Chapter 420: Armistice (1)
However, compared with the clear-cut attitude of Britain, France, and Russia, the United States and Germany have expressed their concern about the further complication of the situation in the Far East and the expansion of the war, and have called on the international community to organize themselves to control the continued expansion of the war, and also demanded that the parties involved in the war negotiate to resolve the interests of all parties, stop the war, and restore peace. Moreover, both the United States and Germany have unanimously expressed their willingness to act as mediators, provided that all parties have the will for peace.
This is due to the fact that the United States and Germany have limited influence in the Far East, and there is no great conflict of interest with the three parties involved in the war, although they both have certain tendencies, such as the United States secretly supports Japan, while Germany has close military cooperation with the East China government in recent years, and at the same time hopes that the situation in the Far East will become as chaotic as possible, so they are more inclined to the East China government, but the two countries do not want to offend the other side by favoring one side, so they are also happy to stand on the moral high ground and say some beautiful things, anyway, these words will not be wrong.
Although the US media did not react as fiercely as Britain and France, they both clearly accused the East China government of not entering the war at this time, because although the United States did not have great influence in the Far East, it had great commercial interests, and the United States secretly supported Japan's purpose in not only safeguarding its own commercial interests in the Far East, but also hoping to contain Russia's expansion and expand its commercial interests in Northeast China. Originally, before the East China government entered the war, everyone could see that the Russo-Japanese War had almost been fought, and no matter what the final result was, Russia could no longer expand in the Far East, so many American consortia and enterprises were aiming at Northeast China, such as the railway king Stephenson had planned to invest in the construction of railways in Northeast China. However, the entry of the East China government into the war has expanded the war and will continue indefinitely, and American investment has become far away, and of course it will not be happy.
On the one hand, the East China Government has maintained good relations with Germany in recent years, on the other hand, Germany does not have very good relations with Japan and Russia, and Germany does not even have much economic interests in the Far East, and many of the naval fleets of the East China Government are built by Germany, or Germany has provided technology, materials, and accessories to help the East China Government build them, and this is also the focus of the German media's reports, believing that it was these German warships that helped the People's Army Navy win the Battle of Tsushima.
In the First Sino-Japanese War, the Beiyang Naval Division, with German ships as the main force, was defeated by the combined fleet with British ships as the main force, which naturally made Germany lose face, but this time the new warships of the People's Army Navy were almost all of German blood, and the complete victory was still the combined fleet with British ships as the main force, which could be regarded as a breath of relief for the German shipbuilding industry. In fact, up to now, the East China government, Japan, and Russia have not announced the details of the Battle of Tsushima, so people have no way of knowing how much role the German-built warships played in this war, and although these warships were built by Germany, the design of the warships was completed by the East China government itself, and the Germans only built according to the drawings, and strictly speaking, they can only be regarded as German-made warships rather than German-style warships. However, the German media did not mention it.
Of course, in addition to these major powers, other countries have also issued statements expressing their own attitudes, but between the words, most of them are blaming the East China government, but not very fiercely. However, these countries are basically soy sauce people, and they can only be spectators in this chess game, or touch a few fish when the water is mixed.
However, the propaganda machine of the East China government has not been idle, and the public opinion position must be occupied, so from May 13 onwards, the East China government has publicized its own ideas either through government statements or in the form of newspapers, books, and other media.
The propaganda of the East China Government is divided into two parts: one is to report on the course of the war, of course, to focus on the victory of the People's Army, and to constantly use the news of the victory to boost the morale of the people and their confidence in the East China Government; after all, to start a war, it is still necessary to rely on the performance on the battlefield to speak; and the other is to publicize the legitimacy and necessity of the East China Government's participation in the war in the form of editorials and commentaries.
The propaganda is based on two points: First, Japan and Russia are waging war on China's territory, so as far as China is concerned, both countries are aggressors, and the East China Government's participation in the war is a war to defend the homeland and resist aggression, and it is used to be reasonable at all times; second, while Japan and Russia are waging war on China's territory, the Qing court, as the legitimate government of China, has not taken any measures to prevent or safeguard its own rights and interests, but has completely allowed itself to be free, and has even flaunted the banner of neutrality and completely disregarded the interests of the country and the peopleto defend national interests and defend the people of Northeast China, and this is to defend the legitimacy of the East China government's participation in the war.
As a matter of fact, when the East China government had just entered the war, there were still many voices opposing the government and opposition in China, believing that the East China government's actions were unwarranted provoking Japan and Russia, and that it might affect China. Celebrities, etc., of course, some of them are really worried that the East China government will provoke Japan and Russia, and bring disaster to China, after all, in the past 60 years, China's foreign wars have almost never won, although 5 years ago, the arrival of the traverser made China free from the humiliation of Gengzi, but after all, it is not a complete victory, the two sides are actually mutually agreed, and everyone knows that when the Gengzi country changed, all countries did not have close to full strength, and the troops dispatched were only tens of thousands of people, and this time both Japan and Russia sent all their strength, and the troops invested by both sides in Liaodong added up to nearly one million, far from being comparable to the eight-nation alliance army 5 years ago, so it angered these two countries, the consequences are unimaginable.
And there are some people who use the topic to play, they were originally the defenders of the Qing court or the victims of the East China government, naturally they have a lot of dissatisfaction with the East China government, but in the past, the East China government has always occupied the moral high ground, and can not find any strong reason, can only accuse the East China government of being a chaotic minister and thief, and despise the court, but now the authority of the Qing court has fallen to the bottom, such remarks have not aroused the interest of many people, and now it is just taking this opportunity to desperately attack the East China government.
However, under the vigorous propaganda of the East China government, it soon won the support of the vast majority of public opinion. On the one hand, the People's Army has continuously won victories in wars, after all, victory is the most inspiring, and on the other hand, the East China government has also grasped the victim mentality of the Chinese in modern times, played the nationalist card, and focused on defending the country and protecting the people. Although there were still a few voices opposed to attacking the East China government at this time, they did not arouse much reaction.
Of course, the propaganda of the East China government is basically based on the domestic market, and at most it has a certain influence in Southeast Asia, while in Europe and the United States, it is impossible to see these voices of the East China government, and in Germany, the United States, and the offices of the East China government can publish articles in local newspapers to express their attitudes, but in Britain, France, and other countries, there is no information about the East China government at all, including that the government's statements have not even been reported by the media.
On the one hand, European and American countries have great prejudice against China, and it is impossible for European and American public opinion to have a positive reaction to China, and on the other hand, the influence of the East China government on European and American countries is quite limited. Therefore, at this time, it is more realistic to win the support of domestic public opinion in the first place, and it will also be of substantial help to the East China government to participate in the war; after all, the European and American countries are too far away, and no matter how much these countries demonize China and the East China government at home, it will not be of much significance to the war.
But at this time, the most embarrassing thing is the Qing court, although the East China government now does not have the time to deal with the investigation of the Qing court in the Shanghai terrorist attack should bear the responsibility, but in the propaganda, it has not forgotten to smear the Qing court, in fact, there is no need for the East China government to deliberately smear, the Qing court itself has too many slots, you can find a few to play.
At the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War, the East China government launched a wave of public opinion offensive to attack the neutrality of the Qing court, but the East China government did not participate in the war at that time, but only shouted a few times verbally, so there were many people who defended the Qing court, and this wave of public opinion offensive did not last long and ended. Now that the East China government has officially entered the war and has won successive victories on the battlefield, the East China government will naturally not forget to pull the Qing court as its foil in its propaganda to better display the tall and glorious image of the East China government.
During this period, there were also various voices within the Qing court, and some people suggested that the Qing court should immediately commend the East China government, and confer official positions on the main personnel of the East China government, and symbolically give some money, food, and materials, and even send a small number of troops to fight with the people's army, so that not only can the East China government's participation in the war be justified, but the Qing court can also occupy a big name, and if the East China government wins in the future, the Qing court can also take a share of the credit; and if the East China government loses, the responsibility can be shifted to the East China government.
However, this suggestion was immediately opposed, the East China government, Russia, and Japan are not easy to fool, and the Qing court wants to play a balance between the three parties, playing left, center, and right.
There are also people who suggest that at least Prince Su should be severely punished, at least to show goodwill to overseas Chinese, but some people object, thinking that overseas Chinese have long been a separatist party and do not obey the discipline of the imperial court, and Prince Su also wants to solve problems for the imperial court, so he planned to attack the Shanghai New Area, which is clearly due to the imperial court, how can it be severely punished, on the contrary, it is the overseas Chinese who do not measure their own strength, provoke Japan and Russia, and bring trouble on themselves, and look at the small victories now, that is to take advantage of the unpreparedness of Japan and Russia, and in the end it is not the opponent of Japan and Russia, and should immediately draw a line with it to avoid its involvement。