1890 King of Southeast Asia

"Representative Hioki, to be honest, I admire you very much. If it weren't for the restrictions of your status and position, I would definitely make friends with you." Xu Sunming looked at Hioki with a sigh.

On June 14, the peace talks between the Huaxia Empire and Japan were held again.

This was the third meeting of the third round of negotiations. Hioki brought up some meaningless issues to delay time, and thus constantly touched Xu Sunming's bottom line.

At the beginning of the meeting, a heated discussion broke out again. The intensity was so intense that several representatives of the mediating countries who were tired of watching left halfway to smoke, drink tea and quarrel.

After discussing for more than an hour, seeing that there might be no results today, Xu Sunming calmed down and said the above words.

"It is my honor to be appreciated by General Xu, but unfortunately, with national interests in the first place, Hioki cannot make any concessions and should try his best to fight for every bit of benefit for Japan." Hioki responded with a very polite bow.

"So I admire you." Xu Sunming almost laughed out loud. It's also about national interests. If Hioki had nodded earlier, fewer people would have died in Japan.

Japan is already suffering from famine, not because there is no food. Japan still has a lot of food. At least if it can get by, it can survive this year.

But Japan is in turmoil and order is gradually collapsing. Although Terauchi is trying to maintain the existence of the Japanese government, there is more than one faction in Japan.

Terauchi made a big mistake. He thought that all factions were like him, fighting for the so-called establishment of a strong Japan, and that the interests of all factions were the same.

In fact? The chaebol faction needs to harvest civilians to make up for the losses, and the local small factions hope to gather power and become local emperors (daimyo). Everyone's interests are not the same.

The endless internal debate has caused Terauchi to not dare to end the war for a while, because once the war is over, those who have united around him to resist foreign enemies will leave him.

And what did Terauchi sign? It was a treaty of defeat. Terauchi knew the nature of the Japanese very well. It was not painful enough now. They would not admit defeat and would only think it was a problem of the upper class.

Well, there were problems with the upper class, such as the chaebols and aristocrats taking too much benefits, but this was not the main reason. The main reason was that Japan was too weak and had poor geographical factors and could not be self-sufficient.

However, Terauchi could guarantee that those at the bottom would not think so. Those in the middle would push the responsibility away, either the responsibility would be put on the heads of the chaebols and aristocrats, or the responsibility would be taken by the upper ruling group.

Initially, Terauchi wanted to use the emperor and some chaebols as scapegoats, but now the situation has become chaotic, and the chaos has come faster and more violently than he thought.

Moreover, the despicable chaebol groups have merged with the aristocrats, taking local power and pushing the responsibility away.

Terauchi now needs time, time to reintegrate forces, eliminate these unstable factors, redistribute wealth, and restart production.

If that were the case, Japan would have to return to the Warring States Period. It would be good if they didn't fight to death, not to mention catching up with the times - the World War.

Hioki's practice of dragging his feet on signing the treaty was instructed by Terauchi.

"My Imperial Prime Minister is very concerned about the progress of the negotiations and sent a telegram to inquire. Representative Hioki, you know, I am very... guilty." Xu Sunming played with the pen, which seemed a little disrespectful and even rude on this occasion.

"General Xu, it takes time for the two countries to negotiate. We have reached an agreement on the main terms. Now it's just some details of the treaty that need to be determined. I believe there will be no problem."

"Your country's Prime Minister, Lord Xu Hui, will soon receive the good news that the treaty has been signed and peace has arrived." Hioki was standing by, not feeling much anxious.

Japan is now just a rotten piece of meat, and it can't get any worse.

Even Hioki wanted to stop the negotiations and let China launch an offensive again, preferably to seize the Korean Peninsula.

It's not that Hioki is crazy, but that in this way, the forces in Japan will have to unite to resist foreign aggression. At this time, any disunity will be regarded as betrayal, and the betrayer will be spurned.

Reputation is not without influence. Even when Japan surrenders, it will say that it is sacrificing for peace.

If the Chinese land on the Japanese archipelago, Japan will reunite under the banner of anti-aggression, and Terauchi will have time to integrate forces.

How to integrate this point, the bald head is more experienced, generally speaking, it is not difficult, as long as you are shameless.

When fighting a war, if you win or lose not too badly, you may be able to fight for better conditions, and if you lose, you will not be called a traitor.

"Representative Hioki, we are sincere in wanting to solve the problem, but it seems that Japan's sincerity is not enough at present." Xu Sunming put down the pen with a snap.

"Representative Hioki, if Japan has any demands, you can raise them now. We can talk about it again. If it is possible to consider it, we can give up some more interests."

"However, at the request of our Prime Minister, our Empire should end the meaningless war with Japan in the near future and invest our energy in other places."

Xu Sunming stared at Hioki and said loudly.

In the audience next to him, the representatives of the mediating countries who were bragging or disliking each other opened their eyes wide, as if something was different today.

The mediating country, which left only the secretary after several representatives left, quickly sent someone out to call for help, fearing that they would miss this big show.

Britain and the United States looked at the dozen or so representatives of the mediating countries with constipation. If it were just the two of them, this matter would not have dragged on for so long.

Britain hopes that China can be put into the European battlefield as soon as possible, and the two sides are already discussing the stage of dividing interests.

The United States hopes to keep more vitality for Japan, at least to keep Japan's independent existence, and look forward to future changes.

The four countries discussed, threatened, and compromised with each other, and the incident was over, but the mediating countries inserted too many "irrelevant" people, causing their approach to be ineffective.

For example, public opinion pressure. During this period, American newspapers have been reporting on the famine in Japan, and on the one hand, they attributed the cause of the famine to China, and on the other hand, they accused China of not opening up Japan's shipping lanes.

Generally speaking, it should be quite useful, and there is already the term public opinion pressure.

But now other forces have intervened. American newspapers say that the famine in Japan was caused by China, and they don't say the reason for the start of the war at all.

Italian, German, French and other American newspapers simply mentioned the famine, and then shifted the focus to how the war happened and the sky-high compensation of 10 billion US dollars.

The Americans didn’t care how the war happened, since they didn’t hit them anyway. What they cared about was the sky-high war reparations of 10 billion US dollars, and they had a heated discussion about it.

Since the Americans had one more competitor, they didn’t get that much money, and they didn’t even get as much money as the Chinese.

It’s just that most of what the Americans got was gold and US dollar debt, and foreign currency was a small part, while most of what the Chinese got was British pounds, francs and Huayuan debt, and gold was a small part.

The British pounds and francs were not decoupled from gold. In terms of data, the Chinese earned more, and the Americans ate some, but not enough.

The Americans, who were already jealous of these benefits, now have red eyes.

According to the Americans’ thinking, as long as the Americans joined the war, the British would have to buy American goods anyway, and now they might get sky-high war reparations.

The “peace-loving” American people began to consider the feasibility of joining the war—cost and profit.

Therefore, there were many discussions in the United States, but it had nothing to do with the argument that “China starved 1 million Japanese to death.”

"Japan hopes that the Celestial Empire can display its consistent style, respect its glorious traditions, and repay evil with virtue. Japan will definitely reflect on itself and deeply examine its mistakes." Hioki heard this and simply opened his mouth.

"Hioki representative, I heard that 1 million people have starved to death in Japan?" Xu Sunming suddenly put on a compassionate look.

Hioki was a little puzzled as to why Xu Sunming took the initiative to bring up this point. Did he really want to carry forward his style? With the personality of the Qing Empire, it is not impossible.

So Hioki did not deny it, hoping to win sympathy and exchange for benefits.

"Yes, Japan has reached its limit. The people are starving because of the lack of food due to the closure of the shipping route..."

"Why is it not what I heard?" Xu Sunming interrupted Hioki.

"Japan has requisitioned at least 100,000 tons of military rations from North Korea this year, and used yen to force the purchase of 500,000 tons of food from farmers. Combined with Japan's food reserves and output, even if they are not full, famine will not break out."

Xu Sunming looked at Hioki with a smile.

"On the contrary, North Korea has a food shortage of at least one million tons this year due to the destruction of the war, the colonialists' military conscription and forced purchase and sale."

"One million tons of food, more than three million people's annual rations, as a civilized country, doesn't Japan think this is too inhumane for the colony?"

At this moment, Xu Sunming was full of brilliance, as if he was a saint, standing on the moral high ground to accuse the Japanese.

That's right, although Liu Yiming carried out a series of unspeakable activities against the natives during the Nanhua Empire, these production tools were really not hungry.

After all, in the tropics where there are three harvests a year, rice and ordinary fruits are the cheapest things, and Liu Yiming did not choose to let people starve to death.

Hungry people can burst out very terrifying power. If you don't believe it, ask the last emperors of the Han, Yuan and Ming dynasties.

"If Japan does not sign the surrender treaty today, the Huaxia Empire will suspend negotiations, the negotiation treaty will be temporarily sealed, and the war will continue."

"For every expenditure caused by the war, we will double it and add it to the future negotiation treaty. I hope the Japanese side will understand."

"At the same time as announcing the suspension of negotiations, the Huaxia Empire Navy will impose the most stringent blockade on the waters around Japan. All ships that appear in this waters without reporting to the Huaxia Empire will be sunk."

"At the same time, because the Russian Empire sold the materials provided by the Huaxia Empire and guaranteed not to be used in East Asia to Japan, the Huaxia Empire will temporarily stop supplying materials to the Russian Empire."

"General Xu, General Xu, please wait a moment!" Hioki stood up quickly.

How can Huaxia be like this? He turned the table over when he disagreed with something.

The negotiations failed, and Hioki dared not imagine the situation in Japan after the news was reported back to Japan.

Yes, the negotiations failed, and there was no selling out of the country, but this also meant that Terauchi's move failed.

And in the current Japanese government, only Terauchi can clean up the situation. If Terauchi fails, he will lose this ability.

By that time, Japan will be completely plunged into war, and it will not be able to calm down temporarily until it raises a Gu King like raising a Gu.

Even then, Japan will have to face the blockade of China, and the gap will only get bigger.

"This document is right here, it depends on whether you sign it or not." Xu Sunming slapped the treaty on the table.

"Sign, sign, it's just General Xu, you see..."

"Yes or no." Xu Sunming stared at Hioki who was about to say something.

The American wanted to step forward to take sides, but the British grabbed it.

"Sign, sign..." Hioki saw the British move and signed the treaty tremblingly.

Xu Sunming saw that it had been signed, took the document, signed his name quickly, and then looked at the mediating country.

According to the rules, the mediating country also has to sign.

Representatives of more than a dozen countries lined up and walked up one by one. The one who walked in the front was the Italian...

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