Huo Bilan said: "We, the British government, also believe that at this time, it is not appropriate to restart the war, or to restart negotiations with overseas Chinese. The pen and the fun and the www.biquge.info" paused and said: "As for the negotiation request put forward by the overseas Chinese, we think it is also acceptable, and we can restart the negotiation on this basis." Well, I don't know what you think. ”

Before the others could express their position, Dmitriev immediately said: "I am opposed to restarting the negotiations on the basis of the demands of the overseas Chinese for negotiations, and if the negotiations are to be resumed, the overseas Chinese must withdraw from Tongzhou and return to the pre-war situation, and the negotiations must not set any preconditions, otherwise our Russian government will never participate in any negotiations with the overseas Chinese." ”

Huo Bilan frowned, of course he could see that Dmitriev was deliberately stirring up the situation, because according to the conditions proposed by Dmitriev, it was impossible for overseas Chinese to agree, Bi Jing Now that the overseas Chinese have captured Tongzhou, the troops are approaching Beijing, and the momentum is flourishing, unless it is the overseas Chinese who attack Beijing and are frustrated.

However, Russia's attitude is obviously unacceptable to Huo Bilan, and this will only further worsen the situation. But Huo Bilan is an experienced diplomat after all, and the purpose of the Russian consul is nothing more than to do the affairs of the Korean Peninsula, so as to blackmail all countries and not meddle in the affairs of the Korean Peninsula, so that Russia can deal with Japan with all its might. Therefore, Huo Bilan said: "Well, the Russian consul has already made their attitude clear, but what about the attitude of other countries?"

The United States, France, Japan, and Italy also immediately expressed their support for Huo Bilan's views and agreed to restart the talks on the basis of the demands of overseas Chinese for negotiations. Only Germany and Austria did not take a stand.

But in this way, the situation is also very clear, even if Germany and Austria support Russia's proposition in the end, they are still in the minority, and Germany and Austria do not have any say on the China issue, only Russia has weight, and the other side, Britain, France, the United States, and Japan, all have greater interests in China, and only Italy is following suit, so in terms of strength comparison, it is also the peace faction that has a clear advantage.

This is exactly what Huo Bilan hopes to achieve, which can exert tremendous pressure on Russia, and eventually force Russia to agree to resume negotiations, and of course will make some symbolic concessions to Russia, such as recognizing some of Russia's interests on the Korean Peninsula, so that Russia can have a step down; as for the Japanese side, it will be easier to do it, only promising to help Japan defend against Russia, then it is not difficult for Japan to make a little concession on the Korean Peninsula, because without the support of Britain, Japan will not be able to unilaterally confront Russia.

Of course, the ultimate goal of Britain was to curb Russian expansion in the Far East, but this could only be discussed after negotiations with the Chinese diaspora. In this sense, the rise of overseas Chinese is not a bad thing, the original British intended to support Japan against Russia, but now that there are more overseas Chinese, Britain has more choice, so that Russia, Japan, and overseas Chinese can fight in the Far East, and Britain can calmly play the extraterritorial balance trick and successfully play the role of an offshore balance. It should be said that after letting go of the burden in his heart, Huo Bilan's mind became flexible, seeing the moves, seeing the style of demolition, and giving full play to the British-style diplomatic means.

However, the attitude of the Russian side was somewhat unexpected by Huo Bilan, and Dmitriev's attitude was very tough, insisting that he would never give in, that even if other countries agreed to resume negotiations with overseas Chinese, Russia would never participate, and would rely on its own strength to fight against overseas Chinese alone.

Huo Bilan was quite surprised, although in the eyes of Europeans, the Russians are still synonymous with barbarism, but Huo Bilan knows very well that although the Russians are barbaric, they are by no means stupid, they should be hard, they should be soft, and they will never be blindly tough to the end, on the contrary, whether it is strategy or diplomacy, the means are very clever, otherwise they will not become the most powerful opponent of Britain at present. Therefore, there must be another reason for Russia's attitude.

Of course, when it comes to this step, it will definitely not be possible to talk about it today, so Huo Bilan decided to adjourn the meeting for the time being, let the consuls go back and negotiate with China again, and continue the discussion tomorrow. And so the consuls of each country departed.

After lunch, Huo Bilan quietly thought about tomorrow's agreement in the study, how to persuade Russia to agree to negotiate, to persuade Russia, you must first understand Russia's intentions, and today's attitude of Russia is nothing more than two explanations, one is to make a gesture to raise the asking price, then Russia's psychological price is there, and Britain, Second, Russia really has other plans, and it really doesn't want to negotiate with overseas Chinese, so what are Russia's intentions, and do they really plan to start a war with overseas Chinese?

At this moment, a waiter came in to report that a telegram had arrived from China. After receiving the telegram, Huo Bilan's heart couldn't help but feel anxious again, I don't know what happened to the telegram in China at this time, does it mean that he wants to be dismissed on the spot?

While thinking about it, Huo Bilan opened the folder and read the telegram, and couldn't help but be taken aback, and after thinking about it, a flash of inspiration suddenly flashed in his mind, and he came up with a bold solution. If this method is successful, he may be able to make up for his mistakes and save his political future, but once he fails, he will definitely be doomed, and he is ready to go back to the UK to be tried, but if he doesn't do this, the result is estimated to be no stronger, so it is better to gamble this time.

After figuring it out, Huo Bilan also immediately took action, and immediately ordered his subordinates to prepare a carriage for himself to visit Li Hongzhang.

―――――――― Divider ――――――――― Dividing Line――――――――

When Qin Zheng and his entourage returned to Tianjin, it was the second day after the People's Army captured the Tongzhou Railway Station, and at this time, not only the Tongzhou Railway Station, but also the county seat of Tongzhou had been occupied by the People's Army. The Eight-Nation Coalition has all retreated to Beijing to garrison.

Qin Zheng received the news on the way back, but there was no big reaction, after all, he had already known the plan of action for crossing the group, of course, the People's Army moved so fast, it still surprised Qin Zheng and the others.

However, when Qin Zheng and the others had just arrived at the Dagukou wharf, there was a warrior car waiting for him by the wharf, and it turned out that the executive committee had sent to pick up Qin Zheng and Shang Jinfeng, the commander of the navy, and immediately rushed to Tianjin to attend an important military meeting.

After the two rushed to the conference room of the Tianjin Administration Building by car, they found that they were not only waiting for them, but also the army commander Zhu Yaping, who rushed back to Tianjin from the front line. Only another permanent executive member, Wang Yunpeng, was in Qingdao at this time, so he did not attend the meeting.

After Qin Zheng and Shang Jinfeng sat down, Xia Bohai said, "Everyone has arrived, so let's start now." ”

Qin Zheng and Shang Jinfeng glanced at each other, although the number of people attending this meeting was not large, but the people who participated were all very heavy, so it was obvious that something important had happened, and it must be something related to the military.

Xia Bohai said: "Just this morning, we received a piece of information, you can take a look at it first, and then we will have a formal meeting. ”

As he spoke, Xia Bohai took out two documents from the folder in front of him and handed them to the two of them. And after taking the file, the two didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly opened it to watch.

The content of the document was not complicated, and the two of them had read it quickly, but they both obviously felt shocked, because the content of the document was indeed unexpected by the two, and if the content was true, then it would be a huge threat to the traverser, so Qin Zheng closed the document and asked, "Where did this news come from, is it reliable?"

Xu Jichao said: "There are two sources of this news, one is that Qin Moman, the German consul in Tianjin, conveyed it to us on the orders of the German government, and the other source is provided to us by Li Hongzhang. ”

Qin Zheng couldn't help but be surprised, the information provided by the German government to the traverser was not surprising, but Li Hongzhang actually provided this information to the traverser, it was a little unbelievable, where did Li Hongzhang get this information, does this old man still have such an intelligence channel?

Obviously, seeing Qin Zheng's doubts, Xia Bohai said with a smile: "Actually, Li Hongzhang is just a messenger, this news was told to him by Huo Bilan, the British consul in Shanghai, and Huo Bilan told Li Hongzhang the news, that is, through Li Hongzhang. Therefore, it can be regarded as this information provided to us by the British. As for whether this information is reliable, in fact, we have just received it not long ago, and we are discussing it, and there is no result yet, just in time for Lao Qin to return to Tianjin at this time, and I also want to hear your opinion. ”

After Qin Zheng listened, he nodded, understanding what Xia Bohai meant, because he was the person who was most familiar with the history and international relations of this era, so his judgment was also the most important, so he opened the folder again, read the contents of the document carefully, and at the same time took his document from Shang Jinfeng's hand and read it again. Although these two documents say the same thing, the wording and content are different, and Qin Zheng also hopes to find some evidence to prove the authenticity of the content.

The others didn't bother Qin Zheng's thinking, because everyone also needs to think, and after a while, Qin Zheng spoke: "I think the authenticity of this information is still very big, after all, this is provided to us by Britain and Germany, although this is something that has not happened in the old time and space, but from the situation of this era and international relations, there is also a great possibility, although I have no evidence to prove the truth of this information, but I still think that it is better to believe that this information is better to believe than not to believe it." ”