- Tokyo, Japan

On April 30, 1937, the Japanese general election ended, and the Democratic Party won 180 seats (originally 204 seats), 174 seats in the Political Friendship Association (original 171 seats), 18 seats in the Showa Kai (original 24 seats), 11 seats in the National League (original 11 seats), 11 seats in the Oriental Association (original 9 seats), and 26 seats in the Wuxia House. In this election, the Popular Party won 37 seats (out of 20), and criticism of the current cabinet's policies was the reason for the victory.

Hayashi never dreamed that the result of his dissolution of the parliament would be like this. Is this the end of his fate as prime minister? He had to start this from 1912 at the earliest.

When China began the era of the Republic of China, Japan began the brightest era before World War II - the Taisho era on the 10th anniversary of the promulgation of the Meiji Constitution, the famous Japanese patriarch Ito Hirobumi established a political party called the Constitutional Political Friendship Association, and then Katsura Taro formed another political party called the Constitutional Comrade Association, which was later renamed the Constitutional Council and the Constitutional Democratic Party. The civil service headed by Hirobumi Ito finally fulfilled his wish and successfully established the Japanese parliament in imitation of the Western parliamentary system, thus beginning a decade of rotation of the two major political parties. At that time, after the end of the European War, the wave of national self-determination was very prosperous, and the atmosphere of democracy and freedom was strong, and it was later called "Taisho Democracy". At that time, the Japanese people had plenty of food and clothing, couples often liked to go to theaters and movie theaters to enjoy leisure time, and there were great developments in music, literature and other literary and artistic aspects.

But the good times were short-lived, and a worldwide economic crisis caused prosperity to quickly evaporate, countless factories closed, workers lost their jobs, and neither the Constitutional Political Friends Association nor the Constitutional Comrades Association could come up with a practical solution to the economic problems. This led to the rapid rise of militarist and fascist forces, and the fascist forces in the Japanese military circles quickly conquered the entire military circles, with the only difference being the steps and understanding of fascism.

One faction advocated the continued overthrow of the current cabinet by means of a military coup d'état, with the emperor ruling directly by the military. Because they do not leave the "imperial road" and "imperial authority", they are called the "imperial road". It is represented by Senior General Sadao Araki, who served as Minister of Land, and Senior General Shinzaburo Mazaki, Director of Education of the Army, and most of its members are young middle- and lower-ranking officers who have no status in the current regime, come from the countryside, and are dissatisfied with the reality. The "Imperial Dao faction" was greatly influenced by the fascist theorist Kita Kazuki's "Outline of the Japanese Reform Act" and advocated controlling the Zì regime through a coup d'état and implementing a fascist dictatorship in the military department.

The other faction was mostly composed of members of a small group of Emperor Hirohito's cronies. After purging the Choshu domain, they gradually occupied important positions in the middle and upper echelons of the army. Its representatives are Major General Nagata Tetsuyama, who enjoys the reputation of the "Three Heroes" in the army, and Major General Hideki Tojo, who advocate maintaining the control of the central organs of the military department, holding that a bloody military coup is not conducive to the stability of the army and the political situation, and advocating the use of the current position of the military department to gradually expand its power in foreign wars of aggression, to transform the country by legal means from top to bottom, and to establish a fascist regime controlled by the military department.

On February 26, 1936, young officers and soldiers of the "Imperial Road faction" among the Japanese warlords launched the February 26 Incident, which led to the collapse of the cabinet of Keisuke Okada.

However, from the emperor of Japan to the generals and elders, they did not have a good impression of the crazy and rude imperial faction, so they wanted to choose a ruling figure as the land minister to suppress the power of the imperial faction, and Lin Mijuro became an excellent choice.

This is because Hayashi was a figure of the Imperial Sect at the beginning, but after the death of his predecessor Muto Nobuyoshi, he quickly took refuge in the Ruling Faction, which made Hayashi no longer able to gain a foothold in the Imperial Sect, and Hayashi Milled Juro quickly realized the idea of the emperor and the senators who elected him to power. He immediately transferred Nagata Tetsuyama, a statal of the ruling faction, to the post of military chief, and Hayashi and Nagata began to purge the army of the Imperial Sect with the support of Kanin Palace and Watanabe Shotaro. The following year, he was dismissed from the position of director of education in Mazaki. This aroused great anger among the young officers of the Imperial Sect, and the incident of Aizawa Nakasa's murder of the head of the Nagata Tetsuyama Military Bureau immediately occurred. In the February 26 incident, the rebels even demanded the dismissal of Lin Mi Shilang's officials. After the rebellion was suppressed, Hayashi was put into the reserve along with many other generals.

Hayashi also completely hated those political parties in this matter, believing that it was because of the political parties that he would lead to his tragic end, but after the fall of the Hirota Hiroki cabinet, the patriarch Saionji recommended Ugaki Kazunari as prime minister. However, the ruling faction of the army opposed the formation of a cabinet by the moderate-wing Ugaki, and no one became the minister of the army. Ugaki, who had retired from the military for several years, had no choice but to ask the emperor for his resignation. The main person responsible for this incident was Ishihara Wanji, who was later praised as Japan's sole strategist.

This made Lin Mi Juro a choice again, and Lin Mi Juro inexplicably ascended to the position of prime minister.

Although Lin Milling Shiro still had some political ambitions at this time, he stubbornly believed that the premise of foreign aggression must be internal unity, and the biggest obstacle to internal unity was the parliament and the political party.

Hayashi quickly used the most stupid method to realize his ambition, after the parliament approved all the bills, Hayashi Mijuro suddenly announced the dissolution of the parliament, which is like letting someone else work for you to build a house, and then announcing the dissolution of the engineering team after building the house, without any money. Therefore, it is called "食い退げ解" (eat and leave)

Hayashi thought that the dissolution of parliament and re-election would definitely lead to a big improvement, but the result was that there was no change, and the only change was that the party that criticized him got more seats.

Just when Lin Miaoshilang was ashamed and angry, in an antique house, an old man and a middle school were drinking tea and playing a game.

The old man has white hair and wears a kimono, and his momentum is extraordinary, which is the last patriarch of Saionji in Japan. Xiyuan Temple Gongwang looked at the heroic middle-aged man opposite and said, "The current situation is already obvious, Lin Mi Shilang has lost the basis for forming a cabinet, whether it is the military or the political circles, they are no longer willing to support him, I think, the only one who can save the situation in his place is your Excellency." You must not be humble again this time. ”

The younger is Konoe Fumiro, Konoe Fumiro was born into a wealthy family, his great-grandfather was a teacher of Saionji Konobi, his father was a friend of many elders, he himself was different from ordinary people since he was a teenager, he studied at Tokyo Imperial University, he used to buy pastries to give to poor neighbors, advocated Corporal Lixian, and the mantra "call Hanako is also a guest" won him a lot of good fame. What makes people helpless is that it is this noble son with a smile in the eyes of his neighbor who has launched a terrible war, and it can only be said that the Japanese often have incomprehensible two-facedness.

Konoe Fumiro nodded when he heard the words of Saionji Konozo, the reason why he resolutely refused to form a cabinet last time was because he believed that even if there was an order from the emperor, there was no one within the army who could discuss policy. Now, as a Chinese born and with a law degree, he can easily gain the trust of the elders and political parties, and his position between the imperial faction and the control faction can also be recognized by the military circles. Indeed, it is time to form a cabinet on his own.

Seeing Konoe Fumiro nodding in agreement, the prince of Xiyuan Temple suddenly shook his whole body and shouted, "Konoe-kun, what is your political program?" Now that the internal division of the empire is like a falling star, the external hostility of the white world is hostile, and the anti-Japanese sentiment in China is rising, the empire is like facing a behemoth of encirclement, what are you going to use to break out of the encirclement. ”

Fumiro Konoe thought for a moment and said sternly, "I will unite people's hearts internally with His Majesty the Emperor as the core, and seek our right to exist externally in order to pursue international justice." ”

Saionji Gongwang was very satisfied with Konoe Fumiro's answer and said, "You are good, although you are a little disobedient, but you are indeed my excellent disciple, go and contact the person you like, don't disappoint the emperor and the people again." ”

Konoe Fumiji stood up and bowed to the prince of Saionji Temple and said, "I will never live up to the expectations of His Majesty the Emperor." ”

Lin Mi Juro was not willing to end his political career like this, he found his henchmen, hoping to dissolve the Diet again, but everyone, including Sato, was no longer optimistic about it, Lin Mi Juro looked at the silent crowd and dropped a sentence, "I won't give up." He didn't care if Hayashi could always be prime minister, he was just worried about whether his efforts in Sato's diplomacy would be abandoned by the new prime minister.

On the Chinese side, Jiang Cheng returned to Shanghai in despair because of the obstruction of heavy industry.

Yu Yishan saw Jiang Cheng looking sullen, so she wanted to go out with him to relax, Jiang Cheng was indeed in a bad mood and thought of the spring outing that he had promised all along, it was almost summer, so he nodded and agreed, and at the same time informed Yu Qiaqing and Yu Zhimin that they were ready to implement the things discussed last time.

Late at night, Jiang Cheng sat on the sofa in the living room and thought about what to do later.

"Boss, what are you worried about, tell me, maybe you can help the owner." Jin Shan walked into Jiang Cheng's room with a supper, and when he saw Jiang Cheng frowning and thinking about something, he asked in a loud voice.

Jiang Cheng saw that it was Jinshan and sighed, "It's nothing, I'm just thinking about where to open a factory, it's nothing, you don't have to worry." ”

Jin Shan scratched his head and said, "Aren't there many factories here in Shanghai, just set up the factories here." ”

Jiang Cheng shook his head and said, "No, the factory can only be located in the mainland." ”

Jin Shan frowned and said, "Then the most inland are Sichuan and Shaanxi, then these two places." ”

Hearing Shaanxi, Jiang Cheng couldn't help but think of Yan'an and the future of China, which is still very weak.

Do you want to go to Yan'an to have a look, but now that you are a capitalist, although you have Zhou Guansheng's contact, will they really accept yourself? As for going to Sichuan or further Qinghai, that is, you have to do it independently, not to mention whether you have the ability, this talent problem will be difficult to solve, at this time talented people have been carved up by the red and white parties, if you want to be independent, not to mention success or failure, you don't have that time, the head of state who disappears at every turn, the country has to be in chaos.

Jin Shan looked at Jiang Cheng and seemed to be hesitating, and couldn't help but say, "Dongjia, I heard my husband tell me in class, 'What you smell and what you see', I think it makes sense." Instead of hesitating, the proprietor should take a real look at where it is suitable to open a factory. ”

Jiang Cheng listened and smiled, "It's better to see than to hear, Jinshan, your knowledge is rising, yes, it's time to take a look, you go and arrange a plane to Xi'an, I'll set off as much as possible." ”

Jiang Cheng thought about it in a blink of an eye, he was now also registered with Jiang Mediation, so if he suddenly went to Yan'an, he would definitely be blocked, so he said again, "Wait, you pay attention to secrecy, don't alarm too many people, use some money, I don't want others to know that I went to Xi'an." ”

Jin Shan smiled, "Look, I promise not to let those tails know." ”

Early the next morning, Yu Yishan freshened up and dressed up, wearing modern rider equipment, Jiang Cheng couldn't help but feel a sense of trance when he looked at it, as if he was seeing a 21st century cyclist.

Although Jiang Cheng brought several kinds of cars, Yu Yishan prefers to fly dead, and he can move forward and backward to make a lot of difficult movements, when Jiang Cheng saw that Yu Yishan could already use the rear wheel as a fulcrum to rotate in place, he had to admit that the motor nerves of this eldest lady of the Yu family were really strong.

Yu Qiaqing and Yu Zhimin had already contacted the business elite and went to Sheshan to prepare for the banquet in the evening.

Last night's light rain made today's air exceptionally fresh, Jiang Cheng and Yu Yishan listened to the rustle of the wheels running over the ground, listened to the sound of the wind passing by their ears, looked at the rapid rotation of the front wheels and the road surface speeding underneath, and enjoyed the scenery of the suburbs of Shanghai during the Republic of China. Ba Shun, Li Dayong and others drove the car far behind, and Jiang Cheng and the others rode out of the city and came to the suburbs after a while. This is the first time Jiang Cheng has seen the countryside of Shanghai, obviously not far apart, but here and the concession are like two worlds, the drunken gold fans of the concession seem to have nothing to do with here, most of the people are skinny, wearing ragged clothes, most of the people's clothes are obviously made of several strips of cloth, the children are all dirty and playing on the ground, but from time to time you can see the courtyard of the blue brick and vermilion wall, this is the gentry in the countryside. Jiang Cheng has always traveled back and forth between Shanghai and Nanjing by car, and it is the first time that he has observed the farmers of the Republic of China at such a close distance.

For the countryside before the Anti-Japanese War of the Republic of China, most descendants have two misunderstandings, one is that the countryside at that time was full of big landlords like Zhou Paopi and Huang Shiren, and land annexation was extremely strict, but in fact it was not.

Manchuria Railway Co., Ltd. ("Manchurian Railway") is a special enterprise established by Japan to invade China, and one of its important tasks is to conduct detailed empirical research on China's national conditions. In 1935, the Manchurian Railway surveyed the land distribution in 453 villages in northern China and recorded the number of acres of land owned by the largest landlord in each village. Among them, there are only two landlords who occupy more than 1,000 mu of land, and the largest landlord in two-thirds of the villages occupies no more than 200 mu of land. During the same period, the dispersion of land in the south became stricter, and according to the land records of Anhui and Zhejiang, the largest owners in various regions occupied less than 100 mu of land. In the 1939-1940s, the "Manchurian Railway" also surveyed 11 villages in four counties in southern Jiangsu, and the results showed that in these villages, there were 173 "landlord households" and only 159 "tenant households", and the average "landlord" per household rented out only 4.92 mu of land. In other words, during the Republican period, there were very few large landowners in rural China.

What is the reason for this, is population growth, in ancient China, often because of population growth and land annexation intensified, because of population growth and land does not increase, often make it easy for the common people to sell their land as soon as they have unexpected expenses, but everything is opposite, things must be opposed, when the population is large to a certain extent, the land can no longer be annexed. In the "Huangxian Chronicles" compiled during the Tongzhi period of the Qing Dynasty, it is recorded that Huangxian County, Shandong Province "has few people and cherishes land like gold...... Although there is a strong and powerful, there is no reason to merge", referring to this situation. On the other hand, the rate at which peasant households save surplus wealth slows down due to the decrease in per capita arable land, while the price of land rises due to the decrease in per capita arable land. In the late Qing Dynasty, it often took decades or generations for a middle-class family to buy dozens of acres of land. The growth of the population is the main reason why it is becoming more and more difficult to "annex" and the scale of landlords is getting smaller and smaller. If it is difficult to understand, for example, the current housing prices in Shanghai and Beijing are well known, if a family with four or five houses and no other assets can't figure out that guò loans continue to buy houses and eventually become a big landlord with hundreds of houses of the same value, it will take nearly 100 years to complete the task under the premise that the house prices do not fluctuate drastically.

That is to say, in the rural areas of the Republic of China, there are landlords and many small landlords, and there are very few real big landlords except for those warlord figures.

Another misconception is that in many Internet jokes in later generations, rural China during the Republic of China was a peaceful paradise. The land is flat, the houses are like that, the fields are beautiful, the ponds are mulberry bamboo, and the yellow hair hangs down and is happy. The landlords were all large grain growers who made their fortunes through hard work, and they were all great benevolent people who were merciful to the tenants. In short, in their view, the Chinese countryside of the Republic of China was an incomparably beautiful paradise on earth, until the Red Party's land reform turned it into hell. This depiction of the countryside is most common in family literature.

However, in fact, the rural areas of the Republic of China were generally poor, that is, the landlords were accustomed to saying that there was no surplus grain. In 1932, Xue Duqiao's "An Index of the Decline of the Countryside in the South of the Yangtze River" wrote that the conclusion of his investigation was: "The middle-class landlords who can make ends meet the balance of income and expenditure without falling into debt are as few as the morning star." …… The small landlords who remained in the countryside were declining, and they themselves were oppressed by usury. This year, almost all of the mortgage loans of the peasants and the Xinhua Bank were aimed at the landlords, and none of the loans were invested in agriculture, and most of them were used to repay debts, pay off debts, and other consumption matters. Even the "small and medium-sized landlords" were generally bankrupt, which shows the state of decay in the countryside at that time.

And the place he investigated was not a poor area, but a famous fish and rice water town - Wuxi. This is true even in the countryside of Wuxi, not to mention other provinces that are even poorer.