The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 629 When Moore sowed the seeds of revolution in Japan! (Please vote and subscribe)

The main hall of Osaka Shinto Shrine looks like a towering castle in the twilight. A bronze statue of the Yamata no Orochi is perched on the golden roof, and the snake's head is wearing a Christian crown of thorns; the left half of the twelve red lacquer pillars is engraved with the legend of the Age of Gods in the Kojiki, while the right half is painted with the creation myth in the Shinto Shrine.

As eighteen shrine maidens entered one after another, holding Kagura bells, their scarlet hakama skirts swept across the mosaic pattern on the ground - the pattern was actually a scene of Amaterasu kneeling in front of the cross!

The shrine maiden sang "Golden waves break through the clouds, Amaterasu's sleeves are wet" with a clear voice, and her fingertips gently stroked the bronze mirror hanging around her waist. The bronze mirror obviously symbolized the Eight-foot Mirror, one of the three sacred artifacts, but on the edge of the mirror were engraved Chinese characters "Bestowed by Heavenly Father Hao Tianhuang God".

The candlelight cast a swaying shadow on the screen behind her. In the painting of "Amaterasu Bathing in the Holy Light" on the screen, the Heavenly Father Emperor, wearing a golden robe, looked somewhat similar to Yang Xiuqing.
Sakuma Shozan dug his fingers deep into the tatami mat. A young and beautiful shrine maiden beside him held a lacquer tray and wanted to pour wine for him. The chrysanthemum pattern on the edge of the lacquer tray was transformed into the coiled dragon pattern of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. "Sir, please have some." The shrine maiden whispered in Chinese with a Japanese accent. The words "divine maiden" were tattooed on the collarbone exposed by the collar of her kimono.

Yoshida Shoin's breathing suddenly became rapid. He stared at the shrine in the center of the hall. On the jade throne that was supposed to enshrine Amaterasu Omikami, there was now an unknown statue: the statue's face looked a bit three-dimensional, and it seemed to be a Eurasian hybrid, wearing a Taiping Heavenly Kingdom hood, and the baby in his arms was holding a jade pendant in the shape of the Korean Peninsula. On the bronze lanterns on both sides of the shrine, the left side was engraved with "The Grandson of Heaven is Coming", and the right side was "The Word Becomes Flesh".

"The oath of Takamagahara, the tide surges across the Thousand Islands." When the second verse of the poem sounded, two shrine maidens unfolded a scroll. The scroll showed a woman in a gorgeous kimono kneeling down to a young man in a dragon robe. In the blank space of the scroll was written: Prince Miyauchi Paying Homage to the Young King of the East.

"This is a blasphemy against the Age of Gods!" Yoshida Shoin suddenly threw the wine glass at the scroll in anger.

Chiba Sana's sword was unsheathed in an instant, and with a flash of light, the wine glass was cut in half. Then the female swordsman rushed towards Yoshida again, and the back of the sword slashed across Yoshida's neck. Then she grabbed Yoshida's wrist with her left hand and pressed her right knee against his lower back. In a smooth movement, Yoshida was subdued by her. "To fight in front of God," she said in a cold voice, "according to the rules of the Shinyo sect, you should be burned at the stake."

Moore noticed that when the female swordsman made her move, Hong Daquan's eyes were fixed on him, the "Heavenly Master". He did not bother to be polite with Hong Daquan, and immediately took out the "Angel Order", "Madam, I hope you will forgive Yoshida for the sake of Angel Luo."

"Qianye, step back!" Hong Daquan waved Yoshida away, then threw a roll of bright yellow brocade onto the table and said to Sakuma and Yoshida, "You two might as well take a look at this."

When Sakuma Shozan leaned forward to take a look, he was struck by lightning - it was the "Kamiyo Shinkoku Edict" stamped with the Emperor's seal, and at the end there were the signatures of sixteen Kyoto nobles.

"A waka poem written by Emperor Jimmu himself, hahaha!" Yoshida Shoin suddenly laughed crazily, "It's ridiculous."

Hong Daquan suddenly stood up and sang loudly in Japanese: "The eight-fold cloud has dissipated, and the holy light shines on Japan."

All the priestesses and Chiba Sanazuke in the hall bowed to the archbishop of the Shinto sect, and they all behaved in a very pious manner.

As Sakuma and Yoshida walked away, the sunset had already dyed Osaka Bay blood red. Moore watched them go away and noticed that their steps were still firm - the same steps he had seen in many European revolutionaries.

"Isn't it shocking?" Sir Bonham played with his pipe. "When I came to Japan a few years ago, these samurai still believed that Japan was an inviolable kingdom of God."

Friedrich quickly wrote in his notebook: "When the Shinto sect combined with Shintoism and incorporated the Japanese emperor and high-ranking feudal lords, it had lost the progressiveness it had in China and Korea, and became another chain on the Japanese people."

As the night deepened, Sakuma and Yoshida reappeared in the courtyard where Moore and others lived. They took off their daytime kimonos and hakama and put on ordinary patched kimonos, smelling of alcohol.

"Please give me some advice, sir!" Sakuma knelt in the corridor and presented a copy of "Anti-Scripture" with both hands.

Moore lit his pipe, and the smoke lingered in the room. "The success of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has blocked Japan's path to industrialization through reform. Japan's size is not a small country in Europe, but it is simply not worth mentioning in front of the giant China. China's population, land, resources, and capital are geometrically superior to yours, Japan. Moreover, China is the native civilization of East Asia, and its level of civilization development is far superior to Japan. China realized the revolution of civilians against aristocrats two thousand years ago, and shouted "Are there any kings, princes, generals, and ministers?" But you Japanese have not been able to do it until now. So when the giant China completes its transformation and quickly embarks on the road of industrialization, Japan's road to industrialization will become extremely difficult!"

Moore took another puff of his cigarette. "The North Korea-led Japan-North Korea union has snuffed out Japan's last glimmer of hope. Japan is now like a squeezed lemon, with even the last drop of juice being squeezed out by North Korea!"

"But the British ambassador to Japan supports the union of Japan and North Korea," said Sakuma. "Mr. Aliguo said that if Japan and North Korea united, they would have a population of more than 40 million, a land area close to that of France, and abundant gold, silver, copper, iron and coal, which would be enough to confront China."

Moore pointed out seriously: "That is to use Japan's flesh and blood to feed North Korea's industrialization and to support North Korea's military industry. In fact, North Korea's road to industrialization has also been blocked by China. I have carefully investigated North Korea and China. All North Korean industrial products are not competitive when facing Chinese industrial products. Moreover, North Korea's market is too small, only a few tens of percent of China's. Under the competition of the huge Chinese industry, it is difficult for North Korea's industry to have the ability to generate blood. If North Korea's industry wants to develop, it can only suck Japan's blood and suck Japan dry!"

“Suck Japan dry.”

"It's so hateful!" Sakuma and Yoshida were so angry that they almost bit their teeth off.

Moore nodded sympathetically: "But this is not the most hateful thing. The most hateful thing is that the little industry that the Korean Heavenly Kingdom developed after sucking Japan dry is only enough to make the unified Japan and Korea serve as a chain to contain the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. This is also the reason why Britain now supports the unification of Japan and Korea. Britain hopes to use the flesh and blood of Japan to feed Korea and make it strong enough."

"Wha, what?"

“How can Britain?”

Sakuma and Yoshida were both shocked!

White ghosts are so bad!
Friedrich took over the conversation and added: "But the intentions of the Korean Heavenly Kingdom and Britain must not be hidden from Luo Yaoguo! And the response strategy he is adopting now seems to let the True Contract Sect of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the True Contract Sect of Korea suck the blood of Japan together!"

"Suck Together"

“How can Japan bear this?”

This is simply not allowing people to survive!
Both Sakuma and Yoshida felt as if there was no way up to heaven and no door to enter the earth.

"Yes! Japan really can't bear it," Moore stood up and walked to the cherry tree outside. "That's why there is hope for Japan's revolution. When civilians can't even afford rice mixed with sand, and when lower-level samurai have to pawn their swords, Japan will become a powder keg for revolution. But the hope of Japan's revolution is not in the generals, not in the feudal lords, not even in the emperor, but in those civilians who are regarded as grass by you."

"You must and can only believe in the power of the common people!" Friedrich flipped open his notebook. "The success of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom proves that revolution cannot be accomplished by a few elites. You must put aside the arrogance of the warriors and truly walk among the common people."

"Secondly," Moore took over, "you need to come up with revolutionary slogans that meet the needs of the common people. Respecting the king and expelling the barbarians is outdated. Your king has proven that he is not worthy of your respect. You need to think clearly about what the lower-ranking samurai and common people in Japan need most."

Sakuma thought for a moment, "Land. Yes, land! Almost all of Japan's arable land is now in the hands of the generals, feudal lords, and wealthy merchants. Commoners don't even have a place to live."

"Very good!" Moore nodded. "You also need to use propaganda to convince the common people that the revolution will succeed. Fortunately, the example of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is right before our eyes. A backward agricultural country can create miracles as long as the masses are mobilized."

As Moore spoke, he took out a "Manifesto" from his arms - an English version of the Manifesto!

Sakuma and Yoshida didn't know what the book meant, but they looked at each other, and then Sakuma took over the "manifesto" that would cause a sensation in Japan in the future!
The next afternoon, Shanghai, HSBC Building.

Kusumoto Inako was resting her forehead on the soft Persian carpet. She was wearing an exquisitely crafted Kyoto Nishijin kimono, with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's dragon pattern embroidered in gold thread on the hem - the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has now tightened the "dragon pattern", and only officials of extremely high status below the kings can receive this honor.

"Your Highness," she said in Chinese with a deliberately Japanese accent, "the Dutch have stored at least 350,000 koku of Siamese rice in warehouses in the Nagasaki Concession, and several British companies are also storing flour and rice in Nagasaki."

Luo Yaoguo raised his eyelids and looked at the rice: "Rice, is it the King of the East, or..."

"This is the handwritten letter from the King of the East." Kusumoto Inoko knelt down half a step and held out Yang Xiuqing's letter.

Outside the window the closing bell of the stock exchange rang.

After reading Yang Xiuqing's handwritten letter, Luo Yaoguo walked to the French window and looked at the masts of grain ships lining the Bund. He said, "Tell Yang Xiuqing that Sanxin Company will buy all the grain stored by the Dutch and British in Nagasaki." He suddenly chuckled, "We will pay him for the goods!"

(End of this chapter)