Anti-Qing: Starting from the Jintian Uprising

Chapter 501: The Decision of the Allied Nations
"Of course, the payment cycle also needs to be taken into consideration."

Li Yi then added.

One hundred million silver dollars, even if it is paid with paper money or physical objects instead of cash, such a large amount cannot be transferred all at once.

For such a large loan contract, the payment period must be at least one year.

For example, one payment per year, how many installments are required to complete the payment, etc.

When Zong Duanxing heard this, he looked thoughtful.

He spoke after hesitating for a long time.

"Your Majesty, if Japan wants to borrow such a large sum from the Tang Dynasty, the collateral from Japan must be worth this price."

"In my humble opinion, the Tang Dynasty may be able to allow Japan to use its customs duties, salt taxes, minerals, etc. as collateral."

"Until the principal and interest of the Tang loan are paid, the Tang will supervise Japan's tariffs and salt taxes and intervene in mineral development."

Just as the great powers did to China in the late Qing Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty is now simply using the same tactics used by the great powers on Japan.

After listening to Zong Duanxing's report, Li Yi nodded slightly and then continued to ask.

"And what about the interest?"

Zong Duanxing was confused.

"Your Majesty, how about an annual interest of 30%, paid off in years?"

"Nowadays, the interest rate of private loans in Datang is roughly between 1% and 3%, and external loans generally have a higher interest rate."

“Five percent is within a reasonable range.”

"The payment cycle can be divided into five years, with 20 million being paid to Japan each year."

"In my humble opinion, foreign orders worth 20 million yuan per year are enough to stimulate the further development of Datang's industry."

After hearing this, Li Yi hesitated for a moment and then said.

“Loan interest rates are lower!”

"Let's set it at 10 percent!"

"Everything else is fine."

Li Yi knew that in the next few decades, as silver mine production surged, silver prices would plummet.

The currencies of all countries will experience a wave of inflation.

Even though the Tang Dynasty now adopts a gold and silver standard rather than a simple silver standard.

But the value of currency is also inevitably affected by fluctuations in the price of silver.

With an interest rate of 5%, the interest that Datang can earn from loans may not be as much as the drop in currency value caused by inflation.

Li Yi's solution to this problem was to transition the Tang Dynasty's monetary system to the gold standard before the silver price plummeted.

When the time comes, if Japan wants to repay the money, it can only do so according to the gold standard!

Upon hearing this, Zong Duanxing nodded to show that he understood.

Li Yi continued.

"Also, the loan amount doesn't have to be 100 million."

"This 100 million is just the Shogunate's offer. There is still room for negotiation. It's possible to get more or less."

"How about this, the bank will send a professional team to Japan to take charge of this matter..."

Upon hearing this, Zong Duanxing nodded to show that he understood.

Then he continued.

"Your Majesty, I came to the Old Summer Palace today and brought with me the revenue report of the Tang Royal Bank this year."

"Would you like to see it?"

Upon hearing this, Li Yi nodded without any hesitation.

"Okay, present it!"

Zong Duanxing took a deep breath and handed the report in his hand to Li Yi's personal eunuch Wang Zhong, who then passed it to Li Yi.

Li Yi took the report and started reading it.

Looking at the contents of the report, Li Yi smiled.

[Kaiyuan calendar year 4558, the sixth year of Kaitai in the Tang Dynasty, the revenue report of the Tang Royal Bank. ]

[In the sixth year of Kaitai, the total revenue of the Tang Royal Bank was 6523 million silver dollars, and the silver in the bank increased by 11%, reaching million silver dollars.]

[In one year, the total number of loans was 3829712, and the bad debt rate was only 4.3%, and the rest were profitable. ]

All in all, Datang Royal Bank's revenue was good last year.

Even if it is a bad debt, the loss is still controllable because it is guaranteed by collateral.

Both profits and deposits have increased!

The only problem is that the growth rate has slowed down significantly compared to the rapid growth in previous years.

Li Yi also understood the reason, which was the competition from private banks.

However, Li Yi took an encouraging attitude towards this.

How to say it, if Datang currently only has one bank, the Datang Royal Bank.

Although in a short period of time, the Tang Royal Bank can achieve extremely rapid development, but the price is that it won't take long for the Tang Royal Bank to form a monopoly.

Once a monopoly is formed, problems will arise within the Tang Royal Bank. Corruption, laziness, lack of ambition, and mediocrity, these weaknesses in human nature will inevitably emerge one by one.

At that time, the Tang Royal Bank will inevitably go downhill.

By then, those people might dare to help Li Yi create a giant that monopolizes the national financial industry, but will reveal the accounts of it making losses every year.

Li Yike knows too well the nature of those officials.

In order to avoid this from happening, in addition to internal supervision, external competition is also indispensable.

How does the saying go, "If a country is not in a position to fight against the rule of law at home and is invaded by foreign enemies abroad, it will always perish!"

A country or an organization must have powerful enemies on its side and face threats and pressure from external enemies in order to delay the arrival of internal decay to the greatest extent possible.

After looking through the accounts submitted by Zong Duanxing, Li Yi closed it and said.

"The work done by the Tang Royal Bank this year is very good. I am very satisfied."

"Pass on my order. Give all the staff of the Tang Royal Bank an additional three months' salary as a year-end bonus..."

"Well, the Qing family is no exception!"

Upon hearing this, Zong Duanxing bowed down with excitement on his face.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace."

Li Yi nodded slightly, and then said.

"No need to be polite."

"If you really want to thank you, then your family will help me manage the Tang Royal Bank."

"Wait until next year and give me a satisfactory answer!"

Zong Duanxing took a deep breath, his expression full of excitement and excitement.

"I will definitely not let your majesty down!"

……

Richmond!
With the fall of the Port of New Orleans some time ago, Richmond no longer has the jubilation and excitement it had after the victory of the Battle of Manassas some time ago, but has begun to become dull.

On the street, pedestrians are walking hurriedly.

From time to time, you can see horse-drawn carriages passing by, leaving obvious tracks on the loess road, and the faces of the gentlemen and businessmen sitting in the carriages all have visibly sad expressions.

Capitol, meeting room.

President Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War Carlos, Commander of the Virginia Army Robert Lee, Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence and others gathered together.

"Minister Carlos, are you sure you can recapture the Port of New Orleans as soon as possible after it was captured by the federal army?"

Jefferson Davis stared at Carlos with burning eyes, his eyes full of expectation.

Carlos heard this and shook his head with a serious expression.

"Mr. President, after the Northern Army captured the Port of New Orleans, they set up defenses in the Port of New Orleans."

"It's not that our army didn't try to retake the port of New Orleans, but it ended in failure."

Thanks to the advent of the era of breech-loading weapons and the emergence of machine guns and barbed wire, the advantages that defenders can gain on the battlefield are now too great.

Once machine guns and barbed wire are set up, it is impossible to take down a well-defended position without paying a price of dozens or hundreds of times in casualties.

This means that the price the Confederacy will have to pay to retake the Port of New Orleans will be extremely staggering.

Even if you pay the price, you can't do it!

Well, when the Northern Army attacked the Port of New Orleans, it was because of the superiority of their own fleet and the heavy firepower suppression of naval guns.

Otherwise, it would not be easy for the Northern Army to capture the Port of New Orleans.

When Jefferson Davis heard this, the expression on his face was visibly conflicted.

"The Port of New Orleans has been occupied, the Confederacy's trade routes have been cut off, and cotton has started to pile up in the hands of farmers in various states. This cannot go on..."

After the Union Army captured the Port of New Orleans, it not only blocked foreign countries from supplying arms to the Confederacy.

Even the allied countries' exports were blocked.

This is undoubtedly bad news for the Allied Powers, whose mainstay industry is agriculture and whose economy is maintained entirely by exporting agricultural products such as cotton and grain.

It’s still a short time now. If the Port of New Orleans is blocked for a long time, something really bad will happen.

Even Jefferson Davis could not bear this result.

Thinking about these messy things, Jefferson Davis turned his eyes to Robert Lee, the first general of the Confederacy.

"General Lee, I wonder if you can lead the troops to recapture the port of New Orleans?"

When Robert Lee heard this, an embarrassed expression appeared on his face.

"The Virginia Army must still be stationed in Richmond to guard against the Northern Army moving south from Washington..."

After the Battle of Manassas, the North began to recruit militia to prepare for the Southern offensive.

With the victory in the Battle of New Orleans, the North regained the upper hand on the battlefield, and the attitude of the Northern Army had changed from active defense to active attack.

The alarm bell has been sounded, and the army may move south at any time.

Under the current circumstances, the Virginia Corps, the main force of the Confederacy, must not be moved lightly.

Jefferson Davis opened his mouth when he heard this, not knowing what to say, but his expression was visibly ugly.

"Everyone, what should we do next?"

"Cotton and food cannot be shipped out, and munitions cannot be shipped in. If this continues, won't the war situation be ruined?"

As soon as Jefferson Davis finished speaking, the surroundings fell into silence.

There was a solemn look on every face that was visible to the naked eye.

Suddenly, Foreign Secretary Alton Coolidge spoke up.

"Mr. President, I think we may be able to make use of the power of Britain and Tang."

"Don't they want to acquire a port on the coast of the Confederacy?"

"Why not just give them the Port of New Orleans!"

"As long as we can reopen the sea transportation, it will be worthwhile even if we give away the Port of New Orleans."

"Anyway, the Port of New Orleans is not under the control of our Alliance now!"

After Alton Coolidge said this, everyone had a thoughtful expression on their faces.

Jefferson Davis saw this and spoke up.

"That's an idea."

"How about this, let's leave this matter to you, Secretary Coolidge, to contact the Tang Dynasty and the United Kingdom..."

Upon hearing this, Alton Coolidge simply nodded vigorously and agreed to the matter.

……

Chinatown, Tang Embassy!

Huang Weiqi and a middle-aged man in a Western-style tuxedo sat on either side of a table, on which there was a pot.

The pot was bubbling with porridge, the bottom of the porridge was rising and falling, a few slices of bright red beef were flying around inside, and gradually changing color under the high temperature.

The air is filled with fragrance!

Huang Weiqi counted a few times with his fingers, and when he estimated that it was about right, he picked up a piece of beef with chopsticks, dipped it in the prepared hotpot sauce, and then put it into his mouth.

Chewing carefully, feeling the freshness of the beef and the sweetness of the porridge at the bottom of the pot, he couldn't help but reveal a satisfied expression on his face.

"Mr. Zhao, please try it. This American beef tastes pretty good."

"Compared to the beef from my Tang Dynasty, it has a different flavor."

Upon hearing this, Mr. Zhao on the opposite side stretched out his chopsticks, picked up a piece of beef and put it into his mouth.

He chewed slowly, savoring the flavor of the beef, even though he was born in the North and was not used to the light taste of Southerners.

Compared with hotpot, he prefers spicy and delicious hotpot.

However, this did not prevent Mr. Zhao from showing a pleased expression while eating.

"Not bad!"

"Ambassador Huang's porridge hotpot is very dear to me!"

Seeing this, Huang Weiqi still had a smile on his face.

He picked up a piece of lobster meat with chopsticks and put it into the pot. He asked while waiting for the lobster meat to be cooked.

"I wonder if Mr. Zhao has anything to do with you coming here today?"

Mr. Zhao smiled and spoke directly without beating around the bush.

"I am here to visit you this time because I do have something to trouble you, Mr. Huang."

Huang Weiqi raised his chin, picked up the cooked lobster, put it in a small dish, and then continued to ask.

"Mr. Zhao, just speak your mind!"

When Mr. Zhao heard this, his expression froze for a moment, but he continued speaking.

"Master Huang, this is what happened."

"Some time ago, I ordered a batch of cotton from a large plantation owner in South Carolina. The total amount is about 60,000 tons."

"But because the Union blockaded the ports, the cotton could not be shipped out."

"Although cotton won't go bad in a short time, hoarding such a large amount of cotton has indeed accumulated a lot of my funds and has affected my business."

"So, I came to see Master Huang, hoping that Master Huang could help me..."

Mr. Zhao's family was originally a famous landlord in Shandong.

As the Tang army marched into Shandong and organized land distribution in Shandong, the Zhao family was forced to begin transformation and invested the money obtained from the sale of land into business.

What we are doing now is the textile business.

The Zhao family joined forces with several large landowners in the surrounding area to open a cotton spinning park, specializing in the production of cotton cloth, cotton yarn, ready-made clothes and other textiles.

The business is huge!

In order to obtain low-priced cotton and reduce the cost of the textile factory, Mr. Zhao traveled across the ocean to the United States.

Unexpectedly, the business was doing well before, but now it is affected by the war and the goods cannot be shipped.

Mr. Zhao felt extremely uncomfortable with so much cotton piling up at once.

You have to know that the money he used to buy cotton from American plantation owners was not his own money.

But it is money borrowed from the bank!
If he can't pay back the money on time, the interest alone will be enough to make him pay a lot.

As he spoke, Mr. Zhao pushed a wooden box to Huang Weiqi and said with a flattering look on his face.

Huang Weiqi put down the chopsticks in his hand and opened the wooden box casually.

There were a few small yellow croakers in the wooden box.

The sunlight outside shines through the glass and projects onto the yellow gold bars.

Looking at the tempting light flashing on the yellow gold bars, Huang Weiqi's Adam's apple couldn't help but roll slightly.

These small yellow croakers are not very big, but together they are worth at least a thousand silver dollars, which is not a small amount.

As the Tang Dynasty's ambassador to the United States, Huang Weiqi received a considerable salary and travel allowance every month, but to him, this small yellow croaker was still quite eye-catching.

Although Huang Weiqi was tempted, he finally took a deep breath, shook his head, closed the wooden box and pushed it back.

"Mr. Zhao, please take it back!"

"I really can't help you with this matter!"

"If the people who blocked the port were from the Alliance, I could still help you contact them, but this time it was the Navy of the Federation that blocked the port."

"I don't have much face over there..."

Now that the Tang Dynasty has made it clear that it supports the Confederation, its relations with the Federal Republic will naturally be very bad.

Although the Federation did not dare to declare war on the Tang Dynasty directly, it would certainly not allow Tang merchant ships to enter and exit southern ports at will.

If things can be done, Huang Weiqi doesn't mind making some extra money.

But he won't take money for things that he can't do.

Huang Weiqi still has a bottom line when it comes to taking money to do things.

Mr. Zhao heard this and said with a conflicted expression.

"Master Huang, can't you help me think of a solution?"

Huang Weiqiku smiled bitterly and spread his hands.

"What can I do?"

"Can I bring a fleet to open up the port for you?"

If it were in Southeast Asia, the Tang Dynasty might have really sent a fleet to open up the port.

But this is America!
The distance is too far, and even if the Tang army wants to interfere in American affairs, it is out of reach.

Mr. Zhao looked obviously disappointed when he heard this.

Seeing this, Huang Weiqi didn't say anything more and just asked the other party to continue eating.

Upon seeing this, Mr. Zhao knew that there was nothing he could do about Huang Weiqi, so he did not stay long and said goodbye and left.

Huang Weiqi didn't take it seriously and just continued to enjoy the delicious food leisurely.

But at this moment, a servant came in from outside and began to report.

"Your Excellency, the Confederate Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Alton Coolidge, is outside seeking a meeting."

When Huang Weiqi heard this, his expression was stunned at first.

He said immediately.

"Go and invite the person in!"

Upon hearing this, the servant nodded immediately and turned around to go out and invite someone.

Soon, Orton Coolidge was brought in.

From a distance, Orton Coolidge greeted them warmly.

"Hey, Huang, my friend!"

Huang Weiqi stood up from his seat, hugged Alton Coolidge, and then said.

"Coolidge, you came at the right time today."

"I'm having lunch, hotpot. I'll give you a pair of chopsticks. Let's eat together!"

Upon hearing this, Orton Coolidge smiled and nodded in agreement.

Soon, he sat down at the table, and the waiter brought him a set of washed dishes and chopsticks.

And prepared the sauce for him and poured him some wine.

Alton Coolidge skillfully picked up a piece of beef with chopsticks and put it into his mouth.

After chewing for a while, he gave a thumbs up.

"good! very! good!"

“This is delicious!”

After interacting with Huang Weiqi more and more, Orton Coolidge has now learned how to use chopsticks and is very skilled in using them.

Huang Weiqi still had a smiling face.

"Mr. Coolidge, what is the reason you come to visit me this time?"

"Could it be that your country's parliament has already discussed and decided which port to lease to the Tang Dynasty?"

Orton Coolidge was verbally challenged by Huang Weiying and his movements were obviously slowed down, but he still spoke.

"Sure. How about the Port of New Orleans?"

Huang Weiqi showed an interested expression on his face when he heard this, and said with a smile.

"If I remember correctly, the Port of New Orleans is not in your country's hands now, right?"

Alton Coolidge took a deep breath and then spoke.

"It all depends on Datang's ability."

"If the Tang Dynasty can take over the Port of New Orleans, then the Port of New Orleans will belong to the Tang Dynasty."

"I think this kind of thing shouldn't be a difficult task for the Tang Dynasty!"

When Huang Weiqi heard this, his expression froze and he looked conflicted.

The reason why he was confused was that he didn't know whether the Tang Dynasty had any intention of intervening in the war in America.

Seeing this, Alton Coolidge struck while the iron was hot.

"I not only told Datang about this matter, but also communicated with the British side."

"Daying is quite interested in this matter!"

Alton Coolidge was bullshitting.

Today, Britain is once again deeply involved in the Crimean battlefield. Although it has the overall advantage, Tsarist Russia is being suppressed by them.

However, the amount of manpower and material resources required is also astronomical.

It would undoubtedly be very difficult for Britain to intervene in the war in America at the same time as it was waging a war in Crimea.

After hearing what Alton Coolidge said, the British ambassador did not show any interest but rather declined.

In order not to make the matter final, he said that he would first see the opinion of the Tang Dynasty.

Then Orton Coolidge came to deceive the Tang Dynasty under the banner of Britain.

Well, that's how diplomacy works. As long as the goal can be achieved, cheating and deceiving are considered normal means.

After hearing this, Huang Weiqi was obviously stunned for a moment, and he pulled his beard and began to ponder.

Taking a deep breath, Huang Weiqi said.

"That might be an idea..."

"I will report this matter to the court. When the time comes, we will see what the court decides!"

"Haha, let's not talk about this today, let's eat first!"

……

The sixth year of Kaitai passed quickly.

The time entered the seventh year of Kaitai, which was 1862 in the Western calendar.

After the beginning of the year, the Tang Dynasty and Japan quickly reached a consensus, and Japan fully agreed to several conditions proposed by the Tang Dynasty.

And signed a loan contract of 60 million silver dollars with the Tang Dynasty.

As the two sides reached a consensus in the negotiations, the tense atmosphere in Edo Bay gradually dissipated.

The Tang Dynasty's Bohai Fleet docked at the Edo port.

Zhao Xinpei, the new Tang Dynasty ambassador to Japan, invited Tokugawa Iemochi, the contemporary shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, to board the Weiyuan battleship, the flagship of the Tang Dynasty's Bohai Fleet, to attend the signing ceremony.

(End of this chapter)