Chapter 132: Ten Thousands of Life Not Successful**

After lunch, Kawashima and others returned to the lounge. For them, everything here was surprising because he was so extraordinary. It seemed to be full of vitality and struggle, especially the sports facilities here were very complete, allowing the soldiers to move from beginning to end, and there was no monotonous mechanical repetition. Although they just looked at it from a distance, the people next to Kawashima Sulang immediately took out the notebook and wrote them down, and drew these sports events on the notebook. At the same time, the three Japanese looked solemn. The 17th Mixed Brigade was so different from other Chinese troops, which was a great disadvantage to the Japanese Kwantung Army.

Finally, when Wang Maoru finished the meeting, Ren Yuanxing took them to the conference room again. Wang Maoru asked with a look of confusion and said, "Kun Kawashima, I wonder what the hell is going to do today?"

Kawashima Sura went straight to the topic and said that you had captured a member of our Black Dragon Association, named Maeda Shinenge, a native of Kyushu, and a senior member of the Black Dragon Association. In this regard, the Japanese government, the Japanese Kanto Army, and the Japanese Black Dragon Association hoped that the 17th Mixed Brigade would release people as soon as possible, and explained the 17th Mixed Brigade's arbitrary attack on the Hulunbuir Autonomous Government. Wang Maoru smiled and said that Kawashima Jun was in negotiations on behalf of the Japanese government? I wonder what official position you are in the Japanese government? Kawashima Sura said that he did not represent the Japanese government, he was just representing himself, conveying his meaning to Wang Maorujun in Japan, and he did not want Wang Maorujun to have any conflicts with the Japanese government. Moreover, the Japanese government hoped to cooperate with Wang Maorujun. Many senior Japanese officials valued Wang Maorujun very much and hoped that you could become a friend of the Japanese.

Wang Maoru said that I hope to be friends with the Japanese, but you don’t want it. Our enemies in the Far East are Russians, not each other. So, it is difficult for me to understand your support for the Russians. The rebels of Hulunbuir Autonomous Government held Russian guns in their hands and were commanding by you Japanese. How do you make me believe that the Japanese hope to be friendly to me?

Kawashima Sura said that these Japanese are Japanese ronin and make a living by making money. Some people hire them to work hard for others. However, the Japanese side does not want any Japanese to be harmed, and Maeda, as a prisoner of war, should enjoy the treatment that prisoners of war should have.

Treatment of prisoners of war? Wang Maoru sneered in his heart and said, "In this way, I hope to reach an oral agreement with you through this matter. What do you think?"

"Si Shengjun, please speak."

Wang Maoru said: "I hope to reach three agreements with you. One is to no longer support the Hulunbuir Autonomous Government. Two is to cooperate with us. Three is I know that you have conducted surveying and mapping in Dongmeng. I hope to get a complete set of East Mongolia maps. Four is the agreement and release of people. I can only carry out secretly. I let Maeda go privately, and we also reached an agreement in private. You must know that there is a conflict between our two countries because of the "Twenty-One" issue, so we can only make an agreement verbally. How about?" The most important thing for these three requirements is the third one, that is, the Japanese map of East Mongolia. This is what he cares about and needs. It took the Japanese twenty years to map the East Mongolia map.

Kawashima Sura sneered in her heart that the little boy was not aware of the world, but said, "It's important. I hope to discuss it with the superiors, but please be sure to release Maeda Jun in the near future."

Wang Maoru said: "Okay, it's okay to release Maeda Xinsengwei, but the others were beaten to death for helping Kifu--since they make money as mercenaries, they must know that mercenaries are working hard in addition to making money. Kawashima Jun must agree with this?" Since Maeda's capture was discovered, under pressure from Japan, Wang Maoru had to release people. The news from Yue Qinan's torture was that Japan did not send a team, but sent more than a dozen teams to infiltrate the army of a prince in the East Mongolian king. Maeda was just a representative.

Now that the anti-Japanese trend in the country is surging, the agreement reached by Wang Maoru and the Japanese can only be a secret agreement, not a sign or reveal, but only a verbal secret agreement. In fact, this anti-Japanese trend is not caused by Yuan Shikai. After the Japanese occupied Shandong, they felt that they should have greater benefits from weak countries, so they proposed the "Twenty-One" to the Yuan Shikai government in an attempt to gain more benefits.

Japan proposed the "Twenty-Electronic Articles" in fact, because it had predicted that China would lack the ability to resist, so it warned Yuan Shikai from the beginning that it was a secret treaty that must be agreed quickly and not leaked. If China did not agree, Japan would advance together by sea and land and launch a large-scale attack. However, the great powers at that time were not able to interfere. Although the United States had not intervened in the European war, it was unwilling to stop Japan's invasion plan alone. In this regard, Japan had a strategic estimate, so it became unscrupulous.

"Twenty-Eighteen Articles" is the most serious diplomatic crisis since Yuan Shikai entered politics. Fortunately, his response was quite effective and appropriate. Yuan Shikai's first measure was to use various channels to find out the Japanese trump card. He first sent Japanese consultant You Changxiong to return to Japan to visit Japanese political veteran Matsukaya Matsukaya and Yama Prefecture Akito to investigate the inside story. Then he sent someone to spend a lot of money to buy Japanese spies to investigate the relevant situation of the Japanese side, so as to gain the initiative in the negotiations.

In order to cooperate with the survey activities, Yuan Shikai deliberately adopted a delay tactic during the negotiations. He first replaced Sun Baoqi, who was not very good at diplomatic negotiations, and once again activated the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Lu Zhengxiang, who was good at negotiating in difficult situations. He also instructed Lu Zhengxiang and Cao Rulin to discuss each item during the negotiations, and must delay time and not be led by the Japanese.

Lu Zhengxiang is a rare diplomatic talent in modern Chinese history. In order to implement Yuan Shikai's instructions, he also thought of many ways. For example, Japan proposed to hold a discussion every day, while Lu Zhengxiang proposed it with a kind look. His affairs were very busy and could only hold a meeting once a week, which finally made the Japanese side compromise and had three talks a week. During each negotiation, Lu Zhengxiang always deliberately shortened the meeting time. For example, whenever he held a meeting, Lu Zhengxiang ordered to offer tea after finishing his opening remarks and tried to delay the tea time. This was in sharp contrast to the anxious Japanese representatives. But the Japanese representatives were helpless because this was an etiquette in the East after all.

Yuan Shikai's efforts were finally rewarded. The information he learned through various channels showed that the "Twenty-One Articles" did not go through the imperial meeting (if you want to use force, you must go through the imperial meeting), but was a secret action taken by the Shigetsuno Okuma Cabinet. As a result, Yuan Shikai revealed the content of the "Twenty-One Articles" step by step through newspapers and diplomatic channels, which caused an uproar.

"Twenty-Eighteen Articles" immediately became the headlines in the media in New York and London, which made it impossible for Japan to try to end the secret negotiations with China as soon as possible. After learning the content of the "Twenty-Eighteen Articles", the US Secretary of State immediately sent a note to China and Japan, declaring that the United States would not recognize any of the treaties concluded by China and Japan violated the open door policy. After learning the news of the "Twenty-Eighteen Articles", the domestic people were even more indignant. Telegrams from all walks of life at home and abroad demanded that the government face the war of resistance against Japan fly like snowflakes, which put great pressure on both sides of the negotiations at that time.

Under pressure from all parties, the Sino-Japanese negotiations also fell into a deadlock, and four months passed. Seeing that the Japanese could not make progress at the negotiating table, they then increased their troops in the Northeast, Shandong, Fujian coastal areas, and other places, and put forward an ultimatum on May 7, restricting China to give Japan a "satisfactory reply" to the No. 1 to Fourth and its Fujian issue within 48 hours, otherwise they would have to use "necessary means".

Under such circumstances, Yuan Shikai convened the heads of various government agencies to hold a meeting, including Vice President Li Yuanhong, Secretary of State Xu Shichang, Chief of Staff, Chief of Staff, Chief of the Ministry, President of the Department, etc. At the meeting, Yuan Shikai spoke indignantly, saying that when "the national strength is not sufficient and it is difficult to fight with each other", he can only temporarily get humiliation at present, otherwise he will repeat the mistakes of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. Weigh the interests and the risks of accepting the Japanese ultimatum are so heartbroken! What a shame! After this great disaster, everyone must take this as a great humiliation to accept Japan's request, and in the spirit of lying on firewood and tasting gall, they will work hard and work hard. Otherwise, ten years later, not only will they not be able to compete with Japan, the danger of destruction will be even worse today!

On May 9, 1915, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Lu Zhengxiang, Deputy Minister Cao Rulin and Chinese negotiator Shi Luben handed over the final revised version of the "Twenty-One Articles" to the Japanese Minister Hiroshi, and the crisis was temporarily resolved. According to the later recollection of the person involved, Cao Rulin, "At that time, I felt desolate and felt like I was personally surrendering." In the face of the national humiliation, all Chinese people felt the same way.

Although it is a city alliance under the pressure of soldiers, if the original "Twenty-One Requirements" proposed by Japan and the signed new contract, the two are still different. In the four-month arduous negotiations, Japan canceled the most brutal No. 5 requirement under pressure from all parties; the fourth deletion of "all coastal harbors and islands in China will not be leased or given to other countries" will be removed by China itself; the two items in the third item were deleted, and the unlimited immigration and Japanese business taxation required by Japan in Article 1 and 2 must be approved by the Japanese consul, "China will definitely not accept it". Other articles are either "leave for future consultation" or have restricted conditions added. In the end, only the "Twelve Articles" were signed.

Japan's barbaric and evil deeds aroused great anger among the Chinese people. At that time, the governors of 19 provinces across the country expressed their determination to support the central government. They kept calling on the central government to never surrender to Japan's pressure, and the Presidential Office also received letters and telegrams like a flood every day. For a time, the people's sentiment was boiling, some boycotted Japanese goods, some destroyed their families to relieve their difficulties, and the people's patriotism became increasingly intense. Even overseas students and overseas Chinese rushed to appeal and firmly opposed the signing of the "Twenty-One".

In the wave of protests that lasted for more than eight months, Japan became a rat crossing the street, not only suffered significant economic losses, but also under pressure from the United States, Britain and Russia and other countries internationally. As the historian Tang Degang in the United States commented: "Although Japan tried its best to put forward the 'Twenty-one requirements' to destroy China, it became notorious, and later it ended with a loud thunder and a small raindrop, and laughed for the world."

Not only that, Okuma Shigenobu also stepped down because he rashly proposed the Twenty-One Articles without the Imperial Conference, which resulted in a diplomatic failure (as Japan believes). Masato Desauchi, who took over as Prime Minister, later had to admit: "The Okuma Cabinet demanded the Twenty-One Articles from China, which aroused resentment from the entire Chinese, but Japan had no real interests."
Chapter completed!