The monks and Taoists in the temple recited the scriptures, and when the sky was dark, the capital seemed to be on fire, countless paper wallets were burned, smoke shrouded the whole city, and firefighters everywhere were on standby, for fear that they would catch fire if they were not careful; At night, there are countless people on both sides of the Tonghui River and Liangshui River near the capital who are putting river lanterns.

Lei Yizhen stood by the Tonghui River, looking at the river lanterns on the river, feeling that they and the stars in the sky complement each other, a star is a person in the world, and a river lamp is a dead soul, the stars in the sky are dense, and the lights on the river are also dense. In the First War against Japan, the General Staff counted more than 89,000 people killed in the Fuxing Army, and if these people really became river lanterns, the river from Beijing to Tianjin would be covered with them.

When Lei Yizhen looked at the river lantern and pondered, Major General Matsuishi Yasuji of the Japanese Army next to him was also slightly distracted, in his opinion, this battle was really inexplicable, at first it was because it was because it was to retaliate against China for sinking the naval warship, and then he wanted to capture Tonghua to completely occupy the entire South Manchuria, and then later he wanted to occupy Beijing in order to completely subjugate China, so he changed his purpose step by step and fought a war that no one can describe.

This qiē, in the eyes of Matsushi Yasuji, is basically a senseless battle fought by politicians in order to keep their positions, or a war to fulfill someone's old dream twenty years ago, anyway, every battle has nothing to do with the Japanese people, and the death of every soldier is because of the selfish desires of careerists, and what is even more infuriating is that until ♂ now, these careerists are still safe and sound, only the marshals who lead the troops carry the black pot.

"Your Excellency, go back. I hope that China and Japan will never go to war again! The voice of Lei Yizhen next to him woke up the distracted Songshi Anji.

"Hey! China and Japan can never fight again! Major General Shoishi Yasuji, who had come to his senses, bowed. Expressing your heart.

At the same time, somewhere in Ginza, Tokyo. Some of the richest people in Japan also gathered, and some of them were not as sure that China and Japan would never fight again, as was Major General Matsuishi Yasuji, who had seen the might of the Renaissance Army. Rather, they are worried that even if a treaty is signed, the Chinese may end up in the Tsushima Strait.

"Gentlemen, it is impossible to go to war!" The weakest of the all, the Okura-gumi zaibatsu Okura Kihachiro said. "The purpose of the coal and steel joint venture proposed by China is to fundamentally monitor the ordnance production of the two countries, and only by monitoring the ordnance production can the two sides understand and trust each other militarily. The person who can come up with this solution must be a genius, and the realization of joint operations on coal and steel will not only gain mutual trust, but also carry out in-depth cooperation in the military......"

The largest steel mill in Japan is the government-run Yawata Iron Works. One of Okura's most important tasks is to find enough high-quality iron ore for him, which used to be very unsmooth, but now once China and Japan have a joint venture between coal and steel, the Okura-gumi will become part of the Japanese steel mills, and eventually become a member of this steel giant, at that time, he will no longer sit down in the meeting between the chaebols.

Looking at the smile on Kihachiro Okura's face, Mitsubishi Koyata Iwasaki, who had just taken over the family business, Suzutomo's Suzuki Mazaya, Yasuda's Zenzaburo, and Mitsui's Ikeda Naribin, all chuckled. Only Mitsui's big shopkeeper Tuan pondered with a solemn expression, and after Okura Kihachiro finished speaking, he said: "Gentlemen, the coal and steel joint venture proposed by Shina this time, although it is with the intention of monitoring the production of ordnance. But the bigger intention is to establish closer ties with the Japanese economy. If there is no Tianzihao established by Yang, then this is a blessing for us, but the scale of Tianzihao is huge. The rapid development of the industry has really reached the day when the two sides are closely integrated. Maybe it's because Shina has the upper hand or because the Japanese industry has the upper hand. ”

Tuan Zhu's speech was very precise. Yasuda Zenzaburo said: "Your Excellency, according to the classification of the Ministry of Industry of China, although China has a Tianzi name, but it is mainly concentrated in heavy industry, specifically steelmaking, chemical industry, military industry, shipbuilding, and tractor production, although these compete with us, but also with the government industry competition is more feasible, as long as the two economies are integrated, tariffs are the most favored nation treatment, then those industries in China can not compete with Japanese enterprises, not to mention, yarn mills, cloth factories are completely at a disadvantage. ”

Yasuda Zenzaburo's speech was agreed by everyone from the bottom of their hearts: Heavy industry has a large investment, but the results are slow, and it is difficult to make huge profits without the stimulation of war; in fact, the chaebols present here have few heavy industries, and most of them started by relying on light industry and mining, especially the textile industry, and all four have invested and invested hugely.

"It's a pity!" When a circle of people agreed, Mitsubishi's Iwasaki Koyata said, "After the cancellation of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, the empire can no longer create factories in China, if China is fully open to Japan, the most favored nation is not enough, the best way is to build factories in China, the northwest of China is planting American cotton in a large area, although there are many local yarn factories, but the scale is still very small, if we can build textile factories in Xi'an or Taiyuan, then the wages are not only lower, transportation can also be saved." What a pity! ”

"Your Excellency, the empire no longer has extraterritoriality, and setting up factories in the interior of China will not be protected." Mitsui's Ikeda Naribin said. Everyone here knows the content of the contract and the secret agreement, and they are all satisfied, and the only dissatisfaction is that there is no extraterritoriality, which is one level lower than that of Europeans and Americans. Business always has to have some privileges to open up the market, and now that the privileges are gone, the Japanese are on an equal footing with ordinary Shina people, which is extremely unfavorable to the future market development.

"Don't worry too much, maybe it won't be long before the extraterritoriality of the Omi countries will be canceled by the Yang family, and this day won't be too long." Sumitomo's Suzuki Mazuo also said. "China needs the Empire to carry out entrepot trade for its goods, which means that China will soon do something that the Omi powers will not be able to bear. Ladies and gentlemen, have you noticed that China is now like an empire a few decades ago, it is thriving, and various industries are also developing explosively, and the sooner we integrate with the China economy, the greater the benefits will be. Gentlemen, don't think about things related to competition, China is a blank field, where there is no competition, only development. ”

Suzuki Mazaoya's eyes lit up when he spoke, and he completely infected several chaebol giants here, and Japan has a population of only 50 million. China has a population of 450 million, nine times the size of Japan. If this market is really opened, then one's property will multiply several times. Shina itself has an industry. The government of China is also vigorously revitalizing the industry, but after all, the foundation is too thin, no matter how fast the development is, it is difficult to catch up with Japan, and the most important thing is that after years of training, Japan has a large number of practical talents in the business community, and China is still under the ancient business model, such competition is completely unequal.

Their only fear is that the pressure of the Shina government's businessmen in Shina will impose sanctions and restrictions on Japanese companies, which is unavoidable. The more disadvantaged the group, the more they want to rely on politics to gain a competitive advantage, and this is most likely to happen when China's military strength is significantly higher than that of Japan. Perhaps there should be strong support for naval expansion, the idea suddenly flashed through the minds of the chaebols.

Yang Rui, who signed the Sino-Japanese treaty, did not expect that a coal and steel joint venture would involve so many messy things for the Japanese chaebols, and he did not expect that the immature Japanese wolves would be raised so quickly. In fact, in the view of Yang Du, a future columnist, the Sino-Japanese contract is extremely satisfactory to the three Japanese people. For the warlords and the emperor, the lands of the Russian Far East were temporarily satisfied. Although this is temporary, the large European and American colonies in the south, even if you look at it, can make the warlords of the two countries stand tightly together;

The warlords are satisfied, and the chaebols are even more satisfied. In their view, the Sino-Japanese friendship is simply the complete monopoly of the Chinese market by Japan, and although China's own industry is also developing, the Japanese chaebol has a first-mover advantage. Their assets will be multiplied by the opening of the market and the convergence of the economy. This is not that the Chinese cannot compete, but that the speed of industrial development cannot keep up with the speed of market development. In particular, after the land is redeemed, the spread of transportation and the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides will greatly increase the purchasing power of the Chinese people. The strong rise of China's economy. It will multiply the capital attached to it, which will undoubtedly make the Japanese chaebols cry with excitement.

The warlords and chaebols are satisfied, and the politicians in Japanese politics will rejoice. Compared with the monarchical dictatorship of Japan, China should be a relatively democratic form of government, and the ingenuity of the Fuxing Society lies in borrowing those honest peasants to obtain the vast majority of votes, and the Fuxing Society's frequent policies of benefiting the people when it was in power made the peasants grateful to Dade.

Although this mutually beneficial model between the two sides will eventually be broken by the new industrial and commercial owners, the ignorance and tolerance of the peasants will not object to the revival will use their blood and sweat to water the industry and commerce, all they focus on is whether the rice in their bowls is fuller than before, and whether the money in their pockets is more than last year, as long as this is the case, it is the emperor's blessing and God's blessing, as for the agricultural taxes paid, isn't this filial piety to the emperor and the adults, and what does it have to do with them? In this way, industry and commerce will eventually support the Revival Society, and the Revival Society will never fall for thousands of years.

On the second day of the Midyear Festival, listening to Yang Du pull out that the revival will never fall for ten thousand years, Yang Rui suddenly burst into laughter, in his private plan, the revival will be able to last until thirty years later, and the agricultural tax will be canceled, thank God, as for how long the red flag of the revival association can be played, it's his business! This world is not, and it can't be, that his son inherits his father's business, and even his wives give birth to daughters, and the Yang family has cut off the incense since then, and he doesn't care, this is the change of concept in the past hundred years.

In fact, since entering Beijing, or being born as a Yang nameless, students, subordinates, and relatives have had a lot of expectations for this child, even Cheng Ying, who is well-educated in Britain and the United States, and is very enlightened, also hopes that his son can become a politician instead of a fruit seller. These people's wishes only made Yang Rui laugh in his heart, and made him even more stubborn to train Yang Wuming into a real fruit seller. His stubbornness comes from a superficial understanding of history, the great emperors in history often kill the elders when they are old, is it really old and confused?

Not at all, the root of it lies in the fact that great emperors always have a large number of talented courtiers, and great emperors often have sons who are not successful, so the old emperor has to weigh before he dies, whether he wants the national industry or the family business? If you want the national industry, then hand over the country to those genius courtiers, and the result may be that the country will prosper, or it may be that the imperial system will eventually be usurped by Cao Cao; And if you want the family business, that is, kill those elders and capable ministers, and finally leave a blank land for the son to re-establish his prestige.

Yang Wuming really wants his son to inherit his father's business, and half of the elders of the Revival Society will die, and the dead may not matter, but the development of this country will eventually come to a halt due to civil strife, and Yang Rui doesn't care who takes over the country. But if someone dares to ruin his life's work and make a mess of the country. That would be a violation of his taboo, which he would never allow.

looked at Yang Du, who was too confident. Yang Rui said: "Huizi, the internal forces in Japan are not something that you and I can foresee. Whether it is a warlord or a chaebol, they are all in a very unstable political system, and as long as there is a change in the emperor, the policy of the country will change greatly, and we cannot take it lightly. ”

"Has the emperor changed?" Yang Du pondered this sentence, and he said: "As far as I know, the Japanese emperor is a simple warrior who is very happy and envies Europe and the United States for opening up colonies. He is already being accused by those people now, with his scheming, what can he change? ”

"That's exactly what happened, but his son Zhao ...... Ahem, that's not necessarily how his son is. Yang Rui coughed, he almost said 'Showa'.

"His son, you mean Crown Prince Hirohito?" During this time, the relationship between Yang Du and Yang Rui became much closer, and he was no longer an adult, but began to talk about you directly.

"Yes. Hirohito. Yang Rui's eyes flashed fiercely. It was this person who used militarism to really take power back from the hands of the chaebol politicians, and it was this person who ordered the ...... of the September 18 Incident and the War of Aggression against China, and of course, this person. With the acquiescence of American politicians, he escaped trial and finally lived to die in his eighties. He, after inheriting the throne, what new changes will he bring to China and Japan? No one knows.

In the courtyard, Yang Du suddenly felt a chill. He sneered, "This... Is this Hirohito special? ”

"Hmm." Yang Rui didn't say much, and said straightly: "Huizi." Since you have the ambition to be diplomatic, then the next one begins. Let's resign as Speaker. First go to the office of the Prime Minister for a while, and then go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a few years to become a deputy, or go directly to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, starting from the grassroots level. ”

"I ......" I didn't expect the topic to turn to this aspect, Yang Du blinked, a little excited and a little uneasy, with Yang Rui as a strongman, he can only do diplomatic books in his life, but he does diplomatic books, so he doesn't know where Xie Zhangtai will put them. The capable people in the Revival Society, and even in the entire political arena, are all in their thirties and forties, which makes the competition for some important positions extremely fierce, and he, an outsider, really doesn't know if he can be in a high position.

"Huizi, you used to be an emperor, but now there is no emperor in China, you said that you want to change to the Zongheng family of the pre-Qin period, that Zhang Yi Su Qin generation was also a great man at that time. But to achieve this goal, I think you will have to travel around the world for more than ten years. Of course, now that transportation is developed, the journey to the other side of the earth will only take a month at most, but it will take several years to turn around these powerful countries in the world, otherwise, how can you understand the world situation? Yang Rui couldn't help laughing when he looked at him, so he had to give his own opinion.

"Ahh Right! Right! It is necessary to travel around the world, and then know the shape of the world, and finally make China dominate the world. Yang Du was suddenly awakened, although he is a weak country, the kind of self-confidence in Xie Jintai is rare, which is completely due to his early overseas Chinese career. Would I have been able to start a few years earlier? It's okay for the speaker to be replaced by another person, for example, Xu Jun Guantian of the Peasant Association can take on this big responsibility. ”

"Want to leave now?" Yang Rui saw that he was in a hurry, and he smiled even more, "Huizi, how many foreign languages do you know?" ”

"Ahh Yang Du began to be stupid, and then he remembered that the nations did not speak Chinese, but all languages. "Besides, how do you make friends with the powerful when you go to another country? This is to be a vertical and horizontal family, connections are the first important, don't know people, how do you influence the national policy of other countries? There are also funds, traveling around the world, a lot of expenses, public funds must always have projects to be disbursed, you travel around, I'm afraid it is difficult to spend. ”

Scoops of cold water extinguished Yang Du's enthusiasm, and he said dejectedly: "What should I do?" ”

"In the past few years, you have learned English well, and then practiced your writing and eloquence, whether you go to a place to make a relationship, or write some words like Liang Qichao to cheat the manuscript fee, you can meet a lot of people." Yang Rui said.

As soon as he said Liang Qichao, Yang Du asked with concern: "This Liang Zhuoru heard that he was arrested in Taiwan?" ”

"Hmm." Yang Rui nodded, "But after signing the contract with Japan, I let it go." Didn't he say that he wanted friendship between China and Japan, he advocated this before the war, and now that he is really friendly, he will not be charged with it. ”

Unexpectedly, there was such a thing, Yang Du said: "Brother Zhuo Ru is the first master of advocacy in my country, if you want to be able to collect it for national use, ......"

"Huizi, Liang Qichao is a two-faced person. One day a day, much worse than Kang Youwei. Worse than you. No matter how bad Kang Youwei is, he is also persistent in the monarch. As for you, you insist on a constitutional monarchy, Liang Qichao will say whatever is beneficial to him, but as soon as the situation changes, he will change, and everything he said before should be a fart.

I don't use this person because I don't trust his character, but I think that if he preaches and preaches like this, the hearts of the people in the whole country will be in turmoil. Why do we want the imperial power of the archway, isn't it just to calm people's hearts? The heart is at peace. Everyone agrees and works hard in one place, and the country can be strong; On the contrary, if a constitution is established today, a republic tomorrow, and a restoration the day after tomorrow, how can this country be revived? Liang Qichao took shit luck this time and didn't live in prison, and next time it won't be so cheap. ”

The longer you are in charge. Yang Rui's majesty became more and more vigorous, and he said that although Liang Qichao was just understatement, Yang Du was already sweating on his back. While he was sweating, Yang Rui went out and got a few books and came back and said, "Let's talk about vertical and horizontal after reading these books thoroughly." ”

"This is ......," Yang Du immediately opened. The first is "The Influence of Sea Power on History", followed by "The Influence of Sea Power on the French Revolution and Empire, 1793-1812" and "The Relationship between the Influence of Sea Power and the War of 1812". and The Geographical Pivots of History and Beyond.

"Do you know why the war in Europe is starting now, it has a very important relationship with these books." Yang Rui said. As he spoke, he suddenly diverted from the topic, "Mahan's books have influenced the whole world and indirectly promoted the European War and even world history. But he was turned a blind eye by a certain translator who was born in the navy and was famous in my country, not only did he turn a blind eye, but turned over some messy things to mess with my Huaxia, if I really killed people and didn't go to jail, I would have killed this bastard with fame and reputation with the first shot! ”

Yang Du knew who the translator in Yang Rui's mouth was, and Yang Rui had mentioned this person's malice before the founding of the country, and his original words were: xxx died that day, and (I) the Prime Minister's Office must set off tens of thousands of firecrackers to celebrate. In addition to this translator, the famous Sun Zhongshan is another person who wants to set off firecrackers in the Prime Minister's Office after his death.

Not daring to take Yang Rui's words, Yang Du asked: "Sea power is so important, is this the reason why Brother Cheng turned to support Sino-Japanese friendship?" ”

"Pretty much." Yang Rui nodded and said, "If Japan is a friend, then at least one less war to destroy the sun." Hegemony is not a game, under normal circumstances, every major war requires ten years of cultivation of national strength to recover. Japan can be destroyed, but if Japan is destroyed and wait another ten years, then many opportunities will be lost. In terms of interests, Japan's acceptance of Germany's islands in the Pacific Ocean is extremely beneficial to containing the United States, and if the Philippines finally becomes independent, the United States will be expelled from the western Pacific region, which is very rare.

I have already thought about it, Japan and Britain are actually very similar, but Japan does not have a colony as big as Britain, and it needs the Chinese market, and Europe and the United States cannot open their colonies and their own markets to him, which makes China and Japan the basis for cooperation. When China and Japan fill the markets of China, Japan and South Korea, it will be time to start a war and seize the markets and raw materials of the European and American colonies, and this time will not be long, maybe 20 years. ”

"Twenty years, so short? Isn't it said that there is a second industrial revolution? Yang Du didn't know why the Prime Minister had such a judgment, he felt that this time could last at least thirty years.

"It's not too short." Yang Rui said, "There is a second industrial revolution, but the question is, if European and American products can't compete with us, what if he closes the market and controls raw materials?" You know, the richest people are in Europe and the United States, especially the United States, so if they don't open up their markets, then we have to bombard their country with strong ships and artillery. ”

Hearing that he was going to open the country with 'strong ships and cannons', Yang Du laughed and said: "Isn't this what the British did decades ago? ”

"Yes! Thirty years in the east of the river, thirty years in the west of the river. The result of free competition was that the competitive advantage of Eastern goods eventually overwhelmed the West, and the West had to close itself off in order to prevent the outflow of gold. The Manchu Qing Dynasty's retreat and isolation of the country summoned strong ships and cannons, why could the British retreat and isolation of the country be safe? Yang Rui picked up the teacup and took a sip of tea, he felt that it was very boring to chat with Yang Du so much, and his mind couldn't help but turn to Vladivostok, over there, it should be ready. (To be continued......)