In order to avoid international interference and even more to avoid provoking the domestic situation, Chen Jingyun and the United States both chose to sign a secret treaty, and after the signing of the naval cooperation plan, Chen Jingyun began to negotiate with Gillis on the army aid plan.

However, Gillis can't do this, on the one hand, Gillis has not received the relevant authorization in advance, and on the other hand, Gillis is a naval colonel, and he is not even a standard diplomat, so he can't do these military aid plans.

Gillis couldn't make the decision on this matter, and after reporting Jia Leheng by telegram, Jia Leheng had no choice about this kind of major event, and immediately reported it to China. After receiving the telegram, Secretary of State Knox convened relevant experts on Far Eastern issues for discussions, and after taking into account the opinion of Jialeheng, decided to approve the military assistance plan.

Although Jia Leheng had little interest in helping China rebuild its navy, his own interest in Chen Jingyun and his optimism about the Fujian and Zhejiang military groups were that Chen Jingyun would rule China in the future, and he sent several private telegrams to Knox in a few days, describing the need for a flexible foreign policy in China and the possible impact of supporting Chen Jingyun.

"Based on Chen Jingyun's attitude towards Britain and the UK, and the complex historical relationship between China and the British, there is no doubt that when he rules China, China will most likely embark on a path of confrontation with Britain and the UK. If China can maintain a strong army and navy, it will be able to pose a major challenge to the Anglo-Japanese alliance in the Far East, and thus completely alleviate the enormous maritime pressure we face in the Western Pacific. Based on Chen's attitude towards open doors and freedom of capital, coupled with China's huge population, China will become the largest market for American capital and goods. ”

"China has a population of nearly 400 million, and if everyone buys a dollar of American goods, then it's a huge market of $400 million! In addition, there is a market for warships, artillery, railways and various high-tech industrial products! If China can get access to this huge market, then China's market alone will be enough for the US economy to maintain a stable and high-speed growth every year. ”

The United States in these years can be said to be consortium politics, and after these consortia learned of China's bright prospects, they also put pressure on the American political axe, especially the arms dealers such as the Bethlehem Company and the consortiums behind several major shipyards and railways have long been ready to move the Chinese market, and have been trying to expand investment in China to seek benefits in recent years, and then basically have been mixed up with the United Kingdom. Among them, the most obvious example is the assumption of the railway in the northeast region of the United States capital investment, and the British and Russian alliances have caused American capital to return home. After Taft became president of the United States in 1909, he also reiterated several times that it was necessary for the United States to expand its influence in the Far East and safeguard its interests in the Far East.

Under such circumstances, Harriman, a railroad tycoon, privately expressed his dissatisfaction with Secretary of State Knox's conservatism on the Far East issue at a reception: "Since the current Chinese 'government' only listens to Britain, then we will choose another political axe to cooperate with us." American interests in the Far East must be secured, and the best way to secure them is to build a railroad in China controlled by American capital! ”

Although the United States has always pursued a policy of neutrality, at the same time, the United States also practices gold-dollar diplomacy, and it is certainly impossible to directly send troops, but the United States has nothing else, but it has a lot of money! If they can control a country with tens of millions of dollars and obtain this huge market with a population of 40,000 people, they are very happy, in fact, not only the American consortium is happy, but also the consortium of Britain and France and other countries are equally willing, the difference is that Britain chose to support Yuan Shikai, and the United States chose Chen Jingyun.

Under various pressures and realities, the US political axe soon decided to secretly discuss with Chen Jingyun about the military aid plan. When Jia Leheng received the authorized telegram, he immediately secretly left Yanjing, and then went to Fuzhou, ready to personally negotiate with Chen Jingyun about the military aid plan.

Two days later, Jia Leheng arrived in Fuzhou and went to see Chen Jingyun on the same day.

Like the career diplomats of this year, Jia Leheng wore a tuxedo, a bowler black hat and a walking stick.

"General Chen, you are much younger than I thought!" Jia Leheng is a China expert, not only is he an expert on Far Eastern issues, but he also has a deep study of China and Sinology, and this Chinese is also very smooth.

In order to show respect and keep it secret, Chen Jingyun only brought Feng Qin, Sa Zhenbing, and An Hualin to see Jia Leheng, and even Chen Jingyun himself was wearing a formal military uniform. It's very respectful in terms of etiquette.

After everyone was polite, they entered the conference room. There were only four people on Chen Jingyun's side, and the only people brought by Jia Leheng were Fuzhou Consul Fale and Deputy Military Attache Navy Colonel Gilles.

After the words, he quickly entered the topic, and Jia Leheng said: "According to the instructions of our political axe, while implementing the original Bethlehem contract, our country proposes to sign another commercial contract!" ”

Without too much nonsense, Jia Leheng quickly handed the so-called business contract to Chen Jingyun, and An Hualin and several people also got a copy of the contract and looked at it.

This contract is not thick, and the content is not complicated, but Chen Jingyun still read it very carefully, and only after a quarter of an hour did he put down the contract documents in his hand.

The contract was very different from the previous Bethlehem contract, first of all, the commercial contract provided a loan amount of $30 million, and the interest and discount were the same as the Bethlehem contract, but the collateral was required, and it was proposed that the salt government income of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces could be used as collateral. Half of the $30 million loan must then be guaranteed to be used for the purchase of American-made arms or other industrial products. The remaining half can be freely used, but it cannot be used to purchase products from other countries.

He also proposed that the US Army military academies could accept officers sent by Chen Jingyun to study abroad, and even considering that the Nationalist Army needs a large number of qualified officers in the near future, the United States could send a considerable number of retired officers to Fujian to teach or join the army as military advisers.

These two are basically the main content.

In addition, there are several other rules, such as Chen Jingyun's establishment of economic development zones in Fuzhou or Hangzhou, for the use of American capital investment and factory construction, in addition to the necessary tax incentives, Chen Jingyun must ensure the safety of the development zone and the security of the free entry and exit of American capital.

In addition, Chen Jingyun must allow U.S. capital to explore mineral resources under the control of the Nationalist Army, and allow U.S. capital to exploit the relevant mineral resources, and allow U.S. capital to build railways in areas controlled by the Nationalist Army.

Some business regulations are a bit harsh, and if Chen Jingyun agrees, he will probably be scolded to death, so he put forward several roundabout plans, saying that in terms of mineral resources and railways, American capital will be allowed to enter, but it should be in the form of a joint venture.

Although these business conditions are trivial, they are the most time-consuming, and several people use Chinese from time to time, and then English from time to time, and it takes several days of arguing before they are determined.

As for the main content of loans and military aid, on the contrary, it is much simpler, the Americans' mind is very simple, anyway, the money is going to be given, and if there is a salt mortgage, then the next thing will be much easier.

Moreover, Jia Leheng and others had a very resolute attitude, and they must require more than half of the amount to be used to purchase American products, and Chen Jingyun could only give in after he couldn't fight for it. In the end, after discussing privately, they put forward a plan for the purpose of the loan, most of which would be used to purchase industrial equipment and related technology from the United States, for the expansion of the Fuzhou Arsenal, and to establish a steel enterprise. The remaining $3 million or so was used to purchase American-made military equipment, mainly focused on medium- and large-caliber artillery.

The expansion of the Fuzhou Arsenal is imperative, the difficulty is not high, basically the equipment in place can expand production, but it is involved in the technical problems of artillery and chemical industry, Chen Jingyun has repeatedly asked the United States to assist in large-caliber artillery manufacturing technology, but the United States did not agree to transfer it free of charge, but proposed the need for a high price for technical authorization, and the technical authorization of these large-caliber artillery is not generally expensive, and finally it is good to say that Chen Jingyun gritted his teeth and introduced the production technology of medium-caliber field artillery, As for the larger caliber, the national army will not need it now, and we will talk about it later.

In addition, the technology of the steel plant also needs to be licensed, and Chen Jingyun spends much more money on technology licensing than on the purchase of equipment. However, in order to meet the steel consumption of the Fuzhou Arsenal and other related heavy industries in the future, this steel plant must also be introduced, not to mention the barrels used in this large-caliber artillery must also be manufactured by this steel plant.

Although the Americans say that they are military aid, they are actually doing business, and it is impossible to give things to Chen Jingyun for nothing, although Chen Jingyun can use any technology, but they have to spend money to buy it, and it is impossible to give it away for nothing.

In the end, the remaining 15 million US dollars can be freely disposed of by the Fujian side, and Chen Jingyun has already planned that this money will be used for military expenses.

This contract, which almost covered military assistance and economic and commercial cooperation, took a lot of time, and Jia Leheng and others spent half a month in Fuzhou before they finished negotiating the relevant treaty, and then they had to wait for the United States to approve it.

On September 3, the United States approved this secret military aid plan, which also represents the official start of secret cooperation between Chen Jingyun and the United States.