There was nothing to say all night, and the two sides set off back to Cullen early the next morning. As soon as they returned to the Cullen Hotel, Zhukov immediately proposed to start a second round of negotiations. After the competition last night, neither Zhukov nor the officers and soldiers of the guard company were facing Xu Rui.
The attitude is much more respectful than that of Lang Ya. The strong must be respected.
"Captain Xu." Compared with the first negotiation, Zhukov's expression and tone were much more serious. Before the negotiation officially started, he first showed his bottom line and said solemnly, "After the negotiation is officially started,
Before we begin, let me first emphasize a few principled issues. The following items are not among the topics of this negotiation."
Xu Rui said with a sigh of relief: "General, please speak, I am all ears."
Zhukov nodded and said: "First of all, the treaty signed by the former Tsarist Russian government and the Qing government is not an issue of this negotiation, so you should not think about the territory of the Far East and Xinjiang; secondly, Mongolia's independence was tacitly approved by your Chinese government.
It doesn't matter to you, the Communist Party of China, and this is not an issue of this negotiation; thirdly, military assistance to the Nationalist Government is also irrevocable and is not an issue of this negotiation."
After a pause, Zhukov continued: "I hope you can understand the above three points. After all, I am only the commander of the Far Eastern Front of the Soviet Red Army, not the Foreign Minister of the Soviet government, and Commander Xu, you are not even an official of the Chinese government, so
We are not qualified to start diplomatic negotiations between countries."
"Of course." Xu Rui said simply, "I will only talk about trade this time, not political issues."
Xu Rui had a very clear understanding of his identity and the purpose of his trip north. First of all, he was just a regiment commander of the Eighth Route Army and could not represent China at all. Naturally, he was not qualified to initiate diplomatic negotiations with Soviet officials. Otherwise, Chiang Kai-shek would
Didn't the Chairman have a falling out with the senior officials of the National Government? Secondly, his main purpose of going north this time was just to seek to establish an industrial base in Baotou and to obtain a certain amount of light industry manufacturing capacity by providing military supplies to the Soviet Red Army. If there was
If possible, it would be best to acquire heavy industry manufacturing capabilities. Finally, the Baotou Tea Road must be cleared. This will not only bring huge commercial taxes to the CCP, but also greatly support China's war of resistance.
In view of this, Xu Rui does not intend to get too entangled in irrelevant issues.
Otherwise, being constrained by a nationalist stance and seizing every opportunity to pursue territory and sovereignty from the Soviets will only push China, which is in serious difficulties, into a bottomless abyss.
Seeing Xu Rui being so straightforward, Zhukov breathed a sigh of relief.
To be honest, Zhukov was really worried that Xu Rui would make unreasonable troubles with him and entangle him with the territory ceded by Tsarist Russia and the independence of Mongolia. In this case, this negotiation would not be able to continue, and Comrade Stalin's expectations for him would be nothing more.
It came to naught, which Zhukov tried to avoid at all costs.
Fortunately, such a situation did not arise, and the other party was still measured.
At that moment, Zhukov said: "Now, let's talk about the tea road first."
After a short pause, Zhukov continued: "Before I left for Kulun, I had obtained the authorization from the great leader Comrade Stalin. I can now sign the relevant tea trade agreement with you on behalf of the Soviet government. From now on, your tea produced in China will
All the tea can be transported to Kyaktu via the Baotou Tea Road, and we want all of it."
Xu Rui didn't rush to answer, because he knew that Zhukov would definitely have a butt next.
Sure enough, Zhukov then said: "But the price has to be decided by us."
"This is impossible." Xu Rui flatly refused. "The price of tea is determined by you Soviets. That is absolutely impossible. Otherwise, what if you deliberately lower the price? Wouldn't our tea farmers and tea merchants lose their money?
?”
"Colonel Xu." Zhukov said angrily, "Please do not insult the integrity of our Soviet government. Our Soviet government is the protector of all proletarians around the world. We will only help the working people of the world and will not exploit them.
, it’s even more impossible for them to go bankrupt and lose all their money!”
Xu Rui was stunned, insulting the integrity of your Soviet government?
I want to insult you, but the problem is that you, the Soviet Union, have to have some moral integrity!
During the Republic of China, in order to improve relations with the Japanese, you even did not hesitate to recognize the puppet Manchukuo.
There was also the fight with the Japanese army at the Port Arthur Fortress. Didn’t the Soviet Union do enough such nonsense that blatantly trampled on China’s sovereignty? Even without China’s attendance, the Yalta Agreement, which was closely related to China’s sovereignty, was passed.
All Japanese interests in Northeast China must be transferred to the Soviet Union.
After hearing the news, Chairman Chiang was so angry that he cursed loudly, but he only dared to do so behind closed doors and did not dare to do so in the international community.
Fortunately, Chairman Mao still had Chairman Mao, who decisively transferred more than 70,000 commanders and fighters from the 115th Division at the critical moment. They entered the Northeast in large numbers before the Soviet government could react, creating a fait accompli. If not for this, the Soviet Red Army would have annihilated the Kwantung Army.
After entering the three provinces of Northeast China, it is simply a dream for the Chinese army to enter the Northeast again.
As for Chairman Chiang Kai-shek's transfer of troops from South China to the Northeast, it was already after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War. Because of this, the National Army missed the opportunity to surrender a large number of puppet Manchukuo troops in the Northeast. In the end, most of these puppet troops surrendered to the People's Liberation Army and became
Knowing the backbone of the liberation of New China, it can be said that Chairman Chiang's defeat was due to his weak backbone when facing foreigners.
Returning to the topic, Xu Rui never believed that the Soviet government had any nonsense. He said in a low tone: "General, please forgive me for being frank. When the Middle East Road was still under the control of your Soviet government, there were no people along the road.
The Chinese people can live the same prosperous life as the people in your country. Therefore, we will not talk about the Soviet government being the protector of the proletarians all over the world. Let us continue to talk about people. The price of tea is determined by you. That is absolutely impossible.
of."
Zhukov said: "But the price cannot be determined by your Chinese tea merchants."
"Otherwise." Xu Rui said, "As far as I know, since the tea trade began between China and Russia, the price of tea has been relatively stable in the past century. We simply use the CIF price of tea in the past century as the benchmark.
An average value, and then an increase of 50% based on this average value will be used as the benchmark price of tea in the future. What do you think?"
"Fifty percent higher?" Zhukov, who had obviously done his homework, said angrily, "If this is the case, your Chinese tea has no advantage over the British tea sold to Europe from India and Southeast Asia. Why do we have to buy your Chinese tea?"
Tea? After all, we still have to take the freight from Kyakhta to Moscow!"
"Three reasons." Xu Rui said, "First of all, the Soviet Union has a bad relationship with the United Kingdom. British businessmen often make things difficult for you for no reason, but we Chinese will not; secondly, our Chinese tea is unique, and it is definitely not Indian tea or Southeast Asian tea.
Comparable; finally, if the Soviet government refuses to give up even this small tea benefit, how can people believe in your sincerity? How can we dare to cooperate with you on a deeper level? "
Zhukov slapped the table and shouted: "This involves a large trade involving hundreds of millions of rubles a year, not a small profit."
Xu Rui said: "But compared with the life and death of more than one million Soviet soldiers on the Far East Front, compared with the victory or defeat of the Far East Battle, and compared with the national destiny of the Soviet Union, it seems insignificant. General, what do you think?"
Zhukov was immediately speechless. What Xu Rui said was so reasonable that he could not refute it.
After a long time, Zhukov said without a price: "Okay, let's increase it by 50%, but this is just the base price. Depending on the quality and appearance of the tea, it will still fluctuate during the actual purchase."
Xu Rui smiled and said: "This is no problem. After all, this is international practice."
After a bad start, Zhukov would inevitably be depressed, so he wanted to regain some face, and then said: "Then let's sign the tea trade agreement now? I can fully represent the Soviet Economic and Trade Commission, but Colonel Xu, in what capacity do you sign? Citizen
Commander of the Chahar Independent Regiment of the 18th Group Army of the Revolutionary Army? Can you represent the National Government?"
In Zhukov's opinion, Xu Rui was only the commander of the First Regiment of the Eighth Route Army and would definitely not be authorized by the Chinese government.
Xu Rui smiled slightly and asked Digua to take out the power of attorney signed by Chairman Chiang from his briefcase.
It’s funny to say that in order to put Xu Rui and the CCP on the fire, Chairman Chiang actually sent Xu Rui a letter of authorization to sign the tea trade agreement.
The power of attorney is available in Chinese and Russian versions.
After reading the power of attorney, Zhukov said depressedly: "Is this power of attorney really legally binding? As far as I know, your Chairman Chiang does not seem to follow the rules very well and often breaks some agreements."
Xu Rui said: "General, you don't have to worry at all. This letter of authorization is absolutely legally binding. Chairman Chiang Kai-shek acted a little recklessly, but the tea trade incident has attracted widespread attention. Many democratic parties and Mrs. Sun have expressed their concern.
I'm watching, he doesn't dare to mess around."
What Xu Rui said is true. Now he is indeed not afraid of Chairman Chiang's chaos.
This was also the main purpose of Xu Rui's deliberate detour to build momentum for the Big Tea Road Incident. What he wanted to prevent was that the Nationalist Government and Chairman Chiang would stumble in advance and pick the peaches later.
Zhukov couldn't find any other reason, shrugged and said: "Then sign the agreement, but let me declare in advance that if your Chinese government tears up the agreement first, for example, your Chairman Chiang unilaterally declares that this agreement is invalid,
Our Soviet government will never be responsible for this."
"Of course." After Xu Rui said that, he signed his name on the agreement.
Zhukov shrugged and signed his name in duplicate.
After signing, Zhukov continued: "Okay, next, let's talk about the establishment of a military industrial production base in Baotou. Colonel Xu, please tell me first, what can you provide?"
