At the beginning of June 1882, there was a fierce debate within Japan over the addition of new armaments.

Due to the previous military expansions, Japan's military budget has accounted for 40 percent of the state finance, which has reached the limit that the country can bear, which has greatly affected the people's livelihood and interfered with normal economic development.

Although there were civil rights factions such as Itagaki Resuke, Sotomi Sotojima, and Goto Zojiro who believed that this was a "killing of chickens and eggs" and would exhaust the country's vitality, the government and the entire public opinion believed that war was the only way out, and Zuihou forcibly adopted a new military budget in the form of an edict from the emperor, making it half of the national budget.

In order to fill the fiscal gap, the Japanese government began to raise taxes frantically, and many new taxes such as tobacco tax, sugar consumption tax, inheritance tax, and grain import tax were released one after another.

Newspapers and magazines in Japan also fanatized the atmosphere of war by hyping up the people's "unity and patience" and "courageously taking responsibility" and claiming that "all suffering will be relieved in the near future."

With the support of the economy and public opinion, Japan once again passed the naval augmentation bill. This is already the third time, the first time in the name of Chile, secretly ordering three new warships from the British. The second time will be to France, and this time it will be England.

In the face of the emperor's questioning, the Japanese Navy's secretary Kawamura Junyoshi said with full confidence that as long as these three enrichment plans are completed, Liliang at sea will form an overwhelming advantage over China.

At the same time, the restructuring and expansion of the army is also accelerating, and the division and regiment system is nearing completion, all of which are restructured according to the original six towns, plus one guards division, for a total of seven divisions and regiments.

They are:

The 1st Division, which was formed in the Tokyo area (Tokyo is a commercial city, the people are not strong, and most of its soldiers come from Nagano Prefecture, which is poorer to the west), and the division commander is Major General Michikan Nozu, and Chief of Staff Yusaku Ueno;

The 2nd Division was formed in the Sendai area, with the division commander Major General Sakuma Zamata and Chief of Staff Yoshimasa Oshima;

The 3rd Division, which was formed in the Nagoya area, was led by Major General Katsura Taro and Chief of Staff Ogawa Matsusa;

The 4th Division, which was formed in the Osaka area, was led by Major General Yoshimichi Hasegawa and Chief of Staff Yasumasa Fukushima;

The 5th Division, which was formed in the Hiroshima area, was led by Major General Okuho Gong and Chief of Staff Masashi Tamura and Sakudasa;

The 6th Division formed in Kumamoto, Kyushu, with the division commander Major General Tani Kanjo and the chief of staff Masaki Terauchi;

Another full-time guard division (most of the soldiers came from Hongo, Utsunomiya, Sakura, Mito, etc.), the division was led by Lieutenant General Prince Nohisa Kita-Shirakawanomiya, and Chief of Staff Yamaguchi Sotomi Osa.

Among them, the Guards Division has 2 infantry brigades and 7,288 people. 1 cavalry brigade, 514 people. 1 artillery wing, 590 people. 1 engineer brigade, 394 people. 1 brigade of baggage troops, 678 people. There are also 52 members of the marching band. The total is 9,516 people.

The remaining 6 divisions and regiments are all 7,264 infantry brigades. 1 cavalry brigade, 652 people. 1 field artillery wing, 818 people. 1 engineer brigade, 520 people. 1 brigade of baggage troops, 888 people. There are also 12 members of the marching band. The total is 10,154.

The front-line field force totaled 70,440 people, and there were more than 70,000 reserve troops composed of well-trained veteran officers and soldiers, and nearly 150,000 combatable soldiers. Major Generals Nogi Noshinori, Soga Yujoon, Kuroki Weizhen, etc., as well as Prince Arisugawa Miyashihito, Prince Komatsumiya Akihito, etc., will serve as commanders of the reserve.

In terms of weapons, the Japanese standard rifle is the Murata type non-automatic rifle, which was successfully developed by Murata Shioyoshi in 1880 (Meiji 13), but the gun is almost completely copied from the French Chaspor rifle regardless of appearance, size and internal structure.

The caliber of the rifle is 11mm, firing 1871 Mauser round-nosed bullets, muzzle velocity 435m/s, gauge range 1300m, the total gun length 1275mm, barrel length 817mm, the total gun mass 4.06kg, equipped with a thirteen-year bayonet, knife length 710mm, mass 0.79kg, single shot manual shooting.

This rifle is characterized by its long range, stable trajectory, high accuracy, especially with a bayonet, a length of two meters, and great power in white-knuckle combat. But the disadvantages are no less obvious, the speed of changing bullets is very slow, the failure rate is high, and the repair and maintenance are extremely inconvenient, and the screws need to be unscrewed to remove the bolt.

But one way or another, this is a rifle that fits the figure of the Japanese. At the same time, it is also very in line with the Japanese bushido method of warfare, able to shoot accurately, and at the same time very suitable for fighting bayonets.

In terms of artillery, steel-bore bronze cannons imported from Germany were mainly used.

Each division had 24 field guns and 12 mountain guns (the Guards Division had no mountain guns), and the field troops had a total of 168 field guns and 72 mountain guns.

Among them, the 70-mm Krupp field gun, with a maximum firing range of 5,000 meters, the 70-mm Krupp mountain gun, with a maximum firing range of 3,000 meters, and a small number of 80-mm Krupp field guns, but there is a lack of heavy artillery in the field divisions, on the one hand, there is a lack of funds, and on the other hand, the military believes that Japan has a large number of coastal fortress guns, which can be called up in wartime.

At the same time, the General Staff Headquarters of the command organization was established, and the Chief of Staff was concurrently served by the Secretary of the Army, who was Lieutenant General Yama Yama Aritomo, the Chief of Staff of the Army was Major General Oyama Iwa, and the Deputy Chief of Staff was Major General Kawakami Soroku; The Chief of Staff of the Navy is concurrently served by the Secretary of the Navy, Vice Admiral Saigo Nomichi, and the Deputy Chief of Staff is Rear Admiral Shikiri Kayama. The director of the Military Affairs Bureau is Gentaro Kodama.

The army's operational and logistical structures have also been integrated.

In terms of logistical support, a logistics system of "military station base", "accumulation base", "accumulation main place", "military station main place", "military station station" and "sea transport place" has been set up. At the same time, a system of "military husbands" was established, which was specially responsible for logistics and transportation, and was incorporated into the regular army, subject to military law, and numbered about 150,000.

In the area of military medical care, a military medical department has been set up, which consists of medical departments such as medical personnel, medical teams, field hospitals, medical reserves, health reserve plants, patient transportation departments, and members of the health department attached to the military station department

Youpeng of the army Qingshan County said, "You can win against China and end the battle within three months!" ＂

At the same time as the "martial arts" of arms expansion warfare, diplomacy is also underway, and Japan has sent two delegations at the same time, one led by Iwakura Gushi, to Europe, and will visit Britain, France, and Spain to seek diplomatic support for Japan; The other, led by Foreign Secretary Shin Inoue, will travel to Siam to discuss an alliance.

The Japanese Empire was in full swing preparing for war, and the clouds of war were slowly drifting towards the Korean Peninsula.

But the calm Ito Hirobumi is also doing Zuihou's efforts, and he insists that unless there is a hope of victory, it must not be easy to go to war, and once the war starts, there must be the determination to fight Beijing!

Thousands of miles away in Beijing, Ding Yuntong is having a headache for another matter, he is now fighting on two fronts at home and abroad, and the enemy is not only Japan. At this time, he was listening to the report of Propaganda Minister Chen Kuilong, and an inexplicable storm was setting off.

On the night of May 23, a particularly serious railway traffic accident occurred in the Zhengzhou section of the main railway artery.

A train stopped suddenly while it was moving, but the train behind it did not know it, and directly collided with it, and the two cars collided, causing the train to derail and roll, overturning the side of the road, and the whole accident caused a lot of casualties.

It wasn't a big deal, how many people died in this country didn't make a problem, and the government departments didn't take it seriously, and the road section involved was soon reopened to traffic, and the front of the accident was buried and pulled down early.

The Propaganda Department didn't take it seriously at first.

The next day's also made an understatement that the death toll was decided to be 35 after discussion, and the press release of the Propaganda Department was used to deal with all natural and man-made disasters: "The local government has launched an emergency plan, the rescue work is being carried out in an intense and orderly manner, officials are cordially condolences to the families of the dead and injured, and the masses are in a stable mood!" Things are moving in the direction of haode! ＂

But then, things began to turn sour, with many media newspapers and magazines reporting on it, and countless intellectuals taking advantage of the opportunity to make waves for various purposes.

They write poems for those who write poems, they write elegiac couplets for elegiac couplets, mourn for mourning, and light candles for those who light candles.

In particular, Liu Guangdi, a young literati who was only 22 years old, published a very sensational article on the , of the train that never arrived, earning enough tears and enough sales.

At the same time, some foreign-funded Chinese newspapers in Hong Kong are also contributing to the fire.

The three major Chinese newspapers, , and have all analyzed and commented on the train accident in a series of articles, constantly exposing all kinds of insider information, such as how the local government cordoned off the scene, forbade reporters from interviewing the scene, used the unified voice of the Propaganda Department in news reports, forbade the families of the casualties from talking nonsense, delayed the publication of the death list, and raced against time to let the corpses "be buried in the ground", and so on.

On May 25, published Kang Youwei's article ; On the same day, Yan Fu also published < truth in the which is the most haode commemorative >, and the word "truth" was mentioned in both articles.

These two articles had a huge impact, not only because of the high reputation of their authors, but also because they provoked the resentment of intellectuals who had been controlled and suppressed in their thoughts and speeches in the past.

The spearhead of the entire public opinion gradually shifted from the train accident to the state system, and began to carry out endless reflections.

The number of people who died in Weishenme is 35?

Weishenme front of the car to be buried quickly?

Weishenme didn't find out the reason, and it was opened to traffic immediately?

weishenme？

Ding Yuntong, who is in Beijing, has been closely following all this.

Such a public opinion environment is not what Ding Yuntong wants to see. The people cannot be allowed to reflect, and once they do, society will not be stable and harmonious, ideology will not be united and unified, value orientation will be confused, and the excellent situation of development and construction will be ruined.

Of course, the most important thing is that the legitimacy of the regime is shaken.

Ding Yuntong felt that he had to step on the brakes.