The construction speed of the Yanji Railway greatly exceeded the expectations of the Germans, resulting in the supply of Krupp's steel rails was somewhat insufficient, and they had to quietly appropriate a batch of steel rails that were originally supplied to the Jiaoji Railway to the Yanji Railway. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

For Krupp, they don't care who the rails buy from, they don't care if the Jiaoji Railway can beat the Yanji Railway, they care about making money, especially when Yang Chao pays the golden gold, they love it more, and even the National Bank has come forward to lobby the Kaiser, saying that the gold supply of the Chinese is a great support for the development of the German banking industry and the credit of the Deutsche Mark.

Of the 600 kilometers of railway lines, at least 10 million of the 20 million yuan cost is used to purchase various materials, which can be exchanged for at least 10 tons of gold, and the German banking industry will not let go of these 10 tons of gold. Therefore, the German banking syndicate did not hesitate to issue interest-free loans to Krupp, hoping that the gold would finally enter their coffers.

But at this time, Krupp heard bad news, the Americans were secretly negotiating with Yang Chao.

The content of the negotiations is to handle the content of a steel plant, and once the Chinese can produce steel rails themselves, does it not mean that Krupp's business will not last long.

Krupp couldn't help but get nervous, all countries build railways, all of them use their own country-produced steel rails, one purpose is to support the national industry, Westerners are shrewd, and have long understood the truth that whichever country has a strong industry, the country's strength will be strong, and only China is the only country that builds railways safely and relies on the West to supply raw materials.

But the Chinese are not stupid, Zhang Zhidong built the railway, not to give priority to the purchase of rails from the Hanyang Iron Works, but the Hanyang Iron Works itself did not argue, there was really not enough capacity, so that the Belgians took up a large number of orders.

The Yanji Railway is the same reason, because the Chinese cannot produce steel rails, so Shandong's railways must give priority to Germany, once China's own steel plant appears in Shandong, then it is bound to hand over orders to its own factories for production.

So the Germans went into action again.

"What is this Yang Chao going to do?"

In the city of Beijing, Zaifeng received an inquiry from the Germans again, which made him nervous, and the Eight-Nation Coalition Army had only calmed down for a few days.

"Your Majesty, Yang Chaoshang's excerpt said that he plans to set up a steel mill in Laiwu. In the future, if we build the railway ourselves, we will not have to be subject to foreigners. ”

Zhang Zhidong stood aside and explained, Yang Chao's twists and turns, as the prime minister, must be gone through first, this is the procedure after their reform, but in the end it has to be handed over to Zaifeng here to make a decision, which is a characteristic of the Qing Dynasty, although there is a parliament and a cabinet prime minister system, but the emperor's power is still very large.

Zhang Zhidong naturally has an opinion on this, so he has been in a hurry to make further reforms, the first step is to establish a constitution to limit the imperial power, but under the delay of the emperor himself and some conservative ministers, the progress of the constitution work is very slow, and now he has only sent people to various countries to investigate.

"Steel repair plant? Isn't there a Hanyang Iron Works? ”

Zaifeng asked impatiently, what he couldn't see the most now was trouble, because it seemed that everyone was making trouble for him.

Zhang Zhidong said: "The steel produced by the Hanyang Iron Works is not enough at all, and the Luhan line is still insufficient, and it is unable to supply other railways. ”

Zaifeng said: "Okay, even if you want to set up a steel mill, then don't provoke the Americans, isn't it silver, then Yang Chao can borrow silver, just hand it over to the Germans to do a good job, what to do to provoke the United States, let the Germans jump again." ”

The Germans had no legal basis to stop the construction of a railway line to compete with the Jiaoji Railway, let alone build a steel plant. Therefore, the Germans still cite the priority this time, since Yang Chao wants to run a steel mill in Shandong, then he must use German equipment and hire German engineers.

No matter how you say that the Germans are privileged in Shandong. This is the reason why after the First Sino-Japanese War, the imperialists divided the scope of governance in China, because this privilege is really easy to use.

Britain and France were the first Western powers to operate in China, but when these two large countries came, they were the only ones in the world who could enjoy the fat of China, so the two countries could eat as much as they wanted, and there was no need to eat separately.

The United States and Russia, which closely followed Britain and France, did not have enough military strength, so they shared behind Britain and France, and the Russians were not economically strong and were easy to feed, so the four countries could also eat enough in China, and there was no need to occupy them separately.

However, after the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan's wild wolf also stood up, and at the same time, more than a dozen countries in the West, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Italy, completed the industrial revolution, and capital began to have the need for expansion.

When the wolf's food was not enough, there was bound to be a conflict, and after Japan occupied Taiwan and Liaodong, Russia felt that its prey area was threatened, so it united with France and Germany to force Japan to abandon Liaodong.

At this time, the lone wolves who used to fight alone felt that China's meat was really not enough for wolves to share, and the interests of all countries were different. Britain and France have been operating in China for a long time, and the advantages they have are too great, and the countries that have risen later, such as Germany and Japan, have felt that they cannot compete with Britain and France if they do not adopt other methods and rely solely on economic competition.

Britain and France also sensed the threat of wolves on their mouths, so the old and new imperialism began to divide the territory almost simultaneously.

First, the French demanded that the Qing government guarantee that they would not cede Liangguang Yunnan, which was close to Vietnam, to other countries; Then the British asked the Qing government to promise not to cede the territory of the Yangtze River valley; Japan demanded that Fujian not be ceded; Germany saw that everyone else had done it, and for fear that it would be too late, it found an opportunity to occupy Qingdao and rob Shandong of its privileges; The Russians, for their part, seized the privileges of the Northeast.

This is where the division of spheres of influence comes from, but it is not deliberately designed, and no formal treaty has ever been signed.

In fact, politics is also the same as nature, it has its own ecological environment, and when the interests are not enough, it is like the lack of predatory space for wolves, and it is necessary to start dividing the territory.

It's just that at the beginning, the Americans were against it, because although they were an economic power, they were a country ruled by capitalists, and economic interests were the most important, so their military strength could be called a dwarf, and their navy was not as good as that of Japan and Russia, and their army was no more than 60,000 people, not even comparable to the nameless small countries in Europe.

Therefore, military expansion is the weak point of the United States, and they resolutely oppose the division of spheres of influence in China by various countries, and still more oppose the partition of China; they have always adhered to the original model of Britain and France, hoping to get a piece of the pie, and put forward the principle of opening the door and equalizing interests, hoping to pick up leftovers in the spheres of influence of various countries.

At the time of the Boxer Rebellion, the United States sent a tough note to other countries for the first time, proposing that the door be open and asking all countries to express their positions.

After the Eight-Nation Coalition War, the front of the Legion found that China was not so easy to occupy, so under the diplomacy of all parties, there was a tacit understanding that not to carve up China, but to monopolize the sphere of influence and divide economic interests.

This is how Germany carved up Shandong.

After seeing the reality clearly, the United States also wanted a piece of the pie, but they came too late, and when they tried to build a coal station in Fujian, they were strongly opposed by the Japanese and failed, and then the capitalist imperialism of the United States realized that they had completely lost the opportunity and the whole of China was divided.

At this time, the Americans can only acquiesce to the status quo, saying that they respect the spheres of influence of various countries and no longer oppose them, but they hope that the interests will be equalized and they will be able to eat a little leftovers, just like when they followed behind Britain and France, and they will also get a little benefit after following the great powers. Therefore, they no longer invade the spheres of influence of various countries, but they have painstakingly operated in various ports.

"The old minister thinks that Yang Daotai probably wants to use raze to control raze, and to control virtue with beauty."

Zhang Zhidong also couldn't understand the purpose of Yang Chao's contact with the Americans, he had just clashed with the Germans, and snatched back some right of way from the Germans, and suddenly walked in with the Americans, isn't this provoking Germany.

Zhang Zhidong is not familiar with Yang Chao, and he only knows a few letters, but it can be seen between the lines that this is a very rational young man, and he shouldn't be rash.

"Conquering raze with razing is Li Hongzhang's set again. Okay, let him deal with everything he provoked! Tell Yang Chao that I don't want to hear about the Germans looking for trouble. ”

"The old minister obeys."

After leaving the palace, Zhang Zhidong wrote a letter to Yang Chao, reprimanding him in the form of a private letter instead of an official letter.

In the letter, he hoped that Yang Chao would finish dealing with the affairs of Germany as soon as possible and try not to conflict with the foreigners.

At this time, Yang Chao is indeed in contact with the Americans.

After the failure of the Americans to participate in the division of spheres of influence, they did not intend to give up their economic interests, and all sides drilled into camps, relied on economic advantages, and operated diligently in various ports.

The last time Zhan Tianyou repaired the railway to find the Americans, it was an unexpected joy and an unexpected opportunity, and the Americans attached great importance to it. But in the end, it was disturbed by the Germans. However, the Americans gave up their claim for compensation in the hope of establishing a good personal relationship with Yang Chao, and they sought the benefits of the latter.

The Americans immediately put forward a plan to build steel mills in China, hoping to get Yang Chao's support, they could not enter the hinterland of Shandong, not only the Germans did not agree, but the Qing government did not agree, although so many ports were opened, and many concessions were forced to be ceded, but the Qing government did not fully open up, did not allow foreigners to build factories outside the ports.

Therefore, the place where the Americans chose to build the steel mill was in Yantai, and the purpose of their contact with Yang Chao was to get Yang Chao's guarantee and support, and they hoped that after the steel mill was built, it could replace the Germans to supply Chinese railways.

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I found that I made a mistake and corrected it. Ask for tickets at the same time!!