Chapter 743 International Safety Zone (3rd update, please subscribe)
"When the great way is practiced, the world is shared by all, the virtuous and capable are selected, trustworthiness is emphasized, and harmony is cultivated... This is called great harmony."
This is the ancients’ definition of Datong, but what is the real Datong?
In fact, no matter how "Datong" is defined, in essence, before "Datong", there is "the world". First the world must be unified, and then there can be Datong in the world.
The premise for universal peace is unification and expansion.
Only by expanding can we have the world, and only by having the world can we achieve "Great Harmony". In fact, this is also a more obscure way to express the "mission of the empire".
The mission and responsibility of the empire is to expand.
Compared to the obscurity of the East, the Western world is more naked. The Roman Empire shouted, "The mission of the empire is to conquer the barbarians, to gain more land and more slaves."
And what about the British Empire?
"The real goal and direction is to expand Britain's rule throughout the world."
Expansion has long been engraved in the blood and bones of the empire. No matter what excuses and reasons are used, they are essentially serving this purpose.
Just like Tokyo in 1875, ostensibly Britain and the United States joined forces to stop the expansion of the Ming Dynasty.
But in essence it served the purpose of British expansion, except that they had slightly "advanced" their long-term goals.
After all, in the long-term plan of the United Kingdom, they wanted to occupy the whole of East Asia. The most fundamental reason why it could not be implemented was that the interests of the great powers diverged too much.
This is also the biggest problem in the international colonial game. The expansion of a country is always subject to the constraints of other powers. The cooperation between Britain and the United States has solved their differences to some extent. However, sometimes there are always some accidents.
Originally, after Britain and the United States occupied Tokyo, the problem should have been very simple - Tokyo was under their occupation. Then they could naturally implement their policies according to their own wishes.
In order to minimize differences as much as possible, they even planned to bring Russia into it. After all, Russia has always had ambitions for Hokkaido.
But now the problem has changed a little - for example, the Ming Dynasty, for example, the "Tokyo Safety Zone" established by the Ming Dynasty.
When the British and American sailors went ashore, relying on less than twenty marines and embassy staff and refugee expatriates, the Ming Dynasty successfully designated half of Tokyo, centered on the "Imperial Palace" and extending to the Edogawa River, as a "safe zone."
A crossroads, a wooden stake.
This is the boundary between the safe zone and the occupied zone. A sign is nailed to the wooden stake - "Specially Designated Protection Zone of the Ming Empire". A flag of the Ming Dynasty is hung on the flagpole on the stake.
Behind the wooden stakes, there were several soldiers carrying old Schneider breech-loading rifles. They were not tall and did not even have military uniforms. They were dressed in casual clothes with only a Ming-style military cap on their heads. At most, there was a white cloth armband on their sleeves with the words "Volunteer Corps" written on it.
The so-called "Volunteer Corps" was a "security team" composed of temporarily recruited Ming Dynasty expatriates and a small number of local people. The officers were Ming Dynasty people. After the fall of Tokyo, the Ming Dynasty established this safe zone with the help of dozens of embassy guards and temporarily recruited Japanese police and samurai.
Compared with the daily atrocities in the occupied area, the safe zone with good public security is undoubtedly a paradise. Almost every day, citizens from the occupied area enter this safe zone.
However, it is not easy to enter the safe zone from the occupied area. Along the way, you may encounter Western soldiers or the "Maintenance Association" at any time. The Maintenance Association is a security team composed of scum recruited by Westerners, including both police and gang members.
Takahashi Korekiyo and dozens of students looked around nervously. On the other side of the intersection, those beast-like Western soldiers were standing there, their eyes seemed to be fixed on the women in the team. In the past half month, every day there were women dragged away by Western soldiers and raped in the barracks or taverns.
When those Western soldiers saw young girls, they would always whistle and say extremely obscene words in English. In response to their teasing, the women with soot on their faces lowered their heads and remained silent.
"It's daytime now, they don't dare to do anything wrong..."
Takahashi Korekiyo said to the students.
"Once we enter the safe zone, we will be safe."
In fact, as early as the day Tokyo was occupied, like many people, he wanted to escape to the safety zone after learning about it, but who would dare to go there in the face of those wolf-like and ferocious Westerners? There were thousands of Japanese who were shot, beheaded, and ravaged in those days.
Although law and order seemed to have been restored now, atrocities committed by the Allied forces still occurred from time to time, especially at night. There were even rumors that even the concubines of Emperor Meiji were brutally raped by Westerners.
Japan!
The country is really destroyed!
Just as Takahashi Korekiyo was sighing like this, suddenly, five or six maintenance association members wearing white armbands at the intersection pointed at them and shouted.
"All of you stop!"
There were two Western soldiers behind them, staring at the women in the crowd with lustful eyes. The women were so scared that they hid behind the boys.
"What do you want?"
Takahashi Korekiyo shouted.
What?
The members of the maintenance association holding wooden sticks were all stunned. What was he saying?
Born into a samurai family, even though he was raised as an adopted son, although his family was poor, he learned Nanjing dialect from his adoptive mother.
Although it's not very fluent, it sounds the same.
"What do you want to do!?"
Takahashi Korekiyo, who was wearing a suit, asked directly and spoke in "stiff" Japanese.
"I am from the Ming Dynasty. Why do you stop me and my students?"
Then, Takahashi Korekiyo shouted loudly in English to the two Westerners.
"You are sailors from that country. I will report this to the consulate!"
He is actually a Ming Dynasty person who can speak Japanese and English.
The members of the maintenance association immediately bowed and apologized.
"I am very sorry, sir. An American sailor was attacked and killed last night. We are now searching for the suspect."
Suspect?
With all the evil you've done, every resident in Tokyo could be a suspect!
"They are my students, and they are also going to study in Ming Dynasty. How could they be suspects?"
Takahashi Korekiyo shouted without any fear.
"I will definitely report this to the consul!"
The guy who originally wanted to stop this group of people to extort some money and get two women to present to the foreign master, could only bow and greet them repeatedly.
Lord Yang is the master, Lord Ming is also the master!
Not to mention that they can't afford to provoke them, even the British can't afford to provoke them! Everyone knows that the British have been protesting for a long time.
Finally, they arrived at the entrance of the safe zone without any danger. Takahashi Korekiyo saw two entrances. One was the Japanese entrance with a sea of people, and the other was the "expatriate entrance" where no one entered at all.
"It would be nice if they were from the Ming Dynasty."
Yamamoto Jiji, who was following Takahashi Korekiyo, said with a sigh.
"Haha, if you can speak Nanjing dialect and write Chinese characters, then there will be no problem. Westerners can't tell who we are."
After that, he looked at the teacher and said.
"Teacher, after we enter the safe zone, you must teach us Nanjing dialect. It is better to go to Ming Dynasty than to study abroad in the West!"
"That's right, Ming Dynasty, that's the Celestial Empire that saved us from our misfortunes!"
As the students were talking to each other, Takahashi Korekiyo looked around in a daze.
It was under the protection of the Ming Dynasty that Tokyo had such a paradise in the midst of war. If there was no protection from the daimyo, what kind of hell would Tokyo be?
In the occupied areas outside the safety zone, Takahashi Korekiyo had witnessed the atrocities of Westerners. As someone who had lived in the United States, he certainly knew how Americans treated the Indians.
If Japan fell into the hands of the United States and became their colony, then the Japanese would become another group of Indians to be slaughtered and bullied by the Americans...
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
