"Mr. Sun, should we send more people to find them?" Chen Qimei asked Sun Yat-sen in a low voice.

Sun Yat-sen's already extremely gloomy face twitched slightly, becoming even more unsightly. "At this point, they still want to act on their own!" After saying this, Sun Yat-sen couldn't help but slap the tatami mat forcefully.

"Zhiqing, you go guard the door now. Those who went out, no matter who comes back, make them wait outside!" Sun Yat-sen said in a dignified voice to Jiang Zhiqing, who was standing by.

"Yes!" Jiang Zhiqing didn't say much. After hearing Sun Yat-sen's order, he responded and walked to the door with large strides.

Wang Jingwei hurriedly persuaded, "Mr. Sun, isn't this not very good? Even if they went out, they may not necessarily be acting on their own. It's more likely they just went to inquire about news."

Sun Yat-sen glared at Wang Jingwei with a look of hating iron for not becoming steel. "Yesterday Qimei already said that everyone should not act on their own. These people who went out today all agreed yesterday. If they went to inquire about news, why didn't they tell me first? Do I really not trust everyone? Is everyone forced to do things so sneakingly? Words said last night can be completely forgotten this morning? Is everyone's memory that bad?"

Wang Jingwei fell silent; he indeed couldn't refute Sun Yat-sen's righteous accusation. But the Tongmenghui had always acted this way: loose organization, lax discipline. Actions depended entirely on momentary impulse, and whether right or wrong, just one sentence "I did this for the revolution!" could counter all accusations. Wang Jingwei himself felt helpless about the Tongmenghui's performance in this aspect.

Hu Hanmin also chimed in at this time, "Jingwei, Mr. Sun has long wanted to rectify party affairs. He suffered from having no opportunity. If it were before, everyone still had no hope for the revolutionary path. If we rashly rectified, it would instead hurt everyone's hearts. But the current situation is different; the Japanese side will definitely support us. If we don't rectify now, and comrades still act like this in the future, wouldn't it cause big trouble?"

Wang Jingwei basically agreed with Hu Hanmin's words, but he still didn't quite understand this "big trouble."

Seeing Wang Jingwei's confused face, Chen Qimei simply made it clear, "Now the new government hasn't been established, so only Mr. Sun has this qualification. But after the government is established in the future, some people will get government official positions. If they cause trouble then, how do we deal with it? If the Japanese do some tricks behind the scenes, that would be the real big trouble!"

Hearing Chen Qimei's words, Wang Jingwei suddenly realized. The "big trouble" Chen Qimei and Hu Hanmin referred to was that some people, after becoming officials of the new "Beiyang Government," would take the opportunity to seize Sun Yat-sen's power with Japanese support. Although he felt this worry was a bit inconceivable, Wang Jingwei finally understood one thing: why Chen Qimei could become Sun Yat-sen's true confidant, while he was always a bit worse than Chen Qimei.

Having figured out this joint, Wang Jingwei quickly declared his position, "I firmly support Mr. Sun to serve as the Grand President, and I also only support Mr. Sun to be the Grand President. Whoever opposes, I will be irreconcilable with that person!"

Chen Qimei patted Wang Jingwei's shoulder with satisfaction. Hearing Wang Jingwei's confession, Sun Yat-sen's face also looked much better.

The promoter of forming a new "Republic of China" government with Sun Yat-sen and the Tongmenghui as the core this time was Katsura Taro. Katsura Taro certainly wouldn't be stupid enough to believe that Zhang Zuolin would sincerely cooperate with Japan. So Japan absolutely couldn't recommend Zhang Zuolin as a cooperation partner. So Japan must support a "Republic of China" government with a status higher than Zhang Zuolin but without real power. This way, Japan could fully use the contradictions between the two to play various tricks.

Because Sun Yat-sen embezzled railway survey funds and was forced to leave for Japan in the name of inspection, the Japanese side didn't care originally. For the people Sun Yat-sen owed money to not to trouble Sun Yat-sen, the Japanese government had already done its utmost. However, with the change in the situation, Sun Yat-sen quickly became a rare commodity.

However, based on the intelligence collected by Katsura Taro, Sun Yat-sen was not a very decisive person. But in this matter, Sun Yat-sen's reaction speed was exceptionally fast. After a fierce but brief internal struggle, Sun Yat-sen actually rectified his subordinates, organizing them into a quasi-military organization establishment and conducting various quasi-military trainings. The result was that temporarily no one left the main group to act alone.

However, such a model simply couldn't confront the Japanese Army Ministry's intelligence system; at most, it just added a little trouble to the intelligence department. Two days later, materials regarding Sun Yat-sen's internal rectification were sent to Katsura Taro in considerable detail.

First was the change in organization. The Tongmenghui was changed to the Chinese Revolutionary Party. The new party constitution stated that the Chinese Revolutionary Party aimed to consolidate the republic and implement the people's livelihood doctrine. At the same time, the new party constitution relaxed the conditions for joining the party, stipulating that anyone who agreed with the party's tenets, was introduced by two party members, and paid a party fee of 10 yuan could join the party.

In terms of organizational discipline, the Chinese Revolutionary Party stipulated that joining the party required pressing a fingerprint and swearing obedience to Sun Yat-sen personally. Sun Yat-sen personally possessed the power to punish Chinese Revolutionary Party members, and a special Punishment Department was set up to be responsible for punishing party members who violated the Chinese Revolutionary Party's discipline.

Article 4 of the new party constitution stipulated: "All Tongmenghui members can become members of this party, and receive this party's certificate with the Tongmenghui member certificate."

After reading these, Katsura Taro threw the report back on the table. He knew that Sun Yat-sen's Japanese wife Otsuki Kaoru was now living with Sun Yat-sen. For some reason, a picture emerged in Katsura Taro's mind: Sun Yat-sen sitting on the main seat in the hall, embracing Otsuki Kaoru in his arms. And a group of former Tongmenghui members lined up in order, raising short knives or something one by one, pledging loyalty to Sun Yat-sen, the current party leader of the Chinese Revolutionary Party, personally.

Although he knew this picture was actually a Japanese yakuza initiation ceremony, Katsura Taro just couldn't easily eliminate such an imagination from his mind.

"Mr. Katsura! Do we need to take any action against Sun Yat-sen and his subordinates?" the intelligence officer asked.

"Let them be," Katsura Taro replied calmly. Such changes had no impact on the Japanese side at all, and the Japanese side even sincerely welcomed such changes. If Sun Yat-sen and these people couldn't unite closely, when they sang a rival show with Zhang Zuolin, it would instead make it troublesome for the Japanese side.

On September 17, after multiple rounds of consultation and negotiation between Japan and Sun Yat-sen and others, the Japanese side formally recognized the request headed by Sun Yat-sen, the Vice Minister of Railways of the Republic of China, and recognized the Republic of China government-in-exile headed by Sun Yat-sen. Sun Yat-sen immediately took up the post of Grand President of the government-in-exile, Wang Jingwei took up the post of Premier of the State Council, Hu Hanmin took up the post of Speaker of the Parliament, and Chen Qimei took up the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Three Services.

Soon, the government-in-exile held a signing ceremony for the "Sino-Japanese Mutual Assistance and Friendship Treaty" with the Japanese government. In the treaty, with a stroke of his pen, Sun Yat-sen promised various Chinese interests that had never belonged to him to Japan. This treaty was called the "Sino-Japanese Alliance Treaty" by later generations.

The news of the establishment of the new "Beiyang Government" in Japan soon reached Beijing. The ministers of various countries in China felt somewhat dumbfounded by this. When the British Minister and the French Minister were having afternoon tea together, they had to admit that this was a clever choice. Britain and France couldn't declare war on the People's Party. Under these circumstances, Japan's best method was to support a "Beiyang Government" close to Japan. With this new "Beiyang Government," Japan could firstly ask Britain and France to support this new government, and secondly, could fully use the restoration of this government's rule to fully intervene in Chinese affairs.

The French Minister said to the British Minister with ill intentions, "It seems Japan is indeed going to leave the British government and act alone."

The British Minister didn't react to such provocation at all; the Japanese side had already secretly notified the British Minister of this matter. In the notification, the Japanese side stated that the People's Party intended to seize Korea, so Japan had to take such response measures. Moreover, the Japanese side also pointed out that the People's Party very likely had its own designs on Annam (Vietnam) as well.

These days, the British Minister's attitude towards the People's Party had changed significantly. He no longer regarded the People's Party as an ordinary local force, but considered the People's Party as a legitimate Chinese government, especially a very capable legitimate Chinese government. From this perspective, Korea and Annam were China's strategic wings. Korea inserted into the Sea of Japan, which was crucial to the Far East. And Annam inserted deeply into the South China Sea, a strategic key point in Southeast Asia. If a capable legitimate Chinese government didn't want to retake these two regions, the British Minister absolutely wouldn't believe it. And now was also the best opportunity to retake these two regions.

Of course, if the People's Party could really retake these two regions, then they would completely offend Japan and France. Even if they could win, after the European War ended, the People's Party would inevitably pay a greater price. With People's Party Chairman Chen Ke's intelligence, how would he choose? This was a matter the British Minister was quite interested in.

This certainly wouldn't be the British Minister's worry. The British Minister now believed he had basically grasped the People's Party's cards; the People's Party wouldn't join the Allied Powers. Then in the future situation development, the People's Party would definitely kneel and beg Britain. The British Minister only needed to wait until that time.

Moreover, there were two other things that interested the British Minister. The first thing was that after occupying Beijing, the People's Party didn't conduct large-scale combat operations but started large-scale reorganization. What exactly was this for? Until now, the British Minister hadn't figured it out.

The second thing was how exactly Japan prepared to intervene in Chinese affairs. Through this intervention method, the British Minister could also understand how capable Japan actually was.

Besides these two things, there was also a not-so-small matter. A domestic telegram from Britain required British troops stationed in China to return home, and France also made the same request around the same time. At this time, actually withdrawing all overseas military forces back to the country, and regarding China's changes and the People's Party's indication of willingness to join the Allied Powers, Britain didn't dismiss the Minister to China but asked the Minister to China to step up persuading the People's Party to join the Allied Powers quickly. This was enough to show that the situation on the European battlefield was completely unoptimistic.

And the British Minister had instinctively felt that before this contest between China and Japan ended, it was impossible for the People's Party to join the Allied Powers. But after this contest ended, how the Allied Powers' attitude towards the People's Party would be was extremely hard to say.

Among the ministers of various countries, the US side had the best days. Trade between the US and the People's Party proceeded quite smoothly. The war didn't cause any loss to trade, and after the People's Party defeated the Beiyang government, the US government felt its investment in the People's Party was a very wise choice.

The US had no garrison in China, and its grain transactions with the People's Party were fair-price transactions, so there were no difficulties in life. The US Minister could even get road passes specially approved by the People's Party, and there were no obstacles in movement. Since the US hadn't joined the Allied Powers or the Central Powers, the struggle between the two major alliances had nothing to do with the US. So after receiving the secret telegram from home, the US Minister simply went secretly to Wuhan to meet with People's Party Chairman Chen Ke.

On September 16, the day before the establishment of the "Exile Beiyang Government," the US Minister met Chen Ke. The two sides conducted a quite American-style diplomatic negotiation happily.

In the economic crisis that began in 1913, the US reached a trade credit agreement with the People's Party. The People's Party exchanged raw silk for machinery, plus other purchases, which was greatly beneficial to the US economy. When the agreement was preliminarily completed in 1915, orders flying like snowflakes from Europe allowed the US to completely walk out of the economic crisis. National power and influence increased greatly. But this couldn't satisfy the US appetite; as an emerging great power, the US was also pursuing higher international status and international dominance.

In today's world, for a true great power, besides having its own powerful strength, whether it had a large number of allies with considerable strength, or more accurately, "how many capable little brothers it has," was proof of a great power. The People's Party defeated Britain's little brother Beiyang in the Chinese Civil War; this couldn't help but make the US look at the People's Party with new eyes.

"We, the US side, want to reach a closer cooperative relationship with your side," the US Minister said straightforwardly.

"Then what does your government hope we do?" Chen Ke was also very direct. The benefits of imperialist countries couldn't be taken for free; there were always conditions. Chen Ke knew this all too well.

"We completely understand your side's request to recover China's sovereignty. We even appreciate your country's efforts for national independence and liberation. But your side must also be clear that on the China issue, our US attitude is the Open Door Policy." The US representative's speech was full of American style.

Chen Ke never opposed globalization; he opposed globalization that damaged China's interests. But under the current situation, China was beginning to march towards the Second Industrial Revolution with difficulty but one step at a time. The gap with foreign technology and industrial strength was relatively limited. At this time, importing technical equipment from abroad was greatly beneficial to China's industrial development. Not to mention that the raw silk trade hadn't encountered the challenge of synthetic silk yet and could at least continue to flourish for more than a dozen years.

So Chen Ke replied calmly, "Our People's Party has always emphasized that we will absolutely not refuse legitimate trade. And we hope to make trade bigger and bigger, more and more flourishing. We said this a few years ago, and we did so. Up to now, we are still like this. Of course, we don't have hard currency, so we can only adopt the method of trade balance. I think Mr. Minister can confirm this."

The US Minister certainly could confirm this. The price of positions in the embassy in China had risen by more than 30% in over a year, faster than the US stock market. The People's Party was indeed constantly expanding the trade quota on the basis of trade balance.

"Of course, in this situation, we also don't hope to adopt a high tariff policy," Chen Ke continued. "So I don't think the 5% tariff needs any adjustment. However, our side also believes that tariffs must be reciprocal. It is neither reasonable nor appropriate for one side alone to adopt a low tariff policy. what do you think?"

The US Minister nodded slightly. He didn't care about this tariff issue at all; the continuous expansion of trade volume was enough for the US to earn several times or even tens of times the profit. More importantly, Chen Ke's speech clearly revealed a message: after the People's Party retook China's sovereignty, the Chinese market would be more open to the US. This was what the US needed most.