Japan's plan to withdraw troops from North Korea was unanimously agreed by the cabinet and the Ministry of Army. However, in order to be able to successfully and quickly intervene in the Korean Peninsula affairs at some time in the future, the Japanese government retained the Motoyama as its strategic stronghold in the East Korean Gulf and regarded Gangwon Dok as its sphere of influence.

Although the actions of the Japanese government made Germany, France and Russia puzzled for a while, the withdrawal of the Japanese army was a good thing. After Russia supported North Korea's king Lee Hee to become emperor, he organized a pro-Russian cabinet in North Korea and forced Lee Hee to sign a series of treaties conducive to Tsarist Russia's control of North Korea.

Japan's withdrawal caused changes in the military strategy of Tsarist Russia's Far East, and Tsarist Russia's Asian plan was rebooted without Japan's obstacles. General Kuropatkin, the commander of the Far East War Zone, decided to use North Korea as the second springboard for invading the Qing Empire. Since the Amur area in Tsarist Russia's Far East was cold and cold for most of the year, it was not conducive to military operations. On the contrary, the climate on the Korean Peninsula was more suitable and the supply was convenient. Moreover, North Korea directly threatened Shengjing, the small court of the Qing Empire. If troops were sent from North Korea to attack the Qing Empire, they only needed to take down Jinzhou and Shanhaiguan line, and then the entire Northeast would become a turtle in a jar, which would be conducive to Tsarist Russia's smooth occupation of the three northeastern provinces.

Based on these favorable conditions, General Kuropatkin transferred troops to North Korea to consolidate his control over the Korean Peninsula. On the other hand, he immediately sent a power to St. Petersburg and asked Tsar Nicholas II to allocate funds to the Far East to successfully implement the Asian plan.

St. Petersburg.

Tsar Nicholas II was very happy to receive a telegram from Kuropatkin and immediately convened a former imperial meeting. Russian Minister of Army Alekseev, Navy Minister Prince Alessandrovic, Minister of Finance and Transport Vette, Minister of Foreign Affairs Robanov, Director of Asian Affairs Kbnister attended the meeting.

At the meeting, Nikola asked for the restart of the Asian plan as soon as possible. The Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of the Navy expressed support for this, but the Secretary of the Finance Minister Vette poured cold water on Nikola.

"Your Majesty, I have to remind you that the Empire is still in a financial crisis, and this international silver loss crisis has caused serious losses to the Empire's finance. If it is not converted to the gold standard as soon as possible, the Empire will suffer greater losses as the silver loss crisis further intensifies. If the Asian plan is restarted now, it may cause the current domestic economy to fall into a vicious cycle."

Witt's words made Nicholas II very unhappy, but he had to admit that the current silver loss crisis is indeed a serious problem. Tsarist Russia lost tens of millions of gold rubles in this silver loss crisis. Although the international exchange rate of silver and gold had frozen, the domestic price surge had no improvement. The Asian plan was quite expensive. Tsarist Russia has taken advantage of the two Opium Wars of the Qing Empire and followed Britain and France to take advantage of the situation. If it went to war against China alone, it would not have the conditions.

"Then what do you mean when will we resume our Asian plan?"

Witt replied respectfully: "I hope to complete the gold standard reform first and stabilize the domestic economy before going to the Far East."

Alekseyev said: "However, in the Far East and Northeast Asia, the Qing Empire is training a new army, and its navy is also undergoing advanced modifications. The powerful new battleship is about to be put into service. This is a great threat to the Far East interests of the empire. By the end of our gold standard reform, it is probably difficult for the Qing Empire to deal with it."

Alekseyev's words are not without reason. At this moment, Nicholas II was also in a dilemma. After he ascended the throne, he urgently needed to establish his authority to maintain his rule. Tsarist Russia took military expansion as its main national policy, so Nicholas II hoped to completely control the Tsarist Russian army through a war. However, for safety reasons, Nicholas II hoped to pick up soft persimmons, so the Qing Empire became his target.

Prince Alexandrovich, the Minister of Navy, understood Nicholas II's intentions. In order to safeguard the royal interests, he supported Nicholas II's plan and said: "The Qing Empire was able to escape the silver loss crisis this time, which also exposed its domestic economic strength. Through the exchange of silver, we learned that the Qing Empire had a currency circulation of up to 500 million rubles (more than 400 million taels of silver), which was three times the amount of currency circulating in the empire. This shows that its domestic wealth is still very large. If it is allowed to develop its naval and army forces, it will be the empire's enemy in the future."

Witt argued: "Japan launched a war against China and issued 400 million rubles of war national debt to Britain. We now owe the French a lot of debts due to the Russian-Turkey War. It is unlikely that it will be difficult to repay the issuance of a large number of national debts."

The Russian-Turkish War has been fighting for 250 years, and it will break out every 19 years on average, which is exactly the growth period of a generation of soldiers. Tsarist Russia has almost spent its financial resources on this, and it has just been sixteen years since the 10th Russian-Turkish War, which means that the 11th Russian-Turkish War is about to break out. If an Asian plan is to be adopted in the Far East, then the next Russian-Turkish War must be stopped.

Aleksayev said: "The last time the Ottoman Turkish Empire suffered heavy losses. Over the years, they have been preparing to regain their lost land. Moreover, the British and Austro-Hungarian Empires are supporting them behind their backs. At present, they have gathered heavy troops near the Danube and the Caucasus war zones. If we operate in the Far East, it is difficult to ensure that the enemies in these two war zones will not counterattack. We do not have the capital to fight on both sides."

Nicholas II was hesitant, and both sides had their own opinions, and they all had their pros and cons. At this time, he found that Kbnister, the Director of the Asian Affairs Department, had not spoken, so he asked, "Kbnister, what do you think?"

Kbnister looked at everyone, and he did not dare to offend any side, so he proposed a compromise solution. He said: "We can first test it. We will launch a military operation in the Far East without declaring war. The scale should not be large, and maintain a local conflict of less than 10,000 people. If the Qing Empire concessions, we will eat it step by step. If the Qing Empire strongly resists and we will appropriately control the scale of the conflict without falling into a stalemate. Once the Eastern Front is in a stalemate, or Turkey takes the opportunity to attack us on the Western Front, then we will immediately end the conflict on the Eastern Front and make every effort to ensure the safety of the Western Front."

Kbnister's compromise plan was not offended on both sides, and it was also feasible. Nicholas II decided to create friction in the Far East and find an excuse to implement a step-by-step strategy of encroaching on the Qing Empire. In response, Vette was not willing to refuse, so he had to withdraw a military force from limited funds to go to the Far East.

Tsar Nicholas II asked the commander of the Far East Military Region, Kuropatkin, to act carefully, control the scale of military conflicts, and implement the cannibalization strategy as much as possible with the support of limited military power and military expenditure.

After receiving the Tsar's reply, Kuropatkin immediately started preparing and sent local police forces to harass the local people in the Heilongjiang River Basin and the Yalu River Basin, constantly provoking friction. The Qing government was afraid of annoying Russia, so it ordered the troops garrisoned in the three eastern provinces and border officials to calm the affairs and tolerate them everywhere.
Chapter completed!