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"If we don't meet the challenge decisively today, then tomorrow China will cease to exist tomorrow, and there will be no other choice but to respond to war with war and guns with guns."

There was no doubt that in just a few minutes, without speeches, without mobilization, without the collusion of officials and councilors, the meeting lasted only a few minutes, and the declaration of war against the Japanese Empire, submitted by the State Council and signed by His Majesty, was unanimously approved amid applause.

"The Japanese Empire has always taken the conquest and hegemony of Asia as its national policy, and today the Japanese are provoking war, and China is really compelled to fight, not only to defend China's independent existence, but also to break Japan's aggressive ambitions, and to safeguard public international law, justice, human welfare, and world peace. China is a peace-loving nation, and last year in order to maintain its sacred neutrality, it had to defend its neutrality by force. However, Japan, which has a strong nature, is obsessed with not coming to its senses, and it is even more brazen to provoke China today, expand its war and aggression, and fulfill its insatiable ambition of aggression.

Eleven years ago, the Japanese attacked Toshima and a year ago, after the Japanese attacked Lushun, and today, the Japanese have attacked our training ships that had not yet been prepared for the war.

All nations that respect the faithful will have no patience. The Chinese Empire hereby formally declares war on the Japanese Empire, and declares to China and foreign countries that all treaties, agreements, and contracts involving Sino-Japanese relations shall be abolished, and are hereby proclaimed. ”

Near noon, in front of the bulletin boards of almost every city and county government in the country, policemen holding bulletins held megaphones rolled up in iron sheets in one hand and read aloud the declaration of war.

In the last Sino-Japanese conflict, although the conflict caused more than 100,000 casualties on both sides, the two countries never declared war, and today the conflict has just started, and the two countries immediately declared war, which really shocked many people, but with the good news of the victory of the "Jingyuan" in the South China Sea, there is no chaos and panic in the market, and with the encouragement of the government, the students of various schools walked out of the school hall as soon as possible, and the declaration of war against Japan and the unanimous policy of the whole country in wartime were publicized in the market.

At this time, when the young students talked about patriotism and the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, they would always mention Jingyuan, and overnight, Jingyuan became a warship that everyone in China talked about and mentioned.

"Jingyuan"

Inside the British Embassy in Nanjing, Arthur? Fred lay in the information book, looking at the relevant information of the Jingyuan, compared with the ambassadors and counselors, they were more concerned about the future direction of China and Japan, and the possible impact of the final victory or defeat of this war on the Far East, but as a naval attaché, he was more concerned about the Jingyuan battlecruiser

Moreover, the telegram from London also constantly emphasized one thing, Jingyuan, it is necessary to find out all the intelligence and information of Jingyuan, especially the information on the naval battle in the South China Sea.

"According to the latest information released by the Chinese Admiralty, at least 178 shells were hit on the Jingyuan, including 27 large-caliber shells of more than 8 inches, which is the blow suffered by the Jingyuan in less than two hours"

As soon as he entered the room, Alx showed the bulletin in his hand, and his face was full of incredulity.

"You know, it's not a standard battleship, but a battlecruiser that "has the firepower of a battleship and the maneuverability of a cruiser." Although it was a battle cruiser with a displacement of about 20,000 tons, we all know that his armor was not thick, and God knows how he survived. ”

"Good Krup armor, good design, and good damage management keep it going."

Arthur answered Arx's question with a single sentence, and then he took a closer look at the information released by the Chinese Admiralty, and just by looking at this simple press announcement, he could imagine what it would be like to appear in Jingyuan. …,

Maybe it has long been turned into a pile of rags.

"I dare to say that this time, Jingyuan will be repaired in the dock for at least half a year"

Alx said confidently, and then he pointed to the photo of the Jingyuan launching on the table.

"Perhaps, the current Jingyuan has been rebranded like this"

"I don't care about this"

Putting down the pen in his hand, Arthur looked at Arx and said seriously.

"Now I only care that the Chinese do not agree with us to go on the Zhiyuan ship, maybe we can see with our own eyes how the Zhiyuan ship exerts its power in future naval battles."

When mentioning "might", he even deliberately lengthened his voice, and now the military attaches of various countries in China have applied to join the Chinese Navy as observers, and almost everyone has their eyes on Zhiyuan, but no one chooses Jingyuan, after all, no one knows whether Jingyuan can catch up with the next naval battle now.

"You and I both know that the Jingyuan ship is a group of novices, they just received the ship, but they hit Iwami in the sixth salvo, and the nineteenth salvo sank it, how much do we know about the Jingyuan ship now?"

Picking up the cigarette sitting by the ashtray and taking a deep breath, Arx continued.

"Jingyuan is the final improvement of Zhiyuan, more mature than Zhiyuan, Zhiyuan encountered a lot of problems after it was put into service, and Jingyuan seems to have solved these problems. He used a 13.5-inch naval gun produced by the American Bethlehem Company, the largest caliber naval gun in the world, and used a new mild steel quilt cap armor-piercing projectile, according to the current intelligence analysis we have, the reason why Iwami was sunk was because of this armor-piercing projectile, and then his armor was thicker than we thought, and then his speed, probably between 25 and 27 knots, this is the information we currently have."

"It should also be counted that the Jingyuan also has more advanced sighting and ranging equipment, and the Chinese have purchased a lot of advanced and even experimental equipment from us and the Germans, and have introduced patents, these equipment should have been applied by their navy, and from the perspective of the modification of the Chinese's Second Fleet, they are more inclined to install various equipment to improve the observation and aiming ability of the warship, and the advanced observation and sighting equipment should be the main reason for them to win this naval battle with a huge disparity in strength."

Arthur jotted down these points on a piece of paper with a pencil as he supplemented Arx.

If the birth of the Zhiyuan shocked the world's naval circles, and now Arthur and Alx will never doubt that tomorrow, when Europe wakes up from its waking dream, they will definitely be stunned by the performance of the Jingyuan, and by that time, the Jingyuan built by the Chinese will become a model for all warships in the world, and even enough to make the navies of the world feel inferiority and even fear when facing Jingyuan.

"Now the Jingyuan has used this naval battle to prove to the world that any former Zhiyuan ship is just a target in front of him, perhaps, this is what the Chinese often say, if you don't make a sound, it's a blockbuster."

Arthur said it very fairly, then twisted the cap of the pen in his hand, and continued to express his opinion.

"To be honest, I think, the Chinese are too lucky, two years ago the Italian naval community proposed to build a full main gun battleship, and then we proposed the "perfect cruiser", but the Chinese successfully combined the advantages of these two types of warships, and in this naval battle, good luck is really accompanied by the Chinese, this time the "good luck of Dongxiang" may be about to meet the opponent, but the Chinese seem to occupy technology and even enjoy a certain quantitative advantage, but in fact, the advantage of the combined fleet is greater, Unlike the Chinese Navy, which has an insufficient number of officers and a shorter training period for its soldiers, the Combined Fleet has trained many of its noncommissioned officers for more than a decade and has been tested in naval battles in the Sea of Japan. ”…,

Arx nodded, luck, luck in the war to a certain proportion, sometimes even two opponents with a huge disparity in strength, luck can even play a decisive role, just like this naval battle, in Arx's view, luck is on the side of the Chinese.

"Well, but I think maybe the Chinese will have better luck, you know, the torpedo launched by the Hairong before it was sunk even hit the tail rudder of the Fuji, such good luck is rare in the history of world naval warfare"

Alx said seriously.

"You know, in addition to the number of warships, the number of artillery and technology, luck often plays a role in naval battles, and if the luck of the Chinese can be maintained, I think the politicians in London should now consider how Britain should coordinate the reparations that Japan will have to pay in the future."

Alks's words only Arthur laughed, although Arthur did not have much confidence in the Japanese Navy to defeat the Chinese Navy, but he did not believe that the Chinese Navy could completely defeat the powerful Combined Fleet.

"Arks, you know, that's the Combined Fleet, which defeated the Combined Fleet of the Russian Navy"

"Luck"

Arx spat out two words earnestly.

"I said that in the naval battle in the Sea of Japan, the luck of the Combined Fleet was better than that of the Russians, so they won very lightly, but this time, to be honest, if Zhiyuan can play at a level comparable to Jingyuan, and has the same luck as it, then it will be difficult for the Combined Fleet to win."

After a pause, Arx emphasized seriously.

"You know, for the Chinese, they don't have much choice, it can be said that naval battles, winning naval battles is the only way for them to win, no matter what, they must win, only if they win, they can achieve their goals, no matter who wins the naval war in their two countries, it is equivalent to winning the war, especially for the Chinese, even more so, as long as they win the naval battle, they can even win the war without launching a land war that costs huge military expenses."

Alks, who was already not good at debating, was a little messy at this time, and then he emphasized further.

"Whether it is for China or Japan, these two close neighbors, like Britain and France in the past, or Britain and Germany now, no matter who won the war, will do everything possible to blackmail each other until the last drop of oil is squeezed, and only in this way can the opponent be weakened as much as possible."

"Like the Franco-Prussian War?"

Arthur's answer made Arx nod.

"It may even be more ruthless than Bismarck's demands during the Franco-Prussian War, if Japan wins, with the greed of the Japanese, they will ask for at least 5 billion Chinese yuan in reparations, which is equivalent to China's fiscal expenditure for five years, ten years ago, didn't the Japanese ask for 250 million taels? That was equivalent to the fiscal revenue of the Qing Dynasty for four and a half years. ”

greedy

Greed is the world's biggest impression of Japan, before the Sino-Japanese War ten years ago, the Qing only paid two war reparations, one was the Anglo-Qing War, and the other was the Anglo-French war against the Qing State, the two wars paid war reparations and compensation for the losses of merchants, but not more than 34 million taels of silver, while Japan demanded 250 million taels of silver in one war.

"What if the Chinese win? How much compensation will the Chinese demand from Japan? ”

Arthur's rhetorical question only stunned Arx, who was stunned for a long time before finally muttering a word.

"It depends on how His Majesty the Emperor and his ministers view this issue."

“…… It was Japan, and it was the greed of the Japanese that started the precedent of the great powers extorting China to the extreme"

In the government affairs building of the Imperial Palace, in front of the ministers of the cabinet, Chen Moran answered the "future question" for the first time, and this was only because of Liang Dunyan's request to "use the South China Sea to win a big victory over Yu Wei and convey the willingness of peace to Japan through the United States". …,

His eyes looked directly at Liang Dunyan, with a straight face, Chen Moran would say the best thing, I am afraid that it is all soft eggs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the navy has just won a war, he actually thought of taking the opportunity to make peace, and did not consider a practical issue at all, whether peace is good for China now, now is not the time for peace at all.

"Japan, indeed, Japan is our close neighbor, but this close neighbor ten years ago, did not let us go easily, this battle, we must win, as long as we win the naval battle, the victory will belong to us, this battle in the South China Sea, played our self-confidence, so we must continue to fight with Japan, until the Japanese give in, until the Japanese accept our conditions, if you can"

After a pause, Chen Moran raised his eyebrows.

"Liang Qing, don't you want to negotiate with the Japanese at Chunfan Tower in Maguan?"

As soon as this sentence came out, the atmosphere in the conference room changed, and everyone fell silent, no one would want to, nor dare to say anything, after all, this war is to a large extent, not only the conflict between two countries, this battle has a different meaning for China, this is China's shameful battle, and the first war washed away the shame of ten years.

Ten years ago, in the Sino-Japanese First Sino-Japanese War, due to the corruption of the Qing government and the backwardness of the Qing state, China, which seemed to be a powerful country, was defeated by the "small Dongyi country" of the "three islands of Yuer". The cession of Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, the indemnity of 200 million taels of silver, the ransom of tens of millions of taels, the establishment of treaty ports such as Shashi, Chongqing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou, and the addition of Japanese concessions...... The contents of these treaties, which record the shame of the Chinese nation, are like a boulder pressing on their hearts, and everyone is breathless.

If anyone dares to say anything else, even if no one in this room will accuse anything, if it spreads to the outside world, I am afraid that it will only be regarded as a traitor by the people, and will only be spurned by the people, and even the entire family will be humiliated.

"So ......"

Knowing that he was powerless to recover everything, Guan Mingtang swallowed back his thoughts, and in his original opinion, perhaps, taking the opportunity to make peace is the most compromise choice, and even the most beneficial choice for China, after all, for the current China, it must not appear as a strong country, a person that may threaten the special interests of Britain and the United States and other powers in Asia.

However, His Majesty's decision and the inevitability of the future made him understand that there are not many choices for China, and the so-called special interests of various countries in Asia are simply the interests of various countries in China, and as China grows stronger step by step, conflicts with other countries are inevitable, and it is nothing more than a year or two in advance.

"Your Majesty, in that case, we must always formulate a basic condition for peace, so that we can grasp the bottom line and adjust our attitude towards the mediation of various countries in the future according to the course of the war."

Well

Finally, now that he had a constructive opinion, he nodded with satisfaction, Chen Moran looked at Guan Mingtang, and his face softened a lot.

"Ask a few questions, how much reparations did we pay during the First Sino-Japanese War, including interest and Gengzi indemnity, how much did we pay to Japan? Including the payment of compensation due to Japan, how much additional interest do we have to bear? ”

A few questions in quick succession only stunned everyone, and Liang Dunyan, who had been reprimanded by His Majesty for proposing peace, answered His Majesty's questions almost immediately.

"Your Majesty, the First Sino-Japanese War reparations. The 200 million taels of military expenses stipulated in the Treaty of Shimonoseki were to be paid in eight installments, the first 50 million taels to be paid within six months after the ratification, the second 50 million taels to be paid within 12 months after the ratification, and the rest to be paid in six installments, once a year from the second year onwards. The treaty also stipulates that "after the first indemnity is paid, the unpaid amount shall be paid at the rate of five per hundred per annum", and "if the full amount can be repaid within three years from the date of ratification of the treaty of exchange, the remainder shall remain interest-free except for the interest paid for two and a half years, or less than two and a half years, which shall be deducted from the principal and silver payable". The treaty also stipulated that before the first and second indemnities were paid, Japanese troops would be temporarily stationed in Weihaiwei, Shandong Province. China pays its military expenses 500,000 taels a year. In order to raise and repay Japan's reparations, and also out of consideration of exempting the payment of interest and withdrawing the Japanese troops stationed in Weihaiwei as soon as possible, the Qing government, which was in financial difficulties, was forced to enter into Russian-French loans, Anglo-German loans, and Anglo-German renewal loan contracts in 1895, 1896, and 1898, borrowing a total of about 300 million taels of silver. According to the calculation of the schedule of repayment of principal and interest approved at that time, China had to repay the principal and interest in a total of 741578255 taels of silver. ”……，