Above the Peony Pavilion of the Old Summer Palace, a full moon rose.

It was the bright moon of the 1853 Mooncake Festival. The bright moonlight sprinkled in the garden, and all the concubines of Emperor Zhu in Beijing gathered here to admire the moon and drink. However, Zhu Jishi was irritable in his heart, and he was neither interested in watching the moon nor planning to eat moon cakes. Just look down at a letter that has just been received.

The letter, written by Akiko Tokugawa, reports on the "Kaei Coup" and the upcoming Meiji Restoration—yes, the Meiji Restoration! Emperor Tongren, also known as Emperor Komei in later generations, has already abdicated and become emperor. Two-year-old Shota Muhito ascended the throne and will be changed to Yuan Meiji next year!

At the same time, the Japanese imperial court also officially appointed Tokugawa Ieyuki as the general of the Seiyi, the right minister, and the elder of the Genji. Become the first samurai in Japan! However, Ieyuki, who was also only two years old, could not govern, so he appointed Tokugawa Saiaki, Wasuka Saiyu, and Matsudaira Saimin as elders; Appointed Masahiro Abe, Naobi Iyin, and Tadashi Mizuno as the elders, and the six of them jointly assisted the shogunate. Matsudaira Kanyu was also appointed as the Kyoto Governor, responsible for controlling Kyoto.

At the same time, Tokugawa Akiko also called the Great Imperial Taisho as the adoptive mother of the shogun, and also had the power to assist the shogun. Moreover, in order to avoid conflict with Oku Edo Castle (in fact, including his father Qi Aki and the seventh brother Keiki, the struggle for power within the Tokugawa family has always been very cruel), Akiko also announced that Tokugawa Ieyuki would live in Nijo Castle in Kyoto until he was six years old, and that he would go to China to study after the age of six.

At the same time, Tokugawa Yoshiki was appointed to stay in Edo and sit in the Kanto region. In effect, the political center of Japan was moved from Edo to Kyoto, which had the advantage of being able to control the imperial court and Ieyuki shogun in the vicinity. At the same time, he threw the joy of the great shogun's ambition far away in Edo.

In addition to these power arrangements within the shogunate. Tokugawa Akiko's letter actually mentioned a slogan and idea for the Meiji Restoration!

The first is the preparation of a constitution. We plan to gradually reform Japan's current feudal system of government over a period of 20 years. Establish a unified country and follow the example of the Ming Dynasty to implement constitutional government!

The second is the private ownership of land, which is also the basis for Japan's constitutional government, which was proposed as early as the Tokugawa Iekei era. The main content is to change the state ownership of land in Japan to private ownership, and all classes that now occupy land and collect annual tribute, including the imperial family, the princess, the samurai, and the monks, will become the owners of the land! Of course, the biggest beneficiary of this reform was the samurai class. Because the vast majority of land in Japan was occupied by samurai.

After the introduction of private land, the largest landowner in Japan was the Tokugawa clan, which owned a total of more than 3 million koku of land, in addition to the entire island of Ezo and a small plot of land on the southern tip of Sakhalin. If all of them are developed, the Tokugawa clan's stone height may increase by more than 1 million koku. According to the principle of one stone and one vote, it is enough to become the greatest force in the future Constituent Assembly of Japan.

The third is to announce the direction of constitutional reform based on one stone, one vote. The idea of this constitutional model is also improved on the constitutional model of the Ming Dynasty that links tax payment and representation, the so-called one stone does not exactly refer to land income, but is equivalent to the tax amount of one stone land income, whether it is engaged in commerce or industry, as long as the tax amount exceeds the land tax amount of one stone harvest. There is the power to vote for the Constituent Commissioners. The number of votes is completely linked to the amount of taxes.

The fourth is to announce the reform of the future feudal prefectures. This is a reform that is being carried out at the same time with one stone and one vote. In the future, this special local management model will be abolished and replaced by a prefecture system. The same applies to the one-stone, one-vote system for the parliamentary elections in each county and city. In other words, the former feudal lords and high-ranking samurai could still firmly control their respective places through the one-stone, one-vote system. The rights of the high-ranking samurai have been maximized!

The fifth measure was to declare war on Lucia, that is, Russia, and at the same time to train the army to participate in the war. The military expenses of the participating armies were shared between the shogunate and the feudal domains, and during the war, the feudal clans could stop paying for the Hajj and use the expenses of the Hajj to cover the military expenses of the troops.

Samurai who performed in war were rewarded with land on Ezo Island or Patagonia. The number of troops participating in the war was tentatively set at 50,000, and they were recruited from all the feudal clans in Japan, including the samurai affiliated with the Tokugawa clan, and ronin could also sign up. The participating armies will be under the direct jurisdiction of General Ieyuki, and they will all use new equipment and training. Disarmament is carried out as appropriate after the end of the war. In fact, this so-called war army is another powerful force in the hands of the Tokugawa clan!

The sixth reform measure is the development of Ezo and Patagonia. Among them, Ezo Island will implement an open policy to allow foreign investment and business in Ezo, and of course, private and feudal clans will also be allowed to invest in Ezo. The shogunate would establish the Ezo Pioneer Prefecture, with the Yokohama Domain's old Katsu Kaishu as the Ezo Pioneer Envoy.

The seventh was the announcement of the Kyoto-Edo Railway.

The eighth is to increase the number of treaty ports in Osaka and Nagoya (Owari Domain), thus creating a five-port trade situation between Nagasaki, Osaka, Nagoya, Yokohama, and Ezo.

The ninth is to send international students to study in China.

The tenth was to pilot the implementation of the samurai assessment system (imperial examination), through which some shogunate bureaucrats were selected through examinations. At the same time, it encourages students to study abroad and work outside the domain, breaking the boundaries of the feudal kingdom.

The eleventh was the formation of the Shogunate Navy, the opening of a naval academy and a naval shipyard.

The twelfth was to allow merchants and feudal lords to open machine factories and use machine mining.

The thirteenth is to conduct a census and register the population of the whole country, and divide all subjects into three classes: princes, scholars, and commoners. Only the princes and nobles were eligible to hold official positions and serve as soldiers.

At the end of the letter, Akiko also told Zhu Jishi that once these thirteen reforms were proposed, they had already won a lot of praise, and the foreign feudal clans, including the Satsuma Domain and the Choshu Domain, also unanimously expressed their support for Tokugawa Ieyuki - nonsense, these thirteen reforms were all in the interests of these high-ranking samurai, so why did they bother to come forward? Besides, the Tokugawa shogunate's 30,000 new troops were not paper-mâché.

"Maria, take a look. This Ming Guifei of mine is really not simple, she has actually done such a big thing! Zhu Jishi sighed and handed Mingzi's letter to the Imperial Concubine Maria, who was studying a Cantonese mooncake - this mooncake was baked by Madame Duran and had a fragrant buttery taste.

"Oh, I'll see." Maria put down the moon cake, took the raft and looked at it carefully, "Akiko really has a set, but these thirteen reforms shouldn't all be her idea, right?" ”

"It should be." Zhu Jishi nodded with a fixed face, there is nothing in these thirteen reforms, but the problem is that the name of the reform is too worrying - Meiji Restoration! Next, is it going to come to the Sino-Japanese War?

"Your Majesty, what are you worried about?" Maria looked at Zhu Jishi a little strangely, "Japan's reform should be in the interests of the Ming Dynasty, right?" I believe that through these reforms, the rule of the shogunate will be stabilized for the time being. ”

"It's just...... For the time being? ”

"Yes, many of the contents of the Meiji Restoration are hidden dangers, and its goals are too ambitious. In other words, there are some attractive empty promises, but there are not many reforms that really touch the roots. ”

"I think there are very few reforms that really touch the roots!" Zhu Jishi picked up a butter mooncake and tasted it, feeling a little greasy, and then put it down. "The reforms I've implemented in China haven't touched the roots, have they?"

"Your Majesty, I think what happened in Daming is a revolution! There is no revolution in the world that does not touch the fundamentals, it is just a few. "But Japan's Meiji Restoration was not a revolution, but a reform movement that represented the interests of the high-ranking samurai." If this reform does go as expected, Japan's future will be a country dominated by samurai landlords. Such a country...... Reminds me of the Ottoman Empire. ”

She glanced at Zhu Jishi: "Japan will become a country of two million samurai, and the Ming Dynasty is a country of forty thousand people." I think 40,000,000 people, there is no reason to worry and fear 2 million people! (To be continued......)