"Ahem, it seems that all parties involved have made a lot of money, so who loses?"
After Fang Linyan figured this out, he felt a little unbelievable:
"Isn't Japan's military a newly built one? Has it become so corrupted?"
In fact, most people at the time felt that it was really remarkable that Japan defeated a large country with a weak country in the First World War. However, if you carefully read the information from the pile of historical papers, you will find some details:
When the Sino-Japanese War of Sino-Japanese War started in the Yellow Sea, the Beiyang Fleet had actually not been maintained for half a year, and the artillery shells used were insufficiently lethal. Shortly after the war began, part of the bridge of the Pingyuan ship even collapsed due to disrepair, killing three people.
Seriously injured.
It can be said that the strength of the entire Beiyang Fleet has been exerted at most 80%!
Not only that, but detailed statistics later showed that the Japanese Combined Fleet had a total of 268 artillery pieces, 73 more than the Beiyang Fleet, and 36 torpedo tubes, 16 more than the Beiyang Fleet.
According to statistics from the British Naval Yearbook, the firing speed of rapid-fire guns at that time was six times that of the original breech-loading guns. Based on this calculation, the firepower of the Japanese fleet was actually three times that of the Beiyang Fleet!
In this case, the result of the naval battle was that the Beiyang Fleet lost four warships: "Zhiyuan", "Jingyuan", "Chaoyong" and "Yangwei", and more than a thousand officers and soldiers were killed or injured.
The five Japanese fleet ships "Matsushima", "Yoshino", "Hiei", "Akagi" and "Saikyo Maru" were seriously injured, and the number of casualties was more than 700.
So strictly speaking, the essence of Sino-Japanese War was actually a war between Japan and Li Hongzhang!
It is worth mentioning that in the end, the Japanese combined fleet took the initiative to withdraw from the naval battle battlefield relying on its speed advantage. If the fight continued, both sides would probably lose.
In this case, the two sides can really be described as novices pecking each other. No one has any decisive advantage!
It can even be said with certainty that if Lafayette had not misappropriated public funds from the Navy to build the garden, then China would not be sure of victory in the Sino-Japanese War of 1898, but it would have at least a 70% chance of victory.
It is true that many generals in the Beiyang Fleet are corrupt, afraid of death, smoke cigarettes, embezzle, use private cabins for smuggling, etc. Doesn't the Japanese side also have such phenomena? Haha, that's just the winners and losers who have not spoken out.
The Japanese side would only deal with it internally and would not publicize it, and the Qing Dynasty at that time would not say anything, because if they publicize it, they will lose the battle to their enemies who are seriously corrupt, trained and evacuated, and who are sluggish.
Aren’t people worse than them?
Therefore, the Qing Dynasty's propaganda at that time must have advocated that the Japanese were powerful and powerful. In this case, the defeat of the Beiyang Fleet would be a bit of a final fig leaf.
Of course, in official history, the combat effectiveness of the Japanese army had only languished until this point. After receiving the 20,000 taels of silver as compensation from the Treaty of Shimonoseki, its national strength, military strength, and combat effectiveness began to grow rapidly.
In just five years, it was able to fight a local war with the established power Russia and still win miserably.
Of course, if Russia went to full-scale war with it, Japan would definitely lose so hard that its pants would fall out, but this is impossible.
Because Russia was also greatly constrained in Europe, Japan was the pawn that Britain supported in the Far East to deal with this huge, decadent, and barbaric country.
Therefore, when Fang Linyan learned about this situation, he immediately had a bold idea and said to La Ming:
"Check the list of transactions with Jiukiyuan."
Laming said:
"This may have to wait, but it shouldn't be a big problem. What? Are we going to deal with them together?"
Fang Linyan immediately shook his head like a rattle, and then said:
"No, no, no, with such talents, we should help them move to higher-level positions so that they can play a more active role."
"Immediately investigate their network of connections and job competitors. At this critical juncture, we must be more efficient."
After hearing Fang Linyan's request, Laming hesitated for a moment and then simply extended his hand to him:
"If you want to do these things, you have to spend money."
Fang Linyan laughed and said:
"That's no problem. When I was in Shanghai, I considered various situations that might require coercion and inducement, so I specially brought three hundred thousand taels of silver with me."
Laming nodded and said:
"Give me one hundred thousand taels first, and it will take at least a week."
Fang Linyan said:
"Can."
***
The waiting time is undoubtedly long, but while Laming was busy collecting intelligence, Fang Linyan also visited the entire Nagasaki. Basically, he knew the nearby terrain, streets and alleys well, and also mapped out
Corresponding map.
At the same time, corresponding news from China could also be obtained in Nagasaki, but it was delayed for two or three days, and the only channel for understanding it was Japanese newspapers.
Obviously, the news about China posted here is not completely true and must have been subject to news control, but this is much better than turning a blind eye.
From these newspapers, we can learn that although the Japanese have fully occupied North Korea, the situation here is not optimistic because a guy named "Yi Sun-shin" actually gathered a group of people and started fighting guerrillas!
Yes, this guy has the same name as the first Goryeo general! And now the Japanese army is caught in a vast war involving a sea of ​​people. It can be said that they are exhausted. They have experienced the power of guerrilla warfare forty years in advance.
According to the latest news that Fang Linyan read in the newspaper, Li Zhengying, the puppet ruler supported by the Japanese, was poisoned to death by the palace maid next to him five days ago.
At this time, the entire puppet government was almost paralyzed. The Japanese original plan was to quickly capture North Korea and then squeeze North Korea's manpower and material resources to provide blood transfusions to the country.
As a result, the current mess has become that the more than 13,000 troops dispatched need domestic supplies to eat, drink, and eat, and because the troops are still scattered widely, the supply lines have also suffered frequent attacks, which undoubtedly makes Japan currently struggling.
economic situation worsens
Fang Linyan was almost certain that the sudden rise of Yi Sun-shin must be the space warrior of the Korean/Silla nation. A good man has three gangs, and there must be two or three space warriors working together to help him.
Thinking of this, Fang Linyan couldn't help but sigh:
"Damn, it's good to have a small ethnic group."
Laming also captured Fang Linyan's mentality and said:
"There are advantages to being small. Small people know that it is not easy to survive in a big environment, so they don't have so many tricks."
"Someone raised a big flag, and the rest of the people felt that this could be done, so they immediately followed and helped wholeheartedly, because they knew that this situation was not easy to come by, and if they were held back again, then everyone would work together
Ruined."
"On the contrary, in a large nation, there are more talented people. No one will obey anyone. Let alone work together. At critical moments, you will even have to guard against the other party's hindrance. But the benefits are obvious. If you are lucky, you can't do it.
It’s a good chance to win.”
Fang Linyan shook his head and said with a wry smile:
"It's impossible to win lying down."
At this time, Laming looked at the time and said:
"It's time to set off. According to the information I received, the character of the guy we are going to meet today is quite arrogant and arrogant."
Fang Linyan nodded and said:
"Let's go."
***
The person Fang Linyan met this time was called Dong Xiangjing, and he was extremely influential in the entire Japanese fleet.
There is no doubt that this man has a very powerful background. It is said that his brother is a powerful figure in the navy: Togo Heihachiro! Not only that, Togoi has a very good personal relationship with Prince Shirakawa Palace Nohisa.
In Laming's words, if this person was pulled out like a carrot, the roots and soil brought out would spread to most of the combined fleet!
Of course, the reputation of such a person is also polarized:
Some people label him as the God of Wealth, a man of many friends, rich in money, and easy to borrow money.
Some people labeled him a cancer, a maggot of the country, an uncultured wild dog, and a greedy red deer.
There is no doubt that birds of a feather flock together, and those who are optimistic about Dongxiangjing must be those guys in the Navy who are very selfish and like to take corruption and bribery.
The key is that those who are hostile to them are the young men in the navy. Most of the people on Fang Linyan's must-kill list regard Dongxiangjing as a thorn in his side!
But something strange is that the backer behind Dongxiangjing: Dongxiang Heihachiro has a decent reputation among the young men.
After careful analysis by La Ming and Fang Linyan, the final label given to Dongxiang Well was 1.13 percentage points.
What does it mean?
To be more specific, if Dong Xiangjing can take another step forward and gain more and greater power, then China's winning rate on the war progress bar will increase by 1.13 percentage points.
The best thing is that no one has noticed this at this time, so Fang Linyan plans to take a two-pronged approach. Going to see Dongxiang Jing this time is his first step.
The two of them just walked about five or six hundred meters to the place. At this time, under the leadership of the waiter, the two of them slowly walked into this very luxurious restaurant. It seemed that they should have booked the restaurant directly, because after entering the restaurant
The two of them will be searched from now on.
To be continued...