@@@@@@

In the scorching summer, the cicadas are chirping endlessly.

In the Affiliated Hospital of Hubei National Defense University in Wuchang, Xi'er commanded Lei Meng and more than a dozen guards to use bamboo poles to expel these noisy little guys, for fear of affecting the second lady in the delivery room. It is said that the eighteenth change of the female university, the little girl sent by Lu Rongting to win over Yang Qiu to take the route of his wife is now bright and bright, so the guards kept squeezing their eyebrows while picking out cicadas and insects, but with Lei Da Hob meat coughing fiercely twice, one or two of them all died down, no matter who let Major Lei take the lead.

The little girl frowned, laughed so hard that she almost fell off the tree, and then covered the corners of her mouth and trotted all the way back to the delivery room to serve, and almost bumped into Yang Qiu who was anxiously waiting on the way.

The screams of pain in the delivery room made Yang Qiu's heart pwitch, and he hurriedly grabbed Xi'er: "Go and see, why is it so long." ”

Xi'er nodded, and hurriedly rushed into the delivery room to wait, and Miao Luo also walked in when she saw this. Because Rui Yao is older, the whole family is very anxious, and even Lu Bicheng sent a telegram from Shanghai to ask for news. The doctors and nurses went back and forth, everyone was so busy that their feet didn't touch the ground, and Yang Qiu couldn't be disturbed, so he could only pace back and forth to relieve anxiety.

"The vice president doesn't have to worry too much, the doctor said it's not a big deal."

Jiang Fangzhen chatted with the doctor for a few words, complex geopolitical struggles and internal problems are not his forte, so he has been concentrating on teaching at the National Defense University since the end of the European war. He also heard about the silver crisis, and published an article in the military newspaper condemning the British and American business groups, but the specific inside story was not clear, so he took the opportunity to ask sideways: "Why did the vice president return to Wuchang?" The level of the Nanjing Army General Hospital is higher than here. ”

"This is Yao'er's hometown, and my relatives and friends are here, so I hope to come back and give birth." Yang Qiu looked at him, avoided the main topic and continued: "Baili, there is something I want to say hello to you in advance. Starting next year, domestic military academies will increase the number of foreign military academy students by 500 every year, and you don't have to ask where these people come from, just pay attention to me. ”

"500 cadets?" Jiang Fangzhen was a little stunned. As the Wehrmacht came out of the mystery was studied by various countries. Britain, the United States, France, and even Germany have all asked for the exchange of cadets, but Yang Qiu has been suppressing this matter and has not agreed, why did he suddenly change his words? And 500 a year is not a small amount! Could it be the addition of the silver crisis negotiations?

"We now have military academies in Wuchang, Baoding, Yunnan and other countries, and 500 students is not much. But will it be leaked? Jiang Fangzhen was still a little worried. But Yang Qiu didn't answer positively: "The things at the bottom of the box need to be watched, and at the same time, we also need to make progress ourselves, and their entry is actually a kind of promotion." ”

Seeing that Yang Qiu was reluctant to answer positively, Jiang Fangzhen, who couldn't hide his words in his heart, wanted to ask clearly, but there was a string of hurried footsteps in the distance. Turning his head, Xiao Anguo and Fan Liangshan walked in with some people dressed as businessmen, led by Rui Yao's henchman Chang Si.

Since Rui Yao married Yang Qiu, Chang Si retired to take over the Yangtze River Transportation Company. After the reorganization, the Yangtze River Transport Company not only took advantage of the European war to crush a number of foreign companies, but also acquired all their ships, and now they have more than 170 ships of various types in charge of inland waterway transportation. In addition to the Yangtze River Freight Company, the heads of the two shipping companies of Sihai and Wuzhou also came, and not long ago, even Yang Qiu was shocked when he unintentionally asked about the scale, but he didn't expect a joke to come true.

Rui Yao, who is usually quiet, has saved a strong family business. The three listed shipping companies have a total of 61 10,000-ton ships and 102 offshore vessels. The 170 inland river vessels have hundreds of shareholders and tens of thousands of employees, basically controlling the Yangtze River waterway, Nanyang and offshore shipping business. The total assets have reached hundreds of millions of yuan. But this is also the peak, because Yang Qiu has decided to sell some non-major industries under his name and take the lead in breaking the monopoly from himself, so except for the Wuzhou Shipping Company, which controls the ocean routes, the rest will be split and sold.

Chang Si watched Rui Yao grow up, and he was so anxious that he asked, "Vice President, how is the helper?" ”

Yang Qiu didn't blame him for not knowing how to be polite, on the contrary, only at this time could he see who was sincere, turned his head to look at the closed door of the delivery room, and comforted him in turn: "Fourth uncle, don't worry too much." Baili had already asked the doctor just now, and said that it was no big deal. ”

"That's good, that's good."

Chang Si and several people in charge were a lot more relaxed when they heard that there was no big deal, and they quickly said when they remembered another thing: "Vice President, the brothers have raised enough 10 million taels of silver, and they are thinking of sending it to you." You see. ”

"Send it to Nanjing to find Zhang Wenjing, and he will exchange it for minyuan for you." After all, it is a shipping company that Rui Yao has worked hard to build, although Yang Qiu never cares about these things, he does not forget to advise: "Legislation will be enacted soon to completely prohibit gold and silver trading, and if you have gold and silver in your hand, you can exchange it for RMB as soon as possible." The price of gold and silver will definitely fall sharply after the legislation. ”

Jiang Fangzhen was worried that he didn't have a chance to ask about the silver crisis, and when he heard it, he laughed: "Vice President, you can count this as a public for personal gain." ”

"Really? Listening to Songpo, I don't know who quietly asked his wife to write a letter back to her parents' house, and asked her to sell it all while the price of gold and silver was high. ”

"Haha."

A few jokes lightened the mood, and everyone laughed. They are all well-informed people in the upper class, and no matter how patriotic they are, they will not let go of this small opportunity to make a fortune, not to mention that selling gold and silver to the state actually helped the currency reform.

However, there are pros and cons to this kind of thing, and the advantage lies in the fact that they are the most well-informed group of people in the country in this era, and they can use various channels to quickly help the people around them complete the transformation from farming and commerce to industry and commerce. After all, he knew very well that in the early days of capital, no matter which country could avoid this kind of thing, it was better to focus on legislation and cracking down on illegal acts, so he paid special attention to the operation of the Ministry of Justice and the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

When everyone was chatting, a loud cry suddenly came, and Yang Qiu, who was all in the delivery room, rushed to the door with all his thoughts, and Jiang Fangzhen and others behind him also hugged their fists and congratulated: "Congratulations to the vice president." Great joy, great joy. ”

After a while, Miao Luo, who had messy hair, walked out with the child in her arms with a happy face, and the little girl was even more fast-talking, and shouted when she saw Yang Qiu: "Congratulations to the vice president, you are a daughter." The doctor said the mother and daughter were safe. ”

Miao Luo gave birth to a son, and now Rui Yao has given birth to a daughter for him. All the children were there, so Yang Qiu was even beaming with joy on the tips of his eyebrows, but before he could speak, a loud laugh came from behind him: "Haha, what are you talking about Madame?" It's better to come early than to come at the right time. ”

Lu Zhengxiang and his wife appeared at the end of the corridor. Especially Mrs. Peide has not been able to have children, so she loved the daughter of the Yang family wrapped in a cloth bag, Miao Luo simply hugged the child to her, and the three women immediately threw a bunch of men to see Rui Yao, and even Yang Qiu was squeezed out.

Everyone is lively, but Lu Zhengxiang has some autumn in his heart, he and his wife have no joy for various reasons, so they always feel sorry for their dead father. Xiao Anguo is careful. Seeing his expression, he hurriedly changed the topic and asked, "Brother Zixin, has the Russian envoy returned?" ”

Lu Zhengxiang shook his head. The silver crisis permeated the whole country, but he ignored the negotiations with Galahan, and this time he also reported on the progress of the negotiations, and briefly introduced a few words: "Russia's demand is that it can issue a declaration to recognize the territory recovered by our country, but it demands that it stop supporting Kolchak and Dutov, and stop encircling Shumyatsky and others. Withdrawal from the Krasnoyarsk Territory to the east of the Yenisei River. They are still entangled in the Nizhny Tunguska River basin, because they believe that Krasnoyarsk and the Nizhny Tunguska River do not belong to the territory of the former Manchu Qing Dynasty, so they cannot admit it. It also called for the signing of a peace agreement between the two countries. The garrison in the northwest region was reduced to 100,000 people, and everyone should not build fortresses and other acts of war that provoke the other side. ”

After hearing this, Jiang Fangzhen immediately said: "Krasnoyarsk can't let go, the Yenisei River is the first line of defense, and after it is lost, it may be insufficient to rely only on the East and West Sayan Mountains to support the defense line. Once there is a real war, the Russian army will be able to smoothly penetrate directly into the north of Beihai Province and penetrate deep into the northern end of Lake Belga. The conditions of Shumyatsky and Kolchak are not outrageous, but I recommend that the final outcome of Russia and Poland be decided, and if Moscow wins, Kolchak will be worthless. As for the lower Tunguska. ”

"The Lower Tunguska River basin must not be allowed!"

Before Jiang Fangzhen could finish speaking, he was decisively interrupted by Yang Qiu, this remote and desolate river pierced the northern permafrost region from Beihai Province like a sharp sword, and its value was not very great from a military point of view. Because the local area is a primeval jungle, it is cold all year round and is not suitable for military supplies. The problem is that the largest coal field in the world is buried under the Nizhny Tunguska River. The Tunguska coalfield covers an area of about 1.045 million square kilometers, with geological reserves of 1,745 billion tons at a depth of 600 meters, and a total thickness of 1,500 meters of coal seams, most of which are high-quality anthracite! Although it is inferior to the Achinsk open-pit coal mine in terms of mining cost and value, the strategic value of this coal mine is too great. Even if the coal production of the Republic of China reaches 1 billion tons, it can be mined here for 1,000 years, and it is a strategic reserve mine that China cannot let go of under any circumstances for China, which lacks oil resources.

Everyone didn't know how Yang Qiu knew that there was such a big coal mine below, but since it came from him, he must be a little sure. Such a large reserve of anthracite coal fields stunned several people, which is absolutely rare in the world, so even Jiang Fangzhen, who originally thought that he could give up in exchange for other local interests, immediately changed his tune and thought that a special coal railway should be built along the Lower Tunguska River.

Yang Qiu would not have thought about the development for decades, because there were enough coal resources in Siberia for power generation and industrial use, but the matter in Nanjing could not be put down, and asked: "Are the people of Hanger coming?" ”

"So the terms have been agreed, the plenipotentiary will arrive in three days at the latest, and the signature should be within a few days. It's just that. Lu Zhengxiang came mainly for this matter, but after finishing speaking, his eyes were embarrassed and hesitant: "This matter has spread, and many people think that you have too much to sell." There is a suspicion of treason. Both the Kuomintang and the Republicans blamed the signing of the agreement and the handing over of so many major projects to the British and American capitalists, and demanded that the contract should be withdrawn and renegotiated. ”

"The president and the prime minister are very worried, and I specially asked me to tell you that you must prepare in advance, so as not to be poked in the back."

Yang Qiu nodded, and was very grateful to Li Yuanhong and Tang Shaoyi for their full support in this matter. In fact, he had expected this kind of problem, after all, the bet was a bit too big this time. Moreover, the successive victories in the war have made many people begin to overestimate their own strength, and for them to open up so much foreign capital in one go, many of which are still projects related to the national economy and people's livelihood, it is impossible to oppose them. So when Miao Luo suggested going back to Wuchang for a while, he simply retreated to avoid the disturbances of Nanjing, but he didn't expect Lu Zhengxiang to catch up with the door.

Everyone fell silent. There are also joys and worries about Yang Qiu's opening up of such a large-scale foreign investment. The joy is to completely restrain foreign banks, take back all their trading rights, take back nearly half of the country's silver reserves, and start many projects that would otherwise have to wait until the third five-year plan to start early. The worry is that the opening up is too strong. It is easy to lead to the infiltration of foreign capital and slowly control the lifeline of the country's economy, especially after the currency reform, it is necessary to open up insurance and RMB settlement, which can be said to be extremely risky. Jiang Fangzhen, on the other hand, was worried that the 500 national defense exchange students would leak some advanced tactics and operational ideas, making it more difficult for future opponents to deal with.

It was in this atmosphere that the silver negotiations, with all kinds of thoughts, came to an end.

At the Congress, on behalf of the Ministry of Finance, Pei Zuyi made public for the first time the economic contracts reached between the government and Europe and the United States. One stone stirred up a thousand waves, and the congressmen also had the worries of Jiang Fangzhen and others. Wang Zhaoming lay on the table, analyzing every detail of the contract word by word. After the Cheng Cheng Act. He has already gone a little crazy, and his mind is full of how to fight the national society and Yang Qiu, and realize the dreams of the older generation of the Kuomintang such as Huang Keqiang.

But what makes him strange is that although the contract is full of projects to be opened to foreign investment, the core monetary rights and other national interests are completely invisible. This made him suspicious in his heart, Europe and the United States clearly rushed to suppress the Republic of China and sabotage economic construction, so how did he protect his core interests? What is it that makes Europe and the United States give up their profits? You have to know how to compare it to the core currency weight. This foreign investment is only superficially scary.

The report was still going on, and the more it came to pass, the heavier the hearts of the congressmen who listened to the report became. Even the majority of the members of the National Social Council felt that Yang Qiu was too big this time. Opening up the $5 billion worth of foreign investment in one fell swoop is equivalent to allowing foreign investment to rebuild a current industrial scale. This means that in 5 years, there will be two industrial capital groups playing against each other on the territory of the Republic of China! The Republic of China itself has not thoroughly mastered the core manufacturing industry, and once it is opened to such a large extent, when the quality and technology of other people's products come out, will its own factories not be closed?

Wang Zhaoming is not very proficient in economics, but there is an economic master in the KMT, which is now Liao Zhongkai, the minister of water resources. For this Liao Zhongkai, Wang Zhaoming feels good but has a headache. Fortunately, he replaced Ng Dinh Fong as the only government minister of the Kuomintang after the Cheng Cheng Bill. The headache is that Liao Zhongkai has faintly become the leader of the Young Zhuang faction of the Kuomintang, and Li Liejun has become the two pillars of the Kuomintang in terms of military and political affairs. Unlike these people, these young Zhuang factions are moderate-minded and want to stop the confrontation with the national society and concentrate on the opposition party to supervise the government, and for this reason they are also actively promoting a merger with the Republican Party.

What's more, the two have loomed into threat to his position in the Kuomintang. Even Zhang Shizhao has said several times that the two have the ability to take over as chairman of the KMT.

But this kind of economic problem had to be consulted by the other party, and finally he had to lean over and quietly ask: "Zhongkai, does this contract have to be signed?" ”

Liao Zhongkai himself also had a dream feeling after jumping from the local government to the central government, so he did his best in the position of minister of water resources, always hoping to do something to reverse the misunderstanding of the Chinese people about the KMT. Therefore, he paid special attention to the water conservancy project in this contract, and when he heard Wang Zhaoming ask himself, he hurriedly said: "If you don't sign it, half of the silver will not be recovered, and the development time will be delayed for several years in vain." My suggestion is to sign it, you see a few big water conservancy projects here, we don't want to start construction in five years on our own, and now we can start it first, which saves a lot of trouble. ”

"But this is all related to the national economy and people's livelihood! If foreigners raise prices or something without authorization, it will be difficult for us to restrain them. Wang Zhaoming is still worried. But Liao Zhongkai didn't think so, and asked rhetorically: "Compared with five years earlier and management difficulties, which one does Brother Ji think is easier to make up?" ”

Wang Zhaoming didn't answer, he also knew that time was more important, after all, building five years earlier and five years later were two different things, but he felt that it was too cheap Yang Qiu. He now wanted to know what Yang Qiu was thinking, but the latter avoided Wuchang for the time being, and pulled out Bei Zuyi, who had not grown a single hair, to explain the contract in front, which made people feel that they couldn't punch cotton. There is no doubt that the contract has to be signed, and it is even more difficult for the country's economy to be signed without signing, and the most fearful thing for the Republic of China, which will enter the development of recuperation and recuperation in the next ten or even twenty years, is to delay time.

But what did he want to know most about what Yang Qiu had betrayed? He didn't believe that this contract would be so simple, he obviously had the strength to turn the tables in his hand, but he ended it in this way! It can only be said that that person still has a backhand. But what is this backhand? What is his plan? Isn't it impossible for him to rise China? Is there really no chance for the future of himself and the KMT?

The external troubles are not lifted, and the internal is reforming and adjusting according to his ideas, and when all these are completed, what path will he take the country to? To know. After the Cheng Cheng Act, he is only one step away from being a real dictator, and even from the throne!

Wang Zhaoming was unwilling.

In his reluctance, the plenipotentiaries of the Morgan and Rothschild families arrived in Nanjing. On August 3, the "Agreement on Economic Cooperation and Foreign Investment Opening up of the Republic of China" was signed with the Nanjing government in Shanghai, which was later referred to as the "Foreign Contract". According to the contract, since the date of signing, all the silver reserves held by the two companies were sold to the Chinese government at a price of 1:18, and the Chinese government used the land money after the entry of foreign capital to repay the arrears, and at the same time, the Chinese government officially sold dozens of large projects, including the Hangzhou Bay mega hub port and Harbin petroleum smelting, and agreed to build heavy industry projects in Qingdao, Guangzhou, Wuhu and other places in Britain and the United States.

According to the contract. All foreign-funded industrial projects began construction as early as the beginning of 1921, and in order to bind, a clause was added at the end of the contract, that is, all projects must be transferred part of the equity to the Chinese government for supervision, and at the same time, once there are more than one year of business difficulties, resulting in the inability to continue to perform the contract, etc., the Republic of China government has the right to directly increase the shares to continue to operate or redeem the entire project.

Soon after the contract was signed, Tang Shaoyi ordered the currency to be changed!

The National Assembly passed the Republic of China Economic and Monetary Reform Act as quickly as possible. The RMB banknote was established as the only settlement currency in the country, and all gold and silver currency functions were abolished, and the original monetary system was abolished. The gold exchange system adopted in Europe and the United States was adopted, and the ratio of the RMB to each gram of gold was forcibly fixed at 1:1. Le Yuanhong also signed a presidential decree banning private gold and silver trading across the country, and all gold and silver transactions must be conducted through the central bank. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance also immediately took action, in view of the loopholes exposed in the silver crisis, the stocks, futures, foreign exchange, insurance and other financial projects were all separated, and a special institution was established to manage these financial markets, and began to add layers of shells to resist risks on top of the fragile financial system of the Republic of China.

On August 15, the same day that the first negotiations between China and Russia broke down. The gold and silver market of the Republic of China changed dramatically. The price of silver, which had previously remained at 1:16, fell to 1:22 in an instant, and the price of gold also plummeted at the same time. The era of gold and silver as currency finally ended, after the status of the Minyuan was determined, in addition to collecting and as jewelry, gold and silver began to flow into the market in large quantities and were recycled by the central bank, and the Republic of China government once again issued 200 million minyuan gold and silver hedging bonds to Nanyang to withdraw gold and silver, so that the central bank's treasury reserves skyrocketed. In just two years, gold and silver reserves increased to 3,200 tonnes of gold and 35,000 tonnes of silver.

This is a terrible thing that later generations of economists could not imagine!!

The United States uses bonds to fix domestic gold and silver and prohibit the retention, and China also forcibly freezes it with government decrees! The end result of these two different measures was to exacerbate the deflation of the world economy, as later economists put it: "China and the United States are the creators of the economic crisis, because they joined forces to seize half of the world's gold and silver, and when Britain, France, Italy and other countries came out of the recovery period of the European war and produced huge quantities of consumer goods, they found that the market was severely shrunk due to the lack of money supply." ”

On the contrary, a large number of people who had speculated on silver and ran on silver in an attempt to make a fortune began to suffer, and the collapse of silver caused many people to lose their net worth, and many factory owners who gambled on silver had to declare bankruptcy. Workers in factories closed down and lost their jobs, and unemployed workers in Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Jiangsu and other places went on strike for the first time after the establishment of the Republic of China.

In the face of this situation, Guangzhou Daily even questioned such a large-scale opening of foreign capital as a suspected betrayal of national interests under the headline of "Brest Contract in Economy"! criticized the government's forced confiscation of gold and silver, and all the spearheads were pointed at Yang Qiu, who was celebrating the birth of his daughter.

The turmoil is not big or small, but it is not a big deal for Yang Qiu, he is fully prepared, the pace of competition for the world has just begun, and more and more ferocious waves are still waiting for him.

In 1920, the year of intrigue and intrigue that laid the foundation for the future of China finally came to an end...... (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )