"What's going on? Yes? The suave Hara almost jumped up and pointed at Yasuya Uchida's nose and asked, a journalist and diplomat who had almost never had a loud argument with a cabinet member, and Uchida was almost immediately blindsided. Of course, when he saw the contents of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's diplomatic secret cable, he was really blindsided.

"The government of China* has passed a government bill deciding to unilaterally demarcate a timetable for the settlement of the Taiwan and Kwantung Prefecture issues, and to demand that Japan withdraw from Taiwan and Kwantung Prefecture by the end of the Republic of China 14 at the latest. If the Japanese side continues to delay or reject the timetable set by the Chinese* government under the cover of the peace talks, it will be regarded as an ultimatum rejecting the Chinese* government, and the Chinese National Defense Forces will use the defense of national territorial sovereignty as a basis to wipe out any non-Chinese legitimate armed forces occupying Kwantung Prefecture and Taiwan, and resume the exercise of China's national sovereignty in the above-mentioned areas. ”

"It's... How so? Uchida Yasuya felt that he had a pair of big ears on his head, and he dared to love Gu Weijun and the little guy named Zhou Zhongfu in the Bangkok peace talks, and their sovereignty statement that had to be reiterated almost every time they negotiated made the meeting recorders feel extremely tired, who would have thought that after four peace talks and more than 200 meetings, when everyone thought that the end of this peace talks would be far away. The Chinese side suddenly planned a diplomatic raid, and if it weren't for Hashimoto of the Black Dragon Society and Kawashima of the General Staff Headquarters, he, the Japanese foreign minister, would still be played like a fool by the Chinese diplomats and get the next meeting, and when the Chinese representative put this note on his desk, everything would be over.

There was a dead silence in the small cabinet room, and several cabinet chiefs were frowning and thinking. If this diplomatic note from China is true, it can only mean one thing, China is about to declare war on Japan. If war breaks out between China and Japan, regardless of who wins or loses, the fall of the Hara cabinet will be the first outcome. As soon as the Hara Kei cabinet came to power, it vigorously promoted the relaxation of Sino-Japanese relations, and took the initiative to reduce military spending (mainly to limit the Sacho feudal lords) and make a gesture of peace. The Chinese side has also cooperated, suppressing the opinions of its own students, and has not put the Taiwan and Kwantung issues on the agenda after the Hong Kong and Macau issues have been successfully resolved. Trade between China and Japan is also steadily rising, and many Japanese conglomerates and small and medium-sized companies are increasing their production capacity for Chinese orders, and the Japanese economy has seen a rare boom. Unemployment has fallen, rice prices have stabilized, many of Japan's social problems have been solved, and the military has no chance of succeeding even if it is provoking trouble. All this is built on the basis of Sino-Japanese reconciliation and Japan's failure to spit out its own vested interests, if war breaks out between China and Japan or Japan is forced to hand over * Taiwan and Kwantung Prefecture, then not only will the military feudal forces rise, but the people and the emperor will not be able to account for it, and everyone will not remember how much their cabinet has reduced the unemployment rate, how much rice has been reduced, and how many yen more yen has been put into the pockets of the Japanese treasury and the common people. I will only remember that the friendship and common prosperity between China and Japan that they promised was wiped out by China's merciless slap, or that they will only remember that they handed over the territory that they had exchanged for through the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War in the Meiji period, and countless soldiers shed blood and sacrificed their lives, and they were out-and-out national thieves. Once this matter was revealed, Yuan Jing sat on the crater, recalling the hesitation when he was just elected, Yuan Jing let out a long sigh, but his chest was still very dull. He is not obsessed with the position of prime minister, but he regrets that his ideas that can lead Japan to prosperity may not have a chance to be realized.

After taking office as prime minister, Hara delivered a policy speech at the invitation of the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in which he proposed (1) improving education. in particular, the expansion of higher education institutions; (2) Maintenance of transportation facilities. improve and expand the construction of transportation and communication networks such as railways, maritime transportation, post and telecommunications, telegraphs and telephones, and promote the development of the national economy; (3) Strengthening national defense. prevent foreign aggression, draw lessons from the First World War, and improve armaments from the point of national defense satellite TV; (4) Price policies such as controlling rice prices. This is the so-called "Four Major Policy Programs" advocated by the Political Friendship Association. Hara recognized that after World War I, competition in the world had shifted from military power to an era of comprehensive national power competition centered on the economy, and that it was necessary to cultivate a large number of highly educated and specialized human resources. This is also influenced by the rise of China, because under the influence of the chamber of commerce led by Wu Chenxuan, China has vigorously popularized basic education, supported higher education, and used the funds and talents of the chamber of commerce, large enterprises and the military to run vocational education, providing a large number of human resources for all walks of life in China.

In December 1918, shortly after he formed his cabinet, he officially recognized Keio and Waseda vocational schools as universities in addition to the existing national universities, and added higher education institutions and upgraded some schools to vocational colleges, thereby greatly increasing the number of institutions of higher education. He also made a decisive decision to implement an epoch-making educational reform policy of providing government grants to private universities.

In accordance with the policy of "strengthening national defense," which he promised to the public, Hara launched a large-scale military enhancement plan, including the mechanization of weapons, modernization, and the completion of aviation units, represented by the establishment of the "861 Eighth Fleet" (8 battleships and 8 cruisers). Stimulated by the Chinese Air Force's great might in the European theater, Japan is also expanding its air combat power, but due to technical limitations and lack of talent, Japan can only establish four fighter wings and two bomber wings, which are also equipped with old fighters such as the Swift 3 that China has eliminated in the European theater, and only one wing has begun to replace the British imitation of China's "Young Eagle" 1 fighters. And the bomber wing used Germany to compensate the Entente for the "Gotha GV" bombers, which were old.

Faced with a huge financial burden, Hara resolutely reformed the income tax and corporate tax systems. The Great War that supported the Japanese economy ended on March 15, 15 of the Republic with a collapse in stock prices, followed by a post-war economic panic that plunged the Japanese economy into a chronic recession. Due to the drastic changes in the economic situation, the government had to make fundamental changes to the military expansion plan. Yuan Jing welcomed the disarmament program proposed by the United States and said that he would participate in the Washington Disarmament Conference. On the one hand, this is due to his consideration of adhering to the coordinated diplomatic line between Japan and the United States, and on the other hand, it is also due to Japan's financial situation. Hara Kei believed that armaments are relative after all, and if they can be controlled at a low level, they should not be surpassed, and a large-scale military expansion will be useless. US President Harding's call for a conference on disarmament is tantamount to giving Hara a good step. Regarding the role of military power, Hara Kei always believed that "politics should be higher than military affairs." In order to curb the growing power of the warlords, he tried to abolish the military attaché system of the General Staff Headquarters and the Colonial Governor, and allow civilian officials to serve as military attachés. On the second point, Hara Kei's intention was to change the place of colonial rule from force rule to civilian rule, which was caused by the "March 611 Movement" (the Korean nation's movement against Japanese colonial rule) that broke out in Korea in 1919. At that time, the Japanese government sent troops to carry out a brutal crackdown, resulting in a large number of casualties. Taking this as an opportunity, Hara Kei advocated not only civilian rule in Korea, but also a policy of "assimilation into the interior" in Korea, as well as the education system in Japan itself.

But the most remarkable achievement of the Hara cabinet was to persuade China to abandon its negotiating proposition of resolving the territorial dispute first and then resuming trade between the two countries through several rounds of negotiations. Although since the end of the First World War in the Republic of China, China and Japan began to negotiate, which lasted more than two years and did not come to a result, but at least the negotiations made there was no possibility of war between China and Japan, which greatly strengthened the trade between China and Japan, the Chinese government and chamber of commerce purchased a large number of various industrial products from Japan, and also sold many high-tech and high value-added products (such as automobiles and home appliances) to Japan, and such trade sometimes took Siam, Indochina and other places, After assembling the finished product in Japan, China's technology and core components are sold to Siam in exchange for rice to be exported to Japan, and then Japan uses industrial products to offset the price of China's technology and core components. In this way, the entire trade chain is smooth and win-win, and the Hara cabinet is also vigorously advocating and supporting this kind of multilateral economic exchanges between China, Japan and Southeast Asian countries. This has also become a great magic weapon for the Hara cabinet to reduce unemployment and prosper the economy.

Not only public opinion but also the opposition Constitutional Council and the Kuomintang (KMT) expressed joy over the birth of the party cabinet. This praise stemmed from Hara's image as a "commoner prime minister" and the public's expectation that the cabinet of political parties would replace the bureaucracy of the feudal lords. Hara took a sober view of the welcoming atmosphere, saying, "The expectations of the people are too high. Expect me to do a lot in a short period of time. "It shows his state of mind. On November 11, shortly after the formation of the government, the First World War, which lasted for more than four years, ended. Hara personally persuaded Saionji to serve as the plenipotentiary of the Japanese government to attend the post-war peace conference. The dispatch of pro-British and American factions, such as Nishiharaji and Nobuaki Makino, to the peace conference shows that Hara believed that good relations with Britain and the United States, especially China, were more important to Japan in the postwar international community. In his diary, he wrote: "Cooperation among Japan, the United States, and Britain is extremely beneficial to the future of the country. On the other hand, it would be very dangerous for Japan to distance itself from China. "The October Revolution in Russia, which broke out a year before the establishment of the Hara Kei cabinet, fundamentally shattered the diplomatic strategy planned by Aritomo Yamaguchi and the military department to fight against Britain and the United States through Japan-Russia cooperation, and then to fight against China on the mainland and expand its territory. After Hara came to power, he adopted a diplomatic line of coordination with Britain and the United States in order to cope with the new changes in the international environment facing Japan. In order to avoid Japan's international isolation, Yamaguchi also had to look forward to Hara's diplomacy. The mechanical relationship between Hara Kei and Yama Prefecture has been reversed unconsciously, and it can be said that Hara Kei's cabinet has gained an advantage over the feudal forces, but this advantage is not yet very stable, and the feudal forces are still looking for opportunities to fight back.

Yuan Jing's foreign policy was first manifested in the adjustment of China policy. He believes that Japan should not seek to pursue an expansionist policy toward China so far, as this will lead to Japan's international isolation. Under the principle of non-interference in internal affairs, Hara regarded Japan-China friendship as his basic policy toward China. At that time, there were still some remnants of the revolutionary party in southern China, but in the face of the opportunity for the revolutionary party to turn to the Japanese government, Hara Kei resolutely stopped the military forces from taking the opportunity to send troops to occupy southern China. Hara determined that China's national defense forces would be able to pacify the southern regime in a short period of time and establish a unified Chinese central power, and that Japan would establish a basic policy of friendly relations with this unified government in exchange for the expansion of China's trade (which Japan believed would be in a good position to have a surplus) and the marginalization of the military forces of the feudal lords, who advocated the continuous use of foreign troops. But all this was shattered by this intelligence blow.

The remnant sun was like blood, and there had been silence in the small conference room for a long time. Yuan Jing looked at these colleagues one by one, their faces full of sorrow and helplessness. Hara Kei stood up and coughed lightly, as if he had made up his mind.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for your continued support and understanding, but I have to admit that there have been major omissions in our policy, and as the Prime Minister of Japan, who is accountable to the Emperor, I feel that our current Cabinet should have the courage to shoulder this responsibility, and I look forward to your meeting with me tomorrow to ask His Majesty to grant the general resignation of our Cabinet. Please! Hara bowed deeply, and the rest of the cabinet quickly stood up straight and bowed to the prime minister, the first civilian prime minister in Japanese history came to the end of his political career against the setting sun.