Under the door of Douyang, a sedan drove out of the gate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and there were only two passengers in the car, except for Gongzhen and an armed guard. One is Tang Shaoyi, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the other is Liang Shizhao, the general office of the Salt Industry Bank.

At present, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is being instructed to assist the Ministry of Finance in sorting out some foreign-related public debts, and the Yanye Bank, as the main financial institution controlled by the Ministry of Finance, is the main executor in the current public debt consolidation plan. It is precisely because of this that Liang Shizhao was able to sit with Tang Shaoyi to discuss matters related to the consolidation of public debts.

A large part of these foreign-related public bonds are military expenditures prepared for the war in Liaodong, of which the loans to Germany account for the majority, and these German loans are all government-guaranteed public bonds, which are directly run by German banks in Germany, because they are short-term public bonds with high interest rates, and are still continuing in Germany, but now the Sino-Japanese war has ended, so there is no need to continue to make such public bonds in Germany, so the Ministry of Finance consulted with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and prepared to negotiate with the German side. Immediately put an end to the bank of this public debt, and appropriately extend the time for repayment of principal and interest, so as to ease the current financial tension.

This matter is not big or small, but it is not only a matter related to the credibility of the foreign public debt bank, so the Ministry of Finance did not dare to act without authorization, and specially sent Liang Shizhi to ask Shaoyi for some details on how to deal with the problem.

However, Tang Shaoyi had never dealt with financial negotiations, so he did not dare to issue a guarantee, and the two discussed in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for an afternoon. A meeting of some advisers was convened to discuss and finally decided to raise the interest rate appropriately, but this will also put more pressure on the Ministry of Finance. Therefore, on the way home, Liang Shiyi, the general office of the Salt Industry Bank, was a little worried.

"Shaochuan, you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are if you don't belong to your family. Although the Sino-Japanese war is over, the aftermath of the war still needs to be paid by the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Finance was counting on the fact that your Ministry of Foreign Affairs would be able to extort some war reparations from Japan in order to ease the financial tension. However, in the end, your Ministry of Foreign Affairs was too polite to Japan, and did not receive a dime in the war reparations, and as a result, the wishful thinking of the Ministry of Finance fell to nothing, and now all the financial pressure has fallen on the head of the Salt Bank, and in recent days, the treasury of the Salt Bank has been emptied by the Ministry of Finance. I, the general manager of the Salt Industry Bank, could only stare dryly in the face of the huge empty accounts on the accounts, and I didn't even dare to complain, lest I be counted down by the Ministry of Finance.

Liang Shiyi complained to Tang Shaoyi while being worried, and was not satisfied with the Foreign Ministry's negotiations with Japan, but the pressure was too heavy, and he was a little unbearable, and he needed to vent it.

Tang Shaoyi understands Liang Shizhi's difficulties, but since the other party is involved in the negotiations with Japan of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, cannot but protect his shortcomings.

"Yifu, you can't get involved with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with this complaint. Representations with Japan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has done its best, and the return of sovereignty over South Manchuria and Taiwan, and this alone cannot be said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not done its best. In the final analysis, it is still a matter of national strength, in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan failed to get war reparations from Russia, and it is the same reason, if the first team has the ability to land on the Japanese mainland to fight. This war reparation is naturally easy to say, but now that our ** team does not have the ability to land on the Japanese mainland to fight, then we cannot blame the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for not solving the financial problem for the Ministry of Finance.

Also, about the current financial situation. The president has also mentioned this issue many times, although the war is over, but all parties have tacitly supported it, not to mention anything else, the "national five-year compulsory education plan" proposed by the Ministry of Education alone needs to play a large amount of money, which also needs to be borne by the Ministry of Finance, and local finances alone cannot support it, so for the difficulty of Chief Xiong. I also understand very well, but understanding is understanding, I am not a person from the Ministry of Finance, and I cannot point fingers at financial work and overstep its responsibilities. However, it is clear that the current financial difficulties are only temporary, given that the war in Europe has already erupted. China's industry and commerce are about to make great progress. Then, perhaps it will not be long before the national and local taxes under the industrial and commercial items will increase substantially, and the Ministry of Finance will not worry about funding at that time. You, the head office of the Salt Industry Bank, don't have to worry about the vault being emptied. ”

Seeing that Tang Shaoyi was serious, Liang Shiyi couldn't help but smile bitterly, and said: "Shaochuan, I'm just complaining, Tang doesn't have any opinions about your Ministry of Foreign Affairs, not to mention that the negotiations with Japan basically have nothing to do with you, so you don't have to talk so long." Actually, I know that. With the current national strength of China. It would not be easy to obtain such a negotiation, otherwise. Just by virtue of the current financial situation. If the war against Japan is not ended in time. Then the central finance will face the situation that Beiyang faced back then, and can only rely on borrowing from foreign countries to survive, as for the year when it can pay off those foreign debts. I'm afraid I can't tell who it is

"So, now there is no need to complain at all. As long as you do your job, your Ministry of Finance will do a good job in financial work and provide financial support for the exhibition of industry and commerce, and our Ministry of Foreign Affairs will also do a good job in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide diplomatic support for the exhibition of industry and commerce

Tang Shaoyi nodded again and again, and the words behind him somewhat revealed a little bit of heavenly opportunity.

"So, China won't be allied with Germany? Liang Shizhi immediately seized the heavenly opportunity leaked out of Tang Shaoyi's words. Tang Shaoyi smiled, and then realized that he had lost his mouth. But he didn't deny it, just nodded. said: "This matter is the president's notch. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is of the same view. However, it is still classified. You must be sure to tell anyone, after all, the negotiations with the Entente are not yet over, and no one can know our bottom line. ”

"How's that going on with the Allies? Liang Shizhao looked at the driver driving in front of him and asked Tang Shaoyi.

"It's almost done. Germany and Austria-Hungary had made it clear that as long as Britain agreed to give up extraterritoriality, the two countries would follow suit and return all the concessions in China, but the president was not very satisfied with this, and continued to negotiate to see if the concessions could be returned first. And then we will move on to the issue of extraterritoriality. ”

"In this way, the situation in Europe is quite urgent. Germany and Austria-Hungary had no time to look to the Far East. By the way, how are the negotiations on the Russian side? Last time, I heard that the Russian envoy made big concessions on the issue of North Manchuria and Outer Mongolia, but I don't know if I can go further? There are a lot of interests on the North Manchurian side. ”

Liang Shizhao nodded, changed his words, and asked the question of Beiman again, and he didn't blame him for being so urgent. Russia has been obstructing the Salt Industry Bank's business in North Manchuria, which makes Liang Shizhao very dissatisfied! Now is a good time to make representations on this issue, and there are relevant contents in the negotiations between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Russian envoy, but Liang Shiyi did not participate in the negotiations, so it is not clear about the progress of the negotiations.

"Junguo is worried that we will take advantage of the outbreak of the European war to attack its Far Eastern Frontier, so it is still relatively cooperative on the issue of negotiations, but the Russians have always been untrustworthy and have no faith in this negotiation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not dare to be careless, let alone gullible in verbal promises, and as long as there is no real action, we cannot believe in the sincerity of the Russians. This morning, the President has ordered the dispatch of some cavalry units to Jilin. And there were armored units to follow. Russia has not yet reacted to this, but as long as the war in Europe is not over, it will be difficult for Russia to disperse its military forces into the Far East

"Is there going to be war again? President, it's a little too grandiose. ”

"It's hard to say. However, weak countries have no diplomacy, and blindly retreating cannot safeguard national rights and interests. However, it is not a matter of benefiting the country to be silent, in short, it is necessary to grasp a certain degree

Tang Shaoyi and Liang Shizhao both sighed, both of them were from Beiyang back then, and they both participated in foreign affairs to some extent, and they both had personal experience of the reality of this "weak country without diplomacy", it is rare that the central government is so tough now, and this toughness is based on effective deterrence by force, so now is the best time to take advantage of the war in Europe.

Just as the two sighed, the car had arrived at Liang Shizhi's residence. After Liang Shizhi got out of the car, Tang Shaoyi instructed the driver to drive the car directly to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, because he still had a task to do.

When he arrived at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Tang Shaoyi rushed directly to the office of the chief of internal affairs, and it was in this office that he met another guest who had rushed to Beijing from the three eastern provinces, one was a Chinese named Zhang Zongchang, and the other was a Russian named Chechakov.

These two people were specially sent by the president to the Ministry of the Interior to wait for Tang Shaoyi, and Tang Shaoyi also came to see them on the order of the president, with only one purpose, that is, to hand over a document to the two, which is quite important and Tang Shaoyi has always kept it personally.

The main content of this document is about the Russian court god Rasputin, Tang Shaoyi in the two years of serving as minister to Russia, took advantage of various opportunities to get close to this Rasputin, and finally made friends with this god stick, and the friendship is not shallow, in fact, Rasputin's country house on the outskirts of Moscow was given by Tang Shaoyi, and the "special funds" used came from the special appropriation of the presidential palace.

In fact, the order close to Rasputin was also issued by the president himself, directly to Tang Shaoyi himself, although he was a little puzzled by the president's order, but Tang Shaoyi still faithfully carried out this order, and the execution was not bad, Rasputin has regarded him as a foreign friend who has nothing to talk about.

Tang Shaoyi has a very thorough understanding of this Russian god, and in his opinion, the role of this person in the Russian court is very similar to the courtiers around the emperor recorded in the ancient Chinese collection history books, although this. The official position held by the Russian god was not high, but because he could get close to the Russian tsar at any time, his influence on the policy of the Russian empire could not be ignored, and such a person was playing an increasingly important role in the political life of Russia.

Tang Shaoyi once believed that the president had called him close to this Rasputin with the intention of using it one day, but until he was called back to China to serve as the chief of foreign affairs, this minister of the Russian Empire did not come in handy, and even the foreign ministry did not use the power of this person in this negotiation with Russia. In this regard, Tang Shaoyi is very strange.

But now, Tang Shaoyi has finally come back to her senses. It turned out that the president's intention was to let him act as an intermediary to introduce this Chechakov to Rasputin, and this Chechakov is now the manager of a multinational security company, and that Zhang Zongchang is his assistant.

The president's actions were unpredictable, Tang Shaoyi did not dare to ask more, and after handing over the documents, he wrote a letter of recommendation, handed it to Chechakov, and then quickly left the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Of course, General Manager Tang hopes to stay out of this kind of matter as much as possible without directly participating in it.