Before the news of Goro Ijiin's self-defeat spread, the commander of the 14th Division, Lieutenant General Kawamura Keiaki, had already been killed on the battlefield, and the headquarters of the 14th Army Corps in Yonajo was captured and the artillery positions were captured.

At this time, the second batch of transport fleets arrived at Tenglian Bay, and the real baggage troops arrived, and an artillery brigade drawn from the Jianghuai Corps joined the battle, and 72 155mm howitzers were mounted on the firing range, and began to cooperate with the various artillery columns of the Fujian and Zhejiang Corps, as well as more than 60 122mm howitzers of the Yue Army temporarily captured to suppress and fire at Jinwu Bay.

The second station of the Combined Fleet finally fell into a rout.

It was not until 4:17 p.m. that the submarine force collectively completed self-destruction, and the second station of the combined fleet of the United Fleet raised its flag and surrendered under the leadership of Rear Admiral Ito Shouyoshi.

At this time, more than half of the nearly 100 battleships of the second station had been lost, and the rest were basically small ships, and all the six battleships of the main force were sunk; On the army side, the 14th Division was completely annihilated, the 15th Division suffered more than half of the casualties, and the rest retreated to Wuwu Island.

The Battle of Jinwu Bay ended there.

Since the start of the Far Eastern War, the most tragic battle between China and China was born on this large island of the Ryukyus, with more than 15,000 casualties on both sides.

The Battle of Jinwu Bay, if not the curtain of the official start of the counteroffensive of the Central [***] team, at least proved a point...... The actual combat power of the [***] team is seriously underestimated.

Hu Chuyuan stayed on the island of Ryukyu for two days, met with officers at all levels who participated in the war, and commended them one by one.

According to the original plan, the Pacific Fleet officially used Jinmu Bay Port as a new headquarters base, began to control the sea power of the Beiyang Fleet, forced the Navy to withdraw to the Nagasaki area for strict defense, and at the same time created an opportunity for the Beiyang Fleet's general attack.

The annihilation of the second station of the Combined Fleet and the 14th Division alarmed the entire upper echelons of the Ryukyu Army, and they could only choose to block the news, claiming that the Japanese army was still fighting on the Ryukyu Island, and even repelled a counterattack by the Chinese Navy.

They can only continue to sleep in the lies and dreams concocted for them by politicians, and continue to think that it is the duty of every man to recover the Ryukyu Islands, that it is the duty of every man to defeat the pedantic, backward, ugly and low-level Shina people, and that leading Asia is the future of the empire.

Morbidity......!

On his way back to Fuzhou in a convoy of three Xiangyang-class cruisers, Hu Chuyuan pondered that the time was ripe to attack the French "Chinese fleet" in Vietnam.

A very important reason for assessing why this was defeated in the landing battle at Kinvu Bay is that Russia underestimated China's war strength and did not force France to declare war on China in accordance with the Covenant and send the main fleet to Vietnam in accordance with the prior agreement...... Even if it does not fight a decisive battle with the Chinese navy, it can share the pressure on the navy for Russia.

After nearly half of the strength of the Entente navy is defeated, Russia will understand that if France does not send its navy to participate in the war, the Entente may really be defeated, and they will inevitably force France to fulfill the Entente alliance agreement.

So...... Hu Chuyuan believed that it was necessary to defeat the French "Chinese fleet" in one fell swoop before this time and ambush the main fleet of the French headquarters in the Strait of Malacca or in the waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean, depending on which route the French headquarters fleet chooses to enter the Pacific Ocean.

Or, instead of rushing to crush the "Chinese fleet", they resorted to the method of besieging the city and sending reinforcements, forcing France to hastily send the main forces into the Pacific Ocean.

Hu Chuyuan was crocheting this plan in his mind, and at this time, he always felt that he was a little too crazy like Hitler.

Fortunately...... France is still very easy to bully.

After successive military expansions, the Chinese Navy at this time was already the second largest navy in the world in terms of total strength, higher than the total tonnage of the French Navy, and the advantage of the main warships was also greater.

In the case that the navy is only enough to defend the homeland, it will not be too difficult to deal with the Russian and French fleets alone.

To a certain extent, he was more like Hitler, who took the initiative to launch an offensive against the Ryukyu Islands with inflated ambitions, and as a result, he was forced into a tug-of-war with the Fujian-Zhejiang Corps and the Nanyang Corps, and the navy and the submarine force, which were regarded as secret tricks, were even more than half damaged.

In order to better delay the opportunity for the army to go north, when he returned to Fuzhou, Hu Chuyuan opened the prelude to the further expansion of the Fujian and Zhejiang Corps, and the Liangguang Corps and the Southwest Corps also began to increase their troops, preparing for a decisive battle with France in Vietnam.

Multi-faceted expansion means a large-scale increase in military spending, and this problem gave Hu Chuyuan a little headache.

Shinjuku-dori, Shibanya, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Embassy of France in Tokyo.

Bivitz is a senior adviser to the French Minister and a professor of French and modern at the Tokyo Vocational School, as well as an expert on East Asian studies on the French side.

To be precise, he was a double agent who helped France collect military intelligence on Asian countries and sold Russian intelligence to the State Intelligence Administration.

Bivitz's father was a missionary, having served as a missionary in Fuzhou, where he spent his early childhood until his youth when he returned to Europe for university education and completed his doctorate in philosophy at the University of Paris.

After graduating, he first worked as a translator at the French Consulate General in Fuzhou, and then was absorbed into the then Foreign Secret Bureau, where he gradually became the most brilliant intelligence collector and expert on East Asian issues in France.

Because of his in-depth understanding of the culture and intelligence, in 1894 he was sent to Tokyo as the highest-ranking advisor, openly as a professor at the Tokyo Vocational School.

Bivitz had a reading office at the French Legation, where he could browse all the intelligence and information at will, and accordingly give diplomatic advice to the French political axe.

Now, one of his tasks is to confirm as soon as possible the strategic realignment plan and the number of submarines, as well as whether there are plans for subsequent submarine development and production.

He is not the only spy agent of the State Intelligence Administration, and even within the high-level officials of the State Intelligence Administration, there are also informants of the State Intelligence Administration.

As a double agent, in Tokyo, he participated in a larger market for information on spies, and the intelligence gathered from there convinced Bivitz that France had better not enter the war.

Bivitz gathered all the information he could get and carefully analyzed it, and finally came to a conclusion -- the troops currently gathering in Hiroshima and Shimonoseki were not going south to "recover" the Ryukyus, but to join up with the Russian army and launch a large-scale army attack from the area around Mudan Ulla.

Yue Ben was analyzing the large number of new "Qing army" weapons that appeared in the Battle of Jinwu Bay, trying to find secret manufacturers internationally, and they did not believe that these weapons were developed and produced by the Chinese themselves, and targeted Germany.

For this reason, he said that Ben was actively negotiating with the German side and proposing some quid pro quo demanding that Germany stop supplying weapons to "China" and stop all military aid to China.

Bivitz carefully discerned the information in his hands, and he had the right to read, and was even compelled to read, most of the secret information between the Franco-Russian Entente, in order to make the best judgment for the national interests of France.

At the same time, he will continue to compile the intelligence into another report for Russia and Russia, which will be sold to the liaison officer of the National Intelligence Directorate in Japan at a not-so-cheap price.

Intelligence is life.

Shibata Toshio is a very peculiar person, low-key and introverted, shrewd, he is the adopted son of Mr. Kondo Hidekawa, a Chinese class in the Funami clan in Kyoto, educated in the United States in his early years, graduated from Yale University in the United States, has a good educational background and background, once served as the secretary of Okuma Shigenobu, deeply respected by Okuma Shigenobu, and now serves as the deputy cabinet minister of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

In Samoto's political circles, the thirty-four-year-old Shibata Toshio has always been regarded as a promising man, and he has his own factional strength and supporters, especially the Kyoto zaibatsu from the Kyoto, Kobe, and Osaka regions, who Inoue Shin jokingly called "Osaka's little merchants."

Yes, Shibata's political stance has always been that of the small merchant class.

It seems that he has no relationship with foreign intelligence agencies, let alone spies, but the truth is cruel, whether it is the Kyoto chaebol or Shibata Toshio himself, the Chinese are a very important force in the growth process.

When he was studying at Yale University, he joined the Self-Love Association, and formed an organization similar to the Self-Love Association in the United States, and later secretly joined the Fuxing Society after being introduced by Ouyang Geng.

Because of his high personal prestige among the small business class, the Kyoto chaebol, and overseas students, even after the fall of Shigenobu Okuma, Aritomo Yamayama and Hirobumi Ito, who later served as prime ministers, did not move his position.

These days, the defeat on Ryukyu Island has brought the Ito Hirobumi cabinet to an end, and the emperor has ordered a reshuffle, and in the selection of the new prime minister, Katsura Taro, who was born in Choshu and served as Minister of War four times in a row, has become the only candidate for public recommendation.

In the past few days, Katsura Taro's confidant, Masashi Terauchi, deputy chief of the Army Staff Headquarters, came to secretly contact Shibata Toshio several times to discuss a plan to unite Shibata's forces and invite Shibata to become minister of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

This plan was strongly opposed by Shin Inoue, an agent of the Mitsui Foundation, as well as by the Mitsubishi Iwasaki family, however, the Constitutional Friends Association, led by Katsura Taro and Saionji Konozo, was eager to unite Shibata's forces.

Specifically, they wanted to ease the relationship between the Constitutional Political Friends Association and Shigenobu Okuma's Liberal and Progressive Party through Toshio Shibata, and to ensure the stability of Komoto's internal politics and unite with the outside world.

With the successive defeats of the Satsuma and naval factions and the development of partisanship in the cabinet, the domestic political struggle has gradually evolved from the early feudal struggle to the political party struggle.

At only 34 years old, Shibata Toshio is the second largest faction in the Liberal Progressive Party after Shigenobu Okuma, and his personal political intentions are very similar to the "cosmopolitanism" represented by Saionji Konozo, and to a large extent, he is very much suppressed by the militarist faction of Aritomo Yamagu, and is also a thorn in the side of the right-wingers of the Imperial Road faction.

At noon on this day, Toshio Shibata was at his private residence in the Meihe Valley.

Terauchi Masaki came again, wearing the uniform of the army, he has the rank of lieutenant general, his forehead is bare, he has a pair of surprising eyebrows, his nose is high, and his beard is thick on the upper jaw, he looks like a very majestic person, because the ears on both sides are obviously one big and one small, and it also looks very weird.

He is already forty-eight years old, and he once served as the principal and the first director of education of the non-commissioned officer school, and he was the one who formulated the existing military education and compulsory education policy, and he was also one of the heirs of the Ming Six Society system.

These days, he is constantly in and out of Shibata House in the Meihe Valley, and there are always many pleasing details in the quiet and elegant traditional residence, and it can be seen that Shibata Toshio, a politician of the younger generation, has abundant financial support.

This is true, Shibata Toshio's wife is the youngest daughter of the Nakamura family of the Kyoto chaebol, and this mansion is also one of the dowries donated by the Nakamura family.

Entering the lakeside clubhouse of Shibataju, Masaki Terauchi took off his shoes and entered the traditional hall, where Toshio Shibata, who was younger and less senior, bowed his head politely and saluted.

There is no one who does not like handsome men with good looks, especially young people like Toshio Shibata, who are rich and powerful, young, well-educated and well-born, and polite.

During this period of time, Terauchi Masayi became more and more appreciative of Shibata Toshio, convinced that if Shibata Toshio became the Minister of Commerce and Industry, he would definitely bring real happiness to Samoto.

Masaki in the temple returned the salute very politely and said, "Shibata-kun...... We meet again! ”

"Hey!"

Shibata Toshio was particularly sincere, and invited Terauchi Masashi to sit down, and the two drank sake together, and began to chat about a few side dishes, sushi, and sashimi.

It's not idle talk, Terauchi Masashi is not a person who can beat around the bush, which is why Katsura Taro sent him to contact Shibata Toshio.

As soon as Terauchi sat down, he talked about the Mitsubishi Foundation and the Kobe Shipyard, and he and Shibata Toshio asked, "Is it possible for Fuji Bank to borrow a sum of money from the Kobe Shipyard?" ”

"Really?"

Shibata Toshio was slightly surprised, and then said, "The people of the Iwasaki family...... Would you like to do so? In terms of capital, the financial resources of the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi can continue to support! ”

Terauchi Masatsushi said: "The problem is here, if you become the Minister of Commerce and Industry of the Empire, it is very likely that the Iwasaki family will stop lending to the Kobe Shipyard. You have to be clear about one thing, but here's ...... The base of the submarine project, the Reich must maintain its production, and if we can, we also want to expand production, especially to intensify the research project on engines and diesel engines, once China cuts off our trade routes with France, we can no longer use the diesel engines of the French. ”

"That's ......!"

Shibata Toshio silently thought about it in his mind, thinking that he finally knew the base of the Imperial submarine project, and he actually handed it over to the Mitsubishi Foundation under their noses.

Originally, he had always thought that the Mitsui Consortium was carrying out these affairs.

"And ......?" Shibata Toshio thought that if it was the Iwasaki family, then there would be nothing to worry about, and he immediately said: "Leave these things to the Nakamura family, there should be no problem!" ”

Terauchi Masashi snorted and said, "However, there is another derivative problem, if you want to help the empire raise 60 million yuan of national debt, it won't be too big a problem, right?" ”

Toshio Shibata understands that all this is a political deal.

If he were to be appointed Minister of Commerce and Industry, rather than the person recommended by the Mitsubishi and Mitsui Consortium, he would have to be equally responsible for raising military expenses for him.

He nodded silently and said, "It won't be a problem." ”

"Then ......!" Terauchi Masayi was finally relieved and said, "Then it's decided, Shibata-kun, I hope you can make your due contribution in the position of the Imperial Minister of Commerce and Industry." ”

"I still need your full support for such a thing!"

Toshio Shibata smiled, but felt sad in his heart.

He very much did not want to be bogged down in such a senseless war, but if he could turn the tide and his rhetoric, adopt a more liberal economic policy, abandon the existing basis of militarism and plutocratic economy, and establish a formal trade treaty with China and its colonies, he could still continue to develop.

It is a pity that the economy of this book is completely monopolized by the chaebols.

As a politician who mainly studies economics, and as a politician who is about to become the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Shibata Toshio's real idea is precisely to scuttle Mitsui.

It is true that there can be no two leaders in Asia, but it is impossible for Ben to take on this responsibility and to start a war for it.

This is what he thinks.

It's just that he never expressed such thoughts, he just used practical actions to destroy all this, and then, he wanted to establish the book in his mind.

The exchange with Terauchi continued into the evening, and after sending Terauchi away, Shibata Toshio immediately made a phone call to Koji Nakamura, the president of Fuji Bank, and his father-in-law to confirm the financial problems.

In addition, they had to make a new appointment to talk about something more secretive.

Shibata wants to take over the Kobe shipyard as soon as possible to find out as soon as possible what the submarine project, which has been called the Empire's top secret program, how much more will be produced in the future, and what the technical standards will look like.

Then, through his own channels, he would relay the information to the branch chief of the Fuxing Society, who was lurking in the book.

On the premise of not ceding the land, he hoped that the war would end soon, and he would be in charge of everything in the book.

Where is the future of Ben and where is the future of Asia.

Toshio Shibata has his own answer to all this, and he just can't confirm it a little...... How should such a huge consortium as Mitsui be defeated?

He firmly believed that there should never have been two emperors...... The question is how to do it.

(To be continued)