"They're finally here!" After Chen Ke sent off the British minister who had personally visited the People's Party in Wuhan, he stretched out in his seat in a very unsightly manner. The comrades passed and read the documents brought by the British minister. The document was written in Chinese and thoughtfully used the left and right lines of the People's Party, and in simplified characters.

What can make Chen Kedu feel so relaxed, the comrades' feelings are even more joyful, and even a little unbelievable. Not only did the British minister personally go to Wuhan, but Britain showed its true sincerity, and after more than a year of confrontation with the People's Party in Wuhan, the British Yangtze River Fleet lifted anchor and sailed to Shanghai. Although the British fleet had blocked the mouth of the Yangtze River and the Anglo-Japanese alliance had given Britain an overwhelming advantage in the Far Eastern Seas, the British concession had made the People's Party realize that it was only the beginning, not the end.

"What kind of results will be discussed?" Zhang Yu asked. Like the other comrades, he couldn't help but smile. After so long of persistence and hard work, he finally saw the real light, and Zhang Yu was also a little uncontrollable.

"Enable some Beiyang members, right?" Chen Ke did not answer how, but instead asked a strange question.

"Why?" The comrades were amazed. Today, when the People's Party has completely trampled Beiyang under its feet, it seems quite strange to use Beiyang personnel. Even from the perspective of meritorious service, there is no need for Beiyang members to be guilty of meritorious service.

Chen Ke replied: "Because we are all buns and do not understand international law and international practices. ”

"Haha!" "Hey, hey!" "Huh!" The different personalities of the comrades made them laugh differently, but the meaning in this laughter was the same, and everyone felt that Chen Ke was too fond of joking.

"Isn't international law justice within the reach of a cannon?" Hua Xiongmao said.

Chen Ke also replied with a smile: "That's right." The problem is that negotiations outside the scope of the cannon still have to be skillful. Let us roll up our sleeves and beat the British, I have a lot of confidence in my comrades. Let you play tricks with the British, and engage in deceitful work, we really have no training in this area. This kind of work requires a professional. ”

Seeing that Chen Ke didn't want to give a way to the Beiyang gang, the comrades' emotions calmed down. "Then who is Chairman Chen going to use?"

"Tang Shaoyi's son-in-law Gu Weijun." Chen Ke gave the answer.

Tang Shaoyi, everyone has heard of it, and most comrades have heard the name Gu Weijun for the first time. Since Chen Ke was named, and he just wanted to get a young man in Beiyang to work, the comrades no longer tried to stop Chen Ke's idea.

"The recent work has not been about diplomacy. Justice is within the range of cannons, and what we need is to work hard to create cannons with a longer range. As soon as Chen Ke said half of his words, Hua Xiongmao became happy, and it seemed that there was probably a battle to be fought. However, Hua Xiongmao was soon disappointed, and Chen Ke continued: "The core work at the moment is to make steel and build railways. ”

Seeing that the comrades were very puzzled, Chen Ke was in a good mood, so he explained, "The industrial strength of the Americans has long surpassed that of the British, and one of the foundations of their heavy industry development lies in the overhaul of railways. The advantage of railways is that they reduce transportation costs and greatly reduce the cost of commodity circulation. Not to mention the efficiency of transporting troops, food, supplies. What does the Jinghan Line look like at the moment, I don't need to emphasize it to you, right? ”

"Are we really going to stop taking military action for the time being?" Hua Xiongmao is very worried about this. Seeing the great opportunity to unify China, he could only look at it, and he was very anxious in his heart.

Chen Ke advised: "In the future, we will definitely not lack wars to fight, but what we lack is a period of peace and construction." If we do more construction now, we will be able to make 10 percent of the benefits in the future. Isn't the current situation of the Jinghan Railway still a clear problem? ”

As soon as You Wei heard that she wanted to develop and tilt towards heavy industry, she immediately came to her senses, "These works also need the full support of the railway engineers of the army!" ”

You Wei said it so politely, Hua Xiongmao couldn't help but say, "The shipyard will also develop greatly." ”

"No matter how many ships the shipyard builds, without the support of the army's engineers, the canal shipping will be blocked by silting." With You Wei's cleverness, she won't be fooled by Huaxiongmao at all.

Seeing that the bickering was not enough, Hua Xiongmao also recognized, "Okay! All right! Our troops will increase investment in infrastructure construction. It's just that the local comrades should also have some cooperation with the labor. ”

Finance Minister Fu Yu said with some concern: "In the final analysis, it is a matter of organizing labor. But can the state budget hold it up? The amount of money issued now is too large, several times larger than it was two years ago. So far, there are no signs of inflation, and the comrades of the Ministry of Finance do not dare to make any more calculation models. According to the old model, this is going to be a big problem. ”

Chen Ke had seen the 2008 financial crisis, so he was not too worried about the issue of currency issuance, "The core point of the fiscal problem is whether workers can get paid. If the money only goes into the hands of the workers, the operation of the society will be very healthy. If the money only goes into the hands of rentiers, owners of capital, then something big is definitely going to happen. Therefore, while developing productive forces, we must reduce various social costs. Heavy industry is the best place to take care of both. We now import a large number of raw materials from overseas, and many regions also have many professional processing industries according to their own characteristics. If we can't reduce the cost, our domestic masses can't afford to consume these products, which is a real waste. Distorting supply and demand can only last for a while, and it cannot continue forever. That's when something big happens. Personally, I have limited energy, but recently I still want to focus on economic construction. ”

Chen Ke wanted to take charge of any work, but no one dared to stop him, and the diplomatic work was handed over to the Politburo. Britain has formally put forward a series of demands to the People's Party, first of all, Britain has become more tough on the abolition of various old treaties, and there is no longer the appearance of "anything can be discussed" in terms of British interests in China.

When it comes to real bargaining, it means that the business is making great strides in the direction of negotiation. The issue of the right of British merchant ships to and from the Yangtze River was the most important commercial interest of Britain in China, and the People's Party and Britain used this issue as a starting point for the first round of negotiations.

Gu Weijun's capture by the People's Party belonged to the type of "self-throwing into the net". His old father-in-law, Tang Shaoyi, asked Gu Weijun to run away quickly, and he also ran away with his wife. After Gu Weijun arrived in Henan, he felt that there was really no way to continue to flee south, not only the railway station and other places were extremely strict, but the countryside was also under martial law if he took the land route.

In such a situation, Gu Weijun was stranded in Zhengzhou and could not move. In the end, Gu Weijun simply made a risky move, he went to the Henan government of the People's Party to report to his home, and asked to send him to see Yan Fu, and Gu Weijun would pay for the expenses along the way. This is also something that there is really no way to do, Yan Fu is the only high-ranking official of the People's Party that Gu Weijun can get a relationship with, there is a shortage of soldiers outside, if he is forced to go south, Gu Weijun feels that he and his wife's lives are only afraid of it. As a last resort, Gu Weijun could only hug the big tree first.

I heard that Gu Weijun, a young man, was actually the acting foreign minister of Beiyang, and I heard that Gu Weijun actually wanted to see Yan Fu. The comrades in Zhengzhou did not dare to make their own decisions lightly, and in addition to investigating Gu Weijun on the one hand, they also communicated with the central authorities and Yan Fu. As a result, the central government's reply was, "If you are sure that this person is Gu Weijun, you will send him to Wuhan." After some investigation, Gu Weijun was sent to Wuhan with his wife Tang Baoyue. The BJP did not embarrass him either, nor did it release him. just supervised Gu Weijun and made him temporarily an English teacher in a middle school in Wuhan.

Gu Weijun is very familiar with current affairs, and there is no resistance to this arrangement at all. Now urgently transferred to the diplomatic negotiation team, Gu Weijun has done his best in the negotiations on the Sino-British shipping issue. Moreover, Gu Weijun also boldly put forward a request, hoping to mobilize some people from the Beiyang Ministry of Foreign Affairs to join the negotiation team.

Zhang Yu is very responsible, and he did not specifically ask Chen Ke to agree to this matter on his own initiative. In response to some questions from the comrades, Zhang Yu replied: "We don't let those people in Beiyang be officials, but let them work." Do we pay us? ”

No one dared to say anything more. In accordance with Gu Weijun's request, Beijing first released some of the personnel of the Beiyang Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and at the same time urgently transported the documents, materials, and books that Gu Weijun applied for to Wuhan. With this information, the laymen of the People's Party realized that there are really many things in diplomatic negotiations that are not jokes.

With regard to the right of navigation, there are many issues of internal waters, territorial seas, and the right to innocent shipping. As long as you don't have the attitude of "whatever I say about my family's business, it doesn't matter", these conventions that have been accumulated over many years do have a point. These agreements are needed between equal powers as a basis for safeguarding their respective interests. After signing these agreements with the British, it was possible to sign the same agreements with other countries according to the principle of "unanimity of the powers".

Moreover, not every article of the agreement has to be copied stupidly, what kind of agreement to choose according to what kind of principles, what kind of trick is hidden behind these agreements, the People's Party knows some superficial things, and the more detailed content really does not understand, and it does not have enough experience. After Gu Weijun and his team joined, it did greatly enhance the strength of the People's Party.

Of course, the BJP does not have to aggrieve itself for the sake of the agreement, after all, the agreement is carried out entirely by force. Even if the right of the British fleet to move freely through the Yangtze River is abolished, if the People's Party does not have the ability to sink British warships in the Yangtze River, even if the British fleet enters the Yangtze River, the People's Party can only stare at people and have nothing to do. Beneath the supple velvet gloves must be a strong and powerful steel wrist, and justice is the only basis of international law only within the range of a cannon.

Zhang Yu admired the professional ability of Gu Weijun and others, and also supported Chen Ke's "wisdom of knowing people". Gu Weijun was also in awe and joy at the strength of the People's Party. Recovering the concession and abolishing the unequal treaties has always been Gu Weijun's ideal. During the period in Beiyang, Gu Weijun always worked hard for this. With Gu Weijun's knowledge and experience, he was completely sure that the British really wanted to renew the treaty with China this time. It is also the best chance for China to regain its sovereignty.

Before participating in this negotiation, Gu Weijun never imagined that a group of little-known young people, starting from scratch, would be able to achieve a goal that the Manchu Qing Dynasty could not achieve for more than 60 years in only ten years. These leaders of the People's Party are basically a few years older than Gu Weijun, and they are dozens of years younger than Yuan Shikai and Gu Weijun's father-in-law, Tang Shaoyi, who have been famous for a long time and are in high and powerful positions.

For being able to participate in such a major historical event, Gu Weijun really wants to go all out and leave his name in history. In practice, he does the same.

However, every time he went-for-tat with the British, or argued with reason, or discussed various details and various interest disputes hidden behind the details with the cadres of the People's Party, and returned home and lay down in bed, Gu Weijun often felt a kind of trepidation. He doubted that everything he had fought for China's interests during the day was just a sweet dream, and Gu Weijun himself was just lying in bed and not waking up from a big dream. Then Gu Weijun picked up the law book and studied it carefully, in addition to dispelling this unfounded worry, he could also prepare for the next day's negotiations.

After three weeks of negotiations, China and Britain finally reached a preliminary agreement of intent on the British shipping rights and the issue of the Yangtze River basin concession. On the basis of this agreement of intent, the British put forward another request to discuss with the People's Party the question of Britain's recognition of the People's Party government as the legitimate government of China.

On this issue, Zhang Yu had no choice but to ask Chen Ke for instructions. I didn't think much about Zhang Yu, Chen Ke didn't care whether the British recognized the People's Party government, Chen Ke said to Zhang Yu: "Contact the Americans and see what their attitude is now?" ”

Zhang Yu jokingly said: "Do we really want to hug the thighs of the Americans, not the thighs of the British?" ”

Chen Ke also smiled: "The British are thick-skinned, so they don't care if they lose a little face." On the contrary, the Americans and we have more in common in terms of interests for the time being. And, you tell the Yankees, we want the French to make some concessions to us on the issue of Annan. ”

"Why didn't you tell the British?" Zhang Yu asked.

Chen Ke replied: "The British will support the French in this matter anyway." The French are now beaten like this, and if we ask them to spit out the land again, they will not agree to this even for the sake of face. ”

"And what role do we want the Yankees to play?" Zhang Yu was really a little puzzled.

"Since we want to sell so much face to the United States, then we also have to make the Americans feel embarrassed. Otherwise, wouldn't we be too self-contemptuous? And if the Yankees are willing to be a mouthpiece, we welcome it. If the Yankees refuse to do such a thing, then we can collude with the British! Chen Ke gave his thoughts.

Zhang Yu blinked, confused by the complexity of international relations described by Chen Ke.