Soon, the two bills of the "East China Government Currency Reform Plan" and "East China Government Investment Promotion Management Regulations" were passed in the Senate House and became formal bills that could be implemented. So Yang Yuxin left Qingdao with the officially confirmed [Regulations on the Administration of Investment Promotion of the East China Government] and returned to Shanghai.

As soon as Yang Yuxin left, someone immediately visited Qingdao, this time the Japanese minister to China, Komura Shotaro, and the Japanese consul in Tianjin, Ijiin Hikoyoshi. The purpose of their trip was to formally reach an agreement with the East China government to jointly confront Russia.

It turned out that in early March, the East China government issued a statement strongly condemning Russia for violating the [Treaty on the Withdrawal of Troops from the Three Eastern Provinces] and stopped exchanging Russian prisoners. This news has also aroused great attention in Japan, because there are still about 15,000 Russian prisoners in the hands of the East China government, and if the overseas Chinese and Russia really fall out, they will resolutely not release this group of prisoners, which will reduce a lot of pressure on Japan. Moreover, in Japan, the call for the Japanese government and overseas Chinese to join hands against Russia has also been raised again.

During the Gengzi Revolution, in order to resist the pressure of Russia, the Crossing and Japan had a period of joint cooperation, and the two sides even held a joint naval exercise near the northern mouth of the Bohai Bay and the open sea off Arthur to exert pressure on Russia. However, after the traversers achieved a great victory in the mountains and mountains and defeated the Russian army moving south, it also aroused the alarm of Japan. Because some people in Japan have found that the overseas Chinese not only have a strong navy, but also the army is also good, because the army of overseas Chinese is actually composed of the people of the Qing State, but after the training of the overseas Chinese, the Qing people, who are regarded by Japan as an inferior nation, have shown strong combat effectiveness, and can actually defeat the powerful Russian army in the case of fewer enemies and more enemies, so if they have a firm foothold in China, or even at some point in the future, they will control the whole of China, even if they only control half of China, they will also have extremely huge manpower and material resources, and what a terrifying force will erupt。

At some point in the future, the overseas Chinese will certainly replace the Qing court, and this prediction has basically become a consensus among various countries, not only because the strength displayed by the overseas Chinese has far surpassed that of the Qing court, but also because the overseas Chinese have not taken the Qing court seriously at all, and they have actually established a completely independent political organization in Shandong. The difference between countries is only in time, and it is generally believed that overseas Chinese will replace the Qing court in 10 years at the earliest, and no more than 20 years at the latest.

In Japan, there are also a number of people who have made a serious assessment of this, believing that judging from the tough stance of overseas Chinese in negotiations with various countries and the nationalist tendencies they vigorously promote in the areas under their rule, overseas Chinese will inevitably be Japan's formidable opponents in the future, because the Qing and Japan are too close to each other, and Shandong, the fiefdom of overseas Chinese, is even closer to Japan, and there is no room for two powerful countries in Asia, and from now on, Japan should make every effort to prevent the rise of overseas Chinese.

However, there are also some Japanese who believe that although in the long run, Japan and overseas Chinese may become hostile forces, for the time being, Russia is Japan's biggest opponent, and Japan and overseas Chinese have the same interests in the goal of joining forces to resist Russia, so at this stage Japan should completely strengthen cooperation with overseas Chinese to jointly confront Russia.

Moreover, after the success of the Shanghai negotiations, Russia, under the pressure of various countries, promised to withdraw its troops from the northeast, which also greatly reduced Japan's pressure on Korea, so the call for the threat theory of overseas Chinese became higher and higher.

However, in response to the Anglo-Japanese alliance, Russia refused to withdraw its troops from the northeast for the second time, and at the same time formed the First Pacific Fleet, including six battleships, including the Retvizan, Victory, Sevastopol, Poltava, Pavlovsk, and Perest, which were stationed in Port Arthur, plus the two large armored cruisers Gromobow and Rurik in Vladivostok, and five large protective cruisers of 6,000 tons, so Russia's naval strength in the Far East has surpassed the unfinished "66th Fleet". of the Japanese Navy.

Moreover, at this time, Russia still has a battleship under construction in France, the Prince, which is expected to be put into service this year, and the construction of five Borodino-class battleships in China is expected to be completed and put into service around 1905, of which three will be arranged in the Far East; in addition, in Russia's Baltic Fleet and Black Sea Fleet, there are also seven battleships, which can be sent to the Far East at any time, which also makes Japan feel heavy pressure, that is, it has completed the "66th Fleet". There is still a huge gap between the two sides in the navy.

After all, Russia is not a big but not strong Qing court, the land area is almost 50 times that of Japan, the population is 3.5 times that of Japan, and there are more than 10 million square kilometers of colonies overseas, and it is rich in resources, and the overall national strength is almost 10 times that of Japan.

At this time, Britain proposed to Japan to seek cooperation with overseas Chinese against Russia. Because once Japan and Russia went to war, because Britain wanted to contain France, as long as France did not enter the war, Britain would not directly intervene in the war, so only overseas Chinese could help Japan militarily at that time.

In fact, this was just an excuse for Britain, because as long as France's interests in the Far East were not infringed upon, it would certainly not intervene in the war in the Far East, after all, France's focus was now on guarding against Germany in Europe, and it had no time to take care of anything else, even if it was for the sake of its ally Russia.

Britain is naturally looking at the fire from the other side, so the so-called containment of France is not established at all, and the goal of Britain's alliance with Japan is to let Japan act as its own thug to take advantage of the fire, rather than to take action himself, because the Boer War has consumed a lot of Britain's national strength at this time, and now Britain has no strength to launch another large-scale war in the Far East. In order to increase Japan's chances of winning, tying overseas Chinese together has become the most suitable choice.

Of course, Britain is not unaware that overseas Chinese will inevitably be a huge threat to Britain in the Far East in the future, but now they are burning their eyebrows, and they can only look at the present, and the Boer War is expected to end within the year, and it will be delayed for a few more years, and when the British Empire eases up, it will not be afraid of the rise of overseas Chinese in the Far East, and now it is better to contain Russia first.

Although the two countries signed a treaty of alliance, Britain is undoubtedly the dominant party, and Japan can only be regarded as a little brother, so the big brother spoke, Japan naturally could not help but listen, and the pressure from Russia is also real, in addition to the big brother, Japan really needs to find another helper. Therefore, the Japanese government immediately ordered the Japanese minister to China, Komura Shotaro, to immediately contact the overseas Chinese and test the attitude of the overseas Chinese toward Russia.

However, Komura Shoutaro had no communication with overseas Chinese, so he asked the Japanese consul in Tianjin, Ijiin Hikoyoshi, and asked him to help thread the needle and contact overseas Chinese.

Of course, Ijiin Hikoyoshi did not slack off, but fortunately, the East China government had a special foreign affairs department, so Ijiin Hikoyoshi first made an appointment to meet Li Sanjie and agreed to meet Komura Shoutaro in the name of the Japanese government. After the two sides met, Komura Shotaro directly explained his intentions, saying that the Japanese government hoped to join hands with the East China government to jointly fight against Russia.

In fact, the traverser had already made a plan, that is, to take advantage of the Russo-Japanese War to take advantage of the exhaustion of both sides and the defeat of both sides. But now that the Japanese have come to the door, they can also entrust the Japanese with a snake. At least on the surface, making a pretense of joining forces with Japan against Russia would not only allow Japan to relax its vigilance against the East China government, but also appease Britain.

Now the traverser can basically be sure that the two public opinion attacks against the traverser in Shanghai are all Japanese, and this also shows that Japan has been alert to the development and rise of the East China government, and this is of course unfavorable to the East China government, and if Japan is allowed to shift its attention to Russia and relax its containment of the East China government, it will naturally be conducive to the development of the East China government. In addition, if Britain can be appeased, it can also expand the development space of the East China government, although Britain was dragged down by the Boer War, but after all, it is a thin camel bigger than a horse, and the current Britain is still the strongest in the world, if Britain wants to curb the development of the East China government, then it will bring great difficulties to the East China government.

As a result, Xia Bohai, Qin Zheng, Wang Yunpeng, and others also met with Komura Shoutaro one after another, and they all expressed their willingness to carry out extensive cooperation with Japan to jointly resist Russia's expansion in the Far East. At the same time, he also put forward several principles for cooperation: First, it is necessary to respect China's sovereignty and territory, and after the two sides work together to drive Russia out of Northeast China, sovereignty over the Northeast region still belongs to China; second, the traverser suggested that the cooperation between the East China Government and Japan should be in the form of a secret agreement and should not be made public to the outside world, so as not to be known to Russia and raise vigilance; while Komura Shoutaro proposed that the East China Government should recognize Japan's interests and rights on the Korean Peninsula.

Both sides were satisfied with the preliminary results of the talks, and Yu Luo agreed that the two governments would hold detailed consultations on the form of cooperation between the two governments.