Chapter 138 Failed mediation and actively prepared for war
After receiving Japan's request, the British, French and American consulates analyzed the pros and cons and consciously realized that their interests in the Liangjiang area were very important and they must not let the two rivers fall into war.
So these ambassadors came to the Governor's Mansion of Liangjiang together and asked to see Liu Hai.
Liu Hai was naturally clear about the purpose of these ambassadors, but he couldn't turn against them yet, so he invited them all into his study.
After these masters met Liu Hai, their attitudes were different. Since the United States and France had no direct interests, they just followed the crowd and came over for the sake of the British.
But Britain is different. They have secretly reached an alliance with Japan, and this time the Sino-Japanese War, the British spent a lot of money. Originally, seeing that the Sino-Japanese War was over, the Qing people had already compensated Japan for its losses.
Their interests would be protected, but who would have thought that someone would pop up halfway.
Therefore, the attitude of the British was very tough. As soon as Sir Walter saw Liu Hai, he immediately lodged the strongest protest against Liu Hai.
"I hope Mr. Liu Hai can immediately stop all military operations for the sake of peace between the two countries. Otherwise, for the sake of world peace, the British government will have to send troops to intervene."
Liu Hai looked at Sir Walter who was so tough, and knew that the British government was now in a hurry. They also seemed to know that Japan was at the end of its war effort, and the economy would collapse unless the British provided a large amount of loans and forced a blood transfusion to Japan.
However, the British capital is not stupid. If Japan loses so much money in the future, it will be wasted.
Therefore, the best way now is to threaten Liu Hai not to start a war.
After listening to the other party's words, Liu Hai immediately stood up and said seriously to Sir Walter: "This war was unilaterally initiated by Japan, and now it is asking for such a large compensation from our country, which is completely beyond the strength of the two countries.
The comparison is something the Nanyang Navy would never agree to."
Sir Walter saw Liu Hai's tough attitude, so he had to soften and said to Liu Hai: "The British government has learned about the difficulties of the Nanyang Navy and knows that the Nanyang Navy has a naval base in Taiwan, so the British government is willing to mediate. Let's
The Nanyang Navy’s base in Taiwan continues to exist.”
"Sir Walter, I think there is no need for the British government to intervene, and the Nanyang Navy has the ability to protect its base from infringement."
As the British Minister to China, Sir Walter knew very clearly about the war between the Qing Dynasty and Japan. After the war broke out, Liu Hai had been passively avoiding the war? Now he suddenly became so tough? There must be something wrong with it.
Hidden secrets known to everyone.
It seems that Liu Hai has made up his mind this time, and it is useless to say anything.
So Sir Walter stood up and stared at Liu Hai with gloomy eyes. "Since Mr. Governor is so stubborn, then I won't say anything. But I can clearly tell Mr. Governor that the British government, for its own interests, is
We will never sit back and watch turmoil occur in the Far East."
Liu Hai was noncommittal about the threat to British business? Then he took the tea from the table and took a sip.
The boy waiting outside saw Liu Hai's movements and immediately said loudly: "Send off guests."
Sir Walter, the British Minister, has been in China for many years? Naturally, he understands the rules of China? Liu Hai is serving tea to see off the guests and wants to drive them out.
So the minister gave Liu Hai a hard look, then turned around and left the study.
After the envoys left, there was a sound at the back of the study. It turned out that several of Liu Hai's counselors were hiding behind the screen.
As soon as these people came out of their bangs, they smiled and asked: "What actions do you think this British person will take to suppress us?"
Zhao Jiahua listened to Liu Hai's question, thought for a moment, and then said: "This time we fight against Japan, the British will not see the Japanese fail, so they will definitely support Japan with all their strength, but they will not
To directly enter the war, the most likely way I think is to sell some active warships directly to Japan."
Liu Hai nodded slightly after hearing this. This is also a method commonly used by the great powers. If the British sell warships to Japan again, then the strength of the Japanese navy will probably be doubled several times.
Now the Japanese Navy has captured the remnants of the Beiyang Navy and has the Zhenyuan ironclad and several other cruisers, plus an ironclad purchased from the Chilean Navy. If the British sell one or two ironclads to Japan,
Japan's naval strength will expand rapidly. Judging from the current military strength of the Nanyang Navy, it is no match at all.
Hu Youxing, the staff member, stood there frowning and thinking for a while, and then said hesitantly: "Sir, if this is really the case, our Nanyang Navy's strength is much worse than that of the Japanese. Once a war breaks out, I'm afraid the Nanyang Navy will not be our opponent.
Once the Nanyang Navy is destroyed, our Qing Navy will lose all its elite."
Although Zhao Jiahua also agreed with Liu Hai's war against Japan, after analyzing it, he also felt that this war was very dangerous. If he did not pay attention to Nanyang, he would follow in the footsteps of Beiyang.
After calculating the strength of both sides, Liu Hai felt relieved. Even if Japan purchased a few ironclad ships, he would not worry about it because he had a trump card.
So he comforted these staff and said: "You don't have to worry about this. Even if the Japanese buy more warships, this governor will not take it to heart. To tell you the truth, I have secretly purchased several powerful ironclad ships."
, enough to deal with the future Japanese combined fleet."
These staff members were a little confused after hearing Liu Hai's words. They knew Liu Hai's financial dealings very well, but they had never heard of such a large amount of expenditure.
But after all, this is the secret of the Governor-General, and it is not easy for them to interfere. Since the Governor-General has such confidence, it is also possible to fight Japan and improve the Governor-General's prestige in the Qing Dynasty.
During this period of contact with Liu Hai, these staff members have discovered that Liu Hai is a lawless figure and has no respect for the Qing court at all.
Moreover, the Qing Dynasty is now in trouble at home and abroad, and it is the time for heroes to use force. Therefore, these staffs hope that Liu Hai can make further progress, and they can also take advantage of this trend to achieve great success.
After Japan received Liu Hai and rejected the British minister's request for an armistice, it immediately prepared for war.
First of all, the Qing Guodingyuan-class ironclad Zhenyuan captured by Japan was repaired immediately and was able to re-enter the battle. At the same time, the warships purchased by Japan from Chile were also successfully delivered.
By this time, Japan already had two ironclads and several armored cruisers, and believed that it could also fight against the Nanyang Navy.
However, the British government was afraid that Japan's failure in this war would damage its own interests, so it contacted Japan and sold two Admiral-class battleships to Japan.
The only ironclad ship in Liu Hai's Nanyang Fleet, the former British ironclad HMS Collingwood, is the ironclad ship in this episode.
It can be seen from this that Britain spent a lot of money in order for Japan to defeat the Qing Dynasty.
The two pairs of ironclad ships were directly transferred from the Indian Ocean Fleet and were delivered to the Japanese in just a dozen days. At the same time, in order to fear that the Japanese would not be able to control the ironclad ship immediately, even the staff on the ship
, the British also all stayed on the battleship in the form of mercenaries.
By this time, Japan already had 4 ironclads. Together with the warships of the original Japanese Combined Fleet, the Japanese Navy had a displacement of 110,000 tons, ranking first in Asia.
Although Li Hongzhang had been dismissed by the Qing government at this time, he was still unwilling to accept Beiyang's failure.
After learning that Liu Hai had electrified the whole country and challenged the Japanese combined fleet, he used his connections to continuously inquire about Japan's combat operations. After learning that Britain had sold two ironclads to Japan, he immediately used his connections to
Notified Liu Hai of this situation.
After Liu Hai received the news from Li Hongzhang, he was not too nervous, because he was already sure of victory. He believed that even if the British fleet came to the waters of the Qing Dynasty, he would be able to fight with it.
Now Liu Hai has been waiting for the Nanyang Navy Squadron in Keelung Port, Taiwan to return to Shanghai, and then form a combined fleet before setting sail.
During this peaceful moment, the Qing court turned a blind eye to Liu Hai's affairs, because he also saw that Liu Hai would no longer obey the court's orders.
Qing Ting also knew that Liu Hai was now very powerful. In the south, Qing Ting did not have the strength and resistance to fight, so he could only tolerate it temporarily.
However, the Qing court's forbearance was just to delay time. After this matter was over, the new army would be trained immediately. If necessary, they could go out to Huguang and launch an attack on Liangjiang.
In April, Taiwan's Nanyang Navy squadron finally returned to Wusongkou Pier. At this time, all the Nanyang Navy had arrived, and they were just waiting for Liu Hai's order to go to sea for a decisive battle.
Liu Hai now knows that in this big battle, he must follow the navy to fight, so in his hometown in Liangjiang, he must leave a person he can trust to take charge of the overall situation.
Liu Hai thought about it for a long time, and finally accepted the fate of his die-hard cyborg Liu Zhi to lead the army in Liangjiang area to guard against the Qing army's sneak attack while he was away from Liangjiang.
However, Liu Hai believes that the possibility of this happening is very small, because Liu Hai is still the governor of Liangjiang under the Qing government and has not completely broken with the Qing government.
Another is that the Qing government has now lost all its elite troops and has no modern army to threaten the Liangjiang area. They will have to wait a few more years if they want to launch an attack on the Liangjiang area.
Therefore, although Liu Jie only commanded the army in the Liangjiang area, he only had his bangs just in case, fearing that others would take advantage of his absence to pick peaches.