After more than 20 hours of tossing and turning, Scottish envoy Griffith and his entourage finally arrived at Kyoto Airport in Japan.

Griffith had visited Kyoto many years earlier, and he was impressed with the impression that it was a quaint, heavy, and chic city, a very different kind of existence from Tokyo, which was laid as the capital in the mid-19th century. As people have commented, these two cities are the perfect way to embody the two-sided character of the Japanese nation in modern times, which has been characterized by sticking to tradition and chasing trends.

After the Tokyo nuclear explosion, the Japanese government, military and civilians, under the leadership of Emperor Nobuhito, moved the capital back to their "thousand-year-old capital" (Kyoto was the capital of Japan from 794 to 1868). In just three years, foreigners like Griffith have been amazed by the dramatic changes that have taken place in the city: skyscrapers have raised the city's heights, wide avenues have expanded the city's breadth, rows of brand-new buildings have given the city a strong modern atmosphere, and towering chimneys have continuously injected modern energy into the city. The new street is full of traffic, pedestrians, and the environment is clean and orderly; The old alleys are full of people, and people are polite and humble to each other......

On his way to the Imperial Palace to meet the Emperor, Griffith said to his military attachés: "It seems that they are quite right, the Japanese have not been defeated, and they have been reborn in the face of adversity in their own unique way." ”

"But I don't understand, sir." The officer responded, "How did Japan recover in such a short period of time when they were forced to sign a very unfavorable armistice three years ago, gradually losing all their overseas occupation and the supply of resources there, and causing them to be in a worse situation than they were half a century ago?" Just relying on the wealth that has been painstakingly accumulated over the years? I am afraid that the protracted war will have exhausted those savings long ago! ”

Griffith mused: "I think they plundered a lot of ready-made resources and wealth from the locals in the process of gradually retreating from overseas colonies and occupied territories, so as to repair and restart their industrial economy in a very short time, and then continued to plunder resources and wealth from the surrounding countries in the form of trade, and so on, so that we have the situation we have today." ”

The officer said, "No wonder...... As long as their economy is reliable, there will be no great problems with the military, and as long as they fulfill the secret agreement between us as promised, there is still much hope of thwarting the conspiracy of the Irish. ”

Griffith said: "The task of a diplomat is to obtain external assistance through diplomatic channels, and it is up to you to use that assistance and turn it into victory on the battlefield." ”

The officer did not answer, but bowed his head and fell into deep thought. Even with Japan's full military support, will Scotland be able to withstand the combined blows of the new United Kingdom and England? Didn't Italy, the sixth military power in the world and the third in Europe, also be beaten to the point that it could not take care of itself in just a few weeks?

Before meeting with the emperor, Griffith and his entourage were received by two veterans who currently control Japan's military power, Shusei Nagano and Shunroku Hatata. Although the former has retired from the position of prime minister, he is still the "stone of the sea" in the political and naval circles, and his attitude can basically represent the opinions of half of the cabinet and the Japanese navy; The latter was one of the few remaining founding fathers of the Army, and he had occupied the position of "talker" since the reorganization of the Military Department, and after the return of the originally powerful overseas dispatch troops, he carried out large-scale personnel adjustments in the Army with the support of the Emperor, and re-consolidated the position of the commander-in-chief of the Military Department.

During his meeting with Shunroku Hatata, Griffith learned that the Japanese Army was ready to send volunteer divisions to Scotland. This elite combat force organized according to the specifications of the mixed division will help Scotland fight against the threat from the new United Kingdom and England, and in a conversation with Nagano Shusui, Griffith received clear assurances that the Japanese Navy will not only provide reliable sea transportation for the Japanese Army's operations, but will also send the best flying units and submarine teams of the Japanese Navy to Scotland to help!

In fact, as early as three years ago, the Japanese, who had suffered a heavy loss in the Philippine naval battle, began to follow Ireland's example and formed their "volunteer regiment" in order to bypass international neutrality laws to carry out non-war operations. After signing a secret alliance agreement with Scotland, the military department selected more than 10,000 "volunteers" from among the retired officers and men of the permanent divisions and regiments, and organized them into eight special wings, which were deployed in eight barracks in Himeji and Kumamoto in peacetime.

Griffiths not only came from a prominent Scottish family, but he himself worked in the diplomatic field for thirty-two years, the first half of which was for the British Empire, and the second half of which was spent in the Scottish Republic. In recent years, he has shifted his focus to the East, spending a lot of energy studying the way of thinking, character and habits of the Japanese high-level, knowing full well that they will ask for something they have and will never make a loss-making deal.

At the old Imperial Palace in Kyoto, which had been renovated on a small scale, Griffith met Japan's new emperor for the first time, Emperor Nobuhito, the younger brother of the late Emperor Showa. This lucky man had no chance of ascending to the throne, he was not trained as a prince since he was a child, and he had little prestige in the army and among the people, and the Tokyo nuclear explosion caused him to lose almost all his relatives in one day, and also made him the new ruler of the country overnight. For three years, the new emperor traveled far and wide, pacifying the people, reorganizing military affairs, studying diligently, seeking advice with an open mind, and completing a historic meeting with the German Emperor Wilhelm the Younger, nominally achieving a rapprochement between the East and the West, all of which made him highly recognized by the Japanese people and firmly consolidated his imperial power.

He recalled his first and so far only meeting with Scottish "national leader" Alex Chagus-Barriol in a tone of frustration, expressing his appreciation for his philosophy of governing the world, and even calling him "the founder of the Scottish spirit".

In fact, it has been seven years since the 56-year-old Scottish "national leader" Barriol usurped the country's military and political power in 1942 and became the dictator of Scotland. Under his rule, Scotland's economy embarked on a spiraling trajectory. Through comprehensive economic and trade cooperation with Japan, the volume of import and export trade increased sharply, making Scotland show a thriving scene in the mid-40s, and then taking advantage of the trend to implement free education, free medical care and retirement security, creating a world-renowned "Scottish miracle", but behind this "god-like" economic policy, is the dilemma of eating too much food and building up debt. It is precisely because of the urgent need to find a way to reduce costs and improve efficiency for the country's economy that the Scottish government has set its sights on the North Sea oil fields and risked provoking the new United Kingdom to "take prey on the tiger's mouth".

In this respect, there are many similarities between Scotland and Japan today, and it is no wonder that two countries thousands of miles apart have forged a secret alliance with each other.

After expounding on this, Xuanren changed his words and talked about the despicable behavior of the Irish in an angry tone - whether it was aiding the Soviet Union against Japan or the United States against Japan, Ireland spared no effort to contribute money and troops, but it never dared to declare war on Japan, and fought a war in a dignified manner. Therefore, Xuanren described Ireland as an assassin who could only shoot with hidden arrows and cold guns, and if it were not for their repeated badness, the Japanese army would not have been easily defeated by Soviet Russia, nor would it have ceded the Philippines, let alone suffered the pain of the Tokyo explosion, and then fell into the passive situation it is today.

"Such a blood feud is bound to be paid off with the blood of tens of millions of people!" Xuanren said viciously.

Griffith greeted him with a few words, and then worriedly said that the Irish were hateful, but after the annexation of Wales, their national power had risen to the height of history. Judging from the course of the war between New Austria and Italy, the combat effectiveness of the new United Kingdom army is firmly in the forefront of the world, if they do their best to dispatch the main force, coupled with the strategy of the English army, once the war starts, the Scottish army will not be able to hold the open area in the south at all, and can only quickly retreat to the northern highlands, waiting for the intervention of international forces.

"You expect the League of Nations to intervene?" Emperor Xuanhito sneered, "The League of Nations is simply a tool of some superpower to manipulate the international situation, and as long as the British Isles remain divided, they will not mind Scotland being sacked by its relatives once or twice." What you should do is to prepare for war with all your might, and then resist the invasion of a strong enemy with determination to the death. ”

"No, we are not counting on the intervention of the League of Nations, but on the power of international public opinion and diplomacy that represents justice." Griffith deftly replied, "In this day and age, international opinion and diplomatic power can play a very large role." ”

Emperor Xuanhito mused: "We can put pressure on the new United Kingdom and the Kingdom of England, but in terms of the current situation, our pressure will not have much effect, and it may not be as good as the mediation of Soviet Russia or the United States." ”

"But with regard to the diplomatic relations between Russia and the United States and the new United Kingdom, they will not sincerely help Scotland at all." Griffith reluctantly admits that "Scotland has too few international friends." ”

"As your friend, Japan will do everything it can to help you through this difficult time." Emperor Nobuhito said, "We can provide the best planes, the best combat vehicles, the best electronic reconnaissance, and the conditions are...... All your operational plans must involve the participation of the Japanese military advisory group, and, in the case of the advisory group's resolute opposition, you must adjust the existing combat plan and, if necessary, accept the direct guidance of the advisory group. ”

(End of chapter)