"Yes! It's a joy to be back in Japan alive! ”

A voice came from behind Ito Yuma, and he turned his head and saw the figure of Kuranosuke Nakamuta. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Like Ito Yuma, Nakamuta Kuranosuke was dressed in a neat sky-blue Japanese Rear Admiral uniform, and although his face looked a little haggard, he was in good spirits.

"It turned out to be Nakamuta-kun." Ito Yuma nodded and said hello to Kuranosuke Nakamuta.

With the appearance of Rear Admiral Kuranosuke Nakamuta, the captains of the Japanese Navy also appeared one by one on the flybridge of the "Mt. Fuji". Like Nakamuta Kuranosuke, they wore sky-blue Japanese naval uniforms, and they all wore their own swords.

At this time, it can be said that it is very rare for the captains of all the main warships of the Japanese Navy to be concentrated on one ship.

Although these Japanese naval officers were once prisoners of the Chinese and had just been released from the prisoner of war camps, they all looked quite good at the moment, and some of them seemed to be fatter than when they were in Japan.

Ito Yuma looked at everyone, thinking that everyone had saved their lives, and his heart couldn't help but be full of gratitude to Hayashi Yizhe.

When he was first captured, Ito Yuma feared humiliation and abuse (at that time, China was extremely "civilized and civilized" in the eyes of Western countries, because Western countries tried their best to seize consular jurisdiction in China, in addition to colonial interests, the barbaric backwardness of the Chinese was also an important reason), and even prepared to commit suicide to avoid humiliation. But what he didn't expect was that he and the captured Japanese naval officers and men were not only not treated in the slightest way, but also received exceptional preferential treatment.

The captured Japanese naval officers and men were first sent to the port of Tainan and placed in a prisoner of war camp converted from a Qing barracks. On board, instead of the rancid rice balls brought from home, they were served fragrant Chinese white rice, pork, beef, and vegetables for officers, yellow rice and potatoes for soldiers, and chicken and fish for vegetables, as well as vegetables such as eggs, tofu, and bean sprouts. The wounded were fed the same as the officers, and all the wounded were treated by Chinese doctors, and most of them recovered their health, except for a few who died of serious injuries. After arriving in Tainan Province, the prisoners entered the prisoner of war camp, and the officers were separated from the soldiers, the officers had their own rooms, and the soldiers were allowed to move around the camp at will in peacetime, without any labor. Because of the good food and the fact that they did not have to work, many officers and men even became fat.

During their captivity, the Japanese naval officers and men were treated politely by the Qing soldiers who held them. Out of respect for the enemy's bravery, Chinese naval officers visited them from time to time, talked with them, and discussed the gains and losses of both sides in the naval battle (in fact, this was at the behest of Lin Yizhe). The two sides quickly eliminated their original hostility and developed a good impression of each other. Deng Shichang, Ye Fu, Lin Guoxiang...... The friendly warmth of these Chinese officers even gave Ito the illusion of being "at home". And when they were released, each of them, both officers and soldiers, was paid for their repatriation: 100 Mexican silver dollars for the lieutenant general (this money was for Shikinori Kayama alone, since he was the only lieutenant general who was captured, and he accepted the money despite his deep shame), 50 silver dollars for the major general (Ito Yuma and Nakamuta Kuranosuke), 20 silver dollars for the officer, and 10 silver dollars for the soldiers.

On the day of his release, when the Chinese officers presented gifts to the captives to say goodbye, Ito even felt sorry for them.

And this emotion does not exist only in his heart. A lot of captains and his feelings, are the same.

Of course, there are a few exceptions, such as the commander who is still in the cabin and refuses to come out, Lieutenant General Shikini Kayama.

"I really can't imagine that the Qing people are willing to return the 'Mt. Fuji' to us." The original captain of the "Mt. Fuji", Hita Hamagoro Shaosa, sighed.

"That Governor Lin is a respectable opponent." Ito Yuma sighed and said.

When the Japanese naval officers and men were released, Ito Yuma and other senior generals were told by Deng Shichang that they would return the Japanese warship "Mt. Fuji" to transport the Japanese naval officers and men back to China. After receiving the news, the Japanese officers were very surprised, Ito Yuma asked Deng Shichang for the reason, Deng Shichang's answer was: "Your naval admiral fought bravely, surrendered without the enemy, saved the lives of his subordinates, handled it very well, and was impeccable. ”

Hearing the Chinese captain's answer, Ito Yuma couldn't help but be moved.

As a member of the navy, his reputation was the most important thing, and when he made the decision to surrender, he already knew that when he returned to China in the future, he was afraid that he would be ruined. But he never imagined that his enemies would use such a way to preserve the reputation of these losers!

However, the return of the "Mt. Fuji" still caused some minor problems for the Japanese, that is, who would be the captain of the warship. Because there are too many Japanese captains on this warship, in addition to the dead captain of the "Ganxing" Captain Akimichi Uraura, like the captain of the "East" Yuhiro Ito, the captain of the "Ryusho" Keinori Fukushima, the captain of the "Kasuga" Ryoshio Inoue, the captain of the "Nisshin" Heihachiro Togo, the captain of the "Tsukuba" Junyoshi Ito, the captain of the "Mt. Fuji" Hita Hamagoro, the captain of the "Yangchun" Sotaro Misu, the captain of the "Meng Chun" Isobe Baoyi, and the captain of the "Yunyang" Idewa Shigeto, As well as the two detachment commanders, Ito Yuma and Nakamuta Kuranosuke, as well as the supreme commander Shikinori Kayama, all of them were well on the "Mt. Fuji".

In order to prevent disputes among the Japanese, Shen Baozhen, the most senior Chinese official in Taiwan at that time, appointed Ito Yuhiro, the captain of the ironclad ship "Dong," as the captain of the "Mt. Fuji," as the captain of the "Mt. Fuji."

"This Governor Lin is completely different from all the Qing people I have ever met." Nakamuta Kuranosuke said, "Qingguo has been able to appear such a figure, and we really shouldn't despise it anymore." ”

Ito Yuma nodded.

At this moment, in front of Ito Yuma's eyes, the face of the teacher Katsu Kaishu suddenly appeared.

Somehow, Ito Yuma couldn't help but compare Hayashi Yizhe with his teacher Katsu Haizhou.

"Teacher, you should probably meet this person......" Ito Yuma sighed deeply in his heart.

Ito, who was standing among the captains, watched the conversation between his brother and Kuranosuke Nakamuta, and although he noticed the strange expression on his brother's face, he didn't say anything.

After all, it was the two rear admirals talking, and he, the captain, still couldn't interject.

Just now, he had already sensed something from his brother's sigh.

He felt that his brother seemed to have been influenced by those Chinese generals who were too weak and had lost the sharpness of a samurai!

Although he was also very grateful to the Chinese side for the preferential treatment of the Japanese prisoners, in his heart, he still longed to return to the battlefield!

However, at the thought of the huge amount of reparations that Japan was about to pay to China, Ito's mood became extremely depressed (he and others had already learned the contents of the Sino-Japanese "Beijing Treaty" before boarding the ship).

Ito didn't know that at this time, another group of Japanese was also worried about this.

"Songju, are you feeling better?"

Looking at Takayo Kido, who was pale and sick on the bed, Ito asked in a hoarse voice.

"It feels so much better." Seeing the worry and concern in Ito Hirofumi's eyes, Kido Takayo smiled slightly and said, "If there are Qing thugs breaking in now, I can deal with it alone without your intervention." ”

Listening to Kido Takayo's words, Ito Hirobumi couldn't help but laugh.

Kido Takayoshi refers to the "Qing country thugs" actually refers to some Chinese who have attacked members of the Japanese mission these days.

After the peace treaty was signed, some local ruffians in Beijing shouted slogans such as "kill the Oriental devils" and "sweep away the Japanese pirates," openly intercepted the carriages of the Japanese embassy on the streets, shouted and cursed, and threw stones and garbage. What's more, one day dozens of people even openly tried to break into the Japanese legation with sticks and smash them, but fortunately, several of the security personnel of the Japanese embassy were samurai, and they fought back with sticks before the rioters were repelled.

On that day, a frustrated Hirobumi Ito used a bamboo stick as a sword to knock down two Chinese thugs who tried to break into the legation.

The Japanese then protested to Prime Minister Yamen, and when Lin Yizhe learned of it, he immediately asked for an order to protect the Japanese legation and arrest the rioters. The Admiral of Jiumen personally came to visit the Japanese Legation and sent troops to protect him, while the arresters of Shuntianfu swept away those thugs and showed them as street sticks, and after some tossing, no one dared to harass the Japanese Legation.

"Those thugs are nothing more than beggars and hooligans, instigated by bad people to make trouble, and there is no comparison to the feat we did back then." Hirobumi Ito laughed.

"Yes! ...... year You're on the verge of getting into trouble, haha! Hearing Hirofumi Ito talk about the past, Kido Takayo also laughed, "However, thanks to that time, you and I know each other......"

Hirofumi Ito thinks about the past, and he can't help but be fascinated.

The Black Ship knocked on the door of Japan, the silent island nation set off stormy waves, and the Choshu Domain took the lead in breaking the existing conscription system and began to recruit young people from society to serve the country as soldiers. However, the Japanese army was very small, such as Toyotomi Hideyoshi who led 500 men to attack the opponent, which can be regarded as a large army overwhelming. The reason for the small number of soldiers in Japan is not because there are few Japanese, but because Japan's conscription system is very restrictive, and the samurai are basically hereditary, and the peasants can be migrant workers if they want to, and if they want to be soldiers and eat imperial food, it is basically a dream.

However, by the end of the shogunate, the more enlightened feudal clans such as Choshu gradually broke with the hereditary practice of samurai and began to recruit soldiers from society, and many peasants enlisted. Hirobumi Ito is one of them.

In the early autumn of 1856, the weather was crisp and golden. At the age of 16, Hirobumi Ito said goodbye to his family and childhood playmates and embarked on a new journey. Ito's destination was a place called the Sangshu Domain, where the Choshu army was ordered to manage the garrison of Sangshu. There were thirty or forty troops stationed here, and the captain who was in charge of this army called Hara Ryozo. The person who came to the original Ryozo can also be regarded as the number one person in the Choshu Domain, and he has always advocated opening the country to raze and suppress the country. Later, Ito Hirobumi said: "If it weren't for the fact that Mr. Ryozo Kurahara couldn't think of committing suicide, his merit would not have been under Kido Takayo." ”

Raihara Ryozo and Ito Hirobumi can be regarded as an instant acquaintance, the two met at the wine table and began to talk about life, ideals, and the way of governing the country and the country, Raihara Ryozo blushed with a big face, patted his chest and said: "Don't worry, with me, you will definitely become a qualified samurai!" ”

That night, the two fell asleep drunk.

Ryozo Kurahara, who is not an irresponsible person when he is drunk, wakes up the next morning and begins to fulfill his vows. For Ito, he also began a process of purgatory.

Raihara Ryozo's training of Hirobumi Ito can be described as "exterminating humanity". Every morning, before the chickens got up, Ryozo Kuriohara would run to Hirobumi Ito's camp to wake him up and say excitedly, "Follow me to learn the art of war!" Then the two began to study "The Art of War" and "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"; At noon, Ito Hirobumi had to recite the Four Books and Five Classics in front of Mr. Kurihara; In the afternoon, you will have to exercise your body and swordsmanship. No matter the wind or rain, they will persevere.

When the winter snow was drifting, Ryozo Kurihara secretly hid Hirobumi Ito's straw sandals, and Hirobumi Ito couldn't find them anywhere, while Ryozo Kurihara said calmly, "I often fight the enemy barefoot on the battlefield!" Ito ran barefoot in the snow and danced his sword.

In this way, Ito Hirobumi worked hard for a year. A year later, the army was disbanded, and Ito Hirobumi set off for the Choshu Domain.

Just before Ito Hirobumi left, Ryozo Kuriohara handed him a letter telling him that if you go to this person, as long as this person is willing to accept you as a student, you will become a great thing.

This man's name is Yoshida Shoin. Yoshida Shoin was a great Japanese educator and philosopher. He is also a firm believer in Wang Yangming's "heart science" in China. The students he trained also consistently believed in Mr. Yangming's teachings.

Hirobumi Ito successfully entered Matsushita Murajuku, a school founded by Yoshida Shoin. Here he saw a wider world. He found that the junior brothers and sisters here not only learned foreign languages and memorized Tang and Song poems every day, but also secretly engaged in a high-risk, low-reward job - assassination.

The Matsushita Murajuku led by Yoshida Shoin were out-and-out "enlightened" and were very dissatisfied with the rule of the shogunate, and in addition to promoting the study of Western techniques, they would occasionally commit crimes against the shogunate (assassination was also a very characteristic phenomenon of the end of the Japanese shogunate).

In order to assassinate, Ito Hirobumi and his brother often had to travel from city to city, so he also learned about the customs and customs of various parts of Japan, saw the miserable life of the people under the dark rule of the shogunate, and strengthened his determination to overthrow the shogunate.

The praying mantis catches the cicada, the yellow finch is behind, and just when Ito Hirobumi is trying his best to kill the game, his mentor Yoshida Shoin is killed by Mufu. This plunged Ito into great pain. Ryozo Kurihara, who was far away in Choshu, was afraid that Hirobumi Ito would be even more depressed after he was "unemployed", so he decided to help him achieve "reemployment" again. So, Ryozo wrote a letter to Takayoshi Kido, recommending Hirobumi Ito as his entourage.

Hirofumi Ito and Takayo Kido met at this time.

It turned out that Ryozo Hara was Kido Takayo's brother-in-law, and Kido Takayo was naturally not easy to shirk, plus Ito Hirofumi was indeed personable, well-spoken, and had rich experience in assassination, and soon became Kido Takayo's right-hand man.

At this time, Kido Takayo was only the captain of an army in Changzhou, and of course he was not a fuel-efficient lamp, and he often mingled with members of the assassination team in Changzhou, occasionally doing murder and arson.

Mixing with these "Jianghu people" for a long time has also made Ito Hirobumi's circle of friends bigger and bigger, and one of these Jianghu friends has become his lifelong friend. This person is Shinsaku Takasugi.

Shinsaku Takasugi and Hirobumi Ito can be said to be friends of life and death, and their first friendship was based on an assassination attempt. On that occasion, Takasugi Shinsaku invited more than 10 colleagues (including Hirobumi Ito) to burn down the British Mansion.

It was a dark and windy night and overcast night, and these dozen or so people made a bloody alliance and rushed to the British Legation in Shinagawa with the fire, and with a code, the fire was ignited and thrown, and the fire spread rapidly. The British Legation was caught off guard, and the British did not understand the Japanese methods of shooting black guns, so they hurriedly ran out of the Legation. A few men waited for the fire to completely burn down the building and then rushed in to loot (what a creative idea) and harvested the following loot: a gun, a clog, a stack of love letters to a prostitute......

It can be said that Ito Hirobumi exercised his will, wisdom and courage in actual battles.

As a prominent figure in Japan's Edo period, Ito Hirobumi was very conceited, and it was not until he met Takasugi Shinsaku that he realized that this person was more handsome, more graceful than him, and wiser than him. And the two also have similar childhood experiences, Takasugi Shinsaku was also very weak when he was a child, and he was always bullied; And Ito Hirobumi is often insulted. The two remembered their tragic childhood, holding hands, tears raining down, and they felt that they hated each other.

After these young people burned down the British Mansion together, the relationship between Takasugi Shinsaku and Ito Hirobumi was in full swing and they became close friends. In later days, whether it was ideals or love, they shared them together; Whether they win or lose, they are hand in hand; Until Takasugi Shinsaku died young.

As soon as Ito Hirobumi became famous, the leaders of the Choshu domain took a fancy to his ideas and abilities (assassination) and decided to give him a once-in-a-century opportunity to study abroad. At this time, Ito Hirobumi was only 23 years old!