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Chapter 1074 Referendum in Edo Castle
A temporary wooden platform was built on the ruins of the castle tower of Edo Castle, where a referendum meeting will be held to determine the future of Japan.

At the four corners of the wooden platform, many wooden chairs were placed, on which were the victors of the Japanese Civil War.War is a continuation of politics, and the winning side naturally gains control over Japan.

One of them is Tanaka Chengyi's Huaxia Association. Tanaka Chengyi brought dozens of Huaxia Association's backbones to attend, and they became extremely active after they shifted from secret activities to public political forces.The Huaxia Society is composed of Edo Castle and the low-level civilians in the vicinity. After the rebels were dismissed, the Huaxia Society had no army, but it had a large number of members and still had a lot of influence.

One corner is the red scarf warriors led by Ono Taro. They are the shogunate bannermen who were secretly recruited by the Kyushu Army. They have a lot of warriors under their own hands, with certain force, and because of the identity of the red scarf warriors, they were not captured by the Huaxia Society to serve as coolies. .

In one corner, the Shimadzu family, the Mori family, the Yamauchi family, and the Tachibana family are the representatives of the Saigoku daimyo. They have the most powerful army in Japan. If there is no Kyushu army to intervene, they are likely to replace the Tokugawa shogunate and form a coalition regime.

The last corner is the officials nominated by the Kyushu Army headed by Shen Youlong, and the military forces represented by Nelson, Zhang Yuan, and Sun Xu.Beside Zhang Yuan, sat Sakai Tadakatsu, Abe Tadaaki and other important ministers of the shogunate who had collapsed.

Thousands of residents of Edo City and surrounding farmers gathered around the four corners, and the largest vote in the history of Japan will be held.Many civilians who came to participate in the conference did not realize the seriousness of this matter, and they just followed suit to join in the fun.

"Did the new government agree to only take [-]% to [-]% of the harvest? If this is the case, then I will support the establishment of a new government. It is a big deal to keep an extra [-]-[-]% of the harvest, enough for us to deal with the famine year Or improve the food."

"Yeah, it's equivalent to reducing the tax to be paid by half... I don't understand why the government of the Celestial Dynasty pays so little tax to farmers? Could it be that they are really rich and don't care about us? Taxes?"

The farmers who gathered after hearing the words are fond of the new measure of reducing the agricultural tax by [-]% to [-]% to [-]%. The agricultural tax is most concerned about their vital interests.They don't know that with the new farming system, chemical fertilizers, improvements in agricultural machinery, and the emergence of hybrid seeds, the yield per mu of farmland has increased. Although their taxes have been cut, the grain received by the government has not decreased but increased.At the same time, the share of agricultural tax has begun to be squeezed out by commercial tax and income tax. Although agricultural tax is still the largest tax category, the proportion is declining year by year.

"After the customs of the two places are unified, our merchants can be exempted from expensive customs duties, and only Western merchants need to pay customs duties."

"I don't know how their general business taxes are other than tariffs. If the taxes are reduced compared to the previous shogunate, I would like to support the establishment of the new government."

The Japanese merchants have more things to worry about.Local farmers only need to compare the proportion of harvests submitted to the government, while businessmen have to consider a series of factors such as tariffs, commercial taxes, and changes in market conditions after the merger of the two places.

Perhaps the most intense resistance to the new government policy was the samurai group in Kanto.However, at this time, the samurai near Edo Castle were all arrested by the Huaxia Society as coolies, and they had no right to vote.In other words, this vote was scheduled from the very beginning.

"Mr. Sakai, please come to the podium and announce to the public the vote to establish a new government." Zhang Yuan said to Sakai Tadakatsu who was sitting on the side.

"Yes." Tadakatsu Sakai cleaned up the samurai uniform he was wearing, and walked towards the temporary wooden platform with his head held high.

Even as the defeated party, Tadakatsu Sakai wanted to maintain his dignity in the end.

The onlookers, who were whispering about gains and losses in all directions, gradually quieted down.They are fairly familiar with Sakai Tadakatsu, a celebrity who was active in Edo Castle, and was once a senior minister of the Tokugawa family.No one expected that the first representative of the Tokugawa shogunate would be the first to come to power.

Sakai Tadakatsu stood on the wooden platform and saw pairs of eyes looking at him from below. Although he had seen many scenes, he felt a little ashamed and uneasy.

"Everyone, it is a pity that the shogunate was defeated on the front line of Osaka Castle. Your Excellency the General has signed and sealed the surrender document. Your Excellency is currently going to the capital of the Central Plains to meet the ruler of the suzerain country." Tadakatsu Sakai said.

The people watching in the audience were in an uproar. Although they already knew the news, the shock brought by Sakai Tadakatsu, an important figure in the shogunate, admitting this incident was unparalleled.

"Since the Warring States period, the strong can deploy weapons in the world. Now the Chinese power is the most powerful in the world. It is reasonable for us to submit. I once led the envoys to the capital of Huaxia. The prosperity of the place is far behind that of Edo City. It can be seen that only the strong can lead their people to live a prosperous life. Therefore, I support the establishment of the new government. At that time, the forces in the Chinese cultural circle can permanently become the most prosperous forces in the world and build glory together." Tadakatsu Sakai said.

As soon as Sakai Tadakatsu, who had been brainwashed by Zhang Yuan, finished speaking, the audience was in an uproar again.Tadakatsu Sakai, who used to be an important minister of the shogunate, even publicly supported the establishment of the new government. The effect of such propaganda is even more effective than the public opinion propaganda of the Kyushu Daily.

"Hmph, it's enough to forcefully suppress the samurai group, so why win over their upper echelons." Sitting in his seat, Tanaka Chengichi sneered at Tadakatsu Sakai's speech.

Sakai Tadakatsu once confronted him, and he didn't have much affection for Sakai Tadakatsu, and was dissatisfied with the fact that the Kyushu Army still used some daimyos.

"The strength of the common people is still very weak. The daimyo has a lot of resources, and it is a last resort to use them at the beginning." Shen Youlong sat below, listening to Sakai Tadakatsu's speech with great interest, and then turned to ask Zhang Yuan, " How did you convince him to support us in establishing the East Ocean Province?"

"I just helped him realize what kind of world this is... To be honest, when I knew that the world has no center, and the world we live in is not the only one, my thoughts were also greatly impacted. I also talked with He described how vast the universe is, and in the future, human beings will be able to soar in the air and dive into the bottom of the sea." Zhang Yuan said.

"He also believes that?" Shen Youlong himself didn't believe that people would be able to go to the world in the future.

"He really believed it... He said that after he saw the train and electric lights in the capital, he saw many things that he could not imagine, so it is not impossible for him to go to heaven and earth." Zhang Yuan said.

(End of this chapter)