ōkuma Shigenobu's Dilemma

  "How is it that you can't even last five minutes?"

  Yang Shuo Ming looked at Huang Xiang Yun who was sweating profusely while doing rifle shooting training and asked with a slight smile.

  Huang Shengyun was unmoved by Yang Shuo's words. He gritted his teeth and continued to persevere silently.

  At this time, on the training ground, a group of young people were training under the scorching sun. Among them, some were employees of "Human and Company", some were apprentices who had just taken up their posts in factories, some were farmers, and some were students studying in school. In addition, there were also some girls wearing flower dresses, who followed the new recruits together, enduring the intense heat and training together.

  "On the battlefield, your enemy won't give you a break just because you're tired. They won't let you rest and then come back to kill you. Instead, they'd rather use their bayonet to rip open your belly or cut off your head with one slash when you can't even lift your gun! So if you want to stay alive, the fastest and most effective way is to blow his brains out with your rifle while he's still far away!"

  Looking at her younger brother's thin and frail body struggling to hold the long and heavy rifle, Huang Yunzhi standing far away couldn't bear to watch anymore. She thought of going over to stop this hellish training several times, but Yang Shao Ming's words when he was training himself echoed in her ears, making her involuntarily halt her steps.

  "To make oneself strong, one must first start by protecting oneself!"

  "Sweat more in training, and you'll bleed less in battle!"

  "Being lenient with oneself during daily training is equivalent to murdering oneself!"

  Hearing his brother-in-law's merciless scolding, Huang Shengyun's tears began to well up in his eyes uncontrollably, but he didn't utter a word of protest. Instead, he gritted his teeth and persevered with all his might.

  I proactively asked to participate in the militia's military training, just to prove to my parents and family that I have a patriotic passion.

  Wiping away the tears in his eyes, Huang Xingyun continued to aim at the target in front of him with his rifle. His body was originally very thin and frail from being pampered all day, and using the heavy rifle for so long was already a very strenuous task. The brick hanging from the gun made him feel that this wasn't training but torture. At this moment, Huang Xingyun only felt that the rifle in his hands was getting heavier and heavier, while his two hands were becoming more and more disobedient.

  Seeing Huang Shengyun's performance, a hint of relief flashed in Yang Shuo's eyes. He didn't continue to scold this Xingzi, but instead turned around and came to a high platform not far away, overlooking the entire training ground.

  In order to establish a more powerful armed force in a short period of time with limited financial resources to ensure local security, Yang Shouming promoted the system of "all people are soldiers" in the western Gannan region. Now, what is happening on the training ground shows that the people here have a strong consciousness of voluntary training, not only is the training effect very good, but also the quality of training is very high.

  When a person takes conscious action to protect their own, the safety and well-being of their family, the power that can be unleashed is amazing. And these trainees on the training ground have already possessed such initiative consciousness.

  He felt a great sense of accomplishment thinking about the changes he had brought to Gannan in just one year.

  It's just that every time he thinks about the journey that is about to begin, he can't help but feel a weight on his shoulders.

  To defeat the brutal and evil Japanese invaders, he can now rely on the people in front of him.

  And...

  Yang Shuo Ming walked down from the high platform and came to Huang Yunzhi, who was staring at his half-brother with a worried gaze during training.

  "Training is over for now, let's give Shengyun some water to drink." Yang Shaoming turned his head and looked at Huang Shengyun, saying, "He did very well today."

  "Hmm." Huang Yunzhi nodded happily.

  "It's all done, you take him home now, I still have something to attend to." Yang Shuoming said.

  "Alright, come back early." Huang Yunzhi said as she watched him.

  Yang Shuo Ming nodded and mounted his own war horse, galloping away with several guards.

  At this time, in a not-so-large warehouse, on several large long wooden tables, there were huge steel balls that looked like sea urchins, with protruding devices on the surface of the steel balls that looked like sea urchin spines. Some even had a circle of blades around them. An inspector tried to poke at one of the circles of blades with a wooden stick, and accompanied by a faint humming noise from an electric motor, the blades spun rapidly and instantly cut the wooden stick in the inspector's hand into two pieces. Possibly intimidated by the spinning blades, he involuntarily stumbled backwards. Seeing his slightly awkward appearance, several other inspectors burst out laughing.

  "Any lightning rod would be useless against this thing." Shi Xuanhou watched as the spinning blade slowly came to a stop, saying, "If not handled properly, it could really sink Japanese warships."

  "These mines can only be considered temporary expedients, a sneak attack weapon for small countries without a navy against naval powers." Lin Yujian sighed and said, "It's not feasible to rely on these opportunistic tricks all the time. Developing a strong naval surface fleet is the key."

  "Here we go again." Shi Xuanhou sneered, "You should focus on your current tasks first, that's the priority. As long as the country has a chance to recover, big guns and warships are not a problem. I'm not like you, those Japanese scraps don't bother me at all."

  "You actually said that the ships made by the Japanese are rubbish?" Lin Yuqin said, "The newly built 'Kongo' battlecruiser of the Japanese is almost identical to my design. If we were to fight with Japan now, this one warship can annihilate all our Chinese naval vessels."

  "In front of Lao Zi's 'Battleship', all the battlecruisers are nothing but trash. " Shi Xuan Hou sneered and said, "'Speed is defense'? Bullshit."

  As usual, the two began arguing again, and just then, Yang Shuoming pushed open the door and walked in.

  "I remember that the British seemed to have a high opinion of Japan's 'Kongo', and wanted to borrow it, but the Japanese were reluctant to lend it." Yang Shaoming said with a smile, "You guys think, if they were to fight, would the Japanese send this ship to our Chinese coast?"

  "The Japanese have always looked down on us, so they probably won't send such a big shot." Shi Xuanhou thought for a moment and said, "Most likely, they'll just send a few cruisers or old battleships over."

  "Now the Japanese warships on the sea surface of Qingdao, such a large ship should not exist." Lin Yujun said, "It's just some cruisers and gunboats, but with these ships, if we really fight, it will be enough for us to be busy."

  Yang Shuo Ming nodded and his eyes immediately fell on the water thunderbolt placed on the table.

  "According to your requirements, we have conducted multiple experiments and have already determined that it can meet the actual combat requirements." Shi Xuanhou said, "Of course, our tests were all done in rivers, it would be best if we could try it out at sea."

  "It's probably too late." Yang Shuo Ming sighed and looked at the calendar on the wall, saying somewhat gloomily.

  Japan, Tokyo, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Conference Hall.

  "Haven't I told you guys not to leak the news?"

  Japanese Prime Minister Okuma Shigenobu looked at the inquiry letter sent by the US, British and French ministers to Japan on the table and asked Foreign Minister Katō Takaaki with some annoyance.

  Just a few days ago, newspapers from various countries published the full text of Japan's secretly proposed "Twenty-One Demands" to China, causing a huge stir worldwide. Under pressure from public opinion and their own governments, the US, British, and French ministers to Japan questioned the Japanese government about it. The Japanese Foreign Ministry, already feeling guilty, did not dare to openly deny or fully acknowledge the demands, and could only vaguely admit the existence of the first two groups of the "Twenty-One Demands", totaling eleven items.

  Even so, at this time, the Japanese government has also fallen into a rather embarrassing and passive situation.

  "The news was intentionally leaked by the Chinese," said Takao Takayama in a hoarse voice, "They want to use this method to delay time and cause intervention from Western countries."

  "But what I've heard is that the Chinese already knew the details of the upcoming negotiations before you even approached them, and they leaked it out." Okuma Shigenobu said to Kato Takaaki, his face stretched long, those who knew him understood that he was just one step away from exploding, "How did they find out about such a secret?"

  "This is impossible!" Kato Takayuki shouted immediately.

  "But it has indeed happened." ōkuma Shigenobu sneered and said, "I'm really curious, how did the Chinese know something that even the old men didn't know?"

  The "old men" referred to by ōkuma Shigenobu were the elder statesmen of Japan. After the ōkuma Cabinet took office, in order to better exercise its authority, Katō Takaaki deliberately broke the precedent of circulating diplomatic documents to Japanese elder statesmen since 1898, replacing it with a simple report after the fact. As in this case, when presenting the "Twenty-One Demands" to China, Katō did not consult with the elder statesmen and did not even show them the specific articles. The reason for doing so was not only to prevent the elder statesmen from interfering with the cabinet's actions but also to maintain high secrecy.

  It is unbelievable that the inside story, which even Japanese elder statesmen were unaware of, appeared in a foreign newspaper. How could Okubo Toshimichi not be furious?

  "Perhaps... among the Chinese revolutionaries we support, there are spies sent by the Chinese government..." Kato Takayoshi was at a loss for words and gave such an absurd answer.

  Those revolutionaries have always been more likely to cause trouble than achieve anything. Okuma Shigenobu thought of the many Chinese revolutionary leaders who had fled to Japan, his eyes full of disdain.