It turned out that the pamphlet read: Selected Speeches in Japan, Time: 1895-1896, Lin Yuan opened it and found that it recorded the political commentary of several mainstream media such as the Asahi Shimbun and the Yomiuri Shimbun, as well as the emperor's speech to his subordinates on important holidays.

Lin Yuan couldn't help but admire the intelligence agencies of the Russians, they were able to grasp such detailed information about Japan, and because he did not have an intelligence agency in Japan, the information channel for Japan was basically only the Japanese in China, but these people were all middle- and lower-class people, and many of them did not even know how to read, so it was difficult to obtain information about the dynamics of the Japanese top and the whole society from them.

Giles smiled: "This booklet is very informative, I believe you will be interested, I can say to you that Japan has regarded China as the number one imaginary enemy, and now Japan is expanding its armaments like crazy, and everything that the army needs will be given priority." ”

"Moreover, Japan has also signed a large contract with Britain for the purchase of warships, and has also built a naval military port in the port of Incheon in North Korea, which is extremely advanced and can berth ships of more than 50,000 tons! In this way, Japan will have the strength to rule over the entire Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea, and your Chinese Beijing and Tianjin are under their threat. ”

"Not only on the sea, but also on land they also have a lot of advantages, they are now stationed in Korea, and under the guise of being invited by the king of Korea, so they have nothing to fear in Korea, I know Mr. Lin Yuan, your capital is the Northeast, you have an old saying in China, on the side of the couch, how can you allow others to sleep soundly, I don't know if what I said is right?"

Lin Yuan smiled: "What you said is very right, I don't know what you want to do with me and me?" ”

Gilles smiled: "My purpose is very simple, although our Russian Empire and your Qing Empire have some unpleasantness, but in the future we still have the opportunity to cooperate, the opportunity for our cooperation is Japan, Japan's ambition and strength in China's expansion force should not be underestimated, so I think, can we sign a cooperation agreement to jointly deal with Japan?" ”

Lin Yuan smiled lightly and asked, "Then what benefits can we get by signing this agreement?" ”

Gilles smiled: "We can provide you with the loans you need, and the interest rate is very low, and we can also provide technical support for your railway construction, and the most important thing is that there are many Chinese businessmen who travel between China and Russia, if we sign this cooperation agreement, we will reduce the tax rate for these merchants, and the reduction of the tax rate alone is enough to make you earn millions of taels of silver every year." ”

Lin Yuan nodded and smiled: "Very good, the conditions look very tempting, I don't have the slightest reason to refuse, but there is no free lunch in the world, I want to ask, what do you need us to do if you put forward these conditions for us?" ”

Gilles laughed: "Give us back our Blagoveshchensk, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok." ”

Lin Yuan smiled disdainfully and said: "If I return these three places to you, I will become a traitor, what will the history books say about me in the future, I believe you will not be ignorant." ”

Gilles hurriedly said: "I'm sorry, I didn't make it clear, what I mean is this, it turns out that those places are all deserted, and we Russians only built those places after we Russians went, and the reason why we built in those places is also for the sake of the well-being of the people on both sides." ”

Lin Yuan sneered and thought to himself: "You guys are really ridiculous, you say this, as if you have never killed our people!" ”

Gilles continued: "That's what I think, let's put aside these preconceptions, for the sake of the happiness of both people, does it matter who belongs to those places?" Why don't we build these cities together and make them the most developed places for trade in the world? ”

Lin Yuan smiled and said, "Your idea is very good, then I want to ask, who is in charge of the security of these places, we Chinese?" Or you Russians? Since it is to be built into the most developed trade area in the world, it is indispensable to deal with merchants from various countries, and if there is a dispute, they should appeal to the courts of that country? ”

Giles smiled: "Your questions are essentially a question of sovereignty, and I have made it clear that we should put aside the preconception of sovereignty and do everything for the sake of the well-being of the people on both sides." ”

Lin Yuan asked: "Protecting people's lives and property should be regarded as thinking about the well-being of the people, right?" If the lives of the people are not guaranteed, then what is the welfare? ”

Giles said: "I've figured out that we can use international condominium, which has a lot of precedents in the world, such as the Suez Canal, which is now jointly managed by Britain and France, what do you think of the international condominium?" ”

Lin Yuan thought to himself: "This Gilles is really too cunning, listening to his words, every word is inseparable from the happiness of the people, as if he is the savior of the people, turning our Chinese's land into a free trade zone, but also international co-management, it is really shameless!" Why don't you build Moscow into an internationally managed free trade zone! ”

Lin Yuan smiled: "I'm curious, how did you come up with this idea of treating other people's inherent territory as a free trade zone?" ”

Gilles smiled and said: "First of all, I don't agree that those places are your Chinese territory, because we have already signed a treaty with the Qing government, but I don't want to say much about this issue, we should stay in the negotiations to talk about this matter, the source of my idea is very simple, that is your idea!" ”

Lin Yuanyi frowned and said, "My thoughts, what do you mean by this?" ”

"I once studied an interesting science at the University of Leipzig, and it gave me the power to read people's minds," laughs Gilles. ”

When Lin Yuan heard the University of Leipzig, he remembered Xu Jingcheng's mind reading, and subconsciously asked, "Are you talking about psychology?" The University of Leipzig is a famous university in Germany, the inventor of calculus Leibniz, the great writer Goethe, and the philosopher Nietzsche are all alumni of this university, and the University of Leipzig established the world's first psychology laboratory in 1879, which is recognized by the world as the birthplace of modern scientific psychology.

Gilles couldn't help but exclaim when he heard Lin Yuan's words: "You also know Dao psychology? ”

Lin Yuan nodded slightly, and Gilles smiled: "I understand very well the reason why you attacked these three regions, in the eyes of the Qing court, these places are bitter cold places, as far as I know, these places have always been places for exiled prisoners, so they abandoned these places like a disgrace, and you actually sent troops to capture these places, you just want to obtain greater merits, and then take on a greater official position, right?" ”

When Lin Yuan heard his words, he couldn't help but laugh, and laughed for a long time before saying, "Mr. Gilles, you are completely wrong this time!" ”

Gilles frowned and asked, "How could it be wrong?" ”

Lin Yuan said: "Those places have always belonged to us Chinese, and I have recovered them for the benefit of our nation, and as for myself, I really haven't thought too much about it." ”