Emperor Meiji watched his ministers discuss, but there was a trace of sadness in his heart. Since when did these important ministers in the cabinet start to make it a habit to be weaker than the Northeast? Although he still has the determination to rise to dominate Asia, it sounds more like a hoarse but dying slogan deliberately shouted to keep his position. Has the Japanese Empire fallen to such a predicament?

"Wang, this is a dereliction of duty on the part of the navy!" Saigo stood up from the road and took the initiative to admit his mistake. After all, the empire lost its sea dominance, and the merchant ships and fishermen were shelled by the imperial navy, and he naturally had an unshirkable responsibility as the imperial naval minister. However, all the ministers present are all outstanding people in Japan, even if they seem to be five big and three rough people, they all have seven exquisite thoughts. The first to frown was the Minister of War Yamayama Aritomo, followed by the Minister of Omagi Matsukata. Everyone understands that Saigo Shomichi, an important minister from the Satsuma Domain, took the initiative to admit that the navy's mistake was false, and it was true that he took the opportunity to increase the navy's military spending. This is tantamount to competing with the army for rations in Japan's limited military spending, and for Japan's finances, it is tantamount to adding an additional burden.

Emperor Meiji, of course, understood what Saigo meant, and he also understood the current embarrassing situation of the Japanese Navy. For Japan, a country surrounded by the sea, in the era when there was no air force, the development of a navy was naturally the best choice to defend its homeland and territory. However, modern warfare has undergone fundamental changes, and the navy, as a high-investment high-tech industry, is simply powerless and incapable of affording Japan today. This is a long-term development process, because Japan has been influenced by the French naval ideology, Japan has been adopting a small boat strategy, emphasizing quantity over quality, so the development has gone astray. Now if we turn back to the long-distance naval development mode of large ships and huge guns, the difficulty is instantly a hundred times higher.

In the minds of the majority of the Japanese population, the Tohoku Navy is already synonymous with power, and it seems out of reach. Even if Japan did its best to develop its navy, not only did the emperor himself not have confidence, but also the Minister of the Navy, Saigo Tomichi himself, I am afraid that there would be no answer.

Because of these concerns, Emperor Meiji and most of the ministers of the imperial court felt that it would be better to strengthen the army based on the defense of the homeland rather than invest their limited military spending in the holes of the navy, which were not yet hopeless. As for the navy, it adopted a policy of coastal defense, and waited until the empire's economy developed to increase its investment in the navy.

But having said that, everyone understands that this is nothing more than an ostrich policy.

Abandoning the navy is tantamount to abandoning the offensive, and the defense can only be a passive defense. Moreover, the development of the world's navy is changing with each passing day, and as far as Japan is concerned, if it does not develop its navy now, it can only watch the gap between itself and the world's navy widen and widen. The gap that is already far away, if it is left unchecked, will become a chasm that will never catch up.

"Wang, ministers, what happened today in the Katsu Strait is a disgrace to our Great Japanese Navy and a disgrace to the Great Japanese Empire. If we retreat today and allow the Northeast Autonomous Region to attack our fishing and merchant ships with impunity, then the people will lose confidence in the empire, and sooner or later we will be another North Korea. ”

Even though Saigo is the Minister of the Navy of the Empire, his life is not satisfactory. Despite every effort to purchase warships from Britain with the already limited naval allocation, the gap with the Northeast Navy did not narrow, but widened. The reason for this is that the Northeast uses merchant ships to raise warships, and although the annual government invests a large amount of money, it still accounts for only a small part compared with the merchant ship income of shipyards. More importantly, in the process of manufacturing ships, the shipbuilding industry represented by Dashang Shipyard in Northeast China has successfully trained a large number of skilled workers in ten years. And the development of the merchant marine manufacturing industry is also

Saigo's study of the naval development of Tohoku came to the conclusion that if the Japanese navy was to develop, it had to follow the same path as Tohoku. For this reason, he also deliberately approached Hirobumi Ito, and after listening to his opinion, the prime minister felt that it was indeed a solution. The only problem is that Japan lacks the technology to build large-tonnage merchant ships...... Well, more precisely, all the basic industries related to shipbuilding.

However, at this time, the Minister of Finance, Masayoshi Matsukata, the giant who had controlled Japan's finances for 22 years, was preparing for currency reform and recovering paper money from society. The main source is that during the Southwest War against Saigo Takamori, the Japanese government borrowed money from 15 national banks and used banknote reserves to raise military expenses, and in a short period of time, an additional 50% of non-convertible huàn banknotes were issued. Although the war was won, the remnants of the frequent issuance of banknotes caused serious inflation in Japan.

In order to solve this problem and prepare for the implementation of the gold standard in the future, Masayoshi Matsukata began to recycle paper money, that is, to implement fiscal austerity and monetary austerity. Therefore, at this time, the Japanese government was unable to pass through the naval development plan of Saigo Congmi, and even if the policy of commercial maintenance of ships was approved by Ito Hirobumi, but at this time, it had to be postponed.

Saigo sometimes thinks that if he had supported his brother Saigo Takamori in the Southwest War, would Japan have changed now? Is North Korea already under the rule of the empire?

There was no answer to this question, and there were many more questions that were equally unanswered, and a meeting was almost impossible to agree on, and Emperor Meiji was still thinking about the future of the Japanese Empire as he returned to his bedchamber. The development of the army is a reality, and everyone knows that a war between East Japan and East Japan is inevitable, and this war is related to the life and death of Japan. Without a strong army, Japan could not even defend the city.

And the development of the navy is the future, if Japan still wants to have tomorrow, guarding the ancestral one-third of an acre of land, it is like trapping itself in a cage, maybe it is more suitable to say that a coffin. Without the plundering of the colonies, Japan's weak domestic market was powerless to drive economic development. Under the overwhelming pressure of the Northeast, Japan can only look like a patient with anemia. Looking at the enemy's blood and strength, he scolded Fang Xuan, rising day by day in the forest of world powers, and he could only sink early before he bloomed, helplessly withering.

Army, or Navy?

Is this the choice between reality and the future?

No one in Japan knows the answer, Emperor Meiji doesn't know, and neither does Hirobumi Ito.

Maybe it's best to do both, but can Japan afford it?

Emperor Meiji, who returned to his bedroom, smashed a piece of his beloved porcelain because of his inner anxiety. The courtyard in the sunset, beautiful but desolate, the remnant sun is like blood, and it is also like the heart of Emperor Meiji who is now hesitant, he is very afraid of his country, and the future is the same scene.