Master Yuan, start!

The Russian fleet was destroyed by the well-rested Japanese fleet in the Tsushima Strait in Korea, which almost wiped out Russia's naval power. In the end, it was forced to cease fire and give up its colonial interests in the Liaodong region.

Therefore, in this time and space, Crown Prince Nicholas gave up attacking from the Tsushima Strait in Korea and turned his attention to the Kuril Islands in the north. This decision actually prevented the Russian fleet from falling into a passive situation.

Once the plan was finalized, officials in St. Petersburg quickly telegraphed it to Amur Governor-General Korf, who was thousands of miles away.

Korf immediately sent people to Defu Island to land and conduct an investigation.

Of course, Yuan Shikai is still unaware of these actions of the Russians.

No matter how good the relationship between Korff and Yuan Shikai was, they still had the most basic European bureaucratic ethics and would not easily disclose military intelligence related to the war.

However, although Xiangcheng was unaware of the Russians' actions, Ito Hirobumi's abnormal behavior aroused his vigilance.

You want to support me as a thug? Does Japan have that capability now?

Today's China, thanks to the foreign war victories of Yuan Shikai and Li Hongzhang, is by no means the Qing Dynasty that was defeated by the Japanese in the original time and space.

Since 1884, China has successively put down the Korean rebellion, defeated the French army, driven out the Japanese invasion, and annihilated the Spanish fleet.

Yuan Shikai and Li Hongzhang appeared on the front pages of European newspapers several times because of their great victories.

These four achievements taken individually may not seem like much in the eyes of Europeans, but when added together, their weight is quite different.

Therefore, China has not become the sick man of East Asia in this time and space.

Moreover, even Ottoman Turkey, which had become the sick man of West Asia, was included in the ranks of European countries and greatly enhanced its international prestige when it won the Russo-Turkish War and the Crimean War with the help of Britain and France decades ago.

The Qing Dynasty accomplished the above four things on its own, and of course it would be looked up to by Europeans.

Today's China is not something Japan can challenge!

Therefore, when Yuan Shikai saw Ito Hirobumi using the excuse of "anti-Qing and restoration of Ming" to interfere in China's internal struggles, he was quite confused.

"Anti-Qing, Restore Ming!"

Yuan Xiangcheng pronounced these four words aloud, emphasizing each word.

Why does he think I will let the Zhu family become emperor again?

Before Yuan Xiangcheng could speak, Ming Ye, who was waiting outside the door, seemed to have heard something funny and couldn't help but cough.

Ming Ye is an old member. Having followed Yuan Xiangcheng for several years, he has long known that the chief instructor has no good feelings towards the former Ming Dynasty.

Lin, an internal member of the Red Confucian Society, is not only familiar with the pamphlets on the Jialingding Three Massacres and the Jiangqi South on the 6th, but also knows the top brain congestion operations carried out by the four feudal lords and the Southern Ming regime in the late Ming Dynasty.

If the Ming Dynasty gentry had given some of their own interests to the people, the Qing army would not have triggered the "Jiangnan Slave Rebellion" that affected the entire Southern Ming regime when it marched south.

If the Hongguang regime could have stabilized the court for three months, the Qing army would not have immediately marched south. The Eight Banners cavalry had all fled to the Huai River, and the Nanjing court was still arguing about who should take the blame for Chongzhen's death.

If he doesn't destroy such a regime, who will?

"If I have to choose between chocolate-flavored shit and shit-flavored chocolate, I'd rather starve to death."

Although he didn't know what the "chocolate" the head instructor was talking about was, Mingye could understand the meaning of the head instructor's tone.

"I know that Lord Yuan believes that the anti-Qing and restoration of the Ming Dynasty has become a joke now, but has Lord Yuan ever considered that Emperor Hongwu of the Ming Dynasty also initially advocated the slogan of anti-Yuan and restoration of the Song Dynasty, but in the end, didn't he still become the emperor?"

Having said that, Ito Hirobumi poured matcha powder into Yuan Xiangcheng's teacup and carefully poured in boiling water.

A cloud of steam rose from the gurgling water. Hirobumi Ito, who was nearly 60 years old, picked up the tea whisk and stirred it quickly.

Immediately, he held the cup with one hand and supported the bottom with the other, and handed the cup of matcha to Yuan Xiangcheng in front of him.

"Mr. Ito, do you really think I have the ambition to become emperor?" Yuan Xiangcheng said softly.

Upon hearing this, Ito Hirobumi did not answer, but instead talked about a small incident that happened on the way.

"Sir Yuan, when I arrived at the Yalu River yesterday, I saw merchants traveling north and south hawking their wares at the docks, so I approached them, intending to use my silver to buy some local specialties to bring back to Japan."

"Oh, I wonder what souvenirs Mr. Ito bought?"

Yuan Xiangcheng took the matcha, took a sip, put it down and asked.

Ito Hirobumi shook his head, made himself a cup of matcha, and said helplessly, "It's a pity that I couldn't buy it."

"Why is that?"

"The merchant only accepted silver dollars from the Northeast Border Industry Bank. He thought it would be difficult to weigh and calculate the fineness of the silver I had, so he refused to sell it to me."

"Is there such a thing?" Yuan Xiangcheng looked up at the door with a serious expression: "Mingye, have Han Bei issue a notice to the local industrial and commercial bureaus to strictly investigate the refusal to accept cash in banks!"

"It's not that I'm refusing to accept it." Ito Hirobumi waved his hand. "The merchant said that if one tael of silver is used as a silver dollar, it should be converted into 8 cents. I didn't want to be taken advantage of by him, so I gave up."

Ito Hirobumi drank the matcha in his cup and whispered to Yuan Xiangcheng, "Nowadays, the people outside the Great Wall seem to only recognize the Northeast Dragon Dollar. They even look at the silver circulating in the Qing Dynasty with a second opinion. Doesn't Lord Yuan understand what it represents?"

"What does it represent?" Yuan Xiangcheng asked knowingly.

"Outside the Great Wall, Lord Yuan's three northeastern provinces' dragon silver is more useful than the silver suppressed by the Ministry of Revenue in the capital.

Doesn't this mean that the people have long since only recognized the Governor, not the imperial court?"

Ito Hirobumi tried hard to find evidence that he believed Yuan Shikai wanted to "become emperor".

"Hahaha, that's not the case, Mr. Ito, you don't know?" Yuan Xiangcheng laughed when he heard this and began to explain the Northeast Frontier Bank to Ito Hirobumi.

Yuan Xiangcheng naturally knew why the merchant did that, and what he said to Mingye just now was just a show.

The Northeastern Dragon Dollars minted by the Northeast Border Industry Bank are of uniform quality and have long been circulated outside the Great Wall. Silver exchanged for Dragon Dollars requires a 1% discount.

Recently, in order to prepare for war and reserve silver, the Northeast Border Industry Bank has offered preferential treatment to those who exchange Northeast Dragon Dollars and silver for Northeast Border Industry Bank banknotes.

But people from other places didn't know about this event. The vendors probably saw that Ito Hirobumi came from afar and decided to "rip him off".

Ci used the poor quality of the silver as an excuse to lower the price to tourists traveling from all over the country, and then took the silver to the Northeast Border Industry Bank to exchange it for "banknotes" of the same denomination, and could also get a lot of extra corn. Most people were willing to take advantage of this.

oYuan Xiangcheng explained the specific situation to Ito Hirobumi, of course, omitting the part about preparing for war.

4 Ito Hirobumi was also a little surprised when he heard this. He did not expect that Yuan Shikai would spend so much money to prepare for war and be willing to give benefits to the people. As a Japanese bourgeois bureaucrat who had transformed from a feudal landlord, he did not understand Yuan Shikai's approach at all.

"But how is this practice of taking out large measures and taking in small measures different from that of the Tian family of Qi during the Warring States Period in China?

If Lord Yuan doesn't want to be emperor, why does he do this?"

"Mr. Ito, that's wrong. Now we have extra corn to eat after exchanging banknotes, but we didn't have that before. This is to let the people know that there is no going back to the old ways.

Before the ports outside the linguan Pass were opened, they could not even afford two meals a day, let alone drink corn porridge.

Mr. Ito, even though I fought against the Qing Dynasty and restored the Ming Dynasty and became the emperor, I couldn’t let them eat corn.

On the contrary, only a new system, with Western methods, can allow them to eat corn and rescue this aging China from the quagmire.

Lu Yuanxiangcheng did these things not to win people's hearts, although objectively speaking it did have some effect in winning people's hearts, but more importantly, it was to increase the circulation rate of banknotes, promote commercial development, and achieve the goal of strengthening the country and enriching the people.

9 Ultimately, Yuan Shikai was willing to give benefits to the people and did not want to be the spokesperson for the bourgeoisie.

For him, he has long been indifferent to food, clothing and other daily necessities. Money is just an external thing. If he can take less for himself, he can give more to the people.

After careful consideration, Ito Hirobumi found that this was indeed a good idea. The people were not aware of the dispute between China and the West in officialdom, but they knew that they could eat corn paste now, and now was better than before.

3 But soon, Ito Hirobumi realized a loophole in Yuan Shikai's words.

Who said that there can't be an emperor if we follow Western ways? The Japanese Empire has been imitating Europe for many years, and hasn't His Majesty the Emperor also affected Westernization?

"Sir Yuan, who says that the imperial system has no Westernization? Our emperor not only does not resist Westernization, but also sends officials to study abroad many times." Ito Hirobumi looked at Yuan Xiangcheng with pride.

"Yes, your emperor does advocate Westernization." Yuan Xiangcheng nodded in agreement.

"Besides your country, the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, and Austria are all monarchies now. However, if such a system were to be introduced to China, it would absolutely not be suitable."

In Yuan Xiangcheng's view, if one wants to implement a constitutional system in China, it may be feasible in an era when the people's wisdom is fully awakened.

But in China at the end of the 19th century, this was basically an invalid false proposition.

If China wants to be strong, it has to abandon the imperial system. Otherwise, those messy things in the feudal system will take root in the foundation of the new dynasty established by Yuan Shikai like a leech.

The Xinhai Revolution, which was so thorough in its anti-monarchy movement in the original time and space, only abolished the title of "emperor", but the feudal system was still stubbornly retained.

Yuan Xiangcheng believed that if he became emperor, he would inevitably become an emperor who was "above the law". At that time, it would be nonsense to think about carrying out modern reforms.

How should we advance issues such as monogamy for the emperor and equal rights between the emperor and the common people, which are naturally nerve-wracking for the Chinese people?

In an era when one had to kneel when meeting an official, he went to tell the people that the emperor was guilty of the same crime as the common people, and that the emperor did not have concubines in three palaces and six courtyards, but only one wife.

Will anyone believe it?

The emperor is above the constitution. Yuan Shikai could respect the rule of law when he was alive, but after his death, what should we do if his descendants ignore the constitution in the name of the emperor and lead China into the abyss of war?

As for the idea of ​​implementing absolute monarchy during his lifetime and promoting constitutionalism in his later years, Yuan Xiangcheng thought it was a bit unnecessary.

Search old man 80+7804

If a system works well for a long time, people will naturally feel that it does not need to be changed. The same is true for constitutional monarchy.

Relying on his knowledge gained from time travel, Yuan Xiangcheng was confident that he could become an emperor who could lead China to prosperity, but he could not guarantee that his descendants would have such ability.

To put it bluntly, China's 2000-year feudal system has been deeply ingrained, and there was no such thing as compromise in ancient Chinese political struggles.

Either powerful ministers are in power, or a strong monarch is in power.

: The soil for constitutionalism like that in Britain does not exist, and Yuan Shikai has no time to cultivate a constitutional atmosphere.

It is not advisable to completely abandon the monarchy. Trying to replace a Han emperor with a tricky "constitutional monarchy" will do more harm than good to China's future development.

Therefore, instead of going through the hassle of first establishing an absolute monarchy and then a constitutional monarchy, it would be better to do it in one step and simply get rid of the emperor.

Even if it is a strongman politics on the surface, it is better than the imperial system for China in this era. At least its roots are right and it can't go too far astray.

7 If he were to live his life again, Yuan Shikai would not want the Chinese people to go through the hardships of nearly half a century in the 20th century, but at the same time, Yuan Shikai would not want the Chinese people to have an emperor over them in the future.

Of course, Ito Hirobumi in front of him did not understand this. No matter how great a man of his generation he was, he still had his own historical limitations.

"Master Yuan, whether it's suitable or not, words alone are not enough to prove it. We have to try it to find out."

1 Ito Hirobumi thought that Yuan Shikai was trying to evade him, so he stopped trying to persuade him directly and instead began to describe the difficulties Yuan Shikai would face if he went south to unify the country.

Lord Pi Ba, there is an old Chinese saying that goes, "A single cannon shot is worth a thousand ounces of gold." With the current strength of the National Defense Forces, they may be able to defeat any governor in the South in a land battle, but if they unite, how will you respond?

"Besides, the South has not only an army but also a navy. The Jiangnan Navy and the South China Sea Fleet combined are much stronger than Yuan's Beiyang Fleet. Is Yuan confident in winning this naval battle?"

Liu Yuanxiangcheng remained silent upon hearing this and also drank the matcha in the teacup.

Contrary to what Ito Hirobumi said, Yuan Shikai was not worried about the naval battle because he had no intention of having a decisive battle with Li Hongzhang and others at sea.

Although the Beiyang Fleet relied on part of the original Fujian Navy's foundation and was not a brand new navy, it only had three main battleships at the beginning. Even if two more were purchased later, the total number was only five.

The Jiangnan Navy has not been idle in the past three years. Liu Kunyi, who owns the wealthy land in the southeast, ordered three armored cruisers from the British, bringing the number of main battleships to five.

The South China Sea Fleet took a different approach. Although it already had eight main battleships, Li Hongzhang did not purchase new ships. Instead, he focused on the "Huangpu Shipyard" jointly established with the Americans, hoping to build instead of buying.