"Emperor-up-on-drive-to--"

At twelve o'clock at noon in Beijing, with the noise of Li Lianying, the chief eunuch of the Internal Affairs Office, firecrackers rang out inside and outside the palace gate, and the emperor of the Qing Dynasty appeared on the Taihe Hall with the newlywed queen. Inside and outside the Taihe Palace, the princes, ministers, eunuchs and maids all went out to kneel and bow, and the ministers of various countries also bowed and saluted.

"Long live my emperor, long live the queen, long live, thousand years old." "Congratulations to my emperor's wedding." "I wish Your Majesty a happy wedding." ……

When the emperor and queen stood in front of the dragon chair, Guangxu spoke: "All the ministers are exempt from the ceremony - I am married today, and I can be congratulated by all of you, and I express my most sincere gratitude." Gentlemen, win the drink. ”

"Today is the day of my wedding, and it is also the day of the decisive battle between the two navies of the Qing Dynasty and Japan. This last glass of wine is to be given to the soldiers who are fighting bloodily at sea. At the moment of the official end, Guangxu on the stage said.

Originally, everyone was happy to attend the wedding banquet of the Qing Emperor, although the weather was hot, but finally took advantage of the joy to come and return satisfied. But at this last moment, the Qing Emperor had to mention the ongoing decisive battle between Qing and Japan at sea, which pulled everyone's thoughts to the sea.

The guests were all gone, but the emperor was not allowed to remove all the banquets. Because Guangxu believes that he will wait until the results of the war are announced. This hall will be filled with guests again, and it's tonight.

This is not just a decisive battle between the Qing and Japanese countries. It is also a decisive battle that will determine the entire political situation in East Asia. As for Britain, the United States, France, and other countries, they hoped that Japan would win, and the pre-war analysis of Japan's chances of winning was slightly greater than that of Qing China. Japan is an island nation. With no resources and no strategic depth, as long as a powerful navy blockade the seas off Japan, countries that cannot even feed themselves will have to submit. Therefore, after the victory, Japan was easy to control, and the great powers could also use the name of Japan to control the Far East. But the situation in the Qing Kingdom was different.

The Qing Kingdom has a huge territory. Whether it was steel, coal, timber or other resources, the Qing state itself was sufficient to meet the needs of development. The Qing State also has enough human resources, and this is the most hard-working group in the world. The Beijing-Guangzhou Railway spans more than 2,000 kilometers from north to south, and the whole line has been completed in less than three years of construction time, which is no longer a miracle of railway construction. It is a miracle in the history of world architecture. Only in China can the construction be carried out within 2,000 kilometers at the same time, and once such a country rises, it will have great variables in the implementation of the East Asian policy of the great powers, which the great powers are unwilling to accept. Especially the United Kingdom, as a world leader country, of course does not want a little brother to jump out and argue with the boss. However, Britain's erroneous policy toward China led to the unanimous exclusion of Britain from the government to the people, causing Britain to lose more and more interests in the Far East. Once the Qing defeated Japan, Britain would lose more of its voice.

"If the Qing State wins this time, the British Empire will lose the Far East." The British minister, Ogne, once said the same thing to his adjutant. Of course, his words were too pessimistic, and the Qing State was somewhat rejecting the British. It was only an act of fighting for Britain to support Japan, the enemy of the Qing Dynasty, and as for the ordinary British, they did not regard it as an enemy.

The reason why the United States hopes for Japan's victory is relatively simple, just one word -- money. Seventy percent of the reparations and the cost of purchasing new warships after Japan's defeat came from the United States, although Japan provided tax revenues for the next ten years as guarantees. But if Japan loses this time, then all the money of the Americans will be wasted. Before the war, it can be said that it entered the Japanese market in the name of loans, and if it were defeated again. How much can the United States still occupy the Japanese market?

Therefore, whether it was the American minister Tian Bei, or Ogne, or the ministers of Russia, France, Italy, and other countries, they all sat in the legation with their hearts and quietly waited for the results of the naval battle between Qing and Japan. But the German minister Barand was different. He came down from the Qing Emperor's wedding banquet and went straight to the Qing Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pulling Tang Shaoyi to chat for two hours. In his words, he constantly emphasized equal trade between Qing and Germany. It hints at the great help given by Germany in the construction of the Qing ** team, and advocates the traditional friendship between the Qing and Germany...... In short, Tang Shaoyi was annoyed. Where can there be so much friendship between countries, it is nothing more than the need for mutual interests.

The time of German reunification was too late, and when Germany completed its domestic integration and set its sights overseas, it found that all the colonies in the world that could be grabbed were basically divided. Whether in Africa or Asia, Germany had only a few scraps of food that no one else wanted, and these were not enough to reflect the position of the Third Reich in the world. Germany, eager to show its strength to the world, naturally set its sights on the Far East, the last place in the world that could be developed. There is only one reason why Barand said this, once the Qing State defeats Japan, there will be benefits and a part must be given to Germany.

"According to the time calculation, no matter what the results of the Qing and Japanese battles are, there must be a result at this time. But why is there still no news? Hasn't the naval battle been decided yet? ”。 The British military attache in China looked up at the wall clock, which had pointed to three o'clock in the afternoon, and threw away the pencil that counted the time in confusion.

Before leaving the port, the Japanese had secretly informed the British of their plan of action due to pressure from the British direction, and the British consul stationed in Dalian also sent the time of departure of the Qing fleet to the legation. At this time, the war should have ended long ago, but no matter how time is calculated, the victorious side should appear off the coast of Arthur, but there is no news now. What happened to the accident?

Nothing happened, the only accident was with the military attaché, who calculated the time at the speed of the fastest destroyer. Because he believed that if the Qing State was victorious, he would definitely send destroyers back to report the good news, and if the Japanese were victorious, they would only need to send destroyers to the vicinity to demonstrate and wait for the main fleet to arrive. But in fact, the victorious country was the Qing state, and there was no need to send destroyers to report the news if they had radio. Wu Deren led the fleet to rescue ships and treat wounded soldiers in the same place, and by the way, he also "requested" the warships of various countries to assist in the battle. After finishing the work at hand, the formation dragged the injured warship back to Lushun at a low speed, and when they returned to Lushun, it was more than 6 o'clock in the afternoon.

Lushun. Except for a few high-ranking officials who knew the outcome of the battle, all the others gathered on the dock and waited to the east. When the wild dragon with teeth and claws appeared on the eastern sea antenna reflected in the setting sun. The entire dock was suddenly plunged into a frenzy of euphoria.

"The Qing Dynasty has won, the Qing Dynasty has won......" The officials, workers, and gendarmes on the docks all shouted with laughter, mixed with tears of joy. At the same time, the news of the Qing Dynasty's victory in the naval battle between the Qing and Japan spread throughout the land with the telegraph. As soon as the newspapers in various parts of the "Shi Ji Bao" received the telegram, they began to print a large number of the outboards of the Great Qing Victory, which had been prepared long ago, and the draft of the Japanese victory was stuffed into the garbage can.

"Why hasn't our spectators sent a detailed explanation yet?" Almost all the envoys to China asked his military attache the same question, and the answer was the same: the warship had not yet arrived at the port.

Half an hour later, Eugene pinched the telegram from Felimante and muttered with a shocked expression: How is this possible?

In the Japanese combined fleet, the four ships Toyama, Yashima, Azuma, and Suma were captured, and Asahi and Mikasa could not be rescued and were abandoned. Yakumo, Izumo, Iwate, Chitose, Kasaki, and Fuji were sunk on the spot, and only six British battleships, Kongo, Hiei, Shikishima, Hatsuse, Asama, and Tokiwa, escaped. Seven of the nine destroyers participating in the battle were sunk and two were captured. This is a main fleet with a total of 27 ships with 14 capital warships, this is a huge fleet that even the British are jealous of, but in just three hours the remaining six ships escaped, if it is not because the last six have a faster speed than the Qing ** ship, does it mean that even these six can't be saved?

And the last sentence of the telegram really stimulated Eugene: In this battle, not a single ship of the Qing Kingdom was sunk. Perhaps the Japanese did not have experience in naval warfare, and even many sailors came into contact with warships for the first time. But the fleet with great firepower was sunk by eight people, and four were captured, but not even a single warship of the other side was sunk. Is the Qing Navy already so powerful?

At this time, the British Far East ship and the Singapore squadron were not as strong as the Japanese Combined Fleet, so does that mean that the British Empire also needed to pull the Indian Ocean Fleet to the Far East to be enough to fight the Qing navy? If this is not done, once the Qing government takes advantage of the British resale of warships, then what will the British Empire use to subdue the Qing state? And then there's Germany, a careerist on the rise. It is inevitable that cooperation with the Qing State will be strengthened again. How could the British Empire lead the Far East without a strong fleet to rely on......

"Oh." Eugene was clearly at a loss. He roared, "Send a telegram to Phimante at once, and I will see him at the legation to-morrow." I will now go to see His Majesty the Emperor of the Qing Kingdom. ”

It wasn't until Ogna came to the noon gate that he found out. He's already late. The ministers of Germany, France, the United States and Italy had been waiting outside the noon gate for a long time, but they were all told that the emperor was not strong enough to drink. He was resting and could not meet with the envoys. At this time, both the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are calling for emergency meetings, and they are temporarily unable to receive ministers from various countries.

"Why didn't the Russian minister, Mr. Casini, come?" Ogne didn't find Cassini or his figure in the crowd, so he asked.

"It is estimated that they will report to their Far East Fleet, and let them be careful not to be sunk by the Qing State again, otherwise Russia will really have no Far East Fleet." The attitude of the German minister Barand was clearly in line with that of the British. His words drew laughter.

In fact, the high-level officials of the Qing government were not in a meeting with Ben, they all visited Beihai Park. Beihai, this Guangxu originally intended to build it into a resting place for the generals, Guangxu fancy is the white tower in the Beihai Park, Guangxu thinks that the generals must be too murderous in the heart of the foreign battle, thinking that it is to let the monks who worship the white tower use the scriptures to eliminate the anger of the generals. Only half of the entire Beihai project has been completed so far, and some civil officials are not happy to see it. The former royal garden was originally top-notch in terms of environment and conditions, and with modern improvements, it has become a veritable place of recuperation. How can such a good place be monopolized by military attachés. As a result, the remarks about the emperor's emphasis on military force and light literature spread, in short, it is not the blessing of the country to emphasize military force and light literature. Today, taking advantage of the condition that all the people at the emperor's wedding banquet were present, there was a heated discussion with the civil and military officials on whether the Beihai garden should be a recuperation shared by the ministers of the DPRK and China. The result of the discussion was naturally that the learned civil officials won, but the military attachés fought harder. Li Hongzhang is the prime minister can come in, so he doesn't care about just pushing things to the emperor. And Guangxu has been annoyed by the battle between civil and military officials, and all the excuses are too strong to drink. Guangxu really can't understand why civil and military officials who can really cooperate on big things have to argue over small things, is it interesting?

"Your Majesty, you don't care. I heard that there is going to be a fight on the Beihai side. After listening to Kou Liancai's urgent report, Yang Zao'er said with a smile to the emperor who was busy in the kitchen.

"Let's talk about fighting. If they don't fight, they will really be civil and military, and I will be the emperor. Only if they have contradictions, can I mediate between them, and I can be stable as an emperor. Guangxu fiddled with the work in his hands as if nothing had happened. We all know that toffee is delicious, but how many times I toss it still can't work. I remember that I was going to add something similar to edible glue inside, but I tried a lot of animal skins, and I really had to force Lao Tzu to find leather shoes.

The key is to hold the invention right in his hand and sell the formula, so that whoever produces toffee will have to pay him the patent fee, and no one dares to owe the emperor's patent fee. However, Guangxu still failed this time, and the black and slimy milk candy produced was thrown into the trash can with a burnt smell, and Guangxu went to the Taihe Hall full of disappointment. In the evening, the ministers of various countries and the ministers who came to celebrate the victory of the Qing navy were again entertained here. At the banquet, in the face of all kinds of sincere or insincere congratulations, Guangxu quickly forgot about the failure of the development of toffee.

"Wow-wow-" Guangxu climbed on the bed and vomited. This man can't be too happy, at least not too happy at the banquet, or too heroic if he is happy. Whoever comes to toast this joy is dry, this is the second pot head of Beijing. So half an hour after the banquet began, Guangxu withdrew. Because he threw up on the spot.

If you are not happy, you can't do it, the more respectful expressions of the representatives of the King of Joseon, the King of the Ryukyus, and Pontianak, the extremely flattering eyes of the representatives of the King of Annam, the representatives of Burma, the King of Siam, and the Queen of Hawaii, and the happy or unhappy expressions of the ministers of various countries were all reflected in Guangxu's eyes. The current Qing Dynasty is no longer the Qing Dynasty that is bullied at will. What you can't get on the battlefield can't be imagined at the negotiating table, that's a diplomatic saying. Now the Qing Dynasty has carved out its own living space through the victory of wars again and again, and now it is time to recover what has been lost. (To be continued......)