Received the third mediation proposal from the United States, East China was also relieved, to be honest, at this time Xia Bohai, Qin Zheng, Xiao Jianjun, Wang Yunpeng, Xu Jichao and other leaders of East China also collapsed, although the means of pressure have been used, but how much effect can be achieved, when it can be effective, no one knows the bottom of their hearts.

Xia Bohai and others are very clear that although East China now occupies an absolute advantage, and the performance is quite strong, say to fight, say to grab, Britain, France, Japan and Russia and other countries basically have no way to take East China, but the basis of this advantage is quite fragile, once the critical point is passed, then East China will be an avalanche of collapse.

On the one hand, it is to exert pressure on Britain, France, Japan, Russia and other countries to force them to submit as soon as possible, and on the other hand, it is also to extend the time for the arrival of the critical point through looted materials, but these practices can only extend the time for a limited time, and the critical point will eventually come, so whether Britain, France, Japan, Russia and other countries can be forced to submit before the critical point arrives, no one dares to make this guarantee.

Although at this time the Netherlands had been subdued, and signed a treaty with East China ** to pay reparations and cede land, but because the strength of the Netherlands was too weak, it was almost insignificant in the expeditionary force, so the submission of softness was only symbolic, but it had no substantial impact on the overall situation, and now Britain and France finally surrendered to East China ** and accepted the conditions of reparations, which is the real major turning point. It means the complete disintegration of the alliance of the expeditionary forces.

Huadong ** immediately said that it could accept US mediation, but demanded that the venue for negotiations be set in Shanghai. In fact, the location of the negotiation is very important, and the location of the territory of the other side means that the other side has the advantage of the negotiation, and if the two sides are evenly matched, it is generally located in a neutral country.

The United States did not ask for the venue of this negotiation to be set in the United States, because President Roosevelt knew very well that the role of the United States in this negotiation was not so much a mediator as a messenger, and it did not have much influence on the three parties to the negotiations, so it was impossible for it to lead the negotiations, and naturally he would not ask for the venue of the negotiations to be set in the United States. Britain and France had no objection to this, but only put forward a demand, that is, to demand that East China stop intercepting merchant ships and attacking the ports of the British and French colonies.

East China** refused to stop intercepting merchant ships, but agreed to stop attacking the ports of the British and French colonies. In fact, this reply, East China ** also has its own considerations, first of all, after the fleet attacked the port of Saigon, it did not continue to attack other ports of the Indochinese Federation, but returned to Java to implement the negotiated agreement, ready to take over the dominance of Kalimantan Island, so to stop attacking the ports of the British and French colonies, it is just a casual sale, and secondly, to divide Britain and France.

Although Britain and France negotiated with East China together this time and intended to assist each other, the two countries were not monolithic, and their respective interests and demands were not the same. The cessation of attacks on the ports of the British and French colonies in East China is actually beneficial to France, because the Indochinese Confederation is France's most important overseas colony, and in addition to Saigon, there are also important ports such as Hongji, Da Nang, and Cam Ranh; while Britain's colonies in Southeast Asia are of little value, and the only important port is Singapore, but Singapore still has three battleships; but the interception of merchant ships is a big loss for Britain, and a small loss for France.

Sure enough, after receiving the reply from East China, Britain and France immediately had a disagreement, Britain believed that it could not accept this condition of East China, and still had to continue to put pressure on East China, and must stop intercepting merchant ships; while France advocated accepting this condition, and Bi Jing's result was beneficial to itself, and if it continued to put pressure on East China, in case East China changed its way around, stopped intercepting merchant ships, but continued to attack the port, it would be self-defeating.

So in the face of interests, of course, can not make concessions, so Britain and France also launched a fierce debate, and finally France said that if Britain can not accept the conditions of East China, then France will hold negotiations with East China alone. In desperation, Britain can only compromise, otherwise waiting for the successful negotiation between France and East China will only be more unfavorable to Britain.

Britain and France have accepted the conditions of East China, the next thing is to determine the negotiator, the two sides have a dispute, if from Britain and France to send people to China to negotiate, at least it will drag on for 1 month, so Britain advocates that the two countries in the Qing State Minister as a negotiator, at this time the British Minister to the Qing State is Sir Zhu Erdian, this person is a British diplomatic veteran, has served in the Qing court for many years, has a wide range of contacts, and the Qing court's important ministers have their own deceased Li Hongzhang, still in the Qing prince, Zhang Zhidong, Yuan Shikai and others have established good personal friendships, and Britain is also relieved to entrust him with such an important matter, and it is also beneficial to Britain to negotiate and restore peace as soon as possible.

At this time, the intelligence of the French minister to the Qing Dynasty, Pasteur, was relatively mediocre and his ability was average, so France was a little uneasy about him, and felt that it was reliable to send people from the country, and the impact on France for one month was small.

However, this time it was the turn of the British to say no, Britain ** said that now Britain cannot afford to waste time, if France insists on sending people from Europe, then Britain will take the lead in negotiations with East China**. And France also knows that it can't let Britain and East China negotiate first, so it can only take a step back.

The negotiator sent by East China is still Li Sanjie, with Li Songchen, the head of the Shanghai region, as his deputy, and the venue for the negotiation is the China Merchants Building of Shanghai Steamship.

This building was built in 1901, a total of 3 floors high, was originally the headquarters of Shanghai Steamship China Merchants Bureau, Steamship China Merchants Bureau is a Qing court Westernization movement, one of the few more successful modern enterprises, belongs to the nature of the government and business, the two sides jointly funded, the government is responsible for the business, the businessman is responsible for the substantive operation, the person in charge is Li Hongzhang's most trusted Sheng Xuanhuai. However, after the Gengzi State Change, the Qing court declined, coupled with the rise of East China, and meddled in the shipping business, so the steamship China Merchants Bureau gradually weakened.

After the occupation of Shanghai by East China, the assets of the Qing court were taken into their own possession, because the steamship China Merchants Bureau belonged to the nature of government and business, so East China ** and Sheng Xuanhuai negotiated and decided to buy out all the commercial shares of the steamship China Merchants at a price of 6 million silver dollars, and all the steamship China Merchants Bureau was brought under the control of East China **, and this new building, which had just been built for 5 years, also became the state-owned assets of East China. At the suggestion of Li Songchen, the venue for the Shanghai talks was set here. Because this place used to belong to the concession, but the property rights of this building belonged to the Qing court, but now it is East China.

Since the British and French negotiators were in China, the negotiations were quickly held, in fact, there were not many terms in this negotiation that were worth too much entanglement, after all, the results achieved by East China on the battlefield, such as the recovery of the Shanghai Concession, the confiscation of the assets of British and French merchants in the concession, the captured British and French warships, and the interception of captured British and French merchant ships, commodities, etc., will not be spit out, and there is little interest in other interests of Britain and France, mainly the amount and form of indemnity.

Of course, there is still a dispute over the choice of words, such as the ownership of the Shanghai Concession, Britain and France both advocate the use of "transfer", while East China ** insists on using "repossession", the difference between the word, but the meaning is completely different. However, for the British and French prisoners, as well as the captured merchants and merchant ships of the two countries, East China ** promised to release them all. In addition, Britain and France also recognized that East China has jurisdiction over the Yangtze River waterway, which is actually to recognize that the Yangtze River is the sphere of influence of East China. And East China** also promised to open up to British and French companies after successful negotiations.

The benefits are considerable, the Yangtze River is not just a waterway, but a huge river water transport system, and can radiate to the land on both sides. Therefore, East China controlled the Yangtze River, and could easily expand its influence to Wuchang in central Hubei and even Yichang.

In fact, now East China only controls the mouth of the Yangtze River, but without the mouth of the sea, the value of the Yangtze River waterway has dropped by more than half, so Britain and France can only recognize the Yangtze River as the sphere of influence of East China, in exchange for East China ** to open the Yangtze River waterway to British and French companies. Of course, in the future, the Yangtze River shipping and how to distribute the interests along the Yangtze River will be determined by the parties holding special business negotiations.

It took only three days for the three parties to settle down all these easy-to-resolve matters, and then they entered into the most difficult reparations negotiations, although Britain and France were ready to pay reparations, but the amount of the two sides was naturally as small as possible, so the two sides launched a fierce game, each quoting scriptures, arguing on the basis of reason, bargaining, and sometimes fighting for red faces.

After five days of repeated disputes and bargaining, East China** and France first determined the amount of the reparations, 1.5 billion francs, or about 60 million pounds. At the beginning, East China's ** offer was 2 billion francs, and France only wanted to pay 1 billion francs, after a lot of repeated dramas, East China** dropped to 1.5 billion francs, but France insisted on only 1.2 billion francs; the two sides argued for 2 days, and each refused to give in another step, Li Songchen even said that 1.5 billion francs is the bottom line of East China**, if France refuses again, it can only declare that the negotiations have failed, and East China ** will immediately resume port attacks on the Indochinese Federation.

And in the face of the threat of force in East China, France finally compromised. In fact, 1.5 billion francs is basically within the expectation of France, because in the Portsmouth negotiations, the amount of reparations offered by East China to Japan and Russia is 50 million pounds, and now that East China has defeated the expeditionary force, the price will of course rise, so 60 million pounds is not outrageous.