As soon as Zuo Zongtang heard President Meng say this, he understood, but he was also relieved, President Meng did not punish him, he was already very grateful, and he did not expect to be as reused as Li Hongzhang.Li Hongzhang was overjoyed, he didn't expect President Meng to respect him so much, and he didn't forget the protection he gave him at the beginning.However, Li Hongzhang respectfully hung his hands to the side, not daring to show half of his joy.President Meng saw the trembling appearance of several people, laughed for a while, beckoned, and Jiegege understood and came to President Meng's side.President Meng held Jie Gege's hand and said: "You don't have to be so nervous, Huaguo is not the Qing court in the past, everyone can do whatever you want, in work, everyone in the world is equal, in life, people in the world are even more equal, equal, free, this is the core idea of Huaguo." ”Li Hongzhang said softly: "A few people, sit down, this is Huaguo now, how about the foreigners, we probably mean that now." ”President Meng said with a smile: "It's almost, but we don't completely learn from foreigners, the Chinese themselves also have a lot of good traditions, Confucianism is not wrong, the imperial examination has also had important historical significance, these must be sure that the times have changed, we have to look forward" Several old advisers hurriedly recorded President Meng's words, which made Jie Gege smile.President Moe is in full swing carrying out his own reform plan, and Japan has also begun a vigorous unification movement, and the Meiji Restoration government wants to completely smash the power of the shogunate and push Japan into the fast lane of militarism and reform.On May 3, 1868, Saigo Takamori, one of the commanders of the Shogunate Movement, led a huge army of emperors to escort Emperor Meiji across the Sakurada Gate and into the Imperial Castle of Tokyo, later Edo Castle.After the overthrow of the shogunate, the Shogunate faction seized state power and opened the curtain of the Meiji Restoration.Everything was a fresh start, and the Shogunate faction soon established the Meiji Central Government headed by Emperor Meiji, and actively sought ways to strengthen the country and enrich the people.These former samurai from Japan's Satsuma and Choshu domains began to think about a way out for Japan under the wave of industrialization and commodity economy that swept the world in the 19th century.It took them just 3 years to overthrow an old system and create a platform for the original dream of saving the country and making it strong; However, it is easy to overthrow an old regime, but it is not easy to build a new state, which was confronted with a country that was nearly fragmented.In the early years of the Meiji era, Japan established a government with the emperor as the supreme center of power, but Japan had not yet completed the centralized system, and the 274 vassal states that had continued from the shogunate period still maintained independent military, finance, and dominal dominance, and the Meiji government's control over the country was extremely weak.At that time, the Meiji government faced three pressures: First, the Meiji government itself did not have a direct armed force.The new government relied solely on the troops of the fallen feudal domains, led by the Satsuma Shimazu Domain and the Choshu Mori Domain, and if the interests of the Sacho Alliance and the Meiji government did not coincide, the government would have no troops to rely on and would collapse.Second, the Meiji government was financially unable to collect and allocate only 3,040 percent of the country's resources, but it had to bear all the expenditures of the central government, so it was stretched thin and its ability to pay was very weak.At this time, Japan was still under the pressure of the intervention of European and American powers and unequal treaties, and the Meiji government inherited the shogunate's foreign debts and various indemnities, which undoubtedly further increased the financial burden.Third, after the Restoration, the overall political atmosphere in Japan remained the same as during the Shogunate period, except that the object of allegiance changed from the Shogunate to the Emperor's government.Moreover, the feudal lords regarded themselves as heroes of the Restoration, and competed for power and profit in the new government.If you are poor, you will think about change.The enlightened faction led by Takayoshi Kido, one of the "Three Masters of the Meiji Era," recognized that in order to eliminate the hidden danger of division and division at home and to extricate itself from the crisis of oppression by the great powers, it was necessary to build a new Japan that was different from the shogunate era and capable of "confronting all nations."
Hirobumi Ito, who later served as prime minister, made it clear that it was necessary to establish an absolutist centralized system of power, in which "all government decrees and laws came from the imperial court," and that the key to this was to abolish the feudal domains and eliminate the basis for "small powers."
At this point, the reform party prescribed the right medicine and made three moves in a row: the first move, the copyright was returned.The hereditary rule of the former feudal lords over the original domains and peasants was withdrawn, thus stripping the local daimyo of their control over the population and land, and eliminating the economic basis for local separation; The second move is to abolish the feudal county.The Meiji government concentrated the daimyo of the feudal lords in Tokyo, and the local administration was managed by the governors of the prefectures appointed by the central government, thus completely depriving the old forces of their political powers.
The third move is to issue a conscription announcement for the abolition of the sword order and the punishment of rank.This move broke the economic, military, and social privileges of the old samurai, and effectively broke the old order of the shogunate era, laying the foundation for the formation of a new social order.These three moves can be described as ruthless, and the old forces vomited blood again and again.From food, clothing, housing and transportation, to status and face, I will give you a look to the end.Although the Meiji government gave the old feudal lords and samurai a certain amount of ransom, the noble class, which had been living like parasites for a long time, despised hands-on agricultural labor and commercial transactions, and had no skills.
Many samurai who invested in business lost money.Marx said: "Social change always comes at the expense of the interests of some members of society." ”Under the Meiji government's new policy, the privileged class of the old society, who had been sacrificed by the new era, felt like they had fallen from heaven to hell, and the change in their living circumstances and social status made them feel like they had become outcasts.In this way, with the deepening of the Meiji Restoration, the crises of the Meiji era began to accumulate.At the same time, there were discordant voices in the Meiji government in foreign affairs.As an island nation with scarce resources, Japan's Meiji government established the basic national policy of foreign expansion from the very beginning of its founding.Although the question of "what to do" was solved, on the question of "how to do it", the forces led by Saigo Takamori advocated the conquest of Korea first and then the policy of China's foreign expansion, so they were called the "Korean faction"; However, after seeing the strength of the European and American powers, the Iwakura envoys, who had returned from an inspection tour of Europe and the United States, knew that Japan at that time did not have the strength to send troops to Korea, and that the solution of internal affairs was the most urgent task at the moment.In this way, the Xixiang faction and the reformers after returning to China waged a fierce struggle over the "Sakhalin issue," the "Korean conquest issue," and the "Taiwan conquest issue."
Eventually, Saigo Takamori's Satsuma faction failed, and in 1873, Saigo resigned and returned to his hometown, quitting the Meiji government.And this withdrawal also established Saigo Takamori's position as the leader of the opposition in Japan at that time, and also laid the groundwork for the subsequent Southwest War.The Meiji government's gradual abolition of the privileges of the gentry clan caused discontent among the gentry, and the foreign war was temporarily vetoed, and the way to transfer the crisis overseas was also blocked, and the only way for the gentry to vent their dissatisfaction was to oppose the Meiji government.The lower field of Xixiang gave the dissatisfied scholars a spiritual leader and a practical commander, and allowed the grassroots and high-level of the uneven warriors to be combined, and the situation has developed to this point, and the Southwest War is inevitable.On the night of January 29, 1877, in Kagoshima, Satsuma Domain, a group of men dressed in student uniforms suddenly attacked the Kusakabenda ammunition depot and stole the weapons and ammunition inside.A few days later, on February 3, 1877, the Kagoshima Police Department arrested an agent from the central government and received information that he was going to assassinate Saigo Takamori.At this point, the revolt of the entire Satsuma clan was completely ignited.In February 1877, the former Satsuma clan elected Saigo Takamori as their leader and launched an armed rebellion against the Meiji government.On February 21, in Kawajiri, south of Kumamoto Castle, the vanguard of the Sazakat Army clashed with the Kumamoto Town Taiwanese soldiers, firing the first shot of the Southwest War.On February 6, before the official mobilization of troops on February 13, the Sahata army held an operational meeting, at which it rejected the proposal of Saigo Takamori's brother Saigo Kobei to occupy Nagasaki in order to ensure supplies and prevent the official army from attacking by water, and to occupy Kumamoto while Kumamoto Zhentai rescued Nagasaki, with a view to taking full control of Kyushu and directly storming Kumamoto Castle.On February 6, Aritomo Yamaguchi secretly ordered Kumamoto Zhentai to guard against the Kagoshima riot, and on the 12th, he further discussed sending troops with the Ito Hirobumi government, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, and the naval Daisuke Kawamura Junyoshi, and with the consent of the Minister of Taisei Minoru Sanjo, preparations were made for the formation of a crusade force.On the 19th, the Emperor issued an edict and formally formed the "Expeditionary Corps" composed of two brigades, appointing Prince Arisugawanomiya Chihito as the governor of the expedition, and Lieutenant General Aritomo Yamagu, Lieutenant General Kiyotaka Kuroda, and Vice Admiral Junyoshi Kawamura to join the army.Later, the corps increased to 8 brigades, with a total of 55 infantry brigades, 6 artillery brigades, 1 engineer brigade, and baggage troops, cavalry and other troops, totaling 58,858 people.The Navy dispatched 19 warships with 2,280 soldiers.The Sabana army was defeated in the Kumamoto Raid on February 2123, so it was decided to divide its forces to surround Kumamoto, during which time the government army had gradually completed preparations for sending troops.On the outskirts of Kumamoto, an encounter broke out between the Saka Army Alert Force and the acting Wing Commander Nogi Noshinori Shosa, who came to Ogura to reinforce Okura, in the area of Ueki and Konoha, resulting in the defeat of the government forces and the capture of the Wing flag.On February 22, all units of the Samoto army assembled at Kawajiri, and the government army and the Samoto army launched a fierce offensive and defensive battle under Kumamoto Castle, and the Taiwanese soldiers in Kumamoto Town put up stubborn resistance, forcing the Sazac army to abandon the plan of storming Kumamoto Castle and besiege it for a long time.However, the Kumamoto Offensive Attack delayed the Sahata fighters and dampened the morale of the Sahata army, while the government army gradually completed preparations for dispatch during this period, and the 1st and 2nd Brigades had moved south from Fukuoka.Government forces relieved the siege of Kumamoto on 15 April.On the same day, the Sagasi army retreated on all fronts, and the government forces followed and pursued.In June, he occupied Renji, in July Kedu Castle, in August he took Yangang, and in September he chased to Kagoshima Jozan, the lair of the Saigo rebels, after 23 days of siege battles, Shiroyama was broken by government troops on September 24, and after Saigo was shot, he "knelt down slowly, as if he was upright, and bowed to the east", and asked the general of the Sato army, Beppu Shinsuke, who followed behind, to serve as a metro, and cut off his head for 8 months of the Southwest War, in addition to the destruction and negative pressure brought by the war to the warring parties and the social economy, It played a foundational role in promoting the progress of Japan's Meiji Restoration and the rise of modern Japan.The fall of the Satsuma conservatives, represented by Saigo Takamori, represented the downfall of the Japanese noble class.The landlord daimyo of the old era, who fantasized about the "retro of the royal government", also dispelled the idea of competing politically with the bourgeois reformers.As a result of this war, the Meiji government overcame the turmoil of the early days of its power and strengthened itself, and the reformers of the Restoration established a centralized position throughout Japan.Under the leadership of Okubo Toshimitsu, Kido Takayoshi, and Aritomo Yamagu, Japan has rapidly carried out further in-depth reforms in the political, economic, social, and military fields.Japan's capitalism developed rapidly, and Japan began to enter the fast lane of steady development and foreign expansion as a modern country.President Moe decided to go on a tour of Korea himself, and in this last war of Japan, he did something.t1706231537: