Li Zhongtang's words obviously thought that Jia Liwen was whimsical. As for Li Zhongtang's accusation, Jia Liwen was not angry at all, as long as he could make the kingdom profitable, let him dance for Li Zhongtang on the table.

"Your Excellency Zhongtang, in fact, this matter is very simple to promote, as long as your imperial court agrees, then the construction of the railway will not be a problem."

Seeing that Jia Liwen did not give up and continued to insist, Li Zhongtang felt the need to dispel this idea.

"Minister Jia, if you want the imperial court to agree to build a railway, this is a thousand difficulties, there are many officials in our country who still follow the tradition, they do not want to see the emergence of new things such as railways, especially in the imperial court There are more such people, the old man has already worked hard to build a 160-mile Jingu railway, and it is impossible to want the imperial court to agree to a large railway running through the north and south."

In the face of Li Zhongtang's experience, Jia Liwen will not give up, you must know that this task is very important, and the prime minister and king are paying close attention, which directly affects his career.

"Li Zhongtang, according to the old saying of your country, this matter is man-made. The construction of this railway is of great interest to your country, and although there are voices of opposition, I believe that those who know it will be able to see it clearly. ”

Jia Liwen then came up with a killer idea. "If your country refused to build a railway because it was unclear about the benefits in this area, and now it refuses because of the obstruction of the old officials, I believe that Your Excellency Zhongtang, as well as the Emperor and the Empress Dowager of your country, are enlightened and know the sincerity of our country."

As he spoke, Jia Liwen took out a document from his briefcase and handed it to Li Zhongtang. "Your Excellency, my country's sincerity is here, and I believe that this will help your country improve the accuracy of your judgment."

Li Zhongtang took the document and immediately looked at it, and the first condition of this document surprised him.

"Isn't your country joking, planning to build a railway with our country?"

Li Zhongtang was so surprised because he knew that this kind of pursuit of the right to build railways had other purposes, such as the right to mine minerals along the 20 kilometers of the railway, and the right to garrison troops, etc., and the Qing court was not a fool, of course, he did not want the powers of various countries to use the railway to stretch their hands to all parts of the line, so he would fiercely oppose this.

In addition, the construction of railways is all borrowed, and the interest is not cheap, which also puts pressure on the Qing court's finances.

In the name of the Italian Railway Company, Italy sought cooperation with the Qing court to jointly establish the Daqing Railway Corporation, and the Italian side will take out 15 million taels of silver to buy shares, and only need to occupy 49% of the shares of the Daqing Railway Company, and the Qing court does not need to pay money, only need to sell land to occupy 25% of the shares, and the remaining 26% of the shares will be sold in the Qing market for the people to buy.

It can be said that the Qing court can obtain a railway company with a market value of more than 30 million taels without paying a penny, how can such a good thing of direct profit be rejected by the Qing court, which is under huge financial pressure.

Even if there are old-fashioned officials, they will be stopped by others who want to make a profit. After all, if the 26% stake really falls into the hands of the people, officials at all levels can divide it up. Of course, for Italy to come up with such a document, all this comes from a person who will remember it later. He knows very well what is taboo in this era, and it is not difficult to prescribe the right medicine.

"Your Excellency, this document has already made it very clear."

After getting Jia Liwen's affirmation, Li Zhongtang continued to read.

This is hard to look at, this document is even bolder than what Minister Jia said. The newly established Daqing Railway Company must have the right to build the Tianjin-Guangzhou or Beijing-Guangzhou Railway, the Tianjin-Pudong Railway, the Longhai Railway, and the Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway, as mentioned by Minister Jia. For this reason, the Kingdom of Italy was willing to give away 10,000,000,000 taels of silver, as well as 5,000,000,000 taels of silver.

With such a heavy gift, Li Zhongtang was also greedy when he looked at it. Of course, as the main force of the domestic army, the Huai army can also share a lot of profits.

Zhou Fu looked at this generous gift and swallowed his saliva.

As for Li Zhongtang, he pointed to the document. "It is a bit difficult to build a road on the Jinpu line, which is related to the luck of the imperial court, and there will be criticism in the court."

That's right, Li Zhongtang has changed his attitude, from refusing at the beginning to giving advice to Jia Liwen.

And the luck he refers to is even more related to the interests of many people in the capital.

That's right, even if the Jiangnan materials can be solved by sea now, but the interests make the annual transportation still go ahead as scheduled. Boating on the canal in autumn brought grain and rice to the capital, and more than 100,000 Caoding food and clothing were also the benefits of many powerful people in Beijing, and the construction of the railway on the Jinpu line would be blocked by it.

Faced with Li Zhongtang's words, Jia Liwen immediately replied. "Your Excellency, can you turn these inland river workers into road construction workers, solve their livelihood first, and exchange the railway stocks for the nobles who receive benefits?"

Jia Liwen's words seem to have worked hard, and he intends to lure him with profit.

After Li Zhongtang listened, he nodded. "It's a good approach, but there are still a few issues that need to be solved......"

Well, Li Zhongtang began to pick up the gaps.

After solving these problems one by one, Li Zhongtang asked a question. "Minister Jia, relying on the power of the old man alone, to promote the construction of such a grand scale of railways, the old man really has no bottom in his heart."

Li Zhongtang's words are not nonsense, the construction rights of these railways in the hands of the Daqing Railway Company, which has not yet been seen, as long as he has a little vision, he knows how tempting it is, and such a big benefit, it is difficult for him alone.

Faced with Li Zhongtang's worries, Jia Liwen replied. "Please rest assured Li Zhongtang, of course my country will not let Your Excellency do things alone, I have discussed it with Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Liangjiang, and Tan Jixun, the governor of Huguang (Tan Si and his father), they will definitely agree, and Li Zhongtang's brother, Governor Li, also believes that he will also agree."

At this time, Zhang Zhidong was transferred to Liangjiang because of Liu Kunyi's death, and he also supported the construction of the railway, but if he wanted to make a public statement, Jia Liwen promised that when the railway was built, he would purchase steel from the Hanyang Iron Works. With the help of Italy, the problem of excessive sulfur content in Dazhi iron ore was finally solved (a desulfurization equipment was added.

As Zhang Zhidong's political achievements, the Hanyang Iron Works, which has been losing money, is his heart disease, and he is naturally willing to help if he can get orders from the railway company in advance, not to mention that the railway will also lead to the three towns of Wuhan and the city of Nanjing under his current rule.

As for Tan Jixun, who has a very poor relationship with Zhang Zhidong, it is also easy to do. Although he was conservative, he had a great affection for Italy, which helped the imperial court in the war. After Jia Liwen's repeated visits, the Governor Tan also agreed.

As for Li Zhongtang's elder brother Li Hanzhang, this Li Da is very capable, but his biggest ability is greed.

There are several well-known corrupt officials among the Huai Department members, and they were made up a formula, saying: "Tu Zongying steals; Liu Bingzhang looted; Pan Dingxin defrauded; But Li Hanzhang has the right way to take it." is also corrupt and bribery, Tu, Liu, and Pan are shameless when they ask for money, and their methods are clumsy, so they are looked down upon, but Hanzhang got a good evaluation of "a gentleman loves money and takes it in a good way", which shows that the phrase "thieves also have a way" is really not a casual saying.

In a certain year, on Hanzhang's birthday, Yang gave a gift of 10,000 taels; Yang, who was originally the cook of Li Hongzhang's family, "accumulated military merits to protect the commander", but he had a vacant title and no real position, and I heard that the master of the Li family could arrange to fill the vacancy, and rushed to Guangzhou to "run for office" with enough money. Hanzhang didn't say a word, and gave him a commander of the Qin defense.

When Yang arrived, he inquired and found that the monthly salary of this position was only 300, and there was no oil and water; If you want to recoup your investment, at least for three years, the rate of return is so low, you already know what to do! Yang went to the governor's mansion to complain, and when Hanzhang heard it, he scolded him for being a "stupid", so he ignored him and ordered the doorman to enlighten.

The doorman called him aside and said, "The eldest lord asked you to be an official, but he didn't say that you should live on a salary." Don't you have so many positions under you? I'll tell you, now the people who want to be the pipe are gone. Your elm head can't be opened? ”

When Yang heard this, he was enlightened, and when he returned to the camp, he opened all the existing pipe belts, and all the vacant positions were "bidded" for posts. In a few days, not only did he recover the cost, but he also made a net profit of 3,000.

There are many people who bribe and buy officials, such as Yang, and Hanzhang has made them "not taste loss", thus gaining the reputation of "taking it in the right way". Hanzhang can compare his heart with his heart, he has been an official for 30 years, and he has never impeached anyone for "greed and cruelty", and he is nicknamed "Buddha of the official world" Yun.

This Li Da is greedy out of the realm.

Okay, without further ado, after getting Jia Liwen's assurance, Li Zhongtang had a plan.

He first asked the imperial court for funding on the grounds that the various armies had suffered a lot of losses after the war and needed to be replenished.

Li Zhongtang's request was naturally rejected by Weng Shangshu.

Subsequently, Li Zhongtang asked the imperial court to allocate funds on the grounds that he still owed eight million taels to the Italian foreign soldiers. This involved borrowed foreign soldiers, Weng Shangshu naturally didn't dare to reject it like this, so he could only find a way to allocate five million taels after several rounds of arguing, and asked Li Zhongtang to raise three million taels by himself.

At this time, when they got the news, all the departments of the Qing army were in an uproar, shouting that the court was unfair and demanding that they should not favor one over the other. If it had been in the middle of the Qing Dynasty, this kind of behavior would have immediately attracted repression, but now it is different from the past, and now the imperial court does not dare to bear the reputation of being unkind. can only let Weng Shangshu allocate funds, but now Weng Shangshu has no money, the money is in Li Second, so Weng Shangshu, who can't get the money, eats and hangs.

And at this time, Minister Jia Liwen stood up, in view of the fact that because of the problem of money, there was such a thing in the Qing country, Italy was a little unhappy, and the money should be given to your army, Italy did not want it.

In the face of Italy's empathy, the Qing court was greatly appreciated.

At this time, Li Zhongtang stood up and said that Italy is so high-spirited and bright, and it is kind to our country, we can't help but express it.

Li Zhongtang's words also attracted praise from the Manchu Dynasty, and even the Queen Mother said that she was so kind and friendly that she couldn't let her lose her heart.

Well, now I'm just going to ask you what the Italians want.

Minister Jia Liwen then said that the Qing government was already in debt because of the war, and Italy did not need money. I only hope to build a railway with the Qing State and get part of the benefits.

Subsequently, the regulations for the formation of the Great Qing Railway Company, which had been prepared for a long time, were given to the Qing court.

This Italian request made the Qing court startled, this is not too much, but I didn't expect that there would be such a great power that respected the imperial court. He was willing to give more than half of the shares of the railway company to the imperial court. Although there are more railway lines prepared, the cost of food will not be small. But who dares to criticize at this time.

I didn't see that the Governor of Liangjiang, the Governor of Huguang, and the Governor of Liangguang were all in support, and there were people in Beijing who agreed.

Thus, in August 1895, the decision was made that the Qing court and Italy jointly establish the Great Qing Railway Company.

A few days later, the Daqing Railway Company, which was listed on the stock market, was also arrogant, announcing in just seven days that it would build the Luzhou-Guangdong Railway, the Tianjin-Pudong Railway, the Longhai Railway, and the Nanjing-Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway, which ran through the north and south.

No matter what the Qing people thought of the feat of the Great Qing Railway Company, the ministers of other countries in the Qing State would go crazy anyway. Italy alone snatched the right to build the Qing Railway, which is much of a benefit. Now it can be said that as long as Italy is willing to transfer its shares in the Daqing Railway Company, it can easily reap hundreds of millions of taels of silver.

Ministers from various countries now flocked to the Qing court to reverse their decision. But they all failed, and the Qing court insisted that the agreement that had been signed could not be changed.

As a result, the countries that felt that Italy had taken a large piece of the delicious cake were naturally full of thoughts.