The atmosphere in the Military Aircraft Department was extremely depressed, and all the ministers turned pale. There was no way to escape. Xiao Letian had done so much for the little emperor, and he finally had to collect interest!
The name of the Führer's fortress plan is top secret. It is only called this by top Chinese officials internally, but to the outside world it is collectively referred to as a package of concession plans!
This plan was actually a secret agreement, which Emperor Tongzhi had signed when he was in Europa, but because he was not in power at that time, it could not be implemented!
The whole plan was very huge. The head of state paid for the concessions in Ningbo, Changzhou, Wuxi, Jiangyin, Jiangning, Tongling, Anqing, Jiujiang... and pushed it all the way up to Chongqing!
There are a total of 16 industrial zones, large and small, along the Yangtze River!
That’s not all, there are also 12 coastal industrial zones in the coastal area, including Weihai, Jiaozhou Bay, Haizhou, Wenzhou, Fuzhou...all the way south to Qiongzhou and Qinzhou!
This is the first batch of plans. The secret agreement also stipulates that the Chinese will have priority concession rights in the future, and these special zones are not isolated, but allow each other to build railways!
Of course, it is impossible for all the areas that the railway passes to be leased to the Chinese. Then the Qing government, the Chinese, and overseas capital jointly established the Daqing Railway Company to undertake railway construction contracts other than the Beijing-Tianjin Railway!
After all, the Beijing-Tianjin Railway is a prestigious project of the imperial court. After all, it still has to be in your own hands!
Twenty-eight industrial zones cover a total area of 78,000 square kilometers!
Is 78,000 square kilometers a lot of land? If compared with the more than 10 million square kilometers of land in the entire Qing Dynasty, it is certainly a small fraction!
Even the land cut off by Tsarist Russia was much larger than this amount!
But in Xiao Letian's eyes, these twenty-eight special zones are enough, because the area of Later is only 1,100 square kilometers, and Shenzhen is only 2,000 square kilometers, but the wealth created by these places is astronomical!
What the Chinese want is wealth, not just the amount of land. As long as it is enough for industrial production, it will be easier to protect a relatively small area when building fortresses in the future!
Of course, these special zones are not free. The Chinese have to pay 20 million taels of concession money to the Qing Dynasty every year. The contract is tentatively for thirty years. The Qing Dynasty has earned 600 million taels in rent. What do you think of this deal? Don’t suffer any loss either!
The secret agreement signed by Zai Chun not only obtained the benefits of rent, but also received the full support of the Chinese. In the future industrialization of the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese will provide a large number of interest-free loans, a lot of technology, and even provide services to Zai Chun. Political protection ensures that he can successfully secure his position!
It seems to be a plan that benefits both parties, but in the eyes of these veterans, they seem to see the black and white and the impermanence of the soul!
Weng Tong and Bei Cong Lai knelt on the ground with a thud, "Your Majesty! No, this can't work! The cities in the secret agreement are all the throats of my Qing Dynasty. Xiao Letian has set up a special zone here and stationed troops. He has to control the place by himself. For public security, we must use their laws!”
"Isn't this a country within a country? What Tanggu Special Administrative Region has done has made the people in the entire Tianjin area panic! How many people have been seduced and how many people have been misled? Now there are 28 more people. How can this be done? The world is going to be in chaos. of!"
"Master's words are serious! Why is the world in chaos? The tens of millions of square kilometers of land in our Qing Dynasty are only a fraction of the concession, only more than 70,000 square kilometers, not even enough for one county!"
"Even if they can seduce a small group of people, aren't there still more people they can't reach? That's too serious to say, too serious to say..."
Ying Gui rubbed her hands anxiously, "Your Majesty, it's not that I think too much, it's money that fascinates people's hearts! People are inherently ignorant and short-sighted, and they will get close to whoever gives them money!"
"If things continue like this, they will not only forget the goodness of our Qing Dynasty, but they will even lose their etiquette, justice and integrity. This is the foundation of our country!"
"Think twice, Your Majesty, please think twice!"
Every other official also expressed their opposition: "Your Majesty, please think twice! This plan is really appalling. Once it is announced to the world, all people will be in chaos!"
"In the past, the country was in a difficult situation. After losing the war, we had to make concessions and cede land. But they were all remote places on the border. Even the ** Island was just a wharf for fishermen to fish!"
"What the Chinese people want now are seaports and terminals on both sides of the Yangtze River and close to the inland. These are the foundation of the country and cannot be given to others easily!"
"I will never obey an imperial edict. Your Majesty, please think twice!"
Looking at the crowd of courtiers kneeling down, Zai Chun smiled instead of being angry. The smile was full of bitterness, "Haha! Not renting? Okay, I promise you not renting!"
"But if we don't rent this, we have to think about the consequences if we don't rent!"
"Why do I want to rent a special zone? Do you mean that I don't understand anything? But is it possible not to rent? What are the consequences of not renting?"
"Hmph! That's a full-scale conflict between the Chinese and the Qing Dynasty. The peaceful situation for many years has been completely destroyed... Not only the Chinese, but also the Western forces behind the Chinese will also turn against them!"
"Do you really think that Prussia likes Xiao Letian so much and formed a strategic alliance with him just because it likes this person? You are wrong, Bismarck can't afford to be early without profit!"
"What Bismarck is looking at is the market across Asia! It's the market! You don't understand anything, because after the Prussian War, excess production capacity must be absorbed by the market, otherwise a large number of companies will go bankrupt and a large number of workers will unemployment!"
"Their society will be in rapid turmoil! But the whole world has been occupied by Britain, France and other countries, and there will be no new colonies for Germany!"
"Germany currently does not have a powerful ocean-going navy, so they must rely on the Chinese to help them dump industrial products in the East! Do you understand?"
"Rejecting this treaty means that the Qing Dynasty has closed the door to cooperation. This is what the Chinese and many European powers least want to see!"
"Damn! The German navy is very weak, but what if they add the Chinese, a local snake in Asia? These two countries... no, no, no, there will even be an Austrian navy. Will they join forces to attack Let’s put pressure on the Qing Dynasty?”
"Is there really going to be a war? Are we ready?"
Weng Tong's beard flew up in anger, "Is there any justice in this? Is there any justice in heaven? Isn't it okay if we don't rent the land of the Qing Dynasty? If we don't rent, do we still want to rob it openly?"
"Haha...the law of heaven? There is no law of heaven in this world. The law of the jungle is the law of the jungle!"
"I have been to Europa. It was a long journey back and forth. What I saw was a world that you can't even imagine..."
