After the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing government realized the importance of new-style science and technology to develop the army, so on December 8, 1895, Guangxu appointed Yuan Shikai to Tianjin to develop a new-style army. After Yuan Shikai arrived in Tianjin, he boldly used Western technology, appointed foreign instructors, and imitated the German army system to formulate the modern army system. Eventually, China's first new army was trained. It is called the "Beiyang New Army". With the death of Guangxu Cixi, the three-year-old Xuantong Emperor Puyi succeeded to the throne, while his father, the regent Zaifeng, took real power. In order to increase the centralization of power, Zaifeng deposed Yuan Shikai. And Yuan Shikai was willing to give up the army he had developed with one heart to others, and had been waiting for the opportunity to make a comeback.
After that, the Wuchang Uprising broke out, and the Qing Dynasty was unable to control the Beiyang Army, so it had to re-appoint Yuan Shikai. After Yuan Shikai ascended the throne, he forced the Qing Emperor to abdicate and sat on the post of provisional president of the Republic of China. Later, on October 6, 1913, Beijing was elected official president. This also marked the establishment of the Beiyang government. However, on June 6, 1916, Yuan Shikai died of illness, and Duan Qirui took over the Beiyang government. This should have been a great joy for Duan Qirui, but he frowned bitterly. Because the Beiyang government at this time was in chaos, the internal personnel were fighting for power and profit, the people's revolts were continuous, and there was Sun Yat-sen in the south who was engaged in revolution. Annual taxes and revenues do not guarantee the government's daily expenses. If Duan Qirui wanted to maintain his rule, he had to spend a lot of money to support the army, but he couldn't even pay the salaries of internal officials, so how could he take the money to raise the army and expand the armament?
At this time, the Japanese stood up, pretending to want to help the Beiyang government tide over the difficulties, but in fact wanted to import liquid funds into the Beiyang government in the form of usury, in exchange for sovereignty, and then constantly encroached on to achieve the purpose of colonization. But Duan Qirui was not a fool, he also saw japan's wolf ambitions, but what could he do? Now it is not a lack of money, it is to the point where you will die without money. In the absence of money to operate, Sun Yat-sen in the south crusaded over, his army had no food and no guns, what to fight? As a last resort, he accepted the Japanese sugar-coated shells. Thus, beginning in 1917, in the next year, Japan repeatedly lent to the Beiyang government in the form of usurious loans, adding up to more than 140 million. However, after the money was in hand, not much was used for government expenditure, and most of it was used by Duan Qirui to expand the army.
After that, Duan Qirui fell, the Beiyang scuffle, and Japan did not know who to ask for money. Until Chiang Kai-shek came to power in 1927, Japan sent people to ask for money, but Chiang Kai-shek was not stupid, he sent people to steal the IOUs of that year and destroy them. The Japanese had no basis and could only suffer a dumb loss.
But do you think that wokou would be so generous that he would allow others to owe such a huge loan and consider himself unlucky? Wrong, Japan used loans to demand many important resources from the Northeast from the Beiyang government, mining minerals, cutting down trees, and controlling communications. These benefits are far from being comparable to the 140 million.