Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Hero

After the Meiji Restoration, Japan had a large number of outstanding talents. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info but to say that these people are the results of the Meiji Restoration is not necessarily true. For example, Hirobumi Ito, Iwawa Oyama, Gentaro Kodama , and even Takamori Saigo, who started the rebellion at the beginning, and Ryoma Sakamoto, who was assassinated, all came from the cruel era at the end of the Edo period.

These people were accustomed to fighting, and they were cruel not only to the enemy, but also to their Japanese compatriots. Gentaro Kodama is also very cruel, but in addition to being cruel, he is also very proficient in political methods. This man is not only proficient in military strategy, but also very accomplished in politics.

If you give him a character template according to the work produced by a certain glorious company, it is difficult to say about force, but the commander, politics, intelligence, etc. are estimated to be above 90 points.

Kodama is the eldest son of the samurai Kodama Hankuro, whose young name is Yuriruka, and later known as Ken. When he was 9 years old, his father was assassinated by the old school in the domain, and his brother-in-law inherited the family business, and he later inherited the family name with the support of the reformists, and his first battle was in the Eastern Crusade of the Boshin War in 1868 (the first year of the Meiji era), and later served as an imperial hire of the Ministry of War. Graduated from the Osaka Military Academy (the predecessor of the Lushi). On April 15, 1871, he was first appointed as a second lieutenant in the army, successively served as an adjutant of the 2nd Brigade, and an adjutant of the 19th Infantry Brigade.

During the Southwest War of 1877, Saigo Takamori besieged Kumamoto Castle with 35,000 men, and it was Kodama Gentaro who guarded Kumamoto Castle at that time. Seeing that the city could not be defended, some of the defenders remembered that they had bought two cannons from France, but they had never used them. At this time, the dead horse was regarded as a live horse doctor, and he set up a cannon and fired a cannon according to the instructions. Of course, I don't know where the shells have hit, but the enemy soldiers who were still attacking the city just now are hating their father and mother for missing two legs, running faster than rats, and refusing to get even closer to the city no matter what the commander ordered. What's wrong? I was frightened by the loud bang just now. Kodama danced happily and shouted, "Haha, the eight tooth deer ran away, all ran away".

This time, Gentaro Kodama became famous in World War I, and later served as the deputy chief of staff of the guards, the commander of the 2nd Infantry Wing and the commander of the Sakura Battalion, and the director of the Kanto Bureau of the General Staff Headquarters. He accompanied the Minister of War Oyama Rock to Europe for military inspections. After returning to Japan, the Japanese Army's study object was changed from France to Germany, and he was appointed Deputy Commander of the Army, First Director of the General Staff Headquarters and Officer of the Army University, Chief of Staff of the Supervision Department and President of the Army University, and assisted the German instructor Major Mekel in training the army. On August 24, 1889, he was promoted to major general and served as chief of staff of the Ministry of Supervising the Army. He was reappointed as Under-Secretary of the Army, Director of the Military Affairs Bureau and Minister of the Ministry of Justice. After the beginning of the First Sino-Japanese War, he served as the chief of staff and temporary quarantine minister of the base camp, and actively planned the war of aggression against China, known as "Xiao He of the Sino-Japanese War". After the Japanese army captured Pyongyang and the naval battles in the Yellow Sea, because of the control of the sea, it immediately organized the Second Army of the Japanese army that invaded China. Since War Minister Oyama Iwa became the commander of the Second Army, he became the de facto Minister of War and practiced everything from the deployment of troops to the material baggage of Japan's war of aggression against China. On August 20, 1895, the Emperor of Japan conferred on him the Order of the Golden Owl and the Order of the Rising Sun, and conferred the title of Baron. Later, he was promoted to commander of the 3rd Division and Minister of the Interior.

After the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan forced the Qing government to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki, and Taiwan and the Penghu Islands were ceded to Japan. At that time, in order to quickly pacify Taiwan, Japan adopted the method of suppressing and appeasing Taiwan. However, the first three governors of Taiwan, Shikinori Kayama, Katsura Taro, and Nogi Noshinori, failed to control Taiwan, and in Nogi Noshinori's view, the Japanese rulers gained more than they lost, and their military expenditures were as high as 7 million yen a year, and in addition to Taiwan's taxes, Japan also took out 12 million yuan from China's indemnity in the First Sino-Japanese War to provide military subsidies to Taiwan. As a result of the huge expenditures, Japan not only did not get actual benefits from the cession of Taiwan, but instead became a heavy burden for Japan,[3]?? The idea of betraying Taiwan was born, and he said that the then Prime Minister Masayoshi Matsukata was moved. After a series of behind-the-scenes activities, it was initially decided to sell Taiwan to France for 15 million francs (100 million yen at all).

In 1898, Ito Hirobumi re-became the prime minister of Japan, and at a meeting of military and political leaders held under his auspices, Nogi Noshinori formally put forward his theory of selling Taiwan, and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs also resolutely supported Japan's idea of selling Taiwan. Gentaro Kodama stood up and spoke in disagreement, saying: "I believe that Taiwan is a barrier to southern Japan, and its military value is very great, and it cannot be sold to France. In order to get Taiwan, we spent so much effort and killed so many people. If Taiwan is sold to other countries, it will not be worth it in the long run. As for Governor Nogi's mention of Taiwan's inability to govern, I don't think it's that Taiwan is difficult to govern, but that the officials we manage are incompetent. If the Prime Minister feels that there is no governor in the government to govern Taiwan, I am willing to go. ”

Immediately after Kodama took office, he implemented a series of new colonial measures in Taiwan: militarily, Kodama Gentaro brutally suppressed Taiwanese compatriots, he implemented the armor protection system, and implemented the law of joint sitting. Countless killings. However, on the other hand, Kodama adopted a soft policy of adding "sugar in addition to the whip". With regard to the bad habit of opium smoking that the common people liked, it was changed from purging to "monopoly," and it also carried out activities to respect the elderly by "feasting on the old people's classics," and the "Yangwen Society" attached importance to the commendation activities of the elites who read and did business. Economically, Kodama Gentaro implemented a monopoly system of salt, camphor, tobacco, alcohol, and opium, and wantonly exploited the Taiwanese people. In order to squeeze more oil and water from Taiwan's peasants, Kodama Gentaro promulgated the "Taiwan Cadastral Rules" and "Land Survey Rules", and organized a large number of people to re-measure the entire Taiwan's land. Through this measurement, Taiwan's cultivated land area has doubled, and Japan's land tax revenue to Taiwan has also doubled.

What satisfies the Japanese authorities the most is that Gentaro Kodama frantically plundered all kinds of resources and materials in Taiwan, thus benefiting Japan greatly. At that time, sugar was a very scarce commodity, and the price sometimes rose several times a day, and Taiwan's soil and climate were very suitable for growing sugarcane, so Kodama Gentaro forced Taiwanese farmers to grow sugarcane. Every year after the sugar cane harvest, the Japanese colonial officials instructed the sugarcane farmers to make it into raw sugar, buy it all at a low price, and then ship it to Japan for fine processing, so that the price of sugar increased exponentially. Taiwan's jaggery has been continuously shipped to Japan, which has not only made the Japanese authorities make a lot of money, but also solved the employment problem of many unemployed people in Japan. The series of colonial policies pursued by Gentaro Kodama in Taiwan made the Japanese authorities taste the sweetness, and no one ever mentioned the matter of selling Taiwan to other countries anymore. Kodama served in Taiwan for more than eight years, almost the longest of any governor.

Later, after the great changes in northern China, Gentaro Kodama returned to serve in the military department, although he still served as the governor of Taiwan, and Goto Shinpei, the civil affairs chief who took office at the same time as him, became the de facto ruler of Taiwan. Japanese political circles commented that Kodama Goto ushered in an era and laid the foundation for Taiwan's colonial rule.

Such a person, although he is Japanese, can be regarded as a hero of the Japanese. However, "the hero of the other, my enemy", this person, is one of the most dangerous enemies of the Chinese.

Fortunately, in another world, such a guy who had the strengths of both Hirobumi Ito and Oyama Iwa died of illness shortly after the Russo-Japanese War. And Ito Hirobumi was also assassinated by a Korean, and after the death of the group of old men who created the Meiji Restoration, Japan was left with all kinds of brainless middle two who liked to be punished by heaven and junior officers who liked to walk alone.

Otherwise, if these people were still on the stage during the First World War and the Second World War, China's situation would have become even more difficult.

Of course, these guys don't have that long lifespan, how can they not die of old age. (To be continued.) )