Chapter 168 Concession (II)

Since the Meiji Restoration, the clan and the political party group have been gathering a group of followers to exert influence on the clan, and under this political situation, the foreign policy of the clan has diverged, and the "Lujin faction" represented by the head of the Choshu faction, Yama Yama Aritomo, advocates expansion to Korea and China, implements the continental strategy, and uses military action as the main means of expansion, while the "Haijin faction" led by Ito Hirobumi, a representative figure of the constitutionalist faction, advocates expansion to the sea and learns from the British implementation of the maritime strategy. While gaining the advantage of China's coastal areas, it marched into Southeast Asia, focusing on economic expansion, supplemented by military means, and if the international situation and national strength permitted, it could use force to expel the European and American forces in Southeast Asia if necessary.

Because of the difference in strategic objectives, the diplomatic tendencies of the two factions are also diametrically opposed, because the "Haijin faction" has fixed its strategic goal in Southeast Asia, so they advocate an alliance with Russia, exchange Manchuria for Korea, and then go all out to manage the south, taking into account China's coastal areas, but the "Lujin faction" insists that Rìben and Russia must have a strategic decisive battle on land in order to establish a strategic advantage in Northeast Asia, so they strongly oppose an alliance with Russia.

The two factions fought for many years, and finally a rì Russo-Russian war ended the controversy, with the victory of the rì army, the "continental strategy" subdued the "maritime strategy", and the main attention was concentrated on Northeast Asia, and in 1907 the "Imperial Defense Policy" and the "Imperial ** Corps of Military Program" were formulated, formally establishing the strategic idea of "land and sea subordination", and determining Korea and Northeast China as the main direction of the next expansion.

However, the complicated political struggle cannot be quelled by a single program, and under the influence of the "Lu Jin faction" and the "Haijin faction", the struggle between the army and navy has never stopped, and for the small emerging power, it is impossible to take into account both the army and navy with limited military spending, and can only tilt towards one faction. Although the army established its strategic objectives, due to the unique patriarchal politics, its military expenditure allocation had been dominated by the navy faction since the end of the Russian War, and the army was indignant about this, and the lack of military spending and land, coupled with the deliberate arrangement of the patriarchs Ito Hirobumi and Saionji Gongwang, the army has not been able to complete the formation of the 25 standing divisions determined in the "Imperial National Defense Policy".

With the current strength of the army, it is difficult to guarantee the end of the war against China in the short term, China's territory is too vast, even if the army can easily defeat the Chinese army, but it cannot guarantee that it will be able to retain the fruits of victory, once the war breaks out between China, Russia in the north will never give up this good opportunity to go south, and the United States and Germany may not watch the country swallow China alone. No one dares to guarantee that there will not be another Russo-Russian war, but it is difficult to say which side the European and American powers will stand on this time.

The combination of the international situation and domestic politics determined that Rìben could only take prudent action on the issue of the Qizhou Incident, and any excessive action would be strongly opposed by the moderate politicians, who knew that once the balance of power reached by the Great Powers in China was broken, Rìben would become a rat crossing the street.

But since the end of the Russo-Russian War, the strength of the military department has been unprecedentedly strengthened, the soldiers have become the idols of the people, and their influence on politics has become stronger and stronger. Instead of pulling the master and rushing to other beasts.

As a sympathizer of the Machitokai Association, Nishizawa was also worried that Rì Benzhèngfǔ would not be able to control the military headquarters, because the military headquarters was not owned by Yama Prefecture Aritomo alone, and the military headquarters was also divided into different factions.

Although the Rìben Navy has always denied that the Qizhou Incident was deliberately provoked, the Rìben Army has always believed that this incident may have been a counterattack launched by the "Haijin faction" in the military headquarters, with the aim of retaliating against the "Lu Jin faction" for its restraint on the "88th Fleet" issue.

It is precisely for this reason that Yama Prefecture Aritomo, who represents the power of the army, took a tough stance on this matter and tried to suppress the "Haijin faction" in order to show the strength of the army and obtain more military spending from the cabinet to further strengthen its control over Korea and South Manchuria.

As an outsider. Kimao Nishizawa was powerless to intervene in the struggle between the army and the navy. He only cares about the Han Yeping issue. If you can't solve this problem. His career is over. Since the commander-in-chief of the Republican Army, Zhao Bei, announced that he would stop supplying Daye iron ore to the Rì Ben Hachiman Iron Works, the news came back to Rì Ben. The price of local steel began to rise. Admirals are not the only ones complaining about this. Now in the value of iron ore imports. A significant number of them come from China.

"But now is a great opportunity. If the empire uses this as an excuse to act decisively. The local advantage in China will be strengthened. Now the Qing ...... Civil War in China. The situation in Europe is tense. The Bosnian crisis remains unabated. The great powers had no time to look eastward. It was an opportunity for the empire to establish its dominant position in China. If missed. It's a shame. ”

Kawashima was heard sighing quickly. Somewhat distracted, Nishizawa smiled bitterly.

"Kawashima-kun. You probably haven't read the latest newspapers? The Bosnian crisis is gradually subsiding. Germany in order to win over Austria-Hungary. Pressure on the pro-German Ottoman new zhèngfǔ. On the other hand. Britain in order to avoid an aggravation of the situation. It does not support Russia's hardline stance. It is no longer possible for the Balkan Slavs to have strong external support. So. It won't take long. Bosnia and Herzegovina will be formally incorporated into the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In fact, this is just a supplementary territorial takeover formality. After all. Austria-Hungary has been 'hosting' these two small Balkan states for thirty years. Nishizawa said unhurriedly.

"This is really an era of the jungle."

Kawashima Naniwa was only slightly surprised. Then he let out a long sigh. said: "It's a pity that the local restoration was twenty years late. Otherwise. Now Tichina may have been an exclusive colony of the Empire. Then we don't have to look at the faces of the European and American powers. ”

"Kawashima-kun, I didn't expect you to have this kind of dream." Kimio Nishizawa shook his head disappreciatively.

"Without the American fleet of black ships, how could Rì himself wake up from a dream? Without the long-term efforts of the reformers, how could the War of the Fallen Curtain be won? We should not sigh that the Restoration was too late, but we should be glad that the Qing people woke up later than Rì himself, and if the Qing people woke up, it would not have been something that Rì could have dealt with alone. ”

"So we have to do everything we can to make the Qing people ...... No, it's the people of China, let them continue to sleep. Naniwa Kawashima agrees.

"And the best way to put them to sleep is to take out the people or forces that might awaken them. In my opinion, the Republican Army is the force that may awaken the people of China, and the empire should destroy them once and for all while they are still in their infancy. ”

Nishizawa sighed helplessly: "The hero sees the same thing. Originally, the Reich could have used the Qizhou incident to intervene, but the British Minister firmly opposed the Reich's policy of expansion, and the new U.S. Secretary of State Knox had already submitted a diplomatic memorandum to the Reich Ambassador to the United States, showing his recklessness against the Reich Navy

Newspapers in the United States are also using the Qizhou incident to incite hatred. ”

"The hands of the Americans are stretched too long."

"The U.S. business community has touched its nose on the Manchurian railroad and commercial issues, and of course it will not rest on its laurels, and since the U.S. move to discriminate against Asian students has been strongly opposed by Rìben, and the relationship between the United States and the United States has fallen to a freezing point, the United States has preemptively established diplomatic relations with the Republic of China before other countries, and it may not be without the purpose of demonstrating to Rìben, and Germany is also following the United States, and it is not conducive to the empire for the two countries to move closer to each other. According to the report of the imperial intelligence agency, the U.S. Consulate in Mukden has organized a group specializing in anti-rì propaganda, and the funding source is sufficient, which can be considered to be provided by the U.S. business community, although this group still has no influence, but no one knows whether they will take advantage of the ~ state incident to make a big fuss. The Cabinet feared that if the ~state incident was not properly resolved, it was likely that the hat of the 'barbarian' would return to Rì himself, which no one wanted to see, so the Empire could only be cautious and could not give any hostile country an excuse. ”

Nishizawa Kimio's words calmed down Kawashima Naniwa and others, although they were very unwilling, but they couldn't ignore the attitude of Western countries. After all, this ancient eastern power has been established for thousands of years, and no one knows when and under what pretext his national consciousness will burst out. The IRA is just a small military bloc.

"Why didn't the British support the Reich in action?" Naniwa Kawashima asked.

"I'm probably still dreaming of a 'balance of power.' If Rì Ben and China go to war now, it will only make the situation more chaotic and give Germany and Russia an opportunity to expand their sphere of influence in China, which is not what Britain wants to see. Moreover, the position of the United States and Germany also seems to have influenced the judgment of the British, who did not want to offend the United States and Germany at this time.

Now only Russia is the only one who explicitly supports rìben, and the other powers do not support rìben's hardline stance. ”

Nishizawa paused and continued: "However, the alliance between Britain and the Empire is not to have any good feelings towards the Empire, but purely to contain Russia's expansion in the Far East, although Britain and Russia have now concluded an entente with Germany, but in the Far East, there are still huge differences between the two countries, and this difference involves national interests and cannot be easily bridged. For the British, it was far better for the Great Powers to jointly control China than to control it by a single country, so if Rìben took the action of expanding its power in China alone, it would not be possible to obtain British support, unless the world situation changed greatly, otherwise, Rìben's sphere of influence would be limited to South Manchuria and Fujian. ”

"The British are really unbearable, the Republican Army is stirring up anti-British sentiment, and they can pretend not to see it." Naniwa Kawashima sighed.

Kimio Nishizawa said: "Britain is a strong bull, and the Republican Army is just a small flea, although the flea bites the bull, but there is no need for the bull to bite back, and even if you want to bite, I am afraid you don't know how to speak." Moreover, the British zhèngfǔ is now calm, which can make people see the British great power bearing, whether true or false, is very crucial to the rise of a country, and rì should also learn this temperament. ”

"I'm afraid this kind of temperament is not something that Rì himself can imitate, at least not now. After the war, the country was overwhelmed by the lack of war reparations and the lack of access to the Russian coastal areas, which directly led to a sluggish domestic market, a weak economy, and a large amount of loans owed to the great powers. Now that the Republican Army is inciting hatred in China, the newspapers in the country have been clamoring for 'punishment of tyranny', and if the empire does not take tough measures, I am afraid that the 'rìbigu burning and beating incident' of that year will be repeated again, and no one knows how the situation will develop at that time. ”

Kawashima Lang's words may not be unreasonable, although the Russo-Russian War ended in the victory of the rìben, but the rìben paid a huge price for it, not only the military casualties, but also saddled with nearly a billion rì yuan of foreign debt, the annual interest on the repayment of the principal is twice the annual budget, coupled with the economic recession in the past few years, the financial situation of the rìben zhèngfǔ is already struggling, if the world economic situation can not improve, the rì can only increase taxes internally, This will only further polarize the domestic public sentiment, which could have been effectively curbed by expanding into the East Asian continent, but the current international situation does not allow Rì Ben to go beyond the thunder pool.

Unless the international situation changes dramatically, it is impossible for Rì Ben to take any unilateral action in China.

But will the international situation change dramatically in the coming years?

"yes, I'm worried about the civilian officials in the Cabinet, too. However, His Excellency the Consul said that the Empire was about to send a large number of naval and army reinforcements to the Kwantung Prefecture, and that if the situation deteriorated further, the Empire would not rule out taking necessary measures. Of course, this depends on the situation of negotiations with the Chinese side, after all, the power of the country is still very weak, and the great powers will never sit idly by and watch the empire go to war against China. ”

"Zhao Bei, the commander-in-chief of the Republican Army, is in trouble, and I think it is necessary for the sword drawing team to take action."

Hideaki Zangmoto, who had never found a chance to interject, hurriedly bowed his head and said: "Please give this task to the next, and I will definitely kill this madman in the shortest possible time." ”

"Assassination is certainly a way, but I think it is best to win a decisive victory on the battlefield, which can not only show the strength of the empire, but also further hit the self-confidence of the people of China, killing two birds with one stone, it is really the ultimate way to achieve ambition on the mainland of the empire."

When Nishizawa said this, he lowered his voice and said: "At present, the most important thing is not the ~zhou incident, but the Korean issue and the Manchurian issue. Last year, I was a guest at the Korean Governor's Office, and I had the privilege of listening to the teachings of His Excellency Ito Hirobumi, the Imperial Governor of Korea, who believed that the annexation of Manchuria must first be done with the annexation of Korea, but the pace of annexation of Korea should not be too fast, and the empire needed to invest more forces in Korea, not just military power, and it was easy to eliminate the Korean royal family, but it would take a long time to eliminate the Korean national consciousness. ”

Kawashima Naniwa said, "Your Excellency Ito is too cautious. North Korea is a ripe persimmon that the empire can harvest at any time, and too many concerns can lead to hesitation. It is said that His Excellency Ito will soon step down from office, and it is hoped that the next Commander-in-Chief will take more decisive action, and now that Russia is no longer opposed to the imperial annexation of Korea, what do we have to worry about? Some time ago, I was running for the issue of the island, and I had a very clear understanding of the situation in Manchuria, but now that there is a revolution in China, the situation is chaotic, and Yuan Shikai's Beiyang Army has limited strength, so it is impossible to take care of Manchuria at all, and now is really a good time for the empire to establish its dominant position in China, and it would be a pity to miss it. ”

"No matter what, the strength of the empire is inseparable from the efforts of the kings." Kimao Nishizawa raised his glass. "Gentlemen, let us work together to fight for the interests of the empire!"

"Hello!"

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