Zuo Zongtang, as a heavy minister of the late Qing Dynasty, was really difficult to fight a war, he was dedicated to the country and the people, but after the war often did not get the logistical support of the Qing government, first suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement, the Qing government at this time had long been poor and weak, so Zuo Zongtang realized that national development was the most important thing, so he set up foreign affairs.
However, as the governor, in the face of chaos everywhere, he had to invite himself to the war, successively pacified Shaanxi and Gansu, recovered Xinjiang, and built the northwest, as early as the pacification of Shaanxi and Gansu, there was already a problem of military pay, the war relied on money, there was no financial support, even launching a small-scale war was unrealistic, so he borrowed money from the Qiao family and borrowed money from foreign firms.
Of course, as Jin merchants, the Qiao family borrowed money in order to be able to borrow Zuo Zongtang's strength to open up the trade road in the western region, which can be said to be a gratuitous donation, but when Zuo Zongtang recovered Xinjiang, he was faced with major pressure on funds, and had to raise funds from the bank, and the bank raised interest, and Zuo Zongtang specially picked a loan with high interest, which was also a helpless move.
At that time, the Qing government had already gone through many wars, the national treasury had already been depleted, the Qing Dynasty treasury was already unbalanced during the Daoguang years, after Empress Dowager Cixi took power, she spent money like flowing water, and the indemnities for cutting land were collected from the people, where there was still money to support Zuo Zongtang to recover Xinjiang, and there was also a Li Hongzhang in the court who tried his best to recover Xinjiang.
Li Hongzhang did not say that he was opposed, he believed that the recovery of Xinjiang must be backed by strong funds, and it was better to give up Xinjiang and use it to develop the Beiyang Navy, protect the people in the coastal areas, and maintain the coastal waters.
However, from today's point of view, Zuo Zongtang recovered Xinjiang, and today Xinjiang has been integrated with China, but almost none of the islands in the coastal waters are undisputed, so later generations of literati often call Zuo Zongtang Zuo Gong, and this "Zuo Gong" was exchanged for his life.
At that time, the Qing government was also aware of the harm of Xinjiang, if it was not recovered, the Shaanxi-Gansu region would be contained for a long time, and even Britain, Russia and other countries were also eyeing the tiger and infiltrating Xinjiang, so it ordered the allocation of 2 million taels, other provinces to assist in the military salary of 3 million taels, Zuo Zongtang himself tried to raise 5 million taels.
It seems that the military expenditure is full, but in fact, it is a cup of water, Zuo Zongtang established in Lanzhou "Lanzhou Manufacturing Bureau" for the Western Expeditionary Army to repair and manufacture guns, build a large number of weapons, but also a lot of expenditure, at this time Zuo Zongtang cited Shen Baozhen for Taiwan's defense loans of the old example, asked for a loan of 10 million taels of foreign money, but was opposed by Shen Baozhen.
After that, Zuo Zongtang successively borrowed three times from foreign banks in 1877, 1878 and 1881, totaling 13.75 million taels of silver, in addition to borrowing 8.46 million taels from Chinese businessmen, leaving Chinese businessmen aside, the interest rate of foreign banks borrowing money is really unimaginable, according to records, the interest on loans of foreigners' banks is not only several times before, but even as high as 18%.
So Zuo Zongtang faced such a high interest rate, why did he still borrow? Is it still on after that? And why do you choose high-interest loans?
Yu Commenting County Lord personally guessed that at that time, Zuo Zongtang was bent on fundraising, and he did not think about the problem of repayment at all, and recovering Xinjiang was the most important thing, he had no fear, and even single-mindedly picked foreign banks with high interest rates to borrow money, because high interest rates were fast, and the reason for the speed of soldiers and nobles Zuo Gong was afraid that he could not be clearer.
Another reason is that Zuo Zongtang borrowed not in the name of an individual, but in the name of the Qing government, the higher the interest rate of the loan, the more it will be repaid over time, so it indirectly forced the officials of the Qing government to repay the loan, Zuo Zongtang is well aware of the corruption of officials, and the corrupt officials in various provinces will naturally take out the money. In addition, it had to be the guarantee of the famous businessman Hu Xueyan, without whom Zuo Zongtang could not have borrowed so much silver from the foreign firm, and finally Zuo Gong got his wish and recovered Xinjiang.