On June 19, 1894, the Yamen of the Governor of Tianjin Zhili

"Newspaper -- A telegram from Lord Nie Shicheng of Korea said that Japanese troops had occupied Gyeonggi Province and were now attacking Pyongyang. We are outnumbered and suffer heavy casualties! ”

"Nakado-sama!" Sheng Xuanhuai walked up to Li Hongzhang and said eagerly, "Do you want to send some more reinforcements, the Japanese army is pressing, Nie Shicheng, Ye Zhichao, I'm afraid they won't be able to withstand it." ”

"Alas~ The old man also wants to send some more soldiers, but the clever woman can't cook without rice."

Li Hongzhang said while lighting his pipe, "Most of the Huai army is now stationed in Zhili and Guanwai, and both sides are located in places related to the country's social affairs, so they should not be moved lightly." If North Korea really can't do anything, then they have to let Ye Zhichao and them retreat to Liaodong. ”

"Why don't you get reinforcements from the Marines? It is also good to interfere with the rear supply of the Japanese army," Sheng Xuanhuai inquired to Li Hongzhang.

Li Hongzhang shook his head, "The deterrent power of my Beiyang Naval Division lies in the existence of the second ship of Ding. The two ships had heavy artillery, but their speed was slower than that of their opponents, and they took the initiative to engage the Japanese side, and the outcome was unknown. ”

"But now the imperial court has issued a strict order to let the Beiyang Navy Division take the initiative to attack and annihilate the enemy at sea. Admiral Ding Junmen has been ordered to be dismissed from his post and made meritorious service for his crimes. It's not a good idea for us to keep the sailor in the dark. ”

"Hmm," Li Hongzhang stood up and paced two steps, "Where is the supply location of the Japanese troops in Korea now?" ”

"Your Excellency, please look!"

Sheng Xuanhuai summoned the clerk, and after Ling Huan unfolded the map, he pointed to the north and south respectively.

"Since the Japanese army landed in Korea, it has been divided into two routes, the west road is Incheon, which was conquered at the earliest, and the east road is the two places of Gangneung and Goseong on the eastern coast of Korea......"

Li Hongzhang nodded, "It's okay to be in the land of Beihai, this Inchon is under the nose of my Liaodong Bohai Bay Sailor, and the Japanese are very rampant!" Send a telegram to Ding Ruchang and ask him to dispatch ships to find opportunities at sea to intercept and kill the Japanese troop carriers. ”

"Yes! My lord! Sheng Xuanhuai responded.

Nanyang, Republic of Serris, National W Building

Secretary of State Liang Cheng walked into Chen's office with a telegram in hand.

"Führer, a telegram from the Admiralty -- Our submarine unit has arrived in the predetermined sea area of Penghu, Taiwan, asking whether it wants to intervene in the naval battle between Qingdao and Japan in the north."

"Reply to the Admiralty," Chen Zeyu stood up from his seat and took the telegram sent by the Secretary of State himself, "Let Ding Chongji, the commander of the submarine force, calm down for a while, and let him take care of the affairs of the north, and let the troops control the ocean near Taiwan for me." There are Japanese ships, come one, sink one for me! ”

"By the way, send me a telegram to the Legation in the United Kingdom, and ask how the 'Gao Sheng Incident' that they are operating in the United Kingdom is doing over there now?"

"Yes, Führer! I'm going to go and ask the Secretariat to draft a telegram. ”

Watching Liang Cheng's figure walk out of the office, Chen Zeyu sighed and came to the giant East Asian map hanging behind him, looking at the Yellow Sea near North Korea and frowning slightly, not knowing what he was thinking......

At the same time, the Japanese army was also making very good progress on the Korean battlefield.

After the initial conquest of Seoul, because the Japanese navy intercepted and killed more than 1,000 Qing army soldiers who were transported by sea to the Korean Chuansu position, the Japanese army gathered a brigade of troops and easily conquered the Qing army's Chuansu fortress.

After conquering Chuanjuku, the Japanese army continued to march towards Anseong in the north with the 7th Brigade of the 2nd Division as the vanguard.

It was summer in Korea in June, and the Japanese soldiers were very tired from marching under the scorching sun, but the morale of the troops was very high.

On June 27, the Japanese army took advantage of the night to sneak attack the position of the Qing army in Anseong, although it was sniped by the Qing army, but after a hard battle at about 3 a.m. the next day, the Japanese army still managed to enter Anseong before dawn.

Ye Zhichao, the commander of the Qing army, was shocked when he heard the news, and then concentrated his forces on the front line to rebuild the fortress in Cheng Huan.

On the 29th, the Japanese troops arrived at Dahuan and took the lead in launching artillery bombardments with accompanying mountain artillery during the day. Ye Zhichao's army was also equipped with a batch of Krupp infantry guns at that time, and immediately launched a counterattack.

However, the Japanese artillery's artillery skills were obviously more than a step higher than that of the Qing army, and their mountain artillery shells could always accurately hit the target, and each shot could cause serious damage to the Qing troops on the position. On the contrary, the gunners in Ye Zhichao's army seemed to be fighting indiscriminately, and every shell sent out either fell far in front of the Japanese attack formation, or flew over the opponent's head, which did not cause much damage to the Japanese army at all.

In terms of the quality of soldiers, the Qing army and the Japanese army were not the same. Although on the whole, the soldiers in this group of Huai army are all good families selected by the government from all over the country, and the soldiers are strictly forbidden to smoke big cigarettes in the army, and the soldiers' physique alone is not necessarily much worse than the Japanese army. However, the quality of the officers of the two armies, especially the officers at the grassroots level, is much worse. Compared with the strict self-discipline of the Japanese officers and taking the lead in the charge, there were not a few officers on the Qing army's side who took the lead in escaping, let alone let them charge ahead.

In the midst of the Japanese officers and soldiers sacrificing their lives and deaths, the Chenghuan Fortress was conquered four days later on July 3.

The commander of the Qing army, Ye Zhichao, finally picked up a life, and when he was escorted to Asan by his subordinates, he met his deputy Nie Shicheng who refused to stay in the Asan position and insisted on retreating to Pyongyang, the big city in the rear.

Asan is located on the road between Seoul and Pyongyang, and the terrain is dangerous.

Nie Shicheng tried hard to persuade him, but the coach Ye Zhichao just didn't listen, and the two of them were not from the same system, so they had to divide their troops in the end. Ye Zhichao was not bad, he knew what the division of troops was equal to Asan at this time, but he persuaded Nie Shicheng to retreat to Pyongyang with him.

Nie Shicheng refused to retreat without a fight after all, and Ye Zhichao retreated after assigning more than 2,000 soldiers to his department.

The Japanese army also knew that Asan must be taken quickly, and a small force came to attack Nie Shicheng's position before the end of the day, but fortunately Nie Shicheng was very strict in governing the army, and the soldiers used their lives to not only successfully repel them, but also easily used the night environment to ambush and annihilate many Japanese soldiers.

On July 5, a division under the personal command of Major General Yoshikura Oshima arrived in Asan.

After dinner, the Japanese soldiers divided into two routes, and under the cover of artillery fire, they began to attack Asan from the east and west flanks.

Nie Shicheng supervised the battle in front, but the Japanese army had too many troops, and more than 10,000 people from a division and the Japanese forward troops took turns to fight from all directions. Under the disparity in strength, when the battle was fought until evening, plus those who fled, the Qing army had only a few hundred people left, and in desperation, Nie Shicheng had to lead the remaining remnants to retreat from the position.

In the evening, according to the custom, the Japanese launched another night attack, and when the troops came up, they found that the Qing army had retreated.

Seeing that Asan had become an empty shell, the Japanese commander Oshima Yoshikura took a breath while disappointing the fun, and the Japanese army did not bother to chase after it at night, so they camped on the position to rest.

Asan's geographical location in Korea was extremely critical, and as soon as the news of the Japanese victory in this battle was transmitted to the rear, it immediately set off a wave of celebration throughout the island nation.

The atmosphere in Japan was so high that some Japanese geisha even wrote a special lyric to express their admiration for the officers and soldiers of the Oshima Division. The title of the song is "The Battle of Chenghuan", "The time began in early June, and our army in the capital embarked on a journey. The target is Shuiyuan County, and the morning light shines on the Rizhang Banner. Our army sent death prayer soldiers, and Cheng Huan stood in front of the fortress. The enemy soldiers could not hold out, and only attacked together. Bravely advance and then advance, Si is the enemy base camp of Asan. Our troops bravely advanced again, and all the shells hit. The defenders disorganized their camps one after another, and took the fortress like a snap. Three times to sing triumphantly, three times to sing triumphantly. ”

After that, the strength of the Japanese army to reinforce Korea gradually increased to more than 30,000 people, and the large army was once again divided into three routes, and the left and right roads were successfully cleared for the troops to Pyongyang, an important town in northern Korea. By early July, Gyeonggi-do, Gangwon-do, and Hwanghae-do provinces in Korea had fallen under the iron heel of the Japanese army.

And while the Japanese army was invincible, their home cabinet government was in trouble.