At night, on the quiet streets of Beiping, more than 20 shirtless men struggled to pull and push, with donkey carts, pulling dozens of carts of vegetables towards Dongjiaomin Lane, relying on the street lights, seeing the vegetable carts that were getting closer and closer, the members of the US Marine Corps at the intersection of Dongjiaomin Lane, finally breathed a sigh of relief, although the reserves of grain in the [***] battalions in the embassy area were enough to eat for several months, but the fresh vegetables were cut off at the beginning of the boycott, and those vegetable sellers did not dare to sell vegetables to them with infamy, After all, the eyes of those students were there.

The twenty cartloads of vegetables were bought by the priests of the churches in the city who persuaded the parishioners to buy them with their help, and the whole embassy district was waiting for them.

Just as they were relieved, the convoy stopped, and a group of teenagers suddenly ran out of the alleys on both sides, circling around the vegetable truck, holding all kinds of pots and bowls in their hands, and the silent night was instantly broken by the noise of gongs and pots.

"Look at Han Annihilation!"

"Come and see Han Jian!"

"Dog man! Stinky man! ”

"Come and see the traitors......"

Amid the shouting of hundreds of teenagers, several teenagers rushed onto the donkey cart, lifted the straw curtain covering the cart, revealing baskets and baskets of vegetables.

"What are you doing, what are you doing, be careful that I smoke you!"

The person escorting the car raised the leather whip in his hand and whipped it at these children, but his whip was only raised, but by the light of the street lamp, he saw more than a dozen officers and soldiers in military uniforms standing in the alley, staring at him, those people held bayonets in their hands, and the bayonets glowed with a penetrating white light under the street lamp, and several of them stared at him viciously, and in an instant, his momentum weakened.

"Pour them all out"

The children grew elated, cheering and grabbing the baskets to pour the vegetables, while the escorts just watched them.

The children got to the car and grabbed the baskets, pushed each other and dumped the baskets of vegetables on the ground, and finally gave each of them a big sign.

"Traitor!"

Even the children were shouting the names of some of them and shouting that they were going to knock down signs for their homes the next day. These words only frightened those who were watching from the side, and the coaxing dispersed.

Listening to the sound of gongs and drums coming from there, the American second lieutenant standing behind the barbed wire fence glanced at his subordinates helplessly, and everyone looked at each other stupidly, with an incredible look on his face about what was happening in front of him.

While the American Marines stared at the teenagers who seemed to be cheering for winning a battle, the ministers of various countries were arguing loudly in the conference room on the second floor of the British Legation that smelled of cigar smoke.

"I would like to make it clear that my country agrees with the decision to take joint action four years ago by the ministers of various countries, but I would like you to take one factor into account!"

Yasuya Uchida, who stood up to speak, glanced at the Russian minister as he spoke.

"Now, it is impossible for us to send even a small squad of soldiers to Beiping or Shanghai!"

"Consul Uchida, the Chinese's artillery has been aimed at Dongjiaomin Alley!"

The French minister reminded on the side that France, as an ally of Russia, naturally hoped that it would have been able to transfer troops to Beiping or Shanghai and transfer a division here, so that the pressure on the Russian army in the northeast could be reduced by one division.

"Didn't the artillery of the coalition forces on the city walls also point at the Chinese? I don't think the current situation is dangerous enough to meet each other, after all, Minister Liang is still in the hotel in Beiping! ”

Yasuya Uchida shrugged his shoulders helplessly, not to mention that Tokyo reached an agreement with Nanjing on this, even if there was no agreement, he couldn't help him, after all, now for Yueben, the victory or defeat of the Northeast Battlefield is the most important, especially after the Liaoyang Battle was fully launched. Then he glanced at the Russian minister again, and he slapped his chest the loudest.

"Russia is willing to transfer at least ten divisions into Tianjin, as it did four years ago, but now it ......"

His helpless smile seemed to tell everyone that it was not that Russia did not want to help, but that they simply did not have extra troops to send to Guannai, and even if they had excess troops, Russia could not send them to Guannai, on one side, the volunteers cut off the railway inside and outside the Guan, and were marching to Mukden, while on the other side, hundreds of thousands of imperial troops were fighting a decisive battle with the Russian army in Liaoyang.

"Isn't there a million elite imperial army? Even if you can challenge Russia, you can also come to the Chinese! You are boasting that you can sweep St. Petersburg, then one or two divisions should have no problem sweeping Nanjing! ”

The Russian minister shouted fearlessly.

And Yasuya Uchida replied-for-tat.

"Russia is the gendarme of Europe, you can sweep Europe, and China is naturally no problem!"

After arguing all afternoon, after dinner, the meeting could not be carried out because of the quarrel between the Russian ministers, which made Sak Yi sigh helplessly in his heart, until now he had to admire Chen Moran in Nanjing, and he chose a time that was most beneficial to him to attack the countries.

Without the intervention of the Navy and Russia, it is impossible to force it to abandon the imposition of tariffs and surcharges, and among the countries, the only countries capable of sending a large number of army troops into Tianjin and Shanghai are the two countries that are capable of sending a large number of army troops into Tianjin and Shanghai, and now Russia and Russia are tearing apart in the northeast.

Listening to the quarrel in his ears, Sakyi frowned.

"That's it! Gentlemen! ”

As soon as his voice rang out, the room finally fell silent.

"Gentlemen, I need to remind you of the fact that the Chinese have sent nearly 25 divisions of troops to Shanghai, Beiping, and Tianjin, and their troops are still moving north, and now we must make a choice, whether we accept the blackmail of the Chinese or reject them!"

"Is there a choice?"

Ten minutes later, when leaving the British Legation, the American Minister Rou Keyi asked Claude beside him, it had been three days, and the legation still had not been able to reach an agreement.

"The reason why the countries cannot reach an agreement is very simple, the root of the problem is the difference in the interests of the countries, said that Ben and Russia are the only countries that have the ability to send a large number of troops into China, but Russia and Russia are killing each other in the northeast, they are more eager than any other country to interfere in China, because that will cause China to fall completely to them, and then Germany has the ability to send an army to intervene, but between tariffs and the future market, the Germans chose the latter, Nanjing once sent Germany an order of 100 million marks, It is not in Germany's interest to increase tariffs, and it is not in the interests of German business to intervene in the same way by force. ”

Listening to the minister's words, Claude only pondered in his heart that as an assistant counsellor of the legation who had just arrived in China, what he needed to do was to listen, not to express his opinion, after all, he knew almost nothing about this country, except for the madness of four years ago and the fanaticism of now.

"What about the British, sir? Britain's business interests in China are the largest of all nations. ”

Claude raised his doubts, saying that Russia's inability to intervene was inevitable for a war between the two countries, and Germany was due to greater commercial interests, but what about Britain?

"Of course, the British do not want to see the Chinese's tariff autonomy, let alone accept additional taxes, but what can they do? Britain's navy is very large, but what is needed to intervene in China is the army, and the performance of the British army in the Boer War is well known to the world, and Chinese...... Well, their Volunteers have annihilated many Russian infantry regiments in the northeast, maybe they are not as good as the Yue Army, but at least they are stronger than the Boer farmers! What's more, for the British, what they are most willing to see is to borrow the troops of other countries to achieve their own goals, but this time, the British miscalculated, without Russia and the book, who would be the British thug? ”

There was some mockery in Rou Keyi's words, just like four years ago, the British simply did not make a difference, and if a conflict really broke out this time, then the scale of the conflict would be no less than the Russo-Russian War.

"At the beginning, we all thought that Nanjing was bluffing, but now the development of the situation has made us all wrong, Nanjing is different from Beiping, Chen Moran is also different from Cixi, for him, if he compromises, then he will be trapped in instability, compared to compromise, he can only choose tough, even his wife, also showed the courage to surprise the world, the British statement can be said to have slapped themselves hard, as long as Mrs. Chen is on the warship, they dare not fire, Even London is unwilling to take responsibility for the British navy to kill a British duke, and the British are now riding tigers! ”

While lamenting in his heart the trouble that British arrogance had brought to Britain, Claude raised another question.

"Sir, why is Ben not being positive? China is the largest overseas market, cotton cloth, cotton yarn is mainly sold to China, the Chinese market is an important surname of the country, far or even any country, why do they refuse to interfere! ”

"Exported cotton and raw silk are exempt from additional tax, imported cotton yarn is exempt from 4.5% additional tax, and imported cotton cloth is exempted from 2.5% additional tax! In the export goods to China, cotton yarn and cotton cloth accounted for more than 80% of the total exports, and imported cotton and raw silk also accounted for more than 50%, Chinese from the beginning, there was no too much contact with the interests of the two countries, and even the two countries may have reached some kind of agreement in private, just like some of their cooperation in the Northeast, so the two countries not only showed no enthusiasm, but even expressed their approval of the additional tax! ”

"What about us? What should the U.S. position take? ”

When he asked the question, Rou Keyi just smiled slightly, and then glanced south.

"The United States will respond at the right time!"

(To be continued)