Liu Hai's reply to the court soon reached Li Hongzhang.
After Li Hongzhang received the news, he yelled at Nanfang: "Confucian son, you have abandoned public service for private reasons. I will definitely interfere with you in front of the emperor."
This is what Li Hongzhang said and what he did. On the same day, he wrote a memorial and sent it to the military aircraft office, impeaching Liu Hai for slowing down the process and hesitating to move forward. He only knew how to protect himself and did not know how to go north to kill the enemy.
Prince Shiduo of the Military Aircraft Department felt as if he had found a treasure after receiving Li Hongzhang's memorial. This man had been tortured by the Empress Dowager Cixi several times because of his bangs, so he had held a grudge for a long time.
Therefore, at the court meeting on the second day, Prince Li Shiduo took Li Hongzhang's memorial and impeached Liu Hai in court, demanding that Liu Hai be removed from the post of governor of Liangjiang.
However, the current Military Aircraft Department is no longer the time when Prince Li Shiduo had monopolized the power. There is now a heavyweight in the Military Aircraft Department, and that is Prince Gong Yixin.
Although Prince Gong said that he was an ally with the Empress Dowager Cixi in the past, he has always been resentful since he was tricked by Cixi and had to stay at home for the elderly.
This time, with the full support of Emperor Guangxu, he finally returned to the military. Moreover, he also knew the difficulties faced by Emperor Guangxu and the domineering Empress Dowager Cixi, so the balance in his heart had long been tilted towards the descendants of their Aixinjueluo family.
Prince Gong Yixin has now seen that Liu Hai wants to preserve his strength, while their emperor wants both Beiyang and the Japanese to suffer losses.
In the end, Prince Gong made his choice. After all, the emperor's surname was Aisin Gioro.
So Prince Gong Yixin refuted Li Hongzhang's memorial in court, and the reasons were very good. In recent years, the military expenditures of the Nanyang Navy have hardly been allocated, and all of them have been misappropriated by Beiyang. So much military expenditures add up.
, the Beiyang Navy still did not dare to go south to fight Japan, not to mention that the Nanyang Navy lacked military spending and its warships were not in order.
When the civil and military ministers in the imperial court heard that Prince Gong Yixin opened his eyes and told lies, they all understood what the prince meant. So people from Prince Gong's group jumped out to intercede for Liu Hai.
Then the emperor's teacher Weng Tonghe also openly supported Liu Hai and refuted Prince Li Shiduo in the court.
"Mr. Liu, the governor of Liangjiang, did not say that he would not send warships northward. He just said that due to tight military expenditures in recent years, the Nanyang Navy was short of coal and artillery shells. He had already ordered a batch from foreigners and was just waiting for
Once the shells arrive, we can head north immediately."
Prince Li Shiduo was besieged by everyone and could not stand alone. Therefore, Li Hongzhang's memorial was ignored.
I am afraid that the current Qing Dynasty is watching Li Hongzhang's jokes, just looking at Li Hongzhang's backstage? The Empress Dowager Cixi did not have the idea of letting Li Hongzhang weaken some of his strength.
But Li Hongzhang could not be so passive. He also entertained many parties, like the British, who made suggestions to restrain the Japanese navy.
The British military was also very angry about Japan's sinking of the Gaosheng, and many British generals even proposed to Parliament that they immediately send troops to Japan.
But what Li Hongzhang was waiting for was: "Is it reasonable for the Japanese ship to sink the Gaosheng? The responsibility does not lie with Japan." The responsibility lies with the Qing government? The British should be compensated for their losses.
At this time, the entire Qing Dynasty was in an uproar. Some people even openly wrote in newspapers, "Where is the law of heaven? Where is the justice?" At this time, the entire Qing Dynasty's perception of the British quickly declined.
Li Hongzhang saw that the British side was not doing anything, so he turned his attention to the Americans on the other side of the ocean, hoping that the Americans could mediate and avoid the war.
But this time, the Japanese were well prepared. Japan secretly hired House, a reporter from the American New York Tribune, as the commander-in-chief of the national propaganda war.
House is very familiar with the way Western media operates. Under his careful planning, the images of China and Japan representing barbarism and civilization respectively formed a consensus among the Western media and the public. Japan became a righteous person who helped North Korea drive away the Qing Dynasty.
The New York Herald reported at the time that Japan's actions in Korea would benefit the entire world? And once Japan failed, Korea would return to China's barbaric rule.
"The New York News" also commented: "China's defeat will mean the liberation of millions of people from ignorance, tyranny and dictatorship." Atlanta's "Advanced" said? The American public undoubtedly sympathizes with Japan and believes that
Japan represents the glory and progress of Asia.
It is precisely because of these public opinion bases that the U.S. government also made the decision not to intervene.
By this time, Li Hongzhang was almost at the end of his rope and was forced to fight decisively. However, in this crisis, he saw a glimmer of hope. It turned out that the Russian ambassador visited Li Hongzhang when passing by Tianjin.
Russia was not prepared to help the Qing Dynasty in major affairs at all, but on the surface he still sympathized with the Qing Dynasty and promised to mediate, but in fact Russia just wanted to gain some benefits from the Qing Dynasty.
The matter of Li Hongzhang's contact with Russia was soon discovered by Japanese intelligence agencies, so Japan directly informed the British government of the news through the British Consulate.
The main defense policy of Britain in the Far East is to suppress Russia. Now that Russia actually wants to expand in the Far East through the Qing Dynasty, Britain is naturally unwilling.
Now, both the British government, military and civilians have sympathized with Japan, and the Qing government can now be said to be isolated from the world.
As for the attitude of the British government, Liu Hai felt the most obvious. Originally, Liu Hai had purchased a batch of warship shells from the British government, and the batch of shells had been shipped to Xiangjiang and could be handed over soon. As a result, he suddenly received
The British government informed that since China and Japan were at war and Britain remained neutral, these shells could not be delivered to the Nanyang Navy.
Liu Hai was so angry that he gritted his teeth after hearing this reply. He knew that the British were now sending shiploads of various supplies to Japan. They were not maintaining neutrality. They were simply helping the Japanese to conquer the country.
But Liu Hai still swallowed his anger, after all, Britain's strength was now at its peak.
So in order to have enough artillery shells for his warship, Liu Hai could only return to modern times in a hurry with the standards and requirements of the artillery shells.
By the time Liu Hai returned to modern times and summoned his royal butler Zhang Tao to his villa, it was already that night.
As soon as Zhang Tao saw Liu Hai, he started to complain, "You don't even look at the time. Can't you come to me tomorrow?"
Liu Hai looked at Zhang Tao's resentful look, probably knowing that this time he was disturbing his good deeds, so he could only rub his nose and admit his mistake.
Fortunately, Zhang Tao still remembered his responsibilities and did not continue to delve deeper. He just asked angrily: "Why are you in such a hurry this time? Why do you come to me?"
When Liu Hai heard Zhang Tao's question, he immediately showed a flattering smile on his face, and then sent a few pieces of paper in his arms to him.
"Brother Zhang, this is not something we need urgently. I don't know much about the other people. I can only feel wronged by you, Brother Zhang."
Zhang Tao was now somewhat immune to Liu Hai's sweet talk, so he glanced at Liu Hai with disdain, then took the pieces of paper from the table and looked at them carefully.
"Hey, these are some old-fashioned cannonballs. What do you want these for?"
After hearing this, Liu Hai did not answer him, but just asked: "Brother Zhang, can you provide me with a batch?"
After hearing this, Zhang Tao looked at Liu Hai carefully and saw the anxiety on his face, knowing that he might be in trouble this time.
So Zhang Tao once again looked at the list of artillery shells in his hand carefully, then thought about it and said: "The technology of these things is very backward. If the arsenal production is slightly improved, it can be completed, but now our arsenal uses TNT explosives."
, so the shells will undergo some modifications.”
After Liu Hai heard this, he immediately smiled. If the black powder was changed to TNT explosive, the power of the cannonball would be several times greater. If there was a naval battle, the Japanese would be enough to eat them.
"There is no problem at all. Brother Zhang, feel free to change it. As long as my cannon can be used, you can change it to whatever you want."
Liu Hai said this, hesitated again, and then said: "Brother Zhang, I need this batch of things urgently. I need you to prepare all the goods for me within three days."
In fact, Liu Hai was a little nervous when he said this. The quantity of his batch of cannonballs was really too large. After all, if dozens of warships wanted to open up and fire cannonballs, the quantity required would be quite large.
Zhang Tao laughed after hearing Liu Hai's concerns, "I'm so nervous about this little thing. As long as the modification can be completed, I can double the quantity you want."
When Zhang Tao said this, his face was full of pride.
Liu Hai now understands that as long as we can design it, production is not a problem at all, and as for quantity, it is a piece of cake.
"Then I'll trouble Brother Zhang. I'll be waiting to receive the goods in three days."
Next, Zhang Tao said goodbye to Liu Hai. After all, he was summoned by Liu Hai when he was still in the gentle village just now. Now he might go back and warm himself up again.
The list of artillery shells sent by Liu Hai was quickly sent to arsenals everywhere through special channels.
After the persons in charge of these arsenals obtained the main specifications of the artillery shells and the production process, they were confused. When did these artillery shells come from? Are there still such artillery pieces today?
After all, the process of separating launching packages from cannonballs was only taught in books by their teachers when they were in school, but they had never seen it before.
But since orders have been sent from above, they can only produce according to the regulations. Fortunately, these things are technologies from hundreds of years ago, and it is a piece of cake for these arsenals.
After working day and night in several arsenals, Liu Hai finally received the artillery shells promised by Zhang Tao three days later, and the quantity was three times more than what he needed.
When Zhang Tao delivered the shells, he and Liu Hai proudly said: "This is completely due to the tight construction schedule and heavy tasks. There is no special production line in the factory. Otherwise, the quantity would be more than 10 times this."