"Your Highness Hirohito, if Japan requires any material aid, I can return immediately to contact the Chinese government," the Chinese Minister to Japan said loudly, stepping up to Hirohito first among all the envoys.

Okamura Neiji, whose consciousness was already filled with shock and confusion, was startled. Amidst the panicked crowd, this young Chinese Minister remained calm. Although his breathing was rapid, he had at least regained his composure. However, Crown Prince Hirohito remained silent, standing there in a daze as if he couldn't hear anything, staring blankly at the distant sky.

Seeing no reaction from Hirohito, the Chinese Minister turned to the Japanese Prime Minister Yamamoto Gonnohyōe, who had already stood up, and repeated his offer loudly. "Mr. Prime Minister, if Japan needs any assistance, please speak frankly."

Yamamoto Gonnohyōe was also trembling all over. Faced with the goodwill shown by Japan's toughest enemy at this moment, he couldn't find the words to respond for a moment. It was the Minister of Finance, Takahashi Korekiyo, who shakily stood up and walked over to the Chinese Minister. "We thank the Chinese side for their kindness. We will make preparations in this regard immediately."

After saying this, Takahashi Korekiyo looked at the dazed Hirohito, then at the speechless Yamamoto Gonnohyōe. He wanted to say something, but in the end, he remained silent. If he, the Finance Minister, took any action to lead the situation at this time, aside from attracting meaningless hostility to himself, it would only expose the chaos and incompetence of the Japanese government to the foreign envoys.

Fortunately, the officials of the Japanese Imperial Palace were not useless. They immediately played their role, first ushering the foreign envoys to a "safe" place without explanation, and then beginning to clean up the furniture and other items in the Akasaka Detached Palace that had been messed up by the earthquake. Of course, except for necessary fires, all kitchen stoves and the like were extinguished.

As an Army Colonel and not a member of the Imperial Guard, Okamura Neiji was left there, ignored. He tactfully prepared to leave the Akasaka Detached Palace. Because of the aftershocks, the palace staff walking back and forth were unsteady and accidentally bumped into Hirohito lightly. This bump seemed to wake Hirohito from a nightmare. He suddenly turned his head and saw Okamura Neiji preparing to withdraw. He said in a trembling voice, "Okamura-kun, you stay here for now."

Malicious gazes immediately fell upon Okamura Neiji. Those gazes felt like needles pricking his back, making him uncomfortable. However, since the Crown Prince had given a clear order, Okamura Neiji naturally couldn't refuse. For the time being, Okamura Neiji stood behind Hirohito, watching this future Emperor of Japan facing everyone with a gloomy, silent, and cold expression. With constant aftershocks, Okamura Neiji could only focus all his attention on protecting Hirohito's safety, not daring to suggest that Hirohito issue any disaster relief instructions immediately.

However, within an hour of the earthquake, even though the high walls of the Akasaka Detached Palace blocked the direct view, thick smoke could still be seen rising over Tokyo. Reports naturally arrived at the Akasaka Detached Palace very quickly. The reporter's throat seemed to be strangled by an invisible hand. Due to terror, his vocal cords seemed frozen. "Tokyo is on fire!"

September 1, 1923, was a Saturday. The Tokyo area was bustling with people. Merchants and office workers were still busy in office buildings, while housewives began to cook. Because it was Saturday, the stations were packed with people preparing to go on vacation.

When the great earthquake struck, many families had their stoves burning vigorously. Stoves collapsed, overturning pots and pans, splashing flames and sending sparks flying. Tokyo was not only densely populated, but its houses were also mostly wooden structures. The earthquake destroyed gas pipelines, causing gas to leak and ignite upon contact with fire. Residents' stoves provided the fire source, while the gas and wooden houses served as excellent "fuel." The combination of these factors turned Tokyo and other places into a sea of fire. Explosions and cries for help from the fire rose and fell.

The strong earthquake destroyed the water mains under the ground in Tokyo. Japan had many earthquakes and was considered experienced in disaster relief. But no matter how quick the firefighters were, they couldn't fight the fire with their bodies. When the water valves were opened, there was no gushing tap water. Instead, many cracks suddenly opened on the ground. Some firefighters couldn't dodge in time and fell directly into the terrible gaps. Then the gaps snapped shut like the bloody mouth of a demon. The screams of these firefighters could not be heard at all on the Japanese streets already filled with shrieks and wails. Then, the water in the ruptured underground pipes gushed out from the newly closed ground cracks under strong underground pressure. The firefighters and other unfortunates who had fallen into the cracks had just been crushed into meat paste by the powerful force of the earth. This meat paste and severed limbs were mixed in the underground spurting water and flushed out of the cracks. Streams of silver-white and blood-red water columns danced in the air together with broken limbs.

After the fire broke out, it quickly became uncontrollable. The shockwaves brought by the earthquake stirred up huge gales in the area. The burning areas immediately turned into a sea of fire, and the wind aided the fire, making it burn more and more fiercely. From the seaside to the city, the strong wind swept up everything that could be swept up, scattering burning debris that had no open flames into areas that had not yet caught fire. Wherever the fire seeds spread, soaring flames ignited. Factories were burning, schools were burning, residential houses were burning...

The raging fire grilled the air to a temperature exceeding the ignition point of paper in a very short time. Then, fire seeds were no longer needed at all. Wherever this terrible scorching wind blew, things began to burn! Paper burned, wood burned, houses burned. The dead, the injured, the living—humans who were unfortunately swallowed by the scorching wind also began to burn. First the hair, then the clothes, and then the skin and subcutaneous fat.

The dead were lucky because they couldn't die again. The living humans swept into the scorching wind couldn't even let out a scream. The moment they subconsciously opened their mouths, the terrible high temperature cooked their soft throats and vocal cords, and these poor humans' lungs also lost the ability to breathe. The moment their skin began to burn, these humans were not yet dead. In addition to the pain of burning like falling into the flames of hell felt on the body surface, the humans also had to endure the terrible pain of suffocation internally. Under such double pain, the dead all clutched their own throats with their hands. When their charred bodies were found, their tragic state made it look as if they had strangled themselves with their own hands.

Of course, whether their bodies could be found or not was also a matter of luck. The entire Tokyo had been swallowed by soaring flames, as if the sky was burning and the earth was burning. Burning houses collapsed on the dead, and many people were burned into unrecognizable charcoal together with the wood.

Reporters rushed into the Akasaka Detached Palace one after another. For the first two hours, they mainly reported on the fire in Tokyo. Amidst the ceaseless aftershocks, reports of tsunamis began to appear in the third hour.

In order to escape the earthquake and fire, the lucky survivors began to look for a place where they wouldn't be crushed by collapsing buildings or burned by the fire to stay temporarily. The only places that could meet these two requirements were beaches, ports, and piers. Terrified people flocked to Tokyo's beaches, piers, and ports.

The epicenter of the Great Kanto Earthquake was off the coast of Tokyo. The earthquake not only caused huge losses directly on land. The huge energy released by the earth's crust also caused a monstrous tsunami. At the ports, piers, and beaches, the refugees who had just escaped from the earthquake and fire saw the sea water receding at a terrible speed, as if some behemoth in the sea was frantically swallowing the sea water. Then, at the edge of the sea and sky that the eyes could reach, a silver line suddenly appeared. A moment later, the refugees taking shelter at the ports, piers, and beaches saw the silver line approaching the coast at an alarming speed. Soon, a transverse giant wave more than ten meters high pushed over, covering the sky and earth. Some people were already scared silly. A wave more than ten meters high, with no end in sight to the left or right, was like a blue high wall with a silver edge on top. such a behemoth had never appeared even in the most terrible nightmares. Not to mention, the giant wave did not gradually lower as it moved, as Tokyoites who had seen the sea many times were accustomed to.

The tsunami not only did not lower with the distance moved, but instead grew taller as it approached the coast. This change, which seemed to completely violate human common sense, dumbfounded at least half of the people, who stared blankly and didn't think of turning back to escape towards the burning Tokyo.

And those who tried to escape like ants in front of the giant wave had no way to escape at all. This monstrous giant wave lunged at the coast at a speed of 750 kilometers per hour. In 1923, except for artillery shells, nothing could exceed the speed of this tsunami in a very short time. Even the fastest airplanes couldn't fly that fast. Within the range that the tsunami could reach, the crowds and everything by the sea were instantly swallowed by the huge wave over ten meters high, either swept into the depths of the ocean, thrown into mid-air by the huge wave, or thrown far onto the land like ants played with by a giant hand.

The air in the Akasaka Detached Palace seemed to have solidified. Not only the always silent Hirohito, but the terrible news also left everyone speechless. Those with weak psychological endurance listened to the terrified reports of the messengers and collapsed on the ground, their legs weak and unable to move. Others, disregarding any rules, began to weep silently. Of course, no one thought of scolding or punishing these people at this time. Under such a terrible natural disaster, everyone's heart was filled with fear and despair. They even felt that this world was about to be destroyed.

Okamura Neiji had once felt that Hirohito's "dazed" performance was really too slow to react. However, at this moment, his mind was in chaos. If there were a mirror at this time, Okamura Neiji might not even be able to recognize that the guy in the mirror with an iron-blue face was himself.

Tokyo gathered the wealth of Edo for more than two hundred years, gathered Japan's important industries, and gathered Japan's largest number of ships. Not only did the earthquake and fire destroy the wealth on Tokyo's land, but the huge tsunami also destroyed everything in Tokyo's port from the sea. Since the Meiji Restoration, everything gathered in Tokyo had vanished in an instant. Not long ago, Okamura Neiji had talked with Nagata Tetsuzan about Japan's luck and national destiny. They had even laughed at the "absurd view" that Japan's rise was merely to stimulate China's rise. At this moment, Okamura Neiji couldn't help but want to believe that there really was such a thing as fate. After such a disaster, Okamura Neiji couldn't imagine what Japan could use to confront China.

In this chaos, it was Hirohito who finally spoke. "Send someone to contact Father Emperor. We absolutely cannot let Father Emperor's safety be compromised. Also, order the troops stationed in Osaka to transfer to the Tokyo area to maintain order."

With such clear instructions, the Akasaka Detached Palace immediately seemed to regain its backbone and temporarily recovered some vitality. Someone had already stood up to convey the order.

"Okamura-kun, Okamura-kun!" The calls made Okamura Neiji look up from his completely absent-minded state, only to see that the person calling him was Crown Prince Hirohito. Okamura Neiji immediately forcibly took back his mind and said in a tone that was still considered relatively compliant with the rules, "What are your orders, Your Highness?"

Even if Okamura Neiji's etiquette was a bit worse at this time, it wouldn't attract other people's attention. At this time, being able to have a relatively normal reaction was considered quite a good performance. So Hirohito didn't care about Okamura Neiji's loss of composure at all. If he didn't lose his composure at this time, it would be completely abnormal. "Okamura-kun, you personally take people to Father Emperor's place. You must protect their safety!"

"Hai!" Okamura Neiji immediately bowed and answered. When he looked up again, Okamura Neiji asked, "Your Highness, should we bring some carrier pigeons? After the earthquake, the telegraph network is probably useless."

This clear train of thought reminded many people. Hirohito nodded. "Urgently deploy carrier pigeons. Including the messengers going to Osaka to mobilize troops, they must also bring carrier pigeons!"

While the high-ranking officials in Japan's number one earthquake-resistant building, the Akasaka Detached Palace, were working hard on post-disaster issues, Kita Ikki managed to rescue all the members of the Social Investigation Society buried under the collapsed houses with great difficulty. This was really a great stroke of luck. Since school was about to start officially, all members of the society gathered on Saturday. They hadn't even been this complete during the entire social investigation period.

Another stroke of luck was that the society was located in an old school building with limited space. After entering September, the temperature dropped a lot, so the society meeting was simply held in the open space outside the school building. Although the young people were frightened by the earthquake, there were no fire sources on the flat ground, nor did any ground fissures appear. The vast majority of members were safe and sound.

Even for the few students who stayed inside the school building to be in charge of work, when the earthquake came, the clever ones had already run out of the school building. The not-so-clever ones or those with weak athletic ability were buried in the school building. But after all, this was a Japanese-style house. The house structure inherited from practical experience was at least suitable for earthquake-prone areas. After more than an hour of rescue efforts, the three young people buried inside were finally rescued. Two were seriously injured and one was slightly injured. For the time being, no life-threatening danger was found for the seriously injured.

The young people were not only saving people, but some also ran out to inquire about news. The information brought back really scared Kita Ikki and the others. "Tokyo is on fire!" And without much effort, the thick smoke and the crowds fleeing into the school for refuge brought various news into the campus of Takushoku University. Some students whose homes were in the Tokyo fire zone immediately wanted to run home.

Kita Ikki shouted angrily, "No one is allowed to act without authorization!" Over these days, he had established a considerable degree of prestige. At this moment, his thunderous roar finally calmed the scene.

Striding up to the students, Kita Ikki shouted, "Since I gathered you here, I am responsible for you! Whether you like it or not, I can't watch you go to your deaths! If your families are fine, they are very likely coming towards the school now! If they arrive at the school and can't find you, what do you expect your families to do? If your families unfortunately had an accident, isn't running back to the fire scene just sending yourselves to death? Do your families hope to see such a result?"

Whether the words were pleasant to hear was not important at all. At this time, Kita Ikki had to stabilize the students' hearts first. Sure enough, after hearing the simple speculation about the matter, regardless of the expressions on the students' faces, at least they no longer had the urge to rush out in a hurry. Seeing that he had roughly controlled the situation, Kita Ikki roared again, "Now everyone listen to the order, line up and assemble!"