Chapter 67 The Taisho Coup in Japan
The Japanese troops stationed in Korea, that is, the Korean Legion, who received the Prime Minister's message, immediately rushed to Vladivostok, and although they also wanted to participate in the war, they did not dare to disobey the orders of the Emperor and the Prime Minister, otherwise there would be no place for them in the Empire.
The Japanese navy soon received an order from the emperor to withdraw their naval warships at Vladivostok and not to attack the troops in Jilin. After receiving the order, the navy did not retreat, but informed the Protectors that they wanted to use this to defeat Katsura Taro in one fell swoop.
In fact, a large number of Japanese upper-class people have always wanted to occupy the three eastern provinces of China, which are very rich in resources, and if the three eastern provinces become their colonies, it means that there are huge benefits, and it is also very consistent with the mainland plan of the military department, so they are very happy to attack.
The war between China and Tsarist Russia is not over yet, and there is definitely not much strength to fight against their empire, as long as neither side declares war, it is fine, as long as they occupy the three eastern provinces first, as for continuing to fight, they are not ready to continue to fight.
The Japanese upper echelons had no objection to Katsura Taro's attack on Tsarist Russia to occupy Vladivostok and Huatai Island, after all, if these places were occupied by China, they would threaten Japan's interests, and the resources and land of the two places were not barren, and there were still interests to speak of. But they were very dissatisfied with Katsura Taro's desire to spend a lot of manpower and material resources to occupy the cold and barren land of Tsarist Russia where birds did not, where the land could not be cultivated, and was not even suitable for human habitation, and occupying it was simply a waste of resources.
Katsura Taro's actions have long aroused the dissatisfaction of the very upper echelons, especially since he accused the emperor from time to time to suppress them, they had long wanted to replace Katsura Taro, if it weren't for this invasion of Vladivostok and other places in Tsarist Russia, they would have brought him down a long time ago.
This attack on the Jilin army was not only a decision made by some people in the navy and military department, but also a large number of business consortia supporting them, otherwise it would not have dared to act without permission.
No, after the emperor ordered the army to stop attacking Jilin, a large number of social elites jointly wrote a letter that could not stop the attack, on the grounds that China was on the rise, and the empire could not raise tigers to cause trouble, so it first took the opportunity to occupy the entire Northeast, and then slowly and gradually, and finally attacked the interior of China with a springboard for the Northeast.
They have realized that the speed of Huaxia's rise is too fast, and if they continue to let Huaxia develop, the empire will inevitably have to pay a huge price if it wants to defeat Huaxia, and even lose both. If they take advantage of this time to occupy the Northeast, they will be able to occupy a great advantage in the war with China in the future, and many of the resources in the Northeast have been surveyed by Japanese spies, and their empire needs the resources there!
The joint letter of these people did not reach the emperor at all, but into the hands of Katsura Taro, and now the emperor is basically surrounded by his people, otherwise he would not be able to control the emperor when the emperor is ill.
Enraged, Katsura Taro bewitched the emperor, who again ordered the army to stop the attack on Jilin, and if the Vladivostok army did not stop, it would be regarded as a rebellion, and the Korean army would attack them until they surrendered.
Katsura Taro was not angry that these troops were attacking Jilin, but more that the Constitutional Protectors wanted to take this advantage to bring him down, so Emperor Zřì gave the order again.
When the emperor's order was issued again, the Japanese upper echelons, especially the constitutional protectors, were in an uproar, and the emperor would never do such a thing, because the army had always been in the hands of the emperor, and it was impossible for the nearly 200,000 troops to give up.
The constitutionalists who had torn their faces directly exposed the attack on Jilin by the Japanese army that Katsura Taro had tried his best to blockade, and vigorously criticized the prime minister for controlling the emperor for causing trouble in the army, disrupting the palace, abusing power for personal gain, and forming parties for personal gain. He also helped Shina resist Tsarist Russia and raised tigers, and a bill signed by Katsura Taro for providing arms to Shina was also revealed.
Pushed by the Constitutional Protectors and the upper echelons, a large number of angry people attacked the newspaper offices and the police, and marched in the streets, shouting for Katsura Taro's resignation. Katsura Taro urgently dispatched the army to suppress it, and a large number of people who marched were arrested, and there were even incidents of confrontation with the army.
As the incident escalated, large demonstrations broke out in major cities across the country, unanimously demanding Katsura Taro's resignation, and what Katsura had done before was not very popular with the people, such as the "Hibiya Burning Incident" at the end of the Russo-Japanese War and the "Great Rebellion Incident" in 1911.
Feeling that the time was ripe, Admiral Yamamoto went directly to Katsura Taro and forced Katsura Taro to resign, and he also went to visit Saionji Gongwang to do work.
Katsura Taro did not compromise in the face of Yamamoto Gonbei's persecution, he knew that this was the navy that wanted to govern the cabinet, he found Yusaku Uehara, and then chatted with the army for a long time, the army was very wary of the navy's conspiracy, after all, the prime minister has always been in the hands of the army.
After the navy comes to power, it will definitely suppress the army even more, so the army decided to support Katsura Taro after thinking about it for a while, and even if Katsura Taro falls, it will be delayed as much as possible until they are ready.
Army soldiers took to the streets one after another to suppress popular demonstrations, and Katsura Taro also imposed martial law in many important cities, which completely detonated the anger of the people.
The angry people attacked the government departments despite the warnings of the army, and a large number of government personnel were attacked, especially the members of the cabinet, and Katsura Taro and others hid at home and did not dare to come out, and even if they came out, they had to be escorted by the army.
The incident has gone to the unfavorable side of Katsura Taro, and now he is unable to protect himself, there is still time to take care of the army in Vladivostok, and there is no possibility of mediation in the Jilin incident.
Emperor Taisho intervened and expressed his desire to maintain political stability, and the Senate did not want the political situation to continue, so the cabinet of Katsura Taro resigned on September 13, and the historical "Taisho Coup" was seven months late.
On the surface, the direct cause of the fall of the Katsura Taro cabinet was Yamamoto Gonbei's outspokenness, but in fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that the Katsura Taro cabinet was the first cabinet in Japanese history to be overthrown by the people.
At a meeting of the elders after the resignation of the Katsura Taro cabinet, Aritoshi Yamagu, one of the targets of the Constitution Protection Movement, wisely kept a low profile. Katsura Taro recommended Saionji Nozomi to take over as prime minister, but Saionji believed that he had not followed the emperor's instructions to "stop the no-confidence motion in the Katsura Taro cabinet" and refused to accept it. As the president of the Constitutional Political Friendship Association, Saionji Gongwang recommended Hara Kei or Matsuda Masahisa of his own party to take over as prime minister, but they were both political parties and it was impossible to get the consent of the group of Japanese elders.
As a result, the crown of prime minister fell to Gonbei Yamamoto. Yamamoto was sympathetic to the Masatomo Association, and because he belonged to the second-generation political family, he had little to do with the senators, so he could not be directly targeted by the Constitutional Protection Movement, and was relatively easy to accept. The fact that he was a warlord of the Satsuma Domain was difficult for the people to accept for those who wanted to break the tyranny, but it was an important reason for the elders to agree that he would become prime minister.
In this way, the post of prime minister fell to the admiral Yamamoto Guard, and then the power of the navy swelled rapidly, even reaching its peak. Yamamoto Quan Guard is the prime minister, or the first time the navy is in charge of the cabinet, the sea minister is Minoru Saito, who was in charge of logistics during the Russo-Japanese War, the deputy minister is Yamamoto's son-in-law Tsukabe Biao, the chief of the naval command department is Goro Ijiin, and the commander of the combined fleet is Yuzaburo Kato.
After becoming prime minister, Gonbei Yamamoto ordered the Korean army to stop going to Vladivostok and immediately launch an attack on Jilin, and also asked the navy to transport the soldiers who had already been transported to Tsarist Russia back to Korea or Vladivostok, giving up the occupation of the territory of Tsarist Russia in the north.
Then he was about to form a cabinet, for which he had to cooperate with the political parties, and after ceding some of his interests, it was very difficult to form a cabinet.
In order to expand the Cabinet's binding power on the Ministry of War, Gonbei Yamamoto expanded the qualifications for serving as Minister of the Army and Navy from active generals to reserve and reserve generals. Yamamoto Gonbei started in the navy and together with Minoru Saito controlled the power of the navy, and in the context of the support of the navy and public opinion, the army, which was dissatisfied with the reform, had to reluctantly agree.
Yusaku Uehara resigned due to the fall of Katsura Taro, and Yukihiko Kurose, who was born in the Tosa domain, took over as Minister of War, and this reform was carried out successfully.
In addition, he relaxed the stipulation that officials appointed by the Yama Prefecture Cabinet must pass the guò higher civil service examination, expanded the scope of officials who could be freely appointed by the Prime Minister, and expanded the scope of officials who could be appointed freely by himself to include the vice-officials of the provinces other than the Army and Navy Ministries, as well as the Inspector General of Police, the Director of the Legislative Affairs Bureau, and the Director of the Police and Security Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
After Yamamoto Quan's guard came to power, he did not declare war with Huaxia, because he knew that if he did not declare war, Huaxia would not declare war, unless Huaxia fought and Tsarist Russia lost its temper, otherwise it would be difficult to declare war.
He wanted to occupy the Northeast like Tsarist Russia occupied Outer Mongolia, so as to avoid a lot of trouble, after all, Huaxia now has the support of Germany and other countries, and what he wants now is to obtain the support of Britain and France, as for the invasion of Tsarist Russia's territory, he will not admit it.
The fall of the Katsura Taro cabinet and the rise of the Yamamoto Gonbei cabinet only took three days, and the political situation in the entire Japan changed dramatically, leaving the outside world with no time to react, especially the Chinese Empire.
No one could have imagined that the Katsura Taro cabinet would fall at this time, to the surprise of the Chinese Empire, originally they thought that the Katsura Taro cabinet would last until the end of the year or even next year, but now they were caught off guard.
Qin Yu slapped himself even harder, he thought that he had changed history, and Katsura Taro's cabinet would survive for a longer time, but history finally came back to its original place, only for a few months.