The great discussion on Japan lasted from 11 o'clock after the end of the gun ceremony to 4 o'clock in the afternoon, during which lunch was simply settled in the conference room, but in the end no consensus was reached during the five-hour meeting.

Japan must intervene because Japan's strategic position is so important, and although ninety percent of the high-ranking generals of the New Army are soldiers who have come out of the mainland, they all realized how important the sea really is during an expedition that spanned half the world last year.

The Chinese have always been a wise people, but sometimes they are swayed by the forces of habit and their heads are swayed for a while.

As for the sea, China's elite is just a continental national policy that has lasted for thousands of years, and is unwilling to change, or they disdain to go abroad to learn about the outside world.

But once they walk out, the thick shell of habit that wraps the Chinese will be shattered, and the Chinese are extremely smart, and there is no need for you to say a lot of truths, as long as he sees it with his own eyes, they will immediately understand the Tao in it.

There is no need for Xiao Lotian to repeat every day how important maritime interests are, and every officer who has been to Europe or been stationed in the Ryukyus has already figured it out.

Look at the fleets flowing on the oceans, look at the massive cargo commodities across the whole earth, look at the European warships in the world to protect the commercial interests of their countries, and look at the tide of capital throughput...... Every Chinese was shocked.

We have also had such glory, the interests of the Silk Road in the Han and Tang dynasties, the Chinese took the lion's share, and the maritime trade of the Song and Ming dynasties China's merchant ships also once crisscrossed the seas, that is, the commercial interests on the post-earth must wait for the Chinese to take the lion's share.

It's just that everything is already in the past tense, and now the interests on the sea have been firmly controlled by Westerners, and the navy of the empire on which the sun never sets is now following the famous double-power strategy in history.

What is the dual-power strategy, that is, Britain's navy must not only be the first in the world, but also exceed the combined navy of the second and third powers.

To be able to formulate such a maritime strategy, one can imagine how dependent Britain is on maritime interests.

Xiao Lotian will not challenge the maritime interests of the British now, and he does not have the strength, but he can still fight for the control of China's coastal waters, and now it is not a big naval strategy, but the so-called island chain strategy.

The Japanese archipelago will eventually be controlled by itself, from the Japanese archipelago south to the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan Island, and the northern part of the Philippine Islands, which are all areas under Xiao Lotian's complete control.

The first island chain that once blockaded China has now become the first bridgehead to protect China.

Not only that, Xiao Letian also set his sights on the second island chain in the flat Pacific Ocean. Guam, Hawaii, Iwo Jima, the Mariana Islands, and even some ports in New Zealand and Australia have not yet shown their strategic value, and if they can get their hands on it before the United States can do it, there will be no enemy strongholds in the western Pacific.

The idea is grand, but it is not impossible to realize it, Hawaii was annexed by the United States in 1898, more than 30 years ago, and the United States, which had just experienced a civil war, did not have the extra naval power to annex it.

Xiao Letian negotiated with the French to buy Tahiti in the South Pacific, in fact, it was just an attempt by him to this strategy, first leave a flying son outside the second island chain, regardless of whether he could hold it or not, of course, Xiao Letian did not expect to be able to put troops now, but now de jure enough reason is definitely good for future rule.

This ideal is very full, but the reality is very skinny, and when even East Asia is not well managed, it is just too ambitious to think about those unrealistic, which is not Xiao Letian's style.

It turns out that there are still a lot of smart people in this world, and since Xiao Letian wants to go to the South Pacific to get the next flyer, then France can also drive a wedge in the first island chain.

Your Xiao Letian's strategic focus is that those rotten Confucians in the Qing Kingdom can't understand it, but it doesn't mean that the French can't understand it, and where the batches of arms in the hands of the four feudal clans came from, this can't be hidden from the eyes of the French.

France is willing to do anything that can give Xiao Lotian a headache, and the hatred between the French emperor and Xiao Lotian has long been irreconcilable.

During the long meeting, these wise brains gathered together and thought desperately, analyzing the situation in Japan all the way to the situation in East Asia, from Japan's strategic protection role to China, and mentioning the illusion of the blockade of the first island chain.

It was a brainstorming that was destined to go down in history, until finally everyone present reached a little consensus and two points of disagreement.

The consensus is very simple, that is, it must intervene in the situation in Japan, and Xiao Letian's forces must control the situation in Japan, so that Japan can become a controllable bridgehead in Asia, and thus become a strategic buffer zone in northern China.

The hardliners represented by Luo Huo hope to send troops immediately, and after victory, they will also station troops in Japan for a long time, and it is their goal to control Japan by force.

Xiao Hexin and others are representatives of the moderate faction, they are not willing to force Japan excessively, but hope to use economic, diplomatic and other soft power to influence Japan, unless the four feudal clans of the curtain fall to the prime minister for help, otherwise the new army is just waiting and seeing.

These two points of view were arguing in the conference room until the sun went down, and finally Xiao Lotian made a conclusion about the meeting, and then announced the adjournment.

"It's only February, the French aid to the shogunate has just begun, there is still a long run-in period for soldiers and weapons and equipment, and the French also pay great attention to the cultivation of new soldiers, so three months of queue training is indispensable......

"Then there is the run-in of people and equipment, which will take another two or three months, plus the domestic transfer of troops to prepare materials, that is to say, the shortest time for the conflict will be in August and September, the golden autumn season, we still have plenty of time, during this time we have recruited more than 10,000 new troops will soon become an army......

"Therefore, we should not mess with ourselves first, and work hard to accumulate our armaments first, and in the final analysis, everything depends on strength...... Go ahead, remember that from tomorrow onwards, every day is a day of war readiness, give me a good training!"

"Yes!" everyone in the conference room stood up and saluted the prime minister.

Xiao Lotian walked out of the smoky conference room, and several waiters trotted in to start cleaning up, and the ashtray alone emptied ten large jars, and all the windows were blown in by the open cold air.

"These guys don't learn to be good, they will learn bad, and their addiction to smoking will not be small when the time comes, and they must be forced to quit smoking when they turn back......"

Just as he was complaining, an old and thin figure walked over, it was Xiao Letian's father-in-law, Fan Yao, who saw him running over excitedly.

"Happy! The first batch of submarine cables shipped from the United States has entered the port, and the engineers said that we can lay the first cable after a three-day break......

"Oh, Father, this is the first good news I've heard in the past few days, let's go and take Mr. Nobil with me......"

After Xiao Lotian and his party arrived at Naha Port, three pitch-black clippers were tied to rolls of pitch-black cables, which were the thickness of copper coins.

The submarine cable of this era is much simpler than that of later generations, which not only have copper wires for communication but also a considerable part of optical fibers, and copper pipes and lead counterweights are added to the cables, and there is a heavy protective layer on the outside to prevent damage from deep-sea sharks and other animals.

The diameter of truly modern submarine cables must reach a thickness of thirty or forty centimeters, and the cost is of course too high for Xiao Lotian to imagine.

But the most primitive cable is not so complicated, in fact, the insulation layer is wrapped around the copper wire, which can ensure the transmission of telegraphy has been satisfied.

Historically, in 1856, the Atlantic Cable Company was founded. In 1857, the company began to take charge of the work of laying the cable, and although the laying was successful, it failed due to the substandard construction of the cable and the corrosion of the insulation.

In 1856, a second submarine cable was broken while sinking into the middle of the Atlantic, plunging into an abyss of 360 meters. In 1866, the Atlantic Cable Company built a third cable, which was sunk by the famous electrician Thomson, and finally succeeded.

Thomson, a scientist, was awarded the title of Lord Kelevan for his work in opening up the Atlantic submarine cable.

Now that there is a mature technology, Xiao Lotian of course uses it directly, but in order to improve safety, Xiao Lotian deliberately requires a ring of heavy lead wire to be added to the rubber protective layer of the cable, which increases the cost by 15%, but the reliability of the cable has increased by 25%.

In the light of the lantern, Xiao Lotian spread out a peculiar map: "Mr. Nobil, come and see, this is the topography map of the seabed leading to Kyushu Island in the Ryukyu Islands, and it took our hydrographer two years to draw a rough ......"

"Ryukyu Main Island, Wamarari Island, Tokunoshima Island, Amami Oshima...... This series of islands proves that there is actually a continuous mountain range leading directly to Japan, and there are a large number of islands in this section of the sea that can be transferred, so the fiber optic cable laying must be very smooth......"

"Including the cable line from Ryukyu to Tanggu and Shanghai, it will not be as responsible as the Atlantic cable plan, because China's coastline is a continental shelf structure, there is no direct big cliff, and most of the cables can also be hidden in the deep silt on the seabed, which is much safer than the rough Atlantic Ocean......

It is too rewarding to be able to show off his knowledge in front of a scientific giant like Nobel, anyway, Nobel does not understand cable technology, let alone ocean currents, and does not let Xiao Letian fool.

But the American engineers who laid the cables were all experts, and when they heard Xiao Letian's reliable jargon, their eyes lit up: "Oh God, the pastors of the church are really right, Mr. Prime Minister is really the first awakened person in Asia, and your profound knowledge has impressed us......"

If you don't accept it, you can start seabed hydrological exploration two years ago, what a far-sighted vision, and it is impossible to make such a decision without absolute confidence in new technology.

"Yes, the Prime Minister said that he was right, the cables we brought are enough to spread from Ryukyu to Kagoshima, and since there are many islands to rely on, we believe that within three or four months, you will be able to send the first telegram to Japan......"