‘It is as the report states, honourable Admiral. One of our corvettes was on patrol off the Ryukyu Islands, and sighted a junk. When she sought to question the junk, the vessel made off, and put into one of the bays in the islands. Our corvette followed and arrested the men from the junk. When questioned, they refused to say where they were from and where they were going. They were also heavily armed. The captain of the corvette thereupon pronounced them pirates.’
‘And cut off their heads?’ Nicholas.
‘They were tried, honourable Captain, and convicted.’
‘By a court consisting of Captain Yashiwara and his officers.’ Nicholas went to see Ito. ‘Do you realise, honourable Admiral, that this is an act of war?’
Ito frowned. ‘It is the business of our navy to rid the seas around Japan of pirates.’
‘Not by invading another country’s territory, surely.’
‘Sit down, Barrett san. The ownership of the Ryukyu Islands is in dispute. The Chinese claim to have had sovereignty for many years; they call the islands the Pescadores and can produce old maps to show that the name has obtained for centuries. But they are undoubtedly closer to Japan than to China, and we also have historical claims.’
‘I still do not think that justifies our seizing a dozen Chinese sailors in what are at best disputed waters but which many people will regard as Chinese territory, and summarily executing them, honourable Admiral. If this is in some way intended to provoke the Chinese, then I consider it a grave mistake. Their two battleships are in full commission. Against them we have our three protected cruisers, which would not stand a chance. Our new ships with the twelve-point-six-inch guns have not even been launched yet.’
Ito nodded. ‘I know, it is a difficult situation. Yet the Chinese must be tested. Many people consider the Dragon Empire, thanks to the machinations of the Empress Dowager, to be in a state of anarchy. Of course it remains much more powerful than ourselves, with regard to men and materiel, but when it comes to conflict, it is the will that is important. We must find out how strong that will is, nationally.’
‘With respect, honourable Admiral, is it necessary for us to look on the Chinese as our enemies? To speak of conflict as though it were inevitable?’
‘Well, of course they are our enemies, Barrett san. They have always been our natural enemies, just as throughout the centuries France has been the natural enemy of Great Britain. It is natural for a great island power to be the enemy of the nearest great continental power.’
Nicholas decided against pointing out that Japan could not possibly be described as a great power yet, whatever Mutsuhito’s aspirations. ‘It still appears to me to be an unnecessary provocation,’ he remarked. ‘As for testing the Chinese will to fight, what can we possibly gain by doing so now.’
‘Korea,’ Ito said, quietly.
Nicholas’s head jerked.
‘Korea is to Japan what Belgium and Holland are to Great Britain,’ Ito explained. ‘This is obvious. But more importantly, it is the obvious place for our expansion. And we must expand, Barrett san. For two reasons. One is that these islands are already over-populated with regard to the amount of arable land we possess, and the second is that Korea was conquered by Hideyoshi at the end of the Sixteenth Christian Century, and is therefore historically ours.’
‘That was three hundred years ago, honourable Admiral. Since then Korea has been in the Chinese sphere of influence. But by most observers it is regarded as an independent country.’
‘No country can be independent while it remains in another’s sphere of influence, Barrett. It is our intention that Korea should be in our sphere of influence.’
‘I see what you mean. The Chinese will certainly take exception to any overt move on our part. And such a move would be madness. Do not the Chinese maintain a garrison in Seoul?’
‘Officially, it is a guard for their embassy. But we also have an embassy in Seoul, and we maintain a sizeable force of guards there, as we are entitled to. However, we have no intention of undertaking any overt act which may bring international condemnation. The situation is very simple. China regards Korea as a protectorate because the King of Korea appears content with that situation. But if King Kojong were to change his mind, or die, or abdicate, or even be deposed, and were succeeded by someone with, shall I say, a more positive view of the future, then China’s protectorate, which is not legal in any event, would have to come to an end.’
Nicholas stared at him in consternation. He knew that political assassination was not regarded as a crime in Japan. But calmly to plot the death or deposition of the monarch of another country went beyond the bounds of even political immorality. ‘Is His Majesty a party to this plan?’
‘His Majesty has given it his seal of approval, yes.’
Nicholas thought back to the open-faced youth he had first encountered outside old Edo. But that youth had known where he was going, with such unswerving determination that he had faced down and crushed even the daimyo, probably the most intransigent group of men in the world. Then it had seemed that everything he planned was right, that his energies would be entirely absorbed into transforming Japan into a modern state. But now he was reaching beyond that. He wanted Japan to achieve great power status, and that meant dominating areas of influence, controlling neighbouring countries . . . even when those countries were larger than one’s own, by a hundred times? And when one’s own strength was far from adequate? ‘When will this policy be implemented?’ he asked.
‘It should have been implemented already,’ Ito said. ‘Our plans were all laid to kidnap the king, and we had one of his cousins standing by to take his place if he would not be coerced. But somehow the Chinese got wind of our plan, and would you believe it, Barrett san, they kidnapped him themselves.’
Nicholas kept his face straight with an effort.
‘Some hothead of a young colonel, their military attaché in Seoul, a fellow named Yuan Shih-k’ai, is responsible,’ Ito grumbled. ‘Now King Kojong is in the Chinese Embassy and saying everything they wish him to. We had to save face, and we had to find out just how strong is the Chinese resolve.’
‘So we executed some Chinese sailors. It’s a vicious world, honourable Admiral. What do we do if the Chinese should all turn out to have the determination of this fellow Yuan Shih-K’ai?’
‘They will not,’ Ito asserted. ‘The Ryukyu incident was some months ago, and there has been nothing more than a protest.’
‘And Korea?’
‘The King has demanded that we remove our forces, and we have refused; our nationals must be protected. We are now negotiating with the Chinese on the basis that the King will be released. We guarantee his safety, and both powers agree to maintain equal forces in the country.’
‘Why should China agree to those terms?’
Ito smiled. ‘Because, for all the millions of men she claims to be able to put under arms, and for all her two battleships, she cannot afford to fight a war. She is still recovering from the T’ai-P’ing revolt of twenty-five years ago. The Yangste Valley is still devastated, the country south of the Yellow River is in a state of anarchy, and thanks to the profligacy of the Empress Dowager T’zu-hsi, the government is bankrupt. This fellow Yuan Shih-k’ai acted without proper authority. Now they will be happy to get out of the whole affair with no further expense.’
‘Well, that is good news. At least it means there won’t be a war over Korea.’
Ito gave another smile. ‘Until we are ready, eh? And then, we must have a fleet in being.’
*
Nicholas understood that his business, however difficult, was to prepare the Navy for war with China just as soon as it could be done. But within a few months disaster struck. Unebi was despatched on a ‘showing the flag’ voyage, down into the Indian Ocean. She carried out her task, and in September 1887 put in at Singapore on her homeward voyage, leaving the British port at the beginning of October. She was never heard of again, nor was any wreckage ever found.
&
nbsp; That a catastrophe had occurred was not evident until November, when the warship was several weeks overdue. Then inquiries were made, and search vessels sent out. Nicholas remained grimly optimistic, principally for Aki’s sake. There were reports of bad weather in the South China Sea during October, but no major typhoons. Yet as November wore into December he had to accept that what he had always feared had happened: Fujimoto must have been carrying too much sail, been hit by a sudden squall, and his ship had gone over, carrying all hands to death by drowning as the topheavy hull had capsized, filled, and plunged to the bottom.
Chapter Ten – The Yalu
A memorial service was held for Captain Fujimoto and his crew, the more deeply sincere in that his tragedy had happened not in war but on a peacetime mission. Ito attended, and the Emperor sent his condolences. What had happened was accepted as an act of fate. Yet Nicholas knew that Aki secretly blamed him for the tragedy. Indeed, he blamed himself, for not rejecting the ship in the first place, for being influenced by affairs of state.
Ito understood the situation as well as anyone, and was concerned that his Chief of Staff, and the man he was relying on being at his side when the long awaited war with China began, might be overly-affected by the incident. ‘The fault is mine, Barrett san,’ he insisted. ‘You made your report that the ship was topheavy. I grieve for the loss of your son-in-law, and the tragedy felt by your daughter. But you must not blame yourself.’
Elizabeth, with her usual absolute honesty, was even more pragmatic. ‘My only thought is that it might have happened while you were on board,’ she said.
*
For the second time in her life Aki was plunged into deep mourning. As she was now twenty-five years old, and a mother, clearly finding her a second husband was not going to be easy. With the agreement of the Fujimoto family, she moved back into Nicholas’s house, but this was a great pleasure, because Little Nicholas came with her.
Nicholas now had a complete household, for in 1890 Alexander was ten, and Little Nicholas five; the uncle and nephew were great friends. While Elizabeth, fully restored to confidence and at forty more flamboyantly beautiful than ever, went out of her way to make Aki feel at home, willingly sharing the running of the household.
In this year of 1890 Nicholas was fifty-one, and could look back on a career lacking in the normal distinctions a naval officer might have expected. He had never commanded a ship, much less a squadron or a fleet, in battle at sea, yet he had got as close to the top of his profession as a renegade could possibly expect.
He remained very proud of his fledgling navy. The Unebi catastrophe could never be forgotten, because of its personal tragedy. But her replacements, still building in 1890, would have, he was determined, none of her shortcomings. Known as the Matsushima Class, from the name of the prototype, they would displace over four thousand tons and would be far more stable, relying upon steam power alone. ‘What is the point in having sail?’ Nicholas asked Ito. ‘Your instructions are to prepare the fleet for war with China. That can never take place more than two hundred miles from the shores of Japan. We want fast-moving, hard-hitting ships. That they may need to return to the homeland to fuel every week or so is irrelevant.’
He remained uneasy, on learning of the expansion of the Chinese fleet, as to whether the Japanese would ever be able to fight it on even terms. The Chinese navy continued to be handicapped by the bizarre carryings-on of the Empress Dowager, who was quite capable of giving an order at dawn and rescinding it at dusk. She was reputed to have diverted a large part of one year’s naval estimates for the building of an enormous stone replica of a Mississippi paddle-steamer in one of her ‘ornamental waters’, but her navy was slowly becoming a formidable force, and if it did not seek to increase its number of battleships, the two it possessed remained the most powerful naval units in the Far East. When the first of the new Japanese cruisers, Matsushima, was delivered in March 1891, Nicholas had her steamed to a secret rendezvous with a specially prepared target vessel, which was encased in fourteen-inch armour, such as protected the hull and barbettes of the Chinese battleships. The cruiser opened up with her big gun and delivered shot after shot; many missed, but enough struck home to create a very favourable impression of the accuracy of Japanese naval gunnery. Unfortunately, when the target was examined afterwards, it was found that not one of the Japanese shells had penetrated the armour; this was dented in many places, but it was obvious that no important damage would have been done to an enemy ship so protected.
Hardly less discouraging was the very slow rate of fire achieved by the Japanese: one shot every five minutes.
‘What can the solution be?’ Ito asked.
‘Close quarters, for a start,’ Nicholas said.
‘That would be seriously to risk the Chinese shot. We do not have fourteen-inch armour.’
‘We will have to rely on our speed and manoeuverability.’
Ito continued to look gloomy. He had been made a prince, he was a confidant of the Emperor, and above all, he was Japanese. Thus Nicholas knew he would lead his ships up the Pei-ho in an assault on Peking if he was ordered to do so. But he still knew that he was on a hiding to nothing. He now began to cultivate some ideas of his own.
*
Nicholas completed his report and sent it off, hoping it would be read by Mutsuhito. As far as he was concerned, war with China was an impossibility until the navy was several times stronger than it was presently. Anything which made the Emperor cautious had to be a good thing.
Domestically, Aki seemed to have got over her husband’s death. Nicholas was haunted by the fear that she might follow the example of her mother and commit suicide, and instructed Kisuda to have one of the female servants watch the young woman every minute of the day and night. But his life had taken a very even tenor. Elizabeth continued to make him very happy, and he endeavoured to reciprocate. He could do nothing about the sadness which passed across her expression whenever she thought of Young Paul, from whom she had heard nothing since his departure from Japan. Nicholas, with his access to Russian navy lists, was able to tell her that Rashnikov was now a captain and had command of a ship, and that Young Paul was a cadet in the Russian Navy. That made her proud, even as she eyed Alexander speculatively. But he was bound for the new naval academy of Eta-Jima, as soon as he was thirteen; it had made sense for the first Japanese naval officers, like Togo, to learn their trade in England, but it made even more sense for Japan to have her own naval college, and, urged by Nicholas, the Emperor had agreed to allow the foundation of such a school in 1888.
Nicholas’s only real problem was Takamori, who was now in his middle twenties, a captain in his regiment. He seldom came to the house of his own volition, and although he always accepted an invitation from his father to dine, and on such occasions was the very soul of politeness, the meetings were always stiff. Clearly he continued to disapprove of Elizabeth, but she refused to allow Nicholas to take offence. ‘He cannot be blamed for honouring his mother,’ she insisted.
Nicholas accepted her point of view, but he was concerned that Takamori’s morosely correct behaviour was more deeply seated. The young man’s dislike was concentrated upon the entire regime. He was a Satsuma samurai, and he could not reconcile himself to not wearing the topknot or his two swords, to not having the lower classes step aside for him in the street, to having lost all the privileges of his inheritance. He was angered that his father, who was also a Satsuma samurai, should have accepted so great a change. Being Japanese, he revered Mutsuhito as a descendant of the gods, but he had to focus his resentment at the passing of his class on more human figures. Nicholas knew he was head of the list, but he also knew that Takamori disliked almost to the point of hatred men like Ito or Oyama.
He also knew that Takamori was only representative of a good many young men in Japan who still preferred to look to the past rather than the future.
Again Elizabeth recommended time. ‘What would really help is if he were to get married,’ she suggest
ed.
But Takamori seemed to have no place in his life for women.
*
Meanwhile the Navy grew, although not in the direction Nicholas really wished. Ito had suggested that the third of the Matsushima class cruisers should be built in Japan itself, and she had been laid down at the Yokusuka Yard in September 1888, several months after the two French-built ships. Mutsuhito had been very enthusiastic about the idea of a home-built ship, and Nicholas had recognised that it was another essential step in the direction of Japan becoming independent of foreign tutelage. Unfortunately, as the Japanese had no experience at building large warships, and equally as there was a recurring shortage of steel, this ship took much longer to construct than the French vessels. She was not launched until March 1891, and then her completion dragged on and on. Nicholas visited the yard several times a year, attempting to hasten things, but the earliest date he could achieve for her delivery was June 1894.
This was particularly annoying as Mutsuhito had insisted on giving the Yokosuka yard another ship to build. To be called the Akitsushima, she was an altogether smaller vessel than the Matsushimas, and even than the Naniwas, displacing just over three thousand tons, while her principal armament was four six-inch quick-firing guns; these were small, breech-loading cannon, mounted on swivels, and able to be swung to and fro, elevated and depressed, with the minimum of effort. What Mutsuhito and Ito were looking for here was speed, and Akitsushima was designed to make nineteen knots.
‘She will dart in and out like a bee,’ Ito said happily, as he gazed at the specifications.
‘Honourable Admiral, what is the point of darting in and out like a bee if there is no adequate sting on the end of it?’ Nicholas demanded. ‘On the evidence of what we failed to accomplish with our twelve-point-six-inch, six-inch shells are just going to bounce off the enemy battleships without even leaving a dent.’
‘You do not like this design?’ Ito inquired.
Bloody Sunrise Page 26