The Prime Minister and members of the Cabinet were discussing the robbery of the bank vault in the Imperial Palace of the Taisho Emperor, when the Imperial Officials came to report that the two elders of Saionji Gongwang and Yama Prefecture Aritomo met with His Majesty the Taisho Emperor, and when they heard this, Okuma's heart was tight.

The Japanese Senate is a special kind of existence, which refers to the politicians who began to retire or semi-retire in the late period of the reign era, who were granted the privilege of "Patriarch Privilege" and were given the edict of "Kuangfu Daisho", or the so-called "order", and manipulated the direction of Japanese politics behind the scenes. At the time of the cabinet change, they participated in the selection of the prime minister to form a cabinet, and they had a huge influence, and there have only been nine elders in the history of Japan. Thus, during the period from 1885 to 1934, the prime ministers of Japan were in fact the senators themselves or their preferred candidates.

That is to say, the prime minister of Japan is nominally appointed by the emperor, but in fact it is mainly manipulated by the senators, and Okuma Shigenobu also knows that his term of office is about to expire, and he is no longer valued by the senate, and the possibility of his resignation is very high, he is now in addition to planning the support of the people, but also actively operating the recognition of the senate, I wanted to operate in the Republic of China Jiangsu Guo Yu to fight for the benefits of the empire, but suddenly there was an incident in Japan where the central bank vault was looted, so that Okuma Shigenobu fell directly into the abyss.

Originally, there was still a glimmer of hope that he could try his best to get back that huge sum, but a day and a half had passed, and there was still no clue, his heart gradually became cold with the passage of time, he knew that the longer it dragged on, the worse it would be for him, and now when he heard that the patriarch was coming, he knew that he was going to be kicked out.

The two powerful senators walked into the council chamber and sat on the side after saluting Emperor Taisho, while the cabinet members, including Okuma Shigenobu, stepped forward to salute the two senators, and Okuma Shigenobu looked at the calm faces of the two, but he knew that beneath the calm surface was probably a surging anger.

"Prime Minister Okuma, now that there is such a serious matter in the empire, how is the government responding?" Youpeng asked in a hoarse old voice.

In fact, Yamayama Aritomo and Okuma Shigenobu are the same age, and Saionji Gongwang is 11 years younger than Okuma Shigenobu, but the two are real elders, both of whom have been prime ministers for two terms, although Okuma Shigenobu is also the second prime minister, but the status of the political zhì is incomparable with these two.

Okuma Shigenobu was not surprised by Yama Prefecture's questioning, although the news was blocked, but such news would be known to the Senate as soon as possible, the Senate had already given itself a day to deal with the matter, and now its time should have come, so the Senate will be held accountable.

"Elder Shan County, the first division and the Metropolitan Police Department have been sent to search for the robbers with all their might, and the whole city of Tokyo has been placed under martial law." Okuma replied.

"But why is there no news yet, the treasury of the Imperial Bank has been stolen, all the property has been looted, and whether the cabinet is ready to deal with the problems that will arise next." Youpeng of Shan County continued to ask.

"We are now working on countermeasures, and we have made several preliminary decisions, such as increasing taxes, printing more currency, lowering salaries, reducing investment, and calling on people to tide over the difficulties." Okuma Shigenobu said a few things briefly.

"Is this the response strategy that the cabinet came up with, is it child's play that you govern the country?" After listening to Okuma Shigenobu's explanation, Yama Prefecture Youpeng said in a stern tone.

His words made all the Japanese cabinet members present look gloomy and bow their heads and remain silent.

"Nowadays, the loss of hundreds of millions of yen banknotes, can it be solved by just printing more banknotes, if there is no deposit system, paper money is a piece of waste paper, do you think foreigners will not know what is happening in Tokyo, if we print more banknotes, Europe will be the first to give up commodity transactions with the empire, so that the empire is not just a loss of money. Don't you know that this will increase the burden on the Japanese people, even if the burden on the Japanese people is heavier than that of the defeated country of the Republic of China, aren't you afraid of forcing the people to rebel, please don't forget that there are still many red underground parties in the empire, and the last thing that should not be done is to reduce investment, you must know that since the Meiji Restoration, the empire has completed the reconstruction of Japan by completing capitalist development, Do you want to drag Japan under the control of Europe again? Although the words of Youpeng in Shanxian County were not very loud, but the tone of Yan Sù, everyone who said it was cold, and the countermeasures that these people racked their brains to come up with were so unbearable in the eyes of Youpeng in Shanxian County.

At this time, the public hope of Xiyuan Temple also said, "The four major chaebols have suffered heavy losses, and they have severely affected the normal operation of their enterprises, and Japan's economy will be hit hard because of this matter, and it is expected that many enterprises will go bankrupt and close down because of the rupture of the capital chain, which will be a heavy loss for the government, and Japan's economy and industry are still very weak today, and after such an accident, it is likely to collapse, and I hope the government will consider it thoroughly." "The last veteran of Japan to be ordained, only 67 years old this year, is the time when he is old and strong, and his prestige in Japan is also very high.

Saionji Gongwang continued: "This incident involves the central bank and the four major chaebol banks, they are the pillar banks of the empire, this matter will inevitably implicate a large number of banks, and those branch banks will be implicated and fail, this matter The government should also take into account, if this incident causes the people to run on bank funds, it will cause a large number of bank failures in the short term, and these governments must take good measures to deal with it." The government has to consider in advance whether the factories will be closed due to the shortage of funds, whether wages will not be paid, whether the workers will go on strike, and whether it will cause social unrest. ”

Although Xiyuan Temple Gongwang only said these things in a reminding tone, but the cabinet members present were in a cold sweat, no matter what kind of thing happened, it was a very troublesome matter, and these things mentioned by Xiyuan Temple Gongwang may happen at the same time, which is the most terrifying, I really don't know if the angry people will directly rush into the prime minister's official residence and various ministries, and kill all the cabinet members.

Okuma Shigenobu's heart had sunk to the bottom at this time, but he couldn't help but speak, he sorted out his thoughts and said: "Elder of Yama County, we will carefully consider countermeasures, and I also hope that Elder Yama County and Elder Saiyuan Temple can advise." As he spoke, he bent down and saluted the two of them.

"If you want to discuss things, go back to your cabinet office, and we will report to Your Majesty." Xiyuan Temple Gongwang said directly.

This is equivalent to directly ordering them to go out, although this is the palace. The Cabinet members returned to the Prime Minister's Office to continue their deliberations, but a newspaper disrupted the plan and the situation became out of control.

Although martial law is imposed in Tokyo, it can't stop foreigners, especially the British, who now have a lot of investment in Japan, and the courtesy received by foreigners in Japan is not lower than that of the Republic of China, so foreigners will not take into account the feelings of the Japanese.

The Times is the number one mainstream newspaper in the United Kingdom and is known as "the faithful recorder of British society". A long time ago, there were stationed reporters of the Times in Japan, and later the newspaper developed its business, and there was the "Japan Times", which is a newspaper mainly focusing on reporting international events and Japan's heavy events, and the circulation of "Japan Times" has been ranked second largest in Japan after nearly ten years of development, and of course there is also a Japanese version.

After the bank robbery, Tokyo was directly blocked, and a keen reporter knew that something big had happened in the Japanese capital, and it was not an ordinary big event, even if Emperor Taisho died, Tokyo would not be blocked to such a course.

What kind of environment can't stop the reporter's heart to explore the truth, after many investigations, finally let the Times reporter Harry get the exact news, the Bank of Japan was ransacked, the bandits robbed thousands of tons of gold and a large amount of cash currency, as well as the valuables stored in the zài safe, and at the same time were looted Yasuda Bank, Mitsubishi Bank, Mitsui Bank, Sumitomo Bank, this is the bank of the four major chaebols, is the financial settlement center of the four major chaebols, the reporter who got the news Harry was not calm for a moment, " This will be a sensational news, not only in Japan, but also in Europe, because many of these countries have economic dealings with Japan, and now there is a good show, and I, Harry, are going to be famous, and I am going to find the editor-in-chief to sell it for a good price. ”

Harry didn't slack off, and sent the news he got to the editor-in-chief, and asked for a salary increase of 30% when he opened his mouth, and finally the editor-in-chief directly agreed to this condition after seeing the news. A few hours later, the Japanese Times was printed, and the newspaper office drove up the newspaper and began to distribute it, although there were soldiers at various intersections with martial law handles, but they could not stop the delivery of the newspaper, when the Japanese people got the newspaper, they were shocked, and the news of the looting of the Bank of Japan spread radiation in Japan at the speed of light, and people knew that the Bank of Japan had no money, and there was no penny, so the money that they had worked so hard to earn was stored in the Bank of Japan, and now they can get it back.

Some people worry about whether they will not be able to get back the money they have deposited in the Bank of Japan and the four major chaebol banks, and others worry about whether the banks that have not been robbed are safe now and whether the money they have saved is secure. Ordinary people are better, after all, there is not much money in ordinary times, and there is less money in the bank, but after those companies saw this report, they were scared a lot, they usually need working capital to run a business, and a large part of it is stored in the bank, if the bank has no money, then how do they do business, how to buy goods, how to buy raw materials, how to pay workers' wages, some people began to sweat on their heads.

Some people were afraid of nature and some people started to take their passbooks to nearby banks to withdraw money, at first it was just a few people, and gradually more and more people started to be just the sales department of the Bank of Japan, and finally all the banks began to be frantically squeezed. R1152