Inspired by Lu Yuchen and Howard, Matthew Perry, commander of the U.S. East India Fleet, changed his attitude towards Japan and issued an ultimatum to the Tokugawa shogunate.

The shogunate had no choice but to send people to negotiate with Matthew Perry in Kanagawa, not far from Edo.

The "Poseidon" was preparing to leave Japan, but encountered a strange thing.

That night, at exactly 2 o'clock in the morning, two Japanese samurai took a small fishing boat and tried to board a U.S. ship. They first came to the "Mississippi" ship, handed over the "Sign of Surrender", and declared that they wanted to leave Japan by ship.

, go to the West to learn new knowledge.

The captain of the "Mississippi" did not allow Japanese samurai to board the ship, but he admired the brave spirit of the Japanese and reminded them to go to the flagship "Powhatan" to see the fleet commander.

The Japanese samurai followed the captain's advice and came to the rope ladder of the "Powhatan". The American sailors of the "Powhatan" refused to allow them to board the ship, so they had to abandon the boat and climb up the rope ladder of the "Powhatan"

.

These two Japanese samurai were in a very embarrassed state. Their tops were wet from the waves and they were only wearing underwear.

It turned out that the oar posts were damaged during the journey, so they tied the oars to the left and right strings with their trousers and rocked the boat forward. Later, their trousers also broke, so they used their belts again and suffered a lot.

The captain of the "Powhatan" was very wary. After repeated questioning, he learned that they just admired the advanced Western culture and wanted to travel and study in the West with the American fleet.

One of the two samurai was named Yoshida Shoin, and the other was Kaneko Shigesuke, a disciple of Yoshida Shoin, who belonged to the Choshu clan.

At that time, the Japanese shogunate had regulations that strictly prohibited samurai from leaving their place of origin. Yoshida Shoin and Kaneko Shigesuke violated the ban and left Choshu without reporting to the feudal lord. According to the shogunate law, they should be beheaded.

Yoshida Shoin's master and apprentice were eager to learn and did not care about life and death, which made the officers and soldiers on the "Powhatan" admire them very much.

Matthew Perry was on the "Powhatan". When he learned about this, he was also very interested in Yoshida Shoin. However, he was fully negotiating with the Tokugawa shogunate and did not want to cause trouble. He also could not take Yoshida Shoin in.

So, he took it upon himself to send Yoshida Shoin and Yoshida Shoin to the "Poseidon" and asked Howard to take them in. Perry admired Yoshida Shoin and specially wrote to Howard:

"This incident is very meaningful. It shows the strong thirst for knowledge of two educated Japanese people. They dared to ignore the country's strict laws and risked their lives in order to increase their knowledge.

"The Japanese are undoubtedly people with a thirst for knowledge, and nothing better reflects the strong curiosity of the country's citizens than this incident. The reason why their actions are hindered is only because of the strict laws and tight surveillance system.

kick in.

"From this characteristic of the Japanese, it can be inferred that this interesting country contains quite a lot of possibilities. Perhaps it should be said that it is so promising..."

When Yoshida Shoin boarded the "Poseidon", it was already broad daylight. After asking about the whole story, Lu Yuchen and Howard sympathized with Yoshida Shoin and happily accepted the offer.

What Lu Yuchen didn't know was that Yoshida Shoin was an extremely important figure in Japan's modern history, and was revered by later generations as the spiritual leader and theoretical founder of Japan's Meiji Restoration.

As a thinker of the Yomei School of Japan, Yoshida Shoin concocted ideas such as the "Imperial View of History", "Theory of Good Nature", "Theory of Loyalty", and "Theory of One King and Ten Thousand People", which deeply influenced Japanese samurai and gradually evolved into the Japanese military state.

doctrine thought.

The Choshu Domain and the Satsuma Domain played a key role in the overthrow of the Tokugawa faction's "honor the king and repel the barbarians" campaign. After Emperor Meiji came to power, the Choshu Domain warriors occupied key departments of the Japanese Army for a long time.

Yoshida Shoin's students were no less generous. For example, Hisaka Genzui, Takasugi Shinsaku, Kido Takayoshi, Ito Shunsuke (Bowen), Yamagata Kousuke (Aritomo), Inoue Kaoru, Maehara Issei, Katsura Taro and other Meiji period students

The big guys were all students of Yoshida Shoin.

It can be said that Yoshida Shoin's contribution to Japan's Meiji Restoration far exceeds that of theorists and educators such as Mori Yurei and Fukuzawa Yukichi.

Historically, he did take the risk to visit Matthew Perry, but Perry was unwilling to take him in. Yoshida Shoin had to surrender to the shogunate because he escaped without authorization and had unauthorized contact with the barbarians. In 1859, the Tokugawa shogunate launched

"Ansei Prison", Yoshida Shoin was executed by the shogunate.

There was no one on the "Poseidon" who could speak Japanese. At this time, the Japanese samurai class mainly used Hou Wen as their written language, and only a few senior samurai were proficient in Chinese. Hou Wen was born out of ancient Chinese characters and could barely communicate with Chinese.

Yoshida Shoin has been eager to learn since childhood and is proficient in Chinese. He can communicate with Lu Yuchen without any barriers using pen and paper.

After a conversation, Lu Yuchen and Yoshida Shoin were quite speculative. They just regretted that writing was too slow and they couldn't have a hearty conversation.

However, when talking about the future of the two countries, the two people could not help but have some arguments. Yoshida Shoin wrote: "Our country's Satsuma lord Shimazu Saibin loves Western science, implements the policy of enriching the country and strengthening the military in the vassal, adopts Western-style military training methods, and produces

New weapons.

"In a very short period of time, docks were built, ships were launched, French-style cavalry was established, and a navy was created. You can tell the autumn by looking at a leaf. Given time, our country will surely wake up and become a country that can stand on an equal footing with the Western powers.

country."

Lu Yuchen felt quite disdainful for such brazen words. However, when he thought of Matthew Perry's letter and the bravery of Yoshida Shoin, he couldn't help but feel a little vigilant.

Japan has been influenced by Confucian civilization for a long time, but it has always been unruly. China has never successfully conquered Japan.

During the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongols invaded China with a force rarely seen in the world. Kublai Khan's two expeditions to Japan failed due to poor preparation or encounters with typhoons.

During the Ming Dynasty, Toyotomi Hideyoshi even led an expedition to Korea in an attempt to use Korea as a springboard to conquer China. The Ming army defeated the Japanese army, and Tokugawa Ieyasu took the opportunity to replace Toyotomi Hideyoshi and establish the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan.

Generally speaking, Japan has long regarded China as its teacher, studied seriously, and absorbed China's Confucian civilization and Buddhist civilization. Even now, many Japanese advocate Sino-Japanese alliance and use Eastern civilization to fight Western civilization.

Right now, this Yoshida Shoin is just a low-level samurai with no power, but he is willing to risk his life to learn Western knowledge. There are thousands of samurai in Japan, and there are hundreds of Yoshida Shoin.

Unlike China, Japan did not have an imperial examination system, and officials at all levels were all samurai. In addition to practicing martial arts and fighting, a qualified samurai also had to regularly practice knowledge, learn tea ceremony, music, go and other elegant affairs.

The composition of officials at all levels in China is relatively complex. The most respected ones are those who came from the imperial examinations, as well as those from the Eight Banners clan, donations, etc. Most of the officials are civilians, who despise the military attachés, lack the spirit of martial arts, and are not as aggressive as the Japanese samurai.

spirit, tolerance and open mind.

In the turbulent era of the late Qing Dynasty, for countries in the Confucian cultural circle such as China, Japan and South Korea, the quality of the official team directly determined the country's potential for future development. The Manchu officials in the Qing Dynasty were not as good as the Japanese samurai as a whole, and the civilian officials were not as good as the military generals.

Even worse.

Even Matthew Perry, an American fool, can see that Japan is a country with hope. However, the Manchu Qing Dynasty is still stubborn and conservative, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is even more ignorant.

The original text comes from Yuta&Read Novel~&

Fortunately, Vietnam is rising in the south, actively learning from the West, and will be able to unify China in the future. When the time comes, China will inevitably conflict with the West, and Japan may be a good helper.

Thinking of this, Lu Yuchen wrote: "China and Japan are separated by a strip of water and have the same culture and race. They should support each other and jointly deal with the Western invasion. Otherwise, we are both yellow people and will face the same fate as the Indians. We will be subjugated and genocide by the white people."

of danger.

"Historically, Japan has always been outside the Chinese tribute system and relatively alienated from Chinese civilization. Now, in order to enrich the country and strengthen the military, China and Japan should join forces to achieve common prosperity in East Asia.

"Japan's hope is not in the shogunate, but in the two vassals of Choshu and Satsuma. China's hope is not in the Manchus and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, but in the Renaissance. Brother Shoin, for the common prosperity of East Asia and the preservation of culture, we must work together
Chapter completed!