"Pifu is not guilty, he is guilty, hehe, what Hanpeng said is really to the point!" Saigo Takamori sighed.

Lin Yiqing's words did speak to the sore spot in his heart.

The reason why Saigo Takamori left the Meiji central government and returned to his hometown was not only because the proposal to "conquer Korea" was vetoed, but another important reason was that he was dissatisfied with the Meiji government's policies that were detrimental to the interests of the lower-ranking samurai!

Saigo Takamori was very sympathetic to the misery of the lower-ranking samurai after the Meiji Restoration. In a letter requesting relief from the Satsuma Domain's government for relief from a soldier who had participated in the War of the Shogunate, he wrote: "When the situation of life and death is imminent, it is like a personal property, and when the matter is decided, it is immediately discarded, which affects morality and righteousness." One of his widely circulated poems wrote: "After several bitter and bitter aspirations, the husband is full of shame." Do the bereaved members of the family know that they do not buy beautiful fields for their children and grandchildren. Because he was not accustomed to the fact that many high-ranking officials of the Meiji government were chasing fame and fortune, poor and extravagant, he accused them of forgetting their righteousness for the sake of profit and betraying the original intention of the reformers.

Saigo Takamori's personal character has always been admired in Japan. It was on these internal issues that Saigo Takamori had a conflict with Okubo Ritsu and others. Despite their contradictions, Saigo Takamori and Okubo Toshimichi realized that in order to establish a modern state and extricate Japan from the semi-colonial crisis, it was necessary to eliminate feudal separatism and establish a centralized state power. It was with this goal that they united and made every effort to carry out the reform of abolishing the feudal domains and counties. Shortly after Saigo Takamori became an army general and governor of the Guards, the Meiji government promulgated five documents, including the "Land Tax Reform Regulations," to implement land tax reforms that reformed the feudal land ownership system and established the modern land system. Around this time, the Meiji government also carried out a number of bourgeois reforms politically, economically, and militarily. Saigo presided over and participated in these reforms, and although he did not make any special achievements in the content of the reforms, it should be said that he commanded the military forces and ensured the smooth progress of the reforms with the backing of force, which should be said to be his unique contribution. Saigo Takamori, Okubo Ritsu, and Kido Takayoshi are known as the "Three Heroes of the Restoration" for their roles and contributions to the Restoration of the Shogun.

Japan's Meiji Restoration was actually a process of redistribution of resources and power, in which some of the old power holders would inevitably lose the resources and power they originally had; The concept of Restoration, to apply the theory of management, is actually a process of flattening management. A part of the middle strata will inevitably be eliminated, that is, a process of squeezing from the top and bottom strata to the middle strata, and the power and resources that will eventually be deprived of this middle will be redistributed to the highest and lowest groups, so that both management and production will reach a new equilibrium. For example, the essence of the "rebellion" is to deprive the Western colonizers of their resources and privileges in Japan and use them for Japan's own use. However, compared to Japan at that time, the Western colonizers were very powerful, and even powerful feudal clans such as Satsuma Choshu were deeply aware that they could not compete with them behind enemy lines, and if they insisted on depriving them of their resources in Japan, it was very likely that they would be completely defeated by these powerful countries, and even sovereignty, that is, the right of their own government to allocate their own national resources, would be completely lost. It would therefore be better to recognize their presence in Japan, or even to form an alliance with them, in exchange for their support and the necessary military-technical assistance, in order to obtain higher resources for development (the so-called "development of productive forces") and the ability to squeeze other strata (to fall under their support); The essence of the "downfall" is to point the finger at the shogun class below the emperor and above the princes, depriving him of his privileges, territories, and the resources he has and the power to distribute resources; After the success of the "downfall", the "abolition of the feudal domain and the county" was equivalent to cutting this knife at the princes again, depriving them of resources and power. However, further military reforms have made ordinary civilians have the rights and obligations to serve as soldiers, so that more people have a sense of honor and promotion opportunities for loyalty to the country, which is equivalent to this sword slashing at the lower-ranking samurai. If you want to talk about betrayal, the princes and low-ranking samurai who have made great efforts in the process of the fall of the curtain have all been betrayed by the new government!

Saigo Takamori himself was actually very much in favor of the new military system, and he knew that from a public point of view, the new system would make Japan stronger. But from a private point of view, it's hard to say. The princes had contributed in the process of the downfall, and after they were deprived of their resources and powers, they could become new chaebols, landlords, even if they could not live the luxurious and erosive life they had before, at least their livelihood did not have to be worried; And those low-level samurai, they are very numerous, as individuals, they have not many resources, and if they are deprived of the privilege of joining the army, it is equivalent to having no food and clothing. Saigo Takamori did not hesitate to cut his samurai sword at the shogunate and feudal lords, but he hesitated when it came to the large number of low-ranking samurai who had always supported and defended him. Saigo Takamori could not forget these comrades-in-arms who fought side by side with him, so in the initial stage of military reform, he made efforts to increase the number of guards with the lower rank of samurai as the main body, in order to give these former comrades-in-arms a place to stay. However, the establishment of the Guards is also limited. Although Saigo Takamori himself was very generous, whenever a Satsuma samurai came to him, if he could not solve their personal problems, he would let him take advantage of them at the cash cabinet at the door. However, this money did not solve the fundamental problem after all, and it also made him politically jealous.

In order to solve this problem, Saigo Takamori came up with a solution that would expand externally, allowing the lower-ranking samurai to invade other countries and obtain new privileges and new resources from the people of the new territory and other countries. For the sake of a small country like Japan, in fact, this is indeed a way out. But that's easier said than done.

At that time, the world powers were surrounded by the vast majority of the world's land, and for Japan, in addition to the Ryukyus, there were only two places to fight, Taiwan and Korea, and the Western powers in these two places had not yet had time to get involved, and perhaps there would not be a strong backlash.

In fact, at that time, the Japanese government and the opposition had the idea of "conquering Korea" and "conquering Taiwan"; in addition to Saigo Takamori, Okubo Ritsu and Yamaprefecture Aritomo and others were also all in favor of Japan's foreign expansion, but there was a difference between "urgent expedition" and "delayed expedition." And Saigo Takamori strongly called for a "rush to levy". His aim was to use the junior samurai, who had been fighting for generations, to carry out these foreign aggressions when the predominantly civilian government forces were not yet capable of fighting power, and to enable them to quickly regain their lost privileges and benefits in their own countries in the new colonies.