。 From the fall of the Manchu Dynasty! After. Yi Kuang took his family to live in the Tianjin Concession, the most. He lived in the Japanese Concession, but when King Xiao Gong and King Su jointly planned the kidnapping case, Yi Kuang was frightened, so he quickly left the Tianjin Japanese Concession with his family and hid in the French Concession, but he didn't live for long, and moved to the Russian Concession, and after living in the Russian Concession for a while, he found this small western-style building where Yuan Shikai had lived in the British Concession, so he bought this small western-style building and hid in the British Concession with his family.

In these years, he has been hiding in Tibet, Yi Kuang is hiding from the gang of "Eight Banners outside the Guan", because King Xiao Gong once said that he Yi Kuang is a traitor of the Qing Dynasty, and everyone will punish him, and the Eight Banners outside the Guanwai not only took a fancy to Yi Kuang for so many years to loot the people's fat and people's ointment, but also wanted the life of his Yi Kuang traitor, for safety reasons, Yi Kuang never lived in one place for a long time, the reason why he chose this small western-style building in the British Concession. Mainly because there is a secret passage in the basement here, which can come in handy in case of emergency, and escape with the family.

After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, the newspaper published news that King Xiao Gong and King Su had been killed in an air raid by the Chinese Air Force. Yi Kuang is of course very happy, but this is just a rumor after all, and there are many people who regard Yi Kuang as a traitor of the Qing Dynasty, even if King Xiao Gong and King Su were really killed in the air raid, Yi Kuang would never dare to show up in public now, he didn't think about going abroad. But without a passport, except for Japan, no country is willing to take him in as an outdated prince, so in the future, Yi Kuang will have to continue to live in seclusion.

Seeing Yi Kuang coming, Gao Tingbi and Liu Renxiang stood up and bowed.

"Excuse me, excuse me. The two of you said that you had come from the north to discuss national affairs with me, but for the sake of yesterday's letter? ”

Yi Kuang sat down on the sofa opposite, and there was no nonsense, and he cut to the chase directly, which was far from the rumored and stupid image that he didn't know what to say.

"It's for this purpose. We also brought this letter with us. ”

Bu Tingbi took out a letter from the lining of his top hat and handed it to the butler, but it was the letter that Vice President Zhang Sai took yesterday to President Zhao Bei.

Yi Kuang took the letter, looked at it a few times, and then rested it on the coffee table.

This letter was sent to Zhang Xiao's house yesterday afternoon, but this letter was not written by him, but was written by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce, and entrusted Yi Kuang to forward it to Zhang Xiao. Conduct consultations. Trying to end the state of war between China and Japan through some channel, as for Yi Kuang, the only role he plays in this is to mediate and liaison, acting as an intermediary.

As for what the Japanese want to do, Yi Kuang doesn't want to know, and he doesn't plan to express his opinion, he just wants to complete this task quickly, and then take the whole family to take refuge in Japan, far away from the "Eight Banners outside the Guan", because the Japanese told him that as long as he completes this intermediate liaison task, he can help him get a passport to take refuge in Japan, and with this passport, Yi Kuang and his family can even go to a third country, such as the United Kingdom and the United States.

Therefore, Yi Kuang did not hesitate to get busy, acting as a bridge between the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and the Chinese "peace people", he did not care how this Sino-Japanese war would develop, in his opinion. It's best for China and Japan to lose both. No one can take advantage, although he has long since died of the idea of restoring the Manchu Dynasty, but he has always been hostile to the republican government, so this time he is in the middle of the peace mediation, he Yikuang is not for the interests of the country at all, he is for the interests of his family, just like when he was the prince of Manchuqing, everything he did was for himself.

"Tell you the truth, you two, now the liaison officer of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce lives with me, if you want to meet him now, I can call him over, you can talk casually, I won't get along.

Yi Kuang said this, picked up the teacup and drank tea. But he didn't look at the two on the other side.

Ministry Tingbi and Liu Renxiang both scolded in their hearts, "old traitor is slippery", and then exchanged one. Eyes, Gao Tingbi spoke.

"That's the best, so I bothered the prince to call the Japanese liaison officer, and we have a few words to ask him."

So the old man went and called him. The old man is writing in the study, if you have anything to say. and he called his servants to speak. ”

Yi Kuang nodded, then put down the teacup, left the living room with the housekeeper, and went up to the second floor.

"He's a treacherous man, and he knows that this matter is a hot potato, so he just leaves it alone and tells us to talk nonsense to the Japanese."

Liu Renxiang smiled bitterly and whispered to Bei Tingbi

He certainly understood that the task assigned by the president this time was indeed extraordinary, and it was inconvenient for the government departments to come forward directly, so "non-governmental figures" could only come forward and make contact with the Japanese side first.

In fact, Bu Tingbi and Liu Renxiang rushed to Tianjin this time to discuss armistice negotiations with the Japanese side, of course, before leaving Beijing. In the presidential palace, the president told the two in person. The current engagement with the Japanese side is only an engagement of intent, and it is not necessary to negotiate. In the president's view, China is fully confident of winning the war, so if the Japanese side opens its mouth, then the ministry and Liu Renxiang have "the right to act freely." In other words, they can walk away.

The reason why Gao Tingbi and Liu Renxiang were sent to Tianjin to make contact with the Japanese side was because they were both "non-governmental figures" and both businessmen, and their status as representatives of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce was because they were both personal representatives of the president and had a close relationship with the president.

Before leaving, the president told Gao Tingbi and Liu Renxiang that the peace contact was only to test the bottom line of the Japanese side and convey the bottom line of the negotiations on the Chinese side to the Japanese representatives. If we can't talk on this basis, then Gao Tingbi and Liu Renxiang can go home immediately, in a word, the president is still full of confidence in this war. The reason for agreeing to send someone to negotiate is mainly due to the appeal of peaceful people in the Congress.

This task is not easy to do, and if you can't get a hat of a "traitor and traitor" flying in, Bu Tingbi and Liu Renxiang may have to face the spitting of the people and even the assassination of patriotic youths, so the two must keep their mouths shut.

In fact, Ministry Tingbi and Liu Renxiang can completely disagree with this task, but they are now asking for the president, so they have to come and worship

The China United Financial Bank is about to lose the right to issue banknotes, which is undoubtedly a blow to the bank's credibility, although it still retains the right to issue silver dollars for the time being, but it is not clear when it will be taken back by the center, so the Ministry hopes to be able to exchange the favor of the president through this negotiation with the Japanese side, so as to retain the bank's right to issue silver dollars and gold coins when the situation is unfavorable in the future.

As for the real estate tycoon Liu Renxiang, he has also encountered trouble recently, as a real estate tycoon, he keeps making profits between buying land and selling land, and with the encouragement of the center, he has also extended his tentacles to the Nanyang region, and bought a batch of land in Malaya, the Philippines and other Nanyang regions. However, both places were colonized by foreign countries, and there were various restrictions on the purchase of land by the Chinese. In order to speculate on the land, Liu Renxiang had to adopt some "flexible means" such as bribing local foreign colonial officials, using the name of local natives to purchase real estate, and other means, these means are not visible, once there is a wind and grass, it is a bloody sale, but some time ago, the Philippine American colonial authorities suddenly underwent personnel changes, and a colonial official who was difficult to buy on the surface took office. And immediately began to investigate the inside story of the local real estate transaction, which immediately threatened Liu Renxiang's interests, in order to buy local real estate, Liu Renxiang invested a large amount of money, once the inside story was exposed, these funds will be lost, which will immediately threaten his capital turnover, considering that Mr. President and the US minister in China have a good relationship, Liu Renxiang wants to ask the president to come forward, through personal relations to turn the matter around, no matter how to keep the book, therefore, Liu Renxiang can only handle this matter of negotiations with Japan for the president first.

Therefore, Gao Tingbi and Liu Renxiang came to the British Concession in Tianjin, and conducted peace trials as private businessmen to see what the conditions for peace talks were for the Japanese.

After Yi Kuang left the living room, no one went downstairs for more than ten minutes, although Bu Tingbi and Liu Renxiang were a little dissatisfied, but the two of them were calm. They have been fighting in the mall for many years, and they have seen all kinds of methods, and they understand that the reason why the Japanese are delayed is that this is a gesture to tell the Chinese negotiators that the Japanese can afford to drag it out.

The Chinese can also afford it, these days. Newspapers always put the war reports released by the presidential office on the front page, and while it is unclear which of them are true and which are not, Gao Tingbi and Liu Renxiang can conclude from the performance of foreign diplomats that they were in the midst of the Sino-Japanese war. The Chinese army fought well, at least in the early stage, it was Japan, which took the initiative to attack, suffered a lot of losses, otherwise, why would the Japanese Chamber of Commerce rush to find a way to negotiate peace?

Just as Gao Tingbi and Liu Renxiang were thinking about the negotiation strategy, the stairs rattled, and the two looked up and saw a man in a kimono walking down from the second floor.

When he walked up to the two, the man bowed, then introduced himself.

"Two gentlemen, contemptible Takao Heng. As the plenipotentiary representative of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce, I have held consultations with you on the issue of peace between China and Japan. ”

Ministry Tingbi and Liu Renxiang stood up to return the salute, also introduced themselves, and then immediately put forward the president's negotiation agreement

"As the plenipotentiary representative of the Chinese non-governmental negotiators, I would like to convey the terms of our negotiations. First, the Japanese army must withdraw from all occupied Chinese territory, including the islands; Second, the Japanese government must immediately stop all propaganda hostile to China. Third, the Japanese Government must return in full the Gengzi indemnity that China has already paid to Japan. and pay the corresponding interest; Fourthly, the Government of Japan must ensure that, henceforth, the Government of Japan will no longer harbor any political criminals who oppose the Government of the United Front and will extradite them in accordance with the relevant extradition treaties. Fifth, the Japanese Government will not send any form of spy personnel into China in the future, nor will it be stunned to assist any third country in gathering information on China's military, political, social, public sentiment, and public opinion. The above articles are 21 articles in total, and if the Japanese side wishes to hold peace talks, it must be based on these 21 articles. ”

After listening to the negotiation conditions proposed by the Ministry of Hunting, Takao Heng was completely stunned, so many terms. There are some inexplicable conditions. This was simply a peace condition put forward by the victor to the vanquished, and it was the first time that Takao-tei had been engaged in diplomacy for many years, and he had met such an arrogant representative of the peace talks.