What does it feel like to promote Chinese-developed drugs in Europe? As a medical doctor, Morrison felt a little excited. Many patients would be saved because of this, and many families would rejoice because they did not lose their loved ones. As Minister of Commerce, Morrison knew that this was a very good promotion opportunity for China's technology and industry.

Reporters, no matter which country they are from, like big news. A French minister's son being saved from a certain death situation is undoubtedly big news. After Morrison introduced the basic principle of 'penicillin' at the press conference, reporters rushed to speak.

*Le Figaro* has been publishing news related to He Rui and directly publishing He Rui's articles for nearly ten years. The reporter from *Le Figaro* got the first opportunity to speak, "Mr. Minister, did you develop this drug?"

Morrison smiled, "I wish I had developed it. However, this is one of the many research and development ideas of the Northeast technical department, trying to find ways to fight bacteria from nature. As far as I know, the process was accidental. The research department studying the symbiosis of mold and bacteria found that when bacteria and a certain mold existed together in a petri dish, the bacteria were dissolved. This gave us a research direction, and finally, we found the substance secreted by the mold that eliminates bacteria..."

"Will this drug be marketed in France?"

Hearing this question, Morrison was in a very happy mood but answered cautiously, "It depends on the attitude of the French government. At this stage, we don't know what procedures are required for a drug to be marketed in France."

Those who really cared about these were personnel from medical journals, and their proportion in this press conference was not large. For them, there were actually not many questions to ask. Soon, other reporters asked, "Mr. Minister, will China march into Indochina?"

"The only thing I can reveal is that China believes France is different from Britain. France understands the value of peace and will do its best to maintain peace. Between two peace-loving countries, there are too many channels to communicate to resolve differences and eliminate contradictions. War is the worst tragic means. As a peace-loving country, war itself is not China's first choice. Although Britain launched an attack on China first, while fighting back against Britain, we still hope that Britain can restore rationality and solve the problem peacefully. Instead of expanding the war senselessly as it is now."

"Your Excellency, do you think Britain does not love peace?"

"There are quite a few people in Britain who love peace. But some people in the British government have a completely wrong understanding of peace. The peace they think of is surrender and submission. So the peace they expect is for other countries to surrender and submit to Britain. And when facing peace, those people will think that Britain must be surrendering and submitting. It is precisely such narrow-mindedness that leads to the continuous expansion of tragedies. This has happened too many times in history."

Hearing this, the French reporters let out a burst of empathetic laughter. At this time, a reporter asked loudly in a British accent, "Mr. Morrison, as a British person serving as an official in China, do you think this is treason?"

Such provocation did not hit Morrison at all. Before this war, the central government of the Republic gave a full explanation of the reasons for this war. The reason for triggering this war is the attitude of the powers towards China. If China cannot make the world accept the current reality, other conflicts will only continue endlessly. This is a passively launched active attack, the purpose of which is only to adjust the world back to its due reality.

But Morrison couldn't speak out the views of the central government like this, because there was also a French issue involved. When China's unification war advanced to Yunnan and Guizhou, China quickly eliminated France's power attempting to gain a sphere of influence in Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou. It's just that both China and France tacitly did not report this matter, treating it as if nothing had happened. So discussing this aspect with British reporters at this time would be harmful.

France at this time did not really admit the reality, but just didn't want to waste France's power. France was still waiting and seeing; only when China truly proved itself through this war would France accept the status quo.

So Morrison replied, "As a British person, becoming a high-ranking official in China is China's recognition of the academic and political abilities of British scholars. And the essence of this conflict is not the mutual destruction of two countries, but the continuation of the debate on international status. If we can look at the problem rationally and face the realistic situation, war cannot break out. So I appeal again to the British government in my personal capacity to admit the reality and end the war on the basis of consultation. War is a tragedy; many people have died in this war. Don't continue to expand the war and let more British youth die senselessly on the battlefield. Admitting reality and achieving peace is true patriotism."

Hearing this, a French reporter immediately asked a question, "Mr. Minister, I heard that British intelligence agencies contacted you after you took office as Minister. Is there such a thing?"

This remark made the reporters laugh. Morrison admitted frankly, "Indeed there is such a thing; we met in a public occasion. And the high-level officials of the Chinese government all know about this. At that time, I clearly stated that I was willing to contribute to Sino-British friendship. But judging from the current situation, my suggestion was completely ignored."

"Mr. Morrison, why did you become a minister of China?"

"There have been many foreigners serving as officials in China in Chinese history. From the Han Dynasty 2000 years ago to the Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty, Ming and Qing Dynasties, such things happened. China will not oppose foreigners holding positions in the Chinese government. The premise is that these people are excellent enough. In my opinion, my serving as China's Minister of Commerce is probably because my personal ability is better than other foreigners in China."

Hearing these self-boasting words, some French reporters made low unhappy sounds, while British reporters showed some proud expressions amidst their unhappiness.

The press conference went on for a long time. After the press conference ended, Morrison communicated with the French Foreign Minister regarding the contact person for the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of China visiting France, and then ended this trip to France. Preparing to go to Germany.

The British Foreign Office learned of Morrison's visit to Germany and immediately expressed dissatisfaction to the German government. But the German Weimar government didn't care. After experiencing hyperinflation, the relationship between the German government and Britain and France was already very cold. If Britain was willing to waive 10 million pounds of war reparations, the Weimar government would immediately refuse Morrison's visit. But the British government didn't pay money, only lip service. The Weimar government couldn't show weakness instead.

After arriving in Germany, Morrison immediately met with the German Ministry of Commerce and German business people, introducing China's investment environment experience, economic construction and development, etc., to these people.

Germany was crushed by war reparations at this time and needed to obtain more money. These business people knew very well that in international trade, unless they could dump goods, it was impossible to really make big money. However, the expansion of trade scale itself had a very big impact on economic activity. The problem Germany faced at this time was economic sluggishness, and most economic activities were forced to revolve around debt repayment. Sino-German trade could get rid of such shackles to a large extent, so they were quite interested.

In a blink of an eye, it was August. Morrison had left Germany and went to visit Austria. After visiting Austria, he would visit Italy next. At this time, Morrison also heard that the Japanese diplomatic delegation visiting Britain had ended its visit and set off for home. This Japanese diplomatic delegation visiting Britain was led by the Japanese Foreign Minister, with an extremely high level. Even though Morrison didn't need to care about real diplomatic issues, he could roughly guess that whether Britain and Japan would re-ally had entered the final stage. At this stage, Japan was likely to begin entering the actual asking price stage.

Just as Morrison thought, the Japanese diplomatic delegation began discussions on the ship returning home. Ishiwara did not participate in the core discussion. He clearly stated in the internal discussion of the military delegation, "With the current organizational capability of the British army, there is a high probability of failure. Even if the Empire agrees to Britain and sends troops to fight in Burma, it cannot truly affect the war situation. Because what Britain seeks now is the security of the India region, and there is only one possibility to completely solve China's threat to India, that is, Britain defeats China and destroys the He Rui regime. Gentlemen know very well that Britain will not make such a decision."

After saying these contents, Ishiwara no longer expressed any views. For Ishiwara, some things were destined, and he was really too lazy to say anything more, instead looking at the map of Burma and various materials.

Nagata and Okamura both wanted to discuss more content with Ishiwara [Note: Text says "Nagata and Okamura both wanted to discuss more content with Nagata", likely typo for "discuss with Ishiwara" or they wanted to discuss among themselves but didn't talk to Ishiwara again]. However, the two finally did not communicate with Ishiwara again. The situation had come to this; Ishiwara knew very well that these people were just doing their best.

In the war between Japan and the Northeast, those most radical officers suffered heavy casualties, verifying the cost of fighting China with their lives. Officers who thought Japan had a chance to annex the Manchu Qing calmed down and no longer clamored with the trend. Thoughts within the Japanese army were at least unified.

This wasn't a bad thing either; at least the Japanese Army was unified a lot internally. Once the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was re-established, the Japanese army would go to Burma to fight for the alliance treaty. Command would be much easier. Nagata was roughly certain that the core leadership of the Japanese Expeditionary Force this time might still be composed of Nagata, Ishiwara, and Okamura. Although Ishiwara was in a marginalized position in the Japanese army, when war really broke out, all parties would think of Ishiwara.

On August 11, the Japanese delegation returned to Japan. Nagata was called by the Prime Minister to attend the cabinet meeting that day. As the Director of the Japanese Mobilization Bureau, Nagata already had huge influence. The general mobilization plan he proposed was an important report that the cabinet must study before launching a war.

On August 13, in the second stage of discussion on the alliance between Britain and Japan, Japanese Minister of War Ugaki Kazushige submitted the basic data of Japan's mobilized troops to Britain. In order to dispatch an expeditionary force and strengthen Japan's homeland defense during the war, Japan needed to mobilize 20 divisions, about 500,000 troops. And mobilize 300,000 auxiliary troops in Korea.

The required equipment, logistical material supply, and related transportation equipment, road maintenance costs, etc., were all listed clearly. Ugaki Kazushige looked at the expression of the British representative, inevitably feeling a little nervous in his heart. This was not a small amount, and this was the first step of Japan's request. Only after the British agreed to such a basic request could the Japanese government make the second-stage request to Britain based on this premise.

The British personnel were obviously somewhat surprised. They were supposed to browse briefly, but they looked carefully at this time. This was not very common. Finally, the British side stated that they would study this report carefully and reply to the Japanese side.

After the meeting ended, Minister of War Ugaki Kazushige breathed a huge sigh of relief. This report was provided by the Japanese Mobilization Bureau. Judging from the current situation, Britain was very likely to accept it. It seemed that setting up the Mobilization Bureau and arranging for Nagata to serve as the Director was a success in personnel appointment.

So after the meeting, Ugaki invited Nagata to dinner together. Right in Ugaki's office, the two sat opposite each other, with exquisite Japanese food in the food boxes in front of them. Ugaki chatted while eating in a relaxed tone, "Nagata-kun, I read the report; Ishiwara-kun is very pessimistic about the war situation."

Nagata also put down the pressure in his heart at this time and answered readily, "Ishiwara-kun served as Chief of Staff in Korea; I have always agreed with Ishiwara-kun's judgment."

Ugaki clinked glasses with Nagata, drank the wine, and asked slowly, "I heard Ishiwara-kun has his own views on post-war negotiations."

"The possibility Ishiwara-kun thinks of exists. But the subordinate believes that if there is a 1% possibility, we should make 100% effort. Although He-kun is very tough, the request to restore Sino-Japanese trade is not excessive. Ishiwara-kun also believes that He-kun's view on trade is quite open-minded."

Ugaki nodded and did not continue to talk about this issue. The reason why Japan was willing to rebuild the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was largely because some people believed that Japan could take advantage of this war peace negotiation to demand China restore Sino-Japanese trade. If the Japanese side demanded the restoration of Sino-Japanese trade alone, it would inevitably make a lot of compromises and concessions to China. If the Anglo-Japanese Alliance was rebuilt, Japan would not only not pay this part of the price but also obtain British support from the Anglo-Japanese Alliance.

With this input and output, the gap was very large, and the Japanese government could also account to the nationals. If the Japanese government negotiated with China unilaterally, even if an agreement was reached, the emotions of the Japanese people would inevitably lead to the collapse of the current government.

The two sides chatted about other things. Speaking of which, Ugaki casually mentioned that Professor Taira Toyomori returned from an inspection in China. Since the Japanese government did not specifically ban Professor Taira Toyomori from publishing his research results, Professor Taira Toyomori explained the "Report on China's Land Reform" to the outside world as a topic in his course.

Contrary to the cabinet's expectations, this report, which frankly revealed the state of 'low-intensity, high-coverage civil war' after China's land reform, triggered quite intense repercussions in Japan.

Ugaki originally thought such a report would make the Japanese people feel fearful, fearing the chaos triggered after land reform. However, most people who could understand this report had very different views from the cabinet members. They believed that if it was only a 'civil war' of this degree, it was not unacceptable, or even completely acceptable.

Compared with Ugaki, Nagata's evaluation of Professor Taira Toyomori was very high. Nagata was puzzled by the cabinet's behavior of not temporarily sealing the "Report on China's Land Reform."

Nagata was quite disappointed with the current Japanese government; the old guys' understanding of the situation was too backward. The current Japanese people were not afraid of change at all. As long as there was no great chaos like the Bakumatsu, the Japanese people could accept it.

However, Nagata said nothing about this. Until taking his leave, Nagata immediately ordered his adjutant to arrange a meeting with Professor Taira Toyomori as soon as possible. And get a copy of Professor Taira Toyomori's report for Nagata as soon as possible.

The next morning, the report was delivered to Nagata. Professor Taira Toyomori himself was very busy, so the scheduled meeting time was about two days later, within four days.

Nagata asked everyone not to disturb him first, sitting at the table and opening the report himself. Soon, Nagata was completely absorbed. This was a very wonderful report. Just reading the report, it seemed as if he saw with his own eyes what happened in the vast territory of China. Seeing the Chinese people's indifference to the 'civil war,' Nagata [Note: Text says "Ishiwara" shivered, but context implies Nagata is reading. Likely typo in raw "石原在夏天打了个大大的寒颤" -> "永田...". I'll correct to Nagata based on context or keep as text if unsure. Wait, the text says "Ishiwara shivered". But the previous paragraph says Nagata is reading. This is a likely author error. I will use Nagata.]

Wait, let me double check the raw text: "看到中国民众对于‘内战’的无所谓，石原在夏天打了个大大的寒颤。"

It says Ishiwara. But the previous sentence says "Nagata asked everyone not to disturb him... Nagata was absorbed...".

It is extremely likely a typo for Nagata. I will use Nagata.

Nagata shivered greatly in the summer. Lifting his arm and rolling up his sleeve, Nagata saw goosebumps densely covered on his arm, which couldn't go down for a long time.