In the distant Japanese Protectorate, a place that had only embraced Ming Dynasty for a few months, there were cheers everywhere.
"Banzai! Banzai! Banzai..."
On the afternoon of July 12, 1875, cheers like a tsunami suddenly sounded. After months of anticipation, Qian Degong, the Imperial Protector of Japan, issued the order for the first time to summon the retainers of the Ming Emperor.
.
"Brother, big brother... there's going to be a war!"
Akiyama Hiko, who was immersed in boiling hot water in front of the bathhouse stove, suddenly heard his younger brother's voice. As soon as he heard his younger brother's voice, a smile appeared on his face. In the first year of Meiji, that is, in 1868, his younger brother
Shinzhi was born. Because the family was too poor to raise too many children, his father wanted to send Shinzhi to a temple to become a monk. However, Akiyama Hiko, who loved his younger brother, firmly disagreed and had no choice but to give up. In order to earn living expenses, Akiyama, who was only 8 years old at the time,
Hao Gu went to work, but he only boiled water in the bathhouse. He would study hard after work. If a person from a noble family did not study, he would be a dead wood.
"There's a war? Who's fighting whom?"
I put down a Chinese version of "Tianyan Lun". Recently, this book was in the book. I raised my head and looked at my younger brother who rushed over with a schoolbag on his back. The Ming Dynasty had implemented it as early as 1872 before Japan was incorporated into the Ming Dynasty.
Compulsory education, people do not understand the benefits of sending their children to school, and the funds for compulsory education need to be borne by the people at that time, so not everyone will send their children to school. But Akiyama Yoshiko would rather boil water here and insist on letting
My younger brother goes to school.
"Listen, His Majesty the Emperor has ordered the recruitment of 100,000 gentry retainers..."
At this time, Haogu heard cheers like a tsunami outside. For those ordinary nobles, recruiting retainers meant that they finally had a place to be useful.
"Could it be that His Majesty is going to war with the Westerners?"
Akiyama Hoku suddenly stood up, his expression serious but with a hint of excitement. He came from a noble family and also hoped to make contributions on the battlefield.
"No, we are not going to war with the Westerners. The Emperor of Ming Dynasty recruited him alone to form an "Elite Loyal Army". Brother, will you participate?"
Suddenly, Akiyama Shinyuki, who was originally a little excited, became a little nervous and said,
"In a war, there may be a lot of trouble."
"After the edition was dedicated to the Ming Emperor, all the nobles became the Ming Emperor's retainers..."
After a moment of silence, Akiyama Haogu said,
"If called upon, my eldest brother will definitely go."
Then he touched Shinyuki's head and said.
"Really, if I am recruited, you must study hard, especially Chinese. You must learn it well. The nobles are the emperor's retainers, so you must learn Chinese well."
"I know, Mandarin is also taught in schools now! It's just that my husband's Nanjing dialect is not very standard."
Although Japan has just become part of the Ming Dynasty, thanks to the promotion of the so-called "Mito Study" by the Edo shogunate for more than two hundred years, Japanese nobles can write fluent Chinese characters even if they cannot speak fluent Chinese. Therefore,
As soon as the Japanese Protectorate was established, it immediately printed new textbooks, which were actually the same textbooks as those used in the Ming Dynasty. Teachers were required to teach in Mandarin. The so-called "Guoyu" was Chinese.
As for the language barrier...most teachers have no problem. After all, they have learned Chinese themselves and are just picking it up again. Of course, as part of the good governance of the empire, Ming Dynasty also sent hundreds of teachers to Japan.
Of course, after these teachers arrived in Japan, they did not become ordinary teachers, but became principals, responsible for supervising the teaching of the school.
In short, from now on, the Ming Dynasty will assimilate everyone through education, or turn them into the Ming Dynasty's imperial citizens through "imperial education."
"It's okay if it's not standard. The most important thing is to learn. If you learn, you will have the opportunity to be admitted to Nanhua University and go to the mainland of Ming Dynasty!"
When he warned his younger brother, Akiyama Haogu's mood was a little complicated. He was confused about his future life. He couldn't boil hot water here for the rest of his life.
Boil hot water in the bathhouse!
Alas, ordinary nobles can only live like this. After his younger brother left, Akiyama sat in front of the stove, reading a book and boiling water.
“So ancient!”
Another person came over, it was Wakusa Masatatsu, he was a senior of the Matsumae clan, but he was just taking a bath in the bathhouse.
"Hello, Mr. Kazuya!"
Akiyama Haogu quickly stood up and saluted.
"He's just a guy who takes a bath. What's his name? Come on, come with me."
"What?"
"Come with me and apply!"
Hejiu Zhengchen said directly,
"Yes, but I am not yet old enough."
"What's the age? You said one year older would be enough. Do you want to boil the bath water for the rest of your life?"
"Is this... okay?"
Of course Akiyama Haogu doesn't want to burn hot water for the rest of his life, so applying for a job may be the best choice to change his destiny.
"How do you know if you don't try? You're so old, you always have to try everything. Now that we're at war, it's time for you and me to use it a lot!"
Following behind the senior, Akiyama Yoshiko nodded and said.
"Indeed."
Hejiu Zhengchen said as he walked:
"It's a good thing anyway. His Majesty the Emperor is recruiting 100,000 people at a time. After recruiting, you can receive a higher salary..."
Thanks to Meiji, he cut off the salary of the samurai with one stroke, leaving these people without food and clothing. After accepting the samurai's books, Emperor Zhu Da was very kind and gave a "family reward". In fact, it was not much, that is, every family had a reward.
The reward is from one stone to half a meter per month.
This was a reward from the lord to his retainers. Even though it was only a little rice, the warriors who had no food or clothing were all filled with gratitude. They knelt down and shouted "Long live His Majesty the Emperor".
Sometimes, it is very cheap to buy people's hearts. With just a few hundred thousand kilograms, the hearts of Japanese samurai families, or to be precise, the middle and lower class samurai, can be won over to the Ming Dynasty.
And now?
The samurai enthusiastically applied for the draft, not only to repay their lord and be loyal to his lord, but of course the more direct reason was that they had been waiting for this day to come. After all, the reason why Saigo Takamori went to Edo was because of His Majesty the Emperor's love for them.
Commitment - to recruit more than 200,000 warriors to form a legion!
Now that they have finally been recruited, how could they not be excited? From now on, they will have money to spend and food to eat! They no longer have to be bathers or water boilers...
Akiyama Haogu asked as he walked:
"Do you know who you're going to fight?"
"I heard that they wanted to fight the Westerners. The last time the British and American ghosts withdrew from Japan, weren't they unwilling to do so..."