After receiving the notice from Japan, Komura Shoutaro immediately informed the East China Government that the Japanese Government was willing to accept the four-point conditions put forward by the East China Government, and the two sides began negotiations again on the details of these four conditions.

After the resumption of the talks, Japan first expressed its full acceptance of the first and second articles, but the East China Government proposed that a time limit should be added to the second article, otherwise it would be sufficient for the Japanese side to notify the East China Government one hour or even one minute before the military action, so the time limit proposed by the East China Government was 72 hours in advance.

Japan said that it could only accept the 12-hour time limit, on the grounds that the situation on the battlefield was changing rapidly, and even Japan could not determine all the plans for action within 72 hours, so it was impossible to notify the East China Government 72 hours in advance.

In fact, the East China government also knew that it was basically impossible to make this request 72 hours in advance, and it was just a sky-high asking price to put forward this request, and finally the two sides decided to set it at 24 hours in advance, but the time node was subject to the delivery to the East China government. Because the communication in this era was transmitted in ciphers, and after it was transmitted, it had to be carefully checked and checked, and if the content of the long message took several hours to complete, there would be a lot of room for maneuvering, and in the old time and space, Japan had to exploit this kind of loophole more than once, so the East China government wanted to plug these loopholes. Komura Shoutaro can only sigh that overseas Chinese are really shrewd, but they can only agree.

With regard to Article 3, Komura Shotaro, on behalf of the Japanese Government, promised that within 15 days after the conclusion of the talks, a delegation composed of Japanese military personnel would be sent to Qingdao to discuss the establishment of a joint operational command and joint management of the occupied areas. The East China government has no objection to this.

Only in Article 4, the two sides had a big disagreement, Japan only promised that until the system of joint management of the occupied areas was determined, Japan would respect the commercial banks, enterprises, factories and citizens of the East China Government in the Northeast and ensure their personal safety, but the East China Government demanded that the personnel in the Northeast Region set up a temporary management committee on the spot to deal with all matters related to the East China Government. Personnel are to be settled within the framework of the Provisional Management Committee, and Japan cannot bypass the Provisional Management Committee to deal with the personnel and property of the East China Government in the Tohoku region.

Of course, such a condition is unacceptable to the Japanese Government, because this is tantamount to granting the East China Government diplomatic immunity, and since it is all matters and personnel related to the East China Government, this scope is too large, and if the locals working for the East China Government are counted, will they be too passive towards Japan. However, Japan's guarantee is too false and has no substantive significance, and the East China government cannot agree to it.

After three days of debate and discussion, the two sides finally gave in to each other: First, the Japanese government set up a temporary management committee at the same time, but divided the personnel of the East China government in the northeast region into three categories: one is the high-level personnel, that is, the so-called overseas Chinese, who have matters that must be resolved within the framework of the provisional management committee; the second category is the personnel directly under the government, that is, the people brought from Shandong, and the temporary management committee can coordinate and participate, but the Japanese side is not allowed to recruit them; the third category is the local staff, who will be dealt with by the Japanese side, and if they are requisitioned, they will have to compensate for the losses; and the commercial banks of the East China government in the northeast regionIf the Japanese side needs to requisition, it must negotiate with the Interim Management Committee and compensate for the losses. On the military side, the East China government allowed military observation missions to be sent to fight with the Japanese army.

After reading it, the Japanese government also thought that it was acceptable, because the success of delaying the establishment of a joint operations command and the joint management of the occupied areas was carried out, and such a successful exclusion of overseas Chinese at the beginning of the war was no longer possible, and as for the dispatch of a military observation mission, it was an internationally accepted practice, and there was nothing to blame, but Japan finally received material support from the East China government, which was the biggest victory, and everything else was just a small detail, and now the East China government has only a few shops in the northeast region, not a single factory, and the staff is less than 1,000 people, so they have nothing to do with the overall situation。

So Komura Shoutaro immediately signed an agreement with Li Sanjie, but Komura did not immediately return to China to hand over the order, and waited in Qingdao, 12 days later, Japan really sent another delegation, including Tibetan Prime Minister Matsukata Masayoshi, Rikushoji Masaki, Kaixiang Yamamoto Gonbei, plus Foreign Minister Komura Shoutaro, a total of 4 cabinet officials, and the East China Government formally negotiated the establishment of a joint operations command and joint management of the affairs of the occupied areas, which appeared to be full of sincerity. In addition, the East China government provided the first batch of supplies to Japan, otherwise Japan would not have sent the Tibetan Minister Matsukata Masayoshi (equivalent to the Minister of Finance) as well.

However, it is impossible to make any substantive progress in the first negotiation, after all, the two sides have not cooperated in a similar way before, and Japan also intends to set up difficult problems and raise many issues that need to be negotiated internally, so the two sides of this negotiation only reached a framework agreement of intent, which does not have much practical significance, but after the end of the negotiations, the two sides agreed to hold the next round of negotiations in Japan a month later, but the travelers understood that by that time, the war had already begun.

Of course, the traverser did not really want to form any kind of joint command with Japan, one was to reassure Japan that the East China government still had the sincerity to cooperate, and the other was to let itself still have a considerable degree of self-confidence in the northeast region after the war, which was also conducive to the collection of intelligence.

In modern warfare, intelligence is the top priority, and the East China government intends to take advantage of the Russo-Japanese War to rise, so naturally it will not ignore intelligence work, so from 1902, it began to carry out intelligence arrangements. In the battle of Shanhaiguan, the People's Army defeated the Russian army in the south, relieved more than 20,000 people from the Northeast, they were all from the Northeast, after the war, more than half of them returned to their hometowns in the Northeast, and there were about 8,000 people left in Shandong, of which nearly 5,000 joined the People's Army.

Of course, the intelligence department will not let go of this opportunity, because these people are all natives of Northeast China, and their accents, languages, living habits, identity information, and local social relations are almost all excellent candidates for intelligence officers. Therefore, the Ministry of Security selected more than 300 people for training, and then sent them back to the northeast in batches to collect intelligence. In 1903, after the East China government obtained permission to open a trading house in Lushun, it took the opportunity to further develop the intelligence network in Northeast China, and also absorbed a considerable number of locals.

At present, the East China Government's intelligence network in the northeast region has been fully spread, with a total of more than 500 personnel, and it has set up branches in Shenyang, Liaoyang, and other big cities, and has also penetrated into the rural areas in large numbers.

On the one hand, in the old time and space, Japan was the most difficult place to carry out intelligence work; on the other hand, the influence and ability of the East China Government itself are also limited; after all, if you want to go to Japan to carry out intelligence work, you must first know Japanese. So far, only 16 people have been sent to Japan as international students, and their main task is to integrate into Japanese society and collect information through newspapers and other publicly available publications.

It turned out that at the beginning of 1903, two travelers volunteered to petition the Executive Yuan to serve as intelligence officers in Japan.

One of these two people is called Deng Liwei, 35 years old, and the other is called Luo Jiaquan, 29 years old, who are tepid and tepid in the East China government, but in the old time and space, they both have the experience of studying and working in Japan for more than 4 years, of course, there is no problem with the language, and they also have a considerable understanding of Japan's history and culture , has been warned several times by the moderator, and torn apart with the Japanese spirit, according to Luo Jiaquan himself, he has also been fleshed by a certain daily essence.

And in this time and space, although it is impossible to "capture Teacher Cang alive", "capturing the island of Japan" is a very likely goal, and seeing that the Russo-Japanese War is approaching, it is a useful place, so both of them took the initiative to ask Ying and applied to go undercover in Japan. and in danger of going undercover in Japan, both of them firmly believe that they have the protagonist's aura cover and will be fine.

Shang Qisong, the head of the Ministry of Security, made an appointment to talk to the two. I can't figure out where these two people's honey self-confidence comes from, and they even suspect that the two just want to borrow public funds to go to Japan to spend all day drinking, but after careful evaluation by the Ministry of Security, they think that they can give it a try, because the quality of these two people is really suitable for going to Japan to engage in intelligence work, and they are also taking the initiative to apply, even if these two people are exposed, the Ministry of Security has no responsibility, and the loss to the East China Government is not great, after all, these two people are insignificant roles in the East China Government, and if the two really open up the situation in Japan, it can be regarded as a surprise。

Of course, these two people thought about the intelligence very simply, but the Ministry of Security could not help but make full preparations, so they formulated a detailed training plan for the two and made careful arrangements. The Ministry of Security believes that even if these two people want to go undercover in Japan, it is best to obtain the identity of a Japanese, so that it is more convenient to act, and maybe they can also blend into the Japanese government, and it is best to be an overseas Japanese national, because at this time, the Japanese are studying abroad, and there are many people doing business, and many of them have settled abroad, so if the two return to China as second-generation Japanese nationals, it is very suitable for the situation of the two.

So the Ministry of Security decided to make a long-term plan, after more than half a year of training, let the two go to Japan to live for a period of time, familiar with the Japanese social environment, although the two will play the role of Japanese returnees, but also familiar with the situation in Japan, after all, the two are familiar with Japan in the old time and space, and there is still a considerable difference between Japan in this era. And now that Japan and Russia are at war, they need to deal with the East China government, including the Qing court, so it is most appropriate to go to Japan at this time.