Yanagihara Maemitsu was sulking there when he suddenly heard a burst of exclamations from the deck. Pen ~ fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info he was about to get up and go out of the cabin to inspect, but suddenly saw from the porthole that a small black dot on the sea surface was rapidly getting bigger!

And the shouts made by the people outside are obviously because they saw it!

Yanagihara pressed his face close to the porthole, staring at the sea, and after a while, he saw the figure of a warship appear between the sea antennas.

"What a fast ship!" Looking at this rapidly growing warship that was also flying the golden dragon flag on a red background, Yanagihara Qianguang was secretly surprised.

As a young Japanese man, Yanagihara Maemitsu has sailed many times and traveled to Europe, and has seen many ships, but he has never seen a ship that runs as fast as the Chinese warship in front of him.

The Chinese warship, which was traveling at high speed, seemed to have noticed something unusual about the "Fusheng" that was drifting on the sea, and sailed towards the "Fusheng."

As the Chinese warship approached, Yanagihara Maemitsu couldn't help but be surprised to see that the warship was very weakly armed, with only two cannons and a few small-caliber guns and a Gatling gun.

When he saw the dragon emblem on the bow of the ship and the name of the ship with the word "Flying Thunder", he couldn't help but groan softly.

The names of the ships of the Chinese have to be said very well.

Deng Shichang was very happy to see the appearance of the friendly ship, and he immediately ordered to issue a flag calling for help, and not long after, the "Feiting" sent two small boats, full of personnel, to the "Fusheng".

Seeing that the "Flying Thunder" sent support personnel to the "Fusheng", Yanagihara Maemitsu rekindled hope in his heart.

In the bilge of the "Fukukatsu", Shikinori Kayama, who still smells foul with a foul smell on his body, is watching the maintenance operations of the Chinese sailors while brewing a report to Tokyo in his head.

“…… The maintenance and maintenance of the steam warships of the Qing Dynasty was very poor, and these steam warships, which were not very numerous, often had such and such failures at sea, and it is conceivable what their combat effectiveness would be like...... In my opinion, this kind of rotten atmosphere is not only in the Qing navy, but also in all other foreign departments,...... The so-called Westernization activities carried out by the Qing State for the sake of 'self-improvement' and 'seeking prosperity' were nothing more than a matter of prolonging the years. If the imperial army takes military action against Taiwan, it will be difficult for the Qing to respond forcefully......"

Beijing, Shichahouhai, Prince Gong's Mansion.

"Wen Xiang," Prince Gong, who was already slightly drunk, first burped slightly, then wiped his mouth with a handkerchief, pointed to the long letter written by Lin Yizhe, and said to Wen Xiang with a smile, "These strategies sent by Lin Kunyu entrusted by Li Shaoquan can be said to be clearly organized, and the head is the Tao, you and I just don't understand the "Public Law of the Nations" of Na Laoshizi, according to this, even if the Japanese come to the General Administration to provoke, they can deal with it." ”

"This son is a wizard!" Wen Xiang put down his wine glass, took Lin Yizhe's letter, and his eyes fell on the date of the letter in the letter, "And in just a few days, the method of dealing with it has been prepared so properly, and the strategy can be sent to you and me so quickly, so that you and I can prepare in advance, this meticulous and thorough, it is very human!" Wen Xiang raised his head, a hint of hope flashed in his eyes, "If you can sharpen it again, it can be of great use!" ”

"Hehe, I think, I'm just afraid that Wen Xiang will have to ask this Lin Kunyu for a protégé post!" Prince Gong sensed Wen Xiang's appreciation for Lin Yizhe and proposed with a smile.

"Not yet!" Wen Xiang was happy today, and he drank a little more, but his mind was still clear.

"Oh? Why? Prince Gong asked.

"Because what he has done is not great enough!" Wen Xiang said, "I still want to know if he has a way to suppress the Wa Kingdom!" ”

Prince Gong sat up straight suddenly, he stared at Wen Xiang opposite, and asked, "What does Wen Xiang mean by this?" ”

"Sixth Master, don't you think that the Japanese are my great trouble?" Wen Xiang said.

"Hehe, I remember what Wenxiang said before: 'Japan and Fujian and Zhejiang are navigable, and the other country has changed the old system in recent years, which is a great disappointment. Once the rebels and rebels collapse, our coastal mouths will be in danger. The misfortune of the next season can be seen from the car ahead. Prince Gong smiled and nodded, and said, "I have always remembered this and thought it was true. ”

Hearing Prince Gong say the words "The other country has changed the old system in recent years, and it has been greatly discouraged", Wen Xiang's face couldn't help but show a wry smile.

That passage is one of his statements to the imperial court after learning of Japan's annexation of the Ryukyus.

Wen Xiang's view was precisely the paradox in the understanding of Japan by the enlightened officials in China at that time -- Wen Xiang was worried that Japan would be China's external threat, but at the same time he denied the success of the Meiji Restoration, and believed that it was the failure of the Restoration that would lead to the exile of a large number of Japanese rebels to Middle-earth, leading to the recurrence of the Japanese rebellion at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, Wen Xiang's view is not a special case.

In a letter replying to Premier Yamen's controversy over coastal defense and fortress defense, Ding Richang said that "Japan's correction and change of clothes" was a failed move and "snickered at by those who know." Liu Kunyi, governor of Jiangxi, compared the Japanese emperor to the historical King Zhao Wuling, saying that because of the reform, "he heard that his wealth was exhausted and the people were worried, and he could wait for his death." Therefore, he was very worried that Japan would implicate China because of the danger of the country's demise -- "The first dog will be killed, and it is inevitable that it will be poisoned by others." ”

Wang Kaitai, the governor of Fujian, also rejected Japan's reforms in a letter to the imperial court: "The country's government decree is to the general of Cao Zhi to monopolize the trade of Chinese copper merchants in order to gain power. Since the countries of Tongtai and the West, the general cannot claim his power, and the profits are taken by the Westerners. It is a revival of the old chapter of reform, a from the West. and exploited it with heavy profits, and poverty could hardly be supported, so he took risks and wanted to raise troops to the sea. Commentators say that its internal strife will be carried out and will eventually be defeated. ”

Among all these people, only Hayashi Yizhe, who was still soft-spoken, said: "The country has changed the old system in recent years, and the feudal people are not satisfied. It is not without benefits for the people's livelihood that it is not without benefits for the people's livelihood if they change their Western art of war, imitate railways, trains, purchase telegraphs, coal and iron mines, and mint foreign money by themselves. And sent more students to the West to learn instrumental arts, borrowed more foreign debts, and secretly formed party aid with the British. Therefore, he dared to dominate the eastern territory, despised China, annexed the Ryukyus, and had the intention of offending Taiwan. In the end, Lin Yizhe concluded: "Although Taixi is strong, it is still 70,000 miles away, and Japan is close to Guangmin. ”

Unfortunately, however, this understanding was not the consensus of the Qing Dynasty's top brass and mainstream intellectuals, who had already based the Japanese threat on the negation of its reforms, as described above. As for the intellectual level, it is full of such rhetoric:

“…… In the past, the king of Japan changed his surname for 2,000 years, and there were 72 island countries in the country, and the lords of the island countries were the princes. The emperor usurped the country and deposed his former king, and reduced the sovereignty of the islands. The owner of the island suspects that he has lost his grip, and the remnants are angry with the old people, and often hope that once something happens, they will take advantage of the gap to rise. He was unconscious, and he still recovered the grievances of Gaoli, changed his Western clothes in the country, imitated the Western dialect, and burned books to change the law. As a result, the whole country was inconvenient, and everyone was confused. ”

The person who wrote this passage was supposed to have some knowledge of Japan, but even so, he still confused the Japanese emperor with the shogun, and regarded Japan's Meiji Restoration as a purely Chinese-style change of dynasty, and then completely rejected Japan's Westernization reform. The "theory of coastal defense" based on this understanding is naturally in the correct direction, but its connotation is inevitably full of absurdities.

"Sixth Master." Wen Xiang gently played with the wine glass in his hand and asked rhetorically, "I heard that when Lin Kunyu was overseas, he once made a fold and suggested that the imperial court set up a special subject in the scientific examination to cultivate foreign talents, but is there such a thing?" ”

"Yes," Prince Gong nodded, "Lin Kunyu said in a compromise: 'If China wants to strengthen itself, it is better to learn from foreign weapons. If you want to learn foreign weapons, it is better to find the tools of the craft, and learn from them without having to use them to the fullest. If you want to find the instrument and the person who makes the instrument, then you may set up a special subject to take the scholar, and the scholar will hang it for life as the hoof of wealth and fame, then the industry can be successful, the art can be refined, and the talent can also be gathered', but it is a pity ......"

"It's a pity that the court won't allow it, right?" Wen Xiang said.

"It's a pity that the court can't use it!" Prince Gong bowed his head and said, "But what does this matter have to do with the trouble of the Japanese people?" ”

"Do you know how many Western elementary schools there are in Japan at this time?" Wen Xiang put down his wine glass, stretched out a finger to Prince Gong and said, "Nearly 10,000!" ”

"Nearly 10,000!?" Prince Gong couldn't help but exclaim, "In this way, isn't it true that the Mongolian children in Japan have all studied Western studies?" ”

"Exactly!" Wen Xiang nodded vigorously.

Wen Xiang has now understood that Japan's basic national policy after the Meiji Restoration was actually first to "build a country through education" in order to gain knowledge in the world, and then to enrich the country and strengthen the army, to colonize and develop industries, and to civilize and enlighten on this basis.

"In the eleventh year of Tongzhi, that is, last year, Japan has set up the so-called Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Culture in its center to reform the education of the whole country, that is, to abolish the feudal schools specializing in Confucianism in various places, and to set up a new school to teach Western studies...... "Fumixiang also stretched out three fingers to Prince Gong, "from young children to young people, there are four classes: primary, middle, higher and university halls, and the academic courses they teach are from shallow to deep, but they are all Western studies. ”

Today, there are about 10,000 primary schools, nearly 100 middle schools, and more than 10 colleges and universities. Sixth Master ......" Wen Xiang pursed his lips and nodded to Prince Gong, "In my Qing Dynasty, is there a Western-style primary school now?" ”

"I don't say it, the sixth master also understands that if the country wants to prosper, the first thing is talent! Regardless of state affairs, based on the new style of sailors, our ship master sailor school only enrolls dozens of students a year, and it still takes a year to learn arithmetic, drawing and other courses after enrollment, but this is only a basic course that young children in Japan have mastered when they are in elementary school! Wen Xiang's brows were already tightly screwed together.

"In terms of this talent alone, Sixth Master, which is better or worse between my Qing Dynasty and Japan, do you need to say more?"

"The so-called restoration of the Japanese people is only a few years!" Prince Gong didn't seem to have come out of the shock just now, "My foreign affairs in the Qing Dynasty, since the 11th year of Xianfeng (1861) "Statistical Global Fold", has been more than ten years so far, how can it be surpassed by a small country in Japan, almost out of reach? ”

Wen Xiang quietly looked at Prince Gong with a lonely face, but he couldn't find any reason to explain him.

To extricate himself is to deceive oneself!

And the reason why Wen Xiang learned all this was that after he read Lin Yizhe's excerpts, he sent a letter to Lin Yizhe in the name of Prime Minister Yamen to inquire, and Lin Yizhe wrote a booklet called "Dongying Jilu" to reply, and he got it from this booklet!

"The sixth master can know that the self-improvement of the Japanese seems to have begun in the Tongzhi period, but if you want to investigate the root cause, it can be traced back to the Qianlong period." Wen Xiang said.

"During the Qianlong period?" Prince Gong raised his head in surprise, "Will it be that early?" ”

"That's true." Wen Xiang first burped, and then nodded vigorously -- Up to now, the Meiji Restoration of the Japanese has indeed only been carried out for a few years, but except for Lin Yizhe, few Chinese know that before the Meiji Restoration, the academic and public opinion preparations of the Japanese intellectual circles and even the practice of "Lanxue" in the "four strong clans of the southwest" had been carried out for more than 200 years!

Since 1603, the Tokugawa shogunate has issued five consecutive "lockdown decrees", and since then Japan has hung the curtain of "lockdown" to the world for more than 200 years...... However, the Japanese are actually "locked up and not dead" when it comes to the West, leaving room for them. The Tokugawa shogunate left a small gap in the thick curtain of "national seclusion" -- allowing Nagasaki to be used as a navigable port to interact with Chinese and Dutch merchants, and it was through this small gap that the scholars of the Western school in Japan, "Rangaku", were eager to absorb the advanced civilization of the West!

As early as 1744, Ryosawa Maeno and Genhaku Sugida translated the work of human anatomy, The New Book of Disintegration, into Japanese, marking the formal formation of "Rangaku" in Japan. By the beginning of the 19th century, Japan already had a group of "orchidists" who began to try to implement the Western social system in Japan, and powerful feudal lords such as Satsuma and Nagasu had begun to train Western-style armies and set up Western-style factories such as ironworks......

In 1854, after the invasion of Japan by U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Perry, even the Tokugawa shogunate, which was the most repulsive to the West, began to carry out Western-style reforms, and in 1854, under the guidance of Harris, the first U.S. minister to Japan, carried out a large-scale reform covering politics, economy, and military. For example, the establishment of a military training center to teach Western military academics; In 1862, he began to carry out a comprehensive military reform, and began to send naval students to the Netherlands, in addition to studying the navy, he also involved many aspects of Western politics and medicine......

Even if the shogunate has already taken such measures, in the eyes of the powerful feudal clans in Choshu, Satsuma and other places who have already tasted the sweetness of "Ranxue", the scope of the shogunate's pace of enlightenment is still too narrow, and the pace is still too slow! After a lengthy debate with the shogunate over whether it should be "revered by the king" or "the integration of public and military forces" was inconclusive, these unbearable "Restoration Warriors" simply pulled out their knives and ousted the unworthy "Shogun of Seiyi" Tokugawa Keiki from power!

It can be seen from this that the Meiji Restoration, which on the surface seemed to be an epoch-making change, was in fact nothing more than a new high-level organization placed on top of a low-level organization that had already begun to take shape. Therefore, when the Meiji government came to power and promulgated the "Five Points" to begin the full implementation of the reform of the law and the strengthening of the country, the prosperity of its national fortunes was just a matter of course!

"What you are talking about......" Prince Gong muttered to himself, "If you can really learn from the pain and reform the old and make the new, you will definitely reap the effect of enriching the country and strengthening the army!" Compared with the restoration of the Japanese people, my so-called foreign affairs are just whitewashed by minor repairs! If the two countries really go to war one day, I am afraid that the Qing Dynasty will not have a chance to win......"

Wen Xiang on the other side looked at Prince Gong, and his eyes were full of respect - although the "Devil Six" in front of him was no longer the style of the past, he could calmly admit that today's China is inferior to Japan. In China at this time, how few people have such vision and mind?

"The sixth master can see it so clearly, it really sees thousands of miles!" Wen Xiang sighed, "Among the kings of Xianfeng, the sixth master is the first in intelligence!" Today, I know that the sixth master fruit is extraordinary, and the sixth master gentleman is open, his eyes are like a torch, and he admires it! ”

Prince Gong listened but didn't say anything, just looked out the window in a trance, and said for a while: "What if you can see clearly?" If you are not in your place, it is difficult to do anything! …… For more than ten years, it was like a dream, and when I woke up, the building was empty. Wenxiang, no matter how high the heart is, it is difficult to count on the bad luck......"

Listening to Prince Gong's heartfelt words, Wen Xiang couldn't help but sigh.

Of course, he understands why Prince Gong's "bad luck" sentiment comes from.

Emperor Daoguang of Qing Xuanzong had a total of three sons and nine sons during his lifetime, the eldest son died in April of the 11th year of Daoguang (1831), and the second and third sons died young. On the ninth day of June in the 11th year of Daoguang, Empress Xiaoquan, the third queen of Xuanzong, gave birth to the fourth son of the emperor, Yi Xuan, who later became Emperor Xianfeng. On November 21, the twelfth year of Daoguang (January 11, 1833), Emperor Jing's concubine, who was second only to the queen in the harem, gave birth to the sixth son of the emperor, Yixin.

On the ninth day of the first month of the twentieth year of Daoguang (1840), the empress died at the age of thirty-three at the age of Chinese New Year's Eve, and the Daoguang Emperor personally named her "filial piety". After Empress Xiaoquan, Emperor Daoguang did not establish a queen, so Yixin's biological mother became the first person in the Six Palaces as the imperial concubine, and the young Yi Xuan was also entrusted to the imperial concubine to raise. Maybe it's because of the same age, the brothers are very close.

Although Yi Xuan and Yi Xin did not have the idea of competing for the throne, their teachers Du Shoutian and Zhuo Bingtian had already begun to compete in secret.