At this time, in the presidential palace in Beijing, the three giants of the Republic of China, Li Yuanhong, Duan Qirui, and Feng Guozhang, were discussing the matter reported in the morning newspaper that Guo Yu, the overseer of Jiangsu, had sent troops into the Shanghai Public Concession to forcibly search the Japanese area. Newspapers across the country reported on this incident in a big way, and there was a lot of discussion in the newspapers, but most of them still praised Guo Yu's heroic spirit of daring to take on the role of not being afraid of the great powers, although several articles also mentioned the rights and interests of the concession and the law, saying that Guo Yu's behavior violated international law, but such a statement was drowned in the sea of praise, it seems that the people hope that there will be heroic figures, so as to relieve the feeling of the country and the nation being oppressed.

Guo Yu became a hero, but he was sad for the three bigwigs present. Such a strict diplomatic incident may have exceeded the level of diplomatic incidents, even if it escalates to the war between the two countries, of course, the current Republic of China does not dare to start a war with Japan.

Where did Feng Guozhang arrange a few sentences from Guo Yu, but those words did nothing to help the current situation, it was nothing more than to vent the depression in his heart.

"President, the Japanese side will definitely not give up, we must prepare in advance." Duan Qirui said.

Li Yuanhong rubbed his fat face that was a little tight, and thought to himself, the president, was he brought to the top by them, you Duan Qirui is now seeking the support of the Japanese, do you think that I, Li, don't you know.

"Zhiquan, as the prime minister of the government and the chief of the army, I want to have more say in this matter, so let's talk about how to solve this matter." Li Yuanhong kicked the ball back again, and besides, he really didn't know how to deal with it.

Duan Qirui saw that he was about to enter the time of arguing again, but he was now ready to let the Japanese provide him with funds to govern the government of the Republic of China, and he must not let the situation develop into a confrontation between the two countries, so he hurriedly said: "The Japanese should react soon, we can wait for the Japanese to send a note to respond, but I think Guo Yu's behavior has gone beyond what an overseer should do, the public concession is the territory of the British and the Americans, and he also clashed with the Japanese and killed 5 Japanese nationals, This matter must not be let go lightly, I think it is better to deal with Guo Yu. ”

"But now that the newspapers have said that Guo Yu is a national hero, we have not seen the protest letter of the Japanese, so we started to deal with Guo Yu ourselves, will the people think that our government of the Republic of China is too incompetent and weak." Li Yuanhong looked at Duan Qirui and said.

Li Yuanhong's words made Duan Qirui a little embarrassed, and he may have been a little anxious, "Then why don't you wait and see what the Japanese side asks." ”

Then the three of them remained silent, and the office fell into a depressing atmosphere again.

At 10 o'clock in the morning, the presidential secretary knocked on Li Yuanhong's office, "President, Japan has sent a diplomatic note. ”

The Japanese protested to the government of the Republic of China in the name of the state, protesting against Guo Yu's unreasonable search of the Japanese concession and the killing and wounding of many Japanese nationals, and also illegally detaining eight Japanese nationals, the Japanese government was very angry about this, and in view of the unfair treatment of Japanese nationals in China, it believed that the Chinese government could no longer guarantee the safety of the lives and property of its nationals, and Japan was ready to send a second fleet to Shanghai to carry out an operation to protect overseas Chinese. He also made a number of demands to the government of the Republic of China, dealing with the perpetrator Guo Yu, demanding a judicial ruling on him, releasing the innocently detained expatriates, compensating the victims and their families, and compensating the losses suffered by the Japanese Empire.

At eleven o'clock, the guards informed the Japanese Minister of Hayashi Quansuke of the visit. Lin Quanzhu walked into Li Yuanhong's office, took off his top hat and saluted Li Yuanhong, ignored Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang who were sitting on the side, and said to Li Yuanhong with a triangular face and triangular eyes: "Your Excellency President Li Yuanhong, on behalf of the Japanese government, I lodge a solemn protest against the government of the Republic of China, and you should also see the diplomatic note sent from China. We will never let him go lightly, and we demand that Guo Yu be tried in accordance with Japanese law. In addition, for the losses suffered by the empire and the Japanese expatriates, we must go to the government of the Republic of China to compensate, which is our demand. As he spoke, he took out a piece of paper in his arms and handed it to Li Yuanhong.

It is not good to make some unreasonable demands in the diplomatic note, just now Li Yuanhong saw that there were no too outrageous demands in the diplomatic note, and thought that the matter had eased somewhat, but now when he saw Lin Quanzhu take out this piece of paper, his heart was aggrieved, this is to blackmail the government of the Republic of China again.

There are many demands above, the main one being to ensure how Japan can further loot China's resources and property. Like what after dealing with Guo Yu, all the industrial factories belonging to Huafujun in Jiangsu belong to Japan, and Japan will establish a Japanese concession industrial zone on the basis of the original special economic zone, and set up consulates in Chifeng and Tonghua; The Manchurian Railway requested the management of the Jilin-Changchun Railway; It demanded the signing of a military agreement with the government of the Republic of China on the joint defense of the Japanese and Chinese armies, and demanded that the Chinese army and the Japanese army jointly march to Heilongjiang and Lake Zabaikal to threaten Russia and provide convenience for the Japanese army; expand Japanese interests in Manchuria and divide more areas under Japanese administration; allow Japan to station a large number of troops in the concession area to protect the lives and property of Japanese nationals; A large amount of monetary compensation was demanded, and the government of the Republic of China was allowed to repay the compensation in the form of loans and mortgages, and the collateral was Huaguo's mines and various resources.

There are 16 major clauses and dozens of sub-clauses and detailed rules and clauses in these clauses, and Li Yuanhong's fat face wrinkled into a bun. Li Yuanhong thought to himself, this is to let himself follow in the footsteps of Yuan Shikai, if he signs this agreement, then he will become a national sinner who has lost his power and humiliated the country, and will be spurned by future generations.

"Premier Duan, you also come to see the request made by the Japanese government." Li Yuanhong handed the agreement that Lin Quanzhu took out to Duan Qirui.

Duan Qirui also frowned after seeing it, some terms are still within the scope of reluctance, but some terms are too unreasonable, if the Japanese army is stationed in the interior of the Republic of China in large numbers, then is the Republic of China still Chinese, do the Japanese want to engage in a country within a country.

There is also a very huge amount of compensation, 150 million taels of silver, not to mention that the current government of the Republic of China can't take it out, even if it can be taken out, it will be scolded to death by the people. If this account falls on the government's head, the finances, which are now on the verge of collapse, will be even worse, and it will be even more difficult for the prime minister to do his job. With the mortgage of minerals, Duan Qirui naturally knew that the Japanese coveted the products of the land of China, and Japan lacked everything, so they always wanted to scrape a layer of land in the Republic of China, and now they found an excuse.

After Duan Qirui handed the agreement to Feng Guozhang, he said to Lin Quanzhu: "Minister Lin Quanzhu, I think we should figure out this matter first, and then talk about other things." Duan Qirui wanted to make a procrastination trick first, and then slowly solve the matter.

"Your Excellency Premier Duan, our Prime Minister Shigenobu Okuma has convened a cabinet meeting on this matter, and reported the decision of the cabinet meeting to His Majesty the Emperor, the Japanese Empire attaches great importance to this matter, we will not hesitate to fight for the honor of the Empire, the Imperial Navy and Army are ready, if the Republic of China government lets this matter go unchecked, we will send troops to Jiangsu ourselves to recover this blood debt." Lin Quanzhu said categorically, and his tone was extremely tough.

"Your Excellency the minister, this matter was caused by Guo Yu, and the government of the Republic of China did not authorize him to do such a thing, so we can accept the handling of Guo Yu, but we can accept the responsibility on the head of the government of the Republic of China, and make so many unreasonable demands on us, it is difficult for us to agree." Li Yuanhong Li Bodhisattva was also a little angry, if the government accepted the conditions put forward by Japan, and it was he Li Yuanhong who signed in the end, then he would really be convicted of this crime.

Usually the Japanese have nothing to do and still have to find trouble, but now that they have such an excuse, how can they let him run away, they will naturally make the most of the matter, find a lot of excuses, and force the Republic of China government to sign an agreement.

"Your Excellency, Guo Yu is an official appointed by the government of the Republic of China, and his actions themselves represent the government of the Republic of China, which is an irrefutable fact, and now that the interests of the Japanese Empire have suffered such a huge loss, it is inevitable to make demands on the government of the Republic of China." Lin Quanzhu said.

Li Yuanhong was extremely depressed in his heart, there were a few people in the overseers of the Republic of China who listened to him, and now they caused trouble, so they found their heads, and it was not the Japanese who saw that the Republic of China was easy to bully, and they found an excuse to come up and blackmail.

"We can announce the revocation of Guo Yu's order to oversee the army, but how to deal with Guo Yu, we are also powerless, you should also know that the central government of the Republic of China does not control the local government so strongly, the autonomy of the local overseer is very strong, and I am afraid that he will not obey our orders when the time comes." Li Yuanhong said.

Of course, Lin Quanzhu knows the current situation of the Republic of China, and a large part of the reason for this is that the great powers of various countries supported it later, prompting various warlords to break away from the control of the central government, so that the government of the Republic of China has no power to manage the local areas, and the Japanese government supports several local warlord forces, of course, now Duan Qirui is also actively contacting the Japanese government, in order to get funding from the Japanese government.

The four of them discussed for a long time in Li Yuanhong's office, and finally reached a preliminary agreement, first revoking Guo Yu's appointment as the overseer of Jiangsu, and deducting part of the compensation with all of Guo Yu's industries in the country, and then Guo Yu would talk about other matters when they were resolved, after all, Guo Yu was not an ordinary official, he was a strong party with heavy troops, and it was by no means so easy to deal with.

But the three giants of the Republic of China are not aware of a problem, the Japanese government put forward such a request to lose power and humiliate the country, they did not think of refusing, but thinking about how to reduce losses and reduce compensation, they have lost the heart of a strong man as a strong man, they are just a group of politicians, a group of politicians who are busy in order to protect their own interests. R1152