July 1895. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

In the early days of the Ming Dynasty's intervention in Lushun, the majority of Manchu scholars rejoiced, and for the first time felt that the country of the Ming Dynasty was not so hateful, and even the most conservative scholars saw hope and played the banner of Lianming's resistance against Japan.

The Japanese government and the opposition were greatly frightened, and a big reason why they launched the First Sino-Japanese War as scheduled was that the Ming Dynasty was involved in the war against the United States, and they thought that the Ming Dynasty could not intervene. Based on Japan's experience, the Ming seemed keen to intervene in any war in East Asia, whether it was Japan's annexation of the Ryukyus or the French occupation of Vietnam. Japan believed that if the Ming Dynasty had spare strength, they would definitely intervene in Japan's war with the Manchus, regardless of whether they should be neutral in international law.

That's why Japan couldn't wait to take advantage of the uprising of the Togaku Party to launch a war.

As a result, they risked a military victory, but because they gave Da Ming an excuse, Da Ming, who had just withdrawn from the United States, quickly intervened in the war.

Although the Japanese court was arrogant, it was very clear that it could not compete with the Ming Dynasty, and Japan's challenge to the Manchu Qing Dynasty was already gambling on the fortunes of the country, and the emperor was panicked, and the folk thinker Fukuzawa Yukichi and others cheered up the Japanese vigorously, telling them that the war would be won, and telling everyone not to worry about the revenge of the Manchus.

As a result, because of a massacre, Japan was completely disadvantaged.

They even made preparations to end the war and negotiate peace with the Manchus as soon as possible.

However, at this time, after the Ming Dynasty occupied Lushun, it began to negotiate with Japan, saying that as long as Japan was willing to compensate the civilians of Lushun, and apologize to the Chinese people who were hurt by their feelings, and erect a monument to the civilians of Lushun, Japan excluded the prince to make amends, and the Ming Dynasty could continue to maintain neutrality.

Japan heard that there is such a good thing, the Ming Navy swelled to the second in the world in the war, second only to Britain, the third is the United States, the army has formed a army of more than five million people, and now it has not had time to demobilize, and this kind of opponent war, Japan is unimaginable, if the Ming Dynasty can continue to maintain neutrality, it is worth spending any money, as for reparation and apology, then there is no problem.

So the two sides signed an agreement and reached an understanding on the Lushun issue. As for any interpretation of the Ming Dynasty by the Japanese, they believe that it was forced by international pressure, and even the international community thinks so, and the British also interpret it this way, believing that this is a compromise of the Ming Dynasty on British diplomacy.

The Ming Dynasty also thinks so, for this reason, the public opinion circles even set off a wave of boycott of the British, that Britain is a shackle on the head of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming government is too soft on the British, these newspapers, just from the anti-war public opinion in the American war, but began to encourage the government to challenge the more powerful British Empire.

Of course, the Ming diplomatic department also said the same to the British, and the negotiations with Japan were carried out under the mediation of the British, so they began to ask the British for benefits, such as the abolition of extraterritoriality and the Hong Kong issue, a year before the First Sino-Japanese War, Britain abolished the extraterritoriality of Japan, which can be seen as a policy that Britain began to support Japan to balance the Ming Dynasty, but more importantly, it was the efforts of the Japanese themselves, and the price of their abolition of extraterritoriality was that they promised to hire Western judges and consultants in Japanese legal institutions.

The Ming Dynasty was unwilling to let foreigners judge its own people, so it was never able to reach an agreement with Britain on extraterritoriality, and retained the tail of this extraterritoriality, which had long made the people dissatisfied.

After careful consideration, the British felt that during the Qing-Japanese War, they did not want to see the unreasonable actions of the Ming Dynasty, and they agreed to negotiate with the Ming on this issue.

These are digressions, back to the battlefield.

Due to the sudden intervention of the Ming Dynasty in the Lushun issue, not only did the Manchu literati raise hope, but even the Manchu Qing Dynasty began to imagine the possibility of an alliance with the Ming Dynasty, just like Li Hongzhang's operation before, hiring British merchant ships to transport troops, but refusing to send the main escort of the Beiyang Naval Division, in fact, it was for Japan to fight, but Japan fought, and the British could not intervene, and now they see that the Ming Dynasty has a strong attitude of involvement, and of course they are willing to pull an ally to help them.

In other words, the weak Manchu civil officials have already subconsciously begun to rise the idea of letting the Ming protect them.

As a result, what they were waiting for was not the Ming Dynasty's entry into the war, but the Ming Dynasty's rapid agreement with Japan and the departure from the war.

This disappointed the Manchu literati, and they scolded the Ming Dynasty for ignoring the friendship of their compatriots, and at this time they began to admit that they were compatriots with the Ming people.

Li Hongzhang also had a lot of hope for the Ming Dynasty, and the defeat on the battlefield had become a settlement, and due to the intervention of the Ming Dynasty, Japan stopped military operations for a time, allowing Li Hongzhang to have the ability to reorganize the Huai army. But once the Japanese attacked again, he knew that his men would not be able to withstand it. The veterans have withered one by one, the new generals have not yet grown up, and the military discipline has been sloppy for a long time over the years, and the combat effectiveness of the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has long been lost.

Therefore, Li Hongzhang also hoped that Daming would take the opportunity to intervene, and he even did a good job of giving Daming a lot of economic benefits in exchange for Daming to participate in the war, which he had been authorized by the imperial court, but he asked to see several official letters from the Ming minister, and hoped to meet with the Ming minister through personal relations, but he was also turned away.

It wasn't until the Ming Dynasty signed an agreement with Japan that Li Hongzhang was at the funeral when he was approved for the examination, and suddenly the Ming envoy asked to see him.

Although Li Hongzhang was dissatisfied, he did not dare to let go of this life-saving straw, and warmly received the minister of the Ming Dynasty, and when he saw the visitor, he found that it was not the minister who wanted to meet him, but the higher level of the Ming Dynasty, the governor of Zhongshu Province next to the Ming Emperor, Zhongshu Ling Fangshan.

Obviously, Li Hongzhang knew that this person was representing the meaning of the Ming Emperor, and Zhongshu Province was originally the place where the emperor drafted the edict, and the governor of this kind of place obviously understood the emperor's mind best.

"I wonder what Lord Fang has to teach here?"

Although he couldn't look down on the origin of the mountain, the identity of the other party made him dare not pay attention to it, plus the battlefield was unfavorable, the situation was stronger than people, and his posture was very low.

Fang Shan was very polite: "My Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is very sympathetic to Lord Li's situation. However, due to the international situation, I was unable to help the war. But His Majesty is very supportive of Lord Lee's continued war with Japan! ”

Li Hongzhang was happy in his heart, the Ming Emperor personally supported this war, if the operation is good, it is not difficult to operate the situation of the Ming Dynasty to help the Qing Dynasty, once the Ming Dynasty is willing to help, even if the war cannot be won, the talk can also negotiate a peace game, the big deal is to give Korea to Japan.

Therefore, he wants to exaggerate the unfavorable situation and let the Ming Emperor know that if the Ming Dynasty does not help, the Qing Dynasty will lose.

Li Hongzhang sighed: "It's not easy to talk about." There is not enough food and grass, and there are not enough troops, how can we fight again? ”

In fact, the Manchu Qing Dynasty has not been idle over the years, Li Hongzhang handled the military academy in Tianjin ten years ago, hired Germans as instructors, and trained a large number of professional officers, and later Duan Qirui and other Beiyang giants all went out from this school, but it is a pity that these people are soft-spoken at this time, even if they serve in the army, they are only shrimp soldiers and crab generals, and they really make those people shine, and they have to wait for the rise of Yuan Shikai.

But the Manchus did use these officers to make the Qing army look decent on the surface.

Economically, the Western-style officials carried out the Westernization movement, established a large number of Western-style enterprises, built tens of thousands of kilometers of railways, and financially because of the construction of the railway, brought about the prosperity of trade and financial sufficiency, and the fiscal revenue was twice as high as that of Japan, all of which gave Westerners a lot of reverie, and Westerners, who have always judged the victory or defeat of wars by financial resources, thought that Japan's victory rate was not high, because in Western history, wars were fought by mercenaries, and whoever had more money could recruit more mercenaries.

As a result, they ignore the influence of popular morale and organizational skills on the military in the age of the nation-state.

The Qing court had an army that looked like 'Westernized' and established a large number of light and heavy industrial enterprises, and now Li Hongzhang said that there was a shortage of grain and grass, and there were not enough troops, which obviously Fang Shan did not approve.

"Master Li is humble. As far as I know, the total strength of the Huai Army was as high as 150,000, and the Eight Banners New Army had 200,000. There are 100,000 Chu troops and 100,000 Hunan troops. Eight Banners and Green Camp are as many as one million. How is there a shortage of troops? As for the issue of grain and grass, Lord Li can only rest assured that he will fight the war, and I am willing to borrow one billion taels to help the war! ”

Li Hongzhang gasped, one billion taels of silver, or two Ming taels, much higher than Kuping two, this grain and grass is sufficient, but he really doesn't want to fight, one dozen, the Huai army bears the brunt, defeats the Huai army, let him drink the northwest wind in the future.

At the same time, he was also shocked, the Ming Emperor supported the imperial court to transfer the Eight Banners Army, the Hunan Army, and the Chu Army to the front line.

Could it be that the Ming Dynasty planned to take advantage of the Northern Expedition, so it reached an agreement with Japan, and who knows if there were any secret terms in that agreement, such as the partition of the Qing Dynasty and the like.

Li Hongzhang was very hesitant.

But Fang Shan continued to promise: "If Lord Li does his best, after this battle, no matter how your imperial court punishes, I will have a place for Lord Li in the Ming Dynasty." ”

Li Hongzhang was even more hesitant, this was a blatant attempt to woo him, he didn't want to change his court, his reputation was on the one hand, on the other hand, he went to Daming, no matter what, it was impossible to be as comfortable as the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

So he asked, "What if the main battle is lost?" ”

Fang Shan smiled: "How can you lose?" ”

Li Hongzhang said: "What if Japan attacks Liaodong? ”

Fang Shan said with a smile: "Fight again and draw Jin!" ”

Li Hongzhang said: "What if Japan captures Pingjin? ”

Fang Shan said with a smile: "Move the capital and fight again!" ”

Li Hongzhang frowned and said, "What if Japan annexes the Central Plains?" ”

Fang Shan sneered: "Lord Li has such great ambitions, with you Lord Li here, can Japan annex the Central Plains?" ”

Li Hongzhang sneered: "Just in case! ”

Fang Shan snorted coldly: "Lord Li, do you think I can tolerate Japan's annexation of the Central Plains?" ”

Li Hongzhang snorted coldly: "How does this benefit me in the Qing Dynasty? ”

For Li Hongzhang, or for the Manchu court, Japan's annexation of the Central Plains was no different from the unification of the Central Plains by the Ming Dynasty.

Fang Shan smiled: "It's not beneficial. However, my Ming Dynasty occupies the Central Plains, and Lord Li can still be prosperous and rich. Japan occupied the Central Plains, and my emperor asked me to tell Master Li a word. As long as the Ming Dynasty rules the world in the future, the Li family will be all over the house to thank the world! ”

"You!"

Li Hongzhang stood up angrily and glared at Fang Shan angrily.

He didn't have a seizure in the end, his face was gloomy, and he shouted, "Send off!" ”