The Japanese sharpened their knives on their side, and the Qing court was calm on their side. No one in the Qing court expected that Japan would dare to go to war with the Qing Dynasty.

After receiving a request for help from the DPRK on 3 June, Li Hongzhang said that sending troops to the DPRK was an old practice for our DPRK to protect its vassals. On the same day, Emperor Guangxu issued an order: "Send an order to Zhili Admiral Ye, select a strong army, Xingchi to Jeolla and Chungcheong in North Korea, block and suppress the camera, and extinguish Keri." As soon as the matter is completed, it will be withdrawn and no longer left behind. ”

On June 4, Ye Zhichao, the commander of Zhili, led 2,465 troops with Nie Shicheng, the chief soldier of Taiyuan, and Xia Qingyun, the chief soldier, to take the China Merchants steamship and escort them to North Korea by five ships: Yangwei, Pingyuan, Jiyuan, Zhiyuan, and Caojiang. 、

At the same time, he sent a telegram to Wang Fengzao, the minister to Japan, to inform the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to conform to the "Sino-Japanese Treaty of Tianjin" that had been signed earlier.

Wang Fengzao received Li Hongzhang's telegram and immediately drafted a note to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "In the 11th year of Guangxu, China and Japan signed a peace treaty, which stated that if there was something going on in Korea after that, China would send troops there, and it would follow Japan's instructions and withdraw its troops as soon as Korea was pacified. Today, Ye Zhichao led the elite soldiers to North Korea to quickly quell the chaos and appease the vassals. Please consult your Excellency, please take your time. ”

After receiving the telegram sent back by Yuan Shikai, Li Hongzhang was even more convinced that the Japanese would not dare to compete with the Qing Dynasty at all.

As for the Japanese Navy, Li Hongzhang even said, "Have you seen the majesty of my Beiyang, and the Japanese sailors dare to move lightly?" ”

In early May, Li Hongzhang presided over the second major review of the Beiyang Naval Division, which coincided with the 60th birthday of the Empress Dowager Cixi, and the scale of the review of the natural office was grand, with the army on May 8 and the navy on May 10.

Not only did the main force of the Beiyang Naval Division come out of the naval review, but also the Nanyang Naval Division and the Guangdong Naval Division also came to join in the fun.

Dagukou assembled 9 ships of the Beiyang Naval Division Dingyuan, Zhenyuan, Jiyuan, Zhiyuan, Jingyuan, Jingyuan, Laiyuan, Chaoyong, and Yangwei led by Admiral Ding Ruchang, and 6 ships of Nanchen, Nanrui, Jingqing, Huantai, Baomin, and Kaiji led by Admiral Yuan Jiugao and Xu Chuanlong, the commander-in-chief, and 3 ships of Guangjia, Guangyi, and Guangbing of the Guangdong Naval Division led by Yu Xiongfei, the registered commander-in-chief.

18 warships assembled, the scene is spectacular, the momentum is amazing, just look at the surface can still make people feel the Qing Dynasty as the first in Asia's majestic majesty.

On the 10th, all the ships went to sea at low tide to Lushun, and at this time, the three training ships of the Beiyang Naval Division, Weiyuan, Kangji, and Agile, had already gone to Lushun to wait.

During the voyage, the Beiyang, Nanyang, and Guangzhou naval divisions conducted joint exercises, and the huge formations composed of the three naval divisions constantly changed their formations to show their ship-handling skills. Just looking at the formation drills, the Qing Navy Division is quite well-trained, and the ability of each ship's pipe belt to maneuver ships is also extremely good, and the fleet is either a horizontal formation or a column, and it can be manipulated freely.

At the time of the fleet exercise, the Japanese Navy's gunboat Akagi followed behind, saluting and greeting the flag while constantly shortening the distance between the two sides and watching the fleet exercise. Li Hongzhang didn't care about this when he saw this, and signaled to Ding Ruchang: "Let him see the majesty of my Beiyang and deter Xiaoxiao." ”

At this time, Li Hongzhang had received a call from Yuan Shikai on the 8th: "There are thousands of Donghak Party in Taein County, Jeolla Province, South Korea, gathering crowds to incite chaos. Now send Hong Qixun to lead the troops to arrest, and ask for the transfer of the Pingyuan military ship stationed in Incheon to carry the Korean soldiers, and go to Gepu Haikou to land and talk about the momentum. ”

Li Hongzhang believed that allowing Japan to watch the drill at this time would also enable little Japan to submit to the great military power of our Qing Dynasty.

On the 11th, the fleet sailed to Lushun, and on the 15th, it went north to Dalian Bay, at which time Yuan Shikai sent another telegram: "The Jeolla Daoist bandit party is quite rampant, the Korean soldiers have been defeated in training, and more than 400 people from the Ganghwa gun team have been added to suppress it. Li Hongzhang called Prime Minister Yamen: "The king of Han has not asked me to send troops to help, and the Japanese have not heard of sending troops, so it seems that they have not moved lightly, so we should renew the letter and consider how to do it." ”

On the 17th and 18th, the fleet conducted a live-fire exercise in Dalian Bay, and the torpedo artillery went into battle at the same time, and all the torpedo shots were hit, and the hit rate of the naval guns was also more than 70 percent.

On the 19th, the fleet arrived at Weihaiwei, where some sailors landed to practice the use of guns and artillery on land, changing formations, and also dispatched a total of 20 marines from the three fleets to conduct shooting drills.

Subsequently, the three ships of Weiyuan, Agile and Guangjia exercised their sails, and the whole fleet fired 10,000 guns in unison that night, adding momentum to the exercise, and the atmosphere reached a climax for a while, which was highly praised by the guests of Britain, France, Russia, Germany, and Japan, and the Beiyang Navy review came to an end.

Therefore, Li Hongzhang has reason to believe that after seeing the prestige of the Qing Dynasty, Japan will certainly not dare to act rashly.

And the Japanese turned their faces immediately after the Qing army sent troops.

On June 7, Foreign Secretary Mutsu Munemitsu replied to Wang Fengzao and said: "On April 18, Meiji 18, China and Japan signed a peace treaty, and your country sent troops to Korea, so you should prepare a note. Although this minister Cha Guiguo refers to Korea as a vassal subjugation, the king of Joseon has never recognized that it belongs to your country, and the statement of rationality is resigned. ”

On the same day, the Japanese minister to Beijing, Komura Shotaro, sent a note to Prime Minister Yamen, saying: "Recently, civil strife in Korea has been raging, and the country has no choice but to send troops there. He has already ordered the general to go out, and at the same time prepare for the inspection of the ministers of the king. ”

The Qing government found that it could not prevent Japan from sending troops, so it had to hope that the Japanese would not have much impact on themselves, so they replied to Komura Shoutaro: "I asked for help from the king of Joseon and sent troops to it. Your country is not allowed to send heavy troops, and the king of Joseon has not asked your country for troops in the first place. Therefore, the soldiers of your country do not need to enter the interior of Korea. ”

The telegram sent back by Yuan Shikai from North Korea made Li Hongzhang think that Japan had indeed sent troops, but as Sugimura Jun said, Japan sent troops just to escort Keisuke Otori back to North Korea and "transfer the embassy", at best, hundreds of people.

On June 9, the Yaeyama arrived at the port of Incheon, and Keisuke Otori arrived in Seoul under the escort of 400 marines led by Navy Major Shinyoshi Mukaiyama.

On the same day, the first batch of 910 Qing troops led by Nie Shicheng, the general soldier of Taiyuan, landed at the mouth of Asan Haikou and stationed in Asan County.

On June 11, Ye Zhichao, the governor of Zhili, led the second group of 1,055 Chinese troops to land at the mouth of Asan and was also stationed in Asan County.

On June 12, the vanguard of the 1st Mixed Brigade of Oshima Yoshimasa landed at Inchon and entered Seoul the next day.

Li Hongzhang was dumbfounded, are you guarding the embassy? Do you have any other intentions? I only sent more than 2,400 troops to quell the turmoil, and you came to protect the minister with more than 8,000 people, why are you teasing me?

Li Hongzhang was dumbfounded, and Keisuke Otori was also dumbfounded, the uprising of the Dongxue Party actually subsided. I'm going to let me see this when I'm taking my pants off?

It turned out that when the North Korean side saw that both Japan and Qing were sending troops, the two sides were immediately afraid of the appearance that they were about to start a fight on their own land if they disagreed.

The North Korean government immediately dealt with the officials who caused the violence* and exiled Kim Moon-hyun, the Jeolla Provincial Observer, and imprisoned Cho Byung-ga, the governor of Gufu County. In addition, 400 Ganghwa guns and artillery troops and 2,000 battalion guards from Gyeongseong and Pyongyang were sent to reinforce them, and Yan Shiyong was appointed as the Sannan envoy to assist Hong Qixun in appeasing the rebel army together with the new Jeolla Provincial Observer Kim Hak-jin.

When the rebels learned that the two countries were sending troops, they knew that they would not be able to end if they continued like this, so they agreed to negotiate with the government, and the two sides signed an armistice treaty, the Jeonshu Peace Treaty, on June 11.

The uprising of the Dongxue Party has been quelled, and neither the Qing army nor the Japanese army has any reason to stay any longer, so they must be withdrawn.

Now that both sides are staring at each other with big eyes and stupidity, what should they do now?

At this time, Keisuke Otori played his role, in order to drag the Qing army in Korea, he followed the instructions of Ito Hirobumi, knowing that it was impossible for the Qing Dynasty to agree, and insisted on putting forward a proposal of "Qing and Japan jointly promoting the reform of Korean internal affairs" to bring the Qing country to the negotiating table.

"Whoever has a clearer mind and a clearer purpose in this state of emergency will be able to take the most beneficial actions for themselves." Jochen, who received the telegram back, commented.

Since the arrival of the Japanese army in Korea, the whole of Europe has been watching, and what to do if war breaks out between the two sides is also an important issue for all countries to discuss.

Naturally, the same was true of Germany, and the German government and other European governments generally believed that the war could not be fought, and even if it did, the Japanese would have no chance of victory.

Joheng's side naturally had the opposite attitude: "Now that the violence in Korea has subsided, if the Japanese don't want to fight, they will definitely withdraw their troops immediately, and at the same time, they will also let the Qing withdraw their troops, but now they want to keep the Qing army in Korea, then it is obvious that the Japanese must want to go to war, because in this way they can put the responsibility for the war on the head of the Qing State." ”

"But there is no possibility of victory in the war between Japan and the Qing Kingdom." Caprivi's view is the same as that of most Europeans.

"I don't know where the confidence that Japan will win the war with the Qing comes from, but it is clear that if there is someone on the Qing side who understands, it should immediately withdraw its troops from Korea, so that Japan will have no excuse to remain in Korea. Most people in Europe are not optimistic about Japan right now, and if there is no suitable excuse, the situation in Japan will be very bad. Jochen naturally knew what the Japanese would do next.

"So Japan will inevitably try to prevent the Qing army from withdrawing, and if the Qing army does not withdraw, or even continues to increase troops in the opposite direction, it is tantamount to falling into the trap of Japan, then we have reason to believe that the Japanese are far more prepared than the Qing state, at least in this regard, the Japanese won." Schlieffen understood Jochen's meaning very clearly, and he was unprepared for premeditation, at least in terms of planning, and Japan's victory over Qingguo was not a star.

"Yes, the Qing State is unprepared for the upcoming war, and the whole of Europe thinks that the Japanese will not dare to go to war with the Qing State, then the Qing State itself probably thinks so, then it is more likely to fall into the trap of Japan, and the situation will develop step by step according to what the Japanese envisioned."

"But that is still not the basis for judging whether Japan will win this war," asked Frederick III. RS