Huo Bilan said: "Then the candidates for the negotiation, our side is arranged like this, by me, the French consul Mr. Bai Zaotai, the American consul Mr. Gunner, and the German consul Mr. Knappe are in charge of the negotiations, and the others are the negotiating deputies. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Of course, Li Zhongtang is the main person on the Qingguo side, and Mr. Li Jingfang, Mr. Zhang Peilun, and Mr. Zhou Fu are in charge of the talks. ”

According to the agreement between the two sides in Tianjin, all parties to the negotiations can send 12 people to attend the talks, four of whom are the main ones and can go to the negotiating table for negotiations, and the other eight are deputies, who can only provide information and suggestions to the main negotiators, but cannot speak.

In terms of countries, Britain has always been the world's leader and naturally has to occupy a seat to talk, while France is an old empire and the United States is an emerging power, both of which have many interests in China and the Far East, so they also have a seat to talk about. The only remaining seat for the talks was supposed to be for Japan, Russia, and China, one of which is an established empire and the other is an emerging power, and both are relatively close to China, and the largest number of troops are dispatched in the Eight-Nation Alliance. Although Germany is also a world power, it has no say in the Far East, and the German Far East Fleet has been completely wiped out, and there is actually no German army in the current Eight-Nation Alliance, so it is not eligible to get a seat for the main talks, and Italy and Austria-Hungary were originally here to play soy sauce, and they never thought of asking for a seat for the talks.

So France proposed to give a seat to Russia, while Britain proposed to Japan. Originally, Russia and Japan were now at loggerheads on the Korean Peninsula, and this time they refused to give in to each other, mainly because both countries were worried that after their opponents won the seats for the talks, they would increase their right to speak in the Eight-Nation Coalition and thus gain the initiative on the issue of the Korean Peninsula.

Later, after consultations among various countries, it was decided that Japan and Russia would not give this seat, but that Germany would make up for it, and Japan and Russia would have nothing to say. Although they did not get a seat for the main talks, the other side did not get a seat either, so Japan and Russia also stepped down and approved the allocation of seats.

And this is of course a good thing for the traverser, not to mention that Germany has signed a cooperation agreement with the traverser, France and the United States now also have a large amount of business dealings with the traverser, and they both hope to end the war as soon as possible, and on the whole, they are biased towards the traverser's side.

So Qin Zheng also listed the list of the main interlocutors on the traverser's side, in addition to himself, there were Li Sanjie, Li Liuyi, Peng Kai, and the eight deputy negotiators included five people who rushed to Shanghai in advance.

After the three parties were decided, Huo Bilan added: "We originally planned to hold negotiations on February 5, that is, the day after tomorrow, but before the observation team left Tianjin, we decided to play a football match in Shanghai, and you have agreed to this. ”

Qin Zheng smiled: "Yes." ”

Huo Bilan said with a smile: "After this matter was announced, it attracted a lot of attention in Shanghai, and the residents of the concession were even more interested in this game than we were in the negotiations, so we hope to hold this competition before the negotiations, and then conduct our negotiations after the competition is over." This would delay our negotiations. ”

Qin Zheng listened, although he felt a little surprised, but he didn't pay too much attention to it, and said, "When do you want to postpone the negotiation?"

"We want to schedule the match for February 8 and our negotiations for February 10, so that your football team should have enough time to prepare," Huo said. ”

Qin Zheng looked at Wang Hailong, because he was the coach of the football team, and this matter still depended on his opinion.

Wang Hailong said: "There is enough time, but we need a training venue, and we need to be familiar with the venue of the game, and there are also some details about the game that need to be negotiated. ”

Huo Bilan said with a smile: "There is no problem with this, the details of the game will be discussed in detail with you after the banquet is over. ”

Qin Zheng said: "Okay, let's go according to this arrangement." ”

It turned out that Huo Bilan's revision of the negotiation schedule was after some serious consideration, because Huo Bilan knew that this negotiation was not easy, and the bottom line of the overseas Chinese negotiations was not to cede land and pay compensation, and the Eight-Nation Coalition would hand over Beijing to the People's Army to garrison, but this was far from the requirements of various countries, and the countries hoped to use this negotiation to ask for reparations from the Qing court, and obtain a few colonies to make up for the losses of the previous war, and Beijing could not hand it over to the People's Army, but as a bargaining chip to coerce the Qing court.

However, the consuls of various countries also know that the overseas Chinese are not comparable to the Qing court, and the overseas Chinese have told other countries with their actions that they will not compromise easily, and although the countries are prepared for this negotiation, it is not easy to achieve the goal.

When Huo Bilan knew that the two sides planned to play a football match in Shanghai, he immediately used his brains, hoping to use this game to suppress the momentum of overseas Chinese. Of course, as a mature politician, Huo Bilan does not think that overseas Chinese will give up their bottom line of negotiations because of the loss of a football match, but it can also hurt the morale of overseas Chinese and increase the chances of winning their own negotiations.

And Huo Bilan hopes to use this game to suppress the rising national sentiment of the Chinese in the concession. Because for Huo Bilan, the change in the mentality of the Chinese in the concession is the most terrible thing, after all, Huo Bilan is the consul of Shanghai, and negotiating with overseas Chinese is just his side business, and running the Shanghai concession well is his main business.

Football is widely loved by all levels of society in the United Kingdom, although there was no Premier League at this time, but football clubs have appeared in the United Kingdom, and in 1872 there was the FA Cup, in 1888 the football league was organized, and in 1892 the football league was divided into two levels, A and B, it can be said that the prototype of the professional professional competition has been preliminarily prepared.

Huo Bilan is also a football lover, of course, he belongs to the kind that only watches and does not play, but Huo Bilan knows that in the United Kingdom, the victory or defeat of a football match can indeed affect the mood of the local people. Therefore, Huo Bilan also believed that if he won this game, he would be able to hit the morale of the Chinese in the concession.

Of course, the premise for this to be achieved is that this game must be won. Therefore, after the observation team returned to Shanghai, Huo Bilan went to Martinez to ask him about his grasp of this game.

Martinez is full of confidence and firmly believes that this game can be won, the reason is that he has observed overseas Chinese soldiers playing football in Tianjin, their players are generally not tall, and the speed is not fast, most of the time is to play ground ball, rarely play high balls, and the header ability is very average, so Martinez has the certainty of winning.

It turns out that the football skills and tactics of this era are very simple, basically the players in the backcourt directly kick the ball to the frontcourt, and then the players in the front court fight for the ball and find opportunities to hit the goal, which is the so-called long pass rushing tactics in the old time and space. This kind of tactics has high requirements for the height and speed of the players, and the passing between each other, there are not many backward feet, Huo Bilan is also a football lover, and he also has a certain understanding of the skills and tactics of football in this era, so after listening to Martinez's words, he also has a lot of bottom numbers in his heart, it seems that Martinez is not talking big, and based on the confidence of understanding the opponent.

Of course, Huo Bilan also thinks that this is a very normal thing, Bi Jing In this era, the level of football in the United Kingdom is indeed the highest in the world, and the combat effectiveness of overseas Chinese may be very strong, but in terms of football level, it is definitely far inferior to that of the United Kingdom. Therefore, Huo Bilan made up his mind to make full use of this game to achieve his goal. So Huo Bilan summoned the consuls of various countries and suggested to them that this football match should be arranged before the negotiations, and use the victory of this game to boost the morale of the other side and suppress the morale of the other party and the Chinese in the concession.

The consuls of various countries listened to it and did not disagree, firstly, football is very popular in all European countries, and most of the consuls of various countries also know that football has a huge influence among the people, and secondly, they do have full confidence in the level of football in the United Kingdom. Anyway, as long as this game is won, there is nothing to lose for the countries.

At the same time, in order to show the notarization of the game and convince the overseas Chinese, Huo Bilan believes that it is necessary to give the overseas Chinese enough time to prepare, and also show the gentlemanly demeanor of the British.

In fact, postponing the time of negotiation is not a bad thing for the traverser, because the traverser has already taken Beijing by force once the negotiation fails, so the postponement of the negotiation time actually gives the traverser time for military preparations, so that the various preparations for the traverser to attack Beijing are more sufficient.

As for the outcome of this football game, although the time-traveler also attaches great importance to it, it is not necessary to win. Of course, Wang Hailong is also full of confidence in this game, thinking that the traverser will definitely be able to win, after all, the traverser has more than a hundred years of experience.

But this is just an ordinary game after all, and its symbolic significance is greater than its practical significance. Although it is good to say that the victory is good, and once the game is lost, it will indeed hit the morale of the current Shanghai Chinese, and even affect the prestige of the traveler among the Shanghai Chinese, but this impact is actually not big, because once the Shanghai negotiations are negotiated according to the conditions of the traveler, it will be a major diplomatic victory for modern China, and once the negotiation is not completed, the traveler will send troops to capture Beijing, which is undoubtedly an important military victory, no matter which one, its actual influence is far better than this football game. That's when the detriments of losing a game can be compensated.