Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Meiji Restoration, Rise of Japan

Before this character appears on the stage, we need to understand the history and political system of Japan, the country across the sea.It will be very boring if you go to the history of Japan, but my narration will be a little different. The history of Japan as a country can be traced back to 10,000 BC. Of course, it was still a primitive society at that time, chasing prey with bare buttocks all day long, so there is nothing to say.The real unification of Japan was in the fifth century A.D., which is equivalent to the period of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties in our country. During this period, a large number of Chinese and Koreans immigrated here, and they brought the technology of farming and rice planting. In this way, the Japanese finally You can have a full bowl of rice.

Next, Japan entered a long era of agricultural society.The Tang civilization had the greatest influence on them. The imperial palace in Kyoto was modeled after the Tang Dynasty, and the political system was almost copied from the Tang Dynasty. At the beginning, the emperor had the greatest power (equivalent to the emperor of China), but later, the situation There has been a change. Because there are always wars between the islands, there have been military interventions in politics, and power has been transferred to the generals, whose authority is called the shogunate.Japan thus entered the shogunate era.

But the shogunate does not directly rule the whole island. There are hundreds of vassals under it. These vassals are lords (name masters) with a lot of land and manors, so they also have a title called "Daimyo" - which is equivalent to our country. landlord. In order to protect these lands, the daimyo had to keep a group of people who fought with knives, which was equivalent to the landlord's guard or bodyguards, which were "samurai".Below the samurai class, there are a large number of farmers and townspeople (merchants, handicraftsmen).Then there are two types of people at the bottom of the hierarchy, one is called "filthy", it feels like they always have dirty things on them, and the lowest is called "non-human", in fact they are all bankrupt The vagrants, vagabonds, beggars and so on.

It is worth pointing out that, from the emperor to the non-human beings, the identities of these people in the hierarchy are hereditary.If you are unfortunate enough to be born into a "non-human" family, this life is basically a miserable fate.Not only do they not have enough to eat, but their lives are not guaranteed.For example, if a Japanese samurai got a new sword at that time, his first action was to find a non-human to try the knife, because according to regulations, there would be no punishment for killing a non-human. Although the emperor is at the top, life has been difficult for him since the shogunate took power.When the harvest is good, I will give you more food. If there is a tsunami and earthquake, the emperor will be hungry.Generations of emperors ate a full meal and sewed and mended for three years. This is how they came—this state has lasted for hundreds of years.

In addition to the reason that the emperor was under house arrest and surveillance by the shogunate, there is another more important reason. In fact, the shogunate did not deliberately not use the emperor as a cadre, but Japan was too poor in the shogunate era. Under the dark hierarchy and lack of resources, Japan's productivity level is not only not comparable to that of the Chinese Empire at that time, it is relatively low in the world.According to some historical records, the Japanese did not solve the housing problem for a long time.When the family is going to live, they just dig a hole in a random place, and the hole needs to be dug very level.

They are called "straight holes", that is, they are dug straight down the ground, the hole is protected from rain with thatch, and a wooden stick is inserted in the middle of the hole as a straight ladder tool that requires hands to climb.When you go out to work in the morning, you have to shout at the entrance of the cave before you climb up: "I'm out!" This is to prevent people from outside the cave preparing to pee or birds shit on their heads; similarly, you have to shout before you come back at night and jump down :"I am back!" If you don't say hello in advance, it is easy to step on the heads of the family in the cave.

Westerners call the Japanese "Asian yellow monkeys". In addition to factors such as long faces, short necks, and short legs, the ability to climb trees is also a reason. With a bang, he went out. There is also a saying that the Japanese have other specialties in digging these holes.In order to shelter from the wind and rain and facilitate entry and exit, they are often dug in places that are more convenient for life, such as "Panasonic", "Watanabe", "Yamaguchi", "Tanaka", "Takeshita", etc. Over time, these landmarks have become the most common in Japan. Your surname is convenient for everyone to remember - you are from Matsushita, and you are from Watanabe.But this is unofficial history, the credibility is not high, and no relevant historical evidence has been found. I am not saying this to defame the reputation of the Japanese. Everyone has a hard time, and it is purely a matter of degree.

In the Japanese imperial palace, the emperor is served by an old and ugly old woman.Hey, where did the eunuch go?This is really not.Throughout Japanese history there were no eunuchs. Japan learned the political system from the Tang Dynasty but did not remove the eunuch system. When people talk about this phenomenon, they generally condemn the darkness of the Chinese feudal dynasty and praise Japan for its human nature. In fact, it is another reason. To understand this reason, we must first understand the following question. Everyone knows that becoming a eunuch means cutting off that deadly organ.This is a very complicated process.First of all, you have to prepare a month's worth of rice, because you have to lie in bed for a month.Then there are a few thick ropes that bind your hands and feet to prevent you from moving around when the pain is unbearable.Finally, there are a few hard-boiled eggs, which are held in the mouth, and the eggs are bitten when the pain is unbearable.

I won't repeat the process of moving the knife, it was a rather tragic process.Other tasks include pre-operative psychological counseling, surgical preparation, accident handling, and postoperative recovery observation, etc. In short, this work must be done by professionals.Although we are familiar with a saying: If you want to practice magical skills, you must first leave the palace, but children must not be fooled, it is very dangerous to leave the palace, there is no master knife master to perform the knife, if you cut it yourself, the organ will be lost, and the consequences will be unimaginable .

To sum up, how to successfully become a eunuch is definitely a job with high technical gold content. Among them, a skilled master knife master plays a key role. It is not easy to cultivate such a talent in ancient times .And I have said so much, in fact, I want to prove that in order to master this advanced technology, it is best to have the accumulation from theory to practice, that is, the master surgeon must have an internship period. It’s not good to use people for practice. You need to use some animals that are similar to people to do experiments repeatedly, such as cows and sheep. The problem is that Japan has always been a small island country, with only rice and silk industries, and basically no animal husbandry.The result of no animal husbandry is that there is no one to master the advanced castration technology-this is the real reason why there are no eunuchs in Japanese history: a purely economic problem.He has never cut an animal, how can you rest assured that he cut it?

Because of the lack of animal husbandry, for a long, long time, the Japanese did not eat meat - no meat.We used to describe a person as poor, at best, "I don't know the taste of meat in three months, and a bird fades out of my mouth", but the Japanese may not know the taste of meat for several years, ten years or even decades, and even the taste of bird eggs in their mouths Out.The Japanese can't eat meat, so they have to despise the behavior of eating meat, thinking that it is a "dirty thing". At certain times, the way to "eat meat" is to close the door, sit for two hours as a family, and then open the door to announce : "Today we eat meat!" It wasn't until around 1872, under the leadership of our upcoming character, that Japanese nationals began to eat beef. This is the reality of Japan during the agricultural society.The level of agricultural production is single and low, the housing is not good, the food is simple, and natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis are frequent.The unbearably poor Japanese had to venture across the sea to rob China's coast, so a group of people we are familiar with - Japanese pirates appeared. In our impression, the Japanese pirates are those sporadic teams that make small troubles and leave after grabbing things. In fact, even the ruling class of Japan at that time was very addicted to being Japanese pirates. Their biggest dream is to one day land on the rich and beautiful China earth.In 1592 during the shogunate period (the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty), General Toyotomi Hideyoshi led the Japanese army to the Yalu River, and planned to eventually fight the Yalu River, establish a Greater East Asian Empire with Beijing as its capital, and give the ten counties around Beijing to the Emperor. The rest he took care of himself. Although Toyotomi Hideyoshi's fantasy was eventually disillusioned, this idea became one of the sources of Japan's "mainland policy". The Japanese's view of the Chinese land has a long history and a long history. Japan's last shogunate belonged to the Tokugawa family, known as the "Tokugawa shogunate".Beginning in 1633, in order to strictly prohibit the preaching of Western Christianity in Japan, the Tokugawa shogunate announced a 200-year "closed country". Japanese who have lived overseas for more than five years are automatically deprived of Japanese nationality and are prohibited from returning to their home country.The whole of Japan only slightly opened Nagasaki Port, allowing Japanese merchants to do limited international trade with the Chinese Empire, the Netherlands, and North Korea in exchange for some tea, silk, cheese, etc., while completely prohibiting any trade with other European and American countries. trade and contacts. Everything changed from 1854.After the British blasted open the gates of the Qing Dynasty in 1840, the Americans also blasted open the gates of Japan, forcing Japan to sign the first unequal treaty in Japanese history - the "Japan-US Treaty of Goodwill."Then, the British, Russians, French, and Dutch flocked to sign unequal treaties with Japan, such as opening treaty ports, demarcating concessions, and being forced to grant extraterritoriality and most-favored-nation treatment to Western powers, etc., which occurred in the Qing Dynasty. , also appeared in Japan, and Japan was forced to open up to the outside world—entering the era of "founding the country". But in the eyes of the Japanese people, this is traitorous.The combination of national sentiment and the economic plunder brought about by unequal treaties led to uprisings all over Japan, raising the banner of resisting the Western invaders and the government-the "traitorous rule" of the shogunate.In the ten years from 1857 to 1867, more than 500 peasant uprisings broke out across Japan. In the later stage of the uprising, daimyo and samurai classes in the economically developed areas of the southwest joined in, wanting to take the opportunity to get rid of the rule of the shogunate. . Everyone knows that an uprising always needs a slogan to express ideals, unite people's hearts, and establish a united front. Before dying, you can raise your arms and shout to inspire future generations.For the Banbai faction, the ready-made slogan is to drive away the foreigners—"repel the barbarians", but this is not enough. It is also necessary to introduce a spiritual leader of the uprising, who should be acceptable to all parties.So, everyone thought of the man who hid in the dilapidated palace and ate his last meal without stopping - the emperor. Under the leadership of the slogan "Respect the king and fight against the barbarians", after several small-scale battles (there are few Japanese and even fewer soldiers, the so-called "big war" is often a group fight of hundreds of people), by 1867, the Rebel faction had won In the second year, the shogunate was forced to return power to the emperor. The capital of Japan was moved from Kyoto to Edo and renamed Tokyo. But at this time, an unexpected situation happened. That is, Emperor Xiaomei, the spiritual leader launched by the Banbai faction, passed away. He was poisoned and killed by the anti-curtain faction in order to better control his son.It's been a mystery until now. After the death of Emperor Xiaoming, his 16-year-old son succeeded to the throne.This is Muruhito, the 122nd emperor of Japan. Although the former Muhito was the crown prince and lived in the imperial palace in Kyoto, due to the house arrest of the Tokugawa shogunate, he lived a life of a prisoner from birth. His family has no freedom of movement.His father, Emperor Xiaomei, lived in anxiety and fear every day, and his nerves were highly tense.The imperial palace was dilapidated, cold and narrow, and the palace walls had already collapsed. Infected by the terrifying atmosphere, at night, scenes similar to those in Japanese ghost movies appeared.When he was a child, Mu Ren was often awakened by Lei, and when he was so frightened that he burst into tears, no one came to protect him.Most of the time, he can only stay alone, growing up alone, accompanied by a few weak old mothers, occasionally he can hear the laughter of other people outside the palace wall, or see a kite over the palace wall, but he walked If you don't go out, you will live in ghost movies for many years. Life in the palace is also quite miserable. Although it will not starve to death, it can only solve food and clothing.Muren's elder sister had no choice but to live in a monastery because she had no house to live in. Muren's greatest hobby is reading.With the faint light at night, he read all the Japanese, Chinese and Western books he found from various sources, delved into knowledge, and took notes carefully.This increased his knowledge, gave him courage, and accompanied him through those difficult boring and lonely times. Among all the books, his favorite is war books. He admires those generals who went to war in the South and North. His biggest dream is to lead an army to fight on the battlefield! For a crown prince under house arrest, such a dream can only be imagined.Years of survival under knife edge have sharpened him, and also forged his intelligence and ambition.His character is taciturn, shy and timid in front of others, but he hides his coldness and gambler nature in his bones - because he knows that he has nothing to lose. The warmth and warmth of human relationships inside and outside the court and the impermanence of the world also made him mature.In the days when his wealth and life are controlled by others, when his self-esteem is trampled under the feet of others, he can only endure. It's not that he doesn't want to resist, he just knows that when resistance is powerless, the only thing to do It is to accumulate one's own strength and wait patiently. Then he waited for the victory of the Falling Curtain Movement and witnessed the death of his father, became a new generation of emperor, successfully got rid of the house arrest of the shogunate, and bid farewell to the life of a prisoner.At this time, he finally discovered that the God of Destiny will make things difficult for a person, but he will not make things difficult for a person forever.The cruelest way to treat a person is to give him the kind of life in which clothes come from hand to mouth and food to mouth. For a person who wants to make a difference, the sooner he accepts the tempering of life, the sooner he understands that people can only rely on yourself, the luckier you are. Because it will give you a strong heart. For many of us, the heart is very vulnerable. After suffering from life or emotional blows, it will be scarred, maybe more fragile, maybe slowly harden, maybe more numb, but this is all Not a strong heart. A strong heart is after these baptisms, after overcoming all fears, doubts and losses, you will find that the lost confidence, courage and trust have returned to your heart.This is the real wealth in life, it makes you always full of hope in life, always full of confidence in yourself, even with many scars, you can move forward lightly, even after falling many times, you can still find your way forward.The most important thing in life is actually how to carry on when you are not happy. Only a heart that has learned to smile after raising its head even if it is crying in a corner is a truly strong heart. The traps on the way forward test us all the time, waiting for us to fall and then get up.When you really get up, you will find that you are a strong fighter! When Muren left Kyoto, where he had lived for 16 years, to go to the New Imperial Palace in Tokyo, he regarded it as a new journey. Go and cut out your soul with the sword!Muren told himself.There is no doubt that he is a man with a strong heart, because every gambler has a strong heart. Although Muren knew that he might just be a new pawn in the hands of the Banbai faction, the greatest power must be returned to him in order to achieve a balance within the Banbai faction.Muren decided to make good use of this opportunity to complete the transformation from a spiritual leader to a practical leader, and use his own strength to tell everyone: I am the real monarch of this country! In the new imperial palace in Tokyo, Muren is still studying books from various countries.In order to study with peace of mind, he not only abolished two-thirds of the female officials in the harem, but also moved to live in the outer palace. He would not go to the harem once in half a year. Except for eating and sleeping, he spent all his time studying the theory of ruling the country. , and knowledge of war.Then, he personally trained the soldiers in the palace, and competed with the soldiers on horseback. He asked the soldiers to call him "Marshal".Because in his heart, there is always hidden the dream of galloping like a golden horse and iron horse! And when Muren returned to the main hall where political affairs were handled, he woke up from his dream, and faced with this poor and ruined country, the uneasiness and inferiority in the bones of this nation surged into his heart again. Japan is still as poor as ever, surrounded by the vast sea, the legend of "the sinking of Japan" is like a nightmare that will never go away, deeply rooted in the bones. The imperial kingdom is one of the big isolated islands in the vast sea. The land is poor and narrow, and the products are scarce. On the day when the population is overpopulated and the resources are exhausted, is the hope of survival just to compete with sharks for food? On the seaside of Tokyo Bay, Muren often walked out of the palace and looked towards the sea.We can't think that he is looking at the scenery, he is dispelling his heavy heart. Only by continuing Toyotomi Hideyoshi's career and making the beautiful and rich Chinese mainland a Japanese territory can I gain the true support of Japanese subjects and the power that truly belongs to me! I'm going to realize that distant "mainland policy"! I want to open up thousands of miles of waves and declare the country's prestige in all directions! Let's go!We are poor, but we can go to the Qing Dynasty on the other side to grab it! In September 1868, Muren officially held a grand enthronement ceremony.After the ceremony, Muren boarded his throne on the high platform. He looked around, took out a book——, turned to a page, and read aloud: "The sage listens to the world from the south, and governs from the Ming!" Muhito was known as Emperor Meiji in history. centralization!Hirobumi Ito's suggestion At the imperial meeting, Muren told the ministers his wish. The ministers listened to the dream of the 16-year-old boy in amazement. After Muren finished speaking, the hall was surprisingly quiet.Then, everyone came to their senses, and they said excitedly: Your Majesty, to realize the "Mainland Policy", this is exactly the dream I have been waiting for for many years! When everyone was excited, a person stood up and told Muren: Your Majesty, you have just ascended the throne, so there is no rush. We must do another thing first. His name is Ito Hirobumi. Ito Hirobumi was born in Changzhou, one of the four southwestern feudal clans that fell.Although Ito Hirobumi was a seemingly powerless scholar when he was young, in order to "respect the king and fight against the barbarians", he set up an assassination team and led a group of people. On the surface, they wandered the streets all day long, but in fact they were looking for opportunities He stabbed the foreign minister, and after the assassination failed, he went to the legation and set fire to it. Ito Hirobumi's enthusiasm moved the lord of the Changzhou Domain, and worried that he would cause more trouble if he continued to make trouble like this, so he simply paid for him to study in England. While Ito Hirobumi was gnawing his English book in London, there was another conflict between the British warship and the Choshu Domain, and the two sides were about to fight.Hearing the news, Ito Hirobumi hurriedly dropped his textbooks and rushed back to Changzhou Fan. Everyone thought he was here to fight, but Ito Hirobumi's performance surprised people: he came to speak for the British.Ito Hirobumi urged the feudal lord not to fight the British, but to make concessions first.His reason is: the foreigners are very powerful, and with our current strength, we cannot defeat them. The Changzhou Fan can only make some compromises with the foreigners first, to preserve and develop their strength. , It’s not too late to argue with the foreign devils. Ito Hirobumi told them that with their own knowledge of the outside world, if they fight against foreigners now, they will lose! However, the "comrades" who used to destroy foreigners with Ito Hirobumi could not accept this. They suspected that Ito Hirobumi had become a "British spy" and stood by the foreign devils after drinking some foreign ink.As a result, the "comrades in arms" set up an assassination team again, but this time the target of the assassination became "Ito spy". Fortunately, Ito Hirobumi escaped the assassination with the covert protection of the feudal lord. Then, the battle of the Changzhou Fan started, and the artillery of the British, French, American and Dutch allied forces blew Shimonoseki into a ruined port. In the face of the cruel reality, everyone realized that Hirobumi Ito was right.The Changzhou Fan turned from "destroying the foreigners" to "learning from the foreigners", from "repelling the barbarians" to "teaching the barbarians", opened up to the outside world, became self-reliant and self-reliant, and finally united with the other three vassals in the southwest region to successfully collapse and support Muren to come to power. This is the important experience of the intellectual Ito Hirobumi before the establishment of the Meiji government.After the establishment of the Meiji government, Hirobumi Ito became an important think tank in the government, and he was promoted all the way.The most important feature of this person is that he is flexible and focuses on practical interests. He does not have a mind that is confined by many rules, and he will not get stuck in a dead end and be unable to get out.He doesn't carry a burden, can let go of his figure, and can quickly accept what the reality makes him accept.He is a literati on the surface, but he is a samurai in his bones. He can not only hold a writing brush, but also hold a sword, not only can read, but can also fight - this is very different from the Qing Dynasty who plunged into stereotyped essays and exuded a "female attitude" all over his body. Readers are different.In a sense, Ito Hirobumi is also a terrible person.Don't be afraid of hooligans who can only fight, but be afraid of hooligans who can not only fight but also have culture-this makes sense. Ito Hirobumi told Muren that the invasion must first secure the interior. The most important thing for your Majesty now is to clean up the backyard. One thing must be done before the invasion-centralization of power. Centralization is divided into two steps, the first step is to eliminate the old forces.Now that the shogunate has collapsed, according to the principle of "cooking rabbits to death", "crossing rivers and demolishing bridges", and "those who fight in the country cannot sit in the country", the two classes of feudal lords and samurai cannot escape the fate of being purged.Mujin needs to issue an order, ordering the feudal lords to surrender their land and army, and no longer retain the feudal domain in the administrative structure, and the administrative divisions of the whole of Japan are re-divided into three prefectures and 72 counties. This is the abolition of the feudal domain and the establishment of the county.The policy of abolishing feudal domains and establishing counties had a huge impact on Japan.As mentioned earlier, although the previous Japan was called a country, it was actually similar to the enfeoffment of princes in the Western Zhou Dynasty in my country.As the power center of the country, the shogunate does not directly rule the country. There are more than 200 large and small vassals under it. Each vassal has its own policies and collects its own taxes. small kingdoms.The abolition of feudal vassals and the establishment of counties ended this kind of feudal feudalism, unified administration, unified taxation, and established a truly unified modern country.All Japanese have the concept of "country" since then. At this time, everyone will definitely think of the prefecture and county system that replaced the enfeoffment of princes in the history of our country, and Muren and Ito Hirobumi are similar to two people in the history of our country-Ying Zheng and Li Si.It is this effect. After solving the princes and landlords, the next thing to solve is the thugs of the landlords-samurai. This is an extremely tricky matter, because the samurai contributed the most to the Curtain Fall Movement. Most of them are samurai who have not studied for a few years, and the only thing they know is one word—sword.The uncle uses the sword to solve the problem. I heard that the shogunate was going to be overthrown. I dragged the sword and went to fight. Now I heard that it will be abolished. Can you not be in a hurry? But from the perspective of the country, this group of people must be abolished. Because apart from sharpening their knives, the samurai class does not work. In the past, the feudal clans took money to support them. Now that the feudal clan is gone, they ask the state for money, and the state cannot afford it (poor) . More importantly, the Western powers have made Muren and his team understand that this is no longer an era of cutting people with knives, but an era of relying on iron guns and cannons.No matter how many feats the warrior class has made for the unity of the country, and no matter how glorious their past is, they are useless from the standpoint of the ruler. But abolishing the samurai class will take a greater risk. Once they are cornered, the sword in their hands is the weapon of the uprising.So the Meiji government adopted a method of gradual liquidation.First, the conscription order was promulgated, stipulating that all healthy men over the age of 20 must perform compulsory military service, which means that all young men have become the new "samurai" of the country. , the country no longer has to pay to support them, and they have to pay taxes like everyone else. This order did not arouse much disturbance. It was the next order that caused the turmoil - the order to abolish the knife. The so-called abolition of swords is to stipulate that samurai cannot take swords into the streets casually.We know that a samurai is inseparable from his sword. He walks with it during the day and sleeps with it at night.Apparently this was an order to completely destroy the samurai class.You said that we had to be unemployed and pay taxes before, but no one can bear this mental blow. But Muren's attitude is very firm: in the future, only the country can use a knife!And you have to use a knife outside!I can't move personally, and I carry a knife every day, who to scare. The feared thing finally happened. In 1874, a well-known figure, Takamori Saigo, returned to his native Kagoshima prefecture, and the samurai swarmed around him, demanding that he speak for the samurai.Speaking of Xixiang Takamori, everyone must be familiar with his poem quoted by the young Comrade Mao Zedong: The author of the most original version of this poem was Saigo Takamori's comrade-in-arms Yuehe monk, and Saigo Takamori made a slight modification.The so-called comrades-in-arms means that they participated in the combat operations of the shogunate against the shogunate. Saigo Takamori was one of the leading figures. He made great achievements in overthrowing the shogunate and establishing the Meiji government. He even captured Tokyo for the government.Saigo Takamori himself was born in a lower-level samurai family, and he was the spiritual idol of all Japanese samurai at that time. Three years later (1877), Saigo Takamori finally raised the banner of rebellion against the government.In the end, the government forces won with difficulty, and Takamori Saigo was beheaded. This war was also the largest civil war in Japanese history (6,000 people were killed on both sides), and it was known as the Southwest War in history. The problem of the samurai was solved, and the factors affecting social harmony and stability were eliminated.Since then, Japan has completed the unification from form to substance, and a unified and centralized country has been established.And Muren's power has also been greatly enhanced, because he has become the object of allegiance of the country's new warriors - conscripts. The next step is to complete the second step of centralization: cultivating new forces and reforming the political and economic systems. From the beginning of historical records, Japan has always been the most learning nation in the world. Their ideas, systems and lifestyles are all learned from abroad.In the long agricultural civilization, the Chinese Empire has always been the object of learning and imitation by Japan.But more and more Japanese believe that they must change their learning objects and learn from Westerners with iron guns and cannons. The representative figure among them is the famous Japanese scholar Fukuzawa Yukichi, who is the head portrait printed on the 10,000 yen today.Fukuzawa Yukichi threw out the famous "Break Asia into Europe theory".Muruhito sent a bunch of delegations to Europe and the United States to learn about politics, the military, and social systems. After these delegations came back, Japan became a strange country. This strange country has implemented a constitutional monarchy, a cabinet, a parliament, liberalization of party bans and newspaper bans, a multi-party system, people are basically free to criticize the government, and a constitution that is upheld by all people. These are all different from Western constitutional monarchy. Countries make no difference.And the most important difference is this one: the power of the emperor. According to the Japanese constitution, the power of the emperor is supreme, and there are no restrictions.Different from the "monarch power granted by the people" in the Western constitutional system, its essence is "civil power granted by the king", that is to say, the power of the king or president in the West is granted and restricted by the people through the parliament, and Muren is a large part of the emperor. Power was delegated to ordinary people.Such a system can be summed up in one sentence as "enlightened autocracy." At the same time, although Japan has high-profilely promoted "leaving Asia and entering Europe", it has not completely Westernized.For example, they put on a suit, but the kimono is still welcome, the formal occasion is a handshake ceremony, and the everyday occasion is a bow ceremony.More importantly, although the samurai were abolished, the core of Japanese traditional culture - the spirit of bushido - was preserved.This reservation will have a great impact on Japan later. Well, for Muren, that's no loss.Although part of the power was distributed, his power was originally occupied by the shogunate, and he was not given enough to eat. Now that he is living a good life, there is really no need to cling to the bag of power.Changing the original feudal monarchy to a constitutional monarchy, ordinary citizens have a higher degree of participation in politics. Everyone feels that the so-called politics is the common interest of most people, and the government is the spokesperson of this common interest.For their own benefit, everyone will give advice and contribute. When the government is doing well, they will sincerely support it. But when the government makes mistakes, they will actively monitor it. When the government encounters difficulties, they will sell their pots and pieces of iron and jewelry to support the government. .In a word, it has successfully bundled the interests of the government with the interests of the people. As a result, the Japanese strengthened the concept of "country". Although the land area is only the size of a palm, and they are too poor to eat meat, the concept of "Great Japanese Empire" has gradually penetrated into everyone's heart.This is the benefit brought by the bundling of interests. When a government really represents the fundamental interests of the majority of people, everyone will do their best to support it without any propaganda of "loyalty to the monarch and patriotism". By opening up the supervision of public opinion, intellectuals who have always liked to criticize the government can enjoy some freedom. They can criticize the government and other people at will, and they can also be scolded by others at will. Improve oneself, improve the level of scolding and other levels, and then the ideological and theoretical level of the whole society has also improved. In short, this is a method that can not only safeguard the interests of the regime but also exchange the loyalty of the whole people; it adapts to the trend of modern society and liberates the country at the institutional and spiritual levels; way to overtax.This is really a good deal. This is the core content of the "Meiji Restoration".Through the reform of the political system, it has brought a lot of positive energy to Japan's social and economic development (more on this later), but in essence, I think it has strengthened Mujin's centralization of power.In addition to the reform of the political system, Muruhito's power has not only been further increased through another task, but also made Japan, a strange country, even more strange, that is-military reform. Gears of War is on! We mentioned earlier that when the samurai class was abolished, Japan promulgated a conscription order and implemented a compulsory military service system for all citizens, which greatly enhanced Japan's military strength (described later), but this is not surprising. The strange thing is that this army Administration of the army. After many reforms of the military system, the administrative part (military administration) of the Japanese army, such as recruiting and raising soldiers, was under the control of the government, while the command part (military orders), such as sending troops, mobilizing troops, and fighting, was under the control of another organization—the General Staff Headquarters.The so-called General Staff Headquarters, that is, the General Staff Headquarters, the ancient staff officers were those who waved their goose-feather fans, and were responsible for advising the generals, and the generals had to decide how to fight.But in Japan, this is a very important department, which is independent of the government. That is to say, the government only recruits and raises soldiers, and has no right to ask these soldiers what to do or how they plan to do it.In the army, it is the officers who command the soldiers, and the staff officers who command the officers.The staff is under the management of the staff at the next higher level, and the staff at the next higher level is under the management of the staff at the next higher level, until the final staff headquarters. So, who is in charge of the staff headquarters?Everyone guessed it right, it belongs to the emperor - that is, Brother Muren. Some people would say that this is not surprising. In fact, Muren controlled the army through the staff group, which is similar to the emperor of the Song Dynasty in our country who controlled generals through civil servants.The problem lies in these staff officers. They are not civil servants, but a group of special soldiers. The staff officers were trained from an early age, and a group of children were sent to the juvenile military academy while they were still breastfeeding, and then they continued to study at the non-commissioned officer school equivalent to a university.In these schools, all education revolves around how to fight, and the core of fighting is only two words-offensive. for example.During the exam, the teacher suddenly asked a question: "The enemy is found in front!" If you subconsciously ask: "How many people are there?" Let’s say “the enemy is outnumbered, it’s good for defense”, if you really say “defense”, it’s over, the standard answer is: “find a way to outflank the attack!” And the only ideological and political education in the school is the sentence we have heard many times on TV - "Be loyal to His Majesty the Emperor!" 大家知道了，这些的学校里培养出来的参谋，就是一群狂热的战争分子，一堆极端的战争机器。长期封闭的军校生活使他们跟社会脱节，既不懂政治，也不懂社会，只知道听命令。如果让他们去打火星，估计也会去的。而他们上了战场最喜欢做的只有一件事——包抄。他们相信只有首先把自己置之于死地，才能绝处逢生。为了取胜，他们是不惜血本的，也不会在乎伤亡率，什么人体盾牌、人肉炸弹，通通都能用上，哪怕只剩下两个人，都要再去围一次。 要指出的是，参谋本部管理的是陆军的参谋。后来新兴的兵种——海军出现了，于是属于海军的“参谋本部”也设立了——它换了一个名称，叫海军军令部，同样，海军军令部的头儿也是睦仁。 到这时，又出现了一个新的问题，那就是一旦开战，如何能从组织上保证陆军和海军相互配合。如果是陆军只打陆军的，海军只打海军的，那就乱了，效果肯定不理想。于是，日军又设置了一个完全为战争服务的机构——战时大本营。 我们来简单介绍一下战时大本营。这个机构平时并不存在，只有到了决定发起战争前夕才会成立，也就是说战时大本营的成立就标志着日本马上要开战。跟参谋本部一样，它也是独立于政府的，首脑仍然是睦仁，而其他组成人员都是陆海两军的高级参谋和指挥官，政府里的文职人员不得参加，即使是内阁总理也不行。 由于天皇的权力并不受限制，又是陆海两军的最高首脑，他的手下又是一群狂热的战争机器，我想大家已经理解了一个名词——军国主义。 好吧，是时候总结一下日本这个国家了。通过上面的描述，我们已经知道，明治时期的日本是一个处于新旧之间的国家，一个半新半旧的国家，也是一个奇怪的国家。它学习了西方的近代政治体制，又保留了一个真正的皇帝；虽然成功倒幕，但整个国家又留下了军人可以干政的幕府遗风。这样的体制和阴魂不散的“大陆政策”结合起来，对于清国来说，这是一个危险的国家。 危险并不是后来才有，在一个很早的时候，在清洗武士、政治体制改革、经济发展这些准备工作都还没有做好的时候，睦仁就已经开始了一场掏家底的豪赌。早在1874年，在废藩置县取得成功的同时，睦仁就开始了他登基后的第一次对外用兵——台湾。 掏家底的豪赌：出兵台湾！ 睦仁御桌的案头，摆放着一叠厚厚的文件，这是《台湾番地征战要略》，也就是武装侵占台湾的指导方案。当时大臣内部有两派意见，一派认为应该先去打朝鲜（征韩论），而另一派认为先不着急攻下朝鲜，为了实现“大陆政策”，可以先从清国的离岛台湾入手，打开缺口。睦仁支持了先攻占台湾的意见，他告诉众位大臣：必须先夺取台湾，以便永固皇国的南门！ 夺取台湾并不容易，因为向台湾出兵意味着跟清国开战，总要找个借口。这个借口就出现在三年前（1871年）台湾和琉球国之间的一次渔民冲突上。 琉球国是一个群岛国家，大小36岛散布在台湾东北的茫茫大海上，明朝时，它曾是大明帝国的藩属国，然后成为清的藩属国。为了方便向清国朝贡，琉球国在福州设置办事机构——琉球馆，每两年进贡一次，而它也受到清国的册封和保护。但是，和朝鲜的情况一样，日本也在琉球扶植了自己的势力。 可见，渔民冲突和日本无关，它是清国和琉球国之间的事情，而且当时也已经得到了处理。明治政府在当时也并不知道此事，在渔民冲突一年后才偶然从清国的外交文件中得知，于是日本人知道他们可以打个歪主意了：打着为琉球渔民“出头”的旗号，武装侵犯台湾！ 1874年4月4日，日本本土成立了入侵台湾的机构——“台湾都督府”。也就是说，还没有行动，台湾已经被当作了第四个府。睦仁任命陆军中将西乡从道（西乡隆盛的弟弟）为台湾都督，由西乡从道率领五艘军舰、13艘运输补给船和3600名海军陆战队队员，从长崎军事基地出发，开向台湾！ 需要说明的是，这3600名海军陆战队队员实际上是陆军，因为这一时期日本全国海军的总人数很可怜——1500人，主要用于海上打渔。但是，对于睦仁来说，这点老本已经够赌一次了。 是的，我从来就是一个赌徒，为了得到那些想要的，我必须先去赌一把，押上自己的家底，没有关系，因为家底本来也不丰厚。赌成了，大家吃肉，赌不成，没有关系，有了经验下次再来，要知道那块肉总会被我们吃掉的。 “要防备日本人！” 5月6日，日本舰队绕过台湾岛，在台湾最南端的恒春（电影《海角七号》主景地）靠岸，陆战队在军舰炮火的掩护下强行登陆。 恒春沿海的台湾原住民部落英勇地反击了，虽然他们手中的武器还属于原始社会级别的——只有砍刀、镖枪，但是他们利用有利地形，埋伏在高山峡谷间，英勇阻击日军。 在原住民阻截日军的同时，十万火急的军情传到了北京，清国政府向日本政府提出严正抗议，表示了对日军入侵台湾的严重关切。抗议声中，日军对原住民部落开展了为期一个多月的围剿和歼灭，成功地占领了恒春。西乡从道将他的“台湾都督府”搬到了恒春。 直到此时，福州船政大臣沈葆桢（林则徐女婿）才明确得到了来自北京的令他率领舰队出发的命令，但按照命令，他不是去作战，而是执行另外一个任务——进行军事演习。朝廷显然还是希望用谈判来解决问题。 这时候睦仁也在盼望着谈判。不是他突然收敛了“平定台湾”的野心，而是西乡从道告诉他：在占领恒春后，部队再也无法前进了。 士兵们水土不服，军中流行痢疾和瘟疫，每个人都抓紧时间往厕所跑，刚刚提上裤子，上大号的感觉又来了。而日军是找不到的药品的，因为恒春周边所有的百姓坚壁清野，无论日本人出钱买还是用刀逼，台湾人都拒绝提供任何食物和药品，就这样，每天拉肚子拉死的日本士兵有20人左右。而此时原先被击退的英勇的原住民又重新组织起来了，他们捡起地上的砍刀、镖枪，没日没夜地袭扰“都督府”，焦头烂额的西乡从道只好派人向睦仁汇报：陛下啊，这个地方简直不是人待的，我们现在真的还不具备占领台湾的条件，即使打得下来，也无法在这里长留，还是先跟清国谈谈，捞上一笔吧。 在睦仁指派的全权谈判大臣到达北京后，1875年，清日《北京条约》签订了。在这个条约中，日军答应从台湾撤军，而清国放弃了封贡长达500年的琉球王国，自动脱离宗主国地位，以后你日本对琉球爱干什么就干什么。 五年后（1879年），日军进驻琉球，琉球国王被软禁到东京，琉球王子逃出，漂洋过海千里迢迢来到天津，每天早晨在李鸿章的衙门外长跪不起，哭请清国出兵救救琉球，但清国政府出于综合考虑，最终放弃出兵——琉球就这样完全被日军占领了，改名为冲绳，成为日本的第73个县。 而就在这一年，沈葆桢去世了，死前他留下了一封遗折：要防备日本人，日本自入侵台湾后，从天皇到大臣，野心一直不死！ 在冲绳的日军发现了附近还有几个无人小岛，于是他们登陆上去，在上面插了根桩，写明此地归冲绳管辖。大家知道，这几个小岛就是钓鱼岛，日本人最先去了岛上溜达，但问题就在于这些岛的名字。 按照国际法，茫茫大海中的孤岛上面如果没有一个人，也没有任何一个国家以他们的语言文字命名，那么这样的岛屿就属于还没有被发现的无主之地，谁先占了就是谁的，先到先得。问题是在日军登岛之前，“钓鱼岛”这个名字已经存在几百年了，并且明确地存在于有文字记载的史料中，当时它是作为明朝人前往属国琉球的航标而被记载的，所以按照国际法，它们是中华的领土，而日军属于非法侵占。 1885年9月6日，上海《申报》第一次报道了日本企图窃取钓鱼岛的消息。不过，这样的消息当时还没引起多大的重视，无论是清国还是日本，都没有出现“保钓”人士，不就是几个光秃秃的石头岛嘛，大家都忘了。直到几十年后，海洋石油勘测技术出现，钓鱼岛附近发现大量石油天然气，老问题才被翻出来，钓鱼岛也名扬天下了。 让我们回到日本出兵台湾的事件，在1879年吞并琉球之后，睦仁上台后的第一次出兵活动结束了。用3000多人的豪赌就换来了一个县，成果斐然。照常说一般人都会乐上一阵。但睦仁脸上的表情却不是欢喜，而是很郁闷，他威严地环视左右：为什么台湾还没有得到？ 如果连一个小小的台湾都还没有得到，我们又如何能实现“大陆政策”？ 大臣们低头思索良久，然后告诉睦仁：陛下！这是因为我们还不够强大！我们只有等待，耐心地去等待！ 这一等待，就是15年。日本人的野心也不能不引起了清国的警惕，在这15年的时间里，双方都在进行一场旷日持久的军备竞赛，清国财大气粗，买军舰买枪炮。而日本人本钱不多，只能边买边引进技术自己改装改造，但为了军备的发展绝对达到了不惜血本的疯狂境界。 从1883年开始，睦仁宣布：从这年开始的八年时间里，国内收入最多的两项税收——酿造业、烟酒业税收政府不能拿走一分钱，全部用于建设海军和陆军的军费！ 1885年，清国从德国购买亚洲最大的装甲军舰——定远号和镇远号装备北洋舰队。睦仁突然发现日本海军中还找不到一艘军舰的大炮可以击穿定远和镇远的装甲，深受刺激，于是他每天只吃一顿饭，每年从生活费中挤出1/10（30万元），并且要求大小官员也每年献出工资的1/10，作为购买和建造军舰的费用。 双方兵力对比的情况我们以后再说。15年过去，1894年到来了，朝鲜发生了东学党动乱，通过袁世凯的运作，清国即将向朝鲜派兵，而日本驻朝鲜公使信誓旦旦地向袁世凯表示：我们日本只注重保护商业利益，即使你们派兵，我们也不会派兵的，和平还是我们两国之间的主题。 但是，日本人真正的计划隐藏在他们的心底。当年“大陆政策”的鼻祖丰臣秀吉正是以朝鲜为跳板，进犯中华帝国的大陆——取清国，必先取朝鲜！现在机会又来了。 日本人的真正计划是：日本是一定要向朝鲜派兵的，先根据之前的清日《天津条约》，把军队光明正大地开进朝鲜，让清日两国的军队在朝鲜短兵相接。然后想办法擦枪走火，将朝鲜国内的动乱直接演变成清日两军冲突，引爆清日战争！