After listening to Li Sanjie's report, Xu Jichao first said: "Is it useful to rely on France and the United States to conduct diplomatic maneuvers? Other countries will agree to peace talks with us and recognize our influence in Shandong." ”

Wang Yunpeng was much more optimistic than he was, and said: "What can we do if we don't admit it? What can the Eight-Nation Coalition do now? The Eight-Nation Coalition itself is not monolithic, and Italy and Austria-Hungary are only playing the role of soy sauce, and we are using our economic interests to pull the two countries, France, and the United States, and only Britain, Russia, Germany, and Japan, each with its own troubles, so it is absolutely impossible to launch a new military operation, and in the end it can only compromise with us. ”

Xu Jichao frowned and said: "Lao Wang, are you too optimistic, don't say that it is the Eight Kingdoms, with our current strength, it is actually very difficult to have a full-scale war with any country, and other countries do not say it, it is Japan, Russia and Russia, not to mention being close to us, also have land borders, and if they really go all out to become enemies of us, I am afraid that it will be a big trouble, and if Russia has now sent troops to invade and occupy northeast China, will it take this opportunity to continue to increase troops to the northeast and create a fact, if that is the case, we will become sinners in history. ”

Wang Yunpeng said: "It won't be that serious." He turned his head to look at Xia Bohai and Qin Zheng and said, "Commander, political commissar, what do you think?"

Xia Bohai touched his chin and said: "Director Xu is right, it is indeed not necessary to expect France and the United States to carry out diplomatic maneuvers, they may not want to expand the scale of the war, and they will also call on countries to negotiate with us, but they will not do their best to promote, on the contrary, once other countries are united and willing to expand the scale of the war, France and the United States will also send troops to participate." ”

Wang Yunpeng was a little puzzled and said: "Why is this, don't France and the United States care about their and our commercial interests?"

Qin Zheng said with a smile: "First of all, these commercial interests are not enough for France and the United States to do their best, and once the other six countries decide to increase their troops and expand the war, even if there is no participation of France and the United States, the chance of victory of the six-nation coalition is also very great, and if the six-nation alliance wins, the commercial contract signed between France and the United States and us will be useless, so France and the United States might as well participate in it, and after victory, they can also get a piece of the pie." ”

Wang Yunpeng now understood a little that in the old time and space, he was working in the State Council, mainly good at handling internal affairs, and was not very proficient in foreign affairs, after listening to Qin Zheng's explanation, he couldn't help but feel a little uneasy, and said: "Isn't our situation very dangerous?"

Qin Zheng said: "I can't say that, first of all, in these wars, we have shown strong military strength, even if countries want to expand the scale of the war, they must also consider the price paid, if the investment force is too small, it may not be useful, but to invest large forces, then just like Director Wang just said, the Eight-Nation Alliance itself is not monolithic, each has its own troubles, so if you want to reach an agreement to expand the scale of the war, how easy is it to talk about? Although the United States and the United States may not be reliable, after all, they have driven a wedge into the Eight-Nation Alliance, and as long as they find a few more wedges to penetrate, the Eight-Nation Alliance will be torn apart and fall apart. ”

When Xu Jichao heard this, he couldn't help but be interested, and said, "Political commissar, what more wedge can you score." ”

Qin Zheng said: " In fact, Russia is the biggest wedge in the Eight-Nation Alliance, and this time Russia took the opportunity of the Eight-Nation Alliance's invasion of China to send troops to occupy China's three northeastern provinces; although this opportunity was indeed well grasped, it threatened the fundamental interests of other countries, and the first and foremost was Japan, because the three northeastern provinces and Korea have territorial borders, and Russia had already extended its influence into Korea, and in addition, Japan also hoped to use Korea as a springboard to expand into the three northeastern provinces, so Japan absolutely could not sit idly by and watch Russia control the three northeastern provinces, and the contradictions between the two sides were irreconcilable; in the old time and space, Japan and Russia fought for the three northeastern provinces; and secondly, the contradictions between Britain and RussiaOnce Russia controls Northeast China, it is bound to expand to the south, which threatens Britain's interests in China; therefore, Britain will not allow Russia to control the three northeastern provinces, and Weihaiwei is nothing in comparison. And in this, we have a lot to say. ”

Wang Yunpeng and Xu Jichao also nodded again and again.

Xia Bohai said: "In fact, there is another country that can be used, and that is Germany. Now that we have basically pulled France and the United States in, if we pull Longde again, I am afraid that the Eight-Nation Alliance will really come to an end. ”

Xu Jichao said: "How can we pull the Longde Kingdom? We haven't just captured Qingdao, which is a German colony." ”

Xia Bohai smiled and said: "First of all, Germany and Britain and France have deep contradictions, Germany and France are enemies because of the Franco-Prussian War, while Germany and Britain are the contradictions between rising powers and established powers, and these contradictions are also things that we can exploit. Therefore, the focus of our work in the next step will be shifted to the diplomatic battlefield, but the military force cannot be relaxed, and the negotiation is also based on strength, and a strong military force can not only play a deterrent effect, but also maintain the results we have achieved now. ”

Qin Zheng said: "And we also have to consider shifting our focus to Shandong, after all, Shandong has much more room for development than Tianjin." Therefore, I suggest that an advance team be set up immediately to rush to Shandong, on the one hand, to take over the administrative work of Shandong, and on the other hand, to examine the actual situation in Shandong, and to make sure that the outline of development is planned. Reports from the front sent back that the Germans had left a lot of unfinished works in Qingdao to see how they were completed. When necessary, foreign capital and technology can also be brought in. ”

Wang Yunpeng said: "I have no objection to shifting our focus to Shandong, but the Tianjin area cannot be ignored, and we must first set up an administrative team in the Tianjin area to ensure the stability of the Tianjin area after we leave." ”

Because now the traverser only has a foothold in Tianjin, so Tianjin's affairs are managed by the administrative department of the Tianjin Provisional Government, and there is no local government of Tianjin, but now the traverser wants to shift his focus to Shandong, then Tianjin must also have a complete set of administrative team, in order to ensure the normal operation of Tianjin after the relocation of the administrative department.

Xu Jichao said with a smile: "This is not in a hurry, and it is not all moving to Shandong all at once, it must be a gradual transfer, so the affairs of the Tianjin local government can be discussed slowly, but first send a small number of people to form an advance team to Shandong, and understand and inspect the local situation is the key." ”

Xia Bohai nodded and said, "In this way, let's think about the implementation plan of the club first, and gather all the executive committee members in the afternoon to have a meeting to study it." ”

After discussion at the meeting, the Interim Executive Committee finally made three resolutions.

The first is that Qin Zheng and Wang Yunpeng will take the lead in organizing an advance team to rush to Qingdao to take over the administrative affairs of Qingdao and Weihaiwei in an all-round way, comprehensively examine the actual situation of Qingdao and Weihaiwei in all aspects, and formulate a development plan for the traverser in Shandong, and the members of the advance team will be regarded as grassroots work.

Qin Zheng is familiar with the history and situation of this era, and has a certain diplomatic ability, which can be responsible for presiding over foreign affairs, while Wang Yunpeng is good at internal management, responsible for handling administrative affairs and establishing an administrative system. Coupled with Xiao Jianjun, who is already in Qingdao, the three of them can complement each other and learn from each other's strengths, and the members of the advance team are determined by the two.

Second, on the military front, the Second Battalion of the People's Army, as well as the Yueyang, Xiangyang, and Changbaishan warships, were transferred back to Tianjin to garrison. Most of the troops of the People's Army were put into the Shandong battlefield, and five of the seven combat battalions were dispatched, while the artillery battalion and the firepower reinforcement battalion were dispatched two companies, so the garrison of Tianjin was relatively empty, and now the war in Shandong has ended, although the defense of Shandong is equally important, but the Tianjin area cannot be ignored, after all, there are still troops of the Eight-Nation Alliance stationed in Beijing.

Of course, there are only so many people in the People's Army now, and it is not the way to transfer them around, but to further expand the scale of the People's Army. Therefore, Tianjin and Shandong will recruit troops to expand the people's army.

In addition to filling the shortage of dead soldiers, the current expansion plan includes five to eight new combat battalions, four to five regiments with three battalions as a regiment, an artillery battalion and a firepower reinforcement battalion are all expanded into two, and a cavalry company is expanded into a cavalry battalion. And the navy has also doubled its current size, after all, it has captured three more large ironclad ships. Moreover, the US salvage team has already set off, and it is expected that it will arrive in Tianjin in about 20 days to start salvage operations. Therefore, it is time to train more naval soldiers, and it is better to let people wait for equipment than let equipment wait for people.

The third is the establishment of the Tianjin local government, which is ready to take over the local affairs of Tianjin in an all-round way, and the establishment of a local-central administrative hierarchy, which also means that the power of the traverser is further improved.

Fourth, it is necessary to actively carry out diplomatic activities, divide the forces of the eight-nation alliance, start negotiations with various countries as soon as possible, end the state of war, and force all countries to recognize the fact that the traversers occupied Qingdao and Weihaiwei, so as to buy time for the traversers to develop peacefully.

After the decision was made, Qin Zheng and Wang Yunpeng immediately began to select the people who went to Shandong among the traversers, except for a small number of professionals, the rest of the people mainly signed up voluntarily, and finally formed an advance team of 127 people. Among them, more than 60 people are volunteers who have no positions, because this time they went to Shandong to work at the grassroots level, and if they want to seek development in the crossing group, they must first work at the grassroots level, so they all hope to find their own positions in this trip to Shandong.