Hearing that hundreds of Chinese soldiers had died of the plague, Yang Shuoming's heart was very sad for a while.

Yang Shuoming felt very guilty about the damage caused to himself by the first real large-scale bacteriological warfare in the history of the world war he personally launched, but he did not regret that he did so.

Because in the current situation, if you want to change the course of history in the shortest possible time, this is the fastest way.

The reason why Yang Shuoming adopted such unconventional measures was not his own imagination, but had a historical basis.

After the death of the Ming Dynasty and the rise of the Qing Dynasty, later historians had too many explanations and speculations, including many popular and specialized "historical inevitability" scholars, but they ignored the real reason for the rapid replacement of the Ming Dynasty by the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty began to decline from the Wanli period, and its demise was inevitable, but it was not impossible to survive the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, although Chongzhen was suspicious and changeable, but he could also be regarded as an emperor who was diligent in political affairs. Huang Taiji, the leader of the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the north, was newly mourned, and Dolgon came to power, which was internally unstable and would not enter the army in a big way for the time being. Although people are swarming in various places, the rich Jiangnan has no impact. The only urgent need is Li Zicheng, although he passed all the way through the pass, but he only occupied Shanxi, and Li Zicheng's rebel army had a very poor ability to attack fortifications, and a Ningwu Pass lost tens of thousands of elites, and it was actually impossible to defeat Yanjing, which was heavily guarded by the Ming army.

But what happened later was very dramatic, Li Zicheng's rebel army quickly captured Yanjing, ascended to the pole to establish the Dashun Dynasty, but only forty days after entering the city and leaving the city, after a battle at Shanhaiguan, the Dashun peasant army that had been praised by the brick family of later generations was defeated, and there was no decent battle since then, until the end of the whole army was destroyed. Eventually, the Manchus were replaced.

In the eyes of many "historical inevitabilityists," history is a law and an inevitability. In fact, in the eyes of the people at that time, it was disorderly and accidental. History, large and small, caused by accidents, is at least partially unpredictable. These accidents are often deliberately ignored by later historians, because in their eyes, history cannot be assumed.

And the truth is that on this planet, human beings are the masters, but in addition to human beings, there are also lives that can make history. Because history doesn't just belong to human beings.

At that critical moment of changing the dynasty, it was the ubiquitous invisible things that played a role in determining the surname.

Like the Black Death, which once rampaged Europe, it was the sudden outbreak of large-scale plague at the end of the Ming Dynasty that destroyed hundreds of thousands of Ming troops guarding Yanjing, allowing the unexpected Li Zicheng to easily break through the city, and it was also the plague that destroyed Li Zicheng's hundreds of thousands of Dashun troops, so that he only stayed in Yanjing for more than a month before fleeing in panic. The division of the Manchus and the Han Dynasty indirectly hindered the spread of the epidemic among the Manchus, which was also an important reason why the Manchus were able to successfully gain a foothold in the Central Plains.

The massive plague of 1644 changed the course of Chinese history. And this time, the large-scale plague artificially launched by Yang Shuoming against Yue Ben not only changed the fate of China, but also the historical trend of Asia and even the whole world, and also went to another trajectory in that cough.

The reason why Yang Shuoming took such extraordinary measures was because he knew deeply that with China's current strength, no matter how hard he tried, he would not be able to defeat the national strength that had been on the rise since the Meiji Restoration.

As a time-traveler from later generations, his understanding of the word "strength" is deeper than anyone in this era.

Although thousands of Chinese people were killed in this bacteriological warfare, if he did not do this, but let history develop according to the original trajectory, and then fight that 14-year arduous war with the other people, the lives sacrificed at that time will be counted in the tens of millions, and it will never be just the thousands of lives now.

In fact, according to the statistics obtained by Yang Shuoming from various sources, in this seven-month war against the invasion of Yueben, the total number of casualties of the Chinese [***] team and the people in the Fengtian Theater in Shandong did not exceed 100,000 together.

These simple methods of addition and subtraction of numbers illustrate more profound questions than the papers of any expert scholar.

"After the battle, many foreigners said that it was actually the plague that helped us a lot." Huang Shengyun smiled bitterly and said.

"So what? A victory is a victory, and no matter how much they want to erase the achievements of our Chinese military and civilians, it will be in vain. Yang Shuoming sneered and said, "Don't listen to their nonsense, I'm afraid that now, they will look at us differently." ”

Just as Yang Shuoming said to Huang Shengyun, at this time, in a small room in the embassy area of Jiaomin Lane, east of Yanjing, a conversation with similar content was going on.

"It's unbelievable that I gave up everything I got in China so easily."

"The plague outbreak has undoubtedly exacerbated their hardships, and the plague is a resource-poor country, and such a blow would be unbearable for their economy. Therefore, it is normal for them to act like this. ”

"But does the outcome of this war also show that our previous understanding of the combat capability of the Japanese army and the strength of the country has been deviated? They don't seem to be as powerful as they seem. ”

"That's true, I didn't expect that this has the most powerful fleet in Asia, and in the face of the extremely weak Chinese Navy, it will lose four main battleships and one new battle cruiser will be injured, such a result is a real shame for a naval power."

"The Chinese Navy used submarines to sink the battleships. I've been to Tianjin and seen those submarines, and they're all pitiful and very rudimentary guys. Compared to the submarines of the Germans, it was simply rubbish. ”

This also illustrates the incompetence of the Navy. Regardless of the fact that they have powerful ships as good as we are, they still haven't really learned how to use them. ”

"Submarines are a nuisance, submarines all over the world are the same, especially the submarines of the Germans."

"The fact that the Chinese have achieved such great results with such rudimentary weapons shows that we underestimate the imagination and fighting spirit of the Chinese."

"Yes! The results of this war show that both the Chinese Navy and the Chinese Army still have a certain combat effectiveness, and if China can join our ranks and contribute to the defeat of our common enemy, I think it will be quite helpful to our common cause. ”

After listening to the conversations of the Allied envoys and military attaches in China, the British minister Zhu Erdian, who had not spoken, nodded slightly.

"What we should do now is to try to bring about a reconciliation between China and Japan." The French minister said, "Don't let these yellow men waste their precious forces any longer. ”

"I'm afraid it's going to be very difficult to get them to shake hands and make peace." Zhu Erdian remembered the high-level talks between China and China that were currently underway, and shook his head involuntarily.

Just as Zhu Erdian had predicted, the peace talks between China and Ben, which were convened under the joint mediation of Britain and the United States, were filled with a strong smell of gunpowder from the very beginning in the conference hall of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

"Regardless of whether your country's political axe agrees or not, our country's political axe will immediately announce that it will abrogate all previous treaties signed with your country's political axe." Lu Zhengxiang stared at Yue Zhiyi, who was sitting opposite, and said in a deep voice, "All the rights and interests in Shandong and Fengtian that were usurped by your country before have been recovered by our country. ”

After listening to the interpreter's explanation, Yu Zhiyi's eyes widened, and the green tendons on his forehead bulged, obviously annoyed to the extreme.

"This is an insult to the political axe and the Yamato nation." He slammed himself up from his chair and said, "We won't accept it." ”

"You are wrong, Your Excellency." Cao Rulin said in an extremely earnest tone, "I think the opposite is the opposite, I think this is a new starting point for China and Ben to redefine the status and diplomatic relations between the two countries." ”

After listening to Cao Rulin's words, Zhiyi and Xiaowan glanced at each other and did not speak.

"In fact, China and the two countries have always been equal countries, and the friendly relations between the two countries have always had a long history," Cao Rulin said, "History has proven that China and the two countries will benefit from peace, and if they fight, they will lose both, and now there is no conflict of interests between the two countries, and it is just right to redefine the relationship between the two countries and lay a good foundation for the peace, friendship and common development of the two countries in the future. ”

"The only country that will lead Asia to civilization is the Ben, not China." Yue Zhiyi looked contemptuously at the Chinese vice minister of foreign affairs, who was known as "pro-Yue", and sneered, "Not in the past, not now, and not in the future." ”

"You are saying these things in vain, Your Excellency, Minister." Cao Rulin still said unhurriedly, "I advise you to look at the relationship between China and Yueben in a more realistic way, now that my [***] team has completely recovered Shandong and Mukden, your country's political axe's request is to give us the territory that has been recovered, do you think this is possible?" ”

"If it were your country, I'm afraid I wouldn't accept it, right?" Lu Zhengxiang sneered.

At this time, Xiaowan said on the side: "Foreign Minister Lu just said that your country's political axe announced the abolition of all the previous treaties signed with China, but I would like to remind your country's political axe that these treaties also include Taiwan and Korea, and the indemnity paid by your country to China (author's note: This indemnity refers to the Gengzi indemnity that has not been repaid). ”

(To be continued)