On October 5, Wang Chenhao refused all of Barcelona's demands in front of Spanish Minister Barcelona. Not only that, but on the same day, Wang Chenhao took advantage of his right as acting prime minister and minister of Yamen to immediately send a note to the ministers, consuls, and military attachés of various countries in China, announcing the abolition of all unequal treaties between the Qing Empire and the Spanish Empire, the abolition of all kinds of special treatment for Spaniards in China, the prohibition of Spanish missionary missions in China, the ordering of Spanish priests to leave China for a limited period of time, the banning of Chinese religious organizations established by the Spanish Church, and the confiscation of the land and property illegally amassed by the Spaniards and the Han Anniversaries who had defected to the Spaniards.

This immediately caused a huge storm in China, because the Spanish Church had consular jurisdiction in China, and it was unscrupulous, occupying land everywhere and oppressing the Chinese people. The Chinese congregations attached to the name of the Spanish Church are even more like tigers, occupying the land, houses, and property of the common people, bullying men and women, and doing all kinds of evil, and their grievances are deep.

With Wang Chenhao's announcement of the abolition of all unequal treaties signed with the Spanish Empire and the abolition of all privileges of the Spaniards in China, he demanded that all provinces and localities begin public trials of all cases involving the Spaniards in China.

As a result, an anti-Spaniard movement was immediately launched throughout the country. There are more than 4,000 Spaniards in China, and more than ninety percent of them are involved in all kinds of criminal activities that are used to kill criminals, and they used to have consular jurisdiction, but the Spanish court acquitted them and accused them of being punished for their crimes.

The hatred of the common people towards foreigners has been accumulated for more than half a century, and the grievances of several generations have suddenly erupted. After the Spaniards lost their consular jurisdiction and all their privileges, they were arrested by the local people one after another and sent to the Yamen Hall for trial, and those who hated them were even directly killed. More than 200,000 people across the country became the dogs of the Spaniards, most of them were arrested, thousands of people were beaten to death by the angry people, and only a small part escaped.

The vigorous anti-Spaniard movement began, and the power of the Spaniards in China for many years was uprooted at once, which dealt a heavy blow to the interests of the Spanish political axe in China.

Barcelona, the Spanish minister plenipotentiary to China, sent several notes to Qing Zheng and negotiated with Wang Chenhao, but no progress was made. Wang Chenhao's attitude was tough, and he made it clear that the carriage and horse were working against Spain.

At this time, the Spanish political axe was in conflict with the United States, and the country was actively preparing to deal with the war of the United States.

On October 15, the Spanish government issued a statement that it was willing to negotiate the abolition of all unequal treaties with Spain by the Qing Empire. At the same time, Spain asked France, Britain, Germany, and Italy to help mediate. Spain sent a note to the diplomats of these countries, saying that the Qing Empire was using the Spanish Empire today, and it might attack them tomorrow, and asked the powers of various countries to support the Spanish Empire.

Of course, the great powers understood that Wang Chenhao had annulled all unequal treaties with the Spanish Empire today, and it would be possible to take action against them tomorrow. However, their hearts were not aligned, and the various powers had different attitudes towards the Qing Empire for various purposes. Except for Russia's hard-line attitude, the other great powers only made an appointment with the Qing Empire's prime minister, Yamen, and asked Wang Chenhao to ensure that the interests of the great powers in China would not be violated. They had reservations about the Qing Empire's use of Spain, and only symbolically demanded that the Qing Empire's law enforcement agencies be able to fairly try the Spaniards. The American political axe is a secret ally to Wang Chenhao, and of course he helps Wang Chenhao speak. The U.S. political axe openly supported the actions of the Qing Empire, saying that the Spaniards had done many evils in China, aroused the anger of the Chinese people, and should be punished. The statement of the United States that the United States and Spain were already on the verge of war also made the other great powers shut up and choose a cautious neutral attitude on the issue of the Qing Empire and Spain, and on the issue of the United States and Spain.

Spain was isolated, and in the face of the fierce anti-Spaniard movement of the Qing Empire, a large number of Spaniards were seized by the yamen of the Qing government, and the safety of life and property could not be guaranteed. Fierce demonstrations were set off in Spain, criticizing the Spanish political axe for not daring to offend the United States, and it was too embarrassing for not daring to speak out in the face of the cowardly Qing Empire, and demanding that the Spanish political axe be tough on China and ensure the safety of the lives and property of thousands of Spaniards in China.

Faced with this situation, Spain had to grovel to the United States on the one hand, and on the other hand, it had to be tough on the Qing Empire in order to maintain the face of the Spanish Empire, which made the Spanish political axe exhausted.

The Spanish government has long been aware of the ambitions of the United States against Cuba, and since 1895, when the United States intervened in the suppression of the Cuban Revolutionary Army by the Spanish colonial army, the secret collusion between the United States and the Cuban Revolutionary Army has long been detected by the Spanish intelligence agencies.

Beginning in 1896, Spain believed that the United States was planning a large navy to plot against Cuba, so the Spanish government allocated funds for the Spanish Navy under limited finances, and also began to build new warships on a large scale and upgrade the existing warships.

The Spanish Navy was weak, but also relative. Compared with the navies of Britain, France, the United States, Russia, and the Qing Dynasty, the Spanish Navy did not have an advantage in capital ships, but it was more than the United States and the Qing Empire in terms of the total number of ships. The Spanish Navy has 153 surface combatants of various types, which is more than the total number of surface combatants of the Qing Imperial Navy and the United States Navy.

It's just that the Spanish Navy has many warships, but most of them are old ships in the seventies and eighties, with backward combat power, and they are distributed in colonies in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania, and they have to defend the Spanish mainland and control the Mediterranean, so their forces are scattered.

Especially on the main battleship, the Spanish Navy currently has only one first-class battleship in service, the ship is built by France, the design of the mother type of the French battleship Marceau, launched in 1886, commissioned in 1888, the standard displacement of 9745 tons, the main gun is two single 12.5-inch guns and two single 11-inch guns, the secondary gun is 1 6.4-inch gun and 12 4.7-inch guns, 5 6-pounder guns, 7 14-inch torpedoes. In addition, six armored cruisers of the fourth class were in service, twenty-two protective cruisers of the fifth class were in service, thirteen unprotected cruisers of the third class were in service, as well as a large number of gunboats and torpedo boats.

In order to counter the United States, the Spanish Navy is currently under construction Carlos V-class armored cruisers, Asturias Princess-class armored cruisers and Regent-class protective cruisers, a total of eight, these warships were launched in 1896, and are expected to be completed in June ~ October 1898 to resist the United States Navy, but it is clear that the Americans will not wait until the new Spanish warships are in service before going to war, so the historical Spanish-American War broke out in April 1898.

Now, because of Wang Chenhao's participation, the US political axe has advanced the war schedule. Because U.S. intelligence showed that the Spanish Navy, in order to counter the United States, drove the only battleship, the Pelayo, into the dock for upgrading, which was planned to be completed in February 1898. Therefore, the American political axe set the date of the war on December 26, 1897, so that the only Spanish battleship could not participate in the war.

Of course, all this is unknown to the Spaniards. They could guess that the United States would go to war with Spain, but they could not guess the time. They could guess that the Qing Empire was now taking advantage of the fire to abolish Spain's sphere of influence in China, but they could never guess that Wang Chenhao had already partnered with the Americans against Spain.

All the Spanish political axe could do was to delay the outbreak of war as long as possible.

The United States and Spain are preparing for war, but the Qing political axe still does not agree with Wang Chenhao's use of troops against Spain, and he has long been afraid of foreigners.

Wang Chenhao instigated the local governors and the civil and military officials of the imperial court to speak to Guangxu every day, grinding their teeth with Guangxu. Guangxu didn't agree for a day, and these civil and military ministers kept grinding with Guangxu all day long.

Guangxu regretted letting Wang Chenhao act as the prime minister of the Yamen, he didn't expect Wang Chenhao to be so bold and set off such earth-shattering waves. According to the past experience of the Qing political axe, the death of a foreigner may break out the joint intervention of the great powers, and the Qing political axe will either apologize for reparations or cede land for peace. Today, thousands of Spaniards are being detained by the local government, more than 1,000 Spaniards who have committed many evils and caused the death of local civilians have been sentenced to death, most of the rest have been sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 3 months to 300 years, and only less than 200 Spanish Catholics, doctors, teachers, and their families and children who have committed professional and moral duties have been acquitted. The severity and cruelty of the punishment for the Han annihilators who followed the Spanish people to the disaster reached unprecedented, and more than 100,000 people were subjected to various cruel punishments, and more than 10,000 evil leaders and accomplices were executed by Ling Chi, hanging, beheading, car splitting and other ten Manchu tortures. Such a big storm will certainly cause Spain to start a war against China, and the great powers of various countries will propose strong intervention. But the attitude of the great powers of various countries was ambiguous, and they just protested painlessly, and then there was no movement.

The calmness of the great powers surprised Guangxu. And this bloody storm has made the personality cult of Wang Chenhao by the people of the whole country climb to a higher level again, and everyone praises and praises him. On the other hand, the more the common people admired Wang Chenhao, the more they looked down on the authority of the Qing emperor.

Guangxu regrets it in his heart, he shouldn't listen to Yixuan's strategy, this Yixuan is simply a waste that has more than enough success and more failure.

In the face of the huge pressure of Wang Chenhao and the civil and military officials, Guangxu finally nodded and agreed, allowing Wang Chenhao to declare war on Spain, but Guangxu did not let Wang Chenhao be too proud, he asked Wang Chenhao to write a letter of guarantee, won the war against Spain, it was the credit of Guangxu and the imperial court, lost the war, military expenses and compensation were personally responsible for Wang Chenhao, and Wang Chenhao was asked to bear all the consequences of defeat.

Of course, Wang Chenhao is full of confidence, and this war is nine out of ten, so the surname Suo made a military order for Guangxu.

After Wang Chenhao obtained the authorization of the imperial court, he immediately began to put it into practice.

On the one hand, Wang Chenhao negotiated with the Spanish minister Barcelona, and negotiated a peaceful solution to the crisis. Wang Chenhao used this to paralyze the Spanish political axe.

On the other hand, Wang Chenhao sent the selected 20,000 American Expeditionary Force to the Ryukyus, assembled at the White Beach Naval Base in the Ryukyus, and boarded a ship to the San Diego Naval Base in California.

The American Expeditionary Force, with a total of 20,000 troops, is a reinforced division, with Feng Guozhang as the commander-in-chief and Duan Qirui as the chief of the general staff. The whole army was equipped with a reinforced regiment of artillery, 24 150-mm heavy howitzers, 48 80-mm infantry guns. Ten heavy machine gun companies with 120 Maxim heavy machine guns, and the war horses required by the cavalry regiment and reconnaissance cavalry battalion were provided by the US War Department and did not need to be carried. Moreover, the U.S. Department of the Army will also provide certain supplies for the American Expeditionary Force. Of course, the US War Department did not give supplies in vain, on the condition that Wang Chenhao had to cooperate with the US Navy's Asian Fleet in the Far East Philippine Theater.

In addition to the strengthened weapons and equipment, the biggest feature of this expeditionary force is that Wang Chenhao ordered the expeditionary force to cut off their braids. The war against Spain was launched this time, and it was a war that made the name of the Chinese Army, and the elite and brave Beiyang Army could not be allowed to make people laugh at the braids on the back of their heads in front of people all over the world.

At the same time, because after cutting off the braids, the foreheads of the officers and soldiers of the expeditionary force are bare, and having a handful of hair behind them is actually more ugly than having braids. So, after Wang Chenhao ordered the expeditionary force to cut their braids, at the request of the officers and men of the whole army, Feng Guozhang ordered the soldiers of the whole army to ask for their surnames and shave their heads. And this expeditionary force was able to become famous all over the world with the name of "bald army".

Wang Chenhao did not believe in what kind of logistical supplies the US Army could provide, and he would not hand over the lives of his soldiers to the Americans. Therefore, the expeditionary force has its own readable logistics supply fleet.

In this expeditionary force, there is also a beautiful scenery, that is, there are two more 5,000-ton hospital ships.

These two hospital ships belong to the General Logistics Department of the Expeditionary Force, and they were realized by the modification of several transport cruise ships that Wang Chenhao bought back when he returned from the United States.

Wang Chenhao knew that in the Spanish-American War, the US Army suffered more than 4,000 casualties, of which only a few hundred were actually killed on the battlefield, and the rest of the casualties were caused by yellow fever and various tropical diseases, and the soldiers who were killed by the disease were more than 10 times the actual casualties.

And Wang Chenhao's soldiers of the American Expeditionary Force live in the north all the year round, and once they fight in the Caribbean, it is a big matter to be unaccustomed to the water and soil, and they must be controlled.

Therefore, for the sake of the safety of the soldiers, Wang Chenhao decided to build several hospital ships to follow the expeditionary force. A real self-built hospital ship has already started at the shipyard, but it is clear that it is not keeping up with the progress. Therefore, Wang Chenhao temporarily decided to convert several large oil tankers into hospital ships.

A total of three hospital ships have been refitted, named the Peace Ark-class hospital ship, and the three hospital ships are converted from 5,000-ton cruise ships, with a speed of 15 knots and a cruising range of 9,000 nautical miles. After the renovation, the hospital ship carries 20 attending doctors of various departments, 100 nurses and attachés, and its medical conditions and equipment have reached the level of medium-sized hospitals in international powers. The entire hull of the hospital ship is painted white above the waterline, and the sides and decks are marked with a striking red cross, and the national flag and the white cross flag on a red ground are hoisted, and they are not attacked or captured under any circumstances.

To this end, Wang Chenhao submitted an application to the Hague Maritime Convention Organization of the Netherlands, the International Red Cross, and the Swiss Organization of the Naiva Convention, indicating the mission of the Chinese Peace Ark-class hospital ship and applying for protection under international law.

The Dutch and Swiss envoys and consuls in China immediately visited the Peace Ark-class hospital ship and praised it so much that they immediately reported it.

On October 29, 1897, the Hague Maritime Convention, the Swiss Neiva Convention, and the International Red Cross approved Wang Chenhao's request to declare that the Chinese Peace Ark-class hospital ship was protected by international law. Since there was no previous international law for hospital ships at sea, The Hague and Neiva immediately developed the relevant international law. It stipulates that hospital ships are inviolable, that hospital ships are obliged to rescue the wounded of both warring parties, and that neither of the belligerents may attack or capture them, but should respect and protect them at all times.

In order to ensure that the Chinese Navy's hospital ship fulfills its international obligations, The Hague and Neiva awarded the Peace Ark-class hospital ship the international neutral flag and emblem, and sent several liaison officers to serve on the ship, of course, the liaison officers could not be politicians, but foreign doctors and nurses, who could not only supervise the hospital ship services, but also participate in saving lives and helping the wounded, so Wang Chenhao agreed to let them go on board.

Since most of the foreign doctors are women, the ratio of men and women on hospital ships has to be adjusted and arranged. Originally, Wang Chenhao's hospital ship was full of male medical soldiers from the army, so Wang Chenhao sent people to recruit a group of female doctors and nurses, most of whom came from foreign-run Western medical schools, were proficient in various Chinese languages, and could live and work with foreign female doctors.

Hospital ships can be understood as "mobile hospitals at sea", and the reason why they are at sea is mainly to receive two categories of "wounded" and "sick" personnel from this aspect at sea. According to the form, these two types of personnel come from war (action) and non-war (state), war is a war at sea, if there is a war at sea, there will be a large number of wounded, at this time, relatively speaking, the sick are not the main body. Non-war refers to the state of accidents, natural disasters, etc., such as a ship on fire, a rock, a tsunami, and so on.

As a hospital ship, it should first meet the needs of the wounded at sea in war, and then consider the handling of non-war emergencies at sea and international rescue. In addition, the ship's serious injury wards account for the majority, because most of the wounded and sick who can be sent to the hospital ship are seriously injured, and the conditions of the serious injury wards are relatively better. Internal medicine is also available, but it is not as prominent as surgery, and obstetrics and gynecology and pediatrics are also available, but they are not considered as a priority.

Any structure on a hospital ship is set up according to its mission. For example, the hospital ship (in the war operation) received the wounded not one by one, but in large quantities, so as soon as you enter the hospital ship, you will see that there is a "classified wound inspection area", after a large number of wounded come, which ones will be operated on first, which anti-shock treatment, through classification, the wounded and sick can receive classified treatment as quickly as possible.

Wang Chenhao considered that the war in the Caribbean was about to break out, so the two hospital ships that sailed to the Caribbean Sea were mainly for surgery, and 15 of the 20 attending doctors were surgical and the other five were internal medicine, and they were specially trained for tropical diseases. The medicines on the hospital ships are mainly for surgery and preventive treatment of yellow fever.

It can be said that these two hospital ships are currently only prepared for any diseases that may arise in the expeditionary force, and it is precisely the addition of these two hospital ships that the casualty rate of the expeditionary force is minimized.

However, the cost of refit of the two hospital ships is also huge, the installation of various medical equipment, the ship also has reading power oxygen station, disinfection station, epidemic prevention station, etc., and has to reserve a large number of medical equipment, drugs, in this era, medical equipment and drugs are required to be expensive, and to transfer them to the ship, it is a lot of money.

On the surface, it is not much different from a land hospital, but in essence, it is quite different from a land hospital. In addition, some departments of the sea hospital are not available on land. For example, some of the wounded at sea may have been immersed in seawater. After the wound is soaked in seawater, the mechanism and treatment principles of the wound are different, and we also have the departments that deal with seawater immersion, and the corresponding dressings that match each other are not available on land, and there is no need to have them. So, at least, in terms of department allocation, the hospital ship has its own obvious characteristics. On the other hand, medical equipment must withstand the test of the marine environment, which includes, physically, swaying, vibration, dust pollution, humidity and so on; Chemically speaking, there is salt in the sea, which is easy to corrode. In order to resist swaying and radiation, some special measures must be taken, such as anti-swaying, all the facilities on the ship are fixed, even if it is a small cart.

In this case, a cruise ship that was originally worth only 400,000 dragon dollars cost 800,000 dragon dollars after refitting, and the daily maintenance cost of the hospital ship is equivalent to the cost of three medium-sized ground hospitals, which is more than the maintenance cost of a battleship. And once a medical operation is launched, it is simply a money-eating machine.

But Wang Chenhao still approved, and he told his subordinates that the lives of his subordinate brothers were more important. And this sentence quickly reached the ears of the soldiers of the expeditionary force, and the soldiers fought in a foreign country, and they were able to be so valued and cherished by their commander Wang Chenhao, and they were immediately grateful. Wang Chenhao is more respected and admired in the hearts of the soldiers, and the soldiers have the courage to die as a confidant.

The three hospital ships were named Bian Que, Hua Tuo and Li Shizhen, while the Peace Ark hospital ship was collectively named.

(To be continued)