After receiving Li Sanjie's report, the Executive Yuan immediately launched urgent consultations, after all, this was indeed unexpected news. Not only did Li Sanjie not expect it, but no one else thought of it either.

After the consultations, everyone believed that although Russia's purpose in doing so was to divide the East China Government and Japan, the advantages did outweigh the disadvantages for the East China Government, because the East China Government had never thought of sincerely cooperating with Japan, and it was only a matter of time before it turned its face with Japan, and the war had reached this point, and there was not much time left before the two sides turned their faces, so the East China Government did not have to care about relations with Japan at all.

If you can easily get a stronghold to enter the Tohoku region, and it is also a strategic location, then it is cost-effective. Moreover, Japan first proposed to the East China Government not to enter the war, which in fact violated the cooperation agreement between the two sides, so there is nothing morally wrong with the East China Government.

In addition, from a deeper level, the plan of the East China government was to attack and enter the war during the Battle of Tsushima, first annihilating the Japanese and Russian fleets and gaining sea supremacy. However, Japan is not a fool, and in fact it is always on guard against the East China Government, and when the People's Army Navy is attacking and intercepting the Russian fleet, the spies that Japan has arranged in Qingdao are jumping up and down, and the country is even more like a great enemy, so we can see how closely Japan's defense of the East China Government is. Therefore, it is simply impossible for the East China government to fool Japan into believing that it will not turn its face, as if there is only a conspiracy between countries, and there is no conspiracy.

However, if the People's Army can be stationed in Jinzhou, it can also have the effect of attracting Japan's attention; after all, the garrison in Jinzhou poses a considerable threat to Japan, and Japan will certainly pay more attention to the western Liaoning side, so as to relax its maritime defenses. This is of course conducive to the implementation of the plan of the East China government. Therefore, the Executive Council finally decided that it could continue to negotiate with Russia and strive to be able to garrison troops in Jinzhou.

In this way, the tactical value of Luo Yue's attack on Vladivostok is even greater, because once the East China government enters the war, defeats the Japanese army, and starts a full-scale war with the Russian army, because Jinzhou has been obtained, then the scale and scope of the war may be greater than that of the Russo-Japanese War, and it will definitely force Russia to put a large number of troops into the front line to confront the People's Army, and the rear garrison will inevitably be more empty, and once the attack on Vladivostok is successful, it will inevitably lead to the rout of the Russian army on all fronts, and the People's Army will naturally gain greater.

After all, the plan proposed by Luo Yue is still in its infancy, and it is only a general idea, and there are many details to be further improved, so that it is necessary to conduct detailed reconnaissance and exploration of the terrain, landform, sea area, port, and coastal defense of the area around Vladivostok, so as to target the detailed plan of the system, of course, this is not a difficult thing for the East China government. However, these tasks must not be carried out until the plan has officially entered the implementation phase.

Another point is to determine that Luo Yue is the initiator of the plan to attack Vladivostok, so that he can formally participate in and lead the implementation process of this plan, and when it comes to the actual implementation, he will naturally be the task of the commander-in-chief, so that after the war, Luo Yue will naturally make the first contribution, and also lay a solid foundation for Luo Yue's future promotion, after all, the promotion of soldiers must be based on actual combat achievements.

Of course, from a selfish point of view, Xia Bohai and Xiao Jianjun also intend to support Luo Yue, on the one hand, because Xia Bohai, Xiao Jianjun and Qin Zheng have an irreversible friendship, and both of them cross alone and do not bring their families, so they also regard Qin Zheng's children as their juniors; Xiao and the others are now nearly 50 years old, and it is definitely impossible to completely help their children on the road, so supporting Luo Yue now is also to let their children have a support in the future.

Now Luo Yue is the commander of the Marine Corps, although the Marine Corps now has only one division, but in terms of rank, it is one level higher than the division, which is equivalent to the army-level establishment, and now the army is only organized to the division level, and there is no army-level establishment, so Luo Yue's rank is second only to the army commander Zhu Yapinghe* , the military rank should also be promoted to the rank of general, but the Marine Corps is the establishment of the Navy, and the army does not bother, now Luo Yue's rank is still colonel, but the qualifications to submit the battle plan to the General Staff are enough, of course, if this attack is successful, Luo Yue can definitely be promoted to the rank of general.

After Luo Yue formally submitted the battle plan to the General Staff, it was quickly approved by the General Staff, and Luo Yue and the General Staff held a discussion on this battle plan, and both believed that it was necessary to conduct reconnaissance of Vladivostok as soon as possible in order to draw up a detailed combat plan, so the Central Military Commission immediately agreed to send the Kunming and Huaihua warships to carry out the reconnaissance mission in Vladivostok, and Luo Yue would set off with the warship and be the person in charge of the reconnaissance mission.

The Kunming ship is the strongest of the five modern warships, and the technical level is also the highest, whether it is radar or sonar, the level of informatization and the electronic equipment on board, are the best, by its radar and sonar, they have the ability to scan terrain imaging, so they are most suitable for reconnaissance missions, and the 130 mm naval guns are also enough to deal with general conflicts, and there is no need to use precious * or *; However, the disadvantage of the Kunming ship is that the hull is large and the draft is deep, so it cannot carry out close reconnaissance, while the draft of the Huaihua ship is nearly two meters less than that of the Kunming ship, which can make up for the shortcomings of the Kunming ship to a certain extent. Of course, the dispatch of these two modern warships to carry out reconnaissance missions also shows how much importance the East China Government attaches to the attack on Vladivostok.

At the same time, this time they also brought a special forces brigade ashore to conduct on-the-spot surveys and reconnaissance when necessary. Although the East China Government is technologically advanced, no matter how advanced the technology is, it cannot be completely reliable, and even in the old time and space, it cannot completely rely on radar for the survey of complex terrain, and it still needs manpower to conduct on-the-spot reconnaissance, so it is absolutely necessary to bring some special operations soldiers with the ship.

Now the KPA's special forces have expanded to more than 800 people, and the main members are also composed of local fighters, of course, elite fighters selected from various units, and then undergo rigorous training. The crossing soldiers basically serve as senior commanders or instructors, and some of the weapons and equipment used are still brought by the crossing, but most of them have been replaced with products of this era, after all, it has been 5 years, and a large part of the weapons and equipment used by the crossing can no longer be used.

The reconnaissance mission is expected to take about a month, but fortunately, the training of the Marine Corps is now on the right track, and even if Luo Yue leaves for a month, other officers will lead the troops to conduct training, it will not have much impact, so three days later, Luo Yue arranged to bid farewell to his family and troops, and board the Kunming ship to set off.

The day after Luo Yue and his entourage left Qingdao, Japanese Foreign Minister Komura Shotaro visited Qingdao again and held talks with the East China government on the issue of entering the war. Moreover, this time, Japan's attitude was very resolute, and it explicitly demanded that the East China Government give up its entry into the war, but Li Zhen still used the Franco-Russian alliance as an excuse, and of course promised again that after the end of the war, it would definitely protect China's interests, so the East China Government can be completely reassured.

It turned out that the Japanese consul in Qingdao, Keishiro Matsui, had sent back to China the results of his communication with the East China Government, and at the same time attached his own opinion, believing that once Japan refused to allow the East China Government to enter the war, the cooperative relationship between the two sides would definitely break down, and that the East China Government would also have a great possibility of sending troops to participate in the war on its own, on the grounds that since the establishment of the East China Government, it has always attached great importance to the credibility of the government, and its propaganda to the outside world and at home has been to safeguard China's territorial sovereignty as its duty, and if it does not send troops to participate in the war, it is obviously impossible to justify itself.

Moreover, the East China government has done a lot of work to prepare for the war, and has also raised a lot of debts, so if it cannot enter the war and reap benefits from the war, then the debt will become a huge burden on the East China government, so it is impossible for the East China government to accept Japan's proposal, unless Japan transfers all the occupied land to the East China government after defeating Russia, and perhaps the East China government can give up participating in the war.

After receiving Matsui's report, Katsura Taro's cabinet also held discussions, although a few ministers believed that it was necessary to continue to cooperate with the East China government, and even to divide part of the post-war results to the East China government, so as to maintain cooperation between the two sides and jointly fight against the United States and European countries. However, this proposal was opposed by the majority of the people, and the opposition from the War Department and the Navy Department was particularly strong, and War Minister Terauchi Masashi said: "The victory of the Russo-Japanese War was won by the blood of the soldiers at the front, and it was surrendered to the East China government in this way, so that the soldiers at the front will feel about it, and who will be willing to join the army and fight for the country in the future." ”

Yama Yama Youpeng also believes that Japan can no longer be at the two ends of the rat at this time, and must make a decision, between enjoying the dividends of the war alone and maintaining cooperation with the East China government, can only choose one of them, while Yamaguchi Youpeng believes that it should choose to enjoy the war dividends exclusively, because this is the maximization of Japan's interests, and the cooperation with the East China government is not so important, after all, Japan has signed an alliance treaty with Britain. And now without the help of the East China government, Japan will be able to defeat Russia on its own.

First, there are insoluble contradictions between the East China government and Russia, and it is impossible to join forces, and second, even if the East China government and Russia join forces, there is no need to be afraid, because then the second article of the [Anglo-Japanese Alliance] can be activated, and Britain should send troops to the war, and once Britain enters the war, there is nothing to be afraid of, so Shan Shan Youpeng believes that as long as Japan puts on a tough posture, the East China government will not dare to turn against Japan at all.