After receiving Qin Zheng's request, Huadong ** had no objection, and immediately forwarded this request to Japan through the United States and Germany, saying that Komura Shoutaro's qualifications were insufficient, and Japan should at least send someone with the same status as Ito Hirobumi to serve as a negotiator, otherwise Huadong ** would refuse to hold negotiations with Japan.

In fact, East China's requirements are not excessive, diplomacy pays attention to level equality, and because East China is the victorious side, the level of negotiators sent by the Japanese side cannot at least be lower than that of East China, even if it is one level higher. In terms of position, Komura Shoutaro and Li Sanjie have the same status, but Qin Zheng is the No. 2 real power person in East China, and he negotiates on behalf of East China, and Japan should obviously send a higher level of personnel out, so at present, Japan only Katsura Taro, Yama Prefecture Aritomo, and Ito Hirobumi are qualified, but Katsura Taro is the Japanese Prime Minister, and Yama Prefecture Aritomo is a soldier, so they are obviously not suitable to be negotiators, and only Ito Hirobumi is the most suitable candidate.

But Ito Hirobun himself resolutely refused to negotiate with East China on behalf of Japan, because Ito Hirobumi knew very well in his heart that this was by no means a good errand, whoever did it was unlucky, if he went, the final result could only be ruined, and even died without a place to be buried, Li Hongzhang was his own experience, after returning home after signing the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Qing court at that time pointed out that Li Hongzhang was a traitor, so this errand must not be accepted.

Katsura Taro and Yama Prefecture Aritomo can also understand Ito Hirobumi's feelings, and Ito Hirobumi insists on not taking it, and the two have no way to take him, so they can only negotiate with East China**, and bite one to the death, that is, Ito Hirobumi does not have a ** public office now, and is not suitable to be a negotiator, and Komura Shoutaro is the foreign minister, which is the same level as the prime minister, second only to the prime minister, equivalent to the secretary of state of the United States, and is not an ordinary cabinet member, and the qualifications are sufficient.

After receiving Japan's negotiation documents, Xia Bohai and others felt very angry and amused, and they could not imagine that the Japanese would actually use such a small means as playing word games, and it was so difficult that they thought that they would be able to get away with the test in this way? In the Japanese cabinet, although the foreign minister also carries a photographic character, he is not much different from other cabinet ministers, such as the minister of industry and economics and the minister of finance, and to put it bluntly, he is a foreign minister. Although the US Secretary of State is also in charge of US foreign affairs, according to US law, the Secretary of State is the first minister in the cabinet, that is, the chief minister; and is in charge of the national seal, and the president must submit his resignation to the Secretary of State when he resigns; and some proclamations on domestic affairs must be signed by the President and the Secretary of State before they can take effect, so the US Secretary of State is the second position after the US President. But Japan is making a fuss about words, which is too much to underestimate the wisdom of these personnel in East China.

East China ** was too lazy to engage in a tangled relationship with Japan, and replied directly to Japan, and a new negotiator must be determined in 3 days, otherwise East China ** will cancel the negotiations and resume the war.

At this time, Japan also suddenly became nervous, although the intimidation element of this statement by East China ** is too large, but it cannot be ignored that if the negotiations are canceled because of the issue of candidates, it is not a loss that Japan can bear. Moreover, the United States and Germany that mediated are also a little unbearable, and Bi Jinghuadong's request is not completely unreasonable, and the negotiations must at least be reciprocal, Komura Shoutaro's qualifications are indeed worse, and it is Japan that compares his foreign minister with the US secretary of state, and the Americans really can't look at it, so both countries have made suggestions to Japan, or change people.

In fact, Katsura Taro doesn't want to change people, but Ito Hirobumi doesn't want to do it, what can he do, he can't tie Ito Hirobumi to Shanghai.

And at this time, Emperor Meiji finally made a move and issued an edict to Ito Hirobumi, saying: In the past, the Qing Dynasty was defeated by Japan, and Li Hongzhang was still able to take into account the overall situation and go to the dismount to negotiate, and Ito Hirobumi was not as good as Li Hongzhang.

It turns out that Emperor Meiji has been quite dissatisfied with Ito Hirobumi, and his imperial judgment decided to negotiate with East China**, and he has already carried the pot for you, and now when it comes to you Ito Hirobumi coming forward, he pushes back and refuses to come forward, so there is such a good thing, besides, you can't mess up the negotiations because Ito Hirobumi is unwilling to come forward, so Emperor Meiji decided to take action, push Ito Hirobumi, force him to come out, and also give himself a bad breath.

Sure enough, after receiving the emperor's edict, Ito Hirobumi could only sigh, and at this time, if he didn't take over the negotiation errand, he could only commit suicide by caesarean section at home. Because he specifically mentioned Li Hongzhang in the emperor's edict, it also gave Ito Hirobumi a great touch, during the negotiations in Shimonoseki, Li Hongzhang was shot, still wounded to negotiate with Ito Hirobumi, Ito Hirobumi once said to the then deputy Mutsu Mitsu Mitsumune that if he and Li Hongzhang get along in a different place, he may not be able to do better than Li Hongzhang.

However, what he said at that time was more just that Ito Hirobumi was the victor's side, and his sympathy for the loser did not mean that Ito Hirobumi really thought that he was inferior to Li Hongzhang, on the contrary, before the negotiations in Shimonoseki, Ito Hirobumi looked down on Li Hongzhang very much, thinking that Li Hongzhang was old and could not keep up with the general trend of the world at that time. And now Ito Hirobumi can really understand Li Hongzhang's mood at that time, and suddenly found that he was really inferior to Li Hongzhang, the situation of the Qing State at that time was very similar to that of Japan now, but Li Hongzhang could serve as the negotiator of the Qing State regardless of his personal reputation, but he did not have the courage, and he was obviously much worse than Li Hongzhang.

After a night of deliberation, Ito finally expressed his willingness to serve as Japan's negotiator and go to Shanghai for negotiations. And the whole of Japan also breathed a sigh of relief, and Katsura Taro also hurriedly sent a message to the United States and Germany, saying that Japan was willing to change the person for the negotiations, so the negotiations should continue as usual.

Originally, Ito Hirobumi was in charge of matters related to the negotiation with East China**, and now he is the negotiator, which is even more justified, Ito Hirobumi first determined that Komura Shoutaro will serve as his deputy. Originally, Komura Shoutaro was the representative of this negotiation, but now that Ito Hirobumi has changed to a bigger coffee position, it is natural for Komura Shoutaro to be reappointed as a deputy, and Komura Shoutaro has nothing to disagree with this, after all, now that Ito Hirobumi is in front of him, his own pressure is much less.

The second is to formulate a negotiation strategy, although this negotiation, Japan is in a disadvantaged position, and it is determined to pay reparations, but this does not mean that there is no need for negotiation strategy, Bi Jing Japan has not weakened enough to let East China ** slaughter, then Japan might as well die directly, not to mention that East China ** is not without weaknesses, to be honest, East China ** should also hope to end the war relations with Japan as soon as possible, Bi Jing and Russia have not yet been resolved. Therefore, how much should Japan pay in this negotiation? Where is the bottom line? Whether or not East China will make land demands on Japan, and whether Japan will accept it, it is necessary to have a clear target and direction before the talks.

Judging from Ito Hirobumi's research on East China's previous negotiation experience, it is useless to play hard and arrogant with East China, East China has never been afraid of threats, and has always been super tough against tough, not to mention that Japan is not qualified to play tough now, so Ito Hirobumi believes that in this negotiation, Japan should adopt a humble attitude to face East China, in order to win the sympathy of the other party, and open up to Japan, rather than provoking the other party with a tough attitude.

In addition, East China has always regarded itself as Chinese orthodoxy, and Japan should also make full use of this to kidnap East China with the morality of the state of etiquette and the style of a gentleman; secondly, on the topic that the two countries are of the same language and the same species, and they are separated by a strip of water, and should form a brotherly state, they fool East China, and everything is aimed at reducing Japan's losses as the highest goal.

In this negotiation, Japan plans to bear the amount of compensation, Ito Hirobumi believes that the compensation will definitely be more than Britain and France, that is, it will definitely be higher than 60 million pounds, so Ito Hirobumi will set Japan's compensation between 800 billion and 100 million pounds, this amount is more reasonable, if East China ** insists on reparations higher than 100 million pounds, Japan can threaten the breakdown of negotiations, I believe that East China ** will make concessions at that time.

As for the land issue, first of all, the place of the Japanese mainland must not be caught, and the areas occupied by East China must all be recovered, otherwise Japan would rather fight to the death than give in, of course, the possibility of East China seeking the Japanese mainland is not large, but it is very possible to target Japan's colonies, after all, when negotiating with Britain, France and the Netherlands, East China is going to the huge colonial area of Kalimantan Island.

At present, Japan has three colonies, the Korean Peninsula, the Ryukyu Islands, and Taiwan, with a population of about 260,000 square kilometers and a population of about 25 million.

Ito Hirobumi's opinion is that, in principle, this negotiation is only to pay reparations, not to concede colonies, because if Japan wants to re-excavate, it is not enough to rely on the support of other countries, and it also needs the blood transfusion of these three colonies to Japan; in addition, although the local numbers of these three colonies are not large, they are all strategic places, and since they are of great strategic value to Chinese mainland, this negotiation must keep these three colonies, so that Japan can have hope of rerising. And in the future, it has a certain advantage in the strategic competition with East China.

However, among these three colonies, Taiwan's situation is rather special, because Taiwan originally belonged to the territory under the direct jurisdiction of the Qing State, which was very different from the Korean Peninsula and the Ryukyu Islands, and East China has always prided itself on safeguarding China's interests, so it is very likely to take the opportunity of this negotiation to demand Taiwan back from Japan. And in view of the fact that East China is now in a strong position, Ito Hirobumi believes that if necessary, Japan can consider including Taiwan in the negotiated deal, that is, transferring Taiwan to East China. However, it is absolutely not necessary to convert Taiwan into a good price, which is estimated to be 40 million to 50 million pounds, so that Japan can pay nearly half less in compensation, which is also very cost-effective.