In Dongjiaomin Lane, Beijing, the British Legation in China, the British Minister Zhu Erdian, who has been calling for wind and rain in this country for many years, is drinking sullen wine on the sofa in his study at the moment. He had telegraphed the situation in Shandong, China, to Whitehall, but twelve hours had passed without any reply. Zhu Erdian can now understand that the British Empire is left with a skeleton, and he is simply powerless in the ongoing regional hegemony war in the Far East. And himself, the historical mission of the former Emperor Taishang of the Qing Empire and the Republic of China is about to come to an end, which is a normal thing. Since the British Empire did not need a tough diplomat to help them gain benefits, it was natural to consider a more moderate approach to safeguard their vested interests.

Still, he struggled to pick himself up, put down his glass, and began to write his own debriefing report, which was the basic duty that every responsible British Empire diplomat should fulfill.

"I don't hate the Chinese, but I have to be vigilant enough about this nation. Such a country that lacks integrity, has no morality, tends to be inflammatory, and is extremely cruel to the inside, so much power is hidden in front of the world. At one point I wanted to control the country by controlling the upper echelons of the country, and the Manchu princes and the Beiyang magnates seemed to be doing a good job. But I failed in the end, because I ignored the greatest characteristic of this people, which is that behind their amazing endurance, there is a spirit of self-improvement that is not inferior to that of Westerners, but if they are given a chance, they will take root and grow like mushrooms after a rain. And now it seems that allowing them to participate in the European war clearly gave them a huge opportunity, and one of their regional regimes finally swelled to such a terrible point that Japan, the watchdog of the British Empire, could not contain its growth. I have to admit that as the head of imperial China, I spent too much time in Beijing, and I always thought that as the capital of this country, this city could already represent the whole of China. But I now realize that this city is not representative of China at all, they are more like giant bloodsuckers in this country, smelling all over their bodies and feeling good about themselves. I have neglected the southern region of China and the wisdom of the Chinese, so we have missed the opportunity to stifle the further growth and development of this country, which is my personal responsibility and I am willing to take full responsibility for it...... But as a proud imperial diplomat, I have to make a necessary reminder to Whitehall before I leave office, we must support Japan and not let the Chinese step out of this place, otherwise they will be the new America of the whole of Asia, and the empire on which the sun never sets will also become history at the same time as the rise of such an ancient country, remember, remember! ”

Zhu Erdian's report finally appeared on the desk of the British Prime Minister, but it was ridiculed, because fools can see that Japan, with its powerful navy and tough methods, is the greatest threat to the British Empire in the Far East, and because Japan controls the sea power in the Far East, no matter how powerful China is, it can only be reduced to a continental country in front of Japan, just like Germany in Europe.

On December 19, due to the delay in Tokyo's conclusion and solution, the siege of Jinan had entered the seventh day, Yuheng Issei hid in the temporary underground headquarters, and kept sending telegrams to Tokyo for help, but he didn't know what to do.

On the first day of the siege, the Chinese army bombarded the entire historic city of Jinan. The Japanese soldiers who had been beaten naturally immediately returned fire, and the two artillery wings rolled up their sleeves and opened fire in return. The result? Recruited the Chinese Air Force, Yang Xianyi is undoubtedly the most prominent person in this war, the first wave of air raids has achieved huge results, if it were not for the Japanese army to react and transfer the artillery positions in time, they would definitely not have lost only thirty heavy guns. And it is more likely that from now on the three infantry divisions will become complete rifle divisions.

So now in the face of the shelling of the Chinese army, the Japanese army can only look for cover everywhere to hide, and do not dare to return fire at all.

This is nothing, and the Chinese army does not seem to have any intention of attacking the fortifications, and every day it is there to demonstrate their industrial production capacity, constantly throwing shells in with cannons, as if the shells do not cost money. Throw it away, after all, the number of Japanese troops that can kill and injure is limited. The real problem lies in logistics, from the beginning of the Japanese army trapped in Jinan, the entire logistics supply has been cut off. Zhang Zizhong's 1st Division did not participate in the siege, but joined forces with Sun Meiyao, and then swept away the Japanese army's logistics supply troops. This made Yu Heng Yicheng miserable, and his Japanese army rations, which claimed to be 60,000 but were actually only 50,000, immediately changed from two rice balls a day to one rice ball a day. What's worse is that due to the lack of vegetables and fruits in the Japanese army, the soldiers began to be constipated, and finally had to use their fingers to buckle each other's feces to solve the excretion problem......

Seeing that the situation was not good, the three baggage wings of nearly 10,000 Japanese troops immediately retreated towards Qingdao, along with the puppet troops of the three armies, totaling more than 50,000 people. As a result, in Pingdu, these people had an encounter with Zhu Peide's troops, and the battle lasted for more than three hours, and the commanders of the three armies fled first, causing the Japanese army to collapse on all fronts, and less than 6,000 Japanese troops finally entered Qingdao. Zhu Peide's department didn't dare to pursue too much, because if he pursued again, he would be shelled by the Japanese Navy, thinking of which heavy artillery with a caliber of more than 210 mm would be terrible to be fired, Zhu Peide hurriedly collected his troops and waited for Xue Yue to come up.

So the Shandong battlefield from this moment, divided into two, one is in the Jinan area, seven divisions of the Chinese army trapped the three divisions of the Japanese army in the city, stormed Bai Chongxi and settled the account, he has always been cold and he can't afford to lose, so his plan is best to starve to death consciously by the Japanese. In Qingdao, the three divisions of Zhang Zizhong, Xue Yue, and Zhu Peide, who had realized the division, confronted more than 8,000 defenders, and they did not dare to attack them, after all, the black holes of the Japanese warships were not vegetarians. The battle situation has suddenly entered a very delicate moment, and no one can help anyone for the time being, it is a bit of a dead end, and now it depends on who will break this game.

On December 22nd, break the game!

On this day, after a fierce quarrel, Prime Minister Hara Kei finally agreed to transfer the two divisions in Kyushu to Shandong to relieve the siege. But just half an hour after signing, two pieces of bad news came.

One was that the Shandong Fleet of the Japanese Navy was attacked by the submarine formation of the Shina Navy, one battleship, three cruisers, and four destroyers were sunk and damaged, and suffered heavy losses.

The second was that in the waters of Taiwan, eleven merchant ships and one escort destroyer were attacked by the Chinese flotilla consisting of four cruisers, and the destroyer and all the merchant ships were sunk, and the Chinese navy did not want to be taken prisoner at all. When the news reached Tokyo, the whole country of Japan was in an uproar, knowing that Japan's lifeline is the sea, and the now very weak Shina Navy did not dare to fight a decisive battle with the Great Japanese Navy, but did not abide by the rules and played pirate tactics to break the handover, which made the Japanese nervous.

As a result, the navy first abandoned its stance of cooperation with the army, and Togo's suggestion was to attack Shanghai and make a forced landing on the South China government. Yuan Jing objected to this, because this was not allowed by the British and French powers, and more importantly, the chaebols asked the navy to escort their merchant ships, and the total tonnage of the sunken eleven merchant ships had reached a staggering 45,000 tons. Now Your Excellency the Prime Minister is about to start a new round of headaches......

It was only at this time that all parties really realized that the aggressive Japan was not prepared for war at all, and that people came to Shandong, China, purely to pinch soft persimmons, but instead suffered a loss, which became the biggest joke among the great powers.

While the Japanese were still strife, the de facto controller of the central government in Beijing had lost confidence in the Japanese, and he secretly convened a secret meeting of several hardcore henchmen for a night, declaring that he was ready to go south to crusade against the rebellion, and in fact planned to return to his old nest in the northeast.

"Father, why should we go back to Fengtian? Do I still want to celebrate the temple fair in Beijing? Mukden is not as fun as the people here. Zhang Xueliang, who had just turned fifteen, asked childishly.

Zhang Zuolin, who was wearing a mink coat to protect himself from the cold, looked at his son with a little heartache, stroked his head and said: "Little Liuzi, Daddy has no ability, there is no way for you to live in this Beijing city for a long time, let's go back to our hometown, and when we have cultivated our internal skills, we will come back." ”

Zhang Xueliang nodded sensibly and didn't say anything more, Zhang Zuolin looked back at Jurentang again, I don't know if I can come back here in this life or not. Then he took his son on the train and went straight to Fengtai Railway Station.

Feng's retreat plan was very hidden, because Zhang Zuolin also hoped that the Japanese in Jinan would hold out for a few more days. Therefore, the actual withdrawal of the Feng army in the first stage was materials, and because most of the Japanese advisers went to Tianjin to investigate the war situation in Shandong during these days, although the action was very large, but there was no leakage of news. Zhang Zuolin and his subordinates gave full play to the characteristics of bandits, and if they could take anything away, they would definitely leave a little bit for the youth army. If it weren't for the refusal of the Manchu royal family to move the nest, Zhang Zuolin even planned to move the Forbidden City to Mukden.

Zhang Zongchang was then appointed as the direct overseer of the army, the North China patrol envoy, because after Xu Shichang's death, the post of president was vacant for many days because of the war, so Zhang Zongchang's position could not be formally appointed, but could only be acting. Zhang Zuolin also trusted Zhang Zongchang to hand over the expanded army after entering the customs, and for a time, Zhang Zongchang's troops reached an astonishing 600,000. The 150,000 descendants of the Feng army took the railway back to the northeast, and when they were interrogated by the Kwantung Army, they said that they were normal to adjust the defense, and this time the secrecy was in place.

However, no one can hide it from Major General Wu Junmei, head of the Beijing Terminus of the National Security Bureau of the Nationalist Government, whose eyes have been fixed on the whole of Beijing