On March 7, 1911, before Song Jiaoren left, Yuan Shikai's representative Tang Shaoyi rushed to Fengtai County.

Tang Shaoyi was an expert negotiator in Beiyang, and in 1901, Yuan Shikai was promoted to the governor of Zhili and minister of Beiyang, and he reused Tang Shaoyi as the customs road of Tianjin. During his tenure of office, Tang Shaoyi handled such affairs as taking over the Tianjin urban area occupied by the Eight-Nation Allied Forces and recovering the management rights of Qinhuangdao Port. Yuan Shikai also played at the imperial court and praised Tang Shaoyi's outstanding performance and ability.

In 1904, the Qing government appointed Tang Shaoyi as Minister Plenipotentiary and went to India to negotiate with British representatives on the Tibetan issue. Tang Shaoyi adhered to the national stance and used flexible diplomatic means to strongly advocate the overthrow of the so-called "Lhasa Treaty" signed between Britain and the local government of Tibet, thus thwarting Britain's vain attempt to separate Tibet from Chinese territory. In April 1906, China and Britain signed the "Renewal of the Indo-Tibetan Treaty", and although Britain obtained the privilege of erecting a wire from India to Tibet to open a commercial port, it also had to recognize China's territorial sovereignty over Tibet.

Tang Shaoyi was deeply impressed by the vigorous young people of the People's Party, especially Chen Ke's status in the People's Party, which surprised Tang Shaoyi. The so-called bystander Qing, negotiator Tang Shaoyi determined that Chen Ke was by no means the "dictator of the People's Party" in the Beiyang legend, because the young cadres of the People's Party showed no sign of bowing down to Chen Ke, which was very different from the Manchu Qing Dynasty and Beiyang.

As for Chen Ke himself, Tang Shaoyi was even more puzzled, the kind of officialdom that Tang Shaoyi was used to seeing was not present in Chen Ke. This young man is the one who does things, and he doesn't seem to realize that he has a different status from others, so in that group of young people, everyone appears in the position where they should appear. That's all.

Especially when he saw that some service personnel poured water for Chen Ke and others, Chen Ke and the People's Party cadres said "thank you" with a natural expression. Tang Shaoyi felt an unprecedented shock. He could see that even if some young people were a little unnatural, it was simply out of unaccustomed to being served, and not because of anything else. After saying the word "thank you", they completely left the matter of pouring water behind and never remembered it again.

Facing such a group of opponents, Tang Shaoyi was rarely a little uneasy.

"This time, I was entrusted by Yuan Gong to talk to you about taxes." Tang Shaoyi said. Beiyang's finances really can't stand the heavy pressure of Gengzi's indemnity. Gengzi indemnity was paid more than 20 million taels of silver a year, and in addition to customs taxes, the Manchus raised money through apportionment to the provinces. For example, Hunan apportioned a quota of 700,000 taels.

Yuan Shikai's seizure of central power in Beiyang meant that he had to bear this part of the indemnity. In the current situation of the whole country, all provinces refuse to pay money to the central government, and Beiyang wants to support this situation with all its might, and now the finances are on the verge of collapse. And one of the conditions for the British's neck card Yuan Shikai was to ask Yuan Shikai to pay the money and then talk about anything else.

Beiyang is not completely blind to the finances of the base areas, and they know that the base areas are negotiating a fixed trade agreement with the British. The British demanded a trade volume of £100 million a year. In this day and age, that is, 750 million taels of silver. Not to mention the interest on this amount, the principal amount of compensation for the Xinchou Treaty was only 450 million taels of silver, which was only a little more than half of the trade volume. Faced with heavy pressure, Yuan Shikai had to send Tang Shaoyi to discuss the matter with the People's Party. Beiyang's pot is really about to be opened.

Tang Shaoyi was actually reluctant to come to the People's Party, and he believed that the People's Party could have such close business contacts with the British, which must have betrayed major national interests. Tang Shaoyi himself always wanted to recover all of China's sovereignty, and he was very dismissive of such a "traitor" as the People's Party. Moreover, Beiyang and the People's Party are now in a warring situation, even if there is a secret agreement between the two sides, Beiyang seeks the head of the People's Party, and the People's Party will definitely open its mouth.

Introducing the predicament encountered by Beiyang, Tang Shaoyi put forward Yuan Shikai's request, "Can the People's Party first pay the three-year compensation from 1909 to 1912?" ”

"And how are you going to pay it back?" Chen Ke asked.

No matter what Tang Shaoyi heard, it would not surprise him more than this sentence. He looked at Chen Ke in surprise, trying to tell what Chen Ke meant. On the face of it, this means that Chen Ke can consider helping to pay three years of compensation. But the attitude itself is so abnormal.

Looking at the group of young people from the People's Party, no one showed a look of surprise. They stared at Tang Shaoyi, obviously waiting for Tang Shaoyi's next answer. This is even more surprising. Could it be that they had already guessed Tang Shaoyi's purpose this time?

"Chairman Chen, the central government's finances are running out, and the People's Party has to propose how to repay the money. We really don't have the money to pay back. Tang Shaoyi put forward his own requirements according to the method instructed by Yuan Shikai.

"Then I want Su Songtai Dao and Shanghai." Chen Ke replied. Although Shanghai is a concession, it is administratively subordinate to Susong Taidao, which was formed by the merger of Susong Grain Storage Road and Songtai Road to form Susong Taidao, and the Daotai Yamen is still located in Shanghai County. If you can get it for only 70 million taels of silver, the People's Party can wake up with a smile in your dreams. Wuhan, China's second-largest industrial and commercial city, has already fallen into the hands of the People's Party, and if the first-ranked Shanghai area is also included, the People's Party can generate more profits. Moreover, the People's Party will not really give 70 million taels of silver to foreign devils, and 9 million pounds sterling is not a particularly outrageous figure for the current People's Party.

Tang Shaoyi didn't expect the People's Party to agree to this matter so easily, let alone that the People's Party's demands were even more outrageous. Beiyang Duan Qirui desperately controlled Shanghai, and Beiyang will never give up the cornucopia of Shanghai.

It seems that someone really revealed the purpose of his trip, Tang Shaoyi thought, otherwise how could the People's Party put forward this request without consideration. After all, Tang Shaoyi was an expert negotiator, and he then replied: "Chairman Chen, before this trip, Yuan Gong said that we can discuss the matter of setting up a woolen mill in Zhangjiakou that you proposed last time. ”

Chen Ke smiled: "Mr. Tang, you have also been an official for many years. If you think about the situation in the Manchu officialdom, you know much better than we all do. Not to mention whether we can earn money or not, Zhangjiakou must regard us as a big piece of fat, and someone must come up and nibble on us. We in the BJP don't know how to deal with these people, and we hate to deal with this kind of thing. You are a smart man, can you show us the way and how we can do business well? ”

Tang Shaoyi has never seen such a frank negotiation opponent, and it is really in terms of facts, if the People's Party cooperates in Zhangjiakou, there are too many places where Beiyang will be choked by the neck. Tang Shaoyi himself could not guarantee that the intention of cooperation could be implemented. From the perspective of the BJP, spending money to buy land is the only reliable option. In China, he actually wanted to "cut land and beg for money", Tang Shaoyi couldn't accept such a result at all. But Beiyang really ran out of money, Tang Shaoyi was quite disgusted with the tyranny of officialdom, and as soon as Gengzi's indemnity was apportioned to Hebei Province, Zhao Sanduo Jing Tingbin launched an uprising. The slogan is "No foreign donations". Of course, Tang Shaoyi didn't know that Wu Xingchen and Pang Zi, the remnants of the uprising, defected to the People's Party. However, he knows very well the harm of this kind of excesses, and the central government dares to increase the income by one or two pieces of silver, and when it comes to the localities, after layers of increases, the people will have to bear ten times the scale. In contrast, the BJP's proposal is theoretically the most feasible.

Chen Ke saw Tang Shaoyi's dilemma, and he smiled: "Mr. Tang, if you are not sure, you might as well send a telegram to Beijing to ask." This is a big deal, there is no hurry. ”

That was the end of the first meeting.

After the meeting, Zhang Yu couldn't help but smile and said: "If Song Jiaoren knew that we were likely to agree to the 70 million, would he be angry?" ”

In the negotiations with Song Jiaoren, the People's Party determined that the aid was worth about 7,000 taels in the base area. As a result, the negotiation with Yuan Shikai was 10,000 times ...... of 7,000 taels per guy, and several comrades were amused by this vicious joke.

Qi Hui laughed a few times, then suppressed his smile and said, "Will Beiyang agree?" ”

"It doesn't matter if you agree or not. The key is ourselves. If we don't have the strength, can we hold Shanghai? Chen Ke said with a smile.

"Is this land really worth 70 million?" Zhang Yu asked.

"Let's put it this way, not to mention that there are so many factories in Shanghai, there is a way to make a lot of money in Shanghai alone. The warships of the British need to dock, especially for repairs, and this amount of money is not a small amount. Not to mention that if we had Shanghai, we would have Jiangnan Shipyard. Even if Beiyang dismantles all the machinery and equipment, it will be faster than our reconstruction. Chen Ke said with a smile.

But in the case of land reform in Shanghai...... "Qi Huishen's family is from Shanghai, and he knows the difficulties involved."

"Whether the gentry want to change it or not is their business, whether they can carry out the land reform or not, that is our business. There's nothing to be afraid of. Chen Ke said in high spirits, "As long as we have a good attitude, there is no problem that cannot be solved." ”

The People's Party did things neatly, and they specially installed a cable telegram for Tang Shaoyi's negotiating team. Tang Shaoyi immediately sent a telegram to Yuan Shikai with a password. Yuan Shikai was taken aback when he received the telegram. It is not uncommon for the BJP to absolutely open its mouth. The problem is that this mouth is even a little inexplicable. Shanghai is an area that Duan Qirui forcibly intervened in, and theoretically it still belongs to Jiangsu Province, but the garrison is already a situation where the Beiyang Army and local forces in Shanghai coexist. The People's Party's demand for Shanghai is tantamount to cutting off another piece of southern Jiangsu. Weakening Wang Youhong's power is actually nothing, but in the current situation, weakening Wang Youhong means Yuan Shikai's declaration of war on Jiangnan. Congress is about to convene, and it is completely infeasible to do so at this critical juncture.

"It seems that Chen Ke, the king of the eight lambs, is really not short of money!" Yuan Shikai said to Yang Du with an angry face.

Yang Du is not angry, he has been seeking a way for China to become strong, not only Yang Du alone, in fact, most of the members in Beiyang, including Yuan Shikai, also have this idea. For them, sixty percent is completely selfish, and forty percent is probably a mixture of selfishness and public heart, if China is strong, they seek fame and fame, and seek wealth and wealth, which is a great thing. The rise of the People's Party made Yang Du feel that he saw a glimmer of light. A political force that has only been established for five or six years can do this to this extent, and Beiyang has a bright future.

In Yang Du's view, the problem lies in the attitude of the People's Party towards the gentry. Although the BJP slaughtered the gentry and eliminated the landlords, it was very successful. Beiyang definitely can't do this, but it should still be possible to suppress the landlords and gentry a little. With the vast territory of Beiyang, if it can have half of the results of the People's Party, it can also become extremely powerful.

Hearing Yuan Shikai say this, Yang Dufu said with a smile: "Yuan Gong, I am afraid that it is possible for the People's Party to go to Shanghai to be an official. ”

Yuan Shikai sneered: "Hu Chan, why are you talking about such foolish words. Chen Ke has never tried to be famous. If he wants to be famous, the first time he fights Anqing, where will it be the turn of King Yue to occupy Anqing. ”

Beiyang has repeatedly reviewed the secret of the rise of the People's Party, and these people are quite pragmatic, and they think that when Beiyang takes the lead and besieges the People's Party in three directions, the situation will actually be favorable to the People's Party. The only chance is that after the first Anqing Campaign, the Beiyang Three-Way Siege can exterminate the People's Party. However, at that time, everyone's attention was on the Yue Wang Hui and the Guangfu Society, who could only shout, and no one expected that the People's Party would be the real big force. Yuan Shikai actually admired Chen Keren's kung fu. Ask yourself, even if Yuan Shikai knew that occupying Anqing was a scourge, he couldn't resist this temptation. Not to mention that after willingly making a strong effort to defeat Anqing, he immediately withdrew his troops. Even if Yuan Shikai could do it, Yuan Shikai's subordinates would never agree.

"Then how is Yuan Gong going to respond to Chen Ke?" Yang Du changed the question.

Yuan Shikai did not reply. His mind jumped in a direction that had nothing to do with the actual problem. The autonomy of the provinces gave Yuan Shikai great benefits. Got rid of the possibility of becoming a "traitor" and was able to become the de facto commander of the new China, in the foreseeable time, Yuan Shikai was already the first person in China, except that he could not be the emperor. Even Chen Ke is unlikely to change this trend. However, after the central authorities lost their personnel powers, they basically lost control over the provinces. Unless the provinces are in turmoil on their own. For example, in Fujian and Shaanxi, Beiyang naturally entered it. This is the prerogative of the central government.

But when the central government has a request from the localities, there is no way to deal with it. In the face of the official end of the hostility between the People's Party and Yuan Shikai, Yuan Shikai could not accept any defeat to affect the prestige of the Beiyang Center. After the People's Party officially joined the National Assembly and the four provinces returned to the leadership of the Beiyang Central Committee, Yuan Shikai had no reason to leave the four provinces at that time. The autonomy of the provinces has become a constraint on Yuan Shikai, which is a situation that Yuan Shikai cannot accept.

Did you make the right choice at that time? Yuan Shikai couldn't help but start questioning.

Seeing that Yuan Shikai was silent for a long time, Yang Du couldn't help but shout softly, "Yuan Gong......"

"Well...... Tang Shaoyi told Chen Ke that Shanghai is the territory of Jiangsu, and we can't destroy the autonomy of the provinces. In the past, Chen Ke said that if they do wool spinning business in Zhangjiakou, we in Beiyang will never make it difficult for them. I, Yuan, always count when I speak, and ask him if he can't trust me Yuan. At that time, I, Yuan, can sign a decree not to charge a penny of tax on the factories run by their People's Party. I still have this idea, so I'll tell him. ”

"Oh? Yuan Shikai's responsibility? Chen Ke frowned. Really speaking, an old-school figure like Yuan Shikai is really responsible. is the matter of being called the emperor, Yuan Shikai became the emperor for himself, but he didn't break the jar, and he still abdicated the throne. finally recommended Li Yuanhong as the next president. Of course, it can be said that Yuan Shikai is stupid, confused, and interested, but it cannot be said that he is not a well-known villain.

Chen Ke didn't want to doubt Yuan Shikai's responsibility, he comprehensively questioned Yuan Shikai's execution ability. The base area follows a modern management system, and each link has its own regulations. For example, the base area may give way to the production of steel and synthetic ammonia soda ash, and retreat from the sericulture industry, which ranks third in profit. From mulberry planting, to mulberry leaf picking, silkworm seed cultivation, breeding, and silk reeling, there is a set of relevant systems and regulations for each link in the whole process.

In fact, the problem is not really a matter of biting such a large piece of fat, or even whether Yuan Shikai and the group of people in Beiyang are responsible. However, if the production chain of the wool industry cannot be matched as a whole, Chen Ke will not be able to do better and better. The whole wool industry still can't develop. And these things must be sincerely cooperated by Beiyang.

But whether the kind of people in Beiyang can understand modern enterprises is the core issue. If these guys can understand, Chen Ke is willing to give them a share of the profits. Beiyang has not been compensated for its efforts, which is obviously unreasonable. Saying that it was not ugly, Chen Ke had no choice but to talk to Tang Shaoyi about the sincere thoughts of the base area.

Tang Shaoyi was selected by the Manchu government in 1974 at the age of 12 to study in the United States. In 1881, when he returned to China at the age of 19 and formed his main worldview, Tang Shaoyi spent time in the United States. So he can understand these modern enterprise management and system issues. Hearing Chen Ke's overall plan for the wool industry, Tang Shaoyi was immediately fascinated. Modern enterprises and industrial chains themselves are extremely scientific things, which include fine management and reasonable judgment. For Chen Ke, it's just a rotten street thing shouted in countless articles. For Tang Shaoyi, it is to open a door that has never been opened. How the state can rationally use administrative and economic means to arrange production and create wealth is something that Tang Shaoyi has pursued for many years but has not sought.

When Chen Ke used "It's easy to say, but it's hard to do, as long as the government and local forces have the mind of exploitation, no matter how good the design is, it's useless." As a concluding remark. Tang Shaoyi looked at Chen Ke, who was 18 years younger than him, with a reverent look, "Chairman Chen, don't say that, Beiyang is by no means untrustworthy. ”

Chen Ke said with a smile: "That's right, Beiyang is about credit, but their credit is composed of money and power. I don't really believe they're going to do their job. In order to ensure the supply of this basic raw material, we have to establish purchasing points in Inner and Outer Mongolia, and we also have to cooperate effectively with the people in Inner and Outer Mongolia. Now that Outer Mongolia wants to become independent, as far as we know, Mr. Cao Kun led his troops to fight against the separatist forces in Outer Mongolia, and they also attacked and defended each other. The cavalry of Outer Mongolia often rushed to Rehe to fight the Beiyang Army. Mr. Tang, you are also an understanding person, you pat your chest and ask yourself, do you dare to guarantee me that the Beiyang Army will protect us without a penny? ”

Tang Shaoyi smiled bitterly, Chen Ke's straightforward negotiation attitude is indeed very desirable, but many times it is really overwhelming. Beiyang's chronic illness cannot be changed with a single word.

"If we want to protect ourselves, then we have to build our own army. How far is Zhangjiakou from Beijing, and Mr. Yuan can rest assured that we can do this? The wool business is not a one-shot deal, and if you want to make money on a large scale, the risk should not be too great. We can't guarantee the safety of the acquisition points everywhere, and we can't guarantee the stable quality of raw materials, how do you say we make money? In fact, these problems do not involve Beiyang's responsibility and credit, but the current situation of Beiyang, and they may not be able to solve it. ”

Hearing this, Tang Shaoyi almost forgot his identity and nodded slightly. But it only took a few clicks for him to realize his gaffe. Tang Shaoyi resumed his serious negotiation look, and he tried his best to say calmly: "Please allow me to report this matter to Yuan Gongyu." ”

This time it was not just a telegram, Tang Shaoyi sent someone to send a long letter back to Yuan Shikai at an expedited speed of 800 miles, telling the matter of wool spinning cooperation in detail. After reading this letter, Yuan Shikai was furious, "Chen Wenqing, isn't this nonsense!" If I can do what he says, will I still need him? ”

Yang Du didn't care about Yuan Shikai's anger, he asked Yuan Shikai for a letter and read it. After staying in Beiyang for so long, Yang Du already knew why Yuan Shikai was so angry, Chen Ke really didn't wronged Beiyang, he pointed out all the problems, "There is not enough execution!" ”

There is no shortage of capable people in Beiyang, but there is a lack of people who are willing to work honestly. If there are people who are willing to build acquisition points in Mongolia so honestly and help the local people in Mongolia to engage in production, Yuan Shikai will definitely entrust this group of people with important tasks. These are all talents that are hard to come by. Who would throw such a group of talents into a ghost place like Mongolia, where birds don't lay eggs?

But Yang Du didn't care too much about this, he smiled and said: "Yuan Gong, if we don't have these people, will Chen Ke have them?" ”

"Huh? What does Tiger Chan mean? Yuan Shikai was a little surprised by this statement.