Li Hongzhang was shocked when he received Wang Yi's letter attacking the Russian Far East, and what surprised him even more was that the Russians seemed to have become puppets in front of him, without the slightest ability to resist. Now there are Zhang Shusheng sitting in the room, Ding Richang, Zhou Fu, Zhang Peilun, Sheng Xuanhuai, etc., and the bigwigs of the Beiyang Department are basically here.

Li Hongzhang sat in the first place and said to the others: "That's all the news from Wang Yi, what do you think, should we send troops to take over?" ”

Everyone fell into silence, no one dared to express their stance lightly, Li Hongzhang was a little angry, and patted the table not too hard and said, "Speak!" ”

"My lord, if we take over these lands, I'm afraid Russia won't even be able to negotiate, and will directly start fighting." Zhou Fu said in a deep voice.

Everyone knows what is at stake, but with a huge land in front of them, they don't even have the courage to take it...... Li Hongzhang shook his head.

"What should I do if I don't take it? Is it possible to return it directly to the Russians? Zhang Peilun asked rhetorically.

"Then the people of the whole country don't scold us to death!" Ding Richang muttered quietly on the side.

Li Hongzhang glared at him, and Ding Richang snorted angrily and stopped talking.

Zhang Shusheng said at this time: "If we don't take this piece of land, it will be too unfavorable for our Beiyang." Let's think about it, Lord Zuo carried the coffin to resist Russia, and we didn't even dare to seize the land we got ......"

Sheng Xuanhuai objected and said, "Brother Zhenxuan, this is bad! What's the use of taking those lands, it's freezing for half of the year, and the main thing is that it's sparsely populated, it is said that there are only tens of thousands of people. Even if there are some mineral deposits underground, it will require a large amount of silver investment from the imperial court, but the treasury is empty, and it is simply impossible. ”

"So, you're going to throw away your ancestor's land!?" Zhang Peilun was an angry young man, and he choked directly at Sheng Xuanhuai.

Sheng Xuanhuai was just a musician, and seemed to disdain to talk to Zhang Peilun.

Everyone was arguing, but Li Hongzhang never expressed his position, Zhou Fu suddenly thought of some questions, and said, "My lord, did Wang Yi propose any solution?" ”

"Yes!"

"Oh? How to fix it? Everyone was curious.

Li Hongzhang looked at the people present and said that there were people, word by word, and said slowly: "He said that if I don't accept the land, he will send someone to become independent, and this matter has nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty." If there is a problem, let the Russians go to Temple Street to talk to his people, whether to make peace or fight, and accompany him to the end. ”

Everyone heard the meaning, Zhou Fu thought about it, but it was also a way.

St. Petersburg, the capital of Russia, Alexander II had already received news of the occupation of the Amur and Primorsky oblasts by the bulk of the country, and he immediately called for his own cronies, the imperial brother Nikolai Nikolayevich, the crown prince Alexandrovich, the Minister of War Dmitry Alekseevich Milyutin, his illegitimate son Yevgeny Ivanovich Alekseev, the acting foreign minister of Russia Giles, the deputy ministers of Russia Dzhemeny and Buze.

"The Amur Region and the Primorsky Region have been attacked by the Qing people, what do you say?" Alexander II roared.

"Isn't the Qing ambassador to Russia in St. Petersburg right now?" Little Nicholas Road. "It would be nice to bring him in and ask him, and then we will decide whether to fight or to make peace."

Everyone else agrees with Alexander II, the younger brother.

As soon as Zeng Jize heard the Tsar's summons, he probably knew what he was doing for. came to the palace calmly, and said: "I have seen His Majesty the Emperor, all the ministers." ”

"Why did your country break the peace and launch an attack on our Far East, since it was negotiating with our country?" The prince opened his mouth at this point. "Do you really want to meet our soldiers?"

Zeng Jize smiled and said: "I have heard what you said, but as far as I know, the situation seems to be completely different from what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said. ”

"What do you mean by that?" Alekseev said.

"What I know is that our Great Qing Dynasty did not send any troops to launch an attack on your country, and it was someone else who was causing chaos in the Far East."

None of these people believed it, and said, "What Mr. Ambassador said is true?" ”

Zeng Jize nodded and said, "The one who is making trouble in the area north of Heilongjiang is a bandit named Old Scorpion, who is crisscrossing both sides of the Heilongjiang River, and it is he who has attacked your territory, and it has nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty." ”

The tsar and the ministers, you look at me, I look at you, but Milyutin said at this time: "Since he is a bandit, I don't know what country he is?" If you are from the Qing Kingdom, can you say that it has nothing to do with you? ”

Zeng Jize sneered: "The old scorpion is indeed from my Qing country, but as far as I know, your country once secretly planted an arsenal in a place called Qinglonggou in Fengtian Province of our country, and sent troops to be stationed in it, recruiting bandits, and plundering all over the place. How do you explain this? ”

How did these people present know about such a low-level thing, but War Minister Miryutin directly denied it: "Impossible! We will not do such things. ”

Zeng Jize glanced at them and said: "Two years ago, we surrounded and suppressed Qinglonggou, and the old scorpion was one of them, and then we were rescued by gangsters on the way to Shengjing, and then we surrounded and suppressed everywhere. He fled to the territory of your country, probably to Vladivostok, and we do not know why he rebelled. ”

There are true and false things, true and false, and the tsar and others do not know how much of it is true or false.

Alexander II looked at Zeng Jize, but said to the others: "Contact Vladivostok and ask what happened!" ”

"Yes!" The court officials were just about to leave.

Zeng Jize smiled: "No need, Your Majesty the Tsar." The foreign minister has learned the news this morning, Vladivostok was captured by the bandits under the old scorpion yesterday, and your troops there were slaughtered by them, and the 50,000 or 60,000 people in Vladivostok are now about 15,000 people, all of whom are women. As for those warships, they have all been captured or blown up by the bandits! At the same time they proclaimed the creation of the Northeast Republic! ”

Upon hearing this, everyone was shocked.

Alexander II looked at Zeng Jize's calm appearance, his eyes were about to burst into flames, and he stared at it for a long time before he said, "Mr. Ambassador can step down." ”

Zeng Jize nodded slightly, and after greeting everyone, he turned around and left, and after taking a few steps, he seemed to remember something, turned around and said: "Our government has issued an edict that we will not sign the so-called "Treaty of Livadia", the sovereignty of the Xinjiang region cannot be tampered with, and there is no dispute about the ownership of the Ili region!" Your country is talking about peace, please do your best to give a reply to the foreign minister. If it is a treaty, if it is a war, after the foreign minister returns to China, Marshal Zuo Zongtang will naturally wait for you in Xinjiang! ”

After speaking, Zeng Jize shook the sleeves of his robe and turned away.

Alexander II's eyebrows were slightly raised, and his eyes were full of cold light.

Speaking of which, Wang Yi's move to establish the Northeast Republic was also learned from the Tsarist Russians. At that time, the Russians came to Mohe to steal gold, and then established the Republic of Gertuga, in a vain attempt to turn Mohe into a colony of Tsarist Russia. Wang Yi did this, which can be regarded as returning the way of the other, but this place was originally from the Qing Dynasty, and now it is just a thing to return to its original owner.

In the matter of negotiation, Wang Yi asked Wu Xiao to help the old scorpion, along with Zhao Liewen and three thousand newly trained infantry.

Now Xiang Long was stationed in Vladivostok, and then sent troops north to slaughter Niman, and then swept around the nearby peasant villages, leaving no Russians behind. The old scorpion was stationed on Temple Street, and by the way, he also went to Sakhalin Island to clean up the remnants of the Russian army and Russians on it. After Zheng Haitao returned to Mohe, he attacked Nebuchu to the west, and then Chita, which was already the Great Xing'an Mountain.

At this time, Wang Yi asked everyone to stop the offensive, and cleaned up the nearby villages and towns on the spot, killing the Russians, and taking away the Han people and other ethnic groups, which can be regarded as a fortified wall in disguise. In the end, the army retreated, and only a few observation posts were set up at key points to monitor the situation of the Russians.

In the face of the Russians, to say that Wang Yi is not afraid is nonsense. Thinking about it later, let's just shut up the big ship!

In January, he hurriedly convened an expanded meeting of the Great Merchants and Price Alliance, mobilizing the major families to hire migrant workers from other provinces, and the more the better. After that, the cement plant and the steel plant were ordered to stop all external supply, and together with Qichang Foreign Company, they began to build military forts in Vladivostok, Shuangchengzi, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk (the southern tip of Sakhalin Island), Yixiang, Miaojie, Pulu, Tailun, Hongke, Boli, Chumikan, Urshtun, Yaxa, Nebuchu, Chita and other places. At the same time, Dashang began to expand the scale of the insurance team and speed up training. Even the newly established Dashang Railway Construction Company was arranged to go north to build bridges and railways in this virgin land.

February 26, 1881.

Chang Jinlong was having dinner with Wang Yi, and during this time, the most tired person was neither Wang Yi nor Wu Xiao, but Chang Jinlong, who was in charge of the logistics supply of the entire Dashang Insurance Team. In just a month, his whole body has obviously lost weight. Soldier scheduling, ammunition scheduling, grain and grass scheduling, and the entire supply of the huge battlefield are all completed by Chang Jinlong behind the scenes.

Chu Yuan walked in at this time and said: "Report to the captain, Beijing has to report that Zeng Jize, the ambassador of the Qing Dynasty to Russia, signed the "Sino-Russian Ili Treaty" and the "Revised Land Trade Charter" with Gilles, the acting foreign minister of Tsarist Russia, in St. Petersburg. The Qing Dynasty recovered Ili and partially canceled the provisions of the original treaty on land cession; Only Russia is allowed to set up consulates in Jiayuguan and Turpan; Russian businessmen's trade in Mongolia and other places has been changed from tax exemption to "temporary tax exemption". However, the area west of the Khorgos River and east of Lake Jaisan was lost. At this treaty and subsequent boundary surveys, it was agreed that more than 70,000 square kilometers of China's territory would be assigned to Russia. The amount of compensation for "military expenses" was increased from 5 million rubles to 9 million rubles.

Wang Yi looked at the information and found that there was no change in the slightest...... However, the south of the Outer Khingan Forest, the east of the Great Khingan Mountains, and the entire Sakhalin Island, have now become the land of the Great Shang.

"Also...... The Russian minister of the Imperial Mission, Buze, will go to Temple Street in early May to hold talks with the old scorpion and discuss the status of the Northeast Republic. ”