The mysterious disappearance of Kawakami Caoroku shocked the Japanese General Staff Headquarters and caused a strong controversy.

Some believe that Kawakami's disappearance was an isolated incident and not a problem with the intelligence system as a whole. At present, it is not certain that they were arrested by China, but even if they were arrested by China, these are warriors who are willing to kill and will not give in to confess, and several important strongholds have been preserved, which proves this.

Others, however, argue that the intelligence system must be overhauled, and that it cannot be ruled out that the Chinese government has deliberately failed to eliminate the various strongholds under Chinese surveillance in order to attract "big fish" like Kawakami's Caoroku.

In any case, Kawakami Caoroku, as the deputy chief of staff, knew a lot of secrets, and it seems extremely ridiculous to send such a high-ranking general to a hostile country now, and Yamaguchi Youtomo, Oyama Iwa and others are very remorseful about this.

This matter was tightly sealed by the Japanese government, and they could not even question the Chinese government, because it was difficult to explain that a general Weishenme had to sneak over, and he could only eat Coptis chinensis dumbly. This incident also calmed down a little for the main battle faction in the government, because they felt the unpredictability of their opponents.

On February 27, Ding Yuntong listened to Peng Yulin's executive report on "Lushan Jihua", which was specially used to target Siam, and Ding Yuntong secretly formulated this Jihua from the beginning of Siam's collusion with Japan.

At the same time, Ding Yuntong officially decided on the commanders of each division of the Guards, including the various units that have completed their establishment and are being trained. The reason why it has not been determined until now is that, on the one hand, it is necessary to consider how to arrange the generals who have returned from Europe, and at the same time, it is necessary to arrange familiar combinations as much as possible; On the other hand, some generals need to be replaced, such as Zhang Shusheng's improper command in the Battle of Bac Ninh, which led to great losses in the troops. Su Yuanchun had been punished before, but he showed courage in the war and was reinstated; Liu Yongfu and his subordinates, who came from a reckless background but performed well, were also reused; Including in the defense of Taiwan, some officers of the patrol battalion also performed well, and they were also promoted to the Guards without exception.

In total, there are nine divisions and two brigades of the Guards, with a total strength of 120,000, and the list of its generals is:

Lieutenant General Feng Zicai, commander of the first division, and the two brigade commanders were Major Generals Yang Ruishan and Yang Yuke; Feng Zicai fought bravely and had a strong sense of responsibility, and serving as the commander of the first division was also an honor in itself. Yang Ruishan and Yang Yuke, one wise and one brave, are familiar old subordinates.

The commander of the second division, Lieutenant General Zuo Guigui, and the two brigade commanders were Major General Ma Jinxu and Su Yuanchun, and Su Yuanchun became the brigade commander again;

The commander of the third division, Lieutenant General Liu Mingchuan, and the two brigade commanders were Major Generals Wang Debang and Zhang Gaoyuan;

Lieutenant General Wu Changqing, commander of the Fourth Division, and the two brigade commanders were Major General Xu Zhanbiao and Liu Yongfu, Liu Yongfu was officially promoted to Major General, which was a reward for his fight in Vietnam;

Lieutenant General Song Qing, commander of the Fifth Division, and the two brigade commanders were Major Generals Ding Huai and Sun Wanlin;

The commander of the Sixth Division, Lieutenant General Ma Yukun, and the two brigade commanders were Major General Dong Fuxiang and Wang Xiaoqi, Dong Fuxiang was extremely loyal, but he was born in rebellion. When Tongzhi returned to the rebellion, he was able to lead the rebel army to protect the Yellow Emperor's Mausoleum, which shows that the national consciousness is commendable and can rely on important tasks;

Lieutenant General Jin Shun, commander of the 7th Division, and the two brigade commanders were Major Generals Chen Jia and Fang Yousheng;

Lieutenant General Nie Shicheng, commander of the Eighth Division, and the two brigade commanders were Major General Wei Rugui and Zhou Shengbo, and the Zhou brothers were better separated from the two units;

Lieutenant General Liu Jintang, commander of the Ninth Division, and the two brigade commanders were Major General Xu Bangdao and Zhou Shengchuan, Ding Yuntong had great expectations for Liu Jintang, and personally considered him to be the best commander in China at the end of the 19th century.

In addition, there are three troops, the Beijing Guard Brigade is headed by Major Generals Wang Xiang and Ding Ruchang, respectively, as the commander of the positive and negative brigades; a special column of 2,000 men monitoring Vietnam, commanded by Major Generals Cen Yu-ying and Zhang Yao; Two regiments monitoring North Korea, commanded by Major General Oh Siu You and Colonel Jang Kwang-chie.

In addition, Hu Kunshan, Huang Shouzhong, Wu Fengdian, Han Zaixun, Ye Chenglin, Deng Yulin, and others, who were born in the Black Flag Army, as well as Lin Chaodong, Tang Diankui, Liu Shengzao, Sun Kaihua, Liu Chaohu, Li Tongen, and others who had performed well in Taiwan, respectively served as staff officers and regiment commanders in various units of the Guards, while Deng Changan, Cao Zhizhong, and others continued to be stationed in Taiwan.

Ding Yuntong estimated that in more than half a year, that is, in September, when the army's training was basically completed and the navy could return to Asia at any time, it would be ready to go to war with Japan.

According to Kawakami Koroku's confession, the Japanese Army is relatively large, and the first- and second-line units with the strongest combat effectiveness have a total strength of 150,000 troops, and presumably when the war begins, the establishment will be expanded to more than 200,000 people, and the number of logistics support units is estimated to exceed 500,000. But this was established in just a few years, after exhausting the potential and tapping the potential, and all the elites who had undergone rigorous training were recruited. At the same time, such a large number of troops were fed at the expense of the country's economic development potential. As long as this main force is annihilated, it will be difficult for Japan to recover within ten years.

As for the navy, the size and tonnage of the Japanese fleet have greatly surpassed that of China, and there are about 20 warships that are impressive, but its elite is none other than seven or eight ships, such as Fuso, Kongo, Hiei, Tsukushi, Yamato, Musashi, and Mubang. As soon as the "Portuguese fleet" struck, the situation would immediately be reversed.

Ding Yuntong was thinking about the future of Meihaode there, and at this moment, something happened that made him very unhappy.

Guo Songtao, the head of the organization, was actually angry at the "Book of Ten Thousand Words"!

Guo Songtao was greatly shocked after inspecting several major grain-producing provinces, including Sichuan, Hunan, and Shandong, in early February. In particular, the widespread famine, which caused severe starvation deaths, made him suspicious of the policy of industrialization. In fact, many areas are blocked by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and even high-ranking officials like Guo Songtao cannot enter without the emperor's will, but even so, what they see is shocking enough.

As one of the members of the leading group for industrialization, on the one hand, he had to go all out to do a good job in various tasks, and on the other hand, he thought that perhaps it was these tasks that led to a large number of peasants being starved to death, and Guo Songtao was strongly tortured by his conscience.

After suffering painfully, he finally wrote to the emperor on February 28, sprinkled with thousands of words, and was called the "Book of Ten Thousand Words".

In the article, Guo Songtao strongly questioned Jihua, who had built industrialization in a short period of time in China, arguing that it was wrong to rely on the expropriation of the peasants for primitive accumulation for industrialization. We should learn from the West, change the current model of relying on state intervention to develop the economy, and instead let market regulation as the core, use free trade as the main means, and let the market, the "invisible hand", naturally promote industrialization, and so on.

In just half a month, Guo Songtao's "Book of Ten Thousand Words" quickly spread throughout major cities and aroused strong resonance among intellectuals. Famous scholars Yan Fu, Kang Youwei, Liu Guangdi, Yang Rui, Yang Shenxiu and others jointly issued an open letter, once again imploring "the Son of Heaven to listen to the people's will, constitutionalize and legislate, clearly define the country's identity, stop censorship, open speech, emancipate the mind, advocate freedom, and realize democracy." ＂

At the same time, student demonstrations and other activities have also taken place in some major cities.

Ding Yuntong looked at all this and fell into deep thought, what should I do?

Isn't it time to go on a killing spree again?

After a few days of thinking, Ding Yuntong temporarily gave up Jihua, who wanted to kill the rightists, not because he was unwilling, but because the time had not come.

First of all, the decisive battle between China and Japan is poised to start and is imminent. At this time, a big internal war will greatly distract the government's energy, including the army, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, etc., have to send a part of Liliang to deal with the country.

Second, although the rightists who have come forward are only a minority, they have a large number of sympathizers in the government and among the people, and many of them are important experts, scholars, officials, and even generals. If the struggle against the rightists is launched now, it will be very unfavorable to building a united front against Japan.

After practical considerations, Ding Yuntong had to make a compromise and not adopt a hard-line policy for the time being.

But no matter what, the truth still has to be made clear, especially for Guo Songtao's set of theories of "learning from the West", which must be refuted from the front.

In this shijie, the developed countries of the West, through bloody colonialism, have established a well-established system of heavy industry, and they also dominate the trade system of shijie.

Their economic dealings with backward countries are inherently unequal. Because the price of industrial products, the price of raw materials, the standard measurement of industry, etc., all the rules of the game are set by the developed countries.

Under such circumstances, relying solely on market regulation and free trade to allow domestic enterprises to develop on their own, will never be able to compete with those multinational groups in the West. You must know that the accumulation of talents and funds takes a long time, and when you develop and progress, others are also developing and progressing, and backward countries can only follow suit and follow behind developed countries.

Relying solely on the market economy and free trade, the dominance of the West will be unshakable.

So what to do?

The only way is for the state power to effectively block the interference of other large industrial systems, and to quickly establish an economic system in a large enough country, and first of all, the industrial system, which throughout history has been a helpless and inevitable choice for backward countries.

Ding Yuntong believes that first of all, based on the theory of results, is there any poor and backward country on this earth that has become a developed country without relying on aggression and expansion, without relying on state support, and relying solely on free trade of enterprises and market economy?

Have it? Not a single one!

In the previous life, Japan began to make its fortune on the huge reparations of the First Sino-Japanese War.

Korea in a past life? It was by relying on the dictatorship of Park Chung-hee and the monopoly operation of the big chaebols that the "miracle of the Han River" was realized.

Singapore in a past life? It is relying on a one-party dictatorship and patriarchy, and in the 21st century, there is still no election, and the strike is illegal.

Taiwan in a previous life? Relying on Chiang Ching-kuo's dictatorship, the "Ten Major Economic Constructions".

History has already answered, and Ding Yuntong believes that it is necessary to carry out a counterattack by theory and public opinion.

And no matter how much he argues, Ding Yuntong is confident that there is a secret weapon in his hand that can divert the focus of domestic public opinion at any time, that is, the "Ryukyu issue".