Although the MacDonald consortium has not relaxed its search for Dena and Alice since then, they have never found any truly meaningful information. On several occasions, they seemed to have a clue, such as the fact that they had spotted some newspaper text that looked a bit like Dena in style, but these speculations turned out to be their mistake. In short, for a long time, they did not get any reliable information from Dena.

In this way, in the blink of an eye, it was 1894, just like in the original history, and our Qing Dynasty and Japan fought.

Just like the original history, I had little preparation for this war. After the war began, I discovered that there was no money in the treasury that could be used for emergency purposes. Moreover, although we have a large army in the Qing Dynasty, there are very few troops that can really be sent out to fight.

In the previous Taiping War, the treasury of our Great Qing Dynasty had been depleted. In order to continue the suppression of bandits, the provinces had to be allowed to raise their own funds, and from then on, the financial power fell from the central to the localities. So the money in the hands of the imperial court is really tight. Now that the war is fighting, we can't do without money. In September of this year, the Hanlin Academy edited Zhang Baixi's book to raise salaries, and the salt was approved. At the end of September, the Ministry of Household put forward four measures, namely: first, the price of the two warehouses of Yan satin, according to the case of another reduction of one percent, the average case of forty percent of the real silver open; 2. Pawn merchants' donations; 3. Tea sugar plus centi; Fourth, the local medicine store donation. Later, it was agreed that Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, would raise funds for three purposes, namely: 1. Officials advocated donations; 2. Advise the gentry and wealthy to donate; 3. Distribute orders for pawn merchants to donate interest.

But these archaic methods of fundraising are, of course, quite limited. In the end, I was able to raise less than 10 million taels of silver by these means, which was not enough money compared to the military expenses of 200 million yen (equivalent to 140 million taels of silver) raised by the Japanese.

Fortunately, Mr. Scrooge MacDonald, an old friend of the Chinese people, was prepared for this. As early as the time when the guarantee agreement between China's Qing Dynasty and Chile was promoted. He took this issue into account, and told Li Hongzhang that once the war began, if the Qing State was short of money, as long as they agreed to some conditions, MacDonald Venture Capital Bank could lend money to the Qing State.

It is said that the war has already begun, and the matter of borrowing should of course be urgent. But one of the big problems of my bureaucracy in the Qing Dynasty was that they liked to procrastinate. First, they hope to solve the problem more through domestic fundraising, and they have an unrealistic illusion about their ability to raise money in China. As a result, when it turned out that the money they had raised at home was not even enough to pay for the purchase of ships for the Chilean government, they had to turn it back and say that they needed to borrow.

This time, the chief representative who went to talk to me about the loan business on behalf of the MacDonald consortium was Chen Guang. Since that assassination attempt, Chen Guang's position in the MacDonald consortium has risen rapidly. Today, Chen Guang is also in his fifties, and his body is not as good as it was back then, and he can no longer carry dozens of kilograms of body armor, but as a hero who saved Scrooge, he still receives a lot of preferential treatment. For example, he has been promoted a lot in his position. As for letting him be the chief negotiator this time, firstly, because he can understand Chinese, and secondly, it is also to give him a chance to make meritorious contributions, and he can have more pensions when he retires in the future. Although giving more money to employees always makes Scrooge feel painful, he must consider the effect of publicity and the role of role models. Only by setting such an example will those who protect Scrooge in the future be even more desperate.

However, Chen Guang did not have any negotiation or economic training, so in fact, it was difficult for him to preside over the negotiations, and it was another guy named Dale who was really in charge of it.

The Manchu side was in charge of this matter by Zhang Yinhuan, who had served as the Qing ambassador to the United States. However, he did not come out directly to negotiate with the Americans, but asked a person named Wu Tingfang to negotiate with the MacDonald consortium.

"If you had talked to us about a loan a few months earlier, like at the beginning of the war, we would certainly not have asked for an eight-percent interest rate." Chen Guang leaned back in his chair, looked down at Wu Tingfang with the advantage of his height, and said, "At that time, it was not clear who would win and who would lose, so if you came to borrow at that time, it would only be enough to pay about 5.5 percent interest." But now, your army is in Korea. It has been beaten like a fool's hat by the Japanese, and the other day, your fleet was completely wiped out in a naval battle with the Japanese. Under these circumstances, we believe that your chances of victory in the war are slim. So at this time, it is very risky to lend money to you to fight. Now that the risk is higher, our asking price is naturally higher. ”

"Our fleet was not completely wiped out." Wu Tingfang argued, "The main force of the Beiyang Naval Division still exists, and the first to withdraw from the battle in the end were the Japanese. ”

In this time and space, in order to deal with the warships that China may temporarily purchase from Chile, Japan's shipbuilding program is even larger than in the original history, and there are as many as three Yoshino-class warships. In this way, in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, the losses of the Beiyang Naval Division were naturally heavier, not only did they fail to sink even one Japanese warship, but their own losses were one more cruiser Jingyuan than in the original history. What's more, according to the information received from the British who watched the battle, the damage to the other ships of the Beiyang Naval Division was also very serious. Their capital ships, Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, also lost at least one main gun.

"I know that your Zhenyuan and Dingyuan are still there. But, as far as I know, they are badly damaged, and, with your shipbuilding capabilities, you simply cannot afford to repair them. I've heard that even in peacetime, the overhaul of your two ironclads will have to be carried out in foreign countries. So now, although they are not sunk, how different are they from the war sinking? Chen Guang cocked Erlang's legs and lit a cigar for himself. As a former bandit, he also had an inexplicable pleasure when he saw that the Qing army, especially the Huai army, was unlucky, and the only regret was that it was not Heishui's people who killed those Huai troops.

"But with such an interest rate, even lower than seven percent, we can borrow money from the British." Wu Tingfang played the trick of razing against razing.

"How much can they lend you? Ten million taels? Twenty million taels? This money is not even enough to bring those ships back from Chile. As far as I know, Japan has prepared 200 million yen for its military expenses, and even if you can borrow 20 million taels of silver from the British, it will still not be enough. Dale, who was on the sidelines, interjected.

"Of course, the issue of interest rates is not impossible to discuss. If you can come up with reliable collateral, or other policy concessions, so that the company can get more income in other areas, the interest rate is completely negotiable. ”

"We can use the revenue from customs as collateral." Wu Tingfang said.

This scheme was exactly the trick used by the Manchus in history when they borrowed money from abroad. However, after hearing the translator's translation, he shook his head and said:

"It's not going to work. First of all, if you are only going to borrow twenty or thirty million silver, it is a good idea to use your customs revenue as collateral. But now the amount of the loan you have proposed to us is to reach 60 million taels of silver, and what is your annual customs revenue? It's not a good deal. Besides, there is no need for us to offend the British for the sake of this deal. Because they have always regarded your customs as their sphere of influence. ”

"So what are you interested in?" Wu Tingfang asked.

"Of course, I am interested in China's modernization. We hope that your country will be able to open up more markets to us. For example, we are allowed to open banks in all provincial capitals that can operate deposit business. Also, if you have a direct conversion of gold and silver currency into minted currency or even paper. We also hope to be able to serve your country. You know. One of the key reasons why your country's ability to raise funds during this war was far inferior to that of Japan was that your country did not have modern banks. There is also no modern currency. "Unlike the British, we Americans have never coveted the land and people of other countries, and the first goal of what we do has always been to promote friendship between nations and mutual understanding among peoples." ”

If Mr. Ng had been a Western diplomat, he would have been wary of the Americans. Because these things proposed by the Macdonald consortium, once they are agreed, in a sense, the financial power of the whole country will fall into their hands. And this is absolutely intolerable for a sovereign state.

"For example, if your country agrees, we can co-finance the establishment of an Asian Investment and Development Bank. Our loan can also be seen as a loan to this joint venture bank. Then, you can mortgage the right to operate this bank to us. After the loan is repaid, it can be operated by both of us, and the income will be distributed according to their respective share capital. With such a bank, it is much easier to deal with sudden problems such as war, famine, etc. How about it, are you interested in this building? If you wish, I can call the shots and reduce the interest rate on your loans to about six percent. What do you think? ”

Of course, Wu Tingfang was not qualified to reply to this suggestion, so he said that he needed to report to the above, and there were more powerful people to make the decision.