The British Consul in Qingdao, Owen, and the French Consul in Qingdao, Molaire, came to the Foreign Affairs Committee together and formally conveyed the attitude of the two governments to the East China Government. Since the war in the Far East has affected the interests of the two countries, the two countries have decided to mediate the war and restore peace in the Far East, and they will give full consideration to the interests of all parties, and recognize the fact that the East China Government occupies Jinzhou, and at the same time believe that the East China Government hopes that the East China Government will maintain the status quo until the results of the mediation are known, and let it refrain from new military operations.

Moreover, the two countries have openly declared in the media that the purpose of this mediation is to bring peace to the Far East, and therefore no peace-loving national organization should refuse the mediation of the two countries.

The East China Government quickly responded to the British and French proposals, saying that it conditionally welcomed the mediation of Britain and France, because the northeast was originally China's inherent territory, and a war between Japan and Russia on China's territory, regardless of the nature of the war, would be the greatest infringement of China's sovereignty, so it demanded that the mediation between Britain and France must be fair and impartial, and that China's territorial sovereignty be the precondition, and that Japan and Russia must unconditionally withdraw from Chinese territory and unconditionally hand over the three eastern provinces to China, otherwise the East China Government will not recognize the mediation and will not accept the conditions of Britain and France。

It turned out that after Britain and France made a conciliatory voice, the East China government immediately began to conduct a serious study. No matter what the real purpose of Britain and France is, and whether they really intend to take a fair and impartial position, at least at the beginning, the mediation between Britain and France can indeed occupy the high ground of public opinion, so if the East China government flatly refuses, it will obviously put itself in a disadvantageous position in public opinion.

Therefore, after discussion, the East China government decided to adopt a conditional welcome attitude towards the mediation between Britain and France, requiring that the mediation must be premised on the unconditional withdrawal of Japan and Russia from the three eastern provinces, of course, this is also completely reasonable, because the northeast region is indeed China's territory, and the Qing court and Russia have also signed the [Treaty of Settlement of the Three Eastern Provinces], so that they can also be invincible, and at the same time kick the ball to Britain and France.

In addition, the East China Government also believes that Japan and Russia will probably not agree to an armistice at this time, and that it will be Japan, so when Japan and Russia fight again, the East China Government will have ample excuses to enter the war.

The East China government's reply did not embarrass Britain and France, because the preconditions are not important, Guan Jian is the final negotiation of what conditions, and the purpose of the two countries is to make a truce between Japan and Russia, not to meet the requirements of the East China government, anyway, as long as Japan and Russia have an armistice, the East China government is not satisfied with the two countries. Now as long as the East China government has this attitude, it is enough.

After the East China government expressed its attitude, the Qing court also issued its own statement, expressing its gratitude to Britain and France for their mediation, and hoping that Britain and France would uphold justice, and that the Qing court would fully support and cooperate with the two countries.

As a matter of fact, after Britain and France announced mediation, the Qing court wanted to express its support for mediation between the two countries, but Li Hongzhang thought that it was not necessary to be in a hurry to express its position, and that it would be said after the attitude of the East China Government came out, because what if the East China Government refused to be mediated by Britain and France? At this time, it was best to maintain consistency with the East China Government. Sure enough, the Qing court did not express its attitude at the first time, but waited for the East China government to conditionally welcome the mediation of Britain and France before expressing its support.

Although Britain and France did not take the Qing court seriously, after all, the Qing court was the legitimate sovereign state of the Northeast region in the name of the proposal, and even the suzerainty of the East China government in the name of the proposal. Moreover, Britain and France agreed as if the East China government had agreed, so they went to Japan and Russia respectively. Originally, according to the thinking of Britain and France, it was easier to persuade Japan and Russia to cease the war than to persuade the East China government, because Japan and Russia were their allies, and now they were exhausted from fighting, and they both owed a lot of debts, and it was precisely when they needed the support of their allies that they would be supported financially, so both countries were full of confidence.

To the surprise of both countries, both Japan and Russia rejected the truce and said that they would continue to fight. Russia said that Japan was the first to provoke the war, and if there was an armistice, then Japan must be responsible for the war, otherwise Russia would absolutely not give in to Japan and was confident of winning the final victory; while Japan issued a statement that the armistice was meaningless at this time, and that the reason why Japan launched the war was that Russia had expanded in the Far East and infringed on Japan's interests, so the condition for the armistice was that Russia withdrew from Northeast China, and of course, if Russia refused to withdraw, Japan also had full confidence in driving Russia out and restoring peace in the Far East。

The attitude of Japan and Russia surprised both Britain and France, and they realized that the situation in the Far East was more complicated than they imagined, and there were more players involved in this chess game than they appeared. It turned out that although Britain and France hoped for a ceasefire between Japan and Russia now, there were also those who hoped that the war would continue. Germany and the United States are represented.

Germany The United States is an emerging country, and when they rise, the earth has been divided up by the old empire, and only a little leftover food leaked from the fingers of the old empire, and then it is not a piece of meat from the old empire, but it is also a very risky thing to challenge the old empire, and it may not be possible to get much spoils if you win, and the old empire like Britain, France and Russia is not so easy to deal with, it is best to have a country come out and fight with the old empire, whether it is victory or defeat, it is beneficial to Germany and the United States。

Now that Japan and Russia are finally fighting, Germany and the United States hope that they will be able to fight and lose, and now it is obviously not enough, so it is better to continue the war until the last drop of blood is shed on both sides, so that Japan and Russia will lose the ability to expand in the Far East and beyond, while Germany and the United States have hope to fill the void left by both countries. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said to German Ambassador to the United States Sternburg: "In the interests of our two countries, we hope that the war will drag on for a long time." In this way, Russia will not be able to threaten the interests of your country in the Balkans, and Japan will not be able to threaten the security of our country in the Philippines. ”

So just as Britain and France were preparing for a truce between Japan and Russia, Germany and the United States provided support to Japan and Russia. The United States provided Japan with money to keep the war going, while Germany assured Russia that there would be no tensions on the border between the two countries during the war, so that Russia could redeploy its troops in Europe to the Far East to continue the war. Therefore, both Japan and Russia also have the capital to refuse the demands of their allies.

Of course, the attitudes of Japan and Russia are actually different, in fact, Russia hopes for an armistice just like this, but it does not want to create an impression that Russia is eager to cease the war, but deliberately wants to put on a tough posture, so that not only can it strive for more interests in the future armistice talks, but at the same time, in the face of the domestic opposition, the Russian government can also establish a tough image, which is conducive to easing the domestic crisis.

As for the attitude of its ally France, Russia has a way, as long as it makes a gesture of getting closer to Germany, France will immediately put down its position to retain Russia, this trick has been tried and tested in the past, so Tsar Nicholas II sent an invitation to Kaiser Wilhelm II, and the emperor will meet in the Baltic Sea in the summer. The Tsar believed that if France received this news, it would immediately make friendly gestures to Russia, such as providing funds for Russia.

Japan absolutely cannot stop the war at this time, because at this time, Japan will not be able to reap any benefits that can repay its debts, so what awaits Japan can only be the bankruptcy of the country. Even if Britain will not watch Japan go bankrupt and provide Japan with funds to repay its debts, this is just a drink to quench its thirst, and the conditions for Britain to provide funds are probably extremely harsh, requiring Japan to cede a large number of national interests, and the result is that Japan will completely become a vassal of Britain, which is no different from national bankruptcy, and the achievements of the Meiji Restoration in 30 years and the gains from winning the First Sino-Japanese War will be wasted. Now Japan has no way back but to continue to go on and continue this war.

As for Britain, an ally, after discussion in Japan, it was believed that even if Japan did not listen to Britain's advice this time, Britain would not give up on Japan easily, and now Britain still needs Japan's help in maintaining the situation in the Far East, so as long as Japan's attitude is resolute, Britain can only continue to support Japan, and of course it can only gamble like this now.

It should be said that although the Anglo-Japanese alliance was dominated by Britain, Japan still had considerable initiative, and in the alliance it was able to fully safeguard its own interests without being subordinated to Britain's orders, which was completely different from the US-Japan alliance in the era of the time-traveler, when Japan was completely subordinate to the alliance and had no ability to say no at all.

At the same time, Japan also decided to launch the Mukden Campaign immediately; first, it would create the fact that the war was still going on and force Britain to continue to support Japan; second, taking advantage of the fact that the East China Government had just intervened in the northeast region, it would take at least a month of preparation time to formally enter the war, and Japan could use this time to first completely defeat the Russian army, capture Mukden, and occupy the most important cities and strategic points on the Liaodong Peninsula, so that it could block the military intervention of the East China Government, and at the same time, it would also be able to cut off the links between the People's Army and the Russian army, so as to prevent the two sides from joining forces against Japan; and third, Russia's Second Pacific Fleet had already entered the Indian Ocean, which was expected to be in AprilIf Japan can first capture Mukden and settle the land battle before the Second Pacific Fleet arrives, and then Japan can wholeheartedly deal with the war at sea and annihilate the Second Pacific Fleet, Russia will not have to worry. At that time, even if the East China government entered the war, Japan would be able to face it calmly.

Of course, even Japan is not completely sure whether this operational goal can be achieved, but at this time it can only make a desperate bet, so the launch of the Mukden Campaign is an arrow on the bow and has no choice but to launch.