Carlo, who was thousands of miles away, could receive news of the Tung Hak Party uprising. Although there were issues that Carlo was particularly concerned about, it was enough to illustrate the scale of the uprising.
The uprising that broke out among Donghak Party members such as Jeon Bongjun and Kim Deok-myung was very powerful. In just a few days, tens of thousands of people gathered and their troops were directed towards Jeonju, the capital of Jeolla Province.
The term Tung Hak Party Uprising will be familiar to those who know something about the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894. It was the Tung Hak Party Uprising that caused China and Japan to fight over Korea.
Carlo has been waiting for this war for a long time, otherwise why would the task force and the 1st Guards Division be staying in Lanfang? The humid tropical climate is not friendly to warships and people at all.
The uprising of the Donghak Party at least made Carlo know one thing, that is, he did not make any big changes in history. At least from the perspective of the Far East, the changes were not much.
"Send a telegram to the Minister in the Far East to the Qing Dynasty, asking him to pay close attention to the situation in North Korea. In addition, he can contact Li Zhongtang of Beiyang to inform Japan of possible moves to cause trouble."
All Carlo could do was to remind the Qing Dynasty papermaker. As for whether the other party could make some preparations in advance, he felt it was a bit difficult. But even if preparations were made, with the fighting power of the Huai army, in this war that was destined to break out,
, if there were no external force, Li Zhongtang would even have his underwear stripped off.
While Carlo was planning for the next interests of the Far East, Japan, as one of the protagonists, was also cheering for the Donghak Party uprising in North Korea.
"At present, the Donghak Party has occupied the whole state. Although North Korea has sent troops, according to what we have learned, its army's combat effectiveness is extremely low and cannot cope with the chaos at all. In view of the fact that the rebellion in North Korea has seriously threatened the interests of the Japanese Empire,
Therefore, our country cannot sit idly by and ignore it and must send troops to provide support."
At the imperial meeting, the radical Army Minister General Oyama Iwa was making an impassioned speech about the importance of Japan sending troops to Korea.
However, although Oyama Iwa was speaking, many people present used their peripheral vision to glance at Privy Council Chairman Yamagata Aritomo, who was sitting in his seat. Everyone knew who was the most influential person in the Army. But this Japanese
The father of the army didn't seem to care at all about those eyes, sitting there as calm as a rock.
Oyama Iwa's words immediately drew approval, and the Tibetan Prime Minister, Watanabe Kunitake, echoed, "This rebellion in North Korea is very detrimental to the trade between our country and North Korea. We have sufficient reasons to send troops to declare our position."
Watanabe Kunitake's words also caused other people to whisper among themselves. Judging from their expressions, most people supported sending troops into North Korea.
But even so, there are still objections.
"I don't agree with sending troops now."
The speaker was none other than Mutsu Munemitsu, the current Japanese Foreign Minister. He stood up and said.
"But our country's entry into North Korea will inevitably cause a backlash from the Qing Dynasty. This was already reflected in the Jiashen incident ten years ago. Moreover, the major powers of various countries have a lot of interests in the Qing Dynasty, so we cannot ignore the attitudes of the major powers."
That's right, Mutsu Munemitsu was only considering the attitudes of the major powers and was afraid of extraneous matters.
Faced with Mutsu Munemitsu's words, Hirobumi Ito, as Prime Minister, moved in his heart.
"Foreign Minister, is there a change in diplomacy?"
Ito Hirobumi's words made the people at the scene feel nervous. Today's Japan is not like the one after the Russo-Japanese War. It doesn't have the arrogance of Jinmei Hiroshi.
At present, let alone the European powers, Japan is still not confident about whether it can defeat the Qing Dynasty next door, so how can it ignore the attitudes of the powers.
Seeing that everyone's expressions were abnormal, Mutsu Munemitsu, who knew that everyone might be thinking wrongly, quickly explained, "Not at the moment?"
Upon hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
"However, Italy's attitude is somewhat unclear. We have expressed goodwill several times, but the Italians have not responded much. In addition, Italy's military strength in Nanyang is not weak at present, and considering that Italy's interests in the Qing Dynasty are not small, so I
Somewhat worried.”
Mutsu Munemitsu's words made Ito Hirobumi tense up. He knew what the other party was worried about. The Italians were indeed a problem, but after thinking about the pros and cons, he spoke.
"The worries of the Italians can be put aside for now. At present, our main diplomatic work is on the British. As long as we can get the support of the British, who are the most powerful in the Far East, other countries can slowly talk about it. This also requires the military to take the next step.
In our actions, we should pay attention to the interests of the great powers."
Ito Hirobumi named the foreign minister and the military at once, asking them to pay attention to the situation next.
Ito Hirobumi saw it accurately. The British are indeed the most powerful in the Far East, and maintaining relations with the British is very important to Japan. The Japanese are quite lucky. At this time, because Russia announced that it will build the Siberian Railway, the British are besieging Russia.
People do need a helper. At this time, Japan, which had gradually become civilized, came into the eyes of the British.
Of course Ito Hirobumi hopes to gain support from the British, so he actively responds to the British's goodwill. The two countries are now very close. If it is later, Mutsu Munemitsu will need to go to London to officially start negotiations.
After addressing or suppressing Mutsu Munemitsu's concerns, the Imperial Council finally reached an agreement that Japan needed to take advantage of this opportunity to send troops to North Korea.
Of course, Japan is also very aware of the consequences of sending troops. Korea is close to the Longxing land of the Qing people, so this war is inevitable.
While Japan was actively preparing, the Qing Dynasty, as the current suzerain state of North Korea, also sent troops into North Korea.
Ye Zhichao, the governor of Zhili, and Nie Shicheng, the commander-in-chief of Taiyuan Town, led 3,000 Huai troops into North Korea.
The Huai army entered North Korea not primarily to deal with the Donghak Party, but because someone in North Korea was acting as a monster.
Daewongun, the biological father of the King of Korea, who had been under house arrest for many days, saw that the world was getting worse and worse, and he began to think of seizing power from his daughter-in-law, Concubine Min (the core of the political chaos in North Korea at that time was the family conflict between the daughter-in-law and her father-in-law).
Daewon-kun, who wanted to seize power, looked around and realized that the only people who could help him were the Japanese.
So the Daewonjun secretly contacted Japan and tried to rely on Japan's support to make a comeback. Unfortunately, the news leaked out and he was even more closely guarded.
Japan, relying on its contact with Daewongun, immediately accused the Qing Dynasty of lax management of the vassal country of Korea, which caused turmoil in Korea and affected the trade between various countries and Korea, and demanded that the Qing Dynasty give up its suzerainty over Korea.
In view of another trouble in Korea, Li Zhongtang, as the main person in charge of managing Korea, naturally had no shirk of responsibility, so three thousand Huai troops entered Korea.
However, Li Zhongtang still didn't know at this time that Japan had already made up its mind to take this opportunity to seize North Korea.
