Since Japan's defeat in 1632 and the forced opening of the country by the ASEAN Coalition Army, Sinology, which was originally valued by the Japanese elite, has now become a prominent study that all classes of Japanese people strive to study.

From the imperial court ministers to the samurai merchants, the study of Chinese characters was regarded as the most important part of education. The daimyo of the minister studied Chinese characters and Chinese poems, hoping to get closer to the officials of the Ming Kingdom and gain their support for themselves. The samurai merchants learned Chinese characters not only for the sake of service and trade, but also for the sake of learning from the Ming Dynasty to enrich the country and strengthen the army, so as to restore Japan's independent status.

Unlike the Manchu people who like to use the Romance of the Three Kingdoms as a textbook for cultural and military education, Japanese sinologists are full of praise for the Water Margin, and these sinologists believe that the spoken language used in the Water Margin is very close to the language of the Ming Dynasty, as long as the Water Margin can be truly understood, then there will be no problems in communication with the Ming people. If you want to learn the best way to enrich the country and strengthen the army, correct and effective communication is obviously the first step.

Of course, although reading through the Water Margin allowed these Japanese to integrate into the market culture of the Ming Dynasty as quickly as possible, it also left them with some sequelae, such as giving themselves or others nicknames at every turn, raising the brotherly righteousness to a status equal to loyalty to the monarch, and finally rebellion against the system.

In the past, in Japan, which had just ended the Warring States period, loyalty to the sovereign was the only virtue of the samurai, and no matter how incompetent and stupid their own lord was, the samurai who betrayed the sovereign would be regarded as scum. This is also why, when the main water clan of the Aizu domain turned their back on the lord Kato Akisei, the Edo shogunate would ignore Kato Akisei's violation of the shogunate law and send troops to arrest the main water clan. Because in the eyes of the Edo shogunate, the sin of the Hori-lord water clan to betray the lord was really greater.

The Osaka shogunate, which had more power as citizens, chose to shelter the daughters of the Horisui clan, precisely because the Osaka burghers were deeply influenced by the culture of the Ming Dynasty and no longer regarded samurai loyalty to the lord as the only virtue, but regarded the maintenance of tenri and justice as a more important virtue than loyalty to the lord.

As time went on, the whole of Japan realized that the privileges of foreigners in Japan were jeopardizing the country's future, and the call for the restoration of Japan's political and economic independence became the mainstream consensus in society.

However, with the introduction of foreign cultures, especially Chinese culture, the division between the upper and lower classes of Japan has become more and more widespread. After the samurai and daimyo tried to drive out the foreigners, they completely closed off the country, restored the orderly feudal hierarchical society of the past, and let the people at the bottom continue to support themselves.

The middle and lower classes of samurai and merchants hoped to learn from China to expand their territory after restoring Japan's political and economic independence, so as to make Japan a civilized and civilized country.

The confrontation between these two ideological trends is gradually forming the two major concepts of national salvation, namely, closing the country and respecting the king. Japan's feudal politics, coupled with the rivalry between the Edo and Osaka shogunates, made the seclusion of the country a consensus among many daimyos, and the supporters of the emperor were also quite suppressed by the government.

However, among the Japanese students in the Osaka area and sent to Daming, the supporters of the Emperor were the majority. Although under the reprimand and suppression of the feudal lords, the samurai who studied in the Ming Dynasty chose to hide their political opinions and conduct secret associations to resist the daimyos' suppression of the Zunwang Shoyi faction, the Zunwang Shoyi faction among the Japanese students still lost a considerable part of their strength.

Gamo Naoyu, on behalf of the Kumamoto Domain's Prince's faction, also had considerable expectations for his participation in the meeting of comrades of the Prince's faction held in Beijing. Originally, he thought that under the oppression of the feudal lords, the comrades of the feudal lords should put aside their past feudal prejudices and negotiate together a national salvation charter that united the comrades of the various feudal domains.

But soon after the meeting, he realized he was still too optimistic. Representatives of the Satsuma and Nagasu domains competed with each other for the position of leader, while representatives of the other minor domains tried to stand together to resist the arbitrariness of the representatives of several large domains.

Even the interpretation of the political concept of reverence for the king is subject to many differences. Some people believe that it is necessary to completely crack down on feudal politics, abolish the two shogunates of Osaka and Edo, and have the emperor himself take charge of the overall situation, so that the whole of Japan can be mobilized to fight against the political and economic invasion of foreign countries in Japan.

However, these people put the hope of realizing this political idea on the Ming Dynasty, and they believed that the Ming Dynasty was an imperial state, so when Japan restored the system of the emperor's rule, they could gain the sympathy of the Ming Dynasty, which was also an imperial country, and thus supported Japan's restoration of its independent status.

Others thought that these people were similar to the monkeys fishing for the moon in the water, and this unrealistic claim did not need to be discussed at all, after all, the Ming Dynasty still had a governor stationed in Osaka, how could he support Japan in expelling foreign powers.

There are also those who believe that although feudal politics should be defeated, it should not be implemented in one step, but should be carried out step by step. With the current situation in Japan, the Zunwang faction does not actually have much advantage. However, although the feudal lords were strong, there were many contradictions between them, so it was necessary to unite with the enlightened daimyo to fight against the daimyo who opposed the king's rebellion.

After weakening the power of the feudal lords, they formed a real imperial court headed by the emperor, and then used the imperial court to implement a policy of reducing the feudal domain. After these steps, the power can be transferred to the imperial court little by little, and finally the situation of separating the domestic feudal towns can be eliminated.

This suggestion was much more practical than the previous proposition, and even Gamo Naorou listened and nodded repeatedly, but when the question of who to unite was discussed next, everyone began a series of verbal wars.

Decent people thought that it was necessary to unite the powerful feudal clans in the southwest, but those who were worried that these powerful feudal domains would be difficult to control after the war suggested that the enlightened forces of the Osaka shogunate should be united. Their reasoning was that the five elders of the Osaka shogunate were inclined to the idea of founding a strong army, and Osaka was close to Kyoto, so if they could persuade the five elders of the Osaka shogunate to implement a combination of public and military forces, then Japan's vitality would be preserved to the greatest extent.

Although the latter proposition is good, it is not in the interests of the Satsuma and Choshu domains. Unlike the other feudal clans, which spontaneously led the feudal clans, the Satsuma and Choshu feudal clans were in fact acquiesced in by the feudal lords.

This is not to say that the daimyo of the Satsuma and Choshu feudal domains supported the idea of reverence for the king, but that they were aware of the support of the lower classes of samurai and the common people, and therefore did not want this power to be in the hands of others. At the same time, they also tried to use this power to help the clan, which can be regarded as an additional guarantee for the future political situation.

As a result, Goro Yamamoto of the Satsuma Domain's Arima Shinjima and Choshu Domain's Yamamoto Goro Beibei came forward to criticize the idea of a combination of public and military forces, believing it to be a betrayal of the idea of honoring the king.

Gamo Naorou was quite ashamed of the arrogance of these two people, so he couldn't help but refute a few words from the two. Arima Shinjima rolled his eyes, and immediately scolded Kamo Naorou: "I originally thought that you were a bright and upright person, but I didn't expect you to be so shameless.

You deliberately let people put forward the idea of merging the Osaka shogunate and the imperial court, but you yourself pretended to persuade others from the sidelines. But who doesn't know that the next Taiko Highness is from the Kumamoto Domain. If the Osaka shogunate and the imperial court merged, wouldn't it be you, the Kumamoto Domain, who would benefit the most?

It's not enough for you Kumamoto clan to hold the power of the Osaka shogunate, and now you're trying to calculate the power of the imperial court? I, Satsuma, will never shed blood and sacrifice for the ambitions of your Kumamoto Domain..."

"Bastard, do you satsuma cubs want to spray people with blood? The whole clan has no such intentions, we are here to help Japan, but we are not angry with you children..."

"Well, even a nobodyless person dares to be rude to Arima-sama, hurry up and apologize to me, otherwise I will have to cut you..."

"Satsuma cub, your grandfather is the eleventh uncle of the Bungo, and you will let the horse come over if you have a kind..."

Just as the meeting was about to slide into an unpredictable situation, Gamo Naoyuki finally stopped his subordinates' challenge to the Satsuma people, stood up and bowed to Arima Shinjima Island and apologized, and said, "I would like to apologize for Eleven Lang's rudeness to the Satsuma clan." But I really can't agree with His Highness Arima's remarks.

The fact that I am here on behalf of the King of the Kumamoto Domain, has already shown the ambition of the Honkai Domain. If His Highness Ma can't give me an explanation, then we can only withdraw from this conference and find a way to save Japan on our own. ”

When the Satsuma samurai behind Arima Shinjima tried to continue shouting, Arima Shinjima got up and stared at Gamo Naoyu's eyes for a long time, looking at the other party's eyes that were always clear and unchanged, before he spoke: "If Gamo Temple is willing to prove himself with his actions, then I am willing to apologize to Gamo Hall and Kumamoto's heroes." ”

Speaking of this, Arima Shinjima paused slightly, his eyes suddenly sharpened, and his voice raised a few points and said: "If Gamuden is unwilling to prove himself, then I can only think that you are not some lofty people who respect the king, but the 'spy' of the government, then don't blame me for being unkind." ”

The meeting place of these Japanese samurai was actually a Japanese-style longhouse in the backyard of the izakaya, and the whale candle lamp hanging from the roof illuminated the longhouse very brightly, so that Gamo Naoyu could clearly see the fierce look on Arima's face.

Although this did not intimidate him, with the intimidation of Arima Shinjima, the sliding door of the longhouse was suddenly opened, revealing several samurai with long swords in their hands. This scene really made Gamo Naorou angry, he raised his eyebrows and looked at the other party with disdain: "Do you know that this is Beijing and not Kagoshima, and you want the Ming people to arrest us all here?"