Japan has a temperate maritime climate, and in February, the snow melts, and the humid air begins to breathe with life. In Sendai, the current base camp of the Hokkaido Army, the snow has almost melted, and the spring ploughing of the year is about to begin. In such a sunny season, the headquarters of the Hokkaido Army was involuntarily filled with a cheerful atmosphere.

"Post in Kansai and inform the people of Kansai. After the Sino-American war, the United States lost the West Coast, and the gang of national thieves in Kansai had no chance to let the United States defraud Japan of a large amount of our gold and silver with arms! The handsome Toshizo Hijikata spoke in a relaxed tone, and it seemed that he was very satisfied with the Sino-American war.

Hijikata's attitude was the dominant attitude in the Hokkaido Army, and their opponent, the Meiji government, now had two major supports, one was Britain and the other was the United States. The U.S. government doesn't care what it sells, the latest army weapons, even the new warships that the United States itself is not equipped with, as long as the Meiji government army can afford real money, the United States will sell these brains to the Meiji government.

The Hokkaido Army, on the other hand, has been cooperating with China for 20 years, and the government agencies have basically copied China's system in its entirety. Gold and silver had long been withdrawn from circulation by the Hokkaido government as currency reserves, and the Hokkaido government was suffering from the fact that the fiscal model of using paper money as the currency required a strong budgetary system. Fortunately, China has a large fleet of ships traveling between North America and Asia over the years, and Hokkaido has managed to maintain its financial balance by providing relay services. So they vigorously attacked the Meiji government's "gold and silver outflow" problem in this regard.

"Those people have been shouting for so long, and they haven't continued to let Japan's gold and silver flow out. Let the people of Kansai see this fact clearly, and they can understand why life is getting more and more miserable. Hijikata continued to emphasize this issue.

"Our base in Kansai, where we were in charge of printing posts, was very damaged, and it was not easy to break through the naval blockade of the Meiji Army if we were to transport it by sea. We'll have to figure out something. "Zhixiong is truly expounding the current reality.

"There are a lot of officers and soldiers from Kansai in our army, so let's mobilize everyone to think of a way." According to the traditional model of the Liberation Army, Hijikata proposed a very common solution.

The clear sky in Tokyo was pleasant, but the bigwigs of the Meiji government were not happy because of the good weather. After the outbreak of the Sino-American war, the supply of weapons and equipment from the United States has been interrupted. China did not have any decent war with the Meiji government, but in the eyes of the Meiji government, China was a complete enemy. If China wins over the United States, it will be a blow to the Meiji government.

"Strengthen the propaganda of the 'communist wife' of the traitors, and recently many landlords in the northeast have fled to us, so that the whole army knows that if the traitors seize Japan, everyone's land will be taken away by the traitors!" The Minister of War Yama Prefecture Aritomo said reluctantly.

The fact that some of the Tohoku landlords fled to areas controlled by the Meiji government forces was probably the only thing that made the Meiji government forces happy. The Japanese Civil War of 1888 was still raging, and the two sides were evenly matched in terms of navy, and the Meiji government army was at a disadvantage in terms of land. If it weren't for the new equipment from the United States to support the scene, I am afraid that the series of defeats of the Meiji government army in 1887 would have been repeated.

After Yama Prefecture Youtomo finished speaking, many Meiji government military bigwigs followed suit and cursed the evil of the land nationalization policy. It's just that this topic has been scolded for more than ten years, and everyone's rhetoric is vicious, but the mood is not so high.

Heihachiro Togo, the vice minister of the Admiralty, saw that the meeting quickly fell into a cold stage again, and he spoke. "Ladies and gentlemen, I wonder if the separation of officers and soldiers can be abolished in the Meiji government army."

Almost all the military bigwigs seemed to have been whipped, and they were full of vitality when they landed.

"It's absolutely not going to work!" Shan County Youpeng immediately retorted.

Hokkaido, on the other hand, comprehensively studied the Chinese system, and in addition to the financial system, there was also a military system. The Chinese army is a combination of officers and soldiers, and if a soldier performs well, he can become an officer through the selection mechanism during the war. In peacetime, soldiers have an advantage in taking military schools than non-military personnel directly in military schools.

This is not the case in Japan, where the Japanese warrior system created a samurai class, and this rigid system is particularly prominent in the military system. After ordinary people enter the army, they can only slowly mix between third-class soldiers, second-class soldiers, and first-class soldiers. In the army school, you can only be a non-commissioned officer, corporal, sergeant, and sergeant. Only those who have graduated from military schools can become officers and other officer classes.

"If you refuse to serve the country just because you can't be an officer, these people won't really serve the country even if they become officers!"

"We haven't blocked the way to take the officer exam, if they don't want to study hard, how can we ensure that they are good officers!"

"Many of those who served in the army were confused by the rumors in Hokkaido. These people can't make them officers under any circumstances! ”

Opposition to the abolition of the separation of officers and soldiers was raised, and the bigwigs aimed directly at Togo Heihachiro, as if Togo Heihachiro was the biggest enemy of the Meiji Army like the Hokkaido Army.

"Vice Minister Togo, it seems that when you recruit personnel in the navy, you don't care about your background at all, as long as you can be admitted to the naval school, you can join the navy. You haven't been in the Navy for a long time, and you think that army recruitment must also pass the primary exam, right? And the big guy said in a sour tone.

Togo Heihachiro lowered his head slightly, his age and qualifications could not be compared with these bigwigs at all, and he was able to participate in the high-level meeting of the military department entirely because of Togo Heihachiro's military exploits. If it weren't for Heihachiro Togo, who stepped forward when the Meiji Navy suffered huge losses and fought desperately with the remnants of the warships, the Meiji government would probably have fallen. That's why Togo was given the position of deputy secretary of the navy and at the same time served as commander of the Meiji Navy. When proposing a battle plan, Togo can also use his position to communicate with the bigwigs on a more equal basis. In this major matter of determining the military system of the Meiji military department, Togo had no say at all.

Listening to the fierce criticism of the bigwigs, Dongxiang really couldn't find any other way than to bow his head. The head can be lowered, and Dongxiang's heart is not convinced. The predecessor of the Hokkaido Army was the decadent Tokugawa shogunate, and when those men fled to the desolate Hokkaido twenty years ago, there were no more than 10,000 soldiers and no more than 1,000 officers. Even with the support of the Chinese, the collapse of small forces, which account for less than one-thousandth of Japan's total population, is only an instant.

Far more seniority and personal dependency than the Meiji government, the remnants of the shogunate thought about change when they established the Ezo Republic, breaking all Japanese traditions and establishing a completely new system. Twenty years later, the fundamental difference between the Meiji government and the Hokkaido government was the question of whether or not origin determines destiny.

Perhaps it was this kind of group attack that was almost venting in nature that made Yama County Aritomo feel inappropriate, and with a cold snort from Yama County Aritomo, those bigwigs who deeply rhymed Japanese tradition temporarily stopped attacking Togo Heihachiro.

"Spring has arrived, will our army attack first?" Youpeng in Shan County raised a very serious question. The beginning of the Japanese Civil War in 1888 was another fierce battle, and after two months of fighting, the Hokkaido Army and the Meiji Army were evenly matched. The Hokkaido Army then went on the defensive and began to intensify efforts to nationalize land in the areas under their control. The Meiji army took an offensive position in the second half of the war. Having experienced the previous year, the Meiji Army was well aware of the difficulties of taking an offensive in the mountains.

The plan of the year lies in the spring, and the Meiji army thinks about the war, and the Hokkaido army naturally has to think about it too. After discussing the propaganda work in Kansai, Toshizo Hijikata said: "We will try to take a defensive position this year, and we will first stabilize the land reform." ”

The officers did not mean to object, and it was easy to nationalize land in Hokkaido, an already ownerless land, but the land reform in Tohoku Japan was met with a huge counterattack. Many anti-Meiji landlords who originally supported the Hokkaido Army strongly opposed and even rebelled, and those landlords who did not have a clear political stance even launched a riot. If it weren't for internal problems, the Hokkaido Army would not have gone on the defensive after only two months of attacking.

The land was finally divided, and the first year was not suitable for forced conscription. Judging from the experience learned from the Liberation Army, it will take about two years for the people to develop the mentality of "defending the fruits of the revolution." During this period, the government not only could not immediately obtain troops from the private sector, but had to increase its investment in the civilian sector. Having experience in Hokkaido, the upper echelons of the Hokkaido Army knew that this was a necessary step.

Just as the crowd was about to discuss the defense, the herald sent a telegram. Hijikata's eyes lit up after reading it, and most of the upper echelons of the Hokkaido Army were people who had followed Hijikata for several years, and when they saw Hijikata showing such a look, they knew that something good must be good.

Hijikata's eyes lit up and he said to his subordinates: "Prime Minister Enomoto has conveyed a message that China needs 200,000 laborers, and the price is very favorable. ”

"The Chinese won't use this money to pay their debts directly, right?" The subordinates had such doubts.

"Prime Minister Enomoto made it clear in the telegram that this is a direct payment. We can also directly request various supplies from China at a preferential price. Since it was Prime Minister Enomoto who said it, I think it's right. The joy in Hijikata's heart is indescribable, Hokkaido owes China a lot of debt, and the money earned from port services in the next ten years will probably be used to pay off the debt. Now, all of a sudden, a large amount of money has arrived, and the budget for providing government services to the Northeast has always been settled.

Not to mention how happy the Hokkaido Army was, before the news came from Li Hongzhang's side, Foreign Minister Li Xin sent a draft document to Wei Ze. After reading this document, Wei Ze looked at Foreign Minister Li Xin, and he asked with some confusion: "Japan is now at war, can they send 200,000 people?" ”

"We've been in contact with Hokkaido, and they're sure they can send that many people." Li Xin replied confidently. Seeing that Wei Ze was still a little hesitant, Li Xin said confidently: "Governor, these people are still workers with experience in road construction and construction, and there are not so many infrastructure projects on the Japanese side at present, and these people are still idle at this time." ”

The reason "Oh......" completely moved Weizer, and he asked, "What price does Hokkaido offer?" ”