"The dust has finally settled on this reparation." After the talks, Li Hongzhang said gracefully.

"Not necessarily, all results are unreliable before the treaty is signed." Xu Jie couldn't help but shake his head and said. "The premise of this price is that the Russians continue to attack, but it is clear that the Russians do not have the strength to do so. I don't think it will take a few days, and I may have to regret it, right? ”

"Then how does Jishi think my Beiyang should respond?" Li Hongzhang's face became a little gray.

"Drag it slowly, almost all of the army and hundreds of thousands of strong men are trapped in North Korea and the mainland, these are all hostages, and the Japanese will not give up. These captives or something, we can also be used as labor first. In addition, since it is to control the import of food. Xu Jie said.

"Controlling the import of food?" Li Hongzhang touched his head and said puzzled.

"Japan's grain has always been on the verge of self-sufficiency. At the beginning, the silk reeling industry suffered heavy losses in the trade war, so Japan decided to import grain from North Korea at a low price, and at the same time sold it at a high price to make a profit. As long as we can try our best to get stuck in the grain transportation channels of the main Japan, we will eventually succumb. Xu Jie thought about it and said. And didn't the "Japan" originally say that the army surrendered, and the country did not announce its surrender? Then we can continue the blockade until the other side gives in. ”

"And what about the British? They seem to want to help the Japanese themselves. Li Hongzhang is still very worried about the attitude of the United Kingdom.

"The British want to control the economy of Japan, and we can't control this, as long as the Japan instinct can send enough money to the treasury in Beiyang." Xu Jie still understands a thing or two about the purpose of the British, which stems from the fact that after the defeat of the Qing in the First Sino-Japanese War, the various powers vied with each other to borrow money in order to control the economy of China.

During the recess between the two sides, Russia's offensive against Japan gradually slowed down, and it changed from attacking from all sides to consolidating the main attack. The idea of expansion as a supplement. Outwardly, this wave of attacks had gradually stopped, but at the same time, a new Russian fleet left the Baltic Sea and headed for the Far East.

And the variables of this fleet undoubtedly directly determine the direction of negotiations. Both Beiyang and Japan themselves showed great concern for this fleet. And when the Italian ambassador sent an attachment to a diplomatic note to Beiyang, Xu Jie found an opportunity to make the Japanese quickly succumb!

The Russian expeditionary fleet consisted of the following warships. The battleships Poltava and Petropavlovsk were respectively. These two ships are of the same class with a displacement of 12,000 tons. The dimensions of the hull are 112 meters long, 21.34 meters wide, and the draft is 7.77 meters. The armor protection was 12 inches of waterline armor, cut to 8 inches upward, 14 inches on the front of the turret and 10 inches on the sides. Because there were doubts about the performance of hardened armor at the time of construction, and hardened armor needed to be imported, so in order to save money. These two ships used rigid ironclad. (The data here differs from the historical ones, reducing the thickness of the main protective belt and strengthening the artillery protection of the upper ones.) ）

Armed with 4 12-inch 40L heavy guns, 12 6-inch 45L secondary guns, 12 9-pounder guns, 28 1-pounder guns, 4 torpedo tubes (here the secondary gun configuration has been improved, 2 torpedo tubes have been reduced) with an output of 14,000 horsepower, and a speed of 18 knots (an increase in history here) was launched in 1894 (historically 94 years old). In 98 years of service, I really don't know what the Russians are doing on the ground——! ）

Two inshore armored ships, Ushakov and Xeniavin, are 4,900-ton boats, mainly equipped with 10-inch steel-faced ironclad and 8-inch rigid-faced turrets. The output is 5700 hp. Speed 16 knots. Armed with 4 10-inch 45L guns and guns, 6 3-pounder guns, 10 1-pounder guns. Plus 4 15-inch torpedo tubes, the ship looks good, but in reality the armor belt height is only 7 feet. And the armor of the warp is a virtue. It's better than nothing, but the draft is relatively shallow at only 5.9 meters. It is more suitable for inshore operations.

…,

As for the cruisers? The Russians really couldn't get one out of it this time. Otherwise, 4,900-ton shore defense gunboats would not have been used to make up the numbers. And in addition to these 4 warships, there is also a fleet of 6 transport ships, as for what is loaded on it, no one knows what it is, some intelligence says that it is weapons, some say that it is the army, anyway, there is no exact information.

And this time, because of the end of the war in the Far East, France expressed its willingness to provide overseas supplies for the Russian fleet, after all, now that Russia and the Qing have reached an understanding, they are not afraid of offending either side of the supply supply, and there is still money to be made. France said it was fully capable of supplying from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. And if the Russians give more money, they can send merchant ships to supply the Russian fleet with ships. But the Russians, in order to save money, still contacted the Italian colony of Somalia at the southern mouth of the Red Sea, hoping to get supplies. Thus, the Italians were also able to obtain information about the Russian fleet.

"This Russian is really powerful, without saying a word, he sent 2 10,000-ton battleships and 2 5,000-ton gunboats." Li Hongzhang said with some concern.

"In the eyes of the students, the voyage of the Russian fleet this time is more to give the Russian army in the Far East a strong momentum." Xu Jie thought for a while and said.

"What do you mean by that?" Li Hongzhang frowned and asked.

"The construction of these two warships began in 1891 (a little earlier than history), and they were launched in February 1894, so it has only been more than a year now, and I am afraid that according to the efficiency of the Russians, even the outfitting was not completed. Not to mention the fact that the crew completed the training of the battleship and formed combat effectiveness. I'm afraid that except for a few main guns and power systems, the other secondary guns have not yet been installed and commissioned. Xu Jie sneered, although this step of the Russians was somewhat unexpected. At that time, it took at least 5 to 7 years for the Russians to build a complete warship, and from 1891 to the present, it was only 4 years at most.

(There are still examples of such haste without complete completion in history, as in the Spanish-American War, a Garibaldi ordered by Spain from Italy was dragged into the war before the main gun was installed.) Therefore, it is not impossible to dispatch warships that are not completely completed in such a deterrent operation for a belligerent operation. ）

"But in this way, it seems that we can use this Russian fleet to make a fuss, after all, no one knows what is in the transport ship of Lu Dao and the fleet Tongxing, if it is the army and supplies, it is estimated that the 'Day』 himself should be nervous again." Zhang Peilun thought for a while and said.

"This is an opportunity. The arrival of the Russian fleet is more stressful for the Japanese himself, but as the Russian fleet is stationed in the Far East one after another, the pressure on your shoulders is also increasing, and you have to worry more about how to resist the Russians. There was a hint of worry in Li Hongzhang's eyes.

At the same time, the Japanese themselves, who had been relieved by the slowdown of the Russian offensive, were shocked by the news that the second Russian fleet was coming eastward! The strength of the Russians frightened Hirobumi Ito and others! In their opinion, this Russian has an attempt to eat the Japanese book in one bite! In order to strengthen the strength of the Far East, they actually sent another fleet thousands of miles away, and this fleet actually has 2 10,000-ton battleships!

What worries Japan even more is that among the six transports accompanying these warships, I don't know what it is, if it is a large amount of armament, as long as it can arm another 30,000 Russians, then Tokyo may be really dangerous! Under these circumstances, reaching a treaty as soon as possible has undoubtedly become the last hope to save the empire!

As for the Russians themselves? Nicholas II did not expect that his actions would have such a big impact on the Qing-Japanese negotiations. The original intention was very simple, the Russian warships in the Far East were really uncontrollable. Even if the repairs were completed, they were still insufficient in the face of the Beiyang Fleet. And in order to keep the ice-free ports of the Far East, which were so easy to obtain, Nicholas II decided to send two battleships with complete power armor and main gun outfitting to the Far East, as for the subsequent finishing work? It can be carried out in the Far East, so that at least these two large warships will be enough to deter all potential enemies, including the Beiyang Fleet.

…,

As for the 6 transport ships in the back? Inside was a large amount of mechanical equipment and parts and artillery for outfitting the two battleships. Of course, there are still some 12-pounder guns and 9-pounder guns, which can be used as land artillery when replaced with army gun mounts, and there are more or less elements to deal with the Japanese themselves.

As for the fact that people are quite alert to Russia's actions in the Far East, but at most they are alert! Britain was not ready for war with Russia, and as Russia gained a foothold in the Far East, the British found that the cost of supporting both Japan and the North Ocean was too great. After all, the two are incompatible. The current situation in Japan can only be described as chaotic and decaying.

In order to contain Russia as soon as possible, the British cabinet finally decided to abandon the plan of letting the Qing state and Japan contain each other against Russia, and if the strength of the Qing state was raised as soon as possible in a short period of time so that it could better deal with Russia in the Far East, it became the most concerned topic of the British Parliament.

"Since the Sun has fallen, let his corpse become the nourishment for the rise of the Qing Kingdom. The British Empire needed a presence that could contain Russian expansion in the Far East. In addition, we must pay attention to the cooperation between the Russian and French navies, which not only affects the pace of Russia in the Far East, but also has a fatal effect on the Empire's maritime interests around the world. Prime Minister William Gladstone, who was re-elected at the cabinet meeting, said in high spirits.

At this point, the opportunity for the Japanese government to rely on the mediation of the British government to obtain rebirth has been completely lost, and what awaits the Japanese government can only be an abyss!