November 7, 1899. Shanghai Huangpu River Estuary. A group of towering warships lined up in the Jiangkou, namely the Ninghai under Liu Buchan, the Tianjin under Deng Shichang, the Taipei under Lin Taizeng and the Anyuan under Lin Yongsheng, these four warships represent all the main warship types of the Beiyang Fleet today. They are not here today for renovations, but as a place for negotiations! "Anyway, the Beiyang Fleet needs to go south to avoid the freeze, so it's better to set the negotiation location in Shanghai." Xu Jie's words made the Russians come all the way to Shanghai!

For the choice of location, Xu Jie still put a lot of effort into it. It stands to reason that it should be in the Northeast or Beijing, but the Zhili area has been fighting, and the chaotic situation is really not suitable for negotiations, and the words of the Northeast are also inconvenient, with the advent of winter, in the absence of a railway, let the Russian delegation cross the vast wasteland into the Northeast, which really makes those Russian old men uncomfortable, and more importantly, the Northeast lacks cable telegraph support, and the Russians said that it is difficult to get in touch with the government, so Xu Jie suggested that the negotiation location be set in Shanghai, and the Russians came to the Northeast by boat, And Shanghai's transportation and communication situation is already the best in the Far East, and more importantly, it can make the navy that Beiyang is proud of play a sufficient deterrent role!

In this way, the Russian delegation led by Count Sergeivet crossed half the world to Shanghai to negotiate with Xu Jie on the armistice. When Xu Jie heard this name, he couldn't help but sigh that creation makes people. The Russian representative, who had signed the Portsmouth Treaty with the Japanese after the Russo-Japanese War, actually came to negotiate peace with him.

In this way, the first meeting between the two sides began in the officer's cafeteria of the Ninghai. After a short ceremonial greeting, Xu Jie handed a document to Count Sergeiwit on the opposite side and made a request from the Beiyang side.

"Between the losses that your country has inflicted on our country during the months of war. We Beiyang put forward the following requirements for the armistice! ”

"First, the territorial boundaries of the two sides in the north-east should be based on the actual control of the two sides before the signing of the Treaty of Nebuchu. I would like to emphasize that my country has only recovered the territory that rightfully belonged to us. The entire Trans-Khingan Mountains region was originally seized by your country through unequal treaties. And now, we're just taking back the land we're supposed to take. ”

"Second, Russian troops and immigrants in Outer Mongolia must leave Outer Mongolia by May next year."

"Thirdly, in view of the damage caused to our country by your country, you must pay a war reparation of £20 million. These include the costs of the war and the damage caused to our country, as well as the associated costs incurred by hundreds of thousands of Russian prisoners of war and refugees. ”

In a word, Xu Jie means that he wants money for land. It is impossible for the territory to return to the pre-Treaty of Nebuchu, with Lake Baikal as the boundary, and this is nothing more than a sky-high asking price. Xu Jie's purpose is to control the area he occupies. Basically, the territory of the two sides was maintained on the national boundary line after the signing of the Treaty of Nebuchu. (Historically, the "Treaty of Nebuchu" Qing cut off a large amount of land from Lake Baikal to the east to the Erbiqi River) As for asking for money. On the one hand, Russia will never pay so much real money for those "gray cattle", and on the other hand, Beiyang must exchange more territory for concessions in this regard.

"Lord Xu, I want to make a point. National borders are not within the scope of our discussion. Before I left Russia, I was not authorized to negotiate on the territorial side. We can't accept your condition. Essen, as a representative of the navy, said angrily.

"No authorization? Since there is no mandate, what are you talking about? We're going to talk to the plenipotentiary, not wasting time with a microphone, and for that time, I think General Peng Yi's army can move forward. Xu Jie said with a sneer.

"General Xu, what I want to say is that we are plenipotentiaries. But we have no right to cede Russian territory, and I must remind Your Excellency that. His Majesty the Tsar has an elite army of more than a million, and in addition to the Far Eastern Fleet, we also have the Baltic Fleet and the Black Sea Fleet, but what about the North Ocean? The combined army is less than 300,000, and the main warships are only a dozen or so. The relationship between the two sides needs to be put in order. Count Sergeivet said calmly.

"Then you mean that Russia has the ability to continue fighting?" Xu Jie asked.

"Of course, if a certain country dares to snatch even an inch of land from our country, we will fight them to the end!" Essen interfaced.

"Well, I don't think there is any need for us to talk about it anymore, we will give you three days, and if after three days, you still have this opinion, then the Beiyang Fleet will blockade the port of Muroran! If, within seven days, you still cannot distinguish the situation, our northeastern garrison will continue to sweep other Russian cities in the Far East! Adjournment! After saying that, Xu Jie got up and left directly, and he didn't look at the stunned Count Sergeivet!

"Lord Xu, do you think they will give in?" After the meeting, in the captain's room of the Ninghai, Xu Jie, Zhang Peilun, Yang Yonglin and Peng Yi of the Beiyang delegation were holding their own small meeting. And at the beginning, Zhang Peilun asked.

"It depends on whether our army is powerful!" Xu Jie said and handed a telegram to Peng Yi. "Send a telegram to General Nie Shicheng and let the Northeast Martial Guards continue the Nebuchu advance."

"Now that the weather is cold, it is difficult to replenish, and I am afraid that it will cost a lot to storm Nebuchu." Peng Yi frowned slightly and said.

"There is no need to attack the city, what we want is a situation, a situation in which soldiers are approaching the city! We need to end this negotiation as quickly as possible, so we have to put some hard medicine! After Xu Jie finished speaking, he turned around and said to Yang Yonglin: "It's that the navy can be slower, Hokkaido can't run away with cooked fish, if we want to do it, it's absolutely fine." But I don't want to be cheaper than the Japanese. ”

"Are the Russians really as strong as they say?" Zhang Peilun asked with a little uneasiness.

"We fought this war really well, and inflicted heavy losses on the Russians. But we must see that this war was fought when the Russians were not ready, for the huge Russia. This is just a local war. Although Russia has spent a lot of money and military power for this, it is still far from breaking its bones. ”

"5 years, give us 5 years at most, the Russians will complete their preparations for war and fight a big battle with the newly established Huaxia Republic for the fate of the Far East!" Xu Jie said.

"How big is this war?" Zhang Peilun asked after glancing at Xu Jie.

"The two sides will have a total of 600,000 to 800,000 troops fighting on land, and the Russian navy will have at least 250,000 tons of capital ships to fight a decisive battle with our army!" Xu Jie gave everyone an approximate figure after referring to the scale of the Russo-Japanese War on his own plane.

"This can really be called a national war." Peng Yi said with some emotion.

"So, we're going to take advantage of that short five-year period. To develop ourselves as much as possible, the improvement of military power and industry must be given priority, and now the land and wealth we have acquired are only temporary. Whether it can be grasped in your own hands forever depends on the outcome of the war between the two sides in 5 years! Xu Jie thought for a while and said.

"Lord Nakado and Lord Liu said that they would fully support the work of Jishi, and in the new government, Jishi will be in charge of the work of the two ministries of military and industry. I believe that Jishi can lead us to win this war. Then the next war can already be won! Zhang Peilun said.

"Now we need to act. I can't wait until the negotiations have to start, and the reason why I chose Shanghai is because it is convenient enough for communications, and it is a gathering place for foreign businessmen, and we need to start negotiating with foreigners with a lot of money and supplies now. Especially in armaments and industry, this is a long-term process, and we have to start as soon as possible, and. We need to integrate the resources under Liu Kunyi and Zhang Zhidong, who are quite vice presidents. Yes, we can have one of them in Beiyang. Their subordinates are quite rich and can be, but we have to tighten the financial and military power a little bit! Xu Jie said.

On the one hand, Xu Jie is not at ease with Zhang Zhidong and Liu Kunyi, on the other hand, these two people are really not good at engaging in foreign affairs, Liu Kunyi has no research on foreign affairs at all, and Zhang Zhidong's actions are definitely inefficient, in this case, Xu Jie is not allowed to waste valuable resources in the hands of these two laymen.

"It's a bit difficult, but Nakado-sama will do his best." Zhang Peilun frowned, but still agreed.

"The meeting has been adjourned in the past few days, we have to make good use of it, Peng Yi, you go to the representatives who came from Germany on behalf of the army to have a strange talk, and we must make a decision as soon as possible on the issue of the construction of the Northeast Industrial Base. The construction of railways and roads must also be carried out as soon as possible. Xu Jie said to Peng Yi.

"No problem, I'm going to talk to the German representative this afternoon." Peng Yi nodded and said.

"Don't be in a hurry to start the financial negotiations with the British, we are not short of money now, and if we want to get money from the British, I am afraid that it will not work without some blood. Nine times out of ten, the British will probably talk about Japan this time. But this news can be leaked to the Russians to make them nervous. It's good for us. Xu Jie said to Zhang Peilun.

"I'll leave the matter of tai chi with the British, and I'll let the Russians know about it." Zhang Peilun said understandingly.

"On the issue of the navy, I will bother Lord Yang." Xu Jie said to Yang Yonglin next to him.

"I'm afraid this won't work, Mr. Yan Boxun came all the way back from Italy to discuss the matter of the new ship with you, although Yang has two brushes to fight, but when it comes to shipbuilding, I don't know anything about rolling pins and blowing fire." Yang Yonglin hurriedly waved his hand and excused himself.

"What's so mysterious? Lord Yang, let's go and talk to this Yan Boxun together, if he dares to fool us, he won't plan to take next year's bonus. Xu Jie said jokingly.

"It is said that Mr. Yan and Mr. Vittorio have made your idea come true! Moreover, it is said that it is necessary to build a warship with a tonnage that surpasses all the current capital ships and is more powerful in combat than the Ninghai. I would like to see this battleship join our Beiyang Fleet as soon as possible. Yang Yonglin said happily.

"Alright, we'll check it out tomorrow!" Xu Jie nodded and said.

Thank you for the reward of the public version~~, the next chapter will be the selection of dreadnoughts, I hope you will support a lot ~~~. (To be continued.) )