammunition every day, although the BZ-26 light machine gun and artillery shells were manufactured in the Jiangxi Military Factory, but the Jian'an Military Factory has expanded a lot in the near future.

Next to the military factory is a newly opened alloy smelter, which is responsible for smelting alloys for the manufacture of cannon steel, and advanced artillery cannot be made from ordinary steel.

The Jian'an Military Factory produced an artillery run that met the requirements, all thanks to the opening of the alloy smelter, and the Jian'an Military Factory received the mortar research and development task, and it was indeed built according to the drawings, but the results did not meet the requirements of the drawings in terms of indicators.

The military factory then tried to build it bigger, and the result was that the indicators were met, and the range of 2700 meters was reached, but the problem was too heavy.

The kind of mortar they built weighed more than fifty kilograms, which was more than double the 21 kilograms given in the drawings.

When the alloy smelter on the side developed a stainless steel alloy, this problem was gradually solved, and the mortars produced became lighter and lighter.

Eventually, the Jian'an military factory produced a 60mm mortar weighing 23 kilograms, although it was still heavier than the weight index on the drawings, and this weight could not be reduced until the alloy smelter produced a new alloy.

In terms of power, range, and rate of fire, they basically reached the indicators on the drawings, so they called and reported to the military department, and after a while, Xia Jun called the military factory to inquire about the situation.

On the issue of naming, Xia Jun thought about naming this mortar as a Type 12 60mm mortar.

After Xia Jun got the detailed report, he ordered the Jian'an Military Factory: "Immediately develop a production line, and first produce 1,000 Type 12 60mm mortars to equip the troops." ”

A thousand doors is about the same for three infantry divisions.

With mortars, then infantry artillery can also be eliminated, although mortars are inferior to infantry artillery in terms of offensive capabilities, but they are much lighter than infantry guns, although infantry guns are already light enough. Moreover, the advantage of mortars lies in the lethality of personnel, and the rate of fire is very high, and there are no dead angles, which is definitely a sharp weapon for infantry.

The Germans were certainly interested in this weapon, and they also had a large military budget.

In 1897 Germany's military expenditure was 428 million marks, in 1899 it was 926 million marks, and in 1913 it would exceed 20 marks, half of the state budget.

As for other countries, it is also a good market for arms supplies.

Austro-Hungarian military spending, for example, also increased by 70 per cent to 583 million kroners in 1913. Italy's military spending was also too large: 318 million lire in 1907-1908, 330 million lire two years later, and 396.1 million lire in 1911-1912.

France spent 1.5 billion francs on the military before 1914. The Russian War and Admiralty increased their military spending by 67 percent between 1907 and 1913.

Since 1900, wars have been fraught with crises, and preparations for major wars have accelerated as they have passed.

It is clear to all countries that a major war will be inevitable.

The situation at this time made Xia Jun feel that it was time to start the international arms business.

(To be continued)