Chapter 245: The End (9)

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The world outside is turned upside down, but there is constant laughter in the office of the president of Nanjing, because Li Yuanhong can also understand English, so there is neither a translator nor a recorder in the room, and he makes tea and pours water by himself, as if he is having a small party ().

Both Hanger and Stade were very pleased with the relaxed atmosphere, which, to be honest, was more in line with American habits, and it was too boring for the Englishmen who studied the old-fashioned every day to drown themselves in red tape.

The two had been in the mood of a vacation in Nanjing, just waiting for reunification to discuss the matter of loans to China and opening up the market, but they did not expect that the gunfire of the Sino-Japanese exchange of fire suddenly came from Dongying, although it was only a skirmish, but who could have predicted that it would not trigger a new war in the Far East? So the two of them came today in the hope of hearing what Yang Qiu meant, whether to expand the war or try to resolve the war.

Yang Qiu is very clear about the intentions of the two men, and he is even more aware of the uneasy mentality of the United States, Japan's expansion in the Asia-Pacific region has caused the United States to put forward the open door policy to a premature death, if Japan takes advantage of this to control North China and Northeast China, then it will soon be able to arm more battleships and threaten US interests in the Pacific.

Yang Qiu picked up the teacup and smiled: "Don't hide it from the two of you, I didn't expect this conflict, but the president has asked the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to try not to lead to a full-scale war between the two countries and even the entire Northeast Asia, because our country is a backward country, and it is the most important thing to complete reunification as soon as possible and strive to develop people's livelihood." ”

"Of course!" Before Hangel and Stade could reflect on the meaning of these words, Yang Qiu raised his voice to the extreme: "We will not allow the Japanese army to wantonly destroy the peace in the Far East, it is very wrong for our country to break the current equilibrium, so if the Japanese government ignores our goodwill, then we will not be afraid of any war!" ”

Hanger nodded: "I understand the feelings of the two of you, the Japanese government's behavior has seriously undermined peace in the Far East, so His Excellency Dou Maile has called our government to ask for an explanation for the Japanese army's sudden entry into the Jiaozhou Peninsula and urge them to withdraw their troops immediately." ”

Yang Qiu raised his eyebrows slightly, glanced at Li Yuanhong, who was sitting on the sofa like a teddy bear, and said solemnly: "I think it may be too late, I have already ordered the cavalry there to disarm it as much as possible." ”

"An order has already been given?"

Hanger and Stade looked at each other and said secretly, this order means that he will mobilize all his forces to strangle this group of Japanese troops, although it may take a while because reinforcements cannot arrive, but if Japan continues to increase its troops, the two may never have a chance to sit down and negotiate again. This is not good, you must know that in addition to asking about the conflict, the two also brought a letter of intent for a loan from Wall Street, but if a large-scale war breaks out in the Far East, not only will the loan fail, I am afraid that the Chinese market will close the door to the United States again.

Therefore, Si Dai was very anxious, and he didn't care about concealing the loan and said, "Both, I think this authorization should be revoked immediately." ”

"Why?" Li Yuanhong narrowed his eyes and asked.

"First of all, your army has not yet fully mastered the Jinpu Railway, and relying only on some cavalry will cause heavy losses if it cannot be supported, and I think this will also give His Excellency Yuan Shikai a chance to turn the tables, and besides, our government has authorized the banking group to provide loans to your country, but if war breaks out, I don't think we can ensure that the loan can be carried out smoothly." ”

As soon as he heard that the United States had finally relented on loans, Li Yuanhong's eyes also lit up slightly, turned his head to look at Yang Qiu, and muttered: "Chenhua, look at this." ”

Yang Qiu did not expect that the U.S. government would agree to the loan at this time, because he insisted on using only the finance and taxation of the eight southwestern provinces as collateral for this loan, so Wall Street would definitely have a lot of restrictions on this loan, and if the war was not controlled, this vital loan was likely to die.

Or do you want to use the Southwest Railroad as collateral? But the Southwest Railway has been handed over to Xu Xiujun to issue public bonds, and the salt tax has been mortgaged to Germany. Thinking of this, he said: "Thank you two for your support, I can only say that I try to avoid war, but if the Japanese government is arrogant and unreasonable, I will not tolerate the traitor." ”

Han and the two were quite satisfied with his reply, at least Yang Qiu showed his sincerity for a peaceful settlement, so he told Citibank that it was willing to provide a loan worth $100 million.

100 million dollars!

Not to mention Li Yuanhong, Yang Qiu was also secretly speechless, he didn't expect such a big gift package to fall from the sky, although he knew that Zhang Wenjing, Shen Shukai and others had been negotiating loans, and recently Xu Xiujun and Tang Shaoyi had also joined the negotiation team, but this number was still shocking.

100 million US dollars seems to be a lot, but it is only a drop in the bucket for the United States, and according to the information held by the US-Asia Association, the actual income of the Republic of China last year exceeded 500 million, of which the salt tax in Lianghuai and Sichuan exceeded 100 million, but 50 percent of it was withheld by local governments, especially in the southeast, if the southeast continued to be controlled by others, then this loan would not be approved at all, but now in the hands of Yang Qiu, it is a different matter.

If the tax reform policy is also resolutely implemented in the southeast, then according to the calculation that the eight southwestern provinces grew by more than 15% last year, the annual income south of the Yangtze River alone will exceed 600 million in five years, plus the tax in the north will increase to about 800 million, it is entirely possible to repay this debt, and more importantly! This is still done when most of the tariffs are not self-sufficient, and if the tariffs are taken back and raised from the current 5% to 15%, the revenue will reach more than 1 billion figures.

It was this string of numbers that moved the U.S. government and made Wall Street remember that this is a country with a population of more than 400 million! At present, the average output value of this country per capita is only about 5 US dollars, but if the annual growth rate is calculated by 10 percent, it will reach 13 US dollars in ten years, and even if the population does not grow, the total GDP will reach nearly 60 billion US dollars, which is nearly twice that of the current United States!

So what a big market this is, as long as this market can be leveraged, it will bring at least a huge market of more than 10 billion dollars to the United States in the next ten years! But the premise of all this is that the United States can reap the benefits of a decade of stability that can be guaranteed for even the most fragile peace.

One can imagine how the two felt when they learned about the exchange of fire between China and Japan.

Looking at the anxious faces of the two, Yang Qiu also sighed in his heart, whether this loan can be obtained depends on Yuan Shikai, if he agrees to let the 2nd Brigade transit, then the unification of the whole country is in sight, as long as there is no national war with Japan, it is very likely that this loan will be in hand, but if Beiyang continues to resist to the end, Wall Street is estimated to begin to waver ().

Just as he was thinking about how to get the money into his pocket, there was a knock on the door.

Under the gaze of the four people, Cai Gongshi pushed open the door and rushed in excitedly: "President, Vice President, Beiyang Beiyang has opened the Jinpu Line for the 2nd Brigade to pass!" And just now, Foreign Minister Wu called and said that Yuan Shikai suddenly fainted an hour ago, and after waking up, he announced his departure in front of reporters and everyone in Beiyang! We will hand over all the power of Beiyang to Duan Qirui and Liang Shiyi, and the two of them will be responsible for negotiating with us on the reunification of the country. ”

Beiyang let go of the Tianjin-Pudong Railway? Yuan Shikai announced that he had left the wilderness?!

Ha ha.

Even the old fox, who had never been happy with the shape, couldn't control his laughter, and pulled Yang Qiu's hand hard and shouted excitedly: "Chenhua, reunification, the country is unified!" Ha ha. ”

Hanger and Stade opened their mouths even more in astonishment, if the two were worried that the Civil War would continue to drag on, leading to further Japanese expansion in Northeast China and North China, then now there is no such worry! Because of Yuan Shikai's departure, it means that the Wehrmacht has been able to advance to Shandong and Northeast China along the Jinghan and Jinpu railways without hindrance.

Yang Qiu was also a little sluggish by this sudden good news, since he came to this world, he was thinking about how to unify the country every day, and what to do after reunification, at that time he also thought about fighting with Yuan Shikai for a year and a half, but now it has only been carried out for less than two months, and everything is over.

Not to mention anything else, military spending alone is enough to save tens of millions of dollars.

This also announced that an era has finally come to an end, and Beiyang, which has influenced the Republic of China for decades in the parallel world, has begun to gradually withdraw from the stage of history. The Kuomintang has bid farewell, Beiyang has begun to integrate, where will it go in the future?

Just as his thoughts were flying, footsteps came from outside again: "Win, win ()!" An Guoliang sent a telegram that the cavalry regiment had recaptured Dongying and annihilated a Japanese brigade! ”

What the!

This time it was Hangel who shouted first, who had been a soldier and had seen the Japanese Army's fanatical combat ability as an American observer during the Russo-Japanese War, how could he not believe that the Japanese army, which had the city wall as a shield, claimed to be the strongest in Asia, and even defeated Russia, was completely wiped out in one day? That's thousands of elite Japanese Army! If the United States were to fight, relying on a cavalry regiment without heavy equipment might have to invest thousands of men to fight for four or five days, but it might not be possible to recapture it.

One day, to be precise, a daytime solves the problem?

That's great!

He couldn't help but slap his head hard, being able to solve it so quickly means that Japan can't find a target if it wants to support, unless Japan launches a full-scale attack, but he firmly believes that Japan is not ready, at least for now, so it means that a window has been opened for a political settlement.

"The Vice-President, His Excellency the German Minister, is waiting for you in the parlor, and he wishes to see you at once."

"Oh? Is Lord Traun here too? Yang Qiu scratched his head, his side was really lively, I don't know what Germany brought this time? When he learned that the United States was going to provide a loan of 100 million, he found that he had suddenly become a little greedy.

"That's right. Foreign Minister Wu also said that Minister Zhu Erdian had sent a special envoy named John Moen to Nanjing, who was expected to arrive by tomorrow morning at the latest. ”

"British envoy?" Yang Qiu pondered for a while, then suddenly winked at Hangel, and said with a smile: "Tonight I will leave for Wuchang to prepare for the wedding, and then I will take about three weeks of marriage leave, if His Excellency John arrives, invite him to participate." ”

Marriage leave?

Hangel and Stade looked at each other and smiled, the stereotypical John Moen was afraid that he would meet an opponent this time.

! @#