The Qing court's relenting attitude meant that the East China government had won the battle between Britain and France this time, but the East China government was not satisfied with the results it had achieved, after all, this time it was the British and French who first provoked it, and although it was successfully resolved by the East China government, Britain and France just did not achieve their goals, but there was no loss to the two countries themselves. The East China government is by no means willing to passively wait for the opponent to make a move, and then deal with it itself, so it must not only take the initiative to attack, but also hit the opponent's soft underbelly, so that Britain and France feel pain.

Due to geographical reasons, before the combined fleets of Britain and France reached the Far East, they could not really exert their strength here, and could only use some soft power or smart power means, and Japan and Russia could not provide much substantial help to Britain and France at this time due to their military defeats in the early stage. This is also one of the important reasons why Britain and France lost this air fight, after all, whether it is soft power or smart power, it must be supported by hard power, no matter how Britain and France coerced and lured the Qing court, but when the East China government sent troops to capture Baoding and approached Zhuozhou, the Qing court immediately coaxed.

However, it is also due to geographical reasons, so that the East China government can not directly threaten the mainland of the two countries, although this time although the Chunting was suppressed, but there was no blow to Britain and France, Britain and France can also exert force in other aspects, but the East China government wants to seize the sore corner of Britain and France, it is not without opportunity, because Britain and France are in the Far East, because they are in China, there are too many interests that can be used by the East China government and set as targets.

As early as when the People's Army attacked Baoding, Xia Bohai put forward a plan in the military working group: send troops to attack Shanghai and recover the Shanghai concession, so as to attack Britain and France.

The current Shanghai Concession is divided into the Public Concession and the French Concession, of which the Public Concession is mainly controlled by the British, of course, the United States has certain special interests in the Public Concession, while the French Concession is all controlled by France. Britain and France both have great commercial interests in China, and the two countries together account for more than eighty percent of China's foreign trade, and more than half of the commercial interests of the two countries in China are related to the concessions of the two countries in Shanghai, so if the East China Government recovers the Shanghai concession and confiscates the assets of Britain and France in Shanghai, it will certainly be a heavy blow to Britain and France as a result of huge commercial losses, and it will also let Britain and France know that it is impossible for Britain and France to be enemies of the East China Government without being hit.

Of course, the East China government's attack on Shanghai and the recovery of the Shanghai concession were not only to retaliate and hurt Britain and France, but also to have huge practical interests, first of all, Shanghai was a port city, and during the Westernization Movement, a number of modern industries were set up, and there was a certain industrial base, such as the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau. Public facilities, so the East China government occupies Shanghai, can take these modern enterprises and public facilities as its own, to a certain extent, can improve the modernization level of the East China government.

Secondly, Shanghai guards the mouth of the Yangtze River, looks south to Hangzhou Bay, and has an excellent deep-water seaport, which has great strategic value. After the East China government occupies Shanghai, it can use the port of Shanghai as the home port of the People's Army naval fleet to meet the combined British and French fleet, so that the East China government's front can be pushed forward by nearly 600 kilometers and obtain a strategic space with great depth, at least without having to fight the British and French fleets at home. Therefore, the occupation of Shanghai by the East China government will be a huge gain in terms of strategic and economic value.

In addition, the East China government also had enough reasons to occupy Shanghai, because the negotiations between Britain, France, Japan, and Russia and the Qing court included a plan for the Japanese army to land from Shanghai and attack Shandong, which was enough for the East China government to have a reason to attack Shanghai first. Moreover, in recent years, the East China Government has attached great importance to propaganda work in the Shanghai area, and the Chinese in Shanghai, because they are young people, have established greater prestige, and at the same time, the Shanghai New Area has developed greatly in recent years, so that the East China Government has penetrated into all strata of Shanghai, so there will not be much problem in the governance work after the capture of Shanghai.

However, some people have also proposed attacking Shanghai and recovering the Shanghai Concession, which will cause greater political trouble, because the Shanghai Concession is a place where foreign forces gather, and in addition to Britain and France, Germany, the United States, Japan, Russia, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, and Spain have all set up consulates in the Shanghai Concession and occupy commercial interests of various sizes.

Although there are many countries that have set up consulates in the Shanghai Concession, the only real powers are Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Japan, and Russia, and the rest are playing the role of soy sauce, so there is nothing to worry about, and Britain, France, Japan, and Russia have already had bad relations with the East China Government, and whether the East China Government takes back the Shanghai Concession or not, it is a hostile relationship; therefore, the only country that really poses a threat to the East China Government is Germany. The United States, however, has good relations with the East China government, and there are not many commercial interests in the Shanghai Concession, so Germany will basically not turn its face because the East China Government has taken back the Shanghai Concession, and only the United States really needs to be guarded against.

However, through effective work, it is not impossible to eliminate the threat of the United States, because the United States is still relatively cautious about the use of force, and since it is a political body with strong force against the East China government, as long as the East China government can guarantee the economic interests of the United States in Shanghai, it will basically be able to stabilize the United States.

As long as Germany and the United States do not have any objections to the East China government's resumption of the Shanghai concession, the attitude of other countries can be ignored. Therefore, the East China government finally decided to implement the plan of attacking Shanghai and recovering the Shanghai concession.

At this time, the war in the Northeast entered a temporary recuperation area, the 3rd Army was stationed in Harbin, the 5th Army was stationed in Vladivostok, and the 4th Army and the prisoners of the Russian army were basically withdrawn to Qingdao.

After discussions by the military working group, the task of carrying out this plan was entrusted to the marines; first, the marines withdrew to Qingdao earlier to rest and recuperate, and at this time, the state and establishment of the troops were basically completely restored, and they could carry out new tasks; second, Luo Yue's ability and actions were also reassuring; in fact, the military difficulty of attacking Shanghai was not great, and the real difficulty was political; although the East China Government did not take the attitude of the surprise country, if this battle caused too many casualties, it would not be a good thing for the reputation and image of the East China Government, and the most ideal result would be to surrender without a fight。 And the scale of this aspect is quite difficult to grasp, and this time it is necessary to occupy the port of Shanghai, so it is the Marine Corps and the naval fleet to work together, Luo Yue also has enough actual combat experience in this regard, and only Luo Yue can reassure.

After receiving this order, Luo Yue also immediately formulated a battle plan, although this operation is not complicated, but it cannot be rash, this operation will be divided into two directions, one is to attack the outer harbor of Shanghai, the other is to attack the Shanghai concession, Britain and France have warships stationed in the port of Shanghai, so whether it is the Marine Corps or the fleet, it is a two-front operation.

Luo Yue decided to dispatch all two divisions and three reserve regiments of the Marine Corps, one of which would assist the fleet in attacking the port of Shanghai, and the other division and three reserve regiments would attack the Shanghai concession. In terms of fleet, Luo Yue decided to take the two armored cruisers Jinan and Tianjin as the core, plus the 4th cruiser squadron and the 3rd destroyer squadron to attack the port of Shanghai, while the 2nd destroyer squadron and two river fleets would assist the marines in attacking the Shanghai concession.

Three days later, the fleet with the armored cruisers Jinan and Tianjin as the core, plus 18 transport ships, set sail from Qingdao for Shanghai.

A day later, the fleet reached the mouth of the Yangtze River and encountered the British fleet in Shanghai. The Jinan and Tientsin took the lead, followed by the 4th Cruiser Squadron and the 3rd Destroyer Squadron to meet the British fleet, while the 2nd Destroyer Squadron and two river fleets protected the transport fleet and anchored temporarily.

The British warships stationed in Shanghai were centered on two Edgar-class protective cruisers USS Hawker and USS Gibraltar, and four E-class destroyers USS Kennett River, USS Judd, USS Chermer, and USS Cohen. There were also two French shallow water gunboats.

After the encounter between the two sides, at a distance of about 8 kilometers, the British ships first sent a warning signal to the KPA warships, but the KPA fleet did not respond to the British ships, but continued to move forward, closing in on the British ships, and the British ships were ready for battle.

Because the position of the operation at this time was at the mouth of the Yangtze River, although the river was more than 10 kilometers wide, it was still very narrow for fleet operations, and this environment was not suitable for carrying out array line operations in a single column, on the contrary, it was more convenient for the bow of the ship to move forward and the horizontal formation, so the People's Army also quickly changed its formation, Jinan and Tianjin were located in the center side by side, and the cruisers Dongchang and Jining, and the destroyers Gaomi and Jimo were the left wing; the cruisers Linqing and Wuding, and the destroyers Anqiu, The Zhucheng is the right flank, and it discharges an arrow-shaped array that spreads horizontally for more than 2,000 meters and vertically for more than 1,000 meters, which is very similar to the formation of the Beiyang Fleet during the First Sino-Japanese War. The Anglo-French fleet, on the other hand, remained an array line with a straight column. From the formation of the two sides, it is quite a copy of the naval battle of Dadonggou.