Wearing a Japanese spring and autumn military uniform in London in July didn't feel hot. This was a country with an average temperature of 18 degrees in midsummer. Walking to the library with an umbrella, Ishiwara even felt very cool.

Military boots stepped on the wet gravel road, making a crisp and muddy sound. Together with the rain clouds in the sky and the fog around that seemed impossible to disperse, it constituted the unique feeling of this famous 'Foggy City.'

It rained today, but the hotel owner where he stayed actually said today was a sunny day because the sun came out briefly in the morning. After experiencing these, Ishiwara realized that the descriptions of London by classmates who had been to Britain were actually true. Japan's standard for a sunny day was indeed very different from London's.

The air was mixed with the smell emitted by factories, railways, and gas lamps. This was the smell that had permeated London for hundreds of years. Ishiwara didn't like this smell at all. It wasn't until he walked into the red brick library that he felt much better.

Handing over the temporary library card, the librarian adjusted his round glasses after reading it. The lenses reflected the light, giving the librarian some brilliance in this dim environment. Immediately, the librarian led Ishiwara into the reading room. In the reading room, there were rows of newspaper racks with newspapers from various countries. After thanking the librarian, Ishiwara wanted to sit down. He heard the librarian ask, "Sir, would you like a cup of coffee?"

Ishiwara asked naturally, "How much?"

The librarian was slightly stunned, then said in a friendly accent, "Sir, with your library card level, coffee is free."

Sighing that British club-style management was really considerate, Ishiwara ordered a cup of coffee and began today's reading. It had been four days since he arrived in Britain. Ishiwara participated in three sand table deductions. At the request of the British side, the Japanese side played the role of the Chinese army.

Nagata served as the commander, Ishiwara as the chief of staff, and Okamura and others as staff officers. In the three sand table deductions, the Chinese army played by the Japanese side defeated the British badly.

Ishiwara was too lazy to review the game with the British side. During the sand table deduction process, he completely saw that the British army did not understand what kind of opponent they were facing at all. During the exercise, although the British military's troop organization, troop combination, and tactical style seemed to understand that they were fighting in tropical forests, they completely failed to grasp the essentials of large corps operations in tropical forests.

So after the exercise ended, Ishiwara ran to the library to read newspapers from various European countries, wanting to understand the trend of European public opinion. As for Britain, Ishiwara didn't even have the idea of saving it.

Soon, an article in *The Times* attracted Ishiwara's attention.

'...After He Rui became the local leader of Manchuria and Mongolia, he first obtained the recognition of the Allied Powers by getting as close as possible to the Allied Powers and providing military equipment to them. Then he stabilized Soviet Russia and reached a treaty with Soviet Russia not to change the border line. After completing these preparations, he struck Japan, the only country capable of interfering in China's unification with force. After Manchuria and Mongolia signed an armistice treaty with Japan, no country could interfere in the process of He Rui unifying China with military force. The steps of his strategic arrangement force us to recall the trajectory of Bismarck's unification war.

Bismarck first fought against Denmark, stabilizing Denmark and Britain by handing over two places to Denmark. After defeating Austria, he adopted the method of no ceding territory and no indemnity, excluding Austria from Little Germany. Then in the decisive Franco-Prussian War, he completely defeated France, thereby unifying Little Germany.

The processes of the two are so consistent. If Prince Bismarck saw the strategy of this young "Elector" of the East, he might show a meaningful smile.

After China restored its sovereignty, it immediately began careful expansion probing, trying to rebuild its lost sphere of influence. This is not unique to China; any country that has experienced the same experience as China has the same experience. China's leader He Rui has made such a decision and begun to execute it cautiously and effectively.

If He Rui's actions can be effectively stopped, then for a period of time in the future, the frustrated young imperial consul will temporarily restrain himself and wait for the next opportunity. If the prevention fails, not only Burma, but Annam and Korea will be challenged one by one until He Rui, the young imperial consul, wins or fails...'

Reading this, Ishiwara put down the newspaper and sighed. There were sensible people in Britain. But even though the newspapers had explained it so clearly, the British official view completely failed to grasp the point. For example, the current British military still felt that they could defeat He Rui by 'mobilizing enough troops.' The British officials believed that the total number of He Rui's troops in Burma was between 50,000 and 100,000.

For the number of 50,000-100,000 people, Ishiwara really couldn't figure out how the British came up with it. Ishiwara believed that the number of He Rui's troops was between 150,000 and 200,000.

As for the combat effectiveness of both sides, after two previous failures, Britain had modified its combat effectiveness assessment. It was believed that the combat effectiveness of the British pure white army was about twice that of the Chinese army, and the combat effectiveness of troops like the British Indian Army was half that of the Chinese army. Britain believed that 100,000-200,000 pure white troops, including ANZAC and Canada, combined with 300,000-400,000 British Indian troops, could defeat the Chinese army.

Ishiwara couldn't hold back at the time and frankly expressed his view, 'It's useless no matter how many British Indian troops go; they can't even serve as cannon fodder to fill the front line. The combat effectiveness of the British army in Burma is probably less than half that of the Chinese army. If the British army wants to truly stop the advance of the Chinese army, it is best to send 500,000 white troops to guard those well-prepared defense lines. If the British army wants to defeat the Chinese army through offensive means, it is best to mobilize more than 1.5 million pure white troops and be prepared to face the tragic war in the European War.'

Except for Nagata, other members of the Japanese military delegation were scared by these words. Instead, the British accepted Ishiwara's sincere speech with considerable self-restraint. At least from their expressions, it couldn't be seen that the British officers had a fierce reaction. Ishiwara admired such calmness. At that time, Ishiwara felt that these British officers were worthy of being talents cultivated by the military academies of the British Empire, the world hegemon. However, after living for a few days in London's sky that seemed never sunny and air mixed with industrial waste gas, Ishiwara felt that living in such a place for a long time, people would either go crazy or become calm and self-reliant. In He Rui's *Elementary Understanding of Geopolitics*, it was said that human actions are deeply affected by their living environment.

Complaining a little about London's weather and air in his heart, Ishiwara continued to read the newspaper. The level of British newspapers was good, but there were few valuable parts. The French newspapers were full of French enthusiasm. *Le Figaro* was full of articles encouraging and supporting Britain to fight China to the end, especially the headline six days ago, "For the Honor of Europe, Britain Must Fight Gloriously to the Last Man".

Ishiwara felt that compared with the French articles, the writing style and passion of similar Japanese articles were much lower. Japanese propaganda articles of this kind, without exception, were about how to die and how not to fear death. In contrast, French newspapers started with 'Glory of the Church of England,' 'God and Queen are one,' born great, entering heaven after sacrifice. There was not a word about death in the whole article; it was all praise for how glorious and great it was. However, under these words full of magnificence and dignity, the gloating hope that the British would die out was not concealed at all. It seemed that the Anglo-French feud had not changed at all.

While Ishiwara was browsing European newspapers, some newspaper news appeared on the streets of Japan, mentioning the "Japan Land Restoration Outline" proposed by the two MPs who died quietly before their death.

The article's technique was very clever. It didn't mention the bizarre deaths of these two people at all, but simply recalled the names of the two MPs, went straight to the topic, and gave a simple and powerful introduction to the content of the "Japan Land Restoration Outline." Especially explaining the internal logic in the land plan.

This logic is not complicated. More than half of Japan's population is farmers. Farmers have no income without land, no consumption without income. Without consumption, goods produced by Japanese industry can only be sold to foreign countries. Selling industrial products to foreign countries means price-cutting competition, grabbing foreign markets with low prices. As a result, farmers have no money, and industrial profits are also very low.

If the "Land Restoration Outline" is adopted, farmers get land and their income increases. With money, there is consumption; with a consumer market, industrial products have sales outlets. Once the land outline is implemented, in addition to making the broad masses rich, it will directly create an internal market to increase the Japanese economy's resistance to shocks.

...

In the office of the Dean of the Law School of Tokyo Imperial University, Professor Taira Toyomori, Dean of the Law School and Vice President of Todai, put down the newspaper in his hand and couldn't help sighing slightly. In the eyes of a top Japanese scholar like him, this article explained profound things in simple terms, was clear and thorough, and easy to understand.

As an educator, Professor Taira Toyomori also knew very well that such an article was still a bit deep for ordinary people who had not received economics education.

In the view of Your Excellency Taira Toyomori, Special Advisor to the Ministry of Finance, Senior Advisor to the Imperial Government, and Advisor to the Japanese Imperial Family, if no one liberates the minds of the Japanese people and gives political explanations to all strata of Japan, the Japanese people will not believe that such a good thing will happen in Japan.

State forms have existed on the Japanese archipelago for about 2,000 years, and the Emperor system has appeared for more than 1,000 years. In this long time, only Chinese civilization gave Japan the light of civilization.

When the Meiji Restoration occurred and Japan accepted industry from the West, Professor Taira Toyomori thought China could no longer give Japan anything. Until Professor Taira Toyomori met He Rui, he realized how powerful the heritage and vitality of Chinese civilization were.

Now, He Rui dispelled the dark night hanging over China and brought opportunities to Japan. Perhaps this time, Japan has the opportunity to get rid of the darkness of the old era and let Japan move towards a brighter future. This is the lifelong wish of Taira Toyomori of Todai.

After sorting out his mood again, Professor Taira Toyomori picked up the curriculum schedule, increased his course from the original 10 public lectures on Geopolitics per semester to 20, and added two courses for himself: Principles of Economics and Political Economy.

With Professor Taira Toyomori's current status, he didn't need to teach so many classes at all. And just last year, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Oxford University, and Cambridge University all invited Professor Taira Toyomori to Britain for academic exchanges. As long as Professor Taira Toyomori went on this trip, he would become a scholar at the pinnacle of law, economics, and geopolitics in the Japanese academic circle after returning to Japan. Becoming the President of Tokyo Imperial University would not be difficult.

But Professor Taira Toyomori decided not to go to Britain for the time being. If the Japanese people needed guidance for their thoughts to move towards the future, Professor Taira Toyomori was willing to give everything for Japan.

Calling his secretary, Professor Taira Toyomori handed him the curriculum schedule and asked the secretary to send the curriculum schedule to the Academic Affairs Office.

Seeing that the respected Mr. Taira Toyomori actually wanted to teach so many classes, the secretary was both happy and worried, and hurriedly reminded, "Sir, can you manage your time?"

Professor Taira Toyomori stood up. "Go ahead; don't worry about me."

The secretary wanted very much to listen to more of Professor Taira Toyomori's courses, so he didn't ask more and left the office quickly.

Professor Taira Toyomori pushed his black-rimmed glasses. If it were before, Professor Taira Toyomori would have chosen to go to Britain to gain more knowledge and higher status through exchange. This time he decided to stay in Japan. Because his academic partner He Rui had already walked ahead of Professor Taira Toyomori. This young man used himself as a torch to illuminate China's path. Emulating the virtuous, Professor Taira Toyomori felt he must do something for Japan.