Since taking over the position of Minister of Finance from Xiong Xiling, Zhou Xuexi can understand why Xiong Xiling resigned in the first place. Although Beiyang's financial system is a little chaotic, the income is a little less, and the expenditure is a little bigger, but after a little mud and lake, if the east wall is demolished and the west wall is repaired, it can still be supported for the time being, and it is nothing to be tired. But this big loan for the aftermath is completely a hot item.

Beiyang Zhengax urgently needs a large amount of loans to alleviate the financial pressure, and hopes to use this batch of loans as military expenses to complete the unification of the actual surname. This goal of Beiyang is almost no secret, and those foreigners are even more aware of the plans of the Beiyang Army, so when the domestic situation is becoming more and more tense, the banking group of the five countries is delaying more and more, and the asking price is getting higher and higher.

Probably after Zhou Xuexi took over the negotiation with the five-nation banking group, he personally felt the huge pressure. He knew very well that if he did not fight for anything and accepted all the demands of the Bank of the Five Nations, the next day he would be denounced as a traitor by the newspapers of the whole country, and that he would probably have to be assassinated as national scum by the radical revolutionary parties in a matter of days.

In the face of such a huge pressure of public opinion, Zhou Xuexi did not dare to be infamous as a traitor casually, so he could only drag it out and try to find a feasible solution with the bank group of the five countries. He even thought that if the final negotiation failed, and Yuan Shikai had to sign those harsh conditions, then he Zhou Xuexi would have to learn from Xiong Xiling to resign.

So Zhou Xuexi cried when he heard Yuan Shikai ask this: "President, those foreigners are simply deceiving people too much, and the general terms have been negotiated at the beginning of the month, but within two days, they changed their minds again, not only asking for the salt administration mortgage of Henan, Shandong and other provinces, but even asking for the financial mortgage of these provinces, and asking to send people to supervise the finances of the provinces." Throughout the ages, there has never been such a harsh regulation, if we all agree to this, China will not be a country, and how different is it from a dead country! ”

Yuan Shikai just wanted to say: We will bargain with the conditions they said, but knowing that this fact is a bit ridiculous, anyone who cherishes feathers will not agree to these conditions, if he asks him to talk, it is estimated that this week Xuexi will resign immediately like Xiong Xiling. So after a change of mind, he said: "These conditions for the death of the country naturally cannot be agreed, but we have to continue to talk about the aftermath of the big loan, Chief Zhou, you still have to bother to do it as soon as possible." Those conditions that are too harsh and involve sovereignty cannot be agreed, but other parties can make appropriate concessions, can give more interest, and they didn't say before that they would use this batch of loans to pay off the arrears in advance, I have decided, this can be promised to them, as long as the total amount of borrowing is increased a little to ensure that we can get it will not be less. ”

This advances to pay off the arrears that have been paid before, but the two sides have been arguing about the conditions before, Yuan Shikai naturally doesn't want to borrow a sum of money by himself, and then most of them will be taken back by the foreigners before they can get their hands, and the money to be repaid in the future is only a lot more. Now that the situation is urgent, Sunan has no money to support it, so Yuan Shikai can't take care of the repayment in the future.

As for the issue of repayment in the future, Yuan Shikai did not think about it so much, in his opinion, as long as he has this money, he will be able to unify the Forbidden City, and after the unification of China, he will not worry about the development of China's manpower and material resources, and it will be a piece of cake to repay the arrears when the time comes. This idea is similar to Chen Jingyun's, all he thinks about is how to get the money now, and he doesn't care about how to repay it in the future.

Zhou Xuexi heard Yuan Shikai say this, although he had an opinion in his heart, he didn't say anything, just nodded and said: "I understand, I will go to prepare for the resumption of loan negotiations tomorrow!" ”

The conversation between Yuan Shikai and Zhou Xuexi was heard by several people around them, so that they all sighed in their hearts, when it comes to fighting, everyone knows that it is money, and it is impossible to win by relying on the bravery of the soldiers in front alone. And now the Ministry of Finance can't come up with money, I'm afraid that the war in southern Jiangsu is not very easy to handle. But then again, although the Beiyang War Department can't come up with any money now, in fact, the troops stationed in the following places themselves have more or less small coffers, such as Zhang Xun's Eighth Division stationed in Qingjiangpu before, he didn't take much military money from the Beiyang side, basically he himself looted it locally, and similarly, although the Fifth Division stationed in Xuzhou was supported by the military expenses of the Beiyang War Department, a considerable part of the military expenses came from the looting of the station. The same applies to the 3rd Division, which was previously stationed in Shandong, and the 7th Division, which is now stationed in Shandong and is reinforcing Nanjing, as well as the 9th Division in Henan and the 4th and 6th Divisions stationed on the Jinghan Line. In addition, the 20th and 23rd Divisions in the northeast region and several mixed brigades and some affiliated units, such as the Yi Army, are all the same.

It can be said that the Beiyang Army was a whole before Xinhai, but since Xinhai, with the various troops stationed in various provinces, although Yuan Shikai can still achieve command by transferring high-level generals, but once these Beiyang senior generals are stationed in other places, they will have the idea of self-reliance after mastering the local military and political power and experiencing the feeling of the king of the mountain, and based on the backward military system of the Beiyang Army, it is impossible to effectively control the generals below to build troops privately, such as Cao Kun's third division in the Xinhai period is a standard establishment, However, after Xinhai, Cao Kun privately made a guard regiment, and the more than 3,000 people of this infantry regiment were not counted in the establishment of the Third Division, but belonged to the kind that did not have an official name, which is also the root cause of the total strength of Cao Kun's Third Division is not the standard of more than 11,000 but nearly 15,000 people, and this situation also exists in other Beiyang troops.

To a certain extent, the Beiyang Army after Xinhai has divided the city into a military group based on each division, and it is no longer the same as before. Now Yuan Shikai's prestige is like Zhongtian, and the lowly generals naturally dare not disobey Yuan Shikai's intentions, just like Wang Ruxian before, although he scolded and grinned, he honestly took out the money from the small treasury and sent the opening fee to reinforce Nanjing, but if it was replaced by someone else, he Wang Ruxian dared to directly refuse to send troops, as for Feng Guozhang's life or death, it was none of his business.

These circumstances caused the initial split in Beiyang, which made Yuan Shikai feel that the generals under his command were becoming more and more inadequate, so he had plans to build a new 10th Division and 11th Division.

However, although this kind of thing is very bad, it is also good at some times, for example, now everyone does not expect the War Department to give money to support, so they usually loot money under themselves, and this small treasury has also accumulated a lot, and when there is really something to do, even if Lao Yuan doesn't give a dime, the troops below can continue to fight. For example, if Anhui's Huang Xing and Bai Wenwei were dizzy and took the initiative to send troops to the Northern Expedition to attack Henan, then would the Beiyang Army in Henan not be fighting if Yuan Shikai did not give military funds, and when it came to his own interests, he would do it himself without Yuan Shikai's orders.

However, this situation can only be when it comes to their own interests, if they take the initiative to send troops to southern Jiangsu to help Feng Guozhang fight, it is not even a matter of thinking. Yuan Shikai really wants to pressure them to go to reinforcements, money, ammunition supplies are also indispensable.

Wang Ruxian is like this now, the vanguard troops have arrived in Chuzhou, but under the pretext that the troops need to rest and replenish, and at the same time lack ammunition, they did not take the initiative to go south to Nanjing, dozens of miles away, to relieve Feng Guozhang's siege. They had to wait for the War Department to replenish their ammunition supplies and military expenses before they were willing to take action.

These complex relationships within the Beiyang Army are interesting, a bit like maintaining a loose military alliance under Yuan Shikai's leadership. Not comrades-in-arms, but allies, there is a big difference between the two. As for the history after Yuan Shikai died, that is, the allies directly became enemies, and the direct and Anhui lines and later the Feng family fought each other for more than ten years.

These situations within the Beiyang Army have created a rather interesting situation, that is, he knew that the war in southern Jiangsu was tense, but Yuan Shikai just couldn't continue to deploy more troops to fight in the south. In terms of the current financial resources of the Beiyang political axe, it is already very reluctant to maintain three divisions to fight in southern Jiangsu, and it is impossible to maintain four divisions in southern Jiangsu. Unless Yuan Shikai does not want to use his face and fight the risk of rebellion of those generals under him to forcibly transfer them to the front, he will have to face the risk of another Yanjing rebellion, the difference is that the last time the Yanjing Third Division rebellion was instructed by him, and the next time it may be instructed by others!

Anyway, the Seventh Division has now gone south, and no matter how bad the situation in southern Jiangsu is, it can't be there, so it will continue to drag on if it's a big deal. And China is so big, in addition to one Chen Jingyun, Yuan Shikai has to deal with many people.

For example, Li Yuanhong, such as Tang Jirao, such as Yan Xishan in Shanxi, and Lu Rongting in Guangxi, and other warlords of all sizes, originally had to add a Cai Ye before. But to be honest, Yuan Shikai himself couldn't understand how there could be such a stupid person, and he came to Yanjing stupidly, Yuan Shikai was amazed, and first gave Cai Ye a false position: the general office of the National Economic Boundary Bureau, and then asked Zhao Bingjun to send dozens of guards to protect him, which was called protection but was actually under house arrest. As for what the first said about the army commander-in-chief, deputy commander and the like, who still remembers what his old Yuan said before! Anyway, he can't remember it himself, and he doesn't remember well when he gets old.

"What's going on over there in Li Yuanhong, Hubei?" Yuan Shikai asked casually.

At this time, Duan Qirui on the side said: "It's almost the same in Hubei, Li Yuanhong and the revolutionary party's army fought in the three towns of Wuhan for half a month, and both sides suffered heavy casualties, and now Li Yuanhong controls Hankou and Hanyang, and the revolutionary party controls Wuchang." However, the revolutionary party in Wuchang is now at the end of its strength, and it is rumored that there are only more than 3,000 remnants left, and it should not be a problem for Li Yuanhong to take Wuchang! ”

After the turmoil in Hubei, there was a big battle between Li Yuanhong's army and the army of the revolutionary party, but in this month, the eyes of the whole country were fixed on the war in southern Jiangsu, on the contrary, no one paid attention to it in Hubei. The main reason is that the scale over there is smaller, and even if Li Yuanhong and the revolutionary party in Hubei jump again, they will not be able to affect the trend of the national situation. However, the Beiyang side is paying some attention, and the Sixth Division of the Jinghan Line has moved forward to Xinyang to prevent accidents in Hubei. As long as Yuan Shikai is willing, he can send the Sixth Division and the Ninth Division south to Hubei at any time, but he can't put it into practice because he has many concerns, one is because Beiyang is now fighting with the Nationalist Army in southern Jiangsu, and he really doesn't have much energy to open up a second battlefield. The other is the fear of attacking Hubei and thus arousing the vigilance of Huang Xing in Anhui, Tang Jirao in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Lu Rongting in Guangxi, if they unite because they are afraid that the Beiyang Army will move south, then it will be a huge trouble.

Therefore, before the completion of the aftermath of the big loan, before the Beiyang Army is ready, it is unrealistic to go south on a large scale. As for the war in southern Jiangsu, that has to be said separately.

At this time, Duan Qirui said again: "Also, we received a telegram just now, which was sent by Tang Jirao, the governor of Yunnan!" ”

"Oh, what to say!" Now China, whether it is a warlord or a person, likes to send a telegram when there is nothing to do, so Tang Jirao's telegram did not attract Yuan Shikai's attention.

Duan Qirui said: "President, please take a look!" ”

After saying that, he personally handed over the message, Yuan Shikai opened the message and looked at it, his face changed instantly, and he said: "He has a good appetite and wants Sichuan!" Don't be afraid of breaking his teeth! ”——

In fact, I write a little casually on a rainy day.,I basically think about where to write there.,It's the kind of nonsense.,Sometimes I feel like it's far away.,Go back and say a few words about the plot.。 I talk nonsense by myself sometimes it looks very dull, so I occasionally write some traditional novels to adjust the atmosphere, such as the messy relationship story between Dong Bai and Chen Jingyun, the careful thinking of those women in the backyard of Chen's house, and maybe I will write about celebrities, celebrities, foreign girls, sisters, mothers and daughters in the future...... Well, maybe there will be some of them, maybe all of them, look at the feeling when you write in the future, you can wait and see!