Master Yuan, start!

In the eyes of the British, if Russia has 10 points of strength, then it can exert 10 points on its own soil.

In Europe, which is closer to home, it can perform 8 points.

In Central Asia, which is a little further away, it can play 5 points.

In the Far East, which is nearly 3 kilometers away, it would be good if the Russians could perform points.

Rather than letting the "European Gendarmerie" show off its power on the plains of Central and Eastern Europe and threaten the Indian region in Central Asia.

It would be better to let the Russians expend their strength in the Far East, which would undoubtedly be more beneficial to British interests.

For every 10 points of strength consumed in the Far East, St. Petersburg will have to pay a price of 30 points, and Britain will have 30 points less pressure in Europe.

Moreover, with the emergence of Yuan Shikai, the British no longer had to rely solely on Japan to fight against Russia in the Far East.

In the eyes of the British at this time, Yuan Shikai was the first choice to resist Russia's southward advance, and Japan was just an auxiliary.

After all, international status is fought for. The Japanese have never won a modern war, so it is natural that they are despised by the British.

"What about the French? Are they willing to send troops to Taiwan to assist?" Mutsuhito turned and asked the Minister of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, Saigo Tsunemichi.

"Your Majesty, the French ambassador has made it clear that he refuses to participate in any dispute that does not concern his colonies."

Hearing such a firm response, Mu Ren, who had cooperated quite happily with the French in the development of Taiwan, couldn't help feeling a little disappointed.

"However, the French Governor-General of Taiwan once privately told me that the French government was willing to provide loans to Japan to purchase and ship weapons and equipment from Taiwan."

Saigo added another sentence, but in Mutsuhito's opinion, this was just the French trying to make money from the war.

"In this case, are you sure of victory?"

After relaxing for a moment, Mutsuhito looked at Ito Hirobumi, who had just returned from Korea, with eager eyes.

"Your Majesty, with the tacit approval of Britain and France, and the secret agreement with Yuan Shikai of the Qing Dynasty, the Great Japanese Empire is now invincible!"

Although Russia only has three battleships in the Far East, more than 3% of the Russian military forces are in Europe, so Ito Hirobumi did not dare to guarantee it and could only vaguely say that he was invincible.

"That's fine"

"Send a telegram to Yuan Shikai, asking if he is willing to trade grain for Japanese government bonds.

At the same time, he severely reprimanded the Russian envoy for using negotiations to delay the Russians' reinforcement of troops."

Mutsuhito finally made up his mind. After the overthrow of the shogunate, the Southwest War, the annexation of Ryukyu, and the invasion of Korea, he was going to make another big gamble.

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

Upon seeing this, the ministers withdrew one after another and prepared to launch Japan's war machine, a mixture of feudal forces and capitalist systems.

...

While the Imperial Conference in Tokyo was debating, the news of Yuan Shikai's Jiawu telegram also reached the Jiangnan Governor's Office in Jiangning.

This latest Jiangnan Governor's Mansion is not the Liangjiang Governor's Mansion in Jiangning City, but a summer resort built by Liu Kunyi on Zhongshan Mountain in the east of Jiangning City.

Since its completion in the spring of 1892, Liu Kunyi, the Governor-General of Jiangnan, has worked here during the summer half year from April to September every year.

Although some scholars mocked him after the completion of the project, saying that he was "not yet the emperor, but he built a garden first", he did not care.

During these two years, except for the initial anxiety after the National Defense Army went south to capture Xuzhou, Liu Kunyi gradually relaxed his mind in the rest of the days.

At that time, the Jianghuai region was almost indefensible. After Yuan Shikai took Xuzhou, he had to distract himself with dealing with factional disputes within the Hunan Army, and Jiangning was almost exposed to the National Defense Army.

But unexpectedly, Yuan Shikai did not go south. Instead, he set up some "bonded areas" and "border banks". He also invited Zhang Jian from Nantong to tour the south of the Yangtze River and invited many gentry from Jiangsu and Zhejiang to go outside the Great Wall to open factories.

In Liu Kunyi's opinion, Yuan Shikai was stupid and too soft-hearted for not marching south immediately but instead taking the initiative to stop fighting.

Thanks to Yuan Shikai's "soft heart", Liu Kunyi has gradually sorted out the power disputes within the Hunan Army in the past few years, and gradually brought the key land and water departments into his own hands. Even if there are still some noises, they can no longer cause any trouble.

Although Zhang Zhidong in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River still held the river, all he could rely on was the title of "loyal minister of the Qing Dynasty". This "Qing Dynasty", or the Qing Dynasty in the south, was becoming increasingly unpopular.

Li Hongzhang, who was at the junction of Fujian and Jiangxi, did not make any major moves. In recent years, he focused his attention on Southeast Asia. As long as no one took the initiative to provoke, everything would be peaceful.

Now that things have settled down, Liu Kun's focus is naturally on "accumulating wealth and raising troops".

Compared with Yuan Xiangcheng, who formulated various financial policies, provided support, and pointed out the direction of industrial development.

Liu Kunyi knew almost nothing about this and did nothing, but even so, traditional industries such as cotton, silk, satin, and cloth in the Jiangnan region remained strong.

In addition, the two major backbone military factories of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau in Shanghai and the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau have been in production for many years.

Therefore, after losing the official restrictions of the Qing Dynasty, the energy that spontaneously erupted among the people of Jiangnan allowed the Jiangnan Governor's Office, which controlled Jiangnan, to collect a lot of taxes.

After all, Jiangnan has been prosperous for nearly 800 years since the Southern Song Dynasty. It is not only a traditional commercial center, but also a handicraft center. Liu Kunyi, the governor of Jiangnan, really got a big bargain.

But unexpectedly, after only a few years of peace, trouble broke out again in Yuan Shikai's city.

Inside Zhongshan and Jiangnan Governor's Mansion, on the Hundred-Step Corridor.

Compared to the heat in Jiangning City, it is undoubtedly much cooler here. The semi-open corridor even offers a distant view of the Yangtze River.

Although the environment was cool, people in the corridor were discussing very enthusiastically.

"Hello, this is a great opportunity!"

Zhu Hongzhang, the leader of the Hunan Army, was the most excited: "Yuan Xiangcheng sent troops to suppress the Jindan Dao for three years but still couldn't finish it.

Now they're brazenly claiming to march south to unify the country. I think we should just send troops to North Korea and attack them from behind!"

Zhu Hongzhang's suggestion caused quite a stir, and Chen, who was also the leader of the Hunan Army, also responded:

"Old Zhu is right. He took Shanhaiguan in one battle, but that's because the Eight Banners are useless and can't even defend a pass. We have built a lot of guns and cannons in the past three years, and our navy is not weak. Once the army starts, we will see how he can defend Xuzhou!"

Liu Kunyi did not comment and turned to look at his aide Tao Senjia.

"General Xian, I think we can postpone this."

During the Gengzi Year in this original time and space, this person urgently communicated with the British, connected with others everywhere, and eventually indirectly became the behind-the-scenes promoter of the "Southeast Mutual Protection". At this time, he was relied upon by Liu Kunyi as the first choice for foreign negotiations.

"General Xian, Yuan Shikai sent a telegram saying he was willing to resolve the issue peacefully. I think it was just empty talk. Why should I be afraid of him?"

Seeing someone object, the two military leaders became anxious and quickly spoke out to refute, but were stopped by Liu Kun with a raise of his hand.

"I wonder what Qulin Taosen's opinion on Jiazi is?"

"It's not that I don't want to start a war, it's just that the situation happened suddenly and the Jiangnan New Army didn't have time to prepare for it." Tao Senjia turned around and explained to the two of them, then continued:

"Yuan Xiangcheng used courtesy before force, which naturally gives him the advantage of righteousness. We shouldn't fall into his trap."

"You mean...si?" Liu Kunyi seemed to understand something.

"In my opinion, we can be a little harsh in our words, but we must also be good people." Tao Senjia bowed.

"If he sends a telegram, we can publish it in the newspapers and argue with him to confuse him, but behind the scenes we just need to intensify our preparations for war."

"Okay, as you say."

Liu Kunyi has always trusted what Tao Senjia said.

After opening our eyes to the world, who wouldn’t want China to stand tall among all nations and dominate Asia and the East?

But this person must be yourself!

Liu Kun looked at the Jiangnan Navy on the Yangtze River with a sharp gaze.

Chapter 202 Education, Technology, Xiao Qiao and Da Qiao

Just as relevant personnel in East Asia were dealing with the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 unified telegram, the originator of the telegram had already arrived at Port Arthur University on the Yellow Sea.

Beiyang University in Incheon, Shengjing University, and Lushun University are the three modern universities outside the Great Wall, and the only three universities.

As the ties between the three northeastern provinces and North Korea became increasingly close, the levels of the education system outside the Great Wall gradually became clearer.

First of all, in terms of civil education, most of the primary and secondary schools outside the Great Wall and across Korea were built with funds from various companies and factories. Of course, they did this on the premise that Yuan Shikai offered "tax refunds" as an incentive.

After graduating from high school, students can enter "professional schools" such as civil affairs schools, mechanical schools, telegraph schools, and mining schools and graduate directly after two years of study.

You can also study in the "University Hall Preparatory Course" for two years and then enter the University Hall to study for 3-4 years.

The second part is military education. After setting up several crash courses in the beginning, the Beiyang Military Academy has fully switched to a normal teaching rhythm with a three-year course, during which it teaches army tactics such as infantry, cavalry, artillery, and engineering.

The Beiyang Naval Academy was also established in Incheon, and had a branch campus in Lushun, hiring retired American and British naval officers as instructors.

Of these two, only the Civil Affairs School and the Beiyang Military Academy were headed by Yuan Xiangcheng, while the rest were led by professionals, and Yuan Xiangcheng did not interfere too much.

Among these schools, the most famous one today is Beiyang University, which was established based on Incheon’s rich “educational resources”.

The reason why it is called rich is that most of the teachers are young children who studied in the United States and were frustrated after returning to their home country.

The average age of Chinese students studying in the United States was only 12 years old when they went abroad, and they were only in their early 20s when they returned home.

Except for a very small number of people such as Zhan Tianyou and Ouyang Geng, more than half of the 4 people in four batches did not have time to be admitted to university.

They had a difficult time abroad, and it was even more difficult after returning to China. Most of them did not work in their own professions. Even Zhan Tianyou, a famous railway magnate in later generations, worked as an English teacher for 8 years.

Therefore, when Zhan Tianyou was invited by Yung Wing and Yuan Shikai to go outside the Great Wall and preside over the construction of the famous "Shenglu Railway", the other Chinese students studying in the United States who were still on the sidelines also went outside the Great Wall to join their old classmates.

Therefore, at the beginning of its establishment, Beiyang University absorbed a large number of young children studying in the United States from all over the country. It has the best student quality and the best faculty among the three universities.

Compared with Beiyang University, Shengjing and Lushun Universities were somewhat biased. The former was slightly stronger in agriculture, mining, engineering, geography and other aspects because it was close to coal and iron ore producing areas and close to the Northeast Railway Line.

In addition to these engineering disciplines, the largest Confucian classics research department outside the Great Wall was also located in Shengjing University, and the instructor was one of the three Confucius Temples who toured the world.

This is also Yuan Xiangcheng's bad taste.

He sent the three Confucius Temples to the northwest, northeast, and Southeast Asia respectively, and asked them to "proclaim the rituals" in places where Confucian culture was weak.

Among them, Yuan Xiangcheng said this about the descendants of Confucius who came to the Northeast for a tour:

"Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva once said that he would not attain Buddhahood until hell was empty. If you wish to inherit the position of Duke Yansheng today, you must possess great perseverance.

The customs outside the Great Wall are fierce and the ethnic groups are mixed. If 8兀奇镏(六si珥焦榴n: can educate the people here, it can be said that his merits are immeasurable and he can become a saint on the spot.

By then, who else but you will be the Duke of Yansheng?"

In this way, half-inducement and half-threat, Yuan Xiangcheng allowed this descendant of Confucius to stay in the Northeast, and from time to time he would go into the deep mountains and old forests to spread the "Gospel of Confucius" to the Jurchens wearing fish skin clothes.

After Shengjing University, the last one, Lushun University, is located on the coast of "Qingni Bay", which was later called Dalian Bay. Due to its geographical advantages, it has a slight advantage in subjects such as telegraphy, mathematics, and navigation.

As soon as Yuan Shikai got off the train, he couldn't wait to take his men to Port Arthur University, wanting to witness a groundbreaking invention.

"Master Yuan"

Song Yaoru, a young student studying in the United States and now the president of Port Arthur University, bowed immediately when he saw Yuan Shikai.

"Principal Song, there's no need to be so polite. Where is he?" Yuan Xiangcheng asked anxiously.

Seeing that Yuan Xiangcheng had something important to do, Song Yaoru stopped talking nonsense and took him into a large factory outside the campus that was filled with various coils, electric bells, and a square box.