Following the partial agreement reached between the British Minister and the People's Party, the French Minister also arrived in Wuhan. This time, Chen Ke did not meet the French Minister but had Zhang Yu meet him in a private capacity first. The French Minister first brought up the agreement regarding concessions reached between Britain and the People's Party, firmly stating that France was willing to sign a similar agreement with China.

Zhang Yu cheerfully expressed appreciation for this, and at the same time, cheerfully talked with the French Minister about the past when France wanted to designate Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi as its sphere of influence. This content was very sharp, yet Zhang Yu's cheerful attitude could be described as amiable. The French Minister immediately stated that those were completely outside rumors. France had always respected China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

"If your country can uphold such an attitude, we welcome it extremely. We want to establish a brand-new friendly Sino-French relationship." Zhang Yu said, even beaming with joy.

This smiling tiger attitude immediately made the French representative nervous. He darkened his face and asked, "May I ask what exactly are your country's intentions?"

Zhang Yu took out a map of Indochina, which showed five regions. At this time, France had already turned Laos and Cambodia into its protectorates, while Annam was divided into three parts: North, Central, and South. Pointing to Laos and Northern Vietnam, Zhang Yu said, "We are willing to send troops to protect Laos and Northern Vietnam, so that France can have more troops to go back and defend France."

Looking at the French Minister's shocked expression, Zhang Yu said in a serious and sincere tone, "To protect world peace, let us help you!"

The French certainly knew very well how they got Annam. At the beginning of the "chat," Zhang Yu mentioned France's ambition to swallow Yunnan, Guizhou, and Guangxi. With this groundwork laid, the French Minister was not so agitated by Zhang Yu's request, which was like hitting someone when they were down. Even if the French Minister was agitated inside, the current France was no longer the France of early 1914. Back then, France dared to shout about taking military action against the People's Party, and even in 1915, while the war in Europe was raging, France kept trying to make small moves against Yunnan and Guizhou.

But by December 1916, France had almost bled dry. News from France indicated that the French army, suffering terrible losses, had almost mutinied. The French soldiers participating in the Battle of Verdun were unwilling to throw away their lives in vain in a brutal war with no end in sight. Finally, the French upper echelons had to promise the soldiers that they would never participate in harsh offensive battles against the German army again, preventing a real mutiny from happening. Since then, French soldiers refused to conduct offensive battles and only defended in the trenches. If the European battlefield was like this, France really had no strength to fight for Indochina, ten thousand miles away.

"Those protecting Laos and Northern Vietnam must be members of the Entente Powers. Does this mean your country is expressing willingness to join the Entente Powers?" the French Minister asked.

Zhang Yu said seriously, "If your country thinks that our proposal to defend these two countries is an initial request, just the beginning of a series of requests, we feel this is a result of a lack of understanding of us. This request is the bottom line of our People's Party. It has nothing to do with whether we join the Entente Powers. Regarding joining the Entente Powers, our attitude has long been made clear. I believe Mr. Minister was well aware of what would happen before arriving in Wuhan."

Both Britain and France knew that the People's Party was not opposed to joining the Entente Powers. Now Zhang Yu was speaking prettily, making China's reclaiming of a part of Indochina a prerequisite for its relationship with France. However, no matter how Zhang Yu tried to speak of these two things separately, it was impossible for the French Minister to truly treat them as completely independent demands.

Seeing the French Minister's slightly impatient look, Zhang Yu had to continue explaining, "The ongoing war will definitely have an end. The relationship between China and France existed before this war and will continue to exist after this war. Why don't we create a beginning for a friendly Sino-French relationship?"

"A beginning for a friendly Sino-French relationship?" The French Minister was very touched by such future-oriented words. He already knew that if the issues raised by the People's Party regarding Indochina could not be resolved, this beginning would forever remain just a beginning. The Chinese, far away from the war, could wait, but the French could not. France was defeated in the Franco-Prussian War and suffered the painful fate of ceding territory and paying indemnities. If they failed in this European war, the British could at most withdraw from the war if they couldn't continue fighting. They had a fleet to defend the British homeland and a vast colonial system. The crown on the British Emperor's head did not originate from Europe, but from India. But what about France? Could it kneel at the feet of the new Emperor of the future Holy Roman Empire?

The Chinese scheme must not be allowed to succeed; the French Minister made such a decision. The unhappiness triggered by such strong confrontational consciousness quickly exceeded normal levels. Just as this confrontational consciousness was rising, the French Minister suddenly understood what Zhang Yu wanted to say. Zhang Yu was expressing that the People's Party would firmly not agree to discuss the Indochina issue within the framework of the Entente Powers. The People's Party smartly realized that the dominance of the Entente system would inevitably be in the hands of Britain and France. Any compromise within this system would come at a huge price.

If the Japanese Minister were facing such a problem, he would definitely fly into a rage. He would use all possible petty means to force the People's Party to make concessions. If the British Minister encountered such a problem, they would think of ways to cause trouble for the People's Party. Anyway, the scope of cooperation between the two sides was so large that there were plenty of ways to make the People's Party feel uncomfortable.

But France really didn't have the ability to choose the methods of Britain or Japan. Leaving aside the old entanglements between China and France on the Indochina issue, France did not seize Indochina by defeating China. The seizure of Annam relied more on the power of the British. After the People's Party raised this dispute, the British would definitely not think that these two small French colonies had any value. The Northern Vietnam state established by France was located in the mountains, and Laos was a tropical rainforest covered in dense jungle. Just throwing these two godforsaken places to the People's Party could exchange for more benefits. Even if Britain didn't pressure France, it wouldn't be happy to see France's insistence on these two pieces of land affect the process of pulling the People's Party into the Entente Powers. Moreover, Britain and France were not a monolith. Doing something that sacrificed French interests put absolutely no pressure on Britain. Even if France quit now, the worst outcome would be France surrendering. Britain's world hegemony was tottering, while the French would become slaves of a conquered nation.

The reality was this cruel, and Zhang Yu had limited the negotiation target to only the French side. The reality faced made the French Minister feel extremely thorny. After talking for a while longer, Zhang Yu sent the grim-faced French Minister out.

The American side had received Zhang Yu's notification earlier. After some discussion, the American side finally understood the meaning of the People's Party. If the United States refused to support the People's Party's request, then the People's Party would try to join the Entente Powers by coordinating with Britain and France.

Britain already owed huge debts to the United States at this time. If the Entente Powers were defeated, the United States would inevitably suffer terrible losses. For the United States, joining the Entente Powers was only a matter of time. If China reached an agreement directly with Britain and France, the result would inevitably be the United States joining the Entente Powers alone. Both the US government and Congress hoped to make a fortune by joining this European war and establish a greater voice for the United States in the world. Once China became close to Britain, Britain would have Japan as an ally and China as a collaborator in the Far East. The United States would be in a position of complete isolation in the Far East.

After careful deliberation, the US government and members of Congress believed that they could not make a wrong judgment at this time. If the United States could not support and satisfy China's demands, it would be greatly disadvantageous to the United States. Therefore, the US government issued orders to the US Minister, requiring them to find a way to change the "memorandum" between the People's Party and the US side into a formal agreement.

Originally, the Americans were unwilling to get involved in the war between the People's Party and Japan, and wrote a memorandum almost as a perfunctory task. The memorandum was full of clauses that were very beneficial to the United States. At that time, the United States felt that this fence-sitting posture allowed them to attack or retreat, and could satisfy US interests to the greatest extent.

Now, the shortcomings of the "memorandum," a non-treaty document, were revealed. The People's Party could easily cast the memorandum aside and take unilateral action. The content of this memorandum could not even be made public at the moment. Because after seeing these rather harsh terms, Britain and France only needed to be "more generous" than the United States to make China turn to Britain and France without any moral pressure.

To avoid such things from happening, the US Minister had to do a lot of diplomatic work.

Gu Weijun, an employee of the People's Party negotiation team, really had a sense of clarity like a master of hindsight after seeing the relevant materials. From the perspective of that time, the People's Party's dealings with foreign countries could be said to be swallowing insults. They were forced to "recognize the status quo" and forced to sign a "memorandum" to stabilize the United States. However, this series of swallowing insults had become an excellent foreshadowing today when the situation had undergone tremendous changes.

Zhang Yu did not complacently make territorial demands to foreign countries, but negotiated unilaterally with France. This action forced France into a very awkward position. France was now facing a dilemma; both short-term and long-term interests required France to maintain good relations with the People's Party. The dispute over two small pieces of land was not worth mentioning compared to the benefits of cooperation.

However, for China, the benefits obtained were unprecedentedly huge. Britain did not cut off too much Chinese land, and Britain was still the world hegemon, so the People's Party discussed basic agreements for normal exchanges between China and foreign countries with Britain. France had seized China's sphere of influence, so China made France make a full "friendly gesture." As for the United States, Zhang Yu had already handed the "Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence" to Gu Weijun, asking Gu Weijun to discuss a comprehensive friendly diplomatic relations agreement with the United States based on this.

Adopting different handling methods for different opponents. Unless Britain, France, and the United States united now to strike China, and everyone tore off their faces and fought openly. Otherwise, China had established its diplomatic stance. As a Chinese, Gu Weijun could also experience a very wonderful thing. During the Victory at Zhennanguan, Laos was not a vassal state of China, but the People's Party now was not asking France to spit out Annam, but asking France to spit out Laos. The various meanings contained in this were really worth pondering.

Of course, as a Chinese negotiation representative, Gu Weijun would certainly not have any private comments on this matter. Nor would he cleverly show off. Instead, he raised a question to Zhang Yu, "Even if the French agree, they won't let it go so easily."

Zhang Yu nodded, "It is absolutely impossible for relations between countries to be smooth sailing. Struggle is the mainstream, and the only core."

Gu Weijun was a smart person. At first, he felt that Zhang Yu's words were too murderous, but after careful thought, Gu Weijun suddenly and sincerely admired Zhang Yu's boldness. During the Qing Dynasty, France and China had contradictions and conflicts, and during the People's Party period, it was also contradictions and conflicts. The only difference was merely that the People's Party's power had grown stronger, while France's power had declined. Although the forms of expression seemed worlds apart, there was no difference in essence.

Despite knowing this, Gu Weijun hoped that the current situation could continue, or even continue forever. After experiencing so much suffering, Gu Weijun had finally waited until China could suppress the foreigners. Even knowing that the world was changing, Gu Weijun hoped that China would never return to those days of humiliation.

After this emotion subsided, Gu Weijun thought of another thing. He tentatively asked Zhang Yu, "Minister Zhang, I heard that the case in Zhejiang is almost finished being tried."

"Oh?" Zhang Yu was stunned. He didn't expect Gu Weijun to bring up such a topic, but Zhang Yu quickly figured out the problem. He laughed, "What did your darling say to you?"

Despite studying Mandarin for a long time, Zhang Yu could only speak Mandarin with a Shanxi accent. Gu Weijun listened to the hard "darling" and only understood after a good while that Zhang Yu was referring to Gu Weijun's wife. He couldn't help blushing.

Zhang Yu laughed, "There is no conclusion on the handling of Beiyang for the time being. Your father-in-law and the others will probably have to be detained for a while longer."

"I heard that for Zhejiang, the upper echelons are handled first, and then the lower echelons. I wonder what the handling method for Beiyang is?" Gu Weijun still didn't give up. He was fearful of what kind of handling method the People's Party intended to implement on Beiyang.

With the conduct of that Beiyang gang, according to the People's Party's trial standards in Zhejiang, every Beiyang executive had crimes punishable by execution. Yuan Shikai might be Chen Ke's matchmaker, but Beiyang was not Chen Ke's matchmaker. By comparison, Cai Yuanpei was once a revolutionary. It was unlikely that the People's Party would favor one over the other, letting Beiyang off the hook while striking hard at the Guangfu Society, who were also revolutionaries. Even knowing that his little "merit" was insignificant to the People's Party, Gu Weijun still hoped to help his father-in-law.

Zhang Yu didn't think that much. The Central Committee of the People's Party had not yet decided how to deal with the Beiyang gang. But out of love for talent, Zhang Yu replied, "It will be Beiyang's turn after Cai Yuanpei and his gang are shot. You don't have to worry, shooting Cai Yuanpei is a matter of the near future."