Kato Takaaki's initiative to retreat caught Rolmo and others off guard, and it was too late to stop Kato Takaaki, and Zhang Taiyan had already said the terms of the Chinese side's peace talks.

"The Chinese side believes that Japan's choice is extremely wise, and His Excellency Takaaki Kato's mind to work for the well-being of its own civilians is admirable. So, the following are the terms of the Chinese side's peace agreement, and I would like to ask His Excellency Takaaki Kato to reply as soon as possible. ”

1. Confirm that Korea has become a protectorate of China, and that Japan is not allowed to station troops in Korea.

2. Japan compensated China with 300 million Chinese dollars for its military expenses.

3. Japan shall return the island of Taiwan, its affiliated islands, and the Penghu Islands, which originally belonged to China.

4. The tonnage of Japanese naval battleships shall not exceed 10,000 tons and the tonnage of armored cruisers shall not exceed 20,000 tons within ten years.

5. The number of land forces that Japan has in ten years must not exceed 200,000.

6. In the 99th year of the Chinese Concession to Kagoshima Port on Kyushu Island, Japan, Japan needed to provide military expenses for the Chinese garrison.

7. China has the right of navigation in the Tsushima Strait.

Zhang Taiyan slowly closed the document in his hand, looked up at the expressionless people, compared to their mood has developed from shock and anger to silence, and it will explode after a while!

"The Chinese side's proposal is so unbelievable that each of the seven clauses is unacceptable. On the Korean issue in Article 1, how can the Korean Empire (in 1896, the Korean royal family was upgraded to the Korean Empire with the support of Russia, and since then the name of Lee Joseon has been changed to Han) is signing a protection treaty with Japan and will soon become a protectorate of Japan. After reacting to this, Kato Takaaki tried to refute one by one, the first of which was that before the Battle of Tsushima, Japan had forced the Korean royal family to sign a protection treaty and took full control of the Korean regime. However, before the signing of the protection treaty. The Joseon royal family received a mysterious message and tried their best to delay the signing of the treaty. Sure enough, the tide of the war soon turned upside down, and the Japanese army suffered a crushing defeat and no longer had the energy to patronize the Joseon royal family. As a result, the Korean Empire was struggling to be preserved, and now it seems. The failure to sign the protection treaty in time was a mistake on the part of Japan, and they did not have much excuse to remain in Korea.

"As far as I know, the Korean Empire is currently an independent country, and it has no suzerainty relationship with any country, so it is logical for Hwa to become a protectorate of the Korean Empire." Zhang Taiyan said with a smile, speaking of which, North Korea is also a sad country, swaying left and right among several large countries, which is also the sadness of small countries, so it is not difficult to understand the extremely sensitive national mentality and self-esteem of the people on this peninsula in later generations, and of course, those actions that try to smear the halo on their bodies.

Of course. Previously, Korea was de facto protected by Russia, but after the defeat in the Northeast Theater, Japan replaced Russia and de facto took control of Korea. Looking at Ramsdorff, who participated in the talks with a tense face, even if he heard the terms about Russia's interests, he had no room to speak for himself, and I believe that his words would be ignored by everyone in the talks.

Takaaki Kato: "Then let's talk about the second article, Japan simply can't afford the compensation amount of 300 million Chinese dollars. In order to compensate for the losses of the Chinese side, the Japanese side is willing to pay 10 million Chinese dollars in compensation. It is paid in ten years. In Article 3, Japan made clear its rule over the Taiwan archipelago and the Penghu archipelago as early as the "Treaty of Shimonoseki," which is already Japan's territory, and it is impossible for China to cede its own territory. As for the remaining ones, Japan will not give up control of its military and national security. ”

The rest of the day was nothing more than bargaining, and both the Japanese and Chinese sides were resolute. The Chinese side insisted on the terms it had proposed, while the Japanese side held the terms too harsh and resolutely refused to agree to them. After two hours of talking, the moderator of the talks, Hurut, announced a temporary adjournment.

This was a clever delaying tactic by Kato, who immediately reported the contents of the talks to China after the talks were suspended. Aritomo Yamagu, who is temporarily in charge of Japan's overall situation, asked Kato Takaaki to stand firm and not agree to any clause.

On 7 December, Zhang Taiyan met with Kato Takaaki and warned him that once the negotiations broke down, the Chinese Pacific Fleet would once again patronize the coastal areas of Japan and carry out large-scale bombardment of Hiroshima, Kobe, Nagoya, Shizuoka and other large cities.

On the 8th, the Japanese side handed over the amendment to the treaty to the Chinese side, and the amendments were numerous, proposing that Korea belonged to the Japanese protectorate, but that the Japanese garrison could be reduced to a division; return the Penghu Islands to China and continue to occupy the Taiwan Islands; reduce the amount of compensation to 100 million Chinese dollars, to be paid in five years; The number of battleships does not exceed 20,000 tons, the number of armored cruisers does not exceed 40,000 tons, and the number of land forces does not exceed 400,000, that is, the number is doubled on the Chinese terms. In addition, it promised that China had the right of navigation in the Tsushima Strait, but did not agree to the concession of the port of Kagoshima to China.

The Western powers represented by Rolmore, Hulut and others also did not agree to weaken Japan too much, and Britain, France, and the United States simultaneously put pressure on China to agree to Japan's amendments.

On the 9th, the Chinese side handed over the revised terms to the Japanese side, and Zhang Taiyan said to Kato Takaaki: "Your Excellency the Foreign Minister saw that I had made this abridgement, but there were only two sentences: yes and no. ”

Takaaki Kato: "Aren't you allowed to tell?" ”

Zhang Taiyan: "Just debate, but not reduce!" ”

The Japanese side tried to decipher a large number of telegrams sent by Zhang Taiyan to the Wuhan Presidential Office, but the strange thing was that Huaguo's telegrams could not be deciphered at all, so it was difficult to grasp China's bottom line of negotiations. Through the deciphered telegrams, Zhang Zhidong and Zhang Taiyan found that the Japanese had a very strong desire to end the war and sign a treaty, and realized that delaying the negotiations would be detrimental to China, so they took a tougher stance.

On the 10th, the two sides held a final round of talks, which lasted from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., during which Kato Takaaki pleaded with each other to alleviate the blackmail, but both were refused. Zhang Zhidong, who was watching from the sidelines, was not tired, stroked his beard lightly, and looked at the anxious Kato Takaaki quite meaningfully; he could only fully accept our request, and since he arrived in San Francisco, he had never hesitated to debate with words and swords like today's meeting; perhaps Kato Takaaki already knew that the main part of the Chinese side's decision could not be changed, so in today's talks, he only weighed on minor issues, such as asking for a reduction in the compensation payment from 250 million Chinese dollars to 50 million Chinese dollars, and seeing that the goal could not be achieved, he asked for a reduction of 20 million Chinese dollars. even begged Zhang Taiyan in the end, so as to reduce a small amount and give it as a travel expense to return to China.

Once upon a time, his old rival Li Hongzhang also suffered such an embarrassment in Maguan, Japan, and Zhang Zhidong seemed to see the scene in Maguan Chunfan Tower.

The amount of compensation is the most heated point of contention between the two sides, and the Japanese side said that it will not be able to come up with such a large amount of money anyway, even if it is repaid in ten years. Zhang Taiyan said that Japan can borrow from banks, such as the Bank of England and the Bank of France. Rolmo and Ruvier said on the spot that the banks of the two countries were financially strapped and could not afford to spend so much money on loans.

"That's-" Zhang Taiyan pondered, in fact, the Western banking group could easily take out this money, but if you think about it with your toes, you will understand that they are using this money to rearm Japan, not to pay reparations. Given the poverty and credibility of the Japanese, even if the indemnity of 300 million yuan was paid in installments, Japan would tear up the treaty in the middle and later stages. Since you can't get full compensation anyway, you can start somewhere else!

"Huaguo understands the difficulties of the Japanese side, and since the Japanese side cannot come up with so much money, then the amount of compensation can be reduced to 50 million Chinese dollars." After Zhang Taiyan finished speaking, the corners of Kato Takamei's mouth had just cracked, and his mood was not completely relaxed, and Zhang Taiyan's next sentence made his mood fall into a trough.

"If you don't have any money, you can pay off your debts with the islands! The Japanese side can return Okinawa Prefecture, that is, the Ryukyu Islands, to China for 200 million Chinese dollars! As soon as this statement came out, it turned out that the ultimate purpose of Huaguo was Okinawa!

In 1872, Japan forced the Ryukyus to become a vassal state of Japan and concealed it from the Qing Kingdom. In 1879, Japan sent military police to break into the capital of the Ryukyus, ordered the king of the Ryukyus to hand over power on behalf of Prince Akihito, brazenly announced the abolition of the Ryukyu Prefecture, that is, the Ryukyu Kingdom was changed to Okinawa Prefecture, and forced the king of Shotai to go to Japan, during which the Ryukyu desperately resisted, and secretly sent officials to Tianjin to meet Li Hongzhang, asking the Qing State to send troops, but unfortunately the Qing State did not send a single soldier except for protests. The rebellion of the Ryukyu Kingdom did not subside until the Sino-Japanese War.

The strategic position of the Ryukyu Kingdom was very important, but for Japan, the importance of the Ryukyus was less than that of 200 million Chinese won. After consulting Japan, Kato agreed with the Chinese side and began to evacuate the Japanese soldiers and immigrants stationed in the Ryukyus, taking with him most of his belongings and even the population.

After the 10-day talks, Takaaki Kato almost collapsed, and the two sides reached a preliminary agreement on the terms, waiting for the agreement after returning home, and then they could sign the treaty. (To be continued.) )