Pinfan Garden is a good place, Hanjia is next to the Haihe River, Xu Shichang deliberately built a private garden covering an area of quite amazing in the place where the hundred rivers were made, the place is quiet, not to mention, but also very safe, usually Huashu is used to hold banquets, balls, can also be used for secret meetings, as long as a few Western-style sand are placed on the lawn, and then lined with some coffee tables, set up a few tents that are ventilated on all sides, this is a meeting place with a wide field of vision, not afraid of the ears of the wall.

Now, there were several tents set up on the lawn of the garden, and Xu Shichang and his guests sat in the tents, and the servants were driven to the side, where only a butler and a long-term attendant were served, both of whom had been close to Xu Shichang for many years, and they were tight-lipped and would never divulge any of the contents of the meeting. In fact, there were no secrets worth the attention of the military intelligence agencies at this meeting, but a few Beiyang business bigwigs were chatting with the financial cabinet of the Ministry of Tingbi, and the topic of conversation was only about the impact of the Sino-Dutch war on Chinese commerce and Far Eastern commerce, the beneficial and unfavorable effects.

They were all well-informed people, and before the newspapers officially disclosed the news of the Sino-Dutch war, they had actually learned about the battle between the Sino-Dutch fleets from the insiders, and last night, they could only reveal the relevant news privately, and now the newspapers had officially disclosed the government gazette of the central government, so sitting in the garden, everyone could now openly discuss this seemingly sudden war between China and the Netherlands.

According to the headline of the newspaper report, everyone called this battle between China and the Netherlands "Nanyang Zhanfeng"

Businessmen care about the war, but just to take the opportunity of the war to earn more money for themselves, the Beiyang Consortium because of the past military and political background, has a special relationship in the political circles, therefore, the Beiyang Consortium can so easily take advantage of the war to make a fortune, in the morning of the stock war, everyone here basically made a lot of money, somewhat made up for their political loss of power.

Now, there is a war going on in the South Seas, and a business war is also brewing in North China. On one side of the battle, the Beiyang consortium and on the other side were the Jinyi Mining Consortium, led by the German businessman Hannagen, and both sides were gearing up to set up a coal trust in North China that would be fully controlled by their own side to control the energy supply in North China.

This business war involves all aspects, not only the financial group was involved, the transportation industry, the transportation industry, the manufacturing industry, and the press were all involved in the brain, if there is no war, it is a big war, and the defeated party is likely to be greatly injured, and even withdraw from the North China business industry, therefore, the people in Beiyang attach great importance to this business war that is about to explode, and hope to pull the overlord of the financial industry into the Beiyang consortium, and fight side by side with Beiyang to jointly control the financial situation in North China.

Ministry Tingbi also understands Beiyang's intentions, but the current situation is still unclear, he still decided to wait and see, and then decide which side to turn after the situation is clear, exchanges between countries, value interests, and exchanges between businessmen and businessmen also value interests, in the final analysis, whether it is a national war or a commercial war, are directly related to interests, in many cases, even the business war itself may be a military confrontation between countries.

In fact, sitting in the garden of the Xu family, the Ministry of Tingbi is now more interested in the Japanese politician Nishihara Kamezo than in the Beiyang chaebols, because now, since everyone sat down here, the Japanese politician has been rolling his eyes, and he doesn't know what he is thinking, anyway, he has not interjected, just quietly listened to the Japanese translator next to him relay the conversation of everyone.

Of course, the Ministry of Ting Bi is not clear, in fact, what Nishihara Kamezo is now pondering is also the situation in Nanyang, the difference is that the Beiyang business tycoons are concerned about whether the war in Nanyang will affect their investment there, while Nishihara Kamezo is concerned about the impact of the situation in Nanyang on Japan's strategy.

Nishihara Kamezo is well aware of the Japanese government's current strategy, which is to win over China and jointly confront the European powers, and if necessary, even take advantage of the opportunity of the European war to fish in troubled waters in the Far East.

Now, China has really found an opportunity to challenge the Netherlands because of the "Java incident", so how can the Japanese government miss this opportunity?

Before rushing to China, Nishihara Kamezo had clearly received instructions from the Japanese Government, urging him to win over heavyweights in China's political and business circles and raise the banner for "Pan-Asianism." Now, since China has declared war on the Netherlands, and the Netherlands has officially responded to the war this morning, how can the Japanese Government stand idly by?

Thinking of this, Nishihara Kamezo couldn't sit still, he wanted to leave Xujia Garden immediately, rush to the Japanese consulate in Tianjin, take a telegram, and ask the prime minister about the Japanese government's response to the "Nanyang War." He instinctively believed that the Japanese Government would not miss this great opportunity to seize the Dutch East Indies colony, because just yesterday he had been formally informed that the Central Government of China had agreed to its own Government's proposal for joint naval exercises, which meant that China had taken the initiative to seek cooperation from Japan against the ruling order of the European powers in the Far East.

However, Nishihara Hanachi and Er could only sit patiently in the garden and listen to the abolition of the Chinese bigwigs, looking at him, these Chinese bigwigs are too procrastinating, and the things that can be decided in half an hour are actually discussed for more than an hour, and if a group of Japanese chaebols are replaced, maybe the matter of joint operations can be properly discussed within a few minutes, and then the geisha can be called to serve.

Of course, there were no geisha here, just a butler and a long retinue, so Nishihara had to stop thinking and focus on the conversations that Tuizawa had relayed to him.

Finally, the protracted meeting ended because of lunch, and Nishihara Kamezo impatiently declined Xu Shichang's invitation, and left the Xu family garden in a hurry under the pretext that there was an urgent matter at the consulate.

Boarding the car, Nishihara Kamezo instructed the driver to go straight to the Japanese Consulate in Tianjin.

The car rushed to the Japanese consulate in Tianjin, where Kamezo Nishihara met the Japanese consul who was sitting in the consulate and learned from him that the Japanese government had telegraphed the embassy in China to be on duty during wartime, and it was obvious that the Japanese government might take action. However, the operation to contact the Prime Minister by telegram could not be carried out, as the Prime Minister is still presiding over the meeting.

Originally, Nishihara Kamezo could have sat in the consulate and waited for the news from the Japanese embassy, but he couldn't sit still, so he simply sent someone to the train station after lunch, bought a train ticket for the afternoon, and then rushed to Beijing by train with an interpreter.

Because it was an express train, Nishihara Kamezo rushed to the Japanese Embassy in China that night and met with the Japanese ambassador Hichi.

Nishihara Kamezo's visit was somewhat surprised, but considering Nishihara Kamezo's place in the Japanese prime minister's mind and Nishihara Kamezo's status as a diplomatic envoy, Nichihara Kamezo could only deal with this somewhat impatient Japanese politician very politely.

Through Nichikuyi, Nishihara Kamezo learned that the Japanese government and the cabinet are still meeting to discuss the issue of the Nanyang War, and as for whether the Japanese government will take action, Nishikaku is not clear.

In fact, Nichiki was even more anxious than Nishihara Kamezo, and the Japanese government order he received made it very clear that it was to instigate the war between China and the Netherlands, and now, there was no need for Nichiori to make any effort, and the war between China and the Netherlands had already broken out, which obviously made the Japanese government "pan-Asianism." They were so excited that they strongly advocated an immediate declaration of war on the Netherlands, following the Chinese action to seize the Dutch-occupied East Indies and extend the southern frontier of the Japanese Empire south of the equator.

But on the other hand, for the sudden outbreak of the Sino-Dutch war, the "moderate" in the Japanese government. There was some hesitation, in their opinion, that the central government of China was so quick to excuse the "Java incident." The declaration of war on the Netherlands shows that China has been "planning for a long time" for this war in the South Seas. This means that China is becoming more and more belligerent, which is obviously not good news for Japan, and it is precisely for this reason that the "moderate" faction in the Japanese government and the Diet insists that under the current situation in the South Seas, Japan should not act rashly, or look at the reaction of Britain and France, and then say that if Britain and France take military intervention, then Japan should follow Britain's actions to limit China's expansion and protect Japan's security.

On one side are the so-called "pro-China factions" and on the other side are the so-called "pro-British factions." At present, it is these two political forces that are fighting in the Japanese Government and Cabinet; although the two factions are completely identical on the issue of safeguarding Japan's interests, the propositions of the two factions are indeed at odds with each other on the specific course of action, and as long as the differences cannot be bridged as soon as possible, Japan's war against the Netherlands will not be able to begin as soon as possible.

This is exactly what Rizhiyi is worried about now, he is very aware of the style of the "mad president", that president will not indulge in petty profits, nor will he be insatiable, the last Sino-Japanese war in Northeast Asia has reflected this style, as long as the other side is willing to give in, the war can end at any time.

Therefore, if the Japanese government really wants to fish in the troubled waters of the South China Sea War, it must act as soon as possible, otherwise, once the war comes to an abrupt end, the Japanese government's plan to start a war against the Netherlands may be terminated.

The only thing that can help the main war faction in the Japanese government is to send telegrams back to Japan one after another, telling the hesitant politicians that Britain and France are unlikely to take direct military action at present, and Germany, Italy and other European countries have made it clear that even if Britain and France have the intention to help the Netherlands resist China's attack, it will be impossible, because the combined naval power of China and Japan is very strong, unless Britain transfers its home fleet to the Far East for deterrence.

But Britain would never transfer its home fleet away from the Atlantic, and if the British government did do so, it would be the German navy that would be the happiest of all. If you want to know what will happen next, please log in to the muscle chapter for more, support the author, and support genuine reading!