"Toot!"

With the sound of a flute, the passenger ship Fuxiang slowly sailed into the port under the towing of the towing boat, and docked at a berth at the passenger terminal, the shore of this berth was full of colorful flags, and a large banner was hung at the place where the passenger ship docked, with the words "Congratulations on the success of the maiden voyage of the passenger ship Fuxiang". At this time, the side of the passenger ship Fuxiang was also crowded with guests, watching the scene of the port.

The original Fuxiang passenger ship was an offshore passenger ship built by Qingdao Shipyard, with a displacement of 3,500 tons, a speed of 12 knots, a capacity of 500 passengers, 100 rooms, and an additional 800 tons of cargo, capable of sailing in class 6 sea conditions. I just made a round trip from Shanghai and completed my first voyage, and if there are no major accidents on this voyage, the next time I will go straight from Tianjin to Shanghai.

At this time, on the side of the second floor of the passenger ship, there was a group of young people, about 7 or 8 people, all between the ages of 2 and 30, all wearing Western clothes, with short hair and unbraided hair, pointing and discussing, and looking quite excited.

"Xingtai, it seems that this overseas Chinese is indeed a little strange, just look at the busy scene of this port, but it is orderly, there are many people and goods but not mixed, busy but not chaotic, although it can not be compared with Tokyo, Osaka and other big ports, but the civilized atmosphere, to the same level. ”

"Yes, just looking at this port, it does have a bit of a modern city appearance, it seems that we will have a lot of harvest when we come to Qingdao this time. It's just that I don't know what kind of style overseas Chinese are. ”

"I don't think it's conclusive, it's just a port, if you look at the prosperity and order, the ports of Shanghai and Guangzhou may not be much different. ”

The man who spoke earlier shook his head and said, "The ports of Shanghai and Guangzhou are all in the concession and are managed by foreigners, and the ports under the rule of the Qing court have had such an image. ”

Another person laughed and said: "Yes, Mr. Xia is still an honest and bold person, and he will never make exaggerated words, hey! Mr. Xia is there? Why didn't he come out, he was about to get off the boat." ”

"Mr. Xia, Mr. Huang, Mr. Xu, and Mr. Qiu were still talking in the cabin, and he said, let's not get off the boat in a hurry, wait a little longer on the boat, and wait for the other guests to get off the boat before we move, and then someone will naturally come to the dock to pick us up." ”

When the others heard this, they all put their minds at ease and continued to talk and laugh, and after a while, the guests on the ship were almost gone, and at this time they were in the royal cargo, only to hear the sound of footsteps, and 3 or 4 people came to the side of the ship, led by an old man about 50 years old, burly, with big ears, long hair and hanging chest, and several other people were also older, all in their 30s, and a woman.

When this group of young people saw it, they all greeted each other: "Mr. Xia." ”

It turned out that this old man was Xia Sipain, who was entrusted by the East China government at the end of 1902 to go overseas to find aspiring revolutionaries and come to Shandong to achieve great things. After Xia Si went to sea, he first went to Nanyang, traveled all over the islands of Southeast Asia, and made some Chinese businessmen and people with lofty ideals, but they were all scattered and unorganized, and the name of the East China government there was not visible, so they were not interested in the East China government.

Xia Si Pain traveled in Nanyang for more than half a year, although the results were not great, but he also gained a lot of knowledge, and also inquired clearly, a large number of revolutionary aspirants gathered in Japan, and many groups were formed, and the momentum was quite large, so Xia Si Pain came to Japan again. As a result, the Javanese defense action of the East China government was missed.

Although it was the first time he arrived in Japan, Xia Siyan had a wide range of contacts, even if he was in Japan, he was able to be entrusted by others, made friends with many people, and lived without worrying about food and clothing, and a few months later, he was introduced and met many revolutionaries.

In fact, there is no need for an introduction to revolutionaries in Japan, because in Japan, the actions of Chinese revolutionaries are basically completely open, and they can not only meet at will, form associations, make speeches, and organize associations, but even create newspapers and magazines and publish books, and can openly propagate the idea of overthrowing the Qing court by force. Although the Qing court protested to Japan many times, the Japanese government basically ignored this in the name of freedom of speech, and many people in Japanese political and business circles made friends with Chinese revolutionaries and even supported them, so it is not an exaggeration to say that Japan was the base camp of Chinese revolutionaries at this time.

After all, Japan and China share the same culture and know Chinese history, and many Japanese politicians believe that according to the development of Chinese history, the Qing court has actually entered the end of the dynasty, and basically has no power to return to heaven, but can only survive for a few years, so the current revolutionaries are likely to become important figures in China's political arena in the future, and it is necessary for the Japanese government to maintain good relations with well-known figures among the revolutionaries, and politicians can establish personal friendship with them, and Japan will be able to maintain sufficient influence on China in the future。

At this time, there were three most influential revolutionary groups in Japan: one was the Xingzhonghui founded by Sun Yat-sen, the second was the Huaxinghui founded by Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren, and the third was the Guangfuhui founded by Cai Yuanpei, Tao Chengzhang and others.

Among them, of course, the Xingzhonghui has the greatest influence, because although the Xingzhonghui was founded in Honolulu in 1894, it established a branch in Japan in 1895, and has developed in Japan for nearly 10 years, and the personal reputation of Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Xingzhonghui, is also the highest. Sun Yat-sen's personal prestige mainly comes from two aspects: one is that by this time, Sun Yat-sen had organized the Canton Uprising and the Huizhou Uprising in China, although these two uprisings ended in failure, but after all, there was action, which was of course much stronger than other revolutionary groups that only talked but did not practice.

On the other hand, it is the martyrdom of Sun Yat-sen who was arrested by Qing court agents in London, England and entered the Chinese legation. At that time, the British "Times" and "The Earth" reported on this, which caused quite a stir in Europe and became a political persecution case that shocked the world. Under the pressure of public opinion, the then British Prime Minister Salisbury ordered the Chinese legation to release Sun Yat-sen, otherwise the ambassador to the United Kingdom, Gong Zhaoying, and a group of diplomats would be expelled.

After Sun Yat-sen's release, he published the book "The Martyrdom of London" in English, and went from obscurity to a world-class political exile with a great reputation, so this event also became a turning point in Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary activities, and he became the most prestigious person in the revolutionary camp in one fell swoop.

However, Japan did not only take in revolutionaries, but also took in and supported the reformers represented by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao.

In fact, when Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao first arrived in Japan, Sun Yat-sen asked his Japanese friends Miyazaki Inzo and Hirayama Zhou to show favor to Kang Youwei, hoping to discuss the great cause of revolution with Kang Liang. However, Kang Youwei regarded himself as a loyal minister of the imperial court, and appointed himself as a contemporary saint, and at that time, Sun Yat-sen's fame was only overseas, and he was still unknown in China, so he naturally did not take Sun Yat-sen in his eyes, and categorically rejected Sun Yat-sen's proposal, and the two factions parted ways from then on.

But at this time, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao were indeed famous people, and Kang Youwei was good at boasting, not only claiming to be a saint, but also dressing himself up as an emperor, and pretending that he had fled under Guangxu's secret edict to recruit troops to fight the thief King Qin. Because the imperial power is still quite authoritative in the minds of the Chinese at this time, Kang Youwei's packaging does have a lot of power among overseas Chinese.

After the two came to Japan, they immediately recruited a group of believers, and founded the "Qing Yi Bao" in Yokohama to promote their own ideas of reforming the constitution, and Kang and Liang were both masters of contemporary Chinese studies, and their writings were clear, neat and neat, and their words were well-founded, which was indeed very useful in this era when newspapers were the main propaganda tools.

Later, Kang Youwei went to the United States in 1899 to develop, leaving Liang Qichao to preside over the overall situation in Japan, and formally established the "China Restoration Association" also known as the "Royalist Association" in Canada, and set up branches in Honolulu, which was the old Chinese Society in the Americas, Nanyang, Hong Kong, Macao, and even the Xingzhong Society.

However, after the Gengzi State Change, the prestige of the Qing court plummeted, and many Chinese were completely disappointed in the Qing court, plus a group of revolutionaries with a deep foundation in Chinese studies came to Japan, which greatly increased the theoretical strength of the revolutionary camp, and in 1903, Zhang Taiyan, a master of Chinese studies among revolutionaries, published "Refutation of Kang Youwei's Book on Revolution" Since then, the two sides have launched a-for-tat debate in the newspapers, which is quite similar to the debate and hype of major forums on the modern Internet, but from the general trend, it is the revolutionaries who have begun to reverse the decline, and the reformers have deteriorated.

On the surface, the polemic between the revolutionaries and the reformers was a struggle of doctrines and concepts, but in essence both sides had to win over Chinese students and overseas Chinese in Japan; after all, at this time, the two factions basically had no foundation in China, and the raising of funds for activities and the basic strength of the movement had to be fought over among the students and overseas Chinese.

Xia Si Pain came to Japan in such an environment, of course, for Xia Si Pain, it was naturally the right way for the revolutionaries, and the East China government also advocated this way, so soon Xia Si Pain fell into the camp of the revolutionaries, and met Sun Yat-sen, Zhang Taiyan, Chen Tianhua and other famous figures among the revolutionaries.

Moreover, Xia Siyan is bold, well-informed, and has a deep foundation in Chinese studies, and more importantly, he is also a representative of the East China government, which has added a lot of weight to him. Japan is close to China, and it also pays attention to collecting information and materials on China, so a lot of information and information about the East China Government has been transmitted to Japan, and compared with Nanyang, the Chinese in Japan have a much deeper understanding of the East China Government, and many people also have a very good impression of the East China Government.