"In the past few days, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has received diplomatic notes from 16 countries, expressing dissatisfaction with the Japanese army's forced civilians to block enemy attacks on the battlefield, and demanding that we strictly respect the provisions of the Geneva Conventions, protect the legitimate rights and interests of the people in the occupied areas, and ensure that similar things will not happen again. ”

"How can this be reasonable, how should our Japanese army treat the Chinese when they are fighting in China, what does it have to do with these countries, why should they be nosy, I don't think we need to pay attention to them at all, what we should do, still do what we do." ”

"Terauchi-kun, now is not the time for the shogunate to close off the country, at that time there was almost no contact between the East and the West, of course we don't have to care about the attitude of other countries, but now it is different, the development of science and technology has also made the whole world more closely connected, although this is also a good thing, you can communicate with each other, the development of economic and trade exchanges, but anything can be spread all over the world in a short period of time, and you can't do anything completely ignoring the attitude of other countries. ”

"So what should we do now?"

"Immediately inform the troops on the front line and ask them that nothing like this happen again, or they will come back and go to court-martial. ”

"No, the soldiers at the front are fighting desperately against the enemy army, and we not only can't give them enough support, but on the contrary, we can drag them back, how can this work! In my opinion, how other countries protest and are dissatisfied, they can say whatever they want, we still adhere to our approach, and the most important thing is to ensure the safe withdrawal of the front-line troops to the Korean Peninsula. ”

"Terauchi-kun, you still don't understand the diplomatic situation we are facing, the situation is much more serious than you think, some countries are not just talking about themselves, Britain and the United States have already sent us diplomatic notes, saying that this matter has seriously affected the relations between the two countries and Japan, and I hope that Japan can take effective measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again, otherwise it may affect the aid of the two countries to Japan.

"What?" After listening to Komura Shoutaro's words, all the Japanese cabinet ministers present couldn't hold their breath and couldn't help but exclaim. Because everyone knows that by this time of the war, Japan's domestic economy was on the verge of collapse, and it was all supported by the aid of Britain and the United States, and once Britain and the United States stopped aiding Japan, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Terauchi Masashi immediately said, "What? Isn't Britain and the United States going to support us Japan anymore?"

Komura Shoutaro said: "That's not it, the governments of Britain and the United States are still willing to continue to support us, but if the news media continues to report and let the public opinion of the people in the two countries exert pressure on the government, then there will be parliamentarians who will propose to oppose and support us, and it will be difficult for the government to do it at that time." ”

When Masachi heard this, he was also relieved, and said: "This is a major national event, of course, the government is in charge, what kind of coaxing is the reporter following, and the people are not honest in their work, what is the trouble?"

Komura Shoutaro smiled bitterly and said, "Terauchi-kun, the system of Britain and the United States is different from ours in Japan, and they attach more importance to the news and the voice of the people. ”

It turned out that after the press conference held by the East China Government in the Shanghai New Area, a storm of public opinion against Japan was quickly set out throughout Shanghai. Major newspapers and magazines in Shanghai published opinion articles one after another, strongly accusing Japan of committing the worst acts in the war, and then the East China government organized two student marches, and submitted a letter of protest to the Japanese consulate in Shanghai in the public concession, and even launched a boycott of Japanese goods, and the Chinese working in factories and shops in Japan also resigned, causing most Japanese factories and shops to be forced to close. Of course, these workers who voluntarily resigned were recruited by the Shanghai New Area, so they were not unemployed.

Moreover, this storm of public opinion soon spread to China's major cities, such as Beijing, Xi'an, Wuchang, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou, and other places, and there were activities of varying scale to denounce Japan.

In fact, in China's modern history, there have been some "tragic incidents" in all foreign invasion wars, among which the more famous ones are the "Lushun Massacre" that occurred during the First Sino-Japanese War, and the "Jiangdong 64 Tun Massacre" that occurred during the Gengzi Revolution. And although these tragedies have caused some reactions in China, they are far less powerful than this time, and they will soon be silent.

On the one hand, this is because of the incompetence of the Qing court, which will only settle the matter after the tragedy, and does not know how to complain, let alone allow public opinion to expand, thus limiting the influence of these tragedies; on the other hand, in modern times, the Qing court has been repeatedly defeated in foreign wars, and has hardly won a single one, and the defeated generals are not brave enough to dare to investigate the murderers who caused these tragedies!

This time, however, it was different; this time the traders were traversers, and they were naturally familiar with the manipulation and propaganda of public opinion; therefore, a set of combined fists quickly aroused the common hatred and hatred of all Chinese throughout the country; and more importantly, after the people went to Liaodong to participate in the war early, they fought one battle after another, and their morale was strong, so the accusation against Japan was naturally full of confidence and sonorous voice.

Moreover, from the very beginning, the travelers did not intend to confine this storm of public opinion to the country, but took a two-pronged approach, both at home and abroad, and provided reporters from various countries with images and printed materials at the press conference, so as soon as the press conference ended, reporters from various countries immediately sent a telegram to their own editors to report the incident, and asked the domestic newspapers to publish the news immediately, and some reporters wrote a press release overnight and sent a telegram back to China.

Since this incident itself is of great news value, and since it was learned that the reporters had already obtained the images and printed materials, the major newspapers in various countries naturally did not dare to delay and arranged pages one after another, or published additional reports on the news. So it quickly spread all over the world.

At this time, the East China government has set up offices in Germany and the United States, of which the German office is responsible for the business of the whole Europe, which has been in operation for about 3 years, and of course will not be idle at this time, and now these two offices have established a certain circle of social activities in the local area, including politicians, businessmen, entrepreneurs, media people, social activists, civil rights personnel, etc., so at this time they are also fully operational, on the one hand, a large number of propaganda reports in newspapers, on the other hand, they also mobilize social activists, Civil rights activists, calling on the government to govern Japan.

Although the international politics of this era is still the law of the jungle, the level of political morality in various countries has been considerably improved, and a number of social activists with pacifist ideas have appeared in various countries, and the behavior of the Japanese army has indeed touched the moral line, and it is unjustifiable to use civilians to block guns in any case, so they have also taken action to denounce Japan and put pressure on their own governments. It was in Britain and the United States, and under the skillful guidance of the travelers, they also launched actions against the government's support for Japan.

However, the reason why countries around the world have condemned Japan is not simply that Japan is too bottomless, and there is also a sense of superiority of some white people, for whom Chinese and Japanese are actually the same, they are all barbarians, and at most the Japanese can only be regarded as slightly civilized barbarians, so it is a sense of accomplishment to accuse others of being too barbaric and uncivilized. On the contrary, if a certain European country does such a thing in China, this public opinion will at least affect more than half.

Of course, the governments of the two countries are not unable to completely control public opinion, but if they do so, the political price paid is too great, and it is obviously not worth doing so for Japan, so Britain and the United States have chosen a simpler way, that is, to put pressure on Japan, and demand that the Japanese government strictly control the behavior of the armed forces and that similar things will not happen again.

When Japan learned of the press conference, it was quite unimpressed, but the limelight became bigger and bigger, and the Japanese cabinet realized that the problem was a bit serious, so it hurriedly called a cabinet meeting to discuss countermeasures, and after listening to Komura Shoutaro's detailed explanation, the cabinet ministers realized that they really underestimated the seriousness of this matter.

Now the Japanese army has all withdrawn to the line of Jiuliancheng-Phoenix, and the People's Army has also formed an encirclement of the Japanese army from three directions, and the Japanese army is also seizing the time to rush to cross the Yalu River, but now the Japanese army and logistics personnel add up to nearly one million people, and there are a large number of vehicles and materials, and it will take at least three days to cross the Yalu River. Therefore, the success or failure of the Japanese army lies in the next two or three days, if the Japanese army can successfully cross the Yalu River and escape back to the Korean Peninsula, although all the previous gains have been wiped out, there is still a possibility of a comeback, and even a salted fish will turn over; and if the Japanese army is defeated by the People's Army by the Yalu River, there is basically no chance of reversing the situation.

In order to ensure the smooth crossing of the Yalu River, the Japanese army captured more than 3,000 Chinese people in Phoenix, Jiuliancheng and other places, in an attempt to repeat the old tricks and block the attack of the People's Army. The Japanese cabinet naturally knows that the current situation is critical, and the trick of using civilians to block guns can increase the success rate of the Japanese army's retreat, but the pressure of international public opinion that Japan is facing now also makes it very difficult for the cabinet to do so, so no one has any good way to do it for a while, and they are quite helpless.