Hidden Dragon in Qing Dynasty

Listening to Wang Huaiyuan and his analysis, everyone present felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over their heads. The entire hall was in complete silence, with only the sound of matches striking against each other and the thick scent of cigar smoke.

Xiao Letian looked at the silent crowd and knew that he had achieved his goal. He took a sip of his bitter tea and stood up: "I know that everyone is feeling stifled inside, I also know that today's matter is too useless.

"But today's matter has given us a warning. He reminded us that we are not as strong as we thought we were. We weren't ready for the war at all …"

"So I decided... To start negotiations with the Qing Dynasty and to suspend all plans for revenge. If fighting head on doesn't achieve our goal, then we will achieve it at the negotiating table! "

"Prime Minister!" Luo Huo was the first to stand up, "Are we supposed to admit defeat just like that? "I refuse to accept this …"

"Bastard!" This was not a question of whether he was willing to submit or not. This was politics. This was a covert war! Furthermore, there is no such thing as a limelight in this world. We are using the weak Qing Dynasty Essence to lick our wounds to gain the right to issue currency, and that is already a big advantage. What is our goal? is to use more than ten years to accumulate our strength, to industrialize and build an army that can protect our country... Especially the Navy! "

"This is our big strategy, no one can change it! We are not misers. Our business has never been to make money. What do we want? Is it to be as rich as a kingdom and then to be happy? "

"If you think that is your dream, then I can also learn from Ci Xi and sell off my country! Selling this country will earn us enough money to enjoy the happiness of our next eight lives! "

Xiao Letian looked at them and said sorrowfully, "But we are not such people. Our goal is to save the vitality of a nation, to protect our country and overcome the obstacles to its safety. This is our responsibility! Now that you've thought about it, do you care about the money? "

Luo Huo's aggrieved eyes turned red, "Prime Minister, you know about me, I, Luo Huo do not care about money, I have enough money now to spend for a few more lifetimes. I just can't take it anymore! "

"Anger?" Xiao Letian shook his head: "If you truly love this country to the bones, let alone losing face from anger, even if you suffered under Han Xin's crotch and in Su Wu Bei Hai's lifetime of suffering, you can still endure it!"

"Are we not as good as the ancients? Just because of such a small setback, you can't wait to die together with me? " Xiao Letian took out a piece of paper from his pocket.

"This is the message from the Great Marshal Zeng that the pigeon from Shanghai brought in the morning. There is only one word from it, and that is endure! I understand what the Great Marshal means. Right now, Zuo Jigao is doing his utmost to vomit blood to pacify the Western Regions. Is it really because of this Qing Dynasty? "No, he's doing it for us Chinese, or for the future of our civilization!"

"At this crucial point, don't create unnecessary problems, just let Qing Dynasty take advantage of us, isn't it just a little bit of money? I know what they want. They want to build a new army. Then let's just let him practice! My brother Xiao Letian has to have that determination, let him go train in the Manchu, even if we can produce a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers, we can still smash him! "

With that, the atmosphere in the parlour became a bit better, and the depressing air on everyone's faces finally dissipated.

"Son of a bitch! Let the nobles have some more dividends! Sooner or later, I'll make them spit out everything they have …"

"That's right, it doesn't matter if we have money or not. Like the Prime Minister said, over ten million square kilometers of land cannot be lost at all!"

Xiao Letian clapped his hands: "That's right, people cannot just look at money, what is money? "Money is just a tool. As long as you give us Chinese a space for peaceful development, the wealth that the hardworking Chinese can create is unimaginable …"

"What is the national vitality that we want to protect? is the land that our ancestors left behind, is our national festival, is our culture and wisdom... As long as we don't lose these things, we'll have a chance to make a comeback! "

"Alright, let's get started. There's still a lot of work to be done at the negotiating table!"

In the late month of Tongzhi six years, the officials of Ryukyu and Beijing suddenly cancelled all their holidays and started to get busy abnormally. Although some areas of the initial telegraph network still needed to be sent by pigeons and passed on quickly, the efficiency of the newly formed telegraph network was already very fast. It was the first time Manchu dynasty Ting had tasted the sweetness of a telegraph network.

From Beijing Power Generation to Ryukyu, there were two choices. One was to send a message directly to Denver, then change the pigeon and send it directly to Fusang. The message would then be transmitted to Ryukyu through the submarine cable.

The other route was to produce electricity directly to Shanghai, then change to a pigeon and send a message straight to Ryukyu. The time between the two routes was about the same, it would probably take three days for them to arrive.

At this moment, the underwater cables from the Ryukyu to Fuzhou and Shanghai were being laid on the sea, as well as those from Danzhou to North Korea. If there were no accidents, in May and June next year, telegraph network could be formed and would be able to transmit messages in an instant.

Only when that time came would Beijing and the Ryukyu be able to communicate with each other in an instant.

The negotiation went smoothly beyond everyone's imagination. People thought that Beijing and Ryukyu would argue over the details, but they never expected that both sides would agree to give up.

Xiao Letian was afraid that Manchu dynasty Ting would go crazy, and Qing Dynasty was also not willing to see the people's newspapers continue to bewitch people.

On the 29th of December, the two sides reached an agreement. The Ryukyu promised to provide the Beijing with a complete set of printing equipment and technology, and also sent engineers to help the imperial government print the bonds.

The imperial government also agreed with Ryukyu's proposal. Both sides would jointly manage the amount of bonds issued, with the Yellow River as the limit. The tax payments from the provinces north of the Yellow River, including arrears, would be used as a reserve for Beijing's printed bonds.

The tax arrears of the provinces south of the Yellow River were the reserve fund for the printing bonds of the Letian Firm. The two sides would check their accounts once a quarter and make plans for the printing bonds for the next quarter.

Xiao Letian was very smart. When he found out that he was unable to suppress the desire of the imperial government to print counterfeit currency, it would be better for him to just distribute his desire and put it on the right track.

Don't you need money? Then join in and both sides will make a fortune together. Moreover, you will earn more than the counterfeit money. This way, the imperial court will naturally lose the power to forge the fake money.

The people's newspapers were not banned, but Xiao Letian promised that there would be no slandering of the imperial government in any of the issues. In the future, the style of the people's newspapers would transform into a commercial newspaper, advertise, send out business messages, introduce the wonders of the world.

Xiao Letian knew that he couldn't be too anxious about opening the wisdom of the people.

It really fit the old saying that Xiao Letian had spoken before. "This so called negotiation, it's not like we have to discuss who will win or lose, it's like we have to make everyone cry and laugh, and the brightest negotiation should be when the results are out, where both sides and even many parties will complain heavily and all of them will jump up and scold each other, but in the end, both of them will be able to carry it out … This is the highest level of success in the negotiations! "

It had been six years since Tongzhi's New Year's Eve. Both sides had finally confirmed the details of the draft and exchanged messages.