The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 339: Edo's urbanization rate is too high! (Please subscribe and vote)

February 1854, 2, Edo Bay, Japan.

Japan's largest plains and largest cities are now almost defenselessly exposed to the guns of the joint fleet composed of warships from Britain, Qing, the United States, and France!
This was a combined fleet consisting of 19 warships, including three steam-powered wooden-hulled sailing cruisers, ten steam-powered wooden-hulled sailing frigates, six steam-powered paddle-wheeled gunboats, and more than ten merchant ships. This fleet, let alone in East Asia, would be enough to give the Russian Empire a hard time even if it went to the Black Sea.

Three of the paddle-wheel gunboats, the Dinghai, Pinghai and Zhenhai, were all provided by the Qing Dynasty's Nanyang Naval Association.

Although these three gunboats were made up of armed merchant ships with a displacement of several hundred tons that had been passed on through who knows how many times, the three captains were all foreigners. Even the deputy admiral of the Nanyang Naval Association was Captain Fei Xibang, who had previously served as the captain of a gunboat in the British Hong Kong Fleet.

But China's first modern navy has been opened anyway!

In addition, British Minister to China Bonham, French Minister to China Bourboulenc, and American Minister to China Marshall have all agreed to lease a number of warships to the Qing Dynasty's South China Sea Fleet.

Now, they just need to wait for the approval of the British, American and French governments, and the Nanyang Navy will be able to enter the fast lane of development of "renting is worse than buying". No, it should be the slow lane. Because it can't be fast at all. Mathematics, physics and chemistry education has not started yet, and the English version of Prussian elementary and middle school textbooks has not been delivered yet!
The cause of building warships has also entered the "slow lane". At the end of last year, Luo Xueyan spent three thousand taels of silver to buy an American-funded shipyard on the Bund north of Suzhou River in Shanghai. He changed the name to Jiangnan Shipyard and let Hu Guangyong, the manager of Shanghai Silk Factory, serve as the manager concurrently. As for the original foreign managers, craftsmen and Chinese apprentices, they were all retained.

According to Luo Xueyan's plan, Jiangnan Shipyard can develop slowly by repairing first and then building, and serving the people first and then the military. Don't expect it to make a lot of money, and don't expect it to build a steam ironclad ship soon.

The current positioning of the Jiangnan Shipyard is to serve as the cradle of China's modern shipbuilding industry, accumulating experience and talents for future great development.

As for the Jiangnan Naval Academy, let's open it after the first generation of "quick-training high school students" graduate. We can't let a group of scholars who can only "chant scriptures" learn to build steam-powered ironclad ships all at once, right?
Since China's modernization cannot enter the fast lane for the time being, Japan's modernization process must at least remain at the same level. It would be even better if it could take a big step back.

As far as Luo Xueyan knows, Japan's degree of westernization is quite high nowadays!

Although Japan was more closed to the outside world than China - Chinese merchant ships sailed across the ocean to Nagasaki, Japan for trade every year, but Japanese merchant ships never came to China. However, Japan's understanding of Western science far exceeded that of China!
Because becoming an official in Japan depends on reincarnation, and there is no way to take the imperial examination, so what the samurai learn depends entirely on themselves, as well as the interests of the generals and lords above them. In the Warring States period, Japan had a "Dutch learning", which is the knowledge of the Dutch. The Tokugawa shogunate was known as the Three Hundred Domains, and there were always some lords known as "Dutch lovers" who promoted Dutch learning education in their own domains.

Therefore, when the Americans invaded Japan with their black ships, their understanding of Western learning was ahead of that of China.

Also, the urbanization rate in Edo seems to be a bit high!
This is not a good phenomenon either!

Standing on the bridge of the USS Powhatan, the flagship of the Shikoku Combined Fleet with a displacement of more than 2,000 tons, Luo Xueyan held up a pair of binoculars and looked at the Edo castle town in the distance, feeling a little dissatisfied with Edo's excessively high urbanization rate.

This is a big city with a population of hundreds of thousands or even over a million!
Looking around, there are densely packed low houses everywhere. Oh, and there is also a majestic Edo Castle, standing proudly on the vast plain, very conspicuous.

In addition, the quality of Edo residents is quite high!
Because the middle and upper class residents of this city were all samurai stationed in Edo by various feudal domains, all of them were organized and well-educated, and there were also some who were proficient in Dutch studies. Even if they did not understand Dutch studies, they were at least an excellent source of soldiers - they were educated, brainwashed by Bushido, and less afraid of death.

If the shogunate could fully mobilize them and equip them with Western guns and artillery, tens of thousands of new-style land forces should be able to be quickly deployed.

Even if there were not so many foreign guns and cannons, the shogunate's arsenal would not be short of matchlock guns known as "iron cannons", and the quality of Japanese iron cannons was definitely better than the bird guns that the Qing Dynasty had to deal with the Green Camp soldiers.

Therefore, the Tokugawa shogunate had no choice but to resist, and could even rely on the military force of Edo Castle itself to repel the invading Four-Nation Alliance.

After all, the coalition forces that arrived at Edo Bay with the 19 warships and could land and fight had a total of only 2,000 people, of which 1,500 were from Luo Xueyan's "Model Regiment" of the Nanyang New Army. That was Luo Xueyan's old capital, and they were all Hunan soldiers recruited from the border areas of Hunan and Jiangxi. They only knew of Luo Xueyan, but not the direct descendants of Xueshuai of the Qing Dynasty.
"Lord Luo, look, a Japanese boat has arrived with several samurai on it. They must be here to greet us!" The speaker was a short, dark young man with big eyes and thick eyebrows. He was a relative of Luo Xueyan. His surname was also Luo, with a given name, Sen. He was from Jiaying Prefecture, Guangdong. His family had been in business for generations, with businesses in the Ryukyu Kingdom and the Straits Settlements, so he could speak English and a little Japanese.

Luo Xueyan met him when he went to Ryukyu with Matthew Perry last time. He was Perry's translator at that time. But now this man has joined Luo Xueyan's shogunate. Qian Zhenlun was learning Japanese with him a while ago.

Upon hearing this, Luo Xueyan moved the telescope towards a small wooden boat that was slowly approaching. He saw a warrior of medium build, about fifty years old, standing on the deck of the boat. There were several young warriors following behind him. No idea what kind of people they were.
The small boat carrying the Japanese approached the Powhatan, and soon the fifty-year-old Japanese and several young samurai boarded the flagship of the Four-Nation Combined Fleet.

American Rear Admiral Matthew Perry, British Minister to China John Bowring, French East India Fleet Commander Charles Darwin, and Qing Dynasty's Minister of Southeast Asia Luo Xueyan stood together on the deck to welcome the Japanese guest.

"Ah, are you a Qing official?"

The Japanese man in his fifties could actually speak fluent Chinese. When he saw Luo Xueyan appear on the American warship, he was extremely surprised and even a little out of control.

Luo Xueyan smiled and clasped his fists, introducing himself: "I am Luo Xueyan, the Shanghai Governor and Minister of Commerce of the Nanyang Region of the Qing Dynasty. What is your name?"

"Ah, you are Lord Luo Xueyan, the first person in the Westernization Movement of the Qing Dynasty. I am so sorry, so sorry." When the Japanese heard that the Qing official in front of him was Luo Xueyan, he immediately bowed to him respectfully and said, "I am Lin Fuzhai, the head of the Shogunate University."

Lin Fuzhai. Yes, he is the Japanese who signed the Treaty of Kanagawa and the descendant of the Japanese Confucian Hayashi Razan - to be a Confucian in Japan you have to be reborn!

His family has been Confucian scholars employed by the shogunate for generations, no wonder his Chinese is so good!

"Oh, you must be the descendant of Lord Lin Luoshan. I have heard so much about you!"

Hearing this Chinese official mention his ancestor Lin Luoshan, Lin Fuzhai felt proud and asked Luo Xueyan with a smile: "Why did Lord Luo come to Japan?"

"Of course we are here to help Japan!" Luo Xueyan said seriously.

Help Japan sell out its country!
This is very important!
If Japan sold out its country less than the Qing Dynasty, for example, if Japan's agreed tariffs were set higher, then Japan's industry would receive more protection in the future!
For another example, if there were no concessions in Japan but there were concessions in China, then Japan's independence would be higher than that of China, it would be difficult for China to interfere with Japan, while Japan could do harm to China.

In short, on the issue of treason, the Qing Dynasty must not lose to Japan!

"Helping Japan? Thank you so much!"

Of course, Lin Fuzhai would not use the greatest malice to guess Luo Xueyan's thoughts.
"That's as it should be!" Luo Xueyan said with a smile, "East Asia is experiencing a change that hasn't happened in three thousand years, and China and Japan have been neighbors for thousands of years, with different mountains and rivers, but the same sky. Now we are both lagging behind the West, so we should support each other and tide over the difficulties together. So when I heard that Japan was knocking on the door for Britain and the United States, and had no choice but to sign a treaty to open up the country, I came all the way here, just to help Japan and the Tokugawa Shogunate.

I wonder if Mr. Lin can recommend Luo to the general and the elders?"

(End of this chapter)