On August 3, 1912, Wang Zhenyu returned to his base in Hongjiang after a half-month trip to Fenghuang, with a bountiful harvest.

  Yang Wanguo, the chief of staff who was in charge of daily affairs at home, led a large group of people to welcome him. Wang Zhenyu didn't like such a big show and said a few words to Yang Wanguo. This made Yang Wanguo feel wronged. Since Song Xianfu and Hao Bing were transferred to the security department, Yang Wanguo had become very cautious and didn't want to be alienated by Wang Zhenyu when everything was going well. The welcome this time was not arranged by him, but by those officials who heard that the town governor was back and came spontaneously. Of course, their purpose was not pure either. The establishment of the town governor's office had not yet begun, and many departmental officials had not been appointed. Everyone hoped to serve Wang Zhenyu and occupy a place in the future political landscape.

  Although reluctantly, Yang Wanguo honestly reported: "Sir, your father-in-law Ye Zuowen arrived in Hongjiang yesterday with dozens of people, including some foreigners. I asked and found out that there are Americans, Germans, and Russians among them. I have arranged their food and accommodation."

  His father-in-law has arrived, ah, it seems that this business trip has been successful, Wang Zhenyu suddenly became spirited, he politely said to Yang Wanguo: "Old Yang, from now on don't call me sir, you're different from others, you've been by my side since the beginning, let's just call each other brothers."

  Yang Wangui was suddenly moved, and Wang Zhenyu again instructed Song Haomin to invite his father-in-law and others to come to his study.

  Back in his study, Wang Zhenyu took a look at the documents and requests that had been piling up for half a month. Some of them were not very important, and Yang Wanguo and Ma Xicheng had already handled them on his behalf. Among them were:

  Funds for the construction of military academies, involving campus construction and teacher recruitment plans.

  The recruitment plan for military school students, Wan Yaohuang's first recruitment plan mainly targeted the six provinces of Sichuan, Hunan, Hubei, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou.

  Each county government has reported on education investment, and the plan for one primary school and one middle school per county has basically started to take shape. The plan for a girls' middle school in the prefectural city has been passed by each county council and funds have been allocated. The town guard office will also allocate 2 million yuan annually to ensure the implementation of free education; plans are being made to establish a health school on the Anjiang side, etc.

  Wang Zhenyu glanced at it roughly and put it aside. He picked up another document, and the title deeply attracted him, "Jingzhou Model Town Construction Report". The author of the report was Chen Shao, who was in charge of Jingzhou Business Town Construction Pilot Project.

  Wang Zhenyu took the tea handed over by Zhu Cihuan, took a sip, and then looked at it seriously.

  This model commercial town is Jingzhou's Ken Shan Kou, where the cement plant is also located. With policy support and funding, Chen Shao successfully built a primary school (grades 1-3), a health clinic, and a public security station in this town. At the same time, he allocated some cement from the partially operational cement plant to build a relatively large self-trade market for daily necessities of nearby residents. The commercial shops in the town were also uniformly planned and managed, and a Chamber of Commerce was established. Recently, preparations have begun to hand over the management rights of the town to the president of the Chamber of Commerce.

  Wang Zhenyu nodded in satisfaction. He hadn't planned to build the business town into a beautiful and prosperous place, he just wanted a transit point and a radiation point, changing the phenomenon of not being able to govern the county for thousands of years.

  At the same time, through Shangzhen, strengthen its control over local areas, incorporate village forces into the scope of management, and increase the professional costs of bandits, ultimately promoting the prosperity of business routes.

  Just as he hadn't had time to think deeply, Song Haomin came in and said: "General, Ye Weng and the others have arrived."

  Wang Zhenyu nodded, although he had become the town's guardian, Wang Zhenyu did not want others to address him as "sir". He had openly ordered those around him to uniformly use the title of General when referring to himself. Anyway, currently in the entire Xiangxi, except for Tian Yingkui, there was only one general like himself.

  "Wen Zheng, you're getting more and more impressive! I've only been gone for less than a month, and you've already taken down Jishou's eight counties." Ye Zuwen started praising his son-in-law as soon as he walked in the door, clearly saying it for the benefit of their friends behind him.

  Wang Zhenyu looked at the several tall and short foreigners walking in, also with some curiosity. It wasn't that he hadn't seen foreigners before, but rather he was curious what method his father-in-law had used to actually lure these foreigners to this poor and remote place in Xiangxi.

  Ye Zuwen was calm and unhurried, starting one by one to introduce his son-in-law to the people who had followed him in.

  "He first pointed at a slightly small but very spirited-looking foreigner and said, 'This is Mr. Franki, the commercial representative of the Banque Belge pour l'Etranger.'"

  Wang Zhenyu shook hands with Mr. Frankie, who was smiling, in a very generous manner.

  Ye Zuwen pointed to a tall, large-bodied foreigner who somewhat conformed to the Nordic standards of later generations and said: "This is Mr. Hans, the manager of the German Empire's Lihe Yanghang Hankou Company."

  The last of the medium-sized foreigners was somewhat older, said to be Felix, consul for Luxembourg in Hankou and commercial agent for Arbed Iron and Equipment Company.

  Wang Zhenyu felt dizzy for a moment. Luxembourg is indeed a pocket-sized country, where one person can have multiple identities.

  As for the three Chinese people who followed, they were quite impressive. These were three financial experts recommended by Wang Zhenyu's sworn brother Liu Hongsheng.

  Chen Huizu, also known as Guangfu, 31 years old, from Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province, entered the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and graduated in 1909. He returned to China after graduation. He showed his talent by organizing the Nanyang Industrial Exposition and was appointed as the general manager of the Jiangsu Bank by Governor Chen Dequan. Due to his reform proposals not being implemented, he resigned from his position. Currently unemployed at home, however, Wang Zhenyu knew this person, after all, he is the founder of Shanghai Commercial Bank, and in the 1920s and 1930s, together with Yu Dalao, led the Jiangsu-Zhejiang financial group, known as China's Morgan. Unexpectedly, he gave up his comfortable life in Shanghai and came to Xiangxi, a place where birds don't even lay eggs, what kind of means did Liu Hongsheng use to persuade him?

  With Chen Guangfu this big shark leading the way.

  The appearance of Zhang Jia'ao, Zhang Gongquan and Song Hanjiang afterwards was no longer surprising. Wang Zhenyu even had some doubts - the three mainstays of the Jiang-Zhe financial syndicate, which influenced the direction of Republican politics, came to his place. Can the Jiang-Zhe financial syndicate still develop into a huge entity like it did in later generations?

  These three were indeed sincere in their offer, and the process was not as complicated as Wang Zhenyu thought. As early as Ye Zuwen had planned to open a bank, but was vetoed by Wang Zhenyu, whose plan was to set up a shipping company first. However, Liu Hongsheng had already begun to pay attention to talent in this area for Ye Zuwen. Although the three of them were famous in the financial industry of the Republic of China, they were not well-known at the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China. Chen Guangfu, who was somewhat famous, had been unemployed after resigning from Cheng Dequan's company and was living off his family's wealth, which was still considerable; Zhang Gongquan and Song Hanchang were still small employees of the Imperial Bank of China, and due to the change of government, those who appreciated them in history had not yet come to power. The three men knew Liu Hongsheng, and after receiving Ye Zuwen's letter introducing the development of western Hunan, Liu Hongsheng exaggerated the value of the development of western Hunan and promised that the three men would have shares to take. This promise ultimately led the three ambitious young bankers to give up competing in Shanghai and decide to venture into western Hunan.

  But Wang Zhenyu would have to wait to find out about these things later, because his father-in-law Ye Zuwen was already explaining to him why there were three foreigners appearing here.

  History has reached August 1912, and the troops under the Nanjing Garrison Command have been largely disbanded. However, Yuan Shikai's massive post-disaster loan due to the foreigners' excessive demands and constantly increasing conditions still cannot be smoothly settled. Many people in later generations find it incomprehensible that Yuan Shikai did not borrow from someone else; why must he insist on borrowing from these five families?

  It wasn't that Yuan Shikai was corrupt and had to find the Five-Nation Banking Consortium (the US had already withdrawn) to borrow money, but rather that the Five-Nation Banking Consortium was shameless and unscrupulous. And the root of their shamelessness and unscrupulousness came from the support of their home country's embassy in China. What kind of support was this? Haha, it was that if you, Yuan Shikai, didn't borrow money from the Five-Nation Banking Consortium, then we wouldn't recognize your government as the legitimate government of China. Isn't it laughable? History is indeed true. Looking back, not recognizing would have been fine, who cares about their recognition? But at the time, the Chinese people really were eager for it, and Yuan Shikai was especially eager. Because if these damned foreigners didn't recognize your government's legitimacy for one day, then you wouldn't be able to get a single cent from the two main sources of tax revenue in China at the time, salt taxes and customs duties.

  Why? This is the aftermath of the Empress Dowager Cixi's extremely brave declaration of war against the Eight-Nation Alliance, after the defeat in the Boxer Rebellion. The leader who claimed to be China's greatest core shouted out the slogan "Quantum Chinese material force, win the hearts of all nations".

  The Boxer Protocol, Article 1 stipulates that the Qing government shall pay an indemnity of 450 million taels of silver to the 11 countries, to be repaid over a period of 39 years with an annual interest rate of 4%, totaling 982,238,150 taels (9.822 billion taels) in principal and interest, guaranteed by maritime customs duties, land taxes, and salt taxes.

  The actual effect of this guarantee is that although these taxes are still yours, they will be collected for you by the foreigner.

  Finally, on the day of financial settlement, you repaid the foreigner's money, and the foreigner released the funds to you.

  Now it's all over, the Qing dynasty is gone. This year, 70-80 million yuan in taxes are all in the hands of foreign masters, and foreigners have openly said that I don't owe money, the question is, who among you has the qualifications to settle this account with me?

  This qualification also costs money to buy, and the name of the big loan is actually Yuan Shikai borrowing money. In reality, it was foreigners who forced Yuan Shikai to borrow money. This is the true history, absolutely shameless and unprecedented.

  In today's view, there is a very ridiculous relationship in this post-war big loan.

  Yuan Shikai couldn't collect taxes, so he had no money.

  Secondly, foreigners demanded that Yuan Shikai accept unequal terms to borrow money from them.

  Thirdly, Yuan Shikai was unwilling to accept this loan that had been forced upon him; after all, he wasn't a primary school graduate who worked as a worker-peasant cadre, and he still had some basic common sense.

  Fourthly, foreigners say you don't lend, I won't give you tax revenue.

  Fifthly, Yuan Shikai couldn't get the tax revenue and still had no money.

  The last large loan in Chinese history was concluded in 1913, and the terms were very harsh by any standard: the total amount of the loan was ￡250 million (2.5 billion silver yuan), with an annual interest rate of 5%, a term of 47 years; the bonds were sold at 90% of their face value, and after deducting a commission of 6%, the net income was ￡210 million. The purpose of the loan was specified, and after deducting the repayment of the Boxer Indemnity and various foreign debts, disbanding the provincial armies, and replenishing the administrative expenses of the zhèngfǔ government, only ￡76 million remained, while the total amount to be repaid at maturity was ￡678.9 million. The loan was secured by China's salt tax, customs duties, and specific taxes in the provinces of Zhili, Shandong, Henan, and Jiangsu.

  At the same time, a number of special clauses were attached: in the future, without the permission of the bank group, no foreign debt can be borrowed; foreigners participated in the collection of salt tax, and Chinese and foreign auditors were set up in the auditing office. All payment vouchers for loan funds must be jointly audited by Chinese and foreign auditors, signed and sealed before they can be withdrawn. The Chinese government set up a salt administration in Beijing, which was managed by one Chinese director and one foreign co-director; each salt-producing area set up an audit branch, with one Chinese manager and one foreign deputy manager, who jointly bore the responsibility for collecting and storing salt tax revenue. The appointment and dismissal of personnel were determined jointly by the Chinese and foreign directors; after paying taxes on salt, it was necessary to obtain the joint signature of the Chinese and foreign managers before it could be released. Salt revenue was deposited in designated banks, and no withdrawals could be made without a certificate signed jointly by the directors.

  Such conditions have already exceeded the normal scope of commercial loans and are simply a new unequal treaty.

  Yuan Shikai was not a fool either, and he didn't want to be a traitor. Seeing these terms, he felt dizzy in his heart, so he chose to secretly borrow money from other families, including the Huabei Bank.

  It is said that Xiong Xiling, the then Minister of Finance, came up with a solution to the problem. Old Yuan, why do you want to take the tax revenue? Isn't it because you don't have money? If you had money, would you still be in a hurry to get this tax revenue? If you're not in a hurry to get this tax revenue, do you still care about whether the powers recognize you or not?

  Right, so Old Yuan immediately had Xiong Xiling go find Huabei Bank to discuss a loan.