The Qing Dynasty

Chapter 607 The fierce battle is in full swing

Teng Yuzhao was naturally happy with the court's promise and the further increase of rights given to him.

Although Teng Yuzao was still somewhat uncomfortable with the fact that the Imperial Bank of Revenue had taken over the loan from the Capital Commercial Bank, he could not be too harsh on it at this time and had to agree that the subsequent repayments would be negotiated between Xi Ligong and the Bank of Revenue.

Teng Yuzhao could see that Zai Yi seemed to want to stay in Tianjin for a few more days, at least to go and see the villa that Teng Yuzhao had left for him. In more than a year, Zai Yi had never visited this magnificent property that now belonged to him.

Only his younger brother Zailan came secretly once and went back to tell him how good this Western-style garden villa was, which made Zai Yi very much looking forward to it.

However, because Prince Zhuang Zaixun, who came with her, was anxious to return to the capital, Cixi was still waiting for Teng Yuzhao's reply.

Before getting on the special car, Zai Yi still found an opportunity to quietly tell Teng Yuzhao that this time he and Yuan Shikai had made a big fuss, and Cixi had made up her mind to appease Teng Yuzhao at all costs. On the other hand, she had decided to take over the Henan Army and merge it with the Tieliang and two regiments into the Shuntian New Army, planning to expand it to ten regiments.

Teng Yuzhao was not surprised by Cixi's action against Yuan Shikai. Cixi was smart and used to using the opponent's force to defeat him. If she could successfully incorporate the Henan Army this time, she would have enough strength to compete with the Zhi Army. But the key issue was whether she could succeed in the end.

Teng Yuzhao didn't believe that Yuan Shikai would let go of the Henan Army, which was so dear to his heart, so easily.

After Zai Yi left, Xi Ligong announced on the same day that anyone holding banknotes issued by Aurora Bank could exchange them for gold coins and silver dollars at the Tianjin headquarters and all other branches of Aurora Bank if they wished.

This news immediately attracted a large number of anxious gentry, common people and merchants to queue up to exchange their coins.

On the same day, the stock exchange also opened for business, but soon after it began trading, people discovered that the big rise that was expected did not happen. The stocks of the Aurora and Beiyang groups were still stuck at the levels of the day the market closed, which completely shattered the idea of ​​selling the stocks in their hands at a high price.

At the same time, Yang Shixiang, the governor of Zhishan, and Xu Shichang, the governor of the three northeastern provinces, jointly announced the next day that in the next five years, only silver dollars, gold coins and paper money issued by the Aurora Bank would circulate in the two provinces of Zhishan and the three northeastern provinces. When the time is ripe, they will be adjusted to treasure notes at the same time, and free convertibility will be guaranteed at that time.

With the endorsement of Yang Shixiang and Xu Shichang, and the fact that companies and factories under the Aurora and Beiyang factions still only accepted Aurora Bank banknotes for purchase orders, the craze for banknote exchange gradually subsided.

Contrary to Teng Yuzhao's expectations, the court's move to integrate the Henan Army seemed to be quite smooth.

According to the news sent back by Li Yaoting, the Henan Army was officially incorporated into the Shuntian Army after the court promised Yuan Shikai that it would maintain the stability of the Henan Army and would not hold Cao Kun of the Third Regiment accountable, and that the Ministry of Army would be formally established. Yuan Shikai recommended Wang Shizhen as the Assistant Minister of the Army, and Feng Guozhang, the former commander of the Henan Army, was appointed as the Chief of the Military Advisory Office of the Ministry of Army.

However, in order to maintain the orthodox and special status of the Shuntian Army, the numbers of the various regiments of the Shuntian Army were not arranged according to the established numbers of the Ministry of the Army, but were serially numbered from Shuntian Army Regiments 1 to 10.

Time flies and it is already early August. The disturbances caused by the planned run on "Aurora Bank" and the attack on "Beiyang Stock Exchange" have been completely quelled. All government affairs and economic and people's livelihood in Zhishan Province have returned to normal, and the scene is full of vitality.

In this incident, neither the Aurora Bank nor the Naoyama Governor's Office suffered any losses, and the Aurora Bank even made a huge profit.

The first was the Beijing Commercial Bank. They took out a huge loan at a high interest rate from the Aurora Bank. They wanted to buy a large number of Aurora and Beiyang companies that were targeted by the British. However, at the last minute before the market closed, the stock prices of these companies were forcibly brought down, which caused them to suffer an instant loss on the books of the stocks they purchased.

Even after the exchange resumed trading, these stocks, as well as all the stocks of the Aurora and Beiyang systems, were held down tightly and remained in a state of neither going up nor down. If one wanted to sell them, one would inevitably suffer huge losses.

Finally, the Ministry of Revenue Bank had no choice but to negotiate with Aurora Bank and sold the shares to it at a price two percentage points higher than the current price.

Foreign banks, mainly British and Japanese, which also bought large amounts of Aurora and Beiyang stocks with the intention of carrying out a hostile takeover, are facing the same situation.

If you keep the stocks, although you will not suffer losses in the end, the huge amount of money stuck in the stock market will inevitably greatly reduce the loan amount, and the lost loan interest will be a huge loss.

For this reason, they even jointly filed a complaint to Yang Shixiang and appealed to the court through their envoys, but in the end, nothing could be done.

The court explained that it had allowed the two provinces of Naoyama to develop independently within ten years and would not interfere.

Yang Shixiang explained that the court did not yet have a complete stock trading law, and Aurora Bank was a private enterprise, so the Governor's Office had no right to interfere.

They even went to find Teng Yuzhao, but Teng Yuzhao did not meet them. Instead, he told them that he always believed that business matters should be resolved with business means, and that he was no longer the Governor of Zhishan, so they still had to find Yang Shixiang for specific matters.

In a nutshell, you have to figure out a solution to this matter yourselves.

The final result was that, except for powerful British banks such as HSBC, which gritted their teeth and kept their shares, most of the foreign banks that followed suit reached private agreements with Aurora Bank and sold all their shares to it at one time.

If there was any loss, it was only that Teng Yuzao had a small "stain" on his reputation. That was that some people with ulterior motives hyped up in newspapers and periodicals in various provinces except Zhishan, saying that Teng Yuzao had his own army and no regard for the imperial court.

However, Yuan Shikai's reputation was rising rapidly, and he was even showing signs of being on par with Teng Yuzao.

Regarding the paper money of the Aurora Bank and the treasure notes of the Ministry of Revenue Bank, the treasure notes are no longer circulated in the two provinces of Zhishan and outside the Shanhaiguan Pass east of Shanhaiguan. Legally, they are legal tender in all provinces within the Shanhaiguan Pass in addition to silver dollars and gold coins.

But the reality is that Baochao was only circulated on a large scale in the provinces north of the Yangtze River. However, due to the widespread rumor that the actual reserve of the Ministry of Revenue Bank was less than 30 million, it had begun to depreciate, and the exchange rate from one yuan of Baochao to two silver dollars fell to one to six.

Although the banknotes of Aurora Bank were not allowed to circulate in other provinces, they were still very popular in Liangjiang, Huguang, Anhui, Jiangsu and other provinces and were widely used among the people.

But now Teng Yuzao can no longer take care of these, and all his energy has now turned to the war outside the Great Wall. Because since February, after Kuroki Tamejin's 2st Army of 6 people landed in Incheon, they quickly moved north to the Yalu River and stopped further action.

This made the Russians think that the Japanese army only wanted to control the Korean Peninsula and tie down the Russian troops in Manchuria, so they did not provide timely reinforcements to the East Manchurian Detachment. Most of the troops that entered Manchuria from the east of the Amur River were all gathered near Fengtian, Liaoyang and Gaiping.

Gaiping is the Gaizhou and Gaixian of later generations.

The Japanese Army, which had already firmly controlled the Korean Peninsula, seemed to be hesitant and did not immediately launch an offensive against the Russian army.

After all, the Japanese generally believed that the Russian army's combat effectiveness was stronger than that of the Japanese army.

On the contrary, the Japanese Navy has been launching continuous attacks since it successfully blockaded the Pacific Fleet in Port Arthur in February.

The Combined Fleet first wanted to implement a port blocking strategy, but after several large-scale operations, all failed.

The so-called port blocking actually means actively sinking large warships in the waterway, thereby blocking the waterway and completely trapping the Pacific Fleet in the port.

However, the Pacific Fleet, which had been stationed in Port Arthur for a long time, was well aware of the narrowness of the port channel and attached great importance to the defense of the port channel. It had taken the initiative to attack with destroyer ships several times.

Seeing that there was no way to completely blockade the main force of the Pacific Fleet, Togo Heihachiro even began to take risks and launched eight attacks on the Pacific Fleet hiding in the harbor. However, he returned empty-handed due to the intensive fire from shore artillery and the Pacific Fleet in the harbor. More than a dozen warships were even damaged and had to return to Japan for emergency repairs to maintain their combat effectiveness.

At the same time, mines were widely laid at the exit of the waterway in an attempt to achieve a purpose similar to blocking the port.

The only gain of the Combined Fleet after more than five months of siege on the Pacific Fleet was the sinking of several destroyers and two cruisers of the enemy. In addition, the biggest gain was the sinking of the flagship of Makarov, the commander of the Russian Pacific Fleet who had just arrived in Port Arthur in March, with a mine, resulting in the death of Makarov, who had only been in office for 36 days.

Since the Japanese Navy had no way to deal with the hedgehog-like Pacific Fleet, it had to force the still somewhat unconfident Japanese Army to launch an offensive. So, under orders from home, Kuroki Tamemasa launched an attack on the Russian East Manchurian Detachment defending across the Yalu River on April 28, and launched a general offensive on the 30th.

Unexpectedly, the river defense of the Russian East Manchurian Detachment, which seemed solid and tight, was actually vulnerable. In May, the First Army commanded by Kuroki Tamemasa successfully crossed the Yalu River, defeated the Russian East Manchurian Detachment of nearly 40,000 people, and entered Manchuria.

After the Russian army's river defense positions were breached, they seemed to have lost the courage to fight again. The First Army commanded by Kuroki Tamemoto successively captured Jiuliancheng and Fenghuangcheng and almost crippled the 11th Siberian Infantry Regiment, thus achieving the first victory in the land war against Russia.

After the war broke out, the Russian army in Manchuria focused its road defense on Gaizhou, Liaoyang and Fengtian, aiming to ensure contact with the Pacific Fleet in Port Arthur. In Liaoyang in particular, strong fortifications were built, which together with the Pacific Fleet base in Port Arthur served as a powerful fortress against Japan's land and sea attacks.

The Japanese Army had already made preparations to quickly gather superior forces and destroy the Tsarist Russian army in Manchuria once the army entered Manchuria. Especially after seeing Kuroki Tamemasa successfully defeat the Russian East Manchurian Detachment, the army generals became excited.

On May 5, troops of the Second Army of Ao Baogong landed near Piziwo and attacked the Russian garrison in Jinzhou. After a fierce battle between the two sides, the Russian army retreated, and the Japanese army took Dalian and obtained an important supply base.

Fortunately, Teng Yuzao had sent a telegram to Alexeev in advance, informing him that Ao Baogong's Second Army would land near Piziwo on May 5.

Although Alexeev paid great attention to it since all the intelligence sent by Teng Yuzao had been confirmed.

Although Alexeev was not good at commanding operations, he was very good at destroying things. Not only did he sink all the more than 50 ships in the Dalian Port, he even ignited tens of thousands of tons of high-quality power coal used by warships stranded in the port.

While a raging fire was burning in the port, the power plant, port-related facilities and a large amount of supplies in the warehouse were blown up and burned.

As there was plenty of time, Alexeev also ordered his subordinates to move all the more than 400 railway carriages in the port to Fengtian.

It was only because Teng Yuzhao informed him a little late that Ao Baogong's Second Army still landed successfully.

Historically, the Japanese army not only captured more than 50 ships from the Russian army, but also took over the ports intact. The more than 400 railway carriages later became the means of transportation for the Japanese army to continue its northward advance to Liaoyang and Fengtian.

After successfully cutting off the railway traffic between the Russian army in Lushun and the main force of the Russian army in Liaoyang, Ao Baogong's Second Army immediately marched northward to Dashiqiao, Haicheng and Gaiping.

However, he encountered strong resistance from the South Manchuria Detachment of the Russian Army at Dashiqiao, and Ao Baogong had to retreat temporarily.

At this time, Kuropatkin, who had rushed to the Far East to take up the post of commander-in-chief of the Russian Far Eastern Army, had temporarily transformed the existing troops in South Manchuria into three armies, namely the First, Second, and Third East Siberian Armies. Among them, the troops around the Port Arthur Fortress were the Second Army, the troops around Liaoyang were the First Army, and the Third Army was still being formed.

Subsequently, under pressure from St. Petersburg, Kuropatkin had to order the Russian First East Siberian Army stationed in Liaoyang to rescue Port Arthur. The Japanese and Russian sides fought two fierce battles in Wafanggou and Deli Temple. The Russian army was defeated both times, with nearly 8,000 casualties, while the Japanese army lost more than 4,000 people.

At this time, Teng Yuzao, who had established anonymous contact with Kuropatkin, told Kuropatkin that the Japanese army and the Nozu Fourth Army, which was hastily formed on May 31, would land on Dagu Mountain.

This made Kuropatkin panic, and he had to abandon the battle plan to relieve Port Arthur and instead ordered the First East Siberian Army to retreat towards Liaoyang.

After Nozu landed on Dagu Mountain as scheduled, he and the Second Army immediately split up and headed north, preparing to join the First Army to attack Liaoyang.

At the same time, the Japanese Imperial Headquarters believed that the time was ripe for the Japanese army to advance northward. In order to unify the command of the various Japanese troops invading Manchuria, it decided to establish the "Manchurian Army General Headquarters" and appointed Oyama Iwao as the commander-in-chief of the Manchurian Army and Kodama Gentaro as the chief of staff of the Manchurian Army to unify the command of Kuroki Tamemasa's First Army, Oku Yasutane's Second Army, Nogi Maresuke's Third Army and Nozu Michikan's Fourth Army.

For a time, the war between Japan and Russia outside the Great Wall was imminent, which forced Teng Yuzao to start preparing for further action.
(End of this chapter)