In fact, after the armistice, Britain began to plot a situation in which Japan and Russia joined forces against the East China government, and also brought in France to help.

Both Japan and Russia are now aware that it is indeed incapable of fighting the East China government on their own, so they have not refused to join forces. However, the two countries have their own agendas for the negotiations, after all, they have just fought to the death, and there are structural contradictions, so what can be said to be united?

The first was to determine the location of the talks, and Japan and Russia began to fight, with Japan demanding that Britain be located, while Russia chose France. Later, it was Britain who did Japan's work and promised to secure Japan's interests even if they negotiated in France, which allowed Japan to compromise, and the two sides began negotiations in France, represented by their respective ambassadors to France.

Before the talks, Japan was holding back the fire, and Japan thought that although it had retreated to the Korean Peninsula, it was also outside the battlefield, while the Russian army was confronting the People's Army in Shenyang, and a major war was about to break out, so the situation facing Russia now is actually far more sinister than its own, and even if this is the case, Japan will naturally not give up this opportunity to blackmail Russia. Therefore, Japan's conditions to Russia were: the two sides would unite in the war against the East China government, and Russia would recognize Japan's special interests on the Korean Peninsula and completely give up its own power on the Korean Peninsula. After the end of the war, Russia must withdraw its troops from Northeast China, and the two sides will have equal opportunities in Northeast China; demilitarize the Eastern Railway, in which the South Manchurian Railway and its subsidiary rights and interests will be owned by Japan; the Russian Far East naval force will be limited; and Japan will share the fishing rights in Russia's territorial waters and territorial waters.

Naturally, such conditions are unacceptable to Russia, and you must know that Russia is a master who takes advantage of his life and does not suffer losses to the death, and it is a great fortune to be able to prevent Russia from taking advantage, and he still wants to take advantage of Russia? Moreover, Russia believes that now that Japan has been expelled from the Liaodong battlefield and has lost the qualification to continue to gamble, and that if it wants to return to the poker table, it must rely on Russia's help, and now Japan is still opening its mouth, so Russia has not only completely overturned Japan's demand, but also put forward Russia's demand: Japan recognizes that China's northeast region belongs to Russia and must not interfere in any Russian action in China's northeast region; the two sides have equal power on the Korean Peninsula, and the two sides open their territorial waters to fishing on an equal footing.

As a result, the negotiations fell into a stalemate, and Britain and France, as mediators, were also a little helpless, after all, it is not good to favor one side, so they can only quarrel with either side in this senseless way, and only put forward one condition, that is, neither side can withdraw from the negotiations, and must continue to talk.

After listening to the secretary of state's report, the others also thought it was very funny, and Fairbanks said: "It's like two rock sheep are still discussing the ownership of a certain piece of grass when they are facing a cougar's attack." ”

Roosevelt was silent for a moment, and said: "But I don't think this stalemate will last long, because both the United States and Germany have agreed to increase the issuance of bonds of the East China government, which is definitely a strong stimulus to Japan and Russia, and Britain and France will not allow them to continue such meaningless quarrels." And my question is, if Japan and Russia join forces, will they be able to win this war?" As he spoke, Roosevelt's gaze turned to Adner Chaffee, Chief of Staff of the War Army.

At present, the United States has not yet set up a Department of Defense, and the highest military organs are composed of the Department of War and the Department of the Navy, so the Department of War is actually equivalent to the Department of the Army, and the supreme commander is the Secretary of War and the Chief of Staff of the Army; and now the Department of the Navy has only a secretary, and has not yet set up a secretary of operations.

Cha Fei said: "Mr. President, according to the military chess exercise conducted by the Army General Staff, even if Japan and Russia are united, they are not the opponent of the East China government. ”

Roosevelt was stunned for a moment and said: "Is the military strength of the East China government really so strong? Even Japan and Russia together will find it difficult to defeat them, and if so, it is necessary for us to reassess the East China government." ”

"That's not it," Taft said, "because Japan and Russia had been in war for 16 months before that, and the long war had consumed most of the war forces of both countries. We conducted a total of 4 military chess exercises, taking into account various factors, but the result was without exception the East China government won, the best result was all the way to Changchun, and the worst result was also the capture of Shenyang. ”

Roosevelt nodded, took out the China region from the table, and said while sketching on it: "This is indeed an important factor, but even if Japan and Russia have consumed a lot in the previous wars, the overall strength of any country alone is above the East China government, and Russia still has huge war potential." Is it difficult for the two countries to unite and not be an opponent of the East China government?"

Taft said: " According to the analysis of the General Staff, although Russia does have tremendous war potential, the current battlefield is too far away from Russia's main body, and Russia's center of gravity is on the European side, and it is impossible for Russia to devote a large amount of resources to the Far East, and in addition, the political crisis in Russia caused by the previous war has not completely ended, and these factors have limited Russia from investing more forces in the Far East battlefield; Japan is an island country, and its national strength is already very weak, and the early war has almost exhausted Japan's national strength, and Japan and the place of the war are not directly connected by land, and they all rely on sea transportation to support the war, but their fleet was completely annihilated by the East China government, which is no longer able to support the war by sea. ”

Chaffee continued: "In addition, now Russia and Japan have been separated by the East China government, and they cannot work together to fight together, and Japan has actually been driven out of the battlefield in Liaodong and retreated to the Korean Peninsula, and there is a river to block it, and this river has become a natural defensive position of the East China government, and the East China government can only use the defense line along the river to build fortifications, so that it can block the Japanese attack with a small number of troops, and concentrate most of its forces to deal with Russia." ”

Roosevelt looked away from the map and said, "According to the calculations of the General Staff, the East China government can only push the front to Changchun at most?"

Taft said: "Yes, the overall strength of the East China government is limited, although the military force is strong, but the logistics supply is difficult to maintain, and after the long line is extended, the difficulty of logistics supply will also increase, and the offensive operation is always greater than the loss of defensive war, so pushing the front to Changchun is already the limit of the East China government." After the East China government reaches Changchun, the war situation will once again enter a stalemate stage. We expect this process to take about 4-5 months. ”

Roosevelt drew a red circle on Changchun's position, and fell into deep thought, if it is really as the result of the General Staff Department, although the East China government has achieved greater achievements than Japan, it has not achieved the complete defeat of Russia, and the complete expulsion of Russian forces from Northeast China, it will ultimately have to solve the problem at the negotiating table. At that time, it is the best time for the United States to mediate in this war, so the United States still has the opportunity to expand its influence in the Far East, so Roosevelt's face showed a smile and said: "It seems that this war will continue for a while, and we can see what other three parties will perform." After a pause, Roosevelt added: "Are our military observer missions ready?"

Taft said: "It's ready, and we'll be going in the next few days." ”

Roosevelt said: "I hope that this trip to the Far East will be worthwhile." ”

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Kentaro Kaneko did not immediately send the content of his meeting with Roosevelt back to Japan, but simply told Hirobumi Ito first.

In fact, Ito Hirobumi very much agreed with Roosevelt's suggestion in his heart, because now that it is impossible for Japan to withdraw from the war with dignity, it should negotiate with the East China Government as soon as possible to end the war at a relatively small cost, so that Japan's interests on the Korean Peninsula can be preserved, and the later it drags on, the more unfavorable it will be to Japan, and if the East China Government completely defeats Russia, then Japan will pay a serious price. Roosevelt proposed that he could maneuver to limit Japan's reparations to 100 million yen, which Ito believed was also within Japan's affordability.

However, Ito also understands that the current domestic atmosphere and the attitude of the military cannot allow the outcome of the reparations to appear, and if he wants to forcibly push forward the reparations negotiations, not only will he not succeed, but he will also be ruined. However, it is now the president of the United States who has made this proposal, because the United States has provided Japan with a large amount of money, so it cannot be easily offended, and Ito Hirobumi believes that he can take this opportunity to discuss it in order to test the attitude of the country towards the reparations, and if he can use the pressure of the United States to persuade the military, it will be a good result.

So Ito Hirobumi immediately replied to Kentaro Kaneko, asking him to truthfully transmit the contents of his meeting with Roosevelt back to Japan through official channels, and then submit it to the cabinet by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and take the opportunity to hold a cabinet meeting to discuss it.

However, as soon as the cabinet meeting began, Roosevelt's proposal was met with fierce opposition from the military, and Terauchi Masatsu said angrily: "Does the United States think that we are not opponents of overseas Chinese? Asking us to surrender to overseas Chinese is absolutely impermissible, and not only us, but also 40 million Japanese nationals will not agree, and whoever agrees to surrender to overseas Chinese is a sinner of Japan." ”

Komura Shoutaro said: "The President of the United States only suggested that we negotiate with overseas Chinese and make some concessions appropriately, not that we surrender to overseas Chinese......

Terauchi Masashi said: "What's the difference, paying reparations to the enemy and seeking perfection, only the corrupt and incompetent Qing State will do, is it true that our Japan has fallen to the point of being with the Qing State?"