After Russia propped up the puppet regime and sent troops to occupy the northeast, the situation of international diplomacy began to change. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The pressure that has been pressing on the head of the Ming has weakened, and the Americans continue to call for international intervention, for the United States, the Ming is certainly the first threat, but Russia's expansion in the northeast has also affected the interests of the United States, and the northeast has always been the largest market for American goods, which is equivalent to the Yangtze River's interest position in the United Kingdom.

But France suddenly ceased to advocate the convening of an international conference.

Japan is also protesting, and I don't know if it has privately gone to Russia to ask for support and let them take possession of Korea.

Germany even protested, apparently looking at Shu, and after gaining a foothold in Busan, it began to look at the relatively wealthy Northeast region.

Of course, the British did not want to see Russia annex Manchu and Mongolia, but they were entangled in the two issues of the Ming annexation of the Manchu Qing and the Russian occupation of Manchuria, and there were many debates in the parliament, and they could not tell whether it was more beneficial for the British Empire to acquiesce in that situation, so they could not decide whether to support the Ming or Russia.

Britain's embarrassing position is caused by the relative decline of Britain's international hegemony and the relative increase in the strength of regional powers, and the awkwardness lies in their unwillingness to accept this status quo.

In the end, the British only strengthened their military forces in the east and sent four warships into Hong Kong, but it is a pity that this level of military deterrence is no longer enough to pose a threat to the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming naval officers and related technicians also applied to board the ship for a visit, and made highly praised comments on the latest British warships.

Since Britain was unable to make decisive decisions on the changes in the pattern of China's region, and other countries had no power to intervene, Britain began to choose to isolate itself in the complex political game of the region with the hope of seeing the outcome of the game between the Ming Dynasty and Russia, and was forced to or took the initiative to adopt a policy of isolation in Europe.

Unfortunately, the end of the rivalry between the two powers did not appear, and the Ming began to negotiate with Russia on the status of Manchuria.

This time, the Ming Dynasty made large concessions to meet some of Russia's power claims in Mongolia, such as acquiescing in Russia's right to garrison troops along the Mongolian railway, but requiring Russia to limit its military strength to no more than 100,000, and the number of troops stationed outside Zhangjiakou should not exceed 30,000, and the garrison in Huludao should not exceed 50,000.

In the Northeast, the two sides launched a fierce argument, the Ming has a huge interest in the Northeast, if you look at it as three provinces, here are the top three provinces of the Ming Dynasty in China's exports, equivalent to five Shanxi, four Shandong. The three eastern provinces, which have emigrated more than 20 million people, are generally rich because of the large amount of surplus commodities, and their spending power is comparable to that of several poor people in the interior.

The most important thing is that the grain here is the largest supply base in northern China, which is of strategic significance to food security, and commercial agricultural products such as soybeans and cotton are the industrial raw materials of the Ming Dynasty.

It can be said that the Northeast has a strategic position for the industrial and agricultural production of the Ming Dynasty, and it is impossible for the Ming Dynasty to give up here, if Russia must forcibly compete with the Ming Dynasty here, a war will inevitably break out, and the Ming Dynasty can make concessions in Mongolia, and it is resolutely not possible to make concessions here, even if it is only a temporary concession, it is difficult to agree.

After intense discussions, the two sides began to reach a compromise, and Russia decided to abandon the claim of stationing troops in the entire northeast, shrinking the Russian army to the north and shrinking its forces to Harbin, and the price paid by the Ming was to sell the railway from Manchuria to Harbin to Russia, which in turn would extend the Harbin railway to Vladivostok. The Ming retained control of the Harbin-Dalian line from Harbin to Dalian, and gained the right to garrison troops along the Dalian-Shenyang railway. Neither side has troops stationed in Jilin Province and retains government institutions here.

Obviously, the Ming Dynasty and Russia carved up the northeast region, the Ming Dynasty got the richest Liaoning, and Russia occupied Harbin, which had great development potential.

The reason why the Ming Dynasty made these concessions was, firstly, to buy time to digest the land of more than 300 million people that had been suddenly annexed; Second, to keep Liaoning (formerly known as Fengtian) is to keep the coal and iron supply base of Daming, most of the commodity sales market; The third is to stabilize the regional situation as soon as possible, so as not to give other powers an opportunity to take advantage of it, and the sudden collapse of the Manchu Qing Dynasty cannot but cause geopolitical changes, and it is a policy formulated in advance to minimize the impact of such geopolitical changes.

The reason why Russia is shrinking to the north, the first is to buy time, now to start a war with the Ming Dynasty, Russia's ability to send troops to the east is insufficient, it is impossible to compete with the Ming Dynasty, it is already unexpectedly careful to keep Mongolia and get Harbin, blackmail can blackmail this level They are very satisfied, you must know that even if they fight a large-scale war, they may not be able to get these territories, at least follow the British intervention in the Ming Dynasty to annex the Manchu Qing, Russia knows very well that Britain cannot hand over these places to itself; Second, the significance of obtaining Heilongjiang may be greater for Russia, because once it controls Heilongjiang, it can connect Russia's Siberian region with the Far Eastern frontier region; Third, Russia does not want to see the intervention of other powers, and on the premise that Russia has seized the greatest interests, the intervention of other powers is also a division of Russia's interests.

The two sides quickly concluded an agreement called the "Agreement on the Manchurian and Mongolian Regions", which divided the rights and interests of the region, but did not resolve the status of the region, but the two sides recognized their respective areas of control, and did not claim or recognize each other's sovereignty claims in the region.

The Ming Dynasty also did not recognize the Russian-supported Zaifeng government, nor did it recognize Mongolia and Heilongjiang as Russian territory, and the Ming Dynasty did not even recognize that Xinjiang belonged to Russia, because the Manchus never recognized this. In the subsidiary clauses of the agreement, the two sides stipulate that the sovereignty of the Manchurian and Mongolian regions and the political situation of the region will be resolved in the future, and the two sides will jointly safeguard the status quo in the region. The agreement is valid for 10 years, after which it will be negotiated separately.

Leave it to be resolved later, and the solution is probably a war, and ten years is likely to be the timetable for the war.

After the signing of this agreement, the biggest contradiction on the East Asian continent was instantly quelled, although the contradiction was not resolved, but after the two continental countries reached an agreement to maintain the status quo, the world was stunned to find that this biggest change in East Asia ended with the Ming Dynasty and Russia dividing up the territory of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Britain, a sea power, completely lost its control over the East Asian continent, and added new rivals in the Yangtze River valley, German power entered here, and at the same time, the relationship between the Ming and Britain went to a low point, and the Ming Dynasty, which had just unified China, began to be unable to accept a series of policies formulated by the British Empire in China in the past.

The first to bear the brunt was the British-controlled Manchu customs agency.

In March 1896, the Ming Dynasty formally proposed to the British that the British should return the customs in the North China region under their control, and thereafter the entire Chinese customs agency will be managed by the old Ming Customs to form the new China Customs.

Sure enough, just as Zhu Jinglun said to Hurd, once the Ming Dynasty reached an agreement with Russia, the political pressure of the Ming Dynasty would all surrender to the British side.

At this time, whether the British returned the customs or continued to forcibly control it was the center of the game between the Ming and the British.