Similar to Northeast China, the rainfall in May, June, and July after the Dragon Boat Festival in the Gyeonggi region accounts for 70% of the annual rainfall, and sometimes the rainfall in one month exceeds the rainfall in a dry year, and as long as the rainfall in a month exceeds 400 mm, or the daily rainfall is greater than 20 mm for three consecutive days, or the rainfall is greater than 120 mm on a given day, the flood will definitely occur. [The information comes from "Baodi County Chronicles" p167, "Fengrun County Chronicles" p116, "Jixian County Chronicles" p136, which are statistics at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, but with the vegetation coverage rate at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the waterlogging situation was even worse. Another: If this book is marked with no exception, the months and dates written are all lunar calendars. ]

The third year of Shenmu was not a rainy year, but even so, under the planned destruction of the engineers of the Fuxing Army, many low-lying areas of Gyeonggi have become an ocean. The flood made the Japanese offensive area extremely narrow, but fortunately, on the front line of Yangcun, many trenches on both sides were flooded. Many people believe that the war is really expected to be decided in the autumn and winter, as Morrison judged.

The Japanese offensive was contained, but when the Korean government used the flood to ward off the enemy, the public opinion in the concession was in an uproar, and the water had been receding since ancient times, but those people with a conscience frequently criticized the government's decision-making as too brutal, and they believed that there must be people who had not been evacuated in those flooded places, and even if the people evacuated, the villages would be completely destroyed under the flooding, and the people would be homeless and left with nothing.

The public intellectuals buzzed like flies, and although it was impossible to know for a moment what psychology they were basing their comments and criticisms on, it was certain that if the whole war was lost. They will shout even harder. The double standard of doing things and being a human being is repeatedly used by these people: when things are done without regard to one qiē, they will accuse the ruler of being too bloody and brutal. There is no humanity to speak of; And when they follow the way of a gentleman and behave well, they will blame the incompetence of the rulers (warlords) and lose the war. In the end, it brought deep disasters to the country and the nation. In the eyes of these people, whether it is war or governing the country, it can be both gentle and perfect as they usually drink and prostitute and recite poetry, of course, this kind of thing cannot be done by others, only they can be comfortable with it.

The frequent attacks of 'civilized people' in the newspaper, Yang Rui was a little angry at the beginning, since the end of the Ming Dynasty, Qingliu has been this virtue, and fortunately, these Qingliu, who can not represent anyone except himself, failed to enter the Congress. Otherwise, he would definitely order the dissolution or even closure of the parliament like Yuan Shikai in later generations.

After the initial anger, with the rapid changes in the situation in Europe, Yang Rui no longer had the heart to care about domestic affairs, he only paid attention to the situation in Europe, especially after Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 25, the telegrams from Europe were more than one day a day, and he had to read these telegrams several times a day, and the discussions with Xie Jintai frequently stayed up late at night or even dawn. The situation in Europe is indeed chaotic, but there is still a certain distance before countries declare war on each other. The childhood friendship between Kaiser Wilhelm and the Tsar was the greatest obstacle to the war, and according to information from Russia, at ten o'clock in the evening of July 29, Tsar Nicholas II, after a private telegram with the Kaiser, ignored the opposition of all his ministers and generals, especially the Minister of Agriculture, [in 1912 Austria-Hungary blocked all Mediterranean routes because of the Balkan Wars. As a result, Russia's grain exports decreased by 1/3 that year. ], stopped the general mobilization for war.

The course of the war seems to have come to a halt, and the Tsar, who cared only for the lives of the white race, showed great mercy. Then, when Chen Quai, the former minister to Russia, had just arrived in Petersburg by ship from Europe, the French minister conveyed another small request from the Russians. That is, the Chinese premier Yang Rui, who started the war, must resign, and the cabinet must also be dissolved. This request suddenly made Xie Jintai startled, you must know that the peace talks are fake, once you resign, it will become true, and Yang Rui is the spiritual pillar of the Renaissance Army, if he resigns, under the chaos of the front-line army, this war will be lost if it is not lost.

After gently making this small request, the French minister also indirectly conveyed the British opinion that if there is to be an armistice in the war in East Asia, then there must be a complete armistice, and that China, Japan, and Russia should sit together to negotiate the terms of the armistice, and if China meets the demands of the Russians, it will certainly meet the demands of Japan.

Even if we don't consider the European war, between China, Japan, and Russia, there is no reason for China to make peace with Japan and Russia at the same time, either to negotiate peace with Russia or to talk to Japan, so that the loss will be the least, and once Japan and Russia both seek peace, then China will only be limited to a place from which there will be no return.

On the way to the Prime Minister's Office, he finally figured out the relationship between Britain and France - although France hopes for an armistice and peace talks between China and Russia, but the close relationship between Britain and France is more than he imagined, in order to gain the support of Britain, France will not disobey Britain's wishes, after all, now the Russian army is only a very small part of the troops fighting in the Far East, and the loss is only the loss of the 200,000 troops, but if it loses the support of Britain, That situation is unthinkable.

Therefore, as soon as he arrived at the Yin'an Palace, Xie Jintai was full of remorse, and perhaps it was the best choice to make peace with Russia through the United States. When he said this, Yang Rui just smiled and said, "Then you might as well say that it was best for us not to provoke Russia at the beginning, so that he would not declare war on us." ”

"How can this be called anger? The Russians had already assembled heavy troops in Harbin at that time, and if they did not agree to their demands, these 200,000 men would be attacked. Russia itself wants to go to war, who can stop it? Xie Zhangtai said, he didn't think there was anything wrong with Yang Rui's words.

"Chong'an, mistakes can only be seen after the fact, looking for France is such a result, but looking for the United States is not much better." Yang Rui said, when he said this, he had a person in mind, this guy who was self-respecting from foreign countries would definitely use it as a handle after knowing about it, which was why he agreed with Xie Jintai to find a Frenchman. "That's it! To the French, we can only make peace with one side, not with both; In addition, the country has to fight, so the government must remain stable. In other words, I will not resign, and the cabinet will not be dissolved. ”

Yang Rui decided last night and then said: "This means it." But you have to be tactful, and the Russians had better be able to make up their minds to mobilize them. It seems that the Bolsheviks still need to increase their firepower! ”

"Yes, you can rest assured. The Russians have gone crazy, especially after the Austro-Hungarian shelling of the Serbian capital Belgrade. There were about 5,000 casualties in that shelling, and the pictures of the tragedy had already spread in Europe, and when these things reached Russia, I was afraid that no matter how majestic the tsar was, he would not be able to resist everyone's opposition. Xie Zhangtai said.

"But that's the Tsar." Yang Rui shook his head and said uncertainly. Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Serbia and its shelling of Belgrade the next day made the whole of Europe excited, and many people in Britain and France shouted slogans such as 'Move Berlin' and 'Hit Vienna'. And waiting for the government's call-up, the war seems to have become a huge casting contest, and everyone wants to be the protagonist. In the face of the provocations of the people and public opinion in Britain, France, and Russia, the parliamentarians and the public who learned that the Kaiser had done nothing about it vigorously attacked the government, and those who were pan-German were even more insane, and the cries of 'cowardly Willy' resurged. But this qiē is similar to the situation in Russia, the result of the confrontation between public opinion and imperial power. It is the light of public opinion that was defeated by the imperial power.

On this day, the discussion between the two ended very early, Han Xianfeng was very surprised to see Yang Ruimo coming back early, and threw herself into his arms and said with a smile: "I came back so soon today, I thought you would have to wait until midnight or dawn." ”

The woman smiled like a flower. But Yang Rui didn't feel perfunctory at all, he only felt that he had messed up one thing, which was related to the strategy and development of the entire country. If World War I had not happened, even if the Baath Army had defeated Russia and Japan, it would not have much significance. In the end, the enormous cost of the war could only be sustained by borrowing from the United States, which had always borrowed from the United States. Then it makes no sense to do it yourself - even if you can recover some of your rights, you will lose more and more important things in order to borrow from China, which is simply a bamboo basket.

After quietly taking a shower and eating, before going to bed, the woman actually changed into a strange dress that she had never worn before, with a delicate face, black hair, crisp breasts, and a beautiful waist set off by the clothes and the seductive desire in her eyes, but this qiē only made Yang Rui's heart tremble slightly and ignored it. Seeing that the man turned off the light categorically, Han Xianfeng didn't speak but just lay on the man's side softly, and then snuggled him tightly, she only felt that she was very useless at this time, and then thought of Cheng Ying, who was far away in Shenyang with a child, maybe she could relieve the man's worries if she had learned new and knew big things.

"Why are you crying...... Yang Rui felt his shoulders wet in the dark, and he couldn't bear to say thinking of the woman's actions today.

"I... I didn't ......" Han Xianfeng sobbed and hugged the man tighter, "Actually, am I useless?" ”

"It's not that you're useless, it's that I'm useless." Yang Rui muttered: "As the prime minister of a country, I have taken this country to this point. I always thought I was smart, but I did such a stupid thing......"

"But the people say you're good!" Han Xianfeng didn't understand the big thing, so she had to say what she had heard with her own ears.

"Hehe......" Yang Rui was speechless. Unlike Cheng Ying, the woman in her arms never reads the newspaper, and she knows very little about world events, and every day she is just immersed in the music world of the ancient world. In the dark, he smiled reluctantly: "What's the use of being good, winning the battle?" ”

When the man said this, Han Xianfeng was silent for a while before he said, "Why don't I go and sing to the soldiers, everyone will win the battle by singing." ”

"Don't go!" Yang Rui spit out. The soldiers naturally have a troupe in Beijing, and their women don't get paid, and they are not officials, and he can't accept singing to please others. The jealousy was slightly blazing, he suddenly turned on the light, and after seeing that Han Xianfeng's whole body was hot, he ordered: "Take off your clothes!" ”

This night seems to have passed very shortly, it didn't take long for the day to dawn, and when Yang Rui sat in the Yin'an Hall on the second day, his expression was Yiyi. After reading a few telegrams from Europe, he suddenly didn't want to pay attention to what was going on over there, the great powers could fight best, if they couldn't fight, then they would do their own thing, annihilate the Russian army and annihilate the Japanese army, Taiwan would definitely be taken, even if Britain helped Japan out; As for North Korea, it will be where it can hit.

Yang Rui wanted to stop caring about European affairs, but European affairs took the initiative to come to him at three o'clock in the afternoon. Colonel Hoffmann, a German adviser who was supposed to be in the Northeast Theater, suddenly asked to see him, and Yang Rui, who didn't want to see him, repeated it several times before asking Li Zilong to invite people in.

Colonel Hoffman was in a hurry. He had just returned to Beijing from the Northeast Theater yesterday and was about to return home, but the General Staff told him to avoid the new German minister, Xia Lifu. Directly asked to see Yang Rui.

"Your Excellency, in the name of the General Staff, I would like to ask you, if Germany and Russia go to war, will China stand on the side of Germany and fight side by side with Germany?" Hoffman's question was so abrupt that it only made Yang Rui's heart skip a beat.

After thinking slightly, Yang Rui said: "Our main enemy now is the Japanese, they are a hundred miles away, and it is impossible for me to leave the Japanese without fighting." Go and fight the Russians. Mr. Colonel, Russia has been at war with us for so long, and your country has never had any intention of fighting together, and the last time Prince Heinrich of your country came over, he did not talk about war against Russia at all. ”

Yang Rui only made Hoffman anxious, in his opinion, the combat capability of the main division of the Baxing Army was no worse than that of the German army, and even the tactics of the Chinese were much more flexible and effective than those of Germany. He knew that Prince Heinrich would visit China again, and what the prince really wanted was for China to weaken Russia as Japan did. Instead of forming an alliance with China and fighting side by side.

But in Hoffmann's view, the real right thing for Germany to do is to immediately declare war on Russia in the name of helping China, so that China and Germany are equivalent to an alliance. No matter how Britain and France view the war between China and Germany and Japan and Russia, no matter how much this war expands, it will be nothing more than Germany, Austria, and China against Russia, France, Britain, and Japan. Such a result was completely better than that of the German-Austrian alliance against the three countries of the agreement. Although there is one more Japan, China can no longer exert some pressure on Russia's Far East and contain some of its forces.

The colonel is so accurate. But the big Germans watched the war in the Far East like a trick, and even now they hesitate – the childhood friendship between the Kaiser and the Tsar led the Tsar to force Russia to stop the general mobilization. But when the Tsar wanted to explain this qiē to the Kaiser, Kaiser Wilhelm was frightened. He didn't look at anything else on the telegram at all, only saw that the Russian army had already carried out a general mobilization on the 25th. For Germany, there is nothing more terrifying than this, you must know that the foothold of the Schlieffen plan is because of the slow mobilization of the Russian army, Germany can rely on the time difference to defeat France first, but now that the Russian army has been mobilized, how much time is there to leave the German army?

The Kaiser told Moltke of the situation, and Moltke was so shocked that he was completely overwhelmed, and it took him a while to come to his senses, and while the Emperor and the Prime Minister were still hesitating, the first thing he did was to leave the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and send a telegram directly to the Austro-Hungarian General Staff, demanding that Austria-Hungary immediately carry out a general mobilization against Russia; The second thing was also to ignore the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and send a telegram directly to China, asking Colonel Hoffmann, who was in Beijing, to ask whether China would fight alongside Germany and Austria.

"Your Excellency, Germany was not ready at that time." In the face of Yang Rui's complaint, Colonel Hoffman wittily thought of such an excuse, but he revealed his hole cards in the last sentence, "Now that Germany is ready, if nothing else, we will declare war on Russia within a few days." ”

Hearing the words 'declare war on Russia' coming out of Hoffman's mouth, Yang Rui was a little dizzy and pinched his palm with his fingernails, and then calmly said: "Sorry, Mr. Colonel, it may be too late." Not long ago, we had already entrusted the French minister with the help of making peace with Russia, and now the Minister Plenipotentiary for negotiations has arrived in Petersburg. I don't know how they talked, but if it's already done, we'll have to follow the agreement. ”

"Is this true?" Yang Rui's words only made Colonel Hoffman's hands and feet cold, which was the most unfortunate news he had ever heard in his life.

"Yes. The Japanese are close at hand, and our best option is to destroy the Japanese, so there is no way to make concessions to Russia. If the representative did not negotiate with the Russians, then things might be ......" Yang Rui said this, suddenly stopped, Hoffman held his breath and looked at his lips for a while before listening to him: "In order for the French to agree to mediation, we also promised not to form an alliance with your country, of course, this is only a verbal promise, maybe not to follow ......"

Yang Rui paused again when he said this, and he pretended to apologize and smiled: "Mr. Colonel, I think I should still consult with my cabinet members before answering your question." Although I have a good impression of your country, I ...... But we are fighting alone in East Asia, and your country and Austria-Hungary cannot support us in anything, nor can they help us substantively. Therefore, there are many issues that we need to be cautious about. Mr. Colonel. I guess you wouldn't mind giving us a day to think about it. ”

"Of course." Hoffman breathed a sigh of relief at this point. At least there was a turnaround, and he bowed deeply and went out. He needs to report back to China right away.

As soon as Colonel Hoffman went out, Yang Rui immediately picked up the phone and summoned Xie Zhangtai, and before the two could discuss for long, Li Zilong reported that the French Minister Kant was coming, and after the two looked at each other when they heard the words, Yang Rui said: "I'm still gone, you have received it." Anyway, in a word, China will not ally with Germany against Russia, and our enemy is only Japan. ”

"I understand! Don't worry, it's done. Xie Jintai's voice trembled a little, and when things finally came to the last moment, he couldn't help but be extremely nervous.

French Minister Kant hurried in. Li Zilong said that Yang Rui was sick and surprised him, but when he heard that Xie Jintai was here, he still came in, because the second person he was looking for was Xie Jintai. The matter was indeed urgent, and as soon as he came in, he asked urgently: "Is Your Excellency the Prime Minister sick?" ”

"Yes, Mr. Minister." Xie Taiqiang said with a smile: "Last time, Your Excellency's mention made us very embarrassed, and the Prime Minister was under too much pressure, so we had to rest for a while. If Russia really wants to let him go, then I will convince him again. ”

Xie was as humble as last time, which led to a miscalculation by Kant. That is, the Chinese are completely ignorant of the situation in Europe. It is not surprising that he made such a miscalculation, after all, the change in the situation in Europe is only a matter of the past few days, and the news has only been disseminated at the top level of various countries, and China is complacent and has never cared about the situation in Europe. He was immediately relieved: "Although your country did not agree to Russia's request last time, in the spirit of peace, I have persuaded Russia to negotiate with China first to rebuild the friendship between the two countries. ”

Pretending to be a pleasant surprise. Xie Jintai immediately said: "Thank God so much, this is really good news!" ”

"It is the responsibility of the civilized world to maintain peace among nations." Kant said proudly: "Of course. There are always people who want to destroy the peace, like Germany. Mr. Xie. I hope that China will follow through on its previous commitments not to form an alliance with Germany and not to intervene in European affairs, so I hope that your country will immediately issue a statement to reiterate this. ”

Seeing that Kant was about to issue a statement, Xie Jintai smiled bitterly and said: "Mr. Minister, we dare not offend any country in Europe, and once this guarantee is released to the outside world, then Germany will be offended." We have a lot of German engineers in our arsenal, and if Germany is not happy, once the engineers are withdrawn, we will not be able to continue the war, so I can only give you a secret guarantee. In addition, even if it is a secret treaty, we can only ...... the date forward, and it is better for the Minister to Russia, who is already in Petersburg, to sign a secret treaty with Russia that will not ally with Germany against Russia, and he is the plenipotentiary representative, and the secret treaty signed is completely valid. ”

After Xie Jintai finished speaking, Kant immediately believed it, but in fact, he didn't believe it now, and it could only be like this, as long as China insisted on forming an alliance with Germany, the statement was meaningless. He stroked his collar gentlemanly, and then said: "Then please send a telegram to Petersburg immediately, this secret agreement is the premise of peace between China and Russia." ”

"Of course! I understand this very well. Xie Jintai finally laughed. Under the gaze of the French, he immediately drafted a telegram, and asked Li Zilong to send it out immediately in front of the French. At this point, the French finally nodded and walked away satisfied, shaking the stick of civilization.

As soon as the French left, Xie Jintai arrived in the backyard, at this time Yang Rui was laughing and laughing with Han Xianfeng, and only retreated when he saw him coming. "What do the French say?" Yang Rui asked.

"As I thought before, they want a guarantee, I have already called Peren and asked him to sign this secret agreement with Russia immediately." Xie Zhangtai said: "It's done, is it really impossible for Russia to touch?" ”

"We only signed an agreement with Tsarist Russia, and when Tsarist Russia no longer exists, the agreement will naturally become invalid." Yang Rui said.

"But what if Britain, France and other countries intervene?" Xie Jintai suddenly thought of the Ulyanov a few years ago, and suddenly understood Yang Rui's plan in his heart.

"After the war in Europe, do Britain and France still have the strength? At this time, Japan has been killed by us, and there are no thugs in the Far East, will these two countries that pay so much attention to public opinion really send people to China to die? Yang Rui asked rhetorically. At most, they intimidate and intimidate us, and they have no strength to do it. By the way, I'll send a telegram to Peren later, which means that he should not sign any agreement with Russia, but this telegram must be explained to the people over there to delay for a while, and then show it to Peiren after signing the secret agreement not to ally with Germany, so that I can have an explanation for Germany. ”

When Yang Rui said this, Xie Jintai smiled brightly, and he got up and said, "Okay, I'll do it right away." Be sure to keep enough evidence so that you can give an account to the Germans. (To be continued......)