The weather in June in Beijing was very hot, and Xiao Zhenlei sat at his desk with a banana fan and kept fanning himself while reviewing the text.

Secretary Xiao Gao came in with a thing, although Xiao Zhenlei didn't look up, he also felt that he was carrying something, and asked without raising his head: "Xiao Gao, what are you mentioning?" ”

Xiao Gao smiled and said: "President, good thing, this is an electric fan produced by a factory in Shanghai, a new thing, there are no foreigners, it will be very cool to connect here to the power supply!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei looked up when he heard this, hey, isn't that just a desktop electric fan? Although the appearance is a little ugly, it does have a strong wind after plugging in the power supply, and the wind blows cool on the body, which is very cool.

"Hehe, good, good, good, it's a good thing!" Xiao Zhenlei said and continued to work.

Xiao Gao plugged in the electric fan and reminded Xiao Zhenlei: "President, today's regular meeting will start in ten minutes!" ”

"Okay, I know, you go first, I'll be right away!"

"Yes, President!"

The regular meeting is a regular meeting held every day in the presidential office, which mainly starts every afternoon when he goes to work, and lasts for one or two hours at most, or half an hour or a quarter of an hour, mainly when the staff and staff of the president's office report to the president and summarize the major events that have occurred in the last day, or the president asks the staff and staff about the international and domestic situation at the regular meeting.

Ten minutes later, Xiao Zhenlei appeared in the conference room, where the staff and staff of the president's office were already waiting.

Xiao Zhenlei walked in with a paper fan and sat down on the main seat, feeling a little hot, remembering that Xiao Gao mentioned the fan in his office just now. So he said to Xiao Gao: "Go and bring the electric fan you brought over just now, it's too hot." Let everyone cool and cool! ”

Xiao Gao hesitated for a moment and agreed: "Okay, big president!" ”

After Xiao Gao left. Xiao Zhenlei opened the paper fan and said, "Okay, gentlemen, let's start now!" ”

Yang Xingcheng opened the paper and first said: "President, this morning the Economic Investigation Department of the Internal Affairs Investigation Bureau sent a very interesting investigation report, which shows that in the past week, 36 Japanese people with different identities have ordered a total of 16 million silver dollars of goods and materials in factories and companies all over China!" ”

Xingcheng is his character, and his name is Yang Shiqi, who was once one of the most important aides of Li Hongzhang and Yuan Shikai. Li Hongzhang and Yuan Shikai defeated every political opponent in the incident, his scheming is unfathomable, rare in the world, quite known as "Jia Yu" in the world, Jia Yu, the poisoner of the Three Kingdoms, he and Jia Yu's style is quite similar.

Xiao Zhenlei was surprised: "This is normal, is there any problem?" ”

Yang Shiqi said: "President, if these Japanese buy ordinary goods, it will be fine. Of course, the Economic Investigation Section of the Internal Investigation Bureau will not send this report, but the problem is that in addition to food, the rest of the purchases are military supplies, military-strategic materials and commodities, of which 30 million rounds of 7.92 mm caliber bullets have been ordered. In addition, there were 200,000 rounds of 75-mm mountain artillery shells. ”

Xiao Zhenlei frowned and asked, "Could it be that these Japanese people ordered them directly, and they are not even useful as middlemen?" ”

Yang Shiqi said: "President." Herein lies the problem, according to common sense. Japan has ordered so many military supplies from our country, and ammunition is among them. If you don't find a powerful person to come forward and speak, you can't get through the customs, and you can't get the goods without the approval of the relevant departments to buy ammunition and such a large quantity of military supplies, but these Japanese have not yet received the approval and directly placed orders with various factories and companies, from this point of view, they either don't want to transport these materials out of the country at all, or they have no fear, there are big people behind them who can let them get the approval of these materials, or they have another purpose, deliberately not to hide their tracks, Deliberately done for some people to see! ”

Xiao Zhenlei listened to Yang Shiqi's analysis and nodded, I have to say that Yang Shiqi's analysis is very thorough, and it points to the key to this matter, he asked: "Mr. Yang said that the Japanese may have deliberately done it for some people, who does this certain person refer to?" ”

Yang Shiqi said: "The spies planted by Tsarist Russia in our country, if the spies of Tsarist Russia find out about this matter, they will inevitably send the information back to St. Petersburg, so will the Tsarist authorities think that we have secretly formed an alliance with the Japanese?" I know that the president has not made a final decision on China's choice between the two camps of the West, and if this matter is not handled properly, Tsarist Russia will inevitably fall into the Japanese divisive scheme, and Tsarist Russia is very likely to be hostile to our country, and if our country wants to protect itself, it must stand on the side of the Japanese, and the Japanese are not ruthless! ”

Xiao Zhenlei snorted coldly and said: "Hmph, the Japanese have a good calculation, notify it, let the Internal Affairs Investigation Bureau investigate this matter clearly, I want to know whether there are any powerful people in my country involved." Also, don't the Japanese want to buy supplies? Then sell to them, give them approval, and we will sell them as much as they want, as long as they have money! Of course, our country's advanced weapons on land, sea and air cannot be sold, ammunition and military supplies can be sold, and if they want weapons, our arsenal can imitate the weapons of any country and sell them to them! Didn't the Japanese want to drive a wedge between our country and Tsarist Russia? I asked them to fetch water in a bamboo basket, and informed the Russian minister in China, Kuminschi, and asked him to come to see me, and I will personally talk to him about this matter, maybe I can also bring the business of Tsarist Russia over! ”

At this time, Xiao Gao, the secretary sitting behind the side, said: "President, Kumingschi has already called at noon and said that he wants to see you in the afternoon, because your work has been fully arranged in the past few days, so I postponed it to three days later!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei heard this: "It seems that the Tsarist side already knows about this!" Xiao Gao, after the meeting is over, inform Kumingschi to come over! ”

Xiao Gao promised: "Okay, big president!" ”

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Kuminschi, the Russian minister to China who received a telephone call, quickly rushed to the presidential palace and met Xiao Zhenlei under Xiao Gao's arrangement. It stands to reason that Kuminschi will not see Xiao Zhenlei under normal circumstances, and he has diplomatic affairs functions to negotiate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Cabinet, but many times the negotiations with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are ridiculous and cannot solve practical problems at all, so many envoys stationed abroad often seek out the head of state of the country where they are stationed.

After the two sat down, Xiao Zhenlei asked, "Mr. Minister, I heard that you want to see me?" Don't know what's going on? ”

When Kuminschi heard this, he immediately put down his teacup and said: "Your Excellency, on behalf of the Tsarist Russian Empire, I would like to express my protest to your country, as far as our country knows, your country has recently sold a large number of military supplies to the Japanese side, including an extremely large number of bullets and artillery shells, and your country is obviously helping Japan, Your Excellency, I hope that you can come out from the perspective of the friendship between your two countries and immediately stop selling military supplies, weapons and ammunition to Japan, and our country has made great efforts in the relations between our two countries. For example, China was the first country to return its concessions to various parts of China, the first country to stop demanding the remainder of the Gengzi indemnity, and the first to cancel the unequal treaties with your country. ”

Xiao Zhenlei laughed when he heard this, and hurriedly reassured: "I already know what Mr. Minister said, the reason why I asked Xiao Gao to notify you is actually to talk about this matter!" Mr. Minister, think about it, Japan must obtain the approval of our government to buy so many military materials, but the fact is that the Japanese did not have the consent of our government at all, and placed orders with factories and companies all over our country without authorization, that is to say, they only placed orders, but did not have the approval of our government, without approval, they would not be able to purchase those materials, and even if they bought those materials, they could not transport them out of our country through the customs! ”

Kumings opened his mouth, "Is that so?" Why are they doing this? ”

Xiao Zhenlei said with a smile: "Mr. Minister is a smart person, he should understand the intentions of the Japanese, if I guess correctly, your Emperor Nicholas II has begun to suspect that our country and Japan have come together, right?" ”

When Kuminschi heard this, he suddenly realized: "I see, the Japanese are too cunning!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei said again: "Mr. Minister, I asked you to come here today, there is one more thing I have to tell you!" ”

"What's that?"

"I am sorry that if I do not sell these materials, the Japanese authorities will think that I have joined the Entente, and in fact there are many members of our Diet who do not agree to join any of them! And our country has signed an alliance with the United States, you must know about this, if our country wants to join one of the camps, it must obtain the consent of the United States, so now our country can only remain neutral, our country can trade with any country, this will not be affected! ”

Kuminsiqi changed several times when he listened to Xiao Zhenlei's words, and when Xiao Zhenlei finished speaking, Kuminsiqi wrinkled a few wrinkles deeply on his forehead, and wanted to say something, Xiao Zhenlei said again: "Mr. Minister, I know what you want to say, this matter cannot be changed, but I can guarantee that at this stage, my country will not stand on the side of Japan, regardless of whether Japan joins the Allies or not." For example, in the Far East, if your country is shipped from Europe, the freight alone is worth the money for those materials, and we can sell any weapons, ammunition and military supplies other than our standard weapons to your country, I think this is a very good deal, isn't it? And you can also save a lot of time by buying from our country! ”

Cummings was moved, thought for a while and said, "Your Excellency, I can't make decisions about this matter, I need to report it to the country!" (To be continued......) R1292