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Text Chapter 205 Attacking the Manchus

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    On the evening of April 17, 1895, Wang Yuze held a joint meeting of the cabinet and the staff headquarters in the conference room of the diplomatic mission in western Sichuan.  The contents of the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" signed between the Qing Dynasty and Japan have been transmitted back.

    "This morning, Li Hongzhang has signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Japan on behalf of the Manchu Qing government. The treaty requires North Korea to be completely "independent", which in fact recognizes Japan's control of North Korea; cedes my country's Liaodong Peninsula, Taiwan Province, Penghu Islands and other places ; Pay indemnity 200 million taels of silver; allow Japanese capitalists to set up various factories in China's treaty ports; open Suzhou and Hangzhou as treaty ports. Such a treaty that humiliates the country cannot be accepted by any Chinese. In addition, Western Sichuan will no longer remain silent. Let the Manchus betray the country's sovereignty!" Wang Yuze said with a serious face.

    The cabinet members who attended the meeting, the Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff of the General Staff Headquarters, and the Minister of the Navy Zhang Cheng were all in great moods.  As early as last summer, Western Sichuan had already begun preparations.  Both the cabinet and the military have already made preparations.  The army and navy have completed their pre-war preparations and are ready to launch an attack at any time.  In terms of the Navy, after the first batch of four "Chengdu" class heavy cruisers and the second batch of "Leshan" class light cruisers were launched, there have been four second batch of "Chengdu" class heavy cruisers and the third batch of "Chengdu" class heavy cruisers.  The construction of the first batch of "Leshan" class light cruisers has begun.  In addition, the ship design institute in western Sichuan is also actively designing the latest class of battleships in western Sichuan.  According to Wang Yuze's request, the concept of cannon and giant ship will be brought to the extreme.  But even with Barclays?  With the joining of Smit, Sichuan West still appears to be very weak in the field of battleship design.  The design of this new type of battleship is still continuing, and construction is not expected to begin until next year or even the year after.  This forced the Western Sichuan Navy to build four more heavy cruisers to serve as capital ships.

    "We in western Sichuan have been waiting for so many years. Now the Manchu and Qing Dynasties can't even defeat Japan, and they have signed such a traitorous treaty. They have been spurned by the people across the country. This is an excellent opportunity for us. We  We must take this opportunity to overthrow the Manchu Qing Dynasty and unify the country!" Prime Minister Liang Xingrong said first.  Over the years, western Sichuan has been preparing for this day.  Now, the day has finally arrived.

    "The Ministry of Finance has prepared a special fund of 100 million yuan to support this war. If it is not enough, you can continue to borrow money from the West Sichuan Bank!" said Finance Minister Wang Wenhua.  Of course, taking out 100 million yuan in one go will also put huge pressure on Western Sichuan's finances.  In fact, last year, the fiscal revenue of Western Sichuan was only 225 million yuan, an increase of 20%. This was all due to the large-scale infrastructure construction in Western Sichuan, which enabled the rapid economic development of Western Sichuan.  However, Western Sichuan is still building large-scale infrastructure such as railways and highways, steel plants, heavy equipment manufacturing plants, non-ferrous metal smelting plants, etc., coupled with the Army's military expansion and war preparations, and the Navy's large-scale shipbuilding, these financial  There is not much income left.  It can be said that all the 100 million yuan in military expenditures provided by the Ministry of Finance were borrowed from banks.  It's just that everyone has great confidence in Western Sichuan. After defeating the Manchu Qing, they will definitely gain huge wealth. They will definitely be able to repay this debt by then, and there will still be a lot left over.

    Although the Manchu and Qing government was a little poorer, the privileged classes were all extremely wealthy.  Li Lianying alone had a family fortune of tens of millions of taels. If all the clans of the Manchu Qing Dynasty were plundered, they would be able to collect at least one billion taels of silver.  With this money, large-scale construction after western Sichuan unified the whole country was guaranteed.  Therefore, the cabinet will naturally give its full support to Western Sichuan to win this battle.

    "Commander, give the order! The army and navy are already ready. We must speed up to defeat the Manchu Qing, lest the Manchu Qing pay the war indemnity to compensate the Japanese, which is 200 million taels of silver! Pay it before the Manchu Qing  This compensation was overturned by us before, so naturally we will not admit this debt!" Cai Yun said with some urgency.

    "Haha!" Everyone laughed. It was obvious that they wanted Japan to draw water from a bamboo basket in vain!  Japan has been preparing for this battle for decades.  Almost all the family wealth has been invested in this battle, hoping to defeat the Manqing in one battle and bite off a big piece of fat from the Manqing to make up for the previous investment and make a lot of money at the same time.  If the Manchus were overthrown by Western Sichuan before the compensation was paid, wouldn't they have earned nothing?  Even the Japanese government will go bankrupt because of this.

    "This is a good idea and can be implemented. However, we must prevent the Japanese from jumping over the wall! The Japanese have a large number of troops in the Liaodong area. If we launch an attack and the Japanese also launch an attack on the capital, it will be a bit troublesome.  !" Xiong Wu said.

    "The First Cavalry Corps and the Second Cavalry Corps were ready. After the battle started, theyOnce again, they entered the grassland from Yulin, Shaanxi, and entered Rehe from Suiyuan and Chahar, guarding Shanhaiguan and blocking the southward path of the Japanese troops.  The troops stationed in Shaanxi will also launch an attack on Shanxi with all their strength, approaching the capital city and taking over the capital city in one fell swoop!  "Wang Yuze said. Western Sichuan has stationed three divisions of troops in Shaanxi, namely the Third Division, the 11th Division and the 12th Division. After the army expansion, the 22nd Division and the 23rd Division were deployed.  Shaanxi brought the total number of troops deployed in Shaanxi to five divisions and more than 90,000 people. With the cooperation of two cavalry corps, there would be no problem at all in capturing the capital.

    "Commander, where is our navy? What is our mission? Do we want to attack the Japanese combined fleet immediately?" said Navy Minister Zhang Cheng.  The current Western Sichuan Navy is already strong. With four 10,000-ton battleships and four close to 10,000-ton heavy cruisers, the Western Sichuan Navy has become the most powerful fleet in Asia.  Even though the United Kingdom has dispatched two "Sovereign" class battleships to join the British "China Fleet", they are far from being a match for the Western Sichuan Navy.

    "How are the preparations of the Marine Corps? Can it be put into actual combat?" Wang Yuze asked.  While the Navy is desperately building ships, the development of the Marine Corps has not stopped. So far, four Marine Corps brigades have been built.

    "Report to the commander! After nearly a year of training, the Marine Corps Brigade is fully ready for combat!" Zhang Cheng reported.

    "Okay! After we start the war against the Manchus, the navy will escort the Marine Corps to land in Taiwan and Penghu, disarm the Qing troops in these places, and prepare to fight the Japanese. In addition, the army will also send a division  Garrison in Taiwan." Wang Yuze said.  This is to grab all the loot from Japan before Japan lands in Taiwan!  By then, not only would the Japanese not be able to receive war reparations, they would not even be able to receive the land ceded to the Qing Dynasty.  They have worked hard to prepare for decades, but in the end it was all in vain.

    "Yes, Commander! We promise to complete the mission!" Zhang Cheng said.

    "Commander, will this cause Japan to go to war with us?" Liang Xingrong asked.

    "Of course, even if Japan does not go to war with us, we will declare war on them after the Manchu Qing Dynasty is solved. Perhaps, before the Manchu Qing Dynasty is overthrown, the Japanese will go to war with us. However, this does not matter.  Big deal. As long as the navy defeats Japan's combined fleet, Japan will lose! Can the navy defeat Japan's combined fleet?" Wang Yuze asked.

    "Report to the Commander-in-Chief! Although the Japanese Navy displayed extremely strong combat effectiveness in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, the Western Sichuan Navy is confident of defeating them at a small cost!" Zhang Cheng said with great certainty.

    "Well, that's no problem!" Wang Yuze said with a smile.  Wang Xiao worked hard for so many years, but he never saw Western Sichuan unify China until his death, and now, all this will finally come true under his leadership.

    "Commander! Although the army currently has 23 infantry divisions plus one teaching division, two heavy artillery brigades and two cavalry corps, if we unify the country, this number of troops will still be too few and we will need to expand the army again!"  Defense Minister Jiang Xingguo said.  The current territory in western Sichuan is only equivalent to one-third of the country.  Guarding such a vast territory with this small force still seems inadequate.

    Everyone in the cabinet frowned.  In their opinion, with the current military strength in western Sichuan, there is no problem in defeating the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Even adding Japan will not be a big problem.  Once the whole country is unified, Western Sichuan will need to spend a lot of money.  If we continue to expand our military, there will inevitably be greater financial pressure.  It is also not conducive to economic development.

    "How much more military expansion is needed?" Wang Yuze asked.

    "At least twenty divisions!" Jiang Xingguo asked.

    "Disdain, twenty divisions are too many!" Before Wang Yuze said anything, the cabinet had already objected.

    "Twenty divisions are definitely not many. After overthrowing the Manchus, we still have to defeat the Japanese. In addition, the Russians in the north have always coveted our northern territory. It is difficult to guarantee whether they will take advantage of it this time!  "Xiong Wu said.

    Wang Yuze nodded to this statement. The Russians want to occupy Northeast China and Mongolia. This will not happen in a day or two.  Overthrowing the Manchu Qing Dynasty was only a trivial matter, but if they wanted to preserve their ancestral heritage, then Western Sichuan would have to do their best.

    "Okay! Just follow the requirements of the Ministry of National Defense and expand the army by twenty divisions!" Wang Yuze said.  Now that Wang Yuze has made a decision, even if the cabinet is dissatisfied, they have no choice but to accept it.

    "Everyone, starting from tomorrow, it will be a new era for us. The new China requires everyone to unite and fight. Please!" Wang Yuze said solemnly.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, Commander, we will do our best!¡± Everyone replied excitedlyreplied.

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