Qin Zheng said: "Mr. Werther, I still have some words, I hope you can truthfully convey them to your country." ”

Werther was also a little surprised, and said, "Please speak." ”

Qin Zheng said: "This time the conditions we put forward have been quite sincere, if this time the negotiations break down due to your refusal, we will immediately launch a new military operation, you can evaluate the victory or defeat for yourself, and when it comes to the next negotiation, our requirements will be higher, the conditions will be more harsh, and Russia will lose more, so I hope you can do it yourself." ”

Witt's body trembled obviously, and finally nodded, "Okay, I will truthfully convey Mr. Qin's words to the country." ”

After returning to the hotel where he was staying, Witte immediately sent back to St. Petersburg the entire process of today's negotiations, as well as the conditions put forward by Huadong **, including Qin Zheng's warning. At the same time, he also attached his own attitude, emphasizing that East China ** will not make any concessions in terms of compensation, Russia can only choose to accept or refuse, and if it is accepted, it can be signed immediately, and if it refuses, it means that the negotiations are broken, and East China ** will immediately launch a military strike against Russia, according to their own observations, East China ** is indeed carrying out the mobilization of troops, so starting a war should not be deliberately intimidating, please consider carefully the tsar and the domestic ministers.

Although Witte no longer has any illusions about this negotiation, but at this time he still hopes that the negotiations can be successful, Bi Jing's conditions this time in East China are not too harsh, if they can be negotiated, it will minimize Russia's losses, and wait until the next negotiation, but there will be no such a good chance. It's just that Werther is also more than capable now, so he can only do his best.

When Witte's telegram was transferred back to St. Petersburg, Nicholas II was also very surprised, because in his opinion, East China ** suffered a major defeat, the situation was unstable, it should make concessions to Russia, give up the demand for land and reparations, although an agreement with Russia to end the war to free up his hands to solve his own internal problems, but why didn't East China ** play cards according to the routine? Not only did he not make concessions, but he also issued a threat of war against Russia, which has always been only Russia threatening other countries, when has it been threatened by war by other countries, especially the threat of war issued by the yellow-skinned monkey to Russia. How did this world become so chaotic, it was still the yellow-skinned monkey of the primitive barbarians, and it was the most threatening noble Slav.

But now the question is that the other party has already made a move, will Russia accept it or not? Accept the conditions of East China, where will Russia's face be placed? If it is against Britain, France, and Germany, it is easy to say, but this is for East China, strictly speaking, East China is not even a country, it can only be regarded as a country's separatist force, or the yellow-skinned monkey that Russia looks down on the most, a dignified fighting nation, competing to give in to the yellow-skinned monkey, ceding land and paying compensation, Nikola II is compared to Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great, the great monarch, if he signed this treaty, what face would he have to compare himself with Ivan the Terrible and Peter the Great?

It's just that if you don't sign it, East China ** will immediately start a war against Russia, although Nikola II has mediocre intelligence, but he also understands that it costs money to fight, and now Russia has no money to fight at all. Although there is also an argument in Russia that the military expansion of East China has reached its limit, and they are actually unable to launch a military strike, the problem now is that Russia or Nikola II does not dare to gamble on this. Less than a month ago, Bi Jing had shown that the threat of war was not just a matter of words, and now Russia had almost no resistance in the area east of Chita. If this gamble is lost, Russia will risk losing all the territory east of Chita.

So Nicholas II could only convene a royal council and consult with the ministers on how to deal with the final stall in East China. From the heart of Nicholas II, of course, he hoped to find a way not to use war, and let East China ** take the initiative to give up the reparations and land cession requirements, but unfortunately at this time, no one can come up with a best of both worlds, because everyone knows that now Russia can't afford to fight this war, but to accept the conditions of East China**, no one dares to put forward it, after all, this is a matter of self-destruction, so at the imperial meeting, the ministers looked at each other, and no one spoke.

But it didn't work if I didn't talk like this, and after a day of discussion, a result was finally determined, that is, let Werther negotiate with Huadong** again, and try his best to persuade Huadong** to make concessions.

After receiving the telegram, Werther also cried and laughed, but he also understood the mentality of Nicholas II, which was nothing more than that he couldn't pull his subordinates, so now Russia obviously can't afford to fight, but he still has to put on a show of refusing to admit defeat, but East China ** is not a vegetarian, saying that he will start fighting, but if he really starts, there is absolutely no softness. Now I have to negotiate with East China ** again and try my best to persuade East China ** to make concessions, how is this possible!

So Werther didn't go to negotiate with Qin Zheng at all, but replied directly, Huadong ** refused to make concessions, so he couldn't negotiate, and asked St. Petersburg to make a decision as soon as possible, because nearly half of the time had passed.

After that, Witte did not receive any more telegrams from China, so he took the initiative to send 3 telegrams to China to inquire about the results, but only received a reply from China at the first telegram, saying that negotiations were underway, and asked Witte to wait patiently, but Witt's second telegram was completely silent, and he did not even receive a return call.

In fact, now Russia does not know how to reply to Werther, because no one dares to make a decision at this time, so it can only drag it out like this, and after receiving Werther's telegram, he simply does not respond, and pretends not to do so.

After the third telegram was sent, there was still no reply from the country, and Witt guessed a few points, of course, this was also in his expectation, at this time it was 8 o'clock in the evening of the third day, and there were only 14 hours left from the last time, so Witte ordered someone to clean up, pack up the luggage, and asked East China ** to arrange a train, and prepare to leave Harbin at noon tomorrow, and at the same time ordered someone to send a telegram to the country every two hours, urging the decision to the result, and did not receive a reply, but his side must be sent.

At 10 o'clock the next morning, there was still no news coming from Russia, and Witte sighed that there was nothing he could do about it. So he led his entourage to the place of negotiation, and Qin Zheng was already waiting for their arrival here.

After everyone met, Qin Zheng was not polite, and said: "Mr. Witt, 72 hours have passed now, and I don't know if a decision has been made in Russia." In fact, Qin Zheng is very clear about the actions of the Russian negotiating team in the past few days, including the telegram sent back to China, and knows that this negotiation has actually gone through, but the negotiation procedure still has to be passed.

Witt smiled bitterly and said, "Mr. Qin, we haven't made a decision in China yet, I think maybe it's a big deal, and it takes more time to make a decision in China." Would you like to be able to extend it for another 24 hours?"

Qin Zheng said: "We do not think there is a need to extend the time, according to the agreement we reached before, if the Russian side fails to make a decision within the specified time, we will consider that the Russian side has rejected the conditions put forward by our side, so now we can declare the negotiation broken." ”

Witt nodded and said, "Okay, although I am very sorry for this result, but you refuse to extend the time for the decision, and I can only agree with this result." And we are ready, as long as the train is arranged, we can leave Harbin at any time. ”

Qin Zheng said: "The train is ready and will leave on time at 11 o'clock, but I advise Mr. Witte not to rush back to St. Petersburg, and it is better to stay in Chita, because I think it will not be long before you will come to Harbin again." ”

Witte smiled bitterly again, of course he understood what Qin Zheng meant, because as long as the People's Army attacks again, it is impossible for the Russian army in the Far East to resist it, then Russia will definitely find East China again to negotiate peace, Bi Jing can't watch the entire Far East region be lost, so he stays in Chita, of course, it is convenient to come to Harbin to negotiate again, so he said: "Thank you." After a pause, he added: "Forgive me for being tempted, and ask again, when will you launch a military attack?"

Qin Zheng smiled faintly and said, "You can do it at any time." ”

Werther shook his head with a wry smile and said no more. Back at the hotel, he first sent a telegram to the country, informing the country that the negotiations had officially broken down, and then led the members of the delegation to board the train.

With a long whistle, the train started and drove out of Harbin. Werther sat in front of the window, stunned as he watched the slowing backwards outside the window, while Sergeev sat across from Werther and said, "Your Excellency, are we going like this?"

Witte said: "What can I do if I don't leave, the ultimate decision-making power is the Tsar, even if we stay here, we can't do anything, I just hope that this attack of East China ** can wake up our Tsar Majesty, so that he has a clear understanding of East China**, and face up to this opponent, only in this way can we make the right decision." ”

Sergeev also sighed and said: "It's just that in this way, we will lose a lot of land again." ”

Witt shook his head and said: "I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, after the loss of Hyczen, the value of the Far East has greatly declined, and the Far East is too far away from St. Petersburg, even if the Trans-Siberian Railway is built, we still can't manage it, it was because the Qing Dynasty was incompetent, and there were no other powerful forces around, so we easily occupied a large area of land, and now East China**, With Japan on the rise, and Russia's main focus still on Europe, it may be time to abandon the Far East. ”

Sergeyev's whole body was shocked, and he said: "Give up the Far East?" It is unthinkable for the Russians to voluntarily abandon the occupied lands.

Werther glanced at him and said, "Let's take one step at a time." ”