At the beginning of 1898, the three countries held talks in Paris under the coordination of France. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Discuss all the controversies of all parties.

The focus was mainly on the issue of Russian expansion, and the Ming Dynasty was very dissatisfied with Russia's support for the restoration of the Manchu imperial family, and resolutely refused to recognize the Zaifeng regime supported by Russia, and strongly demanded that Russia give up its support for this puppet regime.

At this time, Zaifeng was still in power in Kulun, and a large number of frustrated people who were dissatisfied with the new regime in the Ming Dynasty rushed to join him, not only a large number of Eight Banners magnates, but also a large number of Han civil officials with the idea of loyalty to the monarch went to Kulun to defect to him. With the support of Russia, the Zaifeng regime nominally included all of Mongolia and Jilin under the control of Iktanga.

Russia not only helped the regime gain a foothold, but also helped Zaifeng build the New Army of the Eight Banners, recruiting 100,000 cavalry in the Mongolian region.

The Ming strongly demanded the dissolution of the regime by Russia, which considered the annexation of the Qing court by the Ming Dynasty to be illegal.

After more than three months of intense negotiations, all three parties made certain concessions.

Between the Ming Dynasty and Russia, basically followed the content of the previous Manchurian-Mongolian agreement, but Russia gave up the right to garrison troops in Zhangjiakou in exchange for the right to extend the Kyakhta railway from Zhangjiakou to Tianjin, but the Zhangjiakou to Tianjin railway branch line will be jointly built and operated by China and Russia, the construction standard adopts the Russian broad gauge standard, the equipment and rails are provided by the Daming Company, and France provides financial support for the railway.

The Ming Dynasty obtained a certain degree of military security through the withdrawal of the Zhangjiakou garrison from Russia, and the Russians greatly shortened the trade route from southern China to Russia through this railway extending to Tianjin.

In the south, the French made significant concessions by renunciating the further expansion of their colonies in Cochinchina.

It was declared that French power in Cochinchina, which included only Cambodia and Saigon, would not continue to seek new power.

Just before, especially during the Ming-American War, French warships began to operate on the Mekong River at high intensity, making a series of new demands on Siam, which generated a strong interest in the Lao region, which made Siam very nervous, and with the help of the protection of the Ming Dynasty, they were able to keep these areas, and the relationship between the Ming and the French continued to be strained.

Now France has announced that it will stop its expansion, which has greatly alleviated these contradictions.

The Ming Dynasty announced that it would continue to recognize France's legitimate rights and interests in the Cochinchina region, recognize Cambodia as a French protectorate, and recognize France's garrison and other privileges in Saigon.

The mutual assurances between the two countries on the South China Peninsula have greatly reduced the risk of friction in the region.

But these compromises and concessions are not the key, and the most important of the final agreements reached by the three countries is the agreement guarantee of a large-scale military conflict between them. Those are the reasons why Daming values the most, and even why Daming is willing to sign an agreement.

France proposed that in the event of a war between any two of the three countries on the East Asian continent, the third country must maintain a neutral conscience and not form an alliance with either of them against a third party.

If the Ming Dynasty and France were at war on the South China Peninsula, Russia would have to remain neutral, and if a war broke out between the Ming and Russia in the Manchurian and Mongolian regions, France would have to remain neutral.

This agreement was obviously very beneficial to the Ming Dynasty, and in one fell swoop avoided the situation that the Ming could be attacked from both sides, so the Ming Dynasty happily agreed to guarantee the privileges of France in Cochinchina and the status quo of Russia's privileges in Manchuria.

At the same time, however, France demanded that in the event of a conflict between the three countries, a third country should intervene to coordinate it, and that neither side should carry out military mobilization against the other during the coordination period.

It was clear that the French were trying to avoid an eastern war, and for this reason they did not hesitate to abandon their expansion in Cochinchina. Even to a certain extent, it also constrained Russia's continued expansion, and the possibility of war broke out against Russia's expansion by the Ming Dynasty.

Once the Ming Dynasty went to war with Russia, Russia's forces would be transferred to the East in large quantities, which would inevitably affect its investment in the West, greatly reducing the pressure on Germany to fight on two fronts, and weakening the power of the Franco-Russian alliance against Germany.

The main objective of the French remained around Germany, and French foreign policy was still designed around revenge against Germany.

The reason why Russia accepted a temporary retreat was mainly because the current forces could not confront the Ming Dynasty, and before the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, they did not have the strength to confront the Ming in the east, and the construction of this railway was now heavily dependent on French financial support, so they had to accommodate France's policy.

The tripartite agreement also stipulates that neither side seeks to form any military alliance against the other, that is to say, Russia cannot form a military alliance with other countries, including France, against the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty cannot form a military alliance against Russia and France.

This agreement still did not change the fundamental contradiction between the Ming and Russia, but it was greatly alleviated, and most importantly, it allowed France to withdraw from the matter, even if the Ming and Russia went to war, France could stay out of the matter, and because of the balance of France, the chances of war between the two countries were reduced.

Therefore, the significance of this agreement is still very significant, at least it greatly reduces the land threat of the Ming Dynasty.

The reduction of the land threat will make the maritime threat the first threat to the Ming Dynasty. As a result, the second phase of the Navy's budget was quickly adopted, approving the construction of eight battleships, as well as a large-scale modification of ironclad ships built during the Ming-French War.

For the ironclad ships built during the war against the United States, new armor was added, and German Krupp armor was used, which reduced the weight of the armor while keeping the armor protection unchanged. New main guns were added, the number of main guns was reduced to 4, the impractical side guns were eliminated, and all secondary guns were installed on deck. Increase the height of the side side to maintain stability.

After such a refit, 30 first-class ironclad ships will be transformed into battleships, of course, there is a big gap between them and Western-style battleships in terms of performance, but they can still greatly improve their combat effectiveness and serve as second-class battleships of the Ming Dynasty.

The second-class battleships of the Ming Dynasty were also modified accordingly, the guns were readjusted, the armor was reduced, and they were converted into service with cruisers.

The old warships that are more than 10 years old are decommissioned on a large scale and auctioned off or dismantled.

The Navy budget bill will increase the deficit of 50 million taels per year in the Ming Dynasty, and the deficit of the army's reserve personnel will be as high as 100 million taels. It also brought an end to the short-term financial affluence after the Ming-Mei War.

Fortunately, the Americans' reparations greatly improved the financial situation of the Ming Dynasty, and the government could not save eight billion dollars, so all the internal and external debts were paid off in just a few years. I didn't expect to enter the next round of debt cycle again, but due to debt reduction, it also provides huge space for the government to refinance, and the annual deficit of 100 million taels is not difficult to bear in the short term.

After the signing of the East Asian Continental Agreement with France and Russia, the land security situation has been improved, the domestic political situation has been greatly eased through several years of efforts, and the integration of the foreign regions has made great progress, and the administrative system, judicial system, and education system have basically been unified.

But the political center of the Ming Dynasty is seriously southerly the state of greatly restricting the control of the whole country, so the Ming Dynasty decided to move the capital, the choice of moving the capital before there were two, one is Nanjing, one is the North Cent, there has always been a dispute before, after the agreement was signed, the government decided to give up the option of moving the capital to the North, and moved the capital to Nanjing.

In 1898, the biggest political event of the Ming Dynasty was the relocation of the capital to Nanjing.