Qu Hongji knew that he was unlucky because of Cixi's change in attitude towards foreigners. Before, Cixi advocated keeping things quiet, so Qu Hongji agreed to the foreigners' five requests. Now the Empress Dowager Cixi has become tougher. This change is very sudden. As for Cixi's
He has no chance to know how it changed.
After Chen Hao ordered Li Zhun to refuse to carry out the order, he immediately sent a telegram to Yuan Shikai and the Empress Dowager Cixi. In the telegram, he made an impassioned statement, believing that the Japanese navy was currently insufficient and the army was constrained by the Russians on the Korean Peninsula.
Terrible. Even if their attitude was tougher, the Japanese would not dare to actually lead their fleet to fight when they went to war with Russia.
Of course, these were not enough to make Cixi change her attitude. Chen Hao listed the number of warships under his command, and then listed the number of warships owned by the Japanese. He swore that he had more than thirty warships than the Japanese, and the losses in the Tsushima naval battle were
The disastrous Japan is definitely no match for him, so Empress Dowager Cixi can rest assured.
Chen Hao was clever when he listed the strength comparison between the two sides. Although the tonnage and number of warships of the Japanese are not as good as Cam Ranh Bay, most of the Japanese have new warships. Chen Hao captured many destroyers and torpedo boats. These small ships accounted for not much tonnage.
It's small, but it's certainly impossible to use these warships to fight the Japanese dreadnoughts.
The Japanese dreadnought was officially commissioned two days ago. This warship was named King Kong by the Japanese. This is why Japan has such an arrogant attitude. Historically, Japan had a tough attitude towards the Erchen Maru case. That was because they won the Russo-Japanese War.
, had an absolute psychological advantage over the Qing Dynasty. Now they are still at war with Russia. They will only take the initiative to offend the Qing Dynasty when they are full and strong.
Now that the Qing Dynasty has joined the navy led by Chen Hao, even if it fights Japan on the sea, it will not necessarily suffer losses. Japan's biggest enemy is Russia, and they should be able to distinguish the priorities. Chen Hao is very confident about this. He
Blatantly rejecting Japan and Portugal's requests, doing so has gained a lot of reputation and there is no risk, so why not do it?
As for the Portuguese Navy, Chen Hao completely ignored it. Even if the main ship was sent to Vladivostok, he would be able to destroy the Portuguese Far East Fleet. If the Japanese surrender in this incident and stop making unreasonable demands, Chen Hao will also use this as an excuse to provoke Portugal.
Ichiban. It would be best to take back the land that belongs to China.
Yuan Shikai had already attacked in advance after receiving Chen Hao's telegram, which confirmed that Chen Hao's naval comparison analysis was thorough and that the Japanese were no match for the Guangdong Navy. With his support, the Empress Dowager Cixi certainly believed in Chen Hao's words. After all, Chen Hao
Hao has always been victorious in foreign wars, and the Empress Dowager Cixi must have confidence in him.
Yuan Shikai was willing to help because Chen Hao told him that this was a good opportunity to move to Qu Hongji, and the two of them had what they needed. After Qu Hongji was dismissed, the Empress Dowager Cixi appointed Yuan Shikai as the new Minister of Foreign Affairs concurrently. Old Yuan had a tough attitude
The Portuguese rejected the five-point demands of the Japanese, and at the same time asked Portugal to strengthen its management of Macau and not allow Macau people to smuggle arms wantonly.
It’s not surprising that the Empress Dowager Cixi is so decisive. When a person cannot defeat her opponent, she will be submissive for a long time, and she will definitely feel unhappy. Once she is sure that she has support and will never lose to her opponent, of course she will show off her power. The Empress Dowager Cixi even proactively reminded her
Yuan Shikai asked Yuan Shikai if he could use this as an excuse to allow the Portuguese to return Macau. That's why Yuan Shikai made demands on Portugal.
The Empress Dowager Cixi's idea of taking back Macau was mainly due to Chen Hao. He reduced the combat effectiveness of the Portuguese fleet to nothing. The Empress Dowager Cixi felt that taking back Macau was only a matter of minutes. After Yuan Shikai made a strong counterattack on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japanese Minister Lin Quan
The assistant and the Portuguese Minister Pedro were dumbfounded. Is this still the weak Qing court?
Hayashi Gonsuke issued a strongly worded statement. Japanese Minister Hayashi Gonsuke forced the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with the Governor of Guangdong, Zhang Renjun, to strictly prohibit Cantonese businessmen from boycotting Japanese goods. The Japanese Acting Minister in Beijing, Abe Shotaro, reported to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Qing court about Guangdong's rejection of Japanese goods.
Protested and demanded that the Qing government demand compensation of 218,000 yuan for the Erchen Maru case. He said that Japan would send a fleet to seek an explanation.
The two Japanese ministers clamored loudly, but the Japanese base camp remained surprisingly silent. Chen Baxian's fleet is not weak, so he just doesn't come to provoke the Japanese navy. If he really sends the main fleet that he finally developed to fight against Chen Baxian, then what will happen?
What to do against the Russians?
When Portugal saw the Japanese minister's tough attitude, he immediately said that he would send warships to support Japan. A few days later, Portuguese Minister Padro discovered that something was wrong. The Japanese minister screamed fiercely, but Japan had no intention of sending warships. He quickly understood the problem.
Where. The damn Japanese are shouting slogans. Their fleet is busy dealing with the Japanese. How can they dare to provoke the Chinese whose navy is not weak now?
Pedro began to panic. This was not the Age of Discovery, and the Portuguese navy was only second-rate in Europe. Even if all Portugal's warships were sent to Asia, they would not be able to defeat the fleet in Cam Ranh Bay. If they continued to be tough and angered the Qing court, they would probably suffer a loss.
After realizing this idea, Badro's tone began to soften and he never mentioned the matter of letting the Qing court deal with Chen Baxian again.
Portugal died down, but the Qing government began to push further. Yuan Shikai took a tough stance and asked Portugal to punish those who purchased arms and asked Portugal to send people to re-demarcate the border. Portugal opposed this and asked the Qing government to stop in moderation and not to anger the Portuguese empire.
As early as the end of 1907, gentry, businessmen, and people in Guangzhou, Xiangshan, Hong Kong and other places petitioned the government one after another, asking to "send personnel to Macao to demarcate the boundaries." The Erchen Maru case further accelerated the movement to demand demarcation. Historically, at the end of 1908
Liu Shixun, the Chinese Minister in France, went to Lisbon to discuss the demarcation of Macao with the Portuguese government. In February 1909, China and Portugal reached an agreement and decided to send personnel to inspect the Macao boundary, and the negotiation venue was set in Hong Kong.
The Portuguese sent Macadore, who had served as the colonial governor of Portuguese East Africa, as the negotiator, and the Qing Dynasty's negotiator was Gao Erqian, a Fujian official who had served as the Sino-French envoy to Yunnan. On July 1, Sino-Portuguese negotiations officially began in Hong Kong.
Ma Shaduo made a land claim at the first meeting. He claimed that Macau included: 1. the Macau Peninsula, from A-Ma to Border Gate; 2. the island including Duan Duan Shan (i.e. Wan Chai, Yin Hang, Nan Ping, Beishan, etc.
28 Township), Green Island, Taipa, Coloane, Big and Small Hengqin, Ma Liuzhou and other islands; third, the territorial waters are the above land and waterways near the islands; fourth, the border gate to Beishan Ridge is an "outside area".
According to this demarcation plan, the newly expanded territory of Portugal will be 30 times larger than the area of the original leased area. The Qing government was weak in this negotiation and adopted the policy of seeking compromise through concessions. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs advocated that it first be found out.
The original concession of the Portuguese was regarded as the mainland of Macao, and the first occupied area outside the walls of the original concession was classified as territorial territory. The islands near Macao, regardless of whether they had been occupied or not, were strongly rejected.
When these opinions were conveyed to the negotiator Gao Erqian, he made modifications without authorization and changed it to allow Macao and Portugal to occupy occupied areas in Taipa and Coloane. This compromise policy of the Qing government was extremely weak and it had already made the maximum concession, but Portugal
The colonists were still not satisfied.
Macado's attitude at the negotiation meeting was very arrogant. Under pressure from the Portuguese representatives, Gao Erqian stated that China was willing to "cede the Macau Peninsula (from A-Ma to Border Gate), as well as Qingdao, Taipa, Coloane and other places, as well as nearby inland rivers
and the sea area shall be jointly managed by China and Portugal." However, the Portuguese colonists were not satisfied. Massado insisted on claiming the opposite mountain and the large and small Hengqin Islands, as well as controlling the entire water boundary, which brought the demarcation negotiations to a deadlock.
After the people of Guangdong learned about the Portuguese ambitions, the Xiangshan County Boundary Demarcation and Maintenance Committee passed the "Lian Li Ninety-eight Township Vigilante Group Charter" and announced the establishment of a militia to take up arms to fight against the Macao and Portuguese to defend their hometown. The people's resistance stopped the trend of compromise in the negotiations, and the Qing Dynasty
The government had to be "extremely cautious and considerate of all aspects" in the negotiations, and resolutely rejected the unreasonable demands of the Portuguese colonists.
Macado's blackmail methods failed to achieve the expected results, so he walked away from the ninth meeting and blatantly sabotaged the negotiations. The Portuguese authorities attempted to use force to realize their expansion plan. From 1910 to 1911, Macau suffered from the Coloane massacre and dredging.
The sea negotiated two major events.
Coloane is located on the sea 8 kilometers south of Macau. It is the entrance to the Cross Gate and the outpost of Macau. It covers an area of 6 square kilometers. It was originally called Jiu'ao. Later, it was named after Coloane Village in the west of the island. In 1864, Portugal invaded the island.
Bay, covering an area of dozens of acres to build a fort and stationing 20 troops. In July 1910, Portugal sent troops to attack Coloane under the pretext of "suppressing bandits".
The islanders rose up in self-defense, repelled the invaders' attacks three times, and recaptured the Portuguese fort on the island. Later, Portugal deployed more warships and devoted all its strength to besieging the island. On August 4, the Portuguese army landed on the island and burned it violently.
They killed, looted, and "hundreds of villagers were brutally attacked to death." The fishing boat the villagers took to retreat was also chased and sunk by a Portuguese ship, and 38 people were buried in the belly of the fish.
The bloodshed in Coloane aroused strong indignation among the people, who demanded that the Qing government abrogate the treaty and take back Macau. The Qing government was also forced to send Liu Shixun, the minister to France, to Lisbon again, asking Portugal to resume negotiations on the demarcation of Macau. In early 1911, Portugal again near Macau
Large-scale dredging projects were carried out on the sea and inland waterways in an attempt to gain control of the inland rivers and outer seas. Under the strong pressure of public opinion from the Guangdong people, Guangdong Governor Zhang Mingqi sent personnel to negotiate with the Portuguese authorities in Macau, demanding that the dredging project be stopped immediately
On the one hand, Huang Shilong, the staff officer of the 25th Town, was sent to inspect the defenses near Macau and formulate a plan to control Macau with "both military and commercial development".
On the military side, Zhang Mingqi strengthened the Wan Chai Fort in Beishan Ridge, making the two places at each other's horns, and also stationed more troops at each pass; on the commercial side, the government encouraged and supported capitalists to strengthen the construction of Xiangzhou Port, and opened shopping malls in Wan Chai to mobilize Macao
Businessmen moved to other places to open businesses in order to resist Macau business. (To be continued...)
