When Ambassador Kishigero Bihara reported the incident to Tokyo by telegram, Prime Minister Masayoshi Matsukata convened the elders to discuss how to respond to the incident.

Time flies, with the death of Inoue Shin in the fourth year of Taisho, the nine elders of the Meiji era are left with Matsukata Justice, Yama Prefecture Aritomo, Saionji Gongwang, and Katsura Taro, among which Katsura Taro has become unconcerned about the world due to the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War, and the real power is only Matsukata Justice, Yama Prefecture Aritomo, Saionji Gongwang three and some rising stars, such as the Yamamoto Gonbei of the Navy, Takahashi Shiqing in the financial world, Kato Takaaki of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, etc., at this time in Japan, because of the defeat of the Japanese and Chinese Emperor Taisho lost power, The power of the state is entirely in the hands of the plutocracy and warlords.

The winter of the sixth year of Taisho was colder than ever, the snow was heavier, and the north wind was so whimpering that people did not dare to go out. Although the weather is so bad, in the eyes of these high-ranking people, it is an auspicious sign of a good year of snow and prosperity. In this year, Japan will completely transform from a debtor country to a creditor country, and Japan's finances, which began with the Russo-Japanese War and continued to deteriorate from the Sino-Japanese War, have finally reversed the trend of decline and begun to appear in black letters. This is something that could never have been dreamed of, but now the dream has come true, and with the rapid development of shipping, military industry, shipbuilding, chemical and other industries, the national treasury will be more and more abundant, and the gold reserves will also increase, which is really a Taisho miracle that no one could have imagined.

It is as wonderful as a spring dream, but when you think of the benefits that China has gained, especially the benefits gained in shipping, it makes the Japanese who know the inside story indignant. More than 200,000 shipbuilders and more than 100 docks and slipways in Japan are building ships for the Chinese. Although this year, the shipbuilding price has risen by another 100 yen per ton, reaching 400 yen per ton. But the money is limited after all, even. It's not as much as the Chinese make more money selling steel.

After learning about the Zhengyangmen incident, Takahashi Shiqing, who knew the most about shipping revenue, asked: "Is China going to war with the United States?" ”

"Not sure yet." At this time, Foreign Minister Takaaki Kato only knew that all the militia in Beijing had been mobilized, and he did not know that these people were finally driven back by Yang Rui. "As long as the Yang clan can control the situation, I don't think the situation will be so bad."

"It's a pity." Takahashi couldn't help but say that if China and Mikistan really want to go to war, then the world's largest merchant fleet will be completely controlled by Japan, which is a business of billions of yen.

"Ahem......" Xiyuan Temple Gong Wangqing coughed and said, "The Yang family will never be so confused. The United States has already declared war on Germany, once China and the United States declare war. That is to be the enemy of all the Entente powers. A big reason for the armistice between Japan and China in the third year of Taisho was that Yang wanted to obtain a stable foreign trade channel, and he was so deliberate to reach this agreement, how could he abandon it at this time. After speaking, Saionji Gongwang smiled and said, "Takahashi-kun, how many billion yen can the shipping business harvest this year?" ”

The Bank of Japan, which Takahashi is in charge of, is in charge of this ......year, the State Bank of China, the Yokohama Zhengjin Bank, and the Chinese Overseas Chinese Bank, together with the four major banks, are responsible for the financial operations of the Sino-Japanese shipping company. Japan's shipbuilding funds are loaned by the State Bank of China to the Bank of Japan, and then issued by the Bank of Japan to large and small shipyards in Japan. The ship was launched and handed over to the shipping company for operation, and at this time, Yokohama Zhengjin and Kisho Bank jointly managed the operating income and expenses of the shipping company. and according to the previous agreement, the monthly account is divided.

The State Bank of China is the funder of the project, the Bank of Japan is the supervisor, and the Zhengjin Bank and the Overseas Chinese Commercial Bank are responsible for the financial management of the project. But the more it was so clear, the more worried Takahashi was about Kiyocai. He said with some difficulty: "Your Excellency, because of the reason that the rice country declared war. Freight rates have skyrocketed to the point of unimaginable Cheng dù, and this year's annual earnings have ....... Judging from the amount of merchant ship launched this year, it is likely to exceed 6 billion yen......"

"Ahh All the people in the room were terrified. Last year's shipping revenue was just over 1 billion yen, and even if more than 2 million tons of merchant ships are added this year, it is unlikely to exceed 6 billion!

Shan County Youpeng couldn't help but stand up and said, "Takahashi-kun, is this true?" ”

There was a look of disbelief on everyone's faces, and Takahashi said with a wry smile, "The people of the United States have announced the official ship charter rate, taking the 6,000-ton merchant ship as an example, its prescribed speed is more than 11 nautical miles, and the monthly charter fee is 625 gold yuan per ton [Note:]." This year, more than 2 million tons of merchant ships will be launched, and in half of that, the size of the fleet will be nearly 6.5 million tons. If all these ships are leased to the United States, it will cost 4 billion yuan a month. Of course, so many ships may not be rented by the country, but this can fully explain what the shipping revenue will reach, and we lost again in the last negotiation with China. ”

Yang Du came to Japan a few months ago to discuss the distribution of profits between China and Japan, and at that time, the Japanese side hoped to increase the Japanese side's share of the operating income of the cooperative construction of merchant ships, and prepared a lot of arguments and reasons for this. I don't want Yang Du to divide these things into two in one go, that is: the old sharing agreement will be maintained until the end of the fifth year of Taisho, and the sixth year of Taisho will begin to be divided according to the Japanese agreement; At the same time, it is guaranteed that the price of 500 yuan a ton of shipbuilding steel plate will not increase and will be supplied in sufficient quantities.

The war had been going on for three years, and even Germany, which seemed to be strong, had reached the point of exhaustion. Forget about the sharing agreement, everyone knows that the war will end in three years at most, and if the fifth year of Taisho is divided according to the old sharing agreement, then only the sixth and seventh years of Taisho will be left to enjoy. Considering that only more than one million merchant ships were divided according to the old agreement in the fifth year of Taisho, and that the merchant ships divided into more than 2 million tons and more than 3 million tons in the sixth and seventh years of Taisho, and finally stimulated by the news that the price of domestic marine steel plates in the United States would rise to $500 a ton, Takahashi and others, who were in charge of the negotiations, immediately agreed.

Because it was not as desperate as China, in the second year of Taisho, that is, in 1914, the shipbuilding volume was only 70,000 tons; In the third year of Taisho in the following year, because China began to place orders for shipbuilding in Japan, the shipbuilding volume soared to 530,000 tons; In the second year, the two countries negotiated the integration of shipbuilding, and began to mass-produce Chinese standard ships with an annual output of more than 800,000 tons with the cooperation model of China's money and Japan's shipyard labor. And this year. With the expansion of dock slipways and the completion of personnel training, the amount of water launched by merchant ships will exceed 1.2 million tons.

Excluding the shipbuilding volume of the three years of Taisho. The volume of merchant ships that really belong to the operation of both Chinese investors is 800,000 tons last year and 1.2 million tons this year, and. This year's 1.2 million tons are used while making them, which is actually equivalent to 600,000 tons. There is a shortage of merchant ships in the world, and during the peak price period, the profit earned by this 1.4 million tons of merchant ships is likely to exceed the profit earned by the next 2 million or 3 million tons of merchant ships.

He said that he had lost, and the faces of the big guys suddenly became ugly, and Yamamoto Gonbei asked, "Takahashi-kun." How many billion yen will we lose? ”

According to the Sino-Japanese shipping agreement, the Japanese Navy provided operational security for the merchant fleet, and the remuneration was three percent of the annual shipping profits, and this business caused the Navy to quickly abandon the 84 shipbuilding plan and change to the 88 plan, without thinking about why the Chinese would give the Japanese Navy such a big benefit. The navy's share of more than 30 million yen last year has already made Gonbei Yamamoto and other admirals very excited, and they do not want to think that this year's shipping revenue will exceed 6 billion, which is equivalent to the navy can earn 200 million yen. It's just that 200 million yen is 'vested' income. Yamamoto wanted to save other interests for the empire.

"This ......" was asked by Yamamoto Gonbei, Takahashi is clear speech, I really don't know how to calculate this money, this 1.4 million tons of merchant ships can probably earn 1.4 billion this year. According to the old sharing agreement, China got 1.2 billion yuan and Japan got 2 yuan; And according to the new. China has 980 million and Japan has 420 million. But if the merchant ships were all their own. The 1.4 billion yuan will be fully received by Japan, along with the operating income of the other two million tons of merchant ships. But who makes it impossible for Japan to predict and prepare in advance, like China, and to have steel mills that produce millions of tons of steel a year?

Will it be so passive or suffer from the poor decision-making and industrial base of the whole country, although China is backward, but the Chinese government concentrates all its forces on one or two industries, so it has such a harvest; Japan, on the other hand, is extremely prosperous in all walks of life, not to mention shipping, and even China's steel industry is not as profitable.

Thinking of this, Takahashi Shiqing sighed deeply and said, "If we compare the old and new agreements, then we only lost 220 million, but the entire shipping, except for my country's original 2 million tons of merchant ships, the shipping income of the rest of the merchant ships needs to be divided into seventy percent to China, this is our lesson!" China lacks steel, and more importantly, lacks investment vision, and our cabinet should also set up a State Bureau of Commerce and Information to provide guidance for foreign trade, as China has done. ”

Takahashi believes that the difference between China and Japan in dealing with the European war this time is that the Chinese have comprehensive information collection and proper decision-making, so they have this gain, while Japan is pushed by the current situation, passively accepting market information, without forward-looking plans, and has little benefit. Jianyiyi, who established the Commercial Intelligence Bureau, said that Matsukata Masayoshi and Xiyuan Temple Gongwang both nodded, but Yama Prefecture Youpeng said, "Do I give the Chinese seventy percent of the shipping income for nothing?" ”

Yama County Youpeng seemed to want to come with some means, Takahashi Shiqing immediately said, "Now China's shipbuilding steel is all from China, if China does not provide steel, then can only turn to the United States." I don't think the people of the United States will give us a better cooperation agreement than we do now. At most, they will give the shipyard a high price, and as for the shipping revenue, we will not get a penny. ”

Takahashi said that Matsukata, Saionji, Yamamoto, and Kato all agreed deeply after thinking about it, and the biggest difference between China and the United States is that China does not take into account Japan's strong navy, while the United States is the opposite. After explaining the difference between China and the United States' strategies toward Japan, Takahashi added, "The Chinese Navy has more than 170 submarines, and each merchant ship is loaded with explosives to sabotage the merchant ship in advance. ”

Before Shan County could say anything about seizing the ship, Takahashi told him that it was not feasible, which made Shan County very embarrassed, but fortunately the telegram from Beijing came again at this time. Matsukata Masayoshi, who read the telegram, said: "The Yang clan came forward to soothe the excited soldiers, and now they have been disbanded. ”

As soon as Matsukata said that Beijing was fine, all the bigwigs were a little disappointed. After the friendship between China and Japan, the hidden pain of defeat in the past flared up from time to time, but the military strength was not as good as others, and no one in the whole country mentioned revenge. Now that China and Mi may go to war, it would be better for the two enemies to fight, and I don't want this tone to be endured by the Yang family.

"It seems that we should publicize the Boxer Rebellion more positively, so that the relationship between China and Europe and the United States will ......," Takaaki Kato suddenly said, he really didn't know much about China before, but after the past two years, he already knows very well what the situation in China is. According to the Chinese Tong Koike Zhang Zao, if Japan wants to gain greater benefits in China, it must have China pro-Japan and far Europe, and China should be pro-Japanese and far European, and the best way is to resolve the grievances between the two countries during the First Sino-Japanese War and at the same time positively publicize the Boxer Rebellion.

It is necessary to publicize the massacre of the Omi people in Beijing and the whole of North China, just as they did in the early days of the "Ten Days in Yangzhou" and "Three Massacres in Jiading". There is a massacre in any war, but as long as the bloodiest and most cruel parts are engraved in the hearts of every Chinese, they will hate Omi for the rest of their lives and think that only Japan is China's ally.

Koike Akizo's Tiyì Kato Takaaki agreed very much, and the elders present also agreed that just as the propaganda of the same language in China and Japan and the worship of sins in Lushun, the propaganda of the Boxer Rebellion would bring the Chinese closer to Japan.

"Then let's do it." Matsukata glanced at Saionji and finally agreed to this approach. Previously, Xiyuan Temple Gongwang believed that if Omi knew that Japan stood on the opposite side of the Beijing Protocol, it would cause the Omi people unhappy, but thinking about it, Japan's interests in China are no longer guaranteed by the Beijing Protocol, but are all based on the Chinese's good feelings toward Japan, and it is always a big mistake to publicize that Omi people are bad and Japanese are good.

"Your Excellency, what will the Yang family think about this?" Gongwang of Xiyuan Temple also understood the truth, and did not refute it at the moment, but asked about Yang's reaction.

"In the Revival Army, the Revival Society, and the Peasant Association, there were many former Boxer members." Takaaki Kato said, "In Northeast China, Shandong, and other parts of North China, the remaining Boxer members of the former were basically absorbed by the peasant associations and the Revival Army. Their view of the Boxers was completely different from that of the Chinese gentry, who believed that the Boxers were a helpless revolt of the Chinese people against the oppression of the Omi, and that they had failed only because of improper leadership and lack of discipline. As long as we publicize the rebellion of the Boxers, and do not publicize their superstition and ignorance, I think Yang will not oppose it. (To be continued......)

PS: Note: Declaration, U.S. Wartime Planned Economy, p297