Chapter 786: The Spring of Consumables (Third update, please subscribe)

In the distant Protectorate of Japan, a place that had only clung to the Ming Dynasty a few months earlier, cheers were heard everywhere.

"Banzai! Banzai! Banzai..."

On the afternoon of July 12, 1875, a tsunami of cheers suddenly sounded. After months of anticipation, the Protector-General of Japan, Qian Degong, issued the first order to summon retainers as the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

"Brother, brother... a war is about to begin!"

Akiyama Yoshifuru, who was busy boiling water in front of the bathhouse stove, suddenly heard his brother's voice. When he heard his brother's voice, a smile appeared on his face. In the first year of the Meiji era, that is, in 1868, his younger brother Sane was born. Because the family was poor and could not afford to raise too many children, his father wanted to send Sane to the temple to become a monk. But Akiyama Yoshifuru, who loved his younger brother, firmly disagreed, so the matter was left unresolved. In order to earn a living, Akiyama Yoshifuru, who was only 8 years old at the time, went to work, but he just boiled water in the bathhouse. He would study hard after work. If a person from a samurai family did not study, he would be a rotten wood.

"There was a war? Who was fighting whom?"

Put down the Chinese version of "Evolution and Ethics", which I have been reading recently, and look up at my younger brother who came over with his schoolbag on his back. As early as 1872, before Japan was incorporated into the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty implemented compulsory education. People did not understand the benefits of sending children to school, and the funds for compulsory education had to be borne by the people at that time, so not everyone would send their children to school. But Akiyama Yoshiko would rather boil water here himself and insist on letting his younger brother go to school.

"Listen, His Majesty the Emperor has ordered the conscription of 100,000 nobles and retainers..."

Only then did Haogu hear thunderous cheers coming from outside. For those ordinary nobles, recruiting retainers meant that they could finally be put to good use.

"Is your Majesty going to go to war with the Westerners?"

Akiyama Yoshifuru stood up suddenly, his expression serious yet with a hint of excitement. Coming from a samurai family, he also hoped to achieve success on the battlefield.

"No, we are not going to war with the Westerners. The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty is recruiting people to form the "Loyal Army". Brother, will you join?"

Suddenly, Akiyama Saneyuki, who was a little excited at first, became a little nervous and said,

"War may cause a lot of trouble."

"After the land is contributed to the Ming Emperor, all the nobles will become his retainers..."

After a moment of silence, Akiyama Yoshifuru said,

"If called upon, Big Brother will definitely go."

Then he touched Shinji's head and said.

"Zhenzhi, if I am called up, you must study hard, especially Chinese. You must learn it well. The samurai are the emperor's retainers, so you must learn Chinese well."

"I know. Mandarin is taught in schools now! It's just that the teacher's Nanjing dialect is not very standard."

Although Japan had just become a part of the Ming Dynasty, thanks to the promotion of the so-called "Mito Studies" by the Edo Shogunate for more than two hundred years, the Japanese samurai could write fluent Chinese characters even if they could not speak fluent Chinese. Therefore, as soon as the Toei Protectorate was established, new textbooks were immediately printed. In fact, they were the same textbooks as those of the Ming Dynasty, and teachers were required to teach in the national language. The so-called "national language" was Chinese.

As for the language barrier... most teachers had no problem with it. After all, they had learned Chinese before and were just learning it again. Of course, as part of the good governance of the empire, the Ming Dynasty also sent hundreds of teachers to Japan.

Of course, after these teachers arrived in Japan, they did not work as ordinary teachers, but as principals, responsible for supervising the teaching in the school.

In a word, from now on the Ming Dynasty will assimilate everyone through education, or turn them into imperial subjects of the Ming Dynasty through "imperial education."

"It doesn't matter if it's not standard. The most important thing is to learn it. Only if you learn it, you will have the opportunity to be admitted to Nanhua University and go to Ming Dynasty in the future!"

While instructing his younger brother, Akiyama Yoshifuru felt a little complicated. He was confused about his future life. He couldn't just boil hot water here for the rest of his life.

Boil hot water in the bathhouse!

Alas, ordinary samurai can only live like this. After his brother left, Akiyama sat in front of the stove, reading a book while boiling water.

“So ancient!”

Another person came over, it was Kazuhisa Masatatsu, he was a senior from the Matsumae domain, but he was just scrubbing the body in the bathhouse.

"Hello, Mr. Kazuhisa!"

Akiyama Yoshifuru quickly stood up and saluted.

"It's just a guy who does bath work. His name is Mr. Something. Come on, come with me."

"What?"

"Come with me to apply!"

Kazuhisa Masataka said directly,

"But, but I'm not old enough."

"What's the age difference? You said one year older is enough. Do you want to boil bath water for the rest of your life?"

"Is this... possible?"

Of course, Akiyama Yoshifuru didn't want to boil hot water for the rest of his life, so applying for a job might be the best option to change his destiny.

"How do you know if you don't try? Haogu, you should always try everything. Now that we are at war, it is the time for you and me to be of great use!"

Following behind his senior, Akiyama Yoshifuru nodded and said.

"Indeed."

Kazuhisa Masatatsu said as they walked:

"It's a good thing anyway. His Majesty the Emperor is recruiting 100,000 people at a time. After the recruitment, they can receive higher salaries..."

Thanks to Meiji, he cut the samurai's salaries with one stroke, leaving these people without food and clothing. After accepting the samurai's land registration, Emperor Zhu Da very kindly gave them "family rewards", which were actually not much, just one to one and a half stones of rice per family per month.

This was the reward given by the lord to his retainers. Even though it was just a small amount of rice, the warriors who were originally without food and clothing were all filled with gratitude and knelt on the ground shouting "Long live the emperor".

Sometimes, winning people's hearts is very cheap. Just a few hundred thousand stones of rice are enough to win the hearts of Japan's samurai, or more precisely, the middle and lower-level samurai.

And now?

The samurai responded enthusiastically, not only to serve their lord and be loyal to him, but also because they had been waiting for this day. After all, the reason why Saigo Takamori went to Edo was because of the emperor's promise to them - to recruit more than 200,000 samurai to form a legion!

Now that they have finally been called up, how can they not be excited? From now on, they will have money to spend and food to eat! They no longer have to work as bath scrubbers or water boilers...

Akiyama Yoshifuru asked as he walked:

"Do you know who we're going to fight?"

"I heard that we are going to fight the Westerners. When the British and Americans withdrew from Japan last time, they were unwilling to do so..."

(End of this chapter)