After sending off Prince Heinrich, Qin Zheng immediately came to Xia Bohai's office and reported the news provided by Heinrich to Xia Bohai.

After Xia Bohai listened to Qin Zheng's speech, his face became solemn. It should be said that before this negotiation, the East China Government was full of confidence in this negotiation, after all, Japan and Russia have basically lost completely militarily, and they have no bargaining capital with the East China Government, while Britain and France, and the East China Government's judgment is that it is unlikely to take the initiative to intervene, after all, Asia is too far away, and the two countries still have a mess in Europe. However, German intelligence showed that the actions of Britain and France were obviously not expected by the East China government.

Xia Bohai pondered for a moment and said, "Old Qin, how likely do you think what Heinrich said?"

Qin Zheng said: " Lao Xia, I think there is no point in studying the possibility now, what is the difference between 50% and 50%, of course, I have also thought about it, this cannot be ruled out that this is a deliberately designed set by Britain and France, and some of the information passed to us through Germany that if the negotiations break down because of the war reparation issue, Britain and France will jointly send troops to intervene in this Far East war, is to force us to give up the demand for reparations, but we must now regard this information as the determination of Britain and France, and determine whether in this case, whether Japan still insists on Japan, Russia pays war reparations. So I suggest we have a working meeting right away to discuss this matter. ”

Xia Bohai nodded and said: "You are right, but now Lao Xiao and Zhu Yaping are inspecting the front line, this matter is very important, and once we decide to insist on asking for compensation, it is very likely that we will face a war with Britain and France, so this meeting must have Lao Xiao and Zhu Yaping participate." ”

There are a total of 8 members of the working group, and they usually don't come to every meeting, and 1 or 2 people can hold it as little as possible, but this time the discussion is too important, so it is necessary for all 8 people to gather, Qin Zheng said: "Then do you want Lao Xiao and Zhu Yaping to give up the inspection trip and rush back immediately?"

Xia Bohai said: "Then no, it's not bad these days, the negotiation delegation has only just left for a few days, and it is still far from the United States? We don't have to rush for a while, let them finish their inspection and then talk about it, so as not to affect the troops on the front line." ”

Qin Zheng also understands that high-ranking officials going to the front line to inspect is actually a way to boost the morale of the army, and sometimes they will give medals to meritorious soldiers to encourage the whole army, and if the inspection is terminated rashly, it will not only deal a blow to the morale of the troops, but also cause turmoil in the morale of the army.

Xiao Jianjun was a member of the Military Commission, but he did not arrange a trip for the front-line inspection until now, also because there were too many things in the East China government some time ago, and he was not allowed to leave Qingdao for a long time. It wasn't until December, when the war in the Northeast was basically over, and there were not so many things in the East China government, that Xiao Jianjun arranged a trip to the front line to inspect, but he didn't expect that something unexpected would happen. However, as Xia Bohai said, although this matter is very important, it is really not in a hurry, and it can be discussed after Xiao Jianjun and Zhu Yaping complete their inspection trip.

Xia Bohai said: "But you can let them know about this matter first, and just use these few days, you can think about it, so that when you have a meeting, you can have a more mature mind." ”

Qin Zheng nodded and said, "That's fine." ”

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Xiao Jianjun and Zhu Yaping returned to Qingdao eight days later, and at this time, the eight members of the working group also arrived, so Xia Bohai gathered everyone and formally held a meeting to discuss the negotiations.

Xia Bohai first said: "Everyone knows the matter, I won't talk nonsense, my opinion is also very simple, if Britain and France jointly send troops to intervene in this war, can we win? If we can, of course we must insist on the reparations, if not, then don't hold on, honestly give up the reparations." ”

Xiao Jianjun first said: "If we only speak militarily, I think we are completely sure to win, even if Britain and France participate in the war, even if they can dispatch 20 battleships." ”

Xia Bohai nodded and said, "Old Xiao, can you explain in more detail?"

Xiao Jianjun obviously did enough homework, and said: "There is a plan for Britain and France to enter the war, in fact, before we entered the war, the Military Commission made a plan, but I didn't know how the battlefield in the northeast would be fought at that time, so this plan only has reference value, but now it can be determined that the military forces of Japan and Russia have basically been disabled by us, and now it can be confirmed that we can only correspond to the armies of Britain and France." Due to the factor of distance, it is impossible for Britain and France to send a large-scale army to the Far East to participate in the war. Japan is responsible, this will be said later, but this requires that the British and French navies must defeat our navy and seize sea supremacy, then the British and French navies must have an overwhelming advantage, and the information provided by Germany that Britain and France will dispatch more than 20 battleships, I think it is credible, after all, the combined number of British and French battleships exceeds 60, and 20 battleships, which in this era does exceed the number of battleships of any country except Britain. If I were the maker of this war, I would have made the same decision. ”

"However, Britain and France obviously made a mistake this time, because our navy cannot be measured by the naval standards of this era. Our 5 crossing warships are currently in good shape, they can participate in the battle, and the number of *, * is also about 7 percent, so not to mention 20 battleships, even if 40 battleships come, I am sure enough to annihilate them. And once the British and French fleets have been annihilated, what will Japan and Russia rely on, and then we can even raise the asking price for reparations. However, these 5 crossing warships are our greatest confidence, and after this battle, even if we don't use up all the * and shells, there is not much left, and we can only rely on our own fleet to fight in the future. ”

Xia Bohai said: "This is no problem, if we can severely damage the British and French fleets, then this deterrent will be great, and I am afraid that no country will dare to go to war with us easily." ”

Qin Zheng said: "In this war, we captured a lot of warships, and there were nearly 10 battleships alone, so after the end of the war, in a few years, we will be able to build a fleet that is also powerful by the standards of this era, and our own shipbuilding industry has made great progress, and we can build our own warships and protect ourselves." ”

Xiao Jianjun said: "That's good, now I'm talking about the next battle plan I envisioned against Japan and Russia, now most of the Japanese troops participating in the war have been annihilated by us, and the remaining few are also stationed on the Korean Peninsula, and the sea control has been controlled by us, and the Japanese army can't go back at all." According to the information we have gotten, Japan is recruiting soldiers in the country and forming an army, but the training ability and actual combat experience of these soldiers are insufficient, and now Japan's domestic economy is extremely difficult, so I think the quality of training for these new soldiers is also difficult to guarantee, I suggest that we can consider landing in Japan after the negotiation breaks down, the army does not need too much, 4-5 divisions are enough, only in the coastal areas of Japan, burning, killing and looting, you can do anything, and in this way you can get the protection of the navy, you don't have to be afraid of the Japanese army at all, and Japan's economically developed cities are located in the coastal areas, we make such a fuss, Japan will definitely not be able to stand itWe can only honestly be at our mercy, and Japan can only give as much compensation as we want. ”

Xu Jichao said: "Burning, killing and looting in Japan is not good in international opinion. ”

Xiao Jianjun said: "It's up to the government to choose this, and the army just listens to the command." ”

Xia Bohai said: "Let's not discuss this first, what about the Russian side? Russia is not Japan, they still have a large number of troops in Europe, even if they bring another 5 to 600,000 troops to the Far East, it will not waste their efforts." ”

Xiao Jianjun said: "Russia does have enough troops, but first, the distance is too far, and second, Russia still has to maintain enough troops in the European direction, so it is impossible to have 5 or 600,000 troops, at most 2. 300,000, of course, this is just a matter of numbers, Russia's biggest problem now is that it has no foothold in the Far East, if hundreds of thousands of troops cannot be attached to a big city, the pressure on logistics will be quite large, and now Russia's economy is not very good, once the negotiations break down, we must first recover Shenyang as soon as possible, annihilate the Russian army in Shenyang, and then mobilize the main forces to the north, attack Manchuria, completely drive the Russian army out of China, and then set up a defensive line in Manchuria, so as to wait for work, and can go out along the railway line at the right time, and cooperate with armored trains, and because the transportation capacity of the Trans-Siberian Railway is limited, Russia can only adopt the tactics of adding oilI think two armies are enough, and the other army can start from Vladivostok and attack the Ussuri River Valley, Russia's forces in this area are very weak, and it is impossible for us to be our opponent, and after we recover the Ussuri River Valley, we will see if Russia can still hold on. ”

Qin Zheng said: "There are 300,000 Russian troops stationed in Shenyang now, and it may not be easy to capture Shenyang and annihilate the Russian army." ”

Xiao Jianjun said: "I have ordered Qiu Yahui, the commander of the Second Army, to formulate an operational plan for attacking Shenyang, and he has some confidence, and we will know it after the operational plan is formulated in a few days." I have considered these military plans, and I have sufficient self-reliance, but whether we still have enough funds and materials to support the war is not within the scope of my consideration. ”