As mentioned last time, the Ming Dynasty and Japan had completely different results due to their different emphasis on developing "firearms", as can be seen from the Korean battlefield of the "Three Great Expeditions of Wanli".

Since the Japanese madman "Toyotomi Hideyoshi" led an army of 300,000 to invade Korea, he has been on a breakthrough all the way, but in the end he was still defeated by the reinforcements of the Chinese Ming Dynasty, and then died of anger before he could withdraw his troops. Tokugawa Ieyasu took the opportunity to replace Toyotomi Hideyoshi and implemented the policy of "closing the country to the outside world" after taking control of Japan.

Because the "Tokugawa Shogunate" was worried that the Ming Dynasty would send troops to attack the Japanese mainland due to the Japanese invasion of Korea, it ordered the "daimyo" in various places and strictly forbade the Japanese "ronin" to harass the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty as "Japanese pirates". However, despite Japan's seclusion, it still traded with the "red-haired ghosts" (Dutch).

Through their interactions with the Dutch, the Japanese learned a lot about astronomy and geography, human history, and natural sciences in the Western world, and even called it "Lanxue", just like the worship of the Tang Dynasty in China thousands of years ago, and began to study Western science and philosophy, but found that it was not very applicable.

Because a country that is closed off from the rest of the world, as long as it realizes its backwardness and opens its doors to learn from advanced countries, then the country will not lag behind forever. And what really leads to backwardness is that this country is obviously very backward, but it is still arrogant, such as Korea and the Qing Dynasty.

Unfortunately, the Qing rulers of later generations of China, like the current Tokugawa shogunate, felt that Western missionaries had bad motives and feared that they would incite their followers to overthrow them. The difference is that the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty believed that what foreign countries have, China has; What foreign countries don't have, China also has. Therefore, there is no need for China to do business with foreigners, because it is not a problem to make a fortune, but to infiltrate Christianity.

At that time, China was not the only country that was closed off from the rest of the country, but also Japan and North Korea. However, Japan did not completely close itself off from the rest of the world, because in addition to trading with the "red-haired ghosts", it also allowed Chinese (Qing) and Korean merchants to land after the change of dynasty, but they were not allowed to promote foreign religions.

At that time, China and Japan, which were closed off from the rest of the world, were also open to the outside world with only one "treaty port", but Japan's "Nagasaki" was much more prosperous than the "Guangzhou" of the Qing Dynasty. In Nagasaki, the Japanese traded mainly with merchants from three countries, one Chinese, one Korean, and one Dutch. At that time, Chinese merchants who were able to do so could trade with neighboring countries such as Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, India, and Persia (Iran).

Since both Chinese and Koreans were Asian, the Dutch became the only Westerners the Japanese could see. Prior to this, the Japanese called the Dutch "Hongmao", similar to the Chinese Ming Dynasty people called the Dutch and the British "Hongmaogui" and "Hongmaoyi" ("Fanguilao" is a Cantonese dialect). The Japanese called the Spaniards and the Portuguese "Nanban" because most of these "Fanbang barbarian" ships sailed from the south.

Even during the period of "seclusion", the Japanese learned some about Western culture through trade and exchanges with the Dutch, so they called Western culture "Rangaku". In the latter part of the Edo period, "Rangaku" gradually replaced "Sinology" and became the favorite foreign thought of the Japanese.

It can also be said that it was the existence of Dutch merchants and the introduction of Western ideas that enabled the Japanese to complete the enlightenment of modernization earlier than the Chinese, and laid the foundation for the later "Meiji Restoration" in Japan. Many scholars of modern history have wondered why the Japanese were willing to learn Western ideas and culture when they studied the West, Chinese only learned industrial technology, but the Japanese were not as advanced as the Chinese system.

Among them, the important reason is that during the period of "closing the country to the outside world", the influence of "Lanxue" surpassed that of "Confucianism". The "Orchid Studies" here refer specifically to the "astronomical geography" and "natural sciences" of the West, rather than the "religious philosophy" like the "Song and Ming Dynasty Theory".

At that time, China also opened the "Guangzhou" port, but Chinese merchants could only trade goods with foreigners, and foreigners could not sell books to Chinese merchants, otherwise, violators would be expelled! Europeans believe that "the mind is a sharper weapon than the sword." This was true hundreds of years ago, and it still is true today. Therefore, the Japanese who are interested in making the best use of things are easily conquered by Western natural science and social philosophy.

In a different time and space, after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, why did the Qing Dynasty, which had just gained a foothold, not suffer from the harassment of the "Japanese pirates" (Japanese pirates) for a long time like the previous Ming Dynasty? This question is actually very simple, because after Japan, which launched the "war of aggression against Korea", was defeated by the Sino-Korean coalition forces during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, the losses in all aspects were too great, and it needed to recuperate. At the same time, warlords from all over Japan fought each other for control of the "shogunate".

At the same time, the intervention of Western civilization has also led Japan to worry that foreign forces will interfere with its "cannibalism", so it has entered the era of "closing itself off from the rest of the country". However, Japan's ambition to invade China has never been put down, and as soon as there is an opportunity, Japan will pounce like a vicious wolf and bite the throat of its prey, suffocating it to death. This is like the Sino-Japanese "Sino-Japanese War" that occurred in the late Qing Dynasty, which made the Qing Dynasty suffer a more painful lesson than the Ming Dynasty!

The Sino-Japanese "Sino-Japanese War" in 1894 not only caused China to lose Taiwan, the Penghu Islands, the Ryukyu Islands and other large territories and coastal areas, but also completely controlled the subject country Korea by Japan, and at the same time compensated Japan with 200 million taels of silver, and signed the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" with extremely serious consequences!

This is actually much more powerful and serious than the invasion of the coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty by the Japanese invaders! The reason for this was that the establishment of the "Edo Shogunate" (Tokugawa Shogunate) and Japan's "closed country" hindered the development of its capitalist economy, and the "Meiji Restoration" required a large amount of start-up capital and various resources, which could only be relied on. Therefore, when the feudal society of ancient Japan was transformed into a modern progressive society, it would crush the "small peasant economy" with its "industrial capitalism".

After all, the stubborn forces of the Qing Dynasty were too strong to carry out in-depth social changes like Japan, and they could not give full play to China's advantages of "large numbers of people and great strength", and could only become a colony of Western powers and Japan.

To get back to the point, on September 18, 1598, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who had just finished the war of aggression against Korea, died of illness. Tokugawa Ieyasu's power expanded rapidly, and there were signs of replacing the Toyotomi family. In 1600, the "Battle of Sekigahara" began, and the "Eastern Army" represented by Tokugawa Ieyasu decided the victory in one day, and Tokugawa Ieyasu took the right to rule, and established the "Shogunate" in 1603 AD, known as the "Tokugawa Shogunate" or "Edo Shogunate".

As a result of the infiltration of Western missionaries, advanced Western technology and humanistic ideas also began to infiltrate Japan. So, in 1616, that is, on February 17 of this year (the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar), Nurhachi, the leader of the "Jianzhou Jurchen", established the "Later Jin" regime and openly rebelled against the Ming Dynasty.

It was also in this year that the second generation of the "Tokugawa Shogunate" of Japan adopted the measure of "prohibiting proselytizing", stipulating that all Japanese peasants were not allowed to practice "Catholicism", and foreign trade with Japan could only be carried out in "Nagasaki" and "Hirado", and ships from the Ming Dynasty in China could trade directly.

By 1623, Japan had banned Portuguese merchant ships from entering the country; Between 1633 and 1639, the "Tokugawa Shogunate" actually issued five successive "Lockdown Decrees", the contents of which were roughly as follows: first, Japanese ships were forbidden to go to sea for trade, Japanese people were forbidden to travel overseas, and all smugglers were punished by death; Second, the "Catholic" missionary activities should be banned, and those Western missionaries who infiltrated Japan should be denounced and arrested.

to prevent the spread of "Catholicism" in Japan; Third, foreign ships arriving in Japan were closely monitored, and their trade activities were strictly controlled by the shogunate. In other words, before the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, Japan had already begun a "closed country policy", which led to the severance of the roots of the Japanese pirates.

It was not until the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate that Japan's long-standing policy of "closing the country to the outside world" was abolished, because Japan's "Meiji Restoration" changed all this.

Soon after, the Ming Dynasty was overthrown by the peasant army led by Li Zicheng, and the "Eight Banners Army" took the opportunity to enter the customs and establish the "Great Qing Dynasty". After the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, in order to deal with Taiwan's Zheng Jing and other separatist forces, it implemented the "sea ban policy", with the aim of economically trapping the remnants of the Ming Dynasty who did not submit to their rule.

During the Shunzhi and Kangxi periods, the Qing Dynasty established tribute trade with the Netherlands, France, England, Portugal, Japan, etc., and after the abolition of the "sea ban" in 1685, international trade gradually developed again, and the Qing Dynasty of China has been on the side of the trade surplus, earning a lot of silver.

In the first year of the Yongzheng Dynasty (1723), the Qing Emperor Yongzheng banned foreign missionaries from preaching in China and restricted trade between China and foreign countries. In 1757, the Qianlong Emperor began the era of only one trade in Guangzhou, and Xiamen, Ningbo and other places were also banned from trade, it is said that in order to maintain national security and social stability, while preventing the penetration of various Western forces, establish a unified domestic market, so as to reduce dependence on foreign countries.

In other words, after Japan began to "close itself off from the country", the Qing Dynasty also began to "close off the country" policy, because the problems it faced were mainly Western missionary and trade control. The Qing Dynasty, like Japan, was afraid that missionary and advanced technology would lead to the loss of dominance, so it was a coincidence, right?

Nevertheless, some local forces that "opposed the Qing Dynasty and restored the Ming Dynasty", such as Zheng Chenggong in Fujian, were very important in restricting the "Japanese Invaders" in the early years of the Qing Dynasty. Zheng Chenggong's main source of military expenditure is the coastal trade income, in order to achieve the collection of trade fees, Zheng Jiajun defeated the Dutch army, exterminated the piracy forces on the southeast coast, and protected the coastal trade, so as to collect the cost of trade ships, 2500 taels for large ships, and cascade charges for medium ships and small boats.

At this point, the power of the Dutch on the island of Taiwan was completely clear, and the remnants of the Japanese who had previously existed in the southeast coastal areas of China were basically wiped out by the "Zheng Jiajun". As for the Japanese and ghosts who wandered in the Nanyang area, they did not dare to act rashly, so they could only stay honestly and continue to pay the "tolls".

The time came to the late Qing Dynasty. As Britain has continuously incurred huge deficits in trade with China, it can only export "opium" to the Qing Dynasty to change the trade deficit, otherwise it will not be able to make money by working for half a day, how to develop domestic industrial capitalism? However, the Qing Dynasty had "Lin Zexu" banning smoking, so he finally found an excuse to launch the "Opium War". In 1840, Britain defeated the Qing Dynasty and demanded land reparations and increased treaty ports, which shocked Japan!

In 1854, the U.S. Navy coerced the Tokugawa shogunate into signing the Japan-U.S. Treaty of Amity, also known as the Kanagawa Treaty.

This was followed by other Western capitalist countries in the form of strong ships and cannons to force the Japanese "Tokugawa shogunate" to sign a series of unequal treaties with it. This made the "daimyos" (feudal lords) and the peasants at the bottom of Japan see the weakness and incompetence of the ruling clique of the "Tokugawa shogunate".

As a result, the various forces decided to join forces to launch the "Shogunate Movement" to overthrow the rule of the "shogunate" and regain the "imperial power". In 1867, Tokugawa Yoshiki, the shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate, was forced to "return the Daimasa", and the Tokugawa Shogunate fell. On January 3, 1868, the Imperial Emperor of Wa conquered and began to reorganize, which became known as the Meiji Restoration. The Qing Dynasty of the same era passively experienced two "Opium Wars", and the country was opened by the foreign powers and began the "Westernization Movement".

The two countries were "modernizing" almost simultaneously. However, after all, the Japanese state has the gene of "invading other countries" in its blood from ancient times to the present, so after gradually abolishing all the "unequal treaties" signed with the Western powers, it was impatient to extend its claws to its neighbors.

On February 26, 1876, Japan forced Korea to sign the "Japan-Korea Treaty of Reconciliation" by force, namely the "Korea-Japan Friendship Treaty" and the "C-Child Treaty of Reconciliation", which was also called the "Ganghwa Treaty" because it was signed on "Ganghwa Island", stipulating that Korea must unconditionally open the designated treaty ports to Japan, and let Japanese merchants obtain a series of privileges in Korea. Despite the claim that "both sides are equal", over time, the consequences are serious.

Prior to this, there was an "unpleasant" phenomenon between Japan and China - the "war of aggression against Taiwan". On May 6, 1874, Japan, with the support of the United States, brazenly sent troops to invade Taiwan, China's treasure island, on the grounds that "dozens of people were killed by the island's residents after the Ryukyu ships drifted to the island of Taiwan in the wind".

On June 2, 1874, the Japanese army attacked from three directions, and was dangerously resisted by the Taiwanese people, causing heavy losses to the invading army. At the end of October of the same year, the United States came forward to "mediate" and asked the Qing government to compensate Japan 550,000 taels of silver in exchange for the Japanese soldiers to withdraw from the island of Taiwan. It didn't take long for the "Japanese militarists" who had tasted the sweetness to force Korea to submit in the same way, but the Japanese had a great appetite, because the Korean Peninsula could not feed this evil wolf at all!

Because the decisive victory and defeat of the war was the "Sino-Japanese First Sino-Japanese Naval War" 20 years later, only by occupying China could Japan have enough conditions to develop domestic "capitalist industry and commerce", and the first thing was to completely defeat the Qing Dynasty army, forcing the Manchu government to cede land and pay reparations, so that they could get something for nothing!

As a result, on July 25, 1894, Japan's long-planned "Sino-Japanese First Sino-Japanese War" began, and the result was the Qing Dynasty's "total annihilation of the Beiyang Fleet", and Japan not only occupied Korea, but also forced the Manchu court to sign the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" with it, forcing the Qing Dynasty to cede Taiwan to itself.

These are the different "results" of the "modernization" of China and Japan, which took place in different time and space. Although the "Westernization Movement" of the Qing Dynasty in China increased the strength of its own army, it ended in a complete victory for the Japanese army. Although there were no "Japanese pirates" to harass the southeast coast of China for more than 200 years after the establishment of the Manchu Dynasty, Japan, as an ambitious country, suddenly released a "big move" and sounded the death knell of the Qing Dynasty's demise!

…………………………………………………………

Haha, thank you for your attention, collection, recommendation, subscription and review of this book! As an author, I am very happy and honored to provide readers with a novel that meets the needs of the general public. As the saying goes, "Life is short, but the tip of the pen is slender." "Therefore, the road to cultivation is long, where to find immortality? There is nowhere to go for troubles, and read the people in the book! I hope that the novel "Heaven and Earth Let Me Go" series can bring happiness and insight to everyone!

This story is pure fiction, if there are similarities, it is a coincidence! Friends, the part-time job is hard, the time is urgent, the creation is not easy, like the collection, by the way, forward, want to know the plot? Next time I break it down! ("The book has its own golden house?") There are thousands of bells in the book? There is Yan Ruyu in the book"? Welcome to my book)