As Xiang Xiaoqiang expected, there was no Emperor Guangwu at the luncheon. He was accompanied by only a few officials from the Northern Qing Dynasty. Probably because Xiang Xiaoqiang was an officer, several senior officers in Lushun also appeared at the dinner table.

The Ming and Qing dynasties have been sworn enemies of each other for more than 200 years, and there are not many cases where the two sides send representatives to sit and eat together like today. As far as Xiang Xiaoqiang knows, there have only been so many times in more than 200 years. The most recent was decades ago, after the last Ming and Qing wars.

Because of this, the atmosphere of this banquet called "Welcome Banquet" is not harmonious, on the contrary, it is very embarrassing. The Qing officials who accompanied them were just a few stylized greetings with the Ming staff, and in addition to greeting the Ming staff to taste each dish, the atmosphere in the restaurant was dull most of the time, and basically no one spoke. Everyone was bowing their heads and eating, and occasionally they only spoke a few words to the people on their side.

The personnel on Nanming's side were very uncomfortable, and they all felt that even if the two sides were hostile governments, it was now a negotiation between the two sides, and the envoys of one side came, and the other side held a banquet to welcome them. No matter how hostile it is in normal times, the welcome banquet can't be like this. They took the initiative to toast and talk several times, trying to liven up the atmosphere of the banquet, but the officials of the Northern Qing Dynasty only responded passively, turning over and over those few clichés and nonsense, which made the Southern Ming delegation depressed.

If you encounter this kind of atmosphere at the usual banquet, with Zheng Yuxuan's temper, a few heartless jokes will enliven the atmosphere of the whole table. But now she also knows how to know, and she knows that the water is deep here, so she just bows her head and pretends to be stupid to eat.

But Xiang Xiaoqiang understands these Northern Qing officials very well. He knew that the political environment in the Northern Qing Dynasty was not as good as that of the Southern Ming Dynasty, and if any Northern Qing officials were too friendly to their "Southern Ming elements" at this time, then once a political enemy wanted to rectify himself in the future, it would be a crime. Although they were only ordered to receive the envoys of the Southern Ming Dynasty in a friendly manner, the lighter ones were charged with "flattering the enemy and damaging the national dignity of the Celestial Empire", and the heavier ones might be branded as "fornicating with the Nanming Dynasty and plotting against the Celestial Empire", and they would end up in a very miserable end. The Southern Ming Dynasty determined the charges according to the law, while the Northern Qing Dynasty determined the charges according to political needs. So now the people on Nanming's side are not afraid, and they are still very puzzled, but the officials of the Northern Qing Dynasty are very afraid.

……

After the luncheon, the Northern Qing side said that the formal negotiations would begin tomorrow morning, and that the envoys of the Southern Ming Dynasty had come from afar to work hard, so they would be invited to rest this afternoon. Nanming and these people, including Xiang Xiaoqiang, didn't want to stay in a place of right and wrong for a day, and they all thought that it would be good to start negotiations in the afternoon. But now that they are the hosts, they arrange everything, and they say that they will start tomorrow, and they can't do anything about it.

The Nanming delegation lived in the villa of East Cockscomb Mountain. East Cockscomb Mountain Villa, as the name suggests, is a villa built on East Cockscomb Mountain. East Jiguan Mountain is a north-south trending mountain range of about ten kilometers in the east of Lushun urban area, which is both a scenic spot and a military area. Because this mountain range can overlook the entire Lushun and guard the main road from Lushun Pass to the inland of Liaodong, many forts and forts were built on each hill.

The East Cockscomb Mountain Villa is built at the southern end of the East Cockscomb Mountain, and the terrain is relatively high, so you can see the sea. This villa is large, not a private villa, but a "leisure club" for the military elite. And although it is called a villa, it is actually more like a military fortress. It's nothing more than a luxurious, comfortable fortress. It is precisely because of this that the Nanming mission can only operate in the villa area, and cannot go around the military area outside the villa. The Northern Qing Dynasty chose the negotiation site here, which can also be more conducive to the secrecy in the early stage.

Throughout the afternoon and evening, Xiang Xiaoqiang and the members of the delegation closed the door, discussing negotiation strategies, reviewing the bargaining chips that Daming was prepared to pay, and the bottom line of negotiations.

Fortunately, this afternoon and evening were not difficult. It's August, but it's cool. Lushun is on the coast of Liaodong, the climate itself is not hot, plus the villa is still on the top of the mountain, the cool sea breeze runs through the room in bursts, and even there are few mosquitoes, which is called a cool in the summer. Xiang Xiaoqiang couldn't help but admire that the person who chose the site for the villa would enjoy it.

……

At nine o'clock the next morning, the negotiations officially began.

This time, the representatives of the Nanming side did not count Xiang Xiaoqiang, a total of five people, all of whom were cadres selected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the head of the delegation was Vice Foreign Minister He Weibang. There were several other attachés for auxiliary work, a dozen in total. There were more than a dozen officials in the formal negotiations on the Northern Qing side, headed by a Minister of Military Aircraft, Guadxin. He is a Manchurian, and his old Manchu surname is "Guerjia", and his name is "Dexin".

The Minister of Military Aircraft of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was not a formal official position, but it was the most powerful official position. Unlike Nanming, the current state power of Nanming is scattered among the monarchy, the cabinet government, the judicial system, and the supervision system, which check and balance each other, even if the person with a high status, such as Zhu Yourong, Xiang Xiaoqiang, and Shen Rongxuan, cannot do whatever he wants. The state power of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was completely concentrated in the hands of the emperor alone, and the cabinet government was completely a decoration. The emperor's "private office" is the military aircraft department, and the military aircraft minister is the emperor's "private office assistant", which is closest to the emperor, and the emperor only consults with the "personal assistant" when he needs to make decisions, and all decisions are also made in the "private office".

Therefore, as a civil official in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, he became the minister of military aircraft. Moreover, at this time, there were only a few ministers of military aircraft, all of whom were Manchurians, and there was not a single Han Chinese. Throughout the history of the Qing Empire, the proportion of Manchus in the decision-making level was dumbbell-shaped, and when they first entered the customs, the important ministers were all Manchus and did not trust the Han Chinese. After a few decades of "prosperity", the economy recovered partially, the Diao people became obedient people, and the foundation of the new empire was relatively stable. However, the "prosperous era" of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was also the middle period, and later the situation became worse and worse, and the rule became more and more unpopular. As a result, the highest echelons of power gradually excluded the Han Chinese.

……

Although it was a secret negotiation, it was also to be recorded and archived. Both sides brought tape recorders and stenographers with them so that the entire negotiation process would not be left blank.

After both sides pressed the recording button and the stenographers on both sides began to prepare the shorthand, the negotiations officially began.

As soon as the chief representative of the Qing side, Guadxin, came up with a righteous and stern opening speech, first accusing Nanming of disregarding the justice and conscience of mankind and brazenly sending armed men to the hinterland of the Qing Dynasty to carry out bloody massacres, which was in the nature of armed aggression and war provocation. As a last resort, the Qing Dynasty launched a punitive war aimed at self-defense and counterattack. However, the military attack of the Qing Dynasty was very restrained, after the so-called "impregnable Yangtze River defense line" of the Southern Ming Dynasty had been completely broken and Nanjing, the capital of the Southern Ming Dynasty, the Qing Dynasty could have taken advantage of the victory to pursue and eliminate the entire Southern Ming regime in one go, but the Qing Dynasty stopped the attack in the spirit of humanitarianism at the moment of victory, and the whole division withdrew to the north bank, leaving a chance for the Zhu Ming Dynasty to repent.

However, the righteous actions of the Qing Dynasty did not awaken the conscience in the minds of the Southern Ming regime, but instead made its ambitions swell sharply, vainly trying to occupy the entire Qing Dynasty, bring the Qing people to the enslavement of the Zhu Ming Dynasty, and let the Qing people relive the bloody and terrifying life under the rule of Dongchang and Jinyiwei agents. Therefore, the army of the Zhu Ming Dynasty took advantage of the withdrawal of the Qing Dynasty to invade the Qing Dynasty again, plundering 150,000 soldiers of the Qing Dynasty and countless children of the Qing population. In addition, planes were dispatched to bomb various cities in the Qing Dynasty indiscriminately, causing Pukou to be razed to the ground, and many other cities were also plunged into a sea of fire, with heavy casualties and astronomical property losses.

Finally, Guard slapped the table sternly and shouted:

"The generations of the Southern Ming Dynasty have always boasted that they are emulating Britain and the United States, that they are a constitutional civilized country, and that they are a pearl of the Orient. Looking at what the Zhu Ming Dynasty did, it really made the world indignant. Is this what the so-called 'constitutional civilized state' is doing? ”

The tightrope of the tape recorder turned slowly, and the stenographers on both sides recorded every word without looking up.

After Qing Fang's opening remarks were finished, several people from the Nanming delegation looked at each other, and they were all smiling, as if they were used to Qing Fang's tone.

But Xiang Xiaoqiang was very uncomfortable, and the more he listened, the more angry he became. But he didn't have a seizure on the spot, but like everyone else, he smiled, squinted his eyes slightly, and reminded himself in his heart:

"Calm down, now it's our begging...... As long as we can bring our thousands of officers and soldiers home safely, even if they say that the dinosaurs were exterminated by Nanming, it is nothing...... People YY will let people YY get a little bit...... Fortunately, in two months, the northern expedition will be exterminated...... Otherwise, the gang would have written this passage into their elementary school history textbooks...... Even if it's just to prevent the history textbooks from being ruined, they have to be destroyed......"

This book.

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