A Man of Science and Engineering in Troubled Times Wandering in the Late Qing Dynasty

Chapter 583 His heart can be punished

Li Yu said goodbye to Chaplin, Haer and others, and went to San Francisco according to Situ Meitang's telegram.

Hongmen is still very concerned about the country and hopes to bring back some of their fundraising through Li Yu.

When he arrived in San Francisco, Li Yu saw Situ Meitang holding a meeting and waited outside the door.

Taking advantage of this time, he sent a telegram to David Buick and asked him to accompany him on a trip to East Asia.

Li Yu had waited for so long, and it was finally time to infiltrate the Mitsui Zaibatsu.

Now not only the Republic of China is short of money, but Japan is also short of money.

For safety reasons, he still wanted an American to stand on the stage while he gradually faded into the background.

Anyway, through the years of World War I, all countries should have learned how much Wall Street in the United States likes capital operations, and they won't find it strange.

Li Yu's company is in the United States and is listed in the United States at the same time. If Americans like David Buick and Xie Yuxi come forward, the Japanese will not be able to prevent it.

Moreover, Li Yu infiltrated the Mitsui Zaibatsu. They were engaged in people's livelihood industries and were relatively undefended.

Li Yu said: "Mr. Sun will definitely be grateful for your help."

Of course Li Yu knew that these were the hard-earned money of the Chinese people, and solemnly said: "I understand."

After all, the domestic situation is still very different from that in the United States. Moreover, the first few years of the Republic of China were turbulent and changed too fast.

The atmosphere instantly reached a climax, and everyone made a pact on the spot, deciding not to fight among themselves in the future.

Huang Sande accepted the invitation and returned to China to serve as an advisor to the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, an advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of the Guangdong Army, and a member of the British-American Investigation Committee. Later, he was hired as an advisor to the China Railway Corporation.

But when I look at the names, they are all "consultants", positions with no real power.

Situ Meitang decided to reconcile with them and end the internal fighting in the past many years.

Li Yu asked: "How is Mr. Sun doing now?"

Situ Meitang said it sincerely.

The Chinese in America are indeed very concerned about the domestic situation. Not only did Hongmen donate money, Mr. Sun also sent a telegram to urge the Kuomintang to set up a salary collection bureau in America, named the General Assembly for the Maintenance of the Republic of China. Tens of thousands of people donated money and raised more than 200,000 US dollars. The person responsible for this was Mr. Sun's son, Sun Ke.

"Good brother, this time you return to China, our Hongmen must practice it for you." Situ Meitang said.

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After David Buick arrived in San Francisco, Li Yu boarded the ship.

Li Yu smiled and said, "Brother Situ is too outspoken."

Zhang Shizhao, Yao Hongye, and Zou Rong came to the dock to greet Li Yu.

Li Yu said: "It's easy."

Zhang Shizhao is a relatively legendary and complicated person. He was invited by Yuan Shikai, but he immediately fled Beijing and came to Japan after Song Jiaoren was assassinated.

For Chinese Americans, this is certainly a good thing.

He spoke generously:

Li Yu came to the conference room again and found that Situ Meitang had not finished the meeting.

"Brothers! I came to Jinshan in the early years of Guangxu and joined Zhigongtang in the eleventh year of Guangxu. It has been more than 30 years now. From the moment I set foot on American soil, I was thrown horse dung at me by gangsters. In more than 30 years, I have seen too much There are many white people bullying Chinese people. From the day our Hongmen church opened in America, our purpose has been to unite and protect our brothers from being bullied by outsiders. Unfortunately, we have been affected by external forces, and there have been many heartbreaking internal fights. Today we Brothers come together to change this disunity and work together to create a better future!

"Brothers! We must stick together closely from now on and stop fighting each other!"

Because of the lessons learned in the past two years, Hongmen in the United States understands that it cannot directly participate in politics and can only provide financial assistance.

However, this peace conference did not completely resolve the issue of internal strife. It was almost until September 18th that the internal strife in Hongmen was completely ended.

Huang Sande is still the boss of Hongmen and Zhigongtang.

Situ Meitang declined, expressing his unwillingness to become an official.

But the role of logistics in the military has been said many times, and it should not be too important.

After David Buick received Li Yu's telegram, he immediately replied to the telegram and expressed his intention to leave as soon as possible.

Let alone them, even time-travelers like Li Yu did not dare to wade into the muddy political and military waters in the early years of the Republic of China. If you are not smart enough, you will not survive long. If you are too smart, you will definitely be called a domestic slave with the surname N.

Situ Meitang especially warned: "Brother, if you can make money in domestic or Japanese banks, these donations must be converted into silver yuan, and never be converted into other money."

"I'm very tired from being busy with party affairs every day," Zhang Shizhao said. "We had an argument last week."

Situ Meitang said: "We have been away from the country for too long. Apart from raising funds, we can't help with anything else. Brother Huang just came back from the country some time ago and basically accomplished nothing. Unlike you, brother, you still have a wide network of contacts in the country. .”

After the meeting, Situ Meitang met Li Yu at the Zhigongtang Headquarters in San Francisco.

Zhang Shizhao said: "It makes a difference whether there is revolution or not."

The other big guys in the audience were moved, and some even shouted: "Be born as a Hongmen person, die as a Hongmen ghost!"

After 1911, Mr. Sun invited Situ Meitang and Huang Sande to serve as officials in China.

"What's the argument?" Li Yu asked.

Looking at the banners hanging in the venue, it looked like it was a "peace meeting", and those in the front row were all the bigwigs of Hongmen halls in America.

After more than ten days of sailing, the ship anchored in Yokohama Port, Japan.

Situ Meitang said: "Also, we have raised a batch of funds and asked you to transfer them to Mr. Sun in Japan."

After Sun Jingwen resigned, Huang Sande was unable to gain recognition from his colleagues in the Beiyang Department. His official position was neither salty nor cool, which was extremely boring, and he finally returned to the United States sadly.

In the future, if big American chaebols like Morgan Jr. can be brought in, the safety factor will be even higher. It's just that at this time, the big European and American chaebols didn't like to invest in Asia through "normal channels", and they also looked down upon Japanese companies.

This "difference" is not small at all. He issued an article opposing violent revolution and advocated the use of peace talks.

Although Li Yu knew the current situation, he could only say casually for the time being: "Such a big matter still needs to be discussed more. They happen to not all be in Japan."

Zhang Shizhao sighed: "Everyone is in a mess now, and news of the deaths of Ying Kuicheng and Zhao Bingjun have been reported in China. The real culprit behind Brother Song's death may never be found out again."

In January, Ying Kuicheng was assassinated and died on a train;

In February, Yuan Shikai's absolute confidant Zhao Bingjun died suddenly while in office.

Both died very strangely.

Immediately afterwards, Yuan Shikai asked the Ministry of Education to order that all photos of Sun Huang and words of praise contained in textbooks should be deleted. Now that Yuan Shikai holds real power, the revolutionaries are relatively helpless and can only wait for a miracle to happen, such as... Yuan commits suicide.

Zou Rong on the side said: "Regardless of whether we want revolution or not, as long as there are still people thinking about the old monarchy, just beat them!"

Li Yu smiled and said, "Have you forgotten the important task I gave you two?"

Zou Rong and Yao Hongye said seriously: "I have never dared to forget it! We completed our studies, obtained our bachelor's degrees in Japan, and have been interning in your company for a long time."

"That's right!" Li Yu said happily, "There are many ways to serve the country, and what we have to do is equally important. Japan can achieve today's achievements without the help of the business community."

Zou Rong said: "In the past few years in Japan, I have seen the capabilities of several large consortiums."

Li Yu nodded: "That's good, I will give you specific tasks soon."

After hiding them in the snow for so long, it was time to come out of the mountain.

Zhang Shizhao didn't know much about industrial and commercial matters, so he said, "I've booked a restaurant and I'll give you a break first."

It was the first time for David Buick to come to the Eastern country. He was very curious about everything here. After a long time of observation, he was surprised and said: "I didn't expect Japan to be so Westernized."

Li Yu said: "Japan has just changed its emperor, and the Taisho era was the peak period for learning from the West."

For the Chinese people, Emperor Taisho's presence is very low, far lower than that of Meiji.

Emperor Meiji should be the most well-known Japanese emperor. After all, he was the first emperor to gain real power.

For Japanese people, a large number of people also believe that the Meiji era is Japan’s most beautiful era.

Natsume Soseki's "Heart" aptly describes the Japanese people's mood when Emperor Meiji died: "My feeling is that the spirit of the Meiji era began with the Emperor, and it ended with his death today."

When Akechi died, Nogi Nogi even directly took his wife to commit suicide. The Japanese built the so-called "Nogi Shrine" for Nogi Nogi and worshiped him as the "God of War."

However, after World War II, even Japan's own historians had a negative attitude towards his military capabilities, believing that Nogi was just a "foolish general."

The affirmation and boasting before World War II were nothing more than artificial myths promoting Emperor Kuchu.

The Taisho era after Meiji was a relatively special period in Japan, with a certain degree of freedom and democracy - only relatively speaking.

Before Li Yu traveled through time, there was a very popular Japanese song on the Internet, "Senbonzakura" from Hatsune Miku. Even if many people forget the name, they have probably heard its melody.

"Senbonzakura" has a light melody and wonderful lyrics, and is deeply loved in Japan. Its first few lyrics are as follows:

"Bold and fearless, westernized revolution, aboveboard, anti-war country, riding Hinomaruin's bicycle, evil spirits retreat, ICBM."

The lyrics are a bit incomprehensible, but they can arouse people's imagination.

Regardless of its meaning, in terms of expression alone, one of the reasons why "Senbonzakura" became so popular is that there are many Taisho elements added to the lyrics and MV.

During the Taisho period, Japan was trying to be in line with the West, whether it was living habits, homes, speech and behavior, or food, clothing, housing and transportation, and at the same time wanted to integrate traditional culture with Western culture.

The song "Senbonzakura" shows the blending of different cultural elements such as Japanese tradition and modernity, East and West.

The soundtrack includes traditional Japanese music and modern Western music elements.

In terms of clothing, some of the characters in the MV wear kimonos, some wear suits, and some wear "mixed Japanese and Western" clothing: they are obviously wearing traditional "pleated skirts", but they are wearing a Western "uniform hat" on their heads. .

The buildings also include Western-style brick houses, Japanese-style stone lanterns and shrines, as well as street lamps, mailboxes, coffee and desserts symbolizing civilization.

All of these mark the Taisho period, when Japan moved closer to European civilization materially and spiritually, while also striving to blend the characteristics of the times with Eastern and Western cultures.

This is a very tangled and contradictory state, which also coincides with the Japanese mentality.

Another point that is easily overlooked is that most of the works of art show the upper class or at least the middle class, and few reflect the people at the bottom.

After all, ordinary people's daily lives are extremely boring and simple, and it seems that it is indeed difficult to explore. Little Japan did not stop its domestic exploitation until the end of World War II, much like the Britain described by Dickens earlier.

During the war, for the sake of victory on the front line, the people could endure high prices. They thought that after defeating Russia, they would receive huge compensation and their lives would return to their original state. However, after the war, Japan did not receive compensation and prices did not fall, which made them feel disappointed.

Let’s talk about the democracy of the Taisho period. It was obviously democracy internally and imperialism externally.

Regardless of whether they are politicians or ordinary people, they all have deep-rooted self-centered ideas.

On the one hand, the political circles demand domestic democracy, and on the other hand, they actively demand external expansion; ordinary people not only want to safeguard their own rights and interests, but also want to gain greater rights and interests for themselves by harming the rights and interests of other countries and others.

That’s why I said before that throughout the first half of the twentieth century, even the lower class people in Japan did not deserve sympathy.

At least as a Chinese, it is impossible to sympathize.

After dinner, Li Yu specifically talked to Zou Rong and Yao Hongye about the economic and cultural situation.

"You should be able to see that the way the Japanese want to occupy the Northeast is to slowly encroach on it through commercial means."

Zou Rong nodded and said, "It's the same method as on Treasure Island."

Li Yu said: "Now Japan is desperately intervening in our country through various means. The Republic of China government borrowed money to deal with the aftermath. Japan clearly had no money, but it still had to join in the fun. They first borrowed money from Britain and the United States, and then lent it to the Republic of China government. What is important is not to fall behind Britain and the United States and to exert influence on our country."

Yao Hongye said angrily: "Ambition!"

Li Yu said: "What is even more worrying is that Japan sent a person who is very good at colonial strategy as the president of Manchuria Railway Co., Ltd."

Zou Rong asked: "Is it Goto Shinpei?"

Li Yu said: "That's him."

Zou Rong frowned: "What a troublesome guy!"

Goto Shinpei is definitely familiar to people in Takarashima. This guy was born into a poor family, made his fortune during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, and then slowly became the civil administrator of Baodao.

During this term, Goto did his best to promote colonial policies and strengthen colonial rule. He used many despicable methods, such as stipulating that anyone who resisted colonial rule would be treated as criminals and severely punished. In the five years after the Sino-Japanese War, more than 5 people died in resistance to colonial rule.

There is no doubt that Goto Shinpei is the terrible executioner.

He not only implemented brutal repressive methods, but also vigorously promoted enslavement education in an attempt to change the people's feelings about China. Goto required schools, cities, villages and other places where there are people to learn and use Japanese.

To some extent, the harm of cultural invasion is even more terrifying.

Now, Goto wants to apply this method to the Northeast region.

(End of this chapter)