After the defeat of Pyongyang, the defeat of the Yalu River, the fall of Lushun, and the defeat in the naval battle of Dadonggou, in just three months, the Qing army suffered defeats one after another, losing tens of thousands of troops, and now the war has burned to the land of Longxing in the Qing court.

This frightened the Qing court, and as the actual commander of this war, Li Zhongtang was even more overwhelming. Not to mention that most of the family has lost, and the intestines are repentant. But there is no turning back from the start of work, and now everything must be fought, otherwise he Li Zhongtang is the culprit Qianfu, so he currently thinks of a way that is not a solution.

Borrow foreign soldiers!

Speaking of which, Li Zhongtang also has rich experience in borrowing foreign soldiers, and Li Zhongtang borrowed foreign soldiers during the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom meeting. When Gordon formed a foreign gun team in Shanghai to defend the concession, he was borrowed by him to deal with Longhair.

Subsequently, in the Sino-French War, reinforcements were borrowed from the Italians. Although this was sent to the door by the Italian people themselves, it didn't matter to Li Zhongtang. Being able to borrow foreign soldiers is his ability, and being able to borrow foreign soldiers in this world is his only ability.

Although Li Zhongtang is proficient in borrowing foreign soldiers, this time it is not trivial, because he borrowed a bit too much. At least more than 10,000 people, this person is not his relative of Li Zhongtang, and he must pay a huge price.

And the stakes are so high that except for a few people who know about it, no one else knows. And this time he met and negotiated with the Italian minister Jia Liwen, and he didn't bring anyone else except for his henchman Zhou Fu. After all, there are many people, if the matter has not been talked about and the achievements have been all over the city, and he doesn't know what moth to come up with, thinking of this, Weng Tongxiao's disgusted face appeared in his mind.

"Yushan, you said that this time you borrowed troops, can you do it?"

Facing Li Zhongtang's questioning, as a confidant for many years, how could he not know his thoughts, Zhongtang has no bottom in his heart.

"My lord, this can be done, the Italian people have great interests in our country, and judging from the exchanges over the years, they have great goodwill towards us. I have seen that the people of Italy have also been fighting fiercely in Europa over the years, and they have a lot of foreign debts. If there is a certain price, then the habits of the people of Yiyi should be inseparable. ”

Zhou Fu's words made Li Zhongtang feel a lot more at ease. They also knew about the matter of borrowing troops with the Italian minister Jia Liwen this time. After learning about Italy's performance over the years, Li Zhongtang also has a high evaluation; Although the land battle was inferior to Germany, and the naval battle was inferior to England, it still had eight or nine points of combat strength, and it was a strong reinforcement.

That's right, the top brass of the Huai army spoke highly of Italy, and the land war was not much worse than Germany's, and the naval war was not as good as Britain's, but it also had its eight or nine strengths, which raised Italy to a level comparable to Britain and Germany. Although it has the flavor of friendship and praise with Italy, it also shows that Italy's successive victories in recent years have greatly improved Italy's international status.

And at this time, Li Zhongtang's eldest son, Li Jingfang, came to report, "Father, the guest has arrived." ”

"Okay, let's get over here."

That's right, in order to keep it secret, even the work of the subordinates is done by Li Zhongtang's son.

In a secret room in the governor's yamen, Minister Jia put aside his robe and looked at the place. Typical Chinese style, with only a few chairs in addition to a long table.

At this time, Li Zhongtang and Zhou Fu walked in.

"Minister Jia, look at Haihan where you are sluggish."

"It's okay, I'm very happy to see Nakado-sama again."

After a brief greeting, Li Zhongtang spoke. "The main reason for inviting Minister Jia to come this time is to ask for something."

"Would you like to ask Lord Nakado to speak up?"

"At present, our country has suffered quite a lot of losses in the war with Japan, especially on the ships of the naval division, so I would like to buy a batch of spot warships from your country. In addition, there is also a considerable shortage of personnel in our country, so can we recruit a group of retired officers and men from your country to enrich the number of warships purchased? In addition, your country also knows that at present, China's land losses are not small, so retired army officers and soldiers should also do it. Of course, our country also knows that this will make your country embarrassed, so in terms of cost, it is good to say that our country can give these retired officers and soldiers the treatment they deserve according to the price of hiring consultants. ”

Good guy, Li Zhongtang's opening frightened Jia Liwen a lot, this is to hire a consultant, it is clearly intended to invite Italy to send troops.

"Lord Nakado, as you know, our country is neutral in this war in the Far East. Your country's wartime hiring of our country's retired officers and soldiers to China will seriously interfere with our country's neutrality. ”

As soon as Jia Liwen said this, Li Zhongtang and Zhou Fu glanced at each other, there was a play!

The Italian people did not directly refuse, but talked about the difficulties, which is waiting for their own offer.

"Our country is willing to pay your country 20 million taels of silver for a batch of ships and munitions. In addition, we are willing to pay a monthly salary ranging from 40 taels to 200 taels for each military adviser to China according to their pre-retirement rank. In addition, during our stay in China, in the event of an accident, we are willing to pay 600 taels per person for the disabled, and we are willing to pay 800 taels of buried silver for the dead. ”

Li Zhongtang gave a lot, you must know that Huaijun Zhengyong only has 4.2 taels of silver per month, which is given to the Italian army, and it has increased almost tenfold as soon as he opens his mouth, and he is really wealthy.

Li Zhongtang also has no choice, these powers are more greedy than the other, and they all expect to draw concessions and reap benefits in the Qing Dynasty. On the contrary, it is the Italian people who can just give money directly seem to be different among them, can Li Zhongtang sign any contract for the concession? So I can only find a way to do it financially.

And Jia Liwen frowned after listening to the conditions given by Li Zhongtang.

"Li Zhongtang, I want to ask how many retired officers and soldiers of our country do you plan to hire?"

"A few thousand."

Although he didn't understand what this Minister Jia meant, Li Zhongtang still told the truth.

After listening to Li Zhongtang's words, Jia Liwen shook his head and said. "Li Zhongtang, with all due respect, your country has hired less."

"Ahh

Jia Liwen's words surprised Li Zhongtang and Zhou Fu, which is too little.

Seeing the expressions of the two in front of him, Jia Liwen, who knew that the other party would be wrong, opened his mouth to explain. "Your Excellency has misunderstood, this is not what I said, but the estimation of our military. At present, the Japanese army has a standing army of more than 80,000 people and a reserve army of nearly 200,000 people. And considering the current strength of the Japanese Navy, our country also needs to send at least 80,000 tons of warships, so the cost is not cheap at all. ”

Thirty or forty thousand people, and 80,000 tons of warships are needed, and the silver needed is gone.

At this moment, a trace of remorse flashed in Li Zhongtang's heart, he needed to borrow so many foreign soldiers, was the silver of the Qing Dynasty enough?

For a moment, everyone stopped talking, and the room fell into an eerie silence.

Although Jia Liwen didn't know what this Li Zhongtang was thinking, he also guessed something.

"Your Excellency, this is a necessary condition for winning the war. If our country helps, then the outcome of this war will also be determined by the will of His Excellency. ”

Jia Liwen's words were completely naked temptations, using the money of the imperial court to do the affairs of the Huai Army, and now Li Zhongtang was tempted. Originally, he didn't plan to go to war with the Japanese, but he was pushed by the imperial court. Now you can invite foreign soldiers to deal with the Japanese, this silver is still going to be paid by the imperial court, right?

However, this is a big matter, and Li Zhongtang still needs the support of the imperial court.

Therefore, in the end, the negotiations with Jia Liwen were limited to a verbal agreement, and everything needed to wait for Li Zhongtang to enter Beijing before it could be decided.

On the second day of Minister Yujia's secret meeting, Li Zhongtang personally went to Beijing to meet Cixi and Guangxu. After secretly discussing with the Empress Dowager for nearly two days, Li Zhongtang finally got the desired result. Considering the safety of the Longxing land in the northeast, the Qing court had no choice but to accept Li Zhongtang's suggestion to recruit 30,000 retired officers and men of the army and 4,000 retired officers and men of the navy from Italy, and also purchased the munitions needed by these people from Italy and leased the warships they needed.

That's right, leasing warships is also a precedent, Daqing leased three Italian Turin-class, two Venice reclassed, and some other warships, which leased nearly 80,000 tons in one go, surpassing the Japanese Combined Fleet in one fell swoop, and the situation at sea was immediately reversed.

As the Qing court announced the news to the world, it immediately caused an uproar in various countries.