Japan first protested to the East China government through the consulate, but the result is also conceivable, Matsui Keishiro was unceremoniously scolded back by Li Sanjie and touched his nose. Japan, in turn, put pressure on the Qing court to order the East China government to withdraw from Jinzhou, or to send troops into Jinzhou to control the movement of the People's Army.

Japan's demands caused some fluctuations in the Qing court, and after the original People's Army was stationed in Jinzhou, it also caused a lot of movement in public opinion, although Jinzhou was far away from the battlefield in the northeast, but after all, it was a positive action, and it was indeed much better than the Qing court even holding back its hands and feet in western Liaoning. But for the Qing court, of course, it was a very embarrassing thing.

After Japan made a request to the Qing court, it was responded to by some people, mainly young Manchu magnates, who asked the imperial court to send troops to Jinzhou, and Cixi recruited the minister of military aircraft to discuss countermeasures, and Li Hongzhang strongly advocated that the imperial court should never act rashly at this time, because neither Russia, Japan, nor overseas Chinese could afford to provoke the Qing court, so it was best for the Qing court to abide by neutrality, and no matter how others made trouble, they should not care, let alone participate in it, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.

Li Hongzhang's proposition was supported by Zhang Zhidong and Zhao Shuqiao, while Prince Qing was still noncommittal, but Rong Qing and Tie Liang advocated that they could take this opportunity to enter Jinzhou and expand the influence of the imperial court in Liaoxi, and did not hesitate to argue with Li Hongzhang and others, and pointed the spearhead at Li Hongzhang, turned over the old accounts of the First Sino-Japanese War, and accused Li Hongzhang of being a traitor. was so angry that Li Hongzhang was about to resign on the spot, and Cixi also felt that Rongqing and Tieliang were a little excessive, so she reprimanded the two of them a few words, but in the end he still adopted Li Hongzhang's proposal and rejected Japan very tactfully.

However, Rong Qing, Tie Liang and others were not reconciled, so they instructed their officials to attack Li Hongzhang, who was already over 8 0 years old at this time, and his health was not very good, and he was sick and bedridden by this anger.

However, Japan's plan did not materialize, and in addition to preparing for war with the East China government and Russia at the same time, it could only count on Britain as an ally. Therefore, Japan immediately proposed to Britain that Britain should follow the requirements of the [Anglo-Japanese Alliance]: when one side of the alliance is at war with two countries at the same time, the other side of the alliance should send troops to the war.

And Britain replied to Japan, now the East China government is only stationed in Jinzhou, there is still a period of time away from the battlefield, and the East China government has not yet attacked the Japanese army, from the current point of view, there is no intention to attack Japan, so it has not yet reached the [Anglo-Japanese alliance] At this time, Britain had no obligation to send troops to the war, but Britain would try its best to maneuver through diplomatic efforts to keep the East China government from intervening in the war, and of course Britain also reiterated that if the People's Army attacked the Japanese army, Britain would send troops in accordance with the provisions of the treaty.

As a matter of fact, it is in Britain's interest for the East China government to intervene in the big game of chess in Northeast China as a non-Japanese collaborator, because the three-legged situation is more complicated than the confrontation between the two powers, and the more complicated the situation, the more Britain will be able to join forces in the middle of it, and suppress and contain it. But it did not want the East China government to officially enter the war.

The reason why the [Anglo-Japanese Alliance] stipulates that when one side of the alliance is at war with two countries at the same time, the other side of the alliance should send troops to participate in the war is actually aimed at the [Franco-Russian Alliance], that is, to contain France and prevent France from entering the war, so that Japan can face Russia alone.

But the East China government is obviously an unexpected factor in this script, but if the East China government really participates in the war, it can indeed meet the conditions of the [Anglo-Japanese Alliance], of course, Britain can also play tricks, insisting that the East China government is not a country, and the words in the treaty are dead, but this is obviously detrimental to Britain's national credit, so the most ideal situation is that at present, the East China government is stationed in Jinzhou, which is equivalent to intervening in the chess game in Northeast China, and has not officially entered the war, but it can have a negative impact on Russia, Japan's influence is enormous, and this creates a perfect triangular balance in which no one wants to take advantage of it, let alone dominate the region.

Of course, the situation has just been negotiated, and if the East China Government is taking a step forward, that is, formally entering the war, it will not be good, no matter what kind of situation the East China Government uses to enter the war, if it is an enemy of Japan, it will force Britain into a corner, and whether Britain enters the war or not, it will have to pay a lot of price, and even if the East China Government and Japan join forces, it may not be a good thing for Britain.

Now that there is civil strife in Russia, if the East China government and Japan join forces, it is very likely that Russia's power will be completely expelled from the Far East, and even if the East China government and Japan will be antagonistic after the end of the war, both sides will reap a lot of benefits from this war and expand their own strength, Britain may not be able to control it easily, and another completely weakened Russia may fall to Germany, which is also not in the interests of Britain. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent the East China government from taking military action, and it is better to let the war end at this time.

However, Britain also knows that the East China government is not the Qing court, and it is useless to threaten them with big words, unless it is to force the East China government to make concessions with really strong force, but directly sending troops to participate in the war is obviously not an option for Britain, although the Boer War has ended for more than 2 years, Britain's national strength has not fully recovered, and Britain has also learned a full lesson from this war, do not easily intervene in a war far from the British mainland, because distance itself is a terrible opponent, even if it can win, the price paid is extremely huge, not to mention that the East China government is by no means weak。 Therefore, the British plan was to pull France together to put pressure on the government in East China. Of course, in the name of the discussion is to mediate this war.

France was an ally of Russia, and of course did not want Russia to be completely weakened, so it would be beneficial for France if the war in the Far East ended like this, and Britain also hoped to take the opportunity to further draw closer relations with France, so as to finally join forces with France to deal with German expansion. It is believed that France is also interested in this plan.

Sure enough, Britain and France proposed to jointly mediate the war in the Far East, and the French government quickly responded and was willing to accept the British proposal. Although there have been centuries of contradictions between Britain and France, France's greatest enemy at present is Germany. Although France had formed an alliance with Russia to deal with Germany, discontent with this ally was growing in France. First, there has always been a strong pro-German force in Russia, such as the former Chancellor of the Exchequer Witte is a staunch pro-German faction; second, Germany has never given up on Laron, divided the Franco-Russian alliance, and France has also paid a huge price in order to maintain the alliance, and has provided Russia with billions of francs of low loans, and has fully opened Russian bonds on the Paris Stock Exchange.

If that's all, France can still bear it, but what makes France most unacceptable is that Russia's attention has been drifting, and things are swinging, especially in Russia, many people think that France is in the west to contain Germany, and Russia can expand eastward at the right time, and France paid such a big price to promote the Franco-Russian alliance, just to find a companion to jointly deal with Germany, and Russia seems to let France cover its eastward expansion, France naturally feels that Russia is unreliable, in this case, France naturally hopes to find another ally at least a little more reliable to deal with Germany。

Britain is of course a more reliable country than Russia, so in recent years France has also deliberately improved relations with Britain, such as mutual recognition of each other's colonies and spheres of influence, and respect for each other's core interests, but after all, the two countries have been hostile to each other for hundreds of years, even if relations have improved, but they are still far from an alliance, and they need to find opportunities for cooperation between the two countries. And the joint mediation of the war in the Far East is undoubtedly a good opportunity.

In addition, although Russia is an unreliable ally, no matter how unreliable an ally is, it is better than no ally, and it cannot push Russia to the side of Germany, so the alliance with Russia must be maintained as much as possible. And now that Russia has been dealt a heavy blow in the Far East, it is the time to take this opportunity to draw Russia's attention back to Europe from the Far East. In this way, a situation in which the British, French, and Russian Triple Alliance can be formed to deal with Russia, or to attack Germany from the east and west, although Germany now has Austria-Hungary as a hardcore ally, and Italy as a wavering partner, but in terms of comprehensive strength, geographical advantages, and geographical environment, Britain, France, and Russia are of course much stronger.

Therefore, Britain and France held urgent consultations, and in only two days, the two countries came up with a plan, that is, to negotiate this war in the name of joint mediation, not only to force the East China government not to intervene in this war, but also to do their best to promote an armistice between Japan and Russia in the present situation. At the same time, a sequential plan was also formulated, first of all, the two countries worked together to put pressure on the East China government, forcing the East China government to promise not to intervene in this war, at least not in a short period of time, so that the next step of mediation work - France to do the work of Russia, Britain persuaded Japan, so that the armistice would take enough time, as long as it was a truce between Japan and Russia, the East China government would naturally have no reason to intervene in this war.

The end result was a tripartite situation in the Far East in which the governments of Japan, Russia, and East China were held in check, and Britain could secure its own interests in the Far East, and at the same time bring Russia back to Europe and promote the Triple Alliance of Britain, France, and Russia.

Although this plan is very ambitious, Britain and France still have full confidence, after all, both countries are now the world's first-class powers, so there are really not many things that the two countries cannot do together.