Zhili Governor's Office.
The electric lights lit up the room as if it was daytime.
As the leader of the Westernization Movement, Li Hongzhang installed electric lights for the Empress Dowager in Summer Palace and himself in Zhili Governor's Office.
At this moment, the aides were scratching their ears and cheeks under the lamp.
"Lord Zhongtang, this Li Bingheng is truly detestable. His own army was defeated by a thousand miles, and he actually pushed the blame onto our Beiyang Navy!”
"They said that the navy had strong ships and cannons but did not use them, causing their allies to be annihilated by the Japanese army!”
"Our Beiyang Navy only has 500 marines. Even if we land, how much use can we have?”
Staff Wu Rulun, Yu Shimei and others were indignant.
"Haha!"
In the midst of the crowd's anger, one person laughed out loud. The aides were wondering who was so bold and impudent, and they all turned their heads to look.
Zhang Peilun was holding the memorial and said happily,"Everyone, this Li Bingheng is really out of his mind. He can even think of such a clumsy excuse. Don't forget, as the governor, he had the responsibility to guard the territory!”
"Youqiao is right!”
Li Hongzhang twirled his beard and smiled, his every wrinkle filled with a crafty look."Li Bingheng is the governor of Shandong Province and has the responsibility to defend the territory. Our Beiyang Navy has come thousands of miles to reinforce us and destroyed the turrets on Jiming Island and Hailu Island. Are we going to destroy the Japanese army in Rongcheng Bay as well?”
Wu Rulun's eyes lit up as he had an idea.
"Master Wu, Master Yu, both of you are first-class writers. Work together with Youqiao to write a memorial and make Li Bingheng embarrass himself in front of the world!”
Li Hongzhang smiled.
The three of them did not dare to be negligent. They followed this train of thought and changed it for the entire night, and a magnificent article was produced.
The sharpness of his words could be said to be unrivaled in ancient and modern times!
Li Hongzhang immediately sent someone to send an urgent message to Emperor Guangxu along with Yang Yonglin's good news.
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The Forbidden City was shrouded in haze.
The weather in March was still a little dry and cold. Emperor Guangxu sat at his desk and shook his head from time to time as he read Li Bingheng's memorial.
Although he wasn't as experienced as Cixi, he could still tell right from wrong.
Li Bingheng's memorial was divided into two parts. One was the results of this battle, and the other was the wanton attack on the Northern Navy.
One of the words was extremely heart-wrenching!
"If the navy can act according to the pre-war plan, our army will definitely be able to defeat the Japanese army and regain glory! How sad is it to fail at the last step?"
"Lord Weng, take a look!"
Guangxu raised his hand and the eunuch handed the memorial to the Minister of Revenue, Weng Tonghe.
Because his brother Weng Tongshu had been impeached by Li Hongzhang, he had always held a grudge and had never let go of the opportunity to attack the Northern Navy.
When he was in charge of the Ministry of Revenue, he had secretly deducted money, causing the Northern Navy to not have a single ship or cannon in the past few years. Even the shells were solid shells from many years ago.
As a Qingliu, Weng Tonghe naturally had to protect Li Bingheng.
"Although I don't understand military affairs, I know Qi Jiguang's words-Plan before you act!”Weng Tonghe closed his lips and looked regretful.
Plan before you act!
These five words matched Li Bingheng's memorial, as if hinting at something.
Emperor Guangxu couldn't help but feel irritated!
Before this, the Qing army had been suppressed by the Japanese army. Finally, Yang Yonglin appeared and sank the four main warships and all the torpedoes of the Japanese Combined Fleet, forcing the Japanese Fleet to retreat to Lushun Port.
This gave Emperor Guangxu a glimmer of hope!
He was prepared to use this opportunity to conquer the entire Shandong, but he failed.
I wonder what the empress dowager and those stubborn old ministers think?
At the thought of this, Emperor Guangxu's heart felt as heavy as a boulder.
"Emperor, the Gong Prince requests an audience!" The eunuch reported.
"Please!"
Emperor Guangxu waved his hand and Weng Tonghe left.
The moment the teacher left, Emperor Guangxu had been thinking about the meaning of the words "plan before acting".
He knew little about military affairs, but as a young emperor, Emperor Guangxu was curious about new knowledge and had once taught himself some modern knowledge.
However, his teacher, Weng Tonghe, had a great influence on Emperor Guangxu. He had been wondering if it was because of the cooperation between the water and land armies that they failed to take down Rongcheng Bay.
Thump! Thump!
The sound of footsteps interrupted Emperor Guangxu's thoughts!
Gong Prince Yi walked in with a memorial in his hand.
As an old minister of three dynasties, this prince was famous.
When he was young, he had joined forces with the Empress Dowager of the two palaces to take down the powerful minister Su Shun. Later, he supported Zeng Guofan in pacifying Taiping Country.
It was just that he could not be tolerated by Cixi and was neglected for a long time.
Now that the war was tight, Cixi had no choice but to re-use Prince Gong.
Emperor Guangxu did not dare to act arrogantly towards this prince, so he ordered a eunuch to take care of the Gong Prince.
"The emperor has a worried expression, what is the matter?”The Gong Prince asked.
"It's all for the sake of war!" Emperor Guangxu sighed.
At the beginning of the 1894 - 1895 War, Emperor Guangxu had been a staunch advocate of war and had been dealing with complicated government affairs under great pressure.
He had hoped to conquer all of Shandong this time and let the people of the world see the ambition and courage of the young emperor. Unexpectedly, all his efforts fell short and the young emperor suffered a heavy blow.
"Your Majesty, it is important to take care of your body. In this old minister's opinion, this time our army has won a small victory!”The Gong Prince said.
Before this, the Gong Prince had already learned the truth from Li Hongzhang and was furious at the Qingliu's unscrupulous attack on the Northern Navy.
"Your Highness, what are you saying? Our army failed to achieve the goal of recovering all of Shandong.”Emperor Guangxu asked.
"Emperor, here is a report of Yang Yonglin's victory, please take a look!”The Gong Prince took out a report of victory from his sleeve. This report was very different from Li Bingheng's.
This book comes from：m.funovel.com。