"President, the British protested again to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and asked us to evacuate the Fourth Brigade, which was stationed 20 kilometers outside Weihaiwei!"

After Japan and Germany officially declared war, the Beijing Presidential Palace became the busiest place in China. Before dawn on the 21st, Foreign Minister Lu Zhengxiang arrived at the Presidential Palace in a bit of a sluggish spirit and reported the British protests to the President.

"Never mind, let them protest!"

There were already several people sitting there in the president's office. The president's reply made Lu Zhengxiang's face feel bitter again. Seeing Duan Qirui, the head of the Army Department, staying here rarely, was as bitter as him. Perhaps he felt that he had found a resonance, and he sat down next to Duan Qirui, who was also bitter.

"President, you don't know the British's reaction and attitude. The British made Bart so angry that he glared at him. This is the first time I have seen such a scheming British man with so many expressions. In short, the British's reaction was very fierce, and they asked me to withdraw troops from Weihai Guard as soon as possible!"

"snort!"

Duan Qirui next to him snorted and placed a document in his hand on the table next to him. "The British occupied Weihaiwei since the Wuxu year (1898), and have never invested a lot of money to build a fort like the Germans. At best, it was just a resting place for the British in the waters of Northern China. Naturally, they were worried that our government would take the opportunity to take the risk of reclaiming Weihaiwei. According to the agreement, 10 miles around Weihaiwei were within the control of the British, but the 4th Brigade's garrison was about 20 kilometers away from Weihaiwei, which did not violate the "Special Article for the Rental of Weihaiwei". The British demanded that our country withdraw troops were unreasonable, and it was just ignored!"

As soon as he spoke, he was extremely angry. President Li, who was lowering his head to process the official documents, and Jiang Fangzhen, who was standing in front of the map and whispering to each other, all turned around and looked at him. Then President Li smiled and continued to process the documents in his hand.

He naturally knew how angry his army chief was.

It is natural to say that the importance of the Army Department is not important. It would be strange if President Li was willing to give such an important department to the Beiyang Group during the negotiations. Therefore, since the establishment of the Transitional Government, all departments of the National Defense Forces ignored all orders to bypass him at his request. After the establishment of the General Staff, the Army Department was even more in a crisis of power being overwhelmed. On the contrary, the Army Department is now commanding the National Defense Forces. In fact, anyone in China now knows that the General Staff, under the name of the Presidential Palace, is the "Department of Army" recognized by President Li.

The power in his hands was emptied, so President Duan was naturally angry. But he couldn't resign in anger, because he knew that the president was probably waiting for him to voluntarily resign. Because he resigned, he could bypass the secret agreement during the North-South peace talks and support his confidant to the position of the Chief of the Army, so even if he was angry, he had to endure it.

Recently, the Presidential Office has frequently mobilized troops from various places, which is also one of the reasons why General Duan is very angry. According to the secret discussions during the North-South peace talks, if the center wants to mobilize the troops of the First and Second Army of the Beiyang Army, if the center wants to mobilize the troops of the First and Second Army, it must obtain the consent of him, Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang, and other Beiyang generals. Since Japan submitted a diplomatic protest letter to the government, President Li gave his opinions to Feng Guozhang from Nanjing, mentioning that because of the lack of combat experience of the newly formed troops of the National Defense Forces, he hoped to draw two divisions from the First and Second Army to the north. The Beiyang Group now has a total of eight divisions left. It can be said that he will take half of it. Although he promised to add the organization of four divisions to the Beiyang Group and provide military supplies and money, Duan Feng and the others, who knew that "the meat buns will go but no return to the dog", refused his recruitment with various excuses.

Although they had been together for a short time, the new president has been promoting the "reducing the vassal states" in recent months. Although General Duan rejected President Li's recruitment, he was very uneasy and worried that the new president would still attack him. As expected, after Japan issued a final military ultimatum to Germany, the country was very angry because of the news that Germany had made it clear in the previous Sino-German joint statement that Germany had made it clear to return Qingdao to China. For this reason, the new president took the opportunity to mobilize troops from local provinces in the name of the president to head north. Tang Jiyao, Lu Rongting, Guangxi, Liu Xianshi, Guizhou, Long Jiguang, and Fujian National Government were all on the list of troops dispatched by the Presidential Office, and he forcibly dispatched a division of troops to head north in the name of national justice.

The five provinces were all convinced by the public opinion. When Feng Guozhang of Jiangsu saw that he was not good, he immediately made a statement and simply cut his flesh and sent a division's troops to the north to block President Li's soft knife. Feng Guozhang was good. He was as soon as he surrendered to the new president and stopped when he saw it was good, but President Duan's situation became awkward. President Li should play the "patriotic card". Whoever dares to oppose the center to mobilize troops to deal with Japan's provocation would be a traitor, and everyone can be punished. Therefore, in the end, President Li won the victory. Both main divisions of the old Beiyang First Army were recruited and sent to Tianjin thirty miles away to prevent Japan from landing from Dagukou.

Although Duan Qirui was very reluctant, he chose to remain silent in the face of the righteousness of this country. After all, he was a Chinese.

As a senior government executive who experienced the Qing court and Beiyang era, Duan Qirui was very dissatisfied with Li Han's actions of "provoking" Japan. In his opinion, although this President was not a lunatic, he must be a political speculator with a strong risk. For some of his own purposes, the President was not worried that his risky actions would lead to war. Take this "Shandong Crisis" for example. China does not have the strength to compete with Japan for the time being, so it is better to give in or be cold at this time so that it can be resolved later. He is not dissatisfied with President Li's behavior of safeguarding national sovereignty. On the contrary, he, who has been pondering the official for many years, is actually dissatisfied with the new president's clumsy and unwise political skills, and is worried that the country's young man who has only force and political skills are far less than one-tenth of Yuan Gong will lead the entire country astray.

It is actually not unreasonable for Duan Qirui to think this way, because China is actually facing more than Japan, and there is the Outer Mongolia crisis ahead. Although the Japanese government's actions are indeed too excessive, compared with the Russian government's naked expansion in Outer Mongolia and instigating the Outer Mongolia government to split, Japan can barely be considered good. Both countries are eroding China's territorial sovereignty, but in the position of treating these two countries, Li Han completely uses "double standards". That is, the government ignores the Russians' endless small actions in Outer Mongolia, and even warns some newspapers close to the government to not report news about Outer Mongolia. On the other hand, the government is very fierce about the expansion of the Japanese government to Shandong. This political method is undoubtedly unqualified in Duan Qirui's opinion.

It is naturally impossible for President Li to tell him Duan Qirui what he was thinking. He could never tell others that he knew Russia's dilemma after World War I, and even know that even if Russia had some small moves in Outer Mongolia, he could not directly threaten China militarily. So he turned a blind eye and hoped to divide more from the big cakes of Europe and Russia. After all, there is a Siberian railway between China and Russia. Compared with dangerous sea and land, it has to compete with Japan, the United States and other countries for orders from Britain and France. There is no doubt that Russia is more attractive to China. Qingdao is different. First, it is not like Outer Mongolia, and it is a country that has only been included in the ruling system in recent hundreds of years. Second, Shandong has paid too many attention to it; third, if Japan occupy Shandong, it will threaten the security of the capital, and the entire Bohai Bay and the North China Sea are under the threat of the Japanese, so it must respond toughly to avoid strategically becoming passive.

"The British people want to protest and let them protest. Chief Lu, if the British envoy comes to threaten you again, tell him truthfully that Britain and Japan are allies. China is very worried that if China and Japan fight, Weihaiwei will become the gateway for the Japanese army to land. You tell him that if the government is worried that it will become a reality, our defense force will have to take action in order to maintain the integrity of sovereignty. If there is no... When Japan withdraws, it is the time when the National Defense Force withdraws!"

The British were not good people. Li Han sent troops to station in the suburbs of Weihaiwei just to prevent the British. If he remembered correctly in history, after Japan declared war on Germany, there were also British countries that captured Qingdao. Although Britain did not allow Japan to land on Weihaiwei at that time, he did not prevent 10,000 yuan, and even if he angered Britain, he had to be prepared for it. Anyway, the troops outside the Weihaiwei did not violate the "Special Article on the Booking of the Weihaiwei", as Duan Qirui said, the British protests were very unreasonable.

Germany's defense forces in Qingdao were mainly composed of two parts: the navy and the army. Before the outbreak of the war, the German Far East Fleet had three battlecruisers, "Shankhorst", "Shandong", and "Far East" and "Gneisenau" armored cruisers, the light cruisers "Nuremberg" and "Emden" transferred to China, only the "Leipzig" was left. In addition, there were only three lightning strike ships, five gunboats and three inland gunboats. When the war broke out, the main force of the fleet, "Shankhorst", "Far East", "Shandong", and "Gneisenau" were sailing towards the German Caroling Islands and the South Pacific under the leadership of the Navy General Spee. The "Leipzig" "protects German interests" along the coast of Mexico, so the German water force in the mainland of Qingdao Port was very weak.

As early as after receiving the ultimatum submitted by the Japanese government, the Governor's Office in Jiaozhou Bay in Qingdao, it immediately issued a mobilization order to the German ships in the territorial waters of China. All lightning ships, gunboats, and inland gunboats were taken back into Jiaozhou Bay. In addition, the German Embassy in China also issued orders to various concessions. Within a few days, the German garrison stationed in various concessions and a large number of young expatriates arrived in Qingdao through various channels and began to strengthen Qingdao's defense.

Qingdao's outer defense line spreads along the boundary of Jiaozhou Bay's leased land. The inner circle defense line is centered on Potato Mountain, Bismarck Mountain and Moltke Mountain in the suburbs of Qingdao. It has 6 main turrets, 4 sea-to-sea and 2 land-to-land. It is equipped with 4 280mm cannons, 2 240mm cannons, 4 210mm cannons, 7 150mm cannons and 4 105mm cannons. In addition, there are several 88mm cannons and old 120mm cannons that originally belonged to the Qing army. These cannons and 5 multi-faceted bastions have a total of 1,350 people. The terrain is conspicuous and very dangerous.

German Navy Minister Marshal Tirpitz served as the naval admiral of the Chinese fleet in the early 20th century. He once praised Qingdao Fortress: "It takes a whole army of troops to capture these fortresses." Germany also stationed 2,700 Navy 3rd and 7th Land Battle Battalions in Qingdao, including 8 infantry companies, 1 cavalry company, 2 engineer companies, 2 artillery companies and 4 machine gun companies. In the Beijing Embassy District and Tianjin Germany

In the concession, Germany also stationed 4 infantry companies, 1 cavalry company and 2 artillery units. These troops also retreated to Qingdao via the Jinpu Railway before the Japanese arrived. Germany's defensive forces in Qingdao finally increased to 8,720, 210 machine guns and 110 guns. For this reason, Meyervaldik boasted to Xiao Kaigui, the commander of the 13th Brigade stationed in Qingdao by the National Defense Forces, saying: "If the Japanese army wants to capture Qingdao, it will cost 40,000 people."

Perhaps because of the rise of Li Han in the Far East, the Germans gained too much benefit from it, so the historical direction has quietly changed. As one of the main hubs of Sino-German military exchanges, Qingdao gathered a large number of personnel and materials, especially its military strength is far stronger than that of the same period in history. For example, Germany had only a few old reconnaissance aircraft in the same period in history, but at this time it had two squadrons of about 36 latest fighter jets, bombers and reconnaissance aircraft; for example, the total number of German Army in Qingdao was only 4,000, but now there is a complete German infantry brigade, the Shanghai Marine Battalion and the recruited expatriates who had served in the military. In addition, there are also the support of China's "quasi-ally", without any worries, and China has provided nearly 10,000 laborers to strengthen the city defense on its behalf. Qingdao is solid.

As the European war situation expanded and deepened, Qingdao's combat readiness was also proceeding in an orderly manner. Germany was always preparing for possible wars. The main force of the navy withdrew. The main force of the Chinese navy was not a Japanese opponent and was not transferred to Jiaozhou Bay. So after China and Germany communicated, Qingdao sent lightning ships S90, S91, and S92 to lay a large mine at the entrance of Jiaozhou Bay. This process was not discovered and attacked by two British destroyers on the evening of September 21. The three ships s90, S91, and S92 hid in the sea area marked as "shallow water" on the sea chart with the advantage of familiarity with the environment. The following British destroyer "Kennett" was immediately attacked by the coastal turret and forced to return, but after two days of busy mine-burning operations in Jiaozhou Bay were approaching the end.

When Germany was busy planning for Qingdao's defense, Japan was not idle. The government's unexpected tough attitude towards China, Japan had made the most complete preparations. Don't forget that when declaring war on Germany to attack Qingdao, Japan took all the initiative, and Japan also had an absolute advantage in terms of national power. Therefore, although there are still a few cautious people in China who are worried that China might have any trump cards, most people in China think that China is just a harsh person and a weak person on the inside, and that it is just a hard statement. If China really dares to stop the empire from trying to seize Shandong, the empire can not only give the Chinese a head-on blow in Shandong, but also take the opportunity to seize the interests of Manchuria and Mongolia, so that Britain, the United States and other countries will suffer a great loss from China.

It is also because of this that the Japanese militants are more excited than worried about China's move to increase troops to Shandong. The General Staff even encouraged the government to coordinate with the British. Once the empire is "accidentally" in Shandong, the army will be attacked by the army, and will be forced to further expand military operations in China. At that time, I hope the government can properly appease Britain so that the empire can take this rare opportunity in a century to achieve the great cause of imperial expansion.

Due to the particularity of the Qingdao Battle and the imbalance of the power balance, almost all Japanese generals regarded it as a one-sided war, believing that the goal could be achieved without much effort. Therefore, many people competed for the position of this commander. Although Kamio Komiko was also a lieutenant general, he has always been known for his cautiousness rather than bravery in the Japanese army. This time he chose him as the front-line commander, which was nothing more than a prudent feature. In the eyes of the military headquarters, it was only a matter of time before the imperial army with a numerical advantage won, and some people publicly threatened to win Qingdao in 6 hours. Therefore, there was no need for a "meat, bullet-spin" general like General Nogi in the Russo-Japanese War. The Japanese army needed to turn the Qingdao Battle into a "propaganda model" type of battle that would win with the smallest sacrifice. Instead of paying a heavy price like winning the Lushun 203 Highlands in the Russo-Japanese War.

However, can China and Germany make arrangements in Qingdao for a long time make Japan so easy to get what it wants?

In the Far East, the smoke of war gradually became rich!
Chapter completed!