Oda Che said: "In addition, Fukushima-kun, you go to Tianjin this time, and the government still has a very important task entrusted to you." ”

Fukushima Yasumasa frowned, he is a soldier, according to Japanese law, he is under the command of the military department, and does not directly obey the government, so the government assigns tasks to him, which is suspected of dividing the power of the military department, so he asked rhetorically: "Oda-kun, has the government made a decision on the negotiation principles proposed by overseas Chinese?"

Oda Kiri said, "This one is not yet. ”

Fukushima Yasumasa said unhappily: "The efficiency of the politicians in China is too slow, there are still three days to reach the time set by the overseas Chinese, and Russia and Germany have already shown their status, why we have not come up with a clear result so far." ”

Although Fukushima Yasuma is engaged in intelligence work, he is also an active soldier, and the contradiction between Japanese soldiers and government officials is not a secret, and the military department that made the decision on Fukushima Yasumasa's punishment, so although Fukushima Yasumasa was a little aggrieved, he also endured it, but he was unceremonious to the government. However, although the Japanese embassies and consulates in Chunting are all government officials, if Fukushima Yasumasa wants to engage in intelligence gathering in China, he cannot do without the support of embassies and consulates in various places, and each embassy and consulate itself is an intelligence station, so Fukushima Yasumasa is familiar with the personnel of the Japanese embassies and consulates in Chunting.

Oda Kiri didn't care about Fukushima Yasumasa's attack on the government, and in Japan, it would be strange if the soldiers didn't blame the government, shook his head, and said: "Fukushima-kun, I think it's right to do this at home, and at this time, we in Japan really shouldn't easily show our attitude." ”

Fukushima Yasumasa snorted and said, "Why?"

Oda Che said: "Fukushima-kun, you should understand that although we have been reforming for more than 30 years, our national strength has made great progress, and just five years ago, we defeated the Qing State and obtained a large amount of reparations and Taiwan, but our Japan is only a small country after all, and the current national strength is still very weak compared with European countries, and it is still unable to compete with European countries. ”

Fukuda Yasumasa's face straightened, and he said, "Of course I won't forget." This is a shame for our Japan. ”

It turned out that after the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan and the Qing court negotiated at Shimonoseki, and in the initial treaty, Japan forced the Qing court to pay an indemnity of 200 million taels of silver, and ceded the Liaodong Peninsula and Taiwan. However, Japan's victory aroused the vigilance of other countries, fearing that Japan would gain too many benefits in China and thus harm the interests of other countries in China, so Russia initiated the intervention with the participation of Germany and France in Japan's demand to occupy the Liaodong Peninsula, and even threatened to use force. At that time, Japan naturally did not have the ability to start a war with Russia, Germany, and France at the same time, so it could only make concessions, saying that it could exempt the Qing court from ceding the Liaodong Peninsula, but an additional indemnity of 30 million taels of silver was added as a ransom fee. However, despite not getting the Liaodong Peninsula, Japan still received 230 million taels of silver and Taiwan from the Qing court, as well as control of Korea, and the benefits were still huge.

On the other hand, the "intervention of the three countries to return Liao" gave hope to the defeated Qing court, that is, to restrain the enemy by means of razing and destroying it, but because the Qing court lacked corresponding knowledge and research on international relations at that time, it did not know the real situation of the weak country in international exchanges and the countermeasures. On the surface, it was Russia, Germany, and France that were helping China and dealing with Japan, but in fact, Russia, Germany, and France were taking this opportunity to expand in China, resulting in a further loss of sovereignty and national interests of the Qing court.

First of all, in 1896, when Tsar Nicholas II of Russia was crowned, the Qing court sent Li Hongzhang to visit Russia to participate in the ceremony, and signed the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty" with Russia. Russia was allowed to build a railway to Vladivostok through northeastern China, historically known as the "Eastern Railway", which was a section of the Trans-Siberian Railway in Russia. Russian influence also infiltrated northeastern China through the railway, while also extending its influence into Korea, and in 1898 leased Arthur to obtain an ice-free port in the Far East. This has laid the groundwork for Russia to take advantage of the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Coalition to occupy Northeast China on a large scale.

In 1897, under the pretext that the missionary had been killed, the German sent its Far East Fleet to occupy Jiaozhou Bay (Qingdao), forcing the Qing government to sign a Lend-Lease treaty the following year and allowing Germany to build the Jiaoji Railway, which made Shandong a German sphere of influence.

France leased Zhanjiang from the Qing court in 1898 and later annexed it to its French Indochina colony. And also obtained the power to build the Guangxi Railway.

Not to be outdone, the British forced the Qing court to lease Weihai and Hong Kong's New Territories in 1898, gaining great benefits in both the north and south of China, and also obtaining a loan for the railway from Yuguan to Mukden.

As a result, although the Liaodong Peninsula was preserved, only three years after the end of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Qing court lost Qingdao, Lushun, Weihai, and Zhanjiang in succession, and allowed foreign forces to enter the northeast, Shandong, Guangxi and other regions.

However, Japan has always regarded the return of the Liaodong Peninsula as a shame by the three powers, and at the same time has a clear understanding of international affairs, and also understands that its next opponent is Russia.

Oda Kiri said: "But Fukushima-kun, you must also admit that at that time, there was no other way than to accept the conditions for returning Liao, otherwise we would not even be able to protect the victory of the Sino-Japanese War." ”

Fukushima Yasumasa was silent for a while before he nodded and said, "Oda-kun, you are right, at that time, Japan really did not have the strength to confront Russia, France, and Germany, even if it was against one country alone, it would not be able to do it. ”

Oda Kiri said lightly: "Then Fukushima-kun thinks that after five years of the Sino-Japanese War, will Japan have the strength to confront any of the three countries of Russia, France, and Germany?"

Fukushima Yasumasa thought for a while, shook his head, and said: "Still not, but France and Germany are both in Europe, and they are very far away from Japan, so if it is a confrontation in the Far East, we in Japan do not have to be afraid of them, but Russia ......" Speaking of this, Fushima Yasumasa smiled bitterly and did not say any more.

Oda Kiri continued his words and said: "But Russia is by our side, so Russia is our biggest enemy at present, and Russia is not comparable to the corrupt Qing State, it is an extremely powerful opponent, and at the same time we must learn the lesson of the intervention of the three countries to return Liao, in the confrontation with Russia, not only can not set up other opponents, but also to win the support of more countries, in order to be able to fight Russia, in the past few years, the government has been to Britain, France, Germany, The United States and other countries have shown goodwill and actively repaired relations with the Qing State, which is also the reason. And now the government does not take a stand on the principle of negotiation for overseas Chinese, which is also the reason, on the one hand, it respects the attitude of other countries, and on the other hand, it does not easily deteriorate relations with the Qing state.

After listening to Oda Kiri's remarks, Fukushima Yasumasa suddenly realized that although Fukushima Yasumasa is a good hand at intelligence, he is a soldier after all, and he is not clear about the intricacies of international politics, and in recent years, he has not scolded the government's foreign policy for being too weak, not to mention European countries, and even his attitude towards Qing Guo is also very mild.

So Fukushima Yasumasa said: "Then Oda-kun, this time I went to Tianjin, what task does the government need me to complete?" "Fukushima Yasuma is a soldier and does not directly obey the government, but although the military and the government in Japan have not been at odds, the current Japanese military department has not been dominant after all, and Fukushima Yasumasa is also a person with brains, not the kind of person who will only shout "loyalty to the emperor and seven lives to serve the country", and all actions are based on Japan's national interests, and he can also understand the government's difficulties, so he took the initiative to ask the government's requirements.

Oda Kiri's attitude towards Fukushima Yasumasa was also very satisfied, and said: " Fukushima-kun, the government hopes that you will accomplish three tasks: the first is to collect as much information as possible about the overseas Chinese and understand their situation, because in the future, the overseas Chinese are also very likely to be our Japanese opponents, so we must not underestimate them; the second is to test whether we can pull the overseas Chinese to deal with Russia, even if we cannot pull the overseas Chinese to deal with Russia with us, we will also try to sow discord between them and Russia, and at least we must not let the overseas Chinese get close to Russia. ”

In fact, these two items are also the tasks that Fukushima Yasumasa himself planned to accomplish in Tianjin, and the first one goes without saying, because in the long run, if Japan wants to develop, it must do its best to plunder all resources and wealth from China, so as long as it is all information about China, whether useful or not, it must be collected first; and although Fukushima Yasumasa does not know much about international political matters, he also knows that the enemy of the enemy is his friend, and to set up an enemy for the enemy is to increase his own strength.

Since this is also the task of the government, it is just a matter of killing two birds with one stone. So Fukushima Yasumasa nodded and said, "Okay, I will try my best to complete these two tasks, so what is the third task?"

Oda said: "The third is to convey the negotiation requirements of various countries to the overseas Chinese, and do your best to facilitate the negotiation between the overseas Chinese and other countries. ”

Fukushima Yasumasa was stunned for a moment and said, "Didn't you say that Russia and Germany have already stated that they will not negotiate with overseas Chinese?"

Oda Che smiled and said, "That is not to negotiate according to the negotiation principles of overseas Chinese, but if overseas Chinese accept the negotiation principles proposed by our countries, then it is okay to talk, and your task is to persuade overseas Chinese as much as possible to accept the negotiation conditions proposed by our countries." ”

Fukushima Yasumasama: "What are the conditions?"

Oda Che said: "There are six main points: First, the responsibility for this war lies with the Qing State; second, the Qing State will compensate the losses of various countries; third, the countries will be allowed to station troops on the front line from Dagu to Beijing to protect the interests of all countries; fourth, they will be allowed to set up embassy guards; fifth, they will punish criminals designated by the ministers of various countries; and sixth, the Tianjin concession must be restored. ”

Fukushima Yasumasa frowned and said, "Oda-kun, forgive me for asking for such a condition, I'm afraid that overseas Chinese will not agree to it." ”

Oda Kiri smiled and said, "Fukushima-kun, don't worry, all countries will give you support." ”