On the 26th of December, the British Minister to China, Og Og, the Consul General of Tianjin, Vice Admiral Philmantle, the commander of the British Far East Fleet, and Li Hongzhang, a scholar of the Mandarin Palace University in Beijing, were invited to attend the welcome banquet of the British Embassy at the British Consulate in Dongjiaomin Lane.

During the meeting, the two sides had a warm and cordial conversation, recounting the friendly past of the two countries and looking forward to a bright future.

Subsequently, Ogge sincerely expressed that Britain was deeply worried about the war between the Qing and Japan, and was willing to act as a bridge between the Qing and the East to stop the hostilities in the goodwill of seeking peace for the Far East.

Li Hongzhang couldn't help but be overjoyed when he heard this.

Prior to this, Prince Gong Yixin, who was in charge of seeking peace talks, had always pinned his hopes on the United States to intervene.

However, Tian Bei and Li De, in several intersecting conversations with Yixin, repeatedly hinted that they were 'very incomprehensible' to the Qing Emperor *** Hongzhang.

This is also why Cixi has 'returned' to Guangxu, but in this matter, she ignored Guangxu's thoughts and forcibly enlightened Li Hongzhang.

After listening to Ogg's words, Li Hongzhang hurriedly agreed, and expressed his heartfelt gratitude and admiration for the British Empire's "goodwill" in devoting itself to maintaining peace in East Asia.

That night, Ding Ruchang led the Beiyang detachment from the sea area of the headland of Laotieshan in southern Liaoning, went around the Bohai Bay, and sailed into Port Arthur.

At this time, the detachment of Kompasu Shark Island had just sailed to the Chengshantou sea area of the Ludong Peninsula and was rushing towards the Wei Navy Port.

Nearly midnight, the Incheon detachment of the Combined Fleet sailed to the sea off Weihaiwei Harbor.

Seeing the faint light on the sea, the Weihai Weijun Port Fort thought that it was the return of the naval fleet, but the warships in the open sea no longer moved forward, but quietly moored in the open sea, which immediately aroused the vigilance of all the artillerymen.

That night, the Japanese fleet completely blocked the Weihaiwei Harbor.

On the 27th of the lunar month, at the signal of the British Imperial Foreign Secretary Kimberley, the British Minister to Japan, Chu En, sent a late note to the Japanese Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs, Lin Dong.

Chu Enchi solemnly stated that Britain was paying close attention to the Qing-Japanese war and demanded that Japanese troops not enter Zhili, causing turmoil in the Qing government and causing unnecessary international disputes.

Lin Dong, the Japanese vice minister for foreign affairs, was shocked at that time.

On the same day, the news reached the Hiroshima base camp, and the Oriental monarchs and ministers were in an uproar.

In the Meiji era, Ito Hirobumi's original expectation was to attack Naoli, and then break through the Jinmen and Yanjing, and the most likely to jump out to stop it should be Tsarist Russia.

Otherwise, no one can be offended, but the United States, which has a good personal relationship with the Beiyang department, or Germany, which sold a large number of arms and warships to the Qing Dynasty, and now has many officers as instructors in the Qing Dynasty.

In the prediction of the Hiroshima base camp, France, which had an old Vietnamese feud with the Qing Dynasty, and Italy, the younger brother who followed behind the British Empire, should not intervene in the mediation of the Qing-Japanese war.

As for the Netherlands, the Austrian Empire, Portugal, which have no presence in the Far East, these countries and the Hiroshima base camp do not think about it at all.

However, the vast base camp would never have thought that the first to jump out to demand an armistice and reconciliation was actually the British Empire, the number one power today!

You must know that it was your British Empire who instigated the fight against the Qing Dynasty at the beginning, how can you say that you will change your face at this time?

Of course, it's not that peace talks can't be made, but you have to wait until the imperial army takes Yanjing City to negotiate peace, right? You must know that the main force of the Daqingshui Division is still there, the two military ports are still there, Fengbei, Shanhaiguan, Dalian Bay, and the Qing and Japanese armies are still in a fierce confrontation.

Choosing to negotiate peace at this time, the empire can not get much oil and water except for the dominant position on the Korean Peninsula and a little war reparations!

For a time, the entire Oriental government was shocked, angry, and frightened, and collectively lost its voice.

The appearance of He Changying and the Korean reinforcement army has unconsciously completely changed the situation of the entire Qing-Japanese war.

In the original time and space, after the Japanese First Army captured Haicheng and Yingkou, it stopped.

After the Second Army captured Lushun, it drew troops to reinforce the First Army all the way, and formed the Third Army all the way.

The Third Army landed in Rongcheng Bay, Ludong, and after the Beiyang Fleet annihilated the Beiyang Fleet in Weihai Weijun Port, it also temporarily stopped, not to mention the invasion of Zhili, that is, Yantai, Penglai, Qingdao, and Jinan, which were close at hand, did not send troops over.

With the help of the Japanese base camp in Hiroshima, the Marine Corps was formed and went south to attack Taiwan.

This will not split China, nor will it affect the various interests of the West in China, and it will also scare the Qing Dynasty to death.

That's why the Western robbers in Britain and France were able to sit and watch the show with cold eyes.

At that time, seeing that the Japanese army was cunning and not deceived, marched into Zhili and fought Yanjing, the American minister Tian Bei was the first to jump out to advocate peace talks.

But in this time and space, the British saw that the Japanese army was actually fierce to fight Zhili, and then broke through the Jinmen and Yanjing, which was simply to turn over the meat plate of the Qing Dynasty, so that the polar bear would pick up meat on the ground to eat after it was cheap.

Of course, the British Empire is going to say 'NO' loudly.

From day to night, the entire Hiroshima base camp was noisy, especially Meiji, Ito Hirobumi, Saigo Congdo,—— a group of bigwigs who stayed awake all night, and all of them were red-eyed.

On the night of the 28th of the lunar month, the Lushun officer squad of the Anti-Japanese Army and the 300 recruits from the Dagu Military Station escorted more than 30 heavy carriages and stopped on the post road next to the artillery position in Shanhaiguan.

He Changying, Li Jingfang, Liu Mingyang, Liu Gangzhi, Lu Zhaomei, Yang Guang——

A group of officers of the anti-Japanese army stood on the post road at the foot of the mountain, looking at the artillery position on the top of the hillside on the left side of the road.

"The battalion officer of this artillery battalion is called Song Zhanbiao, an 'old man' who has followed Nie Shicheng for more than ten years, he is brave, strong and chivalrous, and loyal to Nie Shicheng; in addition to the artillery battalion that was crippled in Hushan, there are also some artillery soldiers who escaped from Port Arthur."

Li Jingfang saw He Changying looking at the artillery position on the top of the mountain, so he explained to him in a low voice: "As soon as Liu Kun took over the Shanhaiguan defense area, the four artillery pieces were allocated in, and there was no manpower added to it; However, according to the accuracy of the Japanese artillery, once it was bitten, it was estimated that there would be more than one luck. ”

"This place is two miles from Shanhaiguan, and the straight-line distance to the north wing city is about five miles, and before the north wing city is broken, the Japanese artillery positions cannot reach them at all; I am afraid that once the Japanese army breaks through from other places, these artillery pieces will not have time to withdraw, and they will become a sharp weapon of the Japanese army. ”

He Changying said to Liu Pingyun: "Go up and communicate, if you have no opinion, let's go up and visit." ”

He Changying, as an emerging second-grade military general of the Beiyang Department, not to mention that he was still following Li Jingfang on the side, and Song Zhanbiao, as a five-grade battalion garrison from the Wuyi Army of the Beiyang Department, went out to wait.

A group of anti-Japanese army officers boarded the artillery position, looking at the cannons in the night, divided into three rows, with the muzzles of the guns pointing directly at the sky, He Changying's mood was heavy.

"Song Shoubei, where are your mules and horses?"

He Changying turned around a lot, this camp head is not bad, now except for the soldiers on guard, the rest of the soldiers have fallen asleep, and there is silence in all directions, there is no mess.

However, it was this silence that made He Changying discover that there were no corridors and carts in the camp.

"No mules and horses, no carts."

Song Zhanbiao said calmly.

"No mules and horses, carts? So how did you get these artillery and shells? ”

He Changying listened with a strange face.

"Poof—"

Song Zhanbiao's big hands, covered with calluses and chilblains, gently lined up on the shiny barrel of a cannon: "The mules and horses that pull the cannons, and the carts that pull the cannonballs, are all rented from the Jinmen carriage; Now the brothers have not seen the military salary for half a year, and the rations are only according to human hair and clothes, not to mention that there is no money to buy mules and horses, and even if there are mules and horses, we will not be able to supply grass materials and bean cakes. ”