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"The whole world is watching Berlin, all eyes are on Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam – every day here will decide the fate of the two empires!"

The Times

Potsdam is located in the north of Central Germany in the eroded mountains and glaciers, just 10 kilometres from Berlin. The series of lakes and ponds formed by the Berlinna Forest and the Havel River provided Potsdam with excellent natural resources, which led to the construction of palaces and gardens by successive Prussian kings. And Sanssouci Palace is one of them.

King Friedrich II of Prussia was passionate about art and literature, so he contributed to the development of Sanssouci Palace gardens and palaces. After the 7-year war, he built many buildings, including a new palace. In the 19th century, Friedrich? William IV added 7 buildings and gardens to the Sanssouci Palace garden.

The whole Sanssouci Palace and garden area is 90 hectares, because it is built on a sand dune, so it is also called "the palace on the sand dune", and on the side of Sanssouci Palace, there is a pavilion that is not magnificent but splendid, the building is called the "Chinese Building", using the traditional Chinese turquoise tube tile, golden yellow columns, umbrella-like roof, and floor-to-ceiling cylindrical structure. The tables and chairs in the pavilion are completely made in imitation of the oriental style, and there is a Chinese-style incense tripod standing in front of the pavilion. Sanssouci Palace is the essence of 18th-century German architecture, and every visitor will be immersed in it.

However, at this time, for the guests of Sanssouci Palace, they have no intention of appreciating the beautiful scenery and architecture of Sanssouci Palace, in fact, almost every day, the negotiation here will make people lose patience, because the negotiation will always involve too many substantive issues, every detail, every principle, both sides are arguing, and even many times unhappy.

And every time it breaks up and reaches the outside world through various channels, it always attracts the attention of the press, and people know very well what this negotiation means for China and Russia, the future of both countries, and the change of the world pattern in the coming decades.

It is precisely because of this that the outside world will focus on every move here, and diplomats from various countries are trying to obtain first-hand information to grasp the dynamics of the negotiations, but there are always differences between countries, for Britain and France, they hope that China can squeeze Russia as much as possible, even if in the end, Britain and France will jointly bear Russia's reparations, it is also possible to accept, they believe that a defeated Russia that has been squeezed by China is impossible to be a docile "little partner" of Germany, because for RussiaNot only will they be hostile to China, but they will also be dissatisfied with Germany, which brokered the peace talks. As for the United States, it is hoped that Russia would better preserve a certain amount of strength, and only then will they be able to contain China's expansion, which, in the eyes of the Americans, has reached a point where it seriously threatens American interests.

As the host country, Germany, the country that single-handedly facilitated the negotiations, had a very simple idea - to avoid Germany getting involved in a war with China, and of course, they were also not in favor of overly weakening Russia, although they needed Russia as Germany's docile little partner, but they did not want this small partner to fail to exert its strength. Germany may be able to provide some economic support, but Germany's financial power is so thin compared to Britain and France that they would prefer the war to end in a way that would be rather decent to Russia, rather than a way to humiliate Russia.

As for the attention of the outside world, whether it was participating in the negotiations as a representative of Russia, or Liang Dunyan, who arrived in Germany as a special envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary, did not pay any attention, they did not even read the newspaper, let alone pay attention to the invitations from all walks of life, but negotiated there every day, one by one, one by one, one by one, when it was intense, the two sides would even clap the table and break up unhappily, but what is the point?

And each time, after an unhappy breakup, the German Foreign Chancellor or Chancellor had to visit the two of them, give them a step back to the negotiating table, and the two sides resumed negotiations the next day.

Just like now, after yesterday's unhappy parting, the two sides once again seemed to be reluctant, but in fact they were willing to return to the negotiating table and continue yesterday's topic.

"Your Excellency is a diplomat, you should know that German Chancellor Bismarck was once the best diplomat, he led the German Empire to strength, but where did he fail the most?"

Witte put away the pen in his hand, looked at the envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary in front of him, if he could, he would prefer to negotiate with Tang Shaoyi, but time did not allow, there were many times, he was able to realize that the so-called unhappy parting was not real, but Liang Dunyan deliberately delayed time, causing the false appearance of the breakdown of the negotiations, so as to obtain instructions from home, and according to the intelligence provided by Germany, after the start of the negotiations, the average telegraph fee on the Chinese side was more than 4,000 yuan per day, This means that the Nanjing side is monitoring the progress here every day and giving new instructions to Liang Dunyan, and it is precisely because of those instructions that the negotiations will make some progress the next day.

Now, the only hope is that Nanjing has given him new instructions, so as to make a certain breakthrough on the issue of reparations.

Faced with Count Werther's rhetorical question, Liang Dunyan was just silent. He did not answer the question, in fact the question is well known.

"It is to squeeze France too much, which eventually leads to Germany and France becoming enemies of the country, and now, this condition of your country is undoubtedly forcing Russia to the point of hatred of your country, I think, this is undoubtedly not taking advantage of your country's ......"

This is not only a warning, but also a reminder, reminding Liang Dunyan and Nanjing to pay attention to the fact that Russia is Russia, even if it is a weak Russia, it is also a Russia that was once a world power, and China is just a newly rising nouveau riche!

"After all, none of us wants to see another war break out between our two countries at some point in the future!"

Faced with warnings that bordered on war, Liang Dunyan smiled slightly.

"Is this a warning of war?"

Then he shook his head again,

"We have never been afraid of war, let alone war, but we must take into account one thing, and that is that we can only stick to this principle when there is no guarantee! I guess that's our bottom line! ”

Although the meaning of the words has not yet been understood, Witte is still keenly aware of the meaning of the other party's words, and the meaning of Liang Dunyan is very obvious, the most fundamental reason why China insists on their conditions is that they are afraid that Russia will become China's enemy, or that war will break out again between the two countries in the future.

What they need is not just an armistice and a peace treaty, what they need is a peace treaty that will achieve complete normalization of relations between China and Russia.

If they can't get this real peace treaty, then all they can do is to squeeze Russia as much as they can to buy time for China.

These damned Chinese are more greedy than he thinks!

But what kind of peace did they need?

This time, it was Witt's turn to be Weiwei, and now he understood where the Chinese's bottom line was, but the problem was that he didn't know what the Chinese really wanted, and that was the most difficult thing at the negotiating table.

In many cases, the reason why some people can become diplomats who cause headaches for their opponents is that they can see through the fog at the negotiating table, grasp the needs of the other side, and then fight for their own interests, such as Count Bismarck. Of course, Werther hopes that he can become Bismarck, but he knows that he is far from Bismarck, but he does not have the chips that Bismarck has, in fact, in comparison, the Chinese in front of him is closer to Bismarck, at least he has Bismarck's chips.

Bismarck's chips!

Suddenly, thinking of this, Werther's eyes lit up, he seemed to guess, guessed what the other side needed, for China, China is most unwilling to see like Germany squeezing France, turning Russia into its enemy, but they obviously cannot not need a return that belongs to them, how to balance this interest, this is the problem that the Chinese need to consider, of course, more importantly, how to satisfy Russia!

Right!

Whether it is ceding territory or demanding reparations, the most important point is how to make Russia accept it, which is the most important thing!

Only if Russia can accept it will it be possible to open a new chapter in the relationship between the two countries, and not as enemies. But in Werther's view, this was almost impossible, and if he could, he would not cede even a table-sized piece of land.

But now, does Russia have a choice?

There is no choice!

No, Russia has a choice!

"On the territorial issue, we can make certain concessions!"

Suddenly, Werther, who felt as if he was peeking through the fog at the negotiating table, spoke.

"We have no meaning in the case of the Viceroyalty of Nicholas and the Philippines, these two places can be ceded to your country!"

This is the first time that Werther has made substantial concessions, and the other party's concessions have made Liang Dunyan nod, but he still hasn't said much, this is a concession that must be made, and he is still waiting for the other party to continue.

"Then there is the land ceded to Russia by the Qing State in the Russian-Qing Treaty, and these lands can be returned......"

These lands were even the cause of the war, and with the exception of part of the Steppe Governorate, everything else was basically under Chinese occupation, and it was impossible to preserve it anymore, so return it directly!

"Then there is the ...... on the land in the disputed area"

The so-called disputed land refers to the hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land "usurped" by the Kokand Khanate through infiltration and other means before the Russian conquest of Central Asia and the establishment of the steppe governorate.

Well, in just a moment, Witte returned millions of square kilometers of land to their owners, but this is only the beginning, and even the reason why Liang Dunyan did not react much is precisely because, in his opinion, this is also only the beginning of the negotiations, after solving the land problem left over from history, what remains is the real core of this negotiation.

Just as in Siberia and Central Asia, which China opened earlier, it was a lion's mouth, and all that remained was for Witte to bargain and do what he could to preserve Russia's interests.

Even if Witte wants to protect Russia's interests, he also knows very well that for China, it is impossible for them to spit out the areas they have occupied, and even this is a consensus in the world, so what he needs to do now is to preserve the unoccupied areas as much as possible, and the next negotiations are really white-hot negotiations, and after the basis of the negotiations is determined, what remains is the real hard bones.

So much so that in the next few days, the negotiations between the two sides basically revolved around the Trans-Siberian Railway, city by city discussion, like war, Witte kept making concessions, and each of his concessions was hundreds of thousands of square kilometers of land for China. But this is not to say that China has not made concessions, as Liang Dunyan has also made concessions on the territorial issue of Central Asia while China has insisted on Siberia.

"Ural!"

Finally, on the seventeenth day of negotiations, Witte spat out a place name, despite all his reluctance.

"I think this is the final bottom line that we can accept, the northern border between China and Russia will be bounded by the Ural Mountains and the Ural River in the future, the Ural Mountains will be bounded by the main ridge, the river will be bounded by the middle line, the west side will be Russian territory, and the east side will be Chinese territory!"

Finally, when he said this, Werther only felt that his strength seemed to have been exhausted, he had no way to hold on any longer, and even, he had decided that if the Chinese were insatiable, he would definitely let the other party die, although he gave up a barren land, but after all, it is Russian territory, and Russia's territory will be reduced by half, I hope the Russians can understand their helplessness!

"I agree!"

Finally, with this I agreed, the protracted negotiations finally came to an end, no, in fact, this time has reached the final stage -- the issue of military reparations, once the issue of military reparations is settled, then the remaining issues concerning prisoners of war will naturally be easily resolved.

But just as Werther was about to start negotiations with Liang Dunyan on this issue, he heard Liang Dunyan speak.

"Now that the issue of the demarcation of the national border has been resolved, then, according to Nanjing's instructions, I think we should move on to the next stage of negotiations, which is the issue of land purchase money......

What the!

The purchase of land, he, what is he talking about? (To be continued.) )