The aim of the Germans was to squeeze out the United States, and the Americans wanted to set up a steel plant in Yantai, naturally aiming at the interests of Shandong, but the Germans really had no way to obstruct the Americans in setting up a factory in Yantai. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Because Yantai is a port that has been open for decades, all countries have a lot of interests here, and they have long obtained the right to set up factories.

Once the United States is banned from setting up factories, it will inevitably cause a strong backlash from the United States, and even other countries will follow suit and boycott Germany.

Although the United States is militarily weak, it cannot defeat Germany, but its economic strength is strong, and there are many economic exchanges between Germany and the United States, and the trade volume is much larger than that between Germany and China, but the great powers have too many advantages in doing business with China, such as importing raw materials, and exporting industrial products, which are not only profitable, but also can support their own industries and promote employment, and they are more or less competitive with each other.

After all, the largest exporter of Germany's huge emerging chemical industry is the United States, and Bayer Pharmaceuticals exports hundreds of millions of dollars of conch to the United States every year, which is more than the export of the whole of China.

Therefore, even in order to maintain the power of drug trafficking to the United States, the Germans will not fight to the death with the Americans, especially when the Americans have obviously been squeezed out of China and the American capitalists are about to drip blood.

Therefore, Germany is unwilling to come forward to prevent the Americans from building a steel plant in Yantai, and once the Yantai steel plant is put into operation, it will inevitably dump in Shandong, which is the last thing Germany wants to see, so they plan to win over the Chinese and let the Chinese come forward to stop it, after all, the Chinese have enough reasons to oppose this business, and even as long as the Chinese do not give guarantees to the Americans, the Americans themselves will not risk building factories.

The condition paid by Germany is to help the Chinese build their own steel plant in Shandong, since it cannot prevent the Chinese from setting up factories, then it is better to let the Germans do it themselves than to let the Americans mix, and at the same time building a factory is not a business after all.

"Is the intelligence system of the Germans powerful?"

Yang Chao raised his glass and found that the details of his contact with the Americans were known to the Germans.

Gustav Krupp smiled: "Americans are not good at keeping secrets. ”

Yang Chao said: "It is absolutely impossible to reply to you accurately, we Chinese have always been very trustworthy, and we will never regret good things!" ”

Yang Chao made it clear that the introduction of an American steel mill in Yantai was a certainty.

Gustav couldn't help frowning: "You still think about it, the conditions we have offered are absolutely generous, and Germany is willing to provide financial support." ”

Yang Chao waved his hand very domineeringly: "No need." What I have in my hand is gold! You should know that the jurisdiction of this official happens to be the largest gold producing area in China. ”

Gustav nodded, they were actually puzzled by Yang Chao's sudden sprinkling of gold, if it was a railway, it could be explained, but the latter actions were really incomprehensible, and it was impossible for the Chinese government to hand over all its gold to Yang Chao, so the Germans also guessed that Yang Chao might have mastered a gold mine, and it happened that Zhaoyuan was a gold mining area with a long history in China, so they had to associate it.

Gustav would never have imagined that moving out of Zhaoyuan was Yang Chao's attempt to cover up the secret of ** from the bottom of the sea.

"Well, gold, gold!"

Gustav could only shake his head, Western countries have established the gold standard, so the price of silver has fallen all the way, compared with thirty years ago, the price of silver has fallen by half, but gold is getting stronger and stronger, Western countries are going crazy for gold, everyone seems to have completed industrialization, and they have the ability to invest on a large scale, even countries like Luxembourg, Belgium have no pressure to lend tens of millions of taels of silver to other countries, in fact, the guarantee behind it is only the industry of each country.

However, the currency of Western countries is guaranteed by gold, it can be said that the industry of various countries is driven by gold, and it seems that the investment of millions of millions of dollars and millions of pounds really allows those countries to take out the gold reserves behind them, and most countries have to peel off their skins.

Even the curse of the industrial crisis that comes every few years, the most recognized understanding is that there is not enough gold, the currency is issued indiscriminately, and it is the bankers who issue money indiscriminately, and their behavior of issuing currency is tacitly acquiesced by the state, because the country does need their funds to develop the economy, it can be said that Western countries have been kidnapped by bankers, and bankers have been kidnapped by gold.

Gold is a noose stuck in the neck of the banker, that is, a knife on the neck of the country, in order to prevent the sword of Damocles from falling from the economic crisis, Western countries are desperately searching for gold everywhere.

Yang Chao's sudden sprinkling of gold naturally attracted the attention of international bankers with a keen sense of smell, and the German bankers could not miss this cup, so they contributed to the Sifang locomotive, and this time persuaded the Krupp family to help China build a steel plant, and even the Kaiser was forced to make a match.

Of course, this is something that happened after Gustav arrived in Qingdao, and the order was sent by telegram, and Krupp's previous purpose was actually to sell arms to the Chinese government, but now he has to finalize the matter of the steel plant with Yang Chao first, and the matter of arms will be discussed in Beijing later.

Yang Chao also found that Krupp seemed to be wrong in time, and the things that the Americans came into contact with him only happened in the past few days, unless Krupp knew the situation before the Americans set off, and Yang Chao didn't know the Americans' plans at that time.

Yang Chao thought that this was unlikely, so he asked: "I wonder what other business Mr. Krupp has this time coming?" If you need the help of the officer, the officer will be happy to help his German friends. ”

Krupp was very surprised, because of the railway, Yang Chao had been beaten to the anti-German faction, and the German government even gave the German minister Zimmer an order to get Yang Chao away from Shandong through political means, but he didn't expect Yang Chao to suddenly show goodwill.

However, Krupp does not need to hide it, because it cannot be concealed at all, the eyes of the international arms community are always on Krupp, and wherever the representatives of Krupp go, the representatives of Britain, France and the United States will follow, of course, in the end, it is always Krupp who wins through quality and reputation, so there is no need to hide his deeds.

"The contemptible people are here for the Chinese government to form a new army. Krupp wants the Chinese government to equip Krupp artillery, and I believe this is also the will of the Chinese government. ”

Krupp said proudly that Krupp was already a first-class family in the West, otherwise Gustav would not have given up his banker's surname to become Krupp's son-in-law.

"New Army!"

Yang Chao's heart moved, he ignored this matter, of course, this matter itself is not worth paying attention to, because the new army is the Praetorian Guard formed by Zaifeng, and all the children of the Eight Banners are used.

In the end, the new army of Zaifeng did use German-style equipment, and it was extremely extravagant, and it was completely equipped in accordance with the weapons of the first-class division of the German army, which was decades earlier than the German armor division of the bald Jiang, but the Praetorian Guard composed of the children of these Eight Banners almost did not play a role, once the war was faster than anyone else, once the arrears were more fierce than anyone who made trouble, to be honest, it was not a minute and a half worse than the bald Jiang's German armorer.

Therefore, the formation of the Eight Banners New Army is completely a farce, but Yang Chao has no ability to stop it, Zaifeng wanted to toss before, Zhang Zhidong couldn't stop it, let alone himself.

It's just that this money was earned by the Germans in vain, and it was really unwilling, but it was 30 million pounds that the Qing government exchanged from the British at the cost of tariffs, which was borne by the people of the whole country, so that Zaifeng messed around and the Germans made a lot of money.

"Haha, isn't there an arsenal in Qingdao? I think it's enough to equip the new army of the imperial court. ”

Krupp was stunned, he held a drinking party today, wasn't he celebrating the completion of the first phase of the arsenal and the first production line is about to be put into operation, and now Yang Chao said it, which made him feel embarrassed.

But the Germans still had the final say on the matter in Qingdao, and Krupp was very confident: "The production capacity of the Qingdao Arsenal is not suitable for the new army of your country." ”

As for the reason, Qingdao is the German government that has the final say, but the arsenal is Krupp and Mauser, they say that how much production is how much, even if the Chinese government pays for it, then it will not decide anything.

Yang Chao understood in his heart, in fact, he had long understood and had been prepared, and he knew that the Germans would play tricks on the issue of the arsenal, and they had already played tricks when they were built in Qingdao first.

But Yang Chao laughed: "So this official thinks he should have a good talk with Krupp and Mauser." The arsenal in Qingdao is not capable of being operated by our side. Therefore, the official thought that it was most appropriate to hand it over to Mauser and Krupp to run it. And China will form more new armies in the future, and it is too difficult for such a large country to have 500,000 fewer troops. So I believe that Mauser and Krupp will do something in Qingdao. ”

Krupp was puzzled in his heart, the Qingdao Arsenal was originally a freak, Mauser and Krupp built it, but the money was from the Kaiser, and the technicians were also from Mauser and Krupp, but the operating funds were provided by the Chinese government, and it was said that it was China's state-owned arsenal, but it was built on the German colony.

At this time, Yang Chao proposed to hand over to Krupp and Mauser to operate, so that Krupp couldn't figure out the meaning: "What do you mean?" ”

"Joint venture!"

Yang Chao said in a very firm tone.

"Joint venture?"

Krupp questioned.

Yang Chao said: "That's right, the joint venture, the buildings and equipment built now and in the future are all built with the assistance of the Kaiser." It should belong to the Chinese government, but it is difficult for the Chinese government to raise operating expenses, so I plan to contribute half of the fund, and invite Mauser and Krupp to jointly fund the other half. In this way, the government will invest in the equipment of the field, you and I will invest in the capital, and the operation will be entrusted to you, and I will send supervisors. Each of the three parties holds 30% of the shares. ”

Krupp nodded, but felt wrong: "And what about ten percent?" ”

Yang Chao said with a smile: "This official thinks that it is completely appropriate to leave a 10% stake for His Majesty the Kaiser, who is generous and friendly. ”

His Majesty the Emperor of China Zaifeng people do not look at interests, the Chinese do not speak of profit, and the emperor cannot speak of profit, of course, legally speaking, the whole world is not the king's land, everything belongs to the emperor, this matter does not need to be taken seriously.

Krupp also smiled, this is a good idea, in the future Qingdao Arsenal will be able to monopolize the Chinese arms market, although Krupp and Mauser can only occupy 30% of the shares, but it is also a big business, the Kaiser can also get a piece of the pie, everyone takes what they need.

But he still can't decide: "The contemptible people will consider the suggestion of Lord Daotai, and I will reply to you as soon as possible!" ”

Krupp raised his glass gracefully, then took his leave, turning to greet the other guests.

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