Before Yi Shui left Zhanjiang again, Duncan had hoped to join him on a trip to Guangzhou to visit Li Hongzhang – it was clear that his cotton and raw silk business would have gone much further if he had the strong support of the governor of Liangguang, who had great influence within the Chinese government, but in the end, he remained in his office. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Because without warning, just as Yi Shui was about to set off, he had a guest named Tsunejiro Nakagawa.

A Japanese, consul of the Imperial Japanese in Hong Kong.

From his own point of view, Duncan did not want to meet with any Japanese, even if he was a diplomat. However, Nakagawa Tsunejiro declared that he was an "informal negotiator" appointed by the Japanese government with an important mission, and in this case Duncan could only set aside an hour for him.

"It's only an hour, not even a second." He stressed.

"It just depends on whether our talks go well, Your Highness the Duke." From the moment he entered the office, Tsunejiro Nakagawa always maintained a typical Japanese smile, but that didn't hide his toughness.

Duncan furrowed his eyebrows. Trouble guys! Fortunately, he had already guessed the mission of Mr. Consul. "The Imperial Government of Japan wants His Royal Highness the Duke to abandon the wrong practice of refusing to sell cotton to Japanese merchants......" said Nakagawa Tsunejiro aloud, but the voice itself had no meaning, and so did his statement.

"I'm sorry about that." Duncan made an apologetic gesture with his hands outstretched, but that was the end of his regrets. "But I'm not going to change what I'm doing. In the past, present and future, United Textile Technology Company will not sell cotton to Japanese businessmen......"

The Japanese, especially the Japanese diplomats, have always been very well-groomed, very good at hiding their negative feelings, and always maintaining a polite posture in front of outsiders. But even so, Duncan's categorical refusal made Nakagawa Tsunejiro's face change significantly, and also made him lose the most basic etiquette. "His Royal Highness!"

Duncan ignored the interruption. Whatever Mr. Consul had to say, his attitude was made clear, and he emphasized: "Not a pound." ”

Anger is rapidly filling Nakagawa Tsunejiro's body. Although Tokyo neither thought nor demanded that he complete his mission—otherwise he would not have given him the title of "informal negotiator," Nakagawa's linear thinking and stubbornness prompted Nakagawa to force himself to complete his mission. So there was no doubt that Duncan's attitude was unacceptable to him.

But he was able to control his emotions.

"His Royal Highness." He tried to soften his tone, trying to replace the request with a request, "You should seriously consider the request of your own government, this is ......"

"I've thought about it seriously." Duncan interrupted, "The answer is, no. ”

"Mr. Sandy......"

"I said it, I'm sorry."

Tsunejiro Nakagawa suddenly felt the urge to strangle Duncan to death.

But he couldn't do it, not because Duncan's left hand, hidden under his desk, was resting on the grip of a "python" pistol—he had no idea about it; The crux of the matter was that if he killed Duncan, the Japanese merchants would not be able to buy any cotton at all.

That would be a complete disaster.

Because Japan needs American cotton. As a new backward industrial country, Japan needs to constantly import machinery and equipment from Western countries, establish its own industrial system and maintain the continuous upgrading and development of the entire system, and it also needs to continuously import advanced weapons and equipment, especially battleships and armored cruisers, to maintain its international status -- in short, Japan needs a lot of foreign exchange.

Unfortunately, since it is a backward industrial country, most of the world is a colony of Western countries, and since there is no market for low-quality Japanese products in countries that are not colonies, it is clear that Tokyo cannot export industrial products in exchange for the necessary funds.

It has only two ways to obtain funds: first, to export a large number of Japanese laborers overseas, but considering the size of Japan's population and the demand for labor in its own industry, the funds obtained by this method will certainly not meet Japan's needs; Second, it exports to Western countries products that cannot be produced in Europe and the United States, or that are inferior in quantity and quality to Japan.

However, it is clear that this product cannot be a Japanese sword and samurai armor, nor can it be sushi and sake; In fact, the only commodity that Japan can export to Europe and the United States is raw silk.

In the past few years, Japanese merchants have successfully established such a trading system: they buy American cotton, make cotton yarn or cotton cloth, ship it to China for sale, then buy Chinese silkworm cocoons, reel them into raw silk, and then export them to the United States, and finally buy machinery and warships in European and American countries, and buy American cotton at the same time......

A cycle, though not perfect, was able to meet the needs of the Japanese - of course, after 1895, the situation changed somewhat, and with the rapid development of Japan's mulberry sericulture, local raw silk replaced Chinese raw silk as Japan's main export. But Japan is still dumping cotton yarn into China as another important channel for accumulating capital.

And the importance of the Chinese market is growing day by day. Even if other factors are not taken into account, and the expansion and upgrading of basic industries are not considered, in the military field alone, the Japanese Navy has ordered five battleships and four armored cruisers from Britain since 1894, and has decided to order one more battleship and two armored cruisers in the next two years. Such a huge expenditure is obviously a burden on the Japanese government, and together with the expenditure in other fields, it is completely insufficient to export raw silk.

So Japan needs the Chinese market, and it needs American cotton.

But now, as an unfortunate reality, the Japanese had to face an unexpected trouble: for unknown reasons, Duncan's refusal to sell cotton to Japanese merchants was a serious problem that, if not handled well, could turn into a disaster.

A week ago, Tokyo.

“…… This is by no means alarmist, Your Excellency. Hitoshi Kuroshima looked at his boss with a gloomy expression, Foreign Minister Shigenobu Okuma, "If the Imperial Government cannot force United Textile Technology to lift the embargo on our merchants, our country will be in a very disadvantageous situation. ”

"Captain Kuroshima is joking." Okuma replied confidently that he was considering resigning, not because of Duncan's ban, of course, but because he was in a serious confrontation with the Satsuma forces in the cabinet, but the problem was that Prime Minister Matsukata Masayoshi was a Satsuma clan and it was obviously impossible for him to be on his side.

Shigenobu Okuma is very dissatisfied with his situation, and he wants to pick a child, so he always seems careless when he is working. But Kuroshima was not clear about this, so he was very annoyed by the absent-mindedness of the foreign minister.

Because he needs Shigenobu Okuma's support.

A month ago, Kuroshima Ren had just been instructed to set up a new Ministry of Foreign Affairs secret agency, the "Kuroshima Agency", and now his mind was full of thinking about achieving a boastful achievement to show off his abilities, and by the way, to take revenge on Qin Lang and Yi Shui - but he still needed the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The problem now is that Shigenobu Okuma doesn't seem to be planning to support him.

His Excellency the Foreign Secretary does not seem to believe his warnings at all.

"How could an ordinary Mi merchant bring the empire to a desperate predicament?" Okuma asked rhetorically.

"Duncan. Sandy is no ordinary rice businessman. Hitoshi Kuroshima emphasized.

"I know, he is the Duke of the Abyssinian Empire. But what's so dangerous about it? Even the emperor of the Abyssinian Empire, he could not possibly pose a threat to the empire. The Foreign Secretary laughed. He knew that Hitoshi Kuroshima wanted to establish merit as soon as possible, but the target he chose was obviously too poor. "Duncan. Sandy doesn't deserve the attention of the Empire. ”

"This is not the case, Your Excellency." Kuroshima strongly objected, "This person has seriously endangered the interests of the empire. ”

"Yes, I know. Duncan. It is true that Sandy's actions have caused our businessmen to suffer huge losses over the past few months, with production at a standstill in many factories and a significant reduction in state revenues - but this is not an insoluble problem. Shigenobu Okuma emphasized in an accentuated tone: "Duncan. Sandy isn't the only cotton seller in the country. ”

"Your Excellency, he is indeed the only seller of cotton in the Far East."

"Captain Kuroshima, I don't understand what you mean."

A question suddenly occurred to Kuroshima, who had submitted an investigative report when United Textile Technology was founded, detailing the company's composition, background, and behind-the-scenes forces, as well as its potential threat level. Anyone who has read the report will be able to recognize it and Duncan very clearly. Sandy's danger, but now, Shigenobu Okuma has shown that he hasn't read the report at all.

What's going on?

Hitoshi Kuroshima wanted to figure out the answer. "Your Excellency, have you seen one of the reports I submitted?"

"What report?"

"Report on United Textile Technologies."

Okuma shook his head. "I've never seen a report like this." If you think about it, he really hasn't seen it.

Kuroshima's face suddenly turned ugly. He submitted the report and no one handed it over to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, which either means that someone has derelict his duties or that someone is secretly working against him...... Of course, no matter what, as long as he knows what the problem is, he will let that guy know that he is good.

But first, he needs to do another thing: "Your Excellency, allow me to ask you to analyze the United Textile Technology Company in detail......"

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Note: Shigenobu Okuma resigned in 1897 and joined the Osaka Shimbun (to be continued, if you want to know what happened next, please log in to the www.qidian.com, more chapters, support the author, support genuine reading!) (To be continued.) )