On the same day when the war was declared on the Qing Dynasty, the Japanese base camp used the four ships of Xijingmaru, Kaohsiung, Chuanzi and Tianlong as escorts, and dozens of merchant ships and cargo ships to implement the No. 2 combat plan simultaneously, namely the North Korean plan.

On the 16th, the Japanese Fifth Division and the Third Division completed their landing in Incheon and formed a brigade with Major General Oshima Yoshihara who had occupied Seoul. Subsequently, the fifth and third divisions that entered North Korea were organized into the first army, with the army general Aritomo Yama Prefecture as the commander, commanding the offensive operations in North Korea.

After Yupeng of Shanxian arrived in Seoul, he left only one brigade stationed in Incheon. Two brigades entered Seoul and armed the Japanese ronin in Seoul as a garrison. He then led the remaining troops of two divisions to head north and launched an attack on Pyongyang.

Before this, Yang Yong's third division had arrived in Pyongyang first.

In Zai Tian's timetable, the Sino-Japanese War should have broken out during the summer and autumn of the 1894-1895. So when he learned about the Korean incident, Liu Shaoqing was reorganizing Lushun and Dalian to train troops. After getting the emperor's urgent point, Liu Shaoqing immediately led the Second Brigade of the Third Division to Dandong, and at the same time ordered Yang Yong, who was staying in Shengjing, to lead the main force of the Third Division to Dandong at the same time.

But just as Shandi said, Liu Shaoqing now has only one division that can be used for his troops.

The troops in Dalian and Lushun have not yet completed the reorganization. Even if they are completed, they have to stay in the two places and cannot be removed. However, the eighth and ninth two divisions and independent brigade of the Northeast Guards, which can be removed, were released from the company and battalion as units to suppress bandits because they wanted to exercise their combat skills and "see blood" in advance. They could not be taken back in a short period of time.

Zai Tian rubbed his eyebrows. The reason why the Northeast can be mobilized is so tight is that Liu Shaoqing is designing the military progress according to the schedule he gave. Therefore, in order to achieve a decisive victory in the Korean battlefield, in addition to relying on Liu Shaoqing, he also needs to seize the time to correct his mistakes.

"How is the military supply situation going on?"

Wu Faxian did not make any statement. Although he was responsible for military industry and logistics, Li Hongzhang was still there at the scene. In terms of qualifications and positions, it was Li Lao Zhongtang who spoke first.

Li Hongzhang said: "In the Navy, two destroyers started construction in the British shipyard in Shanghai and the French shipyard in Xiamen have been received at the beginning of the 17th. The three ships started construction at the end of the year will not be delivered one after another until October. The first shipboard built by the Americans at the same time will be delivered. The fifth and sixth frigates of our own Tianjin and Guangzhou shipyards will take about a month to deliver. In addition, the light patrols built by the British and British shipyards in Shanghai will be delivered until the end of the year."

From the end of 1890 to the summer of 1893, the Qing court started construction one after another, or purchased eight frigates, six destroyers, three dome-armored cruisers and two armored cruisers. Among them, four frigates produced by two shipyards in Tianjin and Guangzhou have been delivered, and the other four will be delivered in the second half of this year and the first half of next year respectively.

Two of the six destroyers were built at the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai. One has been delivered, the "Leyi" and the other four were built by the British at the Hudong Shipyard in Shanghai and the French at the Xiamen Shipyard in Fujian. The first two have also been delivered, but because the service time is a little later than that of the "Leyi" and did not participate in the just-concluded Bohai Sea Battle.

One dome cruiser commissioned by the British has been delivered, the "Bai Qi" that shined in the naval battle. The other two were built at the Armstrong Shipyard in the UK and the other was built at the Hudong Shipyard in Shanghai.

"The construction progress of Shanghai Hudong Shipyard is faster, so the delivery time is about the same as that of destroyers, and the one at Armstrong Shipyard will be until December. As for the armored cruiser built by the Americans, although the completion time is in August, it will be from the United States to cross the ocean, so it will be two months later."

After listening to Li Hongzhang's report, Zai Tian gathered the data and said: "So, by September, we will not have new ships with more than 2,000 tons in service?"

Li Hongzhang replied: "Yes."

"Although this naval battle almost wiped out the Japanese joint fleet, our army suffered a lot of losses. Let's not talk about the three ships of Zhenyuan. Dingyuan will take at least two months to repair, and Pingyuan is equivalent to reinstalling. Although the Japanese army only returned one Sanjing ship, there are still several warships of one or two thousand tons in service in its country. Moreover, the new fast cruisers purchased by Japan from the UK and warships purchased from Russia should be almost in place, right?"

"Return to the emperor, judging from the information sent back by Xue Fucheng, the 4,000-ton fast cruiser purchased by the Japanese from the UK was actually a counterfeit of our "Bai Qi". And it will take August to deliver it, and it will take nearly a month to return from the UK. So before October, the Japanese's maritime power can only increase this large ship. As for the warships built by their own country, at best, there are only two 2,000 tons, and at most equivalent to our destroyers. Although the warships provided by the Russians are larger than any warship in my country, it will have to wait until the end of this year. At that time, our northbound fleet will add two fast cruisers and an armored cruiser, so the surface power will still be much higher than that of Japan."

Although the Qing Dynasty's shipbuilding plan started later than Japan, it was extremely explosive because of its sufficient technical reserves and a lot of silver. According to Zai Tian's original schedule, before the summer of 1894, the Qing Dynasty would have two armored cruisers of 8,000 tons, three fast cruisers of 4,000 tons, and six fast destroyers of 2,000 tons. These new warships, plus the Badayuan and modified Huantai ships, the Qing Dynasty would have twenty large surface combat ships.

This size is almost twice the number of ships known to be equipped by Japan.

This is also why Japan takes great risks to start a war in advance, because if this is not the case, Japan will not even have the opportunity to take risks.

What Li Hongzhang said was indeed relatively accurate numbers and timetables, but Zai Tian no longer believed in the timetables. The Japanese still have money now, and he could purchase warships from Russia, France, even Chile, Argentina and other countries, so the Qing Dynasty had to prepare in advance.

"Order our own shipyard to work overtime and complete the warships as soon as possible. At the same time, contact the British and Germans to see if they have any warships that have just been launched or are about to be launched. We will choose a few of them."

After hearing this, Li Hongzhang wanted to say something, but in the end he didn't say anything, just said: "I obey the order."

After the navy finished speaking, Wu Faxian began to report on the work of the army. "The four major arsenals in the capital, Jinan, Anqing and Wuhan are now operating at full capacity, and their ordnance production can arm three infantry brigades within two months. In terms of the troops, new recruits from Shandong, Anhui, Henan and Shanxi provinces are already in training. The first batch of reinforcements from the two lakes should arrive at the end of the month, and reinforcements from Jiangsu and Zhejiang will also arrive at the same time. The reinforcements from Sichuan and Sanguang will arrive until next month. Preliminary calculations are made that by the end of this month, two infantry divisions should be added, and by the end of next month, three more infantry divisions can be added. By the end of the year, three more divisions can be added."

Zai Tian thought to himself: "No, in this way, our equipment will not be able to keep up."

Wu Faxian said: "Yes, by the end of next month, we will organize five new infantry divisions, but the output of the ordnance plus the stock can only meet two divisions. Other troops can only use old-fashioned firearms. So I hope the court can purchase a batch of rifles and bullets from Germany."

Zai Tian said helplessly: "That's all." Then he said to Yi Xin: "King, let me leave this matter to you. I told the Germans that we will immediately purchase a full set of weapons and equipment from five divisions, and in addition, we will purchase four rifle production lines and artillery production lines."

The Qing Dynasty can now manufacture production equipment for rifles, machine guns and artillery by itself, but the emperor still has to purchase it from the outside. This is not that he does not believe in self-produced equipment, but that he plans to expand the existing military industrial system on a large scale.

Zai Tian then said: "The reinforcements from the two lakes have received basic training. After they arrive, they will immediately replenish them on the Tangshan front line. They will first destroy the Japanese Second Army, and then order Nie Shicheng and Cao Kun and the independent cavalry brigade to Korea. The garrison in the northern part of Zhili will be taken over by Zhang Gaoyuan's division."

Sun Yuwen immediately said: "Abide by the order!"

When fighting, things were all over the place. Not only reinforcements, weapons, ammunition, but also food, bedding, medicine, transportation, pensions and even diplomacy were required. Zai Tian held the meeting until late at night before basically sorting out all the affairs and dispatching them.

When she returned to the bedroom, Zai Tian was so tired that she didn't want to move. She barely ate some midnight snack and drank a bowl of ginseng soup, and then she was so energetic that she could handle other government affairs.

Dexin was always serving Zai Tian. She knew that the emperor had to get up to court again in the middle of the night every day, and the rest time of the day was no more than three hours, which was very hard, so when serving Zai Tian's midnight snack, she didn't talk as much as before. At this time, Zai Tian was correcting the memorial, Dexin was behind him, rubbing his head and relaxing.

During this period, the government affairs were mostly related to wars. Many of them had been dealt with at the meeting before. The most important thing was Xinjiang's anti-Russia. Fortunately, the Russians did not take advantage of the situation at this time. Perhaps because they were concerned about the British, Zai Tian thought secretly. As for the construction of railways and the various joint ventures and factories, there were already cases of success. In addition, Li Hongzhang, Sheng Xuanhuai, Zheng Guanying, Zhan Tianyou, Chen Chi, Zhang Jian and others were also officials of the Westernization Affairs Office. The memorials submitted had solutions or suggestions, so Guangxu approved them more quickly. As for education, Northeast reclamation and other matters, they were already on track, and there were not many things.

After about an hour, Guangxu finished reading all the memorials and then got up to rest. Dexin stood behind him for more than an hour.

Guangxu stood up, pulled Dexin in front of him, and sighed, "I saw you have something to say when I was having dinner. I knew you were afraid of causing trouble for me, but since you have been standing for so long, it must be a real important matter, so let's talk about it."

Dexin lowered her head embarrassedly and said, "The emperor works so hard every day, but I hate that I can't help but also cause trouble for the emperor. It's really because I can't bear it."

Zai Tian deliberately teased her and said, "Since you can't bear it, then forget it, I'm going to bed, ah, so sleepy!"

As he said that, Zai Tian deliberately yawned.

Sure enough, Dexin couldn't help but say, "Your Majesty, I have a ruthless request. I hope the emperor will be grateful."

Zai Tian looked at his wife who looked a little panicked, anxious and nervous, and couldn't help but sigh again. "Is it because of Derong's affairs?"

Dexin was told by the emperor that the main thing was the main thing, and silently lowered her head and whispered: "Yes. My sister heard that Zhen'er had helped the emperor do a lot of things in Tangshan, so..."

In fact, whether it is Zhenpin or Depin, Zai Tian hopes that they can be self-reliant and self-reliant, and that it is best to go out and do something within their ability. Even Queen Dexin, Zai Tian encourages her to go out to set up girls' schools and medical schools, but if this is put in the palace battle, Zai Tian is a little disliked.

At the beginning of the war, Zhen'er and Derong both studied at the Beijing Medical Technical School. Because of the sudden war in Tangshan, a large number of medical staff were required to go to the front line to treat the wounded. Because Zhen'er grew up in a place like Guangzhou and had been exposed to Western ideas, she had stronger autonomy and more openness. Therefore, after learning that the front line needed ambulance personnel, she immediately signed up. However, Derong was more constrained by feudal ethics and thoughts. Because she had to go to the front line to show up and even eat and live with the soldiers, she could not accept it, so she returned to the palace.

Later, Zhenpin on the front line won praise from the soldiers with her own efforts. Although the soldiers and even Zhang Gaoyuan didn't know which family the girl named "Azhen" was, it was precisely because of this that the praise and gratitude of the officers and soldiers were more real and credible. It also showed the efforts made by Zhenpin.

All this was naturally passed back to the palace by the guards who secretly protected her. Zai Tian was naturally happy, and Dexin finally understood that what the emperor actually needed was a woman who could truly stand beside her, not the decorations of the harem. Therefore, she also wanted to give her own sister a chance.

Although he knew that Dexin was actually helping Derong to win favor, he wanted to help after all, and the palms and backs of his hands were fleshy, Zai Tian could only agree: "Then let Derong go to Lushun. The navy also needs people."

Dexin immediately said happily: "I thank the emperor!"
Chapter completed!