Li Lianying was silent, the Queen Mother complained for a while, and when she saw Li Lianying's expression, "What do you mean?" What's the matter, he still wants to admit it? ”

"What that means over there is to return all the previous principal to us," Li Lianying replied, "and give us some interest." Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ”

"What!" The Empress Dowager Cixi was a little displeased, "Is this a child's house?" ”

After the last visit to the UK, the Empress Dowager Cixi reached a memorandum with the then British Prime Minister William through Hurd's introduction and communication, and held a secret room negotiation on the issue of the stake in the Suez Canal.

Of course, this agreement was not easily revealed, and by the end of the seventies, the Egyptian government had to sell its 44% stake in the Suez Canal Company, which was in debt for the £12 million spent on the construction of the canal, and had a serious financial crisis. Seeing an opportunity, Britain tried to prevent Egypt from selling its shares to France. Prime Minister William bypassed Parliament and the Cabinet and asked the Rothschild family consortium to borrow money through private means, but the money was still slightly insufficient, so he thought of China, thousands of miles away, when the Empress Dowager Cixi said that she was willing to help "the British Empire better rule the world." So an encrypted telegram was sent to the Empress Dowager in Beijing through the Chinese ambassador to England, who immediately ordered Bao Jun and the Ministry of Internal Affairs to exchange about 10 million francs of silver into the purchase funds of the British, who by all means could buy seven chests of Egyptian stocks and ship them back to London at once. Egypt's stock was originally worth 400 million francs, but Britain took advantage of the danger to buy it for only 100 million francs. So when the British Parliament met to discuss the issue of Suez Canal stocks, the Parliament gladly approved the lucrative deal. Later, Britain continued to buy other sporadic shares, and eventually the Suez Canal became the private property of Britain and France, of which 10 million francs of the Chinese were implicit in the shares purchased by the British.

Cixi's original idea was just to make money, the Suez Canal is a golden waterway, and it will be carried out as a non-military channel in later generations, and the sailors of the Qing Dynasty have not yet benefited enough to defend the Suez Canal, but the British are unwilling to invest in this want to make money? "What did the British say?" Empress Dowager Cixi asked.

"In March last year, the British occupied Egypt, and the news came back from London, and the British thought that now they not only control Egypt, but also control the Suez Canal, and they don't need our part of the money." Li Lianying replied.

"So they don't want us to make any money out of it?" Empress Dowager Cixi said indifferently.

"That's about the meaning, before spending 100 million francs to buy 400 million shares, the British think it is very cost-effective, and now that they have won Egypt, there are many voices in the country who feel that there are plenty of funds in the country, why should the Chinese be cheaper."

"At that time, they couldn't get the money to come to me, okay, now they think this canal can make money, and they still feel that it is a loss for me to take a stake?" The Empress Dowager Cixi was furious, "This is not crossing the river and demolishing the bridge, what is it?" ”

Li Lianying was silent, and the palace only heard the Empress Dowager Cixi talking: "How many warships can I buy for this 10 million francs?" How many Eight Banners can be placed? Cooperating with the British, that is, they took a fancy to the crisis of the Egyptians, and the French were too busy to take care of themselves, so they spent money, counting on a million profits, and the profits of the long stream, they were good, and in the blink of an eye, they felt that they had won Egypt, became a landlord, and were not short of money? ”

"Seeking skin with a tiger is like this," Wang Kaiyun said indifferently, "The strength is not as good as others, so you can only do it according to the rules of the British." It would be nice if you could get some interest back. ”

The Empress Dowager Cixi shook her head, "Investing in the Suez Canal is not only money, of course, money is a very critical thing, I took so much money out, almost delayed the domestic drought relief, not to collect a little interest, Suez Cloud and communication between Asia and Europe, but the golden waterway, as long as you lay a foundation here, don't care how many shares, the silver is flowing in, will never stop." That's a point. There is also the layout of the future, if China wants to compete with the world's major powers for hegemony, the focus of external efforts is indispensable, and outside of East Asia, we do not have much foothold. ”

"Golden State, far to the north, is not a place to focus on, with gold mines, it is just a bitter cold place, but it was affordable to buy in the past, and the eyes of foreigners are poisonous, so you see, the Suez Canal is not willing to share the profits with us, so with foreigners, don't think that you can do business like this."

In recent years, some people in the foreign affairs faction have developed a different idea from the resolute resistance to foreigners, believing that foreigners dealing with Chinese are just doing business for money, so why waste so much money to build a new navy? It is better to directly run some light industries that benefit the people. The fallacy of such a point of view, needless to say, is fully revealed this time.

"The core interests of the British will never be given to us, it can be said that they used us before, and now they can just turn their faces and deny their accounts," the Empress Dowager Cixi sneered slightly, "But we don't have no cards to play, the British are willing to play, we will play with him, don't worry, we have a lot of time." ”

She thought about it for a while and ordered, "Let Guo Songtao continue to talk to the British ambassador, let's talk about this matter, if they insist on refusing and there is no room for maneuver, then they have to put it aside and say something else." Then I will ask the Prime Minister Yamen to arrange time, and I will meet with the Ambassadors of Germany, Austria and France. ”

"Now that there is a dispute with the French in Vietnam, Wechen thinks that Niangniang is the lord of China, so it is easy not to express his opinion, or let the Prime Minister Yamen and the Imperial Court deal with the negotiations." Gao Xinkui persuaded.

Wang Kaiyun just smiled and said nothing, and the Empress Dowager Cixi shook her head, "Don't talk about Vietnam, it's always okay for me to see the envoys of the three countries, Lala, who is homely, these envoys of the three countries are all new, and the credentials haven't been submitted yet, right?" The Empress Dowager Cixi asked, "Then it is always okay for me to submit my credentials by the way." ”

。。。

Guo Songtao went to the British Embassy in Dongjiaomin Lane, greeted the British ambassador for a while, discussed the weather in Beijing, and then sat down in the conference hall, and the two parties each took their entourage and sat on both sides of the long table, ready to start discussing the etiquette rules for Crown Prince Edward's visit to Beijing. (To be continued.) )