In the face of Yue's own strong protest, Prince Alcohol, who was in charge of the Prime Minister's Yamen, remained silent and threw the letter of protest from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Li Hongzhang: "Haiphong belongs to you to co-organize, and you can settle this matter." ”

Li Hongzhang glanced at the content of the letter and threw it to Song Xiaofei: "You are in charge of the Beiyang Naval Division, you can settle this matter." ”

Zheng Yongning, the minister to China who was in charge of negotiating this matter, shook his head and sighed: The Chinese characteristics of the pit father, the powerful opponent Song Xiaofei who he tried his best to bypass, stood in front of him again!

Song Xiaofei invited the envoys of Britain, Germany, France, the United States, and other countries to China, as well as reporters from the New York Times, Qiangguo Daily, and Declaration, to the wharf of Tianjin Port and solemnly declared: "In accordance with the provisions of international law on maritime rights, we must notify the Chinese side in advance of the sailing of this warship in the waters under our jurisdiction, otherwise we can regard it as an act of aggression." These three warships, in the name of transporting manganese, violated China's sea rights, and the Beiyang Naval Division has the right to sink them! After a while, you can board the ship for interviews, look at the guns on the warship, and know whether your ship is a merchant ship or a warship. ”

Ministers and reporters of various countries in China boarded the warship captured by the Beiyang Navy Division to take pictures and interview the captured navy, thus smashing the shameless lie that the Chinese [***] ship had sunk the merchant ship. On the captured warship, Song Xiaofei continued: "China is a responsible big country, and in order to show its friendship to Yue, this time the Chinese side is willing to be lenient with this violation of maritime rights, and send back these 80 prisoners of the Japanese Navy and this warship, of course, the artillery, torpedo launchers and other military facilities on this warship will be dismantled by the Chinese side in accordance with the law." The Chinese side once again reiterates its maritime rights over the Taiwan Strait, the Tsushima Strait, the East China Sea, the South China Sea, and the Ryukyu waters, and that its warships must inform the Chinese side in advance of their entry into these waters, otherwise, all the consequences of future conflicts caused by such acts will be borne by the Chinese side. ”

Song Xiaofei's handling of the matter in this way was in line with international law, reasonable, and restrained, and the ministers of various countries in China praised it, but Zheng Yongning, the minister to China, was sad and silent, and he knew that his diplomatic career would end here.

When the news reached Tokyo, I was really furious, and Saigo, who was fighting the main battle, immediately went straight to the Prime Minister's Mansion with a knife to find Shigenobu Okuma, pulled out a sharp caesarean knife and said: "Prime Minister, the Chinese bombarded the embassy in Korea, showed off their force in Nagasaki Port, recovered Ryukyu, humiliated Yu again and again, and if they did not declare war on China, I will commit suicide by caesarean section in your living room today!" ”

A silver-white goatee Okuma Shigenobu sat cross-legged on the ground, and on the wall behind him, hung a cursive "shinobi" character, which was the handwriting of former Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi, the dragon flying and the phoenix dancing, vigorous and powerful. In the face of the angry Saigo Congdao, Okuma Shigenobu didn't say a word, brewed a pot of chrysanthemum tea unhurriedly, waited until the clear soup in the pot turned green, and poured himself a drink.

Saigo couldn't bear it, and with a knife cut in half the low table where Okuma Shigenobu put the tea set, and said: "Prime Minister, you say something, as long as you give an order, I will immediately go to the army headquarters and take 40,000 troops to attack Yanjing City, I will burn the Forbidden City with one fire, and make the Chinese pay for their stupidity and ignorance!" ”

Okuma's face did not change, picked up the broken teapot on the ground, and said, "Saigo-sama, you are also old, why are you still as impulsive as your dead brother!" The old man must complete the last words of Lord Ito, the constitution formulated by the old man is related to the peace of the world, and it has reached the most critical moment, you have to attack China, unless you kill the old man first! Otherwise, if you want to die, go to your brother under the Nine Springs. ”

Saigo Takamori, the elder brother of Saigo Shomichi, was also a fanatical militant, he had been advocating the "Korean Expedition Theory", but when Okubo Toshitsu and others opposed it, he resigned and returned to his hometown to establish a military academy, and in 1877 he launched a rebellion, and after the defeat of the army, he committed suicide by disembowelment, and died in Shiroyama in Kagoshima. Shigenobu Okuma's words were clearly warning Saigo not to repeat his brother's mistakes, and Saigo kept shaking his hand holding the knife and asked, "Prime Minister, how long will it take for this constitution to be promulgated?" ”

Shigenobu Okuma stretched out two fingers, and Saigo asked, "Two years?" ”

Okuma shook his head: "Two months! ”

Saigo turned his anger into joy, immediately put the knife he had drawn back into the sheath, turned around and strode out of the prime minister's official residence, went straight to the army headquarters, and actively prepared for the war against China, and in just two months, he expanded the army from 40,000 to 60,000, and also sent people to secretly infiltrate North Korea and wait for an opportunity to make trouble.

Under the instigation of the Ronin, in the sixteenth year of Guangxu, that is, in 1890, something happened in Korea, and the "resurrection" of a dead man triggered a peasant uprising, dragging China, Yueben, and Russia to the brink of war!

This dead man is Cui Jiyu, who founded the Eastern School in 1860 in order to fight against Catholicism and Christianity. Cui Jiyu and Hong Xiuquan are all the same, but he is more educated than Father Hong, and put forward the idealistic philosophical idea of "man is heaven".

Of course, for a nation like North Korea, where 99 percent of the people are illiterate, Choi Jiyu mainly relied on claiming that he could get rid of all kinds of diseases and live forever by reciting the 13-character doctrine of Dongxue every day, and his followers once reached tens of thousands. At that time, when the king of Daewon was in power in North Korea, he resolutely banned Donghakjiao and executed Choe Jiyu and other key teachers for the crime of "spreading cults."

Cui Jiyu's ** was wiped out, but the soil for the existence of Dongxuejiao was not extinguished, after Concubine Min took power, the Min group [***] was more serious, plus the year of the catastrophe, Song Xiaofei moved two million North China victims to North Korea, the wasteland was not enough, and occupied part of the land of Korean nobles and commoners, the internal contradictions in North Korea were more intensified, the people were not able to make a living, the ashes of Dongxuejiao were rekindled in advance, and the sparks burned the plain, and in the sixteenth year of Guangxu, only in Chungcheong-do, the second generation of the sect leader Cui Haiyue gathered 100,000 believers, and he wrote to the king, asking for Cui Jiyu to be rehabilitated, In order to win the hearts and minds of the people, he also proposed to "punish corrupt officials and corrupt officials" and "reprimand foreigners"!

When Tang Shaoyi returned from studying in the United States, the concept of religious freedom was deeply rooted, and he knew that those parishioners were innocent peasants, and they could not be ruthlessly suppressed at first. Concubine Min also wanted to use the "rebuke of the Japanese and foreigners" of the people to consolidate her rule, so that the Korean reading power was independent, at the beginning of the attitude of appeasement and annihilation, sent 800 Korean soldiers to Chungcheong Province to quell the rebellion, 100,000 peasant troops defeated these Korean troops, straight to Seoul, Concubine Min realized the seriousness of the problem, and hurriedly asked for help from the Qing State, of course, the Empress Dowager Cixi and Prince Alcohol threw this matter to Li Hongzhang to do.

As mentioned earlier, North Korea's position in Northeast Asia is exactly in the geopolitical "Les Miserables", adjacent to Tsarist Russia in the north, only separated by a water in the Tsushima Strait in the south, and across the Yalu River to the northeast, it can only and must be China's territory!

North Korea was originally Song Xiaofei's territory, and at this time, foreign affairs had already been carried out, and the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, Russia, etc. all had embassies, and the diplomatic situation was very complicated. So, he asked the court to let Song Xiaofei lead 10,000 Huai troops into the court. Song Xiaofei took Xu Shichang, Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui, Feng Guozhang and other henchmen, as well as 10,000 Huai troops, and took the "Dingyuan", "Zhenyuan", "Suzhou", "Dongting" and other warships from Tianjin Port to North Korea!

The Korean riots, of course, I will not miss this opportunity of aggression and come uninvited! At this time, Emperor Komoto had issued an edict promulgating the "Constitution," and Prime Minister Shigenobu Okuma wanted to carry out economic construction for a few more years, but Saigo and other army veterans could no longer bear it, and forcibly sent troops on the pretext of protecting the embassies of various countries in Korea and the 8,000 overseas Chinese of Saimoto. Saigo took command in person, leased four ironclad cruisers from Britain and the United States, and dispatched half of the national army, that is, 30,000 people, to attack Korea.

Tsar Alexander III received the report of the Russian minister to North Korea, Po Yuenev, at first thought that he was old and dizzy, and saw more than a "0", and sent a special telegram to confirm, only to know that he had sent 30,000 instead of 3,000 troops, and he immediately understood that the cunning man himself was not at all to protect the expatriates and embassies of various countries, and once he annexed Korea, Russia would not be able to move an inch in East Asia and the Far East, and he immediately ordered that Duke Andrei, a lieutenant general of the Russian army, would take 10,000 Russian troops to North Korea, of course, Nominally, it was also to protect the Russian legation and the Russian diaspora.

Li Hongzhang received a telegram from Song Xiaofei, saying that Ben sent 30,000 soldiers, Russia sent 10,000 soldiers, their weapons and equipment are better than the Huai army, and quickly asked the Huai army veteran Ye Zhichao to transfer 20,000 troops from the country, and quickly supported Song Xiaofei, Ye Zhichao, who was more than half a hundred years old, followed Li Hongzhang as early as 1862 when the Huai army was just formed, and made great achievements in destroying the Taiping army and the twist army.

China said that the big war between Russia and Russia for Korea is about to break out!;