The joint military exercise between the crossing group and the Japanese Navy ended smoothly in a friendly atmosphere, and the KPA, the Beiyang Naval Division, and the Japanese Navy each gained something and returned home with a full load.

However, the Russian troops stationed in Lushun spent the five days of the military exercise in a tense atmosphere. Although the traverser, Dmitriev and the Russian administrator in the Kwantung region (i.e., Lushun) and commander of the Pacific Fleet, Vice Admiral Yevgeny Ivanovich Alekseev.

Since the location of the naval exercise is very close to Lushunkou, and the Beihuangcheng Island, where the fleets of the two sides are stationed, is only 50 kilometers away from Lushun, the exercise was almost carried out under the nose of Lushunkou, so it was strongly protested by the Russian side, but this kind of protest without any substantive countermeasures certainly could not prevent the military exercise from being held as scheduled. On the contrary, the traverser also declared in a very high-profile manner that the joint maritime military exercise was not aimed at anyone, and hoped that the countries concerned would not sit in the opposite seat, let alone interfere in the progress of the military exercise.

Although Vice Admiral Alekseev is also the commander of the Russian Pacific Fleet, the main forces of the Pacific Fleet are now anchored in Haizenwei, and there are no decent warships in Port Arthur, only a few small ships of about 1,000 tons, of course, the current Pacific Fleet, the strength is not strong, the capital ship is only an old battleship and two large armored cruisers, which is not at all an opponent of the traverser or the Japanese fleet. During the crisis on the Korean Peninsula, the Russian Pacific Fleet was stationed in the port of Incheon in Korea in the name of supporting Arthur, while Japan dispatched two battleships and four large armored cruisers to confront it.

And the Russian lease of Arthur has not been long, so the construction of Port Arthur is insufficient, most of the fortifications are used by the original Beiyang Naval Division in Arthur, the number of batteries and artillery is also seriously insufficient, if the overseas Chinese and the original fake drama is true, suddenly attack Port Arthur, the Russian army may be difficult to hold Port Arthur. Of course, in this way, it will inevitably lead to an all-out war between the overseas Chinese, the Russians, and Russia.

As a result, during the military exercise, the Russian troops stationed in Port Arthur were extremely nervous, for fear that overseas Chinese and Japan would suddenly turn around and attack Arthur. Although the traverser and the Japanese fleet did not attack Port Arthur, they intentionally or unintentionally approached Port Arthur, and sometimes the fleet sailed to less than 30 kilometers from Port Arthur, almost entering the strike range of the anti-aircraft guns on the shore. What was even more excessive was that during the artillery bombardment exercise, some shells even landed only about 15 kilometers away from Port Arthur.

The Russian soldiers stationed at the Arthur Fort could clearly see the warships of both sides shuttling back and forth on the sea, chasing each other, and the water column stirred up after the shells fell into the water. Although some officers stationed in Arthur asked Lieutenant General Alekseev, the chief administrator of Arthur, whether to send warships out of the harbor to drive away the opposing warships or to fire warning shots, Lieutenant General Alekseev strictly ordered all the batteries not to leave the harbor at any time, and not to fire unless the enemy's shells fell on the port of Arthur.

Lieutenant General Alekseev was very confused, and the reason why the overseas Chinese and Yu Ben did not attack Lushun was, of course, not because they were afraid of the defenders of Lushun, but because they had scruples about starting an all-out war with Russia, but if the Russian army took the initiative to provoke the other side at this time, wouldn't it be provoking the fire? Therefore, at this time, they could only endure it.

And Lieutenant General Alekseev is thinking about the situation in the Northeast as a whole, and not about Lushun. At this time, he had already received a report, and at the same time that the overseas Chinese and Japan were holding a naval exercise, the overseas Chinese troops stationed at Shanhaiguan suddenly started to advance to a place only about 60 kilometers away from Jinzhou, and held a land military exercise, with more than 10,000 troops dispatched, and more than 60 artillery pieces were mobilized to carry out artillery exercises.

On the other hand, Japan has increased its troops to the Korean Peninsula without warning, and nearly 70,000 troops have landed on the Korean Peninsula within five days, increasing the strength of the Japanese army on the Korean Peninsula to more than 120,000 troops, and before the Russian army can reflect it, it quickly stationed two divisions and regiments in the Seoul area of the South Korean capital, grabbed some strategic points, and broke the agreement reached between the two sides at the beginning of the year。 By the time the Russian army reacted and hurriedly increased its troops in the Seoul area, it had already lost the opportunity and was blocked by the Japanese army about 40 kilometers away from Seoul and could not advance again. Although the Russian troops stationed in Seoul held their barracks, they could not move an inch. Moreover, at present, Russia's troops in the entire Far East are less than 160,000, and at this time, in the face of the military pressure from overseas Chinese and Yuben to form a military pressure on both land and sea, it seems to be stretched and simply insufficient.

As a result, not only the situation on the Korean Peninsula but also in Northeast China has become tense, and both the Traveler and Japan have declared in a very high-profile manner that they must drive Russian forces out of Northeast China and the Korean Peninsula and will not hesitate to start a war.

Fortunately, at this time, Lieutenant General Alekseev still kept a clear head, knowing that with the current Russian military strength in the Far East, it was simply not enough to start a war with overseas Chinese and Japan at the same time, so he strictly ordered the Russian troops stationed in Jinzhou and the Korean Peninsula to strictly hold their positions, and must not easily start a war against overseas Chinese and Japan.

In fact, at this time, the atmosphere in Russia was even more tense than in the Far East, because Britain, France, and the United States all expressed to Russia the attitude of their governments through their respective ambassadors to Russia, demanding that Russia accept the results of the Shanghai negotiations and withdraw its troops from northeast China, and at the same time negotiate with Japan to resolve the Korean Peninsula issue, and the three countries also put pressure on Russia in terms of economy, trade, loans, and commerce. And although Germany supported Russian expansion in the Far East, it was of little significance because it could hardly provide Russia with any substantial help.

It can be said that Russia is now very passive in foreign affairs, and the ministers in Russia are also divided into two factions, the hardliners represented by the military demand that the Russian government immediately increase troops in the Far East and declare war on the overseas Chinese and Japan, and teach these yellow-skinned monkeys a lesson, and some people even advocate that if France does not support Russia's actions in the Far East, then the alliance with France should be terminated, and the alliance with Germany should be reinstated; while the other group is represented by civilian officials, who believe that the current international situation is unfavorable to Russia, and that Russia's forces in the Far East are limited, and that the Trans-Siberian Railway has not yet been completedAt this time, it is very unfavorable for Russia to start a war, and it is even more undesirable to terminate the alliance with France, which can only lead to Russia becoming more isolated in the international arena and having to accept the Three Emperors Alliance led by Germany, and the overseas Chinese and Japan are also pretending to be arbitrary, and they are not willing to start a full-scale war with Russia, so they should temporarily retreat at this time to ease the situation in the Far East. At the same time, it also won time for Russia to lay out the Far East.

Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his ministers negotiated for three days, and finally announced that the Russian government accepted the results of the Shanghai negotiations and was willing to negotiate with the Qing court and Japan to settle the withdrawal of troops from Northeast China and the Korean Peninsula.

Britain, France, and the United States immediately welcomed the Russian Government's statement, and at the same time appealed to overseas Chinese and Japan, hoping that they would also respond to the Russian Government's statement and negotiate a solution to the Far East problem.

The crossing group first expressed its welcome to the Russian Government's acceptance of the results of the Shanghai talks and its willingness to negotiate with Russia; then Li Hongzhang also spoke on behalf of the Qing court and agreed to negotiate with Russia to resolve the issue of the withdrawal of Russian troops from northeast China.

Japan, on the other hand, did not express its position until five days later, agreeing to negotiate with Russia to settle the division of power on the Korean Peninsula. It turned out that at this time, the belligerent forces in Japan also had a tendency to raise their heads, demanding that the Japanese government launch a war against Russia and seize Northeast China by force. Fortunately, several Japanese bigwigs, Ito Hirobumi and Yamaguchi Aritomo, were still sober at this time, knowing that Japan was not ready for war at this time, and immediately launched a war against Russia, and the outcome was unpredictable, so they tried their best to appease the officers below and dragged on for a few days.

Dmitriev first signed a supplementary agreement with Li Sanjie as an annex to the Shanghai negotiations, formally confirming Russia's accession to the Shanghai negotiations and acceptance of the Shanghai Treaty. In this way, all the countries of the Eight-Power Coalition signed the Shanghai Treaty.

Subsequently, Russia negotiated with the traveler on the issue of Russian prisoners of war, and after bargaining between the two sides, it was determined that the cost of the Russian prisoner ransom was 20 million rubles, and it was paid in francs, because the crosser only accepted the currency of Britain, France, Germany and the United States, and did not accept rubles. The 20 million rubles are equivalent to about 53.2 million francs, all guaranteed by the French government for Russia, and the payment is made at a low interest rate of 6%. This was also the condition on which the French government agreed to Russia.

However, the crossing group also proposed that Russia could not redeem all Russian prisoners of war at one time, but demanded that it be carried out in three stages: the first stage was that after Russia accepted the Shanghai Treaty, Russia could redeem one-third of Russia's prisoners of war; the second stage was that Russia and the Qing court negotiated and negotiated the successful withdrawal of Russian troops from Northeast China and signed a treaty, and then let Russia redeem one-third of Russia's prisoners of war; and the third stage was that after Russia withdrew all its troops from Northeast China, Russia would be allowed to redeem the last one-third of Russia's prisoners of war. At present, about 22,000 Russian prisoners have been captured by the traversers, so Russia can redeem about 7,000 prisoners in each stage, but for the Russian prisoners of war in the second and third stages, it is necessary to multiply a certain time coefficient to calculate the living expenses of the Russian prisoners of war during this period.

Russia was naturally unwilling to accept such an arrangement, insisting on the redemption of all Russian prisoners of war at one time, and Li Sanjie did not give an inch, and must proceed in three stages, the two sides argued for three days, but there was still no negotiation, and finally under the mediation of the British, the crossing group made certain concessions, that is, if Russia could complete the withdrawal of troops from Northeast China in 1902, then the time coefficient could not be calculated when paying the cost of the redemption. This time there was no reason for Russia to refuse, so it had to accept the result.

After negotiating with the crossing group, Dmitriev immediately started negotiations with Li Hongzhang to discuss the withdrawal of Russian troops from the northeast. At the same time, Russia sent Foreign Minister Ramsdorf to Japan to negotiate the division of Japanese and Russian forces on the Korean Peninsula.

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Note: In this era, there were two high-ranking military officers named Alekseev (or translated as Alekseev, Alekseev), one whose full name was Alexey* Alexandrovich, the illegitimate son of Emperor Alexander II of Russia, the brother of Alexander III, and the uncle of Nicholas II. Born in 1850, he was made a duke, known as Prince Alexei or Grand Duke. He was in charge of naval affairs as a representative of the Generalissimo, above the Minister of the Navy.

The other, Yevgeny Ivanovich Alexeyev, born in 1843 with the rank of lieutenant general, served as the Russian administrator in the Kwantung region (i.e., Port Arthur) and commander of the Pacific Fleet, and later the governor of Kwantung. Because of the similarity of the names and the fact that the two knew each other, the latter was recommended by the former to serve in China, many historical sources confuse the two men, including some historical materials from the former Soviet Union.

For details, see "Two Alexei in the Russo-Japanese War" in the related part of the work, two historical figures who have been confused for more than a hundred years