On the night of July 26, a pouring rain saved the life of Wu Fengling, the commander of the fourth town of the Beiyang Army, and the first infantry division of the Northeast Army arrived at Liuhe Town and Xinmazhuang in two ways yesterday evening.

Zhao Tingzhu's 1st Infantry Division also rushed over with a rapid march of 160 kilometers for 48 hours, and in order to prevent the Fourth Town from joining the Second Town to the west, another infantry regiment was stationed in the vicinity of Mawangdian, and if the Fourth Town did not escape, it would attack from three directions at the same time.

The fourth town fled south by night, abandoning the idea of rendezvous with the second town.

After hearing that the fourth town fled, Ma Longbiao could no longer sit still, and if he continued to hold in Baoding, he might be surrounded by the forces of the two divisions of the Northeast Army, so he hurriedly abandoned his position and ran south along the Jinghan Railway.

The Beiyang Army ran like this, ran two times and ran three times in a row, and ran three towns in a row, but one was not caught, which made Song Biao very dissatisfied.

If these three towns run to Yuan Shikai's side, Yuan Shikai may gather the troops of three and a half towns in Henan and Shandong to make a comeback, plus the old army led by Wang Shizhen and Zhang Xun in Jiangbei and Jiangnan, it is likely that Yuan Shikai will have a very good foundation.

After receiving Zhao Tingzhu's telegram, Song Biao immediately ordered Cai Yi's whole division to go south and pursue the second town of the Beiyang Army all the way.

Everything else can run, but the first town, the sixth town of the Beiyang Army, and the Jingshi Praetorian Guard have nowhere to run.

In the last period of the imminent demise of the Qing Dynasty, Zaifeng's hesitation really hurt all the Manchus in the Beijing Division, in fact, Zaifeng's best choice was to flee south along the Jinghan Railway, and the First Cavalry Division of the Northeast Army was sandwiched north and south by the Second Town, breaking through a bloody road and fleeing to Shanxi; The second choice is to flee north, the Fourth Cavalry Brigade stationed in Zhangjiakou is not the main force of the Northeast New Army at all, as long as Zaifeng and the Praetorian Guard fight to the death, the difficulty of breaking through this force is very low.

Zaifeng was too melancholy, and after the two roads were blocked, he did not choose to break through to the death, but was busy looking for other ways to break through, and even considered taking the mountain road, taking Chengde, fleeing to the Taifu Temple Banner, and then entering the Southern Desert and making a detour into Shaanxi.

Zaifeng was responsible for arranging the escape, and fantasized about sending other troops to the rescue of the Beijing Division, while Liangbi stepped up the dispatch of banner men, wanting to defend the outer city of Yanjing, and recruited laborers to dig a large number of trenches outside the city.

It was not until the evening of the 27th that the Northeast Revolutionary Army received accurate information - the Manchu Qing decided to defend the Beijing division and was stepping up the construction of fortifications.

At this time, the Northeast Revolutionary Army had also completed preparations for a large-scale attack, with the Second Infantry Division attacking frontally as the main force, the Third Infantry Division attacking from the north, and the Fifth Cavalry Brigade making a detour to the southwest, blocking the last way for the Manchus to leave the Beijing Division.

Song Biao arrived in Tongzhou in the evening of this day and tried to attack the Beijing division with his own hands, and the direction of the main attack was Dongbianmen.

In order to prevent He Zonglian, the commander of the first town, from escaping, Zaifeng temporarily reactivated Tie Liang, the old commander of the first town, and let Tie Liang lead the first town to guard the Dongbian Gate, digging a trench outside the city gate, trying to resist the Northeast Army.

Before Song Biao arrived, the four railway heavy guns of the Northeast Revolutionary Army had already arrived at the railway station in Tongzhou County, and the first to launch an artillery attack on the Dongbianmen position was the heavy artillery regiment under the Second Infantry Division, 32 M1898\1909 105mm Krupp light howitzers and 18 M1902 15mm Krupp long-barreled cannons bombarded the city wall and defense line indiscriminately.

The artillery position is located near Taiping Township, the Second Artillery Brigade has arrived, the artillery position is in the Wang Fourth Battalion on the south side of Taiping Township, and the First Artillery Brigade is making final preparations in Tongzhou.

When he arrived at the position, Song Biao first inspected the position of the Second Infantry Division, and Zhang Hongkui took two lines of defense here, both of which were located within the scope of the Qing army's artillery counterattack.

In terms of fortifications, Song Biao is basically not picky.

Walking on the position, Song Biao did not let too many people accompany him, only took a dozen or so personal soldiers of the guard battalion, he carried binoculars, and wore the same dark brown training uniform as a normal school officer.

The accompanying adjutant, Jiang Zhengyuan, accompanied him all the time.

Song Biao walked while inspecting the various fronts, and was thinking about how to attack the city, this era does not belong to the city wall, he specially prepared four railway heavy guns and 24 12 centimeter long-barreled cannons and 8 15-centimeter long-barreled cannons.

In the storage area of Jinzhou, the Northeast Army retains 66 12 centimeter bronze cannons, which have also arrived in Kaiping, and will officially arrive at the front of the position in two days.

The walls of Yanjing City could not stop the Northeast Army at all.

Hearing that Song Biao suddenly arrived at the position, Zhang Hongkui hurriedly ran over with two adjutants, all the way muddy, running too fast, he actually fell only a few hundred meters away from Song Biao, fell into the muddy puddle, the surrounding soldiers laughed, and was reprimanded by several non-commissioned officers.

Zhang Hongkui first served as an infantry instructor in the Far East Army, and after returning from the German Staff College, he served as the instructor of the Second Infantry Division, and the cooperation with Zhang Yahu was very good.

After Song Biao simply returned the salute, he asked him, "What about Zhang Yahu?" ”

Zhang Hongkui said: "The division personally went to the southern front to inspect the opponent's city defense, and I was temporarily responsible for staying at the temporary command post of the division headquarters. ”

Song Biao snorted, Zhang Yahu, like him, is a person who can't stand loneliness, and when he encounters a big battle, he can't bear to rush directly to the front line, so he will let Zhang Yahu serve as the main attacker this time.

He and Zhang Hongkui asked, "How is the city defense on the Qing army's side?" ”

Zhang Hongkui said: "I've seen it, Zhang Shizuo has also been to inspect several times, to be honest, it's not very good, and I probably don't know much about our side, the intelligence work is very poor, our cannons are so many, they are still ready to rely entirely on the city wall defense, the front line of the defense is very poor, the trench can only prevent the front-line city, it is still an old ditch, the drainage capacity is very poor, yesterday a heavy rainstorm came, the trench is full of puddles. ”

Song Biao sighed and sighed: "Tie Liang is a ...... No, I can't. ”

Zhang Hongkui said: "I think he is much better than the other commanders of the Beiyang Army, so he is still guarding here." ”

Song Biao smiled, motioned for Zhang Hongkui to go to the command post with him, and said to Zhang Hongkui as he walked: "Tie Liang is different, he is a Manchurian, most of the first town is from the banner soldiers of the Manchurians, so naturally he can't run away, and the sixth town is dragging its feet on the southern front and refuses to move, I don't think that is very good." ”

Zhang Hongkui said: "They are afraid that they will not be able to escape, and Zhao Guoxian's control will not be able to be the master now, Liangbi sent the Manchurian Tie Zhong to take the town in person, for fear that the sixth town will also take the opportunity to escape." I happen to be sitting here, and I have a joke to tell you. ”

Song Biao was quite strange, and he didn't know what jokes could be on the battlefield, so he said, "Okay, let's talk about it." ”

Zhang Hongkui said: "Wenhua, the military counselor of the Manchu War Department, was my classmate in Lushi back then, probably from other channels I heard that I was the head of the teaching here, and specially sent someone to send a letter to me and Zhang Yahu, saying that we are willing to submit to the imperial court, and Zaifeng is willing to make me the governor of Zhili, and Zhang Yahu the governor of the three eastern provinces, both of which will give the title of first-class duke. ”

Song Biao laughed out loud and said, "This is more generous than the conditions for recruiting me back then, so the Manchu people only know the benefits for us Han people until the end." ”

Zhang Hongkui said with a smile: "I gave the letter to Zhang Shizuo and asked him to reply, you also know that Zhang Shizuo's calligraphy has never been very good-looking, so he wrote the words 'go eat', I was watching and laughing next to me, and my stomach hurt with laughter." ”

Song Biao sighed and said, "This guy is such a bastard, and it will be difficult for you to make him the dean." At that time, I actually had no choice but to pick and choose, so I had to pick you out, because when he was studying for the second time in Lu Shi, you were the instructor I personally sent to him, so he should give you this face. ”

Zhang Hongkui said with a smile: "Shizuo and I get along okay, he is a big grinning person, he speaks very straightforwardly, and he is easy to get along with." In fact, in our Northeast Army, as long as the division commander and the instructor cooperate well, there will basically be no chaos. ”

Song Biao nodded slightly.

The two walked into the temporary command post of the Second Infantry Division together, Zhang Yahu and Zhang Hongkui set up more than a dozen maps on the big map table here, and when they entered the command room, Zhang Hongkui cleaned up the big map, and explained in detail with Song Biao the deployment of the Qing army in Dongbianmen and the entire outer city.

Yanjing City is too big, after the Northeast Army Corps is encircled, in the north is the Third Infantry Division, in the west is the Fifth Cavalry Brigade detour to break through the past, this division and a brigade are not responsible for the main attack, just open artillery, the two troops are responsible for the west and north side of the ring defense, do not let the full people run out, Cai Ye and Zhao Tingzhu's troops exchanged guards with each other, it was too late to surround the south side, for the time being, only two patrol detachments of cavalry patrols were arranged.

The main attack of the army was on the east flank, with the 2nd Infantry Division as the main attack, Jiang Yanxing's 5th Infantry Division as the backup, and the 1st and 2nd Artillery Brigades responsible for fire support.

Now, everyone still hopes that the Qing army will break through from the south side, if in the past two days, the Qing army has not broken through from the south side, and wait for Zhao Tingzhu's First Infantry Division to rush over, it will really be a three-way attack.

Zhang Hongkui carefully explained to Song Biao the current plan of the Second Infantry Division's means of attack, their plan is to first use artillery bombardment, open the outer city, and then use the way to lay a board bridge to rush across the moat, although there is a stone bridge here, but the stone bridge has been blown up by the Qing army, the width of the moat is larger, and the board bridge may not be able to pass through, so it is necessary to consider the pontoon bridge, or directly use sandbags, the second infantry division is currently preparing an alternative plan is sandbags.

This is a decent plan, the key is that the Second Infantry Division has a lot of heavy artillery, plus the First Artillery Brigade and the Second Artillery Brigade are gathered here, and there are four railway heavy guns, naturally there is no big problem.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty has been making mistakes in recent years, that is, it did not carefully build the defense line around Yanjing, or continued to rely on the traditional city defense and moat model that could not adapt to the times, although the Qing army continued to pile up a large number of so-called "Shenwei Cannon", "City Gate Cannon", and "Shenji Shenshu Cannon" on the city gates of Dongzhimen and Zhengyangmen, in fact, they were not new artillery and were outdated.

Is the wall defense useful?

Of course it works, the key is to see how you use it, otherwise how Song Biao finished the battle of Liaoyang.

The times are different, the role of the city wall is not to resist the opponent, but to reasonably suppress the opponent's attack, the real defensive line still has to be built around the city, and it has been proved that the ditch is much more useful than the city wall.

In front of the cannon, all the walls are slag.

Before the arrival of 66 Italian 12 cannons, the Northeast Army did not launch a full-scale assault, but continued to cover the city walls and the Qing army's defensive line with artillery bombardment, while the Qing army completely abandoned the defense outside the outer city and retreated behind the moat and city walls in violation of modern military logic.

From July 27 to 29, 1910, the Northeast Army has been strengthening deployment and scheduling, preparing for the final strong attack, and constantly using heavy howitzers to hit leaflets into Yanjing City, at this time, even the four 280mm howitzers in Liaoyang were also transported.

The leaflets of the Northeast Army have always been very distinctive, directly comparing the shells of railway heavy artillery and howitzers with people and taking pictures, and printing them on the leaflets, the 14-ton railway heavy artillery is a very terrifying thing, which basically frightened the dog gall of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Because there was a command headquarters of the First Staff Bureau in Kaiping County to run the entire revolutionary army, Song Biao had been at the division headquarters of the Second Infantry Division for the past two days, leading the Second Staff Bureau to command the various departments to coordinate the offensive on the spot.

In the early morning of the 30th, the Northeast Army completed preparations for the siege, and the total number of artillery pieces mobilized by various armies outside Yanjing reached 700, nearly 200 cannons, and 57 bronze mortars.

At 3 o'clock in the morning, the railway heavy artillery finally opened the first round of shelling, and the other divisions opened fire at the same time five minutes later.

The entire Yanjing City seemed to have encountered an unprecedented earthquake, all the outer city walls were shaking violently, and 90 12 centiam cannons and 26 15 centiam cannons were bombarded at the same time, destroying Dongbianmen almost instantly.

The huge sound of artillery shook the earth, in the front-line command post, even if the nearest artillery position was a kilometer away, Song Biao still felt a slight pain in his eardrums, he put on earmuffs, and continued to sit at the front-line command post to check the leaflets to be sent out today, as well as the newspapers from all over the country these days.

With the rout of the towns of the Beiyang Army, the Northeast Army began to attack the last fortress of the Manchu Qing Dynasty with great ease, they were very angry, they were trained by the captains for five years, but none of the troops dared to fight them, thousands of machine guns were silently placed on the front, but unfortunately they could not find an enemy.

The spies of the secret service in the city and the Restoration Society were unable to organize a large-scale uprising, so they assassinated the Manchu nobles in the city in the form of small forces, killing both Prince Su and Prince Qing, and other Manchu ministers could be assassinated as long as they had the opportunity to go out.

This madness spread in and around the city, leaving the Manchurians with little respite.

Until this stage, the countries have not expressed their stance on China's civil war and revolution, neither supporting nor opposing it, especially after Song Biao's Northeast Army directly attacked the Manchu Qing Jing Division, and the countries became more cautious about this.

Countries have sent telegrams to the Northeast Revolutionary Army, hoping that Song Biao will guarantee the safety of foreign nationals in Yanjing, and there is no need to worry about this, the foreigners who can run out have basically run away in the past few days, and all that remains are the diplomats of the embassies of various countries, and some priests who stayed in Beijing.

Song Biao's reply was to try his best to ensure that every foreigner was safe, if the indiscriminate artillery continued like this, someone would always die, and it was normal to kill a few occasionally, if a foreign country wanted to use this as a reason to interfere, then ask for a surname.

After five years of fucking preparation, no opponent dared to compete with him head-on, and he had nowhere to vent his upset.

Chen Qicai was not there, Jiang Zhengyuan was the first adjutant, he hurriedly walked into the office of the front-line command post, and seemed to have something to say in front of Song Biao.

Song Biao took off the earmuffs and glanced at Jiang Zhengyuan.

Jiang Zhengyuan saluted with his whole body straight and said, "General seat, Mr. Zhu Erdian, the British minister, has come to ask for a meeting. ”

"He?"

Song Biao always felt a bad premonition, but he still agreed, and said, "Let him in!" ”

Jiang Zhengyuan paused, and then said: "General, Zhang Shizuo sent someone to report, the Dongbian Gate has been blasted open, and heavy howitzers and field artillery will be used for a second covering strike, and an hour later, sandbags and pontoon bridges will be forcibly laid, and the 201st Infantry Regiment will be sent to rush over." ”

Song Biao sighed and said, "Just let him carry out the battle as planned." ”

Jiang Zhengyuan saluted again and withdrew from the office of the command post.

Song Biao put away the leaflets in his hand, and the leaflets prepared by the Northeast Army now are already trying to stabilize Yanjing City, asking the people not to participate in street battles and stay at home, and at the same time be sure to avoid the main road to avoid unnecessary casualties.

After a few minutes, Minister Zhu Erdian, dressed in the official lord's dress, walked in quickly, this was a minister who was often seen, Song Biao and he were very familiar with each other, Song Biao got up and shook hands with him, and invited him to sit down in the office of this humble front-line command post.

Before Zhu Erdian sat down, he said to Song Biao bluntly: "Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief Song, first of all, I personally want to congratulate you on becoming the new master of this empire, your troops are still invincible in Asia, even the most elite Beiyang Army of your country's Qing Dynasty has fled, it is really embarrassing and sighing." Previously, we had always thought that the Beiyang Army would at least fight your main forces in Langfang and Tianjin, but the result was really disappointing, and in your words, the Beiyang Army seems to be nothing more than that. ”

Song Biao chuckled lightly and replied: "First of all, thank you for your congratulations, about the matter of the Beiyang Army, I think that they are not rout and fleeing, but trying to preserve their strength, but unfortunately I have no such plan, after capturing Yanjing, I will send troops to continue to pursue them until they admit defeat and surrender." ”

Zhu Erdian also seemed to have expected this, and said: "This is obviously a very reasonable choice, and it is impossible for any master of the empire to tolerate the presence of rebels. Now, we just have a question, we have always heard that there is a dispute between the constitutional monarchists and the republicans in the revolutionary parties of your country, and we do not know which one you belong to? ”

Song Biao said: "It should be a constitutional monarchy, I first need to continue to control China's army and navy, and eliminate those local forces that are not conducive to the stability of the country, but I also support a real constitutional monarchy and promote the election of the elected political axe." This will be different from what I have done in the three eastern provinces, and I will not interfere in the governance of the country unless I think that the prime minister of the country, or the prime minister, is not doing what they should be doing. ”

Zhu Erdian was a little surprised, but he still replied: "Then I want to congratulate you on behalf of the British Empire on becoming the new emperor of China, and after you determine the date of your accession to the throne, the British Empire will officially give you the congratulations and support you deserve." Of course, I would like to express my regret for the decline and failure of the Qing Imperial Family, and I have come to visit you at the behest of Prince Zaifeng, the regent of the Qing Imperial Family, to ask if you would like to accept their request for peace. ”

Song Biao can basically guess that Zaifeng is really nowhere to go now, he has many opportunities to break through and leave the Beijing Division, but he has been hesitant, and it is too late to leave now.

He said: "It is a pity that I will not consider the Qing royal family's request for peace. ”

Minister Zhu Erdian is obviously not surprised, after all, it is all at this point, a fool will sue for peace with an unarmed royal family, not to mention that the other party is still a foreign royal family, he said: "That is to officially beg you to surrender, Prince Zaifeng put forward four conditions to you, one is to hope that you can ensure the safety of life and property of the people of Jingshiman; Second, I hope that you can allow the Qing royal family to take refuge in Xi'an, and divide a piece of the area into the Manchu royal family; The third is to hope that you promise the inviolability of royal property; Fourth, I hope that you will promise that the royal forest garden and mausoleum will continue to be under the protection of the new regime and will still belong to the Manchu royal family. ”

Song Biao thought for a while, and asked Minister Zhu Erdian, "Do you think I should agree?" ”

"I think this is a good opportunity, at least you have the opportunity to get official recognition directly from the former royal family, and other countries will also officially recognize this, which will be of great benefit to you to establish a new royal rule in your country." These little sacrifices are nothing compared to what you've gained. ”

Song Biao sighed: "It's a pity. These small abandonments are inappropriate, I can guarantee the safety of the lives of the Manchurians in Beijing, as long as they give up resistance, but I absolutely cannot let them take refuge in Xi'an, I agree in principle to keep the royal family's refuge in the royal gardens in the western suburbs of Yanjing, that's all, all the inventory assets of the Manchu royal family are looted from the Chinese people, and inherit the property of the previous dynasty, not legitimate investment and business income, which should belong to the state. I have decided to list the Forbidden City and set up a national museum to preserve the various legacies of the ancient Chinese royal family, which belong to the Chinese nation, not to a certain nation, let alone a certain family or a certain person. ”

Minister Zhu Erdian was silent for a moment, and then continued to persuade: "I personally suggest that you think about it more, this is a major decision after all. Yanjing is an ancient city with many historical sites, and if it is forcibly attacked, it may lead to some unfortunate events. ”

Song Biao thought for a while and replied: "The British Empire and France, as well as the Eight-Nation Alliance, have fought, and unfortunate things have not happened to this royal family once or twice, they have always been very good at bearing this, it is impossible to say that the French have beaten them, the British have beaten them, and even said that they have beaten them, but we Han people are not allowed to beat them by other countries, is this logic unreasonable, Your Excellency, you must understand, we have been brutally ruled by a foreign race for 266 years, We were killed by tens of millions of people of the same tribe, and there were hundreds of thousands of them in Jiading Santu and Yangzhou alone, and in Sichuan it reached the level of seven or eight provinces in Sichuan. They forced us to wear braids and live the most humiliating life, but whoever didn't keep braids killed our heads, slaughtered city after city again and again, the royal family of the previous dynasty was killed by them, and tens of thousands of people didn't even have a trace of blood left, do you think it's appropriate to say this to me now on behalf of the British Empire? ”

Minister Zhu Erdian hurriedly defended: "Please believe that the British Empire does not hold any position in your country's civil war, let alone support any plan of the Manchu royal family, this is only Prince Zaifeng entrusted me personally to come to negotiate the terms of surrender with you on his behalf, if you do not agree, I will only regret to convey it to him." ”

Song Biao sighed and said, "I suggest you don't go back and tell him, our army's official offensive has begun at 3 o'clock, if everything goes well, we will know the final result before 7 o'clock this evening, what you have to do is to let the expatriates and embassy people leave through the west gate as much as possible, which is currently the only safer area." On this point, I don't think it's the first time we've informed embassies. ”

Minister Zhu Erdian said: "Okay, since this is the case, then it is not suitable for me to go back to the city to see Prince Zaifeng." By the way, if you're not pressed for time, I'd like to discuss something very important with you. ”

Song Biao took out the silver pocket watch and glanced at it, and said with Minister Zhu Erdian and smiled: "You know my rules, since I have decided to see you, it will leave us at least half an hour, and there is always time for this." ”

Minister Zhu Erdian smiled: "Yes, I have always admired your wonderful rules, which will definitely make the people around you have to be crazy to improve their efficiency." ”

Song Biao agreed: "Yes, the reason why this empire is gradually decaying is precisely because our efficiency is always too slow. ”

Minister Jurdian obviously had to hurry, and he said urgently: "This is the thing, Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief, on behalf of the Foreign Secretary of the British Empire, I would like to ask you first of all whether you are willing to recognize the legitimacy of the treaties which have been signed between our country and your country, and whether you are willing to continue them?" ”

Song Biao thought for a moment and said: "I obviously have to admit it, but I suggest that your country should send a special envoy to sign a new treaty with me, I propose to adopt the name of the Sino-British Friendship Treaty, and give the two sides reciprocal most-favored-nation treatment, on the basis of recognizing the provisions of the main former treaty, I will promise that the British Empire is the first partner of the new policy axe, and will also be the first beneficiary country." For many reasons, we all know that your country has not benefited from the development of the three eastern provinces, and this also makes me regret, because your country adheres to the principle of the British alliance, and my most important enemy in the three eastern provinces is the political axe. I don't want this to continue, it would be bad for both China and the UK. ”

Minister Zhu Erdian was overjoyed at this answer, and agreed: "This is really the best news I have heard in this time, so I would like to know what kind of terms you want?" ”

Song Biao said: "There are many aspects, first, tariff autonomy, which is not the most important thing for the UK, because you are not even ranked in the top five in the ranking of exports to China, my requirement is to gradually withdraw tariff autonomy within five years, and I will retain some preferential treatment in major projects, such as machinery and ships; Second, the consular jurisdiction should be abolished, and the regulations for the administration of foreign nationals in China should be signed with other countries in accordance with the situation of the three eastern provinces, and the regulations governing foreign nationals in China should be uniformly enforced, and the Supreme Court with the international surname should be established in Shanghai, with a neutral country judge serving as the first official to implement legal management; Third, the right of free travel and inland waterway navigation in the mainland will be abolished, and foreign nationals can only enter and leave the mainland only after obtaining the approval of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, the right of inland waterway navigation will be retained from the Yangtze River line to Wuchang, and the rest will be banned, and the leases of Hankou, Jiujiang, and Weihaiwei will all be withdrawn, and foreign companies can set up business offices in China within the laws and regulations of the three eastern provinces. Especially Weihaiwei, which is very important to me, is impossible to continue on loan. ”

Minister Zhu Erdian pondered for a moment and asked, "What is your attitude regarding the part of the reparations of the Xincho Treaty?" ”

Song Biao replied: "This money can be compensated, but I suggest that Britain use this part of the funds to establish schools in China and support Chinese students to study in the British government." ”

Minister Zhu Erdian said: "I am afraid that we need to think about it for a while, and as for the other three points, if everything follows the precedent of the three eastern provinces, I personally think that it is not an impossible agreement." I would like to emphasize here that on the issue of sovereignty over Tibetan Province, can you be more cautious and respect ......? ”

Song Biao directly snapped his fingers to interrupt Minister Zhu Erdian's words, and said: "The answer to this question is very simple, Your Excellency the Minister, I can sacrifice the armed forces of millions of people for this until I am the only one left." China is different, this is the pace of the great era, from now on, any foreign country wants to get involved in China's territory, we Guangfu Party members will not hesitate to shed the last drop of blood, and our 600,000 army forces exist for this purpose. I believe that Mr. Yuan Shikai and I have roughly the same idea on this issue, so you don't need to talk about it, for the time being, respecting China's suzerainty over Tibetan Province is the first step in the interaction between the two countries, and don't give up the present for some illusory future. ”

Minister Zhu Erdian was silent, he just wanted to test Song Biao's tone, but such an answer was too intense.

He began to worry that all the privileges of the British Empire in China would probably be buried in the hands of this man, and that the rising new emperor would slowly restore the strength of the Eastern Empire.

The big wheel of history is rolling forward, and this is already a fact that is difficult to change.

After a moment of silence, Minister Zhu Erdian replied briefly: "I understand what you mean, and I will return to my country truthfully, if we can reach a new treaty that is very beneficial to both countries, I don't think anything will be an obstacle, I just want to ask one last thing, how will your country's new banking system be set up, will it be consistent with the situation in the three eastern provinces?" ”

Song Biao said: "I'm still considering, for now, maintaining the status quo in the customs for the time being is the most stable option, as for the future, we need to consider it gradually, but this is not the focus of our negotiations." Because if there is room for further opening up to foreign banks, the British Empire will certainly be treated more favourably than other countries, and this is an important commitment I have here. ”

Minister Zhu Erdian felt that such an answer was already very satisfactory to him, so he got up and said goodbye: "Then congratulations to you once again, Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief, I hope that it will not be long before we will meet again on a formal occasion, and at that time, I should congratulate you on behalf of my country on becoming the Emperor of the new Empire, right?" ”

Song Biao was not very sure, and replied: "It depends on the situation, we should always take one step at a time, shouldn't we?" ”

Minister Zhu Erdian smiled cautiously: "Yes, Your Excellency Commander-in-Chief, then please allow me to take my leave first." ”

Song Biao nodded slightly, got up and personally sent Minister Zhu Erdian out of the front-line command post, at this moment, they didn't expect that a few months later, all this they talked about at this time would come to naught.

It may turn out that any country that is allied with it will decline more quickly.

(To be continued)