Yuan Shikai's heart trembled slightly, and said: "I don't know what Brother Qin thinks, what the victory or defeat will be in this Japanese-Russian war, and what will be the benefits and losses in my Qing Dynasty." ”

Qin Zheng said: "War is just the right time, the right place, and the right people, although Japan is a small country, but there is the support of Britain and the United States, two big countries, Britain and the United States, and Britain and the United States will definitely provide Japan with loan funds, equipment, On the contrary, all countries hope that Russia will lose this battle, and even France, Russia's ally, does not want Russia to win, so Japan should take the lead in occupying the sky; and this war will take place in Northeast China, which is close at hand to Japan, and the mobilization of Russian troops is thousands of miles away, which not only wastes time, but also costs a huge amount of money, and is also unfavorable to Russia in terms of geographical advantages; moreover, the military and civilians in Japan are united in their hearts, and during the First Sino-Japanese War of that year, the emperor took the lead in cutting down on food and clothing, and officials at all levels cut their salaries and donated money to buy warships, but the people in Russia were boiling with angerThere are many contradictions, riots are frequent, and Japan also has the advantage in terms of people and people, so Japan will win all three battles, so Japan will win this battle. ”

Yuan Shikai listened, and was also speechless, although he did not have a good impression of Japan and Russia, but in his concept, Russia is an old power after all, on the surface, the national strength is strong, and the people are brave, how can they not beat Japan, but listening to Qin Zheng say this, Russia is indeed inferior to Japan in three aspects: time, place, and people, can Japan really defeat Russia?

In fact, this is not Yuan Shikai's short-sightedness, in the old time and space, before the Russo-Japanese War began, no one was optimistic about Japan, after all, no matter from that aspect, Japan could not be Russia's opponent, including Japan, when the war was launched, it was also trembling, and the Meiji Emperor even planned to cancel the war two hours before the start of the war. The most typical is that during the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan also formulated three plans for victory, draw, and defeat, but during the war against Russia, it did not formulate any back-up plans at all, which was completely a desperate gamble on the fortunes of the country.

However, Qin Zheng is a late knower, knowing the outcome of this war in the old time and space, although in this era, the development of history has changed, but Qin Zheng knows that the essence of Russia's foreign power and middle cadres has not changed at this time, so he dares to make a prediction of Japan's victory.

Although Yuan Shikai was skeptical, he would not argue with Qin Zheng because of this, and said: "If it is really as Brother Qin said, Japan wins, then can the Northeast Land be recovered?"

Qin Zheng said: "Of course, if the imperial court operates properly, it will definitely be able to recover the northeast after the Russo-Japanese War." ”

Yuan Shikai suddenly came to his senses and said, "How can you see it?"

Qin Zheng said: "If this war is won by Russia, it will certainly not withdraw from the Northeast, but Japan will not win, because Japan will fight a war, it will definitely borrow from Britain and the United States, order weapons, and now Japan's warships, most of them are purchased from Britain, so they will also be subject to the two countries, and Britain and the United States do not want Russia to annex the northeast of our country, but they will not want this place to fall into the hands of Japan again, after this war, Japan will be required to return the northeast land to our country, as long as our country can invest in the northeast, It would be sufficient to make some concessions to Britain and the United States in terms of commercial interests, and to allow Japanese troops to be stationed in the northeast. ”

Yuan Shikai nodded and said, "It's just that once the war between Japan and Russia starts, it will indeed be carried out in my Great Qing Dynasty, so how should the imperial court deal with it?"

Qin Zheng said: "I have three strategies, let the imperial court choose, one of them, Japan and Russia go to war, the imperial court will declare neutrality, and demarcate the war zone of both sides, both sides will not be offended, just wait for the war to say, if this strategy is chosen, Russia will win the Northeast forever, although the Japanese victory can recover the land of the Northeast, but it will also lose most of the commercial interests of the Northeast, and Japan will definitely garrison troops in the Northeast, and can get concessions, The second is that Japan and Russia go to war, and the imperial court helps Japan to fight Russia, and if necessary, it can even send troops to help the war, or take the opportunity to occupy key places, if Russia wins, the northeast will still be lost forever, but if Japan wins, the imperial court can also bargain with Japan, and strive to lose less interests, but Japan may not easily retreat, and will still stay in the northeast to garrison, and the future trouble is still there, which can only be regarded as a medium policy. ”

Yuan Shikai nodded again and again, and said, "What about the best policy?"

Qin Zheng glanced at Yuan Shikai and said: "The best policy is to start a war between Japan and Russia, and the imperial court will strictly reprimand the two countries to fight in our territory, and immediately march to the front line of Jinzhou and Guanning, called monitoring the two countries, no matter whether Japan and Russia win or lose, the loser is not enough, and the winner will be exhausted and unable to fight again, so the imperial court can drive each other by force, completely recover the northeast land, and there will be no future trouble." ”

Yuan Shikai was stunned for a moment and said: "Wouldn't this mean to offend Japan and Russia at the same time? Not to mention that Britain, the United States, France, Germany, and other countries would also interfere." ”

Qin Zheng said with a smile: "It is not a bad thing for Britain, the United States, France, Germany and other countries to interfere, and it is just a good thing to use the intervention to force Japan and Russia to withdraw from the Northeast." ”

Yuan Shikai smiled bitterly and said: "And even if Japan and Russia are defeated, I'm afraid it won't be easy to deal with, and I won't hide it from Brother Qin, I'm afraid that the imperial court will still be unable to handle it." ”

Qin Zheng said: "If the imperial court is still beyond its strength, we are willing to relieve the worries of the imperial court, as long as it is ordered by the imperial court, we can now send troops to Jinzhou and wait to recover the northeast." ”

Speaking of this, Yuan Shikai couldn't say anything more, so he had to say: "Okay, what your people want, Yuan will definitely tell the court." How to decide should be decided by the imperial court. However, recently, there are boxers Yu Zhong Jing Tingbin, Zhao Sanduo, Li Zhuangyong and others have gathered in Zhili, Henan and other places to make trouble, endangering the place, the court has ordered Yuan to lead the army to quell the chaos, Yuan will also send troops soon, but this gang of boxers and bandits are close to Shandong, and the soldiers are together, it is inevitable that there will be chaos and troops fleeing into your jurisdiction and disturbing the place, so you must not guard against it. ”

Qin Zheng said: "Please rest assured, Brother Weiting, we will garrison troops on the border of Shandong, and will never let the rebel army enter Shandong, if there is really a chaotic army crossing the border, we will also annihilate them on the spot, so Brother Weiting only worry about the land of Zhili, Henan, and Shanxi, and we can ensure that Shandong is foolproof." ”

Of course, Yuan Shikai could hear that Qin Zheng actually meant that he didn't want the Beiyang New Army to enter the territory of Shandong Province, and if there were remnants of the boxers who fled into Shandong, the People's Army would exterminate them, but he wouldn't care how the Beiyang New Army made trouble in Zhili and Henan. In fact, Yuan Shikai did not want to enter Shandong Province, but he was afraid that fighting on the border of Shandong would cause misunderstanding among overseas Chinese, or that the boxers would flee into Shandong Province and cause dissatisfaction among overseas Chinese.

And Qin Zheng's attitude is exactly in the hands of Yuan Shikai, even if Qin Zheng said so, then he will desperately drive the boxers to Shandong, anyway, the overseas Chinese will intercept them at the border of Shandong, so that the boxers can be annihilated by rushing and blocking, and if the boxers are really allowed to run into Shandong, it is also unfavorable for the overseas Chinese to intercept themselves, no wonder themselves.

So Yuan Shikai immediately said: "If this is the case, then I can rest assured, when Yuan sends troops, he will notify your people and take precautions." ”

It turned out that after discussion, the traversers believed that the Qing army must not be allowed to enter Shandong, and if there were really Boxers, if there were many people, they would be blocked outside Shandong, and if there were few people, they could be put into Shandong Province first, and then try to besiege and force land.

Although during the Gengzi Revolution, the performance of the Boxers was very ignorant and old-fashioned, even absurd, and xenophobic, but the fundamental cause of the Gengzi Revolution was not caused by the Boxers, but the decision-making mistakes of the Qing court, and most of the Boxers came from the bottom society of China, which is exactly the class that the travelers need to unite, because the number of people in this class is large, once properly organized, it will form a huge force, and the life of this class is extremely poor, so it is also the easiest to mobilize, in the words of the old time and space, it belongs to the highest revolutionary consciousness, and the most determined one。 Although there were also incidents of Li Zhuangyong's defection, the vast majority of them became qualified soldiers after political education, and they were extremely loyal to the travelers, so the travelers were also quite confident in reforming the Boxer members.

After leaving Qingdao, Yuan Shikai returned to Beijing, first reported his trip to Qingdao to the Military Aircraft Department, and then explained the attitude of the traverser, together with the three suggestions given by Qin Zheng, in great detail.

After listening to Yuan Shikai's speech, several ministers of military aircraft discussed for a day and believed that Russia's conditions should still be rejected. In fact, several ministers of military aircraft are inclined to reject Russia in their hearts, first, Russia is too arrogant and rude, and several people have no good impression of Russia. Britain and the United States, and even Japan in this era of the image of the Chinese in the heart of the image is much better than Russia, although Japan defeated the Qing court in the Sino-Japanese War, but later also paid more attention to repairing the relationship with the Qing court, during the change of law, Yi Bowen also visited China, and was received by Guangxu, if it was not for the change of law hastily ended, Yi Bowen may serve as an adviser to the Chinese change of law, and during the Gengzi State change, the Japanese army was relatively good military discipline.

In addition, overseas Chinese also agreed to help, although several military ministers knew that among the three strategies offered by Qin Zheng, the Qing court would never choose the best policy, and most of them would choose the lower policy, but in any case, the overseas Chinese agreed to help, which also made everyone feel that they had some confidence to argue with Russia.

So on the very next day, several ministers of military aircraft jointly entered the palace to meet Cixi and Guangxu, stated their interests, suggested that Russia should be rejected immediately, and demanded that Russia respect the [Treaty of Settlement of the Three Eastern Provinces]. Cixi was not very familiar with the international situation, but she still believed in these military ministers, and asked some details, so she finally made up her mind and made the Russian conditions official.