Chapter 172 The Man Hiding Behind the War

The news that the Beiyang Fleet was almost completely destroyed spread, and the Qing court was like being poured with cold water. The court, which had originally mustered up a little courage, immediately withered, and various arguments for peace were immediately launched.

The capital was shaken, and the whole country was shocked.

The great powers were in an uproar.

After leading the remaining few ships back to Dagukou, Ding Ruchang felt ashamed to face people, and finally ended his life in the cheapest way - swallowing opium and committing suicide, leaving the mess to Liu Buchan.

After hearing the news, Li Hongzhang, the governor-general of Zhili and the minister of Beiyang, locked himself in the study and did not go out for the whole afternoon.

According to the servants of the governor's office, Li Hongzhang kept muttering in the room: "Zijie misled me, Zijie misled me!"

Li Hongzhang believed that it was because he followed Wei Jichen's suggestion to break out that the Beiyang Fleet was destroyed in one day.

If they had not broken through and had defended Liugong Island Port, reinforcements might have arrived at the last moment. Maybe the Japanese fleet would have given up after repeated attacks.

People always have a lucky mentality. Li Hongzhang is in this mood now. He cannot accept the annihilation of the Beiyang Fleet. It is not surprising that he has all kinds of thoughts. It is heartbreaking for anyone to have more than 20 years of hard work destroyed in an instant.

In the entire Qing Dynasty, I am afraid that only Wei Jichen, who came from the future and knew the fate of the original Beiyang Fleet, felt a little fortunate while feeling sad - at least it still preserved some fire for the Chinese Navy and sank several Japanese ships. You know, in the original history, the Japanese ships did not lose a single ship, but gained many ships for nothing.

Of course, he could not tell others about this idea.

February 9th is the Lantern Festival. In the Summer Palace, the old Buddha had already invited a group of actors and a group of acrobats, and lanterns were hung all over the palace.

However, the festival celebrations that should have been joyous stopped abruptly.

The actors and acrobats waited for a long time but did not see the arrival of the Empress Dowager. They left the Summer Palace again without knowing why, led by the eunuchs in the palace.

And they did not even get the reward money. You know, the Empress Dowager was the most generous at this time in the past.

In the Yangxin Palace, Cixi lay weakly on the chair, and two young palace maids helped to relieve the acupuncture points beside her.

Several military ministers, led by Prince Gong Guiziliu, knelt on the ground with a decadent look on their faces. Even Li Lianying, who was always well-behaved, lowered his head and did not know what to do.

Cixi sighed softly, waved her hand weakly, and said with fatigue: "I am tired. Let Li Hongzhang come to Beijing and negotiate with the Japanese as soon as possible."

At this moment, no one understood Cixi's mood, whether it was regret, disappointment, or despair. In short, this time, she had decided to negotiate no matter what, even if Guangxu opposed it.

Prince Gong and others did not dare to stay any longer and stood up tremblingly. The atmosphere in the palace was so depressing that it was almost impossible to straighten one's back.

The destruction of the Beiyang Fleet was the last straw that broke the camel's back. The Qing Dynasty had completely lost the confidence to continue fighting.

In the Forbidden City, Guangxu sat on the dragon throne in a daze, looking forward with empty eyes.

"I, I." Guangxu said two words "I" in a row, but he didn't know what to say next.

After a long time, Guangxu's dull eyes finally relaxed a little, and he asked aloud: "What is the imperial decree of the Empress Dowager?"

Guangxu had always lived under the shadow of Cixi, and he respected, feared and hated Cixi. At every critical moment, when he had no idea, the first person he thought of was his father who seemed to be indifferent to fame and fortune.

Li Hongzao was exhausted, and he forced himself to cheer up and replied: "The old Buddha has sent Li Hongzhang to Beijing as soon as possible to discuss peace talks."

"How is Liaodong?" Guangxu asked again with some expectation.

Li Hongzao said quickly: "The situation in Liaodong is not optimistic. The Japanese have increased their troops in Liaodong. After Li Guangjiu and his men recovered Ximu City, they suffered heavy losses and were unable to move forward. Song Qing led the army to attack Fuzhou. Now the enemy and us are still in a stalemate."

Guangxu was immediately discouraged and no longer had any interest.

There had been rumors that Li Hongzhang would go to Japan for negotiations. Therefore, as soon as Cixi's imperial edict arrived, Li Hongzhang wrote to Tian Bei, the American Minister to China, asking him to tell the Japanese government that he had obtained full responsibility for the peace talks and asked the Japanese about the place and time for the negotiations.

In order to fully prepare for the peace talks, Li Hongzhang even immediately formed his own peace talks team and hired foreigners at a high price, including former US Foreign Ministry lawyer Cosda, former US Vice Consul Bidger, and Dr. Cibats, a doctor at the French Embassy in China, and 33 others.

Li Hongzhang didn't know that in the issue of China, Russia was the most greedy, Japan was the most vicious, and the United States was the most insidious. The United States, which was not strong enough, was good at watching the fire from the other side of the river, taking advantage of the fire, hiding behind the scenes to instigate other countries to invade China, and appearing as a friendly third party to plot against China.

Take the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 as an example. The United States had previously sent warships to invade Korea, but was repelled by Korea in one fell swoop. The US government, which was angry and unwilling, instigated Japan to invade the mainland, so that it could benefit from it.

The support from the United States was also the reason why Japan was determined to provoke a war. Who knew that the Qing government was too weak, and Japan's ambitions also expanded rapidly. After getting Korea, it wanted to get China. If the domestic situation was no longer sufficient to support the war, it might continue to expand the war.

In addition, the British also supported Japan's invasion of China because they felt that it would be helpful to curb Russia's development to the Far East.

Li Hongzhang spent a lot of money to hire American consultants, which was tantamount to attracting a traitor.

The news that the Chinese navy was destroyed and that the Qing government was eager for peace talks spread to the great powers, and the responses of various countries were also extremely rapid.

Russia, Gatchina Palace.

After learning the news, Tsar Nicholas II held an emergency meeting that night to discuss the situation in the Far East and comprehensively elaborate on Russia's strategy in the East.

Russian Foreign Minister Robanov warned at the meeting: "Sino-Japanese peace talks are imminent. The news coming back from Japan is that they want China to cede the Liaodong Peninsula and Taiwan. Japan's war is the consequence of us starting to build the Siberian Railway. European powers The Japanese are probably aware that China will be partitioned in the near future. If Japan occupies South Manchuria, it will be a threat to us. Therefore, we cannot allow Japan to occupy South Manchuria. If war is necessary, we will act decisively. In this way, we will not allow Japan to occupy South Manchuria. If we become China’s savior, China will respect our service and agree to change our borders in a peaceful way.”

Vice Admiral Teltov, the Russian Navy Minister, said resonantly: "Your Majesty, the Far East Fleet is ready and ready to join the war at any time."

The Sino-Japanese War made the Russians see through China's weakness. On the one hand, they envied the Japanese army for being able to conquer cities and territories. On the other hand, the Russians had long regarded Northeast China as theirs. Japan actually wanted to get involved. This was their fault. Intolerable.

Nicholas II had just ascended the throne last year and was very ambitious. He tried his best to implement his Great Russia plan.

In the plan, not only China, but also Korea and Japan would also become his colonies. The Russians were so ambitious that they were even more ambitious than the Japanese.

When Nicholas II heard that several ministers recognized Robanov's words, he couldn't help but nodded and said: "Let the minister to China and the minister to Japan keep abreast of the progress of Sino-Japanese negotiations. Once something unfavorable to our country occurs, we will jointly Other countries put pressure on Japan."

In the eyes of these powers, although Japan won the victory, the fruits of victory were not something that a small country like Japan could swallow.

Conspiracies are also going on in the German Royal Palace. Wilhelm II of Germany is also ambitious. He is actively promoting his own world policy and wants to find "a place in the sun" for Germany around the world.

But when he picked up the globe and looked for it, he sadly found that the flags of the British Empire were everywhere.

The Sino-Japanese War made him feel like he saw a sweet spring in the desert. It turned out that the East was still far from being developed. The Qing Dynasty, this huge and decadent dynasty, could not even defeat the Japanese?

With abundant resources, cheap labor, and a vast market, can we give up? cannot.

Wilhelm II is sitting on the throne, with German Prime Minister Hollen Roche, Foreign Minister Machal and Navy Minister Helmut Helmun prominently among them.

Foreign Secretary Machar first described the situation in the Far East, and then concluded: "China has suffered successive defeats, and even the Beiyang Fleet has been completely destroyed. The empire must intervene."

Regarding the destruction of the Beiyang Fleet, Helmen sighed with emotion, because the battleships of the Beiyang Fleet were all purchased from Germany.

As for how to intervene specifically, since the Sino-Japanese peace talks have not yet begun, he only has one general direction, which is to help China and then get something in return from China: a place or a port as a bridgehead for developing power in the Far East.

William II was very interested in this. If he could get huge rewards just by pretending, why not do it.

William II's left arm was atrophied due to illness, so he held a pair of gloves in his left hand. This made his left arm look a little longer to others. At this time, he was so excited that he put the gloves on his left hand to the table. He was so excited. asked: "Will the Chinese agree?"

"The Chinese have a saying called repaying a favor. If the empire helps them and then makes this request, most Chinese people will not be able to refuse." Foreign Minister Machar said unhurriedly.

"So, should we send a huge fleet to the Far East to deter Japan?" William II asked Prime Minister He Lunluo Xi.

He Lun Luoxi shook his head and said disdainfully: "Your Majesty, as long as one battleship is enough to deal with the Japanese, I believe they will not dare to go to war with the empire. After all, the war with China has exhausted them."

German Foreign Minister Machar echoed: "We are just making a statement. What's more, compared to our country, I believe the Russians are more unwilling to see Japan acquire the land of Liaodong. Therefore, we can unite with Russia and mediate together." Let the Japanese end this war as soon as possible."

William II suffered from a brain disease, which made him impulsive, reckless, and arrogant.

He Lun Luoxi said that only one warship would be sent, but that only meant that he did not take the Japanese to heart. He did not really suggest that only one warship be sent.

At this time, William II didn't even think about it, and said to the Minister of the Navy, Helman, with a fanatical look: "Deploy an armored ship from the Imperial Fleet to the Far East."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Seeing the strange expressions on the Prime Minister's and Foreign Minister's faces, Helmen had no choice but to agree.

"Is there any problem?" William II saw that the two people looked wrong and asked in confusion.

While He Lun Luoxi replied that there was no problem, he was thinking in his mind that after a while, he would ask He Lun to add two more warships.