Just when Yuan Shikai went to Nanjing to take office, thousands of miles away, Japan on the other side of the ocean was also not calm.

In retaliation for the involvement of Japanese intelligence agencies in the attack on the resettlement camps, East China held a large-scale naval military exercise off the coast of Japan, and banned Japanese merchant ships and fishing boats from entering the exercise area.

At this time, the exercise had already entered 20 days, and seven Japanese fishing boats and three merchant ships had been sunk, and nearly 300 Japanese fishermen and sailors had been captured. This has also caused tremendous pressure on Japan, after all, East China is conducting exercises at Japan's doorstep, which is already a demonstration against Japan, and at the same time has a huge impact on Japan's fishing industry and commerce. In Japan, it has triggered a wave of public opinion that is dissatisfied with Japan.

Japan** is also quite annoyed by the unauthorized behavior of the relevant personnel of the War Department, because the focus of Japan's work is now to negotiate with Britain, and it does not want to get involved in the process of taking back control of the customs.

After the war of respecting the king, although Japan has been established for more than 40 years, the customs, like the Qing court, are still controlled by the British, and the tariff is only 5%, and foreign goods can enter the Japanese domestic market at a very low price. The development of industry and commerce is very unfavorable to the industry, although Japan has set up many other obstacles to foreign goods at home, and has virtually increased the cost of imported goods, but this is not a long-term strategy after all, in addition to being a sovereign country, the customs have been controlled by other countries for a long time, and it is not a way, so Japan has always wanted to take back the control of the customs.

But Japan is not like East China** can defeat Britain on the battlefield, and then forcibly take back customs, and set its own customs tariffs, Britain can only pinch its nose and admit it, Japan can only continue to negotiate with Britain, hoping that Britain can return customs control. However, of course, Britain will not easily return the customs power to Japan, first, so that British industrial products can smoothly enter the Japanese market, although the Japanese market is not large, but no matter how small the mosquito is, it is meat; second, this is also an important grasp of British control of Japan, as long as the customs is still in the hands of Britain, it will be difficult for Japan to get out of the control of Britain, on the other hand, Japan has no useful bargaining chips in its hands, can return interests with Britain, on the contrary, Japan has a lot of time to ask Britain, because after the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan and Russia are at loggerheads, Japan still needs the support of Britain, against Russia, there is no confidence to return to the customs, so despite several negotiations between the parties, nothing came of it.

And after the war in the Far East, Japan owed huge debts, and in order to pay off these debts, it was even more necessary for Japan to take back the customs, so as to increase ** Therefore, three months ago, Japanese Foreign Minister Komura Shoutaro led a negotiation team to visit the United Kingdom, in fact, it was to start negotiations with Britain again, but from the recent feedback from the United Kingdom, the negotiations went very badly, and the British insisted on Japan's customs control and refused to let go, so that the Japanese negotiation team had nothing to do.

Japan also came to the aid of France and the United States, hoping that these two countries could help them say a few words, but France and the United States not only rejected Japan's request, but thought that it was better for Japan's customs to still be controlled by Britain, because Britain had agreed, and the principle of open door and equal interests also applied to Japan, so France and the United States could enjoy the preferential tariffs of Japan, and of course they would not support Japan.

And now this kind of thing has happened, which has made Japan's situation even worse, because the Japanese intelligence agencies have participated in the attack on the resettlement camps for the victims, which must lead to tensions between Japan and East China's politics, and even some small frictions, and now Japan has no capital to confront East China, so if you want to calm the anger of East China and restore relations between the two sides, I am afraid that you will have to help Britain, France, the United States and other countries to maneuver from it, so what qualifications does Japan have to negotiate with Britain to recover customs?

At present, the fleet of East China is conducting military exercises in the waters off Japan, which has aroused great indignation and dissatisfaction in Japan, and has also put Japan under tremendous pressure, so Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi has held cabinet meetings for several days to discuss countermeasures.

Tibetan Prime Minister Matsukata Masayoshi said angrily: "What is our army for? How can we allow the fleets of other countries to show off their might at our doorstep, the country has spent so much money to support the army, and now we need the army to protect our country, what is the army doing? If the army cannot protect our country, then what else do we need the army to do? Oyama-kun, Kodama kun, please answer my question. ”

After the Far East War, the Japanese army not only suffered heavy losses, but also a major reshuffle at the top of the military, War Minister Masaki Terauchi, Army Chief of Staff Yama Prefecture Aritomo, Navy Minister Gonbei Yamamoto, and Navy Commander Ito Yuxiang all gave up their posts because they were responsible for the defeat of the war. Kodama Gentaro served as the chief of staff of the army, although these two were defeated generals in the Far East War, but all walks of life in Japan also know that the responsibility for the defeat does not lie with them, and anyone will be unlucky, and these two people are also the top figures in the Japanese army at present, Yamaguchi Youtomo's qualifications are too old, suitable for sitting behind the scenes to command, Terauchi Masashi lacks actual combat experience, these two people are indeed the most suitable candidates; and the Minister of the Navy was changed to Kayama Shikiki, and the Minister of Navy Military Orders was appointed by Minoru Saito, originally Kayama Shikiji was in a semi-retired state, but in the Far East War, the losses of the Navy were greater than those of the Army, and a number of excellent high-level generals were killed by him, and now there is a fault, so the veteran can only be invited out to sit in order to calm people's hearts.

Seeing Matsukata Masayoshi ask himself, Oyama Yan had no choice but to say: "Now it is the fleet of East China ** that threatens Japan, which should be in charge of the navy, while we are the army, and we are only responsible for the security of the land." ”

After he finished speaking, Masayoshi Matsukata immediately said: "What about our navy? What is the navy doing? Seeing the enemy's fleet blocking our doorstep, can the navy remain indifferent? ”

Kayama Shiki was very dissatisfied with Dashan Yan's spearhead to the navy, but now he couldn't help but answer, so he had to bite the bullet and say: "The navy suffered heavy losses in the Far East War, and almost all the main warships were sunk, and now it is being rebuilt, and it is not yet ready for combat capability. ”

Matsukata said: "What! Two months ago, didn't you just come back from Britain with two warships? Why don't you dare to go to war when you say that the combat effectiveness of these two warships is far greater than that of the warships in East China? ”

Minister of Health and Welfare Shigenobu Okuma also said: "Yes, if the navy does not dare to go to war and cannot protect Japan's territorial waters, then what else does the navy do?"

Shiki Kayama patiently explained: "These two warships have just returned from the UK, and after long-distance voyages, the warships need to be repaired, and the crew also needs to be trained with the warships, and it will take at least half a year to form combat effectiveness." And although the combat effectiveness of these two warships is strong, but after all, the number is too small, this time East China dispatched 6 battleships and 4 armored cruisers, even if they go out to fight, they are outnumbered, so they can only rely on ......"

"Yaga!" Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by Shigenobu Okuma with a Japanese scolding, "Excuses, all are excuses for incompetence, if the navy is greedy for life and afraid of death, and does not dare to fight, it is better to disband the navy." ”

Shiki Kayama was also angry at this time, and said: "Our navy did not go to war because it was timid, but because we simply did not have the conditions to fight now, and our navy had made great contributions and sacrifices for Japan, and I would never allow you to slander the navy like this." ”

Minoru Saito said: "Yes, why do you want to point the spearhead at our navy, why don't you blame the people who caused this incident? Could it be that this crisis was caused by our navy? I think whoever caused this incident should be responsible, so the person who caused this crisis should not be a turtle with a shrunken head, let alone cause trouble; if he is still a man, he should take the initiative to stand up and take responsibility." ”

Sure enough, after Saito Minoru finished speaking, everyone's eyes suddenly focused on Oyama Iwa and Kodama Gentaro, and at this time the two could no longer be indifferent, and Saito Minoru said a little too much, almost scolding the street, of course, Saito Minoru was also very angry, after all, it was Oyama Iwa who first led the disaster to the navy, and let the navy bear the accusations and anger of others, of course he couldn't ignore it anymore, and wanted to pull the spearhead back to the army, but he was extremely angry for a while and said a few words that went too far.

The Japanese army and navy were already at odds, and Minoru Saito's words went too far, so Oyama Iwa immediately stood up and said sharply: "Saito-kun, what do you mean by this, who do you say is the shrunken turtle." ”

In fact, when the words were spoken, Minoru Saito also regretted a little in his heart, he shouldn't have said the phrase "shrinking turtle", but now that the words have been spoken, he can't take it back, and he can't admit it in front of the army, so Minoru Saito also stood up and said: "Oyama-kun, what do you mean, you should know best in your heart." If you are still pretending to be confused, I can make it clearer that if this crisis is provoked by our navy, our navy will naturally bear full responsibility, even if it is a full sacrifice, I will not hesitate to do anything, even if it is me, I will commit suicide on the spot to apologize, but if it is someone else who irresponsibly provokes the incident and plunges Japan into a huge crisis, but we dare not take responsibility for it, and in the end we have to wipe our navy's ass for him, and even do not hesitate to let the navy fall into a catastrophe, our navy will not bear this consequence, the navy was built with the hard-earned money of our people, and it cannot be sacrificed for no reason because of the irresponsible behavior of others。 Oyama-kun, I've made it clear enough. ”