As the war in Liaodong becomes more and more intense day by day, beijing, as the capital of the Republic of China, has naturally become the representative of the national public opinion trend. Coupled with many official mouthpieces headed by Beiyang Zhengfu, starting from the announcement of the resumption of Qingdao's sovereignty,
They started beating drums and shouting without stopping, inciting the whole country to unite against Japan.
Major newspapers are tracking and reporting on the Liaodong War every day. Many major newspapers sent many reporters to the front line to record the situation of the Japanese war in real time. However, the current war situation has not yet reached the point of unrestricted opening to the outside world. Not only is it due to safety considerations,
At the same time, some political cover is needed for the battle itself. Therefore, most of the reporters sent to the front line are actually in Anshan and Fengtian areas, and only a very small number can reach Yingkou.
China's reports naturally exaggerate the war situation. This exaggeration is not necessarily a fraud, but a timely report of news that is beneficial to China. Even if the Gaizhou front is fiercely fought, and even just two days after the war begins,
Let the Japanese army seize the flank position, but this is not a shameful thing.
Under Jiang Baili's special arrangement, several major newspapers that favored the Beiyang government quickly wrote several sub-articles. On the one hand, they emphasized that the current combat casualty ratio between China and Japan was close to one to one, and the Chinese defenders had paid thousands of casualties.
The price paid by the Japanese was not necessarily much better. On the other hand, it vigorously criticized the barbaric behavior of the Japanese army in combat, such as forcibly conscripting ordinary Chinese people in the Liaodong region as civilian husbands, and plundering these people's property, food, and
For example, they arbitrarily persecuted the Chinese people who resisted, and even massacred prisoners and wounded soldiers after capturing Chinese positions.
Some of these contents are factual, and some are deliberately exaggerated, but only a few are fabricated fake news.
In fact, the commander-in-chief of Yingkou also issued similar orders regarding the requisition of civilian laborers before the war began. Some civilian laborers were reluctant, but had to participate due to threats and pressure. But compared to Japan, the mobilization of the Chinese side was
Naturally, it is more justified, and most people still actively respond to the call with the heart of serving the country.
In any case, this series of negative news reports on the Japanese army is to exaggerate the Japanese army into a cruel and barbaric army. Many newspapers also timely opened up old scores and described the Japanese army as occupying more than ten years ago.
The atrocious massacre of nearly 20,000 Chinese people in Port Arthur has once again given heavy ink.
In just a few days after the war started, the mood in China became more and more exciting day by day.
People don't care about the failure of the frontline battle, nor the ferocity of the Japanese offensive. They only care about China's right move to defend its sovereignty. People must not feel frustrated and disappointed because of the barbaric behavior of authoritarianism. Instead of being frustrated and disappointed, it is better to turn it into something more
There is a lot of anger and anger, and they use various channels and methods to support Zheng Fu's operations.
The action of rejecting Japanese goods in Jiangsu and Zhejiang has been going on for more than half a month, and the losses of Japanese businessmen in China are doubling every day. Not only that, Lin Boxen even called on all workers and employees working for Japan to persist in the strike to the end.
During the strike, he provided free rice and allowances every day to alleviate the difficulties of these Chinese workers and employees. This move caused great repercussions in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and also brought great benefits to Lin Boxhen and his companies.
great reputation.
Soon this movement was like a raging wave, crossing the river and heading north.
First, the same practice was triggered in the Jianghan area. Many local businessmen and even the government came forward to call for the rejection of Japanese goods and the suspension of Japanese enterprises. The businessmen and the government provided living subsidies to the strikers. Later, it was followed by Beijing, Tianjin and other northern regions.
A huge anti-Japanese wave broke out, students took to the streets to demonstrate, workers working for Japan went on strike collectively, and the Japanese embassy area in Dongjiaomin Lane was besieged for nearly ten days.
Even Japan's Minister to China, Ri Zhiyi, was a little out of control. He originally thought that being surrounded would provide some time for the Liaodong front so that the Fifth Division and the Eighteenth Division could carry out more effective operations.
It went smoothly. However, it has been five days since the war started, and the Fifth Division is still trapped in Gaizhou, with no hope of any progress.
On the contrary, problems arose in the most basic living conditions of the embassy. There were water and power outages, and material supplies were in great straits. It was only in the middle of the night that people could be secretly sent to provide supplies.
In contrast, the atmosphere inside the Xinhuamen Presidential Palace is more relaxed.
However, this relief only comes from those grassroots officials. Faced with the current call for unity in the country, everyone will have some pride and passion.
However, for the cabinet and Yuan Shikai himself, every step of the current development of the situation in Liaodong has a vital impact on China's future direction. Especially with first-hand information about the real war situation, there is no need to worry about the progress of the Liaodong war.
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It was already dark at this time, but the office of the President of the Office of State Affairs was still brightly lit and full of people.
Yuan Shikai had been busy late at night in the State Affairs Office for more than ten days in a row. He kept an eye on Yingkou all the time and watched the telegrams sent back from Fengtian. He was either worried about a sudden big change or worried about the gradual expansion of the war in Liaodong.
Sometimes he couldn't help but ask himself, would it have been much easier to agree to the Japanese request in the first place than it is now?
During these ten days, he began to question his nephew Yuan Su, who had worked so hard to cultivate him, more than once and twice. How capable was this young man? After all, he was just a child with a yellow mouth, entrusting him with such a huge responsibility as Liaodong.
Would it be too hasty and childish to deal with a young man who lacks actual combat experience?
But now that the matter has come to this, we cannot suddenly order Yuan Su to be withdrawn. Not only is it taboo to change generals on the spot, but more importantly, Yuan Su is now at the forefront of the domestic limelight, and any move will cause a series of reactions in the country.
"President," Secretary-General Zhang Yichen walked quickly through the crowd in the office foyer and came to Yuan Shikai, "The message just sent from Fengtian contains the latest statistics of casualties as of six o'clock tonight.
Do you want to read it?"
"Nian." Yuan Shikai was very concerned about the casualties on the front line. Part of it was out of sympathy for the Beiyang Army as a leader of the Beiyang Army, and the other part was because the number of casualties directly showed the degree of tightness of the current war situation.
"The First Corps had a total of 795 casualties, 550 were seriously injured, more than 1,300 were injured and could not fight, and the remaining slightly injured were more than 3,000. The Second Division had a total of 680 casualties.
Among them, there are more than 2,000 people who are injured and unable to fight. The rest of the people are accidentally injured and killed, and the total number is about three to four thousand people." Zhang Yiqi read in a heavy tone.
"The casualties have increased by more than 10% compared to yesterday. The total strength of Yuan Su's First Corps on the front line is less than 8,000. Now more than half of them have suffered casualties. How can we continue to fight in the future?" Yuan Shikai frowned and sighed.
said.
"I heard that Commander Chiang has ordered the recruitment of additional troops from Zhili, Rehe, and Fengtian. Commander Yuan has already trained militiamen in Zhili. Now it is not difficult to mobilize the militiamen to participate in the war, and the follow-up troops should be available in time.
Support to the front line." After hearing Yuan Shikai's worries, Zhang Yichen immediately added.
"Within less than six days of fighting, the Japanese are still very motivated, but we have to start urgently recruiting follow-up troops. It's embarrassing to say it." Yuan Shikai said with some annoyance.
Zhang Yiqi originally wanted to persuade him a little more. Even though there were serious casualties in Liaodong, the Chinese ** team fought bravely. At least it was not like the land battle during the Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1899 that collapsed thousands of miles away. Talking about China
Everyone is well aware of the gap between the military quality of both sides, so why bother worrying about it so much!
But even his secretary knew this, so how could the president, who was a soldier, not know this. It is conceivable that Yuan Shikai was just worried and complaining now, rather than really complaining about anything.
At this moment, Foreign Minister Lu Zhengxiang and Acting Under-Secretary of the Army Fu Liangzuo hurriedly opened the door and entered.
The two of them each took some documents, bypassed the people walking around in the office, and came to the president's desk. They first nodded to Zhang Yiyi and said that they could see each other often in the office now, so there was no need to return the favor.
Be so polite.
When Yuan Shikai saw Lu Zhengxiang and Fu Liangzuo arriving, he immediately knew what the matter was about. He asked first, "How is the situation in Shandong going?"
Lu Zhengxiang showed a slightly excited face and said: "All the provisions have been settled. The Germans are determining the date of evacuation. They promised to give a specific plan within a month, and it has been determined.
At the beginning of next month, we will organize a group of senior civil servants to evacuate to Shanghai."
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[Recommend books about the Three Kingdoms written by Shen Chen. It is highly recommended for those who are hardcore Three Kingdoms researchers. Also, my knee was scratched by metal the day before yesterday. I have been scared to death recently. Will I get tetanus? 】