The next day, the two sides officially began negotiations.

Although yesterday's banquet ended unhappily, Hirobuki Ito still looked humble today. He must bow and nod before speaking, and his face was cautious. This also made Qin Zheng secretly admire that the Japanese's tolerance skills were indeed very impressive.

After Hirofumi Ito returned to his residence yesterday, the entourage of the Japanese negotiating team was quite annoyed by what happened at the banquet. They believed that East China ** was deliberately humiliating Japan, and they demanded to protest to East China ** or ask the United States and Germany to uphold justice for Japan. Some people believe that the negotiations with East China ** should be terminated immediately.

In fact, yesterday's banquet made Hirobuki Ito quite annoyed, because everyone knew that using food and chefs from Kyoto to entertain Japanese negotiation teams was clearly intentional humiliation. However, Hirobuki Ito immediately remembered that when Li Hongzhang went to Maguan for negotiations 12 years ago, when Li Hongzhang went to Maguan to negotiate, he set up a puffer fish banquet to entertain Li Hongzhang. He once told Li Hongzhang that the puffer fish in Weihai was delicious, so how could he consider Li Hongzhang's feelings at that time? But of course it was very pleasant at that time, but now that he had changed to Li Hongzhang's position, Hirobuki Ito realized how embarrassing this taste. Perhaps this is called the cycle of reincarnation.

However, Hirofumi Ito is a person who takes the overall situation into consideration. Although he is angry, he also knows that protest is useless. The United States and Germany will not stand up for Japan, and it is even more impossible to terminate the negotiations with East China. Because Japan now needs to stop the war as soon as possible, he can only patiently dissuade everyone. He also listed the example of Tokugawa Ieyasu and persuaded everyone that at this time the negotiation team must endure humiliation and complete the negotiations. Under Hirofumi Ito, the Japanese negotiating team was not willing to endure this breath and participated in today's negotiations as scheduled.

After the two sides sat down at the negotiating table, Qin Zheng first said: "Does Japan have any treaty herbs in this negotiation?"

Hirobuki Ito said: "We have not prepared the herbs for the treaty, but we can use the herbs of East China as the basis for negotiations." Because of this negotiation, Japan has already prepared for compensation, so it is naturally difficult to formulate the herbs of the treaty. Bi Mian writes more and less, so it is not good to write more and do not prepare. It is enough to directly use the herbs of East China as the basis for negotiations, and at the same time it can also hide its trump card. Although the one in East China may have a big talk, it can still bargain slowly.

Qin Zheng didn't care, and immediately handed Hirobu Ito, the folder containing the herbs of the treaty drafted by East China **.

Hirobu Ito took the folder with both hands. When he opened it, he saw that there were not many contents, and there were only 4 pieces in total, written in Chinese and Japanese.

1. Japan admitted the mistake of launching the war and officially apologized to China;

2. Japan compensates East China **1.2 billion yen and converts it into pound, franc, German mark, US dollar or gold, silver payment

3. The two sides formally establish diplomatic relations, and the level can be tentatively determined to be consular level;

4. The two sides establish reciprocal economic and trade relations, and the contents of the two sides can be negotiated separately.

After reading it, Hirobuki Ito frowned slightly. Overall, the conditions proposed by him to come to East China were not more than he expected. Although 1.2 billion yen was indeed more than expected, he could still bargain. I believe that East China has reserved a certain amount of bargaining space for this price.

It is normal for East China ** to pay compensation in pounds, francs, German marks, US dollars or gold and silver, because there is no internationally accepted currency yet. If you pay for yen, Japan can print out the amount of East China ** you want. There is no need to spend so much effort. In addition to gold and silver are the expensive internationally accepted, the four countries in the world are currently the four most economically powerful countries in the world, and their currencies are also the most circulated internationally. In the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the 230 million taels of silver compensated by the Qing court to Japan were converted into pounds. Therefore, this requirement is not an exaggeration.

As for establishing formal diplomatic relations and reciprocal economic and trade relations, in Hirofumi Ito's opinion, there is no big problem in principle. After all, East China is actually a country now, and sooner or later it will be replaced by the Qing court. Therefore, at most, there is some confusion about some details.

Only the first one surprised Ito Hirobuki. He really didn't expect that East China ** would formally ask Japan to admit its mistake and apologize. In fact, this article has no substantial significance. In Ito Hirobuki's opinion, what can I do if I agree? I will not pay a penny if I admit it wrong and apologize. It's like I pretending to be afraid and admit it, as long as I can reduce the compensation a little. But Ito Hirobuki also understands that this article is absolutely unparalleled in Japan. The reason is very simple, it is face.

After the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Japan generally looked down on China, but it was unable to get rid of the influence of Chinese culture in culture. Japan's face culture is basically even better than China. Simply put, Japan's face culture is to never admit its mistakes. What's more, let alone let the country admit its mistakes? Ito Hirofumi can already think of what kind of waves will cause in China after this draft is passed back to China.

Hirobu Ito was meditating for a while before saying: "Speaker Qin, 2, 3, 4, except for some discussions in details, we can basically accept it, but the first one is something we absolutely cannot accept."

Qin Zheng said: "Why?"

Hirobuki Ito said: "The cause of this war was that Japan was to prevent Russia from expanding in Asia. This was to safeguard Japan's interests and also to safeguard China's interests. It was just that the battlefield was set on China's territory. It was Japan's inadequate consideration and did not take into account the emotions of the Chinese people, so it had a war with the East China **. However, this was Japan's mistake, not a mistake. We can compensate China for the losses caused, but we cannot admit that Japan was wrong."

Qin Zheng sneered and said, "Can you start a war in the territory of a third country at will? Can this be explained by mistake?"

Komura Sutaro couldn't help but say, "This has been recognized by the Qing Dynasty. The Qing Dynasty also set up a war zone for this." He paused and said, "I have no intention of doubting the power of East China over the Northeast, and I also agree with the current jurisdiction of East China over the Northeast. However, when Japan launched a war, the Northeast region was a territory belonging to the Qing Dynasty in fame, but was actually occupied by Russia."

Qin Zheng said: "Did the Qing Dynasty demarcate the war zone before or after the war begins?"

Komura Sutaro was stunned for a moment, but could only say, "It's after the war."

Qin Zheng smiled and said, "Isn't that clear? You have already started fighting, so what can the Qing Dynasty do? This is obviously forced, and they do not have the ability to drive you all out. What can I do except set up a war zone? But the Qing Dynasty does not have the ability, so we participated in the war, but this does not mean that Japan is not at fault. If there is any mistake, it should apologize, right?"

Komura Sutaro wanted to argue a few words, but was stopped by Hirofumi Ito and said: "We need to carefully study the draft treaty for East China ** and also ask for instructions from the country, so we hope to give us a few days of grace."

Qin Zheng said: "Yes. I wonder how many days it will take for Japan?"

Hirobu Ito thought about it and said, "Three days."

Qin Zheng nodded and said, "Okay, let's continue talking in three days, and that's all here today."

After saying that, both sides stood up and left.

After leaving the negotiation venue, Li Songchen smiled and said, "Political Commissar, this time it is probably a headache for the Japanese."

In fact, East China ** put the requirement that Japan apologizes for mistakes first, of course it is intentional, because from the experience of the old time and space, the Japanese will never admit their mistakes. The more they refuse to admit their mistakes, the more they ask Japan to admit their mistakes and use them as bargaining chips for negotiations. If Japan wants to make East China ** give up on this article, it can only make concessions on other terms; of course, if Japan accepts this article and is willing to admit its mistakes to East China **, then East China ** can just oppress Japan on other terms. You have admitted that you are wrong, so what else can you say?

Sure enough, after Hirofumi Ito sent the herbs of the East China Treaty to China, it immediately caused an uproar in Japan. Japanese officials said that they could never admit that it was a mistake to start a war, nor could they apologize to the East China. Otherwise, not only would Japan have no face, but even the emperor would be shamed. Although there were a few clear-headed people who believed that if the East China was willing to make concessions in the amount of compensation, it would be acceptable for Japan to admit its mistake and apologize, but these voices were too small and were quickly suppressed by the voices that refused to apologize.

So the Japanese cabinet replied to Hirobuki Ito, instructing it to absolutely not accept the first item. Hirobuki Ito could only sigh and suddenly remembered a sentence I just learned from Naotao Miyamoto, "I am not afraid of opponents like gods, but I am afraid of teammates like pigs."

Three days passed quickly, and the negotiations began again, and the two sides quarreled for a day over the apology and admitting their mistakes. However, no one wanted to take a step back on this issue, and the negotiations fell into a deadlock in the first article.

Hirobuki Ito also knew that this was not a solution, because Japan could not afford it. Although the two sides had already ceased to fight, the People's Army still occupied Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe, and continued to transport the population and wealth of these three places back to Qingdao. Japan was still losing blood. Therefore, before the negotiations on this day, Hirobuki Ito proposed that even if the two sides argued on the first article, it would be better to put this article on the first article first, negotiate other terms, and then go back to talk after the other terms were negotiated.
Chapter completed!