The ultimate goal of East China is to promote peace with war, force Russia to return to the negotiating table, and accept East China's conditions. And to achieve this goal, it is far from enough to annihilate the bandit army in Jinzhou, Bi Jing's bandit is only defensive in nature, and to make Russia feel pain, it must attack, so at the same time as the Jinzhou bandit war, Qin Zheng sat in Shenyang, dispatched troops, and launched an attack on Russia again.

The offensive of the People's Army was carried out on two fronts in the east and west, with the eastern front consisting of 2 divisions and 1 regiment, advancing along the Amur River from Boli and attacking Temple Street (Nikolaevsk), while the western route was attacking from the city of Aihui, crossing the Heilongjiang River, and attacking Hailanpao (Blagoveshchensk), with a strength of 3 divisions.

The offensive of the People's Army on these two routes did not encounter great difficulties, on the one hand, because the Russian army was in Temple Street, On the other hand, at the end of March and the beginning of April, the weather began to warm, the ice and snow had melted, and the conditions for the march were much better than the last customs clearance operation.

First of all, after the Eastern Route Army arrived at Temple Street, not a single shot was fired, and the defenders all surrendered to the People's Army. Because of the loss of Boli and Amur City, it has caused great pressure on the defenders of Temple Street, knowing that there are no reinforcements coming at all, and this little force in Temple Street will definitely not be able to hold it now, so it is better to surrender.

However, Hailan Pao's Russian army chose to insist on resisting, because Hailan Pao was closer to Chita, and it seemed that it was possible to wait for reinforcements, but under the offensive of the People's Army, the resistance of the Russian army did not last long, and the People's Army broke through the defensive line.

After the occupation of Hailanpao, the People's Army sent an armored train from Vladivostok, through Boli, all the way to Hailanpao, and occupied all the stations along the railway, so far, the 1,300-kilometer-long railway line from Vladivostok to Hailanpao has all been under the control of East China.

This attack of the People's Army once again shook Russia. Although Temple Street has a freezing period of about 4 or 5 months in a year, it is a seaport after all, although the symbolic significance is greater than the practical significance, but after the loss of Vladivostok, this is the only Russian outlet in the Far East, and the loss of Temple Street means that the Russian Far East has completely become an inland area, and the hundreds of years of pioneering and enterprising by successive tsars have been completely wasted.

Hailanpao is located in the upper reaches of the Heilongjiang River, at the confluence of the Jingqili River, about 1,200 kilometers away from Chita, and is also an important node city on the Amur line section of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

After the breakdown of the last negotiations, Witte remained in Chita and did not return to St. Petersburg immediately, and after receiving this news, he could not help but sigh, because these places should not have been lost, if the last negotiations had been negotiated. Now it is impossible to get back the lost place, and if there are more negotiations, East China ** will definitely put forward more demands, and I don't know what kind of demon will come out of St. Petersburg, if you still hesitate, East China ** may launch a new offensive again, I am afraid it will really hit Chita. So Werther was also worried.

However, this time Werther's worries did not last long, and the day after receiving the war report, Werther received a telegram from St. Petersburg, asking him to immediately contact Huadong ** to restart negotiations.

In fact, after the breakdown of the last negotiations, the Russian government and the opposition all knew that East China would definitely launch another attack on Russia's Far East. It's just that at that time, no one dared to take the responsibility of losing power and humiliating the country, and many people still had a glimmer of luck, thinking that the national strength of East China could not support it to launch a military offensive again, or a surprise attack by the bandits. Interference with East China, or changes in the international situation have left East China with no spare strength to launch an attack on Russia's Far East.

However, reality has shattered the illusions of the Russians, and it is obvious that East China has not yet reached its limit and is still capable of launching a powerful offensive; and the bandit army is also useless, and the success of the last time was only achieved by chance; as for the changes in the international situation, at least for now, it is not visible. And the real threat is just around the corner, and Russia cannot just watch the Far East being invaded and occupied by East China little by little. Therefore, Nicholas II finally decided to put down his arrogant figure and restart negotiations with East China.

Although Werther felt a rare satisfaction with the quick response of the country this time, but it is not so simple to restart the negotiations, through the last negotiations, Werther also basically figured out the attitude of East China, they are not against the negotiations, and even support the negotiations, but they must take some advantage in the negotiations, of course, this is also the right of the winner, Werther does not think that there is anything wrong with this idea, in fact, if Russia ** in the last negotiations, accept East China ** conditions, the losses were much less than they are now. First, whether or not we can completely put aside the face of racial superiority or civilization superiority and formally admit defeat; second, if we do not repeat the changes, if we fail to do these two things, even if the negotiations are restarted, it will be meaningless. Because it still can't be discussed, and Werther doesn't want to talk about it.

So after a long examination, Witte sent back a long telegram to St. Petersburg, first of all, clearly pointing out that if the negotiations were restarted, East China ** would definitely put forward more stringent conditions than the previous negotiations, and it would be impossible to return the occupied areas, and East China ** would definitely ask Russia to cede another part of the land on the basis of the area under its current actual control, and the last East China ** The amount of compensation demanded is 1 billion rubles, and the resumption of negotiations will certainly increase this amount, which is estimated to be between 1.2 and 1.5 billion rubles, and possibly even 2 billion rubles. This is almost the condition that East China will offer after the resumption of negotiations, and whether it can be accepted by China.

And in the end, Witte emphasized that if Russia cannot accept such conditions, then even if the negotiations are restarted, the probability of success is very small, and if this negotiation fails again, East China will definitely launch a more fierce offensive again, so I hope that the country will make a clear decision.

Only two days after the telegram was sent, Witte received a reply from St. Petersburg, which was so efficient that Witte could hardly believe that if Russia had such efficiency, the war would not have been so badly lost. The content of the telegram also made Witte feel satisfied, St. Petersburg replied, agreeing to negotiate on the basis of the area under the actual control of the two sides, and Russia did not insist that it must return the places it had lost, as for the land ceded to East China, Witte made his own decisions and judged, did his best, and then submitted the final result to St. Petersburg for approval, and the amount of compensation, Russia did not have a clear demand, of course, as far as possible to control within 1.5 billion rubles.

In short, this time Russia has completely admitted it, and as long as it can be negotiated, it can agree to almost any conditions. So much so that Witt couldn't believe it, and read the telegram twice before he was completely relieved. However, I also had a feeling in my heart that "I knew this was the case, so why bother in the first place".

It turned out that this attack of the People's Army finally made Nicholas II feel a little scared, because if the situation continues to develop like this, the entire Far East is likely to be occupied by East China, after all, these two military attacks, East China ** does not seem to have much effort, and now Russia is obviously unable to protect the place east of Chita.

Although it is true that the reparations for the cession of land and the loss of power and humiliation of the country have damaged the image of Nicholas II as a self-appointed hero, but looking at the world, this kind of thing is not uncommon, Britain, France, the United States and Germany, including Russia, have done similar things in the past, but if the entire Far East is lost, then Nicholas II will be completely nailed to the pillar of shame in Russian history, because it will be useless to develop the Russian Tsars for hundreds of years of painstaking efforts and countless Russian heroes to pay the price of their lives. And Nicholas II will become the most incompetent tsar in the history of Russia. Although Nicholas II was a mediocre material, Bi Jing was not a fool, and after putting down his arrogance and face, and regaining his sanity and pragmatic mind, he was able to see clearly the situation facing Russia now, and at this time, Russia really did not have the capital to be tough to the end.

However, no matter how Witte feels, he can also feel that this negotiation is obviously serious and pragmatic at home, and he has an obligation to help Russia stop its losses, and in any case to keep a part of the Far East, although Russia has now lost the initiative in the Far East, as long as it has not been completely lost, then Russia will still have a chance to make a comeback in the future.

So Witte immediately sent a telegram to Qin Zheng in Shenyang in the name of Russia, demanding the resumption of negotiations between Russia and East China, and also specifically explained that the resumption of negotiations was based on the areas under the actual control of the two sides, and Russia also agreed to pay compensation to East China ** and cede a piece of land to compensate for the losses of East China**.

After receiving Werther's telegram, Qin Zheng was also very happy, it seemed that Russia was completely subdued this time, so Qin Zheng immediately replied to Werther and agreed to restart the negotiations, and the place of negotiations was still set in Harbin, and the time for negotiations was agreed. Subsequently, Qin Zheng sent another telegram to Qingdao, reporting the good news to Qingdao.