Following a partial agreement between the British minister and the People's Party, the French minister also arrived in Wuhan. Chen Ke did not meet the French minister this time, but asked Zhang Yu to cook noodles with the French minister in a private capacity. The French minister first talked about the concession agreement reached between Britain and the People's Party, and firmly expressed France's willingness to sign the same agreement with China.

Zhang Yu happily expressed his appreciation for this, and at the same time happily talked with the French minister about the past when France once wanted to divide Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi into France's sphere of influence. This content is very sharp, and Zhang Yule's attitude can be described as amiable. The French minister immediately said that it was all rumors from the outside world. France has always respected China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"If your country can adopt such an attitude, we would very much welcome it. We want to establish a new Sino-French friendly relationship. Zhang Yu even said with a smile.

The smiling tiger-like attitude immediately made the French delegate nervous, and he lowered his face and asked, "May I ask what your country's intentions are?" ”

Zhang Yu took out a map of Indochina, which showed five regions. By this time, France had turned Laos and Cambodia into its protectorates, and Annam was divided into three parts: northern, central, and southern. Pointing to Laos and northern Vietnam, Zhang Yu said: "We are willing to send troops to protect Laos and northern Vietnam, so that France can have more troops to go back to defend France." ”

Looking at the shocked look of the French minister, Zhang Yu said in a serious and sincere tone: "To defend world peace, we will help you!" ”

The French, of course, knew exactly how they got Annan, and at the beginning of the "chat", Zhang Yu mentioned the French ambition to try to swallow Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi. With these preliminary foreshadowing, the French minister was not so excited about Zhang Yu's request to fall into the ground. Even if the French minister was excited, the France of today was no longer the France of the beginning of 1914. At that time, France still dared to call for military action against the People's Party, and even in 1915, when the war was in full swing in Europe, France continued to try to make small moves against Yungui.

By December 1916, however, France had almost run out of blood. Information came from within France that the French army had almost mutinied a mutiny due to heavy losses. The French soldiers who participated in the Battle of Verdun were unwilling to lose their lives in a bitter war with no end in sight, and finally the French upper echelons had to promise that the soldiers would never participate in the harsh battles against the German army in the future, so that the mutiny did not really happen. Later, the French soldiers refused to engage in offensive battles, but only defended themselves in the trenches. The European battlefield was still like this, and France really didn't have the strength to fight for Indochina, which was thousands of miles away.

"The people who protect Laos and North Vietnam must be members of the Entente, I wonder if your country is expressing its willingness to join the Entente?" The French minister asked.

Zhang Yu said solemnly: "If your country thinks that our defense of these two countries is the initial demand, but it is only the beginning of a series of demands, we feel that this is the result of a lack of understanding of us. This demand is the bottom line of our BJP. It has nothing to do with whether or not they join the Entente. Our position on whether or not to join the Entente has long been made clear. I believe that Mr. Minister had a clear idea of what to expect before he arrived in Wuhan. ”

Britain and France both knew that the People's Party was not opposed to joining the Entente, and now Zhang Yu said that he wanted China to regain a part of Indochina as a prerequisite for his relations with France. However, no matter how much Zhang Yu tried to separate these two things, it was impossible for the French minister to really regard these two things as completely independent needs.

Looking at the slightly impatient appearance of the French minister, Zhang Yu had to continue to explain: "The ongoing war must come to an end, and the relationship between China and France existed before this war and will continue to exist after this war. Why don't we start a friendly Sino-French relationship? ”

"The beginning of friendly Franco-Chinese relations?" The French Minister was struck by such an eye for the future, and he already knew that if the problems raised by the BJP against Indochina could not be resolved, the beginning would always be just the beginning. The Chinese, who are far from the war, can wait like this, but the French can't. In the Franco-Prussian War, France was defeated and suffered the tragic fate of land reparations, and if the European war was lost, the British would at most not be able to fight and withdraw from the war. They had a fleet to defend their British homeland, as well as a vast colonial system. The crown on the head of the British emperor did not originate in Europe, but in India. But what about France? Do you kneel at the feet of the new emperor of the future Holy Roman Empire?

The Chinese's tricks must not be allowed to succeed, and the French minister made such a decision. The unhappiness caused by such a strong sense of confrontation soon surpassed the ordinary level. Just when the awareness of confrontation was rising, the French minister suddenly figured out what Zhang Yu wanted to say. What Zhang Yu wanted to convey was that the BJP would resolutely not agree to discuss the Indochina issue within the framework of the Entente. The People's Party was very clever in realizing that the dominance of the Entente system would inevitably be in the hands of Britain and France. Any compromise within this system will come at a huge cost.

If the Japanese minister were faced with such a problem, he would be furious. Whenever possible, all the small means were used to force the BJP to make concessions. If the British ministers had such a problem, they would have found a way to block the BJP. Anyway, the scope of cooperation between the two sides is so large, there are many ways to make the People's Party feel uncomfortable.

But France really did not have the ability to choose the way of Britain and Japan. Leaving aside the old entanglement between China and France over the Indochina issue, France did not seize Indochina by defeating China. The capture of Annan relied more on the strength of the British. After the People's Party raised the dispute, the British certainly did not think that the two small colonies of France, which had established the northern country of Vietnam, was mountainous and Laos was a jungle-covered rainforest. As long as these two pieces of birds do not lay eggs are thrown to the BJP, more benefits can be exchanged. Even if Britain did not put pressure on France, it would not be happy to see France's insistence on these two lands affect the entry of the People's Party into the Entente. And Britain and France are not monolithic. To do something at the expense of French interests, there is no pressure on Britain at all. Even if France picks now, it will at best be the end of France's surrender. Britain's world hegemony is crumbling, and the French are about to become slaves.

The truth is so cruel that Zhang Yu limited the object of negotiation to the French side. The reality was extremely difficult for the French minister. After the two sides talked for a while, Zhang Yu sent the French minister with a cold face out.

The US side had received a notice from Zhang Yu earlier, and after some deliberations, the US side finally understood what the People's Party meant. If the United States refuses to support the People's Party's demands, then the People's Party will try to join the Entente by coordinating with Britain and France.

Britain already owed the United States a huge debt by this time, and if the Entente were defeated, the United States would inevitably suffer terrible losses. For the United States, it was only a matter of time before it joined the Entente, and if China reached an agreement directly with Britain and France, the result would inevitably be that the United States itself would join the Entente alone. Both the U.S. government and Congress hope to make a big profit by joining the war in Europe and establish a greater American voice in the world. Once China became close to Britain, Britain had Japan as an ally in the Far East and China as a collaborator. The United States is in complete isolation in the Far East.

After careful deliberation between the U.S. government and members of Congress, they believe that a misjudgment cannot be made at this time. If the United States cannot support and meet China's needs, it will be very detrimental to the United States. Therefore, the US Government issued an order to the US ministers, asking them to find a way to change the "memorandum" between the BJP and the US side into a formal agreement.

It turned out that the Americans refused to get involved in the war between the People's Party and Japan, and almost as if they were dealing with an errand, they wrote a memorandum, which was full of clauses that would greatly benefit the United States. At that time, the United States felt that the posture at both ends of the rat could be attacked, retreated, and defended, and could satisfy the interests of the United States to the greatest extent.

Now that the "Memorandum" is a non-treaty document that is not a treaty, it is possible for the BJP to set aside the Memorandum and act unilaterally. The contents of the memo cannot even be made public at this time. Because after Britain and France saw this rather harsh clause, as long as they could be "more generous" than the United States, they would be able to make China switch to Britain and France without any moral pressure.

In order to prevent such a thing from happening, the US minister had to do a lot of diplomatic work.

After Gu Weijun, an employee of the People's Party's negotiation team, saw the relevant information, he really had a sense of hindsight. At that time, the BJP's negotiations with foreign countries could be said to have swallowed their anger. Forced to "admit the status quo" and forced to sign a "memorandum" to stabilize the United States. However, this series of forbearance has become an excellent foreshadowing today, when the situation has changed dramatically.

Zhang Yu did not complacently make territorial claims to foreign countries, but unilaterally negotiated with France, which forced France into a very embarrassing position. France is now faced with a dilemma, and both short-term and long-term interests require France to maintain good relations with the People's Party. The dispute over two small plots of land is not worth mentioning at all compared to the benefits after the cooperation.

For China, however, the benefits are unprecedented. Britain has not ceded much of China's land, and Britain is still the world hegemon, so the People's Party negotiated with Britain the basic agreement on normal exchanges between China and foreign countries. France had seized China's sphere of influence, so China made France make a full "friendly gesture". As for the United States, Zhang Yu has already handed over the "Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence" to Gu Weijun, asking Gu Weijun to negotiate a comprehensive friendly diplomatic agreement with the United States on this basis.

Different ways to deal with different opponents. Unless now Britain, France and the United States unite to fight China, everyone tears their faces and fights. Otherwise, China has established its own diplomatic position. As a Chinese, Gu Weijun can also experience a very wonderful thing. At the time of the victory at Zhennan Pass, Laos was not a subject country of China, and the People's Party now does not want France to spit out Annam, but France to spit out Laos. The implications of this are really worth pondering.

Of course, as a Chinese negotiator, Gu Weijun certainly does not have any private remarks on this matter. He won't be clever and show off. Instead, he asked Zhang Yu a question, "Even if the French agree, they won't give up so well." ”

Zhang Yu nodded, "It is never smooth sailing between countries and countries, and the struggle is the mainstream, which is the only core." ”

Gu Weijun is a smart person, he felt that Zhang Yu's words were too murderous at first, but after thinking about it carefully, Gu Weijun suddenly admired Zhang Yu's courage from the bottom of his heart. During the Manchu Dynasty, there were contradictions and conflicts between France and China, and during the People's Party, there were also contradictions and conflicts. The only difference is that the power of the People's Party has grown and the power of France has declined. Although the forms of expression may seem vastly different, there is no difference in essence.

Although he knew this, Gu Weijun hoped that the current situation could continue, even forever. After experiencing so much suffering, Gu Weijun finally waited for China to be able to crush foreigners. Even though he knows that the world is changing, Gu Weijun hopes that China will never return to that humiliating day.

After this emotion calmed down, Gu Weijun remembered another thing, and he asked Zhang Yu tentatively, "Minister Zhang, I heard that the case in Zhejiang is almost over." ”

"Oh?" Zhang Yu was stunned, he didn't expect Gu Weijun to bring up such a topic, but Zhang Yu quickly figured out what the problem was, and he smiled: "What did your Darling say to you?" ”

Although he has studied Mandarin for a long time, Zhang Yu can only speak Shanxi dialect with a Mandarin accent. Gu Weijun listened to the tough "Darling", and it took a while to understand that Zhang Yu was referring to Gu Weijun's wife. I couldn't help but blush.

Zhang Yu said with a smile: "The treatment of Beiyang has not yet reached a conclusion, and your father-in-law and they are only afraid that they will have to be detained for a while." ”

"I've heard that Zhejiang is to deal with the upper layer first, and then deal with the lower layer. I don't know how to deal with Beiyang? Gu Weijun still did not give up, he was afraid of what the People's Party wanted to do with Beiyang.

As for the conduct of the Beiyang gang, according to the standard of the People's Party's trial in Zhejiang, every Beiyang executive has the crime of execution. Yuan Shikai may be Chen Ke's matchmaker, but Beiyang is not Chen Ke's matchmaker. In comparison, Cai Yuanpei used to be a revolutionary party. It is unlikely that the People's Party will favor one over the other and let Beiyang go, but it will kill the Guangfu Society, which is also a revolutionary party. Even though he knew that his "credit" was insignificant to the People's Party, Gu Weijun still hoped to help his old father-in-law.

Zhang Yu didn't think about it so much, and the Central Committee of the People's Party had not yet decided how to deal with the Beiyang gang. But out of love for talent, Zhang Yu replied: "After Cai Yuanpei's gang is killed, it will be Beiyang's turn." You don't have to worry when you arrive, shooting Cai Yuanpei is a recent thing. ”