Master Yuan, start!

Didn’t the newly crowned Nicholas II call for the convening of an international peace conference in The Hague?

Sir Claude MacDonald, let the British Empire have a talk with him!

The longer it takes, the weaker the Russians’ rule here will become!”

Good plan, good idea!

After hearing this, Dou Nale looked at Yuan Xiangcheng with admiration.

However, you seem to have overlooked one point, Mr. President. Why do you think that the British Empire will serve your interests?

Dou Nale muttered to himself.

Politics is about the exchange of interests.

The reason why Britain helped you in the past was because it could gain enough benefits.

Whether it was helping you set up a factory in Korea or helping you march south to Hunan, it was all because of your actions that could safeguard the interests of the British Empire in China.

Now that Russia has been weakened, your role will not be as strong.

do you know?

As if he saw what was in Dou Nale's mind, Yuan Xiangcheng looked at him and said with a smile:

“Although Russia has failed and cannot send a large army to the Far East, I am very worried that they will turn their attention elsewhere.

Looking for books. *95973

For example, Central Asia, Afghanistan, and even India.”

When talking about India, Yuan Xiangcheng saw a trace of panic flash across Dou Nale's face.

"I hope China can continue to help the British Empire share the pressure from Russia.

After all, the British Empire has helped me many times, and as a friend, I should reciprocate."

Yuan Shikai acted like a loyal dog of the British Empire.

"Oh, so what does the President mean?" Dou Nale looked at Yuan Xiangcheng calmly.

"I mean, autonomy!"

"autonomy?"

"Yes, the area east of the Ussuri River will be autonomous, modeled after the Crete model after the Greco-Turkish War!" Yuan Xiangcheng said firmly.

Yuan Xiangcheng knew that he could not use the same method as the Americans to persuade the British.

The British are an old colonial empire with no shortage of colonies. The poor land of East and West Siberia has an output far lower than the input and cannot attract them at all.

When the British colonized, they were concerned with profit and never cared about the size of the territory.

Therefore, the only way to bring the British in is to magnify the Russian threat.

As long as the Russians make any unusual moves in Central Asia, China will threaten Russia's Siberia from the Far East.

Of course, in order to be less conspicuous and keep a low profile, the vast area of ​​land east of the Ussuri River is not suitable for direct annexation at present.

It would be enough to just take over the area near Vladivostok.

In Yuan Xiangcheng's view, turning the area east of the Ussuri River into an "internationally co-managed" autonomous region like Crete is a compromise.

"After the autonomy of the area east of the Ussuri River, the Russians lost a large area of ​​coastal territory in the Far East.

However, the land north of Heilongjiang still exists, and the Russians will definitely not give it up.

Without sea transport, it would become very costly for them to maintain a military presence in the Far East.

Barium Dance Group 8269851

In this way, the risk of invading Afghanistan from the south is reduced in disguise.

Are you right, sir?"

Dou Nale clearly understood the meaning of autonomy.

After the Peace Treaty of Crete, the island was nominally autonomous under international trusteeship.

In fact, the island became entirely an anchorage for the British Navy.

Moreover, Britain does not need to make any colonial investment here and can leave at any time.

If the same thing were done east of the Ussuri River, it would mean that this area would also become a "non-exclusive colony" of the British.

No responsibility, but enjoy the benefits.

Whitehall would probably agree to this approach, right?

Dou Nale looked at Yuan Xiangqicheng who was smiling in front of him, and muttered in his heart.

Even if it is just to protect India, it is worth doing so.

"Mr. President, I already know your conditions.

How do you plan to end this conflict with Russia?"

Claude was pleased to see that Yuan Shikai had left enough benefits for Britain, so he no longer maintained a superficially neutral stance and asked questions from his own perspective.

"If possible, would the British Empire be willing to extend a hand of peace and stop this war?" Yuan Xiangcheng blinked and picked up a stack of papers from the table.

"This is a letter from the Republic requesting the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to mediate in the Sino-Russian War. Please send it to London from Sir Claude MacDonald.

I believe that politicians in London are also willing to act as defenders of world peace."

Dou Nale looked at Yuan Xiangcheng deeply, took the mediation letter, stood up and put on his hat:

"Then, thank you, Mr. President."

Chapter 348 Treaty of Portsmouth

On September 1896, 9, half a year after the outbreak of the Sino-Russian War, the Russians agreed to conduct peace talks with China under the mediation of Britain.

The location is Portsmouth, south of London.

The Chinese Republican government expressed its approval of the negotiation location, but required the Japanese to be brought along.

The Russians initially disagreed, saying that if Japan participated in the negotiations, the French would also need to join.

Russian representative Muravyov intended to ask the French to help him in the negotiations.

The British disagreed, arguing that French mercenaries could not be considered a regular army.

What's more, the French did not fight with the Chinese army and are still staying on the north bank of the Amur River, so they cannot be considered to have directly participated in the war.

And so the Russians were forced to agree.

October 1896, 10, contains the names of Tang Shaoyi, the Provisional Foreign Minister and negotiating representative of the Chinese Republican Government, and Wu Dacheng, the deputy negotiating representative;

The British battleship, carrying Japan's ambassador extraordinarily powerful for negotiations, Hirobumi Ito, and Foreign Minister Kaoru Inoue, arrived in Portsmouth.

The negotiations progressed slowly from the beginning.

When the Russian negotiating representative Muravyov heard that the Chinese wanted to take over the area within a hundred miles of Vladivostok, that they wanted Russia to stop building the Trans-Siberian Railway, and that they wanted to return the 100 million square kilometers of land that the Qing Dynasty had ceded to China, his beard stood up in anger.

After shouting "I will never let my great father and my family suffer disgrace", he slammed the door and left.

Everyone present was puzzled at first, but later they found out that Muravyov's father was the Russian explorer who forced Yishan to sign the Treaty of Aihui.

It was because of this great achievement that the Tsar conferred the title of "Count Amur" on old Muravyov to highlight his contribution to Russia's acquisition of the Amur River and Heilongjiang River basins.

Therefore, it is not surprising that his son Muravyov Jr. chose to leave the meeting on the spot when he heard such conditions.

However, the next day, when the Chinese negotiating representatives took out the original Sino-Russian Beijing Treaty and pointed out the loopholes in it.

Muravyov realized that the other party was not attacking without purpose, but was well prepared.

In fact, Muravyov knew that the first condition was not impossible to agree to.

Anyway, Vladivostok has been occupied by the Chinese. Given the current logistical capabilities, it is a luxury to take it back no matter what.

But the conditions that followed were truly horrifying.

It would be fine if the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway was suspended, but this railway seems to be a bottomless pit.

The original estimate for the entire line was only 3.5 million rubles.

But the railway has only been built to the Central Siberia region, and 8 million rubles have already been invested.

As for the most critical railway east of Lake Baikal, there is no sign of it at all!

God knows how many more rubles will have to be invested.

In fact, in history, in order to build the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Russians invested a total of 15 billion rubles. After half of the construction, they decided to significantly lower the standards and barely "opened" it.

After the Trans-Siberian Railway was opened, most of the area was single-track and wooden structure.

If we want to build a double-track, high-standard railway, I'm afraid 30 billion rubles will not be enough.

You have to know that in 1896, the Russian government's annual fiscal revenue was only 10 billion rubles, not to mention the foreign debt it owed to France, Germany, Britain and the United States totaling more than 20 billion rubles.

In other words, even if Russia does nothing at the moment, it will take two years just to repay its debts.

In fact, Russians have never been short of money since entering the 19th century!

The finance ministers of successive tsars were more like stewards who helped the tsar borrow money than the tsar’s money bags.

For more than 100 years, the only period in which Russia's debt was stable was the first eight years of Nicholas II's rise to power in the late 19th century.

By maintaining peace in Europe, managing the Far East, and exploiting China, Russia gained nearly 10 billion rubles in profits from the Qing Dynasty.

However, after the Russo-Japanese War, the Russians not only gave away all the profits they had gained, but also owed Germany and France 18 billion rubles in war debt.

Until the establishment of the Soviet Union, the foreign debt owed by the Russians even reached more than 100 billion rubles.

It can be said that Russia has been in a period of massive debt for more than 100 years.

Until Lenin waved his pen, we will not return it!

4 Russia finally got rid of the debt crisis.

3. In this time and space, Nicholas II has just come to power, which means that Russia's foreign debt situation is still very serious.

As Foreign Minister, Muravyov is naturally aware of Russia's current poor financial situation.

He had always thought that for the Russians, owing debts was nothing, as long as they could continue to borrow.

4 But now there is a fatal problem, the creditors have lost confidence!