He didn't need to look at Stephen to know what the real process of things was, he glared at Lu Liang fiercely, turned around and left the Prime Minister's Office. Lu Liang didn't care at all, there was no point in such diplomatic activities, and what the British wanted to do was not something that Lu Liang and these diplomatic activities could influence.

Neither the British nor Lü Liang had any intention of making a big deal out of the incident, and the British saw the bombardment as a threat and hoped to blackmail the revolutionary government. In the face of a resolute counterattack by the revolutionary government, Britain had lost its way and would not put military intervention on the agenda until it had received information on the exact military strength of the Zhenguo Army. Their intervention in the Northern Expedition of the Zhenguo Army ended here, and the British relied on their naval power and balanced diplomacy around the world. The warships were no longer useful, and their support for the domestic opposition to the revolutionary forces did not yield much success, so they had to temporarily abandon their intervention.

Of course, Lu Liang also believed that the Western powers represented by Britain would watch their country rise, and there would inevitably be more troubles waiting for them in the future. Only when the country is unified and strong can we face future challenges. This is also the reason why Lu Liang does not want to make a big deal about it, if he wants, at least it will be easy to attack the Hong Kong colony, but the most important task now is the Northern Expedition and the Russo-Japanese War more than a year later.

After the war, the diplomatic wrangling continued, and Lü Liang referred the matter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the revolutionary government's attitude was that the war was a British invasion and that it would not agree to any of the British conditions. Defy? It's good to continue to send troops and warships, anyway, the two sides are already secretly hostile to each other.

Turning his energy back to the Northern Expedition, the Humen Incident did not have a great impact on the Northern Expedition, after which Lü Liang ordered to increase the speed and scale of the attack, and invested two more divisions in the Liangjiang area, demanding that the first phase of the Northern Expedition be ended by the end of 1903.

The imperial court was aware of the British armed intervention in advance, and they were ecstatic, and even agreed to some of the British conditions after the successful intervention, including land, loans, railways, trade, and so on. After Wei Guangtao learned about this, he even said to the people around him that the chaotic party was arrogant and arrogant, and if it provoked the British, it would inevitably suffer a heavy defeat, and at least it would stop the Northern Expedition and return to the place of departure.

I didn't expect to get the news of the loss of the British warship a few days later, and even the British couldn't help but mess with the party? This incident brought the morale of the Qing army to its lowest point, and the last straw was lost. The Zhenguo army intensified the offensive, and many units attacked frantically without the cover of heavy firepower.

On October 29, 1903, Jiujiang, Jiangxi Province was captured by the Zhenguo Army, and the large army Nanchang formed a siege and immediately prepared to attack the city. The Qing army with 8,000 soldiers in the ninth town as the core was organized, and Li Xingrui, the governor of Jiangxi and the acting governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, concentrated more than 30,000 Qing troops including the Green Battalion, and vowed to resist to the end in Nanchang and never do Zhang Zhidong, Li Jingxi, and Ke Fengshi.

Zhejiang made the fastest progress, and the city of Hangzhou was occupied by the Zhenguo army without much large-scale fighting. The Qing army shrank its elite troops around Nanjing and Shanghai, and the rest of the area was obviously resigned to fate. However, Changzhou, Xuancheng, Wuhu, Jiaxing, Huzhou and other places in the Yangtze River Delta region have local armed forces formed by comprador groups, and their will to resist is relatively resolute. In fact, these forces also repeatedly attacked the logistics supply lines of the Zhenguo Army, forcing the Zhenguo Army to send a large number of troops to pacify the rear, and the offensive against Nanjing and Shanghai was temporarily suspended.

The comprador group set up ten brigades with the help of British and French advisers, and after simple training by British and French military advisers, they launched a frantic attack on Zhen **** with thin weapons. The scattered Qing troops in the area were also collected by them, desperately expanding the number of armed forces.

Compared with their armed forces before, these brigades are very backward in equipment, which is also a helpless move, one is that the number of people is huge so that there are not so many weapons to provide use, the weapons of the Jiangnan manufacturing plant were taken by Wei Guangtao and Yuan Shikai to equip the new army, in addition, many factories in Shanghai are also urgently relocated, Yuan Shikai hopes to complete the relocation of important factories before the Zhenguo Army captures Shanghai, including the Jiangnan manufacturing plant, Shanghai weaving layout, steamship China Merchants Bureau, etc. In addition, the transportation of weapons supported by the West also takes time, and the funds of the comprador group have long been insufficient, and the squeeze of the factories in Guangdong, the components and equipment of the armed forces some time ago, and now the formation of ten brigades have exhausted the financial resources they have accumulated for nearly half a century.

In addition to the officers, the British and French even directly organized a ground force of 2,000 men, all composed of Westerners, with the intention of preventing the Zhenguo army from entering Shanghai, or at least to keep the concessions of various countries in Shanghai. Britain has also sent requests for armed support from Japan, Russia, the United States, Austria, and so on, and Japan and Russia have already agreed to send troops to Shanghai.

"Chief, after some period of fighting, the front line has concentrated its forces on the comprador army, and at present, the comprador army of 30,000 people has been completely lost. But according to intelligence, the comprador forces are now forcing the people in the vicinity to join, the so-called Lazhuang Ding, and the Westerners in the Shanghai area are organizing a large ground army in an attempt to interfere with our recovery of Shanghai. ”

On November 1, 1903, Lü Liang listened to the report of the General Staff on the progress of the Northern Expedition, and now it seems that the problems are mainly concentrated in two aspects, one is the armed intervention of the Shanghai powers in the east, and the other is the slow progress caused by the terrain in the west.

"Shanghai must be recovered, and there are still a few Western forces in Shanghai, and once more countries intervene, it will be very unfavorable to us. I ask that the troops speed up the offensive in Shanghai, recover Shanghai within three days, and meet the ground troops of the Western powers, not to shoot first, but to return fire immediately when attacked! "Since the three destroyers in Wuhan were sunk, Zhen **** has become timid about how to deal with the interference of foreign powers, especially some ordinary middle-level officers, afraid that their decisions will lead to unpredictable consequences, so Lu Liang once again refined the principles and issued them to the troops. This attack on Shanghai will also encounter the armies of the great powers, so it is necessary to prepare in advance.

"As for the west, advance step by step, don't be in a hurry, the will to resist in those places is relatively resolute, the Manchus have a large number of troops, and I don't set a time limit for that side."

On November 3, the Zhenguo army successively conquered the towns around Shanghai, and immediately launched a general attack on Shanghai. In order to minimize the damage to this densely populated and economically developed city, Zhen **** minimizes the use of large-caliber artillery, and eliminates a large number of Qing troops in the periphery of Shanghai as much as possible.

Xu Run, the captain of the comprador armed corps, had already led the remaining 3,000 people back to Shanghai, and the battle some time ago had exhausted him, and despair enveloped his heart. In addition to him, most of the compradors have emigrated overseas, Japan, the United States, and Britain are their go, and a small number of people have simply taken refuge in the chaotic party, just like Zheng Guanying did.

When Xu Run was unwilling, he still tried his best to organize resistance on the premise of knowing that there was no hope, but even the new army of the Qing army and the elite of the Japanese army were not the opponents of the Zhenguo Army, how could these temporarily organized farmers fight against the Zhenguo Army? Do you really resist with broadswords, spears, bows and arrows, muskets, and artillery?

The only hope now lies in those foreigners, as long as they can resist for a few days, and when the foreigners' army arrives, they will have hope of keeping Shanghai, the last base of the comprador group.

Compared with the momentum in the east, the progress of the attack on Yunnan and Sichuan was not fast, which was mainly constrained by topographical and logistical factors. Although the troops attacking Yunnan arrived around Kunming, they were at an absolute disadvantage in numbers, and the heavy firepower equipment, including artillery, was still in transit, so they did not start the siege.

The terrain of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan determines that Zhen **** can only patiently advance step by step, the barrenness of these places also increases the logistical pressure, many materials can not be purchased through the locality, the materials needed by more than 60,000 troops are a huge number, Yunnan horses, donkeys and other local livestock are sometimes better than motorcycles, bicycles, etc., therefore, the army purchased a large number of livestock from the local area for the camel transportation of materials.