"beep!"

With the sound of a flute, the Fuxiang passenger ship slowly entered the port under the towing ship and docked on a berth at the passenger terminal. The shore of this berth was filled with colorful flags, and a large banner was hung at the docking place of the passenger ship, with the words "Celebrating the successful voyage of the Fuxiang passenger ship". At this time, the side of the Fuxiang passenger ship was also crowded with guests to watch the port.

It turned out that the Fuxiang passenger ship was an offshore passenger ship built by Qingdao Shipyard. It has a displacement of 3,500 tons, a speed of 12 knots, can carry 500 passengers, and has 100 rooms. It can also carry 800 tons of cargo, which can be driven under level 6 sea conditions. I just walked back and forth from Shanghai and completed my first voyage. If this voyage is not a major accident, I will go directly from Tianjin to Shanghai next time.

At this time, a group of young people gathered on the side of the second floor of the passenger ship, about 7 or 8 people, all between 2 and 30 years old, all wearing foreign clothes, short hair, and untied braids. They were pointing and talking, looking quite excited.

"Startair, it seems that the overseas Chinese are indeed a bit of a road. They only look at the busy scenes of this port, but they are orderly and have a lot of people but not complicated, busy but not messy. Although they cannot be compared with large ports like Tokyo and Osaka, their civilized atmosphere is almost the same."

"Yes, just looking at this port, it does look like a modern city. It seems that we will definitely gain a lot when we come to Qingdao this time. I just don't know what kind of Chinese overseas are."

"I don't think it's a conclusion yet. It's just a port. If we look at the prosperity and order, the ports in Shanghai and Guangzhou may not be much different."

The man who spoke before shook his head and said, "The ports in Shanghai and Guangzhou are all in the concessions and are managed by foreigners. The ports under the Qing court have had such a look. Although my eyesight is not good, I also saw that the deacons on the shore are all Chinese and Chinese. Therefore, this alone shows that the extraordinary Chinese overseas are."

Another person laughed and said, "Yes, Mr. Xia is still honest and generous, and will never make pretentious words. Hey! Where is Mr. Xia? Why didn't he come out? It's almost time to get off the boat."

"Mr. Xia, Mr. Huang, Mr. Xu, and Mr. Qiu are still talking in the cabin. He said, "Let's not rush to get off the boat, wait for a while on the boat, and we will move again after the other guests have got off the boat. Then, people will naturally come to pick us up at the dock."

After hearing this, the others felt relieved and continued to chat and laugh. After a while, the guests on the boat had almost finished their journey. At this time, they were in charge of goods, and only the sound of footsteps were heard. Another 3 or 4 people came to the side of the boat. The head was an old man about 50 years old, with a big body, big ears, long beard and hanging his chest. The others were also older, all at the age of 30, and there was a woman.

When the young people saw this, they all greeted him: "Mr. Xia."

It turned out that this old man was Xia Simin. At the end of 1902, he was commissioned by the East China government to go overseas to find revolutionary people who are determined to come to Shandong to work together for major events. After Xia Simin went to the sea, he first went to Southeast Asia and visited the islands of Southeast Asia. He also made friends with some Chinese businessmen and patriots, but they were all scattered and unorganized. Moreover, the name of the East China government was not revealed, so they were not interested in the East China government.

Xia Simin traveled in Southeast Asia for more than half a year. Although the results were not great, it also increased a lot of knowledge. I also found out that there were a large number of revolutionary patriots gathered in Japan, and there were many groups formed, which was quite popular. So Xia Simin came to Japan again. As a result, he missed the Java protection campaign of the East China government.

Although he was the first to come to Japan, Xia Sichun had a wide range of interactions. Even when he was in Japan, he could get along with many people and had no worries about food and clothing. A few months later, he was introduced to him and met many revolutionaries.

In fact, when meeting revolutionaries in Japan, no one needs to introduce them, because in Japan, the actions of Chinese revolutionaries are basically completely open, not only can they gather, form associations, make speeches, organize clubs at will, and even start newspapers and magazines to publish books, and publicly promote the proposition of armed overthrow of the Qing court. Although the Qing court repeatedly protested to Japan, the Japanese government basically ignored this in the name of freedom of speech. There are also many Japanese political and business personnel who make friends with Chinese revolutionaries, and even fund revolutionaries. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that Japan was the base camp of Chinese revolutionaries at that time.

Of course, Japan is not kindly helping China's revolutionary cause, it is just a means of betting on both sides. After all, Japan and China have the same culture and knowledge of Chinese history. Many Japanese politicians believe that according to the development of Chinese history, the Qing court has actually entered the end of the dynasty and is basically unable to make a comeback. It is just that it can survive for a few years. Therefore, the revolutionaries today are likely to become important figures in the Chinese political arena in the future. It is necessary for the Japanese government to maintain good relations with well-known revolutionaries. Politicians can establish private friendships with them, and Japan will maintain sufficient influence on China in the future.

At this time, there were mainly three revolutionary groups in Japan, one was the Xingzhong Association founded by Sun Yat-sen; the second was the Huaxing Association founded by Huang Xing and Song Jiaoren; and the third was the Restoration Association founded by Cai Yuanpei, Tao Chengzhang and others.

Of course, the Xingzhonghui had the greatest influence, because although the Xingzhonghui was established in Honolulu in 1894, it established a branch in Japan in 1895, and it has developed for nearly 10 years in Japan. Moreover, Sun Yat-sen, the founder of Xingzhonghui, also had the highest personal reputation. Sun Yat-sen's personal reputation mainly comes from two aspects. First, until then, Sun Yat-sen organized the Guangzhou Uprising and Huizhou Uprising in China. Although these two uprisings ended in failure, they were in action after all, which was much stronger than other revolutionary groups that only said and did not practice.

On the other hand, Sun Yat-sen was arrested by Qing court spies in London, England and was in distress at the Chinese Embassy. At that time, the British Times and the Earth reported on this, which caused a great sensation in Europe and became a political persecution case that shocked the world. Under the pressure of public opinion, British Prime Minister Soshi Balil ordered the Chinese Embassy to release Sun Yat-sen, otherwise the ambassador to Britain Gong Zhaoyuan and a group of diplomats would be deported.

After Sun Yat-sen was released, he published the book "London's Dilemma" in English, and changed from obscurity to a world-class political exile. Therefore, this incident also became a turning point in Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary activities and became the most prestigious person in the revolutionary camp.

However, Japan did not only take in revolutionaries, but also took in and supported the reformists represented by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao. After the failure of the Reform Movement of 1898, Kang Liang and others fled to Japan under the protection of Britain and Japan. They used Japan as their base to recruit Chinese people in Japan to support themselves, promote constitutionalism in China, and oppose Cixi, and insisted that Guangxu take power and preside over the reform.

In fact, when Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao first arrived in Japan, Sun Yat-sen asked Japanese friends Miyazaki Inzo and Heiyama Zhou to show their kindness to Kang Youwei, hoping to join the revolutionary cause with Kang and Liang. However, Kang Youwei regarded himself as a loyal minister in the court and called himself a contemporary saint. At that time, Sun Yat-sen's fame was only overseas and was still an unknown person in China, so he naturally did not take Sun Yat-sen seriously and flatly rejected Sun Yat-sen's proposal. From then on, the two factions parted ways.

But at this time, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao were indeed famous people. Moreover, Kang Youwei was good at bragging. He not only regarded himself as a saint, but also dressed himself up as an imperial teacher. He also pretended that he had fled to the secret order of Guangxu to recruit soldiers to fight against the thieves and serve the king. Since the imperial power was quite authoritative in the minds of the Chinese at this time, Kang Youwei's packaging did have a lot of power among the Chinese overseas.

After they arrived in Japan, they immediately recruited a group of believers and founded the Qingyibao in Yokohama to promote their reformed constitutional propositions. Moreover, Kang and Liang were both masters of contemporary Chinese studies, with brilliant writing, clear writing, neat words and well-founded words. In this era when newspapers were the main propaganda tool, it was indeed very useful. In comparison, the articles of the revolutionaries seemed more passionate, but they were not sufficient in literature and science. Therefore, the reformists' reputation was so prosperous that they even overwhelmed the Xingzhonghui.

Later, Kang Youwei went to the United States to develop in 1899, leaving Liang Qichao to preside over the overall situation in Japan, and officially became the "Chinese Restoration Society" in Canada, also known as the "Royal Society". He also established a branch in the Americas, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, and Macau, which was even the old suppression of the China Association of China. It was very popular for a while.

However, after the Gengzi Reform, the reputation of the Qing court plummeted, and many Chinese people were completely disappointed with the Qing court. In addition, a group of revolutionaries with a deep foundation in Chinese studies came to Japan, which greatly increased the theoretical strength of the revolutionary camp. In 1903, Zhang Taiyan, a master of Chinese studies among the revolutionaries, published the "Refutation of Kang Youwei's Book on Revolution". The article was rigorous and the writing style was strong, and Kang Youwei's proposal for reform and reform was refreshingly refuted. From then on, the two sides launched a tit-for-tat debate in newspapers, which was quite similar to the debate and hype in major forums on the modern Internet. However, from the general trend, the revolutionaries began to reverse the decline, while the reformists were getting worse and worse.

On the surface, the debate between the revolutionaries and the reformists is a struggle between ideology and concepts, but in essence, both sides must strive for Chinese students and overseas Chinese in Japan. After all, the two factions basically have no foundation in China at this time. The fundraising of activity funds and the basic power of the movement must be fought for among international students and overseas Chinese. Therefore, the development space between the two sides is extremely narrow, so naturally there is a trend of incompatible water and fire.

Xia Simin came to Japan in such a general environment. Of course, for Xia Simin, it was naturally the revolutionary's proposition, and the East China government also had this proposition. Therefore, Xia Simin soon turned to the revolutionary camp and met famous figures among revolutionaries such as Sun Yat-sen, Zhang Taiyan, and Chen Tianhua.
Chapter completed!