On October 5, Wang Chenhao rejected all Barcelona's request in front of Spanish ambassador Barcelona. Not only that, on the same day, Wang Chenhao took advantage of his right to act as the Minister of the General Secretary of the Li Yamen and immediately notified the ambassadors, consuls and military officers of various countries to China to announce the abolition of all unequal treaties between the Qing Empire and the Spanish Empire, the various special treatments of the Spanish people in China, prohibit the Spanish from preaching in China, and the Spanish priests were ordered to leave China, ban the Chinese national congregation organization established by the Spanish Church, and confiscated the illegal land and property accumulated by the Spanish and Han jiān who defected to the Spanish.

This move suddenly caused a huge storm in China. Because the Spanish church has the power of consular judgment in China, it is no different, occupying land everywhere and bullying the old surname of China. The Chinese nationality members who are dependent on the name of the Spanish church are even accomplices of the tiger, occupying the land, houses, and land in the old surname, and bullying men and women. The grudges have become deeply rooted.

With Wang Chenhao announcing the abolition of all unequal treaties signed with the Spanish Empire, abolishing all privileges of the Spanish in China, and requiring all provinces and places to start public trials of all cases involving the Spanish in China, and churn out old accounts together, and the yamen in various places reopened the trial and sentence, and the yamen constable arrested all the Spanish involved in the case and the Han who aided the evil.

As a result, an anti-Spanish movement was launched across the country. There were more than 4,000 Spanish people in China, of which more than 90% of the Spanish were involved in various criminal activities. They had the power of consular judgment before, and the Spanish court acquitted them and falsely accused the Chinese people of punishment. Now that the case was completely overturned, a bloody storm was immediately set off.

The old surname has accumulated hatred against foreigners for most half a century, and the grudges of several generations have suddenly exploded. After the Spanish lost their consular judgment and all their privileges, they were arrested by the local surnames and sent to the yamen lobby for trial. Those with deep hatred were even beaten to death.

The Chinese who followed the Spanish to make accomplices of tigers were like rats crossing the street, and everyone shouted and beaten. More than 200,000 people across the country became Spanish dogs, most of whom were arrested and arrested, thousands were beaten to death by the angry old surname, and only a small part escaped.

The vigorous anti-Spanish movement began. The Spanish had been in China for many years and was uprooted, causing the Spanish government's interests in China to be severely damaged.

Barcelona, ​​the Spanish Minister of Plenipotentiary to China, issued a note to the Qing government many times and negotiated with Wang Chenhao, but no progress was made. Wang Chenhao's tough attitude was clearly in opposition to Spain.

The Spanish government was having conflicts with the United States at this time, and the country was actively preparing to deal with the American war. The Spanish government did not want to be attacked on both sides, so it was tolerant of the Qing Empire.

On October 15, the Spanish government stated that it was willing to negotiate on the abolition of all unequal treaties with Spain by the Qing Empire. At the same time, Spain asked France, Britain, Germany, Italy and other countries to help me. Spain notified diplomats from these countries, saying that the Qing Empire had attacked the Spanish Empire today and may attack them tomorrow, and asked the great powers of various countries to support the Spanish Empire.

Of course, the powers of all countries understand that Wang Chenhao abolished all unequal treaties with the Spanish Empire today and would be possible to attack them tomorrow. However, they were uneven, and the powers of various countries had different attitudes towards the Qing Empire for various purposes. Except for Russia's tough attitude, other powerful countries just met with the Qing Empire's General Yamen and asked Wang Chenhao to ensure that the interests of the powerful powers in China were not violated. They had reservations about the Qing Empire's attack on Spain, which only symbolized the demands of Xing.

The law enforcement agencies of the Qing Empire were able to fairly judge the Spaniards. The US government and Wang Chenhao were secret allies, so of course they helped Wang Chenhao speak. The US government publicly supported the Qing Empire's actions, saying that the Spaniards were doing evil in China, and they should be punished. The US statement that the United States and Spain were already on the verge of war, which greatly made other powerful countries shut up, and chose a cautious neutrality on the issues of the Qing Empire and Spain, and on the issues of the United States and Spain.

Spain was isolated and helpless. Faced with the fierce anti-Spanish movement of the Qing Empire, a large number of Spaniards were seized by the Qing government's yamen, and their lives and property safety could not be guaranteed. A fierce demonstration was launched in Spain, and it would be fine if the Spanish government did not dare to offend the United States. It was too embarrassing that the cowardly Qing Empire did not dare to say anything. It was demanding that the Spanish government be tough on China and ensure the safety of the lives and property of thousands of Spaniards in China.

Faced with this situation, Spain had to bow to the United States on the one hand, and on the other hand, it had to toughen against the Qing Empire in order to safeguard the face of the Spanish Empire, which made the Spanish government run out of luck.

The Spanish government has long realized the United States' ambitions for Cuba. Since the United States has been involved in the Spanish colonial army's suppression of the Cuban Revolutionary Army, the United States and Cuban Revolutionary Army secretly and colluded with each other, Spanish intelligence agencies have long noticed it.

Since 1896, Spain believed that the United States was planning to plan for Cuba, so the Spanish government allocated funds to the Spanish Navy under limited finances and began to build new warships on a large scale and upgrade the original warships.

The Spanish Navy is very weak, but it is relatively speaking. Compared with the navies of the five British, French, Russian and Qing dynasties, the Spanish Navy does not have an advantage in terms of main ships, but the total number of ships is more than that of the United States and the Qing Empire. The Spanish Navy has one other surface combat ship of various types, which is the sum of the surface combat ships of the Qing Empire and the US Navy.

However, the Spanish Navy had many warships, but most of them were old ships in the 1970s and 1980s. They had backward combat power and were distributed in colonies in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Oceania. They had to protect the Spanish mainland and control the Mediterranean, so their power was dispersed.

Especially on the main battleship, the Spanish Navy currently has only one first-class battleship, and only one Peraio, is in service. The ship is built by France. The design mother type is the French battleship Marceau. It was launched in 1886 and put into service in 1888. Its standard displacement is 9,745 tons. The main gun is two single-mounted inch guns and two single-mounted 11-inch guns, the secondary guns are inch guns and 1 gun, 5 6-pound guns, and 7 14-inch torpedoes. There are also six armored cruisers in the fourth-class, and twenty-two protective cruisers in the fifth-class, and thirteen unprotected cruisers in the third-class, as well as a large number of gunboats and torpedo boats.

In order to fight against the United States, the Spanish Navy is currently under construction, the Carlos V-class armored ship,

There were eight ships in the Asturias-class armored cruiser and the Regent-class protective cruiser. These warships were launched in 1896 and are expected to be completed from June to October 1898 to resist the US Navy. However, it is obvious that the Americans will not wait until the new Spanish warships are put into service before going to war. Therefore, the Spanish-American War broke out in April 1898.

Now, the US government has advanced the war schedule with Wang Chenhao's participation. Because US intelligence shows that in order to fight against the United States, the Spanish Navy opened its only battleship, the USS Peraiyo, into the dock for upgrading and transformation, and planned to be upgraded in February 1898. Therefore, the US government set the war time on December 26, 1897, making Spain's only battleship unable to participate in the war.

Of course, the Spanish didn't know all this. They could guess that the United States would go to war against Spain, but they could not guess the time. They could guess that the Qing Empire is taking advantage of the situation and abolishing Spain's sphere of influence in China, but they would never guess that Wang Chenhao had already cooperated with the Americans to deal with Spain.

All the Spanish government can do is to delay the war as much as possible.

The United States and Spain were preparing for the war, but the Qing government still disagreed with Wang Chenhao's use of troops to Spain and was afraid of foreigners for a long time. The Qing court seemed to have developed a mentality of being beaten and scolded. Wang Chenhao had to make a little more angry about the cowardice of the Qing court.

Wang Chenhao incited local governors and civil and military officers of the court to speak out to Guangxu every day, and stubbornly grind their teeth with Guangxu. Guangxu disagreed for a day, and these civil and military ministers kept talking to Guangxu.

Guangxu regretted Wang Chenhao's acting as Minister of the Liyamen. He did not expect that Wang Chenhao would be so bold and cause such a shocking wave. According to the previous experience of the Qing government, the death of a foreigner could extinguish the joint interference of the great powers. The Qing government either apologized for compensation or ceded land to seek peace. Now thousands of Spaniards have been detained by local government yamen, and more than a thousand evildoers have committed many evils, causing the death of the local old surname to be sentenced to death, and most of the rest have been sentenced to 3 months to 300.

The imprisonment of less than 200 Spanish believers, doctors, teachers and their families and children with different ethics were acquitted. And the punishments of the Han people who followed the Spanish torture for the disaster in their hometown were unprecedented. More than 100,000 people were punished with various cruel punishments, and were executed by Lingchi, hanged, beheaded, and car splitting, with more than 10,000 accomplices. Such a great storm will definitely cause Spain to go to war against China, and the great powers of various countries will make strong interference. But the attitudes of the great powers of various countries are ambiguous.

I just protested without any pain, and then there was no movement.

The calmness of the great powers surprised Guangxu. This bloody storm made the worship of Wang Chenhao's personality by the old surnames across the country reach a higher level, and everyone praised it. Conversely, the more the old surname admired Wang Chenhao, the more he looked down on the authority of the Qing emperor.

Guangxu regretted it in his heart, so he shouldn't have listened to Yi Li's plan. This Yi Li is simply a waste of things that are not enough to make a mistake.

Faced with the tremendous pressure from Wang Chenhao and civil and military officers, Guangxu finally nodded in agreement and allowed Wang Chenhao to declare war on Spain, but Guangxu did not make Wang Chenhao too proud. He asked Wang Chenhao to write a letter of guarantee that winning the war against Spain was the credit of Guangxu and the court. He lost the war, and Wang Chenhao was personally responsible for military expenses and compensation, and Wang Chenhao had to bear all the consequences of the defeat.

Of course, Wang Chenhao was full of confidence and was sure to win this war, so Suoxing issued a military order to Guangxu.

After Wang Chenhao obtained the authorization of the court, he immediately began to take practical actions.

On the one hand, Wang Chenhao negotiated with Spanish minister Barcelona to negotiate on a peaceful resolution of the crisis. Wang Chenhao used this to paralyze the Spanish government.

On the other hand, Wang Chenhao drove the 20,000 American expeditionary forces selected to Ryukyu. In the name of changing defense, he assembled at the Ryukyu Baitan Naval Base and boarded a ship to the San Diego Naval Base in California, USA.

The American Expeditionary Force has a total of 20,000 people, and is a strengthening division force. The commander-in-chief is Feng Guozhang and the chief of staff is Duan Qirui. The entire army is equipped with a reinforced regiment artillery, 24 150mm heavy howitzers and 48 80mm infantry artillery. Ten heavy machine gun companies have 120 ting Maxim heavy machine guns. The war horses required by the Cavalry Regiment and Reconnaissance Cavalry Battalion are provided by the U.S. Department of Army and do not need to be carried. Moreover, the U.S. Department of Army will also provide certain supplies to the American Expeditionary Force. Of course, the U.S. Department of Army is not giving supplies for the U.S. Department of Army. The condition is that Wang Chenhao has to cooperate with the US Navy's Asian fleet operations on the Far East Philippines battlefield.

In addition to strengthening weapons and equipment, the biggest feature of this expeditionary force is that Wang Chenhao ordered the expeditionary force to cut off their braids. This war against Spain was a battle to start the name of the Chinese army. The elite and brave Beiyang Army could not make people laugh at the braids behind their heads in front of people all over the world.

At the same time, after cutting off the braids, the soldiers of the Expeditionary Army had bare foreheads, and a bunch of heads behind them were actually more ugly than leaving braids. Therefore, after Wang Chenhao ordered the Expeditionary Army to cut their braids, at the request of the soldiers of the entire army, Feng Guozhang ordered the soldiers of the entire army to shave their heads. This expeditionary army was therefore famous all over the world for its name as the "Bald Army".

Wang Chenhao didn't really believe in what kind of logistics supplies the US Army could provide, and he would not hand over the lives of the soldiers to the Americans. Therefore, the Expeditionary Force had its own independent logistics supply fleet.

Among this expeditionary force, there is also a beautiful scenery, that is, there are two additional 5,000-ton hospital ships.

These two hospital ships belong to the General Logistics Department of the Expeditionary Force. Several transport ships bought by Wang Chenhao when he returned from the United States were modified and realized.

Wang Chenhao knew that during the Spanish-American War, more than 4,000 people were killed or injured in the US Army, only a few of whom died in battle on the battlefield. The rest were caused by yellow fever and various tropical diseases. The soldiers taken away by the disease were more than ten times that of the actual soldiers who died.

Wang Chenhao's American Expeditionary Army soldiers live in the north all year round. Once they go to the Caribbean to fight, it is a big deal that is not suitable for the local conditions and must be controlled.

Therefore, in order to ensure the safety of the soldiers' umbrellas, Wang Chenhao decided to build several medical ships to follow the Expeditionary Force. The real self-built hospital ship has started construction in the shipyard, but it is obviously unable to keep up.

Therefore, Wang Chenhao temporarily decided to convert several large tankers into hospital ships.

A total of three hospital ships were modified, called Peace Ark-class hospital ships. The three hospital ships were modified from 5,000 tons of cruise ships, with a speed of 15 knots and a cruising capacity of 90,000 nautical miles. They can follow the fleet to sea and have the ability to provide ocean-going medical care. After the transformation, the hospital ship carries 20 attending doctors of various departments, 100 nurses and escorts, and their medical conditions and equipment reach the level of medium-sized hospitals in international power countries. The waterline of the entire hospital ship is painted white on the waterline, and the two sides and decks are marked with eye-catching red cross patterns. The national flag and the red ground white cross flag are hung, and they are not attacked or arrested under any circumstances.

For this purpose, Wang Chenhao submitted an application to the The Hague Maritime Treaty Organization in the Netherlands, the International Red Cross, and the Geneva Treaty Organization in Switzerland, indicating the mission of the "China Peace Ark-class hospital ship and applying for protection of international law.

The Dutch and Swiss ambassadors and consuls in China immediately visited the Peace Ark-level hospital ship, which was highly praised, and reported immediately.

On October 29, 1897, the Hague Maritime Treaty Organization and the Geneva Conventions in Switzerland, and the International Red Cross approved Wang Chenhao's request and announced that the "China Peace Ark-class hospital ships were protected by international law. Since there were no relevant international law on maritime hospital ships, The Hague and Geneva immediately formulated relevant international law according to the provisions that hospital ships are inviolable and hospital ships have the obligation to rescue wounded people from both sides of the war. No warring parties shall attack or capture them, but shall be respected and protected at any time.

In order to ensure that the Chinese Navy's hospital ships fulfilled their international obligations, The Hague and Geneva awarded the Peace Ark-level hospital ship international neutral flags and logos, and sent several liaison officers to serve on the ship. Of course, the liaison officers could not be politicians, but foreign doctors and nurses. They both supervise the hospital ship services and participate in saving lives and helping the wounded. Therefore, Wang Chenhao agreed to them board the ship.

Since most foreign doctors are female doctors, the ratio of men and women on the hospital ships also needs to be adjusted and arranged. Originally, Wang Chenhao's hospital ships were all military male medical soldiers, so Wang Chenhao sent someone to recruit a group of nasal doctors and female nurses. Most of them came from the Western Medicine College run by foreigners, proficient in various languages ​​and could live and work with foreign female doctors.

The hospital ship can be understood as the "mobile hospital at sea" that is mainly to receive two major types of personnel from the sea. According to the form, these two types of personnel come from war (action) and non-war (state). War is a war at sea. If there is a war at sea, there will be a large number of wounded people. At this time, relatively speaking, the patients are not the main body. Non-war refers to accidents, natural disasters and other states, such as fire on the ship, hitting a reef, tsunami, etc.

As a hospital ship, we must first meet the needs of treating wounded people at sea in war, and then consider the handling of non-war maritime incidents and international rescue. In addition, the majority of the seriously injured wards on the ship account for because most of the wounded and sick people who can be sent to the hospital ship are seriously injured and have relatively better conditions and equipped with serious injuries. There are also internal medicine, but they are not as prominent as surgical status, and there are also labor and pediatrics, but they are not considered as the key point.

Any structure on the hospital ship is set according to its mission. For example, (in war action) the wounded persons received by the hospital ship are definitely not one by one, but in large quantities. So, once you enter the hospital ship, you will see a "classified injury examination area" that will undergo surgery first and which anti-shock treatments will be treated. Through classification, the injured and sick can receive classified treatment as quickly as possible.

Wang Chenhao considered that the Caribbean war was about to break out, so the two hospital ships heading to the Caribbean were mainly surgical operations. Fifteen of the twenty attending doctors were surgery, and the other five were internal medicine, and they were specially trained for tropical diseases. The medicines on the hospital ships were also mainly surgical operations and prevention and treatment of yellow fever.

It can be said that these two hospital ships are currently only preparing for any possible diseases that the Expeditionary Force may have. It is precisely because of the addition of these two hospital ships that minimize the casualty rate of the Expeditionary Force.

However, the modification costs of the two hospital ships are also huge. They install various medical equipment, and there are independent oxygen production stations, disinfection stations, epidemic prevention stations, etc. on the ship, and a large amount of medical equipment must be stored.

In this era, medical devices and medicines had to be expensive, and it was even more costly to transfer them to the ship.

On the surface, it is not much different from the land hospital. In fact, it is quite different from the land hospital. Moreover, some departments of marine hospitals do not have them on land. For example,

Some wounded at sea may be soaked in sea water. The mechanism of injury after the wound is soaked in sea water.

The treatment principles are different. We also have a matching temperature compressing device and corresponding dressings that do not have on land and do not need to be available. Therefore,

At least, in terms of department allocation, the hospital ship has its own obvious characteristics. In terms of medical equipment, first of all, the department's focus is different, so the corresponding medical equipment is also different. On the other hand, medical equipment must withstand the test of the marine environment. The marine environment includes, physically, swaying, vibration, dust pollution, moisture, etc.: From a chemical point of view, there is salt at the sea and is prone to corrosion. In order to resist swaying and radiation, some special measures must be taken, such as to resist swaying, all the facilities on the ship are fixed, even if it is a small cart.

In this case, a Nahuang, which was originally worth only 400,000 dragon coins, cost 800,000 dragon coins after modification. The maintenance cost of the hospital ship every day is equivalent to the expenses of three medium-sized ground hospitals, which exceeds the maintenance cost of one battleship. Once a medical operation is carried out, it is simply a money-consuming machine.

But Wang Chenhao still approved it. He told his subordinates that the lives of his subordinates and brothers were more important. This sentence soon reached the ears of the soldiers of the Expeditionary Army. The soldiers fought in foreign countries and were able to get their generals so valued and cherished, and they were immediately burst into tears. Wang Chenhao was even more respected and admired in the hearts of the soldiers, and the soldiers had great thoughts of dying for their confidants.
Chapter completed!