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In the face of the sudden tension in Northeast China, all countries have their own interests and have launched more intensive diplomatic actions. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

The Germans, who were the most active, were eager for Russia to be drawn into a constant military confrontation with the eastern countries, and had already clearly expressed their support for Yang Chao, and the Kaiser had once again begun negotiations for an alliance with the Qing court.

This is the third time, the Germans proposed the Sino-American and German Triple Alliance, which was used against the British Anglo-Japanese alliance and the Franco-Russian alliance, but first, the Americans were not active, the United States still wanted to remain neutral, and second, the Qing court did not want to get involved in the struggle of European countries, so there was no response on both occasions.

This time it was different, after Zhang Zhidong talked to Yang Chao, he decided to take tough measures against Russia. The first is that Zhang Zhidong feels that China's national strength has become stronger in recent years and has confidence; The second is because Yang Chao reached an agreement with Japan, and Japan has an alliance treaty with Britain, Zhang Zhidong believes that if he acts together with the Japanese, he will not be defeated at least.

As long as he is undefeated, with the current situation, how can he maintain the power of the Northeast, and it is even possible to take the opportunity to take back Lushun, as for Dalian, because it has to rely on the power of Japan, it can only continue to be occupied by the Japanese.

It's just that Zhang Zhidong, as an old official who has been up and down in the late Qing Dynasty for more than 30 years, has experienced too many failures in his life, which makes Zhang Zhidong feel nervous, so he hopes to get greater guarantees this time, actively responds to the Germans' alliance proposals, and begins to actively negotiate with the Germans.

Within a month, a defensive alliance treaty was signed, but Zhang Zhidong was very cunning, and he insisted that the scope of the treaty be limited to the east, that is, if anyone attacked Germany and China in the east, then both countries must use all their resources to support the other.

Obviously, this treaty was beneficial to China and not to Germany, but the German government only wanted an ally to balance the Anglo-Japanese alliance and the Franco-Russian alliance in the East. They also don't expect the Chinese to help after the war in Europe.

In other words, Germany just needs an ally that can contain Russia, and in Europe. It doesn't matter at all whether they are contained in the East or in the East, they want to break the military pressure of the Franco-Russian alliance on Germany, and therefore in a certain sense, it is also beneficial to Germany.

Of course, the short-term purpose of the Germans was actually to support the Qing court. They need the Qing court to let go of their hands and feet, show their courage, to fight the Russians, it doesn't matter if they win or lose, anyway, as long as the Russians can't destroy China, they must maintain a stronger and stronger military presence in the east to resist the pressure of China and Japan, then the Germans in Europe will be naturally resolved by the Franco-Russian situation.

But the attitude of the French and the British to this war. But there is unanimous unity, that is: oppose war, cherish peace!

It is not surprising that the French did not want Russia to be drawn into one war after another with the countries of the East, since the purpose of their alliance with the Russians was to contain Germany, but the Russians would not have been able to do so if they had remained trapped in the East.

But the attitude of the British is a bit puzzling, and the British have always besieged Russia. However, after the Russo-Japanese War, the attitude of the British was somewhat relaxed.

The British, seeing the weakness of Russia and at the same time the strength of Japan, even reassessed the potential of China.

It is not difficult for the British to make such a judgment. The Russian polar bear has lost its overwhelming superiority over the countries of the East, and their expansion in the East has actually been curbed.

This means that the Russians no longer have a destructive advantage, but Japan needs the attention of the British, and the Chinese have begun to enter the sight of the British, and the British do not want to defeat Russia, a continental power, and build up a maritime power, Japan. It is also not in the interests of the British to let the Japanese replace Russia and dominate the East.

What the British needed was balance, and they formed an alliance with the Japanese because they believed that the biggest role of the Japanese, that is, to block Russia and defeat Russia, was impossible, but in the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese exploded, and the land war was inseparable from the Russians, and even had an advantage, and the naval battle directly annihilated the larger Russian fleet, which made the world look sideways, which made the British feel that the Anglo-Japanese alliance seemed to have no need to exist.

However, the Anglo-Japanese alliance has not expired, the two countries signed an agreement in 1902, and the term of the treaty is only 5 years, but after the Russian warships arrived at Arthur to rendezvous, Britain renewed the treaty with Japan in 1905 in order to strengthen Japan's confidence to fight, so this treaty will not end until 1911, and if this time there is another war between Japan and Russia, this treaty is still valid.

But now the British did not want to weaken Russia too much, and the present situation led the British to conclude that not only should they not be attacking Russia, but on the contrary, they might need Russia to maintain a certain presence in the northeast to contain the frenzied expansion of Germany in Shandong and northern China, and even the rapid rise of Japan.

So while the French were vigorously lobbying the Chinese government, the British were lobbying the Japanese government, hoping that Japan would exercise restraint, saying that Britain and France would do their best to mediate the Northeast crisis and try to use peaceful means to make Russia make concessions, including withdrawing the Arthur fleet and even reducing the number of troops stationed in Arthur.

Britain and France were in lockstep, the Americans watched from the sidelines, and the Germans tried their best to provoke a second large-scale war in the northeast.

All parties have engaged in active diplomatic activities.

And it does work.

The Russians released signs of concession, saying that their fleet was a response to the Japanese entry into Dalian, and that they were willing to make concessions and withdraw the Arthur fleet as a sign of good faith.

The Russians are quite wise, which makes Yang Chao a little impressed.

But the Russians had no choice, the Russo-Japanese War almost wiped out their navy completely, and later recovered some ships that were seized in neutral ports, but these ships have also aged, with the appearance of dreadnoughts, all battleships have become old antiques, but the Russians did not build their own dreadnoughts for the first time, because they were busy extinguishing the flames in the country, and only stabilized the country in 1907, and only began to restore the economy in 1908, but this year there was a sudden crisis in the northeast, Their navy is not an opponent of Japan at all.

Russia's current Pacific Fleet, it can be said that it is completely symbolic, and the entry into Arthur is just to take the opportunity to restore the right to station in Arthur, only symbolic, no practical significance, once a war breaks out, the Japanese can destroy the Russian fleet in minutes, so that the Russian Navy will be completely annihilated again, and the tsar will not benefit except to suffer humiliation again, so withdrawing from the Arthur fleet is the wisest choice.

But the Russians said that in the event that Japan withdrew its troops from Dalian and withdrew its fleet, Russia would not consider withdrawing a single soldier from Arthur.

Under the lobbying of the British, Japan also gave its allies a little face, or did not dare not give face to its allies, although it has not recovered from the economic crisis, but the tiger is majestic, the prestige of the British Empire is not something that Japan can provoke, Japan dares to be tough on the Russians, to put it bluntly, it is not a fox and a fake tiger, relying on the British Empire.

Let the Japanese single-handedly challenge the Franco-Russian alliance, they themselves will not agree, as for the agreement with the Chinese, the Japanese feel that our Daqing army is negligible, even if Yang Chao used military blackmail against Russia that time, they still do not think that the Chinese can fight with Russia for the army.

So the Japanese gave in, and they also withdrew the fleet from Dalian, but Incheon, which was stationed in Korea, could drive to Dalian in a few hours if necessary, and blockade Lushun at the first opportunity.

Both sides have made concessions, and it seems that this battle cannot be fought, but I have not yet agreed.

To be precise, Yang Chao has not yet agreed, Yang Chao has mobilized all the forces that can be mobilized, how can this battle not be fought?

Yang Chao is determined to fight this battle, first because this is a good opportunity, although the situation was provoked by the Japanese garrison, but Yang Chao felt that it was very easy to unite with the Japanese to fight the Russians, as long as Russia was defeated again, Yang Chao could at least take back Lushun, at least Ito Hirobumi promised so, and it was publicly admitted at the press conference; Second, Yang Chao needs this war, a large number of heavy industry enterprises in Shandong are crazy to start production, if they don't find a market, the economy will collapse, what is more than the demand created by the war?

Therefore, the purpose of Yang Chao's war is to a large extent to find a market for industry, which is indeed a bit frustrating, but this is his strategy, everything is aimed at industrialization, and everything else can be sacrificed temporarily.

Therefore, in the face of the mediation of the French, Yang Chao put forward extremely harsh demands, and Yang Chao asked the Russians to promise that no matter how Japan moves, the Russians must guarantee to immediately reduce the Lushun garrison and reduce the number of Lushun troops to 10,000 by the end of the year, otherwise China will not guarantee that it will not take the next step.

He also actively colluded with the Japanese in private, exchanged views with the Japanese, and sent Wu Peifu to Dalian to discuss with the Japanese the cooperation of the armies of the two countries in the event of a war between China and Japan and Russia.

The Japanese said that they hoped to be humiliated in Lushun, and they hoped that once the war broke out, the Japanese army would attack Lushun again, Yang Chao agreed to the Japanese plan, and the Chinese army would be responsible for blocking the Russians trying to move south, and would concentrate most of their forces to block the Russians north of Harbin.

At the same time, at sea, the Chinese and Japanese navies will also carry out joint operations to blockade Lushun as soon as possible and try to launch an attack on Lushun.

In 1909, the world was buzzing around the Northeast issue for a year, but in the end the Russians refused to make a statement, and on December 30, before the New Year's bell rang, the Qing court issued an ultimatum to the Russians, demanding that the Russian army immediately withdraw from Lushun, keeping a maximum of 10,000 soldiers.

An ultimatum meant war and the failure of the British and French mediation. (To be continued.) )