Toyo, Hiroshima base camp.

It was late at night, but the hall was full of important officials of the Oriental military state, and no one could come up with a practical charter until now.

Emperor Meiji, Hirobumi Ito, Semichi Saigo, Kiyotaka Kuroda, Shigenobu Okuma, Mutsu Munemitsu, Masayoshi Matsukata, Tonosuke Takashima, Noboru Saionjima, Shin Inoue, Gentaro Kodama, Gonbei Yamamoto, Keisuke Otori, Yasushi Nomura,——

The elites of these militarists, all with gloomy faces, cursed the bastard Youpeng of Shan County more than a hundred times in their hearts.

Today, at the end of the day, Lin Dong, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, was angrily questioned by the British ambassador Chu Enchi, saying that he had received an express indication from the empire that he was not allowed to enter the customs, but he attacked Shanhaiguan and Yongping Mansion in the customs without authorization.

After listening to Chu Enchi's questioning, Lin Dong's face turned pale at that time.

If this matter is changed to a general to lead the army, Lin Dong dares to immediately guarantee that this is absolutely impossible to happen, but he is really not sure about the famous 'violent man' General Shanxian County.

Then, Chu En angrily told Lin Dong that the British Empire would impose some small punishments on Dongyang's bad behavior of not abiding by integrity.

If the Japanese army did not immediately withdraw from the border, then the punishment after that might not be so 'gentle' anymore.

Hearing these words, Lin Dong's face was a little cloudy, but his heart settled down, and he breathed a long sigh of relief.

Britain and Japan are thousands of miles apart, and since it is a 'small punishment', and it is also very 'gentle', I don't think it will cause too outrageous losses to the empire.

As long as it is quickly reported to the base camp and the First Army is forced to retreat, this incident will disappear.

In the end, Chu Enchi didn't even want to drink a cup of hot tea, and before his ass was hot, he got up and said, "Lord Kimberly, the Imperial Foreign Secretary, is extremely disappointed with Dongyang's rebellion; This incident will seriously affect the level of judgment of the degree of Oriental civilization in Britain and even the entire West. ”

After speaking, Chu En didn't look at Lin Dong Kabai's face, and strode away.

And when Lin Dong heard this, his face was far from pale, but his body and soul were trembling slightly.

If this passage were to be heard by someone who did not understand foreign affairs, it was likely that he would feel that this was simply a threat without any deterrent effect.

It is likely that Chu Enchi will be made to laugh secretly by Chu Enchi's serious appearance when he said these words.

However, as a former student at the University of London, Lin Dong, who had been transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1871 and is currently the deputy minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and concurrently the director of the General Affairs Bureau, certainly understood the serious meaning behind this breezy remark.

Over the past few decades, Toyo has been tirelessly seeking the recognition of Western countries, abolishing unequal treaties, and obtaining equal rights to dialogue and military and commercial exchanges.

The prerequisite for all this is to change the West's inherent perception of the Orient as 'barbarism', and to recognize the Orient as a new, civilized, and progressive country that abides by international conventions.

The Japan-Britain Treaty of Commerce and Navigation last July was a great victory for the Empire in its efforts to gain Western recognition.

It was precisely on the basis of the signing of this treaty that Dongyang dared to launch this big gamble against the Qing Dynasty.

In a word, when the hunter participates in the feast of the Western powers to carve up the world, or when the lackeys in the hands of the great powers can be sacrificed at any time, or more tragically, they become the prey of the hunter's gun and the mouth of the hunting dog.

In the clouds, still trampled into the mud.

This invisible and intangible 'level of judging the degree of Oriental civilization' is particularly important.

When the news reached the Hiroshima base camp, the Oriental monarchs were first shocked, then in an uproar, then in an uproar, and now all of them have become silent.

From the moment he received the news from Lin Dong, Emperor Meiji personally went to the Hiroshima base camp telegraph office, and sent telegrams one after another, all of which were lost in the sea, and there was no reply.

Later, at the suggestion of the Minister of Transport and Communications, the Army Infantry Officer, Masashi Terauchi, the Telegraph Office tried to send telegrams to Pyongyang, Uiju, Dalian Bay, Liaoyang, Yingkou.

All received a call back very quickly.

So everyone blackened their faces and understood in a panic.

If it weren't for the broken telegraph line, or Yama Prefecture Youpeng, who had been arguing with the battle plan of the base camp, chose to refuse to return the call, and insisted on going south to Zhili to launch a decisive battle against the Qing Dynasty.

At this time, the dark clouds in the battle hall of the base camp were overwhelming, and it was depressing.

Including Emperor Meiji and Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito, they were all at a loss.

I don't know how to deal with the anger from Britain next, and how to clean up all kinds of possible unexpected messes in the future.

"If you really defeat the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing Kingdom announces that it will fight to the end with the empire, everyone-"

Ito Hirobumi looked around at the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs of the East: "Steel, gunpowder, white coal,——, the war resources of the empire are about to run out; Without coal, a warship is a pile of scrap metal, and without steel, guns are a pile of scrap metal! And even worse! ”

Ito Hirobumi couldn't suppress the anger in his heart with difficulty, and shouted: "The empire has issued a huge amount of war bonds in London, these greedy and shameless foreigners, when the debts skyrocket, you can bring them huge benefits, they are your angels; But! Once the Empire is plunged into the swamp of war, they will show their hideous faces and become terrible ghosts who demand their lives from the Empire! ”

"What if I don't have money to pay my debts?"

Ito Hirobumi gritted his teeth and roared: "Sell grain, sell cotton, sell sons and daughters, smash pots and sell iron to pay off debts; There is no food, and the soldiers are waiting to starve to death! The empire has since fallen into the abyss from which it will never recover! ”

Inside the lobby of the war room, Ito Hirobumi's roar reverberated like a chilling blade, making people shudder.

After a long time, Emperor Meiji said slowly: "This matter can only fall on the fleet that is landing at Shanhaiguan, call Incheon, has the combined fleet arrived?" When it came to give orders to Prince Akihito Komatsumiya and Shoyo Ito, the fleet landed at Shanhaiguan as fast as possible to stop the military adventure of Yamaguchi Yutomo. ”

"Hey!"

Hirobumi Ito, Saigo from the road, stand up in response to the order.

"Well, it's useless for you to be anxious about this matter, and you can always find a proper solution afterwards; Now the priority is how to respond to the UK's question? ”

After listening to Emperor Meiji's questioning, the war room fell silent again.

"In this matter, it must be that the shameless Qing army secretly destroyed the imperial wires, and the commander of the county was angry at the provocation of the Qing army, so he sent an envoy to question why the Qing army general was treacherous, and as a result, the Qing army shot and killed the imperial envoy, provoking international law."

Keisuke Otori, the privy adviser to the Meiji Emperor, once the lie began, the more he said, the more he said: "In order to uphold the public law of the world, the commander of the prefecture raised troops to demand that the Qing army hand over the murderer——"

The Oriental monarchs and ministers in the war room were all in good spirits when they heard it, and at this time, Kodama Gentaro suddenly said: "Since the telegraph lines are broken, how do we know?" ”

“——”

In the middle of the ring, Keisuke Otori blushed and stammered a little: "The wire soldiers of our first army have been connected again." ”

"Well, now that Britain asks the Empire to send a report to the First Army, and the army will immediately withdraw from Shanhaiguan, what should I do?"

Gentaro Kodama asked again in pursuit, which made Keisuke Otori completely stuck.

"This is an idea, it can be said that after the First Army connected the telegraph line, the base camp got this news, and the telegraph line was secretly cut by the shameless Qing army."

Inspired by this, Hirobumi Ito held back his anger and said, "As long as it is a logical reason, no matter how bizarre it is, it is a good reason that can be used." ”