Zhan Tianyou and Stade had a half-hour meeting at the Six Nations Hotel. Both sides were anxious to end this talk, which could not leak the news, so Zhan Tianyou and Cai Tinggan soon left the Liuguo Hotel together, got into a carriage without any signs, hurriedly left the embassy area of Dong'jiao' Minxiang, and went straight to the presidential palace.

Along the way, Zhan Tianyou frowned tightly and didn't say a word, although Cai Tinggan was a little curious in his heart, he also endured the 'sex' and didn't ask, he stayed in the 'handover' department and 'door' for a long time, this "tight-lipped mouth" is no longer a professional requirement, it has become instinct, since Zhan Tianyou doesn't say it, then Cai Tinggan doesn't ask.

There was silence all the way, and when they arrived at the presidential palace, the carriage stopped, Cai Tinggan got out of the car first, and went to contact the president about the matter, Zhan Tianyou still sat in the carriage, and continued to ponder what Stade said, as well as the situation on the ancient grassland of the 'Gate'.

But Zhan Tianyou is not a professional politician after all. Although he did have a four-rank top to wear a 'door' face in the former Qing Dynasty, he didn't have much interest in politics, so he quickly diverted his attention and instructed his assistant to take out a railway development plan from his briefcase, take a pen and make corrections on it, and soon immersed himself in the cause of a railway power.

When Cai Tinggan returned, Zhan Tianyou was still revising the railway development plan.

"Chengcheng, the president invites you to come over, and you follow me."

Cai Tinggan opened the 'door' of the carriage and pointed behind him, but there was an American Fortune car parked there, which was sent by the president to pick up Zhan Tianyou.

Zhan Tianyou packed his briefcase, followed Cai Tinggan into the car, and the two went directly to the 'flower' garden behind the presidential palace.

Arrived near the 'flower' garden, the car stopped, Cai Tinggan signaled Zhan Tianyou to get out of the car, the two walked to the 'flower' garden on foot, accompanied by several guards, just entered the 'flower' garden, and saw a few young people coming, followed by a person, Zhan Tianyou did not know, but Cai Tinggan knew, that person was Tian Jinfu, the director of the Military Intelligence Bureau, who used to be the captain of Zhao Bei's guard.

Cai Tinggan hurriedly grabbed Zhan Tianyou, and the two stood on the side of the road, waiting for Tian Jinfu and the others to pass. And the other party also nodded to the two of them very politely, didn't say anything, and walked out of the 'flower' garden, when these people passed by Cai Tinggan, the young people whispered to each other, but they didn't use Chinese.

"They don't speak Japanese."

When the gang walked away, Zhan Tianyou muttered in a low voice.

"Korean, it should be Korean." Cai Tinggan nodded, didn't be wordy, pulled Zhan Tianyou and continued to walk forward.

When they arrived at a cross-courtyard, Qin Sihu, the captain of Zhaobei's guard, was already waiting at the 'door' of the cross-courtyard, saw the two of them coming, hurriedly invited them in, and took the two into a side room.

Zhao Bei was in the wing room, sorting out some documents on the table with several adjutants, seeing Zhan Tianyou and Cai Tinggan walking into the room, Zhao Bei stepped forward to shake hands with the two of them, and then pointed to the sofa, invited the two to sit down for a while, and Qin Sihu also served black tea.

After the adjutants left the room, Zhao Bei sat opposite the two. After chatting a few words, he cut to the point and asked Zhan Tianyou about the construction of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway, which lasted for half an hour, and finally the topic came to the issue of the railway from Zhangjiakou to naturalization.

At this time, Cai Tinggan excused himself to have something to do with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and retired with interest, and only Zhao Bei and Zhan Tianyou were left in this room, and even Qin Sihu stood at the 'door'.

Zhan Tianyou hurriedly conveyed to Zhao Bei what the acting US minister to China, John Stade, had said to him at the Six Nations Hotel, and reminded Mr. President that under the current situation, it would be best to push the US consortium to the forefront, so that the US government can have enough reasons to 'meddle' in the 'door' and 'cross' the issue in order to achieve the goal of "destroying the country with razing."

"Mr. Zhan, your words may not be unreasonable, but the 'gate' ancient problem is very thorny, and it cannot be solved by introducing American capital to build one or two railways. At present, our most dangerous enemy is still that Japan, and although Tsarist Russia also threatens our national security and national interests, for the time being, we cannot fight on both sides, and we must concentrate our firepower on the most dangerous enemy.

I also understand the wishful thinking of the Americans, they want to push us to the front of the confrontation against Russia and make us more dependent on the United States, but we cannot be used as a gun, because we do not know how determined the United States is to confront Russia, after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, the United States also tried to use the Manchu court to fight against Japan, but later behind the back of the Manchu court and the Japanese government reached an understanding of foreign 'relations' and signed a treaty. After selling the Manchu court, now we must learn the lessons of the Manchu court, pay more attention, and we must not take advantage of the fire of others until there is no clear benefit. In order to save the country, we can take advantage of the contradictions between the great powers, but we must also recognize that our situation is difficult and every step taken must be very cautious. ”

Zhao Bei sighed lightly and said a few reasons, trying to make Zhan Tianyou understand why the central government did not agree to join forces with the American consortium to build a railway to go to the ancient grassland of the 'Gate'.

In fact, the reason is very simple, as a traverser who knows the general trend of historical development, Zhao Bei knows very well which China's main enemy is, although Tsarist Russia is hesitant to look at China, but since the defeat of the Russo-Japanese War, Tsarist Russia has shifted its strategic focus from the Far East back to Europe, and with Germany's refusal to renew the alliance with Russia, therefore, Germany has become Russia's most dangerous enemy, in order to deal with this enemy, Russia has to keep its eyes on the European continent, as for the expansion in the Far East. Russia can only maintain a minimum of aggressiveness, and as Russia's most important ally, Britain does not want to see the situation before the Russo-Japanese War reappear in the Far East, so Britain does not support Russia in taking decisive steps to expand its power in China.

Therefore, in Zhao Bei's view, even if his crossing led to the so-called "butterfly effect" and changed history, at present, it should not have a big impact on the overall pattern of Europe and the world, and Russia is still Germany's enemy. Germany is still Britain's enemy, so the most dangerous enemy for China today is not Russia, which is a foreign power, but Japan, which has not really been treated as an equal by the Western powers.

Historically, Japan took advantage of the opportunity of the First World War to rise; on the one hand, it took advantage of the opportunity of the Western powers to expand their influence in China and gradually squeeze out the influence of the Western powers in China, and on the other hand, it also took advantage of the opportunity of the European industrial system being brought into the orbit of the war to dump Japan's industrial products into the entire Asian region and even the European region. Since the end of the diplomatic policy, the strategic balance in the Far East, which Britain had struggled to maintain, gradually became unbalanced, and a full-scale war between China and Japan became inevitable.

What Zhao Bei is doing now is to maintain this strategic balance in the Far East as much as possible, to try to keep the power of the great powers in China balanced, and to strive for the greatest interests for China in this balanced situation. At least for the time being, Zhao Bei does not want a large-scale armed conflict with Japan, and even if there is bound to be a strategic decisive battle between the two countries, Japan must not take the initiative, and China has the final say on when the war starts.

This will not be easy, and it will not only require long-term strategic planning, but also the initiative of Zhao Bei to prevent Japan from gaining a respite before the outbreak of World War I.

It was for this purpose that Zhao Bei vetoed the Sino-US envoy Stade's Sino-US joint venture plan to build a railway from Zhangjiakou to Naturalization, because it would stab Tsarist Russia, according to a series of treaties signed between Tsarist Russia and the Qing court, the Chinese territory north of the Great Wall has long been regarded as its sphere of influence by Tsarist Russia, Tsarist Russia will never tolerate other countries to put their hands into their sphere of influence, and neither can the United States, and the reason why the "Knox Plan" implemented by Stade some time ago failed miserably is for this reason, In order to protect its own interests, Tsarist Russia did not hesitate to join forces with its former enemy, Japan, against the United States.

Zhao Bei did not want to provoke Russia, which did not mean that the Tsarist Russian government would be merciful to China. Now, the information sent by Staid shows that Tsarist Russia, as in history, has taken the initiative to attack on the issue of the 'Gate' and the Ancient Age, and that Tsarist Russia wants to use China's soul to 'mess' and swallow the Ancient Area of the Gate in one gulp.

Is Zhao Bei worried about this?

Zhao Bei is indeed worried, but he is not as unfounded as Zhan Tianyou, because history has proved that as long as Tsarist Russia does not withdraw from the Entente bloc, as long as the military mobilization system of the European powers does not change fundamentally, then, Tsarist Russia will eventually fall, fall under the red flag of **, and at that time, many of the benefits swallowed by it will be redistributed, as for whether China can also get a piece of the pie, although Zhao Bei is not much sure now, but it is not without the mind of leaping 'jade'.

It is precisely for this reason that Zhao Bei will react calmly to Stede's "alarmist", and as for the upcoming armed rebellion of the ancient princes and monks of the 'Gate', Zhao Bei is not surprised, in the historical "Xinhai **", Tsarist Russia is so 'manipulative'.

Now that he had foreseen the means that Tsarist Russia was about to take, Zhao Bei had to prepare accordingly.

Historically, the rebellion of the ancient princes and monks of the 'Gate' G was a political problem on the surface, but in fact it was an economic problem, and the Qing court implemented a new policy in the 'Gate'g ancient area and abolished the privileges of some princes, which directly damaged the interests of the princes, and the reason why they launched a rebellion after the fall of the Qing Dynasty was this problem.

And now it is 1909, the Qing court has fallen, and the "New Deal" has not yet been widely implemented in the steppe areas, so it is a question mark how many of the current 'men'g ancient princes are willing to fight for Tsarist Russia.

Synthesizing the experience and lessons of history, Zhao Bei decided to adopt the strategy of pulling one by one against the ancient princes of the 'Gate' G, for those who showed "honesty", to appease them, continue to maintain their political and economic privileges, and for those die-hards, they would adopt thunderous means to resolutely eliminate the 'flesh' body, even if it was impossible to maintain the peace of the outer 'Gate' G, at least the Inner 'Gate' G should be firmly in their own hands to facilitate the implementation of the strategy in the future.

In fact, the proximity of Tsarist Russia and Japan did not mean that the two countries were already close allies, and the differences of interests between them were still very large, as can be seen from the terms of the "Russo-Japanese Entente" of 1907, and the proximity of Russia and Japan was not so much "reconciliation" as it was to deal with a common enemy.

This "common enemy" is the United States, understand this, and understand why Zhao Bei is unwilling to let the American consortium extend its hand to the 'Gate' ancient region, if the American consortium wants to build a railway in the southern part of the Northeast region, Zhao Bei will support it, because it is Japan's sphere of influence, and he would like to see the United States confront Japan there, but if the interest of the American consortium is in the 'Gate' ancient area, then Zhao Bei will not be able to follow the will of the United States.

In the present situation, the most important task is to avoid giving Russia a strong 'provocation', and even if Russia cannot be used to restrain Japan, at least it is necessary to make Russia adopt a "neutral" stance in the confrontation between China and Japan.

Although the cooperation with Germany and the United States is very smooth, China is now unable to even make its own heavy weapons, so what qualifications does it have to erect enemies everywhere?

Although the "Far East madman" is crazy, he is not a madman, and Zhao Bei's reason told him that it is not appropriate to provoke Russia now, and if the situation in Europe changes drastically because of provoking Russia, it will be more than worth the loss.

"Mr. Zhan, we can build the ancient railway, but we can't rely on the Americans, and if necessary, we can also cooperate with the Russians."

Zhao Bei's words surprised Zhan Tianyou, and he immediately raised objections.

"President Junjian. If we cooperate with Russia to build a railway, once this railway is built, I am afraid it will not be under our control. Russia is different from the United States, and the United States can give up the right to manage the railway, but Russia will certainly not agree to let us control the 'Men' and G-gu railways, and the 'Eastern Railway' in the three eastern provinces in those years is a lesson from the past. ”

Zhan Tianyou hurriedly dissuaded, but he obviously didn't know what Zhao Bei's true purpose was.

"Mr. Zhan, how can I not know the wolf ambitions of Tsarist Russia? But under the current situation, we must appease Russia, perhaps, cooperation in the construction of the railway is a more prudent choice, on the one hand, the steppe armed rebellion and the central counterinsurgency, resulting in the situation in the steppe 'turbulence', on the other hand, the Sino-Russian cooperation in the construction of the 'Gate' G ancient railway, commerce and trade will not be affected, if you were the Russian Tsar, which way would you choose to grab the interests of the 'Gate' G. ”

Speaking of this, Zhao Bei stood up and instructed Qin Sihu to take a document from the study and 'hand' it over to Zhan Tianyou.

"Mr. Zhan is a person who worries about the country and the people, and you can also know some things. This document was submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a few days ago, and the content is mainly about negotiations with Russia, which are all messes left over from the Manchu Dynasty, and although we are now a republic, we cannot kick this mess, otherwise it will be a blatant violation of the 'international axioms', and even the United States and Germany will not agree to it. Mr. Zhan, take a good look at this foreign 'exchange' negotiation document and see what conditions the Russians have offered, this is no longer 'greed', this is 'madness', this is the blindness of profit. It's not that it doesn't report, the time has not yet come, and in the future, Tsarist Russia will definitely pay the price for its greed, a heavy price, and if it is not good, it will be the end of the destruction of a dynasty. ”

Zhan Tianyou didn't listen to Zhao Bei's words at all, and his attention was all focused on the foreign 'handover' document, and it was only then that he understood that the ambitions of the Russians could no longer be described as "'jade' is difficult to fill".

There was some silence in the room for a while, Zhao Bei stood by the window, looking at the gloomy contemplation in the 'flower' garden, Zhan Tianyou sat motionless on the sofa, and carefully read the 'handed-in' document from beginning to end.

After a long time, Zhan Tianyou put down the file, raised his head and looked at Zhao Bei who was standing by the window, then stood up and walked over.

"Please rest assured that the opening ceremony of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway will be held in a few days, and at that time, I hope that the president will personally preside over the ceremony at the station. As for the armored train, if the president really can't send it out of the mouth, then I would like to send more cavalry. ”

Zhao Bei turned around, smiled at Zhan Tianyou, nodded, and said: "The opening ceremony, I will definitely preside over it, but I can't go to Zhangjiakou, I can only preside over the opening ceremony at Beijing Station, and now that the 'Guangdong Incident' has not subsided, I really can't stay away from the center." Regarding the matter of the road guard, I will also contact the War Department, although on the issue of 'gate' G Gu we 'retreat as advance', but our bottom line cannot be shaken, that is, 'sovereignty is mine'. In addition, the content of our conversation today must be kept confidential and no one should be told, because it is a matter of national interest. On the American side, I will also contact them directly, and in any case, it is always right to leave a way back. ”