Chapter 137: The Battle of Kyoto
As for who these warships sell to, he has already found a good partner, Li Hongzhang and Liu Kunyi, these two old guys are now thinking about expanding their naval strength, especially Liu Kunyi, his Nanyang naval division does not have a large warship, not even a small cruiser like Kaohsiung, which puts him in a very disadvantageous position in today's delicate situation, if he sells Langsu and Gao Qiansui to him, he will definitely like it, but I don't know if he has so much money, although he is the governor of Liangjiang, but in fact, he is in charge of Jiangsu, Both Jiangxi and Anhui had governors.
As for Li Hongzhang, if he turns his old opponent's flagship into his own ship, he will also like it.
For Yang Feng's request, Bao Kele expressed his full understanding, this guy has no benefit and will not move, this is all famous, and the four Japanese cruisers are really useless in Wu Harbor, as long as they go to sea, they will definitely be sunk by the Russians, if they do not go to sea and wait for the most difficult negotiations between the two sides, it is estimated that there is a ninety percent chance that they will have to pay compensation to the Russians, since this is the case, it must be better to let them fall into the hands of Yang Feng.
After negotiating the conditions, then it is time to discuss how to mediate, the British method is very simple, drive the fleet over the Sea of Japan, and then the diplomatic department will come forward to contact Russia and come up with a reasonable plan, but this plan must be studied in advance, and it is best for Yang Feng to send a telegram directly to Empress Alexandra, who will transfer it to the Russian emperor, and the two sides will find out the bottom first.
"Hokkaido will definitely be given to Russia, and it is estimated that Aomori will have to give it to them, in fact, I think this is acceptable, the Russians want nothing more than the Far East ice-free port, and your country is worried about this, but even if they get Hokkaido, they still can't get what they want. After Vladivostok froze, they still couldn't go to sea directly from land, and the only way was to maintain a fleet in Hokkaido, but there was no industry and no resources in this area. The size of this fleet could not be too large. The significance for the Russian Navy is that they no longer have to ask others to borrow a place to spend the winter, and it is still unrealistic to want to use it as an outlet for the entire country. Yang Feng said that this should be the bottom line that Nikolai can accept, after all, the Russian army has suffered more than 70,000 casualties so far, and it is not possible not to get something real.
The British also have a number of this.
"As for the reparations or something, we don't need to care about this, the more they want, the more the Japanese will borrow, and I'm afraid no one will borrow except your country. What else do they have to pledge now? Isn't that the tariff and the export of silkworms? At that time, these things will be controlled by the British, and then the country will be completely controlled by the British. Yang Feng went on to say that the British understood that controlling other countries by borrowing money was an old routine of these powers.
After the two discussed properly, they immediately went their separate ways, Boukle went to subdue the Japanese, and Yang Feng sent a telegram to Alexandra to see if Nikolai could accept such conditions, but the Japanese replied quickly, and they had no choice. If we continue to fight, whether we win or lose, Japan will be completely finished, and in the current situation, it is estimated that there will be no 20 years to recover. However, they can only accept an indemnity of 10 million pounds, which is already their limit, even the previous indemnity to the Eight-Nation Alliance plus the loan for the purchase of arms during this time. They have borrowed forty million pounds of Hades from the British, and now that Japan's bankrupt economy is not yet known, they really don't know how long and what month they will have to pay back their tariffs. The salt tax has been mortgaged out, and I really don't know what else can be mortgaged in Langdao.
But there was no result from the Russians.
Alexandra just sent him a telegram back, which His Majesty needed to consider.
This was expected by Yang Feng. If you don't take down Kyoto and Kobe, it is estimated that Nikolai agrees, and the soldiers on his front line do not agree either, and the gray cattle have long been lured by the legendary gold-paved Japanese imperial tombs, and their eyes are blood-red, how can there be a reason not to enter the door.
The British were anxious to go north to put pressure on the Russians, and since they had agreed to do it together, Yang Feng naturally did not shirk it, and led four destroyers to join the British fleet by the Marauder, and at the same time gave Li Hongzhang six landing ships and his four high-speed cargo ships that had been used as accompanying support to India, from where the British Army or the Asan's Army were loaded, since it was necessary to do a complete set of deterrence.
But at this time, the fox Waldzer, finally found an opportunity to take revenge on the British, after the last Battle of Tokyo he was yin by the British, this guy has been thinking about revenge for this arrow, just when the British and Swiss fleet went north, the German fleet in Taiwan also left the port, the fox's request is very clear, either take him with him to mediate, and then the Japanese government promises to import German goods duty-free for ten years, or the German Far East Fleet will go to the Korean Strait for military exercises.
"Your Excellency, that's what Count Waldzer said, I don't think we need to worry about such a trivial matter, anyway, the benefits paid are also Japanese, you should understand that since the last time you exercised in the Korean Strait, he and General Tirpitz have been disgruntled." Yang Feng said apologetically to Bao Kle.
This kind of work of mixing the water is what he loves to do, and the same telegram was sent to Alexandra at the same time to the Kaiser, how can Wilhelm miss such a good thing, he can not only avenge an arrow but also reap the benefits, who doesn't like to do it!
The British were also helpless, it would be really troublesome to really force Germany and Russia together, and besides, they were really weak in their hearts about what happened last time, and it was not bad to use this opportunity to make up for the relationship between the two sides, so the British government quickly agreed, and in this way, the fleets of the two countries became the fleets of the three countries before they left the Taiwan Strait.
But before they could reach the Korean Strait, trouble arose again, and the French fleet intercepted the landing fleet sent by Yang Feng to India to transport troops to the British. More than two dozen French warships, led by the battleships Martel and Kornbell, also began to move north, and this time it seemed that they were really fulfilling their obligations as allies.
After learning the news, the Russian fleet also set up a battle formation in the Korean Strait, and Northeast Asia, after a few months of calm, once again became turbulent.
On land, the Fourth Army of the Russian Army, which landed in Maizuru, ran over the Japanese land like a steamroller, and the place was in ruins, leaving all Maizuru and Higashimaizuru with bayonets and throwing them to death with bayonets and thrown into the Yura River, and the 10th and 11th Divisions of the Japanese Army, enraged by this terrifying method, desperately blocked their attack on their homeland.
It's a pity that they have more than enough heart but not enough strength, it's not that the imperial army doesn't work hard, but the gap between the two sides is too big, of course, it's not in equipment.
Because of the back-the-scenes support of the British, the Japanese army at this time was not badly equipped, and the British army, which was refitting the authorized version of the Bofors rapid-fire rifle on a large scale, bought the old rifles they eliminated at a high price to the Japanese, but unfortunately now there are no qualified soldiers in Japan, and the blood of this country is almost dried up after more than a year of continuous war consumption.
Before the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan had a total of seven standing divisions, and there were more than 200,000 reserves, most of whom had died on the battlefield so far, and the rest were all on the northern front. This is also Yang Feng's compensation to Her Majesty the Empress.
In Fukuchiyama, Japan, the Japanese positions on the Yuragawa defense line were like hell, countless soldiers were struggling in the poisonous mist of mustard gas waiting for death, everyone was coughing like crazy until they coughed up their burned lungs, above their heads, mortar shells filled with poison gas were still falling, Nikolai bought more than 100 tons of poison gas bombs from Bofors, all equipped with the Fourth Army.
He was also a little helpless at this point, the performance of the main force of the Japanese army on the battlefield of Morioka was no worse than that of the Russian army, because of the lack of equipment in the early stage, so it was pressed and beaten by the Russian army, but after getting British weapons, he was already able to launch a counteroffensive, which made Nikolai, who had to end the war before Vladivostok froze, anxious, but fortunately, His Majesty the Empress told him that Yang Feng agreed to sell poison gas bombs, so why not hurry up and get more.
As for the scandal between the queen and Yang Feng, how can a Russian man care about this?
With the help of poison gas bombs, the Japanese painstakingly managed the Yuragawa defense line was broken by the Russian army in just one day, and more than 15,000 people in two divisions died under this weapon, which they regarded as the devil's weapon, and the closed mountain terrain here maximized the lethality of the poison gas, looking at the tragedy of corpses all over the field in front of him, the Japanese commander Prince Komatsumiya chose seppuku painfully.
The 40,000 Russian troops, who could be said to be almost unscathed, crossed the biggest obstacle to Kyoto by stepping on the corpses of the Japanese army everywhere, and then divided into two routes, all the way to Kameoka and all the way to Hayama, and the remnants of the Japanese army, under the leadership of Lieutenant General Nogi Noshinori, the commander of the 10th Division, relied on the mountainous terrain to block step by step.
After learning of this terrible news, the whole of Kansai was in a desperate panic, and Emperor Meiji, who had not yet moved back to Tokyo, even called on the Japanese people to take action and defend their homeland with their lives. In response to his call, hundreds of thousands of Japanese civilians were armed with all the weapons they could find in the shortest possible time, and even some of the able-bodied women were given things like awls, and as for things like iron cannons, bows, arrows, and katanas, needless to say, Kyoto now feels like a return to the Warring States period. (To be continued......)