After the French plenipotentiary Duke arrived in the northeast, he went ashore from Lushun, and then took nearly 20 hours on the railway of Dashang to reach the current Shengjing City.

Since the declaration of autonomy in the Northeast, it did not originally include Mukden, but with the development, the scope of the autonomous region has covered the entire territory of Fengtian, and at the same time that Duke reached Mukden, Yang Qiuxing had just finished negotiations with the Jilin general Wu Dashi and the Heilongjiang general Gong Bo. Wu Dashi said that everyone knows each other, and they are old men, and the soldiers and horses under their hands are not enough to stuff the insurance team. But this Gong boring belongs to the stone of the pit, which is smelly and hard.

Gong Bo, Borzigit, the word Zhenkui, a native of the Yellow Banner of Manchuria, and the son of the university scholar Qishan. Before becoming the general of Heilongjiang, he was the capital of Urumqi. At that time, there were frequent wars at the border of Xinjiang, and the Qing court put this person there, which shows that the trust in him is also overwhelming. Of course, Gong Bo is still very talented, as soon as he arrived in Heilongjiang, he proposed to reserve national funds, help the people's food, strictly guard, facilitate the collection of funds, rich collection, collect merchants, benefit taxes, gather people, and prepare for the real border, but the imperial court issued an edict not allowing it.

Although Gong Bo was very tough, Yang Qiuxing did not spend much energy on him, but only sent a * to Cixi in Beijing, asking for autonomy in Heilongjiang. Cixi knew that she couldn't stop it, so she had to agree. Of course, for the sake of the face of the imperial court, the Northeast is the Heilongjiang system, which needs to pay a tax of thirty yuan of Dashang silver coins to the imperial court every year. Gong Bo is tough, and he can't stand the holy decree of Beijing, which is the sorrow of being a loyal minister. Later, I heard that when Gong Bo received the holy decree, he was so angry that he vomited blood. He didn't die in the hands of the Northeast, but he was stabbed to death in the back by his own people.

"This man is also a man of integrity." Wang Yi just laughed at this.

Duke had never been to the Qing Dynasty, but he had heard from his colleagues that the Qing Dynasty was a barbaric country, and that the monarch was arrogant and arrogant, thinking that he was the superior kingdom of the Celestial Empire, and always liked to make people kneel. The populace was equally ignorant, short in stature, and thin in physique.

But when you arrive in Tohoku, it's a different story entirely.

"Is this really the Qing Dynasty?" Duke muttered to himself. "Those bastards in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are they blind?"

After arriving in Shengjing, Northeast Foreign Minister Zhao Liewen personally greeted him at the train station, the ceremony was not grand, but it was also enough to give the French face, Duke was at least satisfied on the surface, and Zhao Liewen was also talking and laughing, far from the current saber-rattling in Vietnam.

Today, the number of troops sent by the insurance team in Vietnam has reached 10,000, and the number of servants recruited has reached 30,000. At present, it mainly occupies the Beiqi area, as well as some coastal areas, and Toulon has become a military port.

The major companies of Dashang have reached out very quickly, and basically related industries have begun to invest in the local area, including petroleum, coal mines, iron ore, apatite, bauxite, chrome ore, titanium ore, tin ore, phosphate, rare earths, and various gem mines. In general, the northern region of Vietnam is quite rich in resources, and it is also close to the Qing Dynasty.

Wang Yishou has a map of the distribution of major minerals around the world, although it is not too detailed, but it gives a rough range, which is already a great help to the mining companies related to Dashang.

However, one thing that people did not expect was that compared to the smooth handover in northern Vietnam, the resistance of southern Vietnam to the insurance team was very fierce. Wang Yi had no choice but to intensify the suppression of the local resistance forces, which was not for later generations, so the insurance team did not do less to slaughter the village, all the men were killed, and the women were sent to the northeast to be distributed to single men.

Wang Yi has never had any good feelings for Vietnamese monkeys, a group of white-eyed wolves. Probably intimidated by the near-genocidal tactics of the Great Shang, the southern resistance finally quieted down. Those Vietnamese who believed in Catholicism had the support of the French behind them, and under Wang Yi's tough measures, most of them were expelled by the insurance team, and those churches built by the French were completely burned down by the insurance team. Because of this, the insurance team has become synonymous with the devil in the minds of Vietnamese Catholics.

"Welcome, Mr. Duke." Yang Qiuxing held a welcome dinner for Duke at the Prime Minister's Office in Shengjing. Because of the corresponding relationship between the levels, the two were able to meet at this time, and it was Zhao Liewen who was in charge of the negotiation.

Duke was accompanied by the French Minister to China, Bagner.

Of course, the dinner was very rich, but Duke didn't have many opportunities to speak to Yang Qiuxing, and most of them were compliments. For example, the Northeast is willing to maintain friendly relations with France, and the Northeast is willing to cooperate with France to conduct cooperative research in certain scientific frontier fields, and so on.

After the dinner, Duke returned to the Shengjing International Hotel, where he was staying, and with him was the French Minister Bagner. It was the first time for the two to meet, Shengjing, who arrived first, and Zhao Liewen had preliminary consultations, and the real person who made the decision was Duke, which was not a position to be happy and proud of.

"Well, this coffee tastes good! By the way, Mr. Bagner, what are the conditions in the Northeast? After taking their seats, the two talked about the progress of the negotiations in their hotel room while drinking coffee.

Bagner shook his head and said, "So far, there is no sign of loosening, and there are still three conditions. First, to take over all of our colonies in Asia. Second, an indemnity of 500 million gold francs. Third, to return all the wealth taken from Beijing in the Opium War. ”

Duke frowned, obviously not in a very good mood, especially in the face of such an aggressive opponent as the Northeast, as the chief of the negotiations, Duke was under great pressure.

"How is the war going in Vietnam, and is there any chance that we will fight back?"

Bagner sighed helplessly and said, "The only good news now is that our lost troops are finally back together. It is currently under the command of Colonel Pourier, and the number of troops has reached 10,000. However, due to lack of supplies, the fleet in the northeast has blocked the coastlines of Vietnam and Cambodia. Unless we send a fleet that can counter them...... At the same time, they must be able to compete with their airship troops, otherwise there is no hope of supply. Because in the process of strategic transfer, our army lost most of its guns and ammunition, so although the number of our army is quite large, only a few soldiers really have guns. ”

Duke, of course, understands that the so-called strategic shift is actually a frenzied escape.

"Is the war in Vietnam really irreparable?" Duke still didn't give up.

"I don't think it's ...... unless the people in the country change their minds and agree to another expedition," Bagner continued, because there was no longer a need.

Duke rubbed his eyebrows, sighed, and said, "It's really troublesome! ”

The two fell silent, the living room was lit only by a lamp, and Bagner leaned back in his chair, as if his whole body was plunged into darkness. Duke looked at him with a haggard expression, and it seemed that his negotiator was very difficult to deal with.

After a long time, Duke said: "It's not easy to start from the northeast, is it possible to start from the Qing court." For example, provoking civil strife, or something else that caught the Northeast off guard? ”

Bagner shook his head and said, "Sir's statement, maybe five years ago, but now the Northeast has full wings. They did not look at the face of the Qing court at all, and in fact, sometimes the Qing court had to obey the arrangements of the northeast. The only thing to be happy about now is that the Northeast is not without its rivals in East Asia, one is Japan and the other is Tsarist Russia, and on your journey Paris has agreed to our plan of alliance with these two countries against the Northeast. ”

"And this matter!" Duke thought about it, but didn't take it to heart. Because Japan is very weak now, and although Tsarist Russia is strong, it really does not have much sense of existence in the Far East. Even if they wanted to launch an expedition to the northeast, the number of people was too small to be useful, and the number of people was too large...... The huge logistical supply is not something that the current Tsarist Russia can afford. The long winter is their greatest enemy, and if we add the air raids and bombing of the Northeast Airship Force and the occasional appearance of special operations teams, no one dares to imagine what kind of tragic situation Russia will face after losing this war. It was precisely because of the lack of certainty that the Russian Tsar Alexander III was willing to withstand the enormous pressure at home and did not have the main reason for sending troops to the northeast.

"Where did the Russians build the railway?"

"It's not even in Asia yet!"

"Didn't I remember that they followed the example of the great development of the western part of the United States and put forward a plan to build the Trans-Siberian Railway?" Duke seemed to remember something.

Bagner shook his head and said, "Because of the lack of human and financial resources, although this plan cannot be said to be stagnant, the progress is indeed very slow. Alexander III even hoped to plunder cheap labor from the Qing Empire, and the Lord Li Hongzhang from Beiyang agreed to this plan, but somehow the Northeast knew the news in advance. As a result, they exerted tremendous pressure on Beiyang, and as a last resort, the central government of the Qing Empire had to refuse the demands of Tsarist Russia. ”

"I didn't expect there to be such an inside story!" Duke sighed. "Negotiations are going to be the day after tomorrow, Bagner, what tactics do you think we should use to negotiate. By the way, what is the ability of the foreign minister of the Northeast who fought with you? ”

"Strategy ......" Bagner shook his head and smiled bitterly, and said: "The name of the Northeast Foreign Minister is Zhao Liewen, and like the traditional scholars of the Qing Dynasty, he looks gentle and elegant on the surface, and is very personable. But that's just for the show, this man is a typical hawkish representative of the Northeast government...... This is the saying of the Northeast government, the hawks represent toughness, preemptive strikes, and the use of force to solve the problem. ”

It was the first time Duke had heard of it, and he was very interested: "What about the other faction?" ”

"The doves, who mainly solve problems through peaceful dialogue, try not to use force, and prefer to surrender without a fight. But ......," Bagner sneered.