"So Yuan Shikai's troops and equipment are all from Tsarist Russia?" Rong Lu said after reading a secret letter.

"Basically, the news I got from Beiyang is that there are Russian ships calling at Tianjin from time to time. Then Yuan Shikai's people went to receive these supplies. King Qing nodded.

"Then Li Hongzhang will let Yuan Shikai make trouble under his nose?" Rong Lu frowned and said, this is not Li Hongzhang's style.

"This Li Hongzhang is now busy helping his baby protégé deal with the Russians, this Russian has gathered tens of thousands of troops on the border, and the news from the northeast is that Xu Jie and Yi Ketanga are not dealing with each other, so Li Hongzhang naturally does not want to provoke Yuan Shikai. And....... King Qing wanted to speak and stopped.

"And Li Hongzhang still wants to watch from the wall? See who has the upper hand and then make the move? This old fox. Rong Lu said hatefully. In fact, Rong Lu underestimated Li Hongzhang's purpose, Beiyang decided to be a yellow bird this time!

"Any other news?" Rong Lu asked after putting away the secret letter. He had also heard about Yuan Shikai's purchase of armaments from the Russians. If it was just to verify this information, King Qing didn't need to come over to discuss with him, just find someone to send a letter.

"It is said that Yuan Shikai's people recently went to Tianjin to pick up the goods, but the Russian ship did not arrive. And now that the Russians and the Japanese have already fought, I am afraid that in a short period of time, Yuan Shikai will not be able to obtain new equipment. King Qing said in a low voice.

"And this?" Rong Lu was shocked, and a cold light shot out of his eyes, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Rong Lu is a smart man. He knew very well that even if the rear party concentrated all its efforts on expanding the army, because of the problem of weapons channels, the pace of the rear party army was always one step slower than that of the other side. Now that the Russians suddenly don't help Guangxu, this is an opportunity for the party, and Rong Lu knows that Yuan Shikai has not yet completed the most difficult preparations. The latter party was also not completed. But this period will be the time when the gap between the two sides is minimal and must be utilized.

"Besides, the cooperation between the emperor and the Russians may be detrimental to Beiyang. Otherwise, Guangxu would not have been busy with a coup d'état in Zhili, and the Russians would have fought against the Yalu River and Beiyang. King Qing said meaningfully.

"Well, that makes sense. As long as the collusion between Guangxu and the Russians inside and outside can be confirmed, then Guangxu will become a national thief, and this Beiyang is afraid that it will stand on our side, right? "Rong Lu also came to the spirit. This plan is really good, in his opinion, if Li Hongzhang simply faced the emperor and the queen mother, he might be indecided. But if foreign countries are involved, Li Hongzhang will definitely declare war on the side that colludes with foreign countries. What's more, the Russians and Beiyang fought each other in the Qing-Japanese War, and now they are basically hostile. As long as Beiyang decides to help the Hou Party, then there will be no suspense about the outcome of the war!

"Then should we talk to the Queen Mother, and then act immediately? Now is the time when the imperialist party is at its weakest. King Qing said.

"Then His Royal Highness King Qing will prepare, and the minister's northwest training army will also wait for the Queen Mother's order." Rong Lu nodded and said.

Soon. King Qing and Rong Lu's suggestion was taken by Cixi, who decided to strike preemptively after 2 weeks. According to King Qing's proposal, Cixi's secret envoy also told Li Hongzhang the information about the collusion between the Russians and the imperial party. And Li Hongzhang also pretended to be surprised and expressed a certain amount of goodwill, but behind the scenes, Li Hongzhang discussed with Xu Jie and others through telegram what to do.

After many telegram exchanges. A superficial plan has already taken shape. First of all, judging from the current situation, the imperial party still has some advantages, and in order to better "balance" the strength of the two sides, Beiyang decided to immediately provide Ronglu with a batch of arms, of course, most of them are old and backward things. At the same time, in order to stabilize both sides. Beiyang decided to show favor to Rong Lu on the one hand, and at the same time revealed some of the plans of the Hou Party to Yuan Shikai through secret channels. Losing both sides is the best result, so Beiyang needs Yuan Shikai to be prepared.

It is undoubtedly a very important signal that the party is going to launch a coup d'état, thinking that the forces of all parties are finally going to have a showdown after many preparations! Whether it is the imperial party or the later party, after this war will be wiped out with this decaying Qing Dynasty, Beiyang as the country's largest power, although the strength is strong, but whether it can control the situation in the country in a short period of time and counter the Russian aggression is not absolutely sure. The Japanese have already taken action to regain their lost territory, and for this purpose the Japanese government has decided to press everything it has. Naturally, the Russians would not give up this opportunity that they had exchanged for a lot of money and armaments, and even if Japan had already begun to declare war on Russia, Russia still did not want to give up this opportunity. As for the British, they were also very excited, although the First Sino-Japanese War organized the expansion of the Russians to the Qing State, but the Russians still obtained ice-free ports and large areas of land from Japan, and now the British need Beiyang to concentrate all their efforts to defeat Russia! Thus guaranteeing the inviolability of British interests in the Far East!

At this time, what made Xu Jie hesitate was the decision on Russia. According to Xu Jie's plan, Japan would appear as cannon fodder for the Russians to attack the northeast, and Japan did not "disappoint" Xu Jie's high hopes, and sent a Russian brigade into the icy Sea of Japan in an undeclared war not long ago, and the enraged Russian Far East Fleet launched an attack on Japan like a mad bear. And the Japanese Navy was also smart, and after destroying thousands of Russian troops, it obediently retreated to the area around Hiroshima. However, the Russian fleet continued to do nothing, and almost all of its troops pressed on, on the one hand, to support the Russian army's battles at Akita and Miyako, and on the other hand, to launch attacks on the Japanese sea transportation lines. In just a few days, Japan's sea lines were largely cut off, and with the exception of a few ships that escaped by luck, everything else became a Russian naval achievement.

Although Japan had stockpiled a large amount of supplies before the war, and although the Japanese Army was still on the offensive, Xu Jie knew very well that if this situation continued, Japan's arms reserves would be exhausted in two months at most, and at most four months, Japan's food supply would be exhausted. At that time, Japan will be defeated, Xu Jie is not concerned about the life and death of the Japanese, he cares about how much China can gain in this war.

Sitting back and watching Japan's defeat could theoretically lead to a period of stability of at least 3 to 4 months. But then what? Perhaps Beiyang can basically solve domestic problems during this time. But the overall strategic situation will deteriorate radically. Russia will have enough time to make Japan surrender or even completely surrender in 3 to 4 months, and Russia's strength in the Far East will be further extended, and even if the attack on the North Ocean is missed due to time problems, the Russians will still be sure to win! This is contrary to Xu Jie's purpose of weakening Russia and Japan at the same time, it is okay to beggar-thy-neighbor, but you can't make the enemy stronger!

Second, Russia had no intention of moving Japan in its original plan. Therefore, at this stage, the military strength of the Russians is prepared according to the standard of dealing with the Beiyang family alone, but now because of the addition of the Japanese, Russia will inevitably increase its troops, and after Japan is resolved, will the Russian army of more than 100,000 troops take advantage of the situation to launch an attack on Beiyang from the northeast? The answer is entirely possible! It may be difficult to rely solely on the Russians to feed more than 100,000 troops in the Far East, but if Russia sacks Japan and then plays to feed the war, it will be enough, and more importantly, the French have finally helped Russia in secret, so after Russia settles Japan, the strengthened Russian Navy and Army can still launch an attack on the Beiyang.

Third, the British factor, long before Japan launched the war, the British asked Beiyang to support Japan's actions through various channels, and even asked for direct combat with the Russian Far East Fleet in addition to supplies and transportation. Of course, it is impossible for Xu Jie to directly agree to this kind of request. And the British, in turn, threatened to reduce aid to the North Seas. The relationship between Beiyang and Britain gradually cooled, and Xu Jie knew very well that for a long time in the future, the development of the country needed the help of Britain, and the war with the Russians was definitely not a war that could be solved, and for long-term strategic needs, Beiyang needed to support Japan at the right time. We can't let the Japanese take advantage of it, but at the same time, we can't let Japan lose!

That being the case, Xu Jie decided that in 1 month the Beiyang Fleet would cover the convoy of transports destined for Japan. As long as the Russians do not attack the Beiyang Fleet, and do not attack the Japanese ports where the Beiyang Fleet is temporarily stationed, the Beiyang Fleet will not take direct hostile actions against the Russian Navy. Subsequently, Xu Jie will decide whether to force Russia and Japan to stop as a mediator or take the initiative to attack the Russian mainland and the Far East fleet according to the domestic situation. Xu Jie, the foreign strength of the Russian army, is very clear: In the Battle of Mukden in history, the Russian army actually lost to the Japanese army in a field battle when it had a considerable advantage in strength, which is enough to prove the strength of the Russian army. In that case, Xu Jie doesn't mind getting some benefits from the Russians while dealing with domestic affairs!

Subsequently, Beiyang began to carry out operations according to the plan, and a batch of old Krupp 75MM camp guns and machine guns were sent to the northwest training camp in Ronglu. And Yuan Shikai also obtained the news that the Hou Party might move from the information deliberately leaked by Beiyang, although Yuan Shikai was quite dissatisfied with the action at this time, he still had a large number of troops who had not changed their equipment, and although the weapons were relatively advanced, because they did not directly control the military factory, the supply of arms was almost completely dependent on the outside. Ammunition reserves are also not very large.

In this way, outside the city of Beijing, troops from both sides began to enter the position, and an atmosphere of solemnity enveloped the entire Beijing area. Neither side showed much interest in the city of Beijing, whether it was the Forbidden City, which was a symbol of the rule of the feudal dynasty, or the Summer Palace, which Cixi had worked so hard to build, neither side sent too many troops to deploy in the city, because both Rong Lu and Yuan Shikai knew very well that whoever could control the periphery of Beijing, who could eliminate the military strength of the other party, could finally control the whole of Beijing, regardless of the gains and losses of one city and one place. The strategy of concentrating on solving the opponent's vitality was realized by both sides of the war in 1899!

Thank you for the monthly pass and evaluation ticket of the noisy frog. Thank you for the support of the monthly pass with a breeze and the evaluation vote of the book friend Ashom. When I got up this morning, I found that the collection had grown slightly, and the author was very pleased, but when I looked at the subscription, I! Just 351 subscriptions! This is the lowest subscription since V on this book!! What's going on——! (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation and monthly passes, and your support is my biggest motivation. )