When Yang Qiu and the others were worried about Japan, Wuchang also kept the lights on ().

At present, Tang Shaoyi had to move the Ministry of Administration to the former Huguang Governor's Palace, and the Governor's Mansion was temporarily placed in Zhang Biao's former Governor's Yamen, and the General Staff returned to Hanyang's original 42nd Biao Camp to work.

At night, the guards at the entrance of the government department change their guards every two hours, and the soldiers always do not glance at the small conference room with the lights on when they change their guards, and they are secretly surprised why the lights are not extinguished until the early hours of the morning these days, is there something big happening?

Tang Shaoyi looked a little tired in the conference room, he was 50 years old after all, in addition to Zhang Taiyan, there were Shen Shukai and Zhang Wenjing and others, although Zhang Wenjing was wearing a military uniform, and was nominally the chief of logistics of the National Defense Forces, but everyone had already guessed that he would probably leave the army soon to become the Minister of Finance, and even he himself was prepared, not only to make up for this knowledge, but also to look for talents who studied economics abroad to form a special team, Recently, more than a dozen economists who are said to be well-known in Europe have been dug up from Austro-Hungarian and Russian prisons, and several of them are Jewish economic advisers who are the best at managing money and making money.

Tang Shaoyi lit a cigarette to refresh himself and asked, "Wenjing, how is the war?" ”

After all, Zhang Wenjing is still in the army, so he knows better than the people present, and introduced: "There is no big problem in the southwest, after Lu Rongting and Cai Yi fully cooperated, all the armies in the southwest have been absorbed by us, except for the relatively large anti-bandit operation in Yunnan." The security and post-work guard regiments of Guizhou and Guangxi provinces are competent. At present, the cost of military operations in the southwest is also entirely the expenditure of collected funds and materials, and it will not affect the financial operation of our side for the time being, and by March it will be possible to merge the finances into our current system.

The confrontation continued in the direction of Wushengguan. After the new county was occupied by us, Beiyang temporarily stopped military operations, and the commander did not give us the order to continue the offensive (). However, recent intelligence shows that Henan's Beiyang Army has been mobilized very frequently, and there is a great tendency to make a comeback, and Shaanxi seems to have made frequent moves in the past few days. The Seventh Division incorporated by Yuan Shikai has completed its training, and Song Ziqing is worried that they will cross the Qinling Mountains and directly attack Sichuan, so at present, the Fourth Division will conduct a major exercise in a few days and take the opportunity of the exercise to make preventive deployments. ”

Zhang Taiyan heard that Beiyang was going to make a comeback. Worriedly, he asked, "How many new troops are being formed?" ”

Zhang Wenjing opened the notebook, glanced at it and said: "Xiangpu (Cai Jimin) is in charge of the formation of six brigades, I heard him say that at present, the veterans of Yunnan and Guizhou have formed three brigades, but two of the Yunnan army brigades are not yet in force, and the required soldiers and the soldiers of the remaining three brigades are being recruited in three places, and it is expected that all of them can be in place before the end of next month to go to Changsha for training, and the money can be raised from the money collected and auctioned by the [Anmin] operation." The veterans needed for the two guard divisions are also coming to Hanyang. I have already placed an order for equipment procurement, but the cost of these two divisions is quite large, and it is estimated that 6 million will be needed to complete the organization, so that all the money left in the [Anmin] operation needs to be used to organize the troops. ”

Zhang Taiyan was still a little worried. "When will these troops come in handy?" I heard that the size of Yuan Shikai's troops is almost 200,000. ”

"The guard division should be very fast, half of them are veterans, and the remaining half of the recruits are also retrained in the reserves, and all the training will be completed by the end of March at the latest, and it depends on the equipment at the moment. Other problems are not big, the main thing is that Liu Qingen said that he will only have 100 machine guns a month, and this time the two divisions will need 700, and even if they take out the inventory, it will not be completed until the end of June. So I guess it won't be until early July until I can pull it out. After Zhang Wenjing finished speaking, he remembered something, opened the notepad and turned a few pages and said, "The flight team has sent a telegram in the morning." The first aircraft we copied was successfully tested a few days ago, and we will be ready to start work when the German engines arrive next month. This time, a total of about 50 aircraft will be built. ”

Tang Shaoyi understood what Zhang Taiyan was worried about, and smiled: "Binglin doesn't have to worry too much, I think it will be difficult to fight within a year." ”

"Why? He Yuan Shikai is not surnamed Tang. Zhang Taiyan was still so crazy, and said unscrupulously: "Chief Chief, you have been swept out of the house, and it doesn't matter if you say it." ”

"Hi ()!" Speaking of crazy words, ten Tang Shaoyi are not as good as one Zhang Maniac, so after being choked, even he laughed: "He really doesn't believe Tang, and with what I know about him, this time he is determined to fight, but he has no money!" ”

"We don't have any money." As soon as Tang Shaoyi finished speaking, Shen Shukai also frowned, the Southwest Bank under his management has to go through this link of circulation because of the taxes paid in various places, so that the government can better monitor, in fact, it has become the prototype of the future central bank, so it is imperative for this bank to be returned to the Ministry of Finance, but this matter will not be decided until Yang Qiu comes back, so he is still in charge of supervision. However, because the bulk business of the southwest government is currently handled by him, the outside world believes that he is likely to become the minister of commerce after resigning from the governor's post.

He is the second person in the southwest finance after Zhang Wenjing, and he still supervises the bank, so he has a very right to speak, saying: "Since the beginning of the uprising, the Lord has ordered me to strengthen the hard currency reserves, and the loans provided by Germany have been exchanged for US dollar reserves in the international market, and the Lord also has 12 million US dollars in our hands, adding up to the total reserves on our side of the current 53 million US dollars, as well as 30 tons of gold, which we have all used to issue RMB banknotes.

At present, there are about 90 million yuan banknotes in circulation in the market, and through the return of banknotes, as well as the seizure and seizure of silver in the Anmin operation, the silver reserve has exceeded 30 million taels or about 1,500 tons, which is less than the 3,000 tons we expected before, mainly because many people still like to use silver, especially in rural areas, and in order to cooperate with the market, we have also issued 20 million silver dollars. The total amount of floating wealth confiscated in the [Anmin] operation is about 40 million, and it is gradually being realized. In addition, the taxes paid by various localities have increased relatively rapidly in the areas of salt, mining, commerce, tariffs, and agricultural taxes, and the overall downward trend is obvious. The fourth quarter has not yet been fully counted. But judging from the two quarters after the tax reform, 60 million today is certain, not counting the taxes of the three southwestern provinces. According to this momentum, it is very likely to exceed 100 million yuan by the end of next year at the latest. ”

"Still." After saying the good news, Shen Shukai frowned, glanced at Zhang Wenjing, and everyone knew that the two of them were going to talk about the expenditure, so they all pricked up their ears. The latter is also worried: "This year, we have spent nearly 40 million yuan on railways, 30 million yuan on education, not counting the three southwestern provinces will start free education next year, the army is in the period of redressing, in the early stage, we built factories, opened mines, caused too concentrated procurement of equipment from abroad, plus domestic military industry and government orders, army maintenance, etc., have actually spent 70 million, 25 million yuan for agricultural water conservancy construction, and 27 million loans to promote industry and commerce and the construction of special zones." Coupled with government spending and other expenses, in fact, this year has already spent as much as 220 million! ”

Zhang Wenjing smiled bitterly: "In addition to the fact that all the loans obtained have been used up, in fact, we have already posted 10 million into it, and we have also spent the adult's private money, this time it is estimated that he will have to find someone to borrow money for the wedding." ”

After everyone was silent for a moment, they suddenly gloated and laughed, and Shen Shukai couldn't help but laugh and said, "Actually, it's not so pessimistic. We still have a lot of money to count, and that's government-led trade revenues. ”

As we all know, after the start of the defense of Wushengguan, due to the fear that the war would spread to the three provinces, and the Sichuan Road Protection Movement burned the plains. The price of tung oil and other products fell by nearly three percent, and the businessmen were eager to cash out, at that time Yang Qiu and Shen Shukai planned to hoard a lot, and later he reached a deal with Germany to get the money after the crazy hoarding, this batch of goods was later brought back to Europe from a steady stream of cargo ships from Germany and the United States to sell, and the profit alone reached 15 million, excluding half of the profits paid to Yang Qiu, the actual government income was also 8 million. And Yang Qiu has not touched this money. In addition, because the yen continued to depreciate against silver, Shen Shukai, who is familiar with the Japanese market, used the hard currency in the hands of Southwest Bank to buy high and sell low several times to earn a price difference of nearly 20 million.

28 million people. That's about 5.6 million dollars, which is enough for a bigger battle. But if this money is spent and the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Guizhou are merged next year, the budget will face a huge deficit of more than 50 million! Moreover, even if the centralized industrial procurement slows down, based on this year's fiscal growth of 15 percent, it will take five years to wipe out the deficit revenue!

Although Yang Qiu predicted that after the huge investment in the early stage, there will be a big explosion of industrial and commercial taxes within three years, but everyone is a little worried, if the outbreak does not appear, or it is far less than expected, then when the territory expands, the deficit will increase exponentially! Unless only the three fat regions of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Guangdong are taken and the tariffs controlled by foreigners can be set independently, there may be no hope of smoothing out the deficit for ten years.

So don't talk about Zhang Maniac in this number, even the old and spicy Tang Shaoyi gasped! Holding his forehead, he asked, "Is there no way?" ”

Zhang Wenjing glanced at Shen Shukai and said: "It's not that there is no way, Mr. Stade, the US minister and representative of the US banking group in China, has already forwarded to us a letter from the 'US-Asia Association', and Wall Street said that it can use tariffs as collateral, as long as the tariffs we control are traded to the United States with a fixed amount of five per year, they can provide us with a loan of 50 million US dollars, but the adults have already vetoed the tariff credit, because he insists that there will be a big explosion of fiscal revenue in three years, and the loss of 50% of the tariff control will cause huge losses. So he insisted on using fiscal revenues as collateral so that it would not affect tariff revenues, and we told the US side about the conditions last month, but we haven't received a reply yet. ”

Tang Shaoyi and everyone were always a little skeptical about Yang Qiu's insistence that there would be a big explosion in fiscal revenue in three years, after all, they didn't know that there were still two years before Europe would start, but everyone was not very willing to take the remaining tariff shares as collateral, after all, even if there was no big outbreak, there would always be a small outbreak, and the tariff growth rate was also the fastest and most stable fiscal revenue at present, and it was not cost-effective to give the United States fifty percent in vain.

So after thinking about it, he also said: "Tariffs can't be moved, if the United States doesn't agree, then find a way to reduce the loan amount, anyway, we can get the loan at twice the rate of paper money, just tide over the current difficulties." ”

Everyone nodded. Just as he was about to discuss how he could dig up some money from there for emergencies, Gu Weijun knocked on the door and walked in. He only returned from the United States last month, and when Tang Shaoyi learned about it, he immediately asked him to be his secretary. In addition, he and Tang Shaoyi's daughter Tang Baoyue have been in love for many years, so he decisively abandoned the Beiyang government he wanted to serve and came to Wuchang. In fact, half of the reason why Yang Qiu dug Tang Shaoyi was to get his hands on him, so after he arrived, Yang Qiu personally held a grand welcome reception for him and more than a dozen young people who came back at the same time, and also used the reception to preside over the engagement ceremony between him and Tang Baoyue.

"Chief. Ministers, this is a telegram that has just been sent from Beijing. Gu Weijun didn't speak fast, but he had a sense of rhythm, and after a pause, he put the telegram in front of Tang Shaoyi. Copies of a few other copies of the transcripts were also distributed to everyone, and from this careful thought alone showed that the young man was very organized. After distributing the telegram, he continued: "The presidential palace has sent Yang Du, Yuan Keding, and Wang Jingwei to Wuchang, hoping to invite the envoy and Mr. Song Yuchu to Tianjin to participate in the tripartite talks. ”

Tang Shaoyi read the telegram carefully, his face changed slightly, he took off his glasses and put them next to him to glance at everyone, and his tone was low: "I have been with him for decades, and this time I am afraid that I am determined to start fighting, so I will try to use the meeting to stabilize the situation for a period of time." ”

Zhang Taiyan also smelled the smell in the telegram. sighed: "He is not good at political party operation, and after you and Lu Zhengxiang left, no one came to operate the political party, he was doing it himself, and now he is forced to do it." I don't know how widely implicated this time is. ”

"No matter how big the implication is, no matter whether it will fight or not, we are ready to do it in advance." Tang Shaoyi said: "Cultivation (Shen Shu Kaizi), you make a detailed report on the financial situation just now, and wait for the adults to come back and make a decision for him." Wenjing, communicate more with the military on your side, although we are in charge of civil affairs, but once the war starts, it will be very bad if we can't cooperate closely, and others should also be prepared. During this time, try to find ways to reduce expenses and try to save more money. ”

After he finished speaking. returned the telegram to Gu Weijun: "Send a telegram to Shanghai immediately, and tell the adults as soon as possible about this news." There can be no delay. ”

When Gu Weijun walked briskly to the telegraph station, Yang Qiu and Zhang Xiaozhun also walked into the German Legation in Shanghai under the guidance of their attendants. The Bavarian-style reception hall was full of German charm, and if Traun was rigid enough, then the German minister in Shanghai was simply expressionless, and his beard made him a bit like Tirpitz, the famous father of the German navy.

Alfred von Klauz's name shows that he is a nobleman canonized by the Kaiser, if there is anything most impressive besides the beard, it may be that pair of brown eyes, and these eyes finally saw the value of the drawings brought by Shen Shukai for the first time, allowing Yang Qiu to earn the first pot of gold.

Traun glanced at Zhang Xiaozhun twice and then said a few words, and after the Indian waiter brought the coffee, Yang Qiu smiled and picked up the cup: "Maybe it should be changed to Bavarian dark beer to be more suitable for now." ”

In these years, beer is still rare in China, and even if there is, it is produced in the United States, so Yang Qiu's words suddenly shortened the distance between several people, and Klauz was also a little surprised, according to his intelligence, this young man has no study experience in Germany, how can he know about Bavarian dark beer? However, he was not too surprised, after all, there were many people around him who had studied in Germany, and said with a smile: "Your Excellency the Commander must be a person who loves wine." ”

"No, I don't drink much, but I admire Archduke Wilhelm V because he made those damned black-hearted merchants dare not mix the abominable brown sugar into their wine anymore ()."

In 1516, Archduke Wilhelm V issued the famous purity decree, so that Bavarian beer had no additives other than water, hops and barley, which made the beer much better in quality and taste, and established the reputation of Bavarian fine wine. This may be said by wine lovers in Europe, but the Far East has to say that this young man is really not simple. So for the first time, Klauz smiled and said: "My Excellency the Commander really surprised us, the purity allowed us to taste the real wine, and also gave Germany the most important reputation." ”

Zhang Xiaozhun listened to it secretly admiring, Yang Qiu's understanding of Germany had already surprised him, and Klauz was able to quickly turn from wine to German credibility, worthy of being a senior diplomat.

"Credibility and rigor breed the best products, so I'm drawn to it again."

When Traun heard that he was here to procure, he thought that he had mentioned the water press that day again, so he first gave a preventive injection and said, "Your Excellency, commander, if you want to purchase a water press." I don't think we can do anything about it. ”

Yang Qiu was already dead set on the super-large hydraulic press, and waved his hand: "I don't need such a large hydraulic press, at least not for now." I don't have the money to build a supership. However, our fleet is facing the dilemma of aging and single model, so I would like to purchase a few U-boats and pressure-resistant steel technology from your country. ”

Submarine? Traun glanced at Klauz and smiled, "No problem, pressure-resistant steel technology can also be sold." However, that would require an order in sufficient quantities. ”

Yang Qiu was not surprised that he would be so happy to sell submarines and pressure-resistant steel, in fact, before the start of World War I, the whole world was at a loss for the use of submarines, although Germany was relatively well developed, but it was also dark in tactical use. As for the later submarine strangulation battle, it was forced by the British to use it in the bay by the fleet, which found the world's most perfect submarine tactics, but also made the German Navy into a huge misunderstanding.

Facts have proved that any idea of basing the navy's victory on submarines is wrong, and submarines were only an auxiliary means before the advent of nuclear technology, and he wanted to purchase submarines not to defeat the Japanese Navy, which is still unshakable, but to have the ability to contain the mouth of the Yangtze River (). Try to ensure that once the historical trajectory is completely changed, the Japanese fleet will not be without countermeasures when it enters the Yangtze River, and at the same time, it is also so that the navy can explore the use and tactics of submarines in advance.

Originally, his idea was that in the event of a war with Japan, Xue Ottoman would still lock up the Yangtze River waterway with hundreds of mines, and trap himself to death. But later I felt that it was too whimsical, and it was estimated that Britain and the United States would fight themselves, so in the end they could only choose submarines.

"If you are willing to purchase 20 ships, I can get the technology for you to withstand pressures."

Zhang Xiaozhun almost squirted out a sip of coffee when he listened! He had seen submarines when he was studying in Germany, and he also inquired about the cost, and the current cost of each ship was about 200,000 US dollars, and he glanced at Yang Qiu for 20 ships, and said in his heart that maybe Wuchang would go bankrupt first.

Of course, Yang Qiu would not be stupid enough to buy 20 boats. Even if there is a lot of money, it will not be so boring, and he flipped his wrist and said: "6 ships." As trade compensation, I will purchase a further 50 tracked tractors from your country. 300 trucks. ”

How much do tractors and trucks cost? It's only about $300,000 to sell a production line, and the rigid Klauz is of course unwilling, shaking his head: "I know that the commander has registered a multinational patent for your new mortar, and even my country has not let it go." In this way, you purchase 10 ships and provide this patent to our country for free. ”

Damn, eyes are so poisonous! Yang Qiu scolded secretly: "6 ships, pressure-resistant steel technology, tractors and trucks remain unchanged, plus 50 training torpedoes and 200 450 mm blackhead torpedoes, this is my greatest ability." As for mortar patents, you know, a lot of countries are interested. ”

Zhang Xiaozhun, who had never experienced foreign-related business negotiations, pricked up his ears and saw Yang Qiu for the first time entangled with Germany like a scoundrel, and in the same way, Klauz and Traun had already eaten the marrow and blackmailed Yang Qiu's technology a little bit. After hours of grinding teeth, Yang Qiu finally let Germany use the mortar patent in exchange for pressure-resistant steel technology, 50 tracked tractors and 300 trucks, and also got a second tractor production line, and promised to help train naval submariners.

As for the final transaction of submarines and torpedoes at a price of 270,000 US dollars each, Yang Qiu also put forward some requirements of his own, such as using the snorkels provided by himself, increasing the number of torpedo tubes to the first four and the last one, and also needing to be able to carry five spare mines, according to his own calculations, the displacement will reach about 500 tons, and he also requires that the submarine and all transactions must be completed by August ().

For Germany, which can build several submarines a month, building six submarines of several hundred tons will hardly affect its naval plan, but Traun kindly reminded the sailors of the problem and suggested that he send sailors to German factories to supervise the construction and train and explore, so that they can be initially used by the beginning of 14 years at the latest.

This deal is not about who loses and who earns, Germany has obtained modern light mortar technology, and can finally get rid of the iron lumps currently used, plus the 70 Miss technology, the German army is stronger. Yang Qiu obtained pressure-resistant steel technology and a second tractor production line, although the price of submarines is expensive, but at least the diversification of the navy can start slowly, at least once there is a change, the situation of Japanese warships unscrupulously entering and leaving the Yangtze River can be slightly curbed.

Of course, it was very unpleasant to spend so much money, so he did not forget to pester Germany to send more than a dozen diesel engines that were spare parts, ready to be brought back to the factory for imitation and research, although he had a better model in the data machine, but the drawings could not replace the real thing, and from low-level imitation could cultivate the design and improvement capabilities of the technical department.

After leaving the German Concession, before he could solve the headache of oil and sailors, the news that Yuan Shikai wanted peace talks had already arrived.

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PS: The U.S.-Asia Association: Wall Street dominates Asia's financial organization, a very interesting organization, and it was the first organization to call for recognition of the status of the Republic of China, but unfortunately the voice of the United States was too weak at that time. He also led the United States to withdraw from the four-nation banking group, and planned the famous "Lanxin Ishii Agreement" and the US government's 1917 arms embargo on China, because after the European War, China's arms market was almost unified by Japan, and the United States did not get any benefits, so it simply played yin, resulting in a loss of more than 100 million yen for the Japanese government