Chapter 128: Japanese leeks are the best leeks (first update, please subscribe)
"It's you!"
Standing in front of the map, Zhu Xianhai stared at a location on the map with a slight smile on his face.
"Japan!"
There is not only one "Tartar Qing Dynasty" in East Asia, there is also another country whose doors have been opened - Japan!
Unlike the Qing Empire, which remained deaf and dumb after its doors were opened during the Opium War, Perry's "Black Ship Attack" shocked the Japanese. Faced with the invasion of the West, many Japanese felt that in order to maintain their independence, they had to learn European and American civilization, and to learn the West, they had to learn the language first. Many scholars realized the importance of learning English and devoted themselves to the cause of English education.
After Perry's fleet opened Japan's door, almost every feudal domain in Japan had English training classes. Even Fukuzawa Yukichi, in addition to writing works in English, also opened English cram schools and taught English in person. Learning English became a trend in Japan.
It was not a temporary phenomenon, but lasted for nearly a century, until the outbreak of World War II, when Japan staged a farce of boycotting the "enemy language", which brought it to an end.
However, during this era, the Japanese were increasingly eager to learn English. With the efforts of many scholars, thousands of Western humanities books were translated from 1853 to 1868 before the Meiji Restoration.
Why was Japan able to hire a large number of foreign scholars from Britain, the United States and other countries to impart Western scientific and technological knowledge at the beginning of the Meiji Restoration? To put it bluntly, long before the Restoration, they had completed the basic talent preparation - they had thousands of talents who were proficient in English and basic scientific knowledge.
When we were still arguing about whether to send overseas students, when we regarded Western knowledge as a scourge, they had already sent a large number of overseas students, and they were proficient in foreign languages and had a certain foundation in Western learning. When the young children in the United States were in elementary school, the Japanese students went directly to middle school or even university. Because the mathematics, physics, chemistry, world geography, world history and other textbooks in the new Japanese middle schools were almost all directly reprinted from the original English textbooks from the United States and the United Kingdom, and later they were directly translated into Japanese.
In fact, the fate of China and Japan in modern times has been determined by English education. Japan has never used the indemnity from the Sino-Japanese War to support education, because more than 20 years ago, they had already popularized compulsory education. Instead, they still taught English from elementary school.
In contrast, the Westernization Movement of the Qing Dynasty, which was centered on "enriching the country and strengthening the military", ended up in vain. The arsenals that cost billions of dollars to build only produced useless weapons such as pistols, and the technical staff were all foreigners. For example, the China Merchants Shipping Company, which was known as the best in East Asia, did not train a single Chinese captain or senior crew member until the demise of the Qing Dynasty. Those arsenals did not train a few engineers, and they still could not operate without foreign experts.
In other words, the cultivation of modern talents during the "Westernization Movement" was almost zero!
Talent!
This is the future of the country!
Zhu Xianhai was filled with jealousy when he recalled the wave of "talent preparation" and "translation movement" before the Meiji Restoration in Japan mentioned in books he had read. Just like the "Haiguo Tuzhi" was coldly received in China, but became popular in Japan and sold tens of thousands of copies, the Chinese scholars who were domesticated by the Qing Dynasty had long lost the curiosity of the scholars in the late Ming Dynasty about Western knowledge. In the Qing Dynasty, under the threat of literary inquisition, how could the Chinese scholars dare to be curious? What did they study? That is, the so-called "fish and insect studies" and "textual research", and they never dared to cross the line.
The so-called conservatism... is nothing but saving lives!
But such conservatism has left Zhu Xianhai with no one to use!
"We have to find a way to harvest a wave of Japanese talents!"
In an instant, Zhu Xianhai made up his mind to recruit a group of talents proficient in English from Japan and have them translate Western books in Nanhua.
As for Chinese, he was not worried at all. Until the Meiji Restoration, all Japanese scholars had to study Chinese. They were all proficient in Chinese and spoke fluent Nanjing Mandarin, which was the Ming Mandarin, enough to make any Ming dynasty descendant fall in love with it. Japan's Chinese studies education was not changed from "Nanjing Mandarin" to "Beijing Mandarin" until the 1870s.
Even the Western works translated during their time were written in Chinese. This was also the reason why a large number of Japanese scientific books were introduced in the late Qing Dynasty. They could be directly quoted or translated in small quantities.
"It's time to send a ship to Japan to do business. If nothing else, even if we just hire a few dozen translators and buy some books, that would be of great use!"
If I don't harvest the Japanese leeks, I'd be really sorry to God for letting me travel through time!
"You can't just reap the benefits of the translators, you can also reap the benefits of the warriors!"
It seems that many Japanese samurai at that time were penniless, even to the point of having no food to eat. Why was there an anti-shogunate movement in history? To put it bluntly, there were many bankrupt samurai who could not afford to eat, so they rebelled under the pretext of "respecting the king and expelling the barbarians" in order to achieve a reshuffle of power and wealth. In other words, they were just taking a gamble!
No other reason, just too poor!
When you are poor, you must think of change!
As for "respecting the king", they are all just slogans. In the final analysis, it is all for profit. Bankrupt warriors and wandering vagrants are all good leeks!
Getting a few thousand people to serve as mercenaries would at least help strengthen their own military strength. Of course, those people were definitely the most qualified cannon fodder, no, warriors! It was a very glorious thing to die on the battlefield.
"Sword Team..."
Thinking of the famous "Sword-drawing Team" during the Meiji Restoration, Zhu Xianhai's lips curled up slightly. Nanhua could also form its own "Sword-drawing Team". When he thought of those Japanese, carrying samurai swords and shouting, charging towards the enemy's rifle formation, his heart was excited. What a spectacular scene!
"Japanese chives are definitely good chives! I'd be sorry if I didn't cut them!"
As soon as Zhu Xianhai finished speaking, someone on the other side spoke.
“What are leeks?”
It was Maria. She walked to Zhu Xianhai, opened her blue eyes wide and asked curiously.
“What is leek?”
“A delicious dish!”
Zhu Xianhai smiled.
"This vegetable is specially kept for harvesting. After harvesting one crop, there is always another crop! It is simply inexhaustible and can be used endlessly..."
“Is that dish delicious?”
Maria was puzzled.
"It's delicious, no worries, and it's good for men..."
What are the benefits? You can only understand it. Those who understand will understand.
If you don’t understand, you will understand when the time comes.
"It's good for men too?"
Maria looked at Zhu Xianhai in confusion.
"What are the benefits?"
Seeing the doubt flashing in the woman's beautiful eyes and staring at her jade-like face, Zhu Xianhai couldn't help but feel a surge of heat in his heart. It seemed that he had neglected her a little in the past two days.
It was true that since returning to Nanhua, Zhu Xianhai had spent more time with Elizabeth. Thinking that a woman had traveled thousands of miles from Chile to follow him to Nanhua, he had to share the love and care equally!
"I tell you..."
With his lips close to Maria's ear, Zhu Xianhai spoke in a low voice while touching her all over.
"Honey, no, not here... This is the office..."
Maria looked towards the office door nervously.
Amid the woman's whimpering breaths, Zhu Xianhai, feeling quite pleased with himself, didn't care about anything else.
"Don't worry, no one will come in."
Office...I've been wanting to try it for a long time!
(End of this chapter)
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