Volume 1: The Empire Awakens Chapter 65 Nationalism (Part 1)
It took more than ten minutes after getting on the car for Nie Renfeng to calm down.
Tan Renhao had rarely seen the principal so excited. It seemed that during the closed-door meeting at the beginning, the principal was very angry with the representatives of several other countries.
"This negotiation won't produce much."
Nie Renfeng let out a long breath, "Renhao, is this your first time in Japan?"
Tan Renhao nodded, and just as he was about to tell what happened at the dance, Nie Renfeng rushed to speak.
"Tomorrow, you should have a good rest and go out for a walk. We will stay at the embassy tonight. I will have someone arrange a car for you, as well as a set of military attaché credentials."
Nie Renfeng rolled down the car window and said, "This time several countries have no intention of participating in the negotiations, and Japan even proposed to withdraw from the treaty ahead of schedule.
Maybe we will leave Tokyo soon.
Take this opportunity to get familiar with the situation in Japan, it may be useful in the future."
Tan Renhao hesitated for a moment and took out the business card.
"Principal, a Japanese woman approached me at the dance. I suspect she is a spy."
"woman?"
Nie Renfeng took the postcard and sneered, "She must be an intelligence officer, maybe a member of the Black Dragon Society.
Anyway, she is not a good person, so don't have too much contact with her.
Although I do not doubt your loyalty to the Empire, too much talk is bound to lead to mistakes.
This is also your first time going abroad as a diplomat, so you are not familiar with this aspect.
The day after tomorrow, after we have completed the preparatory work for the negotiations, we will go to Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe to inspect the Japanese Navy’s shipyards and check the warships they are building.
Then we have to prepare to go back.
So, you should pay attention these days, it’s best to…”
Nie Renfeng paused for a moment and said to the adjutant in front of him, "Go to the embassy and find a secretary to accompany Captain Tan Renhao around Tokyo tomorrow."
The adjutant nodded, glanced at Tan Renhao, and said nothing more.
The Tang Empire's Embassy in Japan is located opposite the Sumida River, in a relatively remote location.
This was the new embassy built by the Tang Empire in Tokyo, Japan after World War I. At that time, all the building materials and construction workers were sent from the empire, and Japan was not allowed to participate in the construction of the embassy.
The embassy has four main buildings, and Tan Renhao and his team were arranged to stay in the building on the east side.
Nie Renfeng lived on the fourth floor, which was also the top floor, while Tan Renhao lived on the second floor. Most of the people living here were general staff of the embassy.
Tan Renhao did not sleep very well at night. He just felt very confused, which he had already noticed .
Japan is working hard to erase all traces of the Tang Empire.
Whether it is their clothing or the buildings in downtown Tokyo, the Japanese are trying their best to use their own style, even moving closer to the West, and intentionally downplaying the traces of Tang Empire culture left in Japan.
Regardless, this is not a good sign.
At dawn, Tan Renhao changed into a set of casual clothes for embassy staff and left the embassy in a white car accompanied by a third-class secretary named Zhang Yannian.
Because the car had a diplomatic license plate, it would not be troubled by the Japanese police.
Along the way, Tan Renhao was paying close attention to the buildings on both sides of the street and the pedestrians on the road.
Most Japanese still wear kimonos, both men and women. Some Japanese wear suits and look very rich.
Before World War I, almost all Japanese people wore Tang suits and kimonos, but now, Tang suits are almost nowhere to be seen.
Tan Renhao also discovered that the urban area of Tokyo is very large, most of the buildings are low-rise bungalows, and most of these houses are built of wood.
This gave Tan Renhao a very strange idea. If he could light a few fires in this city, it would definitely be spectacular.
Just as Tan Renhao was thinking this, a fire truck with a water tank hanging on its rear end rushed past him with a roar.
Tan Renhao immediately signaled Zhang Yannian to follow the fire truck.
Soon, they arrived at the fire scene.
The fire broke out in a row of bungalows, and a group of people were busy moving things out of the houses, including a number of small industrial equipment and some manual tools.
Apparently, the fire started in a factory building.
This made Tan Renhao feel even more surprised.
The empire's factories were concentrated, and most of them, especially heavy industries, had achieved mechanized production.
What he didn't expect was that Japan still preserved such primitive handicraft workshops, and these workshops were located in residential areas.
Perhaps it was because of Japan's low industrial productivity, or perhaps Japan did this on purpose to prevent its factory areas from being hit.
By this time, Tan Renhao was basically certain that Japan did have many flaws, such as wooden houses, handicraft workshops scattered in residential areas, and inefficient production methods.
This is actually a concrete manifestation of a country's industrial strength.
Perhaps, Japan also has many steel mills, shipyards, aircraft manufacturing plants, automobile factories and other heavy industrial factories, but in fact, Japan's productivity still remains at a very low level, and Japan relies only on the huge labor force brought by 80 million citizens in its narrow territory.
The firefighting work did not go smoothly, and soon three more fire trucks arrived.
However, these are all the fire trucks that can be mobilized.
In addition to more than a dozen firefighters who were working hard to put out the fire, there were also hundreds of factory workers and nearby residents helping to put out the fire.
At this time, Tan Renhao became more certain of his idea. If these densely packed wooden houses in Tokyo caught fire, firefighting would be difficult.
At noon, Tan Renhao asked Zhang Yannian to take him to a sushi restaurant.
Sushi is the most famous snack in Japan and can be considered as a specialty food in Japan.
Zhang Yannian ordered the dishes directly because Tan Renhao didn't speak Japanese.
“In fact, we are also very uncomfortable in Japan.”
Zhang Yannian is not much older than Tan Renhao. "If it's not necessary, we don't want to come to Japan."
"Why?"
Tan Renhao frowned slightly.
Zhang Yannian shrugged his shoulders and said, "The Japanese are very xenophobic, especially towards us, the subjects of the Tang Empire. They are extremely disgusted and even full of hostility. If it is not necessary, we will never speak Chinese in Tokyo."
Just as Tan Renhao was about to speak, there was a loud noise at the door and both of them immediately turned their attention.
