The annihilation of the Japanese army in Shandong had a limited impact on the war situation from a military point of view. After all, the Navy had already won, and the Japanese Combined Fleet could no longer pose a threat to the Italian task force.

However, the annihilation of the Japanese army in Shandong was a great encouragement to the Qing State politically, and this war of annihilation was considered to be Li Zhongtang's victory, and the burden on Li Zhongtang was much lighter. After all, the Italian people performed well, and they still had their hands on the Japanese fake foreigners. Now who in the market does not praise Li Zhongtang for his foresight and foresight.

It seems that when the Huai army was defeated like a mountain before, Li Er, who was scolded, was not alone.

The praise of the market and even the Qing court certainly made Li Zhongtang feel much better, but this invited foreign soldiers to have their own troubles. Li Zhongtang's troubles haven't stopped recently, all because of money.

This is not Lord Zhou Fu, who has just returned from the Rongcheng front-line supervision army, and was pulled over by the benefactor Li Zhongtang again.

"Yushan, what did you see in Shandong?"

As a staff member for many years, how could Zhou Fu not know the meaning of his benefactor's words.

I saw him speak. "The Italian army is also sharp in battle, and it can be said that it is invincible. It's just that the consumption is too much of a headache. This is just a glorious achievement, more than 50,000 shells, millions of bullets, such a consumption we may not be able to afford. ”

"So...... Does the Italian army have no intention of contributing? ”

"Unsuccessful......

"In that case, what's the complaint?"

Li Zhongtang's words made Lord Zhou wake up like a dream. "It's me Meng Lang!"

yes, since the soldiers can. Contributing to the elimination of the Japanese and taking care of the consumption of ammunition by themselves is a typical loss of small and large. As for not being active enough, how normal is this, those Qiu Ba in their own house, they can't take a step if they open a silver or two. And even if you give silver, you can't beat Kerry. Skin? , battle, even more infuriating.

Although Li Zhongtang understood the performance of the Italian army, such a modern war still made it difficult for him to move forward.

The most obvious example is that the money can't help but be spent, which finally made the six million taels of silver allocated by the imperial court disappear in less than a month.

Is it easy for him Li Er to deduct some silver from the imperial court, not only to persuade the prince of the Manchu Dynasty, but also to fight wits and courage with that Weng Shuping. As a result, this bit of silver is still the only little money in the imperial court in the past six months.

As for the remaining gaps, we can only count on Li Zhongtang to figure out a way by himself. In addition, he was reminded of his hard work and familiarity with foreign affairs, so he was allowed to borrow money from foreigners.

Borrowing foreign debts?

Although foreign debts are easy to borrow, they are difficult to repay. He Li Er has been doing foreign affairs for so many years, and the habits of those foreigners have long been figured out, as long as you open your mouth, you can borrow as much as you want, but in addition to making money, various other conditions are sandwiched in it, which can disgust you to death. But if you don't borrow it, you can't do it, and the family is waiting for the rice to go to the pot, so Li Zhongtang is completely a good doctor after a long illness, and he has no choice but to do it.

Just thinking about the troubles of foreign debts, I heard that the next person came to report that Lord Sheng was coming.

What Sheng Daren is talking about is Sheng Xuanhuai, as the money bag of the Huai Army, how can he bypass him when it comes to borrowing from foreigners, this matter of not borrowing foreign debts will be operated by Sheng Xuanhuai, and he Li Zhongtang only needs to wait for the final decision.

Not to mention, Sheng Xuanhuai negotiated well with the foreigners, and the previous loan of 20 million taels of silver was negotiated very well, and he was very satisfied.

"I've seen adults."

After a brief greeting, Li Zhongtang didn't give Sheng Xuanhuai time to breathe, and asked directly. "Xingsun, how are you talking this time?"

Don't blame Li Zhongtang for asking in a hurry, isn't this an urgent shortage of silver, more than 100,000 front-line soldiers are counting on him Li Er to pay for it, and if he doesn't borrow money, he can't support him even if he sells it.

In the face of the urgent Li Zhongtang, Sheng Xuanhuai certainly didn't dare to have any opinions, and said directly. "Lord Zhongtang, it's not easy to talk about this time, we borrowed a lot this time, and banks in various countries are unwilling to lower their conditions. Even Teckwah and Yihua Bank, which lent us money last time, were unwilling. Privately, Mr. Banshire told me that the last time I borrowed money from us, I was under a lot of pressure. This time, we borrowed 50 million taels of silver, and the ministers of various countries have strictly ordered the banks not to violate the agreement of the banking group, and Ambassador Jia has no choice in this matter. ”

Sheng Xuanhuai's words made Li Zhongtang feel a little distressed, of course he also knew the current attitude of ministers of various countries towards the imperial court.

It is planned to take advantage of the lack of money in the war between the imperial court and the Japanese, and take this opportunity to take advantage of the conditions that have been negotiable before.

It is then necessary to require banks to refrain from acting privately. And the British Empire, with its unrivaled strength, made Minister Ogner the natural host of the loan.

Although the share of trade between Italy and Germany in the Qing has increased year by year, it is still slightly insufficient compared with Britain, France and the United States, which have been deeply cultivated for many years. So in terms of dominance over borrowing, the two countries also know that there is no hope.

Li Zhongtang naturally knew that this Minister Ogna had bad intentions, but what could he do, he could only continue to talk, after all, he still used it smoothly.

"How's it going?"

"At present, the conditions of banks in various countries are similar, they are all given a 15-year term, and a 95% discount requires 5 cents of interest. In addition, the imperial court was required to use the tobacco tax as collateral, and countries were allowed to set up agencies in Chengdu and Xi'an to govern their own citizens. And ......"

Sheng Xuanhuai Balabala said that they are basically all kinds of privileges required by various countries, don't look at these conditions that seem low, but they include all kinds of rights of countries in Sichuan and Shaanxi. In addition to extrajudicial jurisdiction, although he did not mention the rights to open mines and build roads, how could he not know the habits of these foreigners, and so on, and oppress the officials below, making them an established fact, and making people blind.

"We can talk about this interest again, as for the cigarette tax as a mortgage, but the opening of agencies in Chengdu and Xi'an, tell them that I am only the governor of Beiyang, and I can't control the governors of Sichuan and Ganxi, and this condition can only be done by the imperial court."

Li Zhongtang is such a shrewd person, how can he make foreigners get their wish. It is better to raise the interest rate than to relax on the opening of an agency.

"Okay, my lord, I'll do it."

Although Li Zhongtang said this, Sheng Xuanhuai, who was in charge of running errands, knew that this matter was not easy, and it was difficult to talk about it this time with the same caliber of banks in various countries. But what can he do about this, he can only take Li Zhongtang's conditions and continue to grind.

After sending Sheng Xuanhuai away, Li Zhongtang glanced at Zhou Fudao. "What does Yushan feel is wrong?"

As two people who have worked together for many years, they naturally know each other very well, and Zhou Fu felt a little inappropriate in Li Zhongtang's words to Sheng Xuanhuai before, so he stopped talking a little, and the result was immediately seen by him.

"Lord Zhongtang, this money is very important, and it is not fortunate that the lord has given power to Xingsun so much, and it is not fortunate to have Xingsun's temperament."

What Zhou Fu said was vague, and he almost said directly that with Sheng Xuanhuai's personality, he would definitely talk about borrowing. And before it was borrowed, it was full of storms in the city.

Regarding Zhou Fu's words, Li Zhongtang smiled slightly. "Yushan knows that ten days ago, Hu Kailin, the superintendent of the imperial history, was opened."

This Hu Yushi is Weng Shangshu's person, and he has been biting Li Zhongtang before, and this was suddenly opened, whether it was for him to show or to appease him, it depends on how he Li Er interprets.

When Zhou Fu heard this, he immediately said. "What does Dong Weng mean is that the imperial court is preparing to appease us first, and then use this to make a living in the future?"

Li Er looked at him and said: "The court has always used me, and it has always been both ready to use and prevent, if it wasn't for the invitation to invite foreign soldiers this time, then I would definitely fall here...... It's hard! ”