Xia Bohai said: "I think it should be beneficial to us, at least let Britain and France focus on Europe, and the energy invested in the Far East is limited, so our opponents are only Japan and Russia, and Russia must also devote part of its energy to European affairs, and when we enter the war, we must first annihilate the Japanese combined fleet and control the sea power, so that we can isolate Japan from the battlefield in Liaodong, and this situation is of course beneficial to us." ”

Qin Zheng also nodded, and said: "And after the Moroccan crisis, there are crises in Europe one after another, almost every other. There will be a crisis in two years, so it can be said that the European countries will take care of themselves, including Russia, and the forces that can be invested in the Far East will be less and less, and we can inflict heavy losses on Japan in this war, so until the end of the First World War, there will be basically no forces in the Far East that can threaten us, and we can officially send troops to overthrow the Qing court and unify the whole country when the time is ripe. ”

Wang Yunpeng said: "Even if all European countries do not have the energy to pay attention to Asian affairs, is there still the United States? Although the United States in this era is not the superpower of our time, it is also the number one economic power in this era, it is strong enough, and its geographical location is superior, and the mainland will hardly be threatened by anything, so even after we finally win the Russo-Japanese War, the United States is still a huge threat to us." We are still not optimistic. ”

Xu Jichao also said: "We have defeated Japan, and European countries have no energy to take care of Asian affairs, Japan will definitely turn to the United States, introduce American power into Asia, it is estimated that a copy of the [US-Japan Alliance Treaty] will be signed, the United States already has a colony in Asia, that is, the Philippines, plus Japan, so that the United States has a sufficient foothold in Asia, and it is enough to threaten us." ”

Qin Zheng nodded and said, " If we win the war, the United States will certainly be our main opponent, but not the biggest enemy, at this time the United States is big but not strong, although the national strength is strong, but the international influence is insufficient, and the domestic isolationist sentiment is quite serious, these have affected the United States foreign expansion, although the geographical conditions of the United States are superior, but the advantage is sometimes also a disadvantage, the United States will not be threatened by the outside, but it also makes the United States too far from the center of the world, want to go out of the Americas, become a world power, it is difficult for the local to give enough support, in the old time and space, the United States is a superpower, there are many allies and overseas basesIn order to maintain the global strategy of the United States, and in this era, the United States is obviously far from having such strength, for example, if we go to war with the United States, we can rely on the mainland to attack the Philippines, while the United States needs to rush to the aid of thousands of miles from the mainland, and it is clear who is superior and who is inferior. ”

Xia Bohai said: "It's still too early to talk about these things, and the most important thing is to concentrate on winning this war." But there is one thing I don't agree with Lao Qin's statement, although the Moroccan crisis has forced Britain and France to turn their attention to China, but it is too absolute to say that they have no energy to take care of the affairs of the Far East. First of all, the Moroccan crisis was only the beginning of the European crisis, and the relations between the countries have not yet been as tense and incompatible as they were later; second, Germany has no interests in Morocco, and the position of Morocco's interests has basically been determined, and Germany is only taking the opportunity to exert its might against Britain and France, and it is unlikely to launch a war for Morocco, so when Japan and Russia suffer a major blow in the Far East, Britain and France may not stand idly by, at least we must be prepared for Britain and France to send troops to intervene. It's also about preparing for the worst. ”

Everyone else nodded their heads, agreeing with Xia Bohai's suggestion.

The Russian Second Pacific Fleet was stationed in Cam Ranh Bay on April 3 and joined the Third Pacific Fleet on April 15, and the commander, Vice Admiral Rozhdestvensky, had planned to repair in Cam Ranh Bay for a while after the fleet had converged, and then set sail for Vladivostok in early May, but on the 16th received an order from the Tsar asking Rozhdestevensky to set sail as soon as possible and to Vladivostok as soon as possible.

Vice Admiral Rozhdestvensky, of course, did not dare to disobey the tsar's order, so he had to order the fleet to prepare for departure, and after the fleet converged, a total of 38 ships, including 8 battleships, 2 armored cruisers, and 14,000 sailors, the strength of this fleet was quite considerable on paper. However, the journey from Cam Ranh Bay to Vladivostok is close to 6,000 kilometers, and most of the warships in the Russian fleet cannot travel such a long distance, because there are not many transport ships in the Russian fleet, so all the ships are loaded with coal far exceeding the loading standard, and even the captain's quarters and even the turret of the flagship battleship Duke Suvorov are full of coal. Although this was enough coal, the consequence was that the warship was unstable and the speed was reduced. Therefore, the fleet can only move at a speed of 8-10 knots.

On April 2 0, the Russian fleet departed from Cam Ranh Bay, and according to the speed of the fleet, it took about 25-30 days to reach Vladivostok, and the time to reach the Yellow Sea was estimated to be about 2 0 days.

Of course, the Tsar's request for the Russian fleet to rush to Vladivostok as soon as possible was not a whim, because after several months of preparation, Russia had already gathered nearly 600,000 troops in the Far East, and more importantly, the East China Government had deployed the 2nd Army in western Liaoning, with a total of 4 divisions and 3 regiments, with a total strength of 62,000 troops, including two 155-mm heavy artillery regiments, a total of 36 1 5 5 mm guns, and two 200-mm self-propelled guns. Moreover, three divisions had been deployed on the west bank of the Liao River, and the Japanese army did not dare to be careless, and deployed more than 70,000 troops on the east bank of the Liao River to prevent the People's Army from crossing the Liao River and attacking Liaodong. Now the two sides are facing each other across the Liao River, and the atmosphere is also very tense.

Although the strength of more than 60,000 troops was not much, because the main forces of Japan and Russia were facing each other on the line from Shenyang to Siping, the People's Army deployed on the west bank of the Liao River still made the Japanese army very passive. Although the East China government and Russia did not reach an agreement or sign a treaty, the arrangements of the two sides objectively formed the form of a flanking attack on the Japanese army. Of course, the Russian army also hoped to take full advantage of this favorable situation and launch a counterattack against the Japanese army.

Following Kaiser Wilhelm II's speech in the Moroccan city of Tangier in support of Moroccan independence, German Chancellor Billow proposed to all countries participating in the Madrid Treaty of 1880 that the Moroccan question be brought to an international conference. Originally, according to the Madrid Treaty, all foreign countries and their citizens should enjoy equal trade and other rights in Morocco, but Germany stubbornly withheld this article and attacked France.

In order to make Italy, Britain, and Spain accept France's interests in Morocco, France allowed Italy the right to move freely in Libya, promised not to interfere in Britain's actions in Egypt, and ceded some of Moroccan interests to Spain, and of course would not give up its power in Morocco because of a treaty.

Italy, Britain, and Spain also supported France's position of not accepting Germany, after all, they all gained a lot of benefits through the exchange of Moroccan interests, and once France gave up its power in Morocco under German pressure, then the benefits they obtained would naturally be discounted, or even not, and naturally they all encouraged France to take a tough stance.

The day after Wilhelm II's speech, the French people in Paris organized a march against Germany, and German Prime Minister Billow demanded that the Moroccan question be submitted to an international conference for discussion. Once again, there was an uproar in France, where all sectors of society opposed the internationalization of the Moroccan question and demanded that the government take a tough stance towards Germany.

French Foreign Minister Théofel Delcasse advocated a tough response to Germany's attack, and with the support of boiling public opinion, France sent a warship to Tangier to intimidate Morocco, which also showed France's tough stance, and at the same time actively liaised with Britain, demanding that once France and Germany went to war, Britain should give France military support; and within Britain, there was also a hardliner who advocated that France and Germany go to war, and Britain should send a fleet to attack German ports and destroy the German navy.

However, in the face of France's intransigence, Germany reacted equally hard, immediately sending additional troops to the Franco-German border, and Wilhelm II even arrogantly declared in the palace: I threw a glove at France, but the French would not dare to pick it up. For a time, Germany and France were tense, and war was on the verge of breaking out.

In the face of the threat of war issued by Germany, although the French government is tough on the surface, but it is very nervous in the heart, after all, France is not ready for war now, and at this time, France naturally needs the support of its allies, although Russia's strength in the Russo-Japanese War was greatly damaged, but after all, it is a skinny camel bigger than a horse, Russia still has enough strength, and it is better to have one more country to support than nothing, even if it is to give France a strong prestige, so France gave up mediating the Russo-Japanese War, and opened Cam Ranh Bay, let the Russian fleet station, and also provided the Russian fleet with coal, in exchange for Russia's support for France in the Moroccan crisis。

Under these circumstances, Russia also believed that the time was coming to launch a counterattack against the Japanese army, so they ordered the Russian fleet to rush to Vladivostok as soon as possible in order to participate in the Russian counterattack.