Chapter 156: Second Battlefield

After hearing what Kawakami Soroku said, Mu Ren felt much better. Kawakami Soroku continued to offer his advice, "Your Majesty, I think that in addition to using the counter-espionage strategy to alienate Wei Jichen from the Qing Dynasty, we should also stabilize the situation on the Liaodong Peninsula and ensure that several important cities are not taken back by the Qing Dynasty. Only in this way can we gain greater benefits in the subsequent negotiations." Kawakami Soroku saw that Mu Ren looked normal, and hesitantly continued, "The Shandong combat army went south to open up a second battlefield. This matter is of course urgent. However, I think the Penghu combat detachment, which is still gathering in Hiroshima, should be transferred to support Liaodong, and the Taiwan issue should be postponed." While the Japanese went south to attack Shandong, they also formed a mixed detachment of about 5,000 people in the country. This mixed detachment was prepared to capture the Penghu Islands and cut off Taiwan's connection with the Chinese mainland. Once Penghu was occupied, Taiwan would be more isolated, and the Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang sea routes would be blocked, and transportation would be cut off. The munitions transported north would be captured by the Japanese army. However, the development of the situation in Liaodong Peninsula has exceeded the expectations of the Japanese headquarters. Wei Jichen has wiped out nearly 10,000 Japanese troops in two battles. The Japanese troops in Liaodong are already seriously insufficient. If they are not supported, it will cause serious consequences. Therefore, Kawakami Soroku can only suggest to dispatch this Penghu combat detachment. Mutsuhito sighed, hating Wei Jichen even more, but he had no choice but to agree: "Let's deal with it this way." "Your Majesty, please allow me to go out again and lead the First Army to fight Wei Jichen to the death." Yamagata Aritomo, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly prostrated himself on the ground and said with tears in his eyes. "My dear, I can't leave you for the time being. I have my own opinion on Wei Jichen's affairs, and don't mention the matter of leading the army to fight." Mutsuhito comforted him, while firmly disagreeing with Yamagata Aritomo's request to go out again. Just kidding, if Yamagata Aritomo gets carried away and leads his troops to fight Wei Jichen to death, the situation in Liaodong will become increasingly out of control. The few people discussed some other military affairs, and Kawakami Soroku and Yamagata Aritomo hurriedly withdrew. Kawakami Soroku naturally went to implement the plan to deal with Wei Jichen, and Yamagata Aritomo was going to inform Katsura Taro's family of the news. It didn't take long for the news that Wei Jichen, the biggest scourge of the empire, not only did not die, but brutally killed nearly 10,000 people in the empire. The news spread throughout Hiroshima, and then the whole of Japan. In Japan, most people clamored for revenge, and some people were worried that if the war continued, Japan would eventually lose, so they called for negotiations while they were still in the upper hand and to obtain appropriate benefits. Wei Jichen annihilated more than 10,000 Japanese in one fell swoop in the battles of Yixiantian and Quzigou, which really shocked the entire Liaodong Peninsula. The Qing troops from all directions were all greatly encouraged when they heard the news. Song Qing and Liu Kunyi planned a counterattack. Even Nie Shicheng and Yiktang'a on the Dagaoling line actively turned defense into offense, harassing the Japanese every now and then. The entire Liaodong Peninsula was boiling because of Wei Jichen's victory. All the armies were active, and some generals who were originally pessimistic and disappointed that they could not see victory were even more courageous. The Japanese suffered the biggest loss since the war began, and their morale fell to the bottom. They changed from the original offensive posture to a defensive posture. The Japanese retreated in major towns and did not dare to come out to fight easily. The situation is developing as Wei Jichen expected, and it is becoming more and more favorable to the Chinese army. Many experts in later generations have studied the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and put forward various arguments to explain why China was defeated. In short, they are very reasonable and you can't help but admire them. However, some people put forward a completely different view, that is, China will not lose if it continues to fight, even with such a backward system, corrupt court, and chaotic command system. As long as the war continues, at least the territory will not be ceded as much as before, the sovereignty will not be lost, and the compensation will be huge, which has set a record since the Treaty of Nanjing. This view is put forward with many facts as examples. When the Japanese occupied most of the Liaodong Peninsula, occupied Weihaiwei, and annihilated the Beiyang Fleet, its military power had reached its peak. In the original history, the Japanese were already weak in the follow-up, and the Qing army had begun to recover a lot of lost territory in local areas. Therefore, this is also the reason why the Japanese did not follow the original plan of his base camp to fight a decisive battle with the Qing army in Zhili and then capture Beijing, but agreed to peace. Now, this situation is many times better than the original history. However, this good situation did not last long, and was reversed by the Japanese in Shandong. On the 20th, the day after Wei Jichen won a great victory, Oyama Iwa ordered the Shandong combat army to begin landing in Rongcheng Bay. Before, although Shandong Governor Li Bingheng received Wei Jichen's warning, he did not take it seriously. He just transferred a few more battalions of troops to Chengshan County to show his respect. Most of his troops, about 20,000 people, were deployed in the area east of Yantai. When the Japanese fleet pretended to attack Dengzhou on the 19th, he thought that his deployment was correct. It was not until the Japanese landed from Rongcheng Bay that he regretted it too late. There is no regret medicine in the world. On the evening of the 20th, after a brief fight with the Qing army, the Japanese entered Rongcheng County from the east gate. On the 25th, the Japanese Shandong combat troops had all landed, and Dashanyan issued an order to march, preparing to divide the troops into two routes to attack Weihaiwei. The reason why Wei Jichen mentioned that Japan might land from Rongcheng Bay, instead of talking about it like a prophet, pointed out that the Japanese would definitely land here, was because the initiative of choice was in the hands of the Japanese.

As the attacking party, the Japanese can change the landing site at any time, and the reason why Weihaiwei was occupied by the Japanese and the Beiyang Fleet was destroyed has nothing to do with the Japanese choosing to land there. Even if Wei Jichen said so, Li Bingheng believed it and sent a large army to the Rongcheng Bay area. Wouldn't the Japanese change the landing site? It is estimated that the original feint attack on Dengzhou has become a real attack on Dengzhou. Therefore, this is really meaningless. The Qing court has not yet woken up from the surprise of Wei Jichen's great victory, and the Japanese have already landed on the Shandong Peninsula with thunder and pressured Weihaiwei like a broken bamboo. Suddenly, the court was speechless and in an uproar. They thought they could breathe a sigh of relief and sit down to wait for peace talks, but they didn't expect the Japanese to feint and immediately fight back. Li Hongzhang, who was originally preparing to enter Beijing, immediately turned his horse around and hurried back to the Tianjin Governor's Mansion to continue commanding the battle. Wei Jichen's victory gave Guangxu confidence, and he immediately ordered the withdrawal of Zhang Yinhuan, the minister of peace talks, to show the world that he must fight. Zhang Zhidong, the minister of Nanyang, and Wen Tingshi, the bachelor of the Hanlin Academy, all advocated fighting the Japanese when they heard that the Japanese army had landed in Shandong. Due to Wei Jichen's victory, the war faction in the Qing court immediately gained the upper hand.