Thirteen: Japan and Russia Contend

  After the First Sino-Japanese War, according to the Treaty of Shimonoseki signed by both sides, the Qing government ceded the Liaodong Peninsula and Taiwan to Japan, while Korea became a protectorate of Japan. This move caused strong dissatisfaction among Russians who were eyeing the three northeastern provinces and Korea. Under Russian leadership, Russia, France, and Germany threatened to send troops, forcing Japan to agree to return the Liaodong Peninsula, but the Qing court had to pay 30 million taels of silver to redeem it as compensation for Japanese military expenses.

  Afterwards, Russia intervened in the return of Liaodong and induced Li Hongzhang to sign the Sino-Russian Secret Treaty, obtaining the right to build railways in Manchuria. In 1898, it also forced the Qing court to sign the Treaty of Dalian Lease, turning the Lushun Port on the Liaodong Peninsula into a military base. Then, Russia took advantage of the Boxer Rebellion and sent troops to the Northeast, controlling all of Manchuria and beginning to interfere in Korean affairs.

  This directly triggered the strong dissatisfaction of the Japanese who had long been ambitious for Manchuria, and with the support of Britain, the United States and other countries, the Japanese government began to actively prepare its military strength in order to seize the rights and interests of Manchuria from Russia.

  In August 1903, Russia suddenly established the Far Eastern Governor-General's Office with Dairen as its center and appointed Alexeyev as the governor-general. In fact, it turned my Northeast into Russian territory. Then, they re-sent troops to occupy Fengtian. In this way, the Russians have shown a posture of monopolizing my Northeast and being willing to fight for it.

  The war is now inevitable.

  The Japanese ruling group saw that the longer the war preparations dragged on, the more unfavorable the outcome would be for Japan, which was weak in national strength, so they resolutely decided to take advantage of Russia's unpreparedness for war and start the war first.

  Due to the Gengzi Coup, the Qing court realized that the old-style Yongying camp was no longer suitable for large-scale use and prepared to follow the example of the West to reorganize and establish a new-style army. In March 1903, Yuan Shikai submitted a memorial to the imperial court, "A Simple Chapter on Land Army Training", which detailed the methods for training the new army nationwide and requested that the imperial court set up a training department as the general staff of the land army to unify the examination of the training situation of the new army nationwide. After some effort, Empress Dowager Cixi finally agreed to Yuan Shikai's proposal to establish a training department in order to have unified training and command of the military forces across the country. The Training Department was established in Xila Hutong, Beijing, with Yihe nominally as the Minister of Military Training and Yuan Shikai as the Associate Minister, but Yihe knew nothing about military affairs and only knew how to be greedy for wealth and sell official positions, so the power over the new army actually fell entirely into Yuan Shikai's hands.

  The day after the imperial court issued an edict to establish a military training office, Japanese Minister Suematsu Kenchō visited and met with Grand Secretary Li Hongzhang, informing him that negotiations between Japan and Russia over Korea and Manchuria were on the verge of collapse. The Japanese had prepared for war with Russia in order to check Russian expansionism and also out of consideration for China's security, and they hoped that China would remain neutral.

  Minister to Japan Yang Zu also sent a telegram, saying that the Japanese Foreign Minister had an appointment with Yang Zu, and the content of the conversation was the same as what Tian Kang said. The Japanese want to fight against Russia! Yi Xiu was shocked, but then hesitated and had no plan, so he hurriedly rushed into the palace to ask the Empress Dowager for a decision.

  Cixi listened to Yiku and said that Russia and Japan would fight again, she remained silent for a long time, and after a while, she said with a sigh: "When I was 50 years old, the French were at war, when I was 60 years old, the Japanese came to invade, now that I am about to celebrate my 70th birthday, another thing has happened, can't I have a good celebration for once in this life?" After finishing speaking, tears flowed out.

  "Perhaps this is also the arrangement of heaven, and when you reach eighty years old, all these will be piled up to let you have a good time."

  Cixi was heartbroken: "Still eighty, I don't know if I can wait for that day!" She immediately flew into a rage and pointed at Yihong, scolding him loudly: "It's all because of you useless slaves, unable to do anything but watch the foreigners run amok on our ancestors' land!"

  Yi Hui was startled and quickly knelt down on the ground: "Yes, yes, I deserve to die!"

  Cixi glared at the kneeling Qing Wangye and said, "Have Yuan Shikai and Zhang Zhidong brought to the capital immediately. Let's see what good ideas they have!"

  Yuan Shikai returned to Tianjin from Beijing when Yang Shiqi also came back from Shanghai.

  He told Yang Shiqi about the news that Japan and Russia were about to go to war outside the pass, to see what good ideas this trusted advisor had.

  Yang Shiqi clapped his hands and laughed: "Wonderful! The adults are worried about how to expand the scale of the new army, now is a great opportunity!"

  After the Gengzi year, the imperial court repeatedly ordered various provinces to reorganize their original old troops, eliminating the weak and retaining the strong, and training new armies that could adapt to modern warfare. The policy introduced by the imperial court gave Yuan Shikai an opportunity to expand his own army. After he took office as Governor of Zhili, he immediately sent people to various places to recruit brave warriors to supplement the Wugong Right Army under his command.

  Based on the original Wuwei Right Army, Yuan Shikai formed the Northern Ocean Left Garrison. Later, he collaborated with Tieliang to select banner troops and train them in Western methods, forming the Beijing Banner Standing Army. The peacetime organization of the standing army had the garrison (equivalent to a Japanese division) as its highest organizational unit, with 12,512 officers and men in each garrison. Every two battalions formed a brigade (with 4,038 officers and men), every battalion had three companies, and every company had four platoons. Each garrison also had an artillery battalion (1,756 officers and men), a cavalry battalion (1,117 officers and men), one logistics battalion (754 officers and men), and one engineering battalion (667 officers and men). The infantry, artillery, and engineer troops each had three squads per platoon, with three sections per squad. The cavalry had two squads per platoon, with two sections per squad. The logistics troops had three squads per platoon, with three sections per squad. The organization of the standing army, including garrisons, brigades, battalions, companies, platoons, and squads, was equivalent to modern divisions, regiments, brigades, battalions, companies, platoons, and squads. Its organization was completely different from China's traditional battalion system and had become a modern combat unit that adapted to the needs of modern warfare, with infantry, cavalry, artillery, engineer, and logistics troops working together in coordination.

  The Beiyang Standing Army can be considered the beginning of China's modern land army. Yuan Shikai planned to first organize it into two armies, the Left Division and the Right Division of the New Army. In 1902, the Left Division was formed first, and Yuan Shikai's power grew daily! After the establishment of the Beiyang Standing Army, Wang Shizhen served as the commander of the First Brigade, and later the Second Brigade was established. At that time, Yuan Shikai had a new rule, "appointing people based on their talents", so all high-ranking generals in the New Army had to take an examination, and those with the best results would be appointed to high positions. After the establishment of the Second Brigade, an examination was held, and Feng Guozhang scored the highest, so he became the commander of the Second Brigade.

  Yuan Shikai initially had three important generals under him when he was training troops at Xiaogan: Wang Shizhen, Duan Qirui and Feng Guozhang, known as the "Beiyang Three Heroes". Yuan treated these three equally, without distinguishing between them. This was also a tactic for controlling them, making his three generals mutually restrain each other. When selecting the commander of the Standing Army through examination, Wang Shizhen and Feng Guozhang both became commanders smoothly. However, Duan Qirui from Hefei seemed to be not good at taking exams. Until the third division (Right Town First Division) of the Beiyang Standing Army was established, Yuan feared that Duan would still fail the exam due to his poor grades. Therefore, before the exam, Yuan secretly told Duan the questions, which allowed him to become a commander.

  This matter made Duan remember it forever, often telling people close to him that he owed Yuan a great private favor and couldn't repay it, also making him willing to serve Yuan for the rest of his life.

  At this time, Yuan Shikai's standing army already had one division and three brigades, with more than 20,000 men. If he wanted to expand further, it would definitely arouse the suspicion of the Manchu nobles. The perfect opportunity Yang Shi was referring to was for this reason. Now that Russia and Japan are fighting each other, the imperial court's defenses are empty, and if someone were to turn their military strength around, they would inevitably take Beijing again.

  At present, proposing to expand the Beiyang military equipment, no one will say a word of objection.

  Yuan Shikai nodded in agreement, but still looked worried. "Now the treasury is empty, and training new troops will cost a lot. Where can we find so much silver?"

  Yang Shi-qi said: "National affairs are important, now the military situation outside the pass is urgent, adults can report to the empress dowager and request that the provinces provide relief to the North Ocean." After a pause, he said again: "Does the governor still remember Lin Anhua, who was in charge of the Hanyang Iron Works?"

  Yuan Shikai nodded and looked at Yang Shiqi with some confusion.

  "This man had predicted months ago in Shanghai that there would be a war between Japan and Russia, now it seems he was right. He is a business genius, with an annual income of tens of millions of gold, and recently set up a huge shipyard in Shanghai, investing no less than tens of millions. Even foreigners are giving way to him." Yang Shi Qi turned his eyes, "Now there's a way to put this man in our pocket."

  "What's the solution?"

  "That Lin Zhaotang has already retired and returned to his hometown, and this Lin Anhua took over the position of commander-in-chief from him. Now he is just barely maintaining it. It's not that the financial resources are insufficient, but rather that Lu Jianzhang wants to abolish it. At present, the five battalions' organization has only two battalions receiving salaries from Jiangsu province, and the rest have to be raised by Lin Anhua himself. Your Excellency can take advantage of the opportunity to solidify border defense and transfer his troops to the north for garrison duty, thus relieving Lin Anhua's worries, and also incorporating them into the Beiyang Army." Yang Shiqi's face revealed a sly smile again, "If Your Excellency wants to tie up Lin Anhua in reality, there is another clever method."

  Yuan Shikai looked at Yang Shiqi and said, "If you have something on your mind, please speak frankly."

  "This Lin Anhua is still unmarried to this day, the three wives have given birth to four daughters who are now of age, I heard they are knowledgeable and reasonable, and also happen to be natural-footed, exactly meeting Lin Anhua's conditions for choosing a wife." Yang Shiqi chuckled twice.

  "Hmm, who should we go talk to about this?" Yuan Shikai understood the underlying connections and thought for a moment before responding.

  "It's not suitable to find someone else, this matter should be proposed by the adults in person, so that Lin Anhua has no excuse." Yang Shiqi said.

  "You think Lin Anhua will not give me face?" Yuan Shikai said.

  "It's hard to say, what if they're just making excuses? Nowadays, rich merchants all have connections with foreigners and their eyes are on the sky, sometimes they really don't take the officials of the imperial court seriously." Yang Shiqi said.

  Yuan Shikai thought for a moment and made up his mind: "Alright, let's do it your way. I don't believe he dares to openly defy me."