Chapter 39: Foreign Investment Letter of Intent

  Zhang Biao was indeed a martial arts champion, with a bit of brute force to spare. In the heat of the moment, he used his wits and pulled the shackles up to his knees, handing the chain over to Duan Jin, saying: "Master Duan, hold on tight to the chain, I'm afraid I've committed an offense."

  After finishing, he picked up the edge of his jacket and tucked it under his arm, took big strides forward and ran out for more than two miles, stopped to catch his breath, looked back and saw that those revolutionary guards were still chasing after him, so he took another stride and continued to run wildly towards the concession with the edge of his jacket tucked under his arm.

  The two of them ran out of breath to the concession area but were stopped by several British soldiers with real guns at the intersection.

  After Jiujang was recovered, the British concession authorities declared a blockade of external traffic, "neutral outside", and did not allow revolutionary soldiers to set foot in the concession.

  "In desperation, Duan Jin shouted in English: 'I am an important official of the Qing Empire! I have been kidnapped by rebels. I demand to enter the concession and seek protection!'"

  All these years he followed Duan Fang traveling all over the country, didn't learn any other skills, but did pick up a few foreign phrases.

  Those British soldiers conferred for a few words, seeing the "rebels" with weapons running from behind, so they moved the roadblock to let Zhang Biao and Duan Jin enter the concession, then immediately set up the roadblock again, blocking those revolutionary guards.

  Standing behind the roadblock, Duan Jin was full of vigor and spirit, pointing at those revolutionary guards and shouting: "If you have the guts, come in and catch me! Feel that thing, is it still there? If it is, then roll in and catch me!"

  "Damn officer! Do you think I'm helpless against you?" A revolutionary guard member shouted, raised his hand, and the dagger flew over the roadblock, straight at Duan Jin.

  "Duan Ye, be careful!" Zhang Biao's eyes were quick and his hands were fast. With a push, the dagger flew past Duan Jin's ear.

  Several British soldiers appeared to be somewhat bewildered, hesitated for a moment, then "clickety-clack" cocked their rifles and loudly threatened the revolutionary guards.

  Duan Jin didn't dare to stay any longer, hastily pulling Zhang Biao to run into the concession alley, panting and saying: "We finally managed to escape! Heaven will not cut off a person's road. I, Duan Jin, won't die, one day I'll find Zhao Bei to take revenge!"

  Just as Duan Jin was loudly abusing the revolutionary soldiers, Zhao Bei led his guards to stand on top of the Dashan Gate and carefully observed the situation at the entrance of the British concession with binoculars.

  "Tian Jinfu, your men are too reckless! If they stab Duanjin to death with a dagger, I'll settle the score with you!" Zhao Bei put down his binoculars and frowned.

  Tian Jinfu scratched his forehead and sighed, "No way, the commander also said that we have to make the play look real. I think they're too into it. However, those two idiots really are impatient, on their first day of being released to work, they thought of escaping."

  "There's always the danger of getting killed, you'd have to run too." Zhao Bei couldn't help but laugh and picked up his binoculars again, looking at the concession area on the other side. "Hurry up and withdraw your men! If the British soldiers really open fire, this play will be a flop! The current Britain is like a fierce bull, our Republican Army is just a small flea, we can't afford to provoke it."

  "Sound the bugle!" Tian Jinfu ordered the bugler beside him.

  The whistle sounded and those "revolutionary guards" immediately turned around and left the concession with a scolding.

  Zhao took a deep breath and said, "Immediately go find Lan Tianwei and have him negotiate with the British concession's Gongbuju to extradite the fugitive back. Also, think of ways to let some people escape, especially those former Qing officials who were once locked in the black jail. It would be best if all the banner men could be released. When escaping, consider killing or injuring a few."

  "Really want to send someone to negotiate with the British?" Tian Jinfu was somewhat puzzled. "What if it leads to a diplomatic dispute, and the British send warships to intervene? That would be losing more than just the rice. You just said we're like fleas now."

  "So, the person who handles this matter must be a calm and composed person, someone who has seen the world and been abroad." Zhao Bei put down his binoculars, thought for a moment, and said: "The reason I'm staging this play is not only to let go of those who know the 'true cause' of Guangxu's death, but also to show others our stance."

  "What stance? Whose stance should we take?" Tian Jinfu was even more perplexed.

  "You'll understand later. Take a look at this news in the newspaper first." Zhao Bei said calmly, pulling out a folded newspaper from his pocket and handing it to Tian Jinfu, then raised his binoculars to continue observing the British concession.

  Tian Jinfu took over the newspaper, opened it to take a look, but found that this was an English newspaper, full of foreign languages, only the headline news was translated by the General Staff and written in pencil on the blank space. The title of that news was quite eye-catching: "Bosnian Crisis!"

  Tian Jin didn't know the specific location of this "Bosnia", from the news it seemed to be in Europe, as for what relationship this Bosnian crisis had with the British concession at present, he couldn't figure it out. He raised his head and looked over, but Zhao Bei was still staring at the British concession, so he also craned his neck to take a look.

  Outside the nine Jiangcheng, there is only one foreign concession, not far from the city wall, just on the banks of the Yangtze River. As long as a few shallow-water heavy gunboats are deployed here, they can grasp the entire transportation and even economic lifeline of the Yangtze River Basin.

  In the eyes of the British, the entire Yangtze River basin was their forbidden territory, not allowing other countries to touch it. Some countries were indeed very dissatisfied with this.

  "Probably, the German Emperor would be delighted to see the British getting a bloody nose in China." Zhao Bei thought to himself.

  There's no way, China in this era is really too weak. If it can't find a strong backer, let alone become a powerful nation, even being a warlord wouldn't work. History textbooks don't say it clearly: behind every warlord stands an imperialist power.

  History has proven that Britain supported Yuan Shikai, while being indifferent to the Southern Revolutionary Party. Relying on Britain is unrealistic.

  The enemy of an enemy is a friend. Since surrendering to Britain won't work, then we can only consider Britain's enemies.

  The UK is like an over-expanded chain store, which is already satisfied with defending its existing territory and will not support a potential competitor. The small businesses on its own territory must also develop according to British rules and cannot threaten British interests. Germany, on the other hand, is like a chain store in the midst of expansion, whose current territory cannot satisfy its greed, but there is a British company occupying those territories that refuses to give them up. Therefore, if some small businesses are willing to fight with the UK, the Germans will be happy to push from behind, even if they can't defeat the UK, at least they can distract it and create opportunities for German companies. As for whether that small business will threaten Germany's interests in the future, it is not something the Germans consider.

  The enemy of an enemy is a friend, even if it's just a fake friend, it still has its uses.

  Since Germany and Britain are not paying, let's play the German card, as for whether it will work or not, we can only wait and see, anyway there aren't many good cards in hand.

  To make Germany notice you, you have to do something that interests the Germans. What are German politicians most interested in these days?

  Down with Britain!

  The anti-British action in Jiucheng is just the first step of Zhao Bei waving an olive branch to Germany, and if it works, he will continue to wave until the right time.

  Speculation, this is something that a time-traveler has no choice but to do. And because of knowing the historical development trajectory, this kind of speculation often wins big, at least it won't end in defeat.

  Sometimes politics is just gambling, it's speculation.

  Or in Chinese political jargon, this is called "casting a vote of allegiance", or Western-style casting a vote of allegiance.