"Prime Minister! Prime minister! Urgent news from North Korea! "The sound of hurried footsteps and excited shouts disrupted the peace of the Prime Minister's Office in Nagata Town, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo.

"Mutsu Ao-kun, what's going on so flustered?" Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito looked at Foreign Minister Mutsu Munemitsu, who was panting and panting, and his face was red, and he ran into his office with an excited face.

"Your Excellency, this is an urgent report sent back from North Korea by Jun Sugimura, the Acting Minister Temporary in North Korea!" Mutsu Munemitsu excitedly handed the telegram to Hirobumi Ito.

Ito Hirobumi took the telegram and glanced at it, and he was just as excited: "There is a riot in Jeolla Province, North Korea?!" The Dongxue Party has revolted? ”

"Your Excellency, this is an opportunity, since the first uprising of the Donghak Party in mid-February, we have been following developments in North Korea. Lee Yong-tae, the nuclear envoy sent by the North Korean government to deal with the civil unrest, not only did not calm the situation, but acted harshly, and now the Donghak uprising has finally taken shape! Mutsu Munemitsu was very excited, and the opportunity he had been hoping for had finally come.

Seeing that Ito Hirobumi was still thinking, Mutsu Munemitsu couldn't help but urge again: "Your Excellency, with the current situation of the North Korean government, there is no ability to suppress it, so they can only go to Qingguo for help, as long as Qingguo sends troops, then our opportunity will come!" This is a godsend, Your Excellency, please decide! ”

Hirobumi Ito raised his head and said to Mutsu Munemitsu with a smile: "Mutsu-kun, of course I know that this is a godsend, you and I have known each other for so many years, you should know my attitude." However, the situation is still unclear, so don't rush it, we'll have to look at the situation again. ”

"But...... Your Excellency ...... "Mutsu Munemitsu was eager to continue the persuasion, but was interrupted by the palm raised by Hirobumi Ito.

"We're going to have to keep looking at the situation. But that doesn't mean we don't do anything. can ask Sugimura Jun to contact Yuan Shikai and ask him to send troops to suppress it. And let Komura Shoutaro in Beijing inform the Qing government that the Qing State sent troops to quell the chaos in Korea, and my country has no opinion. With our commitment. With Yuan Shikai's character, he will definitely send troops to intervene. At that time, we will have to do everything we can to get the Qing State not to withdraw its troops. ”

"Hay! The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will do its utmost to make this happen. Mutsu replied as he straightened up.

Don't look at Ito Hirofumi who seems very calm and steady now, in fact, his heart has already blossomed at this time. Ito, who is now facing a no-confidence motion in parliament and impeachment, is eager to immediately start a war with the Qing to divert attention.

However, if you want to start a war with the Qing Kingdom, you have to cooperate with the Qing Kingdom, and you can't play it alone, so you must prepare the preliminary work.

When Ito Hirobumi began to play tricks on the political scene, the army and navy also got the news, and the army, which had been looking forward to this day for a long time, immediately became excited and reorganized for war. Ready to go!

The chief of staff, Prince Arisugawa Miyachihito, basically doesn't care about anything, so he has to be the deputy chief of staff, Kawakami, to take the idea.

So Kawakami Caoliu immediately discussed with Xiao Chuan again how to send troops: "Xiao Chuanjun, our opportunity has come, but before we declare war with the Qing State, we must first send a part of the army to contain Yuan Shikai's 3,000 people in Korea." ”

"Isn't Keisuke Otori, the special envoy plenipotentiary to the Qing Dynasty and the minister to the DPRK, in the country right now, and our army is sending troops in the name of escorting the minister back to Korea and protecting the security of the embassy."

"The first step in our battle plan was for the Fifth Division to land first, but it was too conspicuous to do so now when all the divisions went up. The number of people who send a brigade up is too small, so let's send a brigade up and give him reinforcement of artillery and engineers. There must be at least 8,000 men, and they must be able to withstand all the Qing troops, including reinforcements from the Qing State, as soon as the war starts. ”

"Hai, then let the Fifth Division immediately form a mixed brigade as the vanguard."

Just when the army was ready to find an excuse to send the first batch of troops out first, the army veteran Yama Youpeng, who was the chairman of the Privy Council at the time, also ran over to join in the fun: "This is going to be a war with the Qing State." I must personally go to the front line and command the battle! ”

This militarist, who had been clamoring to "assert the power of the country" when he was prime minister in 1889, saw the war against the Qing Dynasty as the first step towards realizing Japan's "eight pillars and one universe."

Originally, Kawakami Caoliu also wanted to persuade Youpeng, the Privy Councillor, not to get involved, but Youpeng in Yamaguchi County is the founder of the General Staff Headquarters. Kawakami Caoliu wanted to persuade this old war maniac that he was not qualified enough, and in the end he could only agree that if Japan and the Qing Kingdom went to war, he would definitely let your old man command an army to move forward bravely, so he sent Yama County Youpeng.

The army is sharpening its knives, and the navy is much more cautious, after all, the navy is not sure of victory.

At this time, as the commander of the standing fleet, Ito Sukehiro found the head of the Navy's military command, Shikinori Kayama: "Your Excellency, the people of the independent country have guessed that the war between us and the Qing country is imminent, should we buy warships from the people of the independent country now?" ”

"Yes, I didn't expect it to be so fast, but the two ironclad ships ordered in Britain cost at least 2 million pounds, where can we find more money to buy warships in the independent country, if we declare war with the Qing country, the parliament will immediately allocate funds to us."

"But if we wait until we declare war with the Qing State, then the Qing State will also buy warships, and the attitude of the Germans will be difficult to predict at that time, and this matter cannot wait!" Ito was in a hurry.

"Don't worry, Ito-kun, in this way, you go to Yamamoto-kun, and then we will go to your Excellency Saigo together to think of a way." There is no way to do this, so he can only go to the Minister of the Navy, Saigo.

Saigo was born in the army, but was appointed Minister of the Navy, which is the same as the two previous German Navy Ministers, Stosch and Caprivi.

However, unlike Stosch, who was able to study the navy as Minister of the Navy, lay the foundation for the construction of the German Navy, or was actively involved in naval construction like Caprivy, Saigo never expected to understand the Navy when he became Minister of the Navy.

As a result, every time he heard someone give him a report, he would suddenly realize: "I see. Therefore, the navy gave him the nickname "So Minister".

However, Saigo knew that he didn't understand the navy, so he never interfered in naval affairs, but as a naval minister, he still tried to help the navy fight for interests.

At the beginning, Yamamoto Gonbei helped Saigo prepare a report on the situation of the navy, and a few days later Yamamoto went to ask Saigo if he had read it, but Saigo replied that I had read it.

Angry, as the head of the official house, Yamamoto Gonbei questioned the Minister of the Navy, Saigo Congdao: "It took 7 months to prepare this document, how could Your Excellency read it in such a short time?" You didn't even look at it, sir! ”

As a result, Saigo admitted generously: "You guessed right, I didn't read it." ”

Yamamoto angrily lost his temper with Saigo Congdao: "As the Minister of the Navy, how can you be so irresponsible to the Navy?!" ”

As a result, Saigo lowered his voice and said: "I am from the army, I don't understand the navy, since I can't understand it, why do you have to go to see it, you just don't understand." I'm the Minister of the Navy, so I'm going to help you ask for money and power, and you can't get the rest yourself? ”

This time it was Yamamoto Gonbei's turn to shout that it was so, and from then on, Yamamoto Gonbei followed Saigo with an iron heart, and Saigo Gonbei also attached great importance to Yamamoto Gonbei.

So when you go to ask Saigo to follow the road, you must pull Yamamoto Quan Bingwei up.

Saigo Congdao is also a person who makes a quick decision, and when he heard Yamamoto say this, he immediately made a decision: "At the beginning, there was still a lot of money raised by the people to buy the Yoshino, about 6 million yen, or you should use this money first." ”

Saigo was refreshed, but Shiki Kayama had doubts: "Your Excellency, isn't it okay to use this money so directly?" ”

Saigo didn't care: "What's wrong, this money was originally raised to buy the Yoshino, and now it's not used up, it's also our navy's business." And we're going to war now, and it's not a waste to buy ships, and we haven't let them have a parliamentary appropriation, so what's the matter? As long as Ito-kun, the commander of the fleet, can win the battle, there is nothing to be dissatisfied with in the council. ”

That being said, but the council really wants to be held accountable, and he Saigo can't escape from the road, and now that he says so, he can be regarded as shouldering the responsibility by himself. This kind of consciousness and decisiveness made the three people present awe-inspired.

However, it is only more than 6 million yen, which is more than 600,000 pounds, which is enough to buy a warship, what should I do?

Ito wanted to open the most: "One is one, and one is better than nothing." "Ito, I still want to buy an Oldenburg-class to come back and fight against the Dingzhen 2nd ship.

"Then we can only do this first, and if we continue to buy warships, we can only wait for the council to allocate funds after the war." Shiki Kayama said helplessly.

"If this is the case, it is estimated that we will have to raise the price with the Qing people, and it is estimated that it will cost a lot of money." Ito was confident that the European powers would come to the fore.

"And there is a possibility that Europe will refuse to sell warships to us on the grounds that it does not sell weapons to belligerents." Gonbei Yamamoto was also conservative about asking for help after the war.

"Once the war starts, money is not a problem, if you win, you have everything, and if you lose, it is useless to keep money. And if the Europeans really want to sell warships, this is not a problem, just find a small South American country that doesn't care about the Europeans to buy it first, and then sell it to us, it's a big deal to pay an extra commission. I'm afraid that these Europeans are partial to the Qing country and are unwilling to sell. "Saigo sees it very thoroughly from the road, but his attitude towards Europe and the United States is the same as that of Yamamoto Gonbei.

"Don't think about it so much for now, let's take one step at a time, once the war starts, in order to ensure the supremacy of the sea, we will definitely immediately engage the Beiyang Naval Division. At this time, you can't count on the bought battleship. If Ito-kun can win in one battle, then there will be no problems, and if he loses, even if he buys a battleship, it will be useless. Ito-kun, how to buy this warship, let's figure it out, but how this battle is fought depends on you. "Shiki Kayama can only let Ito Yuhiro overcome the difficulties first.

"Hai, I will definitely bow to the essence of the empire, and I will die." The head of the military command department said so, and Ito Yuheng could only stand up straight and loudly show his loyalty. (To be continued......)