The Ronin Incident in the Three Eastern Provinces was a dramatic turning point, representing Song Biao's increasingly tough stance on Yueben.

Through the cooperation of the "Eastern Secret Treaty", the army has restored the regular structure of seven divisions and regiments, and replenished important military materials such as artillery and machine guns, but the garrison on the Korean Peninsula has only one division, and the Northeast New Army has also rapidly expanded its strength to 73,000 in this cooperation, and with the addition of the Russian army, the army of the pan-Russian forces, including the Northeast New Army, has exceeded 100,000, maintaining absolute superiority over the army.

This is not an advantage in the number of troops, but an advantage in artillery, machine guns, horses, ammunition reserves and other aspects, within Song Biao's command range, he has 624 artillery pieces, almost three times that of the army, and 1,700 machine guns, which is also more than three times that of the army.

In terms of the quality of artillery, Song Biao has an absolute advantage.

Diplomacy is always an extension of the military, and the military is always the basis of diplomacy.

In the face of such a situation, even with the efforts of Akiyama Masayuki and Saymoto Masaxe, Song Biao agreed to adopt a more low-key and silent approach to the Ronin incident in the three eastern provinces, escorting most of the Saymoto Ronin to Lushun and handing over Akiyama Masaki to deal with, and only taking normal judicial procedures for a small number of right-wing Ronin to be prosecuted in foreign-related courts, the overall situation still made Saymoto Masaxe extremely passive, and all countries clearly saw the rapid decline of Saymoto's influence in the three eastern provinces.

Everything is always a step back and a step forward.

At the same time, Russia has gradually quelled the civil strife and has begun to reconsider the resumption of its power in Northeast Asia, and in this situation, the possibility of maintaining complete control of the Korean Peninsula is almost nil.

In mid-May 1907, Russian Minister of War Kuropatkin arrived in the three eastern provinces as a special envoy of the Russian Tsar, and under the coordination of Song Biao, General Kuropatkin held secret talks with the US Minister to China Roxhire and the German Governor in Jiaoao Truber at the military headquarters of the Northeast New Army.

With the support of Russia, Germany, and the United States, Song Biao's governor-general's offices in the three eastern provinces will make representations with the three countries on this matter, and it can also be regarded as Russia, Germany, and the United States taking advantage of the deterrent power of the Northeast New Army on the Korean Peninsula to force the Republic of Korea to continue to open the Korean Peninsula and recognize the "Korea-Ching Trade Agreement," and demand that the Republic of Korea and the DPRK recognize that each country enjoys preferential trade policies on the Korean Peninsula in accordance with this most-favored-nation treatment.

Russia, Germany, and the United States will continue to vigorously support the development of the Northeast New Army, give support loans, sell arms, and carry out larger-scale military industrial cooperation; in return, Song Biao will use the Northeast New Army as the main body to force Yue Ben to relinquish control of the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, force Yue Ben to give up the "Otomi Protection Treaty," and retain the diplomatic and military rights of Korea, and all countries will also formally not recognize the valid surname of the "Otomi Protection Treaty."

After re-discussing with the former subordinate Song Biao, the Russian War Minister General Kuropatkin, the two unanimously concluded that Yue Ben no longer dared to launch an offensive against the Russian army and the Northeast New Army in the three eastern provinces, otherwise, Yue Ben would only suffer another large-scale army rout. Compared with the situation of the Russo-Russian War, Song Biao at this time had completely controlled the entire three eastern provinces, and could quickly mobilize hundreds of thousands of land forces with the support of Russia, Germany, and the United States to confront Yuben, and Russia only needed to send about 100,000 troops and provide some other necessary help to easily defeat Yuben's army.

After the New Army of the Northeast forced Yu Ben to abandon the "Otomi Protection Treaty", General Kuropatkin and Song Biao negotiated and decided to increase the Russian garrison in the three eastern provinces to 50,000 people, and the Seshantinsk Infantry Brigade, the First Artillery Brigade and the First Cavalry Brigade were controlled by Song Biao, and the Kwantung Governor Sheyenis was in charge of two additional infantry brigades and a cavalry regiment.

Against this background, at the end of May 1907, Song Biao accompanied Admiral Kuropatkin to inspect the city of Dalny, and Song Biao publicly criticized the Joseon for forcibly forcing Korea to sign the Ulmi Protection Treaty in violation of international law.

It is said that the government and the opposition are in a great earthquake, and the fierce noise of the people is enough to drown the cabinet of the Xiyuan Temple, but the army cannot provide any reliable guarantee for the cabinet political axe.

Who dares to lead the army and Song Biao to face off against the mainland now?

If you really want to fight on the Korean Peninsula, will General Yoshimasa, Minister of War of the Army, dare to go to the Korean Peninsula to fight Song Biao to the death?

As a result, the Army, which had already completely fallen into the policy of southward expansion and naval expansion, once again wavered in the direction of military development, and the War Department seized the opportunity to make a big deal of nonsense, demanding that the army invest more in the three eastern provinces and that it should be able to rule Korea in the three eastern provinces.

Butterflies flap their wings, and the world changes.

Even though Prime Minister Saionji decided to take a tough stance against the three eastern provinces and Russia's counterattack at the expense of a war, the United States and Germany explicitly demanded that the Utomoto re-examine the validity of the "Otomi Protection Treaty," and even France could not wait to participate in it, and the situation completely turned to the uncontrollable side.

Throughout 1907, the 33rd year of Guangxu spread and developed in this out-of-control situation, with the constitutional public opinion out of control inside the Guan, the complete loss of control of the Qing political axe over the Yamen of the Governors of the three eastern provinces outside the Guan, and the international cooperation between Britain and the Franco-Russian alliance began to adopt a cooperative posture in the international situation to deal with the threat of the German-Austrian alliance, and in the Far East and the Pan-Pacific region, with Song Biao, the governor of the three eastern provinces, as the main body and spearhead, Russia, Germany, the United States, and France adopted a cooperative posture to force the British to give up their monopoly on Korea and demand that Korea be opened up.

One of the main objectives of the Russo-Japanese War was to guarantee its right to colonial rule over Korea, but with the active efforts of Song Biao, this goal was actually not achieved, but under the premise of continuous civil strife in Russia, Russia temporarily recognized the special rights and interests of the Republic of Korea, but did not clarify the scope of these rights.

Now, with the rapid expansion of the Russian-supported Northeast New Army, Russia has repented and begun to bring up the Korean matter again, and the United States, Germany, and France have also taken an active part in this matter.

In September 1907, the Northeast New Army expanded for the third time, and the whole army was expanded into six infantry brigades and two artillery brigades, although on the surface it continued to meet the restrictions of the four northeastern towns of the Qing Dynasty, the total strength of the army surged to 107,500.

On this basis, in the name of "the reform of the new policy outside the customs of the Great Qing Dynasty", "the implementation of the new policy by following the example of virtue", and "the new governance of the three provinces under one new rule", Song Biao adopted the policy of "special governance outside the customs" in the three eastern provinces, and built a large-scale governor's palace of the three eastern provinces between the Tanglin Military Department of Fengtianfu and the Shenyang New District, and set up the new policy institutions such as the Department of Finance, the Department of Civil Affairs, the Department of Academic Administration, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Industry, the Police Department, and the Department of National Defense under the Governor's Palace. Through the monopoly of financial power and military power, the three provinces were centralized.

In 1907, the 33rd year of Guangxu was not destined to be a peaceful year.

In this year, there were turbulent storms, with a nationwide constitutional petition inside the Guan, Song Biao's monopoly of power and the surge of the Northeast New Army outside the Guan, the chaotic uprising of the revolutionary party, and the rapid spread of the Guangfu Party in secret, and there were already activities of anti-Qing and Han organizations in various places.

With the support of millions of taels of silver a year, tens of millions of propaganda leaflets and tabloids circulated wildly, and various branch organizations were set up.

The Qing Empire was already in turmoil, leaking rain.

Also in this year, the three eastern provinces also continued to develop rapidly, the total import and export volume of the three provinces quickly and the entire Kannai region, the total export increased to 31.42 million pounds, the total import increased to 27.55 million pounds, coupled with the large-scale influx of foreign capital and capital in the three eastern provinces, the net inflow of silver in the three eastern provinces increased to 178 million Kanto silver yuan in this year.

With abundant mineral resources and large-scale capital investment, the three eastern provinces achieved the feat of exceeding the amount of coal and iron mined in two years, and the total coal mining volume exceeded 7 million tons in November, surpassing the total level of 6.2 million tons by the end of November 1907, and the iron ore mining volume exceeded 1.4 million tons, which is really far beyond the capital.

Although this figure is almost less than 1/10 of the share of the United States, it is already a very high production scale for the three eastern provinces.

Because the coal mines currently being mined on a large scale in the three eastern provinces are all open-pit coal mines, with extremely low cost, high quality and low selling price, they not only began to be sold in large quantities in the second half of the year, but also sold to the country, Nanyang and the United States, which had a great negative impact on the coal industry in Japan, Taiwan and North Korea.

Soybeans from the three eastern provinces monopolized the soybean market in Germany, with a total annual export of nearly 1.15 million tons and a total export value surging to 27.03 million pounds, surpassing the scale of raw silk exports to the United States and becoming the largest agricultural trade industry in Asia.

In October 1907, under the active mediation of France and the United Kingdom, under pressure from all countries, on the basis of the demand that all countries recognize the "Treaty of Preservation of Ulsi," the "Hancheong Trade Treaty" was valid, the validity period was extended for 20 years, and five new ports of opening were opened to Sinuiju, Sinanju, Nampo, Gunsan, and Mokpo, and foreign investment was opened, and the promise that "Korean tariffs would not be changed for 10 years" was increased to 25 years.

In November 1907, Song Biao, on behalf of the Qing Dynasty and the Governor's Office of the Three Eastern Provinces, signed the "Han-Qing Trade Renewal Treaty" with Lin Dong, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Li Jinhuan, Korean Chincha, in Jinzhou, according to which the Qing Dynasty would continue to add three leased areas of Sinuiju, Sin'anju and Nampo in addition to the original three Qing leased areas of Incheon, Pusan, and Wonsan, and agreed that within 100 kilometers on both sides of the Yalu River, Chinese and Korean businessmen would have the right to invest in various industries and be free to do business across the border.

In addition, except for the six clearance lease areas, citizens of the two countries residing in each other's countries should go through the right of abode review, and without approval, they are not allowed to reside in the other country, purchase properties or land; DPRK refugees who are illegally residing in China and the three eastern provinces will be dealt with in accordance with the law, and the two sides have agreed to repatriate the existing DPRK refugees who are illegally residing in the three eastern provinces within three years.

In the "Hanqing Trade Renewal Treaty", Song Biao added the stipulation of labor certificates, that is, after the approval of labor certificates, South Koreans can work in the three eastern provinces, but cannot buy land, because Song Biao considered that after the repatriation of more than 100,000 North Korean refugees, it may be used to sow discord between Chinese and South Korean people, and in addition, the large-scale development of industry and mining in the three eastern provinces does need a lot of miners, and it is appropriate to solve the problem of temporary employment of these North Korean refugees in the three eastern provinces by issuing labor certificates.

The "Hanqing Treaty of Renewal of Commerce" was already the result of British and French intervention and coordination, and it was also the best result that the "Ulmi Protection Treaty" could strive for on the basis of not abandoning the "Ulmi Protection Treaty", but a very large-scale protest broke out in the country, and the people were ashamed of it, and the War Department also took the opportunity to make an uproar, demanding that the government axe strengthen the army building and ensure the colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

At this time, the popular views in the country were that "sea power is important, and land power is also the foundation for maintaining rule," and "the army already has a strong navy, but the army still needs to continue to work hard." In particular, the industrial and commercial circles and chaebol forces in the country were extremely dissatisfied with the weakness of the army, and the Korean Peninsula was the most important raw material base in the country, and arguments such as "if we can't even keep the Korean Peninsula, the industry will inevitably decline."

This is indeed the case.

The problem is that in the entire international world, the strength of the financial industry is still very weak, and it is simply not possible to effectively invest in the Korean Peninsula, especially the industrial and mining industries on the Korean Peninsula, and it is difficult for the DPRK to continue to support the development of the Korean industry.

Similarly, for the Far Eastern consortium, if it wants to further crack down on the cheap sales of the industry to China, it must first threaten the source of the cheap purchase of industrial raw materials in North Korea.

Although it has been 16 years since Yuben replaced the Qing Dynasty as the suzerainty of Korea, during these years, under the protection of the "Hanqing-Qing Trade Treaty", Chinese merchants still occupied the mainstream of Korea's foreign trade, and foreign foreign companies also used this treaty to control Korea's foreign trade, and a large number of goods poured into Korea from Shanghai and Tianjin, rather than from Yuben.

It was only after 1918 that the merchants really completely defeated the Chinese merchants and controlled all the economic and trade lifelines of North Korea, and with the sharp increase in North Korean tariffs, the total imports of North Korea from China in the port of Incheon alone fell sharply from 11 million won to 1.62 million won per year.

Judging from the data of the port of Incheon, which dominates the trade between China and North Korea, it is said that the merchants dominate the export rights of the DPRK's international trade, while the Chinese merchants dominate the import rights of the DPRK trade. The commodities purchased by the DPRK from China were mainly silk, medicinal herbs, tea, and various other miscellaneous goods, while the commodities purchased from the DPRK were mainly industrial raw materials such as cotton, grain, coal mines, and iron ore.

As long as the validity of the new "Korea-Qingqing Treaty of Renewal of Commerce" continues, as the Far Eastern consortium begins to develop strongly on the Korean Peninsula, the dominance of Chinese businessmen in the lifeline of Korean trade will be a problem that will be difficult to reverse in the short term.

For this reason, at the 1907 annual meeting of the Far East Foundation, Korean trade and investment and the deep processing of agricultural products in the three eastern provinces became two major topics, which were actually one topic, and with the construction of the railway from Shenyang to Dandong in March next year and the fact that Sinuiju became a new leased area of the Qing Dynasty, the development of agricultural deep processing industry in Dandong and Sinuiju would be a very important matter.

The agricultural product processing industry in the three eastern provinces is developing rapidly, soybeans, sugar beet, cotton, and wheat are the four main directions, especially the deep processing of sugar beet has risen very fast, this is because the sugar industry in this province mainly relies on the import of sugarcane and raw sugar from the South Seas, and the cost is very high, and the three eastern provinces themselves have a large number of raw materials for the sugar industry, and the sugar industry in the three eastern provinces has a very high market space, and has an absolute advantage over the enterprises in terms of cost, profit and market, and can even take advantage of the "Hanqing Trade Renewal Treaty" Sold in large quantities to North Korea.

In this world, the foundation of all industry is the financial industry, and when the three eastern provinces adopted an extreme strategy to quickly open up the expansion of the financial industry and increase the local money supply, industrial development became difficult to contain.

In the past two years, the total amount of money issued in the three eastern provinces has reached 500 million silver yuan, or about 50 million pounds.

This is 500 million silver dollars on the silver standard.

This is not determined by the efficiency and production capacity of the political axe printing machine, but by the scale of silver inflow, which means that there is at least 175 million silver yuan in the three eastern provinces, which is actually very amazing from a purely monetary point of view.

In the past ten years, the total amount of silver yuan issued in this book was only 40 million, and the highest year was 7 million in 1906, although it is said that the gold standard was adopted, and the silver yuan itself was mainly used for trade with Korea, China, and Southeast Asia, but by analogy, the total supply of silver yuan in the three eastern provinces is too exaggerated.

The reason why the three eastern provinces can issue so many silver yuan, 1/3 of the factors come from the export of soybeans in Northeast China, 1/3 of the factors come from the influx of foreign capital, and 1/3 of the factors are dependent on international loans, local silver reserves, etc., for example, the railway loans of the three eastern provinces alone are as high as 23 million pounds, in addition to the train is purchased from abroad, other expenses including carriages, rails, cement, sleepers, stones, labor, land, etc. are purchased locally.

In the past two years, the industrial population of the three eastern provinces has grown very rapidly, and this increase is still relatively rudimentary, the largest increase is the increase in mining, for example, the total number of workers in Fushun coal mine has surged from the original 1,370 to 15,300, from the original 2 coal areas to 11 coal areas at the same time.

Now it is very easy to set up a factory in the three eastern provinces, you bring 200,000 silver yuan of capital to come over, buy the land, plant machinery or mine, and then borrow another 100,000 silver yuan from the bank.

In the three eastern provinces, not all factories are using Western-style equipment, such as porcelain kilns, brick kilns, coal kilns, it still uses a large number of traditional manual production methods, but in general, because of the large export of soybeans, timber, coal and iron ore has brought a huge inflow of silver, so that the consumption power of the local population has increased, and the further expansion has made the entire economic growth rapid, and all walks of life can benefit from it.

The industrial population has increased, the commercial population has increased, and the population of agriculture and animal husbandry has actually increased more rapidly, and the population of the three eastern provinces has increased by nearly 6 million in the past two years, and 100,000 people from the ports of Shandong pour into the three eastern provinces every month through various shipping companies.

The economic development of the three eastern provinces was nearly 20 years later than that of the three eastern provinces, but judging from the current development rate, it will only take about six to seven years for the three eastern provinces to surpass such a gold-standard country as the capital in terms of economic aggregate.

In industrial development, the competition between the three eastern provinces and the capital, which are also at a low stage of industrial development, is destined to be very fierce, especially in the next four or five years, and this fierce collision is likely to trigger a new war again, for example, in the Korean market, the two sides are about to start a desperate struggle.

While the three eastern provinces are actively developing, all Song Biao can do is to actively prepare for the war, and compared with the unique basic conditions of the three eastern provinces, this is simply a natural tragedy.

In other words, in front of the Far Eastern consortium, all the consortiums are supporting roles in the tragedy.

(To be continued)