10881908 Far Eastern madman

The Paiyuan Tea Room is not a room. It's a two-story "small building." Chinese style only four. The lower floor is for ordinary guests, and the upper floor is a private room. To receive distinguished guests, the Ministry of Tingbi was waiting for Liang Shiyu on the second floor.

Accompanied by Zhang Shuhe, Liang Shizhao went up to the second floor and walked into a private room at the westernmost end.

There were two people sitting in the elegant room, one Chinese and one foreign, and the Chinese was the boss of the China Financial United Bank, Bu Tingbi, and as for the foreigner sitting next to him, Liang Shizhao just felt a little familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen it for a while.

"Mr. Liang, don't come unharmed, the ministry took the liberty to meet, and the place where the collision was met was Mr. Liang Haihan. In the past, there was a misunderstanding between us, and the ministry was willing to reconcile with Mr. Liang.

Ministry Tingbi took a few steps to greet him, this etiquette was fully done, and the festival between the two was revealed in a few words, which made Liang Shizhao very surprised, and hurriedly greeted the other party.

The foreigner also followed Bu Tingbi and greeted Liang Shiyi in a very authentic Chinese official dialect.

"Hello, Mr. Liang, we finally met again, the last time we said goodbye to Beijing, it was the same time, but the last time I met Mr. Liang as a diplomat in the United States, and this time. I was an ordinary businessman catching up with Mr. Liang. ”

As soon as the American spoke, Liang Shizhi remembered who this person was, so he shook hands with the other party and said, "It turned out to be Mr. Tuize from the consulate, unfortunately, I only talked a few words with Mr. Stafford at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs last time, and I don't know your honorable name." ”

"My name is Marven, and I have now been transferred to the U.S. Legation in China to continue to work for Mr. Stade." The American politely took out a business card and handed it to Liang Shizhi.

Liang Shizhi took the business card, looked at Xi Tingbi who was smiling, and asked, "I was outside just now." Uncle He said to me, Mr. Bu wants to say a few words to me, I don't know what Mr. Bu has to say? Liang listened attentively. ”

Ministry Tingbi said: "Mr. Liang is quick to talk, so I won't beat around the bush." In fact, he came here to discuss the redemption of the Jinghan Railway with Mr. Liang. ”

The other party was so straightforward, but it was very surprising to Liang Shizhi, and after a little hesitation, Liang Shizhao said: "The redemption of Jinghan Road was originally presided over by the central government, why did Mr. Ministry want to make trouble?" ”

"Zou is a senior adviser to the Ministry of Finance, and this matter is related to the government's finances, so how can I not care? As far as I know, now that the Ministry of Finance is so impoverished that it is a problem to even maintain the government's daily expenditures, where is the money to ransom Jinghan Road? ”

Ministry Tingbi's words hit the sore spot, Liang Shiyi couldn't help frowning, and said in a deep voice: "Bank of Communications can issue stocks to raise funds, and the redemption funds don't need to worry about the Ministry of Finance." ”

"Issuing shares, I don't know when and what month it will take to raise the redemption money, are we just watching the Jinghan Railway controlled by a foreign consortium? On the other hand, the ministry heard that the Belgian consortium's position is very tough, the additional clauses are very harsh, and the negotiation is very difficult. ”

"What does that mean?"

Liang Shiyi asked tentatively, and then glanced at the American Marven, who was also well aware of the American consortium's "enthusiasm" for China's railways

"Now that the ministry has established a new bank, Mr. Liang must also know about it, although my bank has just been established, but this financial strength is a little bit, maybe not as good as foreign banks, but it is also a leader in China."

Bu Tingbi was quite confident in his words, which made Liang Shizhao very unhappy, of course he understood what the other party meant.

Liang Shizhao presided over the redemption of the Jinghan Railway. Now his biggest headache is the problem of ransom funds. His Bank of Communications simply can't come up with so much money, and it is also difficult to issue right-of-way stocks, compared with the Bank of Communications, the China Financial United Bank of the Ministry of Commerce is much richer. This is because just the day before yesterday, the General Affairs Committee of the United Front had passed a resolution announcing that all the financial revenues of the military governments in the provinces under its control would be deposited in the "Hualian," which was in fact declaring that the Hualian would be the "central bank" of the United Front. It is conceivable that under the protection of the strong armed forces of the United Front, more and more people will choose to deposit in Hualian, and in this way, the liquidity available to Hualian will be very amazing.

On the other hand, Liang Shizhao's Bank of Communications, because it did not support the military expenditure of the Beiyang Army, the current Bank of Communications has basically become an empty shell, and there is no way to talk about capital turnover, raising funds from the people. But it was also struggling because of the decline of the Beiyang power.

It was in this situation that Liang Shizhao still did not bite the bullet and deal with the Belgian consortium, he knew very well in his heart that the more he was at such a time. The more Beiyang cannot interrupt the redemption negotiations on Jinghan Road, otherwise, the Beiyang Group will continue to lose points politically. Now there is no way back in Beiyang, and if you go back, you will fall off the cliff.

Ministry Tingbi may have taken a fancy to this key point, so he will attack on the redemption of Jinghan Road.

"What Mr. Zou mean is that you are willing to borrow from the Bank of Communications?"

Liang Shizhao quickly thought about it in his heart. If the other party was willing to make an interbank loan, it would be worth a try, but he quickly dispelled this idea, because he also understood that the other party was definitely not here to send charcoal in the snow, and considering the background of the United Front of the Ministry of Ting Bi, he would rather believe that this was a trap.

"It's not about borrowing, it's about joining forces. Your Bank of Communications and my Hualian Bank jointly formed a railway holding company to redeem the Jinghan Railway from a Belgian consortium and turn it into a commercial office. In this way, not only can the rights and interests of the people be recovered, but it is also a pity that this further profits will be gained, killing two birds with one stone, why not? ”

Ministry Tingbi's words surprised Liang Shizhi very much. Because his Bank of Communications appears to be a commercial bank, but in fact it is a financial institution controlled by the Beiyang Center, and the Jinghan Road redemption negotiations were also carried out with the assistance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, rather than being simple

Didn't Mr. "Five" know that this ransom negotiation was actually a diplomatic move? "Liang Shizhao

Road.

"According to the international law, no!"

The person who answered Liang Shiyi was not Bu Tingbi. It was the American Marvin, who took out a mimeographed copy of the contract from his pocket in a serious manner, and said: "This is the "Jinghan Railway Construction Regulations" that we obtained from the United States, which is also a copy of the official contract signed between the Belgian consortium and the government of the Qing Dynasty that year, according to the research of our American business lawyers, this contract is a purely commercial contract, and has no legal relationship with politics and diplomacy, so, in my opinion, the negotiation of the redemption of Jinghan Road is completely a commercial negotiation, whether it is your Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Neither the Belgian diplomatic department has the right to interfere in this matter. ”

Liang Shizhi was stunned and said, "Mr. Marven." Could it be that the American consortium is also interested in Jinghan Road? ”

This was too straightforward, which made Marven a little unable to speak for a while.

Ministry Tingbi said: "That's the case, although my Hualian Bank is relatively well-funded, but after all, the network has just been established, and I can't take out enough money to redeem the Jinghan Railway for a while, and now the American consortium is also interested in investing in the Jinghan Railway Company, I think I can consider it, so I invited Mr. Marven to come over." ”

"What is the difference between inviting a foreign company to take a stake and not redeeming it?" Liang Shizhao rolled his eyes. didn't save face for the other party.

"Of course there is a difference.

Although the war some time ago destroyed the management system of the Belgian company, it is now peaceful, and the Belgian company is exerting diplomatic pressure on the center of your country through France in the hope of restoring their rights. If we join hands to take back the Jinghan Railway, then our American company only owns 30 percent of the total shares, and the other 70 percent is controlled by a Chinese consortium, and the controlling stake is on the Chinese side, how can it be said that there is no difference? All we American businessmen need is profit, and we don't need any harsh political strings attached. ”

Marven made a serious analysis, which made Liang Shizhao fully understand his intentions.

This method is still very feasible. But the problem is that this matter is not something that Liang Shizhi can call the shots at all, and this matter must be decided by Xu Shichang.

"I already know the intention of the two of you, but the matter of the redemption of Jinghan Road is very important. I can report your proposal to the center, and if the center does not approve it, there is nothing I can do. ”

Liang Shiyi shook his head and sighed, this half is sighing that he has no power, and the other half is also sighing that the center has no money, if there is money, why bother to rely on others?

Ministry Tingbi said: "Mr. Liang, you and I are both Chinese, and we should serve the country. Now we should join forces and fight with the Belgian consortium to suppress the ransom price of Jinghan Road, so as to help the center and strengthen the courage of our Fengguo people! In addition, Mr. Liang is a little more humble, and you are now presiding over the ransom matter. Even if the central government does not agree with this business plan, you can directly submit this plan to the Congress, we are too poor in China, and we can only raise funds by ourselves, and this railway industry will not develop in the short term anyway, so we should still boldly use foreign capital, as long as we are careful not to lose our national power. ”

"Mr. Ministry, you don't have to say it, I understand this truth, if it weren't for this country, I would have stopped doing it a long time ago. But then again, you and I are powerless people, and now in these years, what we pay attention to is to compare fists, whose fists are hard, who has the final say, and our suggestions, martial artists may not be able to listen. Congress? That's just a pound of knick-knacks. ”

Liang Shizhi had something to say in this, and was about to complain again, but suddenly heard a commotion outside. So he sent a servant to inquire, and the servant quickly turned back, holding in his hand a copy of the bulletin published on the Internet.

The headline on the front page of the newspaper was particularly eye-catching:

"The impeachment of the president of Congress has erupted!"

Liang Shizhi was taken aback, and after a closer look, he couldn't help but be even more shocked.

It turned out that at the morning session of the National Assembly, Li Yuanhong and Tang Hualong were the members of the National Assembly who had started the signature campaign to impeach Xu Shichang, the president of the Republic of China, and now many signatures have been collected, and as long as the signatures reach a certain number, it can be formed into a resolution with legal effect, and then the National Assembly can be convened to impeach Xu Shichang.

At this time, it was only two days before Xu Shichang officially took office as the president of the Republic of China.

There are two reasons for the impeachment of Xu Shichang: First, the riots of the banner people in the capital, and Xu Shichang's impeachment is unfavorable. It not only caused heavy losses to the people, but also affected diplomatic relations between China and foreign countries; Second, Xu Shichang's mishandling of the issue of the successor of the "Southeast Patrol Envoy" led to internal strife in the city of Nanjing, causing Nanjing residents to suffer heavy losses in life and property, and affecting diplomatic relations between China and foreign countries.

These two reasons seem to be very strong. Even Liang Shizhao couldn't find a sufficient reason to excuse Xu Shichang for a while.

Liang Shiyi looked at Ministry Tingbi and Marven, but saw that the two of them reacted very calmly to the news. As if they had known it for a long time.

Li Yuanhong and Tang Hualong are both members of the United Front Congress, and now, both the Senate and the House of Representatives are also controlled by the United Front, once the impeachment of the president is submitted to the National Assembly for a vote, it will be difficult for Xu Shichang to continue to sit in the seat of the president of the Republic of China, because according to the constitution, once the president is impeached by the Congress, he must automatically resign.

Congress, in the end, still has some practical uses, not just decorations.

Thinking of this, Liang Shizhi's heart suddenly cooled.

This Beiyang has really been forced to the edge of the cliff, perhaps, it is indeed time to find a way out for yourself.