After Zhao Erxun's delegation returned to the Qing Dynasty with fruitful results, Zhou Xuexi, Yuan Shikai's representative, finally waited for Zhang Wei's summons. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Zhou Xuexi is obviously more familiar with seeking help and conducting economic negotiations than Zhao Erxun and knows what kind of assistance he wants, so the speed of negotiations is fast, the scope of the agreement is wider, and the content of the agreement is more comprehensive.

The assistance to Yuan Shikai can be summarized into three aspects, one is talent assistance. The second is economic assistance, and the third is military assistance.

Talent assistance is sent by the Xia Empire to Yuan Shikai's subordinates to obey the dispatch, this time mainly sent city and county-level administrative officials, now Yuan Shikai has no right to appoint and dismiss officials across the country, can only first place them in the Zhili Governor's Office and the border administrator Xu Shichang, Xu Shichang can appoint and dismiss Daotai and below the level of officials in the border area, just let this group of low- and middle-level officials take office, Yuan Shikai can gradually arrange these administrative officials to Shandong, Henan and Zhili, Members of his direct line worked there as staff members.

The largest project of economic aid is a loan, a purely commercial loan, without any political treaties attached, for 20 million taels of silver per year, signed for a total of 60 million taels of silver for 3 years.

The second is economic construction, such as the expansion and transformation of the Kailuan Coal Mine and the construction of corresponding supporting facilities; On the basis of the Fushun, Tieling and Fuxin coal mines built by the Japanese, they will continue to expand to make them the largest coal-producing areas in Northeast China and even the whole country, and build Yingkou Port into a coal export port; In addition, it is necessary to help build nearly 100 factories in dozens of categories, such as glass factories, power plants, ash factories, iron and steel factories, arsenals, textile factories, printing and dyeing factories, flour mills, oil mills, and garment factories.

The equipment required for the construction of these factories was all purchased from the Xia Empire, and the price was calculated according to the international market price at that time, and the quality was also maintained at the same level or better in the world, and the equipment payment was directly deducted from the loan; The workers needed for the construction of the factory were hired from the Northeast and the expenses were paid by the Frontier Special Administrative Region, and the supervisors and technicians for the construction of the factory were dispatched by the Xia Empire, and the expenses were borne by the Xia Empire itself. Technicians are responsible for teaching workers how to operate the machines and keep the plant running.

Finally, there is military aid, if there is no military strength to protect it, all the above aid will be swallowed by those bureaucrats and there will be no scum left, and Zhang Wei's goal is to help Yuan Shikai achieve a peaceful transition, there must be a strong armed escort.

The General Staff came up with a military aid plan to help the frontier generals expand their armies to 8 towns within the year, and the empire would send sufficient instructors to train these troops; At the same time, the frontier general Duan Qirui was responsible for recruiting 80,000 troops, secretly sent to the Peninsula Special Administrative Region, and Lieutenant General Du Shihui was responsible for training, and was reorganized into 10 independent mixed associations; Next year, four more towns and five independent mixed associations will be expanded.

In addition, Yuan Shikai was asked to send more grassroots officers to the Imperial Military Academy for training; Army academies were set up in Mukden and Dalian respectively to train grassroots officers.

At Zhou Xuexi's special request, the empire sent another group of military instructors to teach at the Baoding Army Academy; He also called for the establishment of an administrative school in Mukden to train grassroots administrative cadres and to reserve talents now for a smooth transition to local posts in the future.

After drafting the agreement, he sent a coded telegram to Yuan Shikai, waiting for Yuan Shikai's instructions.

On the same day, Zhang Wei held a dinner at the palace to entertain Zhou Xuexi to celebrate the completion of the draft agreement.

At the dinner, Zhou Xuexi asked Zhang Wei: "Your Majesty, it is very easy to occupy the Qing Dynasty with the military strength of the Xia Empire, why didn't the Xia Empire overthrow the Qing Dynasty?" Wouldn't it be better for you to be emperor? ”

Zhang Wei thought for a while and replied: "You are right, if the Xia Empire wants to overthrow the Great Qing State, it is indeed very easy, the army sent by the empire can easily kill all the opposition forces, cancel all the privileges of all countries in the world on the mainland, expel all their forces, complete the unification of the mainland, and return the regime to the control of the Chinese." However, I am not interested in the land on the mainland, which sooner or later will be the land of the Chinese, and no one can fight for it. And there is still so much land in the world that we need to occupy, and I don't want to waste my energy on the continent. My goal is to get more living space for the Chinese, that's all! ”

"Since Your Majesty doesn't want to overthrow the Great Qing Kingdom, why did you support Lord Yuan to ascend to the throne?"

"I just want to overthrow the Qing Dynasty because the Chinese in the world are one family, and I don't want hundreds of millions of Chinese on the mainland to be exploited by the Manchus anymore, so I must establish a Chinese regime. In addition, it is not necessary to support Lord Yuan, with the support of the Xia Empire, even a beggar can easily become the emperor of the continent. As for choosing Lord Yuan now, I just chose to support Lord Yuan because choosing him would make the cost relatively small, and it would be easy to achieve a smooth transition of political power, so that the mainland would not fall into a warlord scuffle. ”

After hearing this, Zhou Xuexi thought to himself, it seems that after returning to China, he will remind Lord Yuan that he must have a good relationship with the Xia Empire, if he can't satisfy the Xia Empire, even if Lord Yuan becomes the emperor, the Xia Empire can easily find someone to replace him, and there are many Chinese forces that can be replaced, for example, the League is a very large and influential organization, just because the Xia Empire wants to support Lord Yuan, the League will have almost no place in the world; The strength of the Xia Empire is too strong, especially in the past few months of observation, it is found that the strength of the Xia Empire is more terrifying than the rumors, although they are unwilling to occupy the mainland, it does not mean that they cannot occupy the continent, it is better to be cautious; Since they proposed that the Chinese in the world are one family, it seems that they only helped the Chinese because of their old feelings, and as long as they do not violate the principled issues, there should be no irreconcilable contradictions with the Xia Empire.

Since Zhou Xuexi knew the purpose of the Xia Empire, he did not continue to ask similar questions, so he discussed with Zhang Wei the timing of the uprising and the state system after the establishment of the new regime.

Zhang Wei replied: "The words of the state system have long informed you that a constitutional monarchy must be implemented, and this cannot be changed; For a smooth transition, you can choose to meet this requirement within 5 to 10 years; The initial plan of the empire is to start after the harvest next autumn at the latest, and now that the time is already very tight, everything must be hurried. ”

"Why is the time so tight? Even after the army recruits, it also takes a certain amount of time to train! “

"Lord Yuan's strength is getting stronger and stronger, it has attracted the attention of the Qing court, I am sure that the Qing court will definitely take out Lord Yuan's military power this year, the longer it drags on, the more unfavorable it will be, you must explain this matter to Lord Yuan clearly after you go back, let him make plans as soon as possible, don't still have illusions about the Qing Dynasty, they just use the Chinese, and have never trusted the Chinese."

Zhou Xuexi was shocked, if Lord Yuan was taken away from his military power, then what would happen? As long as he is taken out of military power, he will become a lamb that will be slaughtered arbitrarily by the imperial court, and he will not be able to think about it when the time comes. “

On March 12, Yuan Shikai sent a telegram ordering Zhou Xuexi to sign the agreement as his plenipotentiary.

Subsequently, aid from the Xia Empire was continuously transported to Dalian, and then transported by train to the Frontier Special Administrative Region.

All kinds of technicians, military instructors, and administrative personnel set off and went to the Qing Kingdom with Zhou Xuexi.

Zhou Xuexi understood that this was only the first step towards the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty. (To be continued.) )