The sun is setting, and the remnant sun is like blood.

On Naha Island in the Ryukyus, on Mt. Saion, 25 kilometers from Shuri, the remnants of the 1st Division of the Japanese Army were surrounded by the strength of three divisions of the Volunteer Army.

Although Xiyuan Mountain is called a mountain, it is only two kilometers in circumference, and the highest is only two hundred meters.

The three artillery regiments of the three divisions of the Volunteer Army, with a total of 162 cannons, fiercely bombarded the positions of the Yue army from three directions at the same time, and the small Xiyuan Mountain suddenly turned into a sea of fire, causing heavy casualties to the Yue army.

After four hours of fierce fighting, the 1st Division of the Japanese Army was divided into seven parts that could not be connected with each other, and there was less than one wing left on the side of Youpeng in the main position. The eight artillery batteries on which the 1st Division relied to resist were also wiped out, and all artillery positions were lost. The 1st Division of the Japanese Army has grown from a full strength of 18,000 to less than 4,000 now, and half of them are wounded.

At the highest point of Xiyuan Mountain, Shan County Youpeng led the remnants of his first wing to resist desperately. After each artillery bombardment of the positions of the Volunteers, they would launch a charge. With wave after wave of attacks, the defensive circle of the Yue army continued to shrink until there was no way to retreat.

"Shanxian-kun, I don't think our reinforcements will arrive."

Shigeo Onishima held his tired body strongly, the cannon fodder and sweat on his face were mixed together, and his body looked tattered, if he hadn't stayed by his side all the time, Youpeng in Shan County really wouldn't have recognized him.

Of course, compared to Sameshima Shigeo, Yama Prefecture Youpeng is not much better at the moment, he is a beggar. It's just that Youpeng of Shan County, as the supreme commander of the First Division, looked even more depressed.

Yama Prefecture Aritomo put down the binoculars and sighed: "The gunfire ten kilometers away to the north is equally intense, I think it should be Ueda Arisawa's reinforcements, right?" ”

Shigeo Sameshima's ears were buzzing, and he didn't hear Yama Prefecture's words clearly, but he looked to the north and understood what Yama Prefecture Aritomo meant.

"Typical encirclement tactics, the enemy is too cunning!"

"Nope! It's because we're too careless, too underestimating the enemy! ”

Youpeng in Shan County had to blame himself, but it was clearly too late.

Knowing that at this time, Yama Prefecture Youtomo and Sameshima Shigeo understood that the Beiyang Army was able to defeat the Russian army not by luck, nor entirely by equipment, and that the Beiyang Army was a well-trained elite unit.

At 6 o'clock in the afternoon, the 1st Division of the Chinese Army had run out of ammunition and food, and the remnants of more than 300 people led by Shigeo Sameshima to break through the siege by a friend of Yama County, and he himself led the wounded and disabled more than 1,000 Japanese troops to continue to hold their positions. However, Sameshima Shigeo's breakthrough was useless, and the volunteers annihilated him on the way, and then attacked the top of Xiyuan Mountain half an hour later, and completely annihilated the first division of the army, and Yama County Youpeng was killed on the spot.

After the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Divisions of the Chinese Volunteers encircled and annihilated the 1st Division of the Chinese Army, according to the plan, after the tactics of encircling the point and sending reinforcements had been successful, they would immediately turn to counter-encircling the 9th Brigade of the 5th Division of the Chinese Army, and prepare to completely annihilate this Japanese army outside Shuri City.

However, Ueda Arisawa was also well versed in the art of war, and when he heard that the gunfire in the direction of Nishionyama had stopped, he immediately judged that the 1st Division of Yama Prefecture Aritomo had been completed, so he immediately ordered the 9th Brigade to withdraw to Shuri and not give the Volunteers a chance to encircle the 9th Brigade.

Two miles away from the east gate of Shuri Castle, the Fourth Division of the Volunteer Army, which was responsible for intercepting the reinforcements of the Fifth Division of the Chinese Army, placed the main force there.

Feng Guozhang, commander of the Fourth Division, and Jin Yunpeng, chief of staff, were on a small high ground, observing the situation of the army in Shuri Castle in the afterglow of the setting sun.

Although a division of the army reached 18,000 people, its weapons and equipment were inferior to those of the volunteers. It is said that the army is equipped with an 8-mm short-pole rifle of the Murata 22-year model, which is inferior to the Type 95 Mauser rifle equipped by the volunteers in terms of accuracy, power and ease of use, and the only advantage is that the magazine is loaded with more ammunition, reaching eight rounds. The heavy machine guns of the Yue Army are also Maxim heavy machine guns, but there are only 5 in one division, while one division of the Volunteer Army has 100 Maxim heavy machine guns (Browning heavy machine guns have not yet been supplied). In terms of artillery fire, a division of the Chinese Army has only 48 76-mm mountain guns, while the Volunteer Army has 36 80 infantry guns and 18 150 heavy howitzers, and the gap is too great.

After fighting with the Ninth Brigade of the Chinese People's Liberation Army yesterday afternoon, the Fourth Division of the Chinese People's Volunteers has already found out the firepower and combat effectiveness of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, and Feng Guozhang, commander of the Fourth Division, believes that the combat effectiveness of the two divisions of the Shanghai Supreme Army at the top of one division of the Chinese People's Volunteers.

"I don't think we need to wait for the other three divisions, let's just attack it!"

Jin Yunpeng put down the binoculars, turned his head to Feng Guozhang and said: "With our heavy artillery firepower, we can tear a few holes in the eastern wall of Shuri City in twenty minutes, the heavy firepower of the Yue army is too far from ours, as long as we concentrate the heavy machine guns on the two flanks of the gap of the Yue army, suppress the fire of the Yue army with crossfire, and then rush up with a sharp knife battalion, I estimate that we can take the city wall!" ”

"The Chief of Staff is right! In the face of the absolute disparity in strength, the resistance of the army was futile. ”

Feng Guozhang continued: "Wait until the other three divisions come over and then do it, how can the small Shuri City be enough for the four division commanders to share the work?" ”

Jin Yunpeng asked, "What about this work?" ”

Feng Guozhang smiled: "Of course it's ours!" ”

Then, Feng Guozhang and Jin Yunpeng returned to the division commander, called all the officers above the battalion level, and made detailed arrangements for the combat mission.

At nine o'clock in the evening, just as the other three volunteer divisions were maneuvering in the direction of Shuri Castle, the 15th Regiment of the 4th Division of the Volunteer Army took the lead in a tentative attack on Shuri East Castle.

Knock knock!

In the darkness of the night, six 80-mm infantry guns of the 23rd Artillery Company opened fire, and the shells fired at the east gate of Shuri Castle.

"Boom!"

The cannonballs exploded violently, and suddenly the earth and rocks flew out, raising clouds of fiery red mushrooms, illuminating the army at the head of the city.

In charge of guarding the east gate was Yamaguchi Sutomi, the commander of the 10th Brigade of the Japanese Army, who immediately ordered the 19th Wing to go to the city and return fire, and at the same time ordered the artillery of the 10th Brigade to open fire on the volunteers outside the city.

Yamaguchi Sotomi may have been frightened by the destruction of the 1st Division, thinking that the volunteers outside the city were preparing for a large-scale siege of the city, and the 19th Wing was even more firepower, Ueda Arisawa allocated the only heavy machine gun company of the 5th Division to Yamaguchi Sochen's 10th Brigade, and at this time it was also frantically pouring bullets outside the city.

Knowing that the Volunteer Army was attacking the city, Ueda Arisawa immediately rushed to the East Castle. When he landed in the east city, he calmly found that it was dark outside the city, the firepower of the volunteers was very sparse, and the artillery fire was only about one artillery company. Ueda Arisawa immediately judged that this was just a firepower test of the Volunteers, and when he looked at the 19th Wing of the 10th Brigade on his side, he turned out to be full of firepower, and Ueda Arisawa immediately became angry and went straight to Yamaguchi Suchen.

"Bastard, who made you go all out?"

As soon as Yamaguchi turned his head and was about to answer, he received a slap in the face.

"Your Excellency, Commander of the Reporting Division, I ordered-"

With a snap, Ueda Yuzawa gave Yamaguchi a slap in the face again. The strength was so strong that Yamaguchi almost didn't stand firm.

"Bastard! Don't you know that this is the enemy testing our firepower and arming? ”

Yamaguchi Suchen's two cheeks hurt hotly, and his heart was annoyed. But he didn't dare to talk back, and quickly apologized.

"I'm sorry, Your Excellency the Division Commander!"

Ueda Arisawa didn't have time to reprimand Yamaguchi Suchen, and hurriedly ordered: "Order the artillery and heavy machine gun companies to stop firing and immediately change their defensive positions!" ”

Ueda Arisawa's caution allowed the army to avoid a devastating blow.

Just after the Japanese army urgently transferred the artillery positions and heavy machine gun positions, all 54 light and heavy guns of the artillery regiment of the Fourth Division of the Chinese Volunteers opened fire, and all the shells hit the heavy machine gun positions and artillery positions that the Japanese army had just withdrawn.

In an instant, the artillery positions and heavy machine gun positions of the Japanese army were filled with gunpowder smoke and flames. The city wall was blown up and the structure of the city wall was damaged and became fragmented.

Yamaguchi Sochen and Ueda Arisawa were immediately amazed, the former having seen the ferocity of the volunteer artillery with his own eyes, and the latter being glad that the artillery and heavy machine gun batteries had been preserved.

"Your Excellency, the division commander, is really like a god! Humble admiration! ”

Yamaguchi Suchen hurriedly complimented, but Ueda Yuzawa didn't have any expression, he knew in his heart that even if he avoided this time, it didn't mean that he could avoid the next time. The artillery fire of the volunteers outside the city was too fierce, especially the 18 150 heavy howitzers, a salvo leveled the female wall at the head of the city, and the city wall was also cut down by half a meter, and it was even more torn apart, and the soldiers had to quickly fill the gap with sandbags. And when both sides open fire at night, each side can see the fire from each other's artillery fire, so there is nothing to hide, what is fighting is firepower, and whoever has strong firepower is the winner. Obviously, Ueda Arisawa's artillery wing was no match for the artillery regiment of the Fourth Division of the Volunteer Army, and Ueda Arisawa's artillery wing was divided into four artillery teams, one for each city, so that the artillery firepower of the Yue Army at the east gate was even less of an opponent.

Outside the east gate, Feng Guozhang and Jin Yunpeng sat in the rear and commanded the Fourth Division to launch a siege operation. Seeing that the artillery and heavy machine gun positions exposed by the army at the head of the city had been destroyed, Feng Guozhang immediately ordered the artillery regiment to start shelling other parts of the eastern city wall, while various infantry companies launched an attack.

At this time, the artillery of the two artillery groups on the eastern city of the Yue army opened fire again, and the shells immediately hit the position of the artillery regiment of the fourth division, and at the same time, the heavy machine guns of the Yue army were also set up again, and the tongues of fire spewed out, and the bullets rained down on the volunteer soldiers in the charge. Although it was night, and the bullets were not accurate, the large-scale strafing still caused certain casualties to the sharp knife troops of the volunteers.

"Damn, the little devil has two hits!"

Feng Guozhang immediately burst into foul language, and Jin Yunpeng immediately ordered the nine artillery batteries of the artillery regiment to quickly adjust their muzzles, and first attack the artillery positions and heavy machine gun positions of the Chengtou army.

The artillery fire of the two artillery units of the Japanese army attacked the positions of the 23rd and 25th artillery batteries of the 4th Division Artillery Regiment, causing certain casualties to the positions of the two artillery batteries.

Subsequently, the Fourth Artillery Regiment of the Volunteer Army began to counterattack, and by observing the position of the artillery fire, it concentrated the superior artillery fire and attacked fiercely. A fierce night artillery battle began.

At 9:25 p.m., under the fierce artillery fire of the Fourth Artillery Regiment of the Chinese People's Volunteers, the firepower of the artillery unit of the Yue Army, which had a huge disparity in strength, was suddenly suppressed. At the same time, the heavy machine-gun firepower of the Yue army was also suppressed by the artillery and heavy machine-gun fire of the volunteers.

The 33rd and 34th Blade Battalions of the 4th Division and two heavy machine gun companies were responsible for the frontal assault and siege, and the six heavy machine gun companies were responsible for the cover of the two flanks, as well as some of the infantry companies, and the six heavy machine gun companies were responsible for covering the two flanks of Shuri Castle East Gate, with three heavy machine gun companies and 30 heavy machine guns on each flank. A total of 60 heavy machine guns on both wings formed a crossfire, part of which was used to suppress the heavy machine gun fire point of the Yue army, and part of it was used to suppress the infantry fire of the Yue army at the head of the city.

The firepower of the volunteers was strong, and the casualties of the Japanese army rose sharply. In less than half an hour of fighting, the 19th Wing of the Japanese Army suffered more than half of the casualties, and as the defending side, this casualty was very large.

"Your Excellency, Division Commander, the enemy's firepower is too fierce, and the 19th Wing has suffered more than half of the casualties."

Ueda Youzawa saw all this, the firepower of the other party was almost three times that of the Yue army, and the Yue army basically did not dare to show its head.

Ueda Arisawa then transferred the 21st Wing to replace the 19th Wing, which had suffered more than half of the casualties, and continued to hold the city.

Just after 10 o'clock in the evening, the two artillery teams of the eastern army were completely annihilated, the heavy machine gun company lost half of the heavy machine guns, and all the original machine gun shooters were killed.

The Dongcheng Army, which had lost heavy fire support, was even worse, and the 21st Wing, which had just been replenished, suffered more than half of the casualties in less than 20 minutes.

"Your Excellency Division Commander, the 10th Brigade has suffered heavy casualties, and we have to transfer the defenders of other city gates to come and support!"

Yamaguchi Suchen saw that more than half of his troops had suffered casualties, and his heart ached to death.

Ueda Arisawa frowned and said, "Could this be the enemy's tactics of attacking the east and west?" If we bring in troops from other gates, what if the enemy attacks the other gates? ”

Yamaguchi Suchen said: "If it goes on like this, the East Gate will last less than an hour!" ”

At half past ten o'clock in the evening, the city wall on the left side of the east gate collapsed more than 20 meters wide under the long-term saturation blow of the volunteer artillery fire. The 33rd Sharp Knife Battalion of the Volunteer Army immediately gave up attacking the city gate and ran towards the gap instead.

The army immediately panicked, and threw the remaining forces of the 19th Wing into the gap. The army kept rushing to the gap with sandbags, trying to plug the gap with sandbags and rebuild the defensive position.

However, the volunteers would not let go of this opportunity, and the firepower of the three artillery batteries and three heavy machine gun batteries was concentrated in the gap position, forming a fire network that could not be evaded. The army continued to increase the number of troops into the gap, but no matter how many people filled in, they died in less than a few minutes.

Ueda Yuzawa knew that if he didn't plug this gap, he wouldn't be able to get through it tonight. So he had no choice but to draw 3,000 troops from the other three gates and quickly reinforce the east gate.

At 11 o'clock in the evening, the 19th Wing of the Japanese Army suffered more than 2,000 casualties in order to fill the gap. But to no avail, finally at 11:07, the gap was occupied by the 33rd Sharp Knife Battalion of the Volunteers, and the 19th Wing of the Volunteers was left with less than 57 people, and a white-knuckle battle broke out with the Volunteers.

At half past eleven o'clock in the evening, the 19th Wing of the Yue Army was completely annihilated, and the 33rd Sharp Knife Battalion of the Volunteer Army occupied the gap in Dongcheng.

Because the volunteer soldiers rushed into the gap, the artillery fire of the volunteers stopped shelling the area, and the heavy machine gun company, which provided fire cover on the flanks, also ceased fire at this time for fear of accidentally injuring their own personnel.

The location of the gap is not very good, it is directly opposite the dense residential area, and the road is on both sides, which is very unfavorable to the attack of the Sharp Knife Battalion, and it is difficult to carry out the offensive.

In this way, the army had a chance to counterattack.

At 11:35 p.m., reinforcements arrived, and the Sharp Knife Battalion was attacked on both sides of the city, facing a frantic counterattack by 3,000 troops and fierce fire from four artillery units. After holding out for more than ten minutes, the Sharp Knife Battalion was driven out again by the Japanese army because the heavy machine guns could not keep up in time and their own artillery could not provide support.

The Japanese army reoccupied the gap, and at the same time, the four artillery groups carried by the reinforced Japanese army began to counterattack, and the two sides once again engaged in a fierce artillery battle.

Just after the early morning of 2 May, the four artillery units reinforced by the Yue Army were again destroyed by the artillery regiments of the Chinese Volunteers, and the Yue Army once again lost artillery support.

At the same time, in the direction of the gap, Feng Guozhang ordered the artillery regiment to bombard the city wall violently, causing the city walls on both sides of the gap to continue to collapse, and soon expanded to more than 100 meters.

The widening of the gap caused the casualties of the Yue army to rise sharply, and the reinforced more than 3,000 Yue troops soon suffered more than half of the casualties.

At the same time, Feng Guozhang also transferred the main force of the Fourth Division to the gap, preparing to rush in one go.

Ueda Yuzawa saw that Feng Guozhang had shifted the direction of the main attack, and he had no choice but to transfer the main defense of Dongcheng to the direction of the gap, and at the same time continued to draw troops from the other three gates to reinforce the east gate.

At two o'clock in the morning, the 5th Brigade of the 3rd Division of the Volunteer Army arrived in the area about five miles outside the west gate of Shuri Castle.

After Duan Qirui, commander of the Third Division, and Xu Bangjie, chief of staff, learned the news that Feng Guozhang's troops were the first to attack Shuri City, they immediately ordered the main forces of the other two regiments of the Third Division to stop resting and quickly advance towards Shuri, and ordered the Fifth Brigade to immediately launch a fierce attack on the west gate of Shuri to share the pressure of the attack on Dongcheng.

At this time, only one brigade of the Shuri West Gate was left to defend, and the other troops were transferred to the East Gate. When the Fifth Brigade suddenly attacked, Simon was outnumbered and quickly lost him.

The expected thing still happened, and the commander of the Fifth Division of the Japanese Army, Ueda Arisawa, knew that the transfer of troops from the other three doors would definitely lead to the weakness of the defense of the three gates, and he would definitely lose it once he was attacked by a surprise attack, but he knew that it would be this result, and he couldn't help it.

The loss of the West Gate made the officers and soldiers of the Fifth Division of the Yue Army, who had already suffered heavy casualties, panic, and the powerful firepower and combat effectiveness of the Volunteer Army were already taken, but now the West Gate was lost, and this city could no longer be defended.

Ueda Arisawamoto immediately ordered to abandon the outer castle position, shrink the remnants of the army to the royal castle, that is, return to the Ryukyu king's Miyagi, that is, the municipal axe of Okinawa Prefecture, and rely on the last Miyagi to resist.

As the Yue army took the initiative to abandon the outer city and retreat into the palace city, the artillery fire of the volunteer army also stopped, Feng Guozhang learned that the people of the third division were the first to enter Shuri City, and he was immediately unhappy, and immediately ordered the main force of the fourth division to complete the occupation of the outer city, and then advance to the inner city.

At 5 o'clock in the morning, the sun has already risen in the east of Shuri. Of course, if you change it to Tokyo time, it should be 6 o'clock by now. It's just that the time of the volunteer soldiers is still according to the time of Yanjing, and it has not been adjusted.

At this time, Duan Qirui's three divisions had all arrived in Shuri, and the vanguard of the other first and second divisions also drove to the vicinity of Shuri.

The Fourth and Third Divisions surrounded the Shuri Palace, and the remaining 3,000 remnants of the Fifth Division were defeated and shrunk in Miyagi, which was less than 0.5 square kilometers.

The people of the Ryukyus did not want the palace to be destroyed, so Feng Guozhang had to send someone to ask Ueda Arisawa to surrender voluntarily, but they were all refused.

As a state of etiquette, Feng Guozhang tried three times in front of the people of the Ryukyus, but after all of them were fruitless, he had to continue the war. And the people of the Ryukyus saw that Feng Guozhang had done his duty, so they no longer stopped him.

At eight o'clock in the morning, the 3rd and 4th Divisions, which had taken a short rest, concentrated 108 artillery pieces and carried out a carpet shelling of the Ryukyu Imperial Palace.

Cannons roared, and cannonballs whistled and fired at Shuri Castle. As the cannonballs landed on the city walls, they instantly smashed the masonry on the walls to pieces. Rubble was scattered, sand and dust were flying, and the already not very strong walls of the royal city suddenly collapsed, and there was even more chaos inside.

The only weapons left by the army were rifles, and the ammunition depot had long been lost, and the ammunition in their hands was constantly decreasing, and the strength to return fire was gradually weakening. In the face of the artillery and heavy machine guns of the volunteers, the army could only be beaten.

A dozen of them ran out of bullets, so they started the idea of artillery on the corner. As a result, because this kind of artillery has not been fired for hundreds of years, the improper combination of charging caused an explosion, resulting in dozens of defenders being killed on the spot.

The volunteers are now in a hurry to charge and only bombard with artillery.

Knock knock!

Shells whistled in, striking a wall in the southern part of the royal city, near the eastern city. With each shelling, the shells shattered a large chunk of the wall. The army above was the most miserable, as the shells hit the masonry and caused a splash of rubble, causing them a large number of casualties.

At 8:15, as more than a dozen shells whistled in, a large part of the southern city wall suddenly collapsed. The opening of more than ten meters has become a nightmare for the defenders.

At 8:20, the 16th Regiment of the 4th Division formed an attack formation, and the shelling stopped in the direction of Nancheng, and they pushed the Makqin heavy machine gun to open the way and began to attack the city.

The royal city was so big, and without the protection of the city wall, the army suddenly became a lamb to the slaughter. In particular, most of the soldiers of the Yue Army had run out of bullets, and they were clamoring to rush forward with bayonets, ready to fight with the volunteers with bayonets.

However, the volunteers are not stupid, and now they have heavy machine guns, so they will naturally not fight with the enemy with bayonets.

In the face of heavy machine gun fire, the charge of the Yue army was simply looking for death.

Bang bang bang!

The soldiers of the Volunteer Army, who were hiding behind the heavy machine guns, were not idle, raising their guns to shoot at the oncoming soldiers, and such a good live target was a good opportunity to practice marksmanship and courage.

At 8:45 a.m., the Fifth Division of the Chinese Army was completely annihilated. The commander of the division, Ueda Arisawa, took matters into his own hands in the palace hall, and since then, the two main divisions of Okinawa Prefecture have been completely annihilated.

In this battle, the four divisions of the Volunteer Army adopted tactics such as paralysis, arrogance of the enemy, and encirclement to send reinforcements, concentrated superior forces and firepower, and completely annihilated the first and fifth divisions of the Yue Army in one fell swoop, wiped out more than 30,000 people of the Yue Army (the cavalry wings of the two Yue Army divisions did not participate in the battle), and recovered Shuri Castle and Naha Island, while their own side only lost less than 600 men, which can be described as a complete victory.

The victory of the Volunteer Army at the Battle of Shuri marked the complete elimination of the main force of the Japanese army in the Ryukyu Islands. After the recovery of the capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom, in the following half a month, the volunteers successively landed on other islands of the Ryukyu Islands, and with the cooperation of the local Ryukyuan people, they eliminated the local defenders.

Naha is the main island, and the number of defenders on the other islands is very small, basically a police force, and the number is generally no more than fifty, so most of them surrender voluntarily.

The base camp did not expect that the Chinese People's Volunteers would be so powerful, and that the 1st and 5th Divisions, as one of the most elite divisions and regiments of the army, would be completely wiped out in just half a month, which immediately shocked the entire army.

Although he knew that the so-called Chinese People's Volunteers were just a change of name for the Beiyang Army, he was able to completely annihilate the main force of the two divisions of the Beiyang Army, which means that the combat effectiveness of the Beiyang Army is indeed very strong.

Perhaps in the previous Imperial Army, there were still a large number of officers who were dismissive of the Beiyang Army, but with the end of the Battle of Shuri, they also changed their views and reattached importance to the Beiyang Army.

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※ Tokyo, the General Staff Headquarters of the Army.

Prince Chihito immediately convened an emergency meeting to discuss the Ryukyu issue.

Within the army, a large number of officers asked to send troops to the Ryukyus to fight to the death against the volunteers and avenge the death of Aritomo and Ueda Arisawa in Yamaguchi. There were also a group of relatively calm officers, who believed that the Qing Imperial Navy was unable to defend the Ryukyu Islands, and that the Qing Imperial Navy was cruising near the Ryukyu Islands at this time, and that once the Qing Imperial Navy launched an attack on the Ryukyu troop transport, and the Japanese Navy was unable to protect it, it would suffer heavy losses.

Prince Chihito was inclined to the latter, and he also believed that no more troops should be sent to the Ryukyus, and in addition to fearing that the troop carriers would be attacked by the Qing Imperial Navy, he also expressed his disfavor with the army. At this time, the Ryukyu Islands already had four divisions of the Beiyang Army, and it was said that if they wanted to recapture the Ryukyu Islands, they would have to pay a huge price, and this price was not acceptable to the political axe of Saymoto, who was waiting to be rebuilt.

After discussing with Prime Minister Kiyotaka Kuroda and Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu, Prince Chihito believed that now the Ryukyu King Shotai had the support of Wang Chenhao, and although the army could fight with Wang Chenhao, the navy did not have the strength to compete with Wang Chenhao's fleet, so they finally decided to abandon the Ryukyu Islands, but they also set a bottom line. That is, it could have recognized the restoration of the Ryukyu Kingdom, but it still did not give up its suzerainty over the Ryukyu Kingdom, and resolutely refused to recognize the Ryukyu Kingdom as a reading country.

Subsequently, Mutsu Munemitsu informed Lin Dong, the consul general in China, and Jingen, the consul general of Tianjin, that they should meet Wang Chenhao and Shang Tai respectively, and expressed their willingness to take the initiative to give up the Ryukyu Islands and let Shang Tai restore his identity as the king of the Ryukyus, and asked Wang Chenhao to withdraw the Chinese People's Volunteers.

However, the hatred within the military is rising, and if Prince Chihito directly announces his renunciation, it will inevitably cause a change in the morale of the military. Therefore, as a last resort, Prince Chihito ordered Mutsu Munemitsu to negotiate with Wang Chenhao and Shang Tai on the one hand, and on the other hand, he approved Lieutenant General Okuho Gong to lead the Fourth Division to rush to the Ryukyu Islands to participate in the war, in an attempt to garrison Amami Island for defense before the Volunteers occupied Amami Island, keep Amami Island under the actual occupation of Yumoto, and prepare for the occupation of the entire Ryukyus again in the future.

On May 4 of ※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※, Lin Dong, the consul general of the Chinese People's Republic of China in China, arrived in Tianjin and made an appointment to meet Wang Chenhao for negotiations.

Lin Dong asked Wang Chenhao to withdraw the Chinese People's Volunteers from Ryukyu, but Wang Chenhao said that he was not in charge, so angry that Lin Dong had the urge to hit the wall.

Wang Chenhao did not talk directly to Lin Dong, because he knew that once he had a head-on dialogue with Lin Dong, he would undoubtedly give Yue Ben a handle.

The dialogue between Wang Chenhao and Lin Dong broke up unhappily, but he supported Lin Dong to negotiate with Shang Tai.

Under the instructions of Wang Chenhao behind his back, Shang Tai asked Yuben to recognize the Ryukyu Kingdom as a reading country, and Lin Dong said that he would allow the Ryukyu Kingdom to read power, but he must continue to respect the Ryukyu Kingdom as the suzerain.

Shang Tai immediately refused, obviously Shang Tai knew that he did not have the strength to deal with the Chinese People's Volunteers at the moment, and it would not be long before the entire territory of the Ryukyu Kingdom would be recovered. Shang Tai didn't have to compromise with him, as he hated him for the mistreatment he had suffered over the years.

The negotiations between Shang Tai and Lin Dong also broke up unhappily, but to the anger of the Qing Zheng Axe, the Qing Zheng Axe saw that the Ryukyu Kingdom was expected to be restored, and the Qing court hoped that Wang Chenhao would re-persuade the Ryukyu Kingdom to be included in the Qing Empire's vassals.

This idea of the Qing court was undoubtedly a sign of damaged pride, and now that all the vassal states of the Qing Empire were occupied by the foreign powers, the Qing Empire hoped that there would be a vassal state to grow its prestige, so Wang Chenhao was asked to find a way to include Ryukyu in the ranks of the vassal states of the Qing Empire.

Wang Chenhao did what he liked and expressed his thoughts to Shangtai. Shotai had no problem with who his vassal was, and he only asked to remain his king of the Ryukyus. Anyway, at present, it is Wang Chenhao's credit that the Ryukyu Kingdom can be restored, and he has to count on Wang Chenhao and the Qing Empire to maintain him in the future, so he agreed.

Wang Chenhao immediately signed a treaty with Shangtai on behalf of the Qing Dynasty, bringing the Ryukyu Kingdom into the ranks of vassal states of the Qing Empire. The great powers of various countries also saw that the Chinese People's Volunteer Army was powerful and that the restoration of the Ryukyu Kingdom was already a sure result, so after receiving the conditions of Wang Chenhao and Shang Tai to guarantee that the interests of each country in the Ryukyus would remain unchanged, all countries recognized the Ryukyu Kingdom and re-incorporated it into the ranks of the vassal states of the Qing Empire.

Of course, this treaty was resolutely not recognized by Russia and Japan. The former was due to the hostility with the Qing Empire, and the latter was resolutely rejected because the Ryukyu Islands were a springboard for the encirclement of China and were strategically important.

However, even if Russia and Russia do not recognize it, it is no longer possible to change this fact.

In order to put pressure on him, Wang Chenhao then officially announced that the Qing Empire would provide him with a military umbrella on the grounds that the Ryukyu Kingdom was a vassal state of the Qing Empire. At the same time, an ultimatum was issued to the Masamachi of Tsumoto, demanding that the Masaxe abandon the plan to increase troops to the Ryukyu Islands, and at the same time demanding that the troops on Amami Island withdraw on their own initiative.

Emperor Guangxu knew that the restoration of the Ryukyus was about to succeed, and he didn't want the people to let Wang Chenhao snatch it again, so he took the initiative to order Wang Chenhao to protect the Ryukyu Kingdom, so that he could take all the credit for this matter on him.

I have to say that Guangxu has grown wise after eating a trench, and now he has become smarter.

(To be continued)