Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 407 Political Rising Stars
As soon as he saw the emperor's telegram, Deng Shichang immediately lost his temper, let out a long sigh, and walked silently to the command room.

Lin Jianzhang said behind his back: "Zhengqing, someone from Lin dares to guarantee that Ye Zugui will not be in trouble. If there is any danger, I will be the first to lead the team to Tokyo to cover his bloodstains, and then go to the Forbidden City to plead guilty to the emperor." .”

Deng Shichang turned around suddenly, stared at Lin Jianzhang for a while, then cupped his hands and said, "Zengrong, I was wrong just now."

Lin Jianzhang smiled slightly and held Deng Shichang's hands.

On Tokyo Bay, Emperor Meiji led a group of senior officials to personally send Ye Zugui back to the ship, and the sailors over there had handed over the perpetrator of the Tori Harbor incident, Sato Shinichi, to the Chinese soldiers.Sato Shin turned pale, stared at Ye Zugui and the others, and suddenly yelled like crazy: "Damn Chinese people, you succeeded this time because of your weakness. As a soldier, I feel deeply sorry. Shame. But don’t get complacent too soon, sooner or later the warships of the Great Empire will sweep across your coastline, and the dirty and weak history of your nation will repeat itself!”

Emperor Meiji, Ito Hirobumi and other officials were ashamed and annoyed by Sato's words. Meiji smiled unnaturally, and said to Ye Zugui: "General Ye, don't mind, this person is a national scum of the great empire. The unhappiness was entirely caused by him, I hope you will punish him severely after you take him away, we will never tolerate this kind of scum."

Ye Zugui cupped his fists and said, "His Majesty the Emperor can start from the overall situation of the development of China and Japan, which really makes Ye admire."

Ye Zugui boarded his warship, turned around and glanced at Tokyo in the haze, recalling the ups and downs and twists and turns of his trip, his heart was ups and downs for a while, and he couldn't help himself. "Start the boat and go home!"

Two hours later, at the Nagasaki Naval Port, more than 300 Chinese sailors finally saw the blue sky above their heads after being detained for three days. There were wild smiles on their faces, in stark contrast to the gloomy officers and soldiers.

A heavy ship flute sounded from a distance, which caught their attention. I don't know who shouted first: "Dragon flag, it's our Chinese dragon flag!" Immediately afterwards, everyone boiled, tears and laughter Intertwined together, the three days after leaving their hometown seemed to them a century of waiting.

Many people looked at the fleet with the yellow dragon flag flying in the harbor, turned their heads and covered their faces and wept. They knelt down trembling, kowtowed, and moved their bodies, letting their knees rest on the hard ground. Grinding painfully, he turned to the west and knelt down three times and kowtowed nine times, crying on the ground and crying: "We finally saw our own warship and its own flag. After three days of lingering, we only wait for today's help. We finally wait By this day, I have lost the great grace of the emperor! The mighty grace of the emperor!"

Correspondingly, Gonbei Yamamoto and others were extremely ashamed, and Chinese and foreign journalists from outside Hong Kong gathered together to watch this humiliating scene in history.

In this way, this incident was called the new black ship incident. The Chinese navy broke through Tokyo Bay and took away the Chinese crew and the criminal Sato Shinichi. Of course, the treacherous and treacherous Hirobumi Ito had already prepared for himself. In this year, some slight changes have taken place in the political system. The forces began to stir again.And Hirobumi Ito has dominated the political arena four times successively, and he has naturally cultivated a large number of cronies. Among them, Ito's favorite protégé Saizono Temple Komochi has risen rapidly in the political arena and has become a shining new star in the political arena.

After "Xiyuan-kun" Ito Hirobumi experienced this turmoil, he seemed to have aged a few years in just a few days. He looked at Xiyuanji Gongwang, who is known for his wisdom, and said: "At the beginning you saw That’s right. In today’s world, when the national power is exhausted and the people’s livelihood is dying, it is undoubtedly awkward for me to come forward to form a cabinet at this time. But at that time, I was blinded by profit and wisdom, and I was even more disobedient. I wanted to revive our country like it was at the beginning of the Restoration. But the facts now prove that I was wrong, it is a mess, internal and external, all kinds of contradictions are intertwined, and anyone who jumps in will be unable to extricate themselves."

Xiyuanji Gongwang's face was very calm, and he took a sip of sake calmly and said: "Ito-kun, it's best to leave the political arena for a while, the emperor has approved the establishment of the constitutional government friendship association, and your wish before you came to power is finally fulfilled gone."

"Hehe" Ito Hirobumi took a sip of wine with his protégé, stretched his body and relaxed his tingling legs, took a piece of sashimi to his mouth, chewed it carefully, and said, "It's been a long time since I had such a relaxing meal. That’s it. Speaking of it, I still have to thank the Chinese Navy.” He said it easily, but in fact he couldn’t help but feel pain in his heart. The annual income of 560 million yen can be put into his own private treasury during his tenure as prime minister. Hu Jin is close to 50 yuan, and now he is out of the field, such an opportunity may be very difficult.

Of course, Xiyuan would not have thought that his teacher was making such calculations, and smiled and said with emotion: "Yes, I should be grateful. If there is no threat from the Chinese navy, those idiots in Congress will never understand the importance of developing the navy. One-tenth is the upper limit of the navy's funding, stupid!" Xiyuan Temple Gongwang held the wine glass in his hand, never put it to his mouth, and sighed: "If the navy is not developed, this incident will happen again at any time. "

Ito Hirobumi swallowed the food in his mouth, looked sideways at Xiyuan and said, "Can you see that the people in Congress are all idiots? But compared with China, it is indeed too small. The annual income is 560 million yuan, which is equivalent to only Chinese dragon coins." However, there are only about 700 million yuan, of which only one-third is used for naval expenditures, and China’s huge China’s annual naval expenditures are more than 5000 million yuan. Every time I think of these, I can’t help but feel sad for the great empire. Empire, the annual navy budget is only enough to buy a better cruiser, and if you want to buy an ironclad ship like Dingyuan Zhenyuan, which is outdated in China, it may not be necessarily two or three years. And there is another account, the sea overlord In the UK, the annual naval expenditure is only more than 3000 yuan. It seems that China, the sleeping lion that Napoleon called it, has finally woken up.”

"There is also the two ironclad ships that the British said they would give away for free. Because of this incident, the weak British took pictures of China's power and sold them for 500 million yen. See In this world, only big countries have friends." Ito Hirobumi has always been a very cautious person, and would not easily express his inner thoughts on any occasion, but now that his political life is coming to an end, he Became a chattering resentful woman, complaining non-stop.

Of course, Xiyuanji Gongwang understood the teacher's mood at this moment. He glanced at Ito Hirobumi, who was confused, and said, "Mr. Ito, I think we should go to see the emperor tomorrow."

"Meet the Emperor? Why?"

"I want money, buy a boat." Xiyuan Temple Gongwang said firmly.

"You're crazy!" Ito said in amazement with the wine glass stick in his mouth, "The Bird Harbor Incident has just passed, and the Great Empire has just experienced an unprecedented humiliation. Imagine how heavy the heart of His Majesty the Emperor is, but you ask for money at this time. Once the Emperor is angry, will your political career still exist? I am already old, and it doesn’t matter what happens in the future, but you are in your prime and you are rising in the political arena It is reckless to do so!" Yes, everyone knows that the Empress Dowager Cixi spends 100 taels of silver a day, which is enough to support half of the British navy for a year. expenditure.

"The emperor is not the Empress Dowager Cixi in China who spent 4000 taels of silver every day." Xiyuan's words were short and firm. "No way. For the great empire, everyone should sacrifice, even if it means ruining my political career."

Ito Hirobumi looked at the students he had trained with a pair of dim old eyes, as if he felt a strangeness that he had never had before.

In the Tokyo Imperial Palace, the Emperor sat solemnly in the throne, recalling the time he had experienced, feeling happy, but thinking of the Bird Harbor incident, he couldn't help falling into incomparable depression.He once inherited the throne at the age of 16, and in the second year, with the support of a group of revolutionaries such as Yamagata Yutomo, he resolutely implemented the "royal restoration" and moved Tokugawa Yoshiki, who was invincible at the time, to the ground.Later, the feudal clan was abolished and the county was established, and a visiting delegation was sent to study the Western democratic political system vigorously, and a series of drastic reform measures were adopted.The Meiji Restoration is a miracle in world history.A small, poor, and resource-poor feudal country has achieved social, economic, and military transformation in just half a century, and has become an advanced capitalist country.All of these are closely related to the name "Meiji".However, it was devastated by China. After a Sino-Japanese war, the achievements of the empire over the years were destroyed by the flames of war, and it has never recovered from it. Every time he thinks about it, it will make his heart feel as uncomfortable as a knife cut out .But he is not a person who can succumb casually. He has been trying to find opportunities for the rise of the empire from the powerful Chinese Empire. He has been blaming himself for days, why would he be so stupid to offend China at this time.

Now he looked at the two important political figures, the old and the new, with empty eyes, and said nothing for a long time. Ever since he met the veteran Chinese Navy Admiral Ye Zugui who came alone, the Emperor's mood has not been better. He is reflecting , Why can't you find a brave and resourceful general like Ye Zugui when looking at the entire military world? What's even more frightening is that there are many, many people like Ye Zugui in China.

(End of this chapter)