In Tokyo, Japan, many pedestrians are walking to the clean streets, some children are running happily, playing a chase game that they never get tired of playing, while their adults are watching from behind, or looking at with a smile, or a little worried, for fear that the child will fall to the ground if he runs too fast――――――, this kind of child who is only seven or eight years old or older is at an age where he can't get tired of running, but because of this, these children's balance is usually not very good, a little careless, I'm afraid I'm going to fall to the ground, and it's no wonder that their parents are a little worried.

But it's only them who are worried, at least the children who are running around in kimonos are not very worried, and the adults passing by on the side also showed a knowing smile on their faces when they saw this scene, as if they had seen what they looked like when they were young...

Some adults didn't pay much attention to the fact that they were hit by children, but instead held them on their feet with a smile on their faces, and then smiled and watched them run away.

"It's nice to be young..."

Looking at the children running farther and farther away, one of them smiled, revealing his hidden snow-white teeth.

"yes," the other laughed at the words of his companion, apparently nostalgic for what he had been like when he was a child. At that time, although there were classes to be attended every day and there were endless homework to do, it was indeed a pleasant time.

Not only them, but other adults were also there.

If you look at all of this, you would not have guessed that not long ago, there was a huge riot that affected half of Japan.

After the news of the defeat in the Battle of Shandong reached Japan. Riots have taken place in many cities, including Tokyo, with the largest number of riots taking place. For those ordinary Japanese who shrunk their clothes and dieted to support the army, hoping that the army would bring them glory and benefits. This failure is almost unforgivable.

Some radicals preached revenge or even the expansion of the war, while others blamed the Okuma cabinet for the defeat. It is believed that they weakly obeyed the demands of the great powers and limited the war to Shandong, which is why the 'imperial army' suffered defeat...

Seriously, this argument is not unreasonable. After all, if it weren't for Okuma Shigenobu obeying the demands of the great powers and limiting the war to Shandong, it would have been impossible for the submarine officers of the palace to succeed in the sneak attack in Longkou Bay.

And with the strength of the Chinese Navy at that time. Obviously, it was definitely not the opponent of the Japanese Navy before the Battle of Longkou Bay.

If the losses of the navy were not so great, no matter how badly the land battle was, Japan would not have lost too completely. And there is a huge navy as a backer. The tens of thousands of troops on land can also be safely withdrawn to the mainland.

But things can't all be blamed on Shigenobu Okuma, after all, no one would have imagined that the attack ability of submarines is so strong. In just one day's effort, a navy ranked among the top five in the world can be dealt a heavy blow...

If Okuma Shigenobu knew that there would be such a consequence, no matter how much the Great Powers demanded it. It is also impossible for him to limit the operational range of the Navy.

The riots lasted for more than half a month. The end result of the riots was the ouster of former Prime Minister Shigenobu Okuma and his cabinet. For the sake of their own safety, Okuma Shigenobu and his cronies even hid in the mountains, and it is no wonder that they did this, because of the defeat, but many radicals threatened to take their heads.

Although almost all of Okuma's politicians belong to the category of scheming, they still cherish their lives. So after the handover, he ran into the mountains to avoid the limelight for a while.

And the one who replaced Okuma Shigenobu was the high foot of Yama Prefecture Aritomo. One of the most famous politicians in modern Japan, Katsura Taro.

I was born in the Choshu domain. At the same time, he is also the head disciple of the first elder of the army, the head disciple of Youpeng in Shanxian County, and the spokesperson of Youpeng after the retirement of Shanxian County, many people think that he will be the same as his teacher, belonging to the radical faction, but in fact...

Since Katsura Taro came to power, although he has promulgated a number of measures to help the army and navy regain their strength, Katsura Taro has not agreed to the expansion of the military department for a long time, which has also caused dissatisfaction among many people.

However, Katsura Taro has the support of Yamaguchi Yutomo, the first person in the army, so he doesn't have to worry about this kind of thing...

On the contrary, Katsura Taro announced a number of measures to forcibly quell the riots and restore the calm of the originally chaotic city.

Until now, I am afraid that only the ruined streets buried under the snow, and the unrepaired shops, street lamps, and walls can confirm that something happened not so long ago.

However, although the incident has passed, these pedestrians walking on the street have not forgotten what happened to Jì, and what happened to this incident...

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In the mansion of Aritomo in Yama Prefecture, Aritomo in Yama Prefecture is drinking tea while quietly listening to Katsura Taro's narration...

“……… At present, the Chinese government has allocated 10 million yuan and decided to promote compulsory education in all major cities and counties in China first, and Yan Shao's Yushi Group has also donated 30 million yuan to show its support for this, and according to the information obtained by the Black Dragon Society from China, in the next three to five years, the Chinese government may expand the scale of compulsory education to the towns and villages around the cities

Then there are the villages around the towns..."

"So, the Chinese have also begun to promote compulsory education?"

Opening his eyes, Aritomo Yama put the teacup in the palm of his hand, and then looked at Katsura Taro.

"That's right." Katsura Taro nodded. "Last year, Yan Shao's Yushi Bank once loaned 100 million pounds to the Guoshe government, and this year, because of the European war, the Guoshe government's financial revenue was much higher than expected, so it was very smooth to return the principal and interest that Yushi Bank should repay, and Yan Shao used this part of the expenditure to support compulsory education..."

"Six years of compulsory education..."A smile appeared on Youpeng's face. It seems that those Chinese also know the importance of education..." Speaking of this, Yama Prefecture Youpeng looked at Katsura Taro. Speaking of which. What is the state of education in our country now? ”

Although he is said to be the person who controls Japan behind the scenes, Yamaguchi Aritomo is dozens of years old after all, and his energy cannot be compared to the past. Naturally, it is impossible to be as comprehensive as when I was young, and for today's domestic situation, the more important ones are nothing, and the secondary ones are not very clear, which is also a relationship of lack of energy.

"Since the introduction of compulsory education in the Empire for thirty-three years, the primary school enrolment rate has reached 95 per cent. According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Culture, in another three to five years, it should be possible to increase the enrollment rate to 99 percent."

Katsura Taro didn't promise anything 100%. Because this is a number that is simply impossible to reach.

Theoretically, 100% can only be called 100% if everyone is enrolled. But don't say that in this era, even later generations dare not guarantee that a country can send every student to school. So Katsura Taro only dared to say 99% of the numbers. As for 100%? Just fool the children, fool the person in front of you? I still don't have to...

But even so, 95% and 99%, that's still a staggering number.

One only has to think that before the Xinhai Revolution, China's literacy rate was less than one-twentieth.

Historically, Japan achieved an elementary school enrollment rate of 99% in 1920. Although this is not very thorough in theory, from a practical point of view, the so-called 99% is actually 100%. Not to mention, we also need to consider the many children who are unable to attend school due to special circumstances, although no one knows the time since then. Will this part of the population be counted...

To paraphrase it, it's 'not 100 percent, it's better than 100 percent'...

In contrast, although China has surpassed in many aspects, the gap between China and Japan in terms of education is huge. After all, Japan has basically completed compulsory education, but what about China? The so-called three-step plan is still being implemented, and even the first step has not been completed.

However, Japan's achievements were not achieved in a day.

As early as 1871, after the Meiji government abolished feudal prefectures and assumed the central government's rule over the whole country, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Culture was established to manage cultural and educational projects throughout the country.

After the establishment of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Culture, it began to reform the school system. In 1872, the "School System" decree was promulgated, and experiments in educational reform began. The "School System" consists of five parts: school districts, schools, teachers, students, and examinations, and tuition. The "School System" decided to divide the country into 8 university districts, each with 1 university and 32 secondary school districts, each of which was divided into 210 primary school districts, and planned to set up 53,760 primary schools in the country. It can be seen from this that the Japanese government attaches great importance to education.

However, in fact, in the early days, this part of the implementation did not go smoothly, because at that time, Japan's finances were very tight, the implementation was not compulsory education, the people were dissatisfied with the excessive education tax and tuition fees, and there were incidents of school destruction everywhere, and the reform plan of the "school system" was not fully realized.

Having said that, this part laid the foundation for the future, and from 1873 to 1878 the number of primary schools and pupils more than doubled, and the enrolment rate of school-age children increased from 28.1 per cent to 41.2 per cent, which was a remarkable achievement.

Later, in 1879, the Japanese government abolished the "School System" and promulgated the "Education Order". The Education Decree was the second attempt to establish a national education system, which was characterized by the central government's relaxation of bureaucratic control over local education, the decentralization of education management to the local governments, the election of school councils by the local people, and the shortening of the time limit for children to receive general primary education to 16 months, which was also an improvement over the previous model of being too rigid.

Later, however, in order to maintain the state system of the emperor's nationalism, the Japanese people were instilled with the idea of "loyalty to the monarch and patriotism." In 1890, in the name of the Emperor's edict, the "Edict on Education" was promulgated, which took Confucian loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, and love as the central content of education, and mixed with the ethics and morality of modern capitalist society.

As for compulsory education, it was only introduced in 1900. In 1900, the Japanese government promulgated the Elementary School Revision Ordinance, which established a four-year compulsory education system, further promoting universal primary education. By 1902, Japan's elementary school enrollment rate had reached 90%, and by 1907. The Japanese government has extended this time to another 6 years, the same as Yan Shao's upcoming six-year compulsory education...

"That is, in addition to the military, the economy and industry. Is education going to be surpassed by China..."

After listening to Katsura Taro's words, Yama Prefecture Aritomo said as if sighing, and then looked at Katsura Taro. "Even so, you stuck to your original opinion?"

"That's right..."Katsura Taro's wrinkled face became stern. Those guys in the army didn't understand the situation at all, they thought that Yamato Soul alone could defeat their opponents like they did during the Russo-Japanese War, and completely forgot about the crushing defeat in Shandong, which was now the last chance for the empire to rise. If this opportunity is missed because of the stupidity of those guys, then the Empire will never come out again..."

"And—" Speaking of this, Katsura Taro's face showed a little helplessness. Even if it's hands-on. Do we really have a chance of winning..."

"But if China is allowed to develop like this, with China's resources, the empire may never have a chance to surpass..."

"Not necessarily," Katsura Taro shook his head. Seriously, Britain is an island country like the Empire. And the territorial area is also inferior to that of land countries. But who is the current world hegemon? ”

Who is the current world hegemon? This doesn't even need much discussion, almost everyone knows that the hegemon of this world is Britain, a superpower with very little actual territory, but counting colonies, few countries can surpass ...

"If Britain can grow into what it is today, why can't the empire?" With a smile on his face, Katsura Taro continued his efforts. "That's right, judging from the current situation alone, the empire's development potential and speed are indeed inferior to China's. But it is precisely because of this that the great powers are afraid of China and not of the empire. And in order to balance China, the great powers will also provide us with a lot of help............... Just like the Anglo-Japanese alliance, as long as we take advantage of this European war, with the help of the great powers, as long as we find the right opportunity, it may not be impossible for the empire to surpass China again..."

"On the contrary, now, the current powers are focused on Europe, Britain and France and other countries are fighting a war with the strength of their countries, if there is a conflict with China at this time, the great powers will not be able to help at all, we can only rely on ourselves to face China, if we can win it is the best, but if we fail again......... This time we will face a bottomless abyss..."

"And China's potential is certainly higher than that of the empire, but again, China has many more problems than the empire. Just like the information that the Black Dragon Society got back, the first step of compulsory education alone will take three to five years, and then there are two more steps to complete, and the same is true for other aspects, with the support of the great powers, in a long time, as long as we find the right opportunity, we will definitely be able to knock China into the abyss again, as we did during the Sino-Japanese War and the Gengzi Incident..."

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Hearing Katsura Taro's words, Yama Prefecture Aritomo didn't say anything more, just nodded.

Indeed, if Britain can become the strongest country in the world by virtue of its status as an island nation, why can't Japan, which is also an island country? What's more, the situation in Japan is much better than that of Britain today, in Europe, although Britain, France and some other countries are allies, but those continental countries are still more or less resistant to Britain, and Britain has always been to maintain the balance of Europe as its own responsibility―――――― to put it simply, is to be a qualified-stirring stick, to avoid the possibility of European reunification, if Europe is unified, then it will be bad for him, a country that is free from the European continent.

In the UK, there are some Britons who don't even consider themselves Europeans, which is evident.

And what about Asia? Although the great powers were also wary of Japan in the past, with the emergence of such a behemoth as China, the original vigilance of the great powers against Japan has been transferred to China.

At the same time, countries such as the United Kingdom will inevitably give some support to Japan in order to implement the balanced policies of the past. And with the support of the great powers, as long as Japan can endure for a while longer, it is not impossible to discover China's weakness, even if it does not find...

With the support of the great powers, Japan was able to develop more smoothly...

Historically, after the end of World War II, didn't Japan, with the support of the United States and its own efforts, go from a defeated country outside the island to the second largest country in the world economy?

Of course, Japan is now third, but the examples of Britain and Japan still prove that even resource-poor island nations have a chance to rise.

Although the process of rising is much more difficult than that of those continental countries, there is still hope for it...

And for Youpeng in Shanxian County, this is actually not very important. As the founder of the Army, of course, he knew that what Katsura Taro said was very correct, and he had no intention of opposing Katsura Taro's policy, and calling Katsura Taro this time was actually just a routine matter.

For Youpeng in Shanxi, what really matters is that his rights are not shaken...

At present, he also sees very clearly that Japan alone can no longer be China's opponent, and in this case, it is better to take other routes...

"But your road will be very difficult, I hope you can be prepared..."

After deciding to support Katsura Taro, Yamaguchi Yutomo's eyes moved...

Katsura Taro knew what he meant, and since he decided to take such a path, the pressure from the country and the pressure from the army needed to be faced. In this regard, it is impossible for Shan Shan Youpeng to give much support for his rights, in other words, in the face of this qiē, he can only rely on himself...

"Don't worry, I've been mentally prepared for a long time..."

With that, Katsura Taro got up from his position and walked outside... (To be continued......)