After the Battle of Toshima broke out, all the voices for peace in the Qing court disappeared. If he talks about peace now, he may be regarded as a traitor, and his prestige among the people and scholars may fall to the bottom.
Li Hongzhang now gave up the illusion of continuing to sue for peace. He immediately ordered Nie Shicheng, who had entered North Korea, to immediately build fortifications to help defend Pyongyang and prepare for a decisive battle with Japan in Pyongyang.
Li Hongzhang did not stop making arrangements. He also asked the imperial court for orders to formally declare war on Japan.
But the Qing court was very straightforward this time, and Emperor Guangxu immediately issued an edict declaring war on Japan.
After Japan received China's declaration of war, it immediately formally declared war on the Qing Dynasty and sent spies to spread the so-called "Message to the Heroes of 13 Provinces" throughout China in an attempt to stir up rebellion within the Qing Dynasty.
I don’t know what’s going on in other provinces, but here at Liu Hai, Japanese promotional pamphlets or documents are flying everywhere.
Although Liu Hai said that he was not planning to intervene in the Korean War for the time being, he was a Chinese after all. If he could still endure it now, it would be a miracle.
So Liu Hai issued an order that day to arrest all Japanese in the Liangjiang area and seal all Japanese shops.
With Liu Hai's order, the entire Liangjiang region started a struggle against Japan.
People swarmed into the streets and smashed all Japanese shops. Of course, it cannot be ruled out that there were also many street gangsters among them. They used this anti-Japanese activity to go to Japanese shops to make some small fortunes.
Liu Hai naturally turned a blind eye to these self-organized actions against Japan.
The officials below also saw what Liu Hai meant, so they ignored it even more.
Just like this day, a large Japanese silk company in the Qing Dynasty was looted by ordinary people.
The common people poured into the shop with smiles on their faces, then took out the goods and cloth one by one, and carried them back home. Government officials stood beside them.
The government officials who maintained order did not seem to see the common people robbing.
When the common people saw the government officials standing nearby, they were a little embarrassed at first, and one or two even secretly stuffed silk into the government officials' arms.
"My lord, you are tired here. Take these pieces of cloth back and let your family wear them."
These government officials were holding these silks, but they did not dare to accept them, because Liu Hai had already issued an order that if anyone in the government dared to rob Japanese things, he would be fired on the spot.
These government servants lost their business for a few bolts of silk.
So these government servants quickly pushed back the silk in their arms, and then said with wide eyes: "The governor has given an order. If any of us who eat official meals takes anything, he will lose his job immediately.
You don’t have any grudge against me, do you? You actually want to make me take off my skin.”
After hearing what the government officials said, the common people took the cloth back in embarrassment, then put it on their shoulders and went home.
This kind of thing happens almost everywhere on the streets of Nanjing, and this trend soon spread to Shanghai.
It is not an exaggeration to say that Shanghai is now the richest place in China and is known as the Pearl of the Orient.
Naturally, there are a large number of Japanese shops operating here? Now? They were all unlucky. All the shops were smashed, smashed, and looted in one day.
If it was just smashing, smashing and looting, the Japanese would be able to accept it reluctantly. After all, the personal safety of the personnel was not threatened. But as the people became more and more crazy? Many Japanese women were also ravaged.
By this time, the Japanese Consul General in Shanghai, Sato Miyaji, could no longer sit still. If this continues, the decades of Japanese benefits in China will be wiped out.
So Miyaji Sato rushed to the British Consulate in Shanghai and asked the British Consul General Moritz Earhart for help.
As an important British figure in East China, Moritz Earhart naturally knew that Britain and Japan had signed a secret treaty and the two sides were considered allies. Therefore, after receiving the Japanese request for help, he immediately drove to Shanghai County.
, protested to the Shanghai magistrate.
Pei Zhixian, the magistrate of Shanghai County, was sitting in his yamen worrying about it. It turns out that in densely populated areas of Shanghai, people would always put a large cesspool and bury it in the soil for the convenience of pedestrians.
However, because these simple toilets are really crude, they usually overflow with filthy juice and stink to the sky. Moreover, the capacity of these toilets is limited, so they often overflow, causing uncontrolled flow on the streets. Not only the people of Shanghai, but also
Even foreigners complained.
Therefore, the county magistrate was thinking about changing this bad habit, but you can't help but let the people poop. Without this simple convenience, I'm afraid the streets would be even more stinky.
Therefore, the magistrate is thinking of some best-of-both-worlds solution to solve this problem.
At this moment, the British Consul General in Shanghai, Moritz Earhart, came to the county government office.
Now in the Qing Dynasty, these foreigners were first-class people, and even these officials were only second-class people. Therefore, the magistrate did not dare to neglect and hurriedly came out to greet them.
Although Pei Zhixian is a scholar who has read poetry and books, he looks similar to these foreigners, especially his blond hair and blue eyes, and he looks like a monster at first glance, so he can avoid dealing with them and try not to deal with them as much as possible.
In fact, although he and the Consul General had both stayed in Shanghai for several years, they had never met each other.
Fortunately, Consul General Moritz Earhardt was with the translator, otherwise the two of them would really be talking to each other.
County Magistrate Pei welcomed the Consul General into the living room of the Yamen, served him some fragrant tea, and then asked, "I wonder, Mr. Consul, what are you doing with me this time?"
Moritz Earhardt thought for a while and felt that it was really hard to talk about this matter, because now that China and Japan were at war, it was common for each other to arrest each other's personnel and seize warehouses, and other countries really couldn't interfere.
But Japan is an ally of Britain. If we don't help them, Japan will suffer too much loss in the end and it won't be easy to teach.
So the Consul General said: "Mr. County Magistrate, Shanghai has been in such chaos these past two days. If it continues like this, our British Empire is afraid of a major turmoil in Shanghai, which will cause great damage to our country's interests. So
I ask you, sir, to maintain order immediately and disperse all these rioters."
Magistrate Pei thought why the foreigners came, but it turned out that this matter would be easier to handle.
"This foreigner, this is not because the county is negligent in discipline. There is really nothing we can do. This is the order of Mr. Liu Hailiu, the governor of Liangjiang. How can I, a small county magistrate, dare to disobey it?"
When Moritz Earhardt saw the county magistrate, he immediately put the responsibility on Liu Hai, and there was nothing he could do.
He couldn't leave Shanghai alone and go to Nanjing to find Liu Hai. Besides, he was embarrassed to meet Liu Hai. After all, both parties were his friends. Suddenly his country fell to Japan, which made him feel
There was a bit of trouble on his face.
But after all, this is a matter for the Japanese and has little to do with them, the British. He has fulfilled his duty as an ally, and Japan has to bear the rest.
Moreover, anti-Japanese sentiment is very high in the Qing Dynasty. If word of his excessive interference spreads, it will definitely cause huge damage to British interests in the Qing Dynasty.
So the consul pretended to be angry, said a few threats, and left the magistrate's office.
After Moritz Earhardt returned to the Consulate General, the Japanese Consul General Sato Miyaji was still waiting there for news.
As a result, the news he received was not an order from the Qing people to maintain order and protect the Japanese, but an expression from the British Consul General that he was helpless.
Sato Miyaji had no choice but to leave the British consulate. However, before returning to the consulate, he took a hard look at the Qing people on the street and thought to himself, you should be happy for a while now, and wait until we have great Japan.
If the imperial war is victorious, your compensation will be doubled.
At this time, Li Hongzhang analyzed the strength of both sides, and then he felt that if only the Beiyang and Huai armies fought against the Japanese, they would probably lose more and win less.
So Li Hongzhang, like Emperor Guangxu, hoped that Emperor Guangxu would order all the main forces of the Nanyang Navy to go north and join the Beiyang Navy to form a joint fleet to fight against Japan.
Originally at the court, Emperor Guangxu had agreed to Li Hongzhang's request and was preparing to issue an order for the Nanyang Navy to go north the next day. However, that night Weng Tonghe secretly entered the Yangxin Hall.
Emperor Guangxu was a little puzzled by this teacher's sudden request for a meeting at night. They had just met in the court today, and it had not been long before he had something important to do.
However, out of respect for teachers, Emperor Guangxu still invited the teacher in.
Weng Tonghe entered the Yangxin Hall and first bowed to Emperor Guangxu who was sitting on the throne. Emperor Guangxu quickly ordered the eunuch next to him to watch Weng Tonghe sit down.
After Weng Tonghe sat down, he raised his hands to Emperor Guangxu above and said, "Your Majesty is in the court today. It's really great that you promised Li Hongzhang."
Emperor Guangxu was a little puzzled when he heard this. The overall situation of the war against Japan was now, wouldn't it be good to gather the Nanyang Navy and the Beiyang Navy together to fight? What's wrong?
Weng Tonghe saw the puzzled look in Emperor Guangxu's eyes, sighed, and then said: "Your Majesty, Li Hongzhang belongs to the Queen Mother. If Li Hongzhang and the power of Nanyang and Beiyang achieve a great victory this time, their prestige will be higher, and the Queen Mother will do her best."
It will be even greater, and the opportunity for Your Majesty to regain power may be even further away."
Emperor Guangxu frowned immediately after hearing this. He thought for a moment that this was not the case. The case of Empress Dowager Cixi was so great that he was almost alone. If someone like Empress Dowager Cixi made great contributions, then Cixi's status would be
Wouldn’t it be more stable?
And more importantly, if Li Hongzhang is defeated this time, Beiyang will definitely lose its strength, which is equivalent to breaking an arm of the Queen Mother. With a general like Liu Hai on his side, the strength of the two sides is very close.
This is how history developed. After the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, the power of Empress Dowager Cixi shrank somewhat, which allowed Emperor Guangxu to launch the Reform Movement of 1898.
Otherwise, even if Emperor Guangxu had great courage, he would not dare to disobey Empress Dowager Cixi.
Although Emperor Guangxu had already figured it out, he was the main combatant after all. He couldn't say that he would let his men lose troops and generals, so he looked at Weng Tonghe with expectant eyes, "Then what do you think I should do, teacher?" . ”