Chapter 322 Solution (please vote for me!)

negotiation!

After three days of negotiations, everyone involved in the negotiations could realize that Lu Zhengxiang, as the Chinese representative, was stalling for time. On the first day, Japan was eager to negotiate as quickly as possible and talked all day long in order to end the negotiations as soon as possible and reach an agreement. In order to save Japan's face, Lu Zhengxiang used busy affairs and poor health as an excuse to talk every afternoon. When formal negotiations began and the Japanese side demanded an immediate ceasefire on the battlefield, Lu Zhengxiang kicked the ball to the president.

The next day, when Ishii Kikujiro was waiting with great anticipation to sign the ceasefire agreement, Lu Zhengxiang used the excuse that the Jiao'ao battlefield combat troops were Jiangsu local troops. The president needed to consult with Jiangsu Province and the Huaihai Economic Envoy before making a decision, and the negotiations resumed. Finish.

On the third day, Lu Zhengxiang requested that the meeting be held once a week on the grounds that he had many other diplomatic issues waiting for him to deal with, and that he had to attend cabinet meetings and that his health was too poor to support the negotiations. Finally, in Ishii Only after the compromise and the intervention of the British and French ministers did they reach a compromise with the Japanese side: the meeting was held three times a week, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and the time of each meeting was from afternoon to five o'clock. To this end, Lu Zhengxiang also Yuan Shikai was specifically consulted, and after receiving Yuan Shikai's consent, he solemnly stated that this "negotiation outcome" could be implemented.

In order to delay time, Lu Zhengxiang used various techniques to delay the first minute of the meeting as much as possible. Whenever the meeting started, his polite words would last for ten, fifteen or even twenty minutes, and then he would The waiter laid the whole table and placed the refreshments. He even specifically ordered all the attendants to walk slowly and steadily, light cigarettes and bow. After the offerings were completed one by one, this process would need to be interrupted for another thirty to forty-five minutes. , Ishii naturally knew that this was the Eastern etiquette of hospitality, and naturally could not refuse it.

After the negotiations started, everything had to be translated from Japanese to Chinese, and then from Chinese to Japanese, and at the same time, it had to be translated into English and French. Lu Zhengxiang was accustomed to paying attention to rhetoric, and he spoke elegantly but spoke softly and slowly. Shi Falu, who served as the translator, deliberately expressed that he could not hear Mr. Lu’s hometown accent and asked him to repeat it again from time to time.

Although Ishii Kikujiro was extremely dissatisfied, he had nothing to do with his delay and had to keep asking Zhu Erdian and others for help.

"It is now the fifth day. We hope that China can show real sincerity and effectively resolve the conflict between the two countries!"

I received several telegrams from Tokyo every day reprimanding Ishii Kikujiro for speaking out immediately after that long set of Eastern politeness.

Faced with Ishii Kikujiro's questioning, Lu Zhengxiang just kept smiling and explained in a pleasant manner.

"Special Envoy Ishii, ministers, everyone needs to know that our country's military strength is divided into central and local forces, and the troops on the Jiao'ao battlefield are local troops. This requires coordination between the central and local governments, so it will take a few days, but..."

As soon as the words changed, Lu Zhengxiang continued.

"For the sake of lasting peace between the two countries, with the permission of the President, we can enter into detailed negotiations first!"

After Shi Luze translated Lu Zhengxiang's words into Japanese, Ishii Kikujiro hesitated in his heart. Although he was eager to enter into detailed negotiations, he was worried that the Chinese would delay the ceasefire issue indefinitely.

After Zhu Erdian talked with Kant and Rui Enshi, the three nodded and vocally supported Lu Zhengxiang's suggestion.

"Special Envoy Ishii, if we can reach an agreement on detailed terms as soon as possible, then the conflict between Japan and China can be resolved quickly!"

After hesitating for a few minutes, Ishii Kikujiro nodded and agreed, hoping to reach an agreement as soon as possible! Negotiations must make some progress so that Tokyo can be given an explanation.

"Okay, now let's negotiate on the first clause proposed by your country!"

"Article 1 of the terms of settlement of the Sino-Japanese Jiao'ao Incident, the Japanese Empire unconditionally withdraws its troops from Shandong and Jiangsu!"

Almost as soon as Shi Luze finished translating Lu Zhengxiang's words, Ishii Kikujiro immediately responded.

"This is no problem!"

Withdrawal is exactly what Tokyo wants, so it will naturally not get entangled in these issues.

"Article 1, Paragraph 1, when the Japanese army invades China's Shandong Province, except for small and portable light weapons, other heavy weapons must be left in place and must not be destroyed..."

Although the Army was very resistant to this article, after discussion, the Army chose to agree. During the bombing and shelling of the China Army, more than two-thirds of the artillery had been destroyed. This article was also acceptable.

"we agree!"

The smooth progress of the negotiations far exceeded Zhu Erdian's imagination. In his view, after agreeing to the first clause, as long as the Japanese side agrees to the second clause, the negotiation may soon end and peace will be restored in the Far East again.

"Article 2: In view of the fact that a large number of soldiers in Japan's First Army are suspected of killing civilians, looting civilian supplies, rape and other military crimes, Japan needs to transfer the soldiers of the following units to our country for trial by our military court!"

"Our country will never agree!"

Ishii immediately objected, saying that China's conditions had been submitted to him by Chinese representatives as early as the beginning of the negotiations. The first clause only had three clauses, and it was this clause that the Army Headquarters strongly opposed.

It is absolutely unacceptable to hand over soldiers to the Chinese for trial. If accepted, the humiliation to the army will be greater than the annihilation of several divisions.

"This is a slander. The civilization of our military is obvious to all. It can never involve military crimes. Moreover, according to the war traditions of various countries, there is no precedent for transferring soldiers to other military courts for trial. I hope your country can carefully consider this clause. , in the spirit of peace, delete this clause!”

After Shi Luze translated Ishii's answer into Chinese, Lu Zhengxiang spoke slowly and quietly.

"Your Majesty the Special Envoy!"

After a pause, he continued after the Japanese translator translated.

"The crimes committed by your soldiers in Shandong are really heinous. More than 3,000 Chinese civilians were innocently killed, hundreds of villages were burned, and hundreds of women were raped. Is this what the civilized army did? for!"

While talking, Lu Zhengxiang took a photo from the folder. Many of those photos were taken by the Japanese army themselves. They were photos collected from dead bodies when the Jiangsu Army advanced. Many of the photos were taken by the Japanese army themselves. Photo taken by the Jiangsu Army near a looted village.

When the photo was forwarded to Ishii Kazuhei and the ministers of France and the United States, Lu Zhengxiang's voice became colder.

"We can allow Japanese soldiers who have committed no crimes to leave, but we will never let go of the enemies who massacred the Chinese people. Accept it or reject it! Please think twice! I hope you can give a clear answer after the next negotiation begins! "

After saying that, Lu Zhengxiang stood up and announced the end of the day's negotiations.

After the roar of the plane faded away, the once boiling world seemed to become silent for a moment.

Remaining smoke was rising from the charred crater, and the craters were next to each other, like wounds in the earth. On the edges of the crater where soil and vegetation had been rolled over, pieces of paper, radio parts and human limbs were scattered. Several officers sat blankly. On the "isolated island" between the craters, I stared blankly at the direction in which the Chinese plane that created the crater disappeared.

One of them is Lieutenant Commander Ogawa Taira.

In today's bombing, Lieutenant Colonel Ogawa was wounded again.

The last time he was killed was when the Fifth Division launched a night attack on the Chinese Army's defense line in Jiao'ao in early October. A mortar shrapnel maimed his left palm.

He was sent to the field hospital in the rear. The hospital was located near a hill in the west of Wanggezhuang Bay. He immediately discovered that although it seemed far away from the war zone and had a mountain as a cover, it was also a living hell.

The so-called field hospitals did not have anesthesia and performed operations directly. Some wounded soldiers died on the spot on stretchers converted into operating tables. Without medicines, the sutured wounds fester in the humid tropical climate, and white maggots burrowed in and out of the wounds. .

There is a saying in the Japanese army, "If the baggage can be counted as a soldier, a dragonfly can also be counted as an eagle." In other words, the logistics troops are not soldiers. In the Japanese army, there has always been a tradition of despising military depots, and this time in the Jiao'ao battle The Japanese army took the tradition of despising military depots to the extreme.

There was no food. Almost from the day when the main force of the First Army arrived in Jiao'ao, the First Army had been experiencing food shortages. At that time, they thought the battle would be won quickly, so each of the landing troops only brought five days' worth of food, and the transport ship only carried They had only enough food for twenty days and only enough ammunition for one month.

Who would have expected that the war would be protracted and the troops would stop early, but this was not the most fatal thing. The most fatal thing was that after the First Fleet suffered heavy losses off the coast of Lianyun, the Second Fleet withdrew from Qingdao and sailed to Lushun. Although the Army Transport ships were requisitioned, but those unescorted transport ships were repeatedly intercepted by the China Navy.

Later, although the Second Fleet sent warships to escort under pressure, in the face of bombing by aircraft, they could only choose to escort at night. Maritime transportation could only use destroyers after dark, and they were threatened by mines laid by the Chinese army. Even though A small number of destroyers delivered the supplies to the shore, but they often had no time to unload them and left in a hurry because of dawn. Moreover, they had to unload the ammunition first, which must be used for fighting.

After the Chinese Army formed an encirclement, the "battlefield collection" also disappeared. After losing the battlefield collection, food suddenly became tense. What was even more hateful was the China Army's aircraft. They would always bombard any tent at low altitude. Houses, warehouses, and food became even more scarce during this bombing.

In the field hospital, the wounded soldiers were not allocated rations, and all the rice they had was given to the combat troops. The weather was still very hot at that time and infectious diseases were prevalent in the hospital, and several people died every day. Flies were densely packed on the floor and fell on everyone. The wounded soldier's face and body were beaten and beaten without even moving.

Ogawa cut off half of his hand. He was highly educated and knew the consequences of wound infection. He used his pistol and power to coerce the military doctor into giving him two bottles of iodine. He also stole the alcohol from the hospital. He got into a small tent by himself. , his right hand never leaves the pistol, and he cleans his wounds with alcohol and iodine every day.

Around him, the groans of wounded soldiers continued all night long, including deep groans and shrill howls, like the dying cries of wild animals.

It is precisely because of this that Xiaochuan decided to return to the army. Sooner or later, he would go crazy or starve to death if he stayed in the hospital, and living people would turn into ghosts. Xiaochuan himself bandaged his palms and stuffed the stolen medicines into his military shoulder bag.

.By then he was very weak from hunger. He had never found food. He didn't know how others survived or where they hid their food. He cut down a branch to use as a walking stick and shook it.

I staggered onto the small train bound for the front line, but by then the train had long since run out of fuel and only had rail cars under human pressure.

On the rail car, no one paid attention to him, but along the way, all he saw was an unprecedented tragedy. During the two weeks he was in the hospital, the situation developed even more unfavorably for the Japanese army. Along the way to the front line,

Most of the people I encountered were injured, and those wounded all had expressions of numbness and despair...

This was an unprecedented fiasco. In just a few days, the situation had deteriorated to this point. This was far beyond his imagination. When he arrived at the front line, he found that the situation on the front line was worse than when he was in the hospital.

It got even worse. In the trenches, there were scattered soldiers lying horizontally and vertically. Most of their faces no longer had the confidence they had at the beginning. Some were just tired and hungry, and most of them were desperate and numb.

It was really hard for Ogawa to imagine that these soldiers could be his soldiers, his soldiers who were not afraid of death, but everything in front of him reminded him that the situation had deteriorated to the extreme.

Anyone who stays in the trenches will turn from human into ghost, and there will be nothing but void in the dark eyes.

Fortunately, the weather quickly cooled down. The white maggots that had been crawling in the noses, eyes, mouths and wounds of the dead bodies, and the flies that had covered the body disappeared as the weather turned colder, and all of them, even

Ogawa himself couldn't bear to watch anymore, let alone ordinary soldiers. After all this disappeared, the soldiers' mood finally improved.

But now, after a bombing, looking at the soldiers shivering in the cold wind, their thin autumn clothes were soaked by the rain, and they didn't even have blankets to keep them warm, it was at this time that he finally understood

Why do Chinese planes constantly use incendiary bombs to attack tents, warehouses, and houses?

Although the current temperature is only below zero, the Japanese officers and soldiers whose tents were burned down do not know what to do. Due to the cutoff in logistics, some of them are even wearing summer clothes, at most they are thin in early autumn.

Military uniforms, in order to keep their bodies warm, they searched for anything that could be tied to their bodies to protect them from the cold.

Despite this, it is still impossible to resist the cold wind in early winter. Qingdao's special geographical location makes the nights here colder than the days. There is no food and the body is cold. What will be the consequences of all this?

Ogawa, who was born in Hokkaido, knew it very well. At this time, Ogawa, who was sitting by the bomb crater, looked at the soldiers covered in blood. He could imagine that many soldiers might not be able to survive the night. They might be able to use firewood to keep warm in the trenches.

, but that undoubtedly indicates the target for the Chinese artillery. There are only a few pitiful field fortifications on the front line, and most of them are command posts for officers.

"Baga! There is no need to continue this war!"

A complaining sound came from not far away. Ogawa turned around and saw Major Sakata stepping on the soil beside the crater.

"If this continues, I'll surrender!"

Sakata's words only made Ogawa let out a deep sigh in his heart and surrender... I had never thought about this, but it seemed to be an option.

Dawn, the arrival of another dawn.

When dawn came, General Asada Nobuyoshi looked at the report in his hand in a not-so-conspicuous earthen house among the ruins of Wanggezhuang.

One night, but just one night, 1,365 soldiers froze to death, perhaps from freezing or from starvation. In short, now, severe cold and hunger have become the First Army's biggest enemies.

At this time, the Chinese-born army general frowned. The weather was getting colder and colder. If it continued like this, within half a month, the First Army would starve to death and freeze to death without the need for the Chinese Army to attack.

In Jiaoao.

"Well, the negotiations haven't made progress yet?"

Asada Nobuyoshi, who was born in the Chinese ethnic group, does not have the consciousness of "die together". In fact, in his view, "die together" is undoubtedly wrong. It is the behavior of a desperate coward. However, his idea is not shared by everyone.

It is understandable that the front line is now trying to break through the China Army's defenses and open up the China Army's siege every day. Although he knows that such actions are futile, he can only accept these suggestions.

Just because he doesn't agree doesn't mean that others don't agree.

"Yes, Your Excellency!"

Lieutenant General Naohachiro Kurita, Chief of Staff, replied.
To be continued...