1896, January 20, Great Cold. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

The Great Cold is the last of the 24 solar terms, and it also means that the weather is extremely cold. Of course, the twenty-four solar terms of the Orientals do not mean anything to the Russians. In fact, for the Russian rulers of the Viceroyalty of Nikolai, they preferred the "yellow monkeys" in the Viceroyalty to forget about the so-called Eastern civilization.

For the 40 million people of the "Viceroyalty of Nikolai", this is already the fourth year of Russian rule, and in the past four years the terms agreed upon in the former "Surrender Agreement" have been repeatedly overturned, the governor's district councils have been dissolved, the members of the organs are not elected, but appointed by the governor, and even compulsory education has been discontinued, but not completely - only that many village schools have been closed due to financial problems, and in the cities, the aim is to promote "Russification" education, In that school, the Russian language was a compulsory subject for all students, and in addition to the school, there was also the "Chinese Language Institute", which was based on the popularization of the Russian language.

It can be said that the education of slavery, with Russification at its core, has been the core of the "Viceroyalty of Nikolai" for the past four years. Although under the psychological setback of total defeat and the influence of elites such as Yukichi Fukuzawa advocating the theory of "leaving Asia and entering the country", more and more Japanese people reluctantly accepted the reality of being "Lu Guoren", but the resistance on the Japanese land never stopped.

The night, the wind and the snow brought extreme cold to the northern mountains, which were once lush and green, were now covered with knee-deep snow. An ice field reflecting the moon stretches in front of a wooden fort along a simple trench. The trenches were icy frozen ground. The log of the wooden tower surveillance post is covered with a layer of snow and ice. The snow shimmered silver in the moonlight.

It is a guard barricade just a few versts from the railway. From half a year ago. After the underground resistance appeared in this area, they were like a group of evil spirits in Japanese legends, attacking Russian patrols, small strongholds, and constantly destroying the railway, and now these resistance forces control some remote mountainous areas.

And for this "resistance force" that may appear at any time in any area with weak control, the Russian army stationed in the Nikolai Governorate, with more than 100,000 troops, seems to be somewhat weak, and a small force may be eaten by it. Large armed forces were often inconvenient, and the troops were often taken into the mountains in circles, even though they had repeatedly annihilated these "resistances". But these resistance forces seem to never be able to be wiped out, and they will always show their existence to the world again with attacks when they are unexpected, and for the generals of Nikolai, these resistance forces, which are more than hundreds, less than dozens, are more of a bandit-like existence.

"An inevitable bandit-like armament!"

This is the generals' description of the "resistance", which, as if for the Russian Empire, were not worth anything. It's going to disappear over time, and that's exactly what it seems.

This was despite the fact that the peasants of the Viceroyalty were burdened with heavier taxes than before the war. But now the Japanese have more options than in the past – the empire itself has opened its doors to this "second largest nation", and in just four years, millions of landless paupers have emigrated to the Far East and Siberia, prospering the local economy and easing tensions within the viceroyalty. At the same time, the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway also absorbed Japan's surplus labor.

Moreover, the Doroyalty and the Far East have formed a certain complement -- the industrial consumer goods produced in the Doroyalty are constantly sold to the Far East and Siberia and even to China by virtue of Russian privileges, and the agricultural and mineral resources of the Far East and Siberia make up for the lack of Japanese resources. So much so that this even became the reason why many Japanese businessmen supported Russian rule.

Of course, for those officials sent from Russia, they seemed to be very pleased with the performance of the "yellow monkeys" - they behaved obediently, obediently, and treated the occupiers with excellent attitude. Even Russian entrepreneurs liked the Japanese - they worked very hard and did not drink heavily.

Initially, the Governorate did not believe that the Japanese could be so tame, and they even thought that the Japanese might have a conspiracy, might be trying to start an armed uprising or do something more terrible. But in fact, after the emperor's surrender, the vast majority of obedient Japanese did not think of rioting at all.

Of course, that is only the vast majority, and there are still some Japanese who are not "obedient", still stubbornly resisting, in the cities, in the mountains, they are still fighting, but their resistance, in the eyes of the Russians, seems to be powerless, not worth mentioning, and even the attacks in the cities, in the eyes of the Russians, are just the "dying struggle" of the resisters.

For Russia, what they saw was that the "Viceroyalty of Nikolai" had become a cow of the Russian Empire - in 1895, the annual revenue of the Governorate exceeded 150 million roubles, making it the most important source of tax revenue for the Empire, and cheap industrial consumer goods such as raw silk, cotton cloth and even pencils from Japan became a new export commodity for Russia.

"The cows of the Empire" is the Russian description of the "Viceroyalty of Nikolai", and the weak, even insignificant resistance, in the eyes of the Russians, is nothing more than a few fleas in the body of this cow. Although these fleas gave more than 100,000 garrisons a headache, they had nothing to do with the overall situation.

It was late at night, and the shrill whistle echoed through the air, it was the whistle of the police, maybe there was a "robbery" somewhere, of course, it was more likely that the resistance had killed someone, such as a Japanese entrepreneur who had just been awarded a medal by the Governor's Office at the beginning of the year, and they had always been the target of the resistance.

In the sound of the police whistle, Ishihara Jiro walked silently on the dimly lit streets, occasionally looking up at the street lamps, the streets of Tokyo seemed to be darker than before the war, not because of the psychological effect, but because of the fact that in order to reduce costs, the wattage of the bulbs of the street lamps was smaller, and even the spacing of the street lamps was increased. In a word. For the rulers. They always want to reduce the government's operating costs.

On both sides of the dimly lit streets, where you can occasionally see a few shops with lights on, Ishihara Jiro made a beeline for a bookshop with the hanging "Sato Shoten", where books were open for readers to flip through, and there were benches and tables in the hall where readers could sit and read. On the sidewalk outside the bookstore. A tea jar is set up to serve tea to passers-by free of charge. Regardless of the amount of money or nationality of Uchiyama Bookstore, readers can pay on credit. That's why it always attracts a lot of customers.

But maybe it's because in half an hour, it's going to be banned, so there are no customers in the bookstore.

Hearing the wind chimes of pushing the door, Zoten raised his head and looked directly at the stranger with those small eyes.

"Good evening,"

Zoten said in Japanese. He had become accustomed to looking at all the strangers who walked into the store with a suspicious eye. At the same time, he looked at the man. The man was tall and well-mannered. Wearing a dark gray coat and a fashionable tie, he smelled like only those who "departed".

The so-called "detachment" refers to those who raise their fingers and dress in a completely Western style, and they are the most unusual people in the current Nicholas Governor's Palace, so Zoten greeted them in Russian.

"Don't mess around with me, okay?"

The stranger replied to Zoten's greeting. This kind of vulgar language is so out of proportion to his dress that it feels like eating a rotten egg after breakfast.

"Are you Chinese?"

The man spoke Chinese, and in surprise, Zo Teng asked in Chinese.

"Yes."

"I mean—authentic Chinese. There is a Chinese passport, everything is Chinese. ”

In Japan, there is another kind of people, that is, the Japanese who pretend to be Chinese, and the reason why this is so is because they are not willing to accept the rule of the Russians, and pretending to be Chinese is also an extremely helpless choice.

"Of course, why are you asking this?"

"Can I do something for you?"

"Listen, first of all I want to take a look around with you,"

Jiro Ishihara spoke in the same tone as if he was visiting a bookstore, and while he was looking at the book, Zoten was watching with a hint of curiosity in his eyes, and finally, the man seemed to have found the book he wanted, which was "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".

"Is there a Song engraving version of this book?"

Song engraving?

How is this possible, there will be no book "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" at all, but Zuo Teng's brows jumped suddenly, and he replied calmly.

"'Journey to the West' is there, do you want to see it?"

There was a hint of ecstasy suppressed in the answer to the question.

"Well, it's not just about looking."

"How many copies do you want to buy?"

"Exactly, exactly. Dude, I told you all at once, if you can, it's best to get a few copies of Tang carving! ”

Zoten noticed that the stranger was all in high spirits, so he spoke:

"Sir, did we meet in Tokyo?"

"I think it's in Seoul!"

Everything was so simple, a few minutes later, Zoten closed the door of the bookstore, and in the compartment on the second floor, he personally poured a cup of tea for the person in front of him who was dressed as a "de-Asian".

"How about it, do you have any plans for coming here this time?"

For many years, Sato, who has been lurking in Japan, has been waiting for direct orders from his family.

"Oh, not really, it's true."

Jiro Ishihara lowered his voice slightly, stared at Zoten and said.

"My family knows that you have established a network here, and this network has now extended to the Far East, and considering the future deployment, my family wants me to go to the Far East to expand that network."

"What did you say?"

Zoten's body leaned forward suddenly.

"You mean ......"

As an intelligence officer, he was almost immediately aware of the message behind this order, which was by no means a "decentralization", but a sign that his family was about to make a major adjustment - because over the years, he had built an intelligence network that was fundamentally different from ordinary intelligence networks - he had built a network of resistance.

"Oh, that's what you guessed, it's ...... Well, that is, from now on, there will be some changes in the focus, and the family wants to know what you need here. ”

"Weapons, the more the merrier! And explosives! ”

Zoten almost unceremoniously made his request, what rifles, explosives, are all needed by the resistance.

"Even if it's an old-fashioned weapon, the comrades here need weapons too much to resist the Russians."

"That's no problem, the family will help you solve it."

Ishihara nodded, looked at Zoten and said,

"Now, however, the family thinks that it is in the family's interest to keep Japan quiet for now, and it seems that many Japanese people are willing to be obedient citizens, so if possible, they hope that your resistance in Japan will be kept within a certain range."

Within a certain range?

How can this be controlled?

As the organizer of the resistance, Sato naturally knew the weakness of the resistance now, and although he always saw the news of the "thugs" in the newspapers, in fact, everyone understood that the resistance was nothing compared to four years ago, and even the Russians believed that they had conquered Japan.

"Ahh What does home mean? ”

The brows were furrowed, but Zoten was a little distracted, on the one hand, the family agreed to provide them with more weapons, but asked them to be quiet!

"Quiet!"

Two simple words, from Ishihara's mouth.

"Now, what is needed here is quiet, for the Japanese, obedience seems to solve all problems, and such obedience is in our interest, at least for the time being, and a silent and unresisted Japan will give the Russians the illusion!"

What kind of delusion could it be?

That is the illusion that Japan accepted the rule of the Russians, and for the family, they need the Russians to develop this illusion.

"It's up to them to figure it out,"

Zoten looked at the guest in front of him and said,

"Will such an illusion have any bad impact on the family?"

"I don't know, but all we need is to obey orders!"

Obeying orders, that's exactly what they need to do, there is no other choice.

"Okay!"

Zoten nodded.

"I know what to do, it seems that the weapons provided by the family now need to be dispersed and stockpiled!"

"You know, sometimes, for the sake of our future careers, we have to make some moves against our will!"

Ishihara replied with a smile.

"All right," he said, standing up.

"I have to say goodbye, and I hope that one day, we can meet here in the open!" (To be continued.) )