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

The military defeat of the Imperial Russian Army in the Heilongjiang region led to a chain reaction. First of all, it affected Russia's plan to lay out Northeast Asia and seek to invade and occupy the three northeastern provinces of the Qing Empire.

Imperial Russia will face two difficult problems, one is to make every effort to keep Aihui and maintain the local military conflict between Qing and Russia, which will be a bitter battle for the limited strength of the Russian army in the Far East. Second, it is necessary to strive for diplomatic superiority as much as possible, and unite the powers of various countries to put pressure on the Qing Zheng Axe's Prime Minister Yamen to force the Qing Zheng Axe to give up the military attack on Aihui.

Similarly, for the Qing political axe, after the Battle of the Songhua River, the Beiyang Army won a great victory and recovered the entire territory of Heilongjiang Province except Aihui, and the central government of the Qing court was very happy, but the Beiyang Army violated the imperial court's order not to take the initiative to attack the Russian army, which made the imperial court very unhappy. The order was issued by Li Hongzhang at a higher level, and Weng Tonggong and others wrote to impeach Li Hongzhang for contempt of the imperial court's edict.

Guangxu was the side of the main battle, and the Beiyang Army took the initiative to attack the Russian army and regain the lost territory, and he was happy at this point. But aside from the national interest, he also has personal interests, and Tie Liang, the training minister he sent to take over the Beiyang Army, was stripped of his power, which made him very dissatisfied.

Weng Tonggong petitioned for the impeachment of Li Hongzhang for resisting the decree, and this crime of resisting the decree was enough to behead him. But Li Hongzhang already had a countermeasure. Li Hongzhang argued in his letter that the Russian gunboats attacked the Qing gunboats first, and that the Beiyang Army's initiative to attack was only a counterattack against the Russian side's lack of sincerity in negotiations, which was in line with the imperial court's edict that it was not allowed to take the initiative to fight, but was allowed to passively return fire. Originally, it was just a test of revenge, but the Russian army did not fight, so it was able to recover a large part of the lost territory in one go.

Guangxu knew that Li Hongzhang was scheming and could not act without careful consideration, Li Hongzhang avoided the great crime of resisting the order, and the remaining overstepping command of the Beiyang Army was not a major crime compared to the great merit of recovering the lost territory. However, Guangxu was not angry, and the imperial court's control over the local governors was declining. Now Li Hongzhang's approach cannot be ruled out as a counterattack to Guangxu's intention to meddle in the military power of the Beiyang Army, because it is an indisputable fact that Tieliang was overpowered.

Therefore, Emperor Guangxu issued an order that Li Hongzhang's merits and demerits would not be rewarded or held accountable for this action, which was an expression of dissatisfaction with Li Hongzhang. However, for Tie Liang, Emperor Guangxu was angry and planned to dismiss him, but Weng Tongyi reminded Emperor Guangxu that this might be Li Hongzhang's plan to kill people with a knife, so Emperor Guangxu ordered Tieliang to continue to stay in office and make meritorious contributions.

It's just that Tie Liang was stripped of his rights, and even if he stayed, it was useless. But Emperor Guangxu had no one in his hands at the moment, so he had to break the jar and break it.

Although the Qing court neither commended nor punished the military operation of the Beiyang Army, for the vast number of people of insight in China, the victory of the Beiyang Army was of great significance. First of all, the Beiyang Army was established as a new army in response to the defeat in the First Sino-Japanese Land War, and after this victory, the Beiyang Army was considered an army. The second is that people generally believe that the Imperial Russian Army is very powerful, and the Beiyang Army can defeat the Russian army, and they naturally think that the Beiyang Army has become a powerful army. This is undoubtedly tantamount to raising eyebrows and being criticized by people at home and abroad for the Qing Imperial Army.

Politically, the Russian envoy to China, Kuman, almost threatened the Qing court officials in the Prime Minister's Yamen with a bombardment tone, strongly protesting against the Beiyang Army's attack on the Russian army during the armistice, and saying that if the Qing government did not give Russia a satisfactory explanation, Russia would take military retaliatory action.

Cuman's aggressiveness made the prime minister's yamen nervous. Prince Gong argued on the basis of reason, saying that the Russian gunboat attacked first, and it was the Russian side that broke the atmosphere of the armistice first. But Cumans was naturally in Russia's interests, and even insisted on a greater threat of war.

The attitude of the great powers was still ambiguous, and the first defeat of the imperial Russian army in a land battle made the great powers see the weakness of the Russian army, and they somewhat loosened their position in support of Russia.

Interestingly, it was Germany that continued to support Russia's expansion into China. Out of consideration of Europe's core interests, Germany believes that the shift of Russia's focus to the Far East will reduce Germany's military pressure in Northern Europe, so Germany supports Russia's military retaliation against China.

On the other hand, France, Russia's military ally, is an ally of Russia, and they hope that Russia's expansion in the Far East will be contained, which will force Russia to turn its expansion back to Europe. The French hope that Russia will turn around and expand in Europe, which will confront Germany head-on and increase friction and contradictions between the two countries, which is in France's core interests. In this way, the French unexpectedly expressed sympathy for the Prime Minister's Yamen, and warned the Russians not to sink further into the depths, because Russia now did not have the financial resources to wage a large-scale war in the Far East.

Among all the great powers, only the British took the strongest position, and the Anglo-Russian contradictions and the assassination of the British minister Sadaoyi made Anglo-Russian relations tense, and Britain has always been on the side of the Qing Empire. But the British also harbor evil intentions and have ulterior secrets. Because of the victory of the Beiyang Army in the land war against Russia, the British Empire thought that the Qing Empire could fight a good war with Russia, and the real purpose of Britain's support for the Qing Empire was to weaken Russia's strength in the Far East as much as possible. Therefore, the British minister Dou Nale took an extremely tough attitude when expressing his position, he advocated that the Qing Empire continue to attack the Russian army, and even suggested that the Qing Empire abolish the unequal treaty between Qing and Russia and recover nearly 1.5 million square kilometers of lost territory. If the Qing Empire adopted the British proposal, then Dou Nale said that he would provide strong diplomatic, economic, and even military support.

The position of the British really frightened Qing Zhengaxe's cold sweat, and the prime minister Yamen Minister Yi immediately asked Guangxu and Cixi to draw a bottom line as soon as possible, so that he could negotiate with the Russians and end this military conflict as soon as possible, otherwise this conflict may be secretly enlarged by the British.

Cixi said that since most of Heilongjiang Province was taken back, she could make some concessions and send the Russians away. But how much a little concession was conceded, Cixi didn't say, lost money or ceded land, or opened the port without instructions. Guangxu said that the victory of the Beiyang Army proved that it could resist the Russian military invasion, so he resolutely refused to give in, in order to recover Aihui and drive away the Russian invading army. Even Guangxu asked to be mentally prepared for a formal declaration of war with Russia.

Cixi and Guangxu still have political disagreements, and their words are different on this issue, making Yi have two big heads.

Until he returned to Prince Gong's mansion, Yi couldn't stop complaining.

"How much is a little concession? Don't give me a real word, how can I talk about it? ”

Ning Xiang smiled lightly, and while guiding the maid to make tea, she said: "It's not a matter of a day or two for the Russians to look at the northeast, how can they give up easily when they finally have the opportunity to act?" Besides, the Beiyang Army won the battle and rubbed the prestige of the Russians, and the Russians will definitely get it back. If you look at me, Marfa doesn't have to negotiate with them, this battle will definitely have to be fought. It's better to wait until the two sides are almost the same, and then it's not too late to talk. ”

Yi smiled and said: "According to what you say, then I'll find a few people to hang horses?" ”

The tea boiled, Ning Xiang used a purple clay pot to brew a pot of good red robes and put it on the coffee table, and after standing for a few minutes, he poured a bowl for Yi unhurriedly.

"If you want me to say, what's wrong with a horse hanging? That is, it is pleasant, and it can collect a lot of silver, where can such a good thing be found? ”

"Good what? Recently, there have been fewer and fewer officials who have been playing together, and they have only been able to get much money after playing all day. ”

Ning Xiang still looked very calm, and said, "That's because you didn't find the right person!" Of course, you have to find the richest person to fight horse hanging? ”

Yi asked with interest, "What do you mean?" ”

A hint of cunning flashed in Ning Xiang's eyes, and she said with a smile: "I heard that Lord Wang Chenhao has made a fortune this trip abroad!" ”

Yi suddenly understood and said, "Isn't it! I heard that this kid fished a few treasure ships from the Tang and Song dynasties at the bottom of the sea and got tens of millions of taels of silver, and our Great Qing Kingdom is now his richest! ”

Ning Xiang gently smelled the fragrance of tea and said, "How many tens of millions?" I heard that he carved out an industrial zone called Beijing-Tianjin-Tang in Zhili, and set up hundreds of foreign affairs companies at once. These companies include all the light and heavy industrial projects of Europe and the United States and other powerful countries, and once they are completed and put into operation, we will have all the things that foreigners have in the future. I heard that this industrial base cost Wang Chenhao 10,000 taels of silver, and I don't know if it's true or not. However, I do know what kind of Beiyang technology he has made, and it costs tens of millions of taels just to buy thousands of the latest technology patents in Europe and the United States. There are thousands of foreign devils in a building, I heard that they are all scientists from Europe and the United States, we don't know what it means, anyway, their lowest annual salary is nearly 10,000 taels of silver. Just this Beiyang Technology pays the salary of foreign devils and gets 10 million taels of silver every year, how much money do you say this Wang Chenhao should have? ”

Yi said: "I'm afraid I have to have 20,000 taels, right?" ”

Ning Xiang shook his head and said lightly: "Twenty thousand taels of silver are all spent, he hired a private fleet to feed thousands of foreign devils, he still has at least twenty thousand taels of silver in his hand, otherwise why would he dare to raise a fleet?" You must know that the imperial court is powerless to raise Beiyang sailors. ”

Yi couldn't help but swallow his saliva, and said abruptly for a long time: "So this kid made 40,000 taels of silver on a trip abroad?" Oh my God, how did he do it? ”

Ning Xiang's eyes were a little dazed, and she said, "His body is really amazing!" But Marfa, if you don't have money to spend, just ask him to hang a horse. ”

Yi said: "But he hasn't come back yet?" ”

Ning Xiang smiled: "It's because he hasn't come back yet that he asked you to ask him out." He himself has a foreign affairs and a hired fleet, and the surname of the Beiyang Army is Wang not Li, and they all point to him. He made such a big move, once he returned to China, hundreds of mouths up and down the court were waiting to eat him? You'll have to shout hello to him first and give him a heads-up. ”

Yi only then understood what Ning Xiang meant, so he smiled: "It's still our girl who is smart and knows how to help Marfa get more silver back." Since Wang Chenhao is so rich, it is really unreasonable not to slaughter him this time. I'm going to send a telegram and ask him to come back to fight the horse, this time you've done a great job, girl. ”

Yi happily went out, looking at his back, Ning Xiang was still smiling plainly, but a subtle light flashed in her eyes, was she really just helping Yi make money? Or is there something else? No one knew, not even Ning Xiang herself could figure out her position. However, Ning Xiang remembered that Wang Chenhao owed her a favor.