Chapter 050 The Emperor is critically ill

After eight days of fierce fighting, Xi Kuan Erlang's second brigade left only 1,000 remnants of soldiers, and the grain was exhausted. It was in a wilderness outside Jinzhou City. It could not shake Erlong Mountain to the south, and could not enter Jinzhou City to the north, and fell into a desperate situation of advance and retreat.

In desperation, Xi Kuanjiro ordered an attack on Jinzhou City.

This attack is tantamount to suicide. More than 1,000 exhausted Japanese troops, facing the 8,000 Qing army, with their flesh and blood, launched waves of hopeless and resolute attacks on Jinzhou City.

Japanese soldiers were encroached on by Jinzhou City. Their bodies were covered with the road leading to Jinzhou, and their blood stained the walls of Jinzhou.

At dusk, Nie Shicheng ordered the whole army to attack.

Wu Yi's army rushed out of the gate side by side with the Hezi Army. In the wilderness outside the city, the remaining second brigade died after a short and tragic resistance.

The brigade commander Nishi Kuanjiro committed suicide by caesarean section.

After the armistice agreement between Qing and Japan came into effect, the Second Brigade was completely destroyed, and none of the brigade commanders to soldiers could leave Liaodong alive.

This is the second brigade that has been destroyed by the Japanese army since the outbreak of the Qing-Japanese War. The first was the mixed brigade of Aokiyuan, which was defeated by Zhou Charter. The destruction of the second brigade seems to be defeated by Nie Shicheng and Duan Qirui, but in fact, it was defeated by Zhou Charter. In the eight-day offensive and defensive battle of Lushun, the second brigade has lost three-quarters of its strength. Nie Shicheng only added the last straw to the dying camel.

Wu Yijun and Hezijun immediately passed through Erlongshan Fort and went straight to Lushun Port.

At night, Nie Shicheng and Duan Qirui led their troops to attack the Japanese army in Baiwang Mountain, the Pearl Reef Fort, the nagging Fort and other places around Lushun Port.

Earth-shaking gunfire broke out again in Lushun Port.

The Japanese army lost artillery support at sea and was a tired division. They were tired of dealing with the attack of the Qing army. They soon lost Baiwang Mountain and retreated to the Lushun Port defense position with the Pearl Reef Fort as the core.

The next morning, Nie Shicheng led his troops to recover Lushun City.

The Japanese army was compressed into a small area of Lushun Military Port and became a group of lambs to be slaughtered.

The two sides are armistice.

......

The Japanese base camp in Hiroshima never thought that after the armistice agreement was signed, the Qing army launched a comprehensive counterattack against the Japanese navy and army in the waters of Liaodong, Shandong and Miaodao.

Moreover, the current Qing army is very different from the previous Qing army. They don't know where they found their willpower and combat effectiveness. It seems that they have been reborn overnight and dare to fight against the Japanese army. On various battlefields, the Japanese army and the Qing army were entangled, and the positions were intertwined, and the battles came one after another.

Although the main force of the Japanese army in Shandong is still sticking to its position, because it failed to recapture Lushun, the Japanese army seemed extremely passive on various battlefields. What's worse, this sudden war seriously affected Taiwan's combat operations.

If this stalemate continues, Japan's benefits on the battlefield and at the negotiating table will be lost.

Taiwan has declared its independence and is in contact with Western powers to seek recognition from Western powers. The French have already targeted Taiwan and tried to get in touch with the local government of Taiwan, which does not recognize the agreement between the Qing Dynasty and Japan and rejects the Japanese occupation of Taiwan.

The Russians targeted North Korea and supported their spokespersons in North Korea, while the Germans targeted Liaodong. Kaiser Wilhelm II issued a public statement demanding that the Japanese army withdraw from Liaodong as soon as possible.

In addition, the United States called on Japan to renounce force and peacefully realize its commercial interests in the Qing Dynasty on the grounds of opening its doors. The British said that they did not want to see Japan's war behavior affect the foreign policy of the Qing Dynasty in the Yangtze River Basin, which is the sphere of influence of the British people.

The cabinet headed by Hirofumi Ito has been under double pressure from both international and domestic.

Western powers are obviously happy to see Japan fall into passivity. The domestic call requires Japan to obtain more benefits from the Qing Dynasty and kill so many Japanese soldiers. Japan should get the results that match them.

We must end the war as soon as possible and get what we have got. Otherwise, Japan is likely to achieve nothing.

In this case, Japan took two-handed action.

On the one hand, he instructed Dashanyan, the commander of the Second Army, to negotiate with Zhou Charter to remain neutral or defect, so as to ease Japan's pressure in Liaodong. If possible, send Zhou Charter back to North Korea and make it the spokesperson of Japan in Korea. Japan believes that once Zhou Charter returns to North Korea, the Qing army and the Guangfu army Neither is his opponent.

On the other hand, Japanese Foreign Minister Lu Ao Zongguang urgently met with Shao Youli and Zhang Menghuan, the negotiators of the Qing Dynasty, and strongly protested against the Qing government's tearing up the agreement, demanding that the Qing court immediately implement the armistice agreement and order the Qing army in various places to stop military action.

However, Shao Yourui and Zhang Menghuan's reply made Lu Aozong angry.

The two plenipotentiaries claimed that they had been staying in Hiroshima and did not know the domestic situation. However, the two inferred that the Qing court, whether it was Empress Dowager Cixi or Emperor Guangxu, was seriously fulfilling the agreement and should not have ordered the Qing army to attack the Japanese army. As for the battle that broke out in Shandong and Liaodong, the Japanese army should have taken the lead in provoking the incident, and the Qing army had no choice but to fight. The two plenipotentiaries even refused to convey Japanese protests to the Qing Dynasty!

With no choice, Japan urgently sent Lin Dong, the undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to serve as the Japanese minister to the Qing Dynasty and go to Beijing to deal directly with the Qing court.

However, what the Japanese did not expect was that even the supreme ruler of the Qing Dynasty was confused and anxious about the battle that took place in February.

Because this bursting war was not only unexpected by the Japanese, but also greatly surprised the supreme ruler of the Qing Dynasty.

This is a war that is seriously against the will of the supreme ruler of the Qing Dynasty.

......

At night, Beijing Forbidden City, Leshou Palace.

A curved moon hung on the corner of the eaves of Leshou Palace, and the glazed tiles on the eaves emitted a faint light in the moonlight.

In the cold spring, a group of eunuchs stood quietly outside the palace door. Some people trembled slightly, and the coldness of early spring seemed to be more piercing than the harsh winter.

In the Leshou Palace, the lights are bright and the shadows are shaking.

After Empress Dowager Cixi returned to the palace, she has been living in Leshou Palace. Since then, it has become the seat of the highest decision-making body of the Qing Dynasty.

The emperor has been "sick" for many days and is "recuperating" in Yihexuan, not far from the Leshou Palace. The Empress Dowager said that the emperor was "recuperating" beside her, so that she could take care of her greetings, thus reflecting the "deep affection between mother and son".

However, everyone in the palace knows that the Empress Dowager is locking the emperor by her side and monitoring the emperor's every move at any time.

According to the eunuch responsible for serving the emperor, the emperor has been really sick these days.

Emperor Guangxu looked pale day by day. His face was pale, his appetite was sharply reduced, and his spirit was depressed. In broad daylight, he was also like sleepwalking. He didn't even lose his temper. He sat next to the eight-treasure glazed well all day, looking at the cold well in a daze.

The emperor's beloved concubine Zhenfei was beaten into the cold palace. The affectionate emperor was bored and seemed to be committing suicide chronically.

For the people in the palace, the emperor is sick and "severely ill", which is definitely not good news.

People don't care about politics, but they know that once something happens to the emperor, the Forbidden City will undergo earth-shaking changes. The original pace of life will be disrupted and reordered. In the process of reordering, many people will pay for it, even the price of life. .

The palace people began to look for new masters, not because they were not loyal enough to their previous masters. It's really because whether the master finds it in time or not, whether it is correct or not, is directly related to their lives! In this world, life is used to maintain loyalty, even if it is respectable, but after all, the vast majority of people can't do it. Even those princes and ministers who are full of benevolence and morality are looking for new masters. Why do these lowly subordinates have to risk their own lives for a dying emperor?

The palace people are racking their brains to find out the news of the new master. The emperor has no son, and the new master can only come from outside the palace. And the person who decided on this new master is in the Leshou Palace.

News from different channels gathered together, pointing to a person - Aixinjueluo Pujun, the eldest son of Duanjun Wang Zaiyi.

The people of the palace noticed that after the New Year, the number of visits of Prince Duan has increased significantly. The number of Prince Gong's entry into the palace has been significantly reduced, and the people of the palace have not seen Prince Gong for many days.

This is a signal - the Empress Dowager Cixi does not want to see Prince Gong, and Prince Gong and Prince Duan have always been very harmonious.

It seems that this new master will soon enter the palace.

Tonight, the always quiet Leshou Palace suddenly became lively, and the princes and ministers who could speak to the Empress Dowager Buddha came.

Duanjun Wang Zaiyi, Prince Gong Yiqi, Hubu Shangshu University scholar Weng Tongqi, military aircraft minister ceremonial minister Gangyi, new prime minister Ronglu, Wenhua Pavilion university scholar Li Hongzhang leisurely at home Zhang Zhidong, Huguang governor of the Qing Dynasty, and Liu Kunyi, the minister of Nanyang war against Japan.

These are all the people who stamped their feet in the Qing Dynasty, and the national fortune of the Qing Dynasty is in the hands of these people.

Their political opinions are different, and even some people are tit-for-tat. On weekdays, they rarely gather together.

Today, these characters have all gathered in the Leshou Palace.

This is an unusual party. Naturally, people will think that what leads to the convergence of these heavyweights must be an earth-shaking thing.

What is more earth-shaking than the emperor's "critical illness"?