Chapter 362 British Conditions

When he walked in, he saw that Zhao Dongyun was already inside, and immediately took off his courtesy: "I've met the President!"

Zhao Dongyun and Zhu Erdian are not strangers. In fact, they have met many times, especially in the past three or four months, almost every four or five days. Every time they meet, Zhao Dongyun will have a deep talk with him. After all, this Zhu Erdian is a British minister to China, although it is just He is just a diplomat, but with a British Empire standing behind him, his influence on China is extremely huge.

In this era, the private attitude of the ministers in China towards China basically represents the official attitude of various countries towards China! In the original space-time, the U.S. minister in China had a great good impression on China and wanted to unite China to deal with Japan, and vigorously promote the Sino-US alliance, rebuild the Chinese navy and other affairs, which directly led to the signing of the Bethlehem Treaty. And this Zhu Erdian has a lot of friendship with Yuan Shikai and believes that Yuan Shikai is the only person in contemporary China that can ensure China's independence and stable situation, so Britain in the original time and space does not hesitate to support Yuan Shikai.

It may sound like a joke, but it is true. After all, although contemporary China has more than 10 million square kilometers of land and a population of 40,000, in the eyes of the great powers, the importance of contemporary China is extremely limited. It is not more important than Thailand. Thailand at least acts as France. And the British buffer zone in the Indian Peninsula.

Generally speaking, when the Chinese people of future generations heard what happened in a certain country in Africa, the first reaction was backwardness and chaos, and the second reaction was: it's none of my business!

It may be that future generations are unwilling to admit these, but the reality is so cruel!

The lack of attention by the great powers to China has led to a lack of people who have in-depth research on China. Therefore, when the decision makers of various countries decide on China policies, they almost blindly follow the suggestions of diplomats in China.

In this case, the private attitude of those envoys in China can be regarded as the official attitude towards China.

Zhao Dongyun is not a stupid boy or a guy with bloated self-esteem, so every time he sees Zhu Erdian, he always tries his best to show his importance to Zhu Erdian, and also tries his best to show his ability and try to deepen Zhu Erdian's influence on himself. It is best to make him think that he is Zhao Dongyun is the only option to maintain the stability of China.

There are two aspects of the core interests of contemporary Britain in China. On the one hand, it is naturally a well-known commercial interest! The second is to curb Russia's expansion.

To realize the above two interests, then they need China to maintain a stable situation! With a stable situation, British businessmen can make money by doing business in a wide range of southern provinces of China, especially in the Yangtze River Basin and the Pearl River Basin. Only when China's situation is stable can we avoid letting Russia take advantage of the fire!

Although Britain does not want to see China strong, they are even more unwilling to see China completely divided. Historically, why did they choose to strongly support Yuan Shikai, and even provide a large loan to Yuan Shikai as military expenses, and then use the Second Revolution of 1913 to completely unify China in order to avoid seeing China has fallen into complete chaos.

A weak and stable China is what they need!

From this point of view, it is Zhao Dongyun's established policy to win the support of the British!

Even if the four-nation banking group put forward many unreasonable demands on Zhao Dongyun, Zhao Dongyun still did not give up this hope, because on the other hand, Britain is naturally willing to get a four-nation banking group to talk to him, indicating that he has become the main supporter of the British in China.

The current disagreement is that the British are willing to support Zhao Dongyun to unify China, but they need Zhao Dongyun to pay the price he can't pay!

If the British did not want to see Zhao Dongyun unify China, they would not talk to you long ago and directly went to the Southern Federation or Duan Qirui to throw tens of millions of pounds. No matter how awesome Zhao Dongyun is, he will have to be killed by the Northern Expedition.

This is not only the attitude of the British side. In fact, Germany, France and the United States are also inclined to the Soviet-led Beiyang to unify China.

The rest of Japan is already a veritable Far East shit stick. Naturally, it does not want to see China reunify, so it has not been in contact with the Soviet Union for a long time. As soon as the Feng army occupied Shandong, it immediately turned around to support Duan Qirui and took 5 million yen in arms.

Russia also wants to take advantage of the fire, and naturally does not want to see China completely unified so soon. Before Fengjun entered the customs, he fought with Zhao Dongyun and encouraged Zhao Dongyun to enter the customs and start a war with Wang Yingkai. However, when Zhao Dongyun led the army to enter the customs and successively took Zhili, Shandong and Henan, when the Soviet situation was very good, the Russians also immediately withdrew their previous series of promises, and then turned to fight with Zhao Erxun. It is rumored that Zhao Erxun was provided with a lot of Russian ammunition, and then made trouble in Mongolia, trying to encourage the Mongolian prince to make independence, forcing Zhao Dongyun to send the first cavalry brigade and three patrol cavalry battalions to the Outer Mongolia area last month, and quietly suppressed several Mongolian princes, bandits and other armed forces. Quantity.

If you carefully analyze the attitude of contemporary great powers towards China, you can find that most of the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Austria-Hungary and other small and medium-sized countries still want China to maintain a stable situation. Of course, they will never sit back and watch a strong China appear. What they need is a weak and stable China. It is best for China in the pre-Qing Dynasty. Today, China is forced to sign a treaty to cede a concession, go on an armed tour of the eight-nation or ten-nation coalition tomorrow, and ask for hundreds of millions of compensation the day after tomorrow. This is the ideal China in the hearts of the great powers.

As for the fragmentation, China, which fights every day, is not their ideal target for extortion. In the United States, you will only see people blackmail Saudi Arabia, copy the bottom for Japan, and play the financial crisis in Southeast Asian countries, but which of you has seen Americans blackmail Somalia?

Not to mention blackmail, when it comes to Somalia, Americans have to be entangled. It doesn't matter if Black Hawk falls, it's still set off a retro style of pirates in the 21st century, which is so painful!

Because of the geopolitics, Japan and Russia both hope that China will fall into chaos or even completely fragmentation, because they are not satisfied with the extortion of compensation or even several concessions or road-building rights. They want to annex large areas of China's territory. Japan and the Russians are ambitious for the three eastern three provinces. It is well known, so if they want them to support the strength of one side of China to unify China, they basically don't expect it.

So Zhao Dongyun still pays more attention to this reception of Zhu Erdian!

After the two sides said the scene, because there are only two people on today's occasion, which can be regarded as a private meeting, Zhao Dongyun also put down the so-called diplomatic principles and stubbornly use Chinese, and then talk under the translation of the translation officer. However, Zhao Dongyun does not use Chinese, and according to reason, It is a common language of diplomacy, but Zhao Dongyun's French is very ordinary. Although he taught himself to read military theory a few years ago, he was okay to read and write, but his pronunciation is very stiff, far less fluent than his German and English, so whether in private or diplomatic occasions, he is Don't speak French.

Although Zhu Erdian's Chinese is good, even if he is a Chinese tong who has lived in Zaihua for decades, most of the Chinese is awkward. In order to have a more convenient conversation between the two sides, he said in English as before: "If I guess correctly, your envoy will come today to borrow money to deal with the aftermath. One thing?"

Zhu Erdian nodded and replied, "It's true!"

"I heard that Belgium has signed a relevant loan agreement with your country?" Although Zhu Erdian has learned the news from many sources, he is still not sure if he does not hear Zhao Dongyun's answer in person.

As he expected, Zhao Dongyun achieved it decisively: "It's true!"

reached a loan agreement with Belgium, which can't be concealed at all. The complete exposure is nothing more than a few days later. The difference is not big, so Zhao Dongyun simply admitted it.

Jourdian didn't feel any surprise. This question is just for the final confirmation.

So he immediately said, "I think Belgian bankers can provide loans to your country, so our British bankers naturally have enough strength to provide financing loans to your country!"

Zhao Dongyun said, "I have always welcomed foreign investment into the domestic market. Whether it is for investment or lending to our government, I have always maintained a welcoming attitude! However, according to the loan plan submitted by your country a few days ago, the above conditions are difficult for our country to accept!"

Zhu Erdian naturally knows what the conditions are difficult for Zhao Dongyun to accept, because those conditions were formulated by him himself!

Putting aside the so-called four-nation banking group, in the private loan negotiations between Britain and China, the UK said that it could provide at least 15 million pounds of after-care loans. Please note that this after-care loan has no limited purpose, but if it is required to import materials with this amount, it must be designated from the United Kingdom. The foreign import gives priority to the purchase of British-produced products in order to prevent the Chinese from taking British money to buy German cannons.

The interest is not high. The British proposed that it can be delivered at a 10% discount, and the interest rate is 5%, which can be repaid in 30 years. This delivery discount and interest are relatively favorable.

However, there is also a series of provisions attached to it. China must declare that it will not interfere in the internal affairs of Tibet and will not station troops in Tibet, and hand over the Jinpu Railway and Longhai Railway to the United Kingdom for construction. The mortgages required for the loan will be taken by China's national salt administration, surplus tariffs and local fiscal revenue of Fengtian, Shandong and Henan provinces as Mortgage, the United Kingdom will send official officials to the above three provinces to supervise the income and expenditure of taxes. The United Kingdom and China will jointly establish a new salt administration agency, and the British side will designate a general office to send a member from China and the UK.

If any of them dares to agree, he will become the traitor claimed by Wanfu the next day, and then be ousted by others. The end will never be much better than Yuan Shikai, who became emperor.

To put it rudely, the British are the most demanding of the loan terms proposed by the great powers. Compared with Americans who only ask for salt and tariff mortgages, the British are undoubtedly a lion.

So the two sides expected to talk in private in the past half month, but in fact, there was no practical negotiation at all, and it was the slowest party.

As Zhu Erdian, who formulated these negotiation requirements, naturally knows that most of the conditions he put forward are not expected to be achieved. Originally, he wanted to continue to delay until next year, it is estimated that Zhao Dongyun's financial situation will be more tense. At that time, he is afraid that Zhao Dongyun will not comply?

However, he did not expect that Zhao Dongyun's ability to raise money in the past six months was really beyond his imagination. He issued patriotic bonds and went to the financial market in Paris and London for private placement. Although this kind of private placement was not guaranteed by British officials and those big banks, the issuance could not be too large, but it was adventurous. There are also many God's capitalists, so Zhao Dongyun still raised 5 million yuan in the Paris and London markets.

Now, with a loan of 200 pounds provided by Belgium, all of which add up, the Soviet Union has collected more than 50 million yuan through bond issuance or direct loans in the past year, and in addition to the financial revenue of the Soviet system in the controlled areas, in fact, 1907 Although Duan's Soviet finance gap is large and the deficit is amazing, it still maintains normal operation and the continuation of the war.

In particular, the two million pounds provided by Belgium can also allow the Soviets to survive for three or four months. With these three or four months, who can guarantee that Fengjun will take Jiangnan, Zhejiang and other regions at that time?

After the Soviet system took control of Jiangnan and Zhejiang, he still borrowed a lot of money. Even if they can't get hundreds of millions of yuan in Jiangnan, it's appropriate to get tens of millions.

At that time, gritting your teeth can also support the unification of China. How can those foreign bankers earn China's interest? Although the United Kingdom and the United States have put forward various harsh loan conditions, in essence, they still want to lend money to Zhao Dongyun to earn interest, otherwise they will not keep talking about it.

So as soon as Zhu Erdian learned that China had got another sum of money, he couldn't sit still, which led to today's trip to Xiyuan Yingtai!