When the former Qing Dynasty and the United States signed the Bethlehem Treaty, because the Wuchang Uprising had broken out, in order to avoid chaos and interference by foreign countries, the Qing court and the United States at that time chose to keep it secret, that is, to sign the so-called secret treaty.

However, after the Wuchang Uprising, the Qing political axe collapsed in just a few months, followed by the coexistence of the two political axes of the north and the south, and finally waited until Yuan Shikai became the president, to achieve the apparent unity, but still a variety of interests, at present there is no country in the world to recognize the Republic of China.

The United States has not even officially recognized the political axe of the Republic of China, so naturally there is no so-called formal diplomatic relations, and the Bethlehem Secret Treaty has been shelved, so that the Bethlehem Company and the Admiralty are in a hurry, but as the leader of the political axe of the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai also knows about the Bethlehem contract, but he does not attach importance to it, because the core of this Bethlehem contract is to help China rebuild its navy and consolidate its coastal defense.

Speaking of which, it is necessary to mention the main elements of the Bethlehem contract. The most important point is that the Bethlehem Iron and Steel Company helped Qing Zhengaxe issue 25 million taels (equivalent to about 50 million yuan in silver, all of which will be used in silver dollars below) bonds for naval construction, with an annual interest rate of 5% and a discount of 97.5 yuan, without collateral. This is also known as an unsecured loan, and the interest and discount are also lower than mainstream loans. This is much better than the large-scale borrowing of the aftermath, which requires the supervision of China's finances, and at the same time uses the fiscal revenues of the northern provinces and the revenues of the salt administration as collateral, and the interest and discounts are much higher than those of the Bethlehem contract. However, why didn't Yuan Shikai attach importance to such a preferential loan, because the contract limited the purpose of this batch of loans, of which 4 million yuan was used to improve the gun factory and ammunition factory, the other 4 million yuan was used to improve or build the naval dock and naval arsenal, and the remaining 40 million yuan or so was used to purchase warships from the United States that China could not build, and what kind of warships could China build at that time, at most, it was a gunboat of less than 1,000 tons, and basically all ocean-going warships were not capable of building.

It can be said that the vast majority of this loan, except for the eight million yuan used to improve and build the arsenal, will be used to purchase warships from the United States, and the Bethlehem Company is responsible for these warships and the improvement or construction of the arsenal. That is to say, Yuan Shikai can only get a small part of the millions of yuan in this treaty at most for arsenals and support for army construction, and most of them have to be thrown into the bottomless pit of the navy.

On the other hand, the large loans provided by the banking group of the five countries are as large as 25 million pounds, and nearly 100 million silver dollars can be obtained.

Speaking of which, we have to talk about the contradictions between the United States and the banking syndicates of the five countries, the United States was also one of the banking syndicates at the beginning, and at the beginning it was the banking syndicate of the four countries. Later, in order to prevent Yuan Shikai from providing loans alone, Britain pulled him in, and at the same time, in order to balance, Russia was brought in, so it became a group of six banks. Under these circumstances, the United States had many contradictions with the United States in the Far East, so it simply withdrew from the banking syndicate.

Although everyone didn't say it explicitly, they all knew that if Yuan Shikai approached the United States for a loan, the British-led banking group of the five countries would inevitably obstruct it.

Of course, if he gets a big loan for the aftermath, Yuan Shikai can successfully unify the southern provinces, and after solving these big troubles, Yuan Shikai will also turn around and rebuild the navy, but before the unification of China, Yuan Shikai has no heart to look at the navy.

The Bethlehem Secret Treaty was shelved, although the Admiralty was unwilling but there was no way, this kind of matter involved the overall strategic choice of the Beiyang political axe, and the Admiralty did not have enough ability to influence Yuan Shikai's decision-making.

However, as the other side of the secret treaty, the United States side is in a hurry, to be precise, the Bethlehem Company is in a hurry. Although this secret treaty was dominated by the political axes of the two countries, the contract was signed by the former Qing government axe of China and the Bethlehem company, strictly speaking, it was not a treaty between political axes, but a commercial contract.

The most important thing is that the Qing Dynasty, the signatories of this treaty, has been finished, and it is unknown whether this contract can continue to be fulfilled.

Under such circumstances, in order to ensure the continuation of the contract, the Bethlehem Company thought of many ways, and the American Minister Jia Leheng and Navy Captain Gillis visited the relevant personnel of Yanjing many times, but the problem was not truly solved because of various problems.

Just when the United States was depressed, the Fei Hong incident began to appear frequently in the newspapers, which made the United States really pay attention to Chen Jingyun for the first time.

First, Navy Commander Gillis called the Fuzhou consulate and asked him to confirm whether Chen Jingyun intended to pay for the Feihong. You must know that since the Xinhai Uprising, the United States has been worried that the Feihong will be in arrears, although this ship is a small training cruiser, but it represents the official entry of the American [***] ship into the Chinese market, but also the prelude to the Bethlehem contract. If the Chinese side of the Phillip had given up, then it is to be expected that the Chinese side would not have a very positive attitude towards the Bethlehem contract.

At that time, the US diplomats from the Fuzhou consulate sent a long report to the US Minister to China, Jia Leheng, which not only contained Chen Jingyun's attitude toward the navy, but also more information about Chen Jingyun's personal and national army.

"As far as is known, Chen Jingyun personally has a great influence on the National Army, the subordinate generals of the National Army are Chen Jingyun's descendants, and although the training and equipment level of the National Army is far less than the normal international level, it is already quite good compared to the [***] team, in the previous battle in Hangzhou, according to intelligence, the National Army defeated Zhu Rui's 30,000 troops with only about 10,000 troops. From this, it can already be judged that the Nationalist Army has the ability to influence the situation in southeastern China.

Chen Jingyun founded the Socialist Party of China, advocated the freedom of industry and commerce, the development of people's livelihood and economy, and endorsed China's open door policy, and has repeatedly publicly stated that Chinese businessmen are welcome to invest in Fujian and Zhejiang. He also privately promised the ministers of various countries that he intended to establish economic development zones in Fuzhou and Hangzhou, during which businessmen from various countries could invest freely, and promised to give the most preferential tax and even partial tax exemption treatment.

Chen Jingyun also attaches great importance to the attitude of the navy, according to intelligence, the Fuzhou fleet has planned to build a gunboat, and negotiated with the Admiralty to prepare to pay to buy back the Feihong! ”

As an expert on the US Far East, he has an understanding of China's current situation and has a deep understanding of some people and things in China. From this report, he saw at a glance Chen Jingyun's ambition for hegemony, whether it was controlling the national army or investing money to build warships in the Mawei shipyard, Jia Leheng saw a very ambitious person from it. More importantly, Chen Jingyun seems to be extremely concerned about industry and commerce, and agrees with the open door policy of the United States, and at the same time welcomes American capital to invest in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces.

For a country with no money all over the world looking for investment opportunities and dumping markets for its products, a ruler like Chen Jingyun has a very good appetite for the United States.

And compared with Yuan Shikai, such a person also makes the United States have a better impression of Chen Jingyun. The reason for this is that Yuan Shikai's relationship with the British is too close, which seriously affects the American power in China. On the other hand, it is also related to the global diplomatic strategy of the United States, the economic capacity of the United States in these years has been regarded as the number one power, and it has a lot of money in its hands, which can be seen from the naval arms race before World War I. However, the United States, with such a huge economic capacity, has no corresponding international status, and the impression that the United States gave to the world, especially Britain and France, before World War I, was a combination of hillbillies and explosive wealth, and that it was not as good as Italy in international affairs, let alone Britain, France, and Germany.

In order to enhance its international status, the role played by the United States in history until World War II was that of a-stirring stick, and the basic foreign policy was to dismantle Britain and France on a global scale.

The U.S. exit from banking syndicates is more or less a product of this foreign policy.

Jia Leheng discovered that Chen Jingyun was ambitious, and at the same time realized that Chen Jingyun really had the strength to compete for hegemony, so after transferring the Fuzhou report to China word for word, he also sent his latest views on the situation in China to the Secretary of State.

"According to the current situation in China, the contradictions and conflicts between the central political axes in the north and several local political axes in the south are intensifying, and based on the unique thinking of the Chinese, it is impossible to complete real reunification in the next few years. There may even be a large-scale civil war. At present, there are already three forces in China that can challenge the central political axe: one is the revolutionaries headed by Sun Wen, one is the Yunnan-Guizhou military group headed by Cai Yi, and the other is the Fujian-Zhejiang military group headed by Chen Jingyun. Of these three forces, according to various intelligences, Chen Jingyun has the greatest potential, not only with more than 100,000 troops, but also occupies the richest southeast coastal area in China, and has the support of the local industrial and commercial class. In view of China's current situation, I propose a more flexible foreign policy towards China and engage with China's local political authorities, especially the Chen Jingyun military clique in the southeast. ”

The report of Jia Leheng and the report submitted by the Fuzhou consulate on Chen Jingyun and Fujian and Zhejiang provinces were also taken seriously by US Secretary of State Knox, who immediately called Jia Leheng, expressing his approval of Jia Leheng's flexible foreign policy, maintaining relations with Yuan Shikai in the north and at the same time liaising with various local political axes in the south, and instructing diplomats in China to assist in handling the Fei Hung and the Bethlehem contract.

After receiving the telegram, Jia Leheng sent Navy Admiral Gillis, the US deputy military attache in China, to Fuzhou on the same day.