Lin Yiqing stepped past Okubo Ritsu's body, entered the carriage, and saw a wooden document box placed on the saddle, he opened the file box, and saw a small silk package inside.

Lin Yiqing carefully opened the silk bag, which contained two letters, Lin Yiqing looked at the envelopes of the two letters, and understood that this was a letter between Okubo Ritsu and Saigo Takamori, sighed, did not look at it again, but carefully rewrapped the silk bag, then closed the lid of the document box, and took the document box out of the carriage.

"Do you want to kill this person?" Looking at the coachman who was cowering and shivering on the ground, one of the odd soldiers asked.

"No need, spare him his life." Lin Yiqing said and came to the coachman.

"I'm sorry for you to say bluntly to His Majesty the Emperor on our behalf: The thieves and ministers will not be eliminated for a day, and we will not collect troops for a day, Your Majesty will not clear the monarch's side, and there are people on the side of the emperor, and I hope Your Majesty will do it yourself." Lin Yiqing said to the coachman.

The coachman nodded busily, Lin Yiqing didn't look at him again, and his eyes fell on the headless body of Okubo Ritsu.

The golden sunlight sprinkled on Okubo Ritsu's body, and the blood still flowed from the wound, Lin Yiqing stared at him for a while, picked up the long cloak dropped by the captain of the guard, and covered Okubo Ritsu's body.

At this time, a member of the odd soldier had already picked up the head of Okubo Ritsu and put it in a cowhide bag, Lin Yiqing handed the file box in his hand to his companion and ordered the team to leave.

February 19, 9079 (the fifth year of the Great Dry Guangxu, the twelfth year of the Meiji era in Japan), 10:24 a.m. The generation of heroes known as the "Oriental Bismarck", Okubo Ritsu, died in Kioicho, Tokyo. He was 51 years old.

On this day that came to be known as the "Meiji 12-Year Incident". In addition to Shikinori Kayama accompanying Okubo Ritsuri on the road, another important person of Satsuma nationality was also martyred.

On the speeding train, Lieutenant General Kiyotaka Kuroda looked gloomily at the scenery outside the window.

"Matsumoto-kun, do you know why His Excellency Okubo summoned me to Beijing in such a hurry?" Kiyotaka Kuroda asked.

"It should be that the front line is not good." Matsumoto Juro sighed and replied, "Osaka Castle has fallen, and it is estimated that Kyoto is also in danger now. ”

Matsumoto Juro, who used to be a subordinate of Takehiro Natsumoto, knows it very well. The government hastily transferred them back from Hokkaido this time, just for the front line of the war, and Kuroda Kiyotaka was born in Satsuma, and has always admired Saigo Takamori very much, although he has no problem with his loyalty to the emperor and the government, but let him fight with the person he admires the most, it is undoubtedly extremely painful, and it is Matsumoto Juro to use a euphemism.

Kiyotaka Kuroda has participated in naval and land battles for a long time, and has always had a reputation for wisdom and courage in the Japanese Army. Juro Matsumoto served as the head of the Sapporo Office in Hokkaido, specializing in internal affairs and logistics. It was this time that the Japanese government, when the front line was tight, thought of transferring them from distant Hokkaido.

"Mr. Nanzhou, what do you want to do?" Kuroda Kiyotaka muttered to himself, "How difficult it is for Japan to have today, don't you want to see a strong Japan appear?" ……”

"Kuroda-kun, how do you think Japan, as an emerging country, can not become a colony like India and Burma? What can be done to turn Japan into a great power? Matsumoto Juro wanted to relieve Kuroda Kiyotaka from his depressed mood, so he asked about his words.

"If Japan wants to become strong, it must build its own industry and complete the industrialization of Japan! In this way, Japan will have the strength to compete with the world's powers! It is possible not to become a colony! Kiyotaka Kuroda looked at the winding railway and sighed, "An industrialized Japan is a truly powerful Japan!" But now that Japan is just on the right track, it is arrogantly raising swords and soldiers inside, which is really self-destructing the Great Wall! ”

Hearing Kuroda Kiyotaka say such a thing, a hint of admiration appeared in Matsumoto Juro's eyes. He recalled the ups and downs that Japan had experienced in the process of building the railway, and could not help but sigh with emotion: The current situation was not easy to come by.

"Yes! If it weren't for Okuma and Ito-kun, Japan wouldn't even have this railway! Matsumoto Juro sighed.

After the Meiji Restoration, the "radical change" led by Shigenobu Okuma focused on promoting Japan's "industrial development" policy. Shigenobu Okuma proposed the establishment of the Department of International Trade to deal with foreign trade, finance, shipping, and commerce, and then established the Ministry of Industry. The Department of International Trade was limited to the commercial sector, and the Ministry of Industry was put in charge of modern industrial construction. In the third year of the Meiji era, the Ministry of Industry was officially established. Since its establishment, the Ministry of Industry has become one of the most important ministries in Japan. After Shigenobu Okuma took charge of the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Industry presided over by Hirobumi Ito, it marked a great increase in the power of the radical faction in the government. The radical reformers were in power and immediately began to implement their own policies, and the Ministry of Industry and Industry was building various modern industries in various places and pushing forward with the industrialization plan at a rapid pace. Call for foreign teachers to engage in industry. For a time, the voice of Western-style industries in various places was loud, and the "foreign leap forward" swept Japan. In order to achieve political success, the Radical Changers, after some planning, decided to start a new thing - a railway. Kido Takayoshi openly supported it, saying, "Railways are the weapons of civilization." Only by laying railways in the whole country can the Quartet be civilized. ”

In fact, before the radical faction decided to build a railway, there was actually a certain amount of research on railways in Japan. When Manjiro Chubin gave a lecture at Kaisei (Satsuma no Rangaku Domain), he first mentioned railways and trains. On July 18, the sixth year of Jiayong, only one month after Perry's arrival, Vice Admiral Pugartin of the Russian Imperial Navy led four large warships into the port of Nagasaki. Pugarting was instructed to negotiate with the shogunate about supplies. At that time, the Saga Domain, who was in charge of the garrison of Nagasaki Port, as a representative of the Japanese side, went on board the ship to negotiate with Pugartin. On Pugartin's ship. The Japanese saw a model train. This model is powered by burning alcohol. The Russians performed a model train run for the Japanese on the spot. At that time, the Japanese were "dumbfounded" when they saw the scene of this small train running. Among the entourage of the Saga clan were two technicians of the Saga domain, Tafu Motoshima and Kisuke Nakamura. The main island was a musket forger of the Saga Domain. Nakamura was the head of the refining side of the Saga Domain at the time. After studying the model, the two returned to the Saga Domain to report to Naomasa Nabeshima, the lord of the domain. Naomasa Nabeshima was originally fond of orchidism, so he ordered the construction of this thing.

In the second year of Ansei, the Saga clan built a model of an alcohol steam locomotive and successfully tried it out, reaching a speed of 30 kilometers per hour. The product of the Saga clan was the first known steam train in Japan. In the fifth year of the Anzheng administration, Britain demonstrated the trains it used in the Qianguo country in Nagasaki. Its excellent carrying capacity greatly stimulated the Japanese. Subsequently, the shogunate also drew up plans to build a railway. In the second year of the Meiji era, just after the end of the Restoration, the Japanese used railroad tracks for the first time at the Chinuma Coal Mine in Hokkaido. At that time, the rails were made of wooden iron rails, and oxen and horses were used as the driving force. But it can already be counted as the first railway system. After Hokkaido's attempts, the Rapid Changers believed that railways were of great benefit. Originally, the shogunate had a national railway plan, but it was unable to implement it. But now the Restoration government has enough strength to carry it out. So the construction of the railway was naturally put on the agenda. The Radicals believe that all countries in Asia today have become colonies, with the exception of Thailand and Japan. In order to prevent Japan from becoming a colony, Japan should learn from the West. However, the people in China are very conservative, and the laying of railways can make them see the strength of Europe and the United States, so that they can abandon their conservative ideas. Therefore, the laying of railways is imperative. In addition, although shipping was developed at that time, it was possible to improve the efficiency of land transportation. This is a great thing for national reunification. So in the third year of the Meiji era, Shigenobu Okuma and Hirobumi Ito jointly came forward to persuade the Minister of Imperial Affairs, Minoru Sanjo, to open up the railway plan. When the news came out, there was an immediate group discussion. Takamori Saigo denounced Shigenobu Okuma and others as "wasteful". Okubo Ritsu and Okuma Shigenobu's old comrades-in-arms, Sokushima Tanetomi, also vehemently opposed the matter. Even the Japanese military disagreed, considering that the extremely important military mapping required in the construction of the railway, which could lead to leaks. In the private sector, because the productive forces were still underdeveloped at that time, a lot of iron was needed for railway construction, and public opinion believed that this would lead to a shortage of iron tools in the private sector. In addition, iron, which is the raw material of the katana as a symbol of the samurai, is being used as a railroad track for the train to "step on" this time, and many diehards cannot accept this. It was at this time that the national daimyo unanimously returned the copyright. The government took over more than 24 million in debt. Fiscal difficulties are excruciating. Okuma was not happy to let the government take the lead in building the railroad at this time. It is advocated that the government should guide private capital to build railways. And letting private capital build it will cause another trouble. As early as the third year of Keio during the shogunate era, Portman, an official of the U.S. Consulate, once obtained a permit from the shogunate to build a railroad. This permission stated that the shogunate would only provide the land, and that the United States would take care of the rest. After the fall of the shogunate, the U.S. minister took the opportunity to demand that the new government honor his permission. On the other hand, several British capitalists set their sights on this railway business, applied to the new government to establish a railway company, and proposed to let foreign capital build the railway. The government splits the plan. When Okuma Shigenobu learned of this, he rejected all of them. In particular, Okuma denounced the plans of British merchants as "an Indian-style railway plan, with the result that when the railroad went there, it became a colony," and he advocated Japanese self-reliance.

Although Okuma asked Japanese capital to build it independently, Japan did not even know what a Western-style railway looked like at that time, and the huge gap in technology forced Okuma Shigenobu and Ito Hirobumi and others to seek technical support from foreign countries. At this time, the government was in financial difficulties, and the people were exhausted from the war, so Okuma Shigenobu still had to seek foreign financial assistance. (To be continued......)

PS: Ask for collection! Ask for recommendations! Ask for a subscription! Click! Ask for a commuter pass!