Akasaka Palace is a typical Baroque style building, with blue roofs and gray walls, arched windows and stone pillars, covering an area of 15,000 square meters, which is particularly grand and heavy among the green mountains and boulevards; The exterior is like this, and the interior is decorated like a European palace of the period, with crystal, oil paintings, gold leaf, reliefs, ...... so thick and colorful that you almost forget that you are in the East. It is an important masterpiece of the Meiji period after Japan's secession from Asia and Europe, not only the entire palace, but also the architect who designed it.

Europe or Asia was not a problem at all in the Meiji period, but in the Showa era, it seemed to have become a problem again, especially the experience of Japanese overseas Chinese in the United States made the Japanese realize that no matter how high-end the suit is and how authentic the foreign language is, the Japanese cannot change the fate of being discriminated against; Moreover, not everyone is Westernized, and in the eyes of the general public, tradition is still tradition. As a result, the whole country is like the incomparably strange municipal government building in Shanghai, with a Chinese-style glazed tile roof on the upper floor, and a standard Western-style building on the lower floor.

Of course, the situation in Japan is the opposite, with classic baroque roofs on the upper floors and thin Japanese wooden buildings on the lower floors. The separation of values from the upper and lower levels of the government has alienated the people and is often criticized by the people. This is really not as good as China and North Korea: from top to bottom, it is an oriental structure, and even the legal standards are different from those of the west, so that the top and bottom are one and the same. It is said that under the influence of Miluo, Persia, Afghanistan and other Asian countries, they no longer blindly worship foreigners, but gather domestic scholars to find ways to govern the country in their own history.

This is the case in Miluo Persia and other countries, but Japan, which is already halfway through Europeanization, is difficult to turn around, and regaining tradition is tantamount to betraying Meiji. What should we do if we continue to Europeanize but do not get the real recognition of Europe and the United States?

After breakfast. Dressed in a kimono, Hirohito walks through the gardens of Akasaka Rikyu, followed by King Hirokoshi Fushimi and several court attendants. King Fushimi Miyahiro was reporting to him on his last trip to Tonghua and the navy's reaction to the London Treaty, where negotiations had ended. However, there was a lot of dissatisfaction with the treaty within the navy, and there was a disturbance a few days ago, but fortunately no one was hurt.

"Fushimi, does the Yang clan still have control over the political situation in China?" Hirohito listened to everything Fushiminomiya said and asked the first question.

"Your Majesty, the Yang family has always maintained control over the Chinese political arena, but he doesn't seem to want to interfere too much in the Song cabinet, and he has been a little lazy in recent years." Fushimi Miya said his judgment in one hundred and fifty ten, but he didn't know why the emperor asked about it. Just now, we were discussing the issue of the navy.

"Oh. But the president of the National Bank he appointed is about to be dismissed......" Hirohito said yesterday's news, "If he really can affect the political situation, why didn't he interfere with it beforehand?" ”

"Your Majesty, Your ......Majesty," Fushimi said with a wry smile, this was not at all a question that the Admiral could answer.

"Hehe, I know you don't care about these things." Hirohito stopped and turned to look at Fushimi Palace, and then said, "Then let's talk about the navy, the Yang family really wants the Chinese Navy and the Imperial Navy to fight for real?" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." King Fushimi Miyahiro Gong nodded, "If China and Japan want to establish a joint fleet, then they must solve the problem of operational awareness, and the Yang family has always advocated aircraft combat. It is believed that this is the direction of the development of the navy, and it is precisely with this consciousness that the Chinese navy is building and training. If they are allowed to develop like this, then the Japanese and Chinese navies will not be able to unite. On the contrary, they hinder each other. If you can't solve this problem in the deduction of war chess, then you can only fight in actual combat. I believe that after this battle. The Chinese Navy will re-embrace the attitude of learning from the Imperial Navy, and the Imperial Navy with the Chinese Navy. will become stronger. ”

"Is this the result of the deliberations of the Military Command Department?" Hirohito asked, having been walking for a while, and he had already walked back. "I've heard that other people don't think so."

Yang Rui's invitation to the Japanese Navy caused a lot of shock in the upper echelons of the Imperial Navy with the return of Shigetaro Shimada, although the time was six years later, but six years was not too long, and the framework of the war was certain, that is, the two armies fought for the sea power of Iwo Jima, and the landing on the island was won. No one knows what the Chinese think, but it doesn't matter if it's not clear, fighting battleships with aircraft carriers in a fixed sea area is definitely a layman's imagination. For this reason, Yang Rui gained a reputation as a layman in the Japanese Navy Command Department, which was enough for everyone to laugh at for several years.

But not all the generals thought so, Inoue Narumi almost danced when he heard this, and actually shouted that the Japanese Navy would be reborn in this battle; And Rear Admiral Yamamoto 56, who has always admired the air mother, also said that the Japanese navy would be defeated in this battle. This discordant voice made the two of them even more outliers among the high-ranking generals of the Imperial Navy, and they didn't want the emperor to hear about it.

"Your Majesty, although aircraft technology is advancing rapidly, battleships are also improving, and now the latest warships are more than 30,000 tons, and limited by the Washington Naval Treaty, no country can build a larger tonnage battleship, which seems to give the aircraft a chance, but once the treaty expires, the strength of the shield will be strengthened." Fushimiya said that he was concretizing Shigetaro's contradictions.

"The real role of the aircraft is to help the fleet reconnoiter the enemy's situation and cover the battleships to reach the battlefield for the final decisive battle with the enemy, and it is absolutely unacceptable to deviate from this. Many people who admire airplanes, or navy that admires airplane combat, are rising stars, and they either want to get a faster promotion, or they hope to use this trick to turn themselves into a naval power as soon as possible. This is what the Chinese Navy thought about, and they tried to overtake the Imperial Navy with their aircraft, but it will prove impossible as it turned out. ”

"Okay, I got it." Hirohito, who had also received a naval education a few years earlier, had a deep understanding of the cannon ships, but after all, Chinese planes had sunk Imperial warships, so he had to ask the truth. "That means that in the event of a war, we have an absolute advantage over the Chinese Navy?"

I don't know why the emperor mentioned war, Fushimi Miyako still nodded suspiciously, and Hirohito smiled when he saw this: "I just said what if." China and Japan are extremely friendly today, and even if there are unpleasant behaviors, they are just the personal actions of some snobbish. Fushimi Palace, although there are still a few years left, the navy still has to be well prepared, and the empire's dominant position in the navy must be unshakable. ”

"Yes. Your Majesty. But now the Yang clan has asked the Imperial Air Mother to be managed by the Chinese Navy...... "Fushimi Palace said the most concerned issue in his heart, "This is the condition for the Northeast Oilfield to become a shareholder. ”

"Eight million tons of oil ......," Hirohito's tone was a little helpless. The empire was, after all, an island nation of scarce resources, although the new Japan discovered countless minerals. But New Japan also has no oil, and the annual domestic oil consumption has exceeded 5 million tons....... Oil and steel are all things that pinch the neck. "How big is the Northeast oil field?"

"I heard that the annual output is more than 10 million tons." Fushimiya said. "Yang made sure to give us 8 million tons a year, even if it took China's share of production. If this is the case, then within twenty years, the Reich will have no worries about oil supply. In addition, this oil field is very close to the Sea of Japan, and we can build a separate oil pipeline to the Sea of Japan. After King Fushimi Hirokoto finished talking about the benefits of oil, he was worried that Hirohito would not agree, so he stepped up and said: "The air carrier force is only managed in the Chinese way. The command is still in the Military Command Department. This is not a threat to the Imperial Navy, but it will cheer up the Navy's aviation faction. ”

"The Yang family is planning and deciding everything, and the calculation is extremely far ......away," Hirohito seemed to be muttering to himself, and when he saw that King Fushimi Miyahiro Gong had been waiting for his holy judgment, he said: "The officers of the Air Mother Force must be loyal to the country, and must not be influenced by China in the slightest!" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Fushimi Palace bowed and said, so the holy judgment was agreed.

"Okay, you go ahead and arrange it." Hirohito had already reached the entrance to the palace at this time. This concludes this conversation.

Fushiminomiya, who had been sacred, bowed several times before retiring, and as soon as he left, Hirohito, who had changed his clothes, dressed in a military uniform, immediately went to Kamakura Hall. There, there will be an important meeting.

The Minister of the Imperial Interior, Makino, had been waiting at the door of the Kamakura Hall for a long time, and saw Hirohito appear in the hall. He shouted into the hall, "His Majesty the Emperor has arrived." Marquis Koichi Kido, Duke Fumiko Konoe, and Baron Kumao Harada, who heard the sound in the hall, immediately stood solemnly and bowed, waiting for Hirohito to take his seat. Their bodies leaned forward were slightly erect.

Unlike the Imperial Council that could not speak, Hirohito saw that the three of them did not sit down. He only raised his hand and said, "Sit down." Then when the three of them were seated, he looked at the three of them again and said, "How is the situation in Huaguo?" ”

"Your Majesty, ...... Huaguo" was the first to speak, but when he found that Fumiji Konoe had also spoken, he gave up.

Konoe Fumiro is the vice president of the House of Nobles, and he is also the duke, and his status is the highest among the three, and he fully understands what the emperor wants to know, so he said: "Your Majesty, since the Yang family went into the wilderness, the internal struggle in China has been extremely fierce, especially since the economic crisis, the Song cabinet and the Yang family's henchmen have had many confrontations, and the arrest of the president of the National Bank of China last week and the questioning of Zhang's entry into Beijing this time are all concrete manifestations of internal disputes. Judging from Yang's reaction, we do not see him helping again, so we judge that even if the run on the yen was instructed by Zhang, it may not be Yang's original intention. Yang is said to have lived a daily life of hunting and reading, and has no other behavior. ”

"Your Majesty, in times of economic crisis, we should try to promote a customs union between Japan and China in order to expand exports and reduce unemployment. The previous month, the National Police Agency had once again cracked the case of the Communists, who were planning an insurrection in order to bring about a Russian-style revolution. "Koichi Kido has been plagued by the cracked Communist Party for the past few days, and he has feared the same in Japan since the Russian Revolution.

"Your Majesty, the Customs Union is of paramount importance." Kumao Harada, who was once the secretary of Takaaki Kato and then the personal secretary of the Saionji Konobo, was largely a liaison between the palace and the chaebol, and was an expert in intelligence gathering. "Zhang, president of the State Bank of China, does have a plan to integrate China and Japan, first market integration, then economic integration, financial integration, and monetary integration, but it does not mean that market integration necessarily economic integration, and economic integration must be financial integration. Even if the two countries work together, there is still a lot to deal with, and the Bank of Asia and the Asian dollar are not to be worried. ”

But some people say that Yang is consciously annexing the empire...... "The three in front of him are all Hirohito's cronies, and they are cronies outside the palace, and their opinions Hirohito is extremely important, but he is naturally suspicious, especially now that the cabinet has turned to Britain and the United States, China's reaction has become more concerned."

"Your Majesty, what the Yang clan is most worried about is that the empire is close to Yingmi, so that the empire is likely to join forces with Britain and the United States to blockade China. At the same time, he has always believed that the United States will launch a war against East Asia in more than ten years, and if the empire is on the side of the United States, then the situation of China will be even worse, which is his ultimate motivation for winning over the empire. Marquis Koichi Kido said.

"The alliance treaty is only a defensive treaty, and China does not dare to take the initiative to provoke the United States, so the empire has the initiative on the Eastern Front; Only for Chilu, because the Chinese army has the advantage, they relatively hold the initiative on the Western Front. The idea of annexing the empire is not a cause for concern, and the integration plan of the president of the State Bank, Zhang, is just a means of winning over the empire for fear that the empire will get close to Britain and Mimi, which is the same reason as the new Japan in Central Asia giving to the empire, and it is a means of worrying that the empire will leave China. ”

Kido Yuki's annexation was interpreted as a co-optation, which made Hirohito very satisfied, but Konoe Fumiro said: "Your Majesty, despite this, it is better for the empire not to continue to sign after the expiration of the alliance treaty, so that the empire can be left and right." ”

"Konoe, isn't the time of the treaty thirty years?" Hirohito asked suddenly.

"Your Majesty, it is true that the duration of the treaty is thirty years, but at the same time it is stipulated that every ten years the three parties will make adjustments, and although this adjustment is only for details, if there is an objection to the obligations undertaken, then the treaty will exist in name only." Fumiro Konoe said, his mind reminding him of the Anglo-Japanese alliance treaty. "The year after tomorrow is the time for adjustment, and if the economic crisis does not worsen, the empire can consider ......"

"Your Majesty, the year after tomorrow is definitely not a good opportunity!" Koichi Kido interrupted. "At that time, the economic crisis had just passed, and once it recurred, the empire suffered even more. It is only after 12 years that the opportunity to adjust. ”

Konoe and Kido disagreed, and Kumao Harada, who was silent for a while, said, "Your Majesty, there are two paths before the empire now, one is to abide by international treaties. If this is the case, then the empire should decisively terminate the alliance treaty with China and return to the international system as an independent attitude, so that the empire can be left and right, but China will be extremely angry about this, and the one-sided most favored treatment of the empire in the mainland market will disappear.

The other way is to maintain the current defensive alliance, but abide by international treaties. At present, the rapidly developing mainland market is enough to feed Japanese factories, and this path is more suitable for economic reasons alone. And most importantly, the Yang family no longer has the heart to forge ahead and pioneer, and the international treaties that China also abides by have not crossed the thunder pool. But this is only for now, and after the final revival of China thirty years later, the empire will have to reconsider its direction: whether to continue to abide by the treaty, or to ......"

Kumao Harada's words touched Hirohito's heart, should Japan abide by the existing treaty, or should it break the existing treaty? This is the center of gravity of imperial diplomacy, and at the same time the center of gravity of domestic politics - the Europeans are bent on **** democracy, while the conservatives are inclined to the aristocracy of China, and they even borrow Yangism to completely negate **** and democracy from the perspective of civilization, calling it the poison of civilization destruction. Thinking of the higher and higher voice of democracy ****, Hirohito's mind was confused again. (To be continued.) )