After Li Hongzhang received the letter from Wang Yi attacking the Russian Far East, he was shocked. What surprised him even more was that the Russians seemed to have become dolls in front of him, without any resistance. Now Zhang Shusheng, Ding Richang, Zhou Fu, Zhang Peilun, Sheng Xuanhuai, etc. were sitting in the room, and basically all the big men from the Beiyang faction were here.

Li Hongzhang sat in the first place and said to the others: "There is so much news coming from Wang Yi. What do you think? Do we send troops to take over?"

Everyone fell into silence, and no one dared to express their opinions easily. Li Hongzhang was a little angry and slapped the table without much force and said, "Speak!"

"Sir, if we take over these lands, Russia may not even have negotiations, and they will start fighting directly." Zhou Fu said in a deep voice.

Everyone knew the benefits and interests of it, but the huge territory was placed in front of him, but he didn't even have the courage to seize it... Li Hongzhang shook his head.

"What should I do if I don't take it? Could it be that I will give it back to the Russians directly?" Zhang Peilun asked back.

"Then the people of the whole country will scold us to death!" Ding Richang muttered quietly.

Li Hongzhang glared at him, and Ding Richang hummed and stopped talking.

Zhang Shusheng said at this time: "If we don't take this piece of land, it will be too unfavorable for us Beiyang. Think about it, Lord Zuo carried the coffin to resist Russia, and we didn't even dare to take the land we got..."

Sheng Xuanhuai expressed his objection and said, "Brother Zhenxuan, this is a bad statement! What's the use of taking those lands? It's cold and frozen for half of the year. The most important thing is that the population is sparse, and it is said to be only tens of thousands of people. Even if there are some minerals underground, it requires a large amount of money from the imperial court, but the national treasury is empty, which is impossible."

"So, you are planning to throw away the land of your ancestors!" Zhang Peilun was an angry young man and directly choked Sheng Xuanhuai.

Sheng Xuanhuai was just a joy, and seemed to be disdainful of talking to Zhang Peilun.

Everyone was arguing, but Li Hongzhang never expressed his opinion. Zhou Fu suddenly thought of some problems and said, "Sir, has Wang Yi proposed any solution?"

"have!"

"Oh? How to solve it?" Everyone was curious.

Li Hongzhang looked at the presence and said, saying, "He said that if I don't accept the land, he would send someone to independence, and this matter would not have anything to do with the Qing Dynasty. If there is any problem, let the Russians go to Temple Street to talk to his people, whether to fight or not, and accompany them to the end."

Everyone heard the meaning, Zhou Fu thought about it, and it was a solution.

In the Russian capital St. Petersburg, Alexander II had received news that Amur and Binhai Prefectures were occupied by most of the people. He immediately found his confidants, the emperor's brother Nikola Ekolaevich, Prince Alexandrovic, Army Minister Dmitry Alexeyevich Miliukin, his illegitimate son Yevgeni Ivanovic Alexeyev, Russian Acting Foreign Minister Giles, Deputy Ministers Remeni and Butze.

"Amur and Binhai Prefectures have been attacked by the Qing people. What do you think should you do?" Alexander II roared.

"Isn't the Qing ambassador to Russia in St. Petersburg now?" said Nicholas. "Isn't it enough to ask him, and then we will decide whether to fight or to fight."

Everyone else agreed with the view of the emperor's brother Alexander II.

When Zeng Jize heard the summoned by the Tsar, he probably knew what he was doing. He came to the palace calmly and said, "I have met His Majesty the Emperor and all the ministers."

"Since your country has negotiated with our country, why should we break the peace and launch an attack on our Far East?" The prince spoke at this time. "Do you really want to fight with our country?"

Zeng Jize smiled and said, "I have heard what you said, but as far as I know, the situation seems to be completely different from what His Highness the Crown Prince said."

"What do you mean?" Alexeyev said.

"What I know is that our Qing Dynasty did not dispatch any troops to launch an attack on your country, and someone else was causing trouble in the Far East."

These people didn't believe it and said, "What the Ambassador says is serious?"

Zeng Jize nodded and said, "The one who caused trouble in the area north of Heilongjiang is a bandit named Lao Scorpion. He traversed both sides of Heilongjiang. It was him who attacked your territory and had nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty."

The Tsar and the ministers, look at me, look at you, but Mi Liujing said at this time: "Since he is a bandit, I don't know which country he is from? If you were from the Qing Dynasty, can you say it has nothing to do with you?"

Zeng Jize sneered: "The old scorpion is indeed from my Qing Dynasty. However, as far as we know, your country once secretly installed an arsenal in a place called Qinglonggou in Fengtian Province, our country, and sent troops to station it, recruit bandits and loot all over the country. How do you explain this?"

How did these people present know about such low-end things? Army Minister Mi Liujing directly denied: "Impossible! Our country will not do such things."

Zeng Jize glanced at them and said, "Two years ago, we encircled Qinglonggou, and the old scorpion was one of them. Later, he was rescued by evil people on the way to Shengjing. After that, we surrounded and suppressed him everywhere. He fled to your country, probably to Vladivostok. As for why he wanted to rebel, we don't know."

There are some truths and some falsehoods in this matter, and the Tsar and others don’t know how true or false it is.

Alexander II looked at Zeng Jize, but said to others: "Contact Vladivostok and ask about the incident!"

"Yes!" The court official was about to leave.

Zeng Jize smiled and said, "No need, Your Majesty the Tsar. Foreign ministers have learned the news this morning that Vladivostok was captured by bandits under the old scorpion yesterday, and your troops there were slaughtered by them. The remaining 50,000 or 60,000 people in Vladivostok are now about 15,000, all women. As for those warships have been seized or blown up by bandits! At the same time, they announced the establishment of the Northeast Republic!"

Everyone was shocked when they heard this.

Alexander II looked at Zeng Jize's calm appearance, his eyes were about to burst into flames. After staring at him for a long time, he said, "Mr. Ambassador can step down."

Zeng Jize nodded slightly, said hello to everyone, turned around and left, after taking a few steps, he seemed to remember something, and turned around and said, "The Chinese government has issued an edict. We will not sign the so-called "Rivagea Treaty". The sovereignty of Xinjiang cannot be tampered with, and there is no dispute over the ownership of the Ili region! Whether your country is talking or reconciled, please give foreign ministers a reply as soon as possible. If it is a peace, sign the treaty as soon as possible. If it is a war, after the foreign minister returns to China, General Zuo Zongtang will naturally be waiting for you to come in Xinjiang!"

After saying that, Zeng Jize shook his sleeves and turned around and left.

Alexander II raised his eyebrows slightly, and his eyes were filled with cold light.

Speaking of which, Wang Yi learned the trick of establishing the Northeast Republic from Tsarist Russians. When the Russians came to Mohe to steal gold, they then established the Gertuca Republic, trying to turn Mohe into a Tsarist Russian colony. Wang Yi did this so that he could give up on him by doing the same way, but this place was originally from the Qing Dynasty, but now it is just a matter of returning to the original owner.

Regarding the negotiation, Wang Yi asked Wu Xiao to help the old Scorpion, and Zhao Liewen and the three thousand newly trained infantry were also there.

Now Xiang Long is stationed in Vladivostok, and then sent troops north to slaughter Niman, and then swept away nearby farmers' villages, leaving no Russians. The old scorpion is stationed in Miao Street, and then goes to Sakhalin Island to clean up the remaining Russian soldiers and Russians on it. After Zheng Haitao returned to Mohe, he attacked Nibuchu westward, and then Chita, which is already Daxingan Mountain.

Only then did Wang Yi let everyone stop the offensive and clear the nearby villages and towns on the spot. The Russians killed them and took them away. The Han people and other ethnic groups were taken away. In the end, the army retreated and only set up a few observation posts at the important locations to monitor the situation of the Russians.

When facing the Russians, it would be nonsense to say that Wang Yi was not afraid. Later, I thought about it, just block the mouth and launch a big ship!

In January, he quickly convened an expanded meeting of the Dashang and Price Alliance, mobilizing various families to hire migrant workers from other provinces, with no limit on the number of visitors, the better. Then he ordered the cement factory and steel factory to stop all supplying to the outside world, and together with the Qichang Foreign Company, they began to build military forts in Vladivostok, Shuangchengzi, Nansakhalinsk (southern end of Sakhalin Island), Yizhi, Miaojie, Pulu, Tailun, Hongke, Boli, Chumikan, Urhintun, Yakssa, Nibchu, Chita and other places. At the same time, Dashang began to expand the scale of insurance teams and accelerate training. Even the newly established Dashang Railway Construction Company was arranged to go north to build bridges and railways in this virgin land.

February 26, 1881.

Chang Jinlong was having dinner with Wang Yizheng. During this period, the most tiring thing was not Wang Yi or Wu Xiao, but Chang Jinlong, who was responsible for the logistics supply of the entire Dashang Insurance Team. In just one month, he was obviously thinner. The entire supply of the soldier dispatch, ammunition dispatch, food dispatch, and the entire supply of the huge battlefield was completed by Chang Jinlong. Although he could not see any great achievements, he was the number one person who worked hard and made great contributions in the Dashang.

Chu Yuan walked in at this time and said, "Report to the captain, Beijing received the report. The Qing ambassador to Russia Zeng Jize signed the Sino-Russian Ili Treaty and the "Revised Land Trade Charter" with Tsarist Russian Acting Foreign Minister Giles in St. Petersburg. The Qing Dynasty took back Ili and partially abolished the original agreement's cemetery regulations; only Russia was allowed to set up consulates in Jiayuguan and Turpan; Russian merchants traded in Mongolia and other places to "no tax payments for the time being". However, they still lost the area west of the Horgos River and east of Zhaisang Lake. Through this agreement and subsequent boundary exploration agreements, China's more than 70,000 square kilometers of territory was transferred to Russia. The amount of "soldier expenses" compensation increased from the original 5 million rubles to 9 million rubles.

Wang Yi looked at the information and found that there was no change at all... However, the entire Sakhalin Island, south of Xing'an Forest and east of Daxing'an Mountain, has now become the land under the Dashang.

"In addition... Russian imperial envoy Buce will go to Miaojie in early May to hold talks with Lao Scorpion to discuss the status of the Northeast Republic. This is the news that Lord Zuo sent to us, so let us prepare as soon as possible."
Chapter completed!