Australian Storm 1876

   Chapter 687

Solving the current worries, Li Fushou strolled to the remote part of Xianju Hall. From here, he took the elevator straight to the top floor and came out of the elevator. The top floor was a circular study room, surrounded by a bookcase made of golden nanmu, which was more than 4 meters long. In addition to precious books, there are countless jade articles, antique calligraphy and paintings, and rare ancient books. The value of the collection is amazing.

  Li Fushou did not stay here, but walked to the front and opened a door. This is a balcony only a few meters square, with a magnificent view in front of him.

  The tower he is on is one of the nine towers of Dream Castle with one main body and eight subordinates, and it is on the side of the Red River Valley City.

  From here, overlooking the majestic and majestic metropolis scenery, I saw the city’s towering buildings unfolded and stretched out to the end of the horizon. The beauty was breathtaking.

  The tall victory tower rushes straight into the sky, and the victory gate in the distance has undergone more than three years of hard construction, and has initially shown its majestic posture, which is exceptionally magnificent.

  Along the central axis of the city, Kaixuan Avenue (formerly Central Avenue), there are many tall buildings of different styles, giving this city unlimited charm.

Today's Red River Valley metropolis has a population of more than 1.33 million, ranking sixth in the world's city rankings, second only to the five major cities of London, Peking, New York, Guangzhou, and Paris. St. Petersburg is ranked seventh, and Brisbane. Ranked 8th with a population of 1.12 million.

  Whenever Li Fushou felt depressed and incomprehensible, he would climb up and look into the distance, looking at the magnificent figure of the metropolis he created, and there would be no troubles.

  I know my family's affairs.

  Li Fushou knew that he was originally a moderate talent, but with the golden fingers of rebirth, he controlled every opportunity and stepped on the pulse of history to get to this day and create a new era of Chinese in Australia.

  He doesn't have the ability to carry 40,000 compatriots on his shoulders, which is far beyond his ability.

  The suffering Shenzhou must experience a rebirth from the ashes in order to stand proudly among the world’s national powers and bloom with dazzling brilliance.

Now at the pinnacle of world politics, what he sees and the information he is exposed to is extremely rich, allowing Li Fushou to feel the huge shadow lurking under the sea, knowing that the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 is far from being as simple as it seems on the surface, but rather historical. inevitable.

  On July 25, 1894 (June 23, Jiawu Year of the Lunar Calendar), the Fusang Kingdom fought without declaration.

Attacked the Qing warships "Jiyuan" and "Gwangyi" on the surface of Toshima, North Korea, which were reinforcements of North Korea. The Toshima naval battle broke out. During the naval battle, the "Kumamoto" ship of the first guerrilla of the Japanese combined fleet sank the Qing army to transport troops. The British Shang Lun "Gao Sheng" created the incident of Gao Sheng, which detonated the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895.

After the incident of the British merchant ship "Gao Sheng", the Australian "World Journal" reported that public opinion in the United Kingdom was a big uproar. The little Fuso dared to attack the British merchant ship flying the British flag and killed 5 British people. The British threatened to Severely punish the Fusang people who don't know the heights of the sky.

  Beijing Prime Minister Li Hongzhang originally felt very sorry for the hundreds of dead elites of the Huai army. Now that he sees a few British people who have died, he can not help but breathe a long sigh of relief. It seems like a good show.

  These arrogant Fusang little devils do not know how powerful they are, but dare to offend the British Empire?

  However, the development of the situation was beyond Li Hongzhang's expectation. Fusang people demonstrated their extraordinary "diplomatic public relations" ability. After the then Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi scolded the Admiralty Ministry, Fuso's Foreign Minister Mitsumitsu Mutsu ordered the Legal Affairs Bureau to investigate the incident in accordance with the procedures of a "civilized country".

  From July 27 to August 1, the official declaration of war, in this short week.

  Fuso collected a large amount of evidence, mainly composed of the investigation transcripts of the "Kumamoto" officer, the rescued captain and chief mate of the Gaosheng, and the testimony of some other rescued persons, of which the captain of the Gaosheng became a key witness.

  Subsequently, the "civilized country" Fusang formed the "Report on the Gaosheng Incident" in accordance with "international practice". This unilateral report without the participation of another party, Qing Dynasty, was actually used in two subsequent British maritime trial hearings.

  At the same time, the Fusang government fully launched "crisis public relations".

The savvy Fusang people have already figured out the "service price" of the major British media. Ocean Kingdom has done a great job in this regard. They took the gourd and painted a gourd. After the incident, Fusang immediately paid Reuters a bribe of 600 pounds in exchange for "care". A few days later, they provided another 1,000 pounds of "work funding."

In just one week, the Fusang people invested tens of thousands of pounds into the European and American media through their embassies and consulates abroad. Even the "World Journal", "Brisbane Courier" and "Melbourne Chronicle" of the Ocean Kingdom have received many different opinions. Thanks for the fee, in order to be merciful.

  Under such a strong “crisis public relations”, Fusang successfully won some British experts and scholars to publicly defend him in the media.

  On August 3, Cambridge University professor Westlake published an article in The Times, arguing for Japan that “the sinking of the Gaosheng was a reasonable and lawful act”.

  On August 6, Oxford University professor Huland published an article with the same argument in The Times. Their views are mainly reflected in three aspects:

The Gao Sheng was a service for the Qing military, and it was engaged in the transportation of hostile ground combat troops. As the captain of the Gao Sheng, a citizen of a neutral country, he should fully understand that this is a hostile act and cannot obtain the British flag and ship registration. protect.

  Fusang cannot be prohibited from treating the Gaosheng as an enemy ship because the two sides have not declared war. Fusang ordered the Gaosheng to obey its orders to cooperate with the inspection, and the obligation to declare war was completed. However, the Gaosheng disobeyed orders and opened fire without authorization, which was completely hostile, and the state of war had already existed.

  Fusang confirmed that the Qing army of the Gaosheng was sent to North Korea to respond to the Fusang army. For this hostile behavior, it is indeed a military necessity to sink it.

   Therefore, Oxford University professor Huland believes that Fusang does not need to apologize to the United Kingdom, nor does it need to apologize to the owner of the Gao Sheng and the relatives of the European crew members who died.

  On August 12 and 20, 1894, two hearings were held in Fusang Nagasaki and Huaxia Huhai on the Gaosheng incident. Britain has almost fully accepted the view that "Fusang is not at fault".

  The British official verdict:

  Was in a state of war at that time, and the Gaosheng carried out combat missions for belligerent countries, and Fusang had the right to detain or sink it. Therefore, no responsibility is required in this incident.

  According to this, the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially notified the Indochina Shipping Company, the owner of the Gao Sheng, that the responsibility for compensation should be borne by Qing, and the amount of compensation is 33,411 pounds.

  Li Fushou recalled the Gaosheng incident, and was sighed in his heart.

   Openly sunk ships of other countries to death more than 700 people and provoked a war. The barbaric act of Fusang Xiaoguifang turned into a just act and became an important symbol of Fusang country’s entry into a "civilized country" in the eyes of the British.

  In fact, it is not only the United Kingdom, but the European and American powers all favor Japan. In addition to the strong "public relations" capabilities of the Fusang people, the current international situation, especially East Asia, is the fundamental determinant.

  Li Fushou knows;

The   Gaosheng incident is by no means an isolated incident. It is an important landmark move in the reshuffle of the East Asian pattern.

  Take this incident as a watershed

  Before this, the Qing Dynasty was still a pivotal power in East Asia. Western powers carried out colonial activities in Asia. The Qing Dynasty was the target of all parties’ efforts to draw in, and it also played a certain role in balancing the forces of all parties.

  However, after this incident, with the rise of the Fusang Kingdom after the Meiji Restoration, the powers all saw the great potential of this Asian upstart, and since then changed their policies to support the Fusang Kingdom, completely abandoning the irretrievable Qing Dynasty.

  As Britain’s greatest enemy in the Far East, the newly succeeding Tsar Nicholas II was also very ambitious, and Tsarist Russia’s ambition to expand into East Asia is well known.

  As a veteran empire, Britain chose Fusang and gave up the Qing Dynasty because of its geostrategic needs to curb Tsarist Russia’s southern invasion. It was completely helpless.

  With the decay and erosion of the Qing Dynasty, the gods could not help it.

In the whole incident, full of tacit plans, the Englishman and Fusang little devil were embarrassed to entrap the Qing court, so that the words "we are accomplices" were engraved on the forehead, but the Qing court still hoped The mediation of European countries is simply the world’s worst, stupid to be incorrigible.

  Let's do it, don't bother with these things for now, think about something happy.

Li Fushou leaned his hands on the railing and looked into the distance. His eyes were quickly attracted by this vibrant metropolis. In the distance, on the north bank of the rushing Brisbane River, there have been countless high-rise buildings standing high along the riverside promenade, full of Bright French neo-classical architectural style.

  Ocean Kingdom, under its own leadership, is full of vigor and aggressiveness.

Li Fushou felt very satisfied with the food grabbing incident in the kingdom of Madagascar, Africa. The new commander of the African Expeditionary Force, Lieutenant General Liu Shan, acted very decisively. At the same time as the French Expeditionary Force invaded the Kingdom of Madagascar, he immediately decided to send two regiments to board. In island operations, through the colonial stronghold established in the Kingdom of Madagascar, the African island nation was cut into two parts in one fell swoop, and the strategic attempt of divide and rule was achieved. It can be described as a very beautiful job.

While Lieutenant General Liu Shan landed on the island, Mozambique organized an auxiliary militia with 8,000 troops to sweep the cities and villages in the southern part of the Kingdom of Madagascar like a sieve, collecting a large number of young women and transporting them to various parts of Mozambique by passenger ships. area.

  As of now, the number is 100,000.

  The operation was widely welcomed by Chinese immigrants from the colony of Mozambique. As a result, it raised a huge amount of more than 2 million Jinyang to support the army's continuous and larger-scale raids and transport more young women to Mozambique, thus forming a virtuous circle.

Lieutenant General Liu Shan occupies about two-fifths of the island of Madagascar, with a population of no more than 700,000. After this large-scale organized and planned looting of young female populations, it will cause a devastating blow to the local indigenous population. Drastically reduced situation.

  Mozambique's overseas states have thus solved the problem of the sharp contradiction between the needs of men and women, and the occupied area of ​​Madagascar has suffered bad luck.

   on the bright side

Li Fushou did not support this kind of behavior, but secretly awarded Lieutenant General Liu Shan with the highest honor for a soldier-Knight's Double Sword, Diamond, Golden Oak and Grand Cross. This is the third person in the entire Ocean Kingdom to receive this lofty honor. , What it means couldn't be more obvious.

  In the world of the weak at the end of the 19th century, I only cared about the lush fields and beautiful scenery in my own field, but the floods in other places were terrible.

  (End of this chapter)