July 20th.

Floating in the Sea of Japan is a large Russian military ship that can accommodate hundreds of people. On the deck, there were more than a dozen players from the Russian Far East, as well as ten players from Hokkaido and Honshu in Japan, sitting around a large long table with serious faces. These twenty or thirty players are all leaders of one side, and the lowest level is also the player leader who controls several walled cities and more than 100,000 NPC troops, and to some extent represents the main economic and military power of the Russian Far East and Japan.

On both sides of this ship, there are several Russian and Japanese ships. In the case that the Russian players and the Japanese players are not friendly, these warships from Russia and Japan are unusually gathered together, without any smell of gunpowder, which looks very weird.

This sea area is neither Russian nor Japanese, but on the high seas between the two countries. The players of the two countries gathered secretly on the inaccessible high seas, not out of idle boredom, of course, but for an important matter to negotiate cooperation, ensuring that secrets were not leaked.

Neither the Russian nor the Japanese are willing to negotiate this kind of cooperation – the Russians have been waiting for Japan and China to go to war in order to profit from it. Japan, for its part, has been waiting for Russia and China to go to war so that it can sell at a price.

But both of them were disappointed that the war between the other side and China had not broken out for a long time. Because they have intentionally or unintentionally overlooked one point, the Chinese side is also patiently waiting for a full-scale war between Japan and Russia to seize the initiative.

During this period of mutual suspicion and stalemate. China's Yan Kingdom has grown rapidly in strength in the last month or so, and its economic and military capabilities have increased substantially. However, Russia and Japan cannot do this, because the Russian Far East lacks NPC manpower, and Japan lacks enough resources for manufacturing, and they cannot keep up with the pace of China's exhibition.

The Chinese side is not afraid of such a stalemate. Because time is on the side of Chinese players, China has no shortage of manpower and resources. The longer this stalemate continues, the power gap between the three countries will widen, and the Chinese kingdom of Yan will surpass the combined power of the Russian Far East and Japan.

But the Russian Far East and Japan are afraid.

This situation forced them to come together today. Seek to join forces to protect yourself. Otherwise, when the comprehensive strength of the Chinese Yan Kingdom exceeds that of the Russian Far East and Japan combined, it will have the ability to wage war against Japan and the Russian Far East at the same time. At that point, even if they join forces, it won't be of much use.

Although the Russian players are very reluctant to cooperate with these pirate, ronin Japanese players, and although the Japanese players despise this group of greedy Russian players, they must now rely on each other's strength.

It is precisely because of this anxiety that the leaders of the Russian Far East and the Japanese side secretly gathered on this uninhabited high seas to negotiate cooperation and jointly stifle the power of the Chinese Yan Kingdom.

The high seas are calm.

But at this time, the negotiators on both sides were not in the mood to appreciate these things.

The Japanese representative very simply and directly put forward a demand, saying: "Japan and Russia will fully open their commercial and trade ports and allow merchant ships to come and go freely." The Russian Far East has long been open to trade with Japan in copper ore, iron ore and other metal minerals, coal, copper, iron-making, shipbuilding and other technologies. On this basis, Japan will be able to join forces with the Russian Far East to fight China. Otherwise, we will not see your sincerity and will not be able to cooperate. ”

The Russian delegates looked very dismissive of the demands made by Japan.

The "trade" demand put forward by the Japanese representative is only unilaterally extremely beneficial to Japan, and it is not of any benefit to Russia at all. Selling these raw materials and technologies to Japan will only support a strong opponent. When are they idiots? This is not their unilateral turn to Japan, which also needs Russia's support to confront China, otherwise it will be doomed sooner or later.

It is absolutely impossible for them to accept such unilateral conditions in favor of Japanese players.

The Russian delegates immediately rejected the demands of the Japanese delegates and put forward their demands: "Russia can open the trade in munitions and civilian goods to Japan, but Japan must send troops to Lushunkou and Dalian. At the same time, we will carry out a counter-attack on the northeast on 6 grounds. That's fair trade. To each his own, otherwise we can't work together! ”

Military supplies and civilian goods are high-value, single-use manufactured goods that can be sold at a high price without supporting a strong production competitor.

Russian players don't mind selling large quantities of munitions to Japan, which are used and scrapped.

But asking them to sell cheap raw materials to Japanese players is definitely not okay.

One by one, the Japanese delegates sneered. When they're stupid! Russia sends out military supplies. Let them send troops to Lushun in Japan, isn't that just letting Japan directly fight with China?! In this way, players in the Russian Far East can easily sit and watch the war drama between Japan and China for free, and they can also earn a lot of money. The Japanese side suffered. The question is will they say yes?

Now that Japan has not even packed up the army and fleet of South Korea, how can it be possible to go all the way to the Bohai Sea to attack Lushun? What's the difference between that and looking for death? Unless the level of their military-industrial production has already passed that of China, they will never easily start a war between Japan and China.

The Japanese delegates deliberated and felt that the conditions offered by the Russian delegates were too unreasonable. The Japanese delegates lowered their conditions a little. A new land price was issued, saying: "Japan only needs low-cost minerals and other raw materials." Do not make a finished product. However, we can promise to take South Korea and North Korea first, as a sincere ...... to cooperate with you Russian players."

Once again, the Russian delegates rejected the request. Do not sell raw materials. This is their bottom line of negotiations. Otherwise, it will not only be China that they will need to be wary of, but also Japan.

The Japanese delegates were outraged. This group of Russian polar bears swallowed all the benefits they wanted, and refused to give some to their Japanese players at all, is it possible for such cooperation to continue? They didn't intend to be puppets of the Russians.

The Japanese delegates almost slapped the table and yelled.

The attitude and tone of the Russian delegates were very tough, and the contemptuous gaze of the Japanese delegates also showed that they did not care about the anger of the Japanese delegates and had no intention of backing their position.

For more than an hour, the two sides of the negotiations struggled to make any progress on the two most critical issues, "trade in raw materials/manufactured goods" and "war on the Korean Peninsula/war in Arthur."

These two most critical issues involve the two major issues of economy and strategic pattern respectively.

In "Raw Material Trade/Manufactured Goods Trade"

Russian representatives insisted on trading only expensive manufactured goods - asking Japanese players to exchange real coins for Russian manufactured goods, and Russia could sell manufactured goods to Japan in unlimited quantities. The representative of Japan, on the other hand, insisted on trading only in raw materials. Because the raw materials are cheaper and the finished products are more expensive, they can obtain a large number of manufactured products with only a small amount of real coins, and they can also display Japan's own military industry, without worrying about their military supplies being stuck in the hands of players from other countries.

There's a huge amount of real-world coin spending involved, as well as in-game interests, and none of them intend to back down on this crucial issue.

Once you make a concession on this issue, it is actually equivalent to giving in to the other side in disguise.

And the "Korean Peninsula War / Arthur War" aspect.

Russia demanded that Japan attack Arthur, and the Russian Far East contained northeast China from the flank. This means that Japan wants to declare war on China, and China and Japan will break out into war. At the same time, Russia, as an auxiliary, entered the war. It also means that the East Asian battlefield is dominated by the Sino-Japanese war, supplemented by the Sino-Russian war.

Japan, on the other hand, only agreed to attack the Korean Peninsula and asked Russia to flank China. Japan only declared war on the Korean Peninsula and not on China, so that the Japanese side had other options. This means that the East Asian battlefield is dominated by the Sino-Russian War, supplemented by the Japan-Korea War.

Obviously, the representatives of Russia and Japan are well aware of the importance of these two major issues, and neither of them wants to suffer economically for themselves, but in the war they both want the other side to rush to the front and themselves to the back.

The differences between the two sides are so serious that it is almost impossible to reach any agreement on cooperation at the negotiating table.

The negotiations reached a direct impasse and were on the verge of collapse.

The leaders on both sides glared at each other angrily, but they were reluctant to get up and leave, unwilling to make concessions, but even less willing to break down the negotiations. Both of them are well aware of the severity of the consequences of a rupture. Now their only hope is that the other party can't hold the pressure and take the initiative to make concessions.

Negotiations intermission.

A Russian player hurriedly boarded the ship and whispered to more than a dozen player leaders in Russia: "News from the Yan Kingdom, the king has officially promulgated the latest "Yan Kingdom Conscription System", and the newly formed about ten player group armies directly under the command of the Yan King, with a total infantry of one million, are likely to be a sign of the start of the national war. ”

The faces of the Russian players turned white at once, and they were all shocked.

National War!

Although this group of them is the overlord of the Russian Far East, they control the entire Far East territory and the player army. But when I heard these two shocking words, I still couldn't help but tremble.