Two days later, Chen Guang and the others received a preliminary reply from the Qing court. Obviously, the Qing court was very concerned about the establishment of a joint venture bank and the like, so they quite firmly stated that they could not accept this plan, and only insisted that the MacDonald consortium lower the interest rate. In this way, the negotiations are deadlocked. It was also during this period that the Qing court and the British HSBC Bank reached a loan agreement in the amount of 15 million taels of silver.

"Mr. Dale, shouldn't we lower the bar a bit?" Chen Guang said to Dale, "Otherwise, this business may fall into the hands of the British." ”

"The interest rate demanded by the British is seven percent, and this rate is actually acceptable to us." "But Mr. MacDonald would have preferred to have the coinage rights of the Qing court, and the rights of the central bank." ”

"But now, with the British plugged in like this, we may not be able to do so." Chen Guang said.

"The key now is how much money the British can come up with in a short period of time." "Unfortunately, it's hard for our intelligence agencies to get that kind of information," Dale said. ”

"Although there is no intelligence from the British. However, there is some information on the Japanese side. "Since the defeat of Pyongyang, the Manchu army has relied on the Yalu River to set up a defensive line to resist the Japanese army, and the Japanese army should soon launch an attack on the Yalu River defense line." ”

"Mr. Chen, I know that you once represented the company and went to train the Chinese army. What do you think will be the outcome of this battle for the Chinese army? Dale asked.

"The Qing army will definitely fail." Chen Guang almost didn't want to reply like this.

"I don't understand." Dale said, "Haven't the troops trained by Blackwater always have good combat effectiveness? Even if it is an Italian, give our Blackwater training, and the combat effectiveness can be significantly improved. Moreover, the Chinese in the black water are also very good, which excludes racial reasons, and I have heard that the Chinese soldiers use our firearms, which are better than those in the hands of the Japanese. So why can't they go to war? ”

"It's all about money." Chen Guang shook his head and replied, "Don't say anything else, our soldiers in Heishui eat so well every day." If you look at Spam or something, even the average American family uses it as a tooth sacrifice to improve their lives. But in Blackwater, if you say the word Spam, more than half of the people will be able to spit it out in no time. Training and everything else need to be well fed as a foundation. The soldiers of the Manchu Qing Dynasty may not eat as much meat in a year as we eat in a day. With this level of nutrition, how can you guarantee training intensity? As for the guns they use better, the theory is that it is. But the problem is that if they lack training, even if they are given the best weapons, they will not be able to defeat the poorly armed, but more well-trained soldiers. In addition, shooting training and so on also cost a lot of ammunition, which is also very expensive. As far as I know, the Manchus allocated very little money for training, coupled with the extreme corruption of their officials. Outcome...... Guess what, when Wang Qinian used to be an instructor for those Qing troops here, how many bullets could they shoot in a month? ”

Dale hadn't done anything in Blackwater, so he certainly didn't know about that, so he asked, "How much?" ”

"According to the regulations, about 3 rounds a month." Chen Guang said.

"So little, my God, it was only forty-eight rounds a year, not as many as when I was bored."

"It's actually less than that." Chen Guang said coldly, "Because their commander will take the bullets and sell them, they may not be able to get ten bullets in a year." And they don't stop there. For example, an army with 600 men in name may not even have 300 men in reality. In this way, the extra salary, as well as guns and ammunition, can be saved, and then their commanders will take these things to the market and sell them, and the money in exchange will go into their own pockets. ”

"Oh my God! But that's fine. I think as soon as the defense line of the Yalu River collapses, the Manchus will face very great pressure. At that point, they can't help but disagree. As far as I know, Manchuria was very special to the Qing government, as if it was the place where they started, and that, as a minority regime, the Manchus had always regarded this region as their own reserve, and did not allow ordinary people in the country to enter it at all. But doing so makes the control of the area weaker. Because there are too few residents. So in the event of defeat, the region could fall completely into the hands of the Japanese. Moreover, Mr. MacDonald also told me that the Manchu rule was quite fragile because their legitimacy was always questioned. They are a minority, and there have always been people among the Han Chinese, who make up the majority of the population, who want to overthrow it. If this war is lost like this, then the weakness of the Manchu will be completely exposed to his people, and under such circumstances, how long will its political life last? So, they will compromise. Dale thought for a moment and said.

"Even if they agreed, they wouldn't be able to do it for long. Moreover, they accepted such conditions, but they only drank to quench their thirst. This kind of thing would make the company more money, but in the long run, it would only further reduce the Manchus' ability to control the country. Chen Guang said contemptuously that after staying in the United States for so long, Chen Guang also learned a lot of things, including things like the nation-state. Therefore, his hostility towards the Manchus not only did not decrease with the passage of time, but grew more and more high.

Just as Dale and Chen Guang had predicted, a week later, the news came that the Yalu River defense line had been breached. With this news, the pace of negotiations between the two sides began to pick up, and after a few days, on most issues, the two sides finally reached an agreement. As a result, representatives of the two sides signed a loan agreement at the U.S. Embassy in Dongjiaomin Lane.

Because this agreement was proposed by Chen Guang, the representative of the United States, and Chen Guang was also signed on it, and Chen Guang's nickname was Eight Feet, so this agreement was also called the "Eight Feet Agreement" in later generations.

In this agreement, although the Manchu government did not fully agree to the terms of the MacDonald consortium, they did not fully agree with the MacDonald consortium's proposal for MacDonald and the Qing government to establish an "Asian Investment and Development Bank" as a joint venture, but proposed that the establishment of the bank should be funded by the great powers. This is also the old trick of the Qing court to control razing with razing, and Britain, as the world's-stirring stick, and France, which has now basically become a follower of Britain, also immediately expressed great interest in this, and even Germany, which has little influence in the Far East at present, and Russia, which is recognized as a poor bastard among the great powers, want to intervene. With these-stirring sticks, the share of the MacDonald consortium is quite small. However, because the MacDonald consortium lent money to the Qing court, and the Qing government agreed to use the proceeds of the Qing court's share of the bank as collateral. That is, until the Manchu government repaid the money, their representatives in this bank had to be members of the MacDonald consortium. And both Dell and Chen Guang believe that they probably won't see the day when the Qing government will finish repaying the loan.

Second, although the Qing court agreed that the "Asian Investment and Development Bank" could establish a branch in any provincial capital city in China without restriction and carry out corresponding deposit and loan business, it did not give it the right to issue currency. It was only promised that when the currency was issued, someone from the McDonald consortium would be hired as a technical adviser.

Later generations have had very different views on this agreement. Many years later, after a great man announced to the world that "the Chinese people have now stood up", after a great army fought bloodily and won victory after victory, thus proving that "the era of Western colonizers who could occupy a country for hundreds of years by erecting only a few cannons on a coastline in the East is gone", the mainstream view of this agreement at that time was as follows:

"This agreement is a symbol, and its signing means a further erosion of China's sovereignty. Emperor. Country. Host. The further deepening of the invasion of China by the righteous colonizers. Emperor. Country. Host. Through this agreement, the righteous colonists gained the power to open banks in China and even supervise the issuance of currency, thus controlling China's economy more thoroughly, accelerating the disintegration of China's small peasant economy and the total bankruptcy of the countryside, making China further emperor. Country. Host. The Public Colony ...... of the Righteous Colonists"

But decades later, there has been a change in perception. Some people began to preach the "progressive significance of colonialism", and even used those areas that were once concessions or simply colonies to have better infrastructure and better economic bases than other regions as evidence. The sound of a cannon in the war brought modern civilization to China", "foreigners fight China because we don't understand the rules and bully others", "China needs to be a colony for 300 years for foreign countries", "All countries that have become Western colonies have freedom, democracy, and prosperity" and so on. So the "eight-foot agreement" thing was even more praised to the sky.

"Americans have always been friends of the Chinese, and when our country was invaded by Japan, it was the Americans who first stood up to help us financially, lending us money at the most favorable interest rate to support our anti-aggression struggle. At the same time, our American friends also helped us point out our shortcomings, that is, we do not know how to build an advanced and effective financial system that meets world standards. And selflessly helped us, with the help of American friends, we had a bank in the modern sense of the word for the first time, and for the first time began to establish a modern monetary policy...... Ah, America, you are a beacon of freedom, the hope of mankind! ”