The Qing court's surrender said that the victory was won in this battle between the East China government and Britain and France, but the East China government was not satisfied with the achievements it had achieved. After all, this time it was first initiated by Britain and France. Although it was successfully resolved by the East China government, Britain and France just did not achieve their goals and did not lose to the two countries themselves. The East China government is never willing to passively wait for the opponent to take action and then deal with it on its own. Therefore, it not only has to take the initiative, but also hit the opponent's weaknesses, making Britain and France feel pain.

Due to geographical reasons, before the joint fleet of Britain and France reached the Far East, they could not really make efforts here. They could only use some soft power or clever strength means. Due to the early military defeat, Japan and Russia could not provide much substantial help to Britain and France at this time. This is also one of the important reasons why Britain and France lost this time to fight across the air. After all, both soft power and clever strength must be supported. No matter how Britain and France threatened and tempted the Qing court, the Qing court immediately became timid when the East China government sent troops to capture Baoding and approached Zhuozhou.

However, due to geographical reasons, the East China government cannot directly threaten the local areas of the two countries. Although it suppressed the Qing court this time, it did not have any blow to Britain and France. Britain and France can also exercise their strength in other aspects. However, the East China government has a chance to seize the pain of Britain and France, because Britain and France are in the Far East, because they are in China, there are too many points of interest that can be used by the East China government and set them as targets.

As early as the People's Army attacked Baoding, Xia Bohai proposed a plan in the military working group: to send troops to attack Shanghai and retake the Shanghai Concession to attack Britain and France.

The current Shanghai Concession is divided into public concessions and French Concessions, among which the public concessions are mainly controlled by the UK. Of course, the United States has certain special interests in the public concessions, while the French Concessions are all controlled by France. Both Britain and France have great commercial interests in China. The two countries account for more than 80% of China's foreign trade, and more than half of the commercial interests of the two countries in China are related to the concessions in Shanghai. Therefore, if the East China government takes back the Shanghai concessions and confiscates the assets of Britain and France in Shanghai, it will definitely cause huge commercial losses to Britain and France, which will definitely be a heavy blow, and it will also let Britain and France know that it is impossible for them to be enemies of the East China government to be unstrike.

Of course, the East China government attacked Shanghai and took back the Shanghai Concession, not only for revenge and hurt Britain and France, but also had huge real interests. First of all, Shanghai was a port city, and during the Westernization Movement, a number of modern industries were established with a certain industrial foundation. For example, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau was a modern enterprise with advanced technology in this era, with a certain manufacturing capacity. Moreover, Britain and France opened a large number of modern enterprises and public facilities in the concession. Therefore, the East China government occupied Shanghai and could take these modern enterprises and public facilities as its own, which could improve the modernization level of the East China government to a certain extent.

Secondly, Shanghai guards the estuary of the Yangtze River, looks south to Hangzhou Bay, and has an excellent deep-water harbor, which has great strategic value. After the East China government occupied Shanghai, it can use Shanghai port as the home port of the People's Army Navy fleet to fight against the British and French joint fleets. This can push the East China government's front forward for nearly 600 kilometers and obtain a very large strategic space in depth, at least without having to fight against the British and French fleets at its doorstep. Therefore, the East China government's occupation of Shanghai will have great benefits, both strategic and economic value.

In addition, the East China government also has enough reason to conquer Shanghai, because the four countries of Britain, France, Japan and Russia had plans to land from Shanghai and attack Shandong in consultation with the Qing court, which was enough to give the East China government a reason to take the initiative to occupy Shanghai. Moreover, in recent years, the East China government has attached great importance to publicity work in Shanghai. Among the Chinese in Shanghai, they have established great prestige among young people. At the same time, the Shanghai New District has developed greatly in recent years, allowing the East China government to penetrate into all classes in Shanghai, so there will be no big problems in the governance work after conquering Shanghai.

However, some people have proposed to attack Shanghai and take back the Shanghai Concession, which will cause great political troubles, because the Shanghai Concession is a place where foreign forces gather. In addition to Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Japan, Japan, Russia, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal and Western countries have set up consulates in the Shanghai Concession and occupy commercial interests of varying sizes. Therefore, once the East China government takes back the Shanghai Concession, it is likely to incite public anger and be attacked by various countries. This consequence is absolutely unfavorable to the East China government.

After the military working group's division, it was believed that this kind of worry was unnecessary. Although there were many countries that set up consulates in the Shanghai Concession, the only real powers were Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Japan and Russia. The rest were all so-called roles, which was not to be concerned. The four countries of Britain, France, Japan and Russia have had bad relations with the East China government. Whether the East China government reclaimed the Shanghai Concession or not, they were hostile relations. Therefore, the only countries that really threatened the East China government. However, Germany and the East China government had a good relationship and did not have much commercial interests in the Shanghai Concession, so Germany basically would not turn against each other because the East China government reclaimed the Shanghai Concession. The only thing that really needed to be guarded against was the United States.

However, through effective work, the threat from the United States is not impossible to eliminate, because the United States is still cautious in the use of force, because it is a political body with strong force like the East China government. Therefore, as long as the East China government can guarantee the economic interests of the United States in Shanghai, it can basically stabilize the United States.

As long as Germany and the United States do not have any objections to the East China government's withdrawal of the Shanghai Concession, the attitudes of other countries can be ignored. Therefore, the East China government finally decided to implement a plan to attack Shanghai and take back the Shanghai Concession.

At this time, the war in the Northeast entered a temporary rest area. The 3rd Army entered Harbin, the 5th Army was stationed in Vladivostok, and the 4th Army and the Russian prisoners were basically withdrawn to Qingdao. In addition, the Marine Corps that had withdrawn to Qingdao earlier and the newly established 6th Army, the troops left behind in the East China government were quite strong and could launch plans to attack Shanghai.

After discussion by the military working group, the task of implementing this plan was left to the Marine Corps. First, the Marine Corps retreated to Qingdao early to rest. At this time, the state and organization of the troops were basically completely restored and new tasks can be carried out; second, Luo Yue's ability and actions were also reassuring. In fact, it is not very difficult to attack Shanghai in military affairs. The real difficulty is political. Although the East China government does not care about the attitude of foreign countries, if this battle causes too much casualties, it is not a good thing for the reputation and image of the East China government. The ideal result is to defeat the enemy without fighting. The scale in this regard is quite difficult to grasp, and this time it will also occupy the port of Shanghai. Therefore, the Marine Corps and the Navy fleet are in concert. Luo Yue also has enough practical experience in this area, and only Luo Yue can reassure people.

After receiving this order, Luo Yue immediately formulated a combat plan. Although this battle was not complicated, he could not act rashly. This battle would be divided into two directions: one was to attack the foreign port in Shanghai, and the other was to attack the Shanghai Concession. Both Britain and France had warships stationed in the port in Shanghai. Therefore, both the Marine Corps and the Fleet were fighting on both sides.

Luo Yue decided to dispatch all two divisions and three reserve regiments of the Marine Corps, of which one division will assist the fleet to attack the Shanghai port, and the other three reserve regiments will attack the Shanghai Concession. In terms of the fleet, Luo Yue decided to use two armored cruisers, Jinan and Tianjin as the core, plus the 4th Cruiser Squadron, the 3rd destroyer Squadron, and the 2nd destroyer Squadron, and two inland fleets will assist the Marine Corps to attack the Shanghai Concession.

The Military Commission had no objection to Luo Yue's combat plan and the mobilization of troops, so it immediately arranged a dispatch. Three days later, the fleet with the armored cruisers Jinan and Tianjin as the core, plus 18 transport ships, set off from Qingdao and sailed to Shanghai.

One day later, the fleet arrived at the estuary of the Yangtze River and encountered the British fleet stationed in Shanghai. The Jinan and Tianjin took the lead, the 4th cruiser squadron and the 3rd destroyer squadron then accelerated to face the British fleet, while the 2nd destroyer squadron and two inland fleets protected the transport fleet and temporarily stopped.

The British warships stationed in Shanghai are centered on two Edgar-class protective cruisers, the Hawk and Gibraltar, as well as four E-class destroyers, the Kennett, the Judd, the Chelmer, and the Cohen. There are also two French shallow-water gunboats.

After the encounter between the two sides, at about 8 kilometers apart, the British ship first sent a warning signal to the People's Army's warships. The People's Army's fleet did not respond to the British ship, but continued to advance and approached the British ship. Seeing this, the British ship was also ready for battle.
Chapter completed!