The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 651: The Red Dawn of Japan (Request for subscription and votes)
On December 1858, 12, the people in Nagasaki, Japan's westernmost trading city and semi-colony, did not yet know that the situation in Southeast Asia had changed. The only thing they were concerned about was this - the price of rice had risen again!

Eighteen-year-old lacquerware apprentice Ayin walked slowly in the back alley of the Dutch Trading Company, holding a bag of moldy brown rice and a letter that his mother had just sent from the countryside of Higo Domain near Nagasaki.

His mother told him in a letter that although the price of rice in Nagasaki had gone through the roof, the farmers in Higo Domain were still as poor as ever - the farmers in Japan were essentially tenant farmers, because all the land in Japan belonged to the lords, big and small, and the annual tribute that the farmers had to pay ranged from 35% to 65% of the rated harvest. Of that, 35% was the shogun's land. However, there were not many shogun's lands on Kyushu Island, and most of the land was controlled by those prominent and wealthy families that had been in power for hundreds of years. When collecting the annual tribute, they were more corrupt than the others!
Of course, for Ayin, annual payments are not a problem, because he is not even qualified to pay the annual payments!
In this living hell of Japan, not just anyone is qualified to be a tenant farmer - because there is too little land! Usually only the eldest son of a tenant farmer is qualified to inherit his father's business and become a tenant farmer. And Yin is not the eldest son, so he is not even qualified to be a tenant farmer. When he was very young, his family sent him to Nagasaki to be an apprentice in order to save food - it was called an apprentice, but in fact it was a slave laborer in a handicraft workshop.

In Japan, it is basically impossible to learn a craft and then start a family and career! Because there are too many "immortals" in Japan. Even cooking rice has a "rice immortal". No matter how good your skills are, you may not be able to "become an immortal", right? And various "immortals" are usually inherited from their ancestors, basically going back to the Warring States Period. Moreover, the "immortal" is inherited by the eldest son, and the youngest son of the "immortal" usually cannot become an immortal. What about a slave worker like Ayin who came from the countryside? He is destined to fail.

If you can't make a name for yourself, you can't get married or start a family! In the Edo period, it was difficult for samurai without a family business to start a family, let alone commoners. To start a family, you must at least be a tenant farmer, right? How can you get married if you're not even a tenant farmer?

Therefore, most of the common men in the Edo period could not get married, and it was also difficult for common girls to get married. Those who were slightly pretty would be sold to brothels! In the countryside of Higo, Inagaki also had a childhood sweetheart, and they had made a vow to each other. Unfortunately, they both had older brothers - having an older brother meant that someone would inherit the family's tenant status, so Inagaki could not inherit his own tenant status, and it was impossible for him to become a live-in son-in-law in his lover's house.

The letter that Yinxin received from his mother told him a good news - his "little lover" had been spotted by the human traffickers of the Zhenyue faction and was going to be sold to the New World. She would sail from Nagasaki in the next two days, so he should find a chance to see her for the last time.
"The price of rice has risen again," a drunken vagrant chanted from the alley, "One bowl of rice, one bowl of blood, the singing and dancing in the general's palace will stop."

Suddenly he heard the girl's scream again, which sounded very similar to the voice of his "little lover". He looked in the direction of the sound - in the window on the third floor of the trading house, a white-skinned ghost was whipping a Japanese girl with a whip. The girl's back was covered with whip marks. A Yin could no longer hold back his tears, which dripped down like broken strings. He wanted to rush to the trading house to save people, but there were two ronin with knives guarding the door of the trading house!
Ah Yin could only lower his head and walk away quickly.
"Three Antis and One Equalization!" someone suddenly shouted.

Ah Yin turned his head and saw three ronin wearing bamboo hats shouting slogans while writing red words on the white wall of the trading house with red paint: "Anti-shogunate! Anti-foreigners! Anti-hunger! Equalize land use!"

A Yin's heart beat faster, he knew that these ronin were not ordinary thugs, but patriots of the Four People's Society, the hope of Japan. Recently these patriots had been making a lot of noise in Nagasaki, and there were rumors that they were going to launch an armed uprising in Nagasaki and establish a republic without an emperor, generals, or feudal lords, where everyone, including scholars, farmers, merchants, and workers, would be equal, and land would be distributed equally!
Thinking of this, A Yin clenched his fists tightly.
In a small Chinese courtyard deep in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom concession, candlelight flickered on the lenses of Sakuma Shozan's glasses. The military strategist of the Matsushiro clan was using a red pen to draw on the map: "Tomorrow at dawn, we will first burn the Dutch trading house, then seize the English warehouse."

"Mr. Xiangshan!" Yoshida Shoin suddenly pushed open the door and walked in, his raincoat still dripping with rain. "The people of the Shinjo faction have changed their plan - they want to attack the magistrate's office directly!"

Takasugi Shinsaku kicked over the low table and held the scabbard of the sword tightly in his right hand: "Attack the magistrate's office? What do they want to do? Are they trying to start the Kaneda Uprising in Japan?"

"Takasugi-kun, keep your voice down!" A woman wearing a street girl's hat walked out from the shadows and took off her veil, revealing a delicate and pitiful face. It was Rinko.

"150,000 kanwen is not for listening to samurai quarrels." The woman knelt down on the tatami, and then took out a stack of silver bills from the Zhenyue Bank. "Here is 80,000 kanwen, which is a deposit for 100,000 koku of rice. Can we start tomorrow night?"

Sakuma Shozan finally made up his mind after seeing the banknotes: "Okay! Tomorrow night, we will proceed as planned. No matter what conspiracy the True Contract Faction has, we must take action! We must let the Japanese civilians know that there are still people fighting for them! We must also let those high and mighty people know that the lower classes of Japan are just like the lower classes of China, and can burst out with infinite power in despair!"

In the cellar of the Chosuncho Catholic Church, Kusumoto Inako held out Yang Xiuqing's decree and announced, "It's time to act!"

The leader of the Amakusa Party, the short and strong man with a big beard, Amakusa Tokihiko, trembled slightly with his hand holding the sword: "Really, really want to revolt"

"The descendants of Amakusa Shiro don't even have this much courage?" Fu Xuexian sneered. The Archbishop of Kyushu took the edict from Yang Xiuqing brought by Kusumoto Inako and unfolded it in public. It was written in cinnabar:

"The Heavenly Father killed the foreigners and Japan became a new country. Nagasaki enlightened the people and the republic lasted forever!" Niijima Yoshiro, a samurai who escaped from the Annaka domain, suddenly pulled out a wakizashi and stabbed it hard into the tatami: "At midnight tomorrow, the people of the Four People's Association will raise an army in the concession, and the death warriors of the Amakusa Party will charge into the magistrate's office under the banner of the Four People's Association - Ze-kun, what do you think of the heroes of Tosa?"

Tosa samurai Sawa Nobuyoshi pulled out a list from his arms: "The eighty warriors of the Tosa Tenju Group are willing to die for the equality of the four classes of people!"

Kusumoto Inako nodded heavily, with a hint of excitement in her eyes: "Remember, our goal is not to establish the Nagasaki Republic but the Federation of Korea and Japan! Japan is torn apart by both foreigners and China, and it is impossible for it to be independent. If it does not want to become a province of China or a public colony of foreigners, it can only unite with the Kingdom of Korea. After the union, the Kingdom of Korea will have a population of 50 million and a territory no less than that of France. Moreover, Japan has gold and silver, and Korea has coal and iron. This will be a powerful federation that can compete with China!
But there are still many people in Kyoto and Edo who have not recognized the reality that Japan and Korea can only coexist if they unite, so someone needs to raise a red flag that can deter these insects! "

When the bronze bell of the Dutch trading house struck the third stroke of midnight, Ayin was squatting on the street outside the Dutch trading house with hundreds of civilians with white cloth tied around their heads, holding a wooden stick with a gun tip in his hand. Yoshida Shoin's hoarse roar was heard in his ears: "Anti-shogunate! Anti-foreigners! Anti-hunger! Equalize land! Kill the traitors!"

"boom!"

The explosion tore through the night, and the specially made roasted jade from the Higo clan exploded in front of the iron gate of the trading house. Takasugi Shinsaku held his katana in reverse and leaped over the wall of fire, the blade drawing a silver arc in the moonlight, and the head of the gatekeeper rolled off the stone slab with a look of astonishment. Ina saw the Dutch steward who whipped the girl in the daytime rushing onto the terrace with a musket, but was pierced through the chest by the jumonji spear thrown by Sakuma Shozan, and his body fell into the yard with the gun hanging on it.

"Kill!" Yoshida Shoin lit a torch soaked in whale oil and threw it at the Dutch trading house. Ah Yin suddenly rushed through the crowd like crazy and rushed to the closed door of the Dutch trading house first - he seemed to hear the familiar Higo tune coming from the trading house, which was the melody that his childhood sweetheart Ah Ju often hummed before she was sold.

When the magistrate Inoue Kiyonao chopped the third lantern with his sword, he could finally see the attacker's attire clearly - under the Amakusa Party's unique cross-patterned feather webbing, there was actually a chain mail commonly used by the Korean Taiping Army of the Joseon Heavenly Kingdom stationed in Nagasaki!
"Asakusa!" He roared and slashed at Sawa Nobuyoshi, but the blade was blocked by the bayonet on the rifle of the Tosa samurai. Niijima Yoshi's wakizashi stabbed him in the right kidney from behind, and in the severe pain he heard the cold voice of Kusumoto Inako: "This is a greeting from Amakusa Shiro to the Tokugawa family."

In Inoue's last vision, a red flag with double cherry blossoms printed on it covered Tokugawa Mitsuba Aoi, and then Amakusa Tokihiko stepped on his spine and cut off his head, and then shouted: "Amakusa Goro Tokihiko will take Inoue Kiyonao."

When the first ray of sunlight pierced through the clouds, Sakuma Shozan, covered in blood, stood in the courtyard of the magistrate's office. At his feet were two corpses placed side by side - next to the headless body of Inoue Kiyonao lay the Dutch consul who was "accidentally killed" while protecting the Dutch trading house.

"This is not the republic we want." Yoshida Shoin clenched the Jindachi stained with Dutch blood. Out of their sight, a red flag was fluttering over the magistrate's office.

Suddenly, three whistles sounded outside the harbor. Standing under the red flag, Amakusa Tokihiko looked at a Korean Heavenly Kingdom "Jianghai" class gunboat on the sea, and suddenly remembered the last prayer of his ancestor on the execution platform of Shimahara: "All we ask for is a small place to stand."

Suddenly, the singing of the Amakusa Party warriors rang in his ears:

"The sky shines brightly,

Equally distribute the land and break the iron fence.

Four People's Republic Day,
The morning sun and the clouds fly together. "

(End of this chapter)