In Tokyo, Japan, in the office of the Prime Minister's Office, the new Prime Minister Gonbei Yamamoto stood in front of the window, holding in his hand the motion submitted by the Army requesting the establishment of additional divisions. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

There's no reason why Gonbei Yamamoto shouldn't sneer. You must know that since the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese government's military spending has been greatly reduced due to financial constraints, and every year the army and navy have to fight over the allocation of a little military spending. Now that the army is asking for more standing divisions and regiments, the military expenditure required is naturally to encroach on the share of the navy that originally belonged to it, and this result is absolutely unacceptable to the arrogant navy.

At this time in Japan, the new prime minister was after the joint political friendship meeting, with the slogan of "maintaining the constitution and fighting the lord clan", Katsura Taro, who belonged to the army faction, to Admiral Yamamoto Gonbei, who was in charge of the horse, the sea minister was Minoru Saito, who was in charge of logistics during the Russo-Japanese War, the second minister was Yamamoto's son-in-law Biao Caibe, the chief of the naval command department was Goro Ijiin, and the commander of the First Fleet was Yuzaburo Kato. With such a lineup, the Japanese Navy finally got rid of the time when it had been living in the shadow of the army boss since the Southwest War. Finally mixed up, how could they, now with their eyebrows raised, be willing to return to their former positions again and become vassals of the army again.

Seeing that the Navy has slowly climbed from the position of the second oldest in 10,000 years to the fact that it is now almost on an equal footing with the big brother of the Army, the hearts of the Army and the veterans behind it are naturally quite unbalanced.

As everyone knows, where there is politics, there are factions, and where there are factions, there are struggles, and at this time, the factional struggles within the Japanese government were dominated by the army and navy.

One of the first things Admiral Gonbei Yamamoto did after assuming office as Prime Minister was to propose in the Diet and to revise the system of military attachés and civilian appointments for the Minister of the Army and Navy. This system of military attachés on active duty was formulated by Aritomo Yamaguchi, a veteran of the army, when he formed his cabinet for the second time, and stipulated that only the senior and vice admirals of the army and navy on active duty were qualified to serve as ministers of the army and navy. This regulation, however, is the army's most powerful weapon to control the government, and it is this regulation that led to the fall of the second Saionji Konozo cabinet not long ago. Gonbei Yamamoto, who was familiar with the relationship between the army and the navy, was naturally afraid that the high-flying army would give him such a beat. Therefore, he took the first step and directly cut off the army's thoughts -- if you dare to resign, I can arrest someone to be the minister of the army.

Now, in the eyes of army veterans such as Youpeng in Shanxian County, this kind of practice is absolutely not tolerable to them. However, this Prime Minister Yamamoto was not satisfied, and he was actually planning to reform the Privy Council, the stronghold of Yama Prefecture Aritomo, in an attempt to reduce the number of Privy Advisers from 38 to 24 in order to weaken the Privy Council.

Seeing Yamamoto sharpening his knife towards his old nest, Yama County Youpeng couldn't bear it anymore. At the same time as the situation in China changed dramatically, the Japanese Army of the Communist Party to unify China by force, under his instructions, once again brought up the old matter on the grounds that the empire was facing a major threat in Korea and Kwantung Prefecture, and once again threw out to the cabinet the plan of using the 10-year plan to add two divisions in the first batch, a total of six divisions, and a standing strength of 25 divisions and regiments. Trying to once again provoke a struggle between the army and navy, as well as with the government, and ousting Gonbei Yamamoto, who is very popular not only in the Japanese navy but also in all of Japan, from power.

Yamamoto Gonbei naturally knew the plans of Yamaguchi Youtomo and others. Although politics is a wrestling field between factions, and the most prominent features of this period are strife, the Yamamoto cabinet at this time could not withstand such turmoil. After all, he has not been in power for a long time, and maintaining the stability of the political situation is the top priority.

"Your Excellency the Prime Minister, I think we should make some appropriate compromises, such as stopping the reduction of Privy Council seats." Takahashi is Kiyoshi, who joined the Constitutional Political Friendship Association after Yamamoto formed a cabinet and took over as a key member of the Prime Minister of Finance as a member of the party, looked at Prime Minister Yamamoto standing in front of the window and suggested with some concern in his eyes. He came to listen to the Prime Minister's opinion on the reorganization of the Ministry of Finance, but he did not want to encounter such a thing.

The Privy Council, the emperor's advisory body composed of privy advisers, had become a prominent body above the Diet and controlling Japan's national policies behind the scenes. Especially under the long-term management of the army veteran Yama County Youpeng, it has become the base camp of its faction. Therefore, no matter what point of departure, Yamamoto felt the need to weaken the power of the Privy Council. Hearing Takahashi Shiqing's words at this moment, Yamamoto waved his hand resolutely and said, "No, the seats in the Privy Council must be reduced. Now that the work has begun, if it does not continue, it will be all in vain. ”

"If that's the case, I think it's going to be very difficult to reach an agreement between land and sea this time." Takahashi frowned, paused, and continued: "That will inevitably cause greater contradictions, and it will be even more detrimental to our country to survive this difficult period. ”

Yamamoto didn't know this, but the conditions of the army made it really difficult for him to accept. The army already has more than a dozen permanent divisions and regiments, and although most of them are not fully manned, military expenses are allocated according to the size of divisions and regiments. Although the first batch of two additional army divisions and regiments did not cost much, the Japanese government is now financially tight, and if it is impossible to increase military spending, it will inevitably have to be deducted from the navy's military expenditure. You must know that at this time, the navy is perfecting the 88th Fleet plan, which also requires a large amount of military spending. As a prime minister from the navy, if he does not fight for the interests of the navy, but strengthens the strength of the army, he will inevitably be poked in the backbone by the navy.

What's more, will the army really be stable if it adds two more divisions now? Those high-flying and domineering guys are all masters who are afraid that the world will not be chaotic, who knows what else they will do. The DPRK now has a 16 th division, and if two more divisions are added, it will obviously exceed the normal defense needs, and this will certainly arouse the vigilance of the Communist Party of China. The Communist Party has always been known for its strength, and if the two sides clash again, it will inevitably be a major war that will completely involve the navy, involving Manchuria, Mongolia, and even the whole of North China. It's easy to say if you win, but if you lose, you not only have to face Russia, but you also need to...

The relationship between countries is complex, and the entanglement of various interests cannot be explained in simple words. In Yamamoto's view, the best policy for the Chinese establishment should be to be gentle, to turn an armed attack into economic infiltration, and to treat China as a supplier of raw materials and a market for the Great Japanese Empire, rather than a part of the empire's territory. What do the radical fools of the Army know! Sometimes, moisturizing things silently will seem superb.

In Yamamoto Gonbei's view, as an island country, it should follow the route of the British Empire and go all out to develop a large navy, instead of wasting precious national resources to build a large army! Therefore, he felt that the army's additional divisions and regiments were obviously an excuse for Youpeng and others in Shan County to suppress the navy and drive themselves out of power!

Thinking of this, Yamamoto Gonbei didn't feel a little headache. Just as he forced himself to calm down and wanted to say something to Takahashi Shikiyo, there was a knock on the door.

Walking in was the new Minister of the Sea Minoru Saito, who first saluted Gonbei Yamamoto and Takahashi Shikiyo before saying: "Your Excellency Prime Minister, Vice Admiral Ijijijin, commander of the Second Fleet, reported that the Second Sentai was provoked by the ships of the Shina Navy during a routine patrol in the Yellow Sea not long ago, and the two sides had a confrontation. ”

"Saito-kun, what's going on?" Seeing Minoru Saito's ugly face, Gonbei Yamamoto instinctively felt that something was not going well.

Minoru Saito, of course, will not tell the prime minister the detailed process of how the Imperial Navy was ridiculed by the Shina Navy during the incident. I saw that his face was even more ugly and said: "During the whole process of the confrontation incident, according to the observation of the captain of the 'Kurama', Taijiro Nagata, the overall performance of the ships of the Shina Navy is far superior to that of the battleships of the Imperial Navy, and even the battlecruiser Kongo, which is about to return home, is also inferior. ”

"The 'Kongo' battlecruiser is also inferior..." Yamamoto Gonbei's face also changed.

Although the Japanese Navy claims to be the third in the world, its newly installed domestic main battleship Hanoi-class is lagging behind them in both design and technology compared with the dreadnoughts installed by the European and American powers at the same time. Now that the construction of the super-dreadnoughts of the Great Powers has begun, Japan has finally built its first dreadnought, the "Kongo", with the help of its British allies. This was tantamount to a bolt from the blue for the Japanese Navy, which had trampled the Shina Navy under its feet in the past. Having defeated the Russian fleet, today they actually feel the threat of the cowardly Shina again.

I have long heard that the China Navy has signed a contract with the United States for the purchase of ships and has ordered more than 10 warships, but I could not imagine that the Americans actually sold such excellent warships to the China people. This group of damned Yankees, damned Chinans, it seems that they have joined forces to deceive the Imperial Navy.

Thinking about this, Gonbei Yamamoto suddenly realized that it was necessary for him to ask the Diet to increase the military budget for the navy. The construction of the "Fuso" must be accelerated, and the "Yamashiro", "Ise", and "Hyuga" must also be included in the construction plan as soon as possible in order to deal with the threat from the sea to the Shina Navy. As for the army's plans to increase divisions and regiments, to hell with him! Believing that there is nothing more important now than the security of the Empire's seas, he must convince Congress, to convince the senators. Thinking of this, Prime Minister Gonbei Yamamoto couldn't sit still any longer.

With its navy, China is not the country that could be underestimated before.