"Quickly find out the map of the entire troop deployment east of Tianzhuang Terrace, including the Liaodong Peninsula." In the General Staff, Wang Shizhen instructed the staff officers.

Liu Heihu's real name is really Liu Heihu, and the telegram of his conversation with Yue himself arrived in the hands of Chief of Staff Wang Shizhen early the next morning. As soon as he looked at the telegram, he asked people to find out the defense map, and he was sure that the emperor would definitely buy it for him.

"General Wang, please remind Your Majesty the Emperor. The military defense map must not be sold to the person himself, because this has a bearing on the security of the country. Michael, who had read the telegram, saw that Wang Shizhen was looking for a defense map, and hurriedly reminded him.

The German instructors did not hide the matter of the war. This battle of life and death could not have been fought without the help of the Germans.

"General Michael, don't worry, haven't we already drawn up a plan? Besides, it is the emperor who makes the final decision. But I think the emperor will definitely buy it. Wang Shizhen smiled slightly. With the defense map and a few guards, he went in the direction of the palace.

Michael remembered a plan he had drawn up with his own hands: a counteroffensive plan for attacking the enemy knowing that our troops were deployed. He shook his head: "The emperor became the head of the bandits, and he also sold his country's military strength deployment map to the enemy who was about to break out into war. This kind of madness can only happen in the mysterious land of the East. ”

Inside the Imperial Study of the Forbidden City

Sell, of course sell. But it's not enough to lose 500,000 taels. Guangxu summoned Tang Shaoyi and Wang Shizhen for a total of half a day in the imperial study. Wrote a real and false, fake and real arming map.

It is called the General Staff Headquarters of the Army

A few months ago, all kinds of information about the new army of the Qing Dynasty were sent back to China by the legation and sent to Kawakami Yoroku, who had been promoted to lieutenant general. Regarding the proposal jointly proposed by Toshio Inoue and Kotaro Munakata that the empire should complete the preparations for the Qing Dynasty as early as possible and launch a war against the Qing Dynasty, Kawakami Yoroku showed unprecedented attention.

The last trip to the Qing Kingdom has always been an unsolvable mystery in Kawakami's heart. For the tragic deaths of the two of them in the inexplicable "coincidence" of the attaché, the Qing side only came forward by Li Hongzhang's Beiyang and gave a pension of 2,000 taels of silver as compensation for the missing people, and hastily settled the matter.

It would be a shame for the empire to conclude the negotiations between China and China in such a way. However, for the long-term interests of the empire, all this can still be endured in silence. What made Kawakami Kanroku unacceptable and shocked was that the vigilance and toughness shown by the Qing side far exceeded Kawakami Yaroku's previous judgment on the Qing Kingdom.

Because something more "coincidental" happened. After Kawakami returned to his hometown, he secretly ordered Fujishima Takehiko and Takikawa Guhe to separately reconnoiter the Bohai Bay waterway and the fortifications of the Shandong Peninsula, the Liaodong Peninsula, Tianjin, Tanggu and other places. Fujishima Takehiko departed from Tanggu at the end of June and headed north along the Bohai Coast; At the same time, Takigawa Gukazu also set off from Yantai on a sailboat and traveled along the Shandong Peninsula. Everywhere they went, they would observe the garrison of the forts very carefully, and for every 100 kilometers of ocean they traveled, they would test the depth of the water with jacks and collect in detail the geographical and hydrological data needed for the operation.

A month later, Takikawa went missing off the coast south of Dagu, and the broken planks were found in the sailboat he was travelling on. Another month, Fujishima Takehiko also lost his trace off the coast of Daitogou. Bizarrely, they didn't send back a single piece of information.

Could it be that the Qing side had already perceived the strategic purpose of the empire? This uneasy thought had been lingering in his mind since the moment he returned home, and it could never be calmed down. As the head of the imperial intelligence department, Kawakami immediately increased the intelligence collection of the Qing State, and the intelligence network of the empire within the Qing State has now been fully mobilized, not only Li Hongzhang's Beiyang, and the newly built army stationed in the capital of the Qing State, but even the internal and local dynamics of the entire Qing court. The conclusions that can be drawn are ironic.

The Qing New Army was still heavily defended, and since the establishment of the New Army, it has not been able to obtain effective information for a long time. And other places, including Li Hongzhang's Beiyang, are as lax as ever. Except for the Beiyang Fleet and the attached north and south shore batteries since the Dingzhen Second Ship was affected by fake bombs, other places said that the spies were in their own homes.

However, Kawakami also understands that it is a matter of imperial fortune. Within the empire, there was still debate and hesitation about when to launch a war against the Qing.

The war against the Qing State was launched in advance, and now the Imperial Army has been prepared, and the entire army is already ready to go, just waiting for the edict of His Majesty the Emperor. After the acquisition of the Yoshino, the call for war on the part of the navy was getting louder and louder, and Shikinori Kayama had already proposed to His Majesty the Emperor the idea of forming a combined fleet to seek a decisive battle with the Kiyoshi Beiyang Fleet. Inside the army, army and navy. The battle between the Chosu Domain and the Satsuma Domain has gradually become clear and unified in the idea of fighting against the Qing Dynasty, and the real obstacle is the form that the empire is currently facing.

Huge military spending has overwhelmed the empire's current finances. On the verge of collapse. His Majesty the Emperor had to spend 300,000 yuan of silver from the treasury every year for naval construction, and even the members of the Diet offered to donate a quarter of their salaries for the construction of ships. However, all of this is still far from enough, far from enough, to wage this war...... The empire's economy had reached the limit of what it could bear, except for the issuance of public bonds. The Empire's finances simply could not provide enough financial and material resources to support the huge costs of the war. In order to issue public bonds, it must also be approved by the Diet, and at present, there is an uproar in the Diet for the impeachment of the Ito Hirobumi Cabinet, and it is impossible to pass the bill at all.

On the other hand. Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito has also sent a special person to negotiate with Britain on the revision of the "Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between Britain and the United Kingdom." Without the support of Britain, any move of the Empire in East Asia would be subject to intervention from the British Empire, and this must be faced squarely, otherwise the consequences will be catastrophic. Judging from the current negotiation process, it is necessary to obtain British support for the expansion of the empire. The Reich would have to make huge concessions in the terms of the treaty.

But when such a compromise comes from the country, no one knows what kind of uproar it will cause. At this moment, His Excellency Hirobumi Ito is under unprecedented pressure. And this is the price that the empire must pay. These preparations were not completed. The Empire simply cannot afford to wage this war......

The empire needs time, but the empire can't give time to the Qing Kingdom. The Qing Kingdom is slowly waking up, and under the leadership of the Qing Emperor, the Qing Kingdom has quietly changed. Not only has a new-style army been established, but the military academy is also cultivating military personnel for the Qing state, and the Qing state has also put officers of the old Beiyang army into the military academy to learn the combat methods of the new army. Looking at the towering chimneys and the railway and highway lines that are being extended throughout the northern part of the Qing Dynasty, the Hanyang Steel Mill has begun to provide qualified steel rails for the railway. With the help of the Germans, the arsenals of Hanyang, Tianjin, and Shanghai had already begun to produce rifles and artillery that were even more advanced than those of the Reich. There are also various factories invested in Germany and the United States. All of this happened in just a year and a half. The Qing Dynasty was rushing at an astonishing pace in the process of modernization.

Fortunately, the Qing State was much larger than the Empire, and the situation it faced was much more complicated than that of the Empire. The estrangement between the Manchus and the Han Dynasty and the suspicion between the emperors and queens will greatly delay the modernization process of the Qing Dynasty. But no one knows when the Qing Kingdom will be able to ask for these ills.

Just as Kawakami was waiting in a kind of restlessness. Toshio Inoue sent back another piece of information from Qingguo.

The Qing court had already issued an order to transfer the Xi'an general Rong Lu back to the capital. Judging from various information, this person is likely to replace Shi Duo, the current Qing [***] machine foreman, as the minister of the new army training.

The moment he saw this information, Kawakami stood up from his chair abruptly. Holding the telegram transcript was extremely excited. He immediately rushed to Youpeng in Shan County and reported the information he had obtained in detail to Youpeng in Shan County.

For the newly built army of the Qing State, Kawakami has been studying it for more than half a year. I also saw through the Qing Dynasty that this army was implicated behind the ground, and the power struggle between the Qing Empress Dowager and the Emperor. And once this Rong Lu, who is a close confidant of the Empress Dowager of the Qing State, serves as the Minister of Supervision and Training of the New Army, it means that the Empress Dowager of the Qing State is ready to control this army and take it into her own hands. In this way, the original balance of land will be immediately broken, and the new army of the Qing State will be caught in a power struggle within the new land.

"The Empire has not been able to obtain accurate and complete information about the newly established army of the Qing State. But judging by the available intelligence, this army is well-armed and well-trained. In future wars, it will be a great and potential threat to the Empire. And now is a golden opportunity, an army that is caught up in internal factions will not have much combat effectiveness in a short period of time...... Your Excellency Shan Shan, the Empire must seize this opportunity to launch a war against the Qing before the arrival of next summer at the latest. While the Qing people were busy fighting in the ground, give them a fatal blow......" Kawakami Yoroku stood next to the Minister of War Yama Prefecture Youtomo. His voice changed nervously.

"The army of the Qing Kingdom? ......" Yama Prefecture Youpeng shook his head, looked at Kawakami Koroku with cold eyes and said, "Kawakami-kun, don't pin your hopes of victory on the weakness of the enemy, this is a sign of cowardice in itself. What the Empire's soldiers need is courage and confidence...... Not to mention. For this reason alone, it is impossible to convince Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito, let alone the guys in Parliament. ”

"But, Your Excellency Shan County, the Qing Kingdom has slowly woken up, can we watch the Qing Kingdom become stronger? The empire has no time to wait any longer, and has missed this opportunity, the fortunes of the empire, decades of hard work, and countless sages have tasted their courage. It's all going down the drain. Ignoring the rudeness in his words, Kawakami stood straight with a resolute expression.

Shan Youpeng stared at the map on the wall and fell into a long silence. For a long time, Youpeng in Shanxian pressed Qingguo on the map with his hand and said quietly: "We really can't waste time waiting to tolerate the behemoth of Qingguo coming to its senses." However, Kawakami-kun should understand that the current situation in the Empire is very difficult, so the Empire needs a good reason to convince the short-sighted guys within the Parliament. Let the whole empire realize that the war has begun......"

Yama Youpeng's fingers slowly moved towards Korea, a weak country close to the empire. In an instant, Kawakami Ryoroku's heart jumped wildly, and he already understood the deep meaning hidden by Yamagumi's friends.

"I understand......" Kawakami Yoroku leaned down deeply, and when he lowered his head, his body trembled a little.

Find the most appropriate reason for the empire to go to war against the Qing state. After returning from North Korea, Kawakami and the young officers of the Army General Staff Headquarters devised a top-secret plan designed to stir up civil unrest in Korea. However, due to various reasons, this plan has not been approved for implementation, and at this moment, the meaning of His Excellency Shan County is very clear.

The Empire is ready to press the button to start the war, and this step will be done by itself. What a glory it will be......

Youpeng in Shanxian looked at the map silently. After a long time, he let out a long sigh. "A rich country has a cowardly people. I wish this day would come sooner, the Empire has been waiting too long......"

Zoseburg Pier

"Big Bird-kun! Please! Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu stood at the pier, looked at Keisuke Otori, who was about to leave, and suddenly took his hand and said.

"Mutsu Aojun, please rest assured, as long as there are signs of riot in the Dongxue Party, I will definitely persuade Li Hongzhang and Yuan Shikai to let him send troops to North Korea, and the rest will be handed over to you!" Keisuke Otori was dressed in a military uniform and nodded and said.

Mutsu Munemitsu smiled: "Don't worry, Otori-kun, His Majesty the Emperor has made up his mind, it's time to let the people of China see the strength of my empire, as long as we can provoke the army of China not to withdraw from Korea, we can find an excuse to attack, and the hope of the empire is all on you!" ”

"Hey!" Keisuke Otori straightened up. At this time, the two people with excitement and excitement didn't notice that among the escort's entourage, a pair of eyes blinked a few times and quickly drowned in the crowd.

The room is still the same room, and the people are still the same people, but the atmosphere in the room is a little tense at the moment. Zhang Pufang slowly stood up: "I said that I was going to do it in advance, and I would send the news back immediately." ”

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