"Mr. Minister, you got up really early today!" It was just past six-thirty, and the new Japanese Minister to China Kenkichi Yoshizawa stood up and walked out of his bedroom.
"Where can I rest well? The latest domestic instructions have not been sent yet. I heard that in Tokyo, the Prime Minister and the Prime Minister have been quarreling and are about to fall out. The intelligence coming back from all over China these days is that the Chinese are because of those in Kanto Prefecture. Acting arbitrarily has reached the extreme level of anger. Not only are the people angry, but President Li, who has always governed the country with an iron fist, is probably also extremely angry. A train of leather transports supplies to the Northeast, and they all march in secret. From the current point of view, I'm afraid if one of them is not handled well, our two countries will be on the verge of war!"
Yoshizawa Kenji took the basin and towel handed over by the attendant and simply wiped his face, while using his deep voice, he whispered a few words.
Yoshizawa Kenkichi, a native of Niigata Prefecture, Japan, was admitted to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after graduating from the English Literature Department of the Faculty of Letters of the University of Tokyo. He was the first liberal arts person in Japan to be admitted as a diplomat besides law graduates. In February 1900, he was sent to China for his first overseas internship and served as a consular officer (equivalent to an assistant consul) at the Japanese Consulate in Xiamen. Three months later, the Boxer Rebellion occurred, and the Japanese Saigonji branch office in Xiamen was also set on fire. Taiwan Governor-General Kodama Gentaro immediately sent troops outside Xiamen Port to plan to land and occupy Xiamen on the pretext of protecting Japanese overseas Chinese.
The Japanese government did not allow Kodama to use troops without authorization and ordered the occupation of Xiamen to be suspended. Instead, the Xiamen Consulate negotiated with the Xiamen Daotai of the Qing Dynasty to solve the problem on the spot. Xiamen Daotai arrested the arsonists and dealt with them strictly, and apologized to the Japanese government. This was the first diplomatic matter that Fangze negotiated with Qing officials after taking office as a diplomat. Since then, Fangze has successively served as the consul in Shanghai and Niuzhuang, the first secretary of the Embassy in London, the first section chief of the Political Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the personnel section chief, the political affairs director, the Asian director, and the European and American director.
At the end of 1913, Japan was already very wary of the rise of the local tycoon Li Han, and at the end of the year it sent Yoshizawa Kenkichi to China to take up the post of Consul General in Hankou.
In 1917, China unilaterally defaulted and refused to pay Japan¡¯s share of the Boxer Indemnity for various reasons. Although Terauchi Masaki did not easily go to war with China due to political considerations, in the face of angry public opinion in Japan, he had no choice but to sacrifice Hayashi Gonsuke, the then minister to China, and replace him with Obata Yukichi, a hard-liner against China, as minister to China. . It is a pity because the Republic of China refused to recognize the minister to China who once used insulting words such as "China" to describe China in public. Japan was forced to replace Yukichi Obata and appoint Isaburo Yoshida as minister to China 22 days after appointing him.
Because Yoshida Isaburo failed to assist Saionji Konomo in completing his goal of forcing China to repay the Boxer Indemnity during his tenure, after Saionji Konomo returned to China, Yoshida Isaburo was once again dismissed from his appointment as minister to China. Yoshizawa Kenkichi was In this case, he was appointed as Japan's Minister to China.
When Kenyoshi Yoshizawa took office as the minister to China, the diplomacy between Japan and China was already in fierce friction, and there was an urgent need to re-establish a communication channel to avoid a Sino-Japanese war.
It was out of this consideration that Hara Kei abandoned many radical diplomats who had far more experience than Yoshizawa Kenyoshi, and chose this young diplomat with a relatively conservative attitude and a tendency to maintain Sino-Japanese peace, hoping to change Fierce conflict between China and Japan.
"It's a pity that Hara Kei's starting point is correct, but he overestimates his control of the situation in Japan and the ambitions of the northward mainland faction headed by the Army. At the same time, he would never have imagined that the Chinese had already begun preparing for a decisive battle with Japan a long time ago, and the time was set before the end of the European War.
¡°Sir, do you need some breakfast first?¡±
His attendant asked, Yoshizawa Kenji shook his head and refused, "I have no appetite for the moment, let's wait"
¡°Perhaps he has read too much information about the Republic of China government concentrating supplies to the Northeast from all over the country, and now he feels very uneasy. The unique acumen of a politician and a diplomat told him that although the national power of the Republic of China was weaker than Japan, the country's current radical actions were not at all what a weak country should do. He had a strong sense of immediacy, and these days he had been constantly thinking about whether he had forgotten something. After his thoughts became clearer and clearer, he was already breaking out in a cold sweat.
A few days ago, he finally realized the reason for this sense of instant vision.
The scene in front of you shows that you are well prepared and can make a big difference with small things. Is this incident a replica of what happened before the Sino-Japanese War? At that time, Japan had made sufficient preparations in advance, and then suddenly found an excuse to sneak attack on the Qing troop transport ship. After starting a war wantonly, it defeated the Manchu Qing and became the most powerful country in East Asia.
"As for this scene, except that the war has not yet broken out, everything else is already 70% to 80% consistent.
It¡¯s really scary??It feels like he told himself this more than once.
Because he was not in good spirits, had no appetite, and had no intention of going out for a few steps, he went to the balcony on the second floor of the consulate alone and lay down on a bamboo deck chair. While enjoying the rare quiet time in the morning, he read and read Looking at the two documents he took out from the office, they were intelligence and documents that came from everywhere last night. Because it was delivered after he rested, he didn't see it right away.
Lying on the bamboo recliner, Yoshizawa Kenji looked at the documents with a serious face. One piece of intelligence from Hankou showed that the Republic of China once strengthened the garrison of troops outside the Japanese Concession in Hankou, while another document from Chongqing It was written that the Chongqing Police Department issued a warning to the Japanese Concession in Chongqing, hoping that the Japanese consul in Chongqing could restrain its residents and try not to let them go out, especially outside the Japanese Concession. Because the civil conflict between China and Japan continues to intensify, applications for anti-Japanese demonstrations are submitted to the police station by student organizations and radical societies across China almost every day. Judging from the current chaos among Chinese people, it is better to err on the side of caution and allow Japanese expatriates to stay in the Japanese Concession and not come out.
Yoshizawa Kenkichi thought seriously, if in Chongqing it was okay to just warn Japanese expatriates about their safety, then the situation in Hankou was very dangerous. Since last year, the Republic of China has expanded its former German army camp next to the Japanese Concession in Hankou to enough to accommodate two or three battalion-level military establishments. At present, the Republic of China has indeed increased its garrison to three battalions. With Russia at the forefront, it¡¯s no wonder that he felt uneasy, lest he wake up one day and find that the Chinese army had entered the Japanese Concession, then took back the Japanese Concession, abolished all unequal terms with Japan, and refused to recognize it. Not to mention all Japan's privileges in China, all Japanese properties in China will also be forcibly confiscated.
If that¡¯s the case. Yoshizawa Kenkichi, who is still very young, will undoubtedly become Japan's eternal sinner. As Japan's minister to China, it will be difficult for him to escape his responsibilities. Even if he can continue to serve the government, he may have little future.
This is the main reason for Yoshizawa Kenkichi's anxiety. He is worried about his own future and the future of Japan. But worries are worries. There is really nothing he can do about it at the moment. After all, the initiative for the war is not in his hands, not even in the hands of the Prime Minister. The person who now has the power to decide the war between China and Japan is the person in the country. Prime Minister Lu, who has already won the support of the young people in the Army, and even the hawkish President of the Republic of China!
Because he was not in good spirits, had no appetite, and had no intention of going out for a few steps, he went to the balcony on the second floor of the consulate alone and lay down on a bamboo deck chair. While enjoying the rare quiet time in the morning, he read and read Looking at the two documents he took out from the office, they were intelligence and documents that came from everywhere last night. Because it was delivered after he rested, he didn't see it right away.
Lying on the bamboo recliner, Yoshizawa Kenji looked at the documents with a serious face. One piece of intelligence from Hankou showed that the Republic of China once strengthened the garrison of troops outside the Japanese Concession in Hankou, while another document from Chongqing It was written that the Chongqing Police Department issued a warning to the Japanese Concession in Chongqing, hoping that the Japanese consul in Chongqing could restrain its residents and try not to let them go out, especially outside the Japanese Concession. Because the civil conflict between China and Japan continues to intensify, applications for anti-Japanese demonstrations are submitted to the police station by student organizations and radical societies across China almost every day. Judging from the current chaos among Chinese people, it is better to err on the side of caution and allow Japanese expatriates to stay in the Japanese Concession and not come out.
Yoshizawa Kenkichi thought seriously, if in Chongqing it was okay to just warn Japanese expatriates about their safety, then the situation in Hankou was very dangerous. Since last year, the Republic of China has expanded its former German army camp next to the Japanese Concession in Hankou to enough to accommodate two or three battalion-level military establishments. At present, the Republic of China has indeed increased its garrison to three battalions. With Russia at the forefront, it¡¯s no wonder that he felt uneasy, lest he wake up one day and find that the Chinese army had entered the Japanese Concession, then took back the Japanese Concession, abolished all unequal terms with Japan, and refused to recognize it. Not to mention all Japan's privileges in China, all Japanese properties in China will also be forcibly confiscated.
If that¡¯s the case. Yoshizawa Kenkichi, who is still very young, will undoubtedly become Japan's eternal sinner. As Japan's minister to China, it will be difficult for him to escape his responsibilities. Even if he can continue to serve the government, he may have little future.
This is the main reason for Yoshizawa Kenkichi's anxiety. He is worried about his own future and the future of Japan. But worries are worries. There is really nothing he can do about it at the moment. After all, the initiative for the war is not in his hands, not even in the hands of the Prime Minister. The person who now has the power to decide the war between China and Japan is the person in the country. Prime Minister Lu, who has already won the support of the young people in the army, and even the hawkish president of the Republic of China!
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