On February 3, 1895, after more than a month of arduous negotiations, Japan and Russia finally signed the Portsmouth Peace Agreement in the United States. The negotiators of the two sides had a great disagreement. The Russian representatives believed that Japan should recognize the actual occupied areas and that Japan compensated Russia 60 million rubles as compensation. This condition was unacceptable to Japan. The Japanese representative did not show any weakness and proposed more harsh conditions. Russia unconditionally returned the invaded islands, returned to North Korea, handed over Sakhalin Island to Japan, and compensated Japan with an additional 250 million yen.

Faced with such a whimsical idiot, the US president had no choice but to hint that both parties to the negotiations should pay attention to the economic situation of their own country and not put forward such unrealistic conditions.

The two countries are actually eager to end the state of war. Japan spends nearly 800,000 yen per day, while Russia spends nearly 1.6 million rubles per day. Both countries are not rich, and the huge economic expenditure cannot be exchanged for any benefit, which no country will do.

So, Russia and Japan wisely gave up their excessive demands, quickly reached a compromise on several major understandings, and finally reached a consensus. The Portsmouth Peace Agreement signed has the following articles.

Japan recognizes Russia has the highest political, military and economic interests in North Korea.

Japan ceded Hokkaido to Russia.

The two sides further agreed not to interfere with the commercial and industrial development of the Northeast Republic.

Railways in the Northeast Republic are only used for commercial and industrial purposes, not for political purposes.

After signing the treaty, both sides immediately withdrew from the other side's sphere of influence unconditionally, and must immediately unconditionally release the other side's prisoners of war.

Of course, after signing the treaty, Japan and Russia temporarily became peaceful. The Russian emperor realized that the power of the Far East alone could not resolve Japan, and it was necessary to speed up the construction of the Siberian Railway; Japan silently began to lick the blood on its body, accumulate strength, and prepare for the inevitable war.

On February 6, 1895, Britain signed the Treaty of Friendship and Trade with Japan, and a large number of British loans continued to pour into Japan, causing Japan's dying economy to recover. Of course, Japan's twenty years of compulsory education played the greatest role, and a large number of cheap labor was Japan's unparalleled manpower advantage. This was very obvious in the textile industry. The textile industry in the Northeast Republic encountered strong competitors, and in the next ten years, Japan and the Northeast Republic competed fiercely in light industry.

Minister of Industry Zhang Qian looked at the report in front of him and frowned. The report pointed out that in 1894, except for the four months affected by the battle, the light industrial products in the Northeast Republic had always increased at a rate of 30% per month. By the end of the year, the output value had reached the level of 11 million Northeast silver dollars. However, by early January 1895, sales volume dropped sharply. Compared with the 1.5 million silver dollars in December, only 20,000 silver dollars were sold in early January, and the unsalable amount reached 1.6 million silver dollars. After investigation, similar Japanese products appeared on the market, and the price was 10% lower than that in the Northeast Republic.

Zhang Qian immediately instructed to reduce the price of all textiles by half and prepare to use low prices to attack Japanese products. This trick was indeed effective, and the unsold textiles were indeed sold.

But soon, Japanese products were reduced again, down to 80% of the original price, and the market trend once again turned to the Japanese. Before the war, they had to grit their teeth and follow up. The profit of light industrial products was very high, and the selling price of 75% could also guarantee a certain profit. In this way, the selling price was reduced to 55% and the Japanese were hesitant for the first time. Three days later, the selling price was reduced to 50%. This time, Zhang Qian really couldn't follow up. Generally speaking, the price of 65% was the bottom line of the product, which was profitable online and loss offline. However, 55% could not even achieve gross profit. If 45% was sold for one dollar, it would be 40 cents to lose. Faced with the situation that he could not solve, Zhang Qian was forced to propose to hold an emergency ministerial meeting to discuss solutions.

After briefly explaining the story, Zhao Gang suddenly felt like he had returned to the previous era. At that time, the Chinese products were so low that they were scary, and manufacturers all over the world complained. Why did Japan complain about the money after they came back by themselves? Zhao Gang looked at these frowning people and was determined to open up their minds.

"Minister Zhang, you are an expert in the textile industry. I want to ask you, is it possible that the Japanese products cost less than us?"

The question was Liang Caishen. In his eyes, anything could be accurately divided into gold coins of varying numbers.

Zhang Qian said firmly:

"Impossible, our equipment is the latest, and most of Japan's equipment are from ten years ago. It is impossible for the cost to be lower than us. I think their cost should be 5 to 10 percentage points higher than us."

Liang Caishen does not accept this explanation

"Then why can they still sell their products at a loss price? You must know that all kinds of business in this world need to be done, but there is no business at a loss!"

Zhang Qian was also puzzled and did not have much hope for the others of Zhang Qian, but in order to take care of those people, Zhang Qian asked politely:

"If you have any ideas, you can't let the Japanese occupy our territory."

Zhao Gang saw that the time was up and said:

"Minister Zhang, if we temporarily exempt taxes, what is the minimum cost?"

Zhang Qian calculated and said, "It can reach 35%."

Liang Caishen beside him was anxious

"President Zhao, you can't reduce taxes. Light industry is our big deal. 7 million of the 13 million taxes come from light industry. You can easily get a lot of money, and I'm here. If you want to reduce taxes, I don't agree."

Zhao Gang had known for a long time that the God of Wealth, who loves money like life, would definitely object. He had already drafted it in his stomach and responded calmly.
Chapter completed!