The consuls of various countries negotiated for more than an hour, and although they did not discuss any results, in fact, everyone knew that there would be no results at all, because even if Beijing sent troops to rescue the concession, it would take at least about three days, so unless God really appeared, so that the enemy army would not attack the concession during these three days.

But the consuls received some information from Fukushima Yasumasa about who their enemies were. The enemy encountered this time was not the Boxer Rebellion, nor the army of the Chun Kingdom, but a group of Chinese who claimed to be from overseas.

Of course, the consuls were not without suspicions, because they had never heard of a country established by the Chinese overseas, but now is not the time to get to the bottom of it, one thing is undeniable, that is, the strength of the enemy this time is far stronger than that of the Boxers or the Qing army, and it is by no means comparable to the current concession, so even if you know who your enemy is, at most you can make yourself die, but in the end it is still a death.

In the end, the meeting ended not because of the results of the discussion, but because someone came to report that there was chaos in the concession, and all kinds of rumors were flying, many people rushed to the dock to find a boat to leave, and some people ran away in a carriage, and in order to compete for the boat and carriage, many people fought and robbed, and the patrol police in the concession could not suppress it, and several lives had been killed.

So the consuls of various countries had to terminate the meeting and come out to appease the residents in the concession, because many of the residents in the concession had guns, and it would be terrible to continue the chaos, and before the enemy could fight, the concession would probably fight a big war first.

At present, the British Consul General in Tianjin, Jin Zhang, immediately ordered Fukushima Yasumasa and Bauer to immediately dispatch troops to maintain order in the concession, and first of all, it was necessary to ensure that there was no chaos in the concession.

After all, the army is an army, and immediately after the dispatch, dozens of people who were hysterical and fell into madness, or took advantage of the chaos to fish in troubled waters, and killed six people on the spot, which also shocked many people, and immediately controlled the situation in the concession, and at the same time blocked the wharf and roads, and forbade the people in the concession to leave. Of course, three boats were taken away, and a few carriages escaped.

Jin Zhang and other consuls came to the gate of Gordon Hall and made a speech to the residents of the concession, saying that the consuls of various countries would never flee by themselves, and would do their best to protect the concession and ask the residents to remain calm and assist the army, and the consulate had sent a telegram to Beijing, asking Beijing to send troops to defend the concession as soon as possible, believing that reinforcements would arrive soon. In addition, now that Dagukou and Tianjin have been occupied by the enemy, even if they escape from the concession area, they can escape there, so it is better to stay in the concession and work together to defend the concession and tide over this difficulty together.

After listening to Jin Zhang's speech, the residents calmed down a lot, because whether they can keep the concession or not, but at least Jin Zhang is not wrong about one thing, that is, if you escape the concession, you may not be able to survive, but if you stay in the concession, there may be a glimmer of life.

Seeing that the mood of the residents had finally calmed down, the consuls were also relieved, and Jin Zhang appointed Colonel Bauer to take full responsibility for the military command, and immediately began to arrange the defense of the concession. In fact, Jin Zhang also knew that the amount of cloth defense was useless at all, but at this time, he had to make an appearance, so that the residents could rest assured, otherwise it would be chaotic.

After Colonel Bauer was ordered to leave, the people gathered in front of Gordon Hall gradually dispersed, when the Japanese consul in Tianjin, Hikoyoshi, leaned over and whispered: "Your Excellency, our enemy has sent us a letter. ”

Jin Zhang was stunned for a moment and said, "What letter?"

Ijiin Hikoyoshi pointed behind him, and next to Fukushima Yasumasa stood a Japanese soldier with white gauze wrapped around his head, Ijiin Hikoyoshi said: "He was a soldier who was captured by the enemy in the city of Tianjin, and according to him, the commander of the enemy army put him back and sent us a letter. ”

Jin Zhang nodded and said, "Let's go to the conference room first." ”

The consuls returned to the conference room, and Hikoyoshi of Ijiin handed over the letter brought back by the soldiers to Jin Zhang, and the seal had not yet been opened. And everyone else was talking about it, not knowing what was in the letter.

After opening the envelope, there were three sheets of paper, all handwritten, one in English, one in French, and one in Chinese. Jin Zhang understands French, and as a consul in China, of course, he also understands Chinese, so he simply looked at the first few lines and determined that the content of these three sheets of paper was the same. So he handed the piece of paper written in French to the French Consul General in Tianjin, Du Shilan, and put the paper on which Chinese was written on the conference table, so that people who knew Chinese could take it and read it for themselves.

This was a letter of persuasion, of course, drafted by the headquarters, and passed to the Zhi-9, which was translated into English and French by the officers and soldiers here, copied by hand, and sent a captured Japanese soldier to the concession. The letter first told the consuls that their identity was that they were overseas Chinese, and now they wanted to return to their homeland in China, and the city of Tianjin and Dagukou had been captured, and the next step was to recover the Tianjin Concession, and the concession could not resist its own attack at all, but in line with the principle of humanitarianism, asking the people in the concession to lay down their arms and surrender could ensure the personal safety of all people in the concession and the personal property would not be violated, but the wealth plundered from China would not be protected. If the concession refuses to surrender, then the army will launch an attack on the concession at eight o'clock in the morning, and all the consequences will be borne by the concession itself. At the end of the Chinese version of the letter, there is also a sentence "Don't say it in advance."

After reading this letter of persuasion, all the consuls looked at each other, and no one thought that this group of overseas Chinese would give them such a hand, and no one was speechless for a while, but they were just thinking in their hearts whether to accept the other party's conditions.

After a long while, Jin Zhang said: "Gentlemen, time is running out, if you have any ideas, please say them quickly." ”

The Portuguese consul said: "Mr. Hopkins, since the other side has proposed that as long as we surrender, we can guarantee our right to life and private property, I think this is an acceptable condition, so it is better to agree to them......"

"No, I can't. Before the Portuguese consul could finish speaking, the Russian consul interrupted: "The words of the yellow-skinned monkey are not trustworthy, who can guarantee that after we lay down our arms, they will honor their promises, so we have no other choice but to fight, use the battle to defend the concession, you don't be frightened by the yellow-skinned monkey, don't look at them to capture Dagukou and Tianjin, that is because their opponent is not our heroic Russian army, there are two hundred Russian warriors here, they can't break into the concession at all." ”

The words of the Russian consul were immediately met with a burst of eyes, because Russia is recognized as the most untrustworthy country in Europe, and turning its face is faster than turning a book, and the words of the Russian consul just now are too arrogant, and he did not take other countries into account at all, if it were not for the critical moment now, I am afraid that someone would have come out to argue with him a long time ago.

However, the words of the Russian consul were not entirely unreasonable, if this happened in Europe, of course, he did not say it, he would have decided to surrender a long time ago, and he would have discussed a hammer. But no one knows where these overseas Chinese came from, whether they understand the rules or not, and whether they talk about the rules, if they put down their guns and surrender, what if they turn their faces and deny it, then they will be slaughtered by others. It's better to resist desperately, even if you can't fight, you can die as honorably as a warrior. Europe does not reject surrender, but it does not mean that Europeans are afraid of death, but it is better not to die or not to die.

At this time, the French consul Du Shilan said: "I think so, since the other side has sent us a letter of surrender, then we will not send people to negotiate with them, we can surrender, we can give up resistance, but we cannot let their army enter the concession, because they cannot enter on a large scale, as long as the army does not enter the concession, even if we give them some money." Or it's good to put off the time. Even if it doesn't work out, we can test their attitude so that we can make a decision. ”

The consuls unanimously agreed with Du Shilan's proposal, because the negotiations are normal for all countries, and the situation is like this anyway, no matter whether the talks are successful or not, it is impossible to continue to be bad, on the contrary, if they can find out the attitude of the other party, it will also help the concession to make the right choice.

As for the negotiators, the consuls agreed that Gustavvon Detring, director of the Department of Taxation of Tianjin Customs, was the most suitable candidate.

A British German, she lived in China from 1866 onwards, and was elected chairman of the British Concession 10 times in the 13 years from 1878 to 1893 (except for 1882 to 1884). And from 1878 onwards, De Xuanlin served as the director of the Department of Taxation of Tianjin Customs. It has a considerable influence in China, until now. He had good relations with many officials of the Chun Court, and because of his close personal relationship with Li Hongzhang, he became an important assistant and adviser to Li Hongzhang in the establishment of foreign affairs, and was often entrusted with important diplomatic tasks.

And De Xuanlin also knew that he couldn't shirk this errand, so he didn't shirk too much, and immediately accepted the task. At this time, Fukushima Yasumasa took the initiative to ask and wanted to go with De Xuanlin to participate in the negotiations.

It turned out that Fukushima Yasumasa had a strong interest in this group of overseas Chinese, and with the intuition of an intelligence officer, Fukushima Yasumasa faintly felt that this group of overseas Chinese had too many unknown secrets, and instinctively felt that it did not seem to be beneficial to Japan, so Fukushima Yasumasa also hoped to take advantage of this negotiation to have direct contact with this group of overseas Chinese, and have an intuitive understanding of them, so as to obtain more intelligence information.

The consuls certainly welcomed Fukushima's request, and it would be more appropriate to send two people, one Wen and one Wu, to negotiate. So the two of them immediately prepared and got up to set off.

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