306 twenty-one on

306

When he returned to Wuhan, Li Xiang was submerged in an endless meeting.

The meeting was long and very boring. Li wanted to sit behind the long table, with a dull face and no words, and ate tea one after another.

Feng Xiaoqi is reading the report one by one:

"...During the European War, the great powers did not give up their vested interests in China, and they wanted to swallow each other's interests. Therefore, China's situation was more difficult.

Germany lacks allies in the East, so it fights alone and has to deal with Britain, Russia, France and Japan in China. It first organized the Sino-German Association in Beijing to contact Chinese and opposition people, and then organized a secret group called the Consolidation Group, with the purpose of contacting Chinese and Koreans and excluding Japan and Russia. The head of the consolidation regiment is Mou Liha, a German. The headquarters is located in Fengtian. Zhang Xibo, the prime minister of the North West Lake Coal Mine, is responsible for dealing with the leaders of Japan. Zhang Zixi, the manager of Harbin Desheng Buzhuang, is sent to contact overseas Chinese in Russia. His work area is in the north and south of Manchuria and Mongolia inside and abroad. The goal of the work is to destroy the Japanese and Russian grain platforms, barracks and armories. Using a lot of money to absorb the members of the league, seven or eight hundred people participated in the first day, and 20 of them were designated as officers.

British envoy Zhu Erdian, French envoy Kang Di and Russian envoy Kupnsky did not stop paying Germany's Gengzi compensation for the Chinese government, which enabled Germany to use the money to carry out activities unfavorable to the Allies in China and to organize consolidation group. At the same time, the German army in Qingdao protested against the Yuan government because the Chinese used the Chinese to build fortifications. In fact, the employment of Chinese workers by the German army in Qingdao is based on the Jiaozhou Bay Leasing Treaty signed by China and Germany in 1898.

According to the Anglo-Japanese Alliance on July 13, 1911, the Japanese government has the obligation to help Britain. At the same time, in order to ensure peace in East Asia, it has put forward an ultimatum to Germany, requiring Germany's warships on the seas of China and Japan to completely disarm, and unconditionally hand over Jiaozhou Bay before September 15. Pay Japan so that it can be returned to China "in the future". If there is no satisfactory answer to the above two points before noon on August 23, Japan will take the necessary measures.

Marconsin, the German agent in China, publicly announced on August 15: "Germany can consider returning Qingdao to China, but Japan should also return Taiwan to China."

On August 16, Xiaofan, the Japanese Agency in China, warned that China should not accept Qingdao from the Germans, otherwise Japan would think that China is destroying its neutrality.

On August 23, the Japanese government officially declared war on Germany because Germany did not have a satisfactory answer. On the same day, the German agent Malgins said to the Yuan government that Germany was willing to return the leased land in Jiaozhou Bay to China unconditionally, but the Yuan government did not dare to accept it at this time. He asked the U.S. government to accept it on its behalf and then transfer it to China. But without waiting for the reply from the United States, Japan has taken military action against Jiaozhou Bay.

British minister Zhu Erdian is an old friend of Yuan Shikai. He persuaded Yuan to join the Allies. Yuan put forward three conditions: (1) The Allies advance to rectify the Chinese arsenal, and ask experts from Britain and France to help China manufacture arms and improve quality to meet the needs of the Allies; (2) The Allies are not allowed to sign without China's consent. Treaties related to China;

(3) The Shanghai Concession shall not shield Chinese political prisoners.

Yuan Shikai's condition for participating in the war, the first two items are to attract Britain and deal with Japan; the latter one is to deal with the Kuomintang's anti-Yuan activities. At this time, Britain needs Japan to exceed the need for China, so Yuan's three points require consent in principle, but it is necessary to seek the consent of Russia, France and Japan. Russia and France agree, but Japan firmly opposes it, and further demands that all issues related to China must be negotiated with Japan first.

Japan believes that the European War is a great opportunity for it to exclude the power of the great powers in China and dominate the Far East. It is only concerned about the United States, because the United States has not been involved in the whirlpool of the war, and it is more righteous on the Chinese issue. Japanese Prime Minister Okuma once called the U.S. government to test, emphasizing that Japan has no ambition to occupy Chinese territory. However, soon after the telegram was sent, it launched a large-scale aggression against China in the name of declaring war on Germany.

On September 2, more than 20,000 Japanese army and navy cooperated with a small number of British troops to organize the so-called Anglo-Japanese coalition, and suddenly landed near Longkou and Laizhou, Shandong. According to reason, if Japan wants to attack the German army, it can only aim at the German garrison area of Jiaozhou Bay, but the Japanese army first occupied the Laizhou Peninsula, which proves that Japan's ambition is to take advantage of the fire to rob.

Feng Xiaoqi has been reading for two hours. At the end, Li wanted to stand up and only said, "The war has begun again!"

............

Beijing. Zhongnanhai Presidential Palace.

"I make a serious protest on behalf of our government on your government's statement on the delineation of the warring zone!" The German agent in China said to Yuan Shikai aggressively.

Because the Japanese army destroyed Yuan Shikai's neutrality, the Yuan government encountered a thorny problem, that is, to delimit the war zone. Japan asked to take the east of the Yellow River as the boundary. After many twists and turns, the Yuan government quoted the precedent of the battle between Japan and Russia in Liaodong in 1904 and wrote to the envoys of various countries on September 3, declaring that it was not to the end. The responsibility of total neutrality, the original text is as follows:

"In this European war, all the belligerents are their own friends, so our government is determined to declare neutrality and try our best to comply. According to the reports of Shandong officials, the German army is preparing for various shapes in Jiaozhou Bay, and the Japanese and British forces also have military operations in Longkou, Jiaozhou Bay and near Laizhou. It is a special case to investigate the countries that live with Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, there is such an unexpected move in China. It is similar to the fact that Japan and Russia fought in Liaodong in1904. Only with reference to precedents, we have to declare the at least the locations that the belligerent countries must use near Longkou, Laizhou and Jiaozhou Bay. The government does not bear the responsibility of complete neutrality. In addition, all localities are still fully implemented in the published regulations. In the above mentioned places, all territories, administrative powers and the lives and property of officials and civilians must still be respected by the belligerents.

According to this statement, the Yuan government recognized that the area east of Weixian Station was designated as a war zone between Japan and Germany, and the west area was a neutral area. On September 21, the Yuan government announced that the Jiaoji route was under the custody of China.

The German Agency in China raised a serious protest against the Yuan government's statement on the delineation of the war zone. It is the third time that the German agent in China has come to Yuan Shikai.

The first protest was on September 3, the day of the Yuan government's statement; the second protest was on September 4.

Malzang, the German acts of charge in China, said swayily: "Our German side believes that the military action taken by the Japanese and British allied forces in Laizhou is a complete destruction of China's neutrality. China's method of delimiting war zones during the Russo-Japanese War is not international, because China's declaration is After the Japanese and British allied forces have landed on the Shandong Peninsula, the result is only convenient for the Japanese and British allied forces, so two rights are reserved: (i) Germany reserves the right to claim at an appropriate time; (ii) compensation for damage.

Yuan Shikai's protest against the German agent also had reasons to refute it. He said unhurryly, "The German army has built fortifications in Qingdao and wants to regard Qingdao as a military base, which leads to the attack of Japan and Britain. China's declaration of the division of the war zone is very suitable for the situation."

The Grand Presidential Palace, the German Agency in China, left with a green face. At the door, he happened to see the Japanese Minister to China.

Ri Zhiyi is in his early fifties, thin and small, with a ball of benevolent beard under his dry and pointed nose, and his two small eyes that often rotate quickly are covered with a pair of golden tortoiseur lenses. This top student who graduated from the law department of Tokyo Imperial University is a language genius. He is proficient in English, German and French, and has been influenced by his family since childhood. He is not only fluent in Chinese, but also has a lot of research on Sinology. His talent was quickly appreciated by the government and sent to Chile, Argentina and other countries as envoys. In the year of Gengzi, he came to Beijing and served as the first counselor of the Japanese Embassy in China. The first major event of his counselor was the suppression of the Boxer Rebels by the Eight-National Alliance. Ri Zhiyi has lived in China for 14 years. He is familiar with China's national conditions and has dealt with Yuan Shikai many times. He also knows the powerful minister of the Qing Dynasty and the president of the Republic of China very well.

The two public envoys met, and no one paid attention to them. They both had a poker face, snorted coldly, and passed by.

"Hello, Mr. minister!" Yuan Shikai walked into the reception room and stretched out his hand to Ri Zhiyi.

"Good night, Mr. President!" Ri Zhiyi, dressed in a light gray suit and a blue and white tie, stood up quickly. First, he put his hands vertically, bent down deeply and bowed, and then stretched out his right hand and held it with Yuan Shikai. In front of the briquette-like Chinese president, the Japanese minister is like an imported cigarette.

"Please sit down, please sit down!" Yuan Shikai pointed to the sofa with a smile and personally pulled out a cigar from the small iron box on the coffee table. Please smoke it every day. Ri Zhiyi politely declined. Yuan Shikai turned his face and said to his son standing beside him, "Ke Ding, go and make a good cup of tea for the minister yourself."

"I dare not, I dare not." A modest professional smile appeared on Rizhiyi's face. The president has been busy all day, and I'm sorry to bother you again.

"Mr. Rizhi, I heard that the Japanese army occupied Wei County, which raised a new problem, that is, the action of the Japanese army exceeded the warring area announced by the Chinese government and agreed by the Japanese government."

Yuan Shikai spit out a puff of smoke and casually opened the chat box. It was indeed a hidden sword.

Ri Zhiyi sneered in his heart. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Yuan government has been verbally protested by Deputy Minister Cao Rulin and further submitted an official note. This note is very ridiculous and childish. The content says: "Jiao'ao is in the east, Wei County is in the west, which is not a necessary road for marching. The previous statement is that Wei County is not in the war zone. It has been agreed by your government. The soldiers and civilians in the place have also been told repeatedly. Don't be surprised. Now your army has suddenly made this move, which makes my government lose faith in the military and the people. I don't know what it is. "

Ri Zhiyi blinked his eyes and said, "At the order of the emperor of his country, Jiaoji Road is operated by the Germans. Before and after the war, it has been transporting military food for the German army. Today, although the area of Weidong is occupied by the Japanese, the area of Weixi is still secretly used by the Germans, which is inconvenient for the Japanese army to march. I will, but I will never infringe on China's neutrality..."

This reply avoids the previous commitment to the issue of the war zone. The reason why the Japanese army occupied the Jiaoji Railway is: (1) The railway is operated by Germans (in fact, according to the Jiaoji Railway Treaty, most of them are Chinese stocks). ( 2) The German army took advantage of this road. The Japanese reply is simply Xiang Zhuang's sword dance. It is intended to confuse Jiaoji with Jiaoji, which means that the Japanese army will still be stationed in Jinan.

Yuan Shikai is not a fool. How can he not hear it? He has worked in North Korea for so many years and knows Japan too well.

"So the Japanese army is also going to enter Jinan?" Yuan Shikai put on a prophetic look.

Rizhiyi hurriedly complimented: "The great president Mingjian, there are three reasons. ( 1) According to the Jiaozhou Bay Lease Treaty, the Shandong Railway is a German company of public property under the supervision of the German government, and its entity is integrated with the leased land. ( II) The railway itself is absolutely indistinguishable in its application, and its nature must not be changed by the fact that the German-operated railway is west of Weixian, a neutral zone. The purpose of Japan's war is not only to attack Jiaozhou Bay, but also to eradicate the base of German operations in the East. ( III) The delineation of the war zone and the Shandong railway problem are different and cannot be mixed into one.

Yuan Shikai heard that in a word, the purpose of the Japanese army was at least to annex the Shandong Peninsula.

But is the Japanese's ambition just a Shandong Peninsula?

Things are really as Yuan Shikai expected. The Japanese minister also brought a gift to Yuan Shikai - the Sino-Japanese Treaty of Friendship drawn up by him and his government.

Yuan Shikai looked through the drafts of the treaty, and the treaty was divided into five numbers. All treaties have a total of 21 articles.

After reading these 21 articles, Yuan Shikai's face changed greatly.

Ri Zhiyi saw his inner embarrassment from Yuan Shikai's face and said with a smile, "Mr. President, the goodwill between Japan and China is the common aspiration of our two countries, but friendship should be reflected in practical actions. Our government will fully support Mr. President to restore the imperial system in your country, and the President should also provide some convenience for our country. If the president can't sign this treaty, it only shows that the president doesn't want Japan-China to be friendly. If so, our Japanese imperial army will be ordered to use force to obtain the rights we should enjoy.

It can't be more explicit if it's a day.

Yuan Shikai wanted to agree, but he knew that he was too anxious, so he said to Ri Zhiyi, "This is a major event that needs to be negotiated. Please discuss with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China first!"