Rebirth of the Northern Giants

There were constant heated discussions in the streets and alleys, and the whole country was shaken by it. From the elderly to the young and old, even some children who had just started school were deeply affected. The Ryukyu Kingdom has once again entered the sight of the Chinese people.

"Asia Times" was the first to get angry. It published an article talking about the history of the Ryukyu Kingdom, with hundreds of thousands of characters. Not only did the Ryukyu King Shangtai entrust the Ryukyu to the Chinese government to take over, but also how Japan invaded Ryukyu bloody and ruled the Ryukyu people with high pressure. , and the unyielding and indomitable spirit of the Ryukyu people who endured humiliation and never gave up resistance are written vividly.

At the end of the article, it stated that the Kingdom of Ryukyu has been a vassal state of China since ancient times, and the Japanese government has no reason to occupy it. It calls on China, as the suzerain, to uphold justice, be the master of the Ryukyu royal family, force Japan to withdraw its troops from Ryukyu, and return the people of Ryukyu to a bright future.

The Qing government could fight Japan for the sake of North Korea. Couldn't the government of the Republic of China fight Japan for the sake of Ryukyu?

In just two days, the news of newspapers and news spread quickly across the country. Except for some remote wilderness areas with inconvenient transportation, the whole of China knew that the Japanese warships provoked the North Sea Fleet for no reason and attacked our merchant ships in the Ryukyu waters. thing.

In the process of dissemination, it is inevitable to add fuel and vinegar, and public opinion seems to be out of control, and the Chinese people's favorability towards the Japanese has suddenly dropped to the lowest level in history.

On November [-]th, as soon as he landed in Taiwan, the Ryukyu king Shangtai wrote to the Chinese government, stating how the Japanese government had dealt with the Ryukyu people and the Ryukyu royal family in recent years.He wrote a few thousand words eloquently, and gave a detailed description of Japan's occupation of Ryukyu, to sending troops to move the Ryukyu royal family to Tokyo for close surveillance.

The Ryukyu king Shangtai called China the upper country, claiming that every Ryukyu king's ascension to the throne must be recognized by the Chinese government.

Once the article was published, it pushed the entire Ryukyu incident to a new climax.The pride of the people of the whole country, which has not been seen for a long time, has once again been satisfied. The people are convinced of two things. One is that the government of the Republic of China must bear the burden of forcing Japan to withdraw from Ryukyu and help Ryukyu to rebuild the country. The other is that Japan attacks our merchant ships for no reason. , and caused it to sink, an apology should be made to the Chinese government.

From this day onwards, the voices of protests across the country once again climbed to a peak, from sympathizing with the Ryukyu royal family in the past to now asking the Republic of China government to send troops to help Ryukyu re-establish the country. .

Volume Two, The Wind and Cloud of the Capital

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For more than ten days after the Ryukyu incident, many patriotic students gathered in the embassy area of ​​Dongjiaomin Lane to protest the Japanese navy's sinking of a Chinese merchant ship for no reason, and demanded that the Japanese government withdraw its troops from Ryukyu.

Pedestrians passing by doing business also joined the ranks, and the crowd of onlookers was huge, shouting slogans along with the passionate youth.

The waves of people almost blocked the streets outside the embassy area. No matter who wanted to enter or leave the embassy area, it was not an easy task.

The ministers of other countries who suffered from Chiyu were very helpless, and they did not even allow them to sleep peacefully. Do you think it is easy for me to abandon my wife and come to China alone?

For this reason, the ministers of embassies of various countries frequently contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese government, asking China to immediately disperse the protesting crowd, or to surround the Japanese embassy, ​​and stop torturing us irrelevant people.

Ye Zhikui ignored their demands on the grounds that the demonstrators were on Chinese territory.

The ambassadors from all over the world had no other choice but to be sullen, so they had to move out of the embassy one after another and find a hotel in Beijing to continue their work. For a while, the hotel owners smiled all day long and praised the patriotic students.

Ito Hirobumi saw that he and others were surrounded in the embassy and could not come out. In the end, he had to disguise himself as an old man sweeping the streets. He escaped from the capital without even notifying the Chinese government, and fled to China in panic.

China and Japan are at war with each other, and there is a great situation where a battle will be decided.

I am so happy that the Americans and Germans come to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to sell weapons and equipment every now and then. This one said, buy this new weapon, and keep it for you to hit the Japanese one by one. The other said, buy my weapon and destroy Japan. Not a problem.

But when they said nothing, the Chinese looked at the list of weapons coldly, and replied embarrassedly: "We are now using domestic weapons and have reservations about imported weapons."

The personnel of the United States and Germany returned disappointed, and went to sell weapons to the Japanese.

The Japanese government was overjoyed and made purchases again and again, but when it was time to pay, they pretended to be grandsons. There was no way, and now even His Majesty the Emperor had to apply to the cabinet if he wanted to buy a new pair of underwear.

All the money was used to buy cruisers, and now they are really poor and clean.

Is it okay to borrow some money? The Japanese looked at the businessmen who made war fortunes from various countries with tears in their eyes. Why don't they wait for me to issue some national debt first, and then pay you back after a while.

The Americans and Germans turned and walked away speechless, but the British patted the Japanese on the shoulder.

We are good buddies, seeing you are pitiful, I will give you a loan, but the interest rate is two percentage points higher than the general interest rate in the world.

Just when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China asked the Japanese to withdraw their troops from Ryukyu with great fanfare.

The Japanese government is holding a cabinet meeting.

"Gentlemen, now that the sword is hanging around our necks, we can't help but retreat." Navy Minister Xixiang Congdao gave Japanese Prime Minister Kiyotaka Kuroda a cold look, and continued: "I propose that the empire immediately increase the number of troops in Okinawa Prefecture." Soldiers, to prevent the possibility of the Chinese sending troops."

Instead of recovering the Ryukyu royal family, the United Fleet lost the Chiyoda. Saigo Congmichi hated the Chinese government to the bone, and has been exaggerating the China threat theory in newspapers, indicating that Japan has now reached the time of life and death.

Kiyotaka Kuroda sighed helplessly, glanced at the Japanese present, and said calmly: "The June [-]th plan has not been completed yet, and the current imperial navy is still slightly inferior to the Chinese. I think the empire should continue to endure humiliation. Waiting for the right time."

Xixiang raged from his blue veins, and scolded: "Mr. Kuroda has been evading the reality that the Chinese have already bullied the empire. If we continue to swallow our anger, what will be the face of the empire and the navy?"

Mutsu Munemitsu kept his eyes on the quarrel between the two.

Unexpectedly, he was also shot while lying down. Kiyotaka Kuroda stared at Saigo Conodo angrily for a moment, suppressed his anger, tilted his head, looked at Mutsu Munemitsu and said, "Mutsu-kun, the negotiation with the Chinese government has been successful. What's the matter?"

Mutsu Munemitsu breathed a sigh of relief, frowned and said: "The Chinese are still the same, asking us to withdraw our troops from Okinawa County. The Chinese are not good at coming."

Xixiang shouted from the road: "Masters, I have long said that this matter cannot be resolved through diplomatic negotiations. The dignity of the empire can only be defended with the blood of the Chinese. Like your Excellency, I have always been willing to be a tortoise. I Xixiang It is very unacceptable for the country to follow the Tao."

Kiyotaka Kuroda slapped the table angrily, and said angrily: "War, war, you Xixiang Congdao only knows about war, don't you know how to compare the gap between China and Japan, if you think the strength of the Imperial Navy is stronger than Chinese, I, Kiyotaka Kuroda, have nothing to say."

"Kuroda-kun, since ancient times, the weak have defeated the strong innumerably. As long as the strategy is used properly, defeating the Chinese is easy. If you look forward and backward like you, you don't know when the empire will come to the fore. I don't think Kuroda-kun has the ability to be the prime minister. .” Xixiang Congdao opened fire on Kuroda Kiyotaka.

"Your Excellency, you are provoking me." Kuroda Kiyotaka stood up and said coldly.

However, none of the other ministers spoke, and they all lowered their heads and pretended to be nonchalant.

"Kuroda-kun, I hope you will resign from your Majesty the position of Prime Minister of the Cabinet." Xixiang Congdao and Su Kuroda Kiyotaka said confrontationally.

Kuroda Kiyotaka was furious, and wanted to say more, but saw the door of the conference room was pushed open, and Ito Hirobumi walked in slowly, leaning on a silver crutch.

"Your Excellency Ito," all the cabinet ministers got up one after another, bowed their heads and saluted.

Ito Hirobumi pressed his hands down slightly, and said with a smile: "Please sit down, gentlemen."

Kiyotaka Kuroda suddenly understood that Hirobumi Ito came here today, and it seemed that he was the only one who had not received the news, and the situation was self-evident.

"Gentlemen, judging from the few months that I, Hirobumi Ito, have stayed in China, there must be a war between China and Japan, and it should be sooner rather than later. Under the leadership of Ye Zhikui, the Chinese government has transformed from a sluggish old empire Become a vibrant emerging country." Ito Hirobumi made no secret of his bias.

He looked at Kiyotaka Kuroda and said, "Kuroda-kun, it's not that I, Hirobumi Ito, is exaggerating, but that China's vast land and abundant resources are not comparable to our small island country. Once the Chinese recover, we will be a big Japanese empire." There will never be a day of success. Today, although our situation is a little bit, China has just experienced the Sino-Russian War, and then the British attacked China’s Tibet, which will contain part of the Chinese troops. It will take a long time. If we miss it, I don’t know what we will do. Wait until what year and month. Therefore, the war against China cannot be delayed."

"Ito-kun." Kuroda Kiyotaka looked at him awkwardly, and wanted to say more.

Ito Hirobumi waved his hand and sighed, "Kuroda-kun, please resign from your majesty as Prime Minister of the Cabinet."

Kiyotaka Kuroda looked around and saw that no one stood up to speak for him. He was saddened for a moment, and said dejectedly: "Your Excellency, I will resign as Prime Minister today. I just hope that under your leadership, the empire can choose the right path." .”

Volume Two, The Wind and Cloud of the Capital, Chapter [-], Global Layout

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Japanese Prime Minister Kiyotaka Kuroda was forced to resign, and Ito Hirobumi, who was old but not dead but a thief, once again formed a cabinet as prime minister. As soon as Ito came to power, he began to set up a wartime base camp in a low-key manner, actively mobilized the army, and prepared for war with China.

The government of the Republic of China did not get any definite news about the changes in Japan, but from the fact that Japan continued to increase its troops in Ryukyu and the domestic atmosphere tended to become tense, it can be seen that the Japanese will not give in easily, and Ryukyu will not be able to return to China just by talking about it. in human hands.

On the 12th of the same month, Ye Zhikui delivered a speech at the General Staff Headquarters, requesting the General Staff to plan a war strategy against Japan, mobilize the army to prepare for war, and require the soldiers of the three armed forces to defend against the Japanese.

Subsequently, Nie Shicheng and Liu Mingchuan of the Vladivostok Military Region and the Taiwan Military Region received an order from the Supreme Command, requiring the two military regions to prepare for landing operations.However, Taiwan's army is a bit mysterious. There has been no war for more than ten years, except for occasional troops to fight against Taiwanese people. Liu Mingchuan was so worried that he had to ask the Supreme Command to transfer troops from other military regions to Taiwan.