Just when the subjects of the Chinese Empire were still clamoring for the two executive orders of the State Council, another more serious matter diverted their attention again, and this was the Chinese Empire's declaration of war on Russia!

Just as Li Yongji expected, the matter of publicly beheading the Russian envoy became more and more noisy, and the Russians did not mention it, and the three envoys of Britain, France, and the United States to the Chinese Empire were also extremely angry, and when they could not meet Li Yongji, they all began to formally submit a public protest statement to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Imperial State Council, protesting against the Chinese Imperial Government's private execution of the Russian envoy.

In this regard, Shen Shiming, Prime Minister of the State Council of the Chinese Empire, under the instruction of Li Yongji, also publicly made a stern statement.

The statement said that Russia had not formally established diplomatic relations with the Chinese Empire, and that it had helped the Manchus to attack His Majesty the Emperor, which was already hostile to the Chinese Empire, and that the situation was different from that of Britain, France, and the United States.

Moreover, this Nikolai . According to the laws of the Chinese Empire, conspiracy against the emperor is punishable by beheading, and the verdict of the Imperial Court is not inappropriate.

In the end, Shen Shiming concluded, to Nikolai. The verdict and punishment of Ignatiev and other cadres was an open and fair announcement and punishment by the Chinese Empire on the basis of national sovereignty and independence, and there was no selfish distraction during the period, and even the supreme emperor did not intervene in the slightest.

As for this matter, it is completely an independent trial conducted by the Imperial Court on the basis of the principle of judicial independence, and there is not a single mistake or omission, and if there is, it is also a malicious speculation by a very small number of people in the West who are not friendly to China, and China will never accept this.

The ministers of Britain, France, and the United States were speechless when they said these words.

At last. The American minister who played soy sauce patted his ass and left with the French minister, and only the British minister Wei Tuma said to Shen Shiming in private: "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, do you know what your words will mean if they reach Europe?" ”

"At worst, it's just war." Shen Shiming, who had already been mentioned by Li Yongji, smiled, "On this point, in fact, we all over the country understand it very well, and we are also looking forward to it, don't you think?" ”

"I see." Wittoma nodded, "I see, since that's the case. Then I will take my leave, and I hope you will not regret this hasty decision, Your Excellency the Prime Minister. ”

After leaving the State Council, Wei Tuma, who had just said cruel words, sighed and muttered to himself: "It seems that the lion of China is about to wake up, what a pity, what a pity." ”

After saying these ambiguous words, Wittoma put on her top hat. Hop into your carriage and sail away.

The day after the protest of the British, French, and American ministers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Imperial Government of China officially issued an ultimatum to Russia, indicating that the Chinese Empire and the Russian Empire were officially at war.

At the same time that the ultimatum to war was issued, the garrison at the port of Shanghai began to drive directly into the port authority. During the war, in the name of total martial law, Shanghai Customs was fully taken over, and foreigners were no longer allowed to jointly manage customs affairs. At the same time, a complete blockade of the concession and ports was carried out, and all Russian property in the territory of the Chinese Empire was forcibly confiscated. and arrest all Russians in China.

As for foreigners other than those who are not Russians, such as those in Britain and the United States and France, in order to prevent accidental injury, it is stipulated that they are not allowed to enter and leave places outside the concession, and must all return to live in the concession area, and then open them to the public after the end of the war with Russia.

After making the decision to declare war on Russia, Li Yongji carried out military reforms, temporarily dividing the armed forces of the Chinese Empire into three military regions.

The First Military Region, also known as the Beijing Military Region, refers to the First Army of the Praetorian Guard, that is, the mighty army, as the core, with Beijing as the base, which can command all the armed forces, including the police forces, in Beijing, Tianjin, and Hebei under the control of the Chinese Empire, and the main task is to stabilize the northern defense line and deal with the threat of the Qing court in the north.

The Second Military Region, also known as the Jinan Military Region, refers to the Second Army of the Praetorian Guard, the Shangwu Army, as the core, with Jinan as the base, commanding all the armed forces in Shandong, northern Jiangsu, and Henan.

The Third Military Region, also known as the Suzhou Military Region, refers to the Third Army of the Praetorian Guard, the mighty army as the core, commanding all the troops in the Jiangnan region, including Nanjing, mainly to deal with threats from the south and west.

Commander of the 1st Military Region, one-star general, Zhou Da.

Commander of the Second Military Region, one-star general, Wang Sanwu.

Commander of the Third Military Region, one-star general, Zhang Wei.

After the promulgation of this new military reform, it means that the major military regions can act on their own cheaply, as long as they accomplish the major strategic objectives set by the central authorities, thus reducing the interference of the central authorities in local military commands, increasing the flexibility of military organizations, and allowing local troops to completely unleash their hands and feet.

The reason why this is so is because Li Yongji found that the imperial army was now getting bigger and bigger, but it was becoming more and more timid in doing things, and it seemed that everything had to wait for his own orders.

Although this is also related to the role of radio popularization, but in the final analysis, it is still because I used to grasp the army too strictly, too rigid, and now it seems that it is indeed necessary to give some delegation of power to the people below, and I only need to formulate strategic goals, and the rest is up to the generals to solve it themselves.

However, the delegation of power is only given to the First Military Region and the Second Military Region, as for the Third Military Region, because Li Yongji is sitting here, in fact, Li Yongji is still under direct command.

After doing this, Li Yongji asked the officers and men of the major military regions to pay close attention to training to deal with the imminent foreign aggression!

After making changes to the army, Li Yongji, in the name of the emperor of the Chinese Empire, also issued a call to all parts of the country: At the critical moment when the foreign enemy is about to invade, as long as the whole of China still considers themselves to be the descendants of Yan and Huang, they must twist into a rope, not fight a civil war, go all out to resist Russia, and realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation with iron and blood.

In a word, outsiders are going to fight, everyone should stop killing each other, quickly send someone over to negotiate, everyone will finish talking early, unify as soon as possible, and then fight foreign devils wholeheartedly!

For this reason, Li Yongji also ordered a military parade in Nanjing on May 1, and invited people from all walks of life, including the Taiping Army, to come here. They discussed the matter of peaceful reunification.

If you don't send someone and don't have the sincerity of the peace talks, then the consequences will be hehe.

In other words, Li Yongji used the declaration of war against Russia as a cover or external pressure, and used this righteous name of resisting foreign aggression to achieve the peaceful reunification of the whole country.

The reason why he wanted to do this was because Li Yongji felt that time was running out, so he took his time and relied on the army to push it over. In fact, there is no benefit, it is better to unify and plan as soon as possible, so that you can go to the United States boldly and boldly in the future.

Finding the Russians as targets is indeed a clever trick.

First of all, Russia is indeed a superpower, and taking Russia as a threat to China can indeed let people with good intentions know that they are not alarmist, and that the current great enemy can indeed promote China's internal reunification at an early date and reduce internal friction in the process of reunification.

Secondly. Although Russia is strong, it is the weakest time for Russia now, and it can be said that it is strong from outside and strong from within. Because Russia was still a predominantly serfdom-based country at this time, huge and bloated. It has just gone through the defeat of the Crimean War, and the military spending is borrowed, and it is all on debt to get by. Such a Russia will not be able to produce much combat effectiveness at all.

Third. Russia is too far from China. At this time, there was no Trans-Siberian Railway, and most of the Russian railways were in Europe, even if Alexander II vigorously developed the railway. However, due to lack of money, the total length of Russian railways is currently only more than 1,000 kilometers. In this case, Russia does not have much ability to expand to the east, and at most it can only use the guò sea route to carry out limited intervention in the Chinese Empire, and when they have worked hard to transfer troops, their own side has long been waiting for work, and they have been completely suppressed in terms of both strength and firepower, and it can be said that victory or defeat has long been decided.

In fact, the wisest decision of the Russians was to ignore Li Yongji's clamor for war and continue to play with their own serfdom reforms, play with internal affairs, and slowly recover their vitality, as in history.

However, Li Yongji has now defeated the first batch of Russian intervention troops, and has killed Russian envoys and a group of prisoners in public, and he has been showing weakness and pretending to be his grandson for so long, and he seems to be arrogant. If that is the case, Li Yongji will have no choice but to continue to accumulate strength step by step, and when the United States is cleaned up, he will take the initiative to trouble the Russians.

However, Li Yongji concluded that the Russians could not help it and would definitely send troops to intervene in China.

Li Yongji has long figured it out now that it is probably the French and the British who are most concerned about interfering in China, not the Russians, after all, these two countries are the two countries with the strongest maritime strength at present, and to interfere with China at present, it is absolutely inseparable from maritime power.

It's just that the French and the British are now powerless, or they have no money, after all, the situation in Europe is not very peaceful now, and it is not too much to say that it is a powder keg, Britain and France are unable to draw the main force to interfere in China, and they are now having more and more economic and trade exchanges with China, especially the new Chinese medicine called the panacea, which is inseparable from the upper aristocracy.

Once the war starts, in case the situation is unfavorable, as last time, inexplicably the entire fleet will blow itself up, or the Chinese will destroy the new drug formula and no longer sell new universal Chinese medicine to Europe, and the losses will be equally huge.

But the Russians are different, the Russians have no money, and they have an enmity with the Chinese, as long as they give money to ships and equipment, the Russians are the best mercenaries, and the Russians fight China, and China cannot say anything to others.

Anyway, the Russians are too far away from China to stay in China for a long time without a fleet, so the French and the British are not worried about the Russians occupying China for a long time, and these two countries will not allow it.

Therefore, it is most likely that the Russians sent about 30,000 men, armed by the British and French, and transported to China, and then let the Russian army attack Suzhou directly along the Yangtze River, forcing themselves to sign an alliance under the city and sign an unequal treaty.

Li Yongji felt that 30,000 people should be a limit, and if there were more, Britain and France would be worried that the Russians would be too strong to go to China, and that a large number of people would be a big burden on the transportation capacity of Britain and France.

All in all, declaring war on Russia is a strategy that has been formulated early on, and for Li Yongji today, this can not only divert the attention of the people in the name of the great name of the Great Patriotic War, and smoothly promote his various reform measures, but also occupy a higher moral commanding height, and speed up the pace of his unification of the whole country. (To be continued......)