In 1855, Japan and Russia signed the Treaty of Peace, under which Japan owned the South Kuril Islands and Sakhalin Island (Huatai) was jointly administered by the two countries.

Because Japan and Russia did not have a clear border on Sakhalin, there was constant friction between migrants. After the Meiji Restoration, Kiyotaka Kuroda, the then vice-minister of Hokkaido, advocated abandoning the distant island of Sakhalin and developing Hokkaido as soon as possible, but the Japanese government decided to adopt it, and in 1874 sent Ambassador Takehiro Enomoto to St. Petersburg to negotiate with Russia.

On May 7, 1875, Japan and Russia signed the Treaty of Exchange of the Kuril Islands in St. Petersburg, which stipulated that Japan would acquire sovereignty over the entire Kuril Islands south of Kamchatka, the right to fish in the Sea of Okhotsk, and the right to use the surrounding Russian ports free of charge for ten years, on the condition that the entire sovereignty over the island of Sakhalin be relinquished to Russia.

Now Russia's military occupation of the North Kuril Islands is clearly a violation of the "Birch Island Exchange Treaty", and the reason used is that Japan has not returned Russia's previous loan in time, which is only a few million yen.

Ding Yuntong thought about it, and he understood what the Russians thought,

Originally, Russia wanted to use Japan to contain China, so it would have taken out loans and sold minesweepers to Japan. But the reality was that Japan suffered a swift crushing defeat and was almost powerless to fight back, leaving Russia's hopes in vain.

Now I probably feel that Japan is useless, so I simply turn my face and deny people, and instead take advantage of Japan's internal and external troubles to exert influence and establish my own position in Japan.

Because Britain, France, Germany, and the United States can control Japan through economic means, but Russia does not have such economic strength, and Russia itself owes France a lot of foreign debt. Therefore, in order to establish a position in Japan, the only tool that Russia can rely on is force.

The occupation of the Northern Kuril Islands, on the one hand, is to take advantage of the opportunity to expand, but the goal is not only the territory, otherwise why not occupy the entire Kuril Islands? Russia just wanted to force Japan to sue for peace and sign an unequal treaty with the opportunity, so as to establish Russia's influence and forcibly pull Russia in relations.

This is a bit funny to say, but it is true, just like a hooligan wants to approach a beautiful woman, I have no money to buy your heart, and I don't have a handsome appearance to seduce you, so I have to stand downstairs in your house with a kitchen knife to intimidate you, so that you don't dare to ignore my existence, as for whether you can get true love, it doesn't matter, at least one of the competitors.

Seeing the situation clearly, Ding Yuntong felt that this was not a good thing, because the pressure on Russia in the north was greater, and the Japanese government would have no energy to resist China, but China must avoid an unequal treaty between Japan and Russia, because all Japan's rights and interests will belong to China in the future.

Looking back now, we can explain why Ding Yuntong promised Japan to pay the huge war reparations when the "Sino-Japanese Beijing Treaty" was signed before, and why did he promise Japan to pay it for up to ten years? Not only to help maintain the emperor's regime, but more importantly, Ding Yuntong borrowed from the reparations of the First Sino-Japanese War in his previous life.

After the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan extorted a large amount of silver from China, and paid it off in three limited times. For this reason, the Qing government had to take a large amount of foreign debt, borrowing from Russia and France, borrowing from Britain and Germany, and renewing three large-scale foreign debts from Britain and Germany, and paying off the war reparations.

These three loans were all guaranteed by customs taxes, centigold, salt, etc., so that the Western powers completely controlled China's finances, and the British in the customs greatly expanded their authority, monopolizing China's trade autonomy and part of the financial and administrative powers, while Russia, Germany, and France expanded their spheres of influence by interfering in the repayment of Liao, extorting "rewards".

In the end, a very absurd result appeared: After Japan extorted a sum of money and snatched an island after spending half a day's effort, it did not have much impact on China's main body, on the contrary, Britain, France, and other countries achieved a "peaceful occupation" of China.

In this Sino-Japanese war, Ding Yuntong avoided Japan's large-scale borrowing from the West in order to pay reparations, because the consequence of borrowing would inevitably be that Japan would become a subsidiary of the West, which would affect China's complete and complete annexation of Japan in the future.

In short, in order to prevent Japan from betraying its interests, China needs to support Japan, and this is politics, and not long ago China was eager to put Japan to death, but now it wants to pull Japan along.

On 14 September, Wang Fengzao, Chinese minister to Japan, expressed China's attitude to Japanese Foreign Minister Shuzo Aoki: The Chinese Government is deeply concerned about the changes taking place in the Kuril Islands and is willing to provide assistance to the best of its ability to safeguard Japan's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

This statement surprised the whole of Japan, and the Japanese government was already very depressed by Russia's advance. A group of people led by Ito Hirobumi advocated that time be exchanged for space by ceding some rights and interests to Russia and slowly restoring the country's vitality.

But this opinion was naturally opposed by many people, and Emperor Meiji also felt that such a submission would make his prestige even more discredited. At this time, China's statement came very timely, and although it surprised the Japanese, it also quickly allowed hard-line voices within Japan to prevail, and Ito Hirobumi had to give up his compromise with Russia.

On September 17, a convoy departed from Yantai, Shandong Province, loaded with 7,000 tons of rice and 240,000 bullets, and headed for Osaka, Japan.

This was China's first batch of materials to aid Japan, of which 7,000 tons of rice could feed the four Japanese divisions for four months, greatly alleviating the "food shortage" of the Japanese army. Wang Fengzao solemnly promised: If Japan resolutely resists Russia's invasion, China will provide additional assistance according to the situation.

The Japanese government then lodged a strong protest against Russia and made military deployments, with the 11th Division guarding Tokyo, the 12th and 14th Divisions going to the northeast to encircle and suppress the remnants of the rebels, and the 13th Division being transported to Hokkaido to defend against the Russians. And the Self-Defense Fleet also cruised in the Sea of Okhotsk in full force to prevent Russia from further occupying the South Kuril Islands.

For a time, Japan and Russia were tense and stalemate in the north.

On September 18, the Ryukyu Kingdom officially held a ceremony for the restoration of the state in Shuri, and at the same time, Shonori also became the new king, and the real power was in the hands of Minister Shang Tokuhong, as well as the left and right Changshi Cai Dading and Mao Jingchang, of course, they were still essentially under the orders of Beijing.

The delay in the restoration of the Ryukyus until now is because the attitude of the former king Shotai surprised China, he not only opposed the annexation of Japan, but also opposed China's intervention, and China's coercion and temptation for several months could not make him comply, and finally Ding Yuntong secretly ordered the Ministry of the Interior to secretly attack and poison him.

According to the new Ryukyu Code, the Ryukyu Kingdom was a completely vassal state of China, and its internal and foreign affairs required the approval of the Beijing government, and the king had become the nominal head of state, whose only task was to preside over the sacrifices.

By late September, the standoff between Japan and Russia had continued, and officials from both sides had made some contacts, and Russia, seeing that Japan was heavily fortified and that it was not strong enough in the Far East, sought to sign a . However, the Japanese side insisted that Russia must first return the North Kuril Islands before the two sides could negotiate, but the habit of the Russians is that the meat they eat will never be spit out again. The two sides were at a stalemate, and finally broke up.

At this time, Ding Yuntong had already begun to plan a comprehensive war mobilization plan.

On 19 September, Peng Yulin formally submitted to Ding Yuntong a complete set of draft armament expansion plans, which were reviewed by Ding Yuntong and revised many times.

Looking at Peng Yulin's emaciated and pale face, Ding Yuntong knew that he had worked hard for this plan, and he had the intention to let him take a break, but thinking that the country was at a critical moment now, he really couldn't do without him, shook his head and took back the words that came to his mouth, and ordered Peng Yulin to implement it as planned.

On September 20, 1884, Ding Yuntong officially issued the "National Defense Mobilization Order", and China's military mobilization began in an all-round way.

First of all, it is stipulated that all undertakings that are necessary for national defense, economic coordination, and large-scale undertakings that require special equipment and technology shall be run by the state. All legal systems, internal affairs, foreign affairs, finance, economy, education, land, and communications are under the control of the state as a whole.

The significance of this order is to make all resources planned by the state in a unified manner to the greatest extent.

The second was the start of the construction of the railway artery.

Previously, on August 31, Hu Xueyan, on behalf of the Ministry of Commerce of China, signed a railway preferential loan contract with the three major consortia of Rockefeller, Morgan and Citigroup of the United States.

China borrowed a total of US$45 million from the three major consortia to build the railway, with a 10% discount and an annual interest rate of only 1% for a term of 30 years. The Chinese side uses all the assets and operating income of the railway as a guarantee for the loan, and if the road construction materials need to be purchased from foreign countries, half of them will be contracted by the consortium's subordinate companies.

Such low-interest and long-term loans will naturally not be a free lunch, and in return for infrastructure and commercial development throughout western China, Morgan and Citigroup will have the right of first refusal.

China's oil exploration rights for the next ten years will be fully controlled by the Rockefeller consortium, which opened an oil refinery in Cleveland in 1863 and expanded to form the Ohio Standard (Mobil) Oil Company in 1870, which now has a monopoly on the American oil industry.

This railway is the strategic railway from Lanzhou to Shihezi in Xinjiang, with a total length of more than 1,400 kilometers, spanning mountains, basins, deserts, and the Gobi, the project is unprecedentedly huge, in Ding Yuntong's strategic concept, the decisive battle with Russia in the future, China must have this railway as a support.

At the same time, China is also making every effort to localize weapons, especially imitation Mauser rifles, various types of field artillery, mountain artillery, howitzers, machine guns, pistols, and so on.

The most important thing is the expansion of the Guards, and Ding Yuntong demanded that the entire army should achieve a breakthrough by leaps and bounds in a few years.

On September 22, the new Military Service Law was promulgated and came into effect, and the relevant details of the conscription system were also released.

Then the "Conscription Order" was officially promulgated: "The northern neighbor is raging, invading our territory, and the non-whole people are rising up and resisting with all their might, which is not enough to defend the independence of the country and safeguard the survival of the nation." During this extraordinary period, all men of military service age are required to enlist in the barracks and perform military service, so as to pay for their military service and strengthen their national defense. ”

The massive expansion of the Guards began!