Although the Germans were the latest to enter China, he did a lot of bad things in China, Qingdao was forcibly occupied by him, and it brought a good start for the other powers, the Boxer Rebellion began in Shandong, and the Yellow Peril came out to the mouth of Wilhelm II. Of course, these can be said to be small things, and the real big things are that Germany twice instigated Russia to invade the northeast east, one was the Russo-Japanese War and the other was the Sino-Japanese War.

These two times are extremely fatal for China, the last time it was not for the death of more than 100,000 people in Japan and a draw with Russia, then the Northeast would have been lost a long time ago; And last year's one was even more dangerous, if it weren't for the revival army luring the enemy deep and descending from the sky, it would not only be capital, but I am afraid that Beijing will also be occupied by Japan, and this will be the destruction of the country.

In many cases, the Chinese people do not hate the perpetrators, but hate the instigators of violence the most, and Germany twice instigated Russia to send troops to the northeast, and the news spread, and there were anti-German voices in society. Among them, the loudest shouters were those in the Kuomintang, and Song Jiaoren bluntly criticized the government for being too pro-German in the face of reporters, and believed that the war with Russia was meaningless, costing the people and money. Now that the western goods are cut off, it is the time for the rise of domestic goods, but the cabinet has turned a deaf ear to this and made every effort to build the Western Regions Railway. He did not understand this, there is only a piece of yellow sand in the Western Regions, and it is better to build the Guangdong-Hanzhou Railway to build the Western Regions Railway.

After a year, the Kuomintang finally found its position, that is, to advocate the line of industrial power, and took Japan as an example to ask the government to continue to support industry and revitalize industry.

Public opinion criticism of Germany is exactly what Yang Rui needs, but the Kuomintang Song Jiaoren's remarks do not sound so comfortable, Yang Rui remembers that he talked to Song Jiaoren about the issue of the industrialization line at the end of the year last year, and he also expressed his understanding at that time, and he didn't want to turn his face and deny people after a year.

Song Jiaoren said so. The most shocking was Yang Du, who went to find Song Jiaoren once. The two had a big quarrel with each other, and finally broke up unhappily. When he came back, he told Yang Rui that the Kuomintang was determined to fight against the Renaissance Association. Yang Rui should be careful.

Yang Rui didn't care what the position of the Kuomintang was, judging from his humble political knowledge, Liang Qichao's gang was the White Party, all of them were gentry and masters, and they paid attention to benevolence, righteousness and morality; As for the Kuomintang, there was no position before, or the position was ambiguous, but now they have found a position. It has become a blue party, delusionally representing all the middle class, with the task of revitalizing industry; As for the Renaissance, it was a pure Green, a petty-bourgeois party, or rather a yeoman peasant party, with a few acres of land, a dilapidated house, and no silver in their pockets, only copper coins. It's really said that the rich are not rich, and the poor are not poor, and they are looking forward to the wind and rain going well, and they will receive an extra three or five buckets.

It stands to reason that there is also the Red Party, the proletarian camp. That is, the tenant class and the workers' camp, but now the land reform has turned the tenant peasants into the petty bourgeoisie, from red to green; And in accordance with the provisions of the latest constitutional amendments. For more than 50 acres of land, which is above the standard line for land reform in each province, the IRS will impose heavy taxes. This economically blocked land annexation, so that land could only be leased in the form of subleases. Coupled with the strict silver system, the tenant farmers were completely wiped out; As for the workers, there are less than a million people, and there is no climate.

White, blue, and green, the three colors have created China's political arena, and the only exception is that because the election is too wide and the qualifications for admission to the Inspectorate are too high, the White Party has no possibility of entering the Inspectorate except for cooperating with the Blue Party. At the same time, in view of the current social situation in China, it also makes the Renaissance Association stable in the position of the largest party in China within 30 years, and when industrialization is realized in the future, the blue party is rampant, it is not something that Yang Rui has to take into account.

In the spring of the fourth year of Shenwu, in the face of public opinion against Germany, the Germans believed that this was a conspiracy of the Entente, just like the conspiracy carried out by the Entente in the United States, and asked Yang Rui to interfere in public opinion; Yang Rui believes that public opinion must not be interfered with, once intervened, but instead of the government's pro-German position regardless of national interests, the press office held a press conference, in addition to standing in the position of a civilized country as always calling for a truce in Europe, but also condemned the immoral behavior of the German airship bombing London, and said that in order to protect the legation in Britain, the government will negotiate in Britain, and if the British government allows, the Renaissance Army will send an air force volunteer flight squadron to London to protect the legation in Britain.

Lu Bicheng, a resentful girl who couldn't resign, was in a bad mood recently, and after such a shocking news was announced, she didn't give reporters a chance to ask questions at all, and left the press conference coldly. She was so cold, but public opinion was eager, and it was understandable that China sent a flying squadron to London -- the bombing of German airships was indiscriminate intimidation, and every bombing killed or injured civilians, and the legation once received a bomb, although it did not hurt anyone, it blew down the courtyard wall.

When the British Minister invited the Baath Army Air Force Volunteer Squadron to London on behalf of His Majesty the British King, the Permanent Representative of the Inspectorate unanimously approved this motion, and added another motion: If Britain also carried out indiscriminate bombing of Berlin, Germany, then the Baath Army would also send an Air Force Volunteer Squadron to Berlin to protect the embassy with the permission of the German Government, so as not to favor one over the other.

London was in the midst of the Zeppelin panic at this time, and the Zeppelin guided by the radio compass at night was unable to deal with the Royal Air Force without effective high-power anti-aircraft weapons. The British government, which was being criticized by public opinion, suddenly heard that China would send an air force, and immediately sang the friendship between China and Britain.

President Wilson, who was already pro-British, also proposed to Congress to send a volunteer flying squadron to London to protect the U.S. Embassy, but this proposal was rejected by Congress on the grounds that "the United States maintains a neutral stance on the war in Europe." But the official did not send troops, and the American cowboys, who were bent on upholding justice, paid their own money to order planes in China and went to London to join the Royal Air Corps to protect the innocent people of London.

From the Russians exposing Germany's old background to the government's dispatch of volunteer flight squadrons, in less than half a month, the Chinese and German officials engaged in a war of words by telegram: Wilhelm II thought that China was ungrateful, did not keep its promises, and beat it back; Yang Rui believes that the matter is fundamentally caused by Germany itself. You don't fucking instigate Russia's eastward invasion, how can there be such a thing? Although China sent a flying squadron. But what can those broken planes affect the situation in Europe? Besides, the Western Regions Railway is extending westward with all its might, and if it is really ungrateful, then China will immediately negotiate peace with Russia. Save the cost of blood and then fight with Russia.

Perhaps it was because the shape was stronger than the man, or perhaps because he knew that he was at a loss, the war of words was heated up a few times, and the Germans quieted down, and after China promised not to send flying squadrons to Britain again, the relationship between the two sides returned to the intimate state it had before. Yang Rui, who took the opportunity to show favor to the Entente on this occasion, only convened the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to discuss the issue of arms sales, believing that since the planes were dispatched, they would always have to get some benefits back.

Warmer and warmer spring, the trade meeting in the silver temple. Yang Rui was listening to the report of Du Yaquan of the Ministry of Commerce, and when he complained that the merchant ports of the British colonies had been fully opened to Chinese merchant ships and that it was a loss to make concessions to Japan on shipping, he suddenly smiled and said: "Qiu Fan, you still count those money?" China and Japan jointly speculate on freight rates in Asia, which is the biggest source of profits. Then he said, "Don't the English have anything else to say?" ”

"Of course there is." Du Yaquan said with a smile, "Imperial Chemical has signed a contract with Tianhua Company to fully use nitric acid produced in China as a raw material for gunpowder; This is true in England, and it is also the same in France, where they also place orders with Tianhua through guò middlemen. But. Because we don't recognize the French franc, they ordered a lot of money, but I was worried that they wouldn't have that much foreign currency to pay for the goods. After all, nitric acid can still be replaced, and the United States is lending to the Entente countries. In order to induce Britain and France to buy their own goods, Japan was also lending money to Britain and France to promote the sale of their own goods. Just ...... us"

Du Yaquan said that he glanced at Yu Huizu of the household department here, and did not continue. He looked at Yu Huizu. Yu Huizu looked at Yang Rui, and Yang Rui immediately said: "I'm still poor." Not to mention loans to Britain and France. I don't even want to pay back the money I owe them. Britain and France will win in the end, but they owe so much debt, how can they pay it back in the future? ”

Yang Rui's general scheming of a small rich man made Du Yaquan laugh, and he said: "Aren't Britain and France investing in our country, especially those railways, and if they use those railway stocks as collateral, this can always be borrowed." ”

Britain and France have invested a lot in China, especially the railways, which are very profitable, and it would be of great significance if they were to be recovered. As soon as Du Yaquan mentioned this, Yang Rui asked: "Can this matter really be done?" ”

"I don't know." Du Yaquan's answer was frustrating, but he said: "If Britain and France really rely on our nitric acid, or if the battlefield situation is urgent and there is an urgent need for arms and personnel, then there are still some possibilities. He said this: "Some companies in Britain and France hope to hire some laborers in our country to work in China, but now they are starting to run out of manpower. ”

"It is forbidden for migrant workers to go abroad, especially to Europe!" Yang Rui said categorically, "Although these people are laborers, they have to do all kinds of work on the battlefield, isn't it better to let foreigners die more?" ”

"But that's a lot of money, huh?" Du Yaquan was a little puzzled, "Labor is also a commodity, a laborer can earn at least a few hundred taels a year, and if you go out of 100,000 people, that is tens of millions of taels, and if you go out of 500,000 people, then there will be one or two hundred million." Although the money is not in the hands of the government, it is in the hands of the people. ”

"It is precisely because of the importance of labor that we cannot send it, and only when Britain and France are short of men and soldiers, will we have bargaining chips at that time." Yang Rui extinguished the cigarette and said. "Abolish those messy treaties, that's it."

Yang Rui raised the labor to this height, and vaguely had the intention of sending troops, and there were some differences among the people present, Yu Huizu asked, "Actually, you don't want to send troops to Europe, right?" ”

When he asked, Yang Rui had no choice but to say: "If we have to send troops to Europe to abolish the treaty, then we will send troops." ”

"If you have such thoughts, then Britain and France will definitely ask us to send troops." Xie Jintai was also a little surprised by this, he remembered that Yang Rui had said before that he would not send troops to Europe, and he asked again, "China sent troops to Europe, then the Germans will ......."

"No declaration of war means to send volunteers, or not to send volunteers, to declare war only on Austria-Hungary, not on Germany." Yang Rui pondered and said, "When the troops were dispatched, it was already the late stage of the war. I promised to say yes earlier, but I rushed over on the way. Then it will be too late, and the war will end after a few wars. Germany do not worry about him. At this time, Germany is already a water dog, and the whole world is talking about it, so we are not bad.

I've figured it out during this time, we are about the same as Germany, of course, the geography is much better than him, but there is still a problem of fighting on two fronts. If we use troops against the northwest, we must show goodwill to the southeast, otherwise the national strength will not be able to bear it. Who is Southeast? It is Britain, the United States and France, and sending troops to Europe is the best opportunity to scrap the treaty and integrate into the mainstream world. It's also the lowest-cost opportunity," he said here, looking at Xie Jintai's disbelieving gaze, and said with a smile: "I know that Britain, France, and the United States will definitely change their faces after the war, and those who should stumble will also stumble, but what can we do?" There is no need to go to war with Britain, France and the United States for the abrogation of the treaty. ”

Yang Rui's thoughts are always changing, and the people who listen to him are almost schizophrenic, but fortunately, his changes will be notified in advance. For example, this time the army was sent to Europe in order to scrap the treaty. If he hadn't notified him in advance now, everyone would have been caught off guard.

"Actually, how many troops are you going to send? And how to calculate military spending? "Yu Huizu doesn't care about anything else, he worries about money. Fighting a war is not about spending money like running water, it is about throwing money at reclamation, and you will never see the end. Now the Baath Army has finally stopped. But he was going to send troops to Europe again, and he really didn't know what to do.

"If you want to come out, you have to pay 500,000." Yang Rui said. "300,000 Baath troops, 200,000 captured Russians. Military spending. It's also expensive to freight, and when you get to the ground, you can use the French to supply ammunition. Originally, I only wanted to send troops and didn't want to pay for it, but this is not right, isn't this a mercenary, and there will be no benefit after the war. 300,000 troops, a year of war at most, how much do you say it will cost? ”

"At least a billion taels are gone." Yu Huizu subconsciously took a minimum value, this is because Yang Rui said that the army will use the French supply ammunition, otherwise it will be doubled.

"But we are still at war with France." Hearing that the Baath Army was going to France, Xie Jintai reminded.

"No, when we send troops, Tsarist Russia no longer exists, and France will naturally make friends with us." Yang Rui said. "On the side of the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Industry must be prepared for the fall of the Tsar in three years and the complete withdrawal of Russia from the war."

"Yes, but most of our guns and ammunition are sold to Russia, if he collapses, what will happen to these arms?" Xu Hua, who had been silent, sealed the road.

"Resell to Britain and France, the bigger the war, the bigger the battle, we all send troops to save the emergency, Britain and France must buy some ammunition." Yang Rui said, "If you can't do it, you can turn the explosives factory into a fertilizer factory, isn't this a dual-purpose?" ”

"It's dual-purpose. But now ......" Xu Huafeng recalled the Russian order figures and estimated demand figures, and said: "According to the estimates of the Intelligence Bureau and the Commercial Intelligence Bureau, Russia now has 4.6 million rifles, and the actual need is 17 million, while he himself can only produce 6 million at most, with a shortfall of more than 10 million; Machine guns and artillery are also not enough, not to mention these, the ammunition gap is even greater, with a minimum of three billion bullets; And there are artillery shells, although the Russians have now ordered 20 million shells, but this is only last year's estimate, according to the Russians' estimate this year, 3 million shells will be needed every month for the next two years. What a business, billions of taels! How can you say it's gone? It's done, you let the intelligence bureau figure out a way,"

Xu Huafeng is doing too well in the Russian arms business, he said so, Yang Rui also regretted: "Mr. Huafeng, of course I know that Russian money is the best to make, but do they have so much gold to pay?" Who wants that kind of ruble that is printed more and more, and will be the same as waste paper in the future? Or sell the land, as long as Russia is willing to sell the Far East to us and make a price, as long as it is not too expensive, I will admit it. ”

As soon as the enthusiasm for paying Xu Huafeng dimmed, he turned his head and asked Yu Huizu, "Hanzhang, how much gold do the Russians have?" ”

"Probably ......," Yu Huizu pondered, "I only know that there are 1,600 tons in the Russian National Bank, how many tsars and royals there are, and how much is circulating in the market, then I can only estimate." In total, it must have been more than two thousand tons, possibly more than two thousand five hundred tons, but absolutely not three thousand tons. That's a thousand tons less than the United States, a few hundred tons less than France, but much more than the United Kingdom. ”

Yu Huizu didn't mention gold, it's okay, everyone is red when he mentions gold, Du Yaquan heard that France has more gold than Russia and Britain, and immediately said: "Why don't we start collecting francs too?" ”

However, Yang Rui ignored him and only asked Yu Huizu, "How many do we have?" And Japan, how many are there in Japan? ”

"We? In addition to the previous batch, there are also those that have been seized by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and when the Russians pay off the goods, there will be about 800 tons, which is in the State Bank, and if it is counted on the market, it will be 900 tons at most, not more than 1,000 tons. "Yu Hui Ancestral Dao." Japan doesn't need to mention him, just a few dozen tons, otherwise why would the yen depreciate by half. ”

"How much gold is needed to change the gold standard?" Yang Rui asked. "Isn't all the gold from the domestic gold minerals purchased by the National Bank, and how much gold can be mined in a year?"

"Now digging more than 20 tons a year, but when all the machinery is used, we also occupy the Heilongjiang side, and I think it is estimated that there will be 40 or 50 tons a year in a few years." Can you turn Ding Wenjiang from the Ministry of Soil into gold and get a few gold mines? Yu Hui Zu said. As soon as he said Ding Wenjiang, everyone laughed, this person clicked a few times and pointed out several oil fields, he was really a god-like character.

After everyone finished laughing, Yu Huizu said again: "If you want to become the gold standard, the current gold is enough, but the question is where will the remaining two billion taels of silver go?" That's more than 60,000 tons of silver, and if you throw it out rashly, the price of silver will fall into the sea. And the issuance of gold dollars, then everyone will exchange gold dollars into gold and hide them, who is willing to use gold to buy things? It is to enforce the domestic non-redemption of gold dollars, and everyone will still hide gold dollars and use silver dollars, which is more headache than giving tenant farmers loans now. ”

Because of the backing of the army, the landlords did not dare to resist, but these people still had a soft trick, that is, to cut off the tenant farmers' silver, so that they had no money to buy seeds and fertilizer for spring ploughing, anyway, after the land reform, the harvest of the tenant farmers had nothing to do with the landlords, and they had to give them so much grain every year to redeem the land.

As a comprehensive land reform plan, the government has naturally taken this into account for a long time. Loans to tenant farmersRural credit cooperatives in the provinces have long been prepared, and they have taken the banknotes brushed out of the printing press to lend to the tenant farmers on a large scale, but these banknotes are not supported by physical silver, and if they are run, something will happen. Although the Russians ordered so many goods, they did not collect the payment, otherwise they could issue non-convertible huàn gold dollar banknotes to deal with the run crisis.

Arms production, trade in military materials, gold reserves, gold standard, these things are the most urgent things at the moment, Yang Rui has no killer features for this, the meeting lasted for a long time, and finally had to determine and try with Russia to see if they can barter goods to compete for Russia's purchasing power; Considering that France had more gold reserves than it should be, the Ministry of Commerce began to accept francs in small quantities in order to expand trade with France.

After the trade thing was discussed, the next thing was the bulk of the war profits: shipping. Last year, 430,000 tons of merchant ships were launched because of unskilled workers, but even then China has nearly one million tons of merchant ships; The big ships are less than expected, but the tonnage of the sand ship is more than expected, and now the inland rivers, and even the coast, are all this kind of dozens of tons of sailboats, maybe two more crazy wooden sand ships, just the sailboats can mostly meet the domestic freight demand.

"Actually, I didn't build the ship too fast, and now the freight rate has not only not risen, but has fallen a little." Dua Springs. "The Japanese originally wanted to build a ship, but they couldn't tell how long the European war would last, and they didn't dare to build it when they saw so much we built."

"That's because German submarines didn't sink merchant ships fast enough." Yang Rui said, "Now the Germans are not desperate, and when they desperately start unrestricted submarine warfare, that month will not be the current 200,000 tons, and they will sink 780,000 tons of merchant ships in a month, and it will be too late to build ships at that time." ”

"But ......" Du Yaquan saw that Yang Rui was so sure that he was not easy to refute, after all, Yang Rui had always been right, "Then what should we do?" I mean, if you want to make a lot of money, you still have to run to the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean, but there is no limit to submarine warfare over there, what to do? ”

"Then ask Mr. Hua Feng about this, I can't help it." Yang Rui said.

The Germans were taught wolf pack tactics, but to crack wolf pack tactics, it was best to use centimeter-wave radar, but this kind of thing is not something that can be made now. Now the only thing Yang Rui can count on is a strengthened version of sonar, if this can be built, at least it can scare German submarines. If it doesn't work out, then you can only fight for casualties, and sink those wartime standard ships if they are sunk, there is nothing to be sorry about. (To be continued......)