“………… The political axe is financially scarce, and the production capacity of weapons and ammunition is seriously insufficient..."

At the cabinet meeting, Emperor Taisho still sat like a puppet, and below him, the Minister of Okazura, Wakatsuki Rijiro, was there reading a document with a document... After reading for more than ten minutes, and finally reading all the content on the information, Wakatsuki Rijiro patted the information in his hand.

“………… In short, so far we are not capable of fighting any further..."

When he said this, Wakatsuki Rijiro's face was bitter.

However, hearing Wakatsuki Rijiro's words, Minister of War Okaichi Nosuke, who had been sitting down very impatiently, stood up violently.

"Wakatsuki-kun, what do you mean by that? If we can't hold on, can we hold on!! ”

Hearing Okaichi's words, the other ministers present also looked at it.

In their hearts, they still agree with Okaichi Nosuke's words, after all, they are relatively clear about the national strength of China and Saymoto.

Yes, in recent years, China has indeed developed by leaps and bounds, and has made great achievements in the most critical industrial capacity. In particular, in the production of steel, it has so far reached a point where it can be on par with the previous one.

However, in the final analysis, China is still only a newly developed country, and it is inferior to the foundation of the country. Just like the fiscal revenue, the fiscal revenue of the capital is more than 720 million yuan, and China's?

There is no statistics for this year's, but last year's, wasn't it only more than 500 million?

And although Ben is a debtor country, is China not? You know, China is not only a debtor country, but also a country that needs to repay reparations!

Every year, just to compensate for the compensation left over from the previous Qing Dynasty, we need to compensate at least 780 million yuan, and now we can't support it, how can the Chinese support it?

(During the Manchu Qing Dynasty in 1911, the debt expenditure of the Manchu political axe in this year reached more than 5,100 taels of silver, equivalent to 87.72 million silver dollars, accounting for 14% of the total financial expenditure of that year) However, after listening to Okaichi Nosuke's words, Wakatsuki Rijiro sighed bitterly.

"Since the Russo-Russian War, although China's development rate is good, almost every year can reach a considerable growth rate, but because of too many foreign debts, in fact, the real growth is very limited, I believe everyone here is very clear..."

Listening to Wakatsuki Rijiro's words, everyone in the audience also nodded.

That's right, on the surface, the Russo-Russian War was indeed won, and he himself won the title of a great power because of this war. But in fact, everyone here knows that I am at most a little stronger than the Russians in this war, and the real winner is actually the British.

As for himself, although they won the war, they paid for the war and lost all the benefits they earned in the First Sino-Japanese War and the Gengzi War.

Even because of this war, Yuben has completely become a debtor country.

Seeing that everyone in the audience agreed with his words, Wakatsuki Rijiro continued.

"Originally, we wanted to take advantage of this war to take advantage of a ride, and then use this to completely transform from a debtor country to a debtor country, but we didn't expect that because the war lasted for two months, and there were many losses during the period..."

"Humph!!"

Hearing that Wakatsuki Rijiro seemed to be accusing himself, Nosuke Okaichi and Navy Minister Yashiro Rokuro all "snorted".

Without him, because in this war, the losses of neither the army nor the navy are small.

And if I have to say it, I'm afraid that the losses of the navy are greater.

After all, the Navy lost almost a third of its capital ships, and what about the Army?

The army had a total of 19 divisions, and the loss in Shandong this time was only five of them, barely a quarter. Moreover, the current army has mobilized the total number of personnel to the amount of 500,000, and the tens of thousands of people lost in Shandong will not be as traumatic as the navy.

At this time, it seemed that he heard the "humming" of Nosuke Okaichi and Yashiro Rokuro, and Wakatsuki Rijiro quickly closed his mouth and continued the topic just now.

"Because of the war, the goal of taking advantage of this war to make a fortune for the time being is temporarily stranded. At present, almost all the factories in China are working for the army in Shandong, and Britain and France and other countries, even if they wave checks and we shop here, we don't have enough goods to provide them..."

Speaking of this, Wakatsuki Rijiro's face was even more bitter.

After all, Wakatsuki Rijiro is the minister of Ohzo Province, which is actually the Ministry of Finance.

As the Minister of Finance, he originally wanted to take advantage of the opportunity of the European war to make a good profit, and by the way, alleviate the financial tension of the political axe. But now because of this war, everything is ruined... And after hearing Wakatsuki Rijiro's words, the faces of Okaichi Nosuke and Yashiro Rokuro were also a little ugly.

Because the attack on Shandong, although it was planned by the Okuma cabinet earlier, the two of them were also very much fueled by it at that time.

Fortunately, Wakatsuki Rijiro didn't continue to dwell on this topic, but only talked about it a little and moved to other directions.

"Although my country did not hitch a ride on the European war, those Chinese did. Unlike China, China has a vast land and abundant resources. So when people from Britain and France waved checkbooks, the Chinese quickly prepared all kinds of supplies needed by the British and French. Not only that, but there are countless factories of all kinds under construction in China, if all of them are built......... I'm afraid the Chinese are the biggest winners of this war..."

Wakatsuki Reijiro made the faces of Okaichi Nosuke and the others quite ugly, but Okaichi Nosuke still spoke.

"So what?!"

"How..."Wakatsuki Rijiro said with a wry smile. Compared with our country, the Chinese side can be said to be quite prosperous. In other words, the Chinese will also get more benefits from this than China. You know, China today is not the country that did not have much industrial base in the past. At present, in Sichuan, in Guizhou, and in the emerging Ma'anshan and other areas, many factories are under construction, or have already been built, and these factories or industrial zones can provide the goods needed by the British and French powers..."

When he said this, Wakatsuki Rijiro really wanted to shout a few times to the sky!!

He never imagined that the hitchhiker of the European war would actually be hitched by the Chinese, but they were in trouble because of the war in Shandong. Now the limited factories in China still have to provide supplies for the army in Shandong, and they are simply unable to take into account the shopping lists of the British and French powers.

Unlike China, because of its "vast land", although there are many factories that have to supply goods to the Wehrmacht, there are still many factories that can serve the British and French powers... Not to mention those factories that serve the Wehrmacht, the Wehrmacht is not without money. And those factories, after gaining profits, will also use the funds obtained to continue to expand production, in cooperation with those factories that provide goods to the British and French powers, this is simply a good surname cycle... And after listening to Wakatsuki Rijiro's explanation, although Okaichi Nosuke is the Minister of War, he understands the truth to some extent, but..."But aren't these all this year's things?" If you want to have any gains, you can wait until next year, what does it have to do with the war in Shandong..."

"It's a big deal, although this is only what happened this year, but it represents a good development on the Chinese side, you know, now in the shipyards in Shanghai, there are even a few shipyards, began to build 2, 3,000 tons of small cargo ships for the British and French, this is by no means a good sign. Moreover, according to the information provided by the Black Dragon Society, in combination with the detailed sorting of Dazao Province, the fiscal revenue of the Chinese this year is likely to exceed 700 million silver dollars, reaching the same level as China, and by next year, if the Chinese still maintain the current development rate, it is also possible to reach 900 million 1 billion..."

Wakatsuki Rijiro made the faces of everyone present change, and even Okuma Shigenobu, who had known for a long time, had an ugly face.

"But in that case, we should not stop the development of the Chinese people!!"

"That being said, we can't afford to fight anymore...", said Wakatsuki Rijiro and took out another piece of information. Look, this is a document provided by the British..."

Without waiting for the information to be distributed, Wakatsuki Rijiro had already continued to ask.

"Everyone knows about the Tampico oil field in Mexico, right?"

Everyone nodded, the Tampico oil field shocked the world back then, especially several of the oil wells, even now are still the highest oil producing wells directly on the market.

And seeing what everyone seemed to know, Wakatsuki Rijiro said with a wry smile.

"Do you know that the person who discovered the Tampico oil field in Mexico is the current Chinese President Yan Guang..."

“…………”

There was a dead silence, and at this time, even Okaichi Nosuke felt a little bad... However, at this point, Wakatsuki Rijiro still did not stop.

"Also, according to the information provided by the British, the Standard Oil Company, which bought the Tampico field from Yan Guang, will give Yan Guang 30% of the profits every year. And these profits, in 1910, were more than $50 million a year, and in 1914, that is, this year, because of the rise in oil prices, they had risen to more than $60 million. In addition, that Yan Guang had invented a lot of things in the United States back then, and even set a world record for one invention a day, and these inventions could bring him more than one million dollars a year..."

"That is to say, these additional incomes can bring Yan Guang at least 150 million to 200 million silver dollars of income every year, although this Yan Guang will spend a lot of money every year in the past few years, but the savings for many years are probably not much worse than my country's financial income in a year..."

No one knows how desperate Wakatsuki Rijiro and Shigenobu Okuma were when they saw this information... According to the calculations of Shigenobu Okuma and Rijiro Wakatsuki, the funds still in Yan Guang's hands are at least more than 600 million silver dollars, and it is not impossible to exceed 700 million if there are more... If this money were left in Europe, it might not be a lot of money for Britain and France and other powers, but for Yueben, it was a desperate amount.

Especially when I think that all this money is concentrated in one person, and it is all liquid money..."In comparison, the two months of war have consumed nearly 100 million yuan of funds for the political axe, which is a great blow to the political axe's finances, which are not very abundant in the first place, plus the warships lost by the navy, those battleships are almost more than 100 million yuan if they are all added up..."When he said this, Wakatsuki Rijiro looked up at the people whose faces were somewhat gray. "It's not that I don't want to fight, it's just that we can't fight..."

——————————Although Wakatsuki Rijiro said the truth at the Imperial Council, the telegram sent back to Terauchi Masayi in the end only asked them to set up a defensive line in Huang County, and as for the future—————— let's wait until Okuma Shigenobu and their dispute came out.

Of course, this is not to say that Okaichi Nosuke and Hachishiro Rokuro do not believe what Wakatsuki Rijiro said. Although the army of this period of this period has faintly the crazy energy of the army of later generations, the Taisho period is still a rare period of calmness after all, that is, the crazy army of the army can be treated as a normal person more or less than later generations.

It's not that Okaichi doesn't understand what Wakatsuki Rijiro said, and it's not that he doesn't believe Wakatsuki Rijiro's words.

In fact, Okaichi believed it very much, but he couldn't stop.

Because he wants to think about the army, you must know that because of the war in Shandong, the army, which originally had a high status in the country, has now plummeted. Nowadays, people chant the slogan "national thief" in front of Okaichi Nosuke's mansion almost every day.

This is the case in front of his mansion, not to mention the War Department... At this time, if he accepts Shigenobu Okuma—————— no matter how beautiful what Rejiro Wakatsuki says, Nosuke Okai knows that this is what Shigenobu Okuma instructed behind his back. This is because the Minister of Ohzo Province, Wakatsuki Rijiro, was originally in the same league as Shigenobu Okuma, the Prime Minister of the Cabinet and the Minister of Internal Affairs.

If Okaichi accepts Shigenobu Okuma's proposal, he will end this war as soon as possible. Then the glory accumulated by the army because of the First Sino-Japanese War, the Gengzi War and the Russo-Japanese War will all be burned, and his help will also be reviled by the world... So even if Okaichi Nosuke knew that this war could not be fought anymore, he still had to drag it out like this.

The same is true for Yashiro Rokuro's side, although the navy side is not as crazy as the army, or the calmest one is actually the navy. However, the pressure of Yashiro Rokuro does not have to be small at all, after all, a lot of the annual military expenditure is thrown on the navy, plus the previous battle of Longkou Bay, the navy lost one-third of its capital ships... If Yashiro Rokuro agrees to the proposal to end the war at this time, then his fate may not be better than that of Okaichi Nosuke—————— Yashiro is not very worried about the price that Hachiro will pay after the end of the war.

Because China does not have the ability to threaten Yuben at all, because China does not have a navy that can match Yuben... The only thing China can threaten is the garrison in Northeast China and North Korea.

However, China has logistical problems in this regard, not to mention that if it were not for the pressure of the British, it would have been completely free to fight. The navy does not need to be confined to Shandong, and directly attack at will on China's long coastline, poking China's coastline like a rag... At that time, I am afraid that China will not be able to fight.

As for Masaki Terauchi's request? In view of the current financial problems, and other big and small problems... For the time being, I can't be satisfied, and I can only let the temple carry forward the spirit.

As for the changeover? Replace Terauchi Masayi with a general who is willing to continue fighting?

Not to mention who is willing to go at this time, you know, the temple is a rare famous general in the country, if he can't fight, then who is appropriate?

What's more, in addition to the temple Masatsuki, who else can unify those divisions and regiments in this book?

So in Tokyo, Shigenobu Okuma and Nosuke Okaichi can only drag on and grind like this.

Because none of them want to bear the title of "national thief"...—————————— although Terauchi Masayi is in Shandong, Terauchi Masaki knows everything that happens in Tokyo. After all, after all, Terauchi Masashi is also an army general, and he can't count the many relationships in this book.

It is said that what happened on Ben's side has just happened, and he can know it on Shandong's side.

But that's why he's so annoyed.

"These guys, can't they just look at the time..."

Looking at the telegram, after a friend of Masaki Terauchi told him the content of the nth quarrel at the Imperial Council, Masaki Terauchi tore the telegram to shreds!

After deciding to withdraw all the troops to Huangxian against the wishes of Tokyo, and then rely on the artillery support of the expeditionary fleet to defend and wait for domestic orders by the way.

Shoyi arranged a division to intercept the task in turn, and then slowly retreated to Huangxian with the rest of the division.

In Huang County, the newly arrived commander of the 17th Division built a number of defensive lines around Huang County on the basis of his orders.

By the time the division in charge of interception also retreated to Huangxian and the Wehrmacht in charge of the pursuit caught up, the remaining 80,000 horses of Terauchi Masayi and all the remnants of the expeditionary force were ready.

And at this time, the pursuing Wehrmacht cavalry looked at the military fortifications in the distance and was helpless.

Not to mention the use of cavalry to storm and deploy solemn fortifications, it is purely a matter of seeking death. Speaking of the expeditionary fleet in Longkou Bay, their naval guns are not easy to deal with.

In particular, the main gun of the "King Kong", the lead ship of the King Kong class, has a 356mm caliber main gun, and you must know that the largest caliber gun in the Wehrmacht is only a 280mm howitzer.

If a 356mm shell hits one, wouldn't it kill a large piece?

Therefore, after riding their horses to the periphery of the fortifications, the cavalry in charge of the pursuit just kept wandering around the perimeter, but did not look like they were going up to attack at all.

The army inside the fortifications only seized the time to rest and strengthen the fortifications, and had no time to take care of the cavalry outside. As for how many times to call the expeditionary fleet or artillery group to them? Such a little cavalry is not worth the money of a cannonball, not to mention that these cavalry may not be able to hit it if they are wandering around.

As for the expeditionary fleet on Longkou Bay, should you worry about the Defense Air Force?

Now I know that the Chinese's air force has been completely crippled.

And after my expeditionary fleet is armed with heavy machine guns, I don't need to worry about these pre-World War I technical aircraft... Of course, it is said that there is no worry, but in the middle of the night, all the fleets in Longkou Bay are still turned off to avoid air raids, and in the early morning, the officers and men of the fleet have to get up as soon as the sun rises, ready to respond to air raids at any time... In general, the officers and men of the Navy have had a very hard time in recent times.

In particular, Yuzaburo Kato himself had to get up before all the officers and soldiers.

However, as long as I think of those air force planes that seem to be running out according to the army's intelligence, even if I work hard, Tomosaburo's heart is still happy for a while...—————————— "Commander, there is Huang County in front!" ”

Cai himself was looking at the information in his hand in a Daimler car, when an officer galloping on an Arabian horse suddenly rode in front of Cai and said to Cai Yi.

"Have you finished investigating the situation on the other side of the army?"

"After all the reconnaissance is over, the army has built five defense lines around Huangxian County relying on the terrain, and now the army seems to be constantly consolidating and building new defensive fortifications around Huangxian..."

Speaking of which, the officer on horseback also had a headache.

After all, for the soldiers of this era, trench warfare is definitely the most disgusting kind of war, and what they are facing now is trench warfare, and at the same time, hiding in the trenches is still the most stubborn group of soldiers in the world... However, after listening to the officer's words, Cai Yi just nodded.

"Okay, you go down first."

After the officer left, Cai Ye said to Yin Changheng on the side.

"Brother Yin, I saw that Zhengyi in the temple was preparing to fight us to the death in Huang County..."

"yes..."

Yin Changheng also nodded.

"If I were him, I'd get on the boat and either go back home or change places to continue fighting, but since he's staying where he is, it's easy to do..."

Saying that, Yin Changheng shouted at the driver.

"Stop, stop."

The driver stopped the car very obediently, after all, Yin Changheng is now the second person in Shandong after Cai Yi.

And after the car stopped, Yin Changheng said to Cai Yi after getting out of the car.

"Since my purpose has been clarified, then the brother will go down and arrange it first."

"Okay, I'll leave everything to you."

Regarding Cai Yi's words, Yin Changheng just arched his hand.

After Yin Changheng left, Cai Ye looked at the map in his hand.

"I didn't leave? Are they really going to wait to be pushed into the sea by us? Or is there some conspiracy on the part of Masaki Terauchi..."

How did he know, it's not that Terauchi Masashi doesn't want to go, but that there hasn't been a result of the quarrel in Tokyo yet... Or maybe that's the purpose of Okaichi Nosuke, anyway, no matter how noisy it is, when the fight starts, he can only continue to fight...

(To be continued)