After listening to Qin Zheng's words, Qiu Jin also had to admit that the East China government has indeed done an excellent job in emancipating women and advocating equality between men and women.

And this gave Qiu Jin a lot of inspiration, although the things he did before to liberate women cannot be said to be useless, but the effect is really not great. Although it is impossible for the East China government to establish equality between men and women in the form of laws, nor can it provide women with a large number of job opportunities, it is possible to promote women's education. Therefore, Qiu Jin made up her mind that in addition to engaging in revolutionary activities, she must establish a girls' school, so that more girls and women can have the opportunity to receive education.

At this time, the situation that the revolutionaries wanted to know was almost solved, some people gained a lot, but some people felt that they were still unfinished, Huang Xing looked at the others, and saw that they had nothing to say, so he said: "Thank you Speaker Qin, and the East China government, this trip to Qingdao has indeed benefited us a lot, we will go back to explain these situations to our companions, and then make a decision." ”

Qin Zheng also nodded, and said: "Okay, Mr. Xia will rush back to Japan with everyone this time, if your delegation is interested in cooperating with us, you can negotiate with Mr. Xia first, and Mr. Xia will arrange it, and you can negotiate the way of cooperation." ”

After a pause, Qin Zheng said again: "But you don't have to rush to leave Qingdao, you might as well stay for a few more days, walk around and see more, doesn't Ms. Qiu still want to exchange women's work with us? If others have any requests, we will also try to provide convenience." ”

In addition to Qiu Jin, the other revolutionaries really wanted to know more about the East China government, and they also waited to read the book given to them by Qin Zheng and discuss it with Qin Zheng, so they did not refuse Qin Zheng's retention.

So the revolutionaries stayed in Qingdao for another three days, and according to their personal interests, they visited some other factories, troops, and had a meeting with Qin Zheng. At the same time, the revolutionaries also carefully read the book given to them by Qin Zheng, this set of books is divided into three volumes, not only a detailed introduction to the land reform system of the East China government, as well as the industrialization plan, but also a detailed description of the relationship between land reform and industrialization, this set of theories is summarized by many economic and sociologists in later generations, the logic is very strict and perfect, at least these revolutionaries can not find loopholes in it, so in the exchange with Qin Zheng, there is no mention.

After the visit, the revolutionaries left Qingdao and returned to Japan, and Xia Siwei also set off with the revolutionaries to represent the East China government and communicate with the Japanese revolutionaries.

Although the East China government had sent a number of intelligence personnel to Japan at this time, including two crossers who volunteered to go to Japan to lurk, the intelligence personnel had to try their best to keep a low profile, and the activities of the revolutionaries in Japan were very public, so the East China government forbade the intelligence personnel from having contact with the revolutionaries, and Xia Siwei happened to be in charge of this task.

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While the East China government was receiving revolutionaries, the war between Japan and Russia in Northeast China was still raging and showing a trend of white-hot intensity.

At this time, the center of gravity of the war had shifted to the land, and was divided into two fronts, the main battlefield of the southern front was in Lushun, and the main battlefield of the northern front was in Liaoyang, both of which were attacked by Japan and defended by Russia.

The war was first started on the Southern Front. On August 7, the Japanese Third Army captured the commanding heights of the outer frontier of the Lushun Fortress - Dagushan and Xiaogushan, and basically cleared the outlying strongholds of the Lushun Fortress, so the commander of the Japanese army. General Nogi Noshinori was also full of confidence, and before launching a full-scale attack on Lushun, he actually wrote a letter of persuasion to Lieutenant General Stessel, the commander of the Russian fortress, which was of course rejected by the polar bear.

The Japanese offensive began on August 19, when the strength of the 3rd Army reached 50,765 people, and first invested more than 40,000 troops to launch a strong attack on the Russian positions, but the Russian army was well prepared for the defense of Arthur, not only built strong fortresses at various points, but also arranged a large number of barbed wire and high-voltage wires at the front of the position. Although the Japanese artillery then arrived in front of the artillery bombardment, destroying the Russian barbed wire defense. However, the crossfire formed by the fortress built by the Russian army still caused a large number of casualties to the Japanese army.

The Japanese attack lasted for 5 days, but the results achieved were only two fortresses in the east and west of Panlong Mountain, but these two fortresses were sandwiched between the Erlongshan Fortress, the first fort of Liujiagou, the Lookout Tower, and the north fortress of Dongjiguan Mountain, so they could only take a defensive position and had little impact on the overall battle situation. The Japanese casualties reached a staggering 20,000 and the number of casualties reached 15,000.

The huge casualties caused the Japanese Army's headquarters to mistakenly believe that there was an extra "0" after the reported number after the battle report. The Russian army only suffered 3,500 casualties and about 1,500 casualties, with a staggering 10:1 ratio of casualties on both sides. In desperation, the Japanese army was forced to abandon the first attack and reorganize its forces to prepare for a new strong attack.

After repairing for about one month, the Japanese army replenished its forces, bringing the strength of the 3rd Army to more than 60,000 men, and launched a second attack on Lushun on September 19. The main target of this offensive was the 203 Heights located in the north of Lushun, because the occupation of the 203 Heights could overlook the city and harbor of Arthur, which was the key point of the Lushun offensive and defensive battles.

However, in order to disperse the forces of the Russian army, the Japanese army did not concentrate its forces to attack the 203 heights, and divided the troops to attack several fortresses around the 203 heights at the same time, but the result was the dispersion of the offensive forces, and the Russian army arranged a tight defense on the 203 heights, so the battle was also extremely fierce, the Japanese soldiers climbed to the top of the mountain like ants, round after round without gaps, and both sides could not distinguish the batch of shock waves. And Nogi Noshinori ordered the artillery to continuously shell the Russian fortifications, even at the expense of injuring his own soldiers who were approaching the enemy's fortifications. But under the tight defense of the Russian army, the Japanese army, despite paying a heavy price, was still unable to capture the 203 heights,

By the evening of September 22, the Japanese army had only captured two key points that had nothing to do with the overall situation, the northern fort of Longyan and the fort of the naval battalion, and returned again in vain. And this time the Japanese casualties were more than 5,000 people, and the Russian army was more than 1,200.

The two unsuccessful attacks on Lushun resulted in more than 25,000 casualties, and Nogi Noshinori was strongly condemned in Japan. Homes were also attacked by the public from time to time, and some newspapers even demanded that Nogi commit suicide by disembowelment to thank the people.

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At the same time that the Lushun offensive was unfavorable, on August 23, the Japanese army also launched the Liaoyang Campaign on the northern front, with a total of about 130,000 troops in the 1st, 2nd, and 4th armies, and the Russian army was fully prepared in Liaoyang, concentrating a total of 180,000 troops and arranging three lines of defense.

On the whole, the Russian army has the advantage of troops, but it is scattered on three lines of defense, and 40% of the troops are arranged as reserves, so in fact, the number of Russian troops on the front-line battlefield is less than 100,000, and the number of troops on the first line of defense is less than 60,000. On the contrary, the Japanese army did not leave any reserves, and threw all its forces into the battlefield at one time, although it was inferior in terms of total strength, but formed a superior force in parts.

On August 24, the Japanese army took the lead in attacking the left flank of the first line of defense of the Russian army with the 1st Army, attracting the attention of the Russian army, and on August 26, the 2nd and 4th armies attacked the right flank of the Russian army in a roundabout way. The commander of the Russian army, Kuropatkin, feared that the Russian army was in danger of being completely surrounded, so he ordered to abandon the first line of defense and withdraw to the second line of defense on all fronts.

After overcoming a defensive line of the Russian army, the morale of the Japanese army was greatly boosted, on August 30, all the troops of the Japanese three armies launched an attack at the same time as the Russian position, the whole army desperately charged, and on September 1, captured a series of tactical points such as Guantun and Mantou Mountain, on September 2, the Russian army launched a counterattack, and once recovered Mantou Mountain, but the Japanese army then launched a counteroffensive, the Russian army lost, and Mantou Mountain was lost again.

Although the second line of defense of the Russian army had also been lost at this time, the Japanese had tried their best and suffered heavy casualties, and there were no reserves, so they were unable to launch another attack, but the brave charge of the Japanese soldiers who were not afraid of death in the battle made Kuropatkin feel great pressure, so he made a mistake in judgment and decided to abandon Liaoyang and retreat to Mukden on September 3, which also gave the Japanese army a surprise. In fact, until the end of the Battle of Liaoyang, most of the Russian army's reserves were not put into battle, and the superiority in strength was not fully utilized.

In this battle, the Japanese suffered 23,533 casualties, of which 5,557 were killed, and the Russian army suffered 17,912 casualties, of which 3,611 were lost and missing.

After the Battle of Liaoyang, the Japanese and Russian armies largely confronted each other in the Shahe area between Mukden and Liaoyang. By the end of September, the Russian army had gathered 220,000 troops, and although the Japanese army had carried out general mobilization and replenishment of troops in the country many times, after all, the national strength was insufficient, and it only recovered to 130,000 troops before the war.

Originally, the Japanese army did not attack, and Kuropatkin did not plan to counterattack immediately, because although the Russian army had an advantage in terms of strength, due to the unfavorable situation in the previous battle, morale was low, and many troops had just arrived at the front line, and they were not familiar with the situation on the front line, and it would take time to regain morale and familiarize themselves with the situation, so Kuropatkin planned to still rely on the position and wait for the Japanese army to attack and consume the Japanese army.

But on September 24, Tsar Nicholas II sent a telegram to Mukden, demanding that Kuropatkin achieve a decisive victory in a short time. In July, the assassination of Interior Minister Plevy and the small-scale mutiny of the 15th Division in Odessa took place, and the cries of the middle class for the abolition of autocracy and the establishment of a constitutional monarchy were rising. Therefore, in order to divert the attention of the people, the tsar hoped to achieve a great victory in the Far East as soon as possible to calm the discontent in the country.

Kuropatkin, who naturally did not dare to disobey the tsar's order, immediately reworked a new offensive plan.