My Italy

Yuhiro Ito is right, the Italian army does not have enough winter clothing. But if you think about it, you know who would stock up on winter clothes in a tropical city. In a humid and hot environment, thick winter clothes will grow moldy after being stored for a long time.

Therefore, the busiest people at this time were not the Guards officers and soldiers preparing for the expedition, but the colonial officials who were raising supplies for them.

"Don't be too busy preparing the livestock. The Qing Congress will prepare it."

"Send a telegram to Shanghai to ask when the cotton and furs we need will be delivered."

"Don't tell me it's difficult. I don't care how much cotton Shanghai is short of. Tell Zhang Shusheng that if he can't raise it within three days, he won't be able to get our material purchase orders in the future."

The person who is constantly issuing orders is Chen Yonghe, deputy director of the Pontianak Materials Department. He is one of the many mid-level officials in the Lanfang colonial government and one of the few Chinese mid-level officials.

As the Chen family of the original Lanfang Kingdom, they were also very powerful. But now the world has changed. I didn’t see that even the Liu family hugged the Italians’ thighs, so how could the Chen family not be interested.

Therefore, as the future head of the Chen family, Chen Yonghe naturally needs to work for the Italian government. Of course, it's not just about doing things, but also doing things beautifully, otherwise how can you show loyalty.

No, this time the Chen family tried their best to prepare for the army's expedition. Use all the connections you can use, and strive to earn a dazzling performance.

In fact, not only the Chen family, but also several large original families in Lanfang, as well as families who immigrated from Southeast Asia, are basically striving to take advantage of this opportunity to show their abilities to Italy. Trying to get a larger share of the rights allocated to the Chinese.

Don't say that these people don't love their motherland. These people have basically lived in Southeast Asia for several generations and have close enough ties with the local area. Although they still have some nostalgia for their homeland, the main reason is that the colonists harvested them as wealth. When people lose their sense of security, they naturally look to the Qing Dynasty to come forward.

However, it is a pity that the skin of the Qing Dynasty is not useful in Southeast Asia, and the court does not care about these abandoned people, but instead thinks that they have become a generation without a king and a father after leaving the jurisdiction of the court.

This is also why Dr. Sun in the future is so popular in Nanyang. Although he makes random wishes, it gives them hope.

But now that Italy has put aside its prejudices and treats them as nationals, they are naturally grateful and want to express their own ideas.

This is one of the reasons why local Chinese officials were more active than other colonial officials.

In a sense, Italy is poaching Dr. Sun.

But in any case, the efforts of Chinese officials have shortened Italy's preparation time. According to the estimate of Lieutenant General Alvaro, commander of the dispatched force (who is also the commander of the task force), Italian reinforcements will be available in another half month. You can go north.

When Italy was busy preparing for departure, a large number of ships gathered in the Port of Lushun on the Liaodong Peninsula.

At the same time, a large number of Japanese soldiers were boarding the ship one after another under the command of officers.

The commander of the First Army, Aritomo Yamagata, looked at the soldiers who were boarding the ship with a sad look on his face, and spoke to Lieutenant General Yamachi Motoharu, the commander of the First Division behind him. "We wasted two days in Lushun. Two days were wasted like this. If we had known that it would take more time due to lack of manpower, we shouldn't have done that."

As a subordinate, Lieutenant General Yamachi Motoharu, of course he knew what Yamagata Aritomo was talking about. He also knew how important their mission was this time. They were only given twenty days to capture Weihaiwei, and they wasted two days in Lushun. From a military perspective, this was called delaying the aircraft.

"Your Majesty General, there is nothing we can do about this. The soldiers have been fighting for a long time and have serious grievances. If they are not allowed to vent, there will be problems. It is all the fault of those diplomats. Didn't they say they had obtained the support of all countries before the war? Why? The sudden appearance of Italians caught us completely off guard.”

What Yamachi Motoharu said was the Port Arthur Massacre that was covered up or ignored by the great powers during this era. Before the war, Port Arthur had a population of more than 20,000 Chinese, but now there are only 36 left. These 36 people survived until now because they were needed to cover up the crimes of the Japanese army.

Of course, the crimes of the Japanese army are not unrecorded. According to the British Allen's record in "Under the Rolling Dragon Flag": "The Japanese soldiers chased the fleeing civilians and used guns and bayonets to deal with everyone; they even brutally attacked those who fell. Sting. Walking on the street, there are dead bodies everywhere under your feet.”

There are also records from the United States. "New York World" reporter Kliman described: "I saw a man kneeling in front of a soldier, kowtowing and begging for life. The soldier stabbed his head into the ground with a rifle butt knife in one hand, and cut off his head with a sword in the other hand. . There was a man cowering in a corner, and a team of Japanese soldiers fired bullets into his body. There was an old man kneeling in the street, and the Japanese soldiers chopped him into two pieces. A refugee was on the roof, and he was also shot to death. There was a man who was killed by bullets. The roof fell into the middle of the street, and the soldiers stabbed him more than ten times with their spears and knives."

However, these records were suppressed by the United Kingdom and the United States, which supported Japan behind them. In Japan, any words about this massacre were not allowed to be published in newspapers.

The wronged souls of more than 20,000 people were covered up in this way.

The current regrets of the two Japanese commanders are mainly due to fear of delaying the fighter plane. How ridiculous.

As for Lieutenant General Yamachi Motoharu’s last sentence complaining about the foreign minister, it is actually very common among the army and navy.

At this time, Japan did not eliminate its fear of foreign powers after winning the Russo-Japanese War.

Today's Japan, like the Qing Dynasty, suffers from phobia of great powers. It is common to see the bones of great powers being weak.

Don't look at the Japanese general Mosaha who resisted the British attack in later generations, it is almost exaggerated. But this was just a small British fleet of seven ships without infantry. Compared with the scale of the British army in the Opium War, it was not even a small scene.

It is precisely because of this that Japan has such a great fear of Italy joining the war.

This is an army of tens of thousands, and Italy has made great achievements in Europe. How can Japan, which originally only wanted to fight monsters and practice leveling without provoking the boss, not be afraid.

But there's nothing we can do now. The big-legged British guy doesn't want to end the game, so he can only take it on himself.

"Fortunately, there are fewer Qing troops near Weihaiwei, otherwise this battle would be difficult to fight."

"This shows that our country has done a good job in intelligence work on the Qing Dynasty over the years and can gain insight into the Qing Dynasty's actions. However, the next battle will require more help from the intelligence department."

Just as the two men were chatting enthusiastically, a messenger rushed over.

"Report, Commander of the Combined Fleet, Lieutenant General Ito Yuhiro, has arrived."

As soon as he heard that Ito Yuhiro had arrived, Yamagata Aritomo said immediately. "Let's go and greet our combined fleet commander. Whether we can capture Weihaiwei next will require the full support of the navy."

"Okay, then I will accompany the general to meet the maker of the plan."