, the first guess after the snow. The whole city is covered in snow. The wilderness outside the city has been covered with ridicule, and the public roads in the city are full of busy snowplows, as an important aspect of national consciousness education, the concept of "national duty" has now been popularized in the city, and clearing the snow on the public road in front of the door is not only conducive to cultivating national consciousness, but also convenient transportation For a country that is rapidly moving into the industrial age, this national consciousness is obviously worth further strengthening, of course, the strengthening of this national consciousness needs the guidance and supervision of the government, in fact, The citizens' self-government bodies in the cities are responsible for supervising this work.

As for the main roads in the city, there are naturally professional sweepers to clear the snow, and since they use the latest snow clearing machinery made in Chinese factories, by now, several main roads in the city have been able to pass through motor vehicles without worrying about wheel slippage, driving on such roads, drivers can relax a little, but the car is still controlled.

Sitting in this smoothly driving official car, Tang Shaoyi looked out of the car window, it was very cold, except for the snowsweepers, there were almost no pedestrians on the street, there were so many diners sitting on the mixed stall on the street, the moment the boss opened the lid of the pot, a burst of white steam steamed on the stick stall, coupled with the original Beijing dialect shouting, a picture of life in Beijing in this winter is so simple to outline.

Although Tang Shaoyi is a native of Guangdong, he has been an official in the north for many years, and has long been accustomed to the life and climate here, although he also thinks that Beijing's snacks are very distinctive, but he still misses the flavor of his hometown, and has not returned to Guangdong for many years, and now he does have some homesickness. Sitting in the car, Tang Shaoyi pondered when to ask the president for a leave, rushed back to Guangdong to have a look, stayed for a few more days, and reminisced with the villagers, but he also knew very well in his heart that he would take the central government to work at full capacity. The president may not approve his request for leave.

Come to think of it. Tang Shaoyi gathered her mind, leaned back, closed her eyes, and began to ponder about things at work.

At present, his Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not yet able to sit idle, and the most important official tasks at present are two things: one is the reorganization of the "Far East Peace Commission", and now the United States Government has formally submitted a proposal to the Council of the Far East Peace Commission, proposing to expand this organization into a universal organization, an international dispute arbitration body, to which the sovereign states of the world will join, and to exercise its powers as an important body for the future of international relations, if this proposal can be unanimously approved by all countries, China may be able to use the organization's status as a country to further enhance its international status, which is Tang Shaoyi's current foreign affairs concern. The second is about the diplomatic negotiations between China and the Soviet Russian government, which is of greatest concern to the president because it involves the redrawing of the border between the two countries, and Tang Shaoyi naturally does not dare to be careless.

With regard to the reorganization and expansion of the "Far East Peace Commission," the United States has now initiated five proposals: China, Japan, Thailand, the Second Republic of Lanfang, and the Republic of New Guinea. The Asian countries unanimously agreed, but at the same time, Britain and France, two European countries that play a pivotal role in the Far East, were indifferent to this "naïve idea" of the US government, and the British and French governments agreed that in terms of the current composition of world power, even if the world needed an international arbitration institution, it could not be located in Abyss, but could only be dominated by Europe. After the war in Europe is over, it is possible to set up an international organization under the leadership of European countries on the basis of the Hague International Peace Commission, and the two governments also believe that this proposal will be given priority to the consideration of the United States Government.

Tang Shaoyi could only laugh at the counter-proposal of the British and French governments, knowing very well that if Britain and France did not participate in this expanded version of the Far East Peace Commission, then it would be impossible for this transnational organization to realize the role of arbitrating international disputes as envisaged by the US Government.

Tang Shaoyi hoped that the US Government and the governments of China, Japan, and other countries would continue to consult with the British Government and the French Government in order to achieve the arduous task of reorganizing the Far East Peace Commission, but to Tang Shaoyi's surprise, Zhao Bei was not optimistic about this initiative at all, and poured cold water on Tang Shaoyi in person, directly telling him that even if European countries intend to set up an international organization, they will not set up the Far East Peace Commission on the basis of it, because the Far East Peace Commission is currently dominated by China and Japan. The European powers will certainly not be willing to share the leadership of the world with the leaders of Asia, and the United States, once the war in Europe is over, may immediately return to isolationist sentiments.

It is precisely for this reason that Mr. President asked Tang Shaoyi to completely put aside the matter of the Far East Committee and concentrate on presiding over the issue of negotiations with Russia, striving to achieve the goal as soon as possible and recover those lost territories.

Compared with the reorganization of the Far East Peace Council, which was full of difficulties, the issue of negotiations with Russia was not very smooth; due to the opening of the central lion, the position of the Soviet Russian government has been wavering, and suddenly it is willing to compromise, and suddenly its position has become tougher, and everything depends on the development of the war situation at the front. to wait for a complete reversal of the situation on the battlefield.

But now it seems unlikely that the strategic disadvantage of the Soviet Russian army on the Siberian front will be completely reversed, due to the Western

The route was still bombed by bombers said to come from the "Far East Army Air Force", and the Russian troops on the front line could not get enough supplies and ammunition, so they could only defend passively, while the tsarist government forces were advancing step by step, and now controlled most of the cities in Central Siberia, and were trying to push their forces further east to occupy the Russian eastern outpost of Vladivostok, so as to obtain more convenient arms and supplies from the Allies.

In this situation, Tang Shaoyi believes that as long as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs adheres to a tough posture in the negotiations, then the Soviet and Russian sides will definitely make concessions, and as for how much they can concede, Tang Shaoyi is not very sure in his heart now, according to the analysis of the news from Petrograd, the Soviet Russian government seems to be keeping a close eye on the Far East, and is relatively contemptuous of the Central Asian region, where the ruling power is weak.

No matter how you analyze it. One thing, the basic facts are clear, if you want to recover those lands that were lost decades ago, you can't do it without enough strength, and now, Tang Shaoyi is also very clear that the central government is preparing to further exert greater military pressure on the Soviet Russian government, as for the breakthrough point to choose next, whether it is in Central Asia or the Far East, Tang Shaoyi is not clear.

When Tang Shaoyi was pondering the strategy of the central government, the car had stopped, and Tang Shaoyi looked out the window. Now in front of the presidential palace, the officer in the chamber was checking the details of the car and checking the driver's documents, and it didn't take long for the adjutant to let the car go with a wave of his hand.

Soon arrived in front of the commander's hall, after the car stopped, Tang Shaoyi got out of the car with his secretary, and there were already staff waiting there, leading Tang Shaoyi directly into the commander's hall.

This time rushed to the commander-in-chief's hall, Tang Shaoyi is here to participate in the weekly routine cabinet meeting, although it is now the president's government, the central power is actually in the hands of the president alone, but the cabinet still has enough suggestion power, this weekly routine cabinet meeting is Tang Shaoyi's suggestion, every Saturday afternoon, all the cabinet members will rush to the commander-in-command hall to hold a meeting, sometimes the president will personally preside over the meeting, sometimes the presiding over is only a close confidant sent by the president, This role is usually played by the head of the Governor's Office.

As Tang Shaoyi guessed, it is the president himself who is presiding over the regular cabinet meeting today, and now that everything is busy, it is indeed necessary to strengthen communication between the Commander-in-Chief and the cabinet, so that everyone can understand what is the most important issue at present, so that the main energy can be concentrated on the main affairs and improve the efficiency of work.

The main topic of the day was indeed the Sino-Russian negotiations, at which the President even revealed to the Cabinet one of his latest ideas, that he was going to send a navy to assist the Entente fleet in interfering with the revolution in Vladivostok, to restore order to that city, and to occupy the port city of the Russian Far East, which was currently under the control of the Russian Bolsheviks and anarchists, in order to relieve the military pressure from the East on the Tsarist government in Baikal and enable it to attack Omsk, an outpost in western Siberia.

Tang Shaoyi understood the president's idea very well, and the current situation is that on the one hand, the Sino-Russian negotiations have not been able to achieve satisfactory results, and the president is very dissatisfied, and on the other hand, the Russian Soviet power has exerted strong pressure on the great powers at the strategic level, taking into account the special characteristics of the Soviet power. Europe and the United States agreed that it was necessary to nip it in the bud in order to avoid a chain reaction, but the problem was that the war in Europe was not over yet, and the forces of all countries were contained in the European theater. China can only be counted as half, after all, China is not a member of the Entente.

However, Britain and the United States are trying their best to persuade China to send troops to Vladivostok, not only because China is the closest to Vladivostok, but also because the two countries hope to pull China into the chariot of the Entente, even if they cannot participate in the war against Germany, they can also share the military pressure for the Entente. The President had lost patience with the delayed progress in the Sino-Russian negotiations, and was now intending to force the Russians to make significant concessions by exerting greater military pressure, and had even decided to join forces with Japan to intervene in the Vladivostok Revolution.

The main reason why the president is now telling the cabinet about his idea is to remind everyone to revise the relevant policies, for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is presided over by Tang Shaoyi. This policy revision involves the issue of negotiations with Russia, and if necessary, it can unilaterally end the second round of talks, so that the Soviet and Russian sides will feel the strong pressure on both military and diplomatic fronts, and finally force them to take the initiative to resume negotiations.

Tang Shaoyi's biggest concern now is not when to send a telegram to Petrograd and ask the negotiators to suspend the negotiations, but what he is most concerned about now is when the Chinese naval fleet will go north to Shanghai to visit Vladivostok, and it is winter, although Vladivostok is known as an "ice-free port" but in fact, the harbor city still has to freeze for a period of time every winter, which is not conducive to naval action, so Tang Shaoyi believes that the navy's operation may be delayed until next spring, and during this period, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs still has plenty of time to surrender without a fight.

But it turned out that Tang Shaoyi's guess was incorrect. In fact, it didn't take long for the icy Vladivostok to usher in an international intervention fleet.