After the end of the executive meeting at the end of the year, East China ** set up a mission to visit Japan and set off for Japan.

The mission is actually composed of two parts, one part is responsible for signing a contract with Japan, and then holding a meeting with Japan to issue a peace declaration and other documents, which is actually a formality, and the other part is at the request of Japan, and Japan to negotiate a trade agreement between the two sides, although signing a trade agreement with Japan is also beneficial to East China, but the content of the agreement must be carefully considered, and must not be easily dealt with, so this is likely to be a difficult negotiation.

So East China finally decided that Qin Zheng would serve as the head of the delegation and lead the team to visit Japan. Because it is Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi who visits East China on behalf of Japan, according to the principle of diplomatic reciprocity, only the "Big Five" in East China are qualified, but among the Big Five, Xiao Jianjun is a military commissar, one level lower in the administrative level, and Xu Jichao has visited Germany, Xia Bohai as the head of state, of course, can not visit easily, Wang Yunpeng wants to preside over the affairs of the Executive Yuan, so Qin Zheng can only come forward to visit Japan.

In fact, Qin Zheng's task is also very heavy now, in addition to a mess of things in the Senate, after Xu Jichao's visit to Germany, most of the things in his hands were taken over by Qin Zheng, fortunately, this visit to Japan will not be very long, it is estimated that it will be about a week, at most two weeks, and after the end of the year-end meeting of the Senate, there will be a small period of work, so at this time, Qin Zheng will be away for a week or two, and he can still take care of it.

As the deputy head of the delegation is Ye Yanfu, the commercial commissioner, his main job is to conduct trade negotiations with Japan, if the negotiations reach an impasse, or longer than expected, Qin Zheng will return first, leaving Ye Yanfu in Japan to continue negotiations.

In addition, there is also an important task for this visit to Japan, which is to prepare for the East China ** Consulate in Japan, and the veteran of the East China ** Consulate in Japan is called Zhu Ziping, who is a director of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and was elected as the East China ** Consul in Japan through open recruitment, and also determined 15 other consulate members, including the vice consul, The counselors are all veterans, the others are native naturalized citizens, and there are 4 soldiers, this time they also followed the mission to Japan, and during this visit, the consulate of East China in Japan will be officially established.

However, although it is called the consulate now, it is actually built according to the standards of the embassy, Bi Jingyi overthrew the Qing court in East China, and after the official founding of the country, it will be upgraded to an embassy, and this time will not be too long, so it is better to be in place at one time and directly build according to the standards of the embassy. Of course, when I first arrived in Japan, Japan temporarily provided rooms for the consulate staff to live and work.

After the visit, Zhu Ziping and other relevant personnel will remain in Japan, as the first batch of personnel stationed in Japan, to exercise the authority and tasks of consular affairs. In addition, the location of the consulate was selected in Tokyo, and then Qingdao sent construction personnel and building materials to Japan for construction, and the official opening of the museum was completed after completion.

The delegation of East China ** arrived in Japan by boat and docked in Tokyo Bay, only to see a welcoming crowd standing on the pier, but if you look closely, they are all children in their teens, wearing neat uniforms, holding flowers, and waving enthusiastically. This also made Qin Zheng and others a little surprised, it is not a new thing to welcome foreign guests with children and teenagers, but with so many children and teenagers, and only with children and teenagers, there are basically no adults to welcome foreign guests, it is very rare, I don't understand how Japan thinks about it.

On the one hand, Japan hoped to hold a grand welcoming ceremony, not only to express goodwill to East China, but also to further exert pressure on Britain; on the other hand, Japan was afraid that something would happen, although public opinion was suppressed by Japan, but the accumulated grievances did not subside, and when welcoming a large number of people, it was inevitable that there would be places where the greetings were not well received, and if an incident similar to the assassination of Li Hongzhang occurred again, it would be troublesome.

Hurting foreign envoys, this is unjustifiable in the international community in any case, what is even more terrible is the anger of East China, you must know that East China is not comparable to the Qing court, and the current situation is not comparable to the negotiations in Shimonoseki, once an accident really happens, East China will never be as good as Li Hongzhang, but will definitely launch a fierce retaliation against Japan, and it is by no means a consequence that Japan can afford.

In the end, Japan really came up with a solution, that is, to replace adults with children, select more than 1,000 children aged 10-13 from national elementary schools and junior high schools in Tokyo, and train these children together so that they will not be instructed by adults. Because children are easier to control, and the use of children as welcoming personnel is a bit strange, but not rude.

At the same time, Japan has also prepared more than 5,000 policemen in Tokyo to control Tokyo and the surrounding areas, strictly guard against it, and never allow demonstrations and protests, and arrange more than 6,000 soldiers to act as reserves in case of accidents.

Of course, the delegation of East China did not know the good intentions of Japan, although it was a little strange that children were welcomed, but it was not a big deal, so Qin Zheng and others did not care, after getting off the ship, Japanese Foreign Minister Komura Shoutaro welcomed the delegation of East China on behalf of Japan, and also arranged for 20 young men and women dressed up to present flowers to Qin Zheng and other main members of the mission, and the welcome atmosphere was quite good.

Komura Shoutaro has been sending the delegation of East China ** to the hotel to check in, and checked the security of the entire hotel, and then instructed the personnel in charge of security before going back.

The next day, Ito Hirobumi met with Qin Zheng, and the two sides held formal talks, in which the two sides once again reaffirmed the willingness of Japan and East China to establish peaceful and friendly relations between countries, no more wars, and enhance mutual trust, and jointly promote the prosperity, progress, civilization, and scientific and technological development of the Asian region. In the end, the two sides formally signed a friendship agreement based on the consensus reached during Ito's visit to Qingdao. The meeting was also successfully completed.

After the talks, Ito Hirobumi hosted a state banquet to entertain the delegation, and also arranged many traditional Japanese art performances, such as flower arrangement, tea ceremony, Noh opera and kabuki, etc., but frankly speaking, Qin Zheng and others are not very interested in these traditional arts in Japan, mainly because of the cultural differences, although compared with European culture, Japanese traditional culture and traditional Chinese culture are closer, but there is still a big difference, and Qin Zheng and others come from modern society, in modern society, whether it is Chinese culture and Japanese culture, they have actually absorbed a considerable part of the elements of European culture, and at the same time, they have lost a lot of their own post-traditions, although before the crossing, China and Japan are rediscovering, recognize their own traditional culture, but there is very little exchange between Chinese and Japanese traditional culture, because it is the Chinese's perception of Japan is mainly anime, Japanese dramas, cuisine, and small movies, and slightly related to traditional culture only Yamato drama and Go, so Qin Zheng and others can accept Chinese culture in this era, and European culture also has considerable identity, but lack of awareness and understanding of Japanese culture in this era, naturally there are traditional art performances that cannot be appreciated in Japan.

And on the other hand, the appearance of the Japanese artists who perform is really not flattering, such as the Japanese women who perform flower arrangements and tea ceremonies, their appearance is still at the upper middle level, and the kimonos they wear also have another charm, but everyone has shaved their eyebrows, and they feel awkward no matter how they look at it; The movements, including the intonation, are exaggerated, but this Bi Jing is a stage performance, and it can be seen without being strong, but everyone is on the stage with a face, which seems a little nondescript, and although Chinese Peking Opera also has a face, it is painted directly on the face, and the performance also pays great attention to the change of facial expressions, which makes people feel much more comfortable.

Although the theatrical performance is a sacrificial performance of the reborn religion, but the Chinese Peking Opera also includes other dramas, which have basically been completely separated from the rituals, and the content is also based on historical romance stories; Can't raise any appetite at all, of course, although it is a Japanese state banquet, but in fact, it is just some sushi, rice, raw thorns and the like, so the appetite of Qin Zheng and others is not very good, but out of diplomatic etiquette, they can only be patient and watch all these traditional Japanese art performances, and can only return to the hotel in the evening, and eat collectively to spend the night.

In the following days, Qin Zheng held talks with some Japanese officials, and also participated in two public welfare activities, basically talking about friendship, peace, cooperation, etc., and was also received by Emperor Meiji.

Being able to be received by the imperial family is a very high courtesy in a constitutional monarchy, depending on whether it is the Japanese imperial family at this time, or as a god, it is easy to meet people, even foreign envoys. But in order to succeed in his plan, Ito Hirobumi also really worked hard, and under his strong facilitation, Emperor Meiji finally agreed to meet Qin Zheng to show that Japan attached great importance to this visit to East China, but Emperor Meiji only agreed to meet Qin Zheng alone, not including the rest of the mission, after all, the emperor still has to maintain a certain sense of mystery, not like the big road goods, anyone can see it. But this was enough, and Ito Hirobumi believed that as long as the emperor received Qin Zheng, it would be enough for Britain to feel enough pressure.