On the wharf of Tianjin Port, countless merchant ships are docked here, and workers on the wharf are busy unloading boxes of goods or transporting them onto merchant ships. At the entrances to several docks, hawkers were busy selling their wares to passengers who had just disembarked from their boats. Wharves, merchant ships, passengers, goods, workers, hawkers, in these contexts, the entire port of Tianjin presents a flourishing scene.

“…………”

While the entire harbor was maintaining this lively scene, five Ford Model T's suddenly drove up from a distance. And when I saw the five cars, the whole port seemed to be much quieter.

Of course, there is no problem with the car itself, because with the support of the national social and political axe, there are now dozens of large and small automobile factories in China, of which there are three or four that can be compared with Ford. And in the case of various tax exemption policies and vigorous investment in industry and commerce, there are more and more wealthy people in China, and the emerging middle class has become the main force to buy cars, so in today's China, some remote countryside may still be very rare, but in the larger cities or counties, cars are not uncommon, especially in big cities like Tianjin.

The port presents this eerie atmosphere, all because of the small flags planted on these five Fords, the five unique flags... Coastal areas of China. Foreigners are not uncommon in cities, but after the establishment of the National Social Government and the opening up of New China, these alien species have become more numerous, and among them, the closest to China is the most.

Originally, these were nothing, but due to the Shandong Campaign, the relationship between China and China deteriorated for a period of time. Originally, these problems had been healed a lot in the past four years, but after the outbreak of the Sakhalin conflict, Sino-Chinese relations, which had been much more relaxed, became bad again.

In this atmosphere, although he still lives in China as before, he has become quite low-key. And most of the Chinese, it should be said that they are still very [kind], so they did not embarrass the person who appeared nearby.

Merely... Although the vast majority of the people have an indifferent attitude, a kind of unhappy psychology still emerges in people's hearts, especially some of the defenders who are responsible for guarding the port of Tianjin, and they are even more unhappy when they look at these five cars.

"Ugh..."

Sitting in the Ford car in the middle, Lin Quanzhu sighed deeply.

Just now, a platoon of soldiers of those part-time guards at the entrance of the port, as well as the appearance of the Chinese people around the vicinity, Lin Quanzhu naturally saw it.

To be honest, if it wasn't necessary, Lin Quanzhu really didn't want to go out of the embassy. After all, every time he walked out of the embassy, looking at the Chinese people celebrating the victory on the front line, Lin Quanzhu, as the ambassador to China, would feel uncomfortable for a while.

That's right, Lin Quanzhu is now the ambassador to China.

Hayashi succeeded his predecessor, Yukichi Kohata, as ambassador to China, after Yukichi Kohata stepped down on August 14, 16.

Lin Quanzhu is also quite competent after taking over this position, and during the period when Lin Quanzhu served as ambassador to China, it was a period of time when Sino-Chinese relations recovered the fastest, and some intelligence work was also done very well. In fact, if it weren't for the Sakhalin conflict, Lin Quanzhu's performance in office would have been perfect.

And even in the country, Lin Quanzhu is not a simple figure, as a political axe official, Lin Quanzhu has even participated in many Chinese historical events.

Hayashi Gonsuke, a diplomat in the Showa era and governor of Kanto Prefecture, was born in Aizu Prefecture (Fukushima Prefecture). His grandfather was the captain of the Aizu Domain's cannons, and he died in battle with his father in Fushimi and Toba, and he lived with his widowed mother since he was a child, and later graduated from Tokyo Imperial University in 1887 with the support of the Satsuma Domain's Army Vice-Shofumi Kodama, who advocated the integration of public and military forces.

After graduating, he worked in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, serving as a consul at the Yantai Consulate in China, and in 1898 as a counselor at the embassy, acting for a time. He was the most important liaison between the political axes of the two countries, and after the coup d'état in Yanjing in September 1898, he vigorously rescued the Guangxu Emperor and the reformers.

On the day of the incident, when Liang Qichao went to the legation to ask for the protection of Emperor Guangxu and the safe rescue of Kang Youwei, he immediately promised and immediately called the Consul General in Shanghai, Oda Kiri Manshousuke, and the East Asian Tongwen Association to request that Kang Youwei be rescued with all his might. On September 23, after Liang took refuge in the legation, he sent someone to escort him to Tianjin, and informed the warships and merchant ships to assist, and finally Kang and Liang arrived in Yueben. Later, he campaigned for the detention of Huang Zunxian, the envoy to the country, and finally made the Manchus release Huang Zunxian.

He also sent a joint letter to Prime Minister Yamen with ministers from various countries, forcing the Manchus to assure that they had no intention of abolishing the Guangxu Emperor. From 1899 to 1906 he was Minister to Korea. In 1905, he signed the second agreement with Korea on behalf of Korea. After seven years of activities, Korea was finally transformed into a protectorate of the country. In 1907, he was made a baron, and at that time, under Ito Hirobumi, he was known as the three masters of Han along with Katsura Taro and Komura Shotaro. In 1908 he was ambassador to Italy, and from 1916 to 1918 he was again ambassador to China when special caution was needed.

It can be said that even if he did not serve as ambassador to China for the past two years, Lin Quanzhu himself was deeply involved with China, but now..."Your Excellency, it has arrived..."

After the car was parked in the parking lot, an embassy staff member walked up to Lin Quanzhu's car and whispered.

"Good..."

Nodding, Lin Quanzhu opened the car door and walked down step by step.

"Let's go to the docks and wait for Fang Ze-kun..."

Hearing Lin Quanzhu say this, the other embassy personnel hurriedly said in unison.

"Yes!"

When the embassy staff hugged Lin Quanzhu and walked to the dock, Lin Quanzhu sighed again.

This time, Lin Quanzhu will come to the dock to pick up Fang Ze Qianji... This Kenkichi Yoshizawa will not only be the representative of the current China for negotiations, but will also succeed him as the new ambassador to China.

As for him, Lin Quanzhu, will be promoted to the position of ambassador to the United Kingdom, although for the time being, it is likely that China will have a greater weight in foreign affairs than Britain in the near future.

Speaking of Fang Ze Qianji, maybe his ability may not be as good as Lin Quanzhu, but he was not appointed arbitrarily. After the Gengzi Incident, he successively served as Consul in Shanghai and Niuzhuang (now renamed Yingkou), First Clerk of the Embassy in London, First Division Chief of the Political Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chief of the Personnel Division, Director of the Political Affairs Bureau, Director of the Bureau of Asia, Director of the European and American Bureau, and in 1912 he was the Consul General in Hankow.

It was precisely because Kenkichi Yoshizawa had a deep experience in China that he was sent to China to negotiate and take over from Hayashi Quansuke.

After entering the wharf, soon the officials of the port came forward to organize them to the VIP area, which is the so-called VIP――――――, there is no way, although the officials of the port do not like these and say that they are not pleasing to the eye, but in any case, Lin Quanzhu is also a diplomatic envoy in China, and he must not be harmed.

But now the port is mixed with dragons and snakes, if someone rises up, those who are soldiers will definitely not want to come forward to suppress it, and these people in front of them will definitely be torn to pieces. At that time, the law will not hold the people accountable, and the ordinary people who make trouble will definitely be fine, but they, the port officials, will be in trouble.

After arriving at the VIP area, Lin Quansuke, who was sitting quietly and sipping coffee, pondered again.

At this time, Lin Quanzhu's psychology is actually very complicated, after all, he was suddenly transferred to the United Kingdom, and anyone would be a little helpless or something, not to mention that China's current development situation is quite good, not to mention that the United Kingdom, which is already a somewhat downtrodden country, is not inferior to the current United States in many places.

But at the same time of helplessness, Lin Quanzhu also had a feeling of relief.

The reason is simple: as China becomes more and more powerful and powerful, there will be more and more conflicts between China and its neighbors. It turns out that this does not matter when China is weak, maybe it can reap some benefits for the Chinese. As a diplomat, you will naturally be able to enjoy the many benefits that the state has imposed on you.

Not to mention anything else, just watching the originally arrogant Chinese officials grovel in front of them is a great pleasure for the diplomats themselves. After all, for the past few thousand years, Yueben has always looked up to China.

But now, as China grows stronger, it will inevitably become more and more weak. And while Ben is getting weaker and weaker, then the people who stay here as diplomats will definitely not be so comfortable... In fact, as early as some time ago, when Lin Quanzhu was entrusted by Tokyo to bring the British and American ambassadors to Yan Guang to propose that he want to stop [breaking the war] and Yan Guang simply did not see him, Lin Quanzhu already understood that China would probably not become a diplomat's paradise from today onwards... This is also the reason why he will feel relieved, after all, if he continues to stay here, although there is no problem now, it will inevitably become a bag of anger after a long time.

Although receiving anger itself is also a necessary skill for diplomats, since you can go to the UK, why stay in China to be angry..."The next person to suffer is Fang Zejun..."

―――――――――― although the passenger ferry frequency at the terminal will give an approximate time, the passenger ship is not a train after all, and you need to consider the conditions such as water current, wind direction and weather. Although with the advancement of technology, most passenger ships have been replaced with steam engine power, and sails are only auxiliary power until now, or even for emergency backup, but after all, it is still necessary to consider the influence of water flow and weather.

After all, China is not close to the distance, but it is not far away.

Therefore, after Lin Quanzhu sat at the dock for a long time, Fang Ze Qianji arrived at Tianjin Port an hour later than expected.

"It's finally here..."

Looking at the national flag hoisted on the passenger ship, Lin Quanzhu shook his head and said, at this moment he could already see Fang Ze Kenji standing on the deck.

After a while, Kenkichi Yoshizawa had already walked down from the boat with a few entourage, and when the distance between the two people got closer, Lin Quansuke soon found that although Kenkichi Yoshizawa had been covering up, he couldn't hide the bitterness under his expression..."It's been a long time, Yoshizawa-kun..."

Although he understood why Fang Ze was like this, Lin Quanzhu didn't seem to pay attention to anything, and greeted Fang Ze Kenji as usual.

And Fang Ze Kenji didn't seem to want people to discover his true feelings, so he responded in a normal way.

Now that Fang Ze Qianji has been received, there is no need for the group to continue to stay in the port, after all, in a port full of Chinese, a group of diminutive people are too [eyesore] themselves.

When the group got into the car and Lin Quanzhu asked Kenkichi Yoshizawa what the situation was in the country, the expression that Kenkichi Yoshizawa had maintained collapsed.

"It's bad..."

After sighing for a long time, Fang Ze Qianji gave Lin Quanzhu such an answer.

"After nearly two months of breaking the war, our merchant ships have almost sunk, you also know that our country is very dependent on foreign materials, our own country's merchant ships are almost sunk, if you want to get the urgently needed materials, you need to rely on the merchant ships of other countries, but in this way, both the political axe and the people need to spend more money than the original to buy goods, our country is not a rich country in the first place, and now this is even more burdened by the burden of the whole country."

When he said this, Fang Ze Kenji's tone suddenly turned resentful. "Especially those damn white people, they actually took advantage of the fire to rob, and the price of the goods we bought was much higher than the actual price..."Speaking of this, Fang Ze Qianji's tone became helpless again. That's why I'm here, because we can't take it anymore..."

Hearing Kenkichi Yoshizawa say this, Lin Quanzhu's face also became ugly.

Originally, although he guessed that the situation in China was not good, he never expected that the situation would be like this.

In fact, the real situation is even more serious than what Kenkichi Yoshizawa said, because although China is not practicing unlimited submarine warfare, some materials are also prohibited, such as iron ore or steel... Although not all of the merchant ships in this country have sunk, this year's steel output may not be half of that of previous years.

"The British have begun to provide us with a technology called [sonar], which is said to be able to actively detect the existence of submarines, but far water can't save near fire, not to mention whether this [sonar] technology is reliable or not has not yet been decided, alas..."

At this point, Kenkichi Yoshizawa sighed again.

Lin Quanzhu also spoke after cooperating for a while.

"If that's the case, I'm afraid we'll have to pay a lot of price as the one who is suing for peace..."

Fang Ze Qianji nodded, and suddenly leaned into Lin Quanzhu's ear and whispered.

"Actually, the most important thing now is the Sixth Division..."

In the Sakhalin Sea, the fleet commanded by Sa Zhenbing and Gentaro Yamashita continued for more than a dozen days, and although no capital ships were sunk this time, many inferior ships were sunk, and the remaining capital ships were also scarred and could no longer be used for battle.

Therefore, before the winner was decided, the Battle of Sakhalin ended prematurely.

However, although the large-scale naval battle ended, the blockade of Sakhalin continued.

Therefore, although the big naval battles ended, small naval battles occurred from time to time, and because of this blockade, the Chinese and Chinese armies on the island were also fighting in the absence of supplies.

Of course, the situation on the Chinese side is much better than that of the Chinese side, because there are also quite a few submarine forces in the waters near Sakhalin, and while carrying out the war, they will also secretly transport some supplies to the island, so the situation of the defense forces on the island will be much stronger than that of the Chinese army.

However, the Sixth Division is also worthy of being the division with the strongest combat effectiveness in the army, although there is a lack of materials, but the Sixth Division has been hard against Lin Tiannan's attack.

Merely... Although the Sixth Division is known as [black skin, bright red blood], the soldiers in the division are also human after all, so after two months, the Sixth Division on the island gradually became a little unable to hold on.

Although the size of the army had been expanded to more than 500,000 men due to the war, the Sixth Division, as one of the most elite divisions in the whole country, was extraordinary after all, and if the Sixth Division was defeated in Sakhalin and the whole army was annihilated, the impact would be absolutely incalculable.

At this time, coupled with the impact of breaking the war, although he was unwilling, he could only bow his head and admit defeat.

At this time, what he wanted was just a more decent result...―――――――――― although he only wanted a decent ending this time, it was a pity that Yan Guang put forward many harsh demands in the later contact, so harsh that he would rather let all the people of the Sixth Division die in Sakhalin than agree to Yan Guang's request.

However, he didn't agree to this matter, but he fell into Yan Guang's hands, because Yan Guang was not prepared to end the battle so quickly.

At least......... I'm going to have to wait a week... Because at this time, a special force was being transported to Sakhalin, where it was ready to defeat the 6th Division, which was still stubbornly holding its position, and then completely destroy his own will.

A few dozen nautical miles from Sakhalin, a transport ship is slowly sailing.

And on the bow of the transport ship, a young officer was holding on to the railing.

"It's almost time to get to the library page..."

Hearing the officer's words, the captain of the ship spoke on the side.

"It's still a few hours away, so you and your men might as well rest first," said the captain, glancing at the sea in the distance. I hope we don't run into my own cruiser, or we'll be in trouble..."

Although the main fleet of Sa Zhenbing and Yamashita Gentaro withdrew from the battle due to excessive wounds, there were still a considerable number of cruisers and destroyers in the waters near Sakhalin, and the task of these fleets was to attack the opposing transport ships and prevent the enemy from resupplying the garrisons on the island.

It's just that at this time, although the sonar has been studied by scientists, the radar is not yet available, so if it is replenished at night, it is generally difficult for the other party to find it. As a result, both sides usually resupply at night.

Fortunately, the operation was calm all the way, so after a few hours, when it was completely dark, the entire transport fleet, after extinguishing the lights on the ships, sailed to the island of North Sakhalin, which was occupied by the Wehrmacht, escorted by several cruisers.

"It's finally here..."

Looking at the dark shadow that appeared on the sea, an army officer standing on the temporary dock stepped on the cigarette and said softly.

Under the guidance of the dock army, the entire transport fleet soon docked at the pier.

Later, the Type 16 light tanks disembarked from the transport, along with the much-needed supplies of the island's defenders.

Because of the frequent interception of the cruiser fleet at sea, it was much more difficult to transport supplies to the defenders of the island than in the past. Therefore, every time a transport ship departs for Sakhalin, no matter what they were carrying, they will definitely end up with many other supplies.

In addition to the food that the Wehrmacht needs most, the rest of these supplies are ammunition and other materials.

Compared with the abundant life in the past, the life of the defenders on the island is now very tight.

However, compared with the Sixth Division on the opposite side, Lin Tiannan and their division are still very happy, after all, even during the day, there are many [Kei Shui Leopard] submarines transporting supplies.

Unlike himself, there are usually a lot of supplies coming through transport ships, but at least half of them sink into the sea each time, and half of the remaining half is turned back, leaving only a quarter of the supplies to be transported to the island.

In fact, he himself once organized the use of submarines to transport supplies, just like the Wehrmacht, after all, he developed submarines earlier than China, and it is impossible for him to have no submarines in his own country.

It's a pity that because of too much attention to the relationship between large surface ships, the number of submarines in the country is very small, and even if these submarines are all taken out to transport supplies, it will not help..."How is your situation here?" ”

Just as the workers and the defenders of the island were unloading the tanks, the officer who had just been at the bow of the ship also asked the officer who had stepped on the cigarette butt.

"Okay," the officer shook his head as he glanced at the Type 16 tank that had moved down. The gang said that I was fighting very tenaciously, even if there were not many supplies, but we had almost crushed them, and if you hadn't come, we might have been able to take them down in a week...", the officer said, glancing at the convoy on the sea. "For now..."

Patting the officer on the shoulder, the officer of the armored unit laughed.

"Since we're here, trust me, tomorrow we'll be able to help you take down the gang myself."

The officer's words were full of confidence, because this time he took a whole regiment of Type 16 tanks.

A regiment of 200 tanks came, if so many tanks could not clean up the remnants of the island army, then he, the commander of the tank regiment, had better wipe his neck as soon as possible.

And he is also very clear about his task, which is to defeat the proud Sixth Division of the Yue Army, and at the same time destroy the will of Yue himself, but also let them completely understand the current strength comparison between the two countries.

"Now, it's up to tomorrow..."

(To be continued)