Thanks to Chang Kaishen, Chinese people who now know a little about modern history are familiar with the famous saying "the outside must first settle the inside", and they always feel a little harsh, but they don't know that this sentence contains the consistent way of thinking of China for thousands of years: from the inside out, first the inside and then the outside, and the inside over the outside. In the "Analects", it is said that "if you don't suffer from people, you don't know yourself, and you don't know people when you suffer", and "University" emphasizes the order of self-cultivation, family, governance, and peace in the world, and there is the logic of "being a father and a king" in the "Book of Filial Piety", and there are also sayings in our daily life that "striking iron still needs to be hard" and "how can you sweep the world if you don't sweep a house", all of which reflect this.

Sun Yuanqi considered the current situation, and also felt that it was the best strategy to first settle the inside and then the outside. When he got up early the next morning, he sent people to invite Lu Zhengxiang, the chief foreign minister who had already been circled, to begin to adjust the country's diplomatic strategy after he took office. Lu Zhengxiang came over quickly, but he was followed by an annoying tail: the Russian minister to China, Kupensky.

Kupensky also knew that he was not welcomed, and when he entered the door, he said with a smile: "I heard that Mr. Sun was elected prime minister yesterday, and I specially came to congratulate him. You're not welcome, are you? ”

The so-called "night owl enters the house - good things don't come", for this kind of wicked person, Sun Yuanqi is really very unwelcome. However, Yang Du also mentioned in his conversation before that as the chief of education, he may be able to use the attitude of "those who are suitable for themselves are treated well, and those who are not suitable for themselves cannot bear to see them" to treat people and things, so as to show that they are not dirty; However, as the prime minister of the cabinet, he must understand the truth that "Jinyu hides flaws, and the monarch contains dirt", and cannot bring his own joy and hatred to government affairs.

Sun Yuanqi had no choice but to cheer up: "Your Excellency the Minister came to congratulate you. Sun naturally welcomed it. I'm afraid that His Excellency the minister's congratulations are fake, and another teaching is true, right? ”

Kupensky's face froze, and then he snorted: "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, what are you talking about?" In the following though there are indeed some things to trouble you. But Michiga is also sincere. ”

Sun Yuanqi said: "Your Excellency's kindness Sun has already understood it, I don't know what else to teach?" If it's a private matter, then it doesn't hurt to say it; If it is an official business, please excuse yourself from speaking respectfully. Although the National Assembly has passed the proposal, Sun has no authority to handle official business until he is sworn in. So it's not too late to talk about anything after all the cabinet members have been sworn in! ”

Although Sun Yuanqi can't be as Wu Sidao said in "Yongzheng Dynasty", "Find Zhang Tingyu for official affairs, find the Thirteenth Master for military affairs, and answer that the Son of Heaven has no private affairs if he has private affairs". But it was more than enough to imitate and plug Kupunsky's mouth. Sure enough, Kupensky was dumbfounded, so he had to talk nonsense for a while. Then he got up and said goodbye and left.

As soon as Kupensky left, Lu Zhengxiang hurriedly explained: "Since the Lord sent troops north to bomb Outer Mongolia, this Russian minister to China went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs every once in a while to make a big fuss and ordered our troops to withdraw. Demanding huge indemnities. And put forward a lot of excessive demands. Lu was also annoyed by him. Early this morning, he went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to protest again, and just when he heard that the adults had summoned Lu, he wanted to follow. Lu's persuasion in all directions was ineffective, so he could only-"

Sun Yuanqi waved his hand: "The country is poor and weak, and the great powers are around, so I naturally know the difficulties of Brother Zixing, the chief diplomat. And of all the great powers, Russia and Japan are estimated to be the most insatiable! What are the non-dividing demands made by the minister to China? ”

Lu Zhengxiang sighed before replying: "At the beginning, I was ordered to negotiate with Russia to terminate the "Russian-Mongolian Entente", and they proposed that our country must fulfill six conditions before the entente can be revoked. The conditions included the permanent preservation of the Kulen government, the inability of China to send officials to interfere in the affairs of Outer Mongolia, the withdrawal of the armies of China, Russia and Mongolia, the inability of the Chinese government to prevent Kulen from borrowing from foreign countries, and the fact that the Kulen government could appoint Mongolian officials on its own. If the demands put forward by the Russian side are followed, China's administrative, military, foreign, and financial rights in Outer Mongolia will all be lost. Outer Mongolia is like independence. Naturally, we would never dare to accept these conditions.

Subsequently, the lord ordered Jin, Shaanxi, Gansu and other places to send troops to the north, and bombed the city of Kobdo, Uriya Sutai and other places, so that the Kulen authorities were panicked and almost perished. At this time, Russia took the lead for the Kulen authorities, not only appointing senior officers of the Russian army as commanders and instructors of the Kulen government's troops, giving him the power to mobilize the troops of various allied forces, but also secretly colluding with Jebzundamba to prepare to send 50,000 Russian troops to help the Kulen authorities fight against the central government.

"At the same time, under the pretext that the bombing has caused casualties and property losses to the expatriate, the Russian Government has taken great care to demand compensation of 5 million rubles, and has unreasonably interfered with the deployment of our troops in the border provinces, claiming that the stationing of our troops in the border provinces is tantamount to openly preparing for war. If China does make a move to conquer Mongolia, they will regard it as a dispute between the two countries and actively send troops to intervene! ”

Sun Yuanqi couldn't help but sneer a few times: "The Russians stretch their hands long enough and their hearts are wide enough!" ”

Lu Zhengxiang continued: "The Russians have always been arrogant and rude, unreasonable! They knew that your command was strong and well-armed, so they did not dare to make trouble in the northwest frontier, but provoked trouble in other places, such as repeatedly sending troops to plunder and expel Chinese merchants in the trading city (present-day Altan Prague, Mongolia), and instigating the Kulun Mongol army to invade the area of the Xilin Gol League in Inner Mongolia, which further intensified the contradictions; He also demanded that the Chinese Government negotiate with Russia to determine the number of troops to be stationed in the three eastern provinces!

In April and May, Kupensky sent another note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and put forward four unreasonable demands: First, he demanded that the Russians be given the exclusive right to open mines in Heilongjiang; second, the Chinese living in Harbin must pay donations to the Russian Ministry of Industry; third, the squadron must report to the Russian government in advance if it is transferred to Outer Mongolia or through Harbin; and fourth, if the Chinese want to board Russian ships, they must obtain licenses from the Russian embassy or consulates in advance. Outer Mongolia and Heilongjiang are simply regarded as Russia's private territories! ”

"Then how did Prime Minister Cho Ji-an deal with these things?" Sun Yuanqi asked.

Lu Zhengxiang shook his head and said, "What else can I do?" ! Prime Minister Zhian also knew that this opening could not be opened, because as long as the opening was opened, it was guaranteed that the great powers of all countries would flock to the door to demand at least equal benefits. Don't look at Russia's unreasonable demands, the other powers are not idle. For example, German Minister Hahausen recently sent a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on two matters, demanding that the railway from Jiaozhou to Jinan via Laiwu be built with sole German funding, and that the minerals within 30 miles of the railway should also be freely exploited by Germany.

"In response to Russia's plot in Northeast China, Japanese Minister Ijiin Hikoyoshi claimed that he had been instructed by the Japanese Government to formulate a detailed "Treaty on the Three Eastern Provinces" and submitted to the Japanese side a draft of six articles, including that the area around Heilongjiang is a commercial and civil aviation route recognized by China and Japan, and other countries are not allowed to share their interests; In the future, the three eastern provinces can only borrow money from Japan to handle the new policy and reclamation affairs; The ground along the South Manchurian Railway and along the Changchun to Dalian Concession must be leased forever; limit the number of South Manchurian squadrons; The Japanese are studying and traveling in Mukden, and local governments must effectively protect them; More than 20 minerals in the four counties of Kuandian, Huairen (now Huanren), Tonghua and Linjiang were to be mined by the Japanese.

"There is also the British Minister Zhu Erdian, who also sent a note to our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, demanding that the Yangtze River basin is within the scope of British interests, and that concessions should not be opened to other countries; to allow Britain to open a special trade megaport in Chinese mainland; The post of General Department of Customs and Excise is to be filled by an Englishman forever. At the same time, he continued to increase his troops in the Pianma region of Yunnan Province and prepared to start construction of a military railway there. Even Portugal, a small country, sent a note to our Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asking China to recognize the Portuguese as having permanent residency in Macao; China was not allowed to cede Macau to other countries without the permission of the Portuguese. ”

Sun Yuan pretended to say: "These powers are inevitably deceiving people too much! ”

Lu Zhengxiang smiled bitterly: "Who said it wasn't? But what can we do? First, our government has no money, so we have to borrow money from banks in various countries to live, first of all, it is already three points short in momentum; Second, our country is divided, and the provinces are in their own right, which is itself full of contradictions, and it is easy for the great powers to find opportunities to provoke and exploit; The third is that our army is weak, except for the Northwest Army of the adults and the Beiyang Army of the President who can barely fight, most of the others not only cannot win against world powers such as Russia and Britain, but even lose against Dongying Fuso, what else can we do? ”

Sun Yuan nodded: "The country is indeed extremely weak now, but we can't be discouraged." If we are all discouraged, what hope is there for the country? There is an ancient saying in our country that "no pole Tailai" and "things must be opposed", and Western poets also say that "winter has come, spring is not far away", I believe that as long as we survive this time, the country will definitely prosper and become rich and strong! Of course, the key question we face now is how to get through this most difficult time. ”

Lu Zhengxiang said: "Yesterday, I heard that the adults passed the parliamentary election with a high vote and became the first democratically elected prime minister, which shows that the whole country has deep hopes for adults, and they are also looking forward to it in their hearts. I wonder how you will adjust your foreign policy after you take charge of the State Department. ”

Sun Yuanqi said: "Sun doesn't know anything about diplomacy, so he shouldn't be a fool. However, according to the current national situation, I would like to put forward a request for the work policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is one word: drag! ”

"Drag?" Lu Zhengxiang couldn't help but look at Sun Yuanqi.

Sun Yuanqi said: "Yes, it's just dragging!" All the non-subordinate demands put forward by the great powers should be explicitly rejected if they can be rejected without intensifying the contradictions, and if they cannot be refused, then they should be discussed slowly, at least for a year or more than a year and a half. All negotiations involving the betrayal of national interests do not end in the success of the negotiations, but rather use them as a means of delaying time. For example, if Russia asks for 5 million rubles in compensation, you start with 50,000 rubles and slowly talk about it, and increase it by 1,110. Ask for a price all over the sky, pay back the money on the spot! ”

"The adult's plan to delay the army is nothing more than a change of methods to argue with other countries. But what if the ministers of various countries do not have such patience and temper? So what do we do? Lu Zhengxiang was a little worried. (To be continued.) )