On a night in Tokyo in late summer, the cool breeze and moonlight are rare, and the citizens go out in groups to enjoy the cool and enjoy the moon, and the market is very lively.

No one knew about it, and there was chaos in the palace.

In the absence of the Emperor, the Imperial Headquarters meeting was again transformed into a post-modern performance art performance, this time with Admiral Saigo, the Minister of the Navy, beating the Admiral of the Army, Count Oyama Iwa, the Minister of War, and the hand-to-hand combat between these two old men was definitely not inferior to that of young people. Rear Admiral Okazawa, the chief military attache of the base camp, and Vice Admiral Shikinori Kayama, the naval staff officer of the base camp, argued with the remnants of the army about whether to withdraw the troops. Missing from this was Koroku Kawakami, a staff officer at the base camp of the firestorm, who, upon learning of the Russians' landing in Hokkaido on September 4, immediately drew his knife and cut off his head, with the help of his servants.

No matter how fierce the fight was, there was a time for it to end, and the two counts wiped the blood stars on their mouths and collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.

Prince Chihito hurriedly signaled to the Navy Major Commander Misu Sotaro of the Military and Internal Affairs Bureau of the base camp and the Army Military Police Captain Seraga, Tora Jiro, to step forward and pull the two apart, cleared his throat, and exclaimed with all his strength: "You can be quiet." ”

Oka Sei and Shiki Kayama retracted their voices and retreated to their seats, and the crows of the Kawakami faction, led by the staff officer of the headquarters of the military station, Sakuzo Nakatakagi, had no opponents, so they naturally kept their mouths shut.

The news of the failures followed, and everyone in the base camp felt the suffocating pressure.

On 4 September, 20 warships of the main force of the Qing army's Zhenyang Fleet attacked the port of Busan, and the armored cruisers "Yoshino" and "Naniwa" of the Japanese task force and the old-fashioned cruisers "Tsukushi", "Tsukuba", "Tenryu" and "Amagi" were all sunk, four of the sixteen supply ships were sunk and 12 were captured. The Japanese lost 1,176 men killed and 309 captured, and the navy's worst essence was lost. After this battle, the Japanese base camp stopped sending troops to Korea by sea.

On September 5, the 1st Assault Group of the Qing Army overcame the Yi government and advanced to the outskirts of Seoul.

On September 6, the 10th Brigade of the 4th Forbidden Division of the Southern Army of the Qing Army conquered Longmen, southeast of Seoul, and joined the reconnaissance troops of the 1st Assault Group to complete the siege of Seoul.

On September 7, the Pyongyang cluster of the Qing Army's Northern Army captured Yangdeok, an important town west of Wonsan, and annihilated more than 6,000 people under the enemy's 8th Division, further compressing the Japanese army into a narrow area around Wonsan. On the same day, the Qing army's task force blocked the port of Wonsan, and tens of thousands of officers and soldiers of the Japanese army in Wonsan could not fly.

On September 10, the 2nd Infantry Division of the Qing Army conquered Jinye and the plateau north of Wonsan, at this time, the Qing army besieging Wonshan had reached 100,000, and the Japanese army in the encirclement was further reduced to less than 40,000, and there was a serious shortage of food and ammunition. On the same day, the 1st Infantry Division of the Qing Army landed in Asan, and then went north to besiege Seoul with 60,000 troops together with the 1st Assault Group and the 10th Janissary Brigade.

The navy was smashed and the army was in a desperate situation in Korea, but there were still people who were unwilling and insisted on fighting to the death with the people of China on that peninsula, and they were willing to give up after fighting the most bloody bones of the empire. Thinking of this, Prince Chiren was furious, swept away his usual kind face, and stiffened his face to reprimand the group of people sent by Kawakami: "Takagi Nakasa, you still have the face to quarrel with people, look at what your army has done, you are desperate to stay in North Korea and not leave, dragging down the navy to bury all the last bit of belongings to the bottom of Busan, now Seoul is besieged, Wonsan Port is blocked, hundreds of thousands of troops are trapped on the peninsula and have no way out, Lieutenant General Kawakami is guilty and self-judged, on the other hand, your performance is simply shameless!" ”

Takagi was so stimulated that he stood up angrily, bent down and bowed, "I ask to go home early." ”

Prince Chiren didn't look at it, and said casually: "Approved." ”

Takagi strode towards the palace gate, and when he got home, he immediately took a knife and cut his abdomen without mentioning it.

After Takagi left, Prince Chihito was still angry, holding the table with both hands, and looking around at everyone: "This king has no other ideas, he just wants to get the most decent result for the imperial kingdom at this critical juncture." Russia's occupation of Hokkaido directly threatened the survival of the Imperial State, and all countermeasures must be directed against Russia. Although the great powers oppose Russia's invasion and occupation of Hokkaido, they will never make enemies with Russia for our sake, and the immediate priority is to end the Korean War as soon as possible, make peace with China, and make every effort to defend their homeland and prevent the Russians from taking advantage of the fire to loot further. The unrealistic terms of negotiation had to be lifted, and it was necessary to ask the people of China to spare the besieged army units, and for this reason, there was no way to pay compensation for the cession of land. ”

As soon as they heard the "land reparation", everyone was in a commotion, but no one dared to stand up and openly oppose it, after all, Prince Chihito had just denounced the Kawakami faction and said too much.

Seeing that the situation was favorable, Chiren decided to strike while the iron was hot and implement his proposition to the end, and then continued: "The so-called land cession compensation does not mean that the unreasonable conditions put forward by the people of China are completely accepted. In the opinion of this king, the Ryukyus were not native to Japan in the first place, and it was acceptable for the Shina people to demand the restoration of their independent status. Naturally, the indemnity is unavoidable, as long as it can be exchanged for the hundreds of thousands of elite troops sent by the DPRK, it is not too much to pay 20 or 30 million taels of silver. Moreover, in the future, we must use the strength of Shina to expel the Russians from Hokkaido, and only the Shina can give us the most substantial help in this matter. The king's view is that as the power of China grows further, there will be a day when there will be a conflict of interests with the Russians in the Far East, and we can take advantage of this situation to restore the country. After all, with the strength of our country's new defeat, there is no possibility of a head-on conflict with Russia for the time being. ”

Earl Dashan Yan suppressed his unhappiness and said quietly: "Will the people of China accept our revised conditions?" The conditions they put forward were extremely harsh, and there was not much room for negotiation, and it took the foreign minister a month to get them to reduce the total amount of indemnity to 200 million taels of silver. ”

Chi Ren didn't want to cause a new dispute, so he simply proposed to adjourn the meeting: "Let's go ahead with the king's decision first, and if things change, then call you to discuss, well, it's not too early, let's end today's meeting." ”

That night, a total of five base camp officers, including Takagi Nakasa, were disemboweled.

※※※

Incheon, North Korea, September 13, 1894.

Following the Battle off Incheon on July 2, the port of Incheon was once again crowded with ships of all sizes, but this time there was no roar of artillery, fire, and gunsmoke, and instead of a busy and orderly loading and unloading and transshipment, large transport ships transferred supplies to small boats, which were then carried ashore by small boats and transferred to the baggage troops.

Two days earlier, Brigadier General Liu Bailiang, commander of the Fifth Janissary Brigade, led the 14th and 15th Janissaries Regiments to capture Incheon, annihilating more than 800 enemies and seizing a nearby supply port for their own troops besieging Seoul.

At this time, Liu Bailiang was strolling on the berm on the coast of Incheon with his immediate boss, Major General Zhong Xiahuo, commander of the Northern Army Corps and commander of the Second Praetorian Division, talking freely about the past and the present.

Zhong Xiahuo can be regarded as Liu Bailiang's old boss, in that era, when Zhong Xiahuo was the commander of the special operations company, Liu Bailiang was his platoon commander, after coming here, Zhong Xiahuo was promoted to the commander of the forbidden second division, Liu Bailiang continued to serve as the brigade commander under him, and he usually had close contacts, and the friendship between the two was not only the relationship between superiors and subordinates.

"Old Zhong, four years have passed, and we have changed from a sesame official to a commander of tens of millions of people, think about it, I'm afraid it's not true, follow Captain Liu to this point, it's like a dream." Liu Bailiang looked at the bright moon in the sea and sighed sincerely.

Zhong Xiahuo nodded, then shook his head again.

"What's wrong?" Liu Bailiang couldn't understand it.

Zhong Xiahuo crossed his waist and pulled his bell-like throat and said: "Following Captain Liu, we have indeed made great progress personally, and we have seen many ideals become reality, but there are some things I still can't stand it, I really don't know what Captain Liu thinks - damn, it's all the ghost surnamed Wen." ”

Liu Bailiang hurriedly looked around, and saw that the guards were very far away before he was relieved, but he still pulled Zhong Xiahuo's shirt and reminded: "Old Zhong, be careful when you say this kind of thing in the future." ”

Zhong Xiahuo raised his voice and said: "What are you afraid of, Lao Tzu has an opinion to mention clearly, I have directly told Liu Yun a lot of things, so what if I tell others again." Lao Tzu just doesn't support the emperor, Lao Tzu just wants to oust the Manchu emperor and start a republic! Even the military government is 100,000 times better than the name of this rotten Qing empire! Damn, what kind of dog emperor, I made Lao Tzu wear fake braids for a whole year, and he had to kneel, kowtow, what the hell! Tactics? The surname Wen is also worthy of talking about strategy? The whole minion is like a minion, think about him three years ago, he was an emperor, how the ministers were doing, damn, it makes people angry. Emperor? An idiot young man, pretending to be a critic all day long, in fact, he doesn't know anything but writing the word "approval" and putting a big seal. looks stupid, if no one gives him advice, he's afraid he won't even be able to. What if you cut your braids, it's not a Manchu species, 400 million Han people have a Manchu emperor on their heads, what's the matter! According to the surname Wen, presumably our era should not overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty, those people in the Xinhai Revolution are stupid and stupid, they deserve to shed blood, how good it is to support the emperor, you can shout long live the empire every day, long live the emperor, long live the emperor, I rely on it! ”

Liu Bailiang said in his heart: "Lao Tzu thinks the same way, but just want to have a fart, and the decision is not in our hands!" He persuaded him: "Lao Zhong, let's save it, our duty is to obey orders, and leave the political things to Captain Liu and them to do, as long as we have soldiers and battles, we can make great contributions to creating an ideal strong country and enjoy all the glory and wealth, and the rest is none of our business." ”

Zhong Xiahuo took a deep breath, and lowered his voice slightly: "Actually, what do I do to Captain Liu, you all can see it clearly, you don't have to say it, do you?" ”

Liu Bailiang nodded and said: "Of course, I know your heart best, Lao Zhong, and the one among us who admires Captain Liu the most is none other than your Lao Zhong." ”

Zhong Xiahuo looked around, lowered his voice even more, and said: "The key to the problem now is Wen Yi's dog minion, he is the head of the royalist faction, and even that group of literati have become slaves, and our Captain Liu is still desperate to listen to him." Look at it, if you don't drive the surnamed Wen down for a day, Captain Liu won't be able to make up his mind to turn his face with that idiot emperor for a day. ”

Liu Bailiang thought about it, and felt that something was not quite right: "But many things that Wen Yi did were quite reasonable, such as retaining the emperor, his explanation didn't seem to have any flaws, and political things were very complicated, and we might not have figured it out." ”

Zhong Xiahuo snorted and twisted his neck: "You heard him say that the biggest specialty of this so-called doctor is to be able to say white to black and dead to live." Coercing the Son of Heaven to order the princes, what's the big deal, as early as two years ago, those princes and nobles who dared to come forward were almost cleaned up by us, and now in the world, how can there be any princes who can become climate! The Praetorian Guard, the Wehrmacht plus the new navy, which king and eight lambs dare to fight with us, let him die a good death! Politics? Politics is too simple, the disobedient are suppressed, the obedient are pulled to the side, those old guys who think they are great after reading a few years like to complicate simple problems, and talk about it until people don't understand it, so that it can be called level, in order to prove that his thinking is more mature than you, more advanced than you, go to death! ”

Liu Bailiang sighed: "There's no way, now Captain Liu can't listen to us, no matter how much we talk here, it's a waste of saliva." ”

Zhong Xiahuo said indignantly: "Wait, one day, Lao Tzu wants to make the surnamed Wen look good with the Dog Emperor, damn, forget it, don't talk about it." Let's talk about the siege, is there anything wrong with your brigade as the vanguard of the general attack? ”

Liu Bailiang puffed up his chest and reported confidently: "Guarantee to complete the task!" ”

Zhong Xiahuo smiled and patted him on the shoulder: "I'll just know how to say, okay, come with me and show you a few big things." ”

Zhong Xiahuo led Liu Bailiang all the way to the port, passed through the bustling unloading team, and stopped at the No. 3 unloading dock.

"Yan Canglong! Come here! Zhong Xiahuo's voice echoed powerfully on the dock full of supplies, causing everyone at work to look over here.

"Commander Zhong, oops, why are you here in person, your subordinates are not well received-" Lieutenant Colonel Yan Canglong, the commander of the First Heavy Artillery Regiment, greeted him with a fart.

Zhong Xiahuo hurriedly waved his hand and said, "Stop, the extra things will be free, you take us to see those iron lumps, right away." ”

"Yes, right away!" Yan Canglong hurriedly answered, leading the way in front, bypassing several piles of ammunition boxes, and six tall monsters wrapped in canvas suddenly appeared.

Liu Bailiang blurted out: "Type 93 305mm heavy siege artillery!" ”

Yan Canglong responded: "Brigade Commander Liu is really insightful, our regiment now has four battalions, including one for the baggage battalion and one for the engineer battalion, and two for the artillery battalion, for a total of six heavy artillery, one for each company. Designed to break through well-fortified walls and fortresses, the cannons weighed 400 kilograms, had an effective range of 12,000 yards, and had a rate of fire of two minutes. The result of repeated calculations: only one hour of continuous fire can ensure that a large gap in the wall of Seoul is large enough for the battalion-sized troops to charge widely.

Zhong Xiahuo interjected: "Xiao Liu, these heavy artillery pieces are assigned to your brigade, of course, we must also add the artillery regiment of our division, and the artillery preparation time is set for two hours without interruption." Okay, everything that can be prepared for you is ready, everything is up to you, pay attention to keeping reserves and saving troops, I only have the divisional cavalry regiment and the Praetorian Cavalry Brigade as the general reserve, and I can't go into battle until you control the West Gate. ”

Liu Bailiang could no longer express his mood at this moment in words, his feet snorted, he straightened up, raised his right arm, and saluted a standard People's Liberation Army salute - Zhong Xiahuo and Liu Bailiang never performed an imperial military salute.

※※※

In September, the weather just began to get cooler, and after two days of strong winds, the clouds cleared. In the back garden of the Marquis' Mansion of Liu Yun, Chief of the General Staff of the Qing Empire, the willows reflected the small pavilion in the water, and the bright moon was sleepless.

"The situation reported by Zhu Tao and Zhang Zhigao today is very valuable," Wen Yi was still focused on the meeting of the sub-planning department just now, and he did not forget about his business after a few drinks, "There has been a change in the Japanese cabinet, and the leader of the radical main war faction, Oyama Iwa, has been removed from his post as Minister of War and replaced by the chief military attache of the base camp of the Japanese army to withdraw from Korea at any cost, and Saigo Yoshimichi, who opposed the signing of the treaty, has also lost his position as Minister of the Navy and replaced it with Shiki Kayama, who supported Prince Chihito's contract. In addition, the secret envoy of Prince Arisugawa Chihito, chief of staff of the Japanese base camp, met with Zhang Zhigao in private, proposed Sino-Japanese cooperation and alliance, and jointly dealt with Russia, and asked to discuss relevant matters with the leader of China's highest decision-making organ. These circumstances illustrate that in Japan, the rational faction, which is based on strength and profit, has replaced the adventurous and belligerent warlord power and has begun to dominate the central power. I think it's an opportunity. ”

Liu Yun put down the small glass full of Moutai wine and stared at Wen Yi: "You mean?" An alliance with Japan? ”

Wen Yi also put down his glass: "It is an alliance under an unequal treaty against Japan, we should insist on a certain amount of reparations and various economic privileges, and in terms of territory, except for the Ryukyus, the conditions can be appropriately relaxed, and those small islands have no special substantive significance to us." The most important thing is that we should maintain a government in Japan that stands with us, not a government that is defeated but full of hostility, so that in the future East Asian strategic structure, we have one more ally and one less enemy, and we can free up our hands to focus on dealing with Russia. This time, because the Russians were not prepared for war in the Far East, and because our country had strengthened its defenses along the border, they stretched out their claws to Japan, and took advantage of the fact that the Japanese navy was completely annihilated and the elite army was trapped in Korea to attack Hokkaido, and made a lot of money. The main targets of Russia's expansion in the Far East are our country's Mongolia and Northeast China, and a conflict between China and Russia is inevitable, and we should make every effort to prepare against Russia in the coming days. To this end, it is necessary to win over as many allies as possible, reduce the number of enemies, go all out to win over the United States and Germany, make appropriate compromises with Britain and France, and wait for the domestic industry and market to gradually complete modernization and have a certain degree of international competitiveness, and then use the comprehensive opening of the market as a bait to revise and abolish all kinds of unequal treaties and sign new treaties. In the case of Japan, it is necessary to further control the direction of its domestic politics on the premise of economic control. At a time when Japan is facing a serious military dilemma and is suffering from direct Russian aggression, an alliance with them is an excellent opportunity to promote the development of pro-Chinese forces in Japan, and as long as Japan can accept the terms of the alliance we want, Japan's tens of millions of manpower and industrial productivity since the Meiji Restoration will become part of our overall strength, and we will not need to spend too much manpower and material resources to manage it ourselves. What do you think? ”

Liu Yun pondered for a while before replying: "It makes a lot of sense, in this way, in the future, we will form a strategic system with our country as the center, the two subject countries of Korea and the Ryukyus plus Japan and one ally in the surrounding areas, and further develop into the preliminary form of the political, economic, and military unity circle of Greater China, which is one step closer to our ideals. Well, if you can really prop up and maintain a pro-China government, as you say, then it would be the best, but the question is how to do it. The Japanese demanded that the besieged Japanese troops be returned to Japan in order to organize the defense of Russia, and proposed the negotiation conditions of no land cession, less indemnity, and recognition of the Ryukyus as a Chinese vassal state. However, the issue of releasing the besieged Japanese troops back to China is too sensitive, and if it is not done well, it will arouse a strong reaction from public opinion and even the military, and it must be resolved in an appropriate way. I think what do you think of the fact that the Japanese army could surrender first, be repatriated as prisoners of war, and then ship back their weapons in the form of arms sales? ”

Wen Yi picked up a peanut and threw it into his mouth, chewed it, and nodded: "Yes, but I don't know if the Japanese who regard face as their life can endure the humiliation of surrender, so it is better to declare to the Japanese side that they are disarming first." In addition, in order to ensure that the Japanese can abide by the treaty, they should be compelled to agree to the advanced stationing of the Chinese navy and army in all important ports in Japan, and the Japanese and Korean troops should be disarmed as soon as possible, and the Japanese government should pay a ransom of 5 million taels of silver before it could be released, and the weapons and equipment should be purchased back at the original purchase price. In addition, the cultivation of pro-China forces and the maintenance of their dominance require a coordinated political, economic, intelligence, and even military campaign to be effectively realized, and neither the current Intelligence Bureau of the General Staff nor the Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can do it independently, and it is necessary to set up a special agency to deal with such matters, not only for Japan, but also for all the countries that will be included in our Greater China system in the future. ”

Liu Yun glanced at the white moon in the sky and smiled slightly: "Then, tomorrow, summon the secret envoy of the prince of the ship, and the two of us will talk to him together." However, the Battle of Seoul still had to be carried out according to the original plan, while the Wonsan Group and the Seventh Division were surrounded but not annihilated, and we had to give them appropriate pressure and leeway to ensure that we could achieve the greatest benefits. ”

Wen Yi raised his glass: "It's not early, I'm going to be busy tomorrow, the last glass, it's dry." ”

"." Liu Yun drank it all.