Master Yuan, start!

Having made up his mind, Yuan Xiangcheng said in an unyielding tone: "Your Excellency, the local government pays lijin and tariffs to the central government. This is our internal affairs, and other countries have no reason to interfere.

As for the railway, we will choose to build a railway directly to our capital, but we do not need the French. On the contrary, the British are a good partner. After all, we have had good cooperation in North Korea. "

After saying this, Yuan Xiangcheng looked at the British Minister Eugene with a smile, but he didn't expect that he just bowed slightly and nodded, and had no intention of saying anything "fair".

You have such a big appetite, aren’t you afraid of being full? Yuan Xiangcheng cursed in his heart, but he still kept a smile on his face.

"Yes, yes!" After hearing Yuan Xiangcheng's well-reasoned rebuttal, Guangxu couldn't help but applaud in a low voice.

Although important officials such as Weng Tong, Li Hongzao, and Shi Duo were afraid of the French, they had no idea what Yuan Shikai was planning to do, so they could only watch silently from the sidelines.

Badno's plan failed, so he came up with another: "France and Russia have long maintained a friendship. I believe His Royal Highness Prince Nicholas, who is currently visiting, is very interested in building a railway in China. Perhaps I can facilitate the first cooperation between France, Russia, and Japan in the Far East."

This is to blackmail Russia. Yuan Xiangcheng looked at the worried eyes of the officials around him, but he was not afraid of this sentence.

"Minister Badno," Yuan Xiangcheng asked calmly, "Is this your opinion, or that of the Paris government?"

"This view will certainly be approved by the Paris government, there is no doubt about that!" Badno held his head high and never lowered it, determined to show the pride of the Gallic rooster in the Far East.

It's a fart! Dad Durian Tart siEaO flow group:

Yuan Shikai did not believe that France, which had just swallowed Vietnam and Taiwan, still had the strength to send another army on an expedition.

The French were not as skilled and efficient as the British in conquering colonies. They often had to work hard to mobilize officials from their homeland to govern, and their pursuit of economic benefits was not as fanatical as the British.

This means that for the same piece of land, the French have to invest more but get relatively less in return.

France's domestic political situation is in constant turmoil, and colonial investment is a losing business in the early stages. The Paris government does not want to take the risk of war and get involved in another war.

Convinced that Badno was blackmailing him, Yuan Xiangcheng spoke calmly.

"The economic interests of all countries do need to be protected, and not only that, our country's economy also needs to develop as quickly as possible.

Therefore, I think that in today's China, it is necessary to establish a bonded zone to expand the sales share of goods from various countries in China."

"Bonded area?" Hearing this novel term, the Englishman Ogen became interested.

"That's right," Yuan Xiangcheng explained. "A bonded area is a piece of land set up at a coastal port. When overseas cargo ships arrive, they can unload their goods into the bonded area without paying any customs duties."

Seeing Ogen's eyes shining, Yuan Xiangcheng emphasized it again.

"Yes, I'm right. Once the goods land, there will be no customs duties!"

Now Ogen's eyes brightened even more, but the ministers in the cabinet also understood. If no tariffs were charged, wouldn't that be lower than the foreigners' 5% tariff?

Isn’t this a clear case of treason?

"Yuan Xiangcheng, you cannot speak nonsense during a state meeting! If we don't collect customs duties, why would the Qing Dynasty have customs? We should just leave it all to the foreigners!" Weng Tong glared at Yuan Xiangcheng.

29sik杉武六q仲N: Even Guangxu looked puzzled. If we don’t collect taxes, how can we make money?

"No, Lord Weng, please listen to me." Yuan Xiangcheng slowly expressed his idea of ​​a bonded area in the future.

The so-called bonded does not mean tax-free, which means that no tax is collected when the goods land in the bonded area. They can be stored, modified, and classified conveniently, and the corresponding taxes and fees will be collected when they are shipped out of the bonded area.

It is equivalent to providing a large warehouse on land to provide turnover for ships.

After listening to Yuan Xiangcheng's explanation, Ougen immediately realized the huge business opportunities contained therein.

Britain has a huge output of cotton cloth and cotton yarn and faces fierce competition from the United States in the Chinese market. In order to increase sales, it often offers discounts and chooses fast shipping methods.

In the past, after the British shipped cotton cloth from India to China, regardless of whether it was sold or not, the ship would load the Chinese goods and return to transport the next batch of cotton cloth to China.

Because the goods produced in India must be sold. If they cannot be sold, the British will not be able to make a profit, and the meaning of colonization will be lost.

Many of China’s export commodities are also industrial raw materials that the UK urgently needs. Every day they are shipped back later means one more day of loss.

However, due to the strong inertia of the natural economy, in China, out of 100 pieces of cotton cloth, only more than 40 pieces are actually sold that month. The remaining 60 pieces will pile up and have to be sold at a discount to cope with the impact of American goods.

This means that the British paid 100 tariffs, but could only get back 40 of them in a short period of time. If this continued for a long time, the accumulated amount would become enormous.

If there is a bonded area, British goods can save a lot of landing tariffs and can just pile up the goods on land and sell them slowly.

"I think the bonded sector is a good idea." Ogene affirmed, and even the German Minister Hai Jing beside him agreed.

Although Guangxu didn't quite understand, he at least realized that the customs zone seemed to be different from the concession, and there was no cession of land or compensation.

Only Weng Tong, Li Hongzao and others felt that words such as "opening up exclusive areas" and "tax exemption" were too eye-catching and were unwilling to believe Yuan Shikai.

"I wonder where General Yuan plans to implement the bonded zone?" Ogene left Badno aside and asked.

"The first batch will open ports in Dengzhou, Yantai, Niuzhuang, Yingkou, Lushun, and Hancheng," Yuan Xiangcheng said, focusing on the north. "In the future, depending on the situation, more ports along the northern coast will be opened."

"The United Kingdom will be considered the top priority partner. In addition, Germany, the United States and even Russia can cooperate." Yuan Xiangcheng mentioned four countries.

"Even Russia" Badno felt insulted.

Even behind them is Russia, and the French are not even considered.

"Okay, General Yuan is very courageous. I agree with what you said about local customs and likin being handed over to the central government." Badno did not care about the problem of the bonded area being neglected, but instead brought up the issue of handing over customs duties just now.

However, he changed the subject and said something that neither the ministers in the hall nor Guangxu had expected.

"But who says Beijing is the seat of the Qing Dynasty's central government? I think Wuchang and Guangzhou also seem to have the potential to be the capital. What do you think, General Yuan?"

Badno spoke this sentence very quickly in French, but after the interpreter heard it, he was so nervous that he had to translate it in three parts.

Establish a new court!

Good guy, I finally fell into the trap. I didn’t expect the French would dare to do such a thing.

Yuan Xiangcheng had a blank expression on his face, but he was very excited in his heart.

He glanced at Ogen and found that he had a slight frown on his face and did not seem to have breathed in advance.

However, except for the British Eugen, the reactions of the ministers in the cabinet were much greater than Yuan Xiangcheng had imagined.

"No!"

"How dare the French insult the Qing Dynasty like this!"

"Yuan Xiangcheng has offended France. I beg you to punish him!"

Scar "France has evil ambitions. I beg Your Majesty to send Yuan Shikai south to fight against them!"

Some exclaimed in surprise, some were angry, and some blamed Yuan Shikai and wanted to go to war with the French.

Guangxu was a little undecided for a moment and looked at Yuan Xiangcheng nervously.

Could it be that I, the real emperor, will become a fake emperor again just after a few days?

3. "Your Queen Mother has now arrived in Wuchang. France will choose to discuss with her the location of China's capital."

0 Badno stared at Yuan Xiangcheng with ill intentions, trying to see his angry expression.

5 But it was obvious that he was disappointed, Yuan Xiangcheng had no expression at all.

Yuan Xiangcheng looked at Badno, worthy of being French diplomacy, which emphasized being reckless if you can win, and kneeling if you can't.

The French now feel that they can defeat the Qing Dynasty, so naturally they will not engage in multilateral diplomacy and will just use the simplest means to achieve their goals.

In Badno's view, the simplest way was to not recognize Guangxu's throne and instead recognize Cixi, so as to protect his colonial interests to the greatest extent.

He established a puppet emperor in Vietnam and wanted to establish another one in China.

Yuan Shikai wanted to achieve a situation where two emperors coexisted, but he did not expect the French to be so ruthless and want to take back the tariffs.

If there was also a Qing emperor in the south, the Qing power would eventually be divided, and Guangxu would rely more on the National Defense Army.

But without tariffs, his Northeast Railway plan would lack funds, which was absolutely unacceptable.

Now that Cixi had fled to the south, the three major customs offices of Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shanghai, which accounted for the absolute majority of tariffs, were all under the control of the south. The French just wanted to find an excuse to divert the customs money for other purposes.

If they were allowed to succeed, the Guangxu court would only have a few small customs checkpoints such as Shandong Customs, Tianjin, and Northeast Customs, and its fiscal revenue would drop sharply.

"Minister Badno, I think France seems to be able to choose a more appropriate way." Ogeno saw Yuan Xiangcheng's hesitation, so he accepted the olive branch from the bonded industry and decided to speak out to help.

After all, the British Empire never stood on the side of justice, only on the side of interests.

Who knew that Badno and Yuan Shikai would go head to head, not caring about the British's face at all: "France has mobilized another 3 troops from Africa and the mainland, and Crown Prince Nicholas must be very eager for land in the Far East, and Japan will also be interested in Korea.

If the three parties cooperate, will the Chinese government be able to stop them?"

Guangxu was apprehensive upon hearing this. He had great faith in Yuan Shikai, but the French's relentless pressure had shaken that trust.

Extract 82269-16:

Yuan Xiangcheng took in everyone's expressions. Badno seemed to be determined to carry out the blackmail to the end. It seemed that after seizing Taiwan and Xiamen, the French had indeed had many unrealistic fantasies.

He could accept two emperors, but he could not accept that his own emperor was penniless.

But why is there still no news? Yuan Xiangcheng looked out the door, his thoughts drifting to the ocean.

There is no other way. Regardless of whether we can win or not, we can only bite the bullet and make a harsh statement: "If this is the case, then the National Defense Forces will also..."

At this moment, a young eunuch suddenly ran in from outside, looking careless and in a hurry.

As soon as he entered the room, he knelt on the ground and raised the telegram in panic: "Your Majesty, all the gentlemen, this is what Master Yuan specifically instructed before coming to Ziguang Pavilion. He said that if there is any situation, it must be reported immediately!"

The ministers were unhappy that their meeting was interrupted, but when they heard that it was an important matter, they had no time to blame the eunuch and hurriedly looked at the telegram.

After Yuan Xiangcheng received the telegram, he looked at it carefully, then took two quick steps and presented it to Guangxu.

When Guangxu saw it, he immediately looked happy.

"Minister Badnow, the latest news is that Tsarevich Nicholas was assassinated in Japan, and the assassin was Japanese."

Yuan Xiangcheng replied with a smile: "I wonder if Russia and Japan can still be allies?"

"what?"

Chapter 155 The Time Traveler Manipulates History

The man who assassinated Nicholas II was called Sanzo Tsuda. He was a pure Japanese and not a backup plan left by Yuan Shikai.

Tsuda Sanzang's assassination of Nicholas was not without basis, but because of "love"

Sanzo Tsuda suffered a head injury at a young age, which resulted in a bad temper. He later joined the rebel army led by Saigo Takamori during the Southwest War.

However, Saigo Takamori was eventually defeated and was forced to leave his military career and transfer to the Osaka Police Station. However, due to his violent temper, Tsuda Sanzo had repeatedly fought with his colleagues, so his superiors had no choice but to transfer him to the Shiga Prefecture Police Station.

In the original time and space, even if Yuan Xiangcheng did not make any arrangements, Tsuda Sanzang would have assassinated Nicholas II who was traveling in Shiga Prefecture.

The cause was just a rumor. It was said that after Saigo Takamori was defeated, he did not commit seppuku, but instead went into exile in Tsarist Russia. The purpose of Prince Nicholas' visit to Japan was to send Saigo Takamori back to Japan.

Because of his brain damage, Tsuda Sanzo believed the rumor without a doubt. However, after Nicholas arrived in Japan, he found that there was no trace of Saigo Takamori. Only then did he realize that this was just a rumor, and finally attacked Nicholas in anger.

In this life, all Yuan Xiangcheng did was to let the staff of the Red Confucian Society's Tokyo Station contact him in advance, and provided them with "little" help, equipping them with handy weapons and explosives.