The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 627 Moore: When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rises, all that is left for Japan is revolution or destruction!

A long whistle sounded from the river. Sakuma Shozan and his disciple Yoshida Shoin took off their short swords and placed them solemnly in front of Friedrich. Sakuma asked in Chinese with a Japanese accent: "The Germans in the Frankfurt trading house said that the two heavenly masters know the rise and fall of nations."

Moore stroked his beard and examined the rope around the hilt: "We are just observers."

"Then please observe Japan!" Yoshida suddenly knocked his forehead against the ship's plank. "When Korea began to advance by leaps and bounds, opening a steel mill in Seoul to cast 32-pound cannons and a shipyard in Busan to build steam gunboats, the Saga Ironworks, Japan's only iron and steelmaking plant that used Western methods, had closed down, and its craftsmen either went to Korea or to China."

Amid the roar of the steam engine, Sakuma took out a yellowed document from his bosom: "This is a copy of the secret agreement signed between Satsuma Domain and the Bank of Korea - five hundred sixteen-year-old women will be sent every year to pay off the loan interest. What's even more hateful is" his throat rolled, "most of the deposits in the Bank of Korea come from Japan. The Bank of Korea actually used the gold and silver deposited by Japanese wealthy merchants to lend money to the Japanese lords, and then forced the debt-ridden lords to offer girls from the common people's families to pay off the interest. These girls will be trafficked to the West Coast and Southeast Asia. It's so hateful!"

It was indeed hateful. Friedrich nodded sympathetically - I wonder who suggested to Yang Xiuqing to open the Bank of Korea to absorb funds from Japanese wealthy businessmen?
Moore wrote the conclusion of "The Consequences of Japan's Loss of Sovereignty" in the draft of his "Red Star Over China": "This situation occurred because Japan had become a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country, and although Korea was conquered by Yang Xiuqing and then transformed into a heavenly kingdom, it had complete sovereignty and could use customs to protect the domestic market. In fact, the cost of the Seoul Iron Works was extremely high and the product quality was not good. It could not compete with the Xuzhou Iron and Steel Works of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Even the products of the Chinese Iron Works that used ordinary churning furnaces and reverberatory furnaces were of better quality and cheaper than those of the Seoul Iron Works."

He picked up a cup of Chinese black tea, took a sip, and then said: "As for why the Bank of Korea can absorb deposits from Japanese gentry, it is actually related to the fact that Japan does not have complete sovereignty. The Bank of Korea, the Shin-Yue Bank, and banks in Western countries such as Britain, France, the Netherlands, and the United States can all freely open branches in the concessions on Japanese territory. The wealthy merchants deposited their money in these banks, and the Japanese government had no way to confiscate the money, and even did not know the existence of the money. In the land of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Korean Heavenly Kingdom, there are no such banks. As for the export of Japanese girls, in fact, Japan does not have enough food to feed them, and they do not seem to have the opportunity to marry in Japan. In the New World, they can get enough food and become wives and mothers. Of course, I do not agree with the Shin-Yue faction's approach, but as long as Japan cannot solve the problem of food and clothing for 30 million people, this is a difficult problem to solve."

There was silence in the cabin.

Friedrich saw that the two Japanese "progressives" were a little depressed, so he changed the topic to make them even more depressed: "So... what about religious infiltration?"

"The Shinjo sect says that Amaterasu is God's concubine!" Yoshida suddenly got so excited that his Chinese became out of tune, "But our country's Kojiki clearly records it."

"It records that Amaterasu Omikami and Susanoo's three sons divided the rule of Takamagahara." Sakuma held the student's shoulder, "but never mentioned her husband. Now they use the True Covenant to tamper with the history of the Age of Gods, saying that Amaterasu gave birth to the father of the first emperor after serving God."

Moore suddenly said to his companion in German: "This is similar to the Catholic worship of the Virgin Mary."

"What's even more dangerous is the issue of succession." Sakuma took out a piece of letter paper with a chrysanthemum pattern from his sleeve, "Prince Kazumiya will be engaged to the eldest son of the Eastern Prince next month. If anything happens to Crown Prince Mutsuhito," he made a gesture of wiping his neck, "Japan will have its first female emperor who believes in the Shin-Yoku sect and has a foreign husband!"

Yoshida Shoin added: "And once Amaterasu becomes God's woman, then the son of Yang Xiuqing, the Eastern King, will become the descendant of God in Japanese Shintoism. He and the son of the Japanese empress are fully qualified to inherit the throne of the emperor!"

"Japan-Korea Union." Friedrich pushed open the porthole, and the cool river breeze blew in. "The fact that things have progressed to this point shows that the Tokugawa Shogunate is no longer able to control the situation."

"The Shogun is a fool!" Yoshida's eyes turned red, "All the elders are just charlatans who are doing nothing."

"Of course!" Moore said, "Even if Tokugawa Jiakang recovers, he can do nothing about the current situation!"

"The God is powerless?" Sakuma was shocked. "Does Japan really want to..."

Yoshida slammed his fist on the carpet: "Impossible!"

"What's impossible?" Moore looked at the thin and small Yoshida. "When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom won in China and led China to industrialization before Japan, the possibility of reformism succeeding in Japan was ruled out!"

Friedrich nodded. "China's territory is dozens of times that of Japan, its population is more than ten times that of Japan, and it still has a large amount of precious metals and resources more than ten times that of Japan. Once China completes its transformation ahead of schedule and embarks on the fast track of vigorously developing industry, it will soon expand into a behemoth that is enough to crush feudal Japan. Besides, now there is also North Korea in addition to China."

Sakuma's face turned pale. "Could it be that Japan's future is to become a colony of China or North Korea?"

Moore wiped his pipe, took a puff of smoke and said, "If the Japanese people cannot wake up, and just rely on the emperor, generals, feudal lords and samurai, then Japan's future is doomed. Because their power is too limited and they are still a mess, they are not enough to fight against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Korean Heavenly Kingdom. It is better to bow down at the feet of the gods in heaven!" "People. Awaken?" Yoshida looked at Moore, with a gleam of hope in his eyes.

"China does not rely on Confucian scholars." Moore's pipe tapped lightly in the ashtray. "Hong Xiuquan, Feng Yunshan, Wei Changhui, and Shi Dakai were just scholars and farmers at the bottom of society. Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui were miners. The real main force of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, those old brothers and new brothers, almost all came from the masses. It was the people, not the nobles, who created the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Korean Heavenly Kingdom! And if you Japanese only rely on hundreds of thousands of samurai households, you will not be able to fight against tens of millions of Chinese people and more than 10 million Korean people."

Friedrich said with regret: "If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had not succeeded, Japan would have had great hope! Because the resources and population that the Chinese nobles could control were too few. When the broad masses of the people did not participate in the competition, the samurai class of Japan actually controlled more population, land and resources, and it was entirely possible for it to achieve industrialization before China. To be honest, Japan's social structure and geographical location are very similar to those of Britain, really similar."

"It's very similar," Moore exhaled a puff of cigarette, "but Britain is facing a fragmented Europe, while Japan is facing a unified and powerful Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!"

Sakuma looked at Moore and Friedrich blankly: "But the common people of Japan have been ruled by nobles and samurai since ancient times. They have never..."

Moore smiled and said: "Just because there has never been one doesn't mean there won't be one in the future. Moreover, when the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rose up, all that was left for Japan was revolution or destruction!

In the meeting room on the third floor of HSBC, the brass chandelier swayed in the blue-gray smoke. Luo Yaoguo curled up in the armchair, drinking coffee and holding a report, asking pretentiously: "Why is this stock or something so in short supply?"

"Reporting to Your Highness." Xu Yuegui, the general manager of Sanxin Company who had just returned from Japan, flipped through the account book. "The market price of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau stocks issued three months ago has increased sixfold. Many people still cannot buy them. In the stock market opened by Sanxin Company, many people line up to buy every day!"

Across the long mahogany table, HSBC General Manager Yung Wing explained: "There is too much money and too few stocks in the market now, so the supply is insufficient to meet the demand."

"What if the demand exceeds the supply?" Luo Yaoguo continued to pretend, "The common people want to buy our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but it is people-oriented!"

Wu Ruxiao, the Minister of Finance of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, held a jade cigarette holder in his mouth, with sparks flickering in his gray beard. "Since the common people want to buy, why don't we issue more?"

"Yes, yes, that's a solution!" Luo Yaoguo nodded. "Who else can issue stocks now? Does the Ministry of Revenue have any projects?"

Although Luo Yaoguo "did not understand" stocks, the issuance of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom stocks was managed by the Ministry of Revenue under the instructions of this layman.
"Yes!" Wu Ruxiao said, "The four major railway companies, Beijing-Shanghai Railway, Jinpu Railway, Longhai Railway, and Guangdong Railway, want to issue stocks!"

"The railway is a big project!" Luo Yaoguo nodded heavily, "Okay, then let's issue it!"

Luo Yaoguo suddenly sat up straight and continued, "Everyone, how can ordinary people buy these new shares?" He tapped his finger on a newly published copy of the Datong Daily on the table. The front-page headline was "Dockside coolie gets rich by speculating in stocks and buys a house." "Before, the eight major companies issued shares, all of which went to the big players. Ordinary people had no share. This is not good."

Xu Run, the general manager of the Beijing-Shanghai Railway Company, said: "If ordinary people want to buy, there will be too few shares. How about a lottery?"

Luo Yaoguo nodded: "It's good to draw lots, but how do we draw? We can't draw according to the household registration, right?"

Wu Jianzhang, General Manager of Zhenyue Bank, said with a smile: "We can ask the people to deposit money in the four major banks, HSBC, Zhenyue, Taiping and Datong, and draw lots based on the deposit certificate number. Depositing 100 yuan will give you number 1, and 1000 yuan will give you number 10. The more you deposit, the more you get."

"Okay, okay!" Luo Yaoguo nodded again, "We also need to add time. If you deposit 100 yuan for one year, you will get one number. If you deposit it for 1 years, you will get 1 numbers. And this kind of deposit certificate cannot be withdrawn in advance!"

(End of this chapter)