Section 103: Losing office

"This is typical of anger. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info the Japanese themselves can't win the war, and the blame is on my head. What's wrong with me selling arms? There is an old Chinese saying that if you kill someone and say, 'If you don't fight against me', it's all my fault if you lose the war? I also sell weapons to the Japanese, why don't they say it? ”

Yang Chao said indignantly to visiting reporters.

These days, he has been staying in the big stone house, not going out of the door, not stepping out of the second door, and not hearing what is going on outside the window, but he didn't expect to provoke the attack of the Japanese, and the Japanese launched a public opinion offensive to condemn Yang Chao.

I have to say that the Japanese should have been able to win this war, and it was not a trick at all to win.

The Japanese used almost all the forces they could.

They had laid an intelligence network from St. Petersburg all the way to Tokyo, and they had used radio stations that had just appeared, and they were in control of every move of the Russians. The intelligence network has even spread to Russia, not to mention the various BA incidents that Comrade Vladimir is waging, and even the Russian army on the front line has Japanese intelligence officers, and it is only through the Russian army that they find out that Yang Chao helped the Russian army transport supplies.

The Japanese also took advantage of their diplomatic relations with Britain to keep the Russian fleet in a situation of lack of fuel, and had to overload it all the time, and it is said that the commander of the Russian warship fleet had coal bales under his desk and coal piled up on the deck, and the warship was seriously overloaded, and it was said that as long as he sat on the side of the ship, he could soak his feet in the seawater.

The Japanese also took the initiative to use the public opinion offensive to buy famous names in various countries, so that these people constantly beautified the Japanese, belittled the Russians, magnified Japan's victory, and exaggerated Russia's defeat in the newspapers.

The purpose of creating public opinion is not only for the sake of the national image, but also for the long-term construction of the national image. The short-term purpose of the Japanese is very clear, that is, to weaken the financing capacity of the Russians through the influence of public opinion. Because of the public opinion that Japan will win and Russia will lose, the Russians will never get enough money, and at the same time, the Japanese can easily sell bonds.

It can be said that by spying on Russia intellectually, isolating Russia diplomatically, and suppressing Russia financially, the Japanese won a complete victory.

However, the victories on the sidelines did not end up on the battlefield, and the Russian fleet finally converged after all the hardships.

The Japanese could not have imagined that they were once so close to victory, as long as they boarded 203, the war would have ended, but they did not occupy 203, so it was impossible to know that the Russians would surrender, after all, after 203, the Russians still had a complete permanent fortification, which was the most powerful fortification that the Russians built in Lushun.

However, this did not prevent the Japanese from putting the blame on Yang Chao, saying that it was because Yang Chao violated the Neutrality Act to send supplies to the Russians, which led to the Japanese army's inability to capture Lushun, and Yang Chao was responsible for their defeat.

"I hereby inform the Government of Japan. It is useless to fail to pass the buck. What is lost on the battlefield can only be recovered from the battlefield. I'm just in the arms dealer's business, and that's a bit dishonorable, I admit. But it is completely no different from what the Germans, the Americans, and the French do. The Japanese singled me out to talk about things, but they just saw that I was a bully. ”

In front of reporters, Yang Chao reversed black and white, and lowered himself to the level of selling steel with the Americans and the Germans selling artillery shells.

Immediately, a journalist disagreed: "You rashly helped the Russians to transport soldiers, which is clearly against international conventions." ”

This is a Chinese journalist who came from Tianjin, and his attitude is on the side of the Japanese, not the Japanese who gave the money, the Japanese are so powerful that they have already used public opinion to control the media circles, and most of the Chinese intellectuals have a favorable impression of Japan, because one of the slogans of the Japanese is to help China drive out Russia and take back Northeast China.

Faced with the reporter's question, Yang Chao firmly denied it: "Rumors, everything is rumors. As we all know, I only have one airship, which even the Japanese themselves admit. You can ask how much a blimp can pull. And as you all know, the Russians have already bought dozens of airships from Germany. ”

"A hundred. Yes, a hundred airships. ”

At this time, a reporter reminded Yang Chao that the Russians had already bought a hundred airships.

"Therefore, fools know who is the one who successfully delivered supplies to Lushun. But I believe that I am the one who goes against common sense, and I believe that all the intellectuals in the press will not believe it. Except, of course, for some rumor-mongers with ulterior motives. Either I was bought by the Japanese, or I was prejudiced against myself. ”

Yang Chao's explanation made the reporter wonder, so then there began to be doubts in the media, just questioning is enough, because there will be objections, and then everyone will explore the root cause, and the best Zeppelin will be pulled out, and the deadweight tonnage will be in single digits, and it will be found that Yang Chao will transport tens of thousands of Russians to Lushun, and it will take a year, and it will be understood that Yang Chao cannot directly transport troops to the Russians, at least he is not the main force.

Fighting snakes and hitting seven inches, Yang Chao just wants to fight on this key point to resolve the disadvantage of public opinion to himself.

Yang Chao still pays attention to his image, because he is a person who wants face, and the Russians don't have a face, so Yang Chao doesn't dare to ask for their rubles, and the British and French want face, so the pound and the franc can be popular.

"I am a businessman, and I don't want others to smear my image, so please journalist friends, you must clarify this fact for me in the conscience of the media industry."

Yang Chao believes that these media people must have a conscience, because they carry thick red envelopes in their arms.

The public opinion offensive was useless against Yang Chao, but the Japanese political offensive was about to die, they demanded that the Qing government arrest Yang Chao and hand Yang Chao over to them for trial, at this time the British also sided with the Japanese and put pressure on the Qing government.

And the Russians did not protect Yang Chao, the Germans did not care about their own personnel, and the French did not care about Yang Chao's life or death, but the Americans privately told Yang Chao that if Yang Chao was willing to go to the United States, they were willing to provide asylum.

It depends on the government, whether they will pull out their officials and hand them over to foreigners to buy peace.

As is customary, they did it, especially when both the Japanese and the British came forward.

"It's not that easy to kill me. Contact Gong Zhaoqing and ask him to help me send a batch of goods to Tianjin. Tell Yuan Shikai that I will give him 30,000 rifles, 300 cannons, and 1,000 machine guns! ”

Yang Chao asked Zhang Nian to handle these things immediately.

He knew that Yuan Shikai would know what to do after receiving such a big gift, but Yang Chao heard that Yuan Shikai had quietly recruited a lot of people, and the strength of his Beiyang Army in the four towns had reached 60,000, with 15,000 people in each town, far exceeding the number of 12,000 soldiers.

There were more than 10,000 people, so naturally there was a shortage of weapons, and during this time, Yuan Shikai had money, and he couldn't buy arms in the market, because the Japanese and Russians had already emptied the market.

Yuan Shikai will naturally find a way to pull Yang Chao along, I heard that Yuan Shikai has a very iron relationship with the British Minister Zhu Erdian, if he can convince the British, he will be under less pressure.

But this is not Yang Chao's purpose, seeing that the Russo-Japanese War is about to reach a critical moment, Yang Chao hopes that Yuan Shikai can have an army that can enter the Northeast at any time.

Yuan Shikai really moved through the activities of the British, and the British proposed a new solution, that is, Yang Chao was tried by various countries in Shanghai.

At the same time, Yuan Keding secretly came to Dashifang and communicated with Yang Chao.

"It turned out to be Sheng Xuanhuai!"

What Yang Chao didn't expect was that the figure jumping up and down behind him turned out to be this Sheng Xuanhuai.

"The British wanted the Yanji Railway, as well as the Ji-Zheng Railway."

The Yanji Railway has long been opened to traffic, and the railway from Jinan to Zhengzhou has been half built, and it will be opened to traffic next year.

There are more people who value the value of this railway, but only the British can eat it, but can anyone really tolerate the British eating this railway?

Yang Chao immediately went to Qingdao and had a secret meeting with the German governor, saying that if the British government continued to pressur, he was likely to sell the Yanji Railway to the British.

The governor of Qingdao was adamantly opposed to Yang Chao's sale of the railway, and said that the Germans were willing to buy the railway.

The Germans absolutely did not want to see a railway in Shandong operated by other countries, especially the British.

But Yang Chao told the German governor that this was political pressure, not money, and that if the Germans did not act, he would have to compromise with the British.

The Germans immediately began to act, and the German troops stationed in Jiaozhou began to conduct military exercises, and sent a note to the Qing court, requesting that troops be stationed in Weixian, the center of the Jiaoji Railway, in order to prevent anyone from destroying the railway facilities.

At the same time, the German government strongly stated that it would never allow any country to infringe on Germany's interests in Shandong. And it was announced that two main German battleships would be sent to Qingdao.

The Qing government panicked at once, and the first countermeasure they made was to remove Yang Chao.

A decree wiped Yang Chao's positions such as Denglai Qingjiao Road, Yantai Customs Road, and Shandong Minister of Commerce to the end, so as to give an explanation to the British and Japanese, and at the same time edict that Yang Chao could enter Beijing.

"Send a telegram to Ma Tengfei and tell him that he can spend the million taels of silver as he wants. bought these people Yiliang and Natong, and the most important thing is that they must ask Zai Ze and Zai Tao to help. ”

Yang Chao thought about it carefully, he might be arrested by the Qing government when he entered Beijing and sent to the Japanese and British, but if he didn't enter Beijing, he would become a rebel and could only flee, and he would mess with Brother Cannon in the future?

Yang Chao thought about it and decided to take a risk, back then, these Eight Banner nobles could even let Yuan Shikai go, just because he received Yuan Shikai's silver, he may not be able to save his life now.

"By the way, when it is necessary for Ma Tengfei, go and ask Yuan Shikai!"

To do this, Yuan Shikai is an expert.