When the headquarters received Qiu Yahui's report, it was already more than four o'clock in the morning, and Xia Bohai, Qin Zheng, and Xiao Jianjun had been on the Kunming ship to pay attention to the progress of the battle situation on several sides. Now that the battles on both sides of the Haihe River have basically ended, and the Japanese troops on both sides have been defeated by the crossing army, they are cleaning up the battlefield at this time, counting the results of the battle, and just waiting for news from Tianjin. Now that they finally learned that Tianjin City had also been taken by the crossing army, the three of them were completely relieved.

Qin Zheng said: "Okay, Tianjin has finally been taken, this Tianjin battle, we can be regarded as a complete victory, and after we go ashore, we can be regarded as a phased victory." ”

Xia Bohai said: "It's not over yet? Now there is still the Tianjin Concession that has not been taken, as long as we do not occupy the concession area, then we will not control the entire Tianjin area, so I think we should take advantage of the victory and attack the concession in one go, so as not to have too many dreams at night, and the concession will be recovered in addition, which is also politically beneficial to us."

Qin Zheng said: "But now Qiu Yahui's troops are limited, and the concession area is much larger than Tianjin City, and they also have to divide troops to defend Tianjin City, and if they want to attack the concession, I'm afraid it's a little difficult." ”

Xia Bohai said: "Isn't the battle on our side over? ”

Xiao Jianjun said: "It is true that people can be drawn here, and it should not be too difficult to take the concession area, but after taking it, it is not easy to defend it, and to control Tianjin City and the concession area at the same time, we are too few people now." ”

Xia Bohai said with a smile: "That's why we have to rush to capture Tianjin, only by taking Tianjin City, can we recruit troops and expand our forces, otherwise it is enough to rely on more than 1,000 people in the Marine Corps." Therefore, there are difficulties now, but it is good to get through these few days, and in any case, we must take down the concession first. And after taking Tianjin, we must no longer nest in Dagukou, the next step we should shift the focus to Tianjin, Dagukou is too small, we can't show it, after arriving in Tianjin, we can show our strength. ”

Qin Zheng said: "Actually, our current manpower is not insufficient, but we have not fully utilized it, we alone have more than 6,000 people, if we can make use of them all, even if only half of the people are enough." However, the issue of the concession was very complicated, not only a question of insufficient manpower, but also a matter of diplomacy, diplomacy was no trivial matter, and one of the turning points of the Boxer Rebellion was the killing of the German minister Decklin, which was enough to cause war in that era. ”

Xiao Jianjun said: "Isn't the concession forcibly rented by foreigners? ”

Qin Zheng nodded and said: "It is true that the concessions are forcibly rented by foreigners, and now the existence of the concession has become a fact, in each concession there are consulates of various countries, and consuls are stationed, which are diplomats, and in addition, there are a large number of foreigners stationed in each concession, as well as factories opened by foreigners, Wharves and other public facilities, I don't mean to say that the concession will not be recovered, but these problems must be properly handled, not just by military strength, you must know that in the old time and space, after the establishment of our republic, although the concession was also recovered, but the use of very gentle means, even with the original did not use force, just use soft grinding and hard bubbles, such as water and electricity cuts, stop the supply of food, so that foreigners can not stay in the concession, so they have to leave the concession honestly. ”

Xiao Jianjun frowned and said: "This method is too time-consuming, it can only be done in the situation where we already have an absolute advantage, but now we don't have so much time, if we want to attack the concession, we must fight quickly and resolve the battle as soon as possible." ”

Qin Zheng said with a smile: "The concession must be recovered, but I am not saying that we can only use this way of grinding, nor can we not use force, but in the process of recovering the concession, we must determine several principles, because this is not a simple military issue, and our goal is not to fight these imperialist countries to the end, and now we have no capital to fight with them, if we really provoke these imperialist countries, not to mention the eight countries, that is, Russia near China, In addition, we still have to deal with these imperialist countries, do business with them, and develop economic and trade exchanges, so that we can develop and grow ourselves. ”

Xia Bohai then said: "Old Qin, do you think you need to determine those principles. ”

Qin Zheng said: "The first is how to deal with the consulates in the concessions; if according to the general diplomatic principles, the embassies and consulates have diplomatic immunity, but according to historical records, the eight-nation coalition forces plundered a large amount of property in Tianjin, most of which are stored in the consulates of various countries, so we cannot enter the consulates to search; second, how to deal with foreign nationals and their private property in the concessions; in the concessions of various countries, there are factories, commercial houses, and companies run by expatriates from various countries; third, how to deal with the Chinese in the concessions?"

Xiao Jianjun said: "Isn't there only foreigners in the concession? How can there still be Chinese living there?"

Qin Zheng said with a smile: "In the past, the concession was only inhabited by foreigners, but with the expansion of the concessions of various countries, and foreigners to set up factories and companies in the concessions, they also need cheap labor, in addition to the Chinese compradors, middlemen, etc. who cooperate with them, so there are gradually Chinese living in the concessions, and another is to avoid war, just like this Boxer Rebellion, because the Boxers rejected everything related to foreign countries, so some Chinese had to hide in the concessions." After a pause, Qin Zheng said again: "There are also some Chinese who even helped foreigners to deal with the Boxers in this war, so it is not difficult to occupy the concession, but how to deal with these things, if we do not formulate good principles, after we occupy the concession, we will face a lot of troubles." ”

After listening to Qin Zheng's words, Xia Bohai and Xiao Jianjun also pondered, and the two of them did not expect that dealing with the affairs of the concession would contain so much trouble, no wonder in the old time and space, the ancestors had already controlled the whole country, but they also had to be careful when dealing with the concession.

After a long while, Xia Bohai said: "I don't think these things can be decided by the three of us, I suggest that Director Wang and Director Xu be invited to discuss together, they are all engaged in administrative work, Director Xu is still from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and he should be able to put forward some new ideas." ”

Qin Zheng nodded and said, "Lao Xia is right, now that a temporary executive committee has been established, these matters should be negotiated and handled under the framework of the temporary executive committee. ”

Xia Bohai said: "In addition, we can still send a part of the army to Tianjin first, on the one hand, to strengthen the garrison of Tianjin City, on the other hand, to prepare for the offensive realm, as soon as we discuss the principles, we can immediately launch an attack." ”

Xiao Jianjun immediately nodded and said, "Okay, I'll give the order immediately." ”

So Xia Bohai immediately contacted Dagukou and asked Wang Yunpeng and Xu Jichao to rush to Kunming immediately. And Xiao Jianjun gave an order to Qin Yuhai, the commander of the Marine Corps battalion, to let him lead the troops of the battalion to set off, and a company under Luo Yue immediately rushed to Tianjin City, and Qin Yuhai took over the garrison of Tianjin City, and was ready to listen to the order to attack at any time and attack the Tianjin Concession.

Because Qiu Yahui's company, as well as the machine gun platoon and mortar platoon he brought, were all subordinate to Qin Yuhai's fifth battalion, it was natural that Qin Yuhai should be sent to take over Tianjin City and pay the responsibility for attacking the Tianjin concession next.

Not long after, Wang Yunpeng and Xu Jichao rushed to Kunming by motorboat. It turned out that the two of them also did not sleep that night, because of the noise of the shelling of the Xiangyang and Huaihua warships, and the people could not sleep at all; second, they did not dare to sleep, because the troops had gone out to fight, and what if there was an incident at Dagukou? Therefore, both of them were reading materials in their rooms, and they have not slept until now.

After receiving the news from Xia Bohai, the two immediately boarded the motorboat and set off. The Kunming ship was not far from Dagukou, and the two quickly arrived at the Kunming ship. The soldiers on the ship picked them up and led them to the conference room of the Kunming ship, where Xia Bohai, Qin Zheng, and Xiao Jianjun were waiting for their arrival.

After a few simple cold announcements, Qin Zheng first briefly told the two of them about the progress of the war, and then explained the troubles encountered in attacking the Tianjin Concession and so on.

After listening to Qin Zheng's words, Xu Jichao first said: "Political Commissar Qin, I read the information you gave me, the Qing court should have declared war on the Eight-Nation Alliance, right?"

Qin Zheng nodded and said: "Yes, the Qing court did issue an edict declaring war, although it did not specify which country it was aimed at, and only used a 'their' on behalf of it, but the declaration of war is a fact, so it can also be regarded as a declaration of war on all foreign countries in China." ”

Xu Jichao smiled and said, " That's simple, according to international practice, after the declaration of war, diplomatic immunity does not exist, and the two sides should recruit each other's embassy and consulate personnel, of course, sometimes only the embassy personnel, but the general and consulate are still retained, because relatively speaking, the consulate is not important, and prepare for future peace negotiations, but theoretically speaking, at this time, the belligerent countries can arrest the consulate personnel, or search the consulate, or directly order, but generally do not harm the consulate personnel, just ask them to evacuate。 As for the property, as long as it can be determined that they have plundered it, we can seize it, even if we want to seize all their property. ”

Wang Yunpeng also said: "Another point, we are not from the Qing court, so we can not consider the agreements reached by the Qing court and other countries, that is to say, we can not recognize the concession, as long as we respect the [Geneva Convention] and do not harm civilians, medical personnel, etc." I think that we can first arrest consulate personnel and foreign nationals, restrict their freedom of movement, and temporarily seal up private property, and how we deal with it depends on the situation in the future. ”

Xia Bohai, Qin Zheng, and Xiao Jianjun listened to it, and they all nodded again and again, sure enough, there are many people and great strength, and it is easy to brainstorm and solve the problem.

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