Chapter 948: The Difference in Perception
Chapter 929: Difference in Perception
Glancing around, Ito Hirobumi replied stiffly, ”Your Majesty, this continental war is extraordinary. On the surface is the French expansion in Europe, caused the Austrian dissatisfaction broke out the war, the essence is still the continental hegemony of the struggle.
Britain and Russia were involved because of the war in Afghanistan, and were unable to intervene in continental Europe in the short term, allowing France and Austria to see the opportunity to defeat their rivals.
As of now, Europe has been France, Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, black, Asia seven countries involved in the war, the remaining European countries are still waiting to see, but does not rule out the possibility of involvement.
Although France was powerful, they were alone, and if the war continued and more European countries got involved, I’m afraid they would be a tiger that couldn’t defeat a pack of wolves.
Intelligence from Europe, the French have mobilized more than five million troops, the anti-French alliance is mobilized more than seven million troops, if you add the French and Austrian colonial confrontation, this number will have to greatly increase.
A great war of tens of millions of people is simply not something we have the strength to get involved in. In my opinion, any strategy of going south before the European war is divided is unwise.”
There’s no problem, politically, as long as war is declared, even countries that make up the numbers have to be counted. Greece, Montenegro, and Armenia, the three flag-waving bean counters, were likewise members of the Antifa League.
People also made important contributions to the antifa cause. Although they did nothing militarily, their political contributions were not small at all.
While ordinary people could not see it, politicians understood it very well. To be able to define this continental war as a war of aggression against the French, Austria relies on this group of little brothers to follow the flag waving.
France in Europe is not popular, this is known to all, after all, Napoleon the great bullish and coaxing everyone to hang once, the Bonaparte dynasty is not ostracized only problem.
But directly by half of the countries in Europe to boycott, the remaining neutral countries are also giving them to drag their feet, fell into the eyes of Ito Hirobumi this is the absolute failure of French diplomacy.
According to past experience, the French are so bullish will certainly have to be beaten, who does not know whether tomorrow there will be a new country involved in the war. Judging from political diplomacy, Ito Hirobumi is not at all optimistic that the French can win the war.
Not being optimistic about the French did not mean that the Japanese government was able to place its bets. A big melee of tens of millions of armies, not to mention Japan, is the first time in human history.
Although the initial completion of the Meiji Restoration, but Japan is still only a weak agricultural country, the increase in military power and the top powers compared to, or far from it.
Only with this domestic more than 100,000 new army, fighting strength can not even compare with Belgium, the later generation of the continental army across East Asia, is now still a baby and toddler.
Army strength gap is vast, the same is true of the navy. To Britain, France and Austria such a naval power, two former dreadnoughts will be able to hang the Japanese Navy once, and such a main ship people are in the double digits.
“The European war is so involved that we really have no business getting involved in it. However, attacking the Philippines is not difficult, Spain has long been in decline and is simply not qualified to continue to occupy the fertile colonies.
Britain, Russia, Austria and France, the four major powers are all at war and have no time to worry about Far East practices, it is the best time for us to strike.
Don’t look at the Spaniards still top the name of the Great Powers, in fact, in the new round of military revolution, they have been completely backward.
According to the intelligence gathered by the navy, most of the Spanish fleet deployed in the Philippines are sail battleships, and the only two ironclads are products of more than ten years ago, so the navy is confident that it can easily solve them.
The Suez Canal is now blocked, as long as the Spaniards’ Philippine fleet is taken out, and when they receive the news and send reinforcements over, the earliest will be half a year later.
As long as the Army is able to occupy the Philippine Islands within half a year, the Spaniards, who have no place to land, are just toothless tigers not enough to worry about.”
Minister of the Navy Saigo from the road said lightly, as if the inability to participate in the European war is a deserved thing, do not feel aggrieved in the slightest.
Japan’s land and sea disputes involved in the feud can be traced back hundreds of years, “Choshu valve” and “Satsuma valve” historical conflicts, direct continuation.
In the face of the navy’s contempt, Army Minister Yamagata said: “As long as your navy can deal with the enemy fleet, our army will be able to occupy the Philippine Islands within half a year.
I’m afraid that you won’t be able to fight a quick battle and spend your precious time with the Spanish Navy for nothing.”
The fact that the navy and the army were not on a collision course was definitely too bad news for the Bunshi faction led by Ito Hirobumi.
No matter how heated the battle between the south and north of the Japanese military in later times was, the strategic differences between the two sides now were not substantial.
Before getting the springboard of Korea, the Japanese army, whether going south, or north, the main force must be the navy, this is the consensus of all.
Simply from the surface, now the Japanese Navy, seems to be not the rival of the Beiyang Fleet, just from the warship tonnage is so.
The Japanese rulers who were not overwhelmed by the victory, are still so abashed that they not only dare not participate in the continental war, but also fear the next door neighbor.
To ensure that the war was won, it was only logical that the navy and land forces would briefly join forces in the common interest. After all, Japan’s family was now weak, and one loss would all be lost.
Seeing that the military’s opinions were almost unified, Finance Minister Okuma Shigenobu Takashi hurriedly objected, “No, Spain is a European country, and to risk attacking a white country, who knows if it will cause a backlash from the European powers?
In case it causes other powers to intervene, even if we occupy the Philippine Islands, we will still end up spitting them out, and we will even be subject to Spain’s retaliation.
Don’t look at the Spaniards as being in decline, but their overall strength is still above ours, and our only advantage is that the Philippines is too far away from them.
But if there are European powers supporting them, the situation will be very different. They can easily form a sizeable fleet to seek our bad luck.”
This is true, the Japanese Navy warships were bought from Europe, and it would only be easier for the Spanish, located on the continent, to buy them.
Moreover, Spain’s shipbuilding ability is not weak, second only to Britain, France and Austria, in the world are in the second echelon, is not just started Japan can be compared.
In fact, Okuma Shigenobu still has something to say. This year the most popular naval theory is the British threw out the “hundred years of naval”, all countries are deeply influenced by it.
Even if the Spanish navy was in decline, its ancestors had been broad, and the tactics and experience inherited from them were not comparable to those of the fledgling Japanese navy.
On the surface, the Japanese navy is much stronger than the Spanish fleet stationed in the Philippines, but if it really comes to a fight, it is unknown whether it can take them down.
In case they can not be taken down in one battle, the Spanish and they circle to delay time, waiting for the arrival of domestic reinforcements before deciding the battle, then it will be a big trouble.
Navy Minister Saigo Congdao analyzed, “Okuma-kun, the interference of the Great Powers that you are worried about is not a problem at all. Spain and the British have a long-standing grudge, and the British have been suppressing Spain’s development all these years, so it is simply impossible to support them.
Originally, the Spanish government followed the French, and Alfonso XII was supported by the French, but in recent times there has been a change of power in Spain, and the pro-Austrian faction has taken power and parted ways with the French.
If only so, it is no big deal, can not be a change of allies. Unfortunately, the Spaniards pro-Austria at the same time, did not really fall to Austria, but did a wallflower.
In theory, this continental war is Spain’s best chance, as long as they send troops from the rear to stab the French in the butt hole, the anti-French alliance can immediately win the war.
With Britain and Russia on the side of the two great powers, Austria wants to successfully dominate the hegemony of the continent, but also need a strong ally, it is simply impossible to leave Spain behind, they can logically share the fruits of victory with Austria.
Such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the Spaniards have given up, but also want Austria to do everything possible to help them simply impossible.
Do it now, we may even be able to obtain the support of the French, under the pretext of first clearing the stumbling block on the road south, and then attack the Austrian South Seas with them.
The French government has no choice now, they are alone on the continent and their only British ally is still fighting the Russians. They wouldn’t have come to us if they hadn’t been forced to.”
Finding allies wasn’t a messy business, these days happened to be the years when the chain of contempt was strongest, and under normal circumstances, European countries wouldn’t join forces with small Asian countries because it would be a huge loss of face.
The French government has been looked down upon more than once from the beginning of pulling in the Japanese. It became one of the reasons why the Japanese government, at a high level, did not see the French as being able to win the war.
This is the cultural difference between the East and the West, for European countries, although face is important but not more important than the substantial benefits; to the East the situation has changed, face is often more than benefits.
Judging by their own inherent concepts, the Japanese government took it for granted that the French would not be able to hold out any longer, so they looked for allies all over the world in a hurry.
If Austria hadn’t ignored them directly and didn’t even give them a chance to negotiate terms, there might have been people in the Japanese government who would have advocated joining the anti-French alliance and taking advantage of the opportunity to seize the French Central and Southern Peninsula.
Ito Hirobumi sternly scolded, “Saigo-kun, this is definitely a bad idea. Once we reveal our intention to move closer to the French, we will definitely be met with hostility from Austria.
Even if Austria is held back by the French and is incapable of directly interfering with our actions, it doesn’t mean that they won’t be able to trip us up.
Don’t forget that there are still the Dutch in the South Seas region, if Austria steps in to take the lead and encourages the Netherlands to intervene, we won’t have the ability to take on the West and the Netherlands at the same time.”
(End of chapter)