With the efforts of Lieutenant General Madenidov, Minister of War of the Imperial Tsarist Russia, China and Russia have gradually reached an agreement on important issues such as Port Arthur, the Northeast Railway, and customs rights.

On this basis, on September 5, 1911, Ouyang Geng, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Imperial Cabinet, Masley, French Minister to China, and General Sheyenisky, Russian Special Envoy to China, convened a conference on the International Commons of the Chinese Empire in Tianjin.

All directors are appointed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Central Cabinet of the People's Republic of China, and the ministers of various countries in China have the right to recommend, and the board of directors votes to elect a judge of neutral nationality to serve as the first official of the SAR court, and the sovereignty and tax revenue of the SAR belong to China, and the rest of the fiscal revenue except for customs duties shall be used locally in principle.

In order to make concessions, China demanded that Britain and France give up their concessions in Tianjin, Shanghai, and other places, cancel the Gengzi indemnity, and ban the extrajudicial jurisdiction, inland waterway passage, and customs supervision rights of all countries in China, and that foreign citizens and enterprises abide by the laws of the special zones and all Chinese territories that are not special zones.

It was an unusually difficult negotiation.

Thanks to the efforts of France, Russia, the United States, and other countries, and considering the importance of China's attitude towards the Russian-French camp, Britain finally agreed to participate in the Tianjin Conference, and also agreed to ban some privileges and part of the concessions in China, but refused to cancel the British concession and the right of passage on the inland rivers in Shanghai, and never entered into any negotiations on the Hong Kong question, and was willing to return the tariff power to the Chinese cabinet.

Although military strength is the basis of diplomatic negotiations, for Britain to give up its presence in China almost like an insult, but Britain has never considered, or even believed, these privileges as an insult to China.

Germany, which was even more arrogant than Britain, had no intention of negotiating at all, and even if Germany sent a minister to participate in the negotiations under the coordination of the United States, it did not have any intention of giving up the Tsingtao lease, but instead demanded special interests in other special zones.

Germany did this precisely because it firmly believed that in the Sino-Chinese War, Germany's support for the new empire played the most crucial role, and since Britain said that the alliance was the losing side, Germany had the right to gain more.

Why during World War I and World War II, all countries preferred to use war to solve problems directly, precisely because it was impossible to achieve any results in negotiations, all negotiations were futile, and on the question of the Anglo-German naval race, Britain and Germany conducted four negotiation efforts between 1911 and 1913, each of which ended in failure.

The situation at the Tianjin meeting was relatively better, because Song Biao also realized that the negotiations were unlikely to resolve any substantive issues.

It was not until November 4, 1911 that negotiations finally reached an agreement acceptable to all countries, in which the new empire exchanged the special zone policy for customs powers, extrajudicial jurisdiction, consular adjudication, inland river passages, and part of the concessions, and then shelved the issue of the British concession in Shanghai, the Jiaoao concession in Shandong, and Hong Kong, and abolished most of the privileges acquired by the countries during the Qing Dynasty, including the recovery of ownership of the Shanghai-Nanjing railway.

In view of Germany's arrogance and Britain's concessions, Song Biao had basically agreed to sign the "Sino-French-Russian Three-[***] Mutual Assistance Treaty" drawn up by Russia at this time, and all that remained was how to maximize national interests, borrow loans from France and Russia for national construction, and minimize the impact on Sino-German foreign trade relations as much as possible, and continue to maintain Sino-German military cooperation in other ways.

The so-called international politics is like this, every country wants to strive to maximize its own interests, and equality and respect between countries are bullshit.

…… On this morning, Song Biao received a letter from Lu Rongting's overseer in Guangxi Province, which was nothing more than how he was willing to be loyal to the emperor, regretted the past, and was annoyed, forgetting that the emperor had left him, sharing worries and solving problems for the emperor, and the need to ensure the peace of Guangxi.

In the letter, he sent back the check of 600,000 silver yuan remitted by Song Biao, and said that he Lu Rongting was loyal to the emperor, treating money as dung, only meager soldiers, and he was also willing to swear allegiance to the death, serve dogs and horses, and so on.

Neuropathy!!!

This is the only thing Song Biao realized after reading the letter.

It's terrible to be uneducated, Lu Rongting really thinks that he is Hong Xiuquan, can he make a great career in Guangxi?

Long Jiguang is also neurotic, neither of them wants to give up the military power in their hands, Lu Rongting wants to stay in Guangxi, and Long Jiguang, who was born in the Tusi of the Yi nationality in Yunnan, wrote a letter to the emperor and recommended himself to go to Yunnan to pacify the local departments.

Two neuropaths, do you still think it's the Great Qing Kingdom?

After reading Lu Rongting's letter, Song Biao also found out the letter sent by Long Jiguang a few days ago, and called Chen Qimei from the Secretariat.

It was only a few dozen meters away from the Secretariat to Song Biao's imperial study, but after a moment, Chen Qimei, who was wearing a white suit, hurriedly walked into the room, bowed to Song Biao, and said, "Your Majesty." ”

Song Biao took out the two letters and threw them to Chen Qimei, and said, "Have you read these two letters?" ”

Chen Qimei replied respectfully: "Your Majesty has not seen it. ”

Song Biao instructed: "You can watch it first, and then tell me after reading it." ”

After saying this, Song Biao picked up the teacup and took a sip of tea, while Chen Qimei immediately opened the letter and browsed it.

After waiting for a while, Chen Qimei quickly read both letters, and asked respectfully, "Your Majesty, what have you decided to do with these two people?" ”

Song Biao asked him instead, "What do you think should be done?" ”

Chen Qimei thought about it for a while and replied: "Your Majesty thinks that appeasement may cure the symptoms for a while, but it cannot cure the root cause. It is undeniable that the previous dynasty raised many loyal ministers during the appeasement, but it also left hidden dangers, from one to ten, from the green camp to the Hunan army, from the Hunan army to the Huai army, and finally caused the armies in various provinces and localities to become private armies. His Majesty studied in this book, and all the armies he saw only knew the country, the nation, and the emperor, but did not know that there were others, and this was the death of the country. ”

Song Biao bowed slightly, and agreed: "You are the one that I appreciate the most, you know the overall situation, understand the general situation, and you are a careful person, you can do big and small things." ”

Speaking of this, he continued to discuss with Chen Qimei: "Now this matter will be delayed to this point, in fact, it is the habitual surname of history, if it is left in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, this matter will end here, and it is unlikely that the imperial court will continue to pursue it." I have already appointed the Second Infantry Division and the other three new army divisions to make a joint encirclement, and they dare to continue to fight in this way of swearing allegiance, not because they feel that they are far away from the emperor and have heavy troops, and I am facing various crises outside, not to mention that the main forces of the Central Army are in the northeast, but because they are already behind this era, and they are still using their ability to deal with the new empire with the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, it is not difficult to deal with them, but it is difficult to deal with the old concepts that are behind the times, if we can't fundamentally put an end to this matter, even if Long Jiguang is eradicated now, there will still be snakes and tigers in the future. ”

Chen Qimei echoed: "The emperor is sage." The emperor often stressed that the country should be governed according to law, and his subordinates thought that the central military department should first order the two to be removed from their military posts, but although the two of them declared that they recognized the political axe of the imperial central cabinet and now wrote a letter to swear allegiance to the emperor, they did not formally accept the control and reorganization of the central military department, and from the perspective of the "Central Military Law", they did not belong to the Central Defense Force and the military armed forces of the countries under their jurisdiction. Therefore, in accordance with Article 102 of the newly introduced Imperial Penal Code, Long Lu and Lu should be prosecuted for treason for fornicating with foreign enemies during the national war, accepting bribes and support from foreign enemies, and plotting to split the country and rebel against the central government. In this regard, the information we have is sufficient to punish crimes, but the provincial political axe of the two provinces has been secretly obstructed by them and has not been able to fully exercise their management duties, and the courts and procuratorial bureaus of the two provinces have not been formally established, so they can only be issued by the Central Military Department to make a public announcement that the two people in China are not national defense personnel and state military armed personnel recognized by the central government, and then the Central Procuratorate will charge them with treason, illegal armed crimes, and crimes against administrative crimes in the Central Supreme Court, and the Central Supreme Court will directly issue a summons, if the two are not prosecuted, In Guangxi and Guangdong, where the judicial police lack the ability to enforce the law, the police departments of the two provinces will perform their official duties, and as long as they take measures to resist, the army will formally send troops to suppress them. In news reports, we must also firmly grasp the theme, on the one hand, we must make domestic public opinion favorable to the central government, after all, the country still does not want a civil war; On the other hand, it is necessary to disseminate judicial education throughout the country through formal judicial action. ”

Song Biao nodded with great satisfaction and said: "This matter should be done in this way, let the Central Newspaper publish a new editorial in the past few days, the title is "Modern State and Modern National Defense", our Liberation Revolution is to establish a modern new China, and modern China must first be supported by modern national defense and military, and a real modern national defense must not only have modern weapons and equipment, but also have modern state and national defense thinking. The military armed forces of the whole country must be subordinate to the central government and the state, and no private armed forces or illegal armed forces are allowed, and all private and illegal armed forces are an obstacle to the establishment of a modern state. After the Central Procuratorate formally indicted Long and Lu, the Central Newspaper will continue to publish new editorials to give detailed explanations of the crime of treason, and will take this opportunity to warn those who collude with foreign forces for their own selfish interests and personal thoughts when the country is in danger, and to warn those who would rather let the country be enslaved by foreign countries than to control their own military armament and occupy one side, and warn these careerists and warlords. ”

Chen Qimei immediately said: "Yes, His Majesty must step up the supervision of this matter and convey the emperor's intention to the cabinet." ”

Regarding Chen Qimei's ability, during this time, Song Biao already had a deep understanding of it, and it can be said that he was very satisfied, bowed his head slightly, and signaled that Chen Qimei could go down to do things.

Chen Qimei bowed and bowed, and left the imperial study.

After he left, Song Biao opened the military map of the whole country, carefully pondered the military armament of Liangguang, and the new army controlled by Long Jiguang and Lu Rongting were all private soldiers brought out by them from the previous dynasty, and then gradually reorganized into the new army, basically loyal only to them.

These two new towns and the two mixed associations were both based in Guangxi, and since then they have been the predecessors of the Gui lineage.

Within three years, Song Biao would gradually eliminate unqualified officers and let them retire, and the lieutenants would be replenished in large numbers, and after the "Military Service Law" was introduced, three years would be enough for him to replace most of the army.

If it weren't for the tight military budget, he would have liked to have completed the reorganization of the entire CSKA and the Patrol Army within three years.

According to the original plan, Song Biao planned to establish 15 integrated divisions, 35 ordinary divisions, and 43 brigades within 10 years, with a total establishment of 1.35 million people, a total of 650,000 patrol troops nationwide, and finally a total of 2 million actual army personnel, 700,000 national defense officers and soldiers, and 1.3 million service soldiers.

The military expenditure required for this plan is too large, and with China's finances, it can do so without building a navy, and after the navy divides 50 percent of the military expenditure, it will be a little too difficult to build an army of 2 million.

At present, what Song Biao can do is to ensure the construction of front-line troops as much as possible, and at least ensure that the Central Defense Force has more than 600,000 elite troops to be mobilized.

In the early stage of World War I, Song Biao estimated that he was unlikely to have the strength to fight for more national interests, and he could only wait until the later stage to do something to mobilize 300,000 to 400,000 elite troops to maximize national interests.

As an emperor, Song Biao was ambitious, but the truth was cruel, he simply did not have enough financial resources to support the simultaneous development of the sea and land armies.

In particular, the problems of the Navy are too complicated.

Navy.

Navy.

Song Biao felt infinitely embarrassed and entangled in his heart.

Navy, he is now indeed squeezing out six million pounds a year of naval military spending, but 1/3 of this is on borrowing, considering that the entire navy is almost starting from scratch, starting from the foundation, even the cost of military school construction has to be calculated here, and it is really unknown what kind of size and strength of the navy can be built in ten years.

Reflect on where Germany lost in World War I.

The reason is actually very simple: Germany wants to maintain the world's largest navy in land spending, while Britain only needs to build a navy that is far superior to the German navy.

In 1914, Germany's total military expenditure was $554 million, Britain's was $384 million, but the German Army's military expenditure was as high as $442 million, Britain's only $147 million, and the Navy's military spending was twice that of Germany.

That year, France's army spent $197 million, while Russia's $324 million.

After so much, Song Biao's view of military affairs has returned to the basics, military is a matter of money, no money does not mean that the army cannot beat others, because there is always an immortal spirit and clever command in this world, and even miracles, but no country can always pin its hopes on these, let alone miracles.

The military is a matter of money.

Only with money can there be equipment, training, materials, and capital to fight a real life-and-death battle with the enemy.

For Song Biao at this time, how to balance the focus of the development of the Chinese affairs and how to improve the combat effectiveness of the Chinese team quickly and efficiently are the real problems.

As for how to deal with the two armed forces of Long Jiguang and Lu Rongting, it is really not a big deal, otherwise Song Biao would not have decided to take judicial and military action directly without such a simple decision.

Compared with how to balance the focus and strategy of military development, how to solve the problem of the modern spirit of the military armed forces and how to make the military armed forces professional and national defense throughout the country is a more complicated issue, and this requires finding ways to change the thinking of the whole society and propaganda in a big way.

If we fail to achieve a great reversal in the whole country ideologically, people like Li Hongzhang, Zeng Guofan, Long Jiguang, and Lu Rongting will continue to appear, endangering the fate of the national team, and the reason why the Kuomintang will lose is because it has not solved this front, the front is already an existential crisis that threatens the entire nation, and the back is still engaged in factional disputes, the front is already the collapse of the entire political power and the party, and the back is still engaged in factional disputes.

(To be continued)