Chapter 132 Life is Unsatisfactory Ten of the Best**

After everyone had eaten at noon, Kawashima and the others returned to the lounge, for them, Yiqiē here was very surprised, because he was so unusual, it seemed to be full of vigor and hard work, especially the sports facilities here were very complete, so that the soldiers kept moving from beginning to end, and there was no monotonous mechanical repetition. Although he only glanced at it from a distance, the person next to Kawashima Sholang immediately took out a notebook and wrote it down, and drew these sports on the small notebook, at the same time, the three Japanese looked solemn, this 17th Mixed Brigade is so different from other Chinese troops, which is a great disadvantage to the Japanese Kwantung Army.

Finally waited for Wang Maoru to finish the meeting, Ren Yuanxing took them to the conference room again, Wang Maoru looked puzzled, and asked, "Kawashima-kun, I don't know what you have to do today?" ”

Kawashima went straight to the point and said that you have arrested a member of our Black Dragon Society, whose name is Maeda Shinbei, a native of Kyushu, Japan, and a senior member of the Black Dragon Society. In this regard, the Japanese government, the Japanese Kwantung Army, and the Japanese Black Dragon Society hope that the 17th Mixed Brigade will release the people as much as possible, and give an explanation for the 17th Mixed Brigade's unauthorized attack on the Hulunbuir Autonomous Government. Wang Maoru said with a smile that Kawashima-kun was negotiating on behalf of the Japanese government? I don't know what kind of official position you hold in the Japanese government? Kawashima said that he did not represent the Japanese government, but only represented himself, and conveyed to Wang Maorujun the meaning of the Japanese side, and he did not want Wang Maorujun to have any conflict with the Japanese government. Moreover, the Japanese government hopes to be able to cooperate with Wang Mao Rujun, and many high-ranking Japanese officials attach great importance to Wang Mao Rujun and hope that you can become a friend of the Japanese.

Wang Maoru said that I would like to be friends with the Japanese, but you don't want to, and our enemies in the Far East are the Russians, not each other. Therefore, I find it difficult to understand your support for the Russians, the rebels of the Hulunbuir Autonomous Government have Russian guns in their hands, and you Japanese are in command, how do you make me believe that the Japanese want to be friendly with me?

Kawashima said that these Japanese are Japanese ronin, who make money for a living, and some people hire them to help others. But the Japanese side did not want any Japanese to be harmed, and Maeda, as a prisoner of war, should be treated as a prisoner of war.

Prisoner of war treatment? Wang Maoru sneered in his heart and said, "In this way, I hope that Tongguò can reach a verbal agreement with you on this matter, what do you think?" ”

"Xiusheng-kun, please speak."

Wang Maoru said: "I hope to be able to reach three agreements with you, first, no longer support the Hulunbuir Autonomous Government, second, cooperate with our side, third, I know that you have carried out surveying and mapping in Dongmeng, I hope to get a full set of maps of Dongmeng, fourth, this agreement and release, can only be carried out secretly, I let go of Maeda in private, and we also reached an agreement in private." You must know that our two countries have a conflict because of the "Article 21" issue, so we can only verbally agree, how about it? Of these three requirements, the most important for a human being is the third, that is, the map of Eastern Mongolia of the Japanese, which is what he cares about and needs, and it took the Japanese 20 years to map and map the map of Eastern Mongolia.

Kawashima Sulang sneered in his heart The little lieutenant ** official didn't know the height of the sky, but he said: "It's a big deal, I hope to be able to discuss it with the above, but please be sure to release Maeda-kun in the near future." ”

Wang Maoru said: "Okay, it's okay to release Maeda Shinbei, but the others were killed for helping Guifu - since they make money as mercenaries, you must know that mercenaries work hard in addition to making money, which Kawashima-kun must recognize, right?" "Since Maeda's arrest was discovered, Wang Maoru had to release him under pressure from the Japanese side, and the news obtained from Yue Qinan's torture was that Japan sent not a team, but a dozen teams to infiltrate the army of the princes of Eastern Mongolia, and Maeda was just a representative.

Now that the anti-Japanese tide is surging across the country, the agreement reached between Wang Maoru and the Japanese can only be a secret agreement, which cannot be signed or revealed, but can only be a verbal secret agreement. In fact, this anti-Japanese trend was not caused by Yuan Shikai, and after the Japanese forcibly occupied Shandong, they felt that they should have greater interests in a weak country, so they proposed the "21 Articles" to Yuan Shikai's government in a vain attempt to obtain more benefits.

Japan's proposal of the "Twenty-One Articles" was in fact prepared, because it had anticipated that China lacked the ability to resist, so it warned Yuan Shikai from the beginning that it was a secret treaty that must be agreed upon as soon as possible and not leaked. If China does not agree, Japan will attack on both land and sea. None of the major powers at that time were able to intervene, and although the United States had not yet intervened in the European war, it was unwilling to stop Japan's aggressive plan alone. Japan has long had a strategic estimate of this, so it has been unscrupulous.

"Twenty-one Articles" is the most severe diplomatic crisis since Yuan Shikai entered politics, but fortunately, its response is quite effective and decent. The first measure taken by Yuan Shikai was to use various channels to find out the Japanese side's cards; he first sent Japanese adviser Nagao Ariga back to Japan to visit Masayoshi Matsukata and Aritomo Yamaguchi, a veteran of Japanese political circles, to find out the inside story, and then sent people to spend a lot of money to bribe Japanese spies and investigate the relevant situation of the Japanese side in order to gain the initiative in the negotiations.

In order to cooperate with the investigation activities, Yuan Shikai deliberately adopted delaying tactics in the negotiations, he first replaced Sun Baoqi, who was not very good at diplomatic negotiations, and once again used Lu Zhengxiang, the former foreign minister who was good at negotiating in the face of difficult situations, and instructed Lu Zhengxiang and Cao Rulin to discuss one by one in the negotiations, and be sure to delay time and not be led by the nose by the Japanese.

Lu Zhengxiang is a rare diplomatic talent in China's modern history, in order to implement Yuan Shikai's instructions, he also thought of many methods, for example, Japan proposed to hold a meeting every day, but Lu Zhengxiang proposed kindly, his affairs are very busy, can only hold meetings once a week, and finally make the Japanese side compromise, three times a week talks. For example, at each meeting, Lu Zhengxiang ordered tea to be offered after his opening remarks, and tried to prolong the time for drinking tea, which was in stark contrast to the Japanese representatives. But the Japanese delegates were helpless, because after all, this was the etiquette of the East.

Yuan's efforts eventually paid off, as information he obtained through various sources revealed that the Twenty-One Articles did not go through the Imperial Council (which must be done if force was to be used), but rather a secret act taken by the Okuma Shigenobu Cabinet without authorization. As a result, Yuan Shikai systematically revealed the contents of the "Twenty-one Articles" through newspapers and diplomatic channels, which caused an uproar*.

The "Twenty-One Articles" immediately made headlines in New York and London, making it impossible for Japan to try to end its secret negotiations with China. After learning of the contents of the "21 Articles," the US Secretary of State immediately sent a note to China and Japan, stating that the United States would not recognize any treaty concluded between China and Japan if it violated the open-door policy. The people at home were even more indignant after learning the news of the "21 Articles," and telegrams from all walks of life at home and abroad demanding the government's war of resistance against Japan flew like snowflakes, which brought great pressure to the representatives of both sides of the negotiations at that time.

Under pressure from all sides, the Sino-Japanese negotiations also reached a stalemate, and four months passed. Seeing that they could not make progress at the negotiating table, the Japanese then increased their troops in Northeast China, Shandong, and the coastal areas of Fujian, assuming the posture of starting a war if the negotiations failed, and put forward an ultimatum on 7 May, limiting China to give Japan a "satisfactory answer" to the issues No. 1 to No. 4 and Fujian within 48 hours, otherwise they would resort to "necessary means."

Under these circumstances, Yuan Shikai convened a meeting of the heads of various government organs, which was attended by Vice President Li Yuanhong, Secretary of State Xu Shichang, the Chief of Staff and the heads of various ministries, and the presidents of various academies. At the meeting, Yuan Shikai made a sad and indignant statement, saying that when "the national strength is not full and it is difficult to meet each other in arms", he can only temporarily humiliate at present, otherwise he will repeat the mistakes of the First Sino-Japanese War. After weighing the advantages and disadvantages, we have no choice but to accept the demands of the Japanese ultimatum, and what a sad and humiliating thing we have endured after this great difficulty, we must take this acceptance of Japan's demands as a great shame and a great shame, and do a promising cause in the spirit of lying on the back and trying the courage. Otherwise, in 10 years' time, not only will Japan not be able to compete with Japan, but the danger of national destruction will be even greater than it is today

On May 9, 19, Foreign Minister Lu Zhengxiang, Vice Minister Cao Rulin, and Chinese negotiator Shi Luben handed over the final revised version of the "21 Articles" to the Japanese Minister Nippon, and the crisis was temporarily resolved. According to the later recollection of the person concerned, Cao Rulin: "At that time, I felt desolate and had a feeling of handing over the table." In the face of national humiliation, all Chinese people should feel the same way.

Although it was an alliance under the pressure of the soldiers, if we compare the original of the "Twenty-one Demands" put forward by Japan with the new treaty after the signing, there is still a difference between the two. After four months of arduous negotiations, Japan, under pressure from all sides, canceled the most brutal Demand No. 5 on its own; No. 4 requiring that "all China's coastal ports and islands will not be leased or ceded to other countries" should be deleted and replaced by China's own declaration; One article was deleted from the two articles in No. 3, and the 11 articles in No. 1 and No. 2 stated that Japan's requirement for unlimited immigration and taxation of Japanese merchants must be approved by the Japanese consul, which was "absolutely unacceptable to the Chinese side", and the other articles were either "left to be negotiated at a later date" or added restrictions, and in the end only the "12 Articles" were actually signed.

Japan's brutal and evil behavior aroused great anger among the Chinese people, and the governors of 19 provinces across the country expressed their determination to support the central government, and they constantly called on the central government to never give in to Japanese pressure, and the presidential palace also received a flood of letters and telegrams every day. Even overseas students and overseas Chinese have appealed one after another to resolutely oppose the signing of the "21 Articles".

During the wave of protests that lasted for more than eight months, Japan became a rat crossing the street, not only suffering heavy losses economically, but also under international pressure from the United States, Britain, Russia, and other countries.

Not only that, but Shigenobu Okuma also stepped down because he hastily proposed the "Twenty-One Articles" without the Imperial Council, which resulted in the failure of diplomacy (as Japan believes). Masayoshi Terauchi, who took over as prime minister, later had to admit: "The Okuma cabinet's request for the "21 Articles" from China has aroused the resentment of all Chinese, but Japan has no real interests."

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