Volume 1: The Battleship Yitian Changes into the Sino-Japanese War of 1894 Chapter 87 "National Treasure" Japanese Version
The battleship was still being built in the shipyard, and Pei Yinsen spent every day there, while Sun Gang's attention turned to the surrounding areas of China.
Because that day, Chen Zhijian brought him news that he had already found out where Japan, which was on the verge of economic collapse, got the hard currency to pay the reparations.
According to information obtained by military intelligence personnel in Japan, this is no longer a secret in Japan.
The Japanese found the legendary "Tokugawa Shogunate's Hidden Gold"!
The legend about the "Tokugawa Shogunate's hidden gold" was first told to him by a friend of his time who was particularly fond of playing Japanese video games.
It is said that it happened in 1860, when the Tokugawa Shogunate was at the end of its rule. The world's gold-silver exchange rate was 1:15, while Japan's was only 1:3, which led to a large outflow of gold from the country. In order to prevent this phenomenon and to reserve gold for military preparations, the Tokugawa Shogunate's "Grand Elder" (the chief representative of the "Old Middle School" and the permanent highest governor of the shogunate) Ii Naosuke made a highly secret plan to bury gold in the name of reserving military funds. Japan's Akagi Mountain was chosen as the place to hide gold. Akagi Mountain is one of the few direct territories of the Tokugawa Shogunate. It is a place where the Tokugawa family has lived for generations and is easy to keep secrets. Moreover, it is located between the Tone River and the Katashina River, with rolling mountains as a barrier, making it a military safety zone that is easy to defend and difficult to attack. It is also the last place of defense for the Tokugawa Shogunate after it had to retreat across the board. At that time, the reformists who came from the middle and lower-level samurai of the powerful feudal lords intended to overthrow the shogunate and implement reforms. While Ii Butsunao was secretly hiding the gold, he was stabbed to death by the anti-shogunate samurai outside Sakuradamon in Edo (now Tokyo) on March 3, 1860. After his death, his subordinates Hayashi Daigaku and Oguri Uenosuke continued to carry out the plan to bury the gold. In the late 1860s, the Tokugawa shogunate was finally overthrown by the anti-shogunate faction, and the Edo period ended. In July 1868, the new government changed Edo to Tokyo, and the Meiji government came to power, and the gold hidden in Akagi Mountain became an unsolved mystery.
How much gold was buried as military expenditure? According to insiders, 8.6 million taels of gold may have been transported out of Edo at that time; Nakajima Kurato, the servant of Kosuke Uenosuke, said in his will that hundreds of thousands of taels of gold were transported out of the Imperial Gold Storehouse in Kofu. Together with other gold products, the total buried gold is estimated to be 10 million taels!
At that time, Sun Gang just listened to it as an anecdote and didn't take it seriously. Apart from other things, how could the Japanese save so much gold! But later, when he was free, he looked through some historical materials and realized that this matter might not be groundless. An important reason for the Mongols' eastward expedition to Japan was that it was said that Japan was extremely rich during the shogunate period. The "Old Book of Tang" recorded that "Wakoku offered gold, amber, and agate. The amber was as big as a bucket, and the agate was as big as a five-bucket vessel." Moreover, during the Tokugawa shogunate, small departments such as the Edo North and South Towns had tens of thousands of taels of gold, not to mention the shogunate itself. The shogunate had such strong financial resources, where did these assets go?
But no one expected that after such a long time, the Japanese Tomoyoshi Mizuno actually found this batch of hidden gold!
This Mizuno Tomoyoshi was the adopted son of Nakajima Kōto, a servant of Kosuke Uenosuke. Before his death, Nakajima Kōto told him that the gold of the Tokugawa shogunate was hidden in Akagi Mountain, and the treasure point was related to the ancient well. So Mizuno Tomoyoshi began to believe in finding the gold in Akagi Mountain. He sold his property to raise 160,000 yen and began to investigate the inside story of the treasure. He learned that on January 14, 1866, 30 samurai hired 700 to 800 people suddenly appeared in Tsukudahara, transporting 220 extremely heavy oil barrels and 300 bundles of heavy objects. They stayed here for nearly a year. They divided the work secretly, and many of the parties involved were death row prisoners of the shogunate. After the work was completed, they were killed to silence them. Later, in May 1890, Mizuno Tomoyoshi dug out a pure gold statue of the Tokugawa family from 30 meters underground to the north of a well. It is speculated that the gold statue was buried as the underground guardian of tens of millions of taels of gold. Soon, three gold plates that Mizuno Tomoyoshi believed to be the map of the buried treasure were dug out from under the foundation of a temple, but no one could understand the mystery they contained. Later, Mizuno Tomoyoshi discovered a giant man-made stone turtle. But they could not connect them with the hidden gold. At this time, a famous Japanese Feng Shui family called Jiujiu School lent a hand and helped them solve the mystery and successfully found the legendary Tokugawa Shogunate's hidden gold. It is said that on the day the hidden gold was discovered, Mizuno Tomoyoshi was surprised and said: "I thought that all the gold and jewelry in the world were concentrated in this palace." Two of his workers were so surprised that they convulsed and died on the spot, and six had a heart attack and almost died (this reminded Sun Gang of an extremely "classic" skit in the "Spring Festival Gala" in later generations).
After discovering the hidden gold, Mizuno Tomoyoshi was afraid that the news would leak and bring about his own death, so he dared not make it public. Until Japan was defeated in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, people's livelihood was in decline, and it was faced with the double crisis of paying huge reparations and overseas debts. Mizuno Tomoyoshi donated all the hidden gold to the country. When the Meiji Emperor of Japan learned about it, he was overjoyed and personally conferred the title of "noble" on Mizuno Tomoyoshi, calling him Japan's "national hero" and "first righteous citizen". Thanks to the gold, the Japanese successfully survived the crisis.
As for how much gold there was, the Meiji government of Japan kept it highly confidential and outsiders could not know, but Chen Zhijian said that it was more than enough to pay the reparations and repay the debts.
After finding out what had happened, Sun Gang felt both amused and helpless.
If Hollywood directors knew about this, they could probably make a blockbuster movie, right?
If the Japanese recover, I'm afraid the Chinese people's nightmare will begin again!
He was now wondering if he could find some other fault with the Japanese and give them a beating.
However, the current situation in Qing China made him give up this idea.
It is better to build the "Long Yang" battleship first and make it truly combat-ready before we talk about it.
After the modification of the "Armed Yacht" "Oriental Princess" was completed , Ma Yue began to find ways to recruit crew members. Sun Gang recruited a group of sailors and gunners in the south through Lin Guoxiang, and asked French Navy Captain Robert to help train and temporarily serve as captain. The Beiyang Navy's chief instructor, Chilean Navy Colonel Martin, also asked some Chilean sailors who came to learn submarine business to join in, and finally the crew for "Her Royal Highness the Princess" was complete.
The bow of the ship also had a pair of golden dragons, but the mast was flying the Qing merchant ship flag with a red background and a round dragon pattern. The "Oriental Princess" belonged to the "Beiyang Shipping Company" and, under the command of Ma Yue, soon staged a show that stunned the Beiyang Shipbuilding Minister.
Because she was still brooding over the last merchant ship "hijacking" incident, she actually formulated a "battle plan" to "lure the snake out of its hole" in order to take revenge. That is, to let a merchant ship loaded with goods such as tea, silk, porcelain, etc. sail slowly along the route where the pirates appeared last time, pretending that it could not run fast. Of course, the pirates would rush to "accept" such a "fat sheep". At that time, the merchant ship would launch the signal rocket that had been prepared long ago, and the "Oriental Princess" following behind the merchant ship could rush up and "beat the pirates up".
Sun Gang only found out about all this after his beloved wife returned from her voyage.
When she told the officers and soldiers on the "Oriental Princess" about this plan, these people, who were already bored to death, were overjoyed to hear the order (what kind of people are they?), and immediately began to prepare, and when everything was ready, they set off according to the "plan".
The South China Sea is vast, with numerous islands and harbors. The political map is quite complicated, governed by local chieftains and European colonial authorities. As a result, pirates are rampant, often appearing on the sea, plundering merchant ships and killing businessmen on board. From Malacca, Malaya, Borneo, Sumatra, to Sulu Island and Mindanao in the Philippines, there are pirate activities everywhere, causing great harm to commercial exchanges. Since 1820, Britain has continuously sent its navy to assist the East India Company's merchant fleet to suppress it. However, due to limited military force and too large a range, it is still impossible to eliminate it. In addition, pirates often plague the southeastern coastal areas of China. Especially Macau, Hainan Island and Hong Kong, which are connected to the mainland, are the source of pirates. Local Chinese officials are almost helpless and helpless because of the corruption of the Green Camp Navy and the weak naval power. Some officials even implemented a policy of appeasement, "luring them with official positions and money" in order to keep them away from trouble , but the results were not great. When the British occupied Hong Kong, their navy took suppressing pirates as its main task. On the one hand, they investigated the islands and harbors between Hong Kong and Macao and the coast of Guangdong to the South Seas in order to understand the hiding places of pirates. On the other hand, they reached an agreement with the local authorities in Guangdong to work together to continuously strike pirates. Although considerable results have been achieved, the British Navy still needs to stay here for a long time. As a result, the British Far East Fleet (also known as the "China Fleet") has existed here for a long time, but the size of this fleet has always been limited. It was strengthened in 1890, but it was still small. Especially in this Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, they were meddling in Japan's affairs, and the military force was even more stretched. The pirates in the South Sea became more rampant, and even set their sights on ocean-going merchant ships. The last time the "Beiyang Shipping Company" encountered this was actually not the first time.
Sun Gang had no idea that the "beauty" leading the fleet would bring about a series of butterfly effects that he had never expected.
