The retreat of the Tsarist troops was indispensable, their lines had already been breached, and Grand Duke Nicholas sent a telegram to his tsar's nephew with a very desolate mood to report what had happened, and there was also an explanation for the withdrawal.

Grand Duke Nicholas felt very uncomfortable, because according to the current situation, even if the imperial reinforcements came, they would not have any advantage, both weapons and equipment and the number of troops lagged behind the Chinese Empire.

It has become a fact that all the actions of the Empire in Outer Mongolia have failed, and it is likely that the war will soon spread to the territory of the Empire, and the idea of Grand Duke Nicholas has been lingering ever since. He is ready to bury his bones in the Far East, and someone will be responsible for this war in the end, and as the commander, he is destined to not escape. Even if the Tsar did not embarrass him on the basis of his uncle and nephew, he would definitely be punished very severely, and he would rather die in battle in the Far East for the sake of himself and the face of the royal family.

The retreating troops of the Tsarist Russian headquarters avoided the ambush of the Third Army of China because of the detour, and Ma Qi and others also waited in vain for an afternoon, but they did not complain and did not dare to have them.

That night, the Third Army and the Headquarters Army joined up, and then followed the large force to pursue the Tsarist army.

At a time when the war in the Wulianghai area was becoming more and more intense, a war without gunpowder was being staged in the northeast, and the main force was the local forces in the northeast and the Japanese vying for the interests of Tsarist Russia in the northeast.

Needless to say, with the help of Zhao Erxun, the Zongshe Party in Fengtian Province has won a lot of interests of Tsarist Russia in Mukden, but they don't dare to go too far, the Sino-Russian war has not ended, and it is not known who wins and who loses, so they still have to leave a glimmer of leeway.

As for Xu Lanzhou, he took refuge in Tsarist Russia before, but he was very scared after seeing Tsarist Russia's defeat in the war in Outer Mongolia, because he was afraid that the central government would settle accounts with him after the war. In order to further consolidate his strength, Xu Lanzhou asked the Tsarist Russian army for weapons for various reasons, and secretly began to contact the Japanese, trying to play ambiguous with Japan.

The fiercest competition was in Jilin Province, where the Japanese, Zhang Zuolin, and the people of Mukden and Heilongjiang were vying for the interests of Tsarist Russia, which was doing its best to maintain its interests.

"Dashuai, we must stop the expansion of Japanese power in the province, otherwise it will be very unfavorable to us, the wolf ambition of the Japanese is really hateful, we must stop it." Zhang Zuoxiang said fiercely.

After Zhang Zuolin defected to the empire, the empire gave him a lot of information about Japan's northeast China, and Zhang Zuoxiang, as Zhang Dashuai's brother, of course, also read it.

"Hmph, don't blame me for being rude if they dare to make trouble in my territory, although the empire has signed some agreements with them, but I don't think Japan will give up the Northeast. I will stop the expansion of Japanese power in Jilin Province, but I can't go too far, it's not the time to turn against them, the empire is not ready, and we are not ready.

When we go to war with Japan, it will be time for my good sons and daughters in the Northeast to fight for the Empire, Japan is our stepping stone, and the Northeast Military Region of the Empire is ours, and only in this way can the brothers continue. "Zhang Zuolin is obviously a lot more confident after getting the help of the empire, whether it is weapons or the human empire has given him a lot of help, it can be said that Jilin's army is only a little worse than the regular army of the Chinese Empire.

Hearing Zhang Zuolin say that he wanted to use Japan as a stepping stone, the corners of his mouth twitched obviously, damn, whoever dared to say this before would definitely think that he was crazy.

Now Jilin can be said to be Zhang Zuolin's world, even the Japanese have to give three points, as for its defection to the empire, the Japanese are somewhat speculative, after all, those weapons are not born out of thin air.

The head of Japanese intelligence in Jilin, Koizumi Inujiro, was very depressed, because he had not received useful information that Zhang Zuolin and the Chinese Empire were already together, and some was just an unreliable guess. Now the Japanese headquarters wants him to cooperate with his own merchants to compete for the interests of Tsarist Russia in Jilin, although there are not many of them, but he does not dare to be careless about whether the empire will be able to easily obtain the entire three eastern provinces in the future.

After the defeat of their own empire and the Chinese empire, the Russian merchants in Jilin hurriedly ran back to China, and even if they did not run back to China, they ran to Vladivostok and other places to take refuge temporarily. The departure of these merchants means that their original business will be spent, and it is not known which one it is.

"How is Your Excellency Koizumi doing lately?" In Koizumi's office, a Japanese businessman came to his classmate, who had been sent by the headquarters to assist him.

Koizumi Inujiro's external identity is the owner of a coal mining company in Jilin, which allows him to have open access to those entrepreneurs and various families in the Northeast.

"Ban Yujun is you, I didn't expect the headquarters to send you, do you have any orders from the headquarters?" Koizumi pretended to be surprised and said that he and Banyu Sixteen were intelligence trainees in the same period, and he already knew that the headquarters had sent Banyu.

Ban Yuliu shook his head and said: "The headquarters doesn't have any orders, just let us do our best to monitor Zhang Zuolin's actions, now only Zhang Zuolin is the most difficult to bite in the three eastern provinces, this is related to the stupidity of Kawashima Naniwa at the beginning, otherwise it wouldn't be so difficult." ”

Koizumi nodded in agreement, "The empire asks us to help the empire's merchants compete for the interests of Tsarist Russia in Jilin, so as to achieve the effect of using this to strengthen the empire's influence, but we can't expose our people inside Jilin to help the empire's merchants, after all, they haven't completely surrendered to the empire." ”

Ban Yuliu frowned and looked at Koizumi and said: "Koizumi-kun, we just need to get the Tsarist industry near the Jilin part of the South Manchurian Railway, as for the rest, it is not the point, ensuring the smooth operation of the railway is an important task assigned by the empire." ”

It has to be said that Japan's plans in the Tohoku have been arranged a long time ago, and the South Manchurian Railway can be said to be a key point, so that Japan can occupy the entire Tohoku in a short time.

After listening to this, Koizumi nodded in agreement, now with the help of Banyu Sixteen, his task should be carried out quickly, so that he can return to China as soon as possible to get a promotion and a raise.

In order to deepen the contradictions between the Japanese and Zhang Zuolin and others, they deliberately asked the Japanese and Jilin merchants to raise their prices, so that they could make more money. In fact, Tsarist Russia prefers to hand over the industry to the Northeasterners, because it can be convenient for them to snatch it back later, and it will be difficult if it is snatched back by the Japanese.

"Sir, we don't have enough money, and the Japanese are bidding very high, we can't compare." Zhang Zuolin's housekeeper said sweaty.

Zhang Zuolin wanted to use his own money to buy the property of some Tsarist Russian businessmen to expand his family industry, but now it seems that it will not work, and the Japanese funds are not comparable to him.

"That's it, just grab some with all your might, the Japanese are too rampant, sooner or later I want them to look good, hum!" Zhang Zuolin said fiercely.

As soon as he finished speaking, an officer rushed in with a telegram in a hurry.

"Report to the commander, there is an urgent telegram from above!" After speaking, the officer handed the telegram to Zhang Zuolin.

After reading it, Zhang Zuolin laughed, and as soon as he finished speaking, the telegram from the empire arrived, ordering him to compete for the important Tsarist industry in the northeast, and the funds could be provided by the empire.

Originally, Qin Yu didn't want to compete for Tsarist Russia's industries in the Northeast, he thought that it would be better for the Japanese to buy them all, anyway, the Northeast would return to the hands of the empire in the future, so let the Japanese make trouble. However, after Cai reported that Mukden Province was almost occupied by Japanese merchants, and asked the empire not to let the empire's resources be looted by the Japanese, he ordered the seizure of some important industries, such as coal, iron mining, and industries with important strategic purposes.

After receiving the order, Zhang Zuolin decided to focus on grabbing the industries near the railway, especially the South Manchurian Railway, after all, his hand had not reached as long as Heilongjiang. In addition, he also had a task to send people to persuade Xu Lanzhou to defect to the empire, not to let Xu Lanzhou defect to the Japanese.

"What are you talking about, Zhang Zuolin actually wants to rob us of the property we have booked, and warned you?" Koizumi looked at these Japanese businessmen in front of him in disbelief and asked, Zhang Zuolin's financial resources he knew, if he wanted to snatch these, he had to give up a lot of military spending, and he also warned the merchants of the empire, he really didn't understand.

"Yes, it's useless for us to move out of the empire, they hint that we give up, or we will increase taxes."

"Don't worry about this, you can do it with confidence, the empire is your strong backing, and I will ask the Kanto Metropolitan Government to help you."

After Koizumi's assurance, these Japanese businessmen left with peace of mind, and with Koizumi's assurance, they could do it freely.

The next morning, a large group of merchants under Zhang Zuolin and Japanese merchants engaged in a war of words in various parts of Jilin, and the prices of those industries were rising one after another, and the Russian merchants were waiting to count the money in their frustration, which was really unexpected.

After receiving the guarantee, the Japanese merchants became even more arrogant, directly threatening the merchants of Jilin, coupled with the fanning of the flames of the Russian merchants, the ronin subordinates of these merchants actually fought against the merchants of Jilin.

Those Jilin businessmen were all Zhang Zuolin's subordinates, and their guards were all retired soldiers, and they were not vegetarians, and they fought with the Japanese ronin.

The nearby Jilin army directly sent troops to suppress it after learning that its people were bullied by the Japanese, and a large number of Japanese merchants and ronins were arrested.

The arrest of the Japanese businessman aroused the strong dissatisfaction of the governor of the Kwantung region, Fukushima Yasumasa, who demanded that Zhang Zuolin release him, and at the same time mixed the Kwantung independence into a brigade and went along the railway to put pressure on Zhang Zuolin.

Soon, Zhang Zuolin's army and the Japanese Kwantung Independent Mixed Brigade confronted each other on the South Manchurian Railway in Jilin, and there was a tendency to go to war without letting them go.

The Japanese ambassador to China strongly asked the Chinese Empire to put pressure on Zhang Zuolin to release him.

In this regard, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Empire issued a statement that all commercial activities within the territory of the empire were free, asking Zhang Zuolin to investigate the whole story and give reasons for his arrest, and at the same time expressed concern about the Japanese businessman Su zhì and did not want such incidents to occur again in the empire.