"A £300 million interest-free loan, or a £500 million interest-bearing loan? Surely those vampires like the latter, only asking to be paid in precious metals? When the old Chamberlain heard this, his brows immediately furrowed, although the Chinese side said that the repayment of principal and interest would also be in the form of precious metals, which seemed to be no problem, but the Chinese side asked for a truce after getting the money, what if the time came to turn around and deny people and blacken so much gold and silver?

Due to the rehearsal and analysis in advance, Tang Shaoyi saw the old Chamberlain's thoughts at once this time, "Okay, after all, our Datong Party has just established power, and international credit has not yet been widely recognized. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info But how good can the credibility of your government be? Don't give the example of a treaty with Europe and the United States, we have not yet been recognized by your so-called 'civilized world'! Mr. Special Envoy, tell me the truth, if Britain defaults after our armistice, will other Western countries doubt the credibility of the British Government from now on? ”

"Of course not!" Although the old Chamberlain did not say it, his embarrassed expression had already given the answer, but the old Chamberlain could only insist, "It is true, yes, but your country has an absolute advantage in the military, if our country really defaults, your country can fight back at any time, why do you have to get the money first?" And if your country accepts the money but refuses to withdraw its troops, we have no way at all, and I ask your country to give way first......"

"Our country is indeed not afraid, but we, the handlers, are afraid! If you agree to your conditions, but you end up with all kinds of arrears and deductions, who will bear the responsibility? It's us, of course! Tang Shaoyi was furious and pointed out the key to the problem, which made the old Chamberlain suddenly stammer, he can't ask the other party to carry forward the spirit of patriotism and make a selfless sacrifice, right?

Seeing that the old Chamberlain had already exhausted his words, Tang Shaoyi immediately seized the opportunity and proposed a solution that Li Hui personally drew up at that time, "Otherwise, we will send a force to your country to receive this gold and silver, but we will not bring it back to China, but continue to stay in your country, and use this gold and silver to purchase the materials that our country needs nearby, what does Mr. Special Envoy think?" ”

Chamberlain's eyes lit up suddenly, although after further inquiry, he learned that the loan must really be handed over to the hands of that army, and not just a formality, but so much gold and silver, as long as it remained in Britain, naturally there was a way to prevent them from escaping with the money. Moreover, the focus of this new plan was on the procurement of supplies, and the gold and silver delivered by the British government were only temporarily handed over to the Chinese troops for safekeeping, and the actual cost was only a variety of goods worth hundreds of millions of pounds, which was much smaller.

As a result, the biggest differences between the two sides have finally been resolved, and the next thing that needs to be discussed is only some details. First of all, the number of Chinese troops, at first the Chinese hoped to send a regiment with complete artillery and machine guns, but because of the strong opposition of the old Chamberlain, it was finally reduced to the size of a battalion, and the armament was about 1,000 people.

As a staunch industrial party, Chamberlain was keenly aware that the reparations from the loan under false pretenses, if used well, could become a rare opportunity to revive British manufacturing, as was the case with post-disaster reconstruction, and immediately made a request that the Chinese side agree to purchase only British products.

In this regard, Tang Shaoyi said that it is not absolutely impossible, but it is required that all products must be in the metric system, and the cost performance cannot be significantly lower than the average level of the European market, and the specific type and amount must be determined when the peace treaty is signed.

Old Chamberlain frowned suddenly, the quality of British industrial products is still good, but because the wage level is too high, the labor costs of British enterprises are generally too high, and the international competitiveness of industrial products is getting worse. In addition, the accustomed change from the imperial system to the metric system will definitely increase the cost or reduce the quality, which will make it more difficult to meet the requirements of the Chinese......

"Unless the government subsidizes companies, I'm afraid it won't work. But it's not easy to get those bastards to violate the so-called free market principles! The old Chamberlain, who felt that he had no bottom in his heart, could only retreat first and demand that China's procurement must be made in pounds sterling instead of paying directly in gold and silver. In other words, the old Chamberlain asked the Chinese side to exchange gold and silver for pounds sterling, and then use pounds to purchase goods, so that the gold and silver handed over to China could be invisibly turned into reserves for pounds sterling and support the exchange rate of pounds.

After the Chinese side agreed to this request, all that remained was some coordination work, such as the formal armistice to the Chinese gold troops to go to the British to get a loan and send a telegram back, but before that, the Chinese side will stop continuing to spoil India, although at this time India's floating wealth has been looted to the ground, but for Britain, this matter is still very important......

There was originally a Dutch in the belligerents, but because of the lack of national strength, there was no sense of existence during the peace talks, and even the cession of the Dutch East Indies to China was also finalized by the old Chamberlain, and the Dutch East Indies were much larger than Malaya and Burma combined in terms of area and population, and accounted for far more than the proportion of all colonies (after that, the Dutch colonies were left with Dutch Guiana and a few small islands, which were just a drop in the bucket compared to the Dutch East Indies.) You can imagine how aggrieved the Dutch are.

The only thing that made the Dutch government breathe a sigh of relief was that the Chinese government probably also felt that the knife of killing the Netherlands was too ruthless (in fact, the Dutch mainland and the remaining colonies were far away from China, and they were simply out of reach, and the military threat was useless). ), and therefore no claim for compensation was made.

Eventually, on December 7, 1895, representatives of China and Britain and the Netherlands concluded a peace treaty in Calcutta, known as the Treaty of Calcutta.

Under the terms of the peace treaty, China acquired the Dutch colony of the Dutch East Indies and the former British colony of Malaya, Burma, the Andaman Islands, and western Canada (west of the Rocky Mountains).

In addition, the Bank of England provided a long-term loan to China totalling £400 million (after bargaining, the amount was appropriately reduced, but the repayment period was extended). "to support China's post-war reconstruction...... (To be continued.) )