Three days after the Battle of Toshima, Ding Ruchang's telegram and details about the details of the battle were finally delivered to Lao Li's desk, and the first minister of the Great Qing Dynasty, who had been in charge of the army for decades, had never opened the battle report with such trembling as this time. It was as if the news of the victory was a fragile item that would disappear if you were not careful. Chen Jinhua, Cheng Biguang, and Hannagan, who had come from Lushun to report, stood on the sidelines, ready to tell Li Hongzhang the details of the battle.

"What a victory. For the first time since the founding of the Qing Dynasty, we defeated foreign invaders at sea. This Jishi really lived up to the old man's expectations, and sank 2 main cruisers of the Japanese in the first battle. It's really a tiger general. Youqiao, I'm going to write an excerpt, this time the old man wants to ask for merit for the meritorious personnel! Li Hongzhang said with a red face.

"Then how to deal with this Fang Boqian matter?" As soon as he heard that Lao Li didn't mention Fang Boqian, Chen Jinhua hurriedly said. This Fang Boqian escaped from the battle and almost buried the army brothers on the Zhiyuan and Gao Sheng Caojiang. Chen Jinhua is a martial artist, he only knows that if there is a mistake, he must be punished, and even if he wins the battle, he still can't cover up the mistakes of some people.

"What is the opinion of Ding Ruchang and the three major soldiers?" Li Hongzhang frowned and asked.

"Admiral Ding, Liu Zongbing and Lin Zongbing mean strict handling. Now Fang Boqian has been taken down and put in prison. Chen Jinhua said.

"What do you think?" Li Hongzhang said dissatisfied. In his opinion, just mentioning Liu Lin's two general soldiers without mentioning Xu Jie obviously shows that the Beiyang Navy Division still has a lot of opinions about this upstart.

"I dare not say it." Chen Jin arched his hand and said.

"What would you not dare? You spread the word for Jishi, will the old man still be angry with you? Li Hongzhang said angrily.

"General Xu's opinion is that severe punishment will not be granted." As he spoke, Chen Jinhua made a gesture of killing his head.

"Hiss~~." Li Hongzhang couldn't help but gasp. No matter how much this Fang Boqian is, he also has the title of chief soldier, and this Xu Jie will kill him if he says it. Although Xu Jie didn't look down on Shang Boqian from the beginning, he once said to Li Hongzhang openly and secretly that Fang Boqian couldn't be used, but this time Fang Boqian's escape was indeed beyond Lao Li's expectations, but Lao Li was still undecided about whether to kill Fang Boqian. The reason is very simple, although Lao Li also dislikes Fang Boqian very much. But if you want to put him to death, you have to find an excuse anyway. If you really poke out the matter of escaping from the battle, even if it is a big victory, I am afraid that those Qingliu in the court who have nothing to do will also use this matter to make a big article, right? Chen Jinhua can not think about politics, Xu Jie has no time to think about it now, but Li Hongzhang can't ignore it.

"This matter has spread among the armies of all walks of life, if it is not severely punished, how can it be convinced? If someone in the German army escaped, even if he was a member of the imperial family, he would be punished with death! Hannagan looked at the hesitant Li Hongzhang and said. Fang Boqian's escape and disregard for the officers and men of the Beiyang Army Division made the instructor, who was born in the German Army, very angry. Whether it is from the provisions of the "Beiyang Naval Division" or from a personal point of view, Hannagan wants this coward who escaped to disappear forever.

"Hengqi, what do you think?" Li Hongzhang asked.

"Fang Boqian's behavior has been a serious influence on the reputation of the Beiyang Naval Division, and his escape crime has spread in Lushun, whether it is the Beiyang Fleet, or the Nanyang, Guangdong or Taiwanese Naval Division, they are all extremely indignant at this son's behavior! If this kind of behavior is allowed to go, once this is a war, there will still be escapees, right? Cheng Biguang said indignantly. Cheng Biguang can speak better than Chen Jinhua, and first pointed out that this matter has spread, even if Lao Li doesn't say it, those clear streams who chase after the wind and shadows will know and make a fuss about it. In this way, it is better for Beiyang to take the initiative to cut this Fang Boqian. Second, this time, Beiyang is the leader of the navies of all parties. If you favor your own people, I am afraid that other sailors will not accept it in the future, so whether you start from Beiyang's own interests or consider the overall situation, this Fang Boqian can't stay!! …,

"Okay, you guys take a rest first, and the old man will call you back tomorrow." Li Hongzhang said a little tiredly.

After Chen Jinhua and the others retreated, Li Hongzhang still couldn't make up his mind, and Zhang Peilun on the side really couldn't stand it, so he said in a low voice: "This Fang Boqian is also to blame, Lord Zhongtang once mentioned him, and he was still so poor in the naval battle, so I can't blame Lord Zhongtang for being ruthless." The most important thing now is to prepare for the follow-up battle, if Fang Boqian is not executed, not only will the Qingliu not let go of Beiyang, but even within the Sailors, there will be a lot of discussions, right? ”

"Hey." Li Hongzhang let out a sigh of relief. "Yitang, you can't blame me."

"Has Yan come back?" Then Li Hongzhang asked.

"I've been waiting outside the door for a long time." Zhang Peilun returned. A moment later, Yan Fu walked into Li Hongzhang's study, and stood to the side after saluting.

"Ji Shi said to let the Beiyang Sailors stick to Haikou, what do you think?" Li Hongzhang glanced at Yan Fu and asked. To be honest, according to Li Hongzhang's disapproval of Xu Jie's construction, since the fast fleet can achieve such a big advantage in 1 day, then the Beiyang team will not be much worse, right? In this case, he concentrated his forces to directly fight the Japanese army. But Li Hongzhang is not a naval general after all, and for the sake of insurance, he still decided to ask Yan Fu, the head of the Tianjin Naval Academy who had studied in the British Navy.

"Qi Yu Zhongtang, my subordinates think that Mr. Xu's construction is very correct, although I Beiyang did not have a battleship sinking this time, but the two ships of Jiyuan and Zhiyuan were heavily damaged and needed to be repaired, and the 2 thousand-ton battleships of the Nanyang Naval Division were also damaged, so at present, the battleships that I can use in Beiyang are only 5 miles away from Beiyang (Pingyuan's speed is too slow--! and the Zhenhai ship of the Nanyang Naval Division and the two thousand-ton warships of the Penghu Naval Division, which are slightly inferior to the main fleet of the Japanese Combined Fleet. Although the warships of the Beiyang Naval Division's fast fleet are excellent, the number is too small, only 3, and the strength is slightly inferior to the Japanese fleet's fast fleet, so the best way at present is to look for an opportunity to eat some more Japanese warships, and then fight a decisive battle with the Japanese fleet after gaining the advantage. Yan Fu replied after thinking for a moment.

"In that case, let's do what Jishi says." Li Hongzhang saw that Yan Fu, a naval expert, agreed, so naturally he had nothing to say.

After the naval problem was resolved, Li Hongzhang exchanged views with some army generals in Tianjin, and the generals agreed that since the supplies and supplies of the Japanese troops who had landed at Inchon had been severely damaged, the Qing troops stationed in Pyongyang and Asan could take advantage of the favorable opportunity to engage the Japanese army. Although most of the people who went to North Korea were the old Beiyang army, the total number was 20,000, and there were also 3 battalions of the new army. The generals felt that they needed to use these troops to test the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army and collect relevant information for future decisive battles. Lao Li also gave up the unrealistic idea of a decisive battle outside the country, because Sheng Xuanhuai calculated an account for him, if he wanted to support the 100,000 army to fight in Korea, it would be absolutely impossible to fight without more than 50 million taels of silver. (You know, the Japanese army's First Sino-Japanese War cost was as high as 230 million yen!!) Don't say that Beiyang can't take out this money, even the Qing Dynasty can't take out this money at once. (Historically, the Qing Dynasty borrowed more than 20 million taels of silver during the First Sino-Japanese War) and what is more difficult to raise than money is manpower, to support the army to fight in Korea, it is not possible to support the army without more than 100,000 troops in front of it. And North Korea is mountainous, which makes it more difficult to transport. Therefore, Lao Li finally decided to adopt the strategy of attrition first and then decisive battle on the mainland.

Five days after the Battle of Toshima, the news of the Beiyang Rapid Fleet fighting two battles in one day, sinking five Japanese ships and shelling the port of Incheon spread around the world. Then the Qing and Japanese declared war on each other, and the public opinion of the two countries began to muster up their strength to attack each other too highly, and the Qing people generally believed that the Japanese army was vulnerable, sinking five warships in one day, and the army also suffered thousands of casualties due to the shelling of Incheon Port. In the eyes of some Qing scholars, the so-called Japanese army was nothing more than that, as if victory was just around the corner, and Emperor Guangxu, who was bent on trying to figure out Guò foreign wars to elevate imperial power, was making a fuss about it, on the one hand, rewarding the officers and soldiers who participated in the war, and on the other hand, telling Li Hongzhang that even if he borrowed debts, he would absolutely guarantee the supply of Beiyang military supplies. Li Hongzhang was very obedient and said that he would celebrate Lafayette's birthday with the victory of the Qing-Japanese War and establish authority for the Qing Dynasty. In short, in the case of a smooth battle, the form of Beiyang is very good. In the eyes of the Japanese people, there must be spies in the War Department and the Navy Department, otherwise, how could Kawahara be ambushed by others as soon as he was attacked. As for the army, it is even more of a bastard, the navy has been beaten, and the army is not in a hurry to transfer supplies, and put them on the port for people to even serve the pot, what is this not a national thief? (During the Russo-Japanese War, even Hikonojo Uemura of the Japanese Combined Fleet was made a national thief by some people.) And after the Russo-Japanese War, because they did not receive the envisaged reparations, some people even sent death threats to Prime Minister Katsura Taro, and as for the rally, it was very common to smash and loot, and even the official residence of the prime minister and the prime minister could be set on fire. This fully shows that the hair of this national thief can really be detained indiscriminately in Japan. And the voice of the Japanese government is only one, vowing to repay the shame of Toshima! That's all.

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