The ancestor said coldly: "But the Qing Dynasty also began what you mentioned in the Westernization Movement. Just like in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the imperial court ordered the powerful people from all over the country to recruit troops and form rebels to quell the rebels. Then the regiments you mentioned trained armed forces, quelled rebellions everywhere, and accumulated a large amount of wealth looted from the war, allowing them to train new troops, purchase Western weapons, and even set up factories to carry out industrial production like Western countries. Even large warships, they can go to Western countries thousands of miles away to purchase. In the British naval academies, did not the naval officers from the Qing Dynasty met Japanese naval officers? This shows that the two countries are purchasing warships from abroad at the same time."

Liu Yu nodded and said, "Yes, you're right. Moreover, the warships bought by the Qing Dynasty were stronger, larger, and more artillery than those of Japan. Because the Qing Dynasty had a strong national strength and a large population, and taxes were also because these regiments and ministers directly managed the local area. If they were engaged in the Westernization Affairs Office, they would use the money for industry and arms. They did not use the money for their families and descendants like the landlords and nobles of the previous generations. They would rather use the money and grain from all warehouses to rot than to enrich the country and strengthen the army."

"After all, after experiencing that swept across the country, these Westernization ministers, or the leaders of the regiment training, also understood that if the country was destroyed, then they and their families would not be beneficial. Either the rebellious people or the invading powers took everything away. Just like the aristocratic families of the Eastern Jin Dynasty now know that once the northern barbarians head south and invade and destroy the country, all their glory and wealth, and even the survival of their families, will be lost!"

"At that time, the Qing Dynasty was also facing a similar situation. Western powers opened their doors and forced the opening of trade ports. At that time, it was perhaps because of insufficient troops, or because they were too far apart, that millions or tens of millions of immigrants could only choose to cooperate with the Qing Dynasty and temporarily preserve the upper rulers of the Qing Dynasty."

"But from the perspective of their conquered colonies over the past few hundred years, large-scale immigration, ethnic changes, and system changes were sooner or later. Even at that time, by importing Western religions, they began to instill various ideas that were completely different from Chinese Confucian culture in the Qing Dynasty, such as God's love and equality of all living beings, denying the authority of the king and denying the hierarchy of the Confucian Zhou rituals, in order to make the land of China fall into turmoil, chaos and division from then on. Only chaos and division, like the Central Plains land where the eight hundred princes divided the world during the Zhou Dynasty, without a unified and powerful central court, was able to facilitate foreign enemies to defeat each one and invade them in pieces."

"So these Western Ministers are relatively clear-headed. The previous rebellion was also launched by local tyrants who borrowed the name of God and Western gods. Since the Western powers had defeated the Qing army on the battlefield before, these tyrants advocated that the West was advanced and powerful, and that God was destined to conquer China, so that all Chinese people could live a good life. They also said that Chinese traditional Confucianism, Zhou Li, are heresy, and the doctrines used by the Qing rulers as demons, as well as the Central Plains rulers of the previous dynasties, used to oppress and enslave the Chinese people."

"Where the rebellion reaches, not only did the officials and soldiers of the Qing Dynasty kill, but almost all the schools and Confucian private villas were destroyed, and almost all the ancient Chinese books were burned. This made the Qing Dynasty's aristocrats believe that these rebels who borrowed foreign theories and religions were to systematically destroy the entire Chinese culture and destroy the values ​​of the Central Plains civilization for thousands and tens of thousands of years. Before the invasion of the powerful Western leaders, they should first use these agents to complete the task of civil war and division in China."

"This is also the reason why the ministers and officials of the Westernization Party have a worry about the country and the people. They want to reform and strengthen the country through the Westernization Movement. Only by protecting their home and country, maintaining the values ​​of the Central Plains for thousands of years, and making China a dynasty a whole can they have generations of wealth. Otherwise, if the Western regime has allowed China to be cultivated and re-cultivated, just like the governors and upstarts in other colonies, they may even be extinct and replaced by the entire Chinese race. In terms of ideological cognition, they will fully accept the Western powers and become slaves who will always be under their feet, just like the people in Western colonies."

The ancestor sighed: "So, these Western powers are actually the same as the ghost invasions back then. They want to occupy and eliminate the entire China. However, they are temporarily insufficient to conquer such a huge Qing Dynasty. They can only take their time. Faced with such a threat, the Qing Dynasty launched the Westernization Movement, and Japan carried out the Meiji Restoration. They all wanted to reform and strengthen, thinking of learning the technology of Westerners and compiling new troops, which can defend their country, right? But did Japan learn the Western constitutional monarchy even in the political system? They should have completely abandoned the Confucianism, military merit system, and shogunate system that they learned from the Han and Tang dynasties."

Liu Yu shook his head and said, "Japan is actually just a layer of Western skin. It is still the shogunate Han and Tang dynasties. After defeating the shogunate, they created a department called the Military Department. This department is responsible for external wars, and internally, it is a large-scale military academies to train a bunch of familiar with modern wars, able to skillfully use Western weapons, and combined with the characteristics of Japan to establish Japanese corps and troops. In the later stage, they could produce various advanced weapons by themselves, from planes flying in the sky, armored chariots driven on the ground, to various guns and cannons, turning Japan into a war machine. Almost all citizens are engaged in war-related matters."

The ancestor said coldly: "The whole people are just soldiers. It's not surprising that the Han Dynasty they learned, or the Tang Dynasty you mentioned, must be this model. During the pre-Qin and the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the last few major powers were like this. They just used the ancient Chinese system to later generations. In fact, isn't this what you, Liu Yu, wanted to do? Build the entire Eastern Jin Dynasty into a machine dedicated to war in the name of the Northern Expedition, so that every ordinary citizen obeys your will to the Northern Expedition. What's the difference between it and this Japan?"
Chapter completed!