Night has fallen, and the Xiyuan Presidential Palace is already brightly lit, and these lights are not the kerosene lamps that are common everywhere in the country, but extremely trendy electric lights.

Although the electric lamp was popularized very late in China, but it was very early in the application of the court, when the West had not popularized the electric light, the electric light had entered the Manchu court, the Manchu royal family successively installed electric lights and power generation facilities in the West Garden, the Summer Palace, and Ningshou Palace, and established three major electric light offices, and so on Zhao Dongyun moved into the West Garden, and purchased several sets of power facilities, expanded the scale of the Xiyuan Electric Light Office, and merged with the Summer Palace Electric Light Office and the Ningshou Palace Power Supply Office for the power supply station, It is under the jurisdiction of the Internal Affairs Section of the Secretariat of the Presidency.

The power supply station provides electricity to the entire Xiyuan Presidential Palace, the Forbidden City and other government departments, but does not supply electricity to the private sector.

The development of private electric lighting was relatively slow, and although the first private power supply company was established in 1905, the scale is still relatively small.

In the office of Zhao Dongyun of Jurentang, the electric lights are also bright, and there is no dim feeling like a kerosene lamp.

Under the bright light, Zhao Dongyun stood alone in front of the window looking at the night sky and thinking!

As for Zhu Erdian, he had already left a few hours ago, and before leaving, he naturally left Zhao Dongyun with his conditions!

However, the conditions proposed by the British made Zhao Dongyun feel a big headache, although Zhu Erdian did not say the previous conditions that were too harsh, but Zhao Dongyun still did not dare to agree without authorization.

The first of these demands was that the territory could not be ceded to foreign countries, especially Russia, in any form without the consent of Britain.

The second is to recognize and inherit a series of treaties signed between Britain and the former Qing Dynasty.

The third is that the right of way cannot be ceded to other foreign countries without the consent of the United Kingdom.

As long as the above three articles are agreed, then Britain will officially declare that it will recognize the Beiyang Soviet Republic Government as the sole government of China, and of course, there will be aftermath loans, for which the British side has given up many of the original conditions and reduced them to three.

The first is to demand the use of China's salt policy and tariffs as collateral.

The second is that the money must be repaid in priority to repay the arrears owed to Britain in the former Qing era, and the remaining part can be used by the Chinese side for its own use.

The third is that if you need to import all kinds of goods with this money, you must give priority to imports from the United Kingdom.

As long as these three conditions are agreed, the British side can independently provide up to 15 million pounds of aftercare loans, with a discount of 10% and 5% interest, to be repaid in 30 years.

Compared with the previous request for aftercare loans from the British, this request is undoubtedly a greatly reduced requirement.

In addition, in the case of the Longhai Railway and the Jinpu Railway, the British side proposed that instead of directly building the road, it could instead lend to the Chinese government and build it by China itself, but it must be mortgaged by the right to operate the railway, and the rails and other materials needed for road construction should be supplied by the Chinese side in addition to the Chinese side that can supply them by itself.

In order to ensure the smooth construction of the railway, the chief engineer was appointed by the British side during the construction of the railway.

Until the loan was repaid, the British side was responsible for the operation of the railway, and it was proposed that the railway should not be used to transport foreign troops without the consent of the British side.

To tell the truth, the conditions for the aftermath loan and railway loan are already very favorable for the contemporary Chinese strength, and even more favorable than the conditions proposed by the Americans.

However, there was a precondition that China must agree to the previous conditions put forward by the British, and the Soviet republican government could only sign a subsequent loan treaty after it was formally recognized by the British.

On the surface, the first three articles seem to be not a big problem, but in fact they contain great sovereign interests.

For example, territory may not be ceded to another country in any form without the consent of the United Kingdom. On the surface, it seems that Britain is trying to safeguard China's territorial integrity, but in fact, once Zhao Dongyun agrees, he will openly declare that China has become a British protectorate.

As for the recognition of the treaties signed by the former Qing Dynasty and Britain, it is not a big problem, after all, Zhao Dongyun originally intended to inherit these treaties, not that he wanted to do this, but that he had to do it, and with the strength of contemporary China, Zhao Dongyun would not dare to tear up those treaties if he gave him a hundred dares.

Thinking about these conditions, Zhao Dongyun sighed in his heart, he could be regarded as having experienced the situation of Yuan Shikai in the original time and space!

After the original time and space, Yuan Shikai paid a great price in order to gain the recognition of the British, including declaring that he would not interfere in the internal affairs of Tibet and not garrison troops in Tibet, and this was still when Yuan Shikai had already ostensibly unified China at that time.

Now Zhao Dongyun has not yet achieved the unification of China, so it is only nominally, the Feng army is fighting against the Anhui army in the south, and Wang Shizhen and Wu Fengling, who are also nominally loyal to the Beiyang Soviet republican government, are still fighting in Hubei, Shanxi and the Southern Federation.

Under these circumstances, the price to be paid for the British to recognize the Beiyang Soviet Republic as the sole government of China was far greater than in history.

The price is so huge that Zhao Dongyun is a little afraid!

Speaking from the bottom of his heart, Zhao Dongyun does not mind selling some national interests in exchange for the support of Britain or other powers, but there must be a bottom line for betraying national interests.

The reason why he is willing to pay a small price for national interests is in exchange for his own unification of China and the consolidation and expansion of his power. However, if the national interests betrayed are too huge, then it will cause a great domestic backlash, and when the time comes, let alone the reunification of China, it is estimated that the Soviet Union will be extremely dissatisfied with him.

Faced with the conditions of the British, Zhao Dongyun hesitated for the first time!

Zhao Dongyun has always been a decisive and resolute person, he will not drag his feet in doing things, and he will make a decision quickly when it is time to make a decision, whether it is good or bad, but this time, he hesitated!

When Zhao Dongyun was hesitating, the great powers did not stop negotiating with the Soviet republican government in Beiyang, and after the Americans and the British came to the door one after another to put forward conditions, the Germans and the French, who were also part of the banking group of the four countries, also came to the door one after another and put forward various conditions.

In the face of the various conditions put forward by these countries, Zhao Dongyun was not able to make a decision for a while, so he specially summoned Lu Weixiang and Xiong Xiling from the cabinet to try to discuss a countermeasure.

But what he didn't expect was that everyone's opinions were different, some supported an agreement with the Americans, some supported an agreement with the British, some supported borrowing from France or Germany, and some wanted to abandon the four major powers and only borrow from small European countries such as Belgium and Switzerland.

"Purely from the point of view of conditions, the United States side is much more preferential, according to our recent negotiations with them, their aftermath loan conditions have been reduced to as long as the salt policy and tariffs arrive, no financial supervision, only the right to build roads, such conditions compared to the conditions with the British, there is no doubt that the loss of sovereignty is much smaller."

Xiong Xiling on the side said: "But the recognition of the British is more important, although we have to pay a little price for this, but the interest rate given by the British is low, once the British recognize us, other countries, including Japan, must look at the face of the British, and it is very likely that the Japanese will be forced to give up supporting Duan Qirui, which is of great strategic value for our subsequent reunification, and the Americans have the ability to do so?" ”

Listening to the people below arguing, Zhao Dongyun didn't speak for a long time!

The argument continued, and when the crowd was dry, Zhao Dongyun raised his head and looked around, and then slowly said: "Some conditions can be agreed, but some conditions cannot be agreed!" ”

Zhao Dongyun opened his mouth to speak, and a group of people who were low were all staring at Zhao Dongyun in unison, they knew that Zhao Dongyun had already made a decision at this time.

"Britain's recognition of the asking price is too harsh, and it is a matter of sovereignty that cannot be lost, so let it go in advance! The right to build a way is also a matter of sovereignty, and no matter who comes to negotiate, it is not allowed to agree! After Zhao Dongyun said this sentence, he set the tone for this meeting.

That is, sovereignty and the right of way must not be discussed!

Zhao Dongyun's words continued: "As for the salt administration mortgage, this can be temporarily relaxed, but it should be noted that whether it is the newly established salt administration agency proposed by the United Kingdom or the United States, its management must be undertaken by us, and foreigners can supervise and build it, but the decision must be done by us."

On the railway side, I still say that it is okay to borrow money to build roads, but the right of way can never be transferred, and the loan of the railway can be guaranteed by the right to operate, but before the loan is repaid, the foreign party can send personnel to supervise and build the road, and the right to operate must be managed by us. ”

"In addition, we fell into a misunderstanding before, although it was a package proposed by ourselves, but at that time it was to deal with the four-nation banking group, and now the four-country banking group has existed in name only, and then we can completely break it down and reach relevant agreements with them separately, they don't want to build a railway, we let them build one, they don't want to borrow, then we will borrow a part of it."

Speaking of this, Zhao Dongyun looked at Zhugong again, and then said, "Don't put your eggs in the same basket!" ”

At this time, Lu Weixiang asked tentatively: "What the president means is to talk about the aftermath loan and the railway loan separately!" ”

Zhao Dongyun nodded: "That's right!" ”

Zhao Dongyun made this decision, and those officials could only claim that under such circumstances, the Beiyang Soviet government once again engaged in intensive negotiations with various countries, and this time, they did not put forward any package plans, but divided many plans.

On the one hand, they want to further deepen their influence on China, and it is best to make China a British protectorate in one fell swoop, and on the other hand, it is to monopolize the super cake of aftermath loans and railway loans.

However, some people are unhappy, and some people are happy, especially the Americans and small countries such as Belgium.

With their strength, it is really difficult to compete directly with the British, but now Zhao Dongyun has split the aftermath loan and the railway loan, which means that no matter how much, they have the opportunity to compete for a part of it.