"Was Lin Dong forced into a baga by the Russians? How is it nonsense and nonsense? At the beginning of 1901, Hirobumi Ito's scolding came from the Japanese Prime Minister's Office: "All the people in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are dead? How do you send an illiterate person to be a minister? ”

Ito Hirofumi is angry, how can Lin Dong be illiterate? Anyway, he was once a naval student sent by the shogunate to study in England, and after the Restoration, he surrendered with Enomoto Takehiro.

It's not the Restoration, and he still thinks about the shogunate after he surrendered, let him go to the navy, he didn't do it, and he went to the Kanagawa Prefectural Government to find a position. And the governor of Kanagawa at that time was Mutsu Munemitsu, and Mutsu saw that this person had learned English well, so he took him with him when he went to work for the central government.

After the First Sino-Japanese War, Lin Dong showed that he was the minister to the Qing Dynasty, and then went to Russia to continue to be the minister, and when his term of office expired, he was transferred to the United Kingdom as a minister. In fact, this is also the Ministry of Foreign Affairs taking care of him, which means that you have worked hard in Lucia in the past few years, so go to the UK to take a break.

After all, the contradictions between Japan and Russia have been escalating in recent years, and Lin Dong, the minister, is indeed quite difficult, but Britain is different, in the eyes of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it is nothing to go to the United Kingdom to be a minister, even if you enjoy Qingfu.

As a result, it didn't take long for Lin Dong to take office, so he brought back a sentence to Ito Hirobumi, isn't this nonsense in the eyes of Ito Hirobumi? It's not for you to let you enjoy Qingfu to make trouble for me, plus Lin Dong has a bad background, so Ito Hirofumi scolded without any scruples.

In fact, Lin Dong didn't cause any trouble, he just brought back a sentence: "Please quickly review the possibility of the Japan-Britain alliance." "This makes Ito Hirofumi angry enough, are you teasing me?

In fact, I can't blame Hirofumi Ito, but he has been very troubled for a while. A few months ago, Japan naturally knew about Germany's help in building armored cruisers for Russia, and it finally took out a loan to order two Asama modified armored cruisers from Germany, and the 66th Fleet was about to take shape. As soon as the Russians turned around, they also ordered two.

Combined with the previous Grombowie, the new armored cruiser of the Russians will only be stronger, not weaker. In recent years, the Russians have spent a lot of money in Europe to buy warships, and the Japanese naturally know that the 66th Fleet was formulated according to the situation in 1895 after all, and it was barely enough to deal with the Russians at that time, but looking at it now, it is still far from it.

At this time, the state budget of Russia was about 1.8 billion rubles. , about 2 billion yen, what about Japan? With only 200 million yen, the Russians' economy is 10 times larger than the Japanese.

Since 1897, Japan's military budget has accounted for more than 50% of the annual budget, and in this way, the army strength is about 200,000 people, but what about the Russians? 2.08 million people, and in the Far East alone, there are 200,000 people in the army and 544 artillery pieces. Not to mention the navy, the Russians are the third navy in the world. The Japanese are a fraction of the Russians.

The original plan of the 66th Fleet could have had some advantages over the Russians, but now that it looks like this advantage will not last long, not to mention that the expansion budget of the Pacific Fleet equivalent to 230 million yen alone is enough to scare the Japanese to death.

And with the completion of the Eastern Railway, the Russians did infiltrate the northeast of the Qing Dynasty, and the control of the Korean ports was clear, Ito Hirobumi was clear. If you don't fight, you can't dodge, and you have no chance of winning at all. It's a matter of human life, let alone coping, and Ito doesn't even have a way to compromise with the Russians.

Now is the time for a headache, are you Lin Dong here to make fun of me? What kind of country is the British Empire? It was the only superpower in the world, a tyrant who adhered to the standard of two powers, and a navy stronger than the French and Russians combined. And the traditional national policy of the British is glorious isolation. What does it mean to be honorably isolated? It's just that I'm too strong.,I'm embarrassed to mix with you dicks.。

In such a country, do you Lin Dong say that you should consider forming an alliance with others? Who are you? There are so many powerful countries in Europe, why should people form an alliance with you, an Asian country that can't even build warships of more than 4,000 tons? This kind of thing that is impossible to think about with your ass, you Lin Dong still solemnly asked us to "quickly review the possibility"?

The problem is that it's this kind of thing that you know is impossible when you think about it with your ass, and he's still true, and this Japanese really has national luck. Hirobumi Ito didn't see this possibility, but someone did.

After knowing the information sent back by Lin Dong, War Minister Katsura Taro immediately found Ito Hirobumi: "Ito-kun, is the thing that Lin Dong sent back before that he hoped that we would form an alliance with Britain true?" ”

"Gui Jun, that's true, don't you say he, Lin Dong, is this nonsense? An alliance with the British Empire? How did he come up with it? Don't you get laughed at when you say that?! Hirofumi Ito said angrily.

When Ito Hirobumi said this, Katsura Taro was embarrassed: "This, Ito-kun, in fact, this matter, it's not Lin Dong's nonsense, in fact, this matter is what I and Yamayama-kun meant before he went to the UK." ”

Ito Hirofumi was stunned when he heard this, Katsura Taro and Yama Prefecture Aritomo are both veterans of the Restoration, although both of them are martial artists, and their qualifications are no worse than these two people, but it is undeniable that the weight of the two people is definitely not light, and both of them see it this way, so they really have to take it seriously.

But how did these two whimsically want to ally themselves with the British? So Ito Hirobumi asked, "Katsura-kun, how did you and Yamasan-kun come up with the idea of forming an alliance with the British Empire?" The Britons have each looked through their nostrils, and their glorious isolation policy has been decades old, and the alliance is ...... difficult."

"Ito-kun, it is true that the British Empire has been gloriously isolated, but in the past few years, the British have been a little overwhelmed. You see, Ito-kun, why did the British compromise with the Americans on the Panama Canal issue, and then listened to Germany's opinion on the Qing issue, which shows that Britain's ability to control the region was now declining? "Katsura Taro is good at seducing.

"Gui Jun means Africa? The British Empire has consumed too much power in Africa to lead the decline of control over the Far East, and the Lu Kingdom is a huge threat to Great Britain, so in order to continue to limit the Lu Kingdom, this is our opportunity? ”

I have to say that a wise man must have a mistake in a thousand thoughts, a fool must have a thousand thoughts, and the things that two martial artists can see, but Ito Hirobumi, an excellent politician, can't see it. However, Ito Hirofumi is not stupid, and if someone mentions it, he can still see the opportunity.

"That's right, now the war of the British Empire in Africa has not ended, so they have no way to directly face the Lu people by themselves, so we have to let them know that only our Great Japanese Empire can do this." Katsura Taro continued, "In the same way, the Great Japanese Empire also needs the support of the British Empire, and the strength of the Lu Kingdom is too strong, and if we only rely on ourselves to wage war with the Lu Kingdom, we will definitely lose, and if we lose, it will be the day of the destruction of the country." ”

Katsura Taro is not exaggerating when he said this, Japan at this time was not the period of arrogance and militarism that he thought he could defeat the behemoth of the United States, and the current Japanese top brass knew that it would be a dead end if he went to war with Maozi.

The Japanese judged at that time that if Japan was defeated, then even if Britain and the United States interceded, Japan would not lose the country, and the entire coast of the Sea of Japan would be lost from Hokkaido, and the best result would be only a quarter of the places where the sun flag could be hung.

Considering the ruthlessness of the Russians in killing the yellow race, the Japanese who lost three-quarters of the place could not escape, and it was a dead end. In fact, this is no different from the death of the country.

Because of this, even if they formed an alliance with the British, the Japanese did not have the confidence to win, and in June 1903, Gonbei Yamamoto, who had become Minister of the Navy at the time, opposed a war with Russia.

As soon as Katsura Taro said, Ito Hirobumi naturally knew it, sighed and said: "And besides Great Britain, we can't find any other helpers, those French people are wearing the same pants as the Lu people, the rice people are desperate for us to lose to the Lu people, those independent people are not reliable at all, they seem to be friendly to the empire, but they actually want to benefit from the empire!" There is not a single good thing in these European and American ghost animals. ”

Katsura Taro also nodded: "The Imperial Army is deeply influenced by the Independence Country, in fact, I and Yamachi-kun actually hope to form an alliance with the Independence Country. But don't look at the current support for the empire, but the support for the Lu country is even more sparing, the independent country has been wooing the Lu country for many years, once we have a war with the Lu country, the independent country will definitely support the Lu country. So we can only try the opportunity of the British Empire. ”

"Then we must do our best to examine the possibility of an alliance with Great Britain and how to move the Britons." Hirofumi Ito said.

"That's hard work Ito-kun, I'm a martial artist, this kind of thing can't help much." Katsura Taro said with a hearty smile.

"Where, if it weren't for Gui Jun's words, I probably wouldn't have thought of this." Hirobumi Ito is modest.

When the drowsiness came, someone sent pillows, both for Britain and for Japan, and the British were still counting on the Japanese to block the door of the Russians, and the Japanese sent them to the door. And when a small second-rate country like the Japanese caught up with the British Empire, it really broke the golden body of the British Empire's "glorious isolation" policy.

It was by this coincidence that the Anglo-Japanese alliance slowly took shape. (To be continued......)