World War: Battleship Arms Dealers

At the same time, the Army Ministry.

The atmosphere was completely different from that of the Ministry of the Navy. It wasn't excitement, it was anger; it wasn't hope, it was humiliation.

The office door of Army Minister Okaichinosuke was tightly closed, but the staff officers in the corridor outside could hear the roars and the sounds of things being smashed coming from inside. No one dared to approach; even the secretary who brought tea stood trembling ten meters away, holding a tray, unsure whether to go in or out.

In his office, Okaichinosuke paced back and forth like an enraged lion. Fifty-five years old, he was a burly man with a thick mustache and a scar running from his brow bone to his chin—a remnant of the Russo-Japanese War. At this moment, the scar was flushed red with anger. (Ministers in this small cabinet often changed; Okaichinosuke was brought in because he had also become Minister of the Army in 1917. Some cabinets might only serve a few months before being replaced!)

"Shameless! Despicable! Vulgar!" With each curse, he grabbed something and smashed it on the ground. First a teacup, then a pen holder, then a file rack. The sounds of shattering porcelain, breaking wood, and scattering papers mingled together.

The office floor was a complete mess.

The three army lieutenant generals standing to the side—Taro Utsunomiya, Chief of Operations of the General Staff; Hisanao Oshima, Director of Education; and Shunjiro Takeuchi, Director of the Ordnance Bureau—all had their heads bowed and their faces ashen.

"Using the army's blood to paint the navy's paint!" Okaichi finally stopped, his hands gripping the desk, his chest heaving. "Fifty divisions, a million men! These young men's lives are only worth four wrecked ships?!"

"Minister, please calm down," Utsunomiya Taro said cautiously. "The specific details of the contract are still unclear, perhaps..."

"Still not clear?!" Okaichi no Suke whirled around, his eyes wide like saucers. "When that bastard Yamamoto announced it at the Navy Ministry, my men were outside listening! Not a single word was missed! One hundred million dollars, four warships, technology transfer—the condition being fifty divisions! And command would be handed over to Lan Fang!"

He grew angrier and angrier as he spoke, and slammed his fist on the table.

"What is this? This is treason! They're treating the Imperial Army like commodities, selling them to Lanfang as cannon fodder! And all the money went to the Navy!!" (I'm so angry, so angry, so angry! I'm going to chop that Yamamoto guy to pieces with my sword!)

Hisanao Oshima raised his head, his voice heavy: "Minister, the problem now is that the contract has already been signed. Prime Minister Saionji and Minister Yamamoto both have full authorization, and their signatures and seals are legally binding. Our opposition may not change the outcome."

"Even if we can't change it, we'll still oppose it!" Okaichi roared. "I'll expose this conspiracy at the cabinet meeting, in front of everyone! I'll let His Majesty the Emperor know that the Navy sold out the entire Imperial Army for a few ships!"

Takeuchi Shunjiro smiled wryly: "But Minister, the Navy will definitely say that this is for the long-term interests of the Empire. With a strong navy, the Empire can secure a better position after the war. This argument is very convincing."

"Bullshit!" Okaichinosuke spat, "What's the use of a strong navy without an army? Can warships land? Can cannons conquer land? The empire's survival and expansion depend on the army! It depends on the bayonets and courage of its soldiers!"

He walked to the map on the wall and pointed to XX and the Caoxian Peninsula:

"Look at these places! The minerals of XX, the grain of Cao County—this is what the Empire needs! Not some Pacific hegemony! Those naval men, all they dream of is competing with America and Britain for supremacy, they don't even know their own limitations!"

Taro Utsunomiya and the others remained silent. They understood Okaichinosuke's anger, but they also knew that things were not that simple.

The empire certainly needed resources and living space. But without naval protection of supply lines, the army's gains could not be held. The Russo-Japanese War is a case in point—without the Combined Fleet's complete annihilation of the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Tsushima Strait, even if the army had won at Mukden, the war might not have ended.

But this logic doesn't hold true in the current atmosphere.

"At the cabinet meeting this afternoon," Okaichinosuke said, his tone calming slightly, though his eyes remained fierce, "I have three questions. First, does transferring command of fifty divisions to Lanfang infringe upon the Empire's sovereignty? Second, is offsetting the cost of the warships with division labor fees tantamount to using the lives of army soldiers to pay for the navy's expenses? Third, who benefits most from this deal—the Empire or the Navy?"

He paused, his voice growing even colder:

"I also want to ask Saionji: When you signed this contract, did you think about the young people who were about to be sent to the battlefield? Did you think about their parents, wives, and children? Did you think about how many of these one million people would come back alive?"

The air in the office seemed to freeze. The problem was too heavy, so heavy that it was hard to breathe.

Yes, a million people. Even if the casualty rate is only 10%, that's still 100,000 people. What if it's 20% or 30%?

That would be the greatest disaster for the empire since the Meiji Restoration.

"Minister," Taro Utsunomiya finally spoke, "I support your raising questions at the meeting. However... the manner may need to be considered. Prime Minister Saionji is, after all, a veteran, and Minister Yamamoto enjoys strong support from the Navy. If the conflict becomes too intense, it could lead to a split in the government."

"So be it, let's split up!" Okaichi no Suke refused to back down. "It's better than watching the Imperial Army get sold out!"

He walked to the window and looked out at the soldiers' training ground in the army compound. A group of new recruits were practicing bayonet fighting, repeatedly thrusting their bayonets at a scarecrow with rifles. Their movements were still clumsy, but they were very serious.

They were all young people, around eighteen or nineteen years old, with youthful faces. They might have come from the countryside or fishing villages, and might have come here with the simple idea of ​​"serving the country."

Some of them may be sent to the European battlefield in the future, dying in the trenches of France, on the plains of Belgium, or in unfamiliar lands.

"I will speak for them," Okaichi said softly, as if talking to himself. "Even if everyone opposes me, I will still speak for them."

The three lieutenant generals exchanged complicated glances. They all understood that the Army didn't object to selling people off, but only if the money went into their own pockets, not the Navy's!

They knew that the afternoon cabinet meeting would be a storm.

2 PM, Cabinet meeting room.

At the rectangular mahogany conference table, the twelve cabinet members were already seated. Prime Minister Kinmochi Saionji sat in the main seat, with civil officials such as Foreign Minister Takaaki Kato and Finance Minister Reijiro Wakatsuki to his left, and military ministers such as Army Minister Ichinosuke Oka and Navy Minister Gonnohyōe Yamamoto to his right.

The atmosphere was unusually heavy. No one spoke, and no one even looked at each other. The civil servants were engrossed in reading the documents before them—documents they had read countless times; the soldiers sat upright, their eyes fixed ahead, as if awaiting the order to go to war.

Saionji glanced at the hanging clock on the wall and cleared her throat:

"Gentlemen, let's begin. First, I would like Minister Yamamoto to report on the results of the trip to Borneo."