[Today's first update, there will be a second update later]

~~~~~~~~~~~ night, in the hall of the main building of Shanghai Shipbuilding Heavy Industry, a banquet for Wang Chenhao and a banquet for the Pacific Fleet's victory in the first battle to eliminate the Rurik were held at the same time.

At the banquet, Wang Chenhao commended the Pacific Fleet for its victory in the first battle and awarded medals and awards to the meritorious officers and men of each ship. Of course, for Lyons and other British advisers, Wang Chenhao still has to praise a lot, in order to enhance Sino-British friendship, and at the same time give them rich rewards, after all, you have to count on these Britons to sell their lives.

The consul generals and consuls of various powers in Shanghai gathered at the banquet, among which the Russian consul Baifu also appeared at the banquet. As a politician, Centauri always talks to Wang Chenhao and his hostile countries with a smile on his face, but under the smiling face is extremely angry and embarrassed, especially in the conversation with Wang Chenhao, he confirmed the fact that the Rurik was sunk, and also confirmed the news that Major General Nebogatov and others were captured.

"Your and our two countries have reached an agreement to end the war peacefully, and I hope that Lord Wang will hand over Nebogatov and other captured officers and soldiers to Russia."

"It's just a verbal agreement, and it doesn't have legal effect until it's formally signed."

"It's just a matter of time, I think it will come out in a few days."

"As long as we don't sign for a second, we are still enemies, and I can't accept your request."

Wang Chenhao's conversation with Centurion attracted the most attention, and the representatives of the great powers with evil intentions pricked up their ears one after another, for fear that not a single word would be dropped, not even a single tone word representing attitude.

Baifuji didn't understand what Wang Chenhao meant, and asked, "I don't understand what the adults mean, don't you want to end this war?" ”

"Your Excellency misunderstood!" Wang Chenhao smiled and said: "I love this country more than anyone else, and I want to end the war as soon as possible more than anyone else, but it should not be humiliating." ”

Centauke smiled: "My lord, I'm afraid I don't understand, the peace conditions were proposed by your country's political axe, we did not impose it on you, and the contract will be fair." ”

"Fair?" Wang Chenhao snorted coldly and said, "If we lose the war, the imperial court will compensate 10 million taels to end the war, and we can still accept it." But now that we have the upper hand, we can be generous not to impose reparations on you, but not the other way around. You started the war, and the responsibility is not ours. ”

Baifuji frowned, he had already heard his attitude from Wang Chenhao's words and tone. As a person who has a decisive influence on the current Qing Empire's navy and army, another purpose of Baifuji's visit this time is to test Wang Chenhao's attitude. Now Wang Chenhao's attitude against reparations is very resolute, which makes Centurion feel quite pressured.

"Could it be that adults still want to fight?"

As soon as these words came out, everyone knew that the centurion was not enough. At the same time, everyone also understands that the Beiyang Army and the Beiyang Naval Division, which the Qing Empire relied on at this time, have a great relationship with the Wang Chenhao in front of him, and he is the key figure in whether the Qing Empire will continue the war, because his attitude will affect the attitude of the Qing Empire's navy and army. Everyone looked at Wang Chenhao, waiting for him to make a statement.

"We will fight to the end until we drive the invaders out, there is no doubt about it."

As soon as Wang Chenhao's words fell, there was an uproar in the hall.

"That's right!"

Lin Jianzhang and others took the lead in applauding, and suddenly there was warm applause in the hall, including the British, and representatives of many major powers and countries also applauded warmly.

It can be seen that the British have always opposed the peaceful end of the war with the Russians, and they applaud the most because they are the most thoroughly anti-Russian. Then there were the wavering consuls of Germany, Italy, and Austria-Hungary, who wanted Russia to keep its goal in the Far East and reduce the power of Europe, but at the same time did not want to see Russia gain from defeat. Although France and Russia were allies, France was also enthusiastic about the Qing Empire's intention to pay 10 million taels to Russia.

In short, there are more countries that are greedy because they can't eat grapes, and all countries are naturally not happy with the benefits that the Qing Empire has given to Russia.

Baifuki felt very embarrassed, and forced himself to smile and said, "Lord Wang is so courageous! I've heard about some amazing things about you, but in a full-scale confrontation with the Russian Empire, your little strength is nothing more than an egg against a stone. ”

Speaking of which, Wang Chenhao knew that there were no steps down the two sides, so he could only take down one side toughly.

"As a European power, your country's strength is naturally not comparable to my personal strength. Since 1840, your country has successively annexed more than 1.5 million square kilometers of China's land, and I believe that your country's long-term strategic goal in the Far East is to destroy China and complete your so-called Yellow Russia Plan. I am sure that you will not stop this plan easily, unless there is a great battle between the two countries. I also know that this war is inevitable and destined to be a great war, but not now, because your country is not ready. ”

Baifuji looked at Wang Chenhao with a surprised face, he could hardly believe his eyes, Wang Chenhao in front of him was able to know the top state secret of the Tsarist Empire - the Yellow Russia Plan. What is even more unbelievable is that Wang Chenhao knew that a major war between Qing and Russia could not be avoided, and his words were almost repeating the minutes of the meeting of the Russian High Command.

Who are you? How can it be clear about Russia's plans for the Far East?

These questions suddenly came to Centau's mind, if he had turned his nose up at the magical legend about Wang Chenhao before, he would have believed most of it at this moment. But he did not have time to think about the fact that he had to be tough in front of the consuls, the dignity of the Russian Empire, which he represented.

"The so-called Yellow Russia plan you are talking about is simply ridiculous, and our Russian Empire is helping your country to enter the civilized world as soon as possible. If it had to be done through war, we, the Russian Empire, would have respected the will of your people and sent troops to save them. The empire can gather a million troops in a short period of time, is Lord Wang capable of resisting the offensive of our army? ”

Although Centurion vigorously denied the Yellow Russia plan, the consuls of various countries felt the real existence of this plan from his expression, and they were shocked and wondered where Wang Chenhao's information came from.

Wang Chenhao snorted coldly and said: "Your country has not yet completed its policy of isolating China politically, and there are countless enemies in Europe and Central Asia, and we still have countries including Britain that support us. Your country is also economically ill-prepared and will be very costly in fighting an all-out war, and the serious economic crisis caused by the international banking crisis will not be so easy to recover. Your country is also militarily ill-prepared, and a long-distance expedition of more than 9,000 kilometers from St. Petersburg to the Far East would not have been possible without the Trans-Siberian Railway. To sum up, it will be difficult for your country to launch an all-out war against China in a short period of time, and it will be even more difficult to form the advantage of a local war, so it is now advantageous for us. Of course, your country may retaliate against us, but that is also in the future, and the future is unpredictable for you, me, and everyone present, isn't it? ”

Wang Chenhao's rebuttal shocked everyone at the banquet. Centurion is even more full of black lines, and he can't refute it in a word.

"Lord Wang is really eloquent, I hope your judgment will not be wrong, goodbye."

With that, Centauki and several Russian consuls left angrily. After they left, there was a warm applause in the hall, and Wang Chenhao was immediately surrounded by the crowd.

"It's better to see than to hear, Lord Wang has opened my eyes this time!"

The words of the British Consul General in Shanghai, Jemison, immediately attracted the applause of the consuls of various countries.

"It's ugly!"

Wang Chenhao hurriedly humbled himself, but attracted more enthusiastic applause.

The banquet reached ** at this moment. Without the Russians, the atmosphere of the banquet was even more enthusiastic.

Subsequently, Jemeisen met with Wang Chenhao separately and expressed the British side's position on the Qing-Russian negotiations, reiterated Britain's opposition to the Qing political axe's indemnity to Russia, and demanded that the Qing political axe not compromise, continue to fight against Russia, and strive to inflict heavy losses on Russia.

Wang Chenhao, of course, understood the British thoughts, and said that he would do his best to prevent the conclusion of the treaty between Qing and Russia, and would drive the Russian army out of the country.

Jemeisen expressed his full support for Wang Chenhao's position, and the two reached a consensus on opposing the signing of a treaty with Russia.

On the morning of 10 December, Wang Chenhao summoned hundreds of celebrities and gentry in Shanghai to jointly draft a telegram to the premier's yamen and military aircraft department, explicitly opposing the payment of indemnities to Russia, as well as opposing the humiliating conditions of allowing Russia to open mines and build railways in northeast China and open border ports, and demanded that Qing Zhengaxe reject such negotiations.

At the same time, the British Minister Plenipotentiary to China, Douglas, also received a telegram from Jemeson, and actively cooperated with Wang Chenhao to put pressure on Prime Minister Yamen, expressing his resolute opposition to the Qing Dynasty's decision to conclude a peace treaty with Russia. On the surface, the envoys of other countries in China respected the treaty between the Qing and Russia, but they were not happy to see that Russia had unilaterally gained benefits, so they also secretly expressed their euphemistic stance that they hoped that the Qing government would postpone the conclusion of the treaty.

Wang Chenhao's blatant opposition immediately caused a series of chain reactions in China. In response to Wang Chenhao's call, people of insight in China wrote to the imperial court one after another, strongly opposing the conclusion of a fornication agreement with Russia, and demanding that the Qing government take a firmer stand and carry out the anti-aggression war to the end.

As early as last night, Wang Chenhao sent a telegram to Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, and Liu Kunyi, the three most powerful local governors of the dynasty, in which he expressed Wang Chenhao's resolute opposition to signing such a humiliating stance, and assured them that the Beiyang Army, the Beiyang Naval Division, and the Pacific Fleet had the ability and confidence to defeat the Russian invading army, and asked them to support him for the sake of national interests.

Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong and Liu Kunyi were naturally dissatisfied with the imperial court's compensation to Russia, but they were all old political foxes and did not want to be the first birds. Now that Wang Chenhao is willing to take this lead, they are naturally happy to see this. At this time, Wang Chenhao's power can be said to be very strong, the army has the eight towns of Beiyang, and the navy has the Pacific Fleet as a private fleet, and the economy has a huge financial resource that no one can match. Based on these reasons, they chose to sell Wang Chenhao's favor, so they called the Military Aircraft Department and the Prime Minister's Yamen one after another to respond to Wang Chenhao's call.

(To be continued)