Chapter 100: Borrowing Your Own Money and Earning Interest

After Wang Chenhao's training plan was approved, his Zhili New Army also had an official name: the first town of the Beiyang Army.

In order to complete the construction goal of the new army in the eight towns of Zhili within two years, Wang Chenhao could only reorganize the provisional second division, which was originally intended to be used as a confrontation sparring partner, into the second town of the Beiyang Army. Although the combat strength of the officers and soldiers of the second town is not as good as that of the first town, it is far superior to the old Huai army, and is above the standard line given by the military department.

Wang Chenhao, the remaining New Army of the Six Towns, adopted the same method as he trained the two new armies of the First Town and the Second Town, recruiting honest and strong peasants from Zhili Province as a source of soldiers, and then transferring elite officers and non-commissioned officers from the first and second towns to form the Beiyang Army in the Third Town, Fourth Town, Fifth Town, Sixth Town, Seventh Town, and Eighth Town, and train them according to the existing experience. German instructors, such as Hannagan and General Stanley, continued to assist in the training as foreign instructors and military advisers.

The newly formed New Army of the Six Towns has no shortage of soldiers, officers, and instructors, but it has encountered problems in training expenses and ordnance expenditures. As Wang Chenhao estimated, Weng Tonghao's control of the appropriation power of the household department happened to choke the seven inches of the Beiyang Army, and made it difficult for Wang Chenhao, the minister of military training, to prevent him from training into the New Army of the Eight Towns within two years, and to prepare to punish him at that time.

The first and second towns have been counted as training, and the annual maintenance cost of the new army in the two towns needs 1.2 million taels; The cost of training the new army in the third to eighth towns, plus the cost of purchasing ordnance and logistical supplies, would require at least fifteen million taels per year, and even if Weng Tonggong agreed to do so, the household department would not be able to come up with this money. The Military Aircraft Department was negotiating with Britain, France, and the United States on customs issues, and at this juncture it would certainly not approve foreign loans, because Britain, France, and the United States were eager for the imperial court to borrow money from them so that they could maintain control of the Qing Empire's customs. Of course, it is the same with borrowing money from Germany and Russia, and the two have long been ready to meddle in customs affairs.

If the household department does not borrow money, it will not be able to pay Wang Chenhao this huge training fee, and the will of Guangxu and Cixi cannot be changed, so Wang Chenhao is in a dilemma. And this is exactly what Weng Tonggong and other imperialist officials wanted to see.

If you want Wang Chenhao to train and have no money to give, you have to ask for an explanation.

Wang Chenhao asked the imperial court to allow him to borrow money from foreign banks on the grounds of insufficient military spending, or to extend the training time to eight years, which caused problems for Guangxu. As a last resort, Guangxu had no choice but to order the Military Aircraft Department to give Wang Chenhao the right to raise funds and borrow money on his own, and he must train the new army.

Wang Chenhao has long had a plan in his heart, he will not show off like Li Hongzhang. Wang Chenhao felt that he should keep a low profile and hide his strength, and if he didn't make a sound, he would have become a blockbuster. After Wang Chenhao had the right to raise funds and borrow money on his own, he immediately sent a secret telegram to Tang Shaoyi in New York to borrow money from the Bank of America. The Bank of America is Wang Chenhao's own, he borrowed money from himself, used his own money to train soldiers, and asked the court for interest by the way, killing two birds with one stone.

After Tang Shaoyi received the secret telegram, he immediately discussed the details with the manager of the Bank of America, Ge Denger. Considering Wang Chenhao's status in the Qing Empire and the economic strength of the Bank of America, Godener hoped to open up the Chinese market, and by the way, he met with his big boss Wang Chenhao.

Tang Shaoyi informed Wang Chenhao of Ge Denger's idea, and Wang Chenhao nodded in agreement. However, considering that the Bank of America had just been established, everything had to be taken care of by Goden. Wang Chenhao asked him to send others to Tianjin first, first build the Chinese branch of the Bank of America in Tianjin, and then let Godener come over after everything was on the right track next year.

So Tang Shaoyi and Ge Denger studied it and decided to let the deputy manager Carnegie go to Tianjin. Since Carnegie did not know that Wang Chenhao was the big boss behind the scenes, the loan negotiations between them could easily fool Qing Zhengaxe and other national banks.

After the matter was finalized, Wang Chenhao immediately began the training operation. He ordered Wang Shizhen and Ruan Zhongshu to organize the conscription work, and ordered Duan Qirui, Jiang Guidi, Hannagen and others to select capable forces to form a coaching group, which officially opened the prelude to the large-scale military training.

Due to the previous experience in organizing and training the new army of the two towns, the remaining new army of the six towns only need to draw the gourd in the same way. Wang Chenhao now has the assistance of both civil and military staff, the new army of the two towns as capital, and the huge Bank of America as the economic backing, and his family background is solid, and he suddenly feels much more relaxed. Just ask his subordinates to complete everything, he doesn't need to bow down to everything and worry about everything, and it also gives him more energy to pay attention to other things.

During this period, the situation in North Korea became chaotic. Because Wang Chenhao brought the scourge of Germany, France, and Russia to the Korean Peninsula for the division of China's forces, Korea became a battlefield for the game of Germany, France, Russia, and the four countries, and the already turbulent situation became extremely tense.

In June 1895, Russia agreed to the request of the Korean concubine Min that all Korean ports be opened to Russia and allow Russian ships to dock. This allows the Russian warships to swagger into the harbor where the warships are docked to monitor the movements of the West China Sea Fleet. In this regard, he was very annoyed.

In August, Park Yong-hyo, the cabinet minister who had participated in the coup d'état, attempted to murder Concubine Min, and after the incident was revealed, Park Yong-hyo was forced to die. Concubine Min took the opportunity to dissolve the pro-Yu cabinet, regained power, and established a pro-Russian cabinet of the "Jeongdong faction" headed by Park Dingyang, and used Russia to exert pressure on Yu Ben to give Russia more favorable rights to garrison troops, build railways, and open mines, forcing Russia to escalate the contradictions between Russia and Russia, and using the Russian army to force Yue Ben to withdraw his troops from Korea.

From this moment on, Yue Ben began to plan the killing of Concubine Min. And Concubine Min also noticed it, and ordered the disbandment of the training team of Yuben Training, and replaced it with a guard team led by her close confidant Hong Qixun to defend the palace. This incident made Yue Ben extremely uneasy, and they were ready to kill Concubine Min, they first bribed the training team led by Yu Fanshan, a pro-Yue element, and let them enter the palace as a striker, and then hijacked Dayuanjun to create the illusion that Dayuanjun had launched a coup d'état.

On October 8, 1895, when the eyes of all countries were paying attention to the Yongping Autumn Festival held by the Qing Empire in Yongpyeongfu, the Minister of the Emperor in Korea, Miura Wulou, after careful planning, secretly agreed with the officers of the Korean Praetorian Guard that they would leave a way to enter the palace and block the Korean Praetorian Guard from the palace if necessary.

In the early hours of the morning, his commando team encountered stubborn resistance from the Korean guards, but the guards only numbered a few hundred, and they were quickly defeated by the mob because of the betrayal of the inner ghost, and Hong Qixun was killed by the inner ghost. The person who captured Gyeongbokgung Palace broke into the council hall all the way, held the Korean king Gojong hostage, and forced him to sign the "Edict on the Abolition of the Princess" prepared by the pro-Yue faction, and abolished Concubine Min as a concubine; All the way, they attacked the dormitory of Concubine Min.

That night, more than 40 ronins suddenly rushed into Concubine Min's inner room. Concubine Min's personal guards were cut down by them before they could resist. The ronin brutally insulted Concubine Min and her maids, tarnishing their reputation in front of the Korean people, and then stabbed them to death with swords. They then killed Concubine Min's maids, dragged all the corpses covered with sword wounds to the courtyard, doused them with gasoline, and burned them.

The assassination of Concubine Min went smoothly. However, Miura Wulou's reckless behavior made the envoy reprimanded by many countries. Because there were also two foreigners in the palace at that time, one was an instructor of American affairs in the palace at that time, and the other was a Russian technician. They rescued some of Concubine Min's maids, and the two reported the incident, causing the ministers in Seoul to strongly condemn Yu Ben's actions.

Facing strong international public opinion pressure, he instructed the pro-Yu regime to retract the decree to abolish Concubine Min as a concubine and posthumously make her a "concubine" in order to ease the pressure of public opinion at home and abroad; At the same time, he hurriedly "arrested" 48 murderers, including Minister Miura Wulou.

It is said that Ben specially sent the ronin to form a mob squad to carry out the operation, the purpose of which was to avoid the involvement of the political axe and not to give the Russians an excuse.

Most of the ronins who assassinated Concubine Min were members of the Xuanyang Society and the Purple Underworld Society. They were all opponents of the revision of the Okuma Treaty and advocated the invasion and occupation of Korea. They ended up in Hiroshima Prison with Miura Oro. Subsequently, Judge Ben released all Miura and Ronin on the grounds that "there was no sufficient evidence to prove that they had committed the crime with intent". After Miura Wulou was released, he did not live a life of humiliation and shame, nor did he insulate himself from politics. He still had influence in the cabinet and the military department, so he often hid behind the scenes and advised on some of his foreign policies.

After the truth of the Ulwei incident was announced, the national feelings of the Korean people were greatly hurt, and then Kim Hongji's cabinet issued another order to cut off the hair, and the long-suppressed North Koreans finally set off a wave of anger against them. They shouted "Avenge the Mother of the Nation" and rebelled.

On December 6, 1895, Gojong escaped from the palace controlled by himself in a women's sedan chair and came to the Russian Legation to obtain public asylum in Russia. Subsequently, Gojong ordered the execution of the pro-cabinet ministers, Kim Hongji, Zheng Bingxia, and Yu Yunzhong were killed by the angry people, and the rest of the pro-Japanese elements fled, which dealt a heavy blow to the expansion of the pro-Japanese cabinet ministers, and at the same time further intensified the contradictions between the pro-Russian people.