The second volume is full of glory and splendor in the capital, and the spirit is full of vitality in the foggy city. Chapter 265 Counting Heroes
The subtitle of this chapter: If no hero draws his sword, the world will suffer another thirty years of disaster.
These four words in our Master Yuan's mind are...
When there is no hero.
Of course, a heroic view of history is unacceptable. But on the other hand, without the leadership of heroes, how could the people achieve self-awakening?
In 1921, Serbia was a land of firewood and oil. At this time, people all over the world were eagerly waiting.
They were waiting for Prometheus, who stole fire from heaven, hoping that he would light a big fire and create a brand new Seres!
However, Yuan Yanshu is the only one in the world who knows that this Prometheus is not yet a big deal.
In the next few years, several powerful and invincible figures will emerge. However, Master Yuan naturally knows that they will rise and fall quickly and cannot even be considered as the vanguard of the king.
It would take another six years for the true pioneer to take the throne.
By the way, what does this historical common sense that only those who have completed nine years of compulsory education know have to do with Master Yuan’s inability to join the Morgan Consortium?
Of course it does.
May I ask, what is the real business of the Morgan Consortium?
Two words: borrow money.
Of course, this is not a campus loan where you can borrow money by taking off your clothes, showing your ID card, and taking a photo, but a large loan of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of US dollars.
Moreover, the repayment period for this type of loan starts at a minimum of ten years, and twenty or thirty years is not uncommon. Fifty or sixty years is also normal, and even hundreds of years are not uncommon.
For the Morgan Consortium, the biggest obstacle to doing business in Seres is that they can't find anyone to lend money to.
To be honest, Yuan Yanshu was helpless in this matter because he really couldn't think of anyone to lend the money to.
The problem with the Beiyang warlords was that they were clearly vassal states, but they insisted on being the central government.
Is it so easy to be the central government these days?
If you become the central government, you will have to take on all the foreign debts owed by the Qing Dynasty, and the customs are still in the hands of foreigners.
Caesar Yuan never understood this truth until his death. His virtue was unworthy of his position, so it was useless whether he was called the President of the Republic of China or the Hongxian Emperor.
Octavian Duan of the Anhui clique not only had no concept of modern finance, but also had no concept of "ancient finance".
Do you remember the Xiyuan loan? Octavian Duan, the "Beiyang Dog", actually said to Marco Anthony Feng, the "Beiyang Tiger", that he had never thought about how to repay the loan.
This kind of person cannot be borrowed even if he is on the stage, let alone when he is off the stage.
The direct descendants claim to have the support of Britain and the United States, but in fact they are just miserable characters who are not loved by their grandmothers or uncles.
In fact, the British and American governments did not like the Zhili clique very much. During the two years that the Zhili clique was in power, the foreign debt they borrowed was the least among all the previous Beiyang governments.
Because they felt the Zhili clique was too morally upright and refused to obey. These imperialists had not reflected on their betrayal of China at the Versailles Peace Conference, and they blamed the anti-foreign sentiment of the time entirely on the Zhili clique. Of course, if they could reflect on this, they wouldn't be imperialists.
In addition, the Zhili clique was always thinking about increasing tariffs, but Britain and the United States naturally refused to agree, and it was delayed until the Second Zhi-Feng War. This was the aborted 2-5 tariff increase plan.
For example, the Zhili government imposed a special tobacco tax in 1923. In the same year, the US State Department, at the request of the Anglo-American Tobacco Company, pressured the Zhili government to cancel this tax.
For example, in 1924, the British Inspector General of Customs of China, Angell, withheld tens of millions of silver dollars in "customs surplus" and "salt surplus" under the instructions of the British and American governments. The Zhili clique, which was about to go to war with the Fengtian clique , was so anxious that it had to beg the two governments for help, but was ruthlessly rejected.
After reading this part of the history, I can only close the book and sigh, feeling sorry for the two " Twin Pillars ", Oscar von Reuenthal Cao and Wolfgang Mittermeier Wu.
After the Second Zhili-Fengtian War in 1924, a formidable commander-in-chief of the five-province coalition forces of Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangsu, Anhui, and Jiangxi emerged from the Zhili and Anhui cliques. He was known as "Xiang Marshal"—Sun Chuanfang.
Well, it’s a bit hard to get used to the sudden switch from space opera to Chinese martial arts style.
But he was not Chu Liuxiang after all, and he was defeated by the Northern Expedition Army after only a year (from the end of 1925 to the middle of 1926).
As for the Fengtian clique, they were essentially the Japanese's forbidden fruit. It would be better to lend money directly to the Japanese than to lend it to the Zhili clique.
It’s no big deal if a prime minister dies in the Japanese government, because the next one will still pay back the money.
If “Marshal Zhang, a learned man” was killed in the car, could “Marshal Zhang, who brought honor to the family” really bring honor to the family?
History has proven that Xiao Liuzi is nothing more than a steamed longevity peach made with a hundred pounds of flour - a useless dessert.
What about the Guangzhou government? It was armed with gold rubles and Russian-made Mosin-Nagant rifles, and was determined to become a real Kuomintang branch of the Communist International, yet it also wanted to borrow money from the Morgan Consortium... This was definitely a great joke.
As for the others such as the Shanxi clique, the Guangxi clique, the Sichuan clique, the Yunnan clique, the one Yang from the Western Regions (Yang Zengxin), and the two Ma's from the Northwest, they are not as good as the ones mentioned above.
Our Master Yuan photographed every wall and street railing, and counted every hero in the world, but he couldn't find a single hero who could pay back the money he borrowed.
See how frustrating it was to be a Serbian in 1921?
There were four more words in his mind, which were...
There is no way to sell out the country!
Yuan Yan suddenly played with the wine glass in her hand, turned her head and asked the "most successful president in the history of the Morgan Consortium": "Mr. Lamont, I heard that you traveled around East Asia last year."
"Hmm..." The tall, thin, middle-aged man was surprised, but he nodded and said, "Dr. Yuan, you are really well-informed. I did go to your home country and Japan as the chairman of the Chinese banking consortium."
In 1910, Citibank, HSBC, Deutsche-Asiatische Bank, and Credit Agricole formed the Four-Nation Banking Group. Then, the Qing Dynasty launched the "Nationalization of Railways," sparking the Railway Protection Movement and the Xinhai Revolution.
Citibank withdrew in 1913, but in 1920, the United States, Britain, France, and Japan formed a new four-nation banking group.
The American banking group was called the "China Banking Group", and its first chairman was the aforementioned Harry Davidson.
However, his health was not good, so Thomas Lamont took over as chairman of the Chinese banking consortium and visited China and Japan last year.
After this trip, he had no good feelings towards the former, but was very interested in the latter.
To be precise, Thomas Lamont quite liked China, but as the chairman of a banking group, he felt that the Morgan Consortium was not suitable for investing in this huge country.
Lao La was also a remarkable man. After arriving in China, he completely adapted to the local customs, traveling in a sedan chair rather than a car. He bought any Seres antiques he liked, driving up the prices of both genuine and counterfeit antiques at Panjiayuan.
However, because of the Versailles Conference's handling of the Shandong issue, a xenophobic sentiment permeated Serbian society. Lamont was frustrated both officially and privately. Some students who got the news even went to the Six Nations Hotel where he was staying to protest.
In addition to the turbulent times and discordant atmosphere, the Japanese also came to make trouble.
It must be said that the Japanese knew the importance of the Morgan Consortium better than the Serbs at the time. When Lao La was in China, the Japanese were always with him, and Japanese intelligence officers followed him wherever he went.
The Japanese also rented a room next to his, and the agent lay on the wall to eavesdrop on the conversation next door.
Once , Lao La was reading a telegram on the train and found a Japanese man behind him staring at the telegram in his hand. He simply handed the telegram to this dedicated Japanese spy.
