"In the past few days, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has received a total of diplomatic notes from 16 countries, expressing dissatisfaction with our Japanese army's actions to force civilians to block the enemy's attack on the battlefield, and requires us to strictly respect the provisions of the [Geneva Convention], safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the people in the occupied areas, and ensure that similar things will not happen again."

"It's outrageous. How our Japanese army should treat the Chinese people in China and what does it have to do with these countries? Why should they meddle in other people's business? I don't have to pay attention to them at all. What should we do, and what we should do."

"Talunaka, it is not the time for the shogunate to close the country. At that time, there was almost no exchange between the East and the West. Of course, we don't have to care about the attitudes of other countries, but now it is different. The development of technology has also made the whole world closer to the communication. Although this is also a good thing, it can communicate with each other and develop economic and trade exchanges, anything can spread throughout the world in a very short time, and we cannot completely ignore the attitudes of other countries when doing anything."

"So what should we do now?"

"Immediately notify the frontline troops and ask them not to happen again, otherwise they will go to the military court when they come back."

"No, the soldiers in the front are fighting desperately with the enemy. Not only can we not give them enough support, but we will drag them back. How can this be done! As far as I see, when other countries protest and dissatisfied, they will say whatever they want. We still insist on our approach and ensure that the front-line troops are safely withdrawn to the Korean Peninsula is the most important thing."

"Kun Teraenai, you don't understand the diplomatic situation we are facing. The situation is much more serious than you think. Some countries are not talking about it. Britain and the United States have sent us diplomatic notes, saying that this incident has seriously affected the relationship between the two countries and Japan. We hope that Japan can take effective measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again, otherwise it may affect the aid of the two countries to Japan.

"What?" After hearing what Komura Sutaro said, all the Japanese cabinet ministers present couldn't help but exclaimed. Because everyone knew that at this time of the war, Japan's domestic economy was on the verge of collapse, and it was supported by the aid of Britain and the United States. Once Britain and the United States no longer aided Japan, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Masato Desouchi immediately said, "What? Is Britain and the United States not going to support us in Japan anymore?"

Komura Sutaro said: "That's not the case. The governments of Britain and the United States are still willing to continue to support us. But if the news media continues to report, it will put pressure on the public opinion among the two countries on the government. Then there will be members of parliament in the parliament to oppose and support us. It will be difficult for the government to do it at that time."

When Teraunuchi heard this, he felt relieved and said, "This is a national event. Of course, the government is the one who takes charge of it. The reporters will make trouble with it, and the people who are not honest in their work, so why do they make trouble with it?"

Komura Sutaro smiled bitterly and said, "Teraune, the systems of Britain and the United States are different from those of ours, Japan. They attach more importance to news and people's voices."

It turned out that after the press conference held by the East China government in Shanghai New District, a public opinion storm of criticizing Japan was quickly launched in the entire Shanghai. Major newspapers and magazines in Shanghai published commentary articles, strongly accusing Japan of committing a crime in the war. The East China government then organized two student parades and submitted a protest letter to the Japanese consulate in Shanghai located in the public concession. It even launched a boycott of Japanese goods. The Chinese people working in factories and shops opened in Japan also resigned, forcing most Japanese factories and shops to close their businesses. Of course, these workers who voluntarily resigned were recruited by the Shanghai New District, so they were not unemployed.

And soon this public opinion storm spread across major cities in China, including Beijing, Xi'an, Wuchang, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and other places. There were activities of different scales of condemnation against Japan. The momentum was very large, and the anti-Japanese sentiment in China was extremely high. Even violent acts against the Japanese occurred in a few areas. Some Japanese expatriates were beaten to death, and some factories opened by Japan were looted.

In fact, in modern Chinese history, there have been some "tragedy" incidents in previous foreign invasion wars. Among them, the more famous ones are the "Lushun tragedy" that occurred during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 and the "Jiangdong 64 Treasures Massacre" that occurred during the Gengzi Rebellion. Compared with the nature of using civilians to block guns this time, the tragic level is much better than these tragedy. Although these tragedy also caused some reactions in China, they are far less powerful than this one, and soon became silent.

On the one hand, this is because of the incompetence of the Qing court. After a tragedy, it would only calm down the people, not knowing to complain, and dare not allow public opinion to expand, which limits the influence of these tragedy. On the other hand, in modern times, the Qing court's foreign wars have been repeatedly defeated, and almost never won a single battle. The defeated general is not brave enough, so there is still a dare to pursue the murderer who caused these tragedy!

This time, it is different. The traders this time are time travelers. They are naturally familiar with the control and propaganda of public opinion. Therefore, a combination of punches quickly aroused the unity of all Chinese people across the country. More importantly, after the people went to Liaodong to participate in the war, they won consecutive battles and were in full swing, so they were naturally confident and sonorous.

Moreover, from the very beginning, time travelers did not intend to limit this public opinion storm to the country, but instead took a two-pronged approach to domestic and foreign countries. At the press conference, they provided video and printed materials to journalists from various countries. Therefore, as soon as the press conference ended, journalists from various countries immediately generated electricity to their editors to report the incident, and asked domestic newspapers to publish the news immediately. Some journalists wrote press releases overnight and generated electricity back to the country.

Since this incident itself has great news value and learned that the reporters had obtained images and printed materials, major newspapers in various countries naturally did not dare to delay, and arranged pages or added publications to report the news. So it quickly spread throughout the world.

At this time, the East China government had already established an office in Germany and the United States. The German office was responsible for the business of the entire Europe. Both had been operating for about three years. Of course, they would not be idle at this time. Now these two offices have established certain social activities in the local area, including politicians, businessmen, entrepreneurs, media people, social activists, civil rights personnel, etc. Therefore, they are all working hard at this time. On the one hand, they report and promote a lot in the newspaper; on the other hand, they are also mobilizing social activists and civil rights personnel to call on the government to sanction Japan.

Although international politics in this era is still the law of the jungle, the political morality level of various countries has been improved considerably, and there have been a group of pacifist social activists in various countries. The actions of the Japanese army have indeed touched the moral line, and using civilians to block guns is unreasonable in any case. Therefore, they have also taken action to denounce Japan and put pressure on their governments. As a result, under the clever guidance of the United Kingdom and the United States, under the clever guidance of time travelers, they have also launched actions against the government's support for Japan.

However, the reason why countries around the world criticize Japan is not simply because Japan is too unscrupulous in doing things. There are also some white people who are respected for their superiority. For them, Chinese and Japanese are actually the same. They are all barbarians. At most, Japanese can only be regarded as slightly civilized barbarians. Therefore, they are so arrogant that they accuse others of being too barbaric and uncivilized, and they have a sense of accomplishment. On the contrary, if a certain European country does such a thing in China, the public opinion will be at least half of it.

The governments of Britain and the United States naturally support Japan, but both countries have great freedom of news and speech, and social public opinion has a considerable influence on the government. Of course, the governments of both countries are not unable to completely control public opinion. However, if they do so, the political price will be too high. It is obviously not worth doing this for Japan. Therefore, the simpler method that Britain and the United States choose is to put pressure on Japan and demand that the Japanese government strictly control the behavior of the army and no longer have similar things happen.

When Japan learned about the press conference, it was quite dissatisfied, but the limelight became more and more serious. The Japanese cabinet realized that the problem was a bit serious, so it hurriedly held a cabinet meeting to discuss countermeasures. After listening to the detailed explanation of Sutaro Komura, each of the cabinet ministers realized that they were really underestimating the seriousness of this matter.

Now the Japanese army has retreated to the front line of Jiuliancheng-Phoenix City, and the People's Army has formed an encirclement to the Japanese army from three directions. The Japanese army is also seizing the time to cross the Yalu River. However, the Japanese army and logistics personnel have a total of nearly one million people, and there are also a large number of vehicles and supplies, which will take at least three days to cross the Yalu River. Therefore, the success or failure of the Japanese army is within these 2 or 3 days. If they can cross the Yalu River smoothly and flee back to the Korean Peninsula, although the previous results have been cleared, they may make a comeback, even if they turn over; and if the Japanese army is defeated by the People's Army by the Yalu River, there is basically no chance of turning the tables.
Chapter completed!