Japan first protested to the East China government through the consulate, but the result was conceivable. Keishiro Matsui was bluntly criticized by Li Sanjie and was disappointed. Japan also put pressure on the Qing court, demanding that the Qing court order the East China government to withdraw from Jinzhou, or send troops to Jinzhou to control the People's Army's actions.

Japan's demand caused some fluctuations in the Qing court. It turned out that after the People's Army entered Jinzhou, it also caused quite a stir in public opinion. Although Jinzhou was far away from the battlefield in the Northeast, it was a positive action after all. It was indeed much better than the Qing court's relentless efforts in western Liaoning. But for the Qing court, of course, it was another very embarrassing thing.

After Japan made a request to the Qing court, it received responses from some people, mainly young Manchus, who asked the court to send troops to Jinzhou. Cixi recruited military ministers to discuss countermeasures. Li Hongzhang strongly advocated that the court would never act rashly at this time, because neither Russia, Japan nor overseas Chinese were afforded by the Qing court. Therefore, the Qing court would be better off adhering to neutrality. No matter how others make trouble, they would not care about it, and they would not participate, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.

Li Hongzhang's proposal was supported by Zhang Zhidong and Zhao Shuqiao, while Prince Qing still refused to argue. However, Rongqing and Tieliang advocated that they could take this opportunity to enter Jinzhou and expand the influence of the imperial court in western Liaoning. They also argued with Li Hongzhang and others, and pointed the finger at Li Hongzhang, turning up the old stakes of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and accused Li Hongzhang of being a traitor. They were so angry that Li Hongzhang was about to resign on the spot. Cixi also felt that Rongqing and Tieliang were a bit too much, so she sternly rebuked the two of them, but in the end she adopted Li Hongzhang's proposal and rejected Japan very tactfully.

However, Rong Qing, Tie Liang and others were unwilling to accept it, so they instructed their officials to attack Li Hongzhang. At that time, Li Hongzhang was over 80 years old and was not in good health. He was sick and bedridden by this anger.

However, Japan's plan did not come true. Apart from preparing to go to war with the East China government and Russia at the same time, they could only count on Britain as their ally. Therefore, Japan immediately proposed to Britain, asking Britain to follow the requirements of the [British-Japanese Alliance]: When one side of the alliance had a war with two countries at the same time, the other side of the alliance should send troops to participate in the war.

Britain responded to Japan that the East China government has only entered Jinzhou, and it is still a while away from the battlefield. Moreover, the East China government has not yet attacked the Japanese army. From the current perspective, it has not yet intended to attack Japan, so it has not yet met the requirements of the [British-Japanese Alliance]. At this time, Britain has not yet sent troops to participate in the war. However, Britain will do its best to deal with it through diplomatic efforts so that the East China government will not intervene in the war. Of course, Britain also reiterated that if the People's Army attacks the Japanese army, Britain will send troops in accordance with the provisions of the treaty.

In fact, it is in line with the interests of the UK for the East China government to intervene in this game of chess as a non-Japanese collaborator, because the situation of three-legged ties is more complicated than the opposition between the two strong. The more complicated the situation is, the more the UK can join forces and fight and suppress them. However, it does not hope that the East China government will officially participate in the war.

Britain's goal is to use Japan to suppress Russia and let Japan fight against Russia instead of taking over Britain, rather than to end it in person. The reason why the [British-Japanese Alliance] stipulates that when one side of the alliance has a war with two countries at the same time, the other side of the alliance should send troops to participate in the war is actually aimed at the [French-Russian Alliance], that is, to restrain France and prevent France from participating in the war, so that Japan can face Russia alone.

But the East China government is obviously an unexpected factor in this script. However, if the East China government really participates in the war, it can indeed meet the conditions of the [British-Japanese Alliance]. Of course, the UK can also cheat. It insists that the East China government is not a country yet and sticks to the words in the treaty. However, this obviously damages the credit of the UK's nationality. Therefore, the most ideal situation is that the East China government entered Jinzhou, which is equivalent to intervening in the chess game in Northeast China and not officially participating in the war, but it can have a great impact on Russia and Japan. This constitutes a perfect triangular balance situation. No one can take advantage of it, let alone dominate the area.

Of course, the situation is just right now. If the East China government takes a step forward, that is, to officially participate in the war, it would be bad. No matter what kind of momentum the East China government participates in the war, if it is an enemy of Japan, it will force Britain to a corner. Regardless of whether the UK participates in the war or not, it will have to pay a lot of price. Even if the East China government and Japan join forces, it may not be a good thing for the UK.

There is civil strife in Russia now. If the East China government and Japan join forces, it is likely that the Russian power will be completely expelled from the Far East. Even if the East China government and Japan will become in opposition after the war, both sides will gain a lot of benefits from this war and expand their own strength. Britain may not be able to control it. Another completely weak Russia may turn to Germany, which is not in line with the interests of Britain. Therefore, it is necessary to prevent the East China government from taking military actions, and it is best to let the war end at this time.

However, the UK also knew that the East China government was not the Qing court, and it was useless to threaten them with big words, unless it was forced to concessions with real powerful force, but sending troops to participate in the war directly was obviously not the British option. Although the Boer War ended for more than two years, Britain's national strength had not been fully recovered. Moreover, Britain also learned full instructions from this war and did not easily intervene in a war far away from the British mainland, because distance itself is a terrible opponent, and even if it can win, the price paid is extremely huge, not to mention that the East China government is by no means a weak person. Therefore, the British plan is to bring France together to put pressure on the East China government. Of course, in the famous discussion, it is to mediate this war.

France is an ally of Russia, and of course it will not hope that Russia will be completely weak. Therefore, if this war in the Far East ends like this, it will be beneficial to France. In addition, Britain also hopes to take the opportunity to further narrow its relations with France and finally join forces with France to deal with Germany's expansion. I believe France is also interested in this plan.

Sure enough, Britain, like France, proposed joint mediation of the Far East war, and the French government responded quickly and was willing to accept Britain's suggestion. Although there were hundreds of years of conflict between Britain and France, France's biggest enemy is Germany. Although France has formed an alliance with Russia and jointly dealt with Germany, France's dissatisfaction with this ally is also increasing. First, Russia has always had a strong pro-Germany force, such as former Minister of Finance Witt, a firm pro-German faction; second, Germany has never given up on Lalong Russia and divided the French-Russian alliance. In order to maintain the alliance, France has also paid a huge price to provide Russia with low loans of billions of francs and fully opened up Russian bonds on the Paris Stock Exchange. Of course, Russia has also done a lot to maintain the alliance, but France obviously paid more for the alliance.

If it were just this, France could still bear it, but what France couldn't accept the most was that Russia's attention had been drifting and swaying from east to west. Especially in Russia, many people believed that France had restrained Germany in the west and Russia could expand eastward at the right time. France paid such a great price to promote the French-Russian alliance, just to find a companion to deal with Germany together, while Russia seemed to let France cover its expansion eastward. France naturally felt that Russia was unreliable. In this case, France naturally hoped to find another at least reliable ally to deal with Germany.

Of course, Britain is a more reliable country than Russia. Therefore, in recent years, France has also intentionally improved its relations with Britain, such as recognizing each other's colonies and spheres of influence, and respecting their respective core interests. However, the two countries have been hostile to each other for hundreds of years. Even if the relationship has improved, they are still far from the alliance and need to find opportunities for cooperation between the two countries. And jointly mediating the war in the Far East is undoubtedly a good opportunity.

In addition, although Russia is an unreliable ally, no matter how unreliable it is, it is better than having no ally, and it cannot push Russia to Germany. Therefore, the alliance with Russia must be maintained as much as possible. Moreover, Russia has been hit hard in the Far East, so it is time to take this opportunity to bring Russia's attention back to Europe from the Far East. In this way, the situation of the alliance between Britain, France and Russia can be formed to deal with Russia, or to attack Germany from both sides of the east and west. Although Germany now has the hard-core ally of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Italy, a swaying partner, it is of course much stronger in terms of comprehensive strength, geographical advantages, geographical environment, Britain, France and Russia.

So Britain and France held urgent consultations, and in just two days, the two countries came up with a plan, which was to engage in the war in the name of joint mediation, not only to force the East China government not to intervene in the war, but also to try their best to promote the current situation of Japan and Russia. At the same time, a series of plans were also formulated. First, the two countries jointly put pressure on the East China government, forcing the East China government to promise not to intervene in the war, at least in a short period of time, so that the next step of mediation work - France will do Russia's work, Britain persuades Japan to gain enough time in this way. As long as Japan and Russia cease the war, the East China government naturally has no reason to intervene in the war again.

The final result is to form a situation where the Japanese, Russian and East China governments have formed a three-legged and restrained situation in the Far East. Britain can ensure its own interests in the Far East, and at the same time bring Russia back to Europe and promote the alliance between Britain, France and Russia.
Chapter completed!