Dongjiaomin Lane, Beijing, the British Embassy in China. The British Minister Zhu Erdian, who has been in this country for many years, is drinking on the sofa in his study at the moment. He has already telegraphed the war situation in Shandong, China to Whitehall, but twelve Hours passed without any reply from Whitehall. Zhu Erdian now understood that there was only a skeleton left in the British Empire. It was simply powerless to deal with the ongoing regional war for hegemony in the Far East. And he, this The historical mission of the former Emperor of the Qing Empire and the Republic of China is coming to an end. This is a normal thing. Since the British Empire does not need a tough diplomat to help them obtain benefits, the next step is to consider replacing them. A more moderate approach to protect vested interests. Despite this, Zhu Erdian still tried to cheer up, put down his wine glass, and began to write his own report. This is the basic duty that every responsible diplomat of the British Empire should perform. "I don't hate the Chinese, but I have to be vigilant about this nation. Such a country that lacks integrity, has no morality, is swaying externally, and is extremely cruel internally actually contains such huge power. At one time, I hoped to control the country by controlling its upper echelons, and the Manchu princes and the Beiyang dignitaries seemed to be doing a pretty good job, but I ultimately failed because I ignored the biggest characteristic of this nation, which is that in their Behind the amazing endurance, there is a spirit of self-improvement that is not inferior to that of Westerners. As long as they are given a chance, they will take root and grow like bamboo shoots after the rain. And now it seems that letting them participate in the European War will obviously give them They had a huge opportunity, and one of their regional regimes finally expanded to such a terrifying level that Japan, the watchdog of the British Empire, was unable to curb its growth. I have to admit that as the person in charge of imperial China affairs, I I stayed in Beijing for too long. I always thought that as the capital of this country, this city could already represent the whole of China. But now I discovered that this city cannot represent the whole of China at all. They are more like giant giants of this country. blood-sucking insects, exuding a stench all over their bodies but still feeling good about themselves. I have neglected the southern region of China and the wisdom of the Chinese people. Therefore, we have missed the opportunity to curb the further growth and development of this country. This is my personal responsibility. I I am willing to take full responsibility for this,,,, but as a proud imperial diplomat, I have to make a necessary reminder to Whitehall before I leave office. We must support Japan and not let the Chinese footsteps move from this place. Get out, otherwise they will be the new United States of Asia, and the Empire on which the sun never sets will also become history with the rise of such an ancient country. Remember, remember.¡± Zhu Erdian¡¯s work report finally appeared on the desk of the British Prime Minister. But it was ridiculed, because even a fool can see that Japan, with its powerful navy and tough methods, is the biggest threat to the British Empire in the Far East, and because Japan controls the sea power in the Far East, no matter how powerful China is, it will In front of Japan, it can only be reduced to a continental country, just like Germany in Europe. On December 19, due to Tokyo's delay in reaching conclusions and solutions, the Jinan siege entered its seventh day. Yu Heng Yisheng hid in a temporary underground headquarters and kept sending telegrams to Tokyo asking for help. Otherwise, he could not Know what to do well. On the first day of the siege, the Chinese army bombarded the entire historical city of Jinan. Naturally, the Japanese troops who were beaten immediately fought back. The two artillery regiments rolled up their sleeves and fired back. What happened? , the China Air Force was recruited. Yang Xianyi was undoubtedly the most popular person in this war. The results of the first wave of air raids were huge. If the Japanese army had not responded and moved the artillery positions in time, they would never have lost only thirty heavy artillery pieces. , and it is more likely that the three infantry divisions will become complete rifle divisions from now on. So now facing the shelling of the Chinese army, the Japanese army can only find bunkers everywhere to avoid, and they don't dare to fight back at all. This is nothing. The Chinese army doesn't seem to have any plans to attack the enemy. They just show off their industrial production capabilities there every day and keep throwing artillery shells in with cannons, as if the shells are free of charge. Just throw them away. After all, the number of Japanese troops that could kill was limited. The real problem lay in logistics. From the time the Japanese troops were trapped in Jinan, the entire logistics supply was cut off. Zhang Zizhong's First Division did not participate in the siege. Instead, it joined forces with Sun Meiyao and then mopped up the Japanese troops. The logistics supply force was now in trouble for Yuheng Yichen. His Japanese army rations, which were said to be 60,000, but actually only 50,000, immediately changed from two rice balls a day to one rice ball every two days. What's even more terrible is that , because the Japanese army lacked supplies of vegetables and fruits, the soldiers began to have constipation, and finally had to press their fingers against each other to solve the excretion problem. Seeing that the situation was not going well, the nearly 10,000 Japanese troops in the three baggage regiments immediately retreated towards Qingdao. Also retreating were the puppet troops of the three armies.There were more than 50,000 people. As a result, in Pingdu, these people had an encounter with Zhu Peide's troops. The battle lasted for more than three hours. The Chih-Lu coalition commanders of the three armies escaped first, causing the entire Japanese army to collapse. There were only less than 6,000 Japanese troops. After finally entering Qingdao, Zhu Peide's troops did not dare to pursue too much, because if they pursued further, they would be bombarded by the Japanese navy. Thinking of heavy artillery with a caliber above 210 mm, it would be terrible to receive a single shot. Zhu Peide quickly retreated his troops and waited for Xue Yue to come up. So from this moment on, the Shandong battlefield was divided into two. One was in the Jinan area. Seven divisions of the Chinese army trapped three Japanese divisions in the city and attacked Bai Chongxi to settle the score. He, who had always been cold-blooded, also He couldn't afford the losses, so his best plan was for the Japanese to consciously starve to death. In Qingdao, the three divisions of Zhang Zizhong, Xue Yue, and Zhu Peide, who had realized the reunification, were facing off against more than 8,000 defenders. They would not dare to attack them. , after all, the black muzzles of the Japanese warships are not ordinary. The battle situation has suddenly entered a very delicate moment. No one can do anything about anyone for the time being. It feels like a deadlock. Now it depends on who will break this situation. On December 22, the situation was broken. On this day, after a fierce quarrel, Prime Minister Hara Kei finally agreed to transfer the two divisions stationed in Kyushu to Shandong to relieve the siege. But just half an hour after signing, two pieces of bad news came. One is that the Shandong Fleet of the Japanese Navy was attacked by a submarine formation of the China Navy. One battleship, three cruisers, and four destroyers were sunk and damaged, resulting in heavy losses. The second one was in the waters of Taiwan. Eleven merchant ships and an escorting destroyer were attacked by the China Breaking Fleet composed of four cruisers. The destroyers and all merchant ships were sunk. The China Navy did not want to take prisoners at all. According to the news When the news reached Tokyo, the whole country in Japan was in an uproar. You must know that Japan's lifeline is the ocean. The now very weak China Navy did not dare to challenge the Japanese Navy for a decisive battle. Instead, it violated the rules and played piracy tactics to break up the relationship. This made The Japanese were nervous. So the navy first gave up its position of cooperation with the army. Dongxiang's suggestion was to attack Shanghai and force the South China government to land. However, Hara Kei opposed this because this was not allowed by the British and French powers. More importantly, the chaebols The navy was asked to escort their merchant ships. The total tonnage of the eleven merchant ships that were sunk had reached an astonishing 45,000 tons. Such losses would have caused ordinary merchants to go bankrupt. Now the Prime Minister has to A new round of headaches has begun It was not until this time that all parties really realized that the aggressive Japan was actually not prepared for war at all. They came to Shandong, China purely to pick on the weak, but in the end they suffered a loss and became the biggest among the powers. joke. While the Japanese were still arguing, the actual controller of the central government in Beijing had lost confidence in the Japanese. He secretly convened a few close friends for a night of secret meetings and announced that he would prepare for a southward crusade. The preparation for rebellion is actually the plan to return to his hometown in the Northeast. "Father, why do we go back to Fengtian? I also want to attend the temple fair in Beijing during the New Year. Fengtian is not as fun as the people here." Zhang Xueliang, who had just turned fifteen, asked with a childish look. Zhang Zuolin, who was wearing a mink coat to keep out the cold, looked at his son with a little heartache, caressed his head and said: "Xiao Liuzi, daddy is incompetent. There is no way for you to live here in Beijing. Let's go back to our hometown. Let¡¯s come back when we have mastered our inner strength one day.¡± Zhang Xueliang nodded sensibly and said nothing more. Zhang Zuolin looked back at Jurentang. He didn¡¯t know if he could come back here in this life, and then he took him with him. The son got in the car and went straight to Fengtai Railway Station. Fengjun's retreat plan was very covert, because Zhang Zuolin also wanted the Japanese in Jinan to hold out for a few more days, so Fengjun actually withdrew supplies in the first phase. Since most of the Japanese consultants went to Tianjin during this period to inquire about the war situation in Shandong, although the action It was very big, but the news was not leaked. Zhang Zuolin and his men gave full play to the characteristics of bandits. Whatever they could take away, they would definitely leave a little bit for the youth army. If the Manchu royal family did not refuse to move, Zhang Zuolin even planned to Move the Forbidden City to Fengtian. Zhang Zongchang was subsequently appointed as the Governor of the Zhili Army and the Patrol Envoy of North China. Since the post of president had been vacant for many days due to the war after Xu Shichang's death, Zhang Zongchang could not be formally appointed to this position and could only serve as an acting one. Zhang Zuolin also trusted him very much. He handed over all the expanded troops after entering the pass to Zhang Zongchang. For a time, the number of troops under Zhang Zongchang reached an astonishing 600,000, while 150,000 people from the direct line of Fengjun took the railway back to the northeast in a mighty manner, and met the Kwantung Army. During the cross-examination, he said it was a normal adjustment, and this time the confidentiality was in place. But no one can hide it from anyone, Major General Wu Junmei, the head of the National Security Bureau Beijing Station of the Nationalist Government, who has been keeping his eyes on the whole of Beijing.