Chapter 136: Restoration

Neither Sardinia nor Austria could accept international mediation, and in March 1859, under the command of Cavour, Sardinia began to mobilize all things, and Austria continued to send troops to Lombardy, and they were full of confidence, not only because of military strength, but also because Austria's rule in the Kingdom of Lombardy was increasingly supported by the locals, Austria had previously appointed the famous liberal Austrian Archduke Maximilian as governor of Lombardy and Venice, under his rule, not only was the press free, The rights of citizens are guaranteed, and there is an education system and a science and technology policy that is more advanced and open than that of Sardinia. This is one of the reasons why Sardinia couldn't wait to get their hands dirty, not wanting the Lombards to be happy under the Austrians.

Echoing the situation in Europe, the political situation in Japan also reached an important turning point, and under the tremendous pressure of the ultimatum of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, Naobu Ii persuaded Tokugawa Ieshige, who had just taken office as shogun for less than half a year, to agree to return the official position and a number of domains to the public family, and took the initiative to hold a ceremony in Nijo Castle to return the great government to Emperor Komei. The Emperor promulgated the Imperial Decree abolishing the shogunate.

On the surface, the Shogunate was victorious, but this was the bitter ploy of Naobi I, and until this moment, the Shogunate still had great economic and military power in its hands.

The Shogunate Alliance, consisting of the Choshu Domain, the Satsuma Domain, and the Geishu Domain, did not trust the Shogunate's concession and demanded that the Shogunate surrender all of Edo and Osaka, but the Shogunate could not accept such harsh conditions, and joined forces with the Aizu Domain and Kuwana Domain, which supported the Shogunate, to form a "large army" of 15,000 men and took the initiative to attack Kyoto from Osaka. At this time, the Japanese feudal soldiers were all professional soldiers, and no one could afford to raise too many soldiers, and this 15,000 was already an overwhelming force, and the Shogunate faction had a total of 5,000 feudal soldiers.

Since Shimazu Kibin personally participated in a study tour of Europe, and after returning to Satsuma, he spared no effort to carry out modernization, and Satsuma's economic and military power was the highest among the powerful feudal domains, and he took the lead of the Shogunate faction, and the nominal commander of this military operation was Prince Chihito, called the "Governor of Seito", and the actual commander was Saigo Takamori, who had just returned from Europe.

Saigo's opinion was to use the 10,000-ton cruise ship of the Mitsubishi Kisen Company, founded by Yataro Iwasaki with the support of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, to transport soldiers directly to the vicinity of Edo and land, and to wipe out the shogunate's lair in one fell swoop. And Prince Chihito didn't want to rely too much on external forces in the process of seizing power, and defeating the shogunate from land would be even more convincing to the world. Today's Japan, like the Qing Dynasty, has been closed off from the country for many years, and has no confidence in navigation at all, and only by defeating the shogunate in the most irrefutable way is the royal road of the "land power country".

In any case, the result was the same, and Saigo finally obeyed Prince Chihito's strategy, and lured the shogunate army to take the initiative to attack Kyoto by means of guò arson and riots, so as to gain a geographical advantage.

The name of the strong clan was not given in vain, there were more than 500 cannons on the side of the Shogunate faction, and the shogunate army only had 90 cannons. And the shogunate army, which left the home field, suffered strategically.

The final battlefield between the two sides was in Fushimi and Toba on the southern outskirts of Kyoto.

The power of the cannon was enough for the shogunate soldiers fighting away, and by the time Saigo brought back a thousand modern infantry with an FN-1855 to open fire, the shogunate army collapsed completely, and all the stragglers withdrew to Osaka.

Tokugawa Ieshige tried to escape back to Edo by sea, but unfortunately all his ships were sunk by five East India Company warships that came to cheer him on, and the Shogun was trapped in Osaka Castle like a turtle in an urn.

The new government forces won a resounding victory, and a new era for Japan began.

The formal surrender of the shogunate had not yet begun, but discussions on the future political system were already in full swing among the generals of the new government army. At this critical moment, three voices emerged, the first of which was of course a constitutional monarchy, with the emperor as the ruler and usually the majority leader of the parliament as the prime minister, and the emperor should act according to the prime minister's opinion. The second federal presidential system is based on the U.S. Constitution. The third is the federal system, which is based on the Swiss system, and there is no head of state, or a collective presidential system composed of seven people, and it happens that the lords of each domain are now at their most powerful, and each domain is united in the form of a federation, and in addition to military and diplomatic powers, each domain has a great degree of autonomy, which is conducive to the rapid unity of the feudal domains.

Now the group of politicians discussing the future of Japan are almost all Downing's students, and they are very impressed by Downing's insight and the achievements that the Grand Duke has already achieved, and they elected Katsura Kogoro, the honor student of the European expedition, to preside over the Constituent Assembly, and Katsura Kogoro Jian invited the Grand Duke of Luxembourg to preside over it. Inviting a foreigner to preside over the constitution? This is ridiculous enough, and what is even more ridiculous is that these people all agreed, and Saigo Takamori, the general who had been with the Grand Duke for the longest time, and Shimazu Saibin, the strongest lord of the Satsuma Domain, came forward together.

It was quite an interesting experience to be able to participate in the drafting of the new Japanese constitution, but Tang Ning did not plan to participate because he did not know much Japanese at all, and he did not have a sense of participation, which was not interesting. Second, he was still closely monitoring the tense situation in the Apennine Peninsula in Lugano, looking for opportunities to gain political bargaining chips, and had no spare energy to look eastward. He told the new Japanese government, "I have great confidence in your ability to learn, and you can do it yourself." ”

At that time, Japan was already very strict in the face of the Russian threat, if it was not for the East India Company to support them, I am afraid that the Russians would have planned to land directly on the main island of Japan, so Japan's sense of national crisis played a leading role in the constitution-making process, and they gradually reached a consensus on a constitutional monarchy, to have a strong government to fight against strong enemies, there is no doubt, the head of the state for life is more powerful than the rotation of power.

At this time, all the officials of the shogunate in Edo, from the 14-year-old Tokugawa Ieshige to the head of Ojii Inaobu, were ordered to "live in seclusion" and left Edo, and the Constituent Assembly was held in Edo, the new center of power.

Just when the Japanese were about to reach a consensus on a constitutional monarchy, the Grand Duke of Luxembourg suddenly had a brainstorm and established Japan as a federal system in Switzerland. His students all looked at each other, why is that? Didn't you say that you don't care about us?

As a result, Japanese politicians and generals began to debate again. The Grand Duke did not give any reason for his opinion, but only said that he "liked", and his real reason was actually that Japan was better controlled by implementing direct democracy for the whole people and decentralizing power, and this reason could not be clearly stated to the Japanese, and as for whether this matter would be successful or not, he didn't care, so he said that.

When he said this, no matter how good the case for a constitutional monarchy, Japanese politicians who were still heavily influenced by the Confucian tradition had to take it very seriously, because the Grand Duke was their teacher. Katsura Kogoro, an honor student, was the first to oppose the water, and he did not have a firm position, and he gave everyone only one reason during the debate: "Because this is what the Grand Duke said." ”

Goto Zojiro roared, "Didn't the Grand Duke give any reason why we should believe him too?" ”

Yataro Iwasaki said, "I also like Switzerland, don't you know? The Grand Duke is also a citizen of Switzerland, and thanks to the Grand Duke's business, the Swiss are now extremely wealthy, probably richer than the British, and perhaps we in Japan want to be like Switzerland. ”

Okubo was enlightened: "There we have it! As soon as the Grand Duke speaks, we will do it? How can it be so cheap? I have an idea, ask the Grand Duke to join the new Japanese nationality, just like Switzerland, as long as everyone in the international community knows about this, the Russians will not dare to fight, and the Grand Duke will not let his country be invaded, and will continue to help us take Alaska, right? ”

The full-fledged leaders of the Restoration unanimously endorsed this "national defense strategy" and turned the Grand Duke into a grasshopper on a rope with the Japanese.

Prince Chihito, the governor of Zhengdong, was furious: "You untrustworthy guys, are you planning to put His Majesty the Emperor aside? Is this a cunning rabbit and a dead lackey after using the public to cook? ”

Gui Xiaogoro hurriedly smiled and said: "Adults are angry, don't cook, absolutely don't cook!" His Majesty the Emperor will still be respected! ”

Prince Chiren rolled his eyes: "Where is there still respect?" Where is the position of emperor in a federal system? ”

This is a difficult problem, the problem will be put aside first, and Katsura Kogoro, the host, is still very good at studying the British Parliament, so he immediately motioned to put this issue on the table and see if he can obtain the Grand Duke's naturalization permission first.

How could Downing disagree? It is very cost-effective to exchange a nihilistic nationality for Japan to adopt a federal system, as for the threat of the Russians, Downing does not care at all, waiting for his super heavy cruiser to go to sea and protect the Far East is a piece of cake.

As for the question of the emperor, it is a trivial matter, and the Japanese are too inflexible, so it is good to let Kyoto become a special zone ruled by the emperor, and since it is a federal system, it is normal to have a small kingdom.

Japan's official system inherited the habits of a certain province from the Tang Dynasty, and some of the Chinese characters that were originally proposed to build yì wen crepe crepe and pass through the guò radio fax function were not understood by Tangning at all, such as the Ministry of Finance called the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Justice called Danzhengtai, and later all the provinces and ministries that Tangning could not understand were changed to plain Chinese, and the final name could be understood as long as Chinese understood it.

The birth of a new Japan was officially announced to the world, and the official country name was "Japan Federation", and the capital was Edo, which was renamed Tokyo. Before the first general election, the Provisional Government was decided by internal deliberations among the Fallen Officials, and the Federal Council, the highest executive body, was divided into eight federal councils, with eight federal departments in charge of government:

Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications: Handling trivial and important chores, such as the Federal Election Management Council, the Public Pollution Adjustment Commission, and the Fire Department, and presiding over the establishment of the election system of the Japanese Federation. Log cabin fires in Japan are frequent, and one fire occurred during the establishment of the new government, which made them take this chore very seriously. This is also one of the important reasons why the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, a foreigner, has such a high prestige in the new government, and the fireproof wooden house designed by the Downing organization has been promoted and demonstrated on a large scale, in which the firebreak uses aluminum hydroxide, which has a very miraculous effect, and produces water when heated, which not only cuts off the contact between the material and the oxygen in the air, but also plays a cooling effect, which attracts the onlookers to be startled, shouting, and taking it as a miracle. This is more environmentally friendly than chlorine-fortified flame retardants and does not produce harmful gases. The first member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications was Kogoro Katsura.

Ministry of Justice: The Public Prosecutor's Office and the Public Security Agency are under the Ministry of Justice, which presides over the judicial reform of the Japanese Federation. The first member of the committee was Okubo Ritsu.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Responsible for foreign affairs and foreign affairs affairs, Japan's small language talent is very scarce, in practice, many small countries' mansions are temporarily represented by the ubiquitous Reuters agency, graduates of international schools in various countries act as a considerable number of diplomats in Japanese embassies abroad, at this time, they do not need to know Japanese, as long as they know English. The first member was Shimazu Saibin.

Ministry of Finance: Under the National Tax Agency and the Bank of Japan, the Japanese did not have any experience in financial reform, entrusted the Bank of Zurich to assist in the establishment of the central bank and the financial system, and even Downing became the first governor of the Bank of Japan. The original Japanese system was exactly the same as that of the Qing Dynasty, adopting the silver standard, and the conversion was quite complicated, and the silver content of the silver taels was different in various places, and it was not an integer when converted into copper coins. Due to the large amount of mining of metallic silver, the trend of depreciation is obvious, and then silver as the standard, then the silver two sessions are becoming less and less valuable, which leads to the gradual elimination of silver coinage in countries led by the United Kingdom, once again causing a surplus of silver, accelerating the dominance of the gold standard, if this matter is not presided over by Downing, the Japanese will find out after a long time. Instead of going to Japan in person, Downing sent his right-hand man: J. p。 Morgan. The first member of the Ministry of Finance was Goto Shojiro.

Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Culture: It is responsible for coordinating Japan's education, science and technology, academic, cultural, and sports affairs. At the beginning of the establishment, the first task was to promote the literacy rate, including the establishment of nine-year compulsory education. The first member of the committee was Yoshida Shoin, and in the Ansei Prison, the old man Ii Naobi wanted to kill him, but was dissuaded by Tang Ning, so Yoshida Shoin was still alive and well.

Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce: The top priority is to introduce agricultural machinery from the United States, agricultural technologies such as fertilizers and soilless hydroponics in greenhouses from Bavaria and the Suez Canal Company, and longline fishing technology from Sweden. By the way, now the Suez Canal Company project is not progressing fast, but the development of agricultural technology has achieved amazing achievements, and now many people are suspecting that Downing's purpose is not to dig the canal, but to develop agriculture in arid areas, in any case, the new port city on the Mediterranean side of the canal where the Suez Canal Company is located is named Port Windsor, the only landmark named after the Grand Duke so far, from scratch, there are already more than 50,000 people, only 10,000 are employees and families of the Suez Canal Company, The rest were workers, peasants, and merchants of all nationalities and ethnicities who had come to beg for a living when they heard of the development of agricultural technology, and the population had already equaled the population of the ancient city of Jerusalem. It is conceivable that after the opening of the canal, the Port of Windsor will further prosper and become the pearl of the Mediterranean. The first member was Toyo Yoshida.

Ministry of Transport and Construction: Bringing in talents from Europe to build railways and other talents, and from Luxembourg to build roads. The first member was Kuroroku Murata.

Ministry of War: in charge of military affairs. Saigo Takamori presided over the compulsory conscription system, and fighting wars was no longer the prerogative of professional samurai, but would win the new government the ability to mobilize large numbers of troops quickly and cheaply, while at the same time imposing a "dispensation order". Under the influence of the Western military system, the flashy etiquette of knotting the skull had long been abolished in the Downing's mercenary Satsuma regiment, and now Saigo wants to spread this atmosphere to the whole Japanese army, and then to the whole Japanese people, which is similar to the historical process of the sage tail in the Qing Dynasty. Knife removal means that ordinary people are not allowed to carry knives on the streets, except for police and military personnel. A navy will be formed, but it will not be able to form a decent navy for a while, first covered by the East India Company, the general powers have to give the East India Company a little face, there is no problem with coastal defense for the time being, and now the Japanese have surprisingly trust in the Grand Duke, maybe the Grand Duke has too much money and it is not uncommon to come to Japan to rob them, and then there is Downing's industrial development in Nagasaki that allows Japan's modern economy to catch up quickly, so that they can see hope, it is said that these are more advanced than the factories of ordinary powers, world-class factories, Otherwise, the Grand Duke's prestige in Japan is so great. The first commissioner, Saigo Takamori, ceded to Prince Chihito, lest the royal family say that they were cunning and lackeys.

The summary is as follows: Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture and Industry, Ministry of Transport and Construction, Ministry of Military Affairs.

As you may have seen, all of the eight commissioners, except for Prince Chiren, were passengers on the Great Eastern on a trip to Europe! During Prince Chiren's absence, he felt like he was surrounded by wolves. The main difference between these eight members and the seven-member Swiss committee is that there is an additional Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Culture, Sports, and Culture, which also follows Switzerland's example, and elects a federal president from among the members for a one-year term and cannot be re-elected, but can be re-elected after one term, and when there is a four-to-four vote on a heavy question, the chairman can decide the final result.

In order to comfort Prince Chiren, he was appointed as the first head of the new government. Of course, this was short-lived, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications had a lot of power in arranging for the abolition of the prefectures, and the administrative bodies of each prefecture and above were very large, equivalent to one state in the United States, and then the election of two councils. One of them is the National Assembly, which allocates the number of members according to population by the administrative divisions at the county level and above, and the other is the County Council, which elects two members of the Council by the county and above. The powers of the two councils are the same, according to Downing, in order to prevent populism from spreading, the members of the county council have property restrictions, and the electors can only be taxpayers according to the law, while the national council is a literate adult, regardless of gender, can elect and be elected. Another point is the Swiss character of direct democracy for all: any citizen can collect signatures through guò to force a referendum on any bill outside the constitution, and that's what makes learning home.

Japan's New Deal reform shocked the world under the report, and the world was quite surprised by Japan's openness, especially since they even invited the Grand Duke of Luxembourg to be the governor of the central bank. （http：／／.）。 The Russians are quite ashamed of Japan's reforms, I rely on them, look at others, that's what is called reform, and suddenly advanced from the Middle Ages to the most advanced system, I hope they are not playing seriously, we have to abolish serfdom so hard......

In fact, the most surprising thing was Downing, little Japan really did it, I just casually said that the benefits of the Swiss system were all learned, and they also paid special attention to education and made a Ministry of Education.

The Japanese were still very conservative, and many people couldn't stand the traditional bureaucracy at this time, and the voices of rebellion came and went, not only the newly established military department was busy fighting fires everywhere, but even the East India Company had a large number of warships sent to various places to quell the rebellion, and at the time when the war between France, Satana and Austria was about to start, Tangning had to put back another 1,000 Satsuma soldiers in Luxembourg to participate in the suppression.

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