The inside information of Sino-Japanese diplomatic negotiations is rarely known to outsiders, but through internal personnel in the Presidential Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fengtian quickly received the relevant negotiation contents. After Yuan Su learned that the Japanese had a bad attitude, he always refused to admit it.
This is an act of aggression, and he refuses to apologize publicly. Although he himself does not care much about apologizing or not. What he really cares about is actual rights and interests. However, Japan's "non-cooperation" is a fact before his eyes.
Although I just received a reply from the Presidential Office the day before yesterday, the wording of this reply is very strange. On the surface, it is full of comfort and appreciation. It also expresses condolences to the entire army fighting in Liaodong, and also expresses that rewards will be given as soon as possible. But in fact
However, it was requested that Liaodong must hold its troops on hold, and a special explanation was given on this matter, so that irrecoverable traces of international diplomacy could not be left due to a momentary impulse.
As far as Yuan Su himself is concerned, he had to carefully consider the deeper meaning of this telegram. After all, the reason why Yuan Shikai wrote the telegram in this way must have other implications. In fact, it can be detected directly without using any brain.
Disobeying the central government's orders will definitely not lead to good results. Regardless of whether it will lead to better development of diplomatic negotiations in the end, the label of "continuous orders" has been firmly established.
However, it was not because of such risks that he would give in easily. What he saw was that Yuan Shikai needed to win over the support of a group of military generals to become emperor. Especially after the Liaodong War, Yuan Su's reputation in the country would inevitably rise again.
At this level, Yuan Shikai cannot easily suppress himself based on this alone. At most, the future development path will not be easy.
But if you think about it carefully, Yuan Shikai's historical life seems to be only a few years away.[
Of course, in addition to this, another important reason is that immediately after the telegram from the Presidential Palace, the Ministry of War sent a special confidential telegram. This secret telegram was personally drafted by Duan Qirui, in the name of the Chief of the Army, commanding Yuan
Su carried out the plan in accordance with the established plan, marching into the hinterland of Liaodong at any time, occupying as much territory as possible in Liaodong, and facilitating negotiations.
You don’t need to think too much about anything else, Duan Qirui’s instruction alone is enough.
The first point is that the Ministry of War is, after all, the central military organization in the country, and the orders issued by the Ministry of War are nominally the highest orders; the second point is that even if this matter is really unpleasant, Yuan Su will be able to deal with it when the time comes.
The responsibility falls on Duan Qirui.
So on the morning of November 16, Yuan Su officially issued the counterattack plan.
The First Corps of Yingkou and the First Brigade of the Second Division immediately launched an attack on Dongcheng District to clean up the landing troops of the Fifth Division still entrenched in the suburbs and coastal areas of Yingkou. At the same time, on the Gaizhou defense line, the 17th Division and the First Brigade
and the two brigades of the Second Division immediately launched an encirclement against the main force of the Fifth Division.
The war in Liaodong, which had only stopped for two days, was ignited again. And compared with before, the scale of this counterattack was actually far greater than the scale of the Japanese attack.
The Japanese troops in the eastern area of Yingkou had already heard about the Sino-Japanese negotiations, so they stopped attacking on the 14th and waited for the order from the division headquarters to retreat. Unfortunately, there was no definite news from the division headquarters. The two coalition forces here
The strength of the team can only continue to wait. I thought that China and Japan entered the negotiation stage, which meant a ceasefire. Who knew that the Chinese army would take the initiative to launch a counterattack at this time.
Most of the battleships of the Second Fleet have withdrawn to the Lushun Naval Base, leaving only some light warships and troop carriers moored in the Bohai Bay, waiting to respond to the withdrawal of the troops from Yingkou. In fact, the Second Fleet can no longer wait today.
Be patient, but no matter how impatient you are, you can't leave these thousands of people alone.
Losing the cover of naval artillery fire, facing twice as many Chinese troops as their own, and having very few supplies left after consuming for many days, the Japanese troops in the eastern area of Yingkou soon fell into an encirclement dilemma. The only thing worth celebrating is that
, even though China and Japan have begun negotiations, the defense lines stationed by the military have not relaxed at all, so they can still calmly launch defensive operations in the face of sudden attacks.
The fighting in the east of Yingkou quickly heated up, with both the attacking and defending sides fighting tenaciously.
The Chinese army divided into three groups to conduct a roundabout outflank, but they were entangled with the Japanese defensive forces in the street battles in Dongcheng District. The other two groups circled back to the coastal areas to launch a pincer attack, and soon a large area of hand-to-hand combat broke out. The morale of the Chinese soldiers was very high.
The surge and the large number of people suddenly made the hand-to-hand combat that the Japanese army was good at very disadvantageous.
The battle lasted for a whole day. Yuan Su mobilized two groups of troops to carry out rotating attacks, without giving the Japanese army any time to breathe and rest. In addition to a few light warships providing extremely limited artillery support, the Japanese army had no other external assistance.
, the soldiers are tired to fight, and the strength of the defense will be greatly reduced every hour.
By evening, the Chinese army had completed the occupation of the coastal area and completely surrounded the remaining Japanese troops in Dongcheng District. The street fighting in Dongcheng District was very detrimental, not only to the Chinese army, but also to the Japanese army.
They also suffered a disadvantage. The former lacked experience in street fighting and were eager for success, so they gave the Japanese troops lurking in the dark an opportunity to take advantage. The latter still had a certain advantage at the beginning, but as the Chinese army was divided into divisions, the troops gradually dispersed, and each other
They even lost contact with each other and could only fight on their own.
Because it was already dark, and the street fighting with the Japanese army also caused some casualties, Yuan Su decisively ordered all ministries to cease fighting and set up defenses around Dongcheng District. He had no intention of wiping out all the Japanese troops in Yingkou in one go, even if they were surrounded
The remaining Japanese troops in Dongcheng District only intend to take them as prisoners as much as possible.
At this stage, it is no longer about severely damaging the Japanese army or creating some major political impact. All subsequent military operations in Liaodong are just to add weight to the Chinese negotiating delegation. As long as a group of prisoners can be captured, this will
A batch of prisoners can be sold as commodities at the negotiation table. At that time, the Japanese delegation will have more and more things to consider, and it will have to be seen whether the arrogance from before is still there.
The battle at the Gaizhou defense line was not as smooth as it was at Yingkou. After all, the Japanese landing teams of the two regiments here in Yingkou were currently a lone army, lacking supplies and isolated reinforcements, so they were able to complete the siege in one go. Gaizhou here
The main force of the Fifth Division is concentrated on the side, as well as artillery and a logistics command system.
The 1st Brigade and the 2nd Division had a very difficult time even holding their positions, let alone turning the defense into an attack.
China and Japan fought intermittently for four or five times in southern Gaizhou, with sporadic frictions and large-scale charges. However, until the end of the day's fighting, the Chinese army was not able to take advantage of much, and only captured the first round of surprise attacks.
They captured two Japanese military strongholds due south.
Zhao Shanhe and Tian Wenlie originally planned to take back the previously occupied southwest flank positions, but unfortunately they were repelled several times in a row. There were even fire breaks due to the repeated attacks, which almost caused the Japanese army to launch a defensive counterattack. Fortunately, at two o'clock in the afternoon
At the same time, Zhang Zuolin's 17th Division arrived in time to launch an attack on the east flank of the Japanese army, forcing the Japanese army to divide its forces for defense. This completely suppressed the slightly rising arrogance of the Japanese army.[
However, even with the participation of the Seventeenth Division, there is still the biggest gap in the quality of the Chinese and Japanese armies in a head-on battle.
Yuan Su did not criticize the war situation in Gaizhou too much. He not only hoped to create pressure through military operations, but also said that the only target he placed hope on was Yingkou. He said in a telegram sent to Gaizhou that night,
In future wars against Japan, there is no need to rush for success, just take advantage of the situation.
That night, the Lushun headquarters forwarded news of another incident in Liaodong to Beijing.
It was not until the early morning of the next day that the Japanese diplomatic delegation in Beijing received the cable. Both Naito Shinpei and Hioki Yoshi had a headache, and they negotiated for a long time all night. When they left for the official guesthouse of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Guangqumen again after dawn, the Japanese delegation's
The chief officers all had swollen eyes, but everyone seemed extremely excited.
Not long after he entered the venue, Naito Shinpei did not sit down at all. He directly said in a gloomy and angry tone: "Everyone, since China and Japan have decided to conduct diplomatic negotiations, it is already the third day of the meeting, but for your country's failure to comply
I am very dissatisfied with the highest principles of peaceful negotiation and the practice of international morality."
Yesterday, the news of Yuan Su's organized attack was not reported to Beijing in time, so the Beiyang government did not receive any news at all and had no idea what Naito Shinpei meant.
Lu Zhengxiang frowned slightly and asked in a calm tone: "Sir Naito, I hope you can speak more clearly. We have no idea what you want to express."
Naito Shinpei rebuked loudly: "Your army launched another attack on our Fifth Division yesterday. It has now cut off the Fifth Division's retreat route from the Yingkou coast. The two regiments of our Fifth Division are being destroyed.
Trapped in Yingkou City."
After hearing these words, everyone in the Chinese delegation showed a bit of surprise.
However, Duan Qirui's expression only changed slightly for a while, and then quickly regained his composure.
----------------------------
[In 1915, Japan proposed the "Twenty-One Points" for the destruction of China, and Lu Zhengxiang was responsible for the negotiations between China and Japan. Under Japanese coercion, and because Yuan Shikai was eager to become emperor and needed Japan's support, he agreed to the "Twenty-One Points"
"Article" was signed by Lu Zhengxiang. After the signing, the country was shocked. Lu Zhengxiang was scolded by the people for a while, and they all accused him of being a traitor. This popular foreign minister became a street rat that everyone shouted to beat. Because of the pain he received from the people
He was scolded and criticized by public opinion. Lu Zhengxiang also felt that he was facing the people of the country. Therefore, when Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself emperor and wanted to make him a marquis, he resolutely refused and fled to Beidaihe with his wife for temporary refuge. After Yuan Shikai's death, Lu Zhengxiang returned to Beijing and continued