The period of early September 1914 was definitely the most torturous for the whole world.

In the Far East.

The news of the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Qingdao finally spread in Japan, and the reality of more than 30,000 young people dying in one day and one night made the country pause to breathe, not to mention the fact that the Combined Fleet, which is regarded as a national power, was sunk four capital ships at once, and the armored cruiser Iwate also arrived with difficulty, but after arriving in Sasebo, it was completely abandoned due to too much water and finally the keel broke and capsized.

What a war this is!

Although the Russo-Japanese War was more costly, the army continued to advance and win, but this time it was almost all bad news. First of all, he was caught off guard in Mukden and lost the important South Manchurian Railway and Nanfen Coal and Iron Mine, and then the 38th Wing on Motianling was wiped out, and even the wing flag awarded by the emperor was lost. When a group of young people shouted for revenge with the dream of completely conquering the mainland, they sent troops to Shandong to try to seize Qingdao under the "God's blessing" environment that broke out in Europe, but they encountered the bloodiest and most tragic bitter battle since the beginning of the war.

The losses have been as high as three divisions, and that is a full 60,000 young lives! The loss of a large number of enterprises related to Japan's national economy and people's livelihood, such as the five capital ships, the South Manchurian Railway, the Fushun Coking Coal Plant, and the Baofen Coal and Iron Mine, has caused Japan's investment in China to face total annihilation, and if all of them are added up, it means that Japan will lose as much as 600 million national dollars in just two months! However, before these were over, there were calls from the government of the Republic of China on the other side of the sea to forcibly recover the concession and end all Sino-Japanese treaties. 600 million yuan has already been lost, and if all the Japanese concessions in China, which were blockaded after the start of the war, are taken away, and all the factories and banks in those concessions are forcibly confiscated, I am afraid that the last bit of Japanese investment in China will also be wasted.

That's such a huge number, 50 million people have not yet paid off their loans, but they have been severely sprinkled with salt on their wounds.

The chaebols finally couldn't sit still, especially the big players such as Yokohama Zhengjin Bank and Mitsui Zaibatsu, and only they knew how much money they had invested in the Japanese concessions throughout China over the past two decades, with more than $100 million in gold and silver reserves in the three major concessions of Hankow, Shanghai, and Guangzhou alone! Because after the start of the war, the squadron quickly blocked the waterways and seaports, which led to the interruption of all external communications, Britain and France wanted to break up the Sino-German alliance, and the United States wanted to take the opportunity to snatch Japan's interests in China, but were unwilling to help and delayed shipping out.

Armistice! Get you back!

Exterminate! Peace talks!

The two sharply opposed choices collided suddenly, and the ancient and stubborn feudal lords and the chaebol, who urgently needed a truce to recuperate and recuperate to tide over the difficulties, could no longer sit down with peace, and the democratic forces led by the Constitutional Council and the military department broke out in an instant, and those supporters of both sides who were agitated and deceived also took to the streets, torn apart and even clashed with each other.

The beginning of September was turbulent and uneasy in Asia, and the storm was getting bigger and bigger out of control. However, compared to the fierce battle of Europa, the storm has become insignificant.

In order to defend Paris, France used almost all the strength it could, millions of young people took up arms from all directions, and Britain also spared no money, material and manpower, and drew troops from various colonies to try to completely block the unstoppable pace of the German army. Joseph. Gallieni even did not hesitate to resist the stubborn Marshal Xia Fei personally stationed in Paris, nearly 40 fortresses, more than 300 heavy guns of more than 200 mm, 2,500 cannons and millions of soldiers shouted the slogan of defending Paris to the death, rushing to the enemy with blood and life like moths to the fire.

Not to be outdone, the German prince Ruprecht went into battle in person, and 1.5 million German troops launched a frantic offensive under the cover of 50,000 submachine guns, 3,400 Maxim heavy machine guns, 1,900 mortars and 4,500 barreled guns. In the final stage of the First Battle of the Marne, Britain and France paid 330,000 more than the parallel world in eight days from September 5 to 12 to stabilize the defensive line, and the German army, which lacked the ability to maneuver long distances, also paid the price of 170,000 casualties, declaring that it was just a dream to quickly take Paris and end the war.

Numerous military scientists have said that the Schlieffen plan was perfect, and if it was placed in the era of armor, perhaps the war was over, but before the lack of decisive forces for long-range detours and outflanking, in a war that relied entirely on railways and cavalry, more than 300 kilometers of long-arm maneuvers were just a pile of yellowed waste paper.

Hopes of ending the war by Christmas are becoming increasingly slim, and the leaders of the warring countries are finally calming down in front of the bloody casualty figures, realizing that a huge and bitter war of attrition has arrived. The German army began to adjust, the angry Wilhelm II directly became a puppet of Moltke, and after the stalemate on the Western Front, the German army began to consider defeating the decaying Russian army on the Eastern Front first, which led to the pressure on Nicholas II to increase several times, but the 300,000 elite garrisons sent to the Far East after the Russo-Japanese War were strangled by China and Japan, and they did not dare to withdraw in case of emergency. For the sake of the diamond and gold throne under his ass, he simply sent a telegram directly to the British and French governments, saying that if the Far East could not be pacified as soon as possible, he could not rule out the possibility that Russia would simply wave its troops in the northeast to carry out a preventive attack on China and Japan.

This self-defeating madman! It is ridiculous but also a warning to Britain and France that Russia has become more and more important.

In addition to these, manufacturing orders began to come out like snowflakes, and only a month after the first wave of resource orders, more orders for industrial products were crowding factories, American businessmen began to cheer, and merchants from all over the world waved their arms fiercely, which was a grinding plate of flesh and blood for the warring sides, but for them it was an era of gluttony! Even the weak China has not been spared, a rivet, a piece of clothing, a steel helmet, a pair of military boots, etc., etc., as long as you can make it, there will be red-eyed European businessmen who will buy it back at any cost.

Yet in this feast, two countries have been forgotten.

Japan! The most industrialized country in Asia had already had factories at a standstill due to a lack of raw materials, and Yawata Steel again lowered its annual steel output to 130,000 tons in the same period in 1910, while the government of the Republic of China raised the total output of the three steel mills in 1914 to a higher 350,000 tons, and for the first time boasted that it would achieve 500,000 tons in 15 years.

Another neglected country is also in the Far East whirlpool, but their voices are so weak and weak that almost no one will pay attention.

In front of Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul, there is a huge European-style building, and the Japanese military police at the door, whose leggings are almost wrapped around their knees, have erected a tall deer barricade, and sandbags are piled up from the door to the road. Since the Sino-Japanese war broke out again, people from all walks of life in North Korea have also been paying close attention to this great war that will determine the future pattern of the Far East. The Wehrmacht swept through Mukden and quickly seized the South Manchurian Railway, Baofen Coal and Iron Mine, and the 38th Wing of the Whole Annihilation Army, which made this almost dead country active for a while, and when the Japanese army landed in Jinzhou and Longkou at the same time, the activity became silent after the outbreak of the tragic Battle of Qingdao.

Here, no one thought that China could defeat the powerful Japanese army, which seemed to be impossible to fight for 20 years, and many officials who defected to the Japanese army even laughed at the Chinese for not being able to measure themselves, but when the final result of the Battle of Qingdao reached Seoul, when the mountain-like mountain of Japanese corpses and photos of weapons and ammunition were captured appeared on the front page of the newspaper, when four extremely powerful warships collapsed in Fushan Bay, the shock to this nominally annexed country was unimaginable to outsiders.

Numerous rebel leaders began to cross the Yalu River to contact their former suzerains in the hope of getting help to drive out the Japanese, and guerrillas in the mountains north of Pyongyang became active, attacking and harassing the garrisons, among which the previously unknown Korean Independence Army slowly came to prominence, and not long ago they attacked the port of Cheongjin near Vladivostok for the first time, and although they were quickly routed by two destroyers, dozens of Japanese merchants and soldiers were killed.

Since Russia was already mired in Europe, the well-dressed puppet government officials who could still rely on them even began to circulate the need to reconsider the clause in the "Fourteen Articles of Hong Fan" on "severing the idea of attaching themselves to the Qing state and establishing a foundation for independence and self-determination" so that Chinese forces could be legally introduced to expel the Japanese forces that were rampaging through Korea.

The atmosphere on both sides of the Han River was depressing, and even the footsteps of ordinary people became hurried, and the peninsula, which was caught between China and Japan, began to be involved in the whirlpool of the Far East with strange twists and turns. At this time, the Korean Governor's Office undoubtedly assumed the heavy responsibility of stabilizing Korea and ensuring the safety of this springboard for Japan's entry into the mainland. In the office, Senior General Ueda Arisawa, the temporary governor of Korea and the commander-in-chief of the Japanese army in Korea, looked worried, and the number of losses from the attack on the port of Kiyojin in his hand made him a little uneasy. As the divisions stationed in North Korea moved north, there was only about one brigade left in the whole of North Korea, most of which were civilian police. In addition, after the forced disbandment of the Korean Army, he currently did not have even available personnel, and the telegram sent back to China hoping to send a division to take charge of the army was finally shattered with the defeat of Qingdao.

In the past, not to mention a brigade or a wing, he was sure to make those North Koreans obedient, but now it is different! The successive victories of the Chinese will undoubtedly greatly encourage the Korean guerrillas, and the independent army that suddenly appeared is said to be all Japanese standard equipment, so many standard weapons are certainly not sold by Japan, then there is only one channel left. So he shook the telegram and asked the attendant in front of him: "Who is the leader of this independent army, can you tell me?" ”

The attendant officer put his feet together: "It's the criminal who killed Lieutenant Tsuchida Rangliang before, and the rebels of Hong Fantu." ”

Jin Jiu? General Ueda Arisawa remembered Jin Jiu, who was arrested and sent to the farm for labor reeducation, and his eyebrows suddenly became a little solemn. He was not afraid of China's support for the guerrillas, because the crumbling rebels lacked the political base and leaders to threaten Japanese control here, but it was a bit tricky for Kim Koo, a figure with a wide reputation in Korea, to suddenly become a military commander.

A guerrilla army with political leaders who are famous throughout the country can already be considered a regular army!

"Let's get ready for the car."

Ueda Yuzawa did not continue to speak, and asked the attendant officer to prepare the car, now is the time to contact those greedy and lowly North Korean officials, it is time to give them some benefits to help the empire. But he didn't know that just as he was packing his things and sorting out his military uniform and preparing to go out, two men who seemed to be wearing ordinary waistcoats with some thick vests also appeared on the road east of the governor's palace.

Inside the hem of the vest, a lead looms with the movement.