The news of the joint US-China effort in 1917 deeply shook the upper echelons of Japan. As early as January 1917, the United States had decided to join the Entente Powers. In order to get China on board the American ship, intensive communication took place between the two countries. The United States waited for three months until April 9th to reach the "US-China Defense Alliance" treaty with China, which had a term of one year. The treaty stipulated that if either country was militarily attacked by a third country, the other country was obligated to send troops to help and jointly declare war on the attacking country. When one party joined an international military organization, the other country was also obligated to join.

The People's Party was Japan's enemy; this was beyond doubt. The United States and Japan were countries competing for dominance in the Pacific, and this conflict had a history of nearly 20 years. Since the Spanish-American War, when the United States seized the Spanish colony of the Philippines and officially intervened in the Western Pacific, the contradiction between the US and Japan had become increasingly intensified. It was absolutely impossible for the Japanese to forget the global visit of the US Great White Fleet passing through Yokohama in 1908.

In 1905, Japan won a complete victory in the war against Russia, further expanding its influence in the Far East and the Pacific region. Japan's aggressive expansion momentum in the aforementioned regions seriously threatened US interests. At this time, the main force of the US Navy was mostly concentrated in the Atlantic, and the fleet deployed in Asia was very weak, unable to contend with Japan at all. Therefore, the always bold and flamboyant Roosevelt had to adopt a concession policy to avoid open conflict with Japan in Asia.

With the formation of the confrontation between the US and Japan in the Pacific region, hostility between the two sides became increasingly serious. In 1906, the San Francisco Board of Education in California announced a segregation policy for all Japanese students. When the news reached Japan, the Japanese public regarded it as a great humiliation and immediately launched fierce anti-American demonstrations, vigorously vilifying Americans. The Japanese government also strongly demanded an explanation from the US government. Japanese public opinion even clamored: "The whole world knows that the poorly equipped US Army and Navy are no match for our highly combat-effective Army and Navy." Japan's "Mainichi Shimbun" roared: "When our great naval admiral appears on the other side of the Pacific, it will be easy to break America's stubborn dream... Why don't we insist on sending warships?" Seeing that conflict between the two sides was imminent, Roosevelt immediately personally persuaded the San Francisco Board of Education to revoke the aforementioned anti-Japanese regulations, and only then did the situation ease down.

President Roosevelt did not want to solve the problem by war. If the US fleet crossed the Pacific to strike Japan, the result would very likely be the same fate as the Russian Navy. So he dispatched the "Great White Fleet," with all US ship hulls painted white, for a world tour.

Japan adopted an attitude of "observe quietly, then draw conclusions" towards the "Great White Fleet." As early as when the "Great White Fleet" docked at the US port of San Francisco, the Japanese government mobilized thousands of Japanese students in San Francisco to line the streets in welcome, singing the US national anthem loudly in English to show friendship. At the same time, Japanese officials in the US also invited the US fleet to visit Yokohama to further investigate the details of the Americans.

On October 18, 1908, a fleet composed of 16 elite battleships and 7 small torpedo boats (predecessors of destroyers) of the US Navy, with 14,000 officers and soldiers, entered the important visiting port of Yokohama.

When the "Great White Fleet" arrived at the famous Japanese naval port of Yokohama, almost all Japanese were astounded by the huge lineup of the US Navy. Japan began to take this opponent seriously. US officers and soldiers were "welcomed most friendlily not only by the Emperor and his staff but also by the entire country," and the celebrations lasted for a whole week. In the carnival atmosphere, Japan's Admiral Togo Heihachiro, then 61 years old, even allowed visiting US military officers to toss him from the carpet into the air.

Of course, it was impossible for Japan to truly "welcome" its opponent in the Pacific as a guest. Instead, it was a posture made out of necessity after feeling the pressure of the powerful US Navy. Contrary to the unanimous "anti-American" public opinion in Japan before the fleet arrived, a Japanese diplomat stated: "The voyage of the US fleet did not cause unhappiness and fear in Japan; this is a guarantee of peace." The Japanese government also changed its past arrogant posture, agreeing to maintain the status quo in the Pacific and respecting the US "Open Door" policy. For this, Roosevelt triumphantly declared: This global voyage as a diplomatic "Big Stick Policy" was his "major contribution to the cause of peace."

Now that Japan's maritime opponent and land enemy were colluding with common strategic interests, Japan could not help but feel real panic. The "US-China Defense Alliance" treaty was for two years (Wait, the first paragraph said one year, but here it says two years. I should translate literally as the text says. The text says "two years" here, but "one year" in the first paragraph. I will stick to the text). The treaty did not discuss renewal issues. The Japanese upper echelons still read and analyzed this treaty obsessively time and again, trying to find any evidence to prove that this treaty targeted Japan. Of course, this treaty was not signed targeting Japan, so Japan naturally could not find any intention in this regard.

Americans certainly didn't care what the Japanese thought. After this agreement tailor-made for World War I was announced to the world, the value of the United States immediately doubled. Britain and France, who had originally tried hard to urge China to join the Entente Powers, immediately cast aside the People's Party and turned to contact the United States. The United States was naturally smug, declaring war on Germany on May 5th and joining the Entente Powers. According to the "US-China Defense Alliance" treaty, China immediately joined the Entente group and declared war on Germany at the same time.

After learning this news, Japan finally breathed a half sigh of relief. China and Japan changed from a quasi-war state to allies in the same trench. The European war had been fought for three years, and no one knew how much longer this war could be fought. The Japanese side estimated that the war would not end within a year. By that time, the "US-China Defense Alliance" treaty would have expired, and the United States would naturally have no reason to intervene in the Sino-Japanese war that would break out further in the future.

Moreover, once the European war ended, even if China and the United States freed their hands, Japan and Britain would also not be bound by the war. At that time, the situation in the Western Pacific might not necessarily be more favorable to China. War might be inevitable, but as long as Japan could seize the time to accumulate advantages now, Japan was not without a chance of winning.

The Sino-Japanese War had ended for a year. The Takahashi Korekiyo cabinet plundered Korea and Taiwan wantonly externally, and increased the extraction from the Japanese domestic populace internally. By exporting every commodity that could be exported to the Entente Powers as much as possible, even with the competition from the People's Party causing the price of goods procurement in the Far East to fall somewhat, Britain had no intention of giving up Japan, this important pawn. Among similar products, Britain still prioritized purchasing Japanese goods, and Japan was rapidly repaying Britain's debt.

Takahashi Korekiyo understood economics, finance, and even some international politics. The zaibatsu, powerful families, and officers of the Army and Navy Departments naturally appreciated Takahashi Korekiyo's policies very much. This policy and the grasp of international strategic timing allowed the Japanese ruling class to seize a large amount of monetary wealth. Not just banknotes; Japan even got a lot of hard currency. Gold reserves increased greatly.

What gave Japan a headache at present was the huge contradiction accumulated by crazy plundering. Compressing all unnecessary expenses meant compressing the interests of the lower classes. The upper classes used Japan's policies to make huge profits. Japanese citizens lived a hard life. To solve the civil resistance sentiment, the Japanese upper echelons moved a large number of landless farmers to southern and northern Korea. At the same time, they increased the plundering of the colony Korea.

Northern Korea was a mining area, and people died every day in every mining area. The already extremely insufficient rations for mine slaves were further cut. Any mine slave who could not complete the mining quota would not receive food that day. If a mine slave could not complete the mining quota for two consecutive days, they would be whipped in public. Tired, hungry, and injured, mine slaves died quickly. In order to complete the task volume assigned by the Army Department, Japanese mine owners had to frantically adopt such means, using naked death threats to increase production.

When this method was first implemented, it did produce a tiny bit of effect. If there were no resistance from Korean patriots, perhaps this effect could have been maintained. However, Korean patriots formed guerrilla groups. They utilized the terrain to attack Japanese mining areas in the north. How could the Japanese Army Department allow their cash cow to suffer the slightest damage? They immediately organized troops to implement a "cleaning" policy around the mining areas. All surrounding Korean villages were collectively captured; men were sent to mine, and women became slaves who could be bought and sold.

The Japanese Governor-General of Korea was responsible for settling the Japanese who moved to Korea in those villages that had been swept clean. The North Korea Railway Company, reorganized from the South Manchuria Railway Company, provided land in northern Korea to these landless Japanese people. In addition to farming and paying taxes, these Japanese were also organized by "Han Tie" (Korea Railway) for military training to assist the army in guarding Japanese mines. The army obtained more safety zones and more auxiliary troops. Production was stabilized again in the short term.

All captured Korean guerrilla members were brutally tortured. The vast majority of captured guerrillas confessed; they pointed out the camps of the Korean guerrillas. The Japanese army immediately attacked these camps and quickly eliminated most of the Korean guerrillas.

The Korean patriots were not frightened; they were still fighting. After the Army Department inevitably expanded the scope of Japanese mining areas to seize greater benefits, the Korean guerrillas attacked again. The purpose of this action was no longer to kill Japanese and destroy mines. The main purpose of every successful attack on a mine was to rescue mine slaves.

Most of these mine slaves who had lost everything chose to run for their lives home, while a small number chose to join the Korean guerrillas. Most of those mine slaves who ran for their lives failed to escape home; they were intercepted and executed by the Japanese halfway. Even the lucky few, after escaping home, found their homes destroyed and themselves completely homeless. Or not long after escaping back, they were arrested again. This time, not only the mine slave himself suffered, but the mine slave's whole family was also implicated.

But doing so couldn't even be called mending the fold after the sheep were lost. Japan's actions in the northern mining areas were finally exposed. As Koreans' own intelligence channels began to spread, people who originally did not oppose Korean patriots began to support them. Guys who originally chose to escape out of fear also began to gradually lean towards Korean patriots.

Moreover, the Japanese gradually discovered that they had created a batch of enemies who were fearless of death for themselves. Mine slaves who could survive all had good bodies, especially a strong desire to win. All the weak had already died. After the Korean guerrillas were composed of such a batch of members with only the desire for revenge in their minds, they erupted with amazing combat effectiveness.

As long as the guerrilla members of mine slave origin were fed full, they could march in the mountains for several days continuously. As long as there was any combat opportunity, these guerrilla members would not let it go. What made the Japanese Army Department feel fearful was that the Korean guerrilla members caught initially would confess after some torture. The current guerrilla members, no matter how tortured, actually revealed absolutely no news. Some guerrilla members, fearing they couldn't help confessing after being captured, even bit off their own tongues after being captured.

The extremely angry Japanese Army Department brutally killed the tortured guerrilla members and then hung their corpses in areas where guerrillas appeared, intending to intimidate the Korean guerrillas. Later, the Japanese army found that even taking prisoners was a quite difficult thing. Korean guerrilla members carried "glory grenades" with them. Once they fell into a situation of being captured, they would not hesitate to immediately pull the grenade to commit suicide.

In northern Korea, Korean guerrilla members holding Japanese-style weapons and eating food without any markings on the packaging engaged in brutal battles with Japan's large-scale army and the immigrant army under "Han Tie." Although they hadn't become a significant climate yet, the Japanese army no longer thought they could easily wipe these people out completely.

Compared with Japan's overall "flourishing" situation, these things were just small problems. However, Japan knew very well that it was the People's Party supporting the Korean guerrillas, and it was only a matter of time before a new war broke out between Japan and the People's Party. If during the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan could still rely on a large number of pro-Japanese Koreans to fight the Qing army, in the future war, a large number of Koreans would throw themselves into the war as the vanguard of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army without turning back. Therefore, Japan paid great attention to the movements of the People's Party government, which already controlled half of China and was recognized by the vast majority of major countries in the world.

Regarding the upcoming Third Plenary Session of the First Central Committee of the People's Party, the Japanese tried every means to get the core news. This plenary session would not only establish the latest leadership collective of the People's Party but also structure the leadership collective of the People's Party government. It would further determine the structure of the People's Party government and the future strategic direction of People's Party China.

The movements of the People's Party were crucial to Japan.

Not only Japan, but countries all over the world, especially those in fierce war, were extremely interested in what system and policies China would adopt. As a power ranked in the top ten in the world in 1917, and as a New China joining the world structure with an equal identity, any decision of this country would have an impact on the world.