Katsura Taro still had a confused expression, not knowing what the difference was between Northeast China being the territory of the Qing Kingdom or the territory of overseas Chinese, but Yama County Youpeng completely understood. The legal rationality of overseas Chinese in Northeast China comes from the Qing court, so it is completely possible to bypass overseas Chinese and directly attack the Qing court. After all, it is certainly much easier to deal with the Qing Kingdom than with overseas Chinese.

Although it was unlikely that the Qing court would agree to cede the land in Northeast China to Japan, it would be entirely possible to acquire land under the name of lease, and the legitimacy of overseas Chinese in Northeast China would be lost. Thinking of this, Yama Prefecture has friends who can't admit that in these aspects, Ito Hirofumi is indeed better than himself.

So Shan County Youpeng said: "Then when negotiating with Qingguo, Ito-kun is still needed." ”

"As long as it is for the benefit of Japan, I am personally duty-bound, but I think we should not just focus on the first article proposed by overseas Chinese, but the last three are the issues that we should pay attention to. ”

Katsura Taro was stunned for a moment and said, "Is there anything wrong with the last three?"

Ito Hirobumi said: "The second article will restrict our freedom of military action in Japan, although the overseas Chinese are also enemies of Russia, after all, they do not directly face the threat of the Russian army, on the contrary, we Japan directly face the Russian army's troops, but according to the second article of the overseas Chinese, we must obtain the consent of the overseas Chinese in any military action, is this condition beneficial to us?"

As soon as he heard Hirobumi Ito's words, he immediately understood what he meant: The two countries are at war, and the fighter plane will be lost in a moment, because Japan is the best at sneak attack, and most of the time it must be absolutely secret before the operation, if everything must be done with the consent of the overseas Chinese, it will inevitably cause a situation of delaying the fighter plane, and if the overseas Chinese deliberately cause damage, Japan will suffer heavy losses.

Ito Hirobumi added: "Article 3 is similar to Article 2, which will limit the opportunity for us to negotiate peace with Russia, and Article 4 will be a loss for Japan, because our layout in Northeast China has exceeded 10, and a large number of intelligence personnel have been deployed to penetrate into the civilian population. ”

Katsura Taro smiled bitterly and said, "If the last three are denied, even if we agree to the first one, it will be difficult to negotiate an alliance with overseas Chinese." ”

Youpeng in Shanxian pondered for a while, and then said: "Can it be the same as Article 1, agree first, and then it depends on the situation." ”

Ito Hirobumi shook his head and said: "The situation of the last three articles is different from the first one, the land issue can be postponed to the end of the war, or even after the war is over; After a pause, Ito Hirobumi added: "I am not opposed to forming an alliance with overseas Chinese against Russia, but we cannot pin our hopes for confrontation with Russia on any alliance, and the alliance with overseas Chinese is the same, and the Anglo-Japanese alliance is the same." We must have the spirit of a strong man breaking his wrist and establish the determination to confront Russia without the help of any external force, otherwise it will be impossible for us to defeat Russia, and even if we defeat Russia, we will not be able to gain any benefits. ”

When Yama Aritomo and Katsura Taro heard this, they couldn't help but feel a pang in their hearts, because these words came out of the mouth of Hirobumi Ito, which was indeed very rare. At present, Japanese politics is divided into two factions: one is the military feudal faction headed by Aritomo Yamaguchi, which advocates that everything in the country should serve the military and implements militaristic politics, and the other is the constitutional faction headed by Ito Hirobumi, which advocates civilian governance and the establishment of party politics similar to that of European countries. Although in the old time and space, Japan eventually moved towards the militaristic politics advocated by Yamaguchi Aritomo, at this time, the forces of the two factions were still roughly equal. Therefore, those who advocate the determination to wage war are generally the military vassal faction, while the constitutionalist faction is usually known for their reason.

At this time, Ito Hirofumi said again: "Shan County-kun, Gui-kun, I think you have overestimated the strength of Russia, although Russia is not as corrupt and incompetent as the Qing State, but it is not too strong, and the situation in Russia is very unstable. The intellectuals were extremely dissatisfied with the Tsar's autocratic system, and the demand for a constitution was growing louder, the social contradictions were very serious, the morale of the army was low, and the army was full of corruption and mismanagement, so that if we were determined to win, and with the courage to do whatever it took to do the Sino-Japanese war, we would certainly be able to defeat Russia by Japanese strength alone. ”

Yama Youpeng was silent for a while before he nodded and said, "I understand, thank you for Ito-kun's guidance." ”

Hirobumi Ito added: "This war against Russia is a battle between the life and death of our Japanese people, and its gravity is still above the Sino-Japanese war, so the country must be united." ”

Yama Prefecture Youpeng nodded and said, "I understand, we still need Ito-kun's wisdom when the time comes." ”

At this point, everything that needs to be said has been said, so Ito Hirobumi also got up and said goodbye and went home. And after Ito Hirobumi left, Katsura Taro: "Yamasan-kun, what about the negotiations with overseas Chinese?"

Yama Prefecture Youpeng said: "As far as Ito-kun's opinion is concerned, the first article can be agreed, but the last three must not be compromised, and whatever results can be negotiated, we will talk about the results." ”

―――――――― Divider ――――――――― Dividing Line――――――――

Hirobumi Ito had just returned to his house when his wife, Umeko, opened the door for him and told him that there were guests waiting for him in the living room. Hirobumi Ito didn't have time to change his clothes, so he just took off his coat and went to the living room to meet the guests.

Although Ito's thinking was heavily influenced by European countries, the decoration of the home was still in the traditional Japanese style, so the two sat on their knees opposite each other, and Umeko brought tea before leaving.

Ito Hirobumi said, "Miyamoto-kun, what is the matter with you coming to me. It turned out that Ito Hirobumi's guest was Miyamoto Naoto, although the two had a huge difference in identity, although Ito Hirobumi did not have an official position, but he was one of the veterans of the Meiji Restoration, and his disciples were all over the Japanese political arena, while Miyamoto Naoto was just an ordinary intelligence officer, and the military rank was only a major, but at this time the two were talking face-to-face on an equal footing.

After listening to Ito's Hirofumi, Miyamoto Naoto said, "I have already booked a ticket back to Shanghai tomorrow, and I am here to say goodbye to Mr. today." ”

Ito Hirofumi couldn't help but be a little surprised, and said, "Will you leave tomorrow? Isn't it too fast, I want to have a good talk with you again, and listen to your views on the general situation of the world and the development of Japan!"

It turned out that in May 1901, Naoto Miyamoto, who was still a lieutenant at the time, wrote a letter to Ito Hirobumi, who was then the prime minister of Japan, explaining his views on the world situation at that time, as well as the political situation in Japan and the relations between Japan and Russia, and reminding Ito Hirobumi that Britain would form an alliance with Japan, and asked Japan to be prepared, and even to take the initiative to contact Britain in order to obtain greater benefits for Japan in the negotiations.

At that time, Ito Hirobumi strongly advocated the "Manchu exchange theory" and hoped to compromise with Russia, and Britain had implemented a glorious policy of isolation for more than 100 years and did not ally with any country, so it was natural to scoff at this letter and ignore it without reading it. However, at the end of 1901, Ito Hirobumi visited Russia, hoping to reach an agreement with Russia on the basis of a "Manchu exchange", but Russia refused, and Britain did take the initiative to throw an olive branch to Japan and reached an Anglo-Japanese alliance. Only then did Ito Hirofumi remember Naoto Miyamoto's letter, and hurriedly found the letter from the sealed materials and read it carefully.

After reading it, Ito Hirobumi was not only shocked, because nearly nine months had passed since this letter, and many of the views on the world situation, Japan's political situation, and Japan-Russia relations in the letter had been fulfilled, and his prediction and division of the Anglo-Japanese alliance were quite accurate, and if he had paid attention to this letter earlier, he might have been able to handle relations with Russia better, which shows that the person who wrote the letter not only has a very good understanding of the situation in the world and Japan, but also has very good insight and vision. So Ito Hirobumi immediately found Miyamoto's contact information and wrote a long letter to Miyamoto, expressing his apologies on the one hand, and asking the other party a few questions on the other hand.

Soon Miyamoto wrote back and forth to Ito Hirobumi, giving detailed answers to Ito's questions, many of which were not in his own mind, and Ito was also quite inspired. So later, the two exchanged more than ten letters in a row, and exchanged a lot of opinions and views on many issues of the current situation, and with the exchange of letters, Ito Hirobumi also became more and more appreciative of Miyamoto Naoto's knowledge, and Miyamoto Naoto said bluntly to Ito Hirobumi in the letter, the biggest problem in Japan now is that the military interferes too deeply in politics, and this phenomenon will be extremely harmful to Japan for a long time, and only by establishing a similar constitutional system in European countries, with civilian officials in charge of state affairs, and by electing the country's leaders, can the long-term development of the country be ensured。

This point of view is also very appetizing to Ito Hirobumi, because this is also Ito Hirobumi's usual advocacy, but now Japan's warlords are too powerful, and there is not much understanding of the constitutional system in China. There are many achievements in diplomacy, but only the construction of the constitutional system has little effect, and Ito Hirobumi also feels that he is alone, and he can't find a few like-minded companions who can jointly promote the construction of Japan's constitutional system, and it is rare to meet a person who has the same views as himself, so Ito Hirobumi admires Miyamoto Naoto a lot, thinking that this person can be his right-hand man.