In Fuso Edo Castle, the bustling citizens are parading in the night-lit river. The cries of vendors, the humming of singers, and the unique sound of three-string plucking all come together to form a bustling Edo Ukiyo-e.
This is the most prosperous city in Fuso. Three hundred years of management by the Tokugawa Shogunate has made this the economic center of Japan. When you are here, you will not feel that this is a weak country that suffers from Western bullying like the Qing Dynasty.
In an unpretentious izakaya, four men were quietly watching the flow of people on the street from the second-floor window. The faint fragrance of powder in the air made them frown.
"The ancient Chinese poems are right. Business girls don't know the hatred of their country's subjugation, but they still sing flowers across the river! Isn't this the case for us in Japan? The Western powers opened our country with cannons, and Xiao Letian in the south changed us despicably. The name of the country will destroy the roots of Japan..."
"Hush! Kojima-kun, keep quiet... don't say that person's name. We already have many taboos when discussing matters together. There are many forces in Edo City, so be careful that walls have ears!"
The man named Kojima-kun was scolded in a low voice by the man sitting on the seat. He was too frightened to say no more, because this man was none other than the famous pioneer of the reform forces, Katsura Kogoro.
Katsura Kogoro, a feudal lord of Choshu, later renamed Kido Takayun, was a very influential leader among the reform forces in history. Unfortunately, in this era, he encountered the radiant Xiao Letian and the strong intervention of the Prime Minister of Tokai. Let the overthrow movement completely collapse, and the ideal plans of these reformers be shattered.
In their eyes, the name of Japan was changed to Fuso, which was simply a great shame. The establishment of Fuso Bank allowed Japan's economy to be controlled by foreigners. As for Xiao Letian's repeated recruitment of wild samurai, he was digging into the roots of Japanese Bushido.
"Gentlemen! You Japanese samurai know very well that they are only loyal to their master and not this country. When that person can provide better promotion conditions and more opportunities for meritorious service, will they look back? They can only become For the sword in that person’s hand!”
Katsura Kogoro's expression was extremely sad. He raised his head and drank a glass of bitter wine, with tears in his eyes. The remaining three people were all loyal fans of Katsura Kogoro. They drank a glass of sake together and said sadly, "Is there no way? Isn't that person invincible?"
"Of course there are ways. Now it seems that direct military conflict can only treat the symptoms but not the root cause. When you can't kill that man, the money and military power in his hands will tempt more and more Japanese samurai to invest in him. In the arms of the Japanese! In the end, the Japanese will still kill the Japanese, and all the blood will be shed by us!"
"So we can only find a breakthrough within ourselves first. If we want to get rid of the control of the devil, we must first open up the people's wisdom. What is the people's wisdom? We must first shape our Japanese national spirit, instill national concepts into all Japanese people, and let them First recognize the identity of Japanese nationals..."
"People must have a discriminating mind. To let those samurai know that we are Japanese and they are Chinese, they are not the same kind of people at all. We must have this discriminating mind..."
Katsura Kogoro's speech inspired his fans, and the three people suddenly became excited, and they discussed in low voices how to awaken Japanese national consciousness and how to carry out vigorous propaganda.
But they didn't know that in the kitchen outside the izakaya, a dark figure was quietly lurking on the beam, staring brightly at the busy couple below. A thin wire hung from the beam. To the sake pot on the stove.
The transparent liquid slowly flowed down the wire and accurately fell into the narrow mouth of the sake pot, one drop, two drops, and three drops. When the proprietress turned around to prepare sashimi, the wire had been quietly retracted to the beam.
Half an hour later, Katsura Kogoro and three of his friends suddenly vomited blood and fell unconscious on the tatami while drinking. By the time the frightened shopkeeper called the officers and soldiers, the bodies of the four people had already cooled down.
Katsura Kogoro's experience was not an isolated one. In just one week, fifteen reformers including Sakuma Shozan, Oyama Iwa, Otori Keisuke, etc. were assassinated.
Some were poisoned in izakayas, some were strangled while writing letters at home, and some even drowned while soaking in hot springs...
The death of fifteen scholars in such a huge Japan is not a big deal at all. The people are still living peacefully. In their eyes, what day will no one die?
But in the eyes of those big names, especially those with real power, the deaths of these people are very intriguing, because these people are the most fanatical reformers and the core members of the people who respect the king and fight the barbarians.
Yōho Matsudaira in Aizuwakamatsu Castle once sighed in the direction of Kyoto after drinking, "The emperor has no chance to take the stage anymore. To be king is just a broken dream in the end!"
When Xiao Letian left Fuso by boat from Edo, he suddenly found that one side of the dock was bustling with people, and there were even sounds of fighting.
After calling Ryoma-kun and asking casually, I found out that it was a ship preparing to sail to Ryukyu, and those quarreling were countless wild samurai who could not survive.
"Prime Minister! The life of the Japanese wild samurai is so hard. They go hungry and have enough to eat. Sometimes they even have to work part-time as bandits to have enough to eat... Now their dream land is Ryukyu, and only there is a better place. Opportunity!"
Following the sound of the wind, Xiao Letian could faintly hear the shouts of the wanderers. They wanted to use the least amount of money to get a chance to board the ship. There were even loan sharks loaning money next to the ship.
Those poor ronin couldn't even afford a ticket, and even needed to borrow loan sharks to get the chance to board the ship. The impoverished samurai who couldn't borrow money even started fighting with fists pumping, and the situation quickly got out of control. stand up.
Xiao Letian sighed and said to himself, "What is the core competitiveness of a country? What is it that unites people's hearts? It's clear when you look at these warriors. All they want is an upward passage, a way to An opportunity to change your own destiny..."
"This is the will of the people. Whoever can be the first in East Asia to establish an efficient and fair talent promotion system will be able to capture the hearts and minds of the people, especially the hearts and minds of the elite!"
"The wild samurai couldn't see any chance to change their destiny, so they wanted to overthrow the Tokugawa family's rule. Hong Xiuquan of Guangxi couldn't see the possibility of being admitted as a scholar, so he wanted to rebel and break the lid on his head!"
"Block it! You continue to block the hearts of the people! One day you will force all the elites in Asia to come under my command, Xiao Letian! One day..."
Note: What’s going on recently? Entering April, subscriptions were actually two-thirds less than last month! This is too weird... Xinjing can only shamelessly ask book friends to subscribe to the original version.
