Chapter 16 15. Mission Impossible

On this day, Hayashi Kujiro and his subordinate Consul Morioka visited Zang Shiyi.The two Japanese diplomats demanded that the Chinese side "in order not to give the Kwantung Army an excuse to collapse", must quickly resolve the Nakamura incident.The so-called "kicking up" refers to the Kwantung Army launching military operations in Northeast China. The Japanese diplomat's statement seems very unusual. Since August 17, Hayashi Kujiro stepped on the threshold of the Liaoning Provincial Government and the Northeast Army Command, and made 14 or 5 times of representations to the Chinese side, nothing more than wanting to resolve the Nakamura incident as soon as possible—Chinese Government Fully accept the request made by the Japanese side.However, this is the first time that China is required to learn about the Nakamura incident as soon as possible on the grounds that it will not launch military operations against the Kwantung Army.People who don't know what's going on may think that Japanese diplomats are going to join forces with the Chinese government to fight against the ambitious Kwantung Army?

The Japanese government is really feeling the pressure. In recent days, the news that the Kwantung Army is going to launch military operations in the Northeast has been spreading, and even the Japanese cabinet and the press have heard about it. That's why Moshihara questioned him at the cabinet meeting. Minister Lu Nanjiro, is it true that the Eastern Army intends to launch a military operation? Early on the morning of the 17th, Hayashi Kyujiro had not finished his breakfast, and the Fushun Police Chief Terada, who had rushed to Fengtian overnight, came. He reported to the Consul General: "The garrison in Fushun reported that they would assume that they would occupy before dawn on the 18th." Therefore, the police were instructed to formulate plans for the protection of overseas Chinese, asylum, and maintenance of law and order." Although he has often received reports of military operations launched by the Kwantung Army recently, Hayashi Kyujiro was still taken aback.His keen political sense and intuition for the authenticity of intelligence made him feel that something must happen.After pondering for a while, he decided to visit Zang Shiyi and put forward the above unusual suggestion.

Hayashi Jiujiro's proposal was like an awl, piercing Zang Shiyi's already dull nerves.Originally, he had regarded negotiating with Japan as routine to a considerable extent.Zang Shiyi became tense, and even had a trace of inexplicable excitement—if he managed to force the invincible Kwantung Army to restrain its attempt to mobilize force again, it would be an extraordinary feat.After discussing with Rong Zhen, the Northeast authorities began to seriously consider immediately conducting substantive negotiations with the Japanese side to resolve the Nakamura incident.Zang Shiyi issued an order to ban the anti-Japanese movement to the county magistrates in the province, and also decided to organize a military court conference to try Guan Yuheng, the person in charge of the Nakamura incident, and told Hayashi Kujiro this decision in a flattering manner.

Indeed, Japan's foreign policy toward China has shown a new trend. Of course, this does not mean that it will cooperate with China to restrain the Kwantung Army.The Japanese diplomatic authorities wanted to kill two birds with one stone—while crushing the Kwantung Army's attempt to use force, they also realized Japan's interests in Northeast China in a package in a way dominated by the diplomatic authorities.Specifically, on the one hand, it used the Kwantung Army's military plot to put pressure on China, thereby inducing China to accept the conditions issued by the Japanese government. At the same time, it pretended to be a peace envoy to stop the war. Let the Chinese side feel that they are the lucky ones who have successfully escaped from the brink of war; Dominant diplomatic track.

In terms of policy toward China, more precisely, the goal of the Northeast China policy, there is no substantial difference between the Japanese government and the military. "To conquer the world, you must first conquer China, and to conquer China, you must first conquer Manchuria" is Japan's national policy. .In Japan, there is a concept that if Japan confines its occupation of China to the northeast of China, a war between China and Japan can be avoided.Japan believes that the Soviet Union is Japan's biggest imaginary enemy.There are not only geopolitical considerations, the Soviet Union is, after all, the closest big and powerful country to Japan, but also ideological and social system reasons. In the eyes of the imperialist powers at that time, the socialist Soviet Union was a scourge.The buffer zone between Japan and the Soviet Union is the northeast of China. Whoever controls this buffer zone will have a strategic advantage in future conflicts.In this regard, the views of the Japanese government and the military are basically the same.

As for the difference between the two, we can use the metaphor of "same goal but different routes" - under the same goal, what method is used to realize Japan's control and even occupation of Northeast China.On this issue, the Japanese government and the military are at odds. Compared with the role of the Japanese government, the superiority of the Japanese military in relations with China is formed historically. At the end of the 19th century, both China and Japan were learning from the West in an attempt to embark on the path of a modernized country, and without exception, strong ships and guns became the first goals pursued by the two countries.However, the two countries did not become partners on the road to modernization like their geographical locations, but instead became imaginary enemies and rivals.Under the advocacy and auspices of Li Hongzhang, the Qing government built the Beiyang Fleet, which ranked first in strength in Asia. When the iron-clad ships Dingyuan and Zhenyuan of the Qing Dynasty visited Japan, the huge hulls and strong main guns of the two ships aroused great admiration. The panic in Japanese society. At that time, even the teachers of Japanese kindergartens were teaching children to play a game called "Sinking Dingyuan, Zhenyuan". It is said that even Emperor Hirohito, who was still a child at that time, was very familiar with this game.Under such circumstances, it was the Japanese navy that decisively launched the Sino-Japanese War of 1899-1895, defeated the Qing Beiyang navy flying the dragon flag in one fell swoop, and obtained the original capital of industrialization that Japan dreamed of from the huge war reparations paid by the Qing government. Since then, he is no longer qualified to be Japan's competitor in the world. Ten years later, when the interests of Japan and Russia in Northeast China collided, it was the Japanese Army that did not hesitate to fight against the huge Tsarist Russia. After paying the price of 70,000 casualties, it gained control of Northeast China.The Japanese military's right to speak on the China issue was "struggled". They believed that they were in charge of their China policy.

However, the Japanese government believes that it should have a decisive say in its China policy, while the military's ideas and practices are outdated.After entering the era of party politics, the Japanese government, represented by civilian officials, has greatly increased its say in foreign policy; after the Washington Conference, countries began to disarm, and the power of the Japanese military will inevitably be weakened.More importantly, the diplomats of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs believe that they have seen the latest trend in international state-to-state relations: the international community is beginning to seek to establish an international order and mechanism that can guarantee peace through negotiations, and blindly rely on force to resolve the issue. The era of state-to-state disputes is over.They despised the vision and thinking of imperial officers who were still at the level of the 19th century, and believed that they could not see the latest developments in the world situation and only knew about force and recklessness, which would inevitably damage Japan's most fundamental and long-term national interests.

Therefore, they have disagreements on the way to solve the Manchurian problem.The military believed that since the Russians had been expelled from South Manchuria, the northeast of China was actually dominated by the Japanese; When harming Japan's interests, take decisive measures to achieve the occupation of Northeast China; if there is an opportunity, of course it must be done, and if there is no opportunity, it must be "created" to do it, completely ignoring the pressure of the international community.However, the Japanese government believes that in order to control the situation, the international community must fully understand and sympathize with Japan's situation in Mongolia and its policies before it can act calmly and naturally.For this reason, Shigemitsu Aoi said, simply endure for another year, and Japan will not adopt a radical policy in Manchuria, so that the world can see that Japan's established Manchuria policy "doesn't work in a down-to-earth manner". At that time, Japan will solve Manchuria in a package The new policy on the Mongolian problem can be implemented.

But in the eyes of the Japanese military, Shigemitsu Aoi's flashy diplomacy can only be self-defeating, and they can ignore it completely and do their own thing.And the Japanese government is also like a scholar who is full of knowledge but low-key words-not only is it unreasonable in front of the soldiers, but also does not have the legal status and courage to govern the soldiers. On August 4, Lu Prime Minister Nanjiro presided over a purely military meeting, sternly accusing those "in a position of irresponsibility" or "people who don't care about national defense", saying that they "advocate the reduction of armaments at every turn", and demanded that The participants "corrected these fallacies", and after that, they made a long speech on the issue of Manchuria and Mongolia, pointing the culprit of putting Japan in a disadvantageous position, explicitly and secretly, to the Japanese government.This speech by Nanjiro was not impromptu, but was drafted by Nagata Tieshan, the Ministry of Army, and other five section chiefs for Nanjiro after many studies in order to implement the spirit of the "Outline of Strategies for Solving the Manchurian and Mongolian Issues".

Lu Xiang's blatant intervention in political issues immediately caused an uproar in the public opinion circle.The next day, the "Tokyo Asahi Shimbun" published an editorial pointing out that Prime Minister Lu's instruction "contains extremely dangerous hints", that is, "expresses an eagerness to force Manchurian-Mongolian diplomacy to the military"; if the military has strong opinions, This "can be proposed and discussed through the normal channels of constitutional law", but "as a soldier, Prime Minister Lu is in an extraterritorial position detached from the political party and the cabinet. He makes political speeches at the division chief meeting and expresses his views on current situation issues that are of great importance to imperial diplomacy. , and hinted at the handling policy, which is obviously an act of ultra vires," and demanded that the government should no longer remain silent on this.

On the same day, the Japanese cabinet meeting was held.Before the meeting, Prime Minister Ruo Yuan persuaded Foreign Minister Yuan to say: "At this moment, don't say anything to Prime Minister Lu." Jiro's speech on the first day was silent. Undoubtedly, the Japanese government does not have the strength and determination to challenge the factual dominance of the military in China policy, although they also want to follow their own ideas.Ever since, on the day before the diplomatic negotiations were about to go bankrupt and the September 18th Incident was about to happen, they still wanted to resort to tricks and tricks in order to seek victory from defeat, but in fact it was no different from taking out a chestnut from the fire.