Li Hongzhang is not an easy person. After listening to the words of several staff, his eyes immediately became firm.
"What you all said is reasonable. I have decided to report to the imperial court to send the Beiyang Navy southward to fight against Japan."
It was at this time that a telegram from the imperial court was sent to Li Hongzhang, asking him to go to Beijing to explain the origin of this incident to the imperial court.
Now that Li Hongzhang had made his decision, he immediately took the train and arrived in the capital that night. Early the next morning, he went to the palace to meet the Empress Dowager Cixi.
When Li Hongzhang met the Empress Dowager Cixi, his first sentence was, "Now is the time to shock East Asia and frighten the great powers. Please ask the Empress Dowager to approve the Beiyang Navy's march south."
This sentence made Cixi's mouth full of trouble. She originally wanted to preemptively scold Li Hongzhang, and then order him to retreat before making plans. Unexpectedly, as soon as they met, Li Hongzhang gave her a preemptive strike.
.
This was already very obvious. Li Hongzhang expressed his attitude to Cixi, that is, this battle must be fought, and he must fight against Japan with the strength of the Nanyang and Northern Fleets.
Moreover, Li Hongzhang also analyzed it himself on the way here. Japan now has several new cruisers. Even a single fleet in Beiyang and Nanyang cannot deal with it, let alone the confluence of Nanyang and Beiyang. The Qing Dynasty will definitely win this battle.
Moreover, after this battle, his prestige among the people will rise sharply.
Why not do such a good thing?
But Cixi didn't think so. Now that the power of the Han people is getting stronger and stronger, almost all the troops that the Qing Dynasty can fight are in the hands of the Han people. If they continue to fight, the military power in the hands of these people will definitely become heavier and heavier. By then, the Qing Dynasty will be
It's dangerous.
"I think you have acted too hastily. Japan is quite respectful to the Qing Dynasty now. There is no need to start a war without permission. Just send an envoy to negotiate with them."
"Your Majesty the Queen Mother, the Japanese are afraid of power and not moral. I'm afraid it will be useless to reason with them. Moreover, in recent years, the Japanese have been constantly attacking us in the Qing Dynasty. First, it was the Treasure Island incident, and then the Korean incident. If things go on like this, I'm afraid it will end.
If you can't get rid of it, it's better to take this opportunity to completely defeat it, and then the Qing Dynasty will also be able to have peace on the sea."
"Huh, Aijia thinks, this matter is because the generals below want to be rewarded for their meritorious service, and they also talk about opening up the territory for the Qing Dynasty. Aijia thinks, don't mention this matter, you should immediately order the army to retreat.
"
When Li Hongzhang arrived here, he had guessed what the Empress Dowager Cixi was thinking, so he raised his hands and said: "I'm afraid it's too late for the Empress Dowager. Our Beiyang Fleet has already gone south, and I'm afraid there is no news to pass on the sea."
The Empress Dowager Cixi trembled with anger after hearing this, but she suppressed her anger and said with a smile: "Since you people below are determined to fight, then I can only agree to the Ai family, but I must make it clear that the court's food supply
But it’s not enough. We don’t have the money to support your war needs. If you want to fight, just raise your own military expenses.”
After Cixi said these words, she asked Li Hongzhang to kneel down.
After Li Hongzhang left, Cixi's face immediately darkened, and then she sneered and said to Li Lianying on the side: "These Han ministers are paying less and less attention to the imperial court. Today they dare to start a war without permission. In a few days they will
I dare to force you into the palace."
So on the second day, something shocking and inexplicable happened to the entire court, that is, Ronglu, who had been out of office for many years, was suddenly reinstated by the Empress Dowager Cixi as the commander of the infantry, responsible for handling the military affairs of the capital, and at the same time, Ronglu was awarded the title of commander of the infantry.
New Army.
The reason why everyone is so frightened is because a few years ago, there were rumors in the capital that the relationship between Cixi and Ronglu was somewhat abnormal.
In order to prevent rumors from spreading and to prove her innocence, Cixi dismissed Ronglu from all his posts and let him rest at home.
Unexpectedly, Ronglu was suddenly reactivated and immediately took over the power of the capital.
This made the civil and military officials of the Manchu Dynasty murmur in their hearts. Could it be that the rumor back then was true?
Li Hongzhang had not yet left the capital when he received the news. He just shook his head. He knew that this was the court's growing suspicion of him, so he wanted to consolidate military power.
However, Li Hongzhang believed that he had fairly tight control over the Huai army. As long as he was around, the imperial court would not be able to touch any of Beiyang's soldiers.
Li Hongzhang seemed to be angry with Cixi. After Cixi ordered Ronglu to be reinstated, he immediately sent a telegram to the Beiyang Navy, asking the entire Beiyang Navy to dispatch to join forces with the Nanyang Navy to fight together.
At that time, the Beiyang Navy was still docked at the Lushun base and did not go south immediately. However, after receiving Li Hongzhang's order, it took the transport ship and set sail towards the south.
During this period of chaos in the court, Liu Hai and the Nanyang Navy had arrived near Diaoyutai Island.
At this time, the Diaoyutai was just an uninhabited island. Although no one lived on the Diaoyutai, in 1884, Tatsushiro Koga, a native of Fukuoka, Japan, arrived at the Diaoyutai and its affiliated islands during his expedition and later reported it to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Japan.
The application calls for the island to be added to the national border.
However, Japan at that time saw that its national strength was very different from that of the Qing Dynasty, so it did not agree to his request.
However, this is only a superficial article. Secretly, the Japanese are spying on the sovereignty of Diaoyutai all the time.
They have sent people to conduct inspections on the Diaoyu Islands several times, "to report in detail the shape of the harbor and whether there is land for development, the prospects for products, establish national standards, and leave development matters to another day."
Liu Mingchuan naturally knew the actions of the Japanese very well. Because of this, he was worried day and night. This time Liu Hai came and gave him the opportunity, so he made the request that Liu Hai go north to seize the Diaoyutai.
After Liu Hai arrived at the Diaoyu Islands, he ordered transport ships to deploy troops to the two large islands of the Diaoyu Islands.
At the same time, the boundary monuments and other objects that had been prepared long ago were transported to the Diaoyutai, and then people were ordered to erect the boundary monuments on it, declaring to all countries in the world that Diaoyutai was the territory of the Qing Dynasty.
Liu Hai's actions were not concealed in any way, so he was quickly discovered by a Japanese fishing boat fishing nearby.
Seeing the huge number of Liu Hai's warships, these fishing boats did not dare to move forward, but they still kept wandering around.
It wasn't until Liu Hai set up a boundary marker on the Diaoyutai that he turned around and left, heading straight for Okinawa.
The governor of Okinawa Prefecture, Kogentaro, received reports from fishermen that the Qing army had arrived near the Diaoyutai and set up boundary markers.
Little Gentaro was a little anxious now. Although the Diaoyutai was not included in the 36 Ryukyu Islands, they had always regarded the Diaoyutai as their own island over the years.
Now the Qing Dynasty dares to set up boundary markers on the Diaoyutai. This is unbearable. But his men have no warships at all, just some patrol boats.
However, this little Gentaro is also ruthless. Although the patrol boat cannot be of great use, it can still have some effect if he works hard.
So he immediately ordered the patrol boat to set off for the Diaoyu Islands immediately, delaying the actions of the Qing army.
At the same time, Kogentaro reported the situation of the Diaoyu Islands to the Japanese government in Tokyo and requested Japan to send warships to the Diaoyu Islands.
The Prime Minister of Japan at that time was Masayoshi Matsukata. This person had no political talent, but he was still economically capable to a certain extent.
In view of the fact that the Japanese government was in a period of economic crisis at the time, he forced the navy and army to cut wages and reduce military expenditures, so that the Japanese government could barely survive.
But precisely because of this, he offended all Japanese military personnel, so on the surface he still dominates Japanese politics, but his current situation is not very good.
After Masayoshi Matsukata received the news from Ryukyu, he immediately became anxious and held a cabinet meeting to discuss his attitude towards the matter.
The then Prime Minister of the Sea Kawasaki Shiki became furious after hearing the news and demanded that the Japanese government immediately send troops south to stop the Qing's actions. Otherwise, once the Qing established sovereignty over Diaoyutai, the Japanese Empire would never be able to do so again.
I can't justify going to Diaoyutai.
Although Prime Minister Takashima Tomonosuke is a veteran in the military, he is unable to control the army dominated by the Choshu clan. Therefore, he can only comply with the rising momentum of foreign expansion in the Japanese army. Otherwise, his army minister will also
Can't sit for long.
"In recent years, the Empire of Japan has faced continuous challenges from the Qing Dynasty. Over the years, the Qing Dynasty has continued to purchase more warships, strengthen equipment, and increase military expenditures, while we Japanese have abandoned our martial arts. If this continues, we Japanese will never be able to
rise, so I think we should take tough measures against the Qing court this time and declare war directly if necessary."
This time the army and navy have completely reached an agreement, which is terrible. This is completely a decision made by the veterans.
Although the Prime Minister of Japan appears to be the supreme head of the Japanese government, in fact he is just a puppet pushed by the elders.
Once the veterans make a decision, the Japanese Prime Minister has no ability to resist, and sometimes he will even be pushed out as a scapegoat.
Masayoshi Matsukata was a little anxious when he saw this situation. This time, Japan's economic crisis has not yet passed. If there is a large-scale expansion of military power due to conflicts with the Qing Dynasty, Japan's economic recovery may be delayed again.
"Everyone, although the Qing Dynasty has stirred up trouble this time, everyone should also know that the economy of the Empire of Japan is not good now, and it is simply unable to maintain military expenditures to fight the Qing Dynasty. If a war breaks out, all funds from other places will have to be used.
Due to the war, once the Japanese Empire is unable to obtain compensation in the war, the economy is likely to collapse."
Everyone below was speechless after what Masayoshi Matsukata said. Japan's economic situation is indeed so bad. Coupled with the arms race over the years, the Japanese government is just gritting its teeth and moving forward. It really has no spare power at this time.
Wage war.
Masayoshi Matsukata saw that the ministers below him had stopped talking, so he quickly struck while the iron was hot and said: "I ask you to be patient for the time being, and wait until the empire is strong enough to compete with the Qing Dynasty, and then give it another blow to seize control of East Asia.