African Entrepreneurship Record

While East Africa was bustling with nationwide construction, the Far East was engulfed in the smoke of war. Despite East Africa’s support, the achievements of the Far East Imperial Navy were far from ideal. It is important to note that, at that time, the Far East Imperial Navy was more powerful than its historical counterpart, yet it struggled to gain ground against the cunning Japanese Navy.

The situation was troubling not only for the Far East Empire but also for the Japanese Government, as the Far East Imperial Navy, being larger and more numerous, posed a significant challenge. Even if the Japanese Navy’s personnel were highly skilled, they struggled to achieve a breakthrough in a short period. The ever-increasing military expenses loomed as a constant shadow over the Japanese Government.

”Baka, the Imperial Navy has yet to make a breakthrough, utterly shaming our imperial soldiers. Your navy lacks the spirit of Bushido; otherwise, the war wouldn’t have dragged on until now. All that military spending each year is as good as feeding it to beasts!”

In an effort to swiftly end the war, Japan devised an ambitious plan shortly after the conflict erupted. This involved landing in Zhili and attacking the Far East Empire’s Capital to force the Qing Government into surrender.

The first step of this plan was to seize control of the strategic points at Lushun and Weihaiwei at the mouth of Bohai, aiming to completely annihilate the Beiyang Fleet and prevent any interference in the landing operations while using them as stepping stones for the landing campaign.

Regarding the duties of the army fools, the upper echelons of the Japanese Navy were, of course, unwilling to suffer in silence: ”The Far East Empire Navy has a military budget and ship expenses far exceeding ours. The fact that our navy can match theirs is already exceptional. Your army is no better, advancing so slowly on the Korean Peninsula…”

”Bastards, if it weren’t for your navy sabotaging on the transport ships, we would have already invaded the Far East Empire from the land! You bunch of navy fools…”

In the end, this time the Japanese Navy did not handle matters properly, and thus they found themselves at a disadvantage in the argument. Meanwhile, this experience further strengthened the resolve of the Japanese Army leadership to build their own warships in the future, to avoid being constrained by these navy fools. The tradition of internal conflicts remained strong between the Japanese Navy and Army and was expected to be further perpetuated.

”Alright, stop arguing! Right now, the situation is dire, and the entire nation should be united rather than pointing fingers. Now, discuss how to handle the aftermath!” The Japanese emperor feigned anger as he spoke.

”Hmph…” The generals of the navy and army exchanged angry glances.

”Your Majesty, I believe we underestimated the power of the Far East Empire. As an East Asian power, the Far East Empire still holds significant strength, which is why this war did not yield the expected results,” Ito Hirobumi said.

”Before the war, our strategy was to simultaneously threaten both the Far East Empire and Korea from land and sea. But now it seems that as a latecomer, Japan faces inevitable difficulty against a vast empire like the Far East. Therefore, our focus should shift to the Korean Peninsula.”

The Japanese Government clearly did not perceive the Far East Empire as a match, but they also had to admit that they currently lacked the capabilities to swallow the Far East Empire.

”Moreover, the war cannot continue in a stalemate, otherwise countries like Tsarist Russia will not sit idly by. Therefore, we must ensure this war does not end in complete losses, and we cannot become too entangled with the Far East Empire.”

Japan held a high degree of vigilance against the great powers, fully aware that the reason why they had tolerated this war was because Japan was merely a tool in their hands. If the tool proved ineffective, Japan feared they would be discarded by these great powers.

The Japanese emperor agreed with the Prime Minister’s view: ”In that case, the navy and army must go all out and first capture Korea. This way, we can extricate ourselves from the quagmire of war in time. Engaging in a war of attrition with the Far East Empire is decidedly disadvantageous for us.”

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With the Japanese Government’s shift in strategy, the war situation changed suddenly. The Far East Imperial garrison in Korea felt immense pressure, while the navy felt relieved.

However, the Japanese Navy did not completely give up and launched an offensive in winter, engaging the Far East Imperial Navy in the Yellow Sea. Although they did not destroy the Far East Beiyang Fleet, they dealt it a heavy blow.

This made the Northern authority within the Far East Empire Government extremely anxious. He ordered the Beiyang Fleet to adopt a defensive strategy and refrain from engaging the Japanese Navy, conserving their strength.

And after the Far East Imperial Navy retreated, the Japanese Navy, unlike in history, did not continue to pursue its victory. After all, the Far East Imperial Navy still possessed considerable military strength.

Subsequently, Japan advanced from both land and sea to confront Korea. The Far East Empire’s army faced consecutive defeats, and by September, the Japanese had advanced to the Pyongyang area.

The two sides engaged in a decisive battle there, and on September 20th, the Far East Empire’s army was defeated and retreated from Pyongyang.

By early October, Japan advanced to the ”Two Rivers Basin”, and both sides ceased their offensives since ”Two Rivers” was a red line set by the great powers before the war.

With the end of the war, the Far East Empire completely withdrew from the Korean Peninsula. At this point, Japan and the Far East Empire signed a ceasefire agreement in Pyongyang.

The selection of Pyongyang was due to the Japanese Government’s concerns about intervention from the great powers. After all, both the Far East Empire and Japan were ”wounded” in this war. Although gaining Korea was a reward, it fell far short of Japan’s pre-war expectations.

Finally, in early December, the ceasefire agreement officially took effect. The Far East Empire paid 20 million taels of silver to the Japanese Government and acknowledged Japan’s de facto occupation of Korea.

Despite various reasons leading to the Far East Empire’s defeat in this war, the outcome was still much better than its historical counterpart.

As for Japan, to compensate for the war losses, they could only resort to even harsher domination over Korea compared to history, as the benefits gained from the Far East Empire were insufficient to cover the military expenses of the Japanese Navy.

It was only after Japan made peace with the Far East Empire that the great powers received the news. East Africa was relatively pleased with this outcome since Korea’s fate did not affect East Africa’s interests in the Far East in the slightest.

The United Kingdom and the United States, although somewhat dissatisfied with the war’s development, could begrudgingly accept it, given that the primary aim of the war was to weaken the Far East Empire Government and prevent Tsarist Russia’s expansion there.

Tsarist Russia, however, harbored nothing but hatred for Japan, seeing that Japan had taken what he perceived as his ”share”.

The result of the war between the Far East Empire and Japan did carry some ”positive” significance. Both countries’ navies performed in line with their actual capabilities, better than some monkey-like states with top hats, earning a passing mark, thus making the great powers acknowledge the strength of their navies on par with great power standards, at least on the same level as Turkey and Spain.

In fact, they might be slightly stronger than East Africa, but since East Africa had achieved a draw with the British Royal Navy, even for the sake of its prestige, the United Kingdom would not claim that the East African Navy was too poor, given that global public opinion was in the hands of Britain.

An additional outcome of the Far East War was that Japan had one foot into the ranks of the great powers and replaced Spain as the gatekeeper of the great powers. The Far East Empire, despite its military incompetence, had always belonged to the ranks of the ”great powers”, and countries able to defeat it were few and far between.

And for Japan to triumph over such a great power, albeit a minor victory, was enough to gain recognition from Europe and America.

Meanwhile, the ”decay” within the Far East Empire’s military became further acknowledged by the great powers. Without unexpected changes, the external situation facing the Far East Empire would only grow increasingly grim. However, only Ernst knew that the Far East Empire’s situation was much better than its historical counterpart.