After the French plenipotentiary Duke arrived in the Northeast, he got ashore from Lushun. After that, he took nearly twenty hours to arrive at Shengjing City by taking the Dashang railway.

Since the Northeast declared autonomy, Fengtian did not originally include it. Later, with the development, the scope of the autonomous region has covered the entire Fengtian territory. Just as Duke reached Fengtian, Yang Qiuxing had just finished negotiations with Jilin General Wu Dacheng and Heilongjiang General Gong Tong. Wu Dacheng was fine. Everyone knew each other and was considered an old man. The little troops under his command were not enough to stuff the insurance team. But this Gongtong belonged to the stone of the pit, which was smelly and hard. [bsp;

Gong Tong, Borjijit clan, whose courtesy name was Zhenkui, was the son of Qishan, a great scholar in the Manchurian Zhenghuang Banner. Before becoming the general of Heilongjiang, he was the governor of Urumqi. At that time, the border wars in Xinjiang were frequent, and the Qing court placed this person there, which shows that he had no more trust in him. Of course, Gong Tong was still very talented. As soon as he arrived in Heilongjiang, he proposed to store national treasury, help the people's food, and protect them strictly. He then collected funds, collected wealth, collected merchants, increased taxes, gathered widespread people, and prepared borders, but the imperial court issued an edict that he would not allow.

Although Gong Tong was very tough, Yang Qiuxing did not spend much energy on him. He just gave Cixi in Beijing a note asking for Heilongjiang Autonomy. Cixi knew that she could not stop this, so she had to agree. Of course, for the sake of the court, the Northeast was in Heilongjiang system to pay the court 30 yuan in taxes every year. Gong Tong was tough and could not withstand the imperial edict in Beijing. This was the sorrow of being a loyal minister. Later, he heard that when Gong Tong received the imperial edict, he vomited blood. He did not die at the hands of Northeast China, but was stabbed to death by his own people from the back.

"This man is also a loyal and righteous person." Wang Yi just smiled at this.

Duke had never been to the Qing Dynasty, but from his colleagues, he heard about the barbaric country of the Qing Dynasty. The monarch was arrogant and arrogant, and he thought he was a country of heaven and always liked to make people kneel down. The people were also ignorant, short and thin.

However, after arriving in the Northeast, it was a completely different scene.

"Is this really the Qing Dynasty?" Duke murmured to himself. "Did those bastards from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs be blind?"

After reaching Shengjing, Northeast Foreign Minister Zhao Liewen personally went to the train station to welcome him. The ceremony was not grand, but it gave enough face to the French. Duke was at least satisfied on the surface and was also chatting and laughing with Zhao Liewen, far less than the tension in Vietnam now.

Now the insurance team has sent 10,000 troops in Vietnam, and the recruited 30,000 vassals. Currently, it mainly occupies the Tonkin region and some coastal areas, and Toulon has become a military port.

The major companies of Dashang are very quick to reach out, and basically related industries have begun to invest in the local area, including petroleum, coal mines, iron ore, apatite, bauxite, chromium ore, titanium ore, tin ore, phosphate, rare earth, and various gem ore. Generally speaking, the resources in northern Vietnam are still abundant and close to the Qing Dynasty.

Wang Yi has a distribution map of major minerals from all over the world. Although it is not very detailed, it gives a general scope, which is already very helpful to the mineral companies related to Dashang.

However, one thing that is unexpected is that compared with the smooth handover in northern Vietnam, the southern Vietnamese region resisted the insurance team very fiercely. Wang Yi had no choice but to increase the efforts to clear the local resistance forces. This was not later generations, so the insurance team also did a lot of slaughtering villages. All men were killed, and women were sent to the Northeast to distribute to bachelor men.

Wang Yi has never had any good feelings for Vietnamese monkeys, and a group of ungrateful wolves. Perhaps it was shocked by the methods of the Da Shang's almost genocide. The resistance in the south finally gradually calmed down. The Vietnamese who believed in Catholicism were supported by the French. Under Wang Yi's tough measures, most of them were expelled by the insurance team, and the churches built by the French were completely burned by the insurance team. Because of this, the insurance team became synonymous with the devil in the minds of the Catholic believers in Vietnam.

"Welcome to you, Mr. Duke." Yang Qiuxing held a welcome dinner to Duke at the Prime Minister's Office in Shengjing. Because of the corresponding hierarchy, the two were able to meet at this time, and Zhao Liewen was responsible for the negotiations.

With Duke, there was also French Minister to China Bagner.

The dinner was of course very sumptuous, but Duke didn't have many opportunities to speak Yang Qiuxing, and most of them were compliments. For example, the Northeast was willing to maintain friendly relations with France, the Northeast was willing to cooperate with France, and conduct cooperative research in certain scientific frontier fields, etc.

After the dinner, Duke returned to the Shengjing International Hotel where he was staying. The French Minister Bagner came with him. It was the first time the two met. Bagner arrived first and had preliminary consultations with Zhao Liewen, and the person who made the decision was Duke. This was not a position worthy of happiness and pride.

"Well, this coffee tastes good! By the way, Mr. Bagner, what are the conditions in the Northeast?" After sitting down, the two of them were drinking coffee in the hotel room while talking about the progress of the negotiations.

Bagner shook his head and said, "So far there is no sign of loosening. There are still three conditions. First, take over all our colonies in Asia. Second, pay 500 million gold francs. Third, return all the wealth taken from Beijing during the Opium War."

Duke frowned, obviously not in a good mood, especially in a strong face such an aggressive opponent as Northeast China. As the chief of negotiations, Duke was under great pressure.

"How is the war in Vietnam going forward? Is there any possibility of a counterattack?"

Bagner sighed helplessly and said, "The only good news now is that our lost troops are finally reunited. Currently, under the command of Colonel Polyer, the number of troops has reached 10,000. However, lack of supplies, the Northeast fleet has blocked the coastlines of Vietnam and Cambodia. Unless we send a fleet that can compete with them... and at the same time, it must compete with their airship units, there will be no hope for supply. Because during the strategic transfer, our army has lost most of the guns and ammunition, so although our army now has a large number, only a few soldiers with guns are."

Duke certainly understood that the so-called strategic transfer is actually crazy escape.

"Is the Vietnam War really irreversible?" Duke still didn't give up.

"I think unless the people in the country change their minds and agree to make an expedition again..." Bagner did not continue because there was no need.

Duke rubbed his eyebrows, sighed, and said, "It's really troublesome!"

The two fell silent, only a desk lamp was on in the living room, Bagner leaned against the back of the chair, and his whole body seemed to be in the darkness. Duke looked at him with a haggard expression, as if his negotiating opponent was very difficult to deal with.

After a long time, Duke said: "It is difficult to start from the Northeast. Is it possible to start from the Qing court? For example, provoking civil strife, or other things that caught the Northeast off guard?"

Bagner shook his head and said, "Mr. I may have said five years ago, but now the Northeast wings are full. They act without seeing the Qing court's expression at all. In fact, sometimes the Qing court has to obey the arrangements of the Northeast. The only thing that is to be happy now is that the Northeast Autonomous Region is not without rivals in East Asia, one is Japan and the other is Tsarist Russia. During your journey, Paris has agreed to our plan to align with these two countries against the Northeast."

"There is still this!" Duke thought about it, but he did not take it to heart. Because Japan is very weak now, and although Tsarist Russia is strong, it does not have much presence in the Far East. Even if they want to launch an expedition to the Northeast, the number of people is small and not useful, and the number of people is too large... the huge logistics supply is not something that Tsarist Russia can bear now. The long winter is their biggest enemy. If it is coupled with the air raids and bombing of the Northeast airship troops and the occasional appearance of special operations teams, no one dares to imagine what kind of tragic situation Russia will face after the failure of this battle. It is precisely because of no certainty that Russian Tsar Alexander III was willing to withstand the huge domestic pressure and did not send troops to the Northeast.

"Where has the Russian railway been built?"

"I haven't entered the Asian territory yet!"

"I remember they didn't follow the example of the great development of the American Western Conference and proposed a plan to build the Siberian Railway?" Duke seemed to remember something.

Bagner shook his head and said, "Due to the lack of manpower and financial resources, this plan cannot be said to be stagnant, but progress is indeed very slow. Alexander III even hoped to plunder cheap labor from the Qing Empire. The Beiyang Lord Li Hongzhang agreed to the plan, but somehow the Northeast learned the news in advance. So they put huge pressure on the Beiyang. As a last resort, the central government of the Qing Empire had to reject the Tsarist Russia's request."

"I didn't expect there was such an inside story inside!" Duke sighed. "The day after tomorrow, Bagner, what strategy do you think we should use to negotiate. By the way, what is the ability of the Northeast Foreign Minister who fought with you?"

"Strategy..." Bagner shook his head and smiled bitterly, saying: "The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Northeast China is named Zhao Liewen. Like the traditional scholars of the Qing Dynasty, he looks gentle and elegant on the surface. But that's just a demonstration. This is a typical hawk representative in the Northeast government... This is the statement in the political circle of the Northeast government. Hawk representatives are tough, preemptive, and use force to solve all problems."

It was the first time Duke heard about it and was very interested and said, "What about the other faction?"

"Doves, they mainly deal with peaceful dialogue to solve problems, try not to use force, and are more willing to defeat others without fighting. But..." Bagner sneered.
Chapter completed!