Chapter 308 Uninteresting Voyage and Interesting People
An ocean liner sailing from San Francisco to Yokohama crosses the Pacific at a speed of less than 20 knots and takes a full two months at sea.
The second-class cabins are not luxurious, but compared to the pigeon cages below the waterline specially prepared for the poor, they can barely be called clean and elegant.
Even so, there are only a few hundred rooms on the Siberia, and most of the people living there are the backbone of society: doctors, lawyers, scholars, writers, and small and medium-sized businessmen.
The class reflected on this ship reflects the harsh social environment of the nineteenth century.
The first-class cabin is specially prepared for hereditary nobles, wealthy businessmen and bankers, and high-ranking officials and dignitaries from various countries. People who do not have a certain social status are not allowed to board. More than 80% of the entire cruise ship's supplies are specially prepared for just a few dozen guests: those who are not easy to carry and occupy a considerable amount.
A large area of fresh vegetables and fruits, various raw materials for making exquisite snacks, a wide variety of drinks, and even the most precious fresh water on the ship were allowed to be squandered by this group of people.
The limited space on the ship has been specially opened up for such noble guests, such as dance halls, bars, and fitness rooms, which have no practical use.
They can go anywhere on the ship anytime and anywhere. Even if they meet first-class passengers who are always aloof, even if they occasionally meet second-class passengers, they will treat them with the same reserved attitude towards servants and use polite but cold words.
Be approachable yourself.
As for the group of third-class passengers at the bottom? Sorry, within the limited time and space provided for ordinary people, it is basically impossible to meet them.
Compared to third-class passengers whose environment is slightly better than stowaways, those holding second-class tickets will also receive preferential treatment from the cruise company. After all, they are the largest contributors to profits, and they are also ambitious and have a certain grasp of social discourse.
rising class of power.
There are restaurants, activity rooms, and bars specially prepared for them on the deck to help them spend the long and boring sea journey.
This class is also the most interesting group of people in the whole ship. They despise the nobles as idle social worms, and at the same time they are extremely envious. They are proud to imitate their upper-class masters in every word and deed, and they wish they could replace them in the next second.
Complete class jump;
They look down on those mud-legged commoners, but they do not reject communicating with them. The essence is to demonstrate their sense of superiority and to discern whether there are business opportunities for them to exploit;
They are filled with bragging, lying and deception at all times. No matter whether they are wives or husbands, they are trying their best to maintain their real or false dignity.
But there are many motivated young people among them who are eager to use their skills to seek opportunities, change their own destiny, or change the destiny of the country, and even say goodbye to a comfortable and comfortable life and travel across the ocean to refine themselves.
In the bar specially set up for the second-class cabin, there is a group of Japanese young people, talking loudly among the crowd of mostly foreigners, and they seem to be very eye-catching. They are either sent by the government for inspections, studying abroad, or on business trips.
, and by chance, participated in this journey of integrating into the advanced civilization of the current world.
From Europe to the Americas, they were enlightened by civilization and technology. After seeing the appearance of a truly powerful country, they became increasingly dissatisfied with Japan today and were eager to use their knowledge to make changes.
The long sea journey gave this group of young people the best environment for ideological collision and made many like-minded friends. However, due to their background and what they had learned, their ways of solving problems were obviously different.
One group believes that since the Meiji Restoration, Japan should learn from the world hegemon, Britain, and that the constitutional monarchy is the most perfect system in the world. What Japan currently lacks is undoubtedly forcing the emperor to give up power and completely return power to the government. Only in this way can it be possible to rise up and join forces.
Join the ranks of world powers;
Of course the other group thinks this is treason!
The policy of "returning great power" has been less than ten years old. Is it necessary for the emperor to give up his power in order to cultivate a new generation of shogunate?
What's more, Emperor Meiji was wise and powerful, and assisted by heroes such as Omura, Katsumoto, Kido, Ito, etc., he would be able to transform from a third-rate city-state into a first-rate empire like Germany. This is the path that is most suitable for Japan today.
The two groups had been arguing endlessly since the day they boarded the ship, and even fought several times. Not only did they not give up until more than half the voyage was over, but they each began to lobby the mature and prudent "neutralists" on the ship to show the correctness of their own ideas.
The young man in front of Kazuyo Sorayama was obviously one of them.
"Sir, I take the liberty of interrupting you, but please listen to the next words." This young man is very tall, almost as tall as Sorayama Ichiye. His body shape, posture, steps and breathing show that this man has a very smart body.
Judging from his martial arts skills and the valuable woolen coat and silk scarf he wore, he was obviously a wealthy child from a great samurai family.
He didn't care about Kazuha Sorayama's seemingly indifferent look, and said to Kazuha Sorayama who was blowing the wind on the deck with a look that seemed to be born with arrogance and excitement: "I have been observing for a long time, and you almost never stop in the bar, except for a short time in the restaurant.
When dining, you can just sit on the long deck and look into the distance. Don’t you feel lonely during the long journey?”
Kazuyo Sorayama seemed to be listening but didn't seem to pay attention to the young man at all. He just stood quietly on the deck and let the sea breeze blow.
The young man frowned, but after thinking for a while, he still mustered up his energy and said: "Your Excellency must be a well-informed person. Is it possible that if the emperor is allowed to do whatever he wants and the nobles exploit the people, Japan will continue to be ignorant and regarded as barbarians by Europeans and Americans.
?Why not join the team of people with lofty ideals and seek a future for the country and the people!"
"Not interested." Sorayama Kazuyo said stiffly.
The young man's face turned red. Even if Sorayama Kazuyo refuted it, he would not be so angry. This attitude of doing nothing if it had nothing to do with him was very similar to the gang of husbands and ministers in his hometown. It was the group of society that he hated the most.
moth.
"Shouldn't Japan's constitutional government be based on the freedom and autonomy of all citizens? But look at the present moment, the emperor is high and powerful, Omura is arrogant and domineering, the title of public minister has been abolished, but the Chinese are still the same people, and the common people are still untouchables
, do you think it’s fair?”
The young man stood on the deck waving his arms, and the silk scarf on his chest was blown like a flag by the ocean wind, looking as powerful as a rainbow.
But what made the young man ashamed and angry was that the man opposite had a normal expression, which gave him the illusion that "no matter how violent the storm is, it cannot blow the tip of the iceberg."
Ichiyo Sorayama retracted his gaze from the distance, glanced at the young man slightly, and said coldly: "It has nothing to do with me."
After saying that, he stood up and left - he was far less interested in what the young man said than in studying the best way to fight against the body rhythm caused by the ocean, sea wind, and sea ships.
In Sorayama Kazuyo's half-dead heart, the general trend of the world, the prosperity of the country, and the happiness of the people have nothing to do with him.
In this world, he is just a poor man with no country, no home, no friends, and even no past. He is just like a lonely boat in the ocean, drifting without any support, and how can he save others!
What's more, he hates conspirators who use big words and big principles to force the will of others. He didn't kick this young man into the sea because of his outstanding martial arts skills, so how could he join them?
Break things.
"Hey! Are you a cold-blooded animal?" The young man chased Sorayama Kazuyo and scolded him.
"Idiot." Sorayama Kazuha said in a deep voice, his tone was not a rebuke, but a statement of a fact.
The young man was so angry that he ran to Kazuyo Sorayama. His left hand involuntarily went to his waist, but the only response was the thick feel of the woolen coat. He was stunned for a moment, and couldn't help clenching his fists and accusing loudly: "Don't forget you.
The comfortable life now is your country, brought to you by all Japanese people! The ungrateful people do not deserve to enjoy it!"
Kazuyo Sorayama paused, squinted his eyes, and said in a low and hoarse voice: "If you have a knife at your waist, do you have to draw it and kill it?"
"So what?" Although the young man was secretly ashamed of his impulsiveness, he still shouted unwilling to admit defeat.
"If you can't convince the other party, do you have to deprive the other party of their right to live? If you throw a 'Tenchu' on me afterwards, even if you are doing justice to heaven, it seems that you and your predecessors have still made no progress after all these years." Sorayama Kazuyo said in a tone of voice.
There is no slight fluctuation, but the irony expressed in the words will make anyone blush.
It can be seen that after so many years, Kazuyo Sorayama's taunting skills that point directly at people's hearts have not become less powerful as his body has weakened, but have become more difficult to resist because of the vicissitudes of life.
Kazuyo Sorayama has no special dislike for this kind of passionate young man. After all, in the movie world where he spent the longest time in his life, there was a similar young man. Although he was not as sharp-tongued as the guy in front of him, he had a cold-faced style.
It was far beyond the reach of this hot-blooded idiot who wanted to draw a knife and kill someone.
"You bastard! How can those rebellious people deserve to be my seniors!" The young man was so angry that he took a step forward with his left leg and stretched his right hand forward, intending to grab Kazuyo Sorayama by his collar. Judging from his hand and foot skills, he was obviously quite good at jujitsu.
Divine essence.
In several fights, the young man's "Floating" move had made countless people suffer. Now he used this move, obviously because he wanted to throw Kazuyo Sorayama to the ground and severely humiliate him.
Sorayama Kazuyo couldn't help but laugh. Seeing the martial arts that made him familiar finally relieved his loneliness a little, and then the slight displeasure of this young man disturbing his purity also magically disappeared.
He raised his right hand and right leg at the same time, quietly tapped the inside of the opponent's left leg with his right knee, grabbed the opponent's sleeve with his right hand, and pulled down along with the opponent's forward thrust, while letting the opponent pass.
, knocking the heel back, hitting the opponent's knee.
I saw that the young man's forward momentum suddenly turned into falling, his knees softened, and he knelt down behind Kazuyo Sorayama.
The young man knelt on the spot blankly, as if he had not recovered from the brief shock. After a few breaths, he clasped the deck with his hands and ten fingers, lowered his head and panted violently. How could he have been so humiliated in such a long life? In the eyes of the young man,
There seemed to be tears flowing.
"There is something new about the underworld. Judging from your age, it seems that you have put in a lot of hard work. Using martial arts and violence cannot solve any problems. If you brought a knife today, you would be dead now. Don't bother me again in the future.
"
Ichiyo Sora's figure disappeared on the deck with the sound, but the young man still knelt on the spot and did not get up for a long time.