Chapter 17 Chapter 17 The conclusion of Japanese spies: The whole people of the Qing Dynasty were corrupt!

The war is over.Everyone should be very heavy-hearted, and I am the same, but I believe that everyone, like me, still has a huge question in their hearts that has not been solved, that is, apart from military reasons, what other reasons caused the Qing Dynasty to suffer such a disastrous defeat? To uncover this mystery, we need to start with a mystery case, and our answers are hidden in these mystery cases. In the previous article, I have talked about this mystery many times, but I have not given the answer. Now it is time to uncover this mystery. Why was the Japanese army able to obtain accurate intelligence from the Qing army many times during the Qing-Japanese War?

After the Second Opium War in 1860, the Qing court was forced to sign the Sino-British and Sino-French Treaty of Tianjin.This treaty is very long, with a total of 56 articles. Apart from the reparations we often pay attention to, there are two that are not so noticed.The first article is: the Qing Dynasty can no longer refer to foreigners as "barbarians". According to this article, "foreigners" have replaced "barbarians". "Learn skills to control barbarians" has become learning from foreigners. And the other one is not noticed, but it is directly related to our answer. It is: foreigners are free to travel, do business and preach in the interior of the Qing Dynasty.

It is this seemingly inconspicuous clause that provides convenience for other countries to send spies to the Qing Dynasty.Japan sent the most spies to the Qing Dynasty.Before the Qing-Japanese War, there was already a huge Japanese spy network lurking in the Qing territory! In 1872, the Japanese Ministry of War sent three spies to infiltrate the interior of the Qing Dynasty, and another two spies to infiltrate Taiwan. This was the earliest recorded Japanese spy sent to the Qing Dynasty.Their mission is to obtain information on the terrain, armaments, politics, and financial resources of Northeast China and Taiwan, and send them back to Japan.

From this year onwards, batch after batch of Japanese spies went to the Qing Dynasty to lurk secretly. At that time, Changshan County Youpeng, the chief of staff of the General Staff Headquarters, personally grasped the spy work of the Qing Dynasty.From the staff headquarters, Shanxian Youpeng selected 12 clever officers, and sneaked into the Qing Dynasty in disguise.These 12 people later submitted the famous "Struggle Plan against the Qing Dynasty" to the General Staff Headquarters. In this plan, they proposed: send troops from the North Route to capture Lushun and Dalian Bay, send troops from the South Route to attack Fuzhou, and then attack Beijing from the North and the South in one fell swoop, forcing the The Qing Dynasty signed a peace treaty, which was Japan's earliest strategic plan for combating the Qing Dynasty.

Ten years later, in 1882, a school dedicated to training spies against the Qing Dynasty was established. This school was managed by the Qing Dynasty Section of the General Staff Headquarters to provide talents for spy work.In this school, the Japanese students enrolled wear braids, learn Chinese, wear long robes and jackets, and dress up as Qing people.The Qing Dynasty Class and the Spy School have also been paying attention to discovering and cultivating spy geniuses. They know that a genius-level spy is worth a team of spies! Soon, a genius caught the attention of the General Staff Headquarters.

In today's Japanese gangster world, there is a person whose name is well-known to all gangsters. When his name is mentioned, the bosses have to show respect with a half-bow. He is the first extreme right-wing group in modern Japan—— Tou Shanman, founder of the Black Dragon Society (Xuanyang Society).Toushan is full of a mysterious figure who sleeps in the wilderness all day long, drinks dew and eats green grass like a rabbit. The dragon sees the head but does not see the end, but was respected as the "co-lord" by the various factions of the Japanese underworld at that time.Back then, whenever the underworld bosses from all walks of life expressed their respect to him, he always said lightly: I am just an admirer of Arao Jing.

Sei Arao was born to be a master spy. In 1859, in a samurai family in Nagoya, Sei Arao was born.When he was growing up, he caught up with Muren Group's purge of samurai, so his family fortune declined.A policeman in Tokyo took Arao Sei, who was wandering around, for him to study at the Army Non-commissioned Officer Academy.When graduating, many people hoped to study in Europe, but Sei Arao said that he only wanted to go to one place: Qing Dynasty. Arao Sei’s maverick behavior attracted the attention of the Minister of War Oyama Iwa at that time, and he asked him specifically. Arao Sei replied: “Everyone goes to Europe and ignores the Qing Dynasty. I only want to go to the Qing Dynasty. Japan should take on the dream of revitalizing Asia. , first take over the Qing Dynasty, implement a benevolent government, and try to revive Asia!"

This is the common spiritual belief of Mitsuto Toyama and Sei Arao - Greater Asiaism.This doctrine is more troublesome to explain. You may be familiar with another term: "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere".The Japanese who have this belief believe that Europeans (white races) are crazily plundering the world (Asia) of yellow races, and regard yellow races as the "yellow peril", so yellow races must revitalize Asia to resist.And the key is to rebuild a powerful China.How to achieve?The way is for the Japanese to rule China and realize "Greater East Asia Co-prosperity".

It is worth noting that not all Japanese at that time were followers of "Great Asiaism". Fukuzawa Yukitoshi's point of view as we mentioned earlier was just the opposite: in order to preserve Japan, Japan had to separate from Asia, that is, Get rid of the influence of Chinese civilization, and completely westernize—leave Asia and enter Europe.These two trends of thought are actually small and poor Japan looking for a way out for its own country in the era of plunder by Western countries. In fact, Japan during the Meiji Restoration has also been developing in this contradiction.Later, most of Japan chose to leave Asia and enter Europe in terms of political and social systems, but the "Great Asia Doctrine" was successfully used by the military circles. It had a large number of fans among the Japanese soldiers. Chuankami Caoliu is such a person.

On Dashanyan's recommendation, Kawakami Caoroku quickly fell in love with Arao Sei, and transferred him to the National Division of the General Staff Headquarters.Kawakami Caoro attached great importance to Arao Sei. Not only could Arao Sei make an exception to access various confidential documents related to the Qing Dynasty, but he was also allowed to talk to Kawakami Caoroo at any time. At this time, Kawakami Misaoroku is the vice minister, and Arao Sei is just a fresh graduate, but everyone knows such a rule: Whenever Arao Seiyu seeks to see him, Kawakami Misaoroku will interrupt the meeting with the senior generals and go to meet Arao and when he was talking with Arao Sei, even if other senior generals asked to see him, he had to wait until he had finished talking with Arao Sei.

This is really sympathetic treatment. Facts will soon prove that the expectations of Sei Arao were not in vain. After the experience in Qingguo, Kawakami Caoroku thought that Arao Sei's sword could be unsheathed.Under the personal arrangement of Chuankami Caoliu, Arao Sei came to Shanghai to lurk.Here, Arao Sei will come into contact with another person who is very helpful to him-entrepreneur Kishida Ginka. If you want to understand Japanese business history today, when it comes to "Japan's first generation of successful entrepreneurs", Kishida Ginka is one of the representatives.When he was young, by chance, he met an American missionary named Hepburn. This Hepburn may not be very familiar to everyone, but we must be familiar with his granddaughter, that is the Oscar queen Katherine Hepburn.Hepburn gave a formula of water-soluble eye drops developed by herself to Kishida Ginka. Kishida Ginka used this secret formula to produce eye drops, which really became a big seller and accumulated her first pot of gold.Later, Hepburn opened her own eye drops company in Tokyo, Leshantang, with a branch in Shanghai, so Kishida Ginka came to Shanghai. Because he is a rich man and often does some charity, Kishida Ginka soon became a celebrity in the Shanghai business circle. At that time, "Shenbao" often reported his whereabouts, calling him a famous Japanese friend.Through his contacts in the mall, Ginka Kishida opened up official relations, from the governor of Liangjiang to the Daotai in Shanghai, they are all his "friendly friends". And behind the face of a successful entrepreneur and "Japanese friend", Kishida Ginka is a person who serves the Japanese government, and he is also a follower of "Great Asiaism"!Hearing that Comrade Arao Seiji wanted to set up a complete espionage network in the Qing Dynasty, but lacked funds, Kishida Ginka immediately said: I support you! According to Kishida Ginka's meaning: There are many people in Shanghai, and the spy agencies will inevitably be exposed. The best place is Wuhan, a city in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River.As a result, the "Le Shan Tang Hankou Branch" with Sei Arao as the general manager was established. On the surface, Leshantang Hankou branch is a company that is no different from Shanghai Leshantang. Everyone makes money by selling eye drops.In fact, it is a real spy agency.Arao Sei designed a fairly strict espionage organization here. In this "company", Sei Arao divides all personnel into "internal staff" and "external staff". "staff", and "outsiders" are front-line spies, no matter what the circumstances, insiders and outsiders are not allowed to have direct contact, to ensure absolute secrecy and security. Internally, Leshantang refers to "our party" rather than "our company". In its party constitution, there is such a sentence: "Our party's purpose is extremely important, so the task is the heaviest. , must be foolproof, take the opportunity to make a decisive decision, in order to achieve the goal." For the first-line spies, Arao Sei divided them into two parts.Part of it is "establishing a united front"-that is, to instigate rebellion against the Qing people.Sei Arao stipulated that there are several types of Qing people who are the key objects of united front and instigating rebellion, such as "gentlemen who are interested in saving all mankind, revitalizing East Asia, transforming the Qing Dynasty and restoring China", and "heroes who attempt to subvert and conquer the government or attempt to raise troops to separate one side, The rich, the elders, the knights, the rich" and so on.If these people have one or more of the following, they cannot be the target of the united front. They include: misconduct, dishonesty, love of money, ignorance of righteousness, and security in view of danger.The last one is more interesting: looks wretched. In our impression, the people who could be called "traitors" by the Japanese in the past are basically sneaky, despicable and shameless people, but for Arao Sei, these people are not worth considering at all.His standards are really high. At first glance, apart from the item of "overthrowing the Qing Dynasty", those who didn't know thought that he was selecting civil servants for the Qing court - there were both moral standards and appearance requirements. For reasons we will see shortly. After all, the united front is a long-term and arduous task, and there is no rush, so we can only do it slowly.The job of another part of the front-line spies is to directly spy on the military intelligence of the Qing Dynasty. This job seems very simple. It is nothing more than going around the barracks, drawing a few pictures, and the higher-ranking ones will go undercover and buy Qing officers.But spying on military intelligence work is not required by Arao Jing here. The way he requires is to go to the countryside, go to the rear, go to the mountains and go to the countryside. Arao Sei collectively named this event——Expedition. Thus, under the unified organization and arrangement, the largest espionage operation in Japanese history was launched with Hankou as the center and called "Exploring the Four Hundred States" (the Japanese call the whole territory of China the Four Hundred States).Thousands of front-line spies who received the order were all dispatched. They carried the burden, disguised as shopkeepers, traveling doctors, or Fengshui masters, and went out of the city to the countryside. Their task was not only to secretly visit and record the local armaments, but more importantly-to understand the situation on the ground. The social atmosphere of the Qing Dynasty and the mental state of local officials and people at the bottom. With an event of this magnitude, it's clear that one thing is essential - money.What is surprising is that, from the beginning of sneaking into Shanghai and then sneaking into Hankou to carry out espionage work, Arao Sei never used a single penny from the Japanese military and government!Kawakami Caoroku said to him: The country's money is used to buy warships and train troops, and you can only figure out how to do spy work. Part of Sei Arao's funding comes from the sale of eye drops at Leshantang in Hankou, which is a selfless aid from Ginka Kishida.And most of his first-line spies came here at their own expense.Only a small part of them are serving soldiers, and most of the rest are Japanese "aspiring young people". Not to mention wages, sometimes even a meager living allowance could not be received, but they all joined this activity without complaint. Arao Sei, who calls himself "our party", is not proud of having such a "member"? This activity lasted for three years.In the past three years, many spies became beggars after they ran out of travel expenses and couldn't make ends meet after working part-time.Many spies never came back. Some of them died of hunger and cold, some died of sudden illness, some lost their way in the mountains and were eaten by wild animals, some were surrounded and killed by natives, and some committed suicide on the spot after their identities were exposed.But their footprints spread all over the north and south of the Yangtze River, inside and outside the Great Wall, and went deep into the most remote mountain villages and tribes in the Qing Dynasty. Even the people of the Qing Dynasty seldom went there. Xinjiang and Tibet, which were regarded as wild places, were not spared.They completed the "expedition" in three years, and the living people brought back countless intelligence materials. After getting the information, Sei Arao began to sort it out. This is the famous Japanese top-secret intelligence - "Book of Return".It was submitted to the General Staff by Sei Arao's espionage network. We have no way of knowing the specific content of the intelligence in the "Book of Return", but it is conceivable that it must be an unprecedented and complete piece of intelligence, which played an irreplaceable role in formulating strategies and specific tactics for the General Staff Headquarters and later the base camp against the Qing. However, until Japan invaded China again in 1931, the "Book of Return" was one of the important reference information for the Japanese army. And during the three years when the first-line spies traveled across mountains and rivers, Arao Sei was not idle. He sat in the rear and opened branches to make Hankou Leshantang develop rapidly. Branches were established in Changsha, Chengdu, Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. , Arao Sei referred to these branches as "one branch of our party"-the word "branch" was used and circulated from here. With such a colossal achievement, Sei Arao's mission seems to be over.He can return to his homeland, accept the award, and live his life with a generous bonus.But the situation is not like this. After completing these tasks, he still has a bigger dream, that is: to open a school for cultivating spies against the Qing Dynasty to the mainland of the Qing Dynasty! This is a crazy plan, first of all it is very risky, and Arao Sei is confident about this.But another problem is more difficult to solve, that is - money. When Arao Sei's confidant Kawakami Kawakami learned about the plan, he told his wife, mortgaged his house, borrowed thousands of yuan, and donated it to Arao Sei. Arao Sei returned to China to raise funds. Next, Japanese "caring entrepreneurs" actively donated money.Money problem solved. In 1890, an organization called "Nissin Trade Research Institute" was established in a very simple house in Shanghai. This is an underground Japanese spy training institution under the brand of business and trade.When the first batch of 150 Japanese students went to the Qing Dynasty to receive study and training, Muruhito sent his imperial brother to meet them in the palace, encouraging them to study hard and master skills. .Then, Kawakami Caoliu rushed to Shanghai in person to attend the opening ceremony. These trainees will receive training in various espionage skills here. The schooling period will be three years, and they will practice in the Qing Dynasty for one year after graduation before they can become qualified spies. When they graduated, the time had come to 1894, and the Sino-Japanese War was about to start. The outstanding graduates among them were received by Muren personally.Then, these people sneaked directly from Shanghai to Tianjin, Weihai, Lushun, Dalian Bay and other places to collect intelligence for the Japanese army in advance! Until then, these personnel still did not have the official establishment of the Japanese army. They were still "non-staff personnel" of the Japanese army. Although they were responsible for the most dangerous and hard work, the Japanese army's military expenditure was tight, and the military salary could only be paid to those who fought directly. personnel.For these people, the emphasis is on "selfless dedication", but everyone still has no complaints and disappeared into the land of the Qing Dynasty with their "sacred goals". From making early preparations for the Sino-Japanese War to directly training spies to serve in the Sino-Japanese War, the legendary career of Sei Arao, the master of Japanese espionage, is over.But his ending was quite tragic. After the Japanese army captured Taiwan, Sei Arao wanted to take a walk and take a look at this beautiful island that had become a Japanese treasure. In 1896, Arao Jing came to Taiwan, where he met a more spirited and more terrifying thing than him—rat.Sei Arao died of the plague at the age of 37. One of Sei Arao's students is about to take over his big stick, pushing Japan's espionage work against the Qing Dynasty to another climax!If Arao Sei is the master strategist among spies, then this person is the vanguard among spies. Among the first batch of spies trained by the Japanese General Staff Headquarters Qing Dynasty Section, in addition to Arao Sei, there was also a person named Munekata Kotaro.There is a very favorable condition for this person to become a spy genius: From the appearance, he is almost indistinguishable from a real Qing Dynasty person. He wears a long robe and mandarin jacket all the year round, with braids, and he can speak Chinese more fluently than some Qing people. . Munekata Kotaro is hailed as the most outstanding genius in the history of Japanese espionage, and many Japanese still make a "pilgrimage" to his grave. When Sei Arao was preparing the Beijing and Tianjin "branches" of Hankou Leshantang, he was dispatched by Sei Arao, and Kotaro Sokata became the person in charge of the most important branch in Beijing.An eye drops shop outside Chongwenmen in Beijing became the center for collecting important intelligence in the Gyeonggi area of ​​the Qing Dynasty, and Zongfang Kotaro was the leader here. Different from Arao Sei's "master" style of acting, Munekata Kotaro prefers to charge forward by himself.He used to travel around the northern provinces of the Qing Dynasty as a "student abroad" legally, and even walked along the coastline of the Bohai Sea from Shanhaiguan to Dagukou, scouting the coastal defense facilities of the Qing Dynasty Navy along the way, looking for an ideal landing point for the Japanese fleet.After the outbreak of the Qing-Japanese War, Zongfang Kotaro put forward a plan to outflank and capture Lushun from land and sea. This tactic was realized by Dashanyan's Second Army. And Zongfang Kotaro's crazier move is still in the next thing. In June 1894, when the Sino-Japanese War was about to start, Munekata Kotaro believed that it was extremely important to collect information on the Beiyang Fleet. He first came to Yantai, which was close to Weihai, but later found that the place was not ideal, so he went directly to Weihai Navy Port to collect information on the Beiyang Fleet and Weihai. The first-hand information from the land fort was sent back to the staff headquarters continuously through Shanghai. After the Sino-Japanese War broke out, the Japanese nationals in the Qing Dynasty began to evacuate. At this time, Munekata Kotaro made a bold decision: to stay. In order to prevent the spy network from being exposed after being arrested, he was prepared to quickly destroy the information and commit suicide once he was arrested. At the risk of being exposed at any time, Kotaro Munekata actually lurked for more than a month, and it was this lurking that risked his life that allowed him to successfully collect one of the most important Japanese intelligence in the Sino-Japanese War: September 15, Before the Beiyang Fleet escorted the troop carrier to Dadonggou, Munekata Kotaro successfully detected the departure time and destination of the Beiyang Fleet. He sent this information to the General Staff Headquarters, and the combined fleet that received the information went to the Dadonggou waters to search. The Dadonggou naval battle broke out! After sending this information from Yantai, Sokata Kotaro began to retreat.But this time, the danger finally came to him. Munekata Kotaro's information was transferred through Shanghai, and the Shanghai authorities had already intercepted his two previous espionage letters, and immediately issued arrest warrants to Shanghai and Yantai.Before the arrest warrant arrived in Yantai, Kotaro Zongfang, who had a keen sense of smell, had already boarded the passenger ship bound for Shanghai, but his suspicious behavior finally attracted the attention of the secret agents of the Qing Dynasty.They followed Zongfang Xiaotaro all the way onto the boat, and Zongfang Xiaotaro was calm and kept talking with the Qing people they met on the boat in fluent Chinese, and finally escaped the catastrophe.When the ship arrived in Shanghai, Shanghai spies boarded the ship and were arresting them everywhere with wanted warrants!At this time, Kotaro Zongfang seems to have only the fate of being arrested and then hacked into pieces by the Qing court (Ling Chi). Years of espionage career gave Munekata Kotaro an extremely excellent psychological quality. He still behaved very calmly, used disguise to change his appearance, and then used his years of experience in anti-reconnaissance to sneak away among the passengers and board a British passenger ship from Shanghai. Successfully escaped back to Japan.After Munekata Kotaro returned to China, he was taken directly to the Hiroshima base camp, and the person waiting for him here was Mujin. Muren received him cordially here and commended him for his "world-shaking achievements". In addition to these "non-staff" spies, after Youpeng in Shan County sent 12 officers, the Japanese Army and Navy also sent serving soldiers to the Qing Dynasty many times to lurk and investigate military intelligence on the spot. In 1886, a naval captain sent by the Japanese Navy Department went to the Qing Dynasty. He changed his name to Guan Wenbing and opened a bookstore in Tianjin by pretending to be a bookseller from the Qing Dynasty. The location he chose for the bookstore was very special—it was opened in Li Hongzhang. Next to Zhili governor's yamen. At that time, Li Hongzhang was directing the construction of the Weihai Navy Port. Whenever someone from Weihai came to the governor's office to do business, Guan Wenbing tried every means to chat with them and obtain information.Then follow them all the way to Weihai for detailed reconnaissance. Through countless repeated surveys, Guan Wenbing and his spy friends drew a detailed military map of Weihai. On this map, not only the military camps, villages, roads, forts, streams, and wells of Weihai are clearly marked, Even the trees are clearly marked. Later, when the Shandong Combat Army attacked Weihai, each of their commanders carried this map on their bodies! As a naval soldier, Guan Wenbing also searched for and reconnaissance the possible landing points of the Japanese fleet around Weihai. He groped along the coastline and finally wrote the "Opinions on Weihaiwei and Rongcheng Bay". Take Rongcheng Bay as the base first", which is why the Japanese Shandong combat army easily chose Rongcheng Bay as the landing point after the war started. Guan Wenbing later served as the military attache of the Japanese Legation in Beijing, from the front line to behind the scenes, and under his command, another important spy appeared, and he was Ishikawa Takeichi. Ishikawa Takeichi came to the Qing Dynasty to work as a spy since he was 18 years old. Out of the needs of spy work, he studied languages ​​hard and mastered many foreign languages. In addition to Chinese, he can also speak English, German, and French fluently. Guan Wenbing He was sent to Tianjin to collect intelligence from Li Hongzhang Zhili governor's yamen. Ishikawa Takeichi quickly got his eye on Liu Fen, the secretary of the Tianjin Ordnance Bureau, and successfully seduced him with a Japanese prostitute. For the convenience of picking up girls, Liu Fen let Ishikawa Takeichi live in his home, and the two became "brothers." . In July 1894, when Li Hongzhang planned to rent the "Gaosheng" and other ships to transport reinforcements and weapons to Asan Bay, this information was successfully intercepted by Ishikawa Takeichi from Liu Fen. From Yashan Bay to Dadonggou, the two sea troop transports of the Qing Dynasty were intercepted and killed by the Japanese combined fleet. This is the answer to the mystery.At that time, there were no military satellites, and these latent spies were the satellites of the Japanese army. Before that, there was already a very high-ranking soldier who felt that it was not enough to just listen to intelligence in the country. After Japan’s preparations for the Qing Dynasty War were basically completed in 1892, he decided to go to the Qing Dynasty in person to live the time. The addiction of being a spy, but also personally verifying all kinds of information received. He is the aforementioned Lieutenant General and Deputy Chief of Staff of the General Staff Headquarters - Kawakami Caoroku. In 1893, Kawakami Caoroku came to North Korea, scouted Incheon and Seoul, then took a boat from Incheon to Yantai, and then went to Tianjin, where the Zhili governor's yamen was located, where he lived. Kawakami in Tianjin ordered the Japanese embassy in Beijing to convene all Japanese spies lurking in North China and divide them into two groups: one group walked from Shanhaiguan to Tianjin by land, and verified the information on the land barracks, forts, and roads of the Qing Dynasty along the way; The group went to the sea, sailing from Tanggu along the coastline all the way north, checking the situation of the Qing Dynasty's coastal defense along the way, and looking for a landing point for the Japanese fleet that could directly attack Beijing.These people on the ship can only sail a few nautical miles a day, because every time they find a possible landing point, they have to go into the water to touch it, and record whether the seabed is sand or rocks, and whether there are hidden reefs. This work was carried out for a month.During this month, Kawakami Caoliu himself was not idle. He entered the Tianjin Machinery Manufacturing Bureau and the Tianjin Armed Forces Academy to spy on information, and climbed up the Beitang Fort to check the condition of the fort. Under the nose to do military exercises. After verifying all the information and finishing his addiction to being a spy, Kawakami Miroku returned home safely.A military officer at the level of deputy minister lurked under the nose for a month. Li Hongzhang did not notice it at all, and neither did other government departments in the Qing Dynasty. , but began to lurk secretly! The story of Japanese spies in the Sino-Japanese War is basically finished, but there are still many, many wonderful stories.For example, everyone is familiar with the fact that Japan had already intercepted the telegram codes of the Qing Legation in Japan before the war, and all the secret messages between the Prime Minister’s Office and the Legation were deciphered by the Japanese side, which made the Qing Dynasty extremely passive in its diplomatic mediation before the war.The way the Japanese army obtained passwords can be summed up in a word we are now familiar with - phishing. The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs first submitted diplomatic documents to the Qing embassy in Japan in complete Chinese. The staff of the embassy just thought it was very convenient-if it was in Japanese, they had to translate it, so they sent this text to the Zongli Yamen in code, and the Japanese military used Once the reserved Chinese manuscripts were compared, the password was thus deciphered. It's really hard to guard against.Whether it is a person or a country, as long as they are deliberate, it is terrible. And the next thing I want to tell is to uncover the answer to the previous question: Apart from military reasons, why did the Qing Dynasty collapse like this? The Japanese have already given their answer.It is precisely because of this answer that the Japanese army dared to gamble with 80,000 troops against the million-strong army of the Qing Dynasty, desperately launched a war, and desperately wanted to invade Beijing! After returning to Japan, Munekata Kotaro found a quiet place after being interviewed by Muruhito, and began to sort out the information he had lurked in the Qing Dynasty for 10 years. He wrote these information into two concluding reports. In the first summary report, Munekata Kotaro strongly opposed the "threat theory of the Qing Dynasty" that was being advocated by Europeans at that time. Although the Sino-Japanese War had just started, he predicted that the Qing Dynasty would definitely fail: "The day when the Chinese Empire (referring to Japan) increases its troops , is also the time when victory is at hand." The reason is: "The defeat of the Qing Dynasty was due to the corruption of the whole people, not the fault of one person." Munekata Kotaro analyzed that after the Westernization Movement, although the Qing Dynasty continued to develop and progress on the surface, "the decayed atmosphere originated from the end of the Ming Dynasty", the whole people lost their faith, and the social atmosphere went from bad to worse.Under this atmosphere, everyone who originally had a conscience is a possible corrupt person. "Observing a country is the same as observing people. You should first 'insert into its inner circle' and then 'understand its shape'." The problem in the Qing Dynasty was that "the corruption of people's hearts has reached the extreme." In 1893, the annual fiscal revenue announced by the Qing government was about 83 million taels of silver. According to field investigations, Kotaro Sokata strongly questioned this figure, because the result of the investigation was that the actual amount paid by the people in the Qing Dynasty was 100% of this figure. At least four times more!In other words, there are still huge amounts of tax revenues that have been embezzled and intercepted by local officials and various interest groups, and none of the huge sums of money have entered the national treasury. The tax collection policy implemented by the imperial court is a task system. In each year, each province must complete a certain amount of tax revenue. After completing this task, the local officials began to collect arbitrary fees from the people under various names. fell into their pockets. Therefore, although the people of the Qing Dynasty paid more taxes and created more wealth, the country did not get any benefits. It was only officials at all levels who became rich. The policy of further enrichment has been openly and secretly resisted. Interest groups eventually brought great damage to the rule of the imperial court.Munekata Kotaro concluded: The political situation in the Qing Dynasty appears to be unified by the imperial power, but in fact government orders cannot be issued from the palace.Not only good intentions cannot be achieved, on the contrary, because money can buy laws everywhere, ordinary people who have been exploited have no way to appeal even if they want to, and the backlog of public grievances is very deep. Over time, the phenomenon of corruption among the whole people appeared in the society of the Qing Dynasty.This is the consensus of almost all foreigners in the Qing Dynasty. At that time, the U.S. Minister to China, Tian Bei, wrote a secret letter to the U.S. President, saying that the Qing Dynasty’s court had almost reached the point where "no officials will be corrupt, no bribes will be done, and everyone will bully each other." , The point where the government and the people deceive each other."Munekata Kotaro thinks this is more terrible than the imperial government's policy mistakes, and the policy mistakes can be reversed, but the corruption of the whole people will definitely make the country lose its vitality—— "The country is a collection of people, and the people are part of the national organization. Once the members are corrupt, how can the country be independent?" Although the Qing Dynasty was politically corrupt, financially difficult, weak in armaments, and popular among the people, it was "bluffing".Zongfang Kotaro believes that the Qing Dynasty can never be called a "truly powerful country", because the sage Mencius of this country has long said-"If the upper and lower levels collect profits, the country will be in danger!" "According to my contempt, most of us Japanese attach too much importance to the Qing Dynasty, and judge success or failure in vain based on statistical comparisons of weapons, warships, financial resources, and numbers of soldiers, etc., without knowing that they have already won the victory spiritually. Even if the Qing Dynasty does not fight, 10 years earlier, 30 years later, the Qing Dynasty will be fragmented and present a major change!" With the same opinion as Munekata Kotaro, there is also the master spy Arao Sei. Arao Sei wrote in the "Book of Refutation": "The corruption in the Qing Dynasty has reached the extreme, the discipline is lax, the officials are selfish, and the ancestral foundation is completely ruined. The Qing Dynasty and Japan are dependent on each other. Under the eyes of the big powers, if the Qing Dynasty becomes another country The fate of our country is also unpredictable. Therefore, the worry of the Qing Dynasty is also the worry of Japan. In order to prevent Europe from invading, our country first took the initiative to formulate a strategy to govern the Qing Dynasty, preemptively conquer this corrupt government, and reform the Qing Dynasty. Only then can we unite China to fight against it The west." In the eyes of these two spies who have a deep understanding of the national conditions of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing court has completely failed to assume the advanced nature of representing "China".Although they used to be advanced and defeated the decadent and declining Ming Dynasty, the politics was once clear and the common people lived and worked in peace and contentment, but now they are also rotten.The Qing court claimed to inherit the mantle of China, but in the so-called "Kang and Qian Dynasty", it wiped out the excellent traditional Chinese culture (literary inquisition). "Heaven hates its virtues, the people are tired of its governance, and the generals are eccentric and unwilling to commit themselves" - such a corrupt and depraved court, how dare it say that it represents the glorious "China"?Must be represented by Japan! During this period, in the reports of Japanese spies and government documents, they called Japan "China", "Shenzhou" or "Celestial Dynasty".Arao Jing's "Party Constitution" in Hankou Leshantang stipulates: First conquer the Qing Dynasty, and then combine the forces of the Qing Dynasty and Japan to realize the rise of the yellow race and resist the invasion of the Western white race-"The purpose of our comrades is for the whole world. Human beings must first transform the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government is already corrupt, so my comrades must assist the revolutionary movement of the Han people to make it successful, and transform the Qing Dynasty within 10 years at the latest, so as to realize the cooperation between China and Japan.” This is why Sei Arao listed the conditions for those "united front" targets.We must also remember the "Letter to the Heroes of the Eighteen Provinces" posted after the Japanese army captured Andong. It was drafted by Sokata Kotaro himself, and the purpose was the same. Japan went to "united front" these "gentlemen and heroes" and called on them Revolution, to overthrow the decadent Qing court, and go together to "drive out the Tartars, reform the Qing Dynasty, and restore China." These views of the spies deeply influenced the Japanese military and government. Ten years later, a group of exiled Qing revolutionaries headed by Sun Wen got the help of the Japanese and established an anti-Qing revolutionary alliance organization. Their stories We'll talk about that later.The deep understanding of the Qing court and society by the spies also brought them and the Japanese soldiers a strong spiritual support-in the eyes of the Japanese, they invaded the Qing Dynasty to save the country, they were not creating evil, but It is to save the people of the Qing Dynasty—who told your government not to do it? If we cannot understand this, we will not be able to understand why the Japanese soldiers on the battlefield never gave up their lives and were "deadly loyal" to their duties, nor can we really understand why the "robber's logic" and aggression, which have been condemned all the time, were not found in the Japanese army. But there is such a broad market. 是的，面对一个腐朽的、已经落后于它的人民的清政府，日本人反而可以自认为站在了“道义的制高点上”。 是的，当一个朝廷不作为，当朝廷无法代表底层百姓的根本利益和政府的先进性时，即使本国人民忍气吞声，其他国家的各色人等也会发现可趁之机。这种巨大的可怕性，恰恰是清国朝廷从来没有想到的。他们仍然在关起门来统治，而新的世界也恰恰不是关起门来驯化一批良民、追求表面繁荣就可以万事无忧了。 作为一个间谍天才，在提出强大的理论观点后，宗方小太郎提出了实际行动方案，概括起来就是“软硬两手”：先一手硬、后一手软。 宗方小太郎认为，国家的强大不能靠个人的勇武，更不是靠口水激情，也永远不要指望通过道德控诉就能战胜敌人，所以日本对清国需要硬的一手——实实在在的军事行动。 “清日之间，若无大战，则不能大和。故日本对清国人不必讲煦煦之仁、孑孑之义，一旦时机合适，日本军必须排除万难，攻陷北京，再进扼长江之咽喉，攻占江淮重地，断绝南北交通，使清国陷于至困至穷、万无办法之地，使清国政府和人民知晓真正之失败！” 清国幅员辽阔，疆土宽广，日本无法完全吞下，这一点宗方小太郎也考虑到了。他建议日军在侵占清国后，将清国分割为六大部分，实行统治： 1.东部沿海皆划入日本版图。 2.在长江以南迎明朝后裔，建立日本的保护国，镇抚民心。 3.在长江以北、黄河以南建立日本属国，寻关羽或者其他名人后裔为王位。 4.在西藏、青海两省立达赖喇嘛为王。 5.在内蒙古、甘肃、新疆选其酋长为各部落长，日本监视之。 6.大清的皇族和八旗子弟则回到东北地区，由日本监管。 在“硬”的手段成功后，就应该实行“软”的手段了，也就是“铁血之后再怀柔”。宗方小太郎再三提醒日本当局要注意这一点，“数亿清国之黎民待望仁政、仁人久矣”。战胜的日军要在占领地实行“仁政”，不能将战火延绵到清国人民的头上，不能屠杀清国人民，只有这样才能消除清国人民对日本的仇恨，实现日本对清国的长久统治。 宗方小太郎提出的“铁血政策”被日军很好地贯彻了下去，《马关条约》就是根据那“六块论”的战略意图来制定的。甚至多年以后，当日军攻入南京时，认为必须用强硬手段使中国人完全屈服，达到“万无办法”的境地，于是疯狂地开展了一场史无前例的大屠杀。而宗方小太郎寄希望的“仁政”，无疑是与虎谋皮，日本军部罪恶的屠刀一旦出鞘，是很难再收回来的。 这就是宗方小太郎第一份总结性的情报报告——《清国大势之倾向》。宗方小太郎将他的第二份总结性情报命名为《经略长江水域要旨》，他提醒日本政府观察清国政局要注意长江流域，尤其要特别注意当时一个并不特别起眼的地方——湖南。 长沙正是汉口乐善堂第一个设立“支部”的地方。宗方小太郎预言：“今后主宰爱新觉罗命运的，必为湖南人。”他提醒日本当局，要“及时经营湖南，将来大清国中原鼎沸之时，如果湖南不能为我日本所用，至少也要让它不至与我为仇！英国数百年前就开辟湖南湘潭为商埠，并汲汲于经营重庆，难道没有原因吗？” 间谍们的故事结束了。我们的问题也已经有了部分的答案，而日本间谍给出的答案并不是完整的，因为他们的观察视角也只能局限于清国社会和地方政府，还有一个地方是他们永远不可能到达的。 这就是皇宫。 在皇宫，一场更加令人瞠目结舌的阴暗事件一直在上演，它不仅是清日战争中清军溃败的根本原因，是清国“全民腐败”的源头，也是这个朝廷即将走向迅速衰败的最重要的原因，它即将将整个清国推向万劫不复的深渊，这就是—— 党争！