On the same day, the Japanese government received a telegram from the British and American governments, severely accusing them of kidnapping innocent citizens in China, which had caused serious consequences and seriously violated the Nine-Nation Convention, and demanded that the Japanese government resolve the dispute immediately and unconditionally, otherwise it would be
It affects the diplomatic relations and economic and trade exchanges between the United States, Japan, Britain and Japan.
In diplomatic relations, words such as "immediately" and "unconditionally" are the most severe, which means that Britain and the United States are likely to impose severe sanctions on Japan over this matter.
The Japanese government is still trapped in an economic crisis and cannot extricate itself. In terms of economic and trade exchanges, it is even more restricted by the British and American governments, especially the United States, which directly blocks Japan's neck.
Japan imports more than 90% of strategic resources such as oil, scrap steel and rubber from the United States. Once the United States stops selling these strategic resources to Japan, Japan's steel industry will be severely affected, and oil will be
It will dry up in just a few months.
Oil has been the blood of modern industry in the twentieth century. Without oil, a country will return to the medieval farming era.
For Japan, the booming modern industrial industry will shrink rapidly, and the naval ships built with all the treasury spent will become steel toys floating on the sea.
If this happens, Japan's efforts since the Meiji Restoration may be in vain.
Since the last prime minister was assassinated by a naval officer, the Japanese government and military have been in a state of incompatibility. This is the crux.
The Japanese government has also been communicating with the military, asking them to order the commander of the troops stationed in Shanghai to immediately release the kidnapped Chinese citizens in exchange for the restoration of order in Shanghai, but the military has sternly refused.
The military's point of view is that no one is allowed to interfere with the decisions made by the generals of the troops stationed abroad. As long as it does not trigger a serious political crisis or produce war consequences, the military will not dictate to the generals of the troops stationed abroad.
This is the practice of the Japanese army. The so-called generals are outside and military orders are not obeyed. However, this has also caused some generals of the troops stationed abroad to become domineering.
The Kwantung Army generals ignored domestic prohibitions and launched the September 18th Incident to seize the Northeast. The military finally had to acquiesce to this deviant behavior, which also gave a bad start to the generals stationed in various troops.
Of course, the kidnapping of Ning Xiner cannot be compared with the September 18th Incident. Originally, the Japanese garrison did not participate in the kidnapping, because Ozawa Seigoro felt that it was not safe to lock Ning Xiner in Manchuria, so he discussed it with the captain of the military police who had some friendship with him.
, imprisoned Ning Xiner in the gendarmerie.
The gendarmerie captain believed that detaining a Chinese citizen in a gendarmerie cell was nothing more than a trivial matter, so he agreed without even thinking about it.
But he never expected that kidnapping Ning Xiner would stir up a huge hornet's nest, causing a minor incident and directly triggering chaos in Shanghai's social order.
In the end, the top management of the Manchuria Railway and the Japanese military attache were pressured and agreed to release Ning Xiner at the same time. However, Ozawa received the support of the military police captain and refused to release her.
If the hostages were released before the chaos in Shanghai, the Japanese garrison might not necessarily object. However, the Shanghai press revealed the truth about the kidnapping incident. In front of the two newspapers that published the complete confessions, they fell into a completely passive situation.
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The Japanese military wanted to save face, so they simply refused to admit their guilt. They had to accuse Ning Xiner of being a major suspect in an arms robbery out of thin air, so that at least they could stand up legally.
This kind of behavior becomes more and more rogue, shameless, and outrageous, but they don't care about this. As long as they can maintain their superficial dignity, they can do anything.
The Japanese military knew that the Chinese government had nothing to do with them, so they dared to act so recklessly.
In fact, they have already half succeeded. The Nanjing government cannot handle the social chaos in Shanghai and has shown a compromising attitude to the Japanese through other channels.
Unfortunately, the Japanese side did not expect that one of the rebels would quit. Not only did Lu Ming refuse to compromise, he even published a long report in the "Washington Post" to expose the truth about the kidnapping incident. He also used various connections to persuade the British and American governments to come out.
Put pressure on the Japanese government.
After receiving the formal letter of protest from the British and American governments, the Japanese government immediately became confused as if it was hit by a bolt from the blue.
Unable to withstand the pressure from Britain and the United States, and unable to change the military's ambitions, the Japanese government came up with a dangerous idea and made an urgent meeting with the emperor's chief internal affairs officer, Marquis Kido.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs explained the matter to Kido-sama with tears in his eyes, and explained the stakes of the matter. He also handed the telegram from the British and American governments to Kido-sama and asked him to forward it to the Emperor for his inspection.
Only then did the Emperor learn that a hostage kidnapping incident had occurred in Shanghai that alarmed Britain and the United States. This small lever moved the cornerstone of the temporary stability of Sino-Japanese relations.
Judging from the phenomenon, it directly caused a great impact on Japanese business in China, and Japanese expatriates in Shanghai lived like beggars.
Judging from the consequences, it has aroused strong resentment from the British and American powers and may trigger a new war crisis.
In a very fragile national economic situation, these two points are something the Japanese government dare not face and cannot bear.
At the ensuing imperial meeting, the Emperor calmly criticized the Minister of the Navy and the Chief of Naval Command, instructing them to resolve the hostage incident in Shanghai and not to cause trouble.
The two navy chiefs never expected that this matter would alarm the Emperor. They both felt that they had sinned deeply. If the perpetrators were not severely punished, how could they apologize to His Majesty the Emperor?
So the harshest punishment was decided, and the commander of the army who was unaware of the inside story was inexplicably demoted to civilian status.
After a series of frivolous maneuvers, the Japanese government suppressed the military based on the emperor's oral orders, and finally formally took control of the discourse and proposed a compromise plan to China.
The Japanese government's basic view on this matter is: to release him unconditionally, compensate the victims for their economic losses (because they know the hostages have mental problems), and China will no longer pursue the matter.
About ten minutes after Lu Ming arrived, he saw two people walking out carrying a stretcher.
There was a person lying on the stretcher, tied to the stretcher with a rope, motionless, as if he was asleep.
Lu Ming hurried over and saw that it was indeed Ning Xiner lying on the stretcher. His eyes immediately turned red and he yelled at several Japanese people: "You beasts, what did you do to her?"
Ning Zetao and Yuan Mingzhu also ran over, blocking the stretcher and calling Ning Xiner urgently, but the people on the stretcher didn't respond at all.
Ning Zetao was so angry that he wanted to draw his gun, but was held down by the person behind him.
Opposite were Japanese soldiers with live ammunition. If Ning Zetao drew his gun at this time, he would be shot dead immediately.
"I'm sorry, Miss Ning has some mental problems because she was overstimulated, so we had to inject her with sedatives." The Japanese military attache came over and bowed. He spoke in Chinese.
"What stimulation did she receive? What did you do to her?" Lu Ming still roared angrily.
Dai Li came over, looked at it, and sighed. Of course he had known about Ning Xiner's mental breakdown for a long time, and the scene happened in front of his eyes.
"Sir Lu, please calm down. The most important thing now is to collect the person first and then send him to the hospital for treatment." Dai Li stepped forward to rescue him.
"This matter is not over yet. You actually killed innocent Chinese citizens like this. You will receive the most severe moral sanctions and condemnation in front of the whole world." Lu Ming calmed down a little.
The representative of the Shanghai Municipal Government was completely stunned when he saw this scene and was speechless. He looked at the Japanese Consul General who was also stunned.
The Consul General had no idea what was going on. He cast doubtful eyes on the gloomy-looking troop commander and gendarmerie captain.
Yuan Mingzhu couldn't bear it any longer, and cried loudly, throwing herself on Ning Xiner's body, calling for Sister Xin'er again and again, her grief was so shocking that even the Japanese present lowered their heads.
Ning Zetao held his sister's hand and could not say a word. He only looked at the Japanese opposite him with angry eyes sometimes, and at his sleeping sister with painful eyes at other times.
His heart had been torn to pieces. He didn't know what kind of torture his sister had suffered, and she was tortured into a mental patient!
Although the Japanese did not explicitly say that Ning Xiner had gone crazy, Ning Zetao could still understand what this meant as someone would be injected with sedatives when they were freed.
For a moment, Lu Ming really wanted to call people to attack the military camp and kill all the Japanese inside, but he knew that this was impossible. If he really did that, China and Japan would soon go into full-scale war.