Holy Roman Empire

In the evening, the bustling streets of the embassy fell silent and the marchers, who had realized what was going on, dispersed.

The scene was cordoned off by the gendarmes who had arrived to inquire. The embassy area was now "one guard at five paces, one sentry at ten paces".

The smell of smoke still permeated the air, and the broken-down Russian buildings silently complained about what had happened during the day.

All the entertainment places were closed, even the people who like to watch the fun were closed at the moment, for fear of getting into trouble.

On the other hand, the embassies of the countries that were closed before became active. When faced with the rebellious people, everyone was very wishy-washy, but when it was the Japanese government, everyone's courage grew again.

The reputation of the Kempeitai frightened the Japanese people, but not the diplomats. Under the influence of traditional culture, the idea of a fox in a hare's grave was particularly strong in the European world.

Everyone is a resident diplomat, and if you don't stand up and speak out at this time. What happens to Russian diplomats today may be replicated tomorrow.

The embassies, including Japan's ally Britain, were unanimous in their resistance to the bad behavior that occurred during the day.

The gendarmes in charge of cordoning off the scene suffered when they encountered a group of diplomatic lords who could not be spoken to, scolded, or touched.

Some of the temperamental masters came up with punches and kicks against the gendarmes who blocked the road. At the moment there are already a lot of people, beaten and bruised.

I have to admire the toughness of the Japanese. Even after being beaten, they still welcomed the beatings with a smile. Anyway, there were so many of them, and there were only a few of them in the diplomatic corps, so after a wave of beatings, another wave would go up and continue.

The ambassadors lost their tempers and succeeded in buying time to clean up the scene by the style of "never say back, never hit back.

......

In the imperial palace, the Emperor Meiji was so angry that he stomped his feet, and the calmness and dignity of his former monarchy had been thrown away somewhere.

There was no way out, what happened today was too exciting, directly tossed out the biggest diplomatic crisis in Japan's history.

It would have been troublesome enough to storm the Russian embassy, but the Russian embassy staff were all cut down. The Emperor Meiji felt desperate for these troublemakers.

No matter how many objective reasons there were, the Japanese government was to blame for what happened.

Especially since the tragedy happened right under the noses of diplomats from various countries. If it was not handled properly, Japan might even meet its doom.

Unable to suppress his anger, the Meiji emperor nearly roared, "Which idiot planned today's incident, and did he find out who was responsible?"

I can't help but get angry, and I've never seen such a trap. Protests and demonstrations were just that, and the Meiji emperor was happy to put pressure on the Russians.

The massacre of the Russian embassy would have been completely unexpected. But anyone with a little political savvy should know exactly what this meant.

The daylight tragedy was not only a provocation to the Russians, but also a challenge to the European-dominated international order.

That is to say, the specific casualties were not revealed, otherwise the news received now would not be a collective protest by the ministers, but a move of the embassies.

After a little brainstorming, the Meiji Emperor knew that the Japanese government would be in a lot of trouble next. Vengeance with the Russians was no longer an issue; what mattered most was sanctions from the international community.

Until these issues were dealt with, Japan would have no allies. Even the British government could not risk universal condemnation to support them.

"The demonstration was organized by several student groups, including the Anti-Russian Communist League and the Iron Blooded Revenge Society, with the main purpose of protesting against the Russians' violation of imperial rights.

The storming of the Russian embassy was not part of the organizers' plan. The situation got out of hand, mainly because a bullet came from nowhere and hit one of the protesting students at the scene.

This was followed by the killing of a man by a Russian, which triggered the anger of the people at the scene and the ensuing tragedy.

Judging by the situation on the ground, we had hundreds of people killed and nearly a thousand wounded in the daytime clashes ......"

Without waiting for Taro Kodama to finish his sentence, Emperor Meiji impatiently reprimanded, "I'm just asking you who planned it, not to hear you defend them.

Regardless of the reason, someone has to stand up and take responsibility for such a big thing that happened and give an account to the international community.

Do you think that the world will give up on storming the Russian embassy because of civilian casualties?

Don't forget that dozens of staff members, including the Russian Minister, all died.

In the eyes of the world, those who participated in the demonstrations were no longer ordinary civilians, but a mob of uninformed people."

If the explanation worked, there would be no war in the world. Regardless of how the conflict was triggered, the staff of the Russian Embassy was always killed by the Japanese participants in the demonstrations.

That's enough. It is necessary to pay for the killing, otherwise the diplomatic staff of the countries in Japan will not be able to sleep in the future.

"Hey!"

It's not that he has to defend the students, but there are just too many people involved. If we go all the way back, we don't know how many of them will be unlucky.

The reason why the demonstration took place during the day was because of a conspiracy, and the fact that most of the participants were patriotic students. If not for someone leading the way, this tragedy would not have happened under normal circumstances.

But now that it has happened, someone has to be responsible. The group that planned the march must have borne the brunt of it.

After a pause, Taro Kodama added: "We've sent people to investigate who was behind it, but the scene was too chaotic to determine where the bullets came from.

The gendarmerie has sealed off the scene, and our experts have intervened and are setting up the scene.

According to the plan, we will disguise the scene as an accidental fire that killed the Russian Embassy staff and the marching public rushed in to ......."

I don't wait for Taro Kodama Genji to finish his sentence, Ito Hirobumi couldn't help himself. He was completely hopeless about the military's brain circuit.

"Kodama-kun, are you sure you're not joking?"

Not a joke, but a joke in itself. Unless the Russian embassy staff were all dead, they would have run out in case of a fire.

Even if there was no guarantee that everyone would come out, at least the guards guarding the gate should not have been killed. This is not even a perfunctory explanation.

It is even more absurd to say that the embassy was attacked to "put out the fire". There were plenty of witnesses, and the Japanese government could not afford to have the staff of several nearby embassies lying to each other.

It's not impossible to treat the rest of the world like idiots and play helpless, but if Japan were as strong as the Americans of later generations, it could do so.

Unfortunately, these days, Japan is a little brother, the most can be barely touched the threshold of the powers, the door is still not crossed.

Strength is not good, and the countries to play as a fool, it is obviously not experienced the social beatings, want to come out to find excitement.

There is no way, the East and the West are not thinking alike. The earliest exposure to the West's civilian officials can only barely keep up, the military general's thinking is still stuck in the traditional mode of thinking.

In the military's view, what happened at the Russian embassy was only an issue between Japan and Russia, and had nothing to do with other countries.

It's not a problem with other countries, so let's just play it off. Anyway, the relationship between Russia and Japan is like this, and no matter how bad it is, it can't be any worse.

However, the reality is very cruel. The European governments like to participate in international affairs without any risk and purely to gain prestige.

It's Japan's fault anyway, and it's right to take a swipe at the Japanese government.

If a big country is willing to take the lead in sanctioning, we don't mind to join in the fun and give full play to our "international influence".

The Japanese Army has no spirit of resignation.

......

Foreign Minister Inouye: "As of now, the Foreign Ministry has received diplomatic notes from eleven countries, including Britain and Shinra, asking us to explain what happened at the Russian embassy during the day and to open the site for them to send people to check it out.

We have already contacted the British Minister, and the result was very unsatisfactory, and the British also asked for a reasonable explanation.

If the British had known that all the Russian Embassy staff had been killed, they would not have supported us.

If the British find out that the Russian Embassy staff was killed, they will not support us. If we do not give the international community a reasonable explanation, it is likely that the Reich will be sanctioned.

The situation is very unfavorable to us, and if the Russians take the opportunity to make things difficult for us, the international community is likely to support them."

Only problems, no countermeasures, is the true picture of the Japanese government now. It is not that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not trying hard, but the situation is too big and the loss is so great that there is no room for operation.

International politics also has rules of the game, and if you break the rules against a background of weak power, you will be punished by the rules.

Prime Minister Okuma Shigenobu: "Things have already happened, it is not impossible to hide, and the Empire will certainly pay the price.

What we can do now is to find a way to minimize the impact of the incident and the damage to the empire as well.

It would be best to find out who is behind this incident, but if we can point to other countries, our responsibility will be much lighter.

Based on the analysis of the situation on the ground, do the gendarmes have any clues? Even if you can't identify the real culprit, the suspect will do."

Even though he knew that the chances of finding the culprit were very low, Okuma Shigenobu had no choice but to treat the dead horse as if it were alive. The Japanese government would have to find someone to share the burden.

Kodama Gentaro shook his head directly, "It's hard! There are so many suspects that we don't have the evidence to identify them.

Even if we catch the killer, I'm afraid it will be difficult to determine who the real culprit is, and the mastermind could have disguised it as a personal vendetta.

If it can't be proven that it was a political assassination, then all the responsibility still falls on us."

From a purely profit point of view, the mastermind who wanted to start the Russo-Japanese war could be a suspect in the planning of this event.

At this point, there is no way to investigate downward. The most suspicious ones are the Japanese military, Britain, and Shinra, followed by Spain, the United States of America, and the Far Eastern Empire.

Whoever the culprit is, it certainly cannot be the first three. No matter how strong the suspicion and evidence, it must not be.

The second echelon can indeed dump the blame, but it has to show evidence first. Who would believe the empty words?

Maybe the pot is not thrown out and you make an enemy for yourself, that's the end of the story.

Riku Yamagata: "Prime Minister, do you think the Russians will believe us if we give them a person behind the scenes?

Things had come to such a pass that there was no possibility of rapprochement between us and the Russians.

Even if the Tsarist government can hold back from attacking us, once the Trans-Siberian Railway is opened, the Russians will still have to move eastward, and a war will still be inevitable.

Rather than waiting for the Russians to passively respond to the war, it was better to begin preparations now and do it before the Trans-Siberian Railway opened.

As for the international repercussions, having come this far, it is just a matter of making an apology, compensating the families of the deceased for their pensions, and making assurances to all countries that similar situations are forbidden.

If we can agree, we can talk, if not, we can accept sanctions. As long as the empire lowers its attitude, the European countries will not send troops because of it.

You can rest assured that these sanctions will not last. As soon as war breaks out between us and the Russians, the British will find a way to help us lift the blockade, and I believe Shinra will not stop us.

Even if the blockade is in place, we can still smuggle goods. Unless countries send fleets to our doorstep to smuggle goods, the blockade will exist in name only, and the capitalists will have ways to get around it.

It's commodities like food that will be really affected, and as long as we work together, this period of hardship will soon be over."

Politics is complex and fluid, and different conclusions can be drawn when issues are analyzed from different angles.

Diplomatic censure, seen by civilians as a scourge, becomes an opportunity in the eyes of the warring factions.

At this moment, the Japanese government was like being forced to go up against a mountain and couldn't get down.

With the last layer of window paper pierced, all the illusions of the Lord and the faction were shattered. Everyone realized that a Russo-Japanese war was inevitable, and the difference was only a matter of when it would break out.

The atmosphere in the room became even more depressing, as the fate of the country was at stake, and no one dared to make a decision lightly.

A long while later, Ito Hirobumi was the first to break the silence: "It is true that the Russo-Japanese war is inevitable, but now is not the time.

The Russians need to wait for the railroad to open, and the Empire needs time to prepare. The empire, in its current state, is incapable of fighting a war.

What's more, there is an ambitious person behind it who is stirring up trouble, which is even more overwhelming.

If we don't get this guy out, who knows what else will happen, the empire can't afford to be tossed around by them."

In the middle of his speech, Ito Hirobumi also turned his attention to the representatives of the military, as if to warn them not to play with fire.

Not only Hirobumi was suspicious, but also the Meiji emperor's eyes changed when he looked at the military leaders, as if he was searching for something.

No one likes to be doubted, but the military generals were now having a hard time explaining their doubts. Not to mention that the civilians were suspicious, even they themselves were suspicious of each other.

This style of work is too much like the Army's operation. In particular, the radical group that planned the march is inextricably linked to the military.

Even if they didn't plan the shooting incident that triggered the explosion, they had nothing to do with the violent assault on the Russian embassy in Tokyo that resulted in the annihilation of the Russian diplomatic staff.

We were all smart enough to know that if no one led the shooting, the situation would not have gotten out of control immediately even if it had happened.

But the direction of the bullets had to be determined first, didn't it?

It is too much of a coincidence that the police were all diverted from the Russian embassy at the time of the incident.

Too many coincidences add up, and it's no longer a coincidence. Especially in the context of the fact that the murderer was not caught, one thinks of it even more.

Perhaps other international forces, too, are capable of planning the shootings, but to say that they control the people marching would be nonsense.

It's not easy to buy off the fanatical national radicals who are extreme patriots.

No one would believe that the ambush was not prepared beforehand, if it was at the right time and place.

The ability to receive information in advance and quickly withdraw after shooting, leaving no traces behind, is not something that ordinary people can do.

We are not sure if the international forces can do it, but the Japanese military can definitely do it anyway. In their hearts, the people's scruples towards the military have been raised by more than one level.

Emperor Meiji: "Ito-kun is right, the mastermind behind the scenes must be uncovered, or else the empire will never have peace.

The military police immediately apprehended the organizers of the demonstration, investigated those behind it, and ordered the school to tighten control and ban these illegal organizations.

In addition, the police presence in the embassy area was reinforced and any processions near the embassy area were forbidden."

Although it was not stated explicitly, one could tell from the eyes of the Meiji emperor that he was suspicious of the military.

It is impossible to explain, but the Japanese military is also full of mountains, and there are a whole lot of different kinds of messy groups that the military itself may not be able to figure out.

Occasionally there are a few brain-dead guys, and that's completely normal. Think back to when Nikolai visited Japan and was assassinated by guards arranged by the Japanese government.

The problem of extremism prevalent in the military, in fact, the military hierarchy is also a very big headache. They've been trying to find a way to solve it, but it's a shame that in the end they've had so little success.

To vouch for these guys is definitely a sign that they are tired of living. No one knows what kind of strange things these extremists are capable of doing.

In fact, at first there was a proposal from the military to send a few dead soldiers to the embassy area to make amends to the international community by committing hara-kiri. Even the army had people who were ready to give their lives for the cause of the Empire.

Fortunately, Yamagata was exposed to Western culture and stopped it in time. Otherwise, it would not have been a sacrifice, but rather fuel for the fire.