Li Sanjie thought to himself, if you don't come with me like this, our conditions will be difficult for others, and the conditions proposed by Britain and France will be easy! If you want to leave without letting some blood go, that is such a good thing.

Of course, I thought so in my heart, but I couldn't say it too directly, so Li Sanjie said: "Mr. Consul, you can't say that, our conditions are not harsh, we just hope to get a certain amount of compensation." Because this war was originally provoked by Japan and Russia, and they wanted to fight, why did they choose to fight on our soil? That is the reason, we entered the war to defend our homeland and country, and this war has nothing to do with Britain, France, and the Netherlands, and they took the initiative to provoke a new war, so the responsibility for this war is not ours at all. Now we have won on the battlefield, but we have consumed a lot of manpower and material resources for this war, and we have suffered huge losses, so it is so difficult that we should not receive a certain amount of compensation?"

After a pause, Li Sanjie continued: "I am not accusing President Roosevelt of your country, but during the Portsmouth negotiations, if President Roosevelt had been able to persuade Japan and Russia to accept our terms, peace would have been restored in the Far East long ago. And as you can see now, Japan and Russia refused to pay compensation at the Portsmouth negotiations, but since the Portsmouth negotiations, the losses suffered by the two countries have far exceeded the amount of compensation we demanded at that time. Unfortunately, Japan and Russia are still obsessed, and Britain, France, and the Netherlands are also asking for their own hardships, and I really can't understand what the governments of these countries think. ”

Robert Bacon couldn't help but smile bitterly, Li Sanjie's words were really difficult to answer, and after thinking for a while, he said: "We, the United States, have a neutral principle on this battlefield, and have always believed that the conditions for negotiations should be decided by the parties concerned through consultation, and our country will never interfere, so it is impossible for Mr. President to persuade other countries to accept your government's conditions." After a pause, he added, "Of course, it's the same way around." On behalf of the US Government, I am protesting to your Government today, and this is not to persuade your Government to give up compensation, and whether or not there is compensation is up to the parties concerned to decide through consultation, but your Government's countermeasures have indeed harmed the interests of the United States, and that is the reason for our protest. ”

Li Sanjie smiled slightly, knowing that the other party was changing the topic, but he didn't say anything, and said, "Okay, Mr. Consul, then let's discuss the interests of your country." ”

Robert Bacon nodded and said, "Good." ”

Li Sanjie said: "First of all, what we want to intercept is only the merchant ships of Britain, France, Japan, Russia and the Netherlands, while the merchant ships of other countries can still sail freely, of course, it is necessary to cooperate with our routine inspections, but I think it is just a small trouble, and it will not affect national interests." ”

Robert Bacon was silent for a while, and finally nodded.

Li Sanjie said again: "Mr. Consul, frankly speaking, our interception of merchant ships from Britain, France, Japan, Russia, and the Netherlands has not only not harmed the interests of the United States, but on the contrary, has increased.

Robert Bacon paused for a moment, his face becoming a little strange, the United States did benefit a lot from this war, on the one hand, it sold a lot of goods to the warring parties, and on the other hand, it took advantage of the weakening of Japan and Russia, and the suppression of Britain and France by the East China government, to expand its business interests in Asia. Among other things, the East China government recovered the Shanghai Concession, confiscated the assets of Britain and France in the concession, and blocked the Yangtze River waterway, greatly reducing the influence of Britain and France in the Yangtze River valley in China, while the United States took the opportunity to expand, nearly doubling its economic power in the Yangtze River valley in China. Now that the East China government is preparing to intercept British and French merchant ships, many American businessmen have already seen business opportunities and are planning to do a big job.

In fact, this kind of thing is very common in the international community, but just now Robert Bacon also seriously criticized the countermeasures of the East China government, and now to put it bluntly, the United States is the beneficiary of the countermeasures of the East China government, and it is quite a bit of a feeling that it is easy to sell back if it gets it. However, the first priority of a diplomat is to be thick-skinned, and he can say that black is white without changing his face, so Robert Bacon said: "Mr. Commissioner, I admit that what you say is indeed an objective fact, but if peace can be restored in the Far East, the United States does not care about such interests. ”

Li Sanjie smiled again and said, "The U.S. government really has a bearing, and we deeply respect it. But as long as it doesn't harm the interests of the United States. Besides, if we plan to attack Java, we will ensure the safety and property of the American merchants in Java after we occupy it, and that we will be able to maintain the stability of Java by administering it, Mr. Consul. ”

Robert Bacon said: "Well, there is no need to mention the attack on Java, but your government's blockade of Japan has indeed harmed our country's interests, and our country and Japan have a large number of economic and trade exchanges, but they are all going to be terminated because of your government's blockade, I want to hear what other explanation Mr. Committee member has?"

Li Sanjie said: " Of course, there is no explanation, I admit that the blockade of Japan is indeed harmful to the interests of the United States, but the United States has also benefited from our previous measures, and we can offset the losses in Japan, and even if we do not blockade Japan, but due to the impact of the war, the trade between the United States and Japan has also declined significantly, and our blockade of Japan is to force Japan to compromise and end the war as soon as possible, and then the United States can not only resume trade with Japan, but also Japan will be more lazy to the United States in order to rebuild after the war。 ”

Although Li Sanjie's remarks are also quite sophistry, Robert Bacon did admit just now that the United States benefited from the countermeasures of the East China government, and it cannot be said that the United States only needs trade with Japan, and does not want other benefits, and his protest this time is only to test the attitude of the East China government, and now this goal has basically been achieved, so he will no longer be entangled with Li Sanjie, so he said: " Well, Mr. Commissioner, I will report to my Government as it is, and it will be decided by the Government of the United States, and today my task has been completed, and I will not delay your time any longer, and I will take my leave. ”

Li Sanjie ordered the staff to send Robert Bacon out of the Foreign Affairs Committee, picked up the protest letter handed over by Robert Bacon to himself, shook it, and said: "What kind of thing, resist a Mao discussion, and if you get it, you can easily sell it." ”

However, since the United States has submitted a letter of protest to the East China government through official diplomatic channels, the East China government must also follow the regular process, at least give an explanation to the Executive Yuan, let them know, and file the letter of protest.

So Li Sanjie came to the Executive Yuan with a letter of protest, and at this time Xia Bohai, Xiao Jianjun, Wang Yunpeng, Xu Jichao, and Shang Jinfeng and others were gathering together to discuss things.

It turned out that the countermeasures taken by the East China government had been announced, and the next step was to implement them, so that Britain, France, Japan, Russia, and the Netherlands would know that the East China government was doing what it said. In order to implement countermeasures, it is necessary to dispatch the navy, so Shang Jinfeng is also involved.

At this time, 16 days had passed since the battle of the Taiwan Strait, and the navy had also received a certain amount of rest; in fact, in the battle of the Taiwan Strait, the losses of the KPA navy were not large, and compared with the results of the battle, it can be said that they were even insignificant, and even the damage was not large. More than half of the warships can go to war immediately after the battle in the Taiwan Strait is over, and the vast majority of the remaining warships only need simple maintenance and repair before they can go to war again, and even in an emergency, they can go to sea without maintenance, and there are basically no warships that cannot go to sea at all.

This is of course a good thing for the East China government, after all, the East China government is going to attack in three directions at the same time, and it is precisely when it needs to use ships. However, first, after the battle of the Taiwan Strait is over, the East China Government should take a look at the reactions of all quarters and then decide on the plan for the next step; second, it is still necessary for the normal maintenance and maintenance of warships, which is an important condition for ensuring the performance and service life of warships; third, warships can rotate without rest, but the personnel must rest, and the battle in the Taiwan Strait did not last long, that is, one afternoon, until 8 or 9 o'clock in the evening, and the total was only 6. Seven hours, but the People's Army fleet went to sea two days in advance to wait for the arrival of the expeditionary fleet, in fact, it was at sea for three days, and the spirit was highly stressed, in fact, it was quite exhausting, in addition, since the breakdown of the Portsmouth negotiations, the People's Army fleet was assembled in Shanghai, training and preparing for war, during which it experienced the landing in Japan, and the naval battle of the Natuna Islands occurred during the evacuation of overseas Chinese from Java, and it has been assembled for more than half a year.

At the same time, the war was not completely over as soon as possible, but the East China government had won a decisive victory, so the personnel should also be commended, and with the expansion of the size of the navy, some of the personnel should be promoted, and some of the local soldiers who joined the navy in the early days began to serve as captains of small and medium-sized warships, and even commanders of destroyer formations.

Therefore, after the end of the battle in the Taiwan Strait, the Admiralty decided that the fleet should conduct an 18-day rest period, and to reward and promote a number of local naval servicemen, and adjust the candidates for some warship captains and fleet commanders; during the rest period, servicemen who are married and married can get six days of vacation and go home to visit their relatives, but unmarried servicemen must stay in Shanghai and can leave the ship to go ashore for activities, but before 8 o'clock every night, they must return to the warship to rest. Of course, the entire recuperation period is divided into two phases, with warships and officers and men taking turns to rest and recuperate to ensure that the navy can still go to war when necessary.

Now that the recuperation period was nearing its end, and the people who had returned home to visit their relatives were returning one after another, the Admiralty decided that, after the recuperation period, the fleet would strike again to carry out the countermeasures formulated by the East China government.