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.. php?003616251&43247639 dismissed Feng Guozhang smoothly, temporarily let him reflect at home, and was not allowed to take half a step out of Beijing, and nip a rebellion in the bud, Yuan Shikai was very happy in his heart, but if he thought about it carefully, there was still the influence of the Xia Empire here, otherwise, Feng Guozhang would not have returned to Beijing obediently.

It's just that Yuan Shikai can't understand why Feng Guozhang is so bold, he should know the strength of the Chinese Empire, that is, he completely controls the newly formed 8 towns, and he is not the opponent of the Chinese Empire, it seems that there are still forces secretly supporting him.

After Yuan Shikai finished talking about his inner doubts, Yuan Kewen suggested that Yuan Shikai set up an intelligence agency to monitor the movements of military and political dignitaries and troops in various places across the country.

Yuan Shikai also knew the importance of intelligence, but he didn't have the money for the time being, so he had to put aside the idea of establishing an intelligence agency for the time being.

During this period, Xu Shichang personally communicated with Wu Wenbin many times, Wu Wenbin opposed the Chinese Empire's complete abolition of all treaties signed by the Qing Dynasty, which was an irresponsible act, so that the Xia Empire helped the Qing Dynasty to abolish the "Xinchou Treaty" and the part of the reparations between Japan and the United States was also abolished, so the Xia Empire would definitely not support Yuan Shikai's government.

After Xu Shichang took a step back, he hoped that the Xia Empire would help the Chinese Empire selectively abolish some treaties that were not conducive to the development of the Chinese Empire and ensure the interests of the Xia Empire.

In this regard, Wu Wenbin has a supportive attitude, and the meal should be eaten in one bite, and the steps are too good to wrestle.

After more than half a month of arduous negotiations, the two finally reached a preliminary agreement.

The Xia Empire supported the Chinese Empire in abolishing all unpaid reparations from the Treaty of Xincho;

Support the Chinese Empire to recover all mortgaged taxes such as customs duties and salt taxes, and the lack of customs and tax cadres can be hired from the Xia Empire;

Support the Chinese Empire in abolishing the concessions of major cities in the country.

The condition was that the Chinese Empire would take out 230 million taels of unpaid more than 700 million taels of silver as the remuneration of the Xia Empire, and issue an IOU as a debt to the Xia Empire, with an annual interest rate of 5%, and the annual repayment amount should not be less than the interest amount. 【】

When Xu Shichang went back to report to Yuan Shikai, no one could understand the bitterness in Yuan Shikai's heart, so he just asked Xu Shichang: "Premier Xu, how much money do we currently owe to the Xia Empire?" ”

Xu Shichang replied truthfully: "Back to Your Majesty, the government's interest-free loan is 30 million taels of silver per year, and it has been borrowed for a total of 3 years, a total of 90 million taels of silver, which will be repaid within 10 years; The commercial loan currently owes the Xia Empire 100 million taels of silver, with an annual interest rate of 5%, which has no term, but the minimum annual repayment amount shall not be less than the interest amount; In addition, during the Qing Dynasty, due to the abolition of the "Xinchou Treaty" between Japan and the United States, the 60 million taels of silver shared by the Xia Empire were also counted as commercial loans, and the annual interest was also 5%; There are also 150 million taels of commercial loans owed by the Qing Kingdom to the Xia Empire, with an annual interest rate of 5%; A total of 400 million taels of silver were owed. ”

Yuan Shikai sighed, only to get out of the tiger's mouth and into the wolf's den, can't the Chinese Empire get rid of the fate of being enslaved? Yuan Shikai couldn't make up his mind, so he decided to convene an internal meeting of the General Staff, the parliament, and relevant government departments to see what kind of attitude everyone had.

Yuan Shikai held a meeting in the Forbidden City conference room, and the current conference room is also designed with reference to the conference room of the Xia Empire, among which is a long conference table, Yuan Shikai sits at the head of the long table, facing south and facing north, and the southernmost side is the meeting recorder, and the civil and military officials are listed on both sides.

Xu Shichang sat in the first seat to the right of Yuan Shikai, and Wang Shizhen sat in the first seat to the left of Yuan Shikai.

Yuan Shikai first asked Xu Shichang to give a detailed account of the amount of funds currently owed to the Xia Empire, and then briefly described the content of the negotiations with Wu Wenbin.

Everyone's first impression is when did the empire owe so much money to the Xia Empire, and where did it be used? Looking at everyone's puzzled expressions, Yuan Shikai had no choice but to say: "Vice Premier Zhou, you are most familiar with the matter of borrowing from the Xia Empire, you can explain it to everyone." ”

Zhou Xuexi recalled a little and said: "The interest-free loan provided by the Xia Imperial Government is 30 million taels of silver per year, borrowed for a total of 3 years, a total of 90 million taels of silver, repaid in 10 years, this part of the money is all used to raise soldiers, especially after the establishment of the border special zone, most of the officers and soldiers recruited are supported by loans, 12 towns, not counting weapons and ammunition, etc., just the salary is more than 20 million taels per year, plus the weapons and ammunition needed for training, as well as the purchase of horses, food, clothing, housing and transportation, etc., 30 million taels of silver was simply not enough, and the remaining 100 million taels of commercial loans were spent on building factories, building railways, and purchasing cannons, rifles, and weapons in the northeast and Zhili regions. Many of these factories were sold to national entrepreneurs after they were built, and we made huge profits, but the funds were diverted for other purposes, and the remaining factories were all built last year, and it is estimated that there will be at least 40 million taels of profits per year in the future. ”

Everyone didn't interject, and Yuan Shikai motioned for Zhou Xuexi to continue.

Zhou Xuexi continued: "The commercial loans owed by the Great Qing Dynasty, after I took over as the vice premier, began to sort out, basically building railways, docks, renovating arsenals, manufacturing bureaus, shipyards, and building dozens of large factories in various places, the Xia Empire should not make much money from it, and the asking price of equipment is very low, Wu Wenbin told me at that time that he hoped that after the Chinese Empire took over the Great Qing Dynasty, it would be able to have a decent family background, and these enterprises would make a lot of profits every year. As for the part of the compensation between Japan and the United States in the "Xincho Treaty", I feel that it should not be abolished, and it is also a reasonable gain of the Xia Empire. ”

Vice Premier Song Jiaoren did not understand why the army spent so much money, so he asked: "Does the army need to spend so much money?" What is the budget for the army this year? ”

Zhou Xuexi knew that many people would be like Song Jiaoren and didn't understand where the army spent money, so he patiently explained: "Vice Premier Song, ladies and gentlemen, the army budget in 1909 was 60 million taels of silver, let me give you an analysis, one of our towns, nearly 13,000 people, soldiers are 10 taels of silver per month, and the salaries of the shed chief, platoon leader, captain, and town magistrate are increasing step by step, everyone calculates, the salary required every year will reach 2 million taels, plus the cost of food and clothing; There are also rifles, each of which costs 50 taels, this is still the preferential price given by the Xia Empire, if you buy it directly from European and American countries, at least 80 taels of silver or more, and the cannon is also nearly 10,000 taels of silver, and European and American countries are not willing to sell, and each town will spend more than 1 million taels of silver, as well as bullets and shells, that is even more bottomless, if there is a war, you will have to increase the expenditure on ammunition and pensions. Since ancient times, fighting wars has always been money, wars against Japan and wars against the United States, the Qing Kingdom did not contribute half of its efforts, but it made huge profits, if the part that should be given to the Xia Empire is canceled, can you imagine that the Xia Empire will agree? ”

Yuan Shikai saw that everyone didn't speak, so he said: "Okay, let's not talk about the past things first, now let's discuss the agreement with the Xia Empire, the Xia Empire will assist us in canceling the indemnity that has not been paid in the "Xinchou Treaty", help recover many mortgages such as customs duties and salt taxes, and also help recover the concessions in major cities, the price is 230 million taels of silver, to sign or not to sign?" ”

Vice Premier Song Jiaoren said: "Your Majesty, can't we just announce the cancellation of the above clauses? We have raised so many troops, should we still be afraid of the Western powers? ”

Everyone looked at Song Jiaoren with the same eyes as monsters, Song Jiaoren felt very embarrassed, could he have said something wrong? Could it be that the army raised by the Chinese Empire at such a great cost could not even do this little thing?

Wang Shizhen looked at Song Jiaoren with contempt, and thought, how could the Xia Empire recommend such a waste to be the deputy prime minister, it is really embarrassing, and then said in an unhurried tone: "Vice Premier Song, everyone, don't say anything else, it's just that the Russian Empire has hundreds of thousands of officers and soldiers stationed in the Far East, and there are a huge number of troops stationed in Siberia, Central Asia and other places, but the Russian Empire is not something that our Chinese Empire can currently contend with, not to mention the British, French and German armies around the empire, our army, It's not enough to even stuff them between their teeth; If we dare to cancel the above clauses privately, their army will definitely fight, without the support of the Xia Empire, who can stop these foreign devils? ”

Song Jiaoren felt that everyone looked at themselves like fools, when they were in the League before, they always felt that they had no talents, pointed out the country, and inspired the words, and felt that the people in the League were the elites of the times, the tide of history, after arriving in the Xia Empire, they were all patiently explaining what problems they had, until they understood, when they got here, these people were against themselves everywhere, how could the gap between people and people be so big?

Yang Du ignored everyone's thoughts, and said to Yuan Shikai: "Your Majesty, I feel that this is the Yang conspiracy of the Xia Empire, if we don't cooperate with the Xia Empire, our Chinese Empire will continue to pay compensation, and if the customs can't recover it, it can't be regarded as an independent country, how is it different from the Great Qing Dynasty?" If we cooperate with the Xia Empire, at least we will reduce the amount of expenditure, recover the customs and concessions, etc.; However, everyone must also see the risks here, not to mention anything else, but the amount of reparations accounted for by the Russian Empire will reach hundreds of millions of taels of silver, if there is a war between Russia and the Xia Empire, without hundreds of millions of taels or even more than a billion taels of military spending, it will not be able to defeat the Russian Empire, you know, in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan paid 1.7 billion yen in military spending, which is equivalent to the current 1.4 billion taels of silver, which can be worthy of a draw with the Russian Empire, and now if there is a war with Russia again, the cost will be higher, it can be seen, The risk that the Xia Empire wants to get 230 million taels of silver is also very high, so I support the signing of an agreement with the Xia Empire, otherwise the strength of the Chinese Empire alone will not be able to defeat the Western powers in a few decades under the condition of constantly drawing blood to repay the compensation. ”

"The General Staff supports the opinion of the parliament." Wang Shizhen said.

Duan Qirui's face was expressionless and he did not make any remarks.

Since the agreement was negotiated by the Government Council, there is no need to express a position.

Yuan Shikai made a final summary: "Then the Government Council will sign an agreement with the Xia Empire, but in the future, the life of the Chinese Empire will not be easy." (To be continued.) Mobile phone users, please browse and read, a better reading experience.