Chapter 610 Incident (II)

The rooster crowed. This is the second time that the 'chicken' crows, but Li Yuanhong still doesn't think of the 'bed', he had a night of entertainment last night, drank no less than half a catty of foreign wine, and was so drunk that he didn't know how he came back, so he decided now to turn over and continue to sleep.

Although there was already a glimmer of light on the horizon, but because the curtains were closed, the room was still pitch black, and Li Yuanhong's snoring in the darkness was very calm, and nothing seemed to disturb his dream.

At this moment, there were a few heavy knocks on the 'door' of the room, a pause, and then a few more sounds, but Li Yuanhong on the 'bed' just turned over, and then fell asleep again, and after a while, the 'door' of the room was finally pushed open. Several political workers dressed in "republican uniforms" walked into the house, turned on the electric lights, and whispered to Li Yuanhong.

"Speaker Lai, Speaker Lai! Wake up, wake up! ”

Li Yuanhong snorted, opened his sleepy eyes, and a staff member whispered in his ear.

"Speaker Tang asked us to call you, no matter what, please rush to the Congress immediately, 100,000 urgent."

"100,000 urgent? What's the matter? ”

Li Yuanhong sat up, shook his head vigorously, the strength of the wine had not passed, and then carefully looked at this room, and found that it was not his bedroom at all, but a guest room of the hotel.

"Last night, there was an 'exchange' of fire between the Wuhan garrison and the garrison of the Japanese concession in Hankou, and at present our army has occupied the Japanese concession in Hankou. In this regard, the Japanese government has formally lodged a protest with the central government of our country, and reserves the right to take further action. The National Assembly will discuss this matter, and Speaker Tong asked Speaker Li to come and preside over the meeting. ”

"What? Attack on the Japanese Concession? Impossible. ”

Li Yuanhong was suspicious, and the wine was basically awake, but the assistant did not know the details of the incident, so he could only get up and dress, and at the same time ordered his subordinates. Let's call the presidential palace first and ask for the president's opinion, after all, this matter is not trivial, and what the president thinks, he has to 'get to the bottom' first.

After getting dressed, Li Yuanhong glanced at the alarm clock and found that it was only half past five in the morning, and when he was wondering whether the president had gotten out of bed, the assistant who had gone to call had hurried back.

"Speaker Lai, the president said on the phone that he will not interfere in how the National Assembly meets to discuss this matter, but one thing must be clear, that is, the responsibility for the 'June 26 Incident' is on the Japanese side, and the stationing of China's armed forces in the Japanese concession is only to maintain normal social order and protect the lives and property of nationals and foreign nationals. There is nothing to blame for the Japanese government, and even the US and German ministers have praised the correctness of the decision of the central government of our country, so the Diet should not accuse the central government of provoking disputes, but should focus its main attention on how to 'deal' with Japan. The riot of the Japanese 'ronin' in the Japanese concession in Hankou caused serious harm to the peaceful residents of our country, and the central authorities could not sit idly by and ignore this, otherwise they would be betraying the interests of the people. ”

Li Yuanhong was a little surprised, but also a little confused, one moment there was an armed conflict between the Chinese army and the Japanese garrison, and the other time it was the Japanese 'ronin' who caused the incident, what is the truth, he is indeed at a loss now, he is not clear, he has to go to the National Assembly.

Didn't bother to eat, Li Yuanhong left the hotel at the foot of the West Mountain, rushed to the city by car, and when he entered the city, it was already half past seven in the morning, and when he rushed to the Congress again, the Congress was already noisy, Tang Hualong and Zhang Binglin were helpless about the situation in front of them, and saw Li Yuanhong rushing over, so they hurriedly stepped forward to discuss.

After asking Tang Hualong and Zhang Binglin, Li Yuanhong had a general understanding of the course of the "June 26 Incident," since it was the Japanese who provoked it first, and the envoys of the United States, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and other countries in China all supported the decisive action of the Chinese army. Then, Li Yuanhong also set the tone of this session of the National Assembly, not discussing the protests of the Japanese government, but only discussing how to count the losses of the Chinese merchants in the Japanese concession in Hankow, and coming up with a plan as soon as possible, so that there would be enough evidence when the central government made a claim against the Japanese government in the future.

After all, this matter is not as good as the issue of relations with Germany, and this is a very thorny foreign affairs matter, and if it is not done well, it will not only affect his career, but may even lead to a war between China and Japan. Men' approached Speaker Le and asked Speaker Le to find a way to avoid war no matter what, especially those parliamentarians who owned industries in the coastal areas, and they feared that if China and Japan went to war, the coastal areas would become battlefields.

The parliamentarians all wanted to ask Speaker Li to take him to the presidential palace to meet the president, but in the end, Li Yuanhong did not bring anyone, so he took a few assistants and guards, and rushed to the presidential palace by car, and when he arrived at the presidential palace, he had a look. US Minister to China John Stade, German Minister to China Rex, British Minister to China Zhu Erdian, French Minister to China Marsley, and others have all stood together in the reception room with different expressions; as for the Japanese Minister to China, he is now 'negotiating' with the President at the State Guesthouse, and the British Minister originally wanted to accompany the Japanese Minister there, but was unanimously rejected by the President and the Japanese Minister himself.

Seeing Li Yuanhong's arrival, the envoys of various countries in China exchanged pleasantries for a moment, and then the reception room fell silent again, and even the American minister, who had always loved to talk, seemed to have become a wooden man. Just engrossed in playing with the coffee cup, but the German minister to China could not hide the excitement on his face at all, and from time to time whispered a few words to the foreign 'friend' assistant sitting beside him, no one knew what they were talking about, but everyone could see that the British minister was very dissatisfied with the excitement of the German minister.

After more than 10 minutes, an adjutant of the 'attendant' room came to the reception room and politely expressed Mr. President's apology to everyone present.

"I have waited a long time, Mr. President has concluded his talks with Mr. Japanese Minister Minister, and now the Japanese Minister has left the Presidential Palace. What Mr. President means is that if you are not troubled by Mr. Minister, please move to the State Guesthouse, where Mr. President will receive you. In addition, when the President heard that the Speaker of the Lebanese Assembly had arrived, he asked me to go to the Commander's Hall to sit down for a while. ”

As soon as the adjutant's words fell, Foreign Minister Wu Tingfang was late, and his tired eyes and staggering steps made him look particularly haggard, but he still discussed the matter of the president's meeting with the foreign envoys in China in accordance with the etiquette of foreign affairs, and then led the ministers of various countries to get into the car and rush to the state guesthouse.

At the strong request of the British Minister to China, John Stade, the American Minister to China, agreed to ride in the same car with him.

After the car started, Zhu Erdian took out a telegram and complained to Stade.

"Mr. Minister, this is the telegram I have just received from the British Consul in Hankow, on which he describes in detail the scene of the battle of the previous night, and it is hard to imagine that peace in the Far East has ended."

Stade shrugged his shoulders helplessly and glanced at the copy of the telegram that Zhu Erdian was holding.

"Mr. Minister, there is no need to be so pessimistic, it seems to me that the actions of the Chinese Wehrmacht units are in accordance with international conventions, according to the telegram I received last evening from the American consul in Hankow. What happened in the Japanese concession was a riot against the **** residents, and those Japanese thugs used sticks and blazing fire to let civilized countries see what is called "barbarism", I believe that this kind of thing is intolerable no matter which sovereign country it is placed in, after all, the Japanese concession in Hankou is still Chinese territory at the legal level, and the Chinese have every reason to interfere in a riot against foreign nationals against the Chinese. So, in my opinion, if the British government can recognize this, it should be able to persuade the Japanese government to remain calm and avoid further deterioration of the situation. ”

Perhaps seeing the "non-interference" position of the US government, Zhu Erdian sighed in his heart, he understood that things have developed to this point, China and Japan are both responsible, and the British government has no intention of holding anyone more responsible, and the British government is worried that once China and Japan go to war because of the "June 26 Incident", then the balance of power strategy in the Far East will not be maintained, but at this time, the situation in Europe is also very tense. Since the Austro-Hungarian crown prince was about to make a very deterrent "visit" to Sarajevo, the war clouds were now gathering in Europe, and it was impossible for the British government to pay attention to the Far East, and the same was true for the French government, and the German government obviously intended to launch a quick decisive battle similar to the Franco-Prussian War before Russia completed its preparations for war, conquer France in one fell swoop, and then turn around and clean up Russia.

At this time, once China and Japan are at war, then Britain's Far East policy will be completely bankrupt, and what is even more worrying is that Germany's relationship with China is now so close that no one dares to guarantee that the two countries will not eventually move towards an alliance, after all, Japan has two allies, one is Britain and the other is Russia, and China is still fighting alone.

What is even more troubling is that the United States is now paying more and more attention to the Chinese market, and the United States is Japan's strategic enemy, so the position of the United States is very important at this time.

"If war breaks out between China and Japan, how will the U.S. government decide?"

As an increasingly important industrial country, the position of the United States is becoming more and more important in the entire world pattern, and the British government fǔ very much wants to know how the US government will view the changes in the situation in the Far East, although the Japanese government has clearly assured the British government that as long as the Chinese do not take further action, the Japanese government fǔ will take a "restrained stance" on the "June 26 incident", but no one knows what the "Far East madman" is thinking.

Si Dai De did not immediately answer Zhu Erdian's question, he was considering, in fact, when he received the telegram from the Hankou Consul last night, he was also very shocked, he was not shocked by the madness and tyranny of the Japanese 'ronin', but shocked by the decisive decision of the Chinese Central Government, although the order to enter the Japanese concession was given by the Wuhan Garrison Command, but Si Dai was very clear that outside this kind of matter' After all, the concession is one of the privileges of the great powers in China, and this is not only where the interests of Japan but also the interests of the great powers lie, and even the political authorities of the United States will not tolerate the disappearance of this privilege so easily.

But what does it mean that the Chinese actually drove their troops into the Japanese concession? Could it be that the Chinese have already made up their minds to wage war with Japan? If this is the case, there is no doubt that the Chinese have been preparing for this war for a long time, otherwise, it is difficult to explain why the Chinese army ordered to be stationed in the Japanese concession in Hankou was a field force preparing to participate in the "Changde Great Exercise", and the equipment of that unit was refreshing.

If this is the case, then the "June 26 Incident" is by no means an accident, and it seems that it can be seen as a fuse set by the "spirit", and now, someone has taken out a match and wanted to light it.

Thinking of this, Stade fell into deep thought.