"They finally came!" Chen Ke stretched lazily in his seat, completely disregarding his image, after seeing off the British Minister who had personally come to Wuhan to visit the People's Party. The comrades passed around and read the document brought by the British Minister. This document was written in Chinese, and very thoughtfully adopted the People's Party's horizontal left-to-right writing style, and even used simplified characters.

That Chen Ke could feel so relaxed made the comrades feel even more jubilant, and even a bit disbelief. Not only had the British Minister personally come to Wuhan, but Britain had also shown true sincerity. After confronting the People's Party in Wuhan for over a year, the British Yangtze Fleet weighed anchor and sailed for Shanghai. Although the British fleet still blocked the mouth of the Yangtze River, and the Anglo-Japanese Alliance gave Britain an overwhelming advantage in the Far East oceans, Britain's retreat made the People's Party realize one thing: this retreat was just the beginning, not the end.

"What was the result of the talks?" Zhang Yu asked. Like the other comrades, he couldn't help but smile. After so much persistence and effort, seeing the true dawn made Zhang Yu feel a bit overwhelmed with emotion.

"Shall we employ some Beiyang members?" Chen Ke didn't answer how to do it, but instead raised a strange question.

"Why?" The comrades were very surprised. Today, when the People's Party had completely trampled Beiyang underfoot, employing Beiyang personnel seemed rather odd. Even from the perspective of making contributions, there was no need to let Beiyang members atone for their crimes through service.

Chen Ke answered, "Because we are a bunch of country bumpkins who don't understand international law and international conventions."

"Haha!" "Hehe!" "Hoho!" The comrades' different personalities led to different laughter, but the meaning behind the laughter was the same: everyone felt Chen Ke was joking too much.

"Isn't international law just justice within the range of a cannon?" Hua Xiongmao said.

Chen Ke also smiled and replied, "That's right. The problem is that negotiations outside the range of cannons still require skill. I have great confidence in the comrades if we roll up our sleeves and fight the British. But asking you to pay lip service to the British and engage in intrigue is really not something we have been trained for. We need to find professionals for this kind of work."

Seeing that Chen Ke wasn't trying to give the Beiyang people a way out or a policy advantage, the comrades' emotions calmed down. "Then who are you planning to use, Chairman Chen?"

"Tang Shaoyi's son-in-law, Gu Weijun," Chen Ke gave the answer.

Everyone had heard of Tang Shaoyi, but most comrades were hearing the name Gu Weijun for the first time. Since Chen Ke had named him, and only wanted to bring a young man from Beiyang to work, the comrades didn't try to stop Chen Ke's idea.

"The recent work is not focused on diplomacy. Justice is within the range of cannons, so what we need is to work hard to build cannons with longer range." Chen Ke had just finished half his sentence when Hua Xiongmao became happy, thinking there might be a war to fight. However, Hua Xiongmao was quickly disappointed as Chen Ke continued, "The core work right now is making steel and building railways."

Seeing the comrades looking puzzled, Chen Ke was in a good mood, so he explained, "The industrial strength of the Americans has long surpassed that of the British. One of the foundations of their heavy industry development lies in the extensive construction of railways. The benefit of railways is that they lower transportation costs, greatly reducing the cost of commodity circulation. Not to mention the efficiency of transporting troops, grain, and materials. I don't need to emphasize to everyone what the Beijing-Hankou line looks like right now, do I?"

"Are we really not going to take military action for the time being?" Hua Xiongmao was very brooding about this. Seeing a great opportunity to unify China, he could only watch helplessly, which made him very anxious.

Chen Ke persuaded, "In the future, we will definitely not lack battles to fight. What we lack is a period of peace and construction. If we do one more point of construction now, we will have ten points of return in the future. Doesn't the current state of the Beijing-Hankou Railway explain the problem clearly enough?"

Hearing that development was to tilt towards heavy industry, You Gou immediately became energetic. "These tasks need the full support of the Railway Engineering Corps!"

Since You Gou spoke so politely, Hua Xiongmao couldn't help but express himself. "The shipyards will also develop greatly."

"No matter how many ships the shipyard builds, without the support of the army's engineering corps, the canal shipping will be blocked by silt." With You Gou's intelligence, she wouldn't fall for Hua Xiongmao's trick at all.

Seeing that he couldn't out-argue You Gou, Hua Xiongmao accepted it. "Fine! Fine! Our troops will increase investment in infrastructure construction. It's just that the comrades in the localities should also cooperate with the labor."

Finance Minister Fu Yu said with some worry, "In the final analysis, it's still a question of organizing labor. But can the national financial budget support it? The current currency issuance volume is too large, several times larger than two years ago. There are no signs of inflation yet, and the comrades in the Ministry of Finance don't dare to use the calculation models anymore. According to the old models, this would cause major problems."

Chen Ke had witnessed the 2008 financial crisis, so he wasn't too worried about the currency issuance problem. "The core point of the financial problem is whether the laborers can get paid. If the money only goes into the hands of the laborers, the operation of this society is very healthy. If the money only goes into the hands of rentiers and capital owners, then something big will definitely happen. So while developing productive forces, we must reduce various social costs. Heavy industry is precisely what can best balance the two. We are now importing a large amount of raw materials from overseas, and many regions also have many professional processing industries based on their own characteristics. If costs cannot be reduced, our domestic masses cannot afford these products, which is true waste. Distorting supply and demand can only be maintained for a while; it cannot go on forever. That would cause big trouble. My personal energy is limited, and recently I still want to focus on economic construction work."

No one dared to stop Chen Ke from focusing on whatever work he wanted. Diplomatic work was handed over to the Politburo. Britain formally presented a series of demands to the People's Party. First of all, Britain became tough on abolishing various old treaties. Regarding British interests in China, they no longer had the appearance that "everything can be discussed" as before.

When it came to real bargaining and haggling over every ounce, it meant that the deal was striding forward towards a settlement. The navigation rights of British merchant ships entering and exiting the Yangtze River were Britain's most important commercial interest in China. The People's Party and Britain conducted the first round of negotiations with this issue as the entry point.

Gu Weijun's capture by the People's Party was of the "walking right into the trap" type. His father-in-law Tang Shaoyi told Gu Weijun to run away quickly, and he did run away with his wife. After arriving in Henan, Gu Weijun felt that there was really no way to continue fleeing south. Not only were the checks at train stations and other places extremely strict, but even the countryside was under martial law if he went by land.

Under such circumstances, Gu Weijun was stranded in Zhengzhou, unable to move. In the end, Gu Weijun simply made a risky move. He ran to the People's Party Henan government, identified himself, and asked to be sent to see Yan Fu, with Gu Weijun paying for the travel expenses himself. This was really a last resort. Yan Fu was the only high-ranking official in the People's Party that Gu Weijun could connect with. With the turmoil outside, if he forced his way south, Gu Weijun felt that he and his wife might lose their lives. As a last resort, Gu Weijun could only hug this big tree first.

Hearing that this young man, Gu Weijun, was actually the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs for Beiyang, and that he wanted to see Yan Fu, the comrades in Zhengzhou didn't dare to make a decision easily. aside from investigating Gu Weijun, they also sent news to the Central Committee and Yan Fu. The Central Committee's reply was, "If it is confirmed that this person is Gu Weijun, send him to Wuhan." After some investigation, Gu Weijun and his wife Tang Baoyue were sent to Wuhan. The People's Party didn't make things difficult for him, nor did they release him. They just put Gu Weijun under supervision and let him temporarily work as an English teacher in a middle school in Wuhan.

Gu Weijun was very pragmatic and didn't resist this arrangement at all. Now that he had been urgently transferred to the diplomatic negotiation team, Gu Weijun did his best in the negotiations on the Sino-British shipping issue. Moreover, Gu Weijun boldly made a request, hoping to mobilize some people from the Beiyang Ministry of Foreign Affairs to join the negotiation team.

Zhang Yu was very responsible in his work. He didn't specifically ask Chen Ke for instructions and agreed to the matter on his own initiative. In response to some doubts from the comrades, Zhang Yu replied, "We are not asking those Beiyang people to be officials, but to work. We pay them."

Put this way, no one dared to say anything more. Following Gu Weijun's request, Beijing first released a group of Beiyang Ministry of Foreign Affairs personnel, and at the same time urgently shipped the documents, materials, and books requested by Gu Weijun to Wuhan. With these materials, the laymen of the People's Party realized that there were really many things in diplomatic negotiations that were not a joke.

Regarding navigation rights, there are many issues including inland waters, territorial seas, and innocent passage. As long as one doesn't hold the attitude of "my house, my rules, whatever I say goes," these conventions accumulated over many years do have their reasons. Equality between great powers requires these agreements as a basis for guaranteeing their respective interests. After signing these agreements with the British, similar agreements can be signed with other countries based on the principle of "consistency among the powers."

Moreover, the agreement does not mean copying every clause foolishly. Based on what principles to choose what kind of agreement to sign, and what kind of tricks are hidden behind these agreements, the People's Party knew some superficial things, but really didn't understand the more detailed content and didn't have enough experience. After Gu Weijun and his team joined, they indeed greatly strengthened the power of the People's Party.

Of course, the People's Party didn't need to wrong itself for the sake of the agreement. After all, the agreement was completely enforced by power. Even if the British fleet's right to free passage in the Yangtze River was abolished, if the People's Party couldn't possess the ability to sink British warships in the Yangtze River, the People's Party could only stare helplessly if the British fleet fought its way into the Yangtze River. Under the soft velvet glove must be a strong and powerful iron wrist. Justice only within the range of cannons is the sole foundation of international law.

While Zhang Yu admired the professional ability of Gu Weijun and others and supported Chen Ke's "eye for talent," Gu Weijun also felt awe and joy at the strength of the People's Party. Recovering the concessions and abolishing unequal treaties had always been Gu Weijun's ideal. During the Beiyang period, Gu Weijun had always worked hard for this. With Gu Weijun's knowledge and experience, he could be completely sure that this time the British were indeed sincere about revising the treaties with China. It was also the best opportunity for China to regain its sovereignty.

Before participating in this negotiation, Gu Weijun had never imagined that a group of unknown young people could achieve goals that the Manchu Qing had failed to achieve in more than sixty years, starting from scratch and taking only ten years. These leaders of the People's Party were generally a few years older than Gu Weijun, but decades younger than established, high-ranking figures like Yuan Shikai and Gu Weijun's father-in-law Tang Shaoyi.

Gu Weijun truly wanted to go all out to participate in such a major historic event and leave his name in history. In his actual work, he did just that.

However, after every confrontation with the British, or arguing on the basis of reason, or discussing various details and the various interest disputes hidden behind the details with the People's Party cadres, when he returned home and lay on the bed, Gu Weijun would often feel a kind of uneasiness. He strongly suspected that everything he fought for China's interests during the day was just a beautiful dream, and that he was just not waking up from a big dream while lying in bed. Then Gu Weijun would pick up law books and study them carefully. In addition to dispelling this groundless worry, he could also prepare for the next day's negotiations.

After three weeks of negotiations, China and Britain finally reached a preliminary intended agreement on British navigation rights and the issue of concessions in the Yangtze River basin. On the basis of this intended agreement, the British made another request to discuss with the People's Party the issue of Britain recognizing the People's Party government as the legal government of China.

On this issue, Zhang Yu had to ask Chen Ke for instructions. Just as Zhang Yu thought, Chen Ke didn't care at all about whether the British recognized the People's Party government. Chen Ke said to Zhang Yu, "Contact the Americans and see what their attitude is now."

Zhang Yu said jokingly, "Are we really going to hug the Americans' thighs instead of the British ones?"

Chen Ke also laughed, "The British have thick skin; they don't care if they lose a little face. On the contrary, the Americans and we have more in common in terms of interests for the time being. Also, tell the Yankees that we want the French to make some concessions to us on the Annam issue."

"Why not tell the British?" Zhang Yu asked.

Chen Ke replied, "The British will support the French in this matter no matter what. The French are beaten like this now. If we ask them to spit out the land again, they won't agree to it even for the sake of face."

"Then what role do we want the Yankees to play?" Zhang Yu was really puzzled.

"Since we want to give the United States such a big face, we have to let the Americans feel embarrassed. Otherwise, wouldn't we be too self-abasing? Besides, if the Yankees are willing to be a mouthpiece, we welcome it. If the Yankees are not willing to do even such a small thing, then we can openly collude with the British!" Chen Ke gave his own thoughts.

Zhang Yu blinked, confused by the complex international relations described by Chen Ke.