If there were other channels to get support from Shen Ji, Lin Youde would definitely not want to go to Japan.
But now, in the Hongmen alliance of Guangdong, Hong Kong and the Americas, Lin Youde's hard power is weak: the main person in charge is Hong Kong's Xiang Qiyi, and the United States' Situ Meitang is responsible for liaising with the American emperor to gain support.
However, Lin Youde only has an arsenal that has not yet been formed and can only produce small batches. He does not have an advantage in financial, material or manpower. The only advantage is that he has the goddess Xuedaba (Katerina).
The identity of the shrine has not been made public), and Yukiyoba is also a very high-ranking shrine maiden who has considerable influence in the Japanese shrine system.
Relying on Ba's contacts and bringing back more goddesses from Japan, Lin Youde can be guaranteed to have the leadership of the Nanyang faction in the future.
This is purely a last resort.
If the United States could send Shen Ji to join the war in the form of volunteers, Lin Youde would be willing to give up leadership to Situ Meitang - the Shen Ji sent by the United States is naturally a credit to the American faction. Situ Meitang was in another history
He has integrity and will definitely not do anything that is not good for the country. In addition, Situ Meitang has the demeanor of a worldly expert. After he is accomplished, he likes to take off his armor and return to his fields. When the time comes, Situ Meitang will definitely not give up his power to anyone who is motivated by profit.
In order to speculate on the direction of revolution for oneself.
But in that case, the discord between Xiang Qiyi and Lin Youde is doomed.
In the final analysis, we still need to control power. In this era, power needs to speak. After the Xinhai Revolution, if the artillery party has money to maintain a million-strong revolutionary army in the south, then it is very likely that Yuan Shikai will not be able to dream of being emperor.
Previously, Sun Wen's Honolulu faction was able to defeat Yang Quyun's Hong Kong faction because she had Shen Ji in her hands.
Lin Youde also urgently needs Shen Ji.
What's more, this is not only related to Lin Youde's status, but also to the future "big plan". Without the support of Shenji, the rebel army will have to rely on flesh and blood to fight against the Spanish Shenji. Although support is also obtained from indigenous tribes
This road, but Lin Youde didn't think that the scattered indigenous people could gather Shenji to use it.
What's more, if the indigenous people use Shen Ji to "buy shares", they will have something to deal with after driving away the Spaniards.
In the Qing Dynasty, the management of Shenji was too strict. Girls had to have their abilities identified immediately after birth. If they were found to have Shenji blood, they would be sent to a central nursing home. Girls who did not have Shenji blood after identification would have their abilities identified on their wrists.
Leave a tattoo. According to regulations, this tattoo must be exposed at all times. Once the police find a girl without a tattoo, the family will be severely fined. If the girl is identified as having the blood of Shenji, then the crime will be increased.
Her family will all be sentenced to exile.
However, the identification of Shen Ji's bloodline is not absolute. Sometimes fish slip through the net. These girls' bloodline is relatively thin. Sometimes even the girl herself does not realize that she is Shen Ji until she gets older: Shen Ji does not age.
You are what you are when you are eighteen, you are what you are when you are eighty, but you will suddenly wither when you die, which is very shocking. So when Shen Ji feels that she is dying, she will choose to commit suicide to maintain her beauty. This is true both at home and abroad.
it's the same.
In recent decades, some girls have secretly gone abroad after discovering that they are goddesses. As far as Lin Youde knows, there have been about eight of these goddesses in the past fifty years, and five of them have been under Sun Wen - including Sun Wen.
He and the other three were missing.
As for the goddesses of the Qing court, they have been strictly supervised since the Liangjiang Shenji camp fell directly to the Tianguo Army during the Taiping Rebellion. The Qing court closely monitored those goddesses who came from well-known families and did not grow up in nursing homes.
, but these people generally have relatively high military literacy, so the Shenji Camp has to be led by them, so the Qing government established the position of deputy commander of the Shenji Camp. The deputy commanders are generally from nursing homes, and have been serving since childhood.
They were instilled with the idea of loyal slaves, and then trained to be extremely ambitious. Since these people were born in nursing homes, they usually have a fixed "sister" - actually Ma Zai, so they can control Shen Ji through Ma Zai.
camp.
However, there is a kind of spiritual resonance between the goddesses. If they stay together for a long time, the powerful goddesses can often "pollute" the spirit of the subordinate goddesses, so the Qing court began to change the commanders of the camps more frequently.
The capital commander of the Shenji camp in Guangdong and Guangxi has been changed twice in two years. It is said that the new capital commander will come to the new capital at the end of the year.
Under such circumstances, it would be too difficult to win support from the Shenji camp.
After much deliberation, the only option was to go to Japan and win the support of the shrine maidens through the Yukiyoba route.
Lin Youde's thoughts about Japan are quite complex. Due to the nature of his career after resigning and staying at home, Lin Youde has a deeper understanding of Japan. Especially when it comes to the national character of the Japanese, many people think of cruelty when they mention Japan, but Lin Youde feels that Japan
The most obvious national character of human beings is cartilage.
The most basic characteristic of the Japanese is that they bully the weak and fear the strong. Take the history from the Meiji Restoration to Japan's invasion of China. At the beginning, Japan's reform mentor, Yoshida Shoin, who taught Katsura Kogoro and others, had a famous "compensation"
"Theory", he felt that Japan could not defeat Britain, France, Germany and the United States, and Japanese businessmen certainly could not compete with Britain, France, Germany and the United States, so they had to obtain benefits from places such as Korea, which were weaker than Japan, to compensate for the losses from the great powers.
After seeing this theory, all Chinese people will have a sense of superiority, because even in the most difficult times, the Chinese people want to defeat the great powers and return to the ranks of the world's first-class nations. This is five thousand years of cultural accumulation and two thousand years of cultural accumulation.
The difference - in fact, it is still a question whether Japan has a culture of two thousand years. It is said that the official history of Japan began with the Eastern Conquest of Jinmu, but what book was recorded in the Eastern Conquest of Jinmu, "Kojiki" and "Nihon Shoki"?
These two books are fairy tales. In fact, Japan has something that can be called culture. It was in the Nara period, which was still influenced by the prosperous Tang Dynasty. Japanese culture has developed for more than a thousand years. If it were not for the prosperous Tang Dynasty,
, maybe the Japanese were still using Jomon during the Warring States Period.
China's five thousand years of history as the world's number one power has been deposited in the blood of the Chinese people in this way. What is the consciousness of a big country? This is called the consciousness of a big country. This consciousness is rooted in the bones. Historically
Of the four ancient civilizations, all of them declined and then died. Only China, no matter how it was invaded by foreigners or how it declined, would eventually stand up again.
But the Japanese are different. Yoshida, the mentor of the reform, became afraid after seeing the strength of Britain and the United States and turned to North Korea. Later, after the Boshin War ended, Saigo Takamori faced the serious dissatisfaction of the middle and lower-level samurai caused by the reform and decided to transfer their
Focus, so he put forward the theory of conquering Korea. However, at that time, Emperor Meiji saw that the Westernization Movement of the Qing Dynasty was in full swing and China's military strength had been greatly enhanced - at least a large-scale increase in armaments. He felt that he could not defeat it. Especially when Okubo returned from his inspection tour in Western Europe, he brought
The report that came back included the Qing government's purchase of weapons and the hiring of technicians and military instructors in foreign countries. In the end, the Japanese cabinet decided to "secure internal affairs" first, vetoed Saigo Takamori's theory of conquering Korea, and kicked him out of the center of power.
Then Saigo Takamori rebelled, and then he died.
Later, due to the incomplete domestic capitalist reform, Japan still had a large amount of feudal economic remnants, and the domestic market was always relatively small and could not meet the needs of emerging capitalists, so it began to seek overseas colonies. At this time, the Qing Dynasty was at war with France, so Japan
Several attempts were made, but they were all cautious. However, the Qing Dynasty's concessions and compromises made Japan more and more courageous.
It wasn't until the Qing Dynasty was defeated undefeated in the Sino-French War that the Japanese saw the weakness of this behemoth and that it was strong on the outside but weak on the inside. The Japanese formulated the "Qing Expedition" and formally decided to go to war with the Qing Dynasty. This happened in 1887.
Before this, Japan could only be said to have a thief's heart but not its courage.
Later, during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1894, the moderates in the Japanese government and opposition, mainly "Chinese", were still worried about being defeated, but the militarists from the samurai class were determined to "bet on the fate of the country." Under this idea, the Japanese Navy formulated a peace plan
The operational policy of the Qing Dynasty’s fleet in the decisive battle.
In the end, the Japanese won.
This greatly boosted the arrogance of the militarists in Japan and allowed them to expand their power, while the power of the moderates suffered a blow. Later, Japan gambled on its national destiny again and went to war with Russia. As a result, it won again, and the military state
The power of socialism expanded extremely, and Japanese society began to move towards comprehensive militarization.
Then they gambled on the fate of the country again and went to war with the United States.
The result was a complete failure, and his career as a watchdog began.
To put it bluntly, Japanese militarism was initiated by a pig-like opponent. Without the pig-like Qing Dynasty sending first blood, and Russia, which was not much better than a pig, sending second blood, militarism could not arise at all.
So as long as you are strong, the Japanese will know the current affairs very well, and a few extremists will not be able to make big waves. This is the survival philosophy inherited by the Japanese from Tokugawa Ieyasu, relying on the strong and bullying the weak. Is it an island country?
They have been crushed long ago, and the divine wind will not favor them again and again.
Some people may disagree and think that Britain is also an island country, but it has built an empire on which the sun never sets. This is the power of culture. The British have Viking blood in their bones and are born pirates and plunderers, so although Mahan was born in
In modern times, the British have long started to play Mahan's tricks. The Japanese were influenced by the Tang Dynasty in the Central Plains. Japanese culture is a branch of Chinese culture to a certain extent, and the Han civilization in the Central Plains is a typical continental civilization, so
The Japanese also focus on land and have no awareness of sea power.
In short, Lin Youde believes that the Japanese can be used as a boost to himself. Especially in this world, the Qing Dynasty performed better than in another time and space during the Sino-Japanese War of 1898-1894, causing a large number of casualties to the Japanese army. When Nie Shicheng was still at a disadvantage
He personally drove the Fengjia and led a death squad to raid the headquarters of the Japanese First Army in Hushan, killing Japanese Army General Aritomo Yamagata. Nie Shicheng himself also died in this battle, many years earlier than in another time and space.
Much. But this sacrifice allowed Japanese militarism to expand less rapidly than it had in history.
Based on these, it is feasible to borrow Shen Ji from Japanese moderates and pro-China factions. In addition, Lin Youde wanted Shen Ji to attack Southeast Asia, and historically, Sun Yat-sen asked the Japanese to provide money and effort to help them fight against the Qing Dynasty before the first Guangzhou Uprising.
It's different. But the problem is, rationality tells Lin Youde that this is feasible, but emotionally it's a bit unacceptable.
Lin Youde didn't understand why he didn't think there was any problem when he recruited Xuedaba a year ago, but now he couldn't accept it. Probably because this year, Lin Youde has become more involved in the world here.
Players truly become real people living in this world.
Because of this, Lin Youde procrastinated and refused to embark on the trip to Japan that he had decided on long ago.
Xuedaiba didn't push her. It seemed that Lin Youde's performance these days had completely won the loyalty of this high-level witch. It was only a matter of time before she was added to Lin Youde's staff list.
In January 1897, Xuedaba hurriedly entered Lin Youde's room with a letter.
"Meiji Hime died suddenly. That night, the war miko team assigned to the military took control of Ise Shrine and placed the pro-China high-ranking miko in the shrine under house arrest. The priest who was under house arrest secretly released the shikigami and brought out the news.
Zhi Ji was poisoned."
Lin Youde was fighting crickets - women were tired of playing with them - when he heard the news, he brushed his hands and stood up.
"What?"
Lin Youde couldn't believe his ears. After analyzing for a long time, he came to the conclusion that the power of Japanese militarists was not expanding as fast as in history. As a result, militarists with even weaker strength dared to launch a coup? This is unreasonable...
But after thinking about it, Lin Youde felt that this was not surprising. Militarists are a bunch of gamblers. They dare to gamble on the fate of the country, so why not? They had just won the war, but they did not get as big a benefit as they imagined.
Taking risks out of desperation - this is actually not difficult to accept, but Lin Youde always felt that something crucial was missing.
"What are the reactions from other local shrines?" Lin Youde asked Xuedaba, "Did it be mentioned in the letter?"
"The Kasuga Taisha Shrine in Nara itself has close ties with merchants and factory owners in Kyoto and Osaka, so it has differences with Meiji Hime. Izumo Taisha is currently in a wait-and-see mode, and there is no movement at the Ezo and Shikoku shrines. Only Kashima Taisha is preparing
He was charged, but he was surrounded by the army, and the navy fleet was also on standby on the nearby sea, ready to shell at any time. The two sides are in a confrontation."
Yukiyoba paused and said in a much lower tone than usual: "The policy supervision function of Ise Shrine officially became history last night."
Lin Youde smacked his lips. His mind was working rapidly, giving full play to the high-speed judgment ability he usually used when playing real-time strategy. Soon he discovered where he had made omissions in his previous deduction of the situation: high-level goddesses would affect lower-level gods.
Hime's thoughts. As long as one of the high-ranking shrine maidens who are sent to the Japanese army to help in the war is influenced by militaristic ideas, she can slowly influence other people who live with her day and night.
But discovering mistakes was not helpful in dealing with the current situation, so Lin Youde immediately turned his attention from finding mistakes to dealing with the current situation. After thinking briefly, he asked: "Is this news spreading now?"
Yukidaba shook his head: "This is an urgent message sent by Japanese friends using shikigami. The Japanese government and military department should only officially release the news after completing the reintegration of domestic forces. But the gossip should come out soon.
.”
Lin Youde sneered and shouted: "Come here!"
Du Qifeng, who had already joined Lin Youde's staff, appeared immediately.
"Send a telegram to Hong Kong Xiang Qiyi, telling him that a major incident has occurred in Japan. Some witches have fled the Japanese island and are coming to us. In addition, purchase a large house in a secret place and send out the news, saying that it is to welcome distinguished guests.
Do it immediately."
"good."
Just as Du Qifeng was about to leave, Lin Youde stopped him again: "No, don't spread the news. Just buy the house quietly and deal with everything as confidentially as possible, but you have to purchase some from the most popular stores.
Women’s products like rouge, do you understand?”
"I understand." Du Qifeng smiled, turned around and left.
During this process, Xuedaba kept looking at Lin Youde without saying anything.
After being silent for a while, Lin Youde asked: "Don't you have anything to say?"
"I know that the new batch of maids from the Maid Training Institute will graduate soon."
Lin Youde smiled. He really planned to let these new maids hide in the newly bought house and pretend to be exiled witches. First, stabilize Xiang Qiyi, otherwise Xiang Qiyi, an old and cunning guy, might not know what to do.
"Don't you ask me what my future plans are?"
Regarding this second question, Ba's answer was beyond Lin Youde's expectation: she pulled out the short knife from her waist and cut off the little finger of her left hand with one knife.
"I plan to go back to Japan in person and bring out the Kashima sisters."
"Nonsense!" Lin Youde shouted. He had lost the chance to get the goddess from Japan. He could no longer lose the ones he already had. "The entire shrine's goddesses can only confront the surrounding Japanese troops. You go alone."
What can you do? And as soon as you leave, Xiang Qiyi will become suspicious! Do you understand?"
Ba's face that had always been cold finally had an expression. The corners of her mouth were trembling, and her thin lips were bitten until they turned purple.
Finally, she sighed, and her tense shoulders relaxed.
"You're right, I was impulsive."
Lin Youde stared at Ba in silence for a long time, making sure that she had really calmed down, and then he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Go and bandage it."
After saying that, Lin Youde turned around and threw the cricket cage on the table directly into the wastebasket beside the wall - he was full of worries today.