"Everyone is friends, why take it so seriously." Seeing that the atmosphere was a little wrong, due to his low status, Jotaro Yamamoto, who had been sitting on the side without speaking since just now, began to play a round, "Mr. Li, whether this incident is our fault or not, since it has happened, what we need most is how to deal with the aftermath, how to make similar things happen again, instead of dwelling on the cause of the incident here, do you think what I said is right?" ”

"Yes, yes, how to deal with the aftermath is the most important purpose of our coming today." Hikoyoshi also reacted and began to smile and said, "Obviously, these people are the scum of our Japanese, and their words are not reliable. We in Japan have no intention or action to support these bandits and then make trouble for you, and they are just talking nonsense to reduce the punishment. ”

"Nonsense?" Li Zhigao smiled playfully, "Are you sure?" ”

"Sure!" Hikoyoshi of Ijiin nodded hurriedly, "How can you believe the words of the criminal?" So they are slandering, in order to reduce the punishment, and they are opening up a river. Of course, they are also Japanese anyway, so I hope that you will hand over the people and evidence to us first, and you can rest assured that we will arrange a trial immediately, and we will increase the supervision in this area to ensure that similar incidents will not happen again. ”

"Well, that's a good point, let me once again witness the shamelessness and sophistry of you Japanese." Li Zhigao smiled and shook his head, "It's a pity, do you think I look like the kind of idiot who is listened to by you casually?" Or do you think that what you said that you don't believe in yourself can move me? So, let's be sincere, it's useless to say this, it's too much. It just makes people laugh and question your intelligence. ”

"And what do you really want?" was said by Li Zhigao, Yijiyuan Hikoji also sank his face, "What conditions do you want before you are willing to agree to release people and no longer pursue this matter?" ”

"How. Annoyed and angry? Li Zhigao said lightly, "You want to threaten me? ”

Hearing Li Zhigao say this, Ijiin Hikoji immediately reacted, and then without saying a word, he got up from the chair, put his hands together, and then bowed deeply to Li Zhigao: "I'm really sorry, I was presumptuous just now, if there is any clash in language." Thank you for your forgiveness. ”

Although he was bowing, Hikoyoshi's expression was gritting his teeth, but because he was facing down because of the bow, others couldn't see it.

In the past, it was impossible for him to speak so lowly to a Chinese, let alone apologize like this, but this time, he did not just call himself Japan. Didn't say anything about the Great Japanese Empire, and didn't say anything extraterritorial. even came to apologize after seeing that the other party was slightly dissatisfied, just for fear of irritating Li Zhigao.

Because according to experience, Li Zhigao hates people to talk to him about extraterritoriality, and in the territory under his control, although the foreign concession has not been revoked for the time being, it is outside the concession. However, the extraterritoriality of foreigners is not easy to use, and this has been verified many times in the past, and many foreigners who are not convinced have been arrested and imprisoned by Li Zhigao's police after defying the law.

If it was the Qing government in the past, or Yuan Shikai and his ilk. Then they can unite with other powers to intimidate, but not Li Zhigao. The army under Li Zhi's master is very strong, and the fall out with him outweighs the loss, and the most important thing is that he has a lot of special medicines, which are not available elsewhere, but the effect is very obvious, and they are really life-saving drugs, not to mention other scarce materials.

Not to mention anything else, it is said that even their Meiji Emperor His Majesty is now supported by Li Zhigao's medicine, otherwise he would probably die last month.

Japan's Meiji Emperor suffered from type 2 diabetes as early as 1906, and this disease was an unsolvable problem in this era. If there had been no accident, then in the autumn of 1911 he would have suddenly become ill and in 1912 he would have suffered a uremia and died.

However, in this time and space, due to the appearance of Li Zhigao, diabetes is no longer an incurable disease, although the price of the drug for treating diabetes is ridiculously expensive, many times more expensive than the same weight of gold, but at least it can cure the disease, which is enough.

But the problem is that this drug can only be provided by Li Zhigao at present, and the quantity is scarce, all of them have established archives, are dedicated to special personnel, and are provided quantitatively, which cannot be like other antibiotic drugs, which cannot be bought here, and can be bought at a high price with other countries. Because most of the other people who have bought such diabetes drugs are diabetics, and most of them are Western dignitaries, but they will not sacrifice their lives for the emperor's life.

It is conceivable that if Li Zhigao is provoked, once he cuts off the supply of this medicine, causing His Majesty the Emperor to be unable to receive effective treatment and dies, then his crime will be great, and it is said that His Majesty the Emperor is now inseparable from this medicine.

It is because of these considerations, and because it is really inappropriate to start a war with Li Zhigao at present, that the Japanese side has always been so restrained, and Ijiin Hikoyoshi has also received special instructions from the above in advance, so he speaks so gently and politely.

No matter what, even if he knew that this was a kind of helplessness, and he knew that Li Zhigao was not an ordinary person, but for bowing and apologizing to him, Ijiin Hikoyoshi still felt a deep shame.

As if he was ashamed, or because he didn't get a reply from Li Zhigao, Hikoyoshi Ijiin raised his voice again: "Please forgive me!" ”

"Is this forcing me to forgive?" Li Zhigao sneered, "I hate you coming to this set the most, you can't get what you want, so you seem to be respectfully persecuting others?" It's a pity that I'm not interested in these things, and if you do this, you won't give me the slightest sympathy, but only disgust. And if you continue to do so, then we will have to end this meeting, and you will be solely responsible for the consequences. For example, what do you think about cutting off the supply of medicine to your majesty the Emperor? ”

"No!" It was Jotaro Yamamoto who spoke, and I saw that he also got up from the chair and just wanted to walk forward, but after finding that the female bodyguard behind Li Zhigao began to put her hand on the pistol holster, she stopped, and shouted in place, "Mr. Li, everyone is a friend, and there is something to discuss." Mr. Ijiin is just concerned about the chaos, and I don't know your preferences, so I should be at a loss, please look at the long-term cooperation, be sure to Haihan. ”

"Hmph." Hearing Jotaro Yamamoto say this, plus seeing Ijiin Hikoyoshi also raised his head and stood up. Li Zhigao shook his head lightly, and then pointed at Yijiyuan Hikoji with his index finger, "You, you, you have been a Chinese minister for so many years, and you are not as good as a junior, I really doubt how you became this minister before." ”

"I'm sorry." Ijiin Hikoyoshi also reacted from the congestion of his head at this time, and bowed lightly to Li Zhigao again, and then said, "I lost my temper just now." ”

Say that. Ijiin Hikoyoshi raised his head again, and his face changed to the flat expression he had before: "Mr. Li, since the incident has happened, I don't want to explain anything more, after all, I am just a diplomat, and my responsibility is only to play a communication role." So, how do you want to resolve this matter? In other words, how can you release the Japanese who are being held by you? ”

"It's like a negotiation." Li Zhigao leaned back with a smile. Leaning back in his chair, a woman in military uniform stepped forward from behind. Stretched out his hands and silently massaged Li Zhigao's shoulders. A woman also walked over from each side and began to massage Li Zhigao's arms and legs.

Next, Li Zhigao didn't speak, just slightly closed his eyes and enjoyed a three-minute beauty massage, while Hikoyoshi Ijiin and Jotaro Yamamoto were sitting upright. watched Li Zhigao enjoy it for three minutes, but he didn't say a word during the period.

After a full set of simple massages, Li Zhigao reopened his eyes, moved his neck and wrists, and smiled at a person wearing a yellow-green American military uniform next to him. The short-haired female bodyguard wearing a boat-shaped hat said, "Not bad, Rourou, your massage skills are getting better and better." ”

"Where." The girl called Rourou immediately bowed her head and said softly, "It's good that the chief doesn't dislike our rough methods." ”

"Hehehe." Li Zhigao grabbed the other party's little hand and stroked it gently, "Hey, what a white little hand, there are a lot of calluses, it seems that you usually practice a lot, it's really hard for you." ”

"Yes, yes." Touching her little hand, the woman's head lowered lower, and her voice became more soft, "It's my honor to serve the chief, it's all my hand too thick, I, I'll pay attention to it later." ”

"It's okay." Li Zhigao smiled and said, "Don't be afraid if you have cocoons, I'll send you a little ointment to remove cocoons when you go back, you follow the instructions, and it will be removed soon." Also, if you train in the future, you must pay attention to the combination of work and rest, don't work too hard, it's not good to hurt yourself. ”

"Yes, I see." The woman, named Rourou, immediately replied, "I will definitely listen to the chief." ”

"And you." Li Zhigao let go of his hand, turned to the other female bodyguards and said, "You are the same, did you hear that?" ”

"Yes, Chief!" The other female bodyguards immediately answered at the same time, matching the close-fitting military uniforms on their bodies, showing their softness, absolute uniform temptation.

After such a pretentiousness, Li Zhigao waved his hand to let these beautiful but dangerous female bodyguards retreat, and he sat up straight again, looking at Hikoyoshi Ijiin and Jotaro Yamamoto, who had been watching all this from beginning to end without saying a word, nor with a trace of emotion.

"Yes, it looks like you've all calmed down." Seeing that they didn't speak, Li Zhigao nodded, "My conditions are very simple, first of all, you must publicly apologize to me and promise that similar incidents will not happen again in the future; Secondly, if you want to give me some financial compensation in private, just just take two tons of gold to comfort and comfort my spiritual loss; Third, people, I will not let them go, they have broken the law in my territory, and they have to act according to my rules; Fourth, the ship can't be given to you, the whale pill smuggling and selling drugs is a felony and a stolen property, and we have the right to do anything about it. ”

"We can't accept this condition." Hikoyoshi shook his head, "Mr. Li, can you be a little more sincere?" ”

"I'm already very sincere." Li Zhigao said lightly, "When these four conditions are met, I will think that you Japanese are sincere, otherwise, I will take unilateral countermeasures." For example, to cut off any supply of medicine to you, to cut off all economic and trade contacts with you Japan, to expel all Japanese in our territory, to confiscate all the property of Japanese in China, well, and to boycott Japanese goods, that is. In the future, all Japanese goods in my jurisdiction will not be allowed to be imported or traded, and if Japanese goods are found, heavy fines will be imposed. ”

"I think you're kidding." Hikoyoshi shook his head calmly, "You're like that. It was tantamount to declaring war on the Empire of Japan. ”

"Then declare war." Li Zhi shrugged his shoulders and poured himself a cup of tea slowly, "To be honest, I'm really not afraid of fighting with you Japanese now." As for why I'm not afraid, hehe, you have so many intelligence officers, I don't need to say more, you yourself know very well. ”

"Mr. Lee." Hikoyoshi Ijiin said in a deep voice, "I admit that you are developing very quickly. Your army is also very strong, but you have not yet unified the whole country, and your strength is limited. If you take on our entire Japanese Empire, you have no chance of winning. ”

"Then you can give it a try." Li Zhigao squinted and said, "It's useless to say it's useless, just hit it to know if you have a chance to win." ”

"This is child's play!" Ijiin Hikoyoshi sneered, "Your attitude is not the appearance of a leader. Do you know that such a rash act will never be recovered? ”

"I just like to be pushy. What's wrong? You have what it takes to declare war! ”

"You!"

"Ah, it's a nice day." Seeing that it seemed that the conversation was about to collapse, Jotaro Yamamoto suddenly interjected, "Mr. Li, we don't need to be so stiff in this matter, and everyone is very angry today." I don't think we might as well put it aside and discuss it another day? ”

"See you another day?"

"Yes." Jotaro Yamamoto smiled and nodded.

"But I don't think it's that complicated." Li Zhigao said with a smile, "Even if it is shelved today, if you don't change your opinion, or don't agree with my conditions." Then I won't know about it, and I, who hate ink, don't have that much time to talk to you all day. So, I'm just a notice, and if you can't give me a satisfactory answer within three days, I'm going to unilaterally impose sanctions on Japan, and that's what I mentioned above. ”

"Mr. Li, we didn't do the right thing in this matter, and you should be angry." Jotaro Yamamoto continued to smile and said, "You see, there is a saying in China that when the forest is big, there are all kinds of birds. Just as there are many factions in China, there are also many factions in Japan, some of which are friendly to you and some of which are not friendly to you. The Whale Maru incident was obviously done to people who were not friendly to you, and it cannot represent our Japanese government, and we are here with sincerity to deal with this matter. So, I hope you don't take it personally, at the very least, and say a condition that everyone can accept, right? For the sake of this little thing, the wise man will not take it. ”

"Look, that's what people can talk to." Li Zhigao once again pointed his finger at the silent Ijiin Hikoyoshi, "I think he is more suitable to be a diplomat than you, you have to review it carefully." ”

"Yes." Ijiin Hikoyoshi nodded decisively, "When I go back, I will definitely review it well." ”

Seeing that the other party confessed so quickly, Li Zhigao twitched the corners of his mouth, and then said to Yamamoto Jotaro: "That's it, since you say so, I'll change a little condition." Neither people, ships, nor goods can be given to you, and this is a matter of principle. As for the rest, well, there must be a public apology from the Japanese government, which is also a matter of principle, but the economic compensation can be appropriately lowered, and if two tons of gold is too much for you, then it means, a million yen. How's that, I'm very generous, this is for your sake, are you very moved? ”

"Of course, the contemptible are flattered." Jotaro Yamamoto bowed slightly, "However, this condition is still a little unacceptable, how about you lower it again?" As for a public apology, I can't make the decision on this, but I think it's impossible to achieve it, because the Japanese government will never apologize for this, and as for why, we should all know very well. And financial compensation, well, it can actually be counted as a ransom, right? ”

"Huh." Li Zhigao looked at Jotaro Yamamoto, and finally nodded, "I'm tired, let's talk about this matter another day." ”

"Oh, in that case, let's not bother for now." Jotaro Yamamoto bowed, "Like you said, we'll talk another day." ”

"Hmm." Li Zhigao nodded.

"Then, let's retire first, you take care of your health." After Jotaro Yamamoto finished speaking, he bowed again, and then pulled the iron-faced Ijiin Hikoyoshi away.

After the two of them left, Li Zhigao waved his hand. let the female bodyguards behind him also leave, leaving only Zhao Jiayi, who has not said a word since the beginning.

"What do you think?" Li Zhigao didn't talk nonsense, and asked directly, "If we turn our faces against the Japanese and start a war over this incident, what are our chances of winning?" ”

"I'm not very good at military affairs." Zhao Jiayi said, "What I am good at is management and statistics. For the military, you'd better ask other experts. ”

"Isn't it like we haven't found the right person yet?" Li Zhigao sighed, "No matter what, you are also a modern person, even if you didn't understand military affairs before, can you be a comparison general?" So can you give me some statistical advice and tell me what our chances of winning are if we go to war with Japan now? ”

"If today's Japan is similar to Japan in another time and space, then economically. Japan is not equipped to wage a large-scale war. Zhao Jiayi said softly, "Fighting a war is fighting finances, the Japanese government's finances are not good now, it can be said that it is in debt, in history, it was in the Taisho era, relying on the opportunity of World War I to recover, which gave Hirohito the capital to start a war." Other words. Under normal circumstances, Japan would not have been able to fight you. ”

"That's right. I thought so too. Li Zhigao nodded.

"But we can't be overly optimistic." Zhao Jiayi said, "After all, Japan is different from Europe and the United States, and is still essentially a militaristic country with feudal remnants, and after the Meiji Restoration, the current Japan is already a centralized country." Once the Emperor of Japan orders a war, they will start a war even if they are not financially adequate. At this point, the Japanese are really crazy. ”

"Then do we have a chance of winning, can we block the opponent's attack?"

"Although your weapons are better. But if you really fight Japan, it's hard to say that you can stop the other side's attack, after all, there is a lot of uncertainty about the war, and I'm not a military expert, so I can't make many accurate predictions about it. Zhao Jiayi shook her head, "However, if you look at it from an economic point of view, due to Japan's lack of financial resources, even if it reluctantly starts a war at this time, it will not last, and it can only be a quick battle with you."

That is to say, once you can block their attack in the early stage and drag Japan into a protracted war, they will definitely not be able to consume it for a long time.

You know, you have another world to rely on, you can get a lot of supplies, you are not afraid of the economic blockade of the Japanese navy, and Japan comes from afar, and the supplies have to be transported from their own country, and the consumption is very amazing, they can't afford it at all. In addition, if you are fighting on your own, you can also use it to arouse national revenge, and you are not short of personnel in terms of the number of personnel, so your chances of victory are very high, provided that you can block the opponent's initial attack.

From an economic point of view, as long as you can survive a month, Japan will be in a dilemma due to financial problems, which will lead to a weak offensive and a dilemma. However, you also have losses, after all, the other side comes to fight you, it is fighting in your place, which will lead to a series of problems, which are easy to say in wartime, but once the war is over, there are many problems.

In the end, you are now only a warlord, not the lord of China, and if you fall out with Japan now, it will delay your efforts to unify the whole country, which will be detrimental to your future plans. ”

"So what do you mean? Can you put it simply? Is it in favor of me going to war now or not at all? Li Zhigao asked.

"Personally, now is not a good time to go to war." Zhao Jiayi shook her head, "You don't have a strong navy, even if you can use planes against Japanese warships, but you don't have the means to counterattack, you can't land in Japan, you can only wait for the other party to attack you, quite passive." Moreover, your army is inexperienced, and even if the weapons are advanced, you can not guarantee a sure victory against the Japanese army after the Russo-Japanese War. Finally, once a war is fought, it will have an impact on your economy and will seriously slow down your economic development. All of the above are the premise that you can win, but the problem is that your current strength is not particularly strong, whether it is industry or agricultural commerce, it is not very strong, and it is difficult to say that you will win against Japan at this time. After all, the war is dangerous, and if it really starts, it is not a sure win if one side has advanced weapons, at least judging from the current equipment of your troops, it is not possible to achieve an overwhelming weapon generation difference against Japan. ”

"I'm guessing you'll say that." Li Zhigao nodded, "I've also thought about these questions, but if I take them so lightly this time, my own heart won't feel good." ”

"Sometimes, you have to shrink your arms a little bit to make better punches. Temporary forbearance is for a better take-off in the future. Zhao Jiayi looked at the thoughtful Li Zhigao, and suddenly smiled, "Look at me, I'm really worried, in fact, you have already made a decision, haven't you?" What you just did was just a joke and abuse people, and when you told me this, you were just making fun of me, am I right? ”

"Hey, you." Li Zhigao shook his head, "Can't you pretend to be confused and make me happy?" This is not a smart and good subordinate. (To be continued......)