Master Yuan, start!

Sergei Witte, who also serves as the Minister of Finance, knows clearly that relying on Russia's current national strength, it is not enough to send a large army to the Far East.

The mountains of East and West Siberia are too rugged, especially around Lake Baikal, where permafrost is everywhere, making it extremely difficult to build a single-track railway.

Even if we overcome the difficulty of Lake Baikal, there is still the huge Stanovoy Greater Khingan Range waiting to the north of the Amur River in the east.

If you want to send an organized force across Siberia, the cost of sending one person is basically enough to send 1 people to the East European Plain.

Or you can send 10 people to the Caucasus Mountains where they are confronting the Turks; or you can send 7 people to the Central Asian basin with abundant water and grass.

As Prime Minister, he always felt a headache whenever he thought about the poor land logistics situation in the Far East.

But sending troops from the sea is more troublesome than sending troops from land.

Russia is too far north!

Sending troops from Europe would almost require crossing the entire Indian Ocean and Africa!

How much combat effectiveness can soldiers still have after a long-distance raid?

In fact, if there had not been the "great support" of the Qing Dynasty in the original time and space, it would have been very difficult for the Russians to invade Outer Manchuria.

The communication distance of more than 1 kilometers between St. Petersburg and the banks of the Heilongjiang River, even with the help of telegraph, far exceeded the governance limit of Russia, a feudal capitalist country.

If the Qing Dynasty had opened up to immigration to Northeast China 50 years earlier, or even 20 years earlier, then millions of Chinese would have entered Outer Northeast China, and it would not have been invaded by Russia.

Therefore, when Yuan Shikai appeared in the Northeast and Korean regions of this time and space and was able to partially integrate the resources of the Northeast, the Russians' pace of colonization had to slow down or even shrink.

The impression that Russia was invincible in modern times was not because they were too strong, but because the Chinese at that time were too weak.

In fact, with a little armament, the Chinese can resist the Russian army without ideological buff.

You know, in 1920, the White Russian soldiers couldn't even defeat Zhang Zuolin.

...

Sergei Vetter didn't know the stories happening in the parallel universe.

However, after the failure in Vladivostok, he quickly adjusted his expectations.

He knew the financial situation of Russia and knew that it could not organize a Siberian expeditionary force in a short period of time.

Therefore, we can only turn to the French for help.

"I don't know, what does His Highness Nicholas mean?" Delcas asked without changing his expression.

"I heard that your country's Indochina colony is often harassed by our neighboring Siamese, is that right?" Nikolay said slowly after looking at Sergei Witt.

"It is true. The Siamese, with the support of Britain, are indeed not that respectful to the French Governor-General of Indochina." Delcassé nodded in affirmation, recalling his experience in the Colonial Ministry.

Yi: "That's right, Your Excellency."

K. Nicholas stood up from the Golden Throne, walked down the steps, and whispered with his teeth bared:

"It is said that Siam had a vassal state called Terengganu on the Malay Peninsula, across the sea from the French colony of Cochin.

I wonder if France can help Russia and rescue this country from the Siamese?

In this way, we can teach the Siamese a lesson and give the Russian Empire a foothold in the Far East. It is a win-win situation. "

Do you want to point to the South Pacific?

Delcas didn't expect that Crown Prince Nicholas's thoughts would be so jumpy.

After thinking about it carefully in his mind, he felt that this plan was very feasible.

3. First of all, as the Russians said, the Siamese learned a profound lesson and no longer had unrealistic fantasies about French Indochina.

Secondly, the Terengganu region is located on the Malay Peninsula, close to the British Straits Settlements. You know, that is the Strait of Malacca, known as the Suez of the Far East!

The British would not allow the Russians to intervene so easily. If they did so, they would have to move the center of their Far East colonies south, and the plight of the Taiwan colony would be alleviated.

However, Delcas didn't understand why the Russians had to travel all the way to Southeast Asia?

In fact, this was one of the means by which the Russians distracted Britain's attention.

When Prime Minister Sergei Witte realized that it was basically impossible to invest more in the Far East than the British, he quickly changed direction.

He decided to deplete Britain's national strength from two directions to buy a breathing space for Russia's Far East.

One is where the Russians can quickly gather their forces, such as Eastern Europe and the Black Sea coast.

The other type is places where British interests are very important, such as Egypt, India, and Southeast Asia.

The first thing was to reach a cooperation with the French in the Mediterranean, using major forces as a guarantee to agree to the "Crete Recovery Plan" that the Greeks had been proposing, and use Crete as a base to eye Egypt controlled by Britain.

Next, the secondary force was used as bait to lure the British military forces stationed in the northeastern Far East to the southeastern Far East.

In addition, there were conflicts between the French and the British in the interior of Africa.

By the time the Near East, Africa and the South Pacific were on fire, Sergei Witte did not believe that the British would have the energy to help the Khitans.

...

After some negotiations, French Foreign Minister Delcassé, Russian Crown Prince Nicholas and Prime Minister Sergei Witte successfully finalized the terms of the agreement and decided to sign the treaty in secret.

The contents of the Franco-Russian secret treaty are as follows:

If there is a danger of war, both sides should jointly negotiate countermeasures.

If the non-European part of France is attacked directly by British forces west of 50 degrees east longitude, Russia will support France with all its European forces.

When Russia's non-European areas are directly attacked by British forces east of the Strait of Malacca, France will support Russia with all its forces in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

In addition, Taiwan and the Indochina region are fully open to Russian warships and soldiers, allowing no more than 4 soldiers to train in the two places at the same time.

In this way, in July 1896, the Franco-Russian secret agreement, which was originally used to target the Germans in history, was transformed into a secret agreement to deal with the British colonial expansion under the flapping of Yuan Shikai's butterfly wings.

At the same time, in order to leave room for themselves and avoid endangering their homelands, both France and Russia emphasized "non-European areas" in the treaty to minimize the possibility of the situation escalating.

However, once a military alliance is established, it will not be easy to put the brakes on it.

The British will not give in, and France and Russia will naturally not choose to show weakness after forming an alliance.

...san

"I believe that Russia will regain the glory of the Peter the Great era!"

At the farewell dinner, Delcas raised his glass and praised Russia highly.

"Hurray! France will surely regain the glory of the Napoleonic era!" Prime Minister Sergei Witte also raised his glass and took a swig of vodka.

Crown Prince Nicholas, who was standing next to the Prime Minister, also raised his glass in greeting. Of course, he had different thoughts in mind.

It is not a problem for the French to regain the glory of Napoleon, but the prerequisite is that they must never interfere in Eastern Europe.

Through the glass, he saw the huge stone pillar in the Winter Palace Square commemorating the victory of the Anti-French War, and he was reluctant to look away for a long time.

It is an indisputable fact that there are also contradictions between France and Russia.

But no matter what, the two countries eventually came together under the pressure of the British.

When Delcassé boarded the ship with the draft secret agreement and returned to Paris, the battle on land in the Far East was about to come to an end.

Russians, have you figured out how to bear the consequences of losing the war?

Chapter 335: The Country is Happy and the Country is Sad

"Today, all work on the Tianniu is suspended" (Today, the weather is really nice)

In the sixth month of the lunar calendar, the plum rain lasted for a long time in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River where Shanghai is located. However, today, the sun is shining brightly.

It was a rare sunny day, so the passenger suffering from tuberculosis pushed open the cabin door and greedily took a few breaths of fresh air without moisture.

“China, here I come!”

The passenger, dressed in a tuxedo, walked down the gangway and set foot on Chinese soil.

The visitor was none other than the new Japanese ambassador to China, Mutsu Munemitsu.

In fact, based on his qualifications, Mutsu Munemitsu should not have served as an envoy.

He was a contemporary of Ito Hirobumi and participated in the anti-shogunate war from beginning to end. He also joined the Meiji government after its establishment and handled diplomatic affairs.

Later, Japan implemented measures such as returning the land and population to the original state, abolishing the feudal domains and establishing prefectures, and developing industry and commerce, and Mutsu Munemitsu participated in all of them.

However, because he sympathized with Saigo Takamori during the Southwest War and maintained contact with the Ao Liuqun:焐奇6３)４２ anti-government faction, he was arrested and imprisoned after the failure of the rebellion. Later, he was released from prison and went to study in Western Europe.

However, Ito Hirobumi still had a high opinion of Mutsu Munemitsu. After the establishment of the Yamagata Aritomo cabinet, Mutsu once served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

This Japanese diplomat, who was famous for his "cunning diplomacy" in history, was keenly aware of the importance of relations with China after Yuan Shikai established the Republic.

So, after learning that the Republic of China had been established, he took the initiative to volunteer to serve as the newly established Japanese Minister to China.

The so-called cunning diplomacy means being two-faced and combining coaxing and deception.

When the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 broke out in the original time and space, Japan dispatched troops to Korea, which made Russia deeply uneasy. However, Mutsu Munemitsu claimed that this move was only to protect Japanese expatriates and the Japanese embassy.

Immediately after Japan continued to send more troops into Korea, Russia became increasingly worried and began to complain to Japan. Mutsu Munemitsu claimed that he did not want to occupy Korea and was ready to withdraw his troops at any time at the same time as the Qing Dynasty.

After the Japanese army defeated the Qing army, the Russian army was extremely uneasy and put pressure on Japan again. Mutsu Munemitsu then claimed that Japan was only helping Korea to break away from China and gain independence, and would no longer interfere as long as Korea carried out reforms.

Find Shu.

What happened next is known to everyone.

Not only did Japan fail to fulfill its promise, it even created a Japan-South Korea union and annexed North Korea.

This kind of diplomatic tactics of small steps and quick progress, mixed with deception, was summarized by European diplomats as "Mutsu Diplomacy", while the Japanese called it "cunning diplomacy".

Essentially, this is a salami-slicing tactic, but with more diplomacy and less military intimidation.

Although Mutsu Munemitsu of this time and space has not yet brought this diplomatic theory to the international stage, he has already mastered its use when interacting with European and American personnel.

Therefore, after he became the minister to China, he looked forward to using his diplomatic skills to get a glimpse of the new country and gain more unexpected benefits for the Empire of Japan.

You should know that when Mutsu was studying abroad, he studied the constitutional systems of Britain, France, Germany and Austria for two years. During his time in the West, he worked hard to study the parliamentary systems and constitutional systems of various countries.

He couldn't believe that a republican regime could be born in such an extremely backward and corrupt land as the Qing Dynasty.

Even Japan has not yet entered the stage of a republic, so why should the Chinese?

If we understand this, can we find the secret to making Japan stronger?

Mutsu Munemitsu firmly believed this because he watched Yuan Shikai rise step by step from a local governor to the position of leader of a country.

So he believed that if the Chinese could do it, the Japanese could definitely do it too.

Just as Mutsu Munemitsu was imagining the bright future of Japan, he suddenly heard bursts of noisy shouting coming from near the dock.