Chapter 196 Friends in Mountain County

Tokyo.

Although it is blindly Westernized, it can't change the history of its culture originating from China. Although there are still ten days until the Spring Festival, many women in Tokyo have begun to celebrate the Spring Festival. For East Asian countries with Spring Festival customs, whether they are poor or rich, the New Year is always over.

However, this year may be the most painful year in my memory. The combined fleet built after the "Emperial Treasure" and the exhaustion of the country was destroyed. The main force of the army was trapped in North Korea and did not return. There was no coastal defense, no land defense in the mainland, and even the sea transportation was cut off. The empire was facing an unprecedented danger.

But in any case, the year always has to be passed.

In the parks and streets of Tokyo, there are always people shouting, "Loyalty to the country, exchange the existence of the country with my blood!" Forty million people return together, with loyalty and courage, seven lives to repay the country and death!", "It is said that it is dangerous, and Dahe is in danger..."

Not only people are shouting, but also some people are shouting in the newspaper. At this time, there seems to be no strange voice. In the newspaper, people can clearly see that students and old people have been included in the national bravery team, and even women have also set up a women's stand-up team. A bamboo pole for drying clothes plus one The handle is made into a bamboo gun, which is their weapon.

In the emergency formation, the thirty divisions, which are regarded as the last line of defense of the empire, are not only equipped with weapons before the Qing Dynasty War, but even the single-shot gun of the staff era. They don't know where they were pulled out for the armed army, but even so, it is still difficult to arm 30 divisions, or even difficult. Arming ten divisions.

The embarrassment of weapons reveals the embarrassment of the Japanese political axe, and the real embarrassment forces the Japanese political axe to make a choice as soon as possible, especially in the face of the continuous shelling of many coastal cities, during which the [***] ship broke into the inland sea at night to shell the coastal cities, which was even more It has exacerbated the war panic among the Japanese people.

The worsening economic situation in China contrasts with the panic of civil war, which makes the Japanese political axe have to seriously consider ending the war through peace.

Under this kind of internal and foreign difficulties, Katsura Taro, who should have been responsible for resigning for this, unexpectedly sat firmly in the position of Prime Minister. Even when public opinion and the people discussed that "Kura's cabinet needs to resign in order to show responsibility", Katsura Taro's position as Prime Minister was not only stable, but even Siping. Eight stable.

After the fall of Hirofumi Ito's cabinet, Taro Katsura received the Prime Minister's letter for the first time on June 2, the 34th year of Meiji. He was born in Changzhou and participated in the Wuchen War when he was young. Of course, he was an unknown little officer, and he has been working in the army system since then. Later, when the Japanese army was converted to German style, he made contributions. He was a non-field military and political soldier. He was more suitable to be a politician than a soldier.

"Katsura Taro is a flatterer with a saber"

In the Japanese political and military circles, many people's comments on him are quite harsh. In order to attract people's hearts, he will pretend to smile. In order to show kindness, he will pat you on the shoulder, and he was also given a nickname, Smiling Tiger. That is to say, he is very good at acting.

He is neither a father nor a father, but he can break the practice that has always been formed by fathers and elders, and uses such a small generation as prime ministers, which once made the whole Japanese society a little uneasy.

At that time, a man came to Xixiang Congdao, the prospective elder, to talk about the uneasy mood of society, saying that Guitaro was not grandi. Hearing this, Xixiang Congdao laughed and replied, "This kind of thing, as long as he puts on a big dress, sits on a few big horse-drawn carriages, and runs back and forth several times, he will Run out of the air. It's such a simple thing."

That being said, Katsura Taro became the prime minister in such an uneasy mood in society. After he finished forming a cabinet, this uneasy mood became stronger and stronger. The young Katsura Taro can't find a big man to serve as a cabinet, and his cabinet is composed of some inconspicuous people. To put it better, it is the cabinet of the young and strong faction.

The foreign minister is Shoutaro Komura, who was promoted from the minister. The internal minister is Tadakatsu Utsumi, the postal minister is Yoshikawa Xianzheng, the agricultural minister is Hirata Tosuke, the legal minister Kiyoura Kyugo, and the literary prime minister Kikuchi Dalu. They are basically unknown people, so they are called second-rate cabinets and backward cabinets and so on.

However, this young cabinet took the Japanese to the Japanese-Russian War and led the Japanese to win the Japanese-Russian War. It was in this case that many people were still full of confidence in him at this time of crisis, but in fact, only Katsura Taro himself knew the inside story.

When Kura Taro became Prime Minister, almost everyone knew that he had four long-verbous mothers-in-law on him.

That is Yamakata Aritomo, Ito Hirofumi, Matsukata Masayoshi, and Inoue Kaoru. They all think that they are the guardians of Katsura Taro, and everyone's thoughts, surname and political opinions are different. It is really difficult for Katsura Taro, a slave, to serve them well.

However, for a long time, Taro Kura can skillfully appease these elders and ministers. After the assassination of Hirofumi Ito, the four masters became three masters, and Taro Kura can still appease these three elders and ministers. At this time, things have changed more and more delicately. It is no longer that he serves the three masters, but the three masters to appease him. Everyone knows what the reason is inside.

Someone must take responsibility for the future. The last time Ito took responsibility, for which he paid for his life. At this time, everyone understands that he would have lost more this time. At this time, neither the prime minister nor the cabinet should be replaced, because no one is willing to bear this. A responsibility.

Kura Taro, who was accused of being "incompetent" by the people, also wanted to resign, but he could not resign. Similarly, this also includes his cabinet. At this time, three masters tied up Katsura Taro, and Katsura Taro also tied his own cabinet.

The Japanese capital can only negotiate peace, so as to ensure the existence of the Japanese capital. Although on the surface, the whole country seems to be preparing for the war, in fact, whether it is the elders and ministers, cabinet dignitaries, political axe officials, and senior officials of the army and navy, they all understand that this fact cannot be changed.

Although Taro Katsura wants to resign and is unwilling to serve as the prime minister again, he is still quite cautious in the face of the three senior ministers.

On October 16, when he received a telegram from Lin Dong, the minister in the UK, he rushed to Shanxian Youpeng, the important minister of the elders, to report the peace plan proposed by the Chinese political axe to Shanxian. Although the United States realized the problem earlier, compared with the discussion of the United States, the United Kingdom quickly submitted a proposal to Japan. In the view of the British political axe, this proposal, which has no practical significance, hardly requires any discussion.

After carefully reading the official document translated by the telegram, Du Taro could clearly see that Shanxian's face was very complicated. His expression was sometimes solemn, sometimes sarcastically, and sometimes with a trace of sadness in the process of his silence.

"What is he thinking about?"

Taro Katsura asked himself in his heart, but he knew that he could not get the answer. Shanxian was such a person. Maybe he was a soldier and a warrior, but his mind was more complicated than many politicians. Perhaps only the dead Ito could guess what he was thinking.

After a long silence, Shanxian Youpeng raised his head and looked at Katsura Taro with a suspicious face and said, "In people's memory, this is the most harshest in world history, even aimed at destroying a country. It is impossible to put forward such a harsh peace plan."

After Ito's death, although there are still three elders and ministers, among the three elders and ministers, only Shanxian County has the greatest influence. This army marshal, especially after the navy is exhausted, can better reflect his value.

Kura Taro nodded vigorously. In his opinion, this proposal and plan was simply an incomprehensible thing, so he could not answer Shanxian's question correctly.

Shanxian Youpeng himself knows this, and he doesn't expect Katsura Taro to answer his questions. It should have been just that he was talking to himself there.

"However, is this the temptation of the Chinese, or does the Chinese have no intention to make peace at all?"

Although he shouted, "In this war of survival, as a country, we must fight to the end for our own survival. It is said that our people must make up their minds to focus on the royal family that has been handed down from generation to generation by God for 2,500 years. Men, women and children are united and vow to fight to the last person..."

But in fact, he also understands that the current Japanese has lost the last bit of capital. The only capital is in North Korea, which is used to resist the failure of the Chinese navy. After the Chinese navy, the Chinese army forces attacked North Korea, thus winning the land advantage. In the end of the peace between the two sides, it will form an undefeated situation. .

In order to avoid this "invincible embarrassment", the army dispatched almost all the elite forces and all the artillery to set up fortifications along the border between China and North Korea. In the past, I didn't know what the fortifications were, but this time I learned from the field fortifications of Lushun and the Chinese to build a seemingly divine "strong" "The defense line" can theoretically block the attack of one million [***] teams for half a year.

But now, the nearly 500,000 troops concentrated in North Korea have become the biggest defeat in this war. After the defeat of the joint fleet, they can't break through the defense line of the [[***] team on the other side, and can't transport it back to defend the Japanese mainland. On the other hand, the land defense of the mainland It's zero.

"It's hard to say, maybe they are testing, or to maintain the face of Britain, Germany and Germany, and refuse to make peace under unacceptable and harsh conditions!"

Kura Taro replied with an answer that was equivalent to not saying.

"So what exactly does China think?"

This is very suspicious. In the view of Youpeng in Shanxian County, the Chinese are extremely good at conspiracy. They are better at conspiracy than Japanese. This time, any failure of judgment is unacceptable, because the current Japanese can't bear the consequences of any misjudgment.

"This, it's hard for us to guess what China is thinking now!"

When Katsura Taro was talking, he sighed in the bottom of his heart. Now the Army Staff Headquarters and the Navy Staff Headquarters are speculating about the next action of the Chinese people. Not only are they speculating, but even the whole Japanese is guessing, but the behavior of the Chinese people is too abnormal.

Now everyone understands that as long as the Chinese people express their willingness to return to the negotiating table, and they put forward a relatively "moderate" peace plan, they would have walked to the negotiating table with gratitude, and then symbolized the dispute of surnames for a period of time, which is also a statement to the people. Finally, they will save a little loss, saying I would have been happy to sign the peace treaty.

In fact, Japan has also been waiting for this peace plan, and has been full of hope and confidence in the intervention of the United Kingdom and the United States.

"Even if it is harsh, it won't be more harsh than Chunfan Tower!"

Kura Taro once thought so, but when he really saw the request for peace put forward by China, he almost jumped up. There was peace there. It was clearly that he wanted to make Japan perish through the treaty!

Before coming to see friends in Shanxian County, he had been thinking for hours and thinking about the reason for forcing China to put forward such a condition, but in the end he was puzzled.

"Gui Jun, do you remember last year, the United States and France lobbied us to hold negotiations with Lu Guo?"

Looking at the peace conditions again, a friend from Shanxian asked.

"Of course!"

Du Taro nodded and said, how could he not remember that he had drafted it at that time?

"That was after the Fengtian Campaign, we did not win the victory, but in order not to hurt the face of the mediated United States and France, we finally proposed a set of expected Lu Chinese..."

Suddenly, Katsura Taro said as if he suddenly realized.

"Your meaning is..."

Before he finished speaking, he said something as if he were talking to himself without doubt.

"But the situation is different. At that time, we did not decide the victory of surname, and now the Chinese have the victory of deciding the surname, unless. Unless..."

"Unless the Chinese are unwilling to end the war at all!"

Youpeng from Shanxian said, and his expression became extremely serious.

"And this is what we have been worried about all the time, because we all know that the current Japanese version can't even stop the attack of 20 divisions!"

Finally, while facing the reality, he exaggerated his own strength a little. Shanxian Youpeng looked at Lin Dong's British attitude in the report and showed a little anger on his face.

"Mr. Gui. This arrogant Yangglu? Saxony, the 'honorable isolationism that once gave up their alliance with us, is still equal. And ah! Moreover, the other party is still yellow. This is unprecedented in the history of British diplomacy.

A friend from Shanxian shook the report with a trace of sarcasm on his face.

"Once, we defeated the Russians with that alliance treaty, but what about now? The British are unwilling to fulfill their responsibilities under the treaty of alliance.

"British white animals can't be trusted!"

As an Asianist, for white people in Europe and the United States, Katsura Taro did not believe them. First, he made a affirmation, and then he continued to say, "In the past, we thought that Britain was unable to intervene in the Far East, so we wanted to let Japan fill this gap and let Japan stop Russia in the right place. Let's go south for endless activities. If the Japanese version is valuable to Britain, why can't the Japanese use the United Kingdom? So we are willing to be used by Britain!"

"Yes! But what about now? We can see that the British had a glimmer of desire to fulfill their obligations at all. Now, they actually claim that the terms of the alliance treaty have never had provisions against the war on Japan and China, so they are unable to implement them. It's really worthy of Great Britain!"

"Sir, now we can see that it should be difficult to rely on Britain to force China to be at the negotiating table!"

"Yes, Britain has British considerations. The Chinese are very smart. After Britain and the United States intervened, they pulled the Germans in again, and the current contradiction between Germany and Britain and France forces Britain to consider whether it will lead to China to fall to Germany if it forces China in the past. Therefore, they are more inclined to be neutral. They may be able to help us and bring the Chinese to the negotiating table, but it is obviously impossible to put the hope of defending Japan on Britain!"

As long as he hears this sentence, Du Taro understands one thing to some extent. Now even friends in Shanxian will not oppose peace.

"So, does the British's submission of this peace plan mean..."

Kei Taro didn't finish his words, but Youpeng in Shanxian threw away the document in his hand, and his eyes drooped slightly.

"If Japan accepts this condition, what does it mean?"

Kura Taro no longer speaks. He knows that if he really signs such a peace treaty, then he doesn't need to think about living at all. He can jump into the sea directly. At that time, angry citizens will not only kill themselves, but also their families will not let go, even their relatives and friends. Friends.

And not to mention yourself, even if there are friends in the mountains and counties in front of you, you may not be able to avoid the anger bursting out by the angry people.

"This peace condition has no value for Japan at all. If we accept it, then..."

Youpeng in Shanxian closed his eyes.

"The empire no longer exists!"

Although there are friends in Shanxian who don't say anything anymore, Katsura Taro understands what he means. Even if the signing empire no longer exists, it's better to fight for the death of the net than to sign it.

At that time, it is impossible to know who will die and who will live. Moreover, if you really fight to kill the net, even if you really lose, you will be willing to lose, and it is no shame to succumb to the strong in the dictionary of the Japanese.

"But..."

Kura Taro finally failed to speak. He knew that rejection also meant extinction. Why did the Chinese refuse to negotiate? Their purpose was already very obvious.

(to be continued)