"As long as the sea control is in our hands, not only Britain and France cannot send their land forces to North China to fight with us, but even Tsarist Russia is also powerless, because the supply of the Russian army in the Far East also depends on sea transportation, and once the sea transportation is cut off by me, the Russian army in the Far East will not be able to attack at all!" , Li Hui said excitedly that this was a new discovery after he discussed it with Yan Fu.

It turned out that before the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the supply of the Russian army in the Far East was mainly received and sent by Vladivostok, the only outlet to the sea in the Far East, so it relied heavily on sea transportation. Once the sea transportation is interrupted, Tsarist Russia can only use mules and horses to transport supplies to the Far East by land, the cost is more than ten times higher than the original supply method, and if it is dead, it can maintain thousands of Russian troops, which is not enough for the rebel army to plug the teeth!

"The situation of the Japanese army is similar, at present they have one division in Mukden (relatively complete) and two divisions in North Korea (incomplete), it seems that the strength is not weak, but once the navy completes the reorganization, it will immediately go out to block the coast of North Korea, the endurance of the Haitian-class patrol is very good, it can go to sea for a long time, and one can block a route, and six ships are enough to completely cut off the supply of the three Japanese divisions. When the Japanese army ran out of supplies, it would not be much difficult to destroy them. Yan Fu added with confidence, but his face was also a little worried, "But the Japanese army in Mukden is more troublesome, and the Qing army gave them too many guns and ammunition."

"Yes, that Japanese army must be destroyed, and they cannot be allowed to wreak havoc on Chinese soil. And we can also declare to the world the strength of our army by annihilating this Japanese army, and perhaps hope to discourage the Western powers from taking actual military action or even declaring war, well, this is the most ideal result, but even if it doesn't go so well, at least there should be fewer Xiaoxiao who follows the trend, right? Li Hui smiled and nodded, but he also had some different opinions, "As for the 30,000 Japanese troops in North Korea, I am not ready to directly send troops to annihilate them, and once the rotten land in North Korea is far away from the seaport, logistics supply will become a big problem." Moreover, the Japanese have not cleared the mines outside the port of Incheon until now, and we still have to make great efforts to clear the mines, so it is better to attack the Japanese capital Tokyo directly by sea and force the Japanese government to sign an alliance under the city, which also requires mine clearance, which is much more valuable than destroying two Japanese divisions."

Yan Fu was puzzled when he heard this, "Dongyang, didn't you say it before?" The British will never tolerate our acquisition of Japanese talent and industry and accelerate their rise, and as soon as we land in Japan, they will definitely intervene with troops, have you forgotten? ”

"How can I forget what I said myself? It's just that I suddenly figured it out just now, anyway, I want to offend the West badly, and there is not much of this, and if I do it now, the British will not be able to rescue Japan. Of course, Japan is a modern nation-state with a population of tens of millions, and even if the Marine Brigade is trained, it will not be possible for us to conquer it, but I didn't want to conquer Japan in the first place! My purpose is only to ask the Japanese government to order the Japanese troops in Korea to lay down their arms and withdraw from Korea, saving them the effort to eliminate them, and at the same time to apologize and compensate for the previous acts of aggression, and the form of compensation is negotiable, which is much smaller than the heavy losses caused by the destruction of the coastal elite areas, and it is impossible for the Japanese government to refuse this when it is impossible to obtain Western aid in a few years." Li Hui spread his hands and explained with a smile.

"There is a great hope of success in this case, but the Japanese have no faith, and even if they are temporarily forced to sue for peace, as long as they have the opportunity, I am afraid that they will still turn to the West again and become our enemy." Yan Fu nodded lightly after hearing this, but also expressed his concern.

Li Hui laughed, "Of course I know that Japan will not be reconciled, but what does it matter? In any case, we are only negotiating peace with them for the sake of immediate needs, reducing a front that will not yield much benefit, so that internal reunification can be completed as soon as possible. Besides, now that we have the strength to resist the invasion of foreign powers, we should also unify the whole country in a few years, will it not be possible at that time? Actually, I hope that Japan will turn to the West again in the future, so that we will have the pretext to solve this problem once and for all."

"In fact, the real problem is still in the UK, and Japan alone really has nothing to be afraid of." However, Yan Fu is still a little worried that the prestige of more than half a century is not so easy to eliminate, which makes Yan Fu always unconsciously overestimate the power of the West, especially the United Kingdom.

Li Hui sighed leisurely at this time, stared at Yan Fu with his eyes, and said to him seriously, "Actually, I didn't want to be so radical at first, but just now I suddenly realized a serious problem, I am afraid that it will be dangerous, and only being tough can ensure safety."

"As I said earlier, the Russian army in the Far East is dependent on sea transportation for its supplies, and as long as the sea route is cut off, they cannot pose a threat to us. But just now I suddenly realized that I missed a very important point, that is, warehousing, if Vladivostok has stockpiled enough supplies in advance, then this problem will no longer be a problem for at least a while, Tsarist Russia will be fully capable of sending tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of troops to the south, although we may not be able to fight, but the price we need to pay is definitely not small", Li Hui said in an extremely serious tone.

Yan Fu was a little unimpressed, "Dongyang is thinking too much, and now Vladivostok simply can't have so many material reserves." ”

"Of course not now, but what if Tsarist Russia doesn't declare war on us right away, but waits until it's stockpiled enough?" , Li Hui sneered when he heard this, and said a possible situation, "If they don't declare war, we will have no legitimate reason to intercept merchant ships, and we can only watch the Russian army in the Far East build up their strategic reserves, and then it will be really dangerous." ”

"With Russia's limited maritime capacity in the Far East, I am afraid that this goal will not be accomplished in a few years." , Yan Fu's face gradually became difficult to look at, but he still found a reason.

"Tsarist Russia does not have such a strong capacity, but Britain and France have, even if the British government does not want Tsarist Russia to expand excessively in the Far East, as long as the Tsarist Russian government is willing to pay for it, there are a lot of Western shipping companies willing to help transport. In fact, the Japanese government can also use this method, and if we cannot intercept Western merchant ships, we will not be able to completely cut off the supply of Japanese troops in Korea. Li Hui's layer-by-layer analysis finally completely shattered the luck in Yan Fu's heart and made him fall into contemplation. (To be continued.) )