"Your Majesty!"

When Ariga Nagao spoke, he looked cautiously at Yuan Shikai who was lying on the bed.

This Emperor Hongxian of China, who once dominated his life, is just an old man lying in bed and dealing with state affairs and war in his serious illness.

Now, the fighting has calmed down. After the Yunnan Protector Army entered Sichuan, it was in a state of confrontation with the Beiyang Army, and for the time being, they did not see their intention to attack. Therefore, the Beiyang government can take a breather.

On January 21, 1916, the Protectorate captured Xufu (present-day Yibin).

On January 27, 1916, Liu Xianshi, the Guizhou Protector Army, declared Guizhou's independence and sent two Guizhou troops to fight with the Yunnan Protector Army.

Subsequently, a part of Zhao Youxin's regiment under Cai Yi's department, together with the 2nd Division of Liu Cunhou of the Sichuan Army, which had rebelled, jointly launched an attack on Luzhou, Sichuan, in early February, when the battle was raging at the front.

Emperor Hongxian, who struggled to get out of bed, was half-lying on the bed, with a large number of manuscripts, documents and other things spread out on the quilt. While Admiring the resilience of the Chinese, Ariga Nagao also took pity on the patient in front of him.

I don't know if he doesn't trust his son and his subordinates, or if he doesn't trust anyone but himself! If we look at China today from the perspective of a Japanese, we can only say that what is happening in China today is exactly what they want.

As a close confidant of the prime minister, Nagao Ariga is well aware of Japan's strategy. As a friend of the Chinese emperor, he believed that with his efforts, a pro-Japanese Chinese empire would emerge. If this country becomes controlled by the pro-Japanese faction, it will have absolute benefits for Japan's future strategic development.

Taking advantage of the war between the Western countries, we should strive for a greater voice among the Eastern countries. In the final analysis, Japan is going to participate in the international competition, and according to the Japanese understanding of the phrase "long-distance friendship and close attack", it is natural that China will conquer more places. This will be Japan's participation in international military, economic, or other competition in the future, and China's resources will be a necessity for Japan.

In addition, I absolutely do not like the emergence of a unified China, and the impact on Japan's future future is definitely a matter of survival. Even if China were controlled by the pro-Japanese faction, it would not allow them to form a unified force. If that is the case, China, which is huge and has a chance for peaceful development, will one day surely send Japan into the abyss from which it will never recover.

It is funny that at this moment, the leaders and elites of China, whether it is Liang Qichao, Sun Yat-sen, or the emperor in front of them, are desperately trying to get more help from the Japanese Empire. Therefore, they will all give some benefits to the Japanese to a greater or lesser extent.

In the eyes of the Japanese government, the matter that Nagao Ariga mentioned below has a bearing not only on China's future development but also on China's survival. The direct source of this news was a telegram that had just been sent back from the European side.

The person who sent the telegram was Major General Yoshio Fujino, the guy who was ignored by Tang Yunyang. In a little more than a month, the news spread from Europe back to Japan, and then circled around with the Prime Minister of the Japanese Cabinet, Shigenobu Okuma, and finally reached the hands of Nagao Ariga.

According to this news, in the city of Nancy, France, there was a Chinese of unknown origin Tang Yunyang. Lang opened an arms company with his patronage.

Due to the advanced nature of their weapons, the company has developed extremely rapidly. At the same time, it is likely to have the support of the French and British militaries, and become a specialized supplier of certain types of weapons to the Allied armies.

Disturbingly, they may have ties to their alliance with China, and it is likely that they are secretly training troops in the test base they call "castles". According to the Ministry of Imperial Intelligence, they are roughly affiliated with the League, and their main goal is to train a large number of skilled workers for China in France and to expand the number of international students.

This can be guessed from the fact that they will sign agreements with other Allied countries on arms dealings related to studying abroad. As a result, Prime Minister Shigenobu Okuma has informed all parties concerned that the company is under strict surveillance. In addition, it was necessary to start from all possible sources and disrupt their development and contacts with the military of the Entente powers.

In particular, they make heavy use of Chinese laborers, making it difficult for non-ethnic Chinese to blend in. Therefore, the only way to destroy it is to start with the Chinese government. Therefore, although Ariga Nagao pitied the old man who was lying on the sickbed in front of him, he still couldn't help but bother him with this matter.

There are times when Nagao Ariga feels a deep shudder when he thinks about it. After all, a fully industrialized China is a scenario that Japan absolutely does not want to see, and this is obviously their purpose in taking advantage of the war in Europe to train technicians on a large scale and increase the number of students studying abroad.

As mentioned earlier, Nagao Ariga would not advise Yuan Shikai to suspend the company's efforts to recruit Chinese workers in China. Because if that matter was known to Britain, France, and the United States, it would affect the image of the empire among the Entente powers.

But he will take advantage of the other party's recruitment of Chinese workers to try to stuff some intelligence officers in, which is the purpose of his coming to see Yuan Shikai today.

"Your Majesty!"

Yuan Shikai raised his head and glanced at Ariga Nagao, and greeted him with his gaze. In addition to his talents, he also had a last resort reason for using this political adviser.

After all, in the matter of becoming emperor, except for Japan, other countries have given him some kind of warning in obscure language. Such a choice is extremely conducive to the development of Japan's forces in China, but it may damage the interests of European and American countries in China. For this reason, as a basis for him to achieve his goals, he had no choice but to get close to the Japanese and even accept their 21 articles.

"Mr. Nagao Aria, please sit down!"

At this time, Yuan Shikai no longer had the excitement he had when he first became emperor, he once thought that the Chinese could not live without an emperor, and as long as he became an emperor, he could reorganize China's interests, unify China's various forces, and finally achieve his own goals from another angle.

Like all politicians, he wants to make China strong. But in the face of constant invasion by external forces, it is necessary for them to sell some of China's interests in exchange for support.

(The first release of this book) does not laugh at group A: 35761481; Email: [email protected].

So to whom is it betrayed? How to sell?

He thought that if he did this well, he would be a politician worthy of the Chinese and a politician who could get China out of the status quo.

In fact, in the face of an industrialized world, how effective can this kind of political manipulation derived from the Confucian tradition be? It is estimated that none of the so-called elites, leaders, and politicians at that time thought clearly. This is also the fundamental reason why during the First World War in Europe, China did not establish a complete range of industries.

Strength, in the eyes of Confucian-educated people, is as ridiculous as a peddler's pawn relying on his fists to do things.

Therefore, when he and the other political leaders competed on the battlefield of politics, they quickly lost all their expectations, and everything they did was just another failed attempt.

For whether he is an emperor or not, or whether he can be an emperor for a long time, how much temptation can there be for a person who has not lived for a few days. Especially in this situation where the political situation is becoming increasingly "wind and frost is getting tighter and the river is cold", it is really a problem that it can last for a few days.