Although the trajectory of the historical trajectory has been deviated, the results have not changed.

Compared with the original history, the battle of Weihaiwei, which defended the Beiyang naval base, was more tragic and bloody, dealing a heavy blow to the Fusang Second Army under the command of General Dashanyan, and finally let people see the bloody nature of the officers and soldiers of the Qing Dynasty.

according to the pre-war plan;

The operational deployment of the Fuso base camp on the Jiaodong Peninsula was to "attack the Beiyang Fleet by sea and land", the Fuso Combined Fleet blockaded the coast of Liugong Island, and the Second Army attacked from the land flank and rear in a roundabout way.

In response to this battle, Li Hongzhang really took out the coffin book of the Huai army, and ordered his subordinate Yuan Shikai to lead 33 elite battalions, with a total of 16,000 people galloping to help Weihaiwei in the starry night.

Li Bingheng, the governor of Shandong, was ordered to mobilize 28 battalions of the escort army and 5 battalions of the horse team, with a total of 15,000 people to assist in the defense of the Rongcheng area of Shandong, and there were still 26 ships of various types of the Beiyang Navy in Weihaiwei Port, and 368 defensive materials and mines were laid at the east and west entrances of the harbor, and heavy troops were stationed in the North Gang Forts and the South Gang Forts, so as to build a solid defensive position and wait for the enemy troops.

On January 20, 1895, the Japanese Second Army under the command of Admiral Oyama Iwa, including the 2nd Division of Lieutenant General Sakuma Zomata and the 6th Division of Lieutenant General Kuroki Harizhen, totaling 25,000 men, began to land on Eisei Ryusu Island under the cover of Japanese ships.

At the same time, the 1st Guerrilla Group of the Fuso Combined Fleet carried out artillery bombardment in Dengzhou in order to confuse the Shandong defenders.

But this trick did not work, and the Japanese army, which had successfully landed, encountered big trouble, and the historical trajectory took a small turn here

After discovering the landing site of the Japanese army, the 5th battalion of horses took the lead in launching a decisive charge, and the infantry then covered up and killed, and the two sides fought together.

After a brief period of confusion, the Japanese showed great military qualities and organized an effective resistance at the beachhead.

In an instant, artillery fire flew everywhere, and corpses were everywhere.

Facts have proved that the officers and soldiers of the Qing Dynasty are not unable to fight, but whether they can hold the key points, under the strict order of Prime Minister Li Hongzhang, the governor of Shandong, Li Bingheng, can only supervise the soldiers to repeatedly storm the enemy camp, and the bloody battle will not retreat.

Before this battle

Li Hongzhang, Prime Minister of Beiyang, once said; This is the battle of life and death of the dynasty, if the Qing blood battle is benevolent, your parents and I are generous, your children and I are generous, choose the best to protect a future from the prefect of the four products, if you dare to escape, fear the enemy, will be full of beheading, chickens and dogs will not stay.

When it comes to this, there is no room for this, and Li Bingheng, the governor of Shandong, can only bite his teeth, and immediately confiscate more than a dozen rich and unkind rich families in Jinan Prefecture, and all the money obtained is distributed to his officers and soldiers, and each soldier can get more than 30 taels of silver, which is called "life money".

If you don't take this money, you will have to play with your life.

Rongcheng's battle was fought from noon to dark, from dark to dawn, and there were many corpses lying on the beach, and it was not until dawn that the troops were withdrawn.

post-event inspections;

The 6th Division of Lieutenant General Kuroki Weizhen, who was the first to land, suffered more than 4,000 casualties.

Shandong Governor Li Bingheng's troops suffered more than 10,000 casualties, and they were no longer able to fight, so they retreated to the side with scars all over his body to lick his wounds.

This battle had never happened in the original history, and it was really tragic and bloody, which made people feel angry, and played the spirit and blood of the officers and soldiers of the Qing court, although they were defeated, they were still glorious.

This battle also made the extremely arrogant commander of the Second Army, General Oyama Yan, pay attention to it, and he no longer had the previous frivolity, and carefully arranged his troops to cover the landing site and prevent another surprise attack.

It took the Second Army 7 days to complete the landing, which took 4 days longer than the original, and also won 4 precious days for the Weihai defenders to build the camp and fortress.

January 22, 1895

Gu Zhiwen, the leader of the great warlords in the northern part of Vietnam, suddenly declared the establishment of an independent state, with the name of "Yue", and canonized it to the Manchu court.

Only the French Governor's Office of Saigon was shocked and angry, but it was helpless against this sudden situation, and could only watch Beiqi go out independently.

On January 28, the 2nd and 6th Divisions of the Japanese Army set out from Rongcheng respectively, and each headed in the direction of Baiqi Cliff from the north and south.

In the battle of attacking the hundred-foot cliff, the Qing army Zhaobuzui Fort sank 1 Japanese ship, damaged 2 ships, and the Shandong governor Li Bingheng, who retreated to this place, had less than 4,000 intact people, and fought hard here for three days, and more than half of the casualties were lost before retreating.

Li Bingheng was wounded by the artillery bombardment, and he shouted and fought until he fell unconscious, and then he was carried out of the battlefield by the battalion officer who was close to the left.

Lieutenant General Sakuma's 2nd Division paid the price of 1,370 casualties, and it took 3 days to conquer the Zhaobuzui Fort and occupy the 100-foot cliff position.

After a week's rest

On February 6, 1895, the Japanese army concentrated its forces to attack the Weihai Weinan Gang Battery.

This is a tough battle, the Qing army stationed in the Nanbang Fort is not only six battalions of 3,000 people in the original history, but strengthened the Beiyang general Yuan Shikai under the command of Feng Guozhang a total of 8 battalions of 4,000 elites, this is the Huai Army's well-known "foreign gun team", in addition to being equipped with a large number of British singles and one rifle, but also equipped with 1,500 new repeating rifles produced by the Azure Weapons Company, 8 Makqin heavy machine guns, a total strength of 7,000 people, firearms equipped with as many as eighty, the rest are knives and guns and other cold blades.

Among them, the battalion officers at the head of each battalion include Zhang Xiluan, Duan Zhigui, Long Jiguang, Jiang Gui and other fierce generals of the Huai Army.

He really has no choice, and now he is forced to retreat by the Fusang people, and after being woken up by Gu Zhixue, he can no longer deceive himself and pretend to be asleep.

This was a very close bloody battle, the Qing army occupied the favorable terrain and stubbornly resisted, repelling 27 Japanese attacks in 4 days, especially the Maximine heavy machine gun caused heavy casualties to the attacking Japanese dense formation, and the left wing commander Major General Oji Yasumi was killed by the Qing army's counterattack shells, forcing the 2nd Division to stop the attack.

Due to the serious damage of the troops, the commander of the Second Army, Oyama Yan, had to send a request for reinforcements to the domestic base camp, and 14,000 men of the 7th Division boarded ships in Kagoshima overnight and rushed to the battlefield on the Jiaodong Peninsula.

After that, 8 consecutive days

The Motianling position guarded by the elite of the Huai Army has been repeatedly contested several times, with countless casualties, and finally it is still firmly in the hands of Feng Guozhang's troops.

This made them realize that emaciated camels are bigger than horses.

It really can't force the Qing Dynasty to the extreme, if it is really such a desperate battle, no matter how many troops are not enough to fill this deep pit.

After that, it was not until the new force of the Japanese 7th Division came up that the 2nd Division and the 7th Division worked together to capture the Motianling position and completely occupy the Nanbang Battery.

After the war, take stock of the battle of the Southern Gang Battery

The ironclad ship "Akagi", which provided artillery support, was sunk, the "Saikyo Maru" was damaged, and two other small gunboats were sunk.

The total losses of the Japanese army were 4,720 people, Major General Yasumi Oji was killed in battle, Major General Nomura Kei of the Nomura Brigade was killed in battle, 237 officers at all levels were killed and wounded, and the 2nd Division had lost more than half of its combat effectiveness, which was a heavy blow to the invading Japanese army.

The elite of the Huai army who defended the 7,000 southern gang forts lost most of them, and in the end only more than 1,300 people withdrew, Feng Guozhang was slightly injured, Zhang Xiluan was seriously injured and dying, Duan Zhigui, Long Jiguang, Jiang Gui and other Huai army generals also stained their robes with blood and retreated with hatred.

This was a bloody battle in which the Qing army and the Japanese army had the closest casualty ratio, and the battle of Nanbang Fort lasted 17 days, and it was also the most heart-wrenching battle in the whole campaign.

In the previous 10 days

The North Gang Fort has been captured by the extremely fierce 6th Division, here is a total of 4,000 elites in the 8 battalions of Wang Shizhen's department, together with more than 2,000 people defending the North Gang Fort, with a total strength of more than 6,000 people.

Under the fierce offensive of the 6th Division, regardless of casualties, it only lasted 6 days before it was lost, and the Qing army lost more than half of its personnel.

The 6th Division also suffered more than 1,400 casualties, plus the more than 4,000 people lost at the beachhead, and the 6th Division of Lieutenant General Kuroki was less than 10,000 troops, losing 13 troops.

February 16, 1895

In order to demonstrate the prestige of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, Emperor Guangxu personally canonized Gu Zhixue as the king of Yue, awarded the seal of the national book, and governed the Beiqi region.

On February 17, the Ocean Kingdom publicly recognized Vietnam and expressed its good will to strengthen the development of bilateral relations.

On February 23, 1895, the veterans of the Fusang Second Army Division, which had successively conquered the Southern Gang Fort and the Northern Gang Fort, were tired and had to enter a long-term recuperation.

At this time, Liugong Island, the old nest of the Beiyang Navy, had become an isolated island, and the two important batteries of Weihaiwei, which were not far away, were occupied, and the Japanese combined fleet was blockaded on the sea, and the land army was eyeing it.

According to the original historical deduction;

At this time, Haowei, an American foreigner of the Beiyang Fleet, began to run up and down, and contacted the battalion office to send Niu Changyu and other generals to surrender, and coerced Ding Ruchang, the commander of the Beiyang Fleet, to lead the fleet to surrender, but was categorically refused.

Ito Youheng, commander of the Fuso Combined Fleet, sent a letter to Ding Ruchang to persuade him to surrender, but Ding Ruchang flatly refused, and led the Beiyang Fleet to resist and fight back with artillery in the harbor.

Soon after, the Dingyuan ship ran out of ammunition, and Liu Buyun committed suicide.

The Zhenyuan ship ran out of ammunition, and Yang Yonglin was unwilling to surrender and commit suicide.

Admiral Ding Ruchang was coerced by the foreigners and the generals such as Niu Changyu promoted by the Weihai Camp Office, and committed suicide by refusing to surrender.

After that, Haowei, an American-foreigner, drafted a surrender document, and in the name of the pseudo-Totin Ruchang, he sent Guang Bingguan to bring Cheng Biguang to the Fuso flagship.

Two days later, Niu Changyu and Ito Youheng signed the "Weihai Surrender Treaty", stipulating that all the ships in Weihaiwei Port, the Liugong Island Fort, and all the ordnance and materials on the island would be handed over to the Japanese army.

On February 17, 1895, the Japanese landed on Liugong Island, the Weihaiwei Naval Base fell, and the Beiyang Fleet was completely annihilated......

……

On February 23, 1895, the artillery fire of Weihaiwei Liantian had just been extinguished, and the elite of the Huai Army fought the Japanese in the Jiaodong Peninsula, composing a bloody poem that could be sung and cried, which greatly encouraged the will of the Beiyang Navy to fight to the end.

What's more, even the Japanese didn't know that the warehouses on Liugong Island were already full of shells, and the two giant ships, Zhenyuan and Dingyuan, had been refitted and each equipped with six 152-mm rapid-fire guns, and the firepower of the secondary guns had increased greatly.

Several small sheds that had shrouded the two giant ships Zhenyuan and Dingyuan for more than two months had still not been dismantled, and the officers and men on the ships kept them strictly secret, full of hope that they would be able to control the giant ships for more than two months.

On Liugong Island

Yuan Shikai, the general of the Huai Army, personally led 7,000 officers and soldiers to reinforce, not only strengthened 2,400 repeating rifles, but also had 24 Maxine heavy machine guns, plus more than 5,000 defenders on the island, with a total strength of more than 12,000 people.

At this time, Liugong Island already had a complete group of forts and some temporary fortress fortifications, with 6 batteries in Donghong, Nanzui, Yingmendong, Qidingshan, Gongshohou, and Huangdao, and more than 100 shore guns of 240 mm and 120 mm and 75 mm caliber, with sufficient ammunition.

Just like the Donghong Fort, for example, it is equipped with 4 German 240-mm shore guns, 4 120-mm shore guns, and 10 75-mm shore guns.

Now that the Nanbang Fort has fallen, the Donghong Fort can still pose a major threat to the southern seas.

There are 11 interconnected semi-underground barracks, each of which is about 22 square meters, which are located at the exit of the tunnel and are connected to it.

The barracks are connected to each other, making it easy to enter and exit, and the defenders can go directly to the gun emplacements from the barracks through the tunnels.

The tunnel is the top of the vault, made of granite, the highest point is 4 meters, the width is 3.2 meters, there is a complete ventilation equipment inside, after the completion of the Donghong Fort, 550 soldiers led by Zhang Wenxuan, the commander of the guards, are stationed bravely.

On February 28, 1895, after a few days of cautious waiting, Ito Youheng, commander of the Fuso Combined Fleet, sent a letter to Ding Ruchang to persuade him to surrender, but Ding Ruchang flatly refused.

A week later, on March 4th

More than 10 ships of the Fusang Third Guerrilla Fleet sailed into the east entrance of Weihai Bay and bombarded Donghong with many shells, intending to test the Qing army's resistance firepower.

Although the Qing artillery was trapped and exhausted for several months, they still struggled to resist, and successively hit the Japanese ships Tenryu, Katsuragi, and Iwaki, the deputy captain of the Tenryu ship, Captain Nakano, was killed on the spot, the Japanese ship suffered 64 casualties, the Iwaki ship suffered heavy losses, and the third guerrilla fleet was forced to retreat.

As had happened in the past, Haowei, an American foreigner of the Beiyang Navy, contacted the Weihai Battalion Office to promote Niu Changyu, and Cheng Biguang, the leader of the "Guangbing" pipe, and other generals, and jumped up and down to spread the remarks of failure and surrender, which was very supported by some surrenderers.

But this behavior was quickly curbed, Yuan Shikai showed the warrant of Li Hongzhang, the prime minister of Beiyang, and sentenced Niu Changyu for the crime of wartime treason, and beheaded Cheng Biguang and other generals for the crime of wartime treason.

The American foreigner Hao Wei was held in solitary confinement and awaited post-war disposal.

Among the army and navy in Beiyang, there are many British, German, and American officers, most of whom abide by the professional ethics of military personnel and fulfill their duties loyally, but it is inevitable that there will be one or two rat droppings, and the American foreigner Haowei is a typical example.

In the original history, it was because of his instigation that the Beiyang Navy, which was trapped on Liugong Island, finally disarmed and surrendered, staging an extremely humiliating scene.

Now everything is different, these capitulation factions have been suppressed without making waves, and the Beiyang Navy is united and ready to fight to the end.

meanwhile

Just when the Jiaodong Peninsula was in flames, the war in the three northeastern provinces presented a one-sided situation, and the Fusang First Army under the command of General Youpeng in Shanxian County was like a bamboo, breaking through the defense line of the Yalu River and occupying Phoenix, Xiuyan, Haicheng and other places, and then occupied Jinzhou and Lushun, and created the tragic Lushun Massacre.

The Qing Dynasty transferred Liu Kunyi, the governor of Liangjiang, to supervise the military affairs of the Eastern Expedition as the minister of the Qin Mission, and gave him full power to command the military inside and outside the Guan, and appointed Wu Dacheng, the governor of Hunan, and Song Qing, the governor of Sichuan, as assistants, in order to restore the declining situation.

The Qing army deployed the Feng army, the Shengzi training army, the Xi character army, and the Renzi army around Ximu City, with a total strength of more than 100 battalions and more than 50,000 people.

In addition to the infantry battalion, there are 5 battalions of horses and 1 battalion of artillery, with a total of about 8,000 people and a total strength of more than 60,000.

From January 17, 1895, the Qing army launched four battles to recover Haicheng, but they were all repelled by the Japanese army due to poor command.

On February 28, the Japanese army took advantage of the victory to pursue and attacked from Haicheng by separate routes.

On March 4, Niuzhuang was captured, Yingkou was taken without a fight on the 7th, and Tianzhuang was captured on the 9th.

In just ten days, more than 60,000 troops of more than 100 battalions of the Qing Dynasty retreated from the east bank of the Liao River.

The performance of the two battlefields, one south and one north, is different, which makes people confused.

The Manchu court, in accordance with the original plan, sent Zhang Yinhuan, the head of the household department, and Shao Youlian, the governor of Hunan, as plenipotentiary ministers, and hired the US Secretary of State Kostec as advisers to negotiate peace in Japan on January 6, 1895.

Zhang Yinhuan, the head of the household department, and Shao Youlian, the governor of Hunan, and their entourage were treated extremely arrogantly and rudely in Fusang, wasting nearly a month, and finally were told that they were not representative, and that they were humiliated under the pretext of "insufficient powers", and that if they really wanted to negotiate peace terms, they had to send Li Hongzhang, the prime minister of Beiyang, to come.

At this moment, the Fuso people finally revealed their true colors of greed.

Without it, these ministers have no right to agree to any of the conditions of the Fuso, so what is the need to negotiate?

Mid-March

The exposure of the Lushun Massacre has caused outrage in the Ocean Kingdom, as the residents who fled to the Lushun Eagle School were bloodily slaughtered, killing more than 3,600 people, according to the surviving white teachers.

Whoever wears a pair of pants or clothes from an Eagle School student will be considered a student of the school, regardless of their age, whether they are male or female.

The Ocean Kingdom immediately flew into a rage, officially sent a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Fuso, asked for an official explanation of this, and threatened to intervene in the war in the three northeastern provinces by force.

The Ocean Kingdom has always been one of the factors that Fuso is most worried about by foreign interference, and now it is so troubled by this incident that it can only ask the ministers of Britain, the United States and Germany to mediate and ensure that the incident will be thoroughly investigated and given a perfect answer to the Ocean Kingdom.

In fact, this is a delaying plan by the Fuso people, and the Ocean Kingdom knows this very well, and cooperates with the act to drag it on.

On the Jiaodong Peninsula

In order to gnaw the hard bone of Liugong Island, after nearly half a month of thorough preparations, a large amount of artillery and ammunition was transported from China, and the Fuso Second Army began to carry out an all-out bombardment of the forts on Liugong Island on March 19, 1895, mainly with the occupied Weihaiwei Nanbang Fort and Beibang Battery, supplemented by the guerrilla fleet of the Combined Fleet.

Not to be outdone, the four forts of Donghong, Nanzui, Qidingshan, and Huangdao all participated in the artillery battle, and the artillery of the two sides went back and forth, and the artillery battle lasted for 11 days, and the two batteries of Nanzui and Huangdao were all destroyed, and Donghong was seriously injured.

However, the fort on Liugong Island also completely destroyed the Japanese Southern Gang Battery, damaged the Northern Gang Battery, damaged several Japanese gunboats, and killed more than 230 enemies.

April 2, 1895

Around five o'clock in the morning

All the 23 gunboats of the Beiyang Fleet that had been cowering in the military port of Liugong Island were able to start, and all of them left the port with fire, but unfortunately the ironclad battleship Dingyuan ran a mine when it was near the port and had to run aground in the bay and could only be used as a water battery.

In addition to leaving a shallow gunboat to assist, Ding Ruchang, the commander of the Beiyang Naval Division, led the remaining 21 large and small warships to sail out to meet the combined fleet with a mortal heart, and an unprecedented and tragic sea battle of Liugong Island broke out.

From 5:00 a.m. to 1:40 p.m., the Battle of Liugong Island lasted 8 hours and 40 minutes, and finally ended in the tragic end of the total annihilation of the Beiyang Navy, for which the Fuso Combined Fleet also paid a heavy price.

At this time, the sea was full of gunsmoke and flames, and the slowly sinking battleship ignited a raging fire and soared into the sky, and on this sea full of blood and death, an epic tragic song was deduced.

The Zhenyuan sank, Yang Yonglin was unwilling to surrender and sank with the ship, and Ding Ruchang, the commander of the Beiyang Naval Division, was hit by shrapnel and martyred the country.

The "Laiyuan" sank in battle, and Qiu Baoren was killed, the "Jingyuan" sank in battle, and Ye Zuqi fell into the water and was rescued, and the "Jiyuan" was hit hard and ignited a skyrocketing fire, and sank after struggling to support it for more than 4 hours.

"Pingyuan", "Chaoyong", "Yangwei", "Guangjia", and "Guangbing" were either sunk or heavily damaged, and the blood on the sea was colored.

The Fusang No. 1 Guerrilla Squadron had an average speed of 19.4 knots, and the rapid-fire guns it was equipped with were six times faster than the Beiyang Navy's original rear-loading guns, and nearly twice as fast as the Beiyang Fleet.

For this, the Fuso combined fleet paid a heavy price.

The cruiser "Yoshino" of the 1st Guerrilla Force sank, and the captain of the ship, Colonel Kawara, was killed on the spot, and the "Akitsuzuzu" was severely damaged and had to rush to the beach and run aground.

The cruiser "Kumamoto" was heavily damaged, and the captain of the ship, Heihachiro Togo, was seriously injured in many places.

The "Matsushima," the flagship of the Combined Fleet, was hit by a bomb and caught fire in more than 10 places, and the crew tried their best to extinguish the fire before they could get it back, and the "Chiyoda" was sunk, and the other ships "Itsukushima," "Hashidate," and "Hiei" were all injured in varying degrees of severity.

The Combined Fleet had broken its backbone in this battle, and had almost lost the ability to continue fighting.

But after all, Fusang won and seized the control of the Yellow Sea, and from then on, the 10,000-mile sea frontier of the Great Qing State was like being stripped naked, and the combined fleet was allowed to wreak havoc.

Although Fusang won successive battles on the battlefield, after all, its national strength was limited, and the huge consumption brought by the war further increased the domestic burden, and after the naval battle of Liugong Island ended in April, Fusang was completely unable to fight.

Therefore, Fuso Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi submitted a request for peace talks to the Qing government on April 6. However, Li Hongzhang was appointed as the plenipotentiary representative, and proposed to the Qing government that land cession and compensation must be the conditions for "peacemaking", otherwise there was no need to send a representative to Fuso.

The Qing government was very afraid of the continuation of the war, and was determined to do whatever it took to obtain an armistice.

Therefore, on April 17, 1895, in accordance with Fuso's will, Li Hongzhang was hurriedly reassigned as the first and plenipotentiary minister, with the former U.S. Secretary of State Kosteda as an adviser, to Fuso Koshimonoseki (now Shimonoseki) to negotiate with Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi and Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu.

On April 20, the two sides met at Chunfan Tower, officially opening peace talks, which was a month later than in the original history.

Although the Beiyang Naval Division was wiped out, the battle on the battlefield in Liaodong was fierce.

Li Hongzhang demanded an armistice before the peace talks, but the Japanese side put forward four harsh conditions, including the occupation of Tianjin and other places, but Li Hongzhang categorically refused.

After the meeting on April 24, Li Hongzhang was suddenly stabbed by Fusang ronin on his way back to the embassy, and Fusang, fearing that it would cause an excuse for the intervention of the Ocean Kingdom, voluntarily announced a truce, and the two sides signed a truce treaty on the 30th.

The truce lasted for 21 days, and the scope of the truce was limited to Mukden, Zhili, and Shandong, and a complete armistice was implemented.

During this period, the Japanese representatives continued to threaten and blackmail in the posture of victors, while the American adviser Crestec tried to induce Li Hongzhang to accept the conditions as soon as possible in order to reap the benefits.

On 1 May, the Japanese side put forward very harsh terms for peace negotiations, including a war indemnity of 300 million taels of silver, the cession of the three northeastern provinces and the Penghu Islands in Taiwan, and the opening of Shashi, Chongqing, Suzhou, and Hangzhou as treaty ports.

Li Hongzhang categorically rejected the Japanese side's conditions, and only agreed to pay 30 million taels of silver in compensation and open Shashi and Hangzhou as treaty ports.

The greedy appetite of the Fusang people was confirmed one by one, and at this time Li Hongzhang showed an extremely tough attitude, telegraphing 20,000 new troops led by Gu Zhixue, the governor of Beizhili, to enter Tongxian to deploy defenses, and urgently mobilized 30 battalions of new troops from the Liangguang area, totaling 15,000 people, to aid Beijing and Tianjin.

In addition, the Huai army will be mobilized, and the Hunan army will have a total of 60 battalion heads, ready to fight a battle to defend Beijing and Tianjin.

In addition, it negotiated with the Ocean Kingdom about the purchase of ships, and planned to purchase the "White Tiger" heavy cruiser stationed in the Ryukyu Kingdom, as well as six other cutting-edge 4,000-ton cruisers, and prepared to merge them into the ranks of the Guangdong Navy Division to carry on the war.

The Ocean Kingdom actively responded to this military purchase, and even drove the heavy cruiser "White Tiger" to the important place in Tianjin to show off, which brought great pressure to the Fuso Kingdom, and the tough tone became softer.

Don't look at the Fusang people at the negotiation table are extremely arrogant, in fact, they are strong on the outside, and the huge economic pressure has made it impossible for them to hold on.

After several rounds of negotiations

On May 11, Ito Hirobumi proposed the final amendment of the Japanese side, the conditions of which were very harsh, and said to Li Hongzhang: "Zhongtang saw me for this abridgement, but there are only two sentences: yes and no. ”

Li Hongzhang asked: "Isn't it allowed to distinguish?" ”

Hirobumi Ito replied, "Just debate, but not less." ”

The plan was to pay war compensation of 100 million taels of silver, cede the three northeastern provinces and Taiwan's Penghu Islands, and open Shashi, Suzhou, and Hangzhou as treaty ports, and the conditions were somewhat reduced.

Li Hongzhang begged for relief from the blackmail, but was refused.

On May 14, Tang Shaoyi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ocean Kingdom, joined forces with France and Germany to mediate, lowered the war reparations to 6,000 taels of silver, ceded the three northeastern provinces and the Penghu Islands of Taiwan, opened Shashi and Hangzhou as treaty ports, and began to put pressure on the Japanese side, threatening to sell warships to the Qing State to help it quickly restore its strength, and did not rule out the joint intervention of various countries.

All countries are playing their own small calculations, and under the watchful eye of the great powers, Fuso finally has a weak heart.

After a week of struggle, the Fuso government finally agreed to conclude the treaty.

On May 19, the Qing government sent a telegram ordering Li Hongzhang to comply with the contract. On May 27, on behalf of the Qing government, Li Hongzhang signed the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" with Japan, which humiliated the country.

The Treaty of Shimonoseki (also known as the Treaty of Chunfanlou) consisted of 11 paragraphs, with "separate treaty" and "negotiated special article" attached. The main contents of the treaty are:

The Manchus recognized Korea's "complete independence", but in fact recognized Fuso's control over Korea;

The Manchus ceded the Liaodong Peninsula, Taiwan Island and all affiliated islands (including the Diaoyu Islands) and the Penghu Islands to Fuso.

The Manchu Qing Dynasty "compensated" Fusang for military expenses of 60 million taels of silver.

Shashi and Hangzhou were opened as treaty ports, and the Fusang government could send consular officers to station at the above ports, and Fusang steamships could sail into the above ports to take passengers and load cargo.

The subjects of Fuso were allowed to engage in the manufacture of various crafts in the treaty port cities of China, and to import all kinds of machinery at will, and their products were exempt from all miscellaneous taxes, and they enjoyed the convenience of setting up warehouses in the interior.

The Fusang army temporarily occupied Weihaiwei, and the Manchu government paid 200,000 taels of silver to occupy the occupation every year, and Fusang did not withdraw the occupying army until the last indemnity was paid.

After the ratification of the exchange of this treaty, the two countries returned all the prisoners of war, and the Manchu government was not allowed to punish the prisoners of war who had surrendered to the enemy, and immediately released the spies who were in custody for the service of the Fusang army, and all traitors who served the Fusang army in the war were pardoned and exempted from prosecution.

Although through a series of covert plots, the indemnity of the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" was reduced from 200 million taels of silver to 60 million taels of silver, and the two ports of Chongqing and Suzhou were less opened, it was still the most serious unequal treaty signed by the Qing Dynasty, which brought serious harm to modern Chinese society, and the cession of large territories such as the three northeastern provinces and Taiwan further undermined the integrity of China's sovereignty, stimulated the ambition of the great powers to carve up the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and further deepened the national crisis.

Don't think that the war is over with the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, and the drama is still to come.

Six days after the signing of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Russian Empire intervened with France and Germany because Fuso's occupation of the Liaodong Peninsula prevented it from extending its power to the northeastern Manchu Dynasty.

On the seventh day, the Ocean Kingdom and France intervened because Fusang ceded Taiwan and Penghu, which seriously infringed on their interests.

May 31, 1895

Fusang announced that it would abandon the Liaodong Peninsula, but wanted the Manchus to "redeem it" for 10 million taels of silver.

Fusang announced that it would abandon Taiwan and Penghu, and wanted the Manchus to "redeem" it with 3 million taels of silver.

After bargaining, the Manchus "redeemed" the Liaodong Peninsula and Taiwan's Penghu for 10 million taels of silver, ending this farce of carving up East Asia.

The praying mantis catches the cicada, and the yellow finch is behind.

The "intervention of the three countries to return Liao" and "the intervention of the four countries to return to Taiwan" were a flying disaster for Fuso, and it suffered great humiliation by being played by the Ocean Kingdom, and the attempt to occupy Manchuria was crushed by the opportunity of the victory of the First Sino-Japanese War, and Russia also strengthened its power in the Far East and curbed Fuso's expansion in Korea.

In order to realize the second step (annexation of Korea) and the third step (march into Manchuria) of Fuso's "continental policy", Fuso reorganized and decided to launch a land war against the Russian Empire ten years later.

As for the Ocean Kingdom, due to the lack of naval strength of the Fuso Kingdom, it cannot threaten the Ocean Kingdom located in the depths of the South Pacific Ocean for the time being.

During the First Sino-Japanese War, Fuso became an upstart in Asia.

However, in history, the war reparations were 230 million taels of silver, and the value of the war trophies such as ships was more than 100 million yen, totaling more than 350 million, but now only 70 million taels of silver are left in the war reparations, and they have also lost Taiwan and the Penghu Islands, which cannot satisfy Fusang's greedy appetite.

Fortunately, the government of Fusang did not know that it had been calculated, and the island country, which was originally used to being poor, felt that the harvest of the First Sino-Japanese War was also good, after all, 70 million taels of silver were in the account, and no matter how you look at it, it was earned.

Fuso Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu said happily: "Before this indemnity, I had not expected that there would be 70 million taels of silver, and the total government revenue was only 80 million yen. Therefore, when I think of the fact that so much money is rolling in now, both the government and the private sector suddenly feel extremely rich. ”