Diplomatic rhetoric has always been ambiguous, and the most important thing to understand is to understand the speaker's position, and in the view of Guangxu and others, who believed that Japan would move the Second Russo-Japanese War, the words of the British were aimed at Japan. In fact, there are some places in Japan that have been condemned by the British, that is, in October last year, the Emperor of the Sixth Army called for the establishment of 50 divisions without consulting the cabinet, and this year he proposed to build two more divisions, which became a topic of endless debate between the military department and the cabinet. Now that Japan's large-scale military expansion is known to the great powers, it is naturally normal for it to face condemnation. In such a situation, even if Prince Su Shanqi persuaded him at the request of his Japanese friend Kawashima Lang, he could not reverse Guangxu's decision, and the construction of the Meichang Railway was quickly approved, but the excerpt did not come down for a while, but stayed in the cabinet to see the reaction of various countries.

Qing Guo stood on the side of the United States and Lu Kingdom, which made Japan thunder, and at this time the Japanese Minister to Qing Taro Abe, who succeeded Hayashi Quansuke, threatened Qing with war, but soon the American Minister Rou Keyi had-for-tat remarks, and declared that the White Fleet, which represented peace in the United States, would visit Wèn Asia from Hampton Naval Base in Virginia later this year to express the friendship of the United States to the Asian people. The conflict between the United States and Japan has been a long time, and the two sides were friendly for a difficult time during the Russo-Japanese War, but after all, because of the disappointment with the Portsmouth Treaty, all Japanese people remembered new and old hatreds. As the contradictions between Japan and Russia intensified, this time, Roosevelt, who was afraid of the Japanese in his heart, had to be tougher and speak softly at the same time. The stick also came out.

The Americans made a tough statement, but Russia's Pukodi talked a lot about peace, and the pro-Russian France expressed regret. Britain, on the other hand, could only remain silent because of the submission of the Entente with Russia, and looked around to see that all the great powers did not support Japan, and the Russian-Russian negotiations in St. Petersburg at this time were seized by Russian Foreign Minister Izvorsky, that is, the matter of Japan's annexation of Korea was taken into account, and the Korean representative was from Vladivostok to The Hague, the Netherlands, to attend the World Peace Conference, if Japan did not compromise on this. Then Russia will support the DPRK representative to attend the meeting and speak. The railroad could not be stopped, so it had to be built, but the Japanese minister to St. Petersburg, Ichiro Honno, also made a request for this. That is, they did not support the construction of this section of the railway by the Tonghua Railway Company, which had an American background, but hoped that Russia would take out a loan to build it.

The intrigue between the great powers, and the three changes in one day in the capital, all made Yang Rui like a gambler who threw the dice. We can only wait and see what happens. Wait for God to open his eyes. During the more than a month he waited for Beijing's approval, many people came to him, and the United States saw that the Chinese Yankee Guò Alice had received Roosevelt's support, and Harriman found Yu Zixun and promised to support the decision of the Tonghua Railway Company to extend it northward, and hoped to cooperate more closely with the Tonghua Railway Company; On the Japanese side, Saburo Okabe of Andong and Goto Shinpei, the first president of the Manchurian Railway, visited Dua Quan, and the two sides had a pleasant conversation, which was not only friendly but also beneficial. But after this conversation, the businessmen who had come to negotiate the purchase of coal for export to Japan suddenly disappeared; The last to come in were the Russians. Looking for Chen Quai, who is still in St. Petersburg, means that it is best to use the loan of the Sino-Russian Daosheng Bank to build the railway, and Chen Quai, who has been prepared for a long time, does not refuse this, but because the railway is a private company, the loan can be loaned, but the money cannot be used for the construction of the railway.

A month after the change of the situation, the submission of the Meichang Railway was approved, and then the Jichang Railway was also approved, but Yang Rui, who learned the news, couldn't laugh, because during this period of time, the imperial court spent more than 300,000 taels, and the loan of 5% interest and 93% off 5 million rubles of the Sino-Russian Daosheng Bank made him lose no less than 1 million. At the same time, a lot of the shares of Tonghua Railway were transferred to Harriman, who is now not only a shareholder, but also has a railway lease agreement. The whole thing, except that the railway can be connected to the Dongqing Railway, there seems to be no good news. There is always something to lose, even if he has been prepared for this, Yang Rui is still stunned by the arrogant tone of the telegrams from New York and St. Petersburg, what a fucking bullshit world.

As soon as the imperial court decreed, the construction of more than 100,000 troops on the Meihekou side began, the roadbed had already been paved, the sleepers and steel rails had been prepared, and a Cantonese who succeeded Chen Da promised to open the whole line to traffic within three months. Yang Rui didn't react to this, it was all planned, but he asked that the railway must be repaired to the west of the Dongqing Railway under an excuse, and it doesn't need to be repaired far, just start with it, as for whether the Russians oppose it, then repair it.

In the summer of the Northeast, the woods are lush and green, even if it is a hot day, walking in the forest does not feel hot, Yang Rui, who has been sitting in Dunhua for a long time, went to Huadian to see Han Dengju, the smoke bomb of the Fuxing Army. Dunhua to Huadian nearly 400 miles, he walked seven or eight days to arrive, after seeing Han Dengju and was enthusiastically taken by him to visit the gold mine installed in Qì, Yang Rui suddenly saw an unexpected person, after thinking about it repeatedly in his heart, let Chen Guangshou go out and invite the person to the house.

"Escape the beginning, don't come unharmed." Looking at Song Jiaoren, who was dressed as a Japanese, Yang Rui laughed.

Many of the League's actions were failures, even the most influential Pingliuyangli uprising, which was initiated by Sun Wen's insistence, but the failure in the case of poor food and wages was mostly blamed on those who were rich and unkind. For example, those overseas Chinese in Nanyang still have money and have never lacked the revival association. The former sent Fang Junying to shoot and scare a few times, but he still got 20,000 or 30,000 yuan, but after the notoriety spread, the reputation of the alliance plummeted. The current Nanyang rich gentry will either join the royalists who have ascended to heaven, or join the revival society, which does not donate money to get rich. Except for some Chinese workers who have no money, as in the United States, the League has no one to support it, but even if there are these Chinese workers, how much money can they donate under the hardship of their own livelihood.

Song Jiaoren saw through Sun Wen's self-righteous and arbitrary nature during the national flag dispute last year, and now the future of the alliance is worrisome, he remembered that he once saw a description of the independent country of Majima in a Japanese newspaper, so he was bent on coming to the northeast to contact horse thieves and organize exhibitions. However, starting in April this year, he went around Andong and other places for two months, but did not find a single horse thief, and stayed for a long time after going north to Mukden. He went to Jiapigou in Huadian, Jilin Province to see Han Dengju, but Han Dengju did not support the revolution he spoke of. When he was about to go back, he suddenly saw Yang Rui.

"Mr. Wen is still in style." Song Jiaoren didn't dare to determine whether Mr. Wen in front of him was Yang Jingcheng, and at the same time, he didn't dare to shout rashly, so he had to be commensurate with Mr. Wen.

"At the beginning of the retreat, I was running for the revolution. It's really hard work. In addition to the Japanese dress, Song Jiaoren is now much more energetic than when he met him in Tokyo before, "Come and sit." It's also good to have a chat. Yang Rui looked like a master and greeted Song Jiaoren.

"Why is Mr. Wen here?" Looking at Yang Rui's master sitting down, Song Jiaoren asked with a smile after sitting down. He was a little worried that Yang Rui was coming to grab business with him, and he hoped that Yang Rui would succeed in stealing business. Anyway. Being able to convince Han Dengju would be of great benefit to the revolution.

"I......" Yang Rui just likes Song Jiaoren, but this is just a remnant of what he liked before, and now he is respectful of Song Jiaoren, so he is very hesitant when he decides whether to see him. What did I do when I first came here, I just came. ”

Sure enough, just like Song Jiaoren thought, Song Jiaoren asked anxiously: "What is the result, what does Commander Han say?" ”

"Hehe" Yang Rui sloppy and said with a dry smile: "People have money and gold mines." How he returned to the beginning is how he replied to me. "Han Dengju has leaned towards the Revival Society. Yang Rui believed that he must have politely rejected Song Jiaoren.

As soon as he said this, the eager gaze in Song Jiaoren's eyes suddenly dimmed, and he said, "Hey! The revolution is difficult at the moment. It is better for you and me to unite and tide over the difficulties together. ”

"What I said at the beginning is exactly what I wanted. I just wanted to invite him to join the Renaissance Society. What do you think? Yang Rui said unity, in fact, it was digging the foot of the wall, many members of the alliance in Nanyang, Guangdong joined the Fuxing Association, which made Sun Wen furious, and now Yang Rui wants to pull those people from the Huaxing Association over.

"Mr. Wen, if I am not mistaken, the Revival Club believes in being enlightened?" In the face of Yang Rui's invitation, Song Jiaoren finally said what he thought, when he left Tokyo, a propaganda book called "The Rise of a Great Power" was sold in various schools, the book was very thick, but it was sold extremely cheaply, and the content in it was very encouraging. Song Jiaoren finished reading the book in one breath on the ship that came to the northeast, excluding the heart-piercing blood boiling in the book, what to indoctrinate and advocate in the book, he knew it clearly, plus the "centralized government" in the program of the Revival Association that he knew earlier, so he had this question.

Smart people speak very easily, although the meaning of centralization in the rise of a great power is not very clear, but Song Jiaoren is not the kind of young man who is enthusiastic when he hears that Chinese warships are flying all over the world, he is also engaged in propaganda, and the current civil newspaper of the League is planned by him. Yang Rui did not evade his question, and replied: "It is true, China cannot become rich and strong without centralized power. ”

"Is it because the country can't get rich and strong, or the people can't get rich and strong?" Song Jiaoren saw Yang Rui admit it, so he said what he thought in his heart when he read the book.

"First there is everyone, then there is a small family. If the country is not rich and strong, how can the people be rich? The words in the junior high school textbook were said by Yang Rui more than 100 years in advance, which made him inexplicable, and he still remembers that there is a cartoon in the political textbook, called The big river has water and the small river is full. At that time, it was too small to study in detail, and I only realized that the water in the big river was collected by the stream, and it can only be said that the creek has water and the big river is full, how can the big river have water and the small river is full?

When Yang Rui thought of the big river and the small river again, Song Jiaoren said: "The people are the foundation of the country, how good is it for the people to be rich and strong in the country?" Even though China is so poor, the elites still spend a lot of money. A centralized government is like that of Japan, where the rich are rich and the poor are poor. May I ask Mr. Wen, if it is a centralized government, how can it ensure that the centralized power is not abused? The wealth of the country is not usurped by officials? ”

"There are no guarantees. But the final result is nothing more than the powerful taking the big head and the people taking the small head, which is better than not being able to do anything and be a bunch of. "There will be no checks and balances if there is centralization, and there will be no balance if there is no balance, which is an unsolvable situation. Even if the propaganda department tries hard to brainwash, it is only the low-level people who are fooled, and those nobles at the top who believe in nationalism are afraid that they will move into the concession long ago.

"It's better not to join the church." In just a few words, Song Jiaoren stretched the distance between him and Yang Rui greatly.

"It doesn't matter how poor the people are. As long as the wealth of the country as a whole grows, then the democracy that the people sought at the beginning will naturally come. Ideals are one thing. The reality is another matter, and sometimes we have to zigzag forward. Enriching the country first, then enriching the people, and then changing the political system is the only way for China's democracy. "I asked Song Jiaoren to come in to persuade him to join the club, but now he flatly refuses, and Yang Rui still wants to make some efforts.

"Mr. Wen. In this way, there will inevitably be another revolution, and the Chinese revolution is a last resort, and it will be repeated repeatedly. Then the vitality of the country will definitely be greatly damaged. Jiaoren threw himself into the revolution because he wanted to build a Han dominated democracy, where the country did not have to become a new power, as long as everyone lived and worked in peace and contentment. As for democratic decentralization, efficiency is lost. That doesn't matter. What others can build in 10 years, we will do in 30 or 50 years, and there is no need to become a powerful country in 20 or 30 years. The current world is like the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and China should not fight and protect itself. Song Jiaoren obviously read the propaganda of the Revival Society very thoroughly, and knew that Revival would lead China to fight for hegemony, so there was no indisputable statement.

"Escape. The world is now the law of the jungle, and there is not much place for the country. With China's population, I am afraid that one day we will run out of resources. Song Jiaoren said that Yang Rui knew, but he had other reasons.

"Mr. Moon, this time I traveled from Japan to Tohoku via Korea, and I felt a lot of emotion along the way. Greeting the victory of the Russo-Japanese War, Japan has now annexed Korea, but what benefit does this benefit the Japanese people? Even if some peasants go to Korea to reclaim the famine, they are no different from when they were in Japan, except for the identity of a victor, and they still have to pay taxes and grain. It is the people who die in the war, and it is the powerful who benefit, which is a victory; If she loses, then the magnates are still the magnates, and the final indemnity is still borne by the people. I do not agree with the idea that the Revival Society wants to turn China into a great power, and I do not agree with it, because it is inconvenient for the Restoration Society to join the Association, and I ask Mr. Wen to forgive me. After Song Jiaoren finished speaking, he bowed to Yang Rui, and then left.

Yang Rui was a little stunned after listening to Song Jiaoren's words, because what he said was what Yang Rui himself thought a long time ago, so when these words came out, he was a little confused. It was only after Song Jiaoren had been gone for a long time that he came back to his senses and returned in a huff.

It was already September for Yang Rui to return to Dunhua, and the stock market in the United States was in turmoil at this time, waiting for the stock market to fall sharply in the next two months, so as to start closing the net. According to Xie Taofu's estimates, if Harriman and others will fulfill their previous promise to buy shares of the Antongchang Railway, then this time the sheep shearing will make a profit of four million to five million US dollars; If Harriman reneges on his promise and does not gain the support of the Morgan family behind him, then the proceeds will only be around three million dollars.

New York is not the home of the Revival Society, and even if there is such and such a relationship, without the permission of the financial emperor Morgan, it is still very cramped to play some tricks by taking advantage of the chaos. After all, tens of millions of stocks are too eye-catching, and it is thankful that 30% of the stock price can be arbitraged.

Yang Rui was quietly waiting for news in Dunhua, and at this time, the first large-scale live-fire exercise of the Revival Army began. Because of the military factory, the exercise is now much more decent than before, and the bullets with the least rubber warheads can be self-produced, although it is not completely safe, but the protective gear on the soldier's eyes, as well as the shooting from 50 meters away, can still prevent most of the damage. Only artillery shells and grenades are difficult to handle, and the number of casualties can only be determined by the exercise personnel accompanying the army, although it is not unreasonable, but it has a certain impact on the continuity of the exercise.

In the telescope, a group of soldiers looming in the forest has just been determined to assemble and prepare the ground, and after the infantry has been deployed in a position, the artillery is installing mortars. With the officer's command, a solid cannonball shot into the position of the defenders on the opposite side, with the shell out of the chamber and the suppression of their own vitality, the soldiers who had been in position suddenly got up from the ground and rushed forward, according to the discipline, the whole team should be a trapezoid, but because it is a mountain forest area, the team is not so square. The attacking side was menacing, although the defenders judged that some 'casualties' had to withdraw from the battle under the command of the exercise personnel accompanying the team, but there were still many people who stood up to meet the enemy, after all, there was no real artillery fire, and the white-knuckle battle between the two armies was not completely one-sided, Yang Rui only saw several soldiers fighting together with bayonets.

"It doesn't hurt anyone, does it?" Yang Rui asked Qi Qingyuan next to him, this is his troops; He's red.

"No!" Qi Qingyuan's appearance changed a little. He is still as handsome as before, but he has a beard on his lips, and he looks a lot more mature. This time, he invited Yang Rui to watch the battle on his side.

"No, it won't. All the soldiers admonished. If you are restrained by the opponent, you can stop and withdraw from the battle. Qi Qingyuan hadn't seen Yang Rui for two years, but he felt that his husband had changed, and his brows were much deeper than before, as if he had a worry that would never be resolved.

"That's good!" Yang Rui's brows loosened a little when he heard this, and then looked at Cheng Zhi, the commander of the artillery regiment beside him, and asked jokingly: "Now only mortars are used." No, the breech gun won't be used when the time comes, right? ”

"No!" Cheng Zhi said loudly. "The breech-loading guns of the unit have been doing live-fire training and practicing various gunnery skills at the same time."

"Oh. Where did the shells come from? Yang Ruiqi said, as far as he knows, the captured ammunition is hundreds of guns.

"I bought it from Omaozi before. Later, the military factory opened, so you can reload some, and from this year onwards, 75mm shells can also be produced by yourself. Cheng Zhizhen explained, although there are mortars. But the breech gun could not be dropped either. So he has been racking his brains to train artillery for the past two years. "At the end of the exercise, there will be artillery tactical drills, and the commander will be invited to come at that time."

Seeing that Cheng Zhizhen said so confidently, Yang Rui smiled. He attaches great importance to artillery, which is the courage of the infantry, and although this courage is powerful, it must be operated meticulously, and it is much more difficult to train a group of qualified artillery than to train a group of qualified infantry, because artillery is a technical work. Rather than the body lì live. The early twentieth century was the beginning of the twentieth century when artillery gradually changed from direct aiming to indirect aiming, as the range of artillery increased. At that time, Japan worked hard to capture the 203 heights, in order to obtain an artillery observation point to shell the Russian ** ships in Port Arthur, and for this observation point, they killed tens of thousands of people.

In future wars, whoever has more accurate and fast artillery will be able to press the other side to fight, and trench fortifications only reduce the damage of artillery fire to soldiers, but no army dares to attack or defend against artillery fire. For this reason, at the same time as the mortar troops, the breech guns were all concentrated by Yang Rui, and these breech guns that were painstakingly obtained were all used for artillery training.

In fact, the secret position system is still extremely advanced in the current time period, and now the Germans teach artillery ranging measurement with degrees and minutes, and it will not be detailed enough to use 6,400 secret positions to measure, although this division method has been understood in the last century, but the real application to artillery tactics still has to wait until the French in the middle of World War I. In addition, the range of the artillery of the Baxing Army is very short, not to mention mortars, even if it is a breech artillery, there is only a 15omm siege gun that the Russian army got when it was defeated, and the others are 76mm field guns and mountain guns, the range of these guns is not too far, so indirect aiming is not very useful.

In the face of the doubts of the artillery and staff officers, Yang Ruili overrode public opinion, forcefully promoted indirect aiming in the troops, and forbade direct aiming, and at the same time transferred Ye Yaoyuan and Cui Chaogui, two well-known mathematicians in contemporary China, from Shanghai to the artillery unit, in addition to studying artillery indirect aiming and firing technology, teaching methods of calculating dense positions, formulating firing tables, and also delving into various test firing methods and artillery tactics. Soon sine, cosine, alpha, beta, these professional terms will be the artillery officers dizzy, the result of doing math problems every day is that some people want to apply for transfer to the infantry unit, but Yang Rui thought that these rabbit cubs would run away, and ordered the officers who couldn't learn to go down to the basics to be small soldiers, so under such force, these people's heads were stuffed with various formulas, but fortunately, there were not many formulas, and there were only a few of them, and in the end everyone passed the test.

In addition to adding a bunch of calculation formulas to the heads of artillery officers, the artillery implements the secret position system, which naturally puts forward higher requirements for surveying and mapping and military industry, and map surveying and mapping should be more rigorous, because in the absence of parameters, artillery can only operate on maps; At the same time, the requirements for gun stability and ammunition uniformity have also been greatly increased, because higher accuracy can only come from more accurate charges and more accurate guns. As a result, the production of mortars and mortar shells has also been greatly improved, and the deviation in direction and distance calculation is constantly decreasing. (To be continued......)

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