In the second half of 1882, more and more Jews began to settle in the Funsali area.

According to the secret agreement between China and the "Zionist Union", any Jew who came to Funsali would be given a piece of land on a per capita basis as long as he registered with the "Zionist Union" office. Due to the large area of Phongsali and the total number of Jews at this time was only a few thousand, it got along harmoniously with the local indigenous Lao and Wa peoples, and there was no conflict.

At the same time, the Zionist Union is also in the process of forming a government agency, and Jihua has placed its future capital in the city of Funsali on the banks of the Nam Kam River. Here, all Jews enjoy unprecedented freedom and relaxation, and will no longer be treated as rats crossing the street, and everyone has infinite hopes for the future of the Jewish state.

They did not care at all about the hateful gaze of the Siamese people in the distance, although they were a rejected people, but in the eyes of these Jews from Europe and the United States, the Siamese and the Laotians were no different, they were all ignorant and inferior creatures.

Unbeknownst to them, Siam was preparing to regain the land.

On November 7, 1882, the Japanese convoy consisting of four transport ships, including the Flying Falcon, the Flying Dragon, the Osaka, and the Kuaifeng, arrived in Bangkok Bay, which was already the second batch of materials that Japan had provided to Siam. It includes 3,700 Murata rifles, 400,000 rounds of ammunition, and 12 bronze cannons and other military materials. According to the ><-Japan Siamese Alliance Treaty, Japan is building up Siam's military power step by step.

On the outskirts of Bangkok, a newly formed Siamese Army Division is being trained. This division was the core of the Jihua army of King Rama V Chulalongkorn, and according to the military establishment of Siam, one division was more than 6,000 men. The commander of the division was the chief of military affairs, Zhao Paya 61 Suri Wang, and the instructors were all Japanese officers, and the weapons and equipment were completely Japanese. These weapons are partly aid and partly in exchange for gold.

In Samut Prakan, construction of a short-distance railway to Bangkok has also begun. This contract originally belonged to China, but after Siam formed an alliance with Japan, it repeatedly delayed and cheated on various grounds, and there was no sincerity in carrying it out. And now it's just a Japanese company to build it.

In fact, this move by the Siamese government is not an emotional trick. In the agreement signed between China and Siam, not only did China build a railway, but also Siam ceded three northern states of Laos. Siam's refusal to enforce the railway contract is tantamount to effectively reversing the agreement with China, insisting that northern Laos is still Siamese territory, and laying the groundwork for future disputes.

This is exactly what Japan wants to see, since the defeat of the Korean Mutiny, Japan has felt that it is not well prepared, so it has made a change in strategy and proposed to "attack from the south and defend from the north." That is, in Siam in the south, it is trying its best to stir up a dispute with China. In the north, North Korea temporarily retreated politically, intensified economic infiltration, gathered intelligence, and continued to expand Japan's influence.

With this in mind, Japan began to compete for the position of public opinion propaganda in North Korea. At the end of September 1882, at the instigation of Japan, King Gojong's concubine Park Yong-hyo proposed to start a newspaper, which was approved by the imperial court.

On October 31, 1882, the first newspaper in Korea was officially launched. The three editors were the Japanese Takuzo Ushiba, Masanobu Takahashi, and Kakugoro Inoue, of whom Kakuro Inoue was a student of the famous Japanese scholar Yukichi Fukuzawa. Printers Kenzo Sanada, Hirozo Miwa, and Kiyotaro Honda are all Japanese.

This newspaper also quickly became a base for Japanese militarist groups such as Genyosha and Purple Society to secretly carry out activities in Korea.

But in any case, the political situation on the Korean table is now completely controlled by China, especially after the signing of the and the withdrawal of Japanese troops.

Although it is the Min Concubine group that is in power on the surface, it is the three giants of the big party who really decide the affairs of the imperial court: Kim Hongji, Kim Yun-worth, and Yu Yun-jung.

Among them, Jin Hongji served as the left council of the parliamentary government and was in charge of internal affairs;

Kim Yoon-worth served as the secretary of the Bing Cao judgment and Jiang Hua's stay-at-home guard, in charge of diplomacy, of course, the so-called diplomacy here only refers to China. As for exchanges with third countries, the Chinese representative Chen Shutang is in charge;

Yu Yunzhong served as the judge of Hu Cao and was in charge of the economy.

The three of them actually controlled the power of the government and were called the "hidden cabinet", and other members such as Zhao Ningxia, Min Taiho, Kim Byung-shi, Min Yong-yi, and Min Yong-jun joined the Shida Party one after another, with the Big Three as the core, calling for wind and rain in the imperial court.

But behind them is Yuan Shikai, and on major issues of domestic and foreign affairs, in fact, they have to accept China's manipulation.

They also knew this, and it was precisely because of Yuan Shikai's support that Concubine Min had no choice but to decentralize power. Because Concubine Min knew that she was unpopular with the people, if there was no support from Yuan Shikai, who would dare to keep the Renwu Mutiny would not come again.

At the same time, Dayuanjun was fortunate to stay in Yiju County, which also put a lot of pressure on Concubine Min.

And Yuan Shikai shocked Concubine Min and controlled the big party, relying on the elite army of those two regiments.

Ding Yuntong read history, in his previous life, because Yuan Shikai's methods of controlling North Korea were too simple and rude, too direct and obvious, which made the two classes of nobles in North Korea and the whole court feel very hurt, which is equivalent to pushing these people to the hostile side, either pro-Japanese or pro-Russian.

In this life, Ding Yuntong is determined to change his methods, first of all, he can't let Yuan Shikai have the final say on everything, important situations must be reported first, and major decisions must be applied first, unless the matter is too urgent.

Second, in principle, Yuan Shikai should operate behind the scenes, and on the surface, he should respect the internal autonomy of the DPRK. What jihua and measures, try to implement them through the big party, and control the government in such a low-key way, rather than brutally and directly interfering. At least at the imperial court, the Chinese representatives would not speak directly, so that at most they would arouse the resentment of Concubine Min, and not the entire bureaucracy.

Under this mode of control, China began to comprehensively strengthen economic ties with North Korea and intervened in North Korea's internal and foreign affairs on a large scale.

On September 21, 1882, less than a month after the signing of the Treaty of China signed the referred to as the .

The charter clearly states that Korea is a subject state of China and grants China a large number of privileges in Korea.

From the end of September to the beginning of November, in just over a month, China and the DPRK signed a series of treaties, covering political, economic, military and other aspects.

On the economic front, Ma Jianchang served as a commercial clerk of the customs, becoming the de facto chief of customs, and partially controlled the finances of the DPRK by controlling the tax revenue of the DPRK customs.

In terms of diplomacy, the DPRK's exchanges with third countries will be handled by Chen Shutang, who in fact controls the DPRK's diplomacy.

On the military side, the Chinese side will help the DPRK train four battalions of the New Army, with a total of 2,000 troops. The commanders of the four battalions were Min Yongyi, Li Zuyuan, Han Gyuji, and Yoon Taejun, while the training instructors were two captains sent by the Chinese side, Zhu Xianmin and He Zengzhu. By training a new army that is pro-China, he will be able to control the armed forces of North Korea.

On November 13, under the manipulation of Yuan Shikai, China and North Korea signed a most crucial agreement, . Under the agreement, China will immediately begin laying a railway from Uiju on the banks of the Yalu River to Seoul. And for 10 years after the completion of the railway, its management will belong to China. At the same time, the expert group headed by Zhan Tianyou has also arrived in Yiju County.

The significance of this railway is self-evident, and it will connect with the Feng'an Railway (Mukden-Andong) in northeastern China, which is nearing completion. In this way, once something happens to Korea, the Chinese army does not need to risk being intercepted by the Japanese navy, passing by land, and can approach Seoul in a few days.

As soon as the railway agreement was announced, it immediately caused an uproar. In fact, Concubine Min and Gojong were reluctant to sign an agreement, just as they had rejected Japan's Gyeongbu Railway, fearing that such a railway would make it impossible for them to get rid of China in the future. But under pressure from Yuan Shikai, they had to approve Jihua.

As a result, the dissatisfaction and resentment of Gaozong and the Min Concubine clique against China skyrocketed, and they began to consciously approach the Kaihua Party, hoping to use Japan to counterbalance China.

In this state of mind, at the end of December, Concubine Min agreed that the Enlightenment Party should come forward and make a request to Japan to train another part of the new army.

At the same time, the news that China will build a railway in Korea has also caused an uproar among the Japanese government and people. They believe that it is precisely because of China's obstruction that the Gyeongbu Railway did not succeed, and now China itself is going to build the railway, which makes the Japanese government and the opposition feel great stimulation.

Yukichi Fukuzawa wrote in the newspaper: "The Keigui Railway was a noose that was about to strangle Japan, and every day that this railway was built forward, the lives of the Japanese Empire were reduced by one day." When the railroad was built to Seoul, the life of the Japanese Empire would come to an end! ＂

On the other hand, the whole of Japanese society has also noticed the ongoing wave of industrialization in China, which has greatly increased Japan's sense of urgency, especially among intellectuals, who are more full of a sense of worry, and they are worried that if in a few years, China's industrial level will improve, Japan's prospects will be even bleaker, and they will become more active in the main battle.

On December 21, the "Seven Gentlemen's Group," composed of seven scholars, including Tokutomi Sumine, Nokio Ito, Hiroshi Komatsu, Lu Kannan, Yukichi Fukuzawa, Kazuki Imaizumi, and Shigehiro Komuro, formally submitted a petition to Foreign Secretary Shin Inoue, demanding that "a tough policy be taken toward Shina at an appropriate time."

At this time, two things also greatly increased the confidence of the main battle faction, one was that on the voyage of the Tsukuba, the experiment of dietary improvement was a great success. During the months of the voyage, almost none of the officers and men on the ship, whose diet was flour and beef, suffered from beriberi.

This eliminated the long-standing problem on the minds of the Japanese Navy.

Another thing is that three warships, secretly ordered in Britain through Chile, have returned home to join the combined fleet. These three newest and fastest cruisers in East Asia were named "Tsukushi", "Yamato", and "Musashi" respectively, which gave the Japanese navy a surge of confidence. Kawamura Junyoshi clearly reported to the emperor that the current strength of the Imperial Navy has already surpassed that of Shina, and when the warships ordered from Britain and France are in place next year, then it will be even more assured of victory.

The war frenzy in Japan was heating up dramatically, and the Japanese General Staff Headquarters had also stepped up its intelligence collection on China, and Deputy Chief of Staff Kawakami Koroku had even decided to go to China in person to observe China up close.