Professor Taira Toyomori was placed in a house that appeared to belong to a middle-class family in Tokyo. When Mitsui Yasuki entered, he saw Taira Toyomori talking with a young man of about 20 years old. Seeing Mitsui Yasuki walk in, Professor Taira Toyomori's expression was very serious.

Mitsui Yasuki felt this somewhat thin young man looked familiar, so he asked, "Excellency Taira, may I ask who this is?"

Taira Toyomori looked at the young man opposite him, his expression very sorrowful. Sighing, Taira Toyomori introduced him to Mitsui Yasuki, "This is Saionji Kinkazu, the grandson of Excellency Saionji."

Mitsui Yasuki recalled that this was indeed the case and was even more surprised. There was a saying before that Saionji wanted to release Taira Toyomori, but after talking, he didn't do so and continued to keep Taira Toyomori under house arrest. However, seeing the relationship between Saionji Kinmochi's grandson Saionji Kinkazu and Taira Toyomori being very close, they obviously didn't look like enemies.

At this time, Saionji Kinkazu bowed slightly to Mitsui Yasuki and took the initiative to explain, "Mr. Mitsui, my grandfather ordered me to lead the guard to protect Professor Taira Toyomori's safety. The situation is turbulent at this moment, so I took Mr. Taira away from the place of house arrest for protection first."

Mitsui Yasuki then understood why Taira Toyomori and Saionji Kinkazu looked so friendly. He couldn't help asking, "Where is Excellency Saionji?"

"I heard that my grandfather has already gone to the Palace," Saionji Kinkazu answered with a somewhat gloomy expression.

Mitsui Yasuki was stunned. Saionji's purpose in entering the Palace was definitely not because the old man suddenly missed the Emperor and went to visit. Even Saionji Kinkazu received a warning, which could only prove that Saionji Kinmochi knew this matter was definitely not as simple as a simple military remonstrance.

To what extent would things develop? The reason Mitsui Yasuki came was that he knew Ishiwara was going to cause trouble. Because he wasn't sure how big Ishiwara was going to make it, he relied on his relationship with Ishiwara to request a meeting with Taira Toyomori. Nervous at this moment, he wanted to ask questions urgently.

Taira Toyomori let Mitsui Yasuki and Saionji Kinkazu sit on the tatami in the living room before asking Mitsui Yasuki, "I wonder what advice Mr. Mitsui has for coming here?"

Mitsui Yasuki immediately answered, "I have read Lord Taira's great work repeatedly and admire Lord Taira's bold vision very much. Japan's current economy has stagnated. The Imperial family, government, students, workers, and farmers are all suffering deeply because of the economic recession and stagnation. If Japan is compared to a corporation (Kabushiki Gaisha), this corporation has reached the time for bankruptcy and liquidation due to poor management.

I also believe that since it has reached bankruptcy and liquidation, it should be like what Lord Taira wrote, using China's experience for asset restructuring. But a country is not a corporation. When a corporation reaches this point, removing shareholders, selling and auctioning assets, and adjusting business direction can be done just by shareholder voting. If a comparison must be made, this corporation is where grassroots members rise up to overthrow the corporation's shareholders; conflict is inevitable. National domestic conflict will be thousands or tens of thousands of times more intense than conflict in a corporation's board of directors."

Taira Toyomori didn't answer because he knew very well that Mitsui Yasuki hadn't voiced his worry yet. The words were on the tip of Mitsui Yasuki's tongue but couldn't come out, so he had to fall silent. At this time, none of the three people in the room spoke. Only the biting north wind outside the window could be heard. Mitsui remained silent for a while before continuing, "I wonder to what extent the situation will go?"

"Kinkazu-kun, it's a bit cold in the room. Let's start the fire," Taira Toyomori ordered Saionji Kinkazu.

There are many ways to heat Japanese houses. A relatively common one is to build a fire pit in the tatami and burn charcoal in it for warmth. And there is often a stand over this fire pit for boiling water and cooking. This residence was designed this way. There was firewood in the fire pit. Saionji Kinkazu quickly lit the fire. The firewood crackled, and heat began to radiate. Mitsui Yasuki felt a little warmth.

"Mitsui-kun, listen to the wind. I'm afraid there will be a blizzard." Taira Toyomori reached out to warm himself by the fire and gave an answer calmly.

Mitsui Yasuki couldn't help shuddering. He originally thought it was a military remonstrance, that is, 'cleansing the monarch's side' (Qing Jun Ce) that had appeared in history. Ishiwara would arrest the 'treacherous ministers' and imprison them, killing those who should be killed and locking up those who should be locked up. Afterwards, grasp power and implement the policies explained in the "Outline for Japan's Future Reformation". But listening to Taira Toyomori's meaning, the intensity of this time would far exceed such an ordinary scale.

Mitsui forcibly suppressed the unease in his heart and continued to probe, "Will the blizzard be as big as in the Bakumatsu era?"

Taira Toyomori looked quietly at the burning flames. After watching for a while, he looked up. "Mitsui-kun, do you think the current Japanese politics has changed much from the Bakumatsu era?"

Mitsui Yasuki heard the bloody scent implied in Taira Toyomori's elegant words, but Mitsui found he wasn't too afraid. Perhaps because he had carefully read the process of the Chinese revolution, Mitsui understood the intensity of land reform and the landlords' resistance very well. Japan has many people and little land, so there is a strong obsession with land. As long as nothing major happens, the family's land must be passed down to one's heir.

Different from China's history of land trading for over a thousand years, allowing land trading in Japan was a policy after the Meiji Restoration. Before the Meiji Restoration, land belonged to the government and was planned very meticulously according to land characteristics. Lords owned the land, samurai were loyal to lords, and stipends were calculated in rice. The so-called million-koku daimyo and hundred-thousand-koku daimyo referred to the grain output on their territories. Farmers on the land only belonged to the land; there were no yeoman farmers like in China.

In the "Outline for Japan's Future Reformation", the policy of nationalizing land did not particularly conflict with traditional Japanese politics. And distributing land to the people for cultivation met the aspirations of Japanese farmers even more. However, the land reform policy was destined to provoke fierce resistance from landlords. Once the situation reached this point, it would not just be purging the upper class, but purging Japan.

Thinking of this, Mitsui Yasuki didn't even dare to deduce further, but asked, "May I ask Lord Taira, who will be destroyed by the blizzard?"

Taira Toyomori answered calmly, "Perhaps Japan's 3,000-year national polity and the old systems of over 1,000 years will all be destroyed."

At this time, the wind suddenly tightened, blowing the eaves to emit a sound like a wolf's howl, making Mitsui Yasuki's scalp tingle.

There were temporarily no soldiers patrolling outside the window, but outside the house where Taira Toyomori was temporarily staying, squads of soldiers on the streets were advancing towards various places. The north wind was biting, blowing the hems of the soldiers' uniforms to sway constantly. But these didn't stop the soldiers from continuing to advance. More than ten minutes later, the wind lessened a lot, and snow began to fall from the sky. At first, they were hard snow pellets the size of rice grains, rustling on military caps. A few minutes later, snowflakes the size of half a fingernail began to drift down towards the ground.

In front of the gate of the Tokyo Police Station, police officers had built waist-high barriers with sandbags. The police closed the big iron gate of the Tokyo Police Station, holding rifles and squatting behind the barriers built of sandbags, aiming at the iron fence and the road outside the iron gate.

As footsteps approached from far to near, a squad of soldiers ran onto the street. But the soldiers didn't get too close. Stopping at a position less than a hundred meters from the Tokyo Police Station, the soldiers huddled in the darkness, but the police already felt the oppression that the other side was ready to launch an attack at any time.

Before long, a person stepped forward. Holding a megaphone in his hand, he approached the gate of the police station and shouted loudly to the police inside the gate, "Police gentlemen, we are the 3rd Company of the 4th Battalion of the Japanese Revolutionary Army. We are ordered to take over the Tokyo Police Station now. Police gentlemen, your job is to maintain public order. And what threatens Japan now are the current powerful elites. Only by solving them can Japan be saved. So, I request you gentlemen, as police officers, to lay down your weapons for the long-term peace and stability of Japan. Your enemy is not us, and our enemy is not you. So, may I ask gentlemen, are you willing to accept our request?"

The police looked at each other. Now the Tokyo Police Station was actually approached by a separate army unit to persuade surrender; this in itself meant too many things.

Responsible for Tokyo's security was the Imperial Guard Division.

The term "Konoe" (Imperial Guard) originated from the Nara period. The "Konoe-fu" guarding the Imperial Palace in the Nara period was its etymological origin. During the Meiji period, the Goshinpei (Imperial Guard) recruited from the three domains of Satsuma (now southern Kyushu), Choshu (now Yamaguchi Prefecture), and Tosa (now Kochi Prefecture) to overthrow the Shogunate and rebuild imperial power was the predecessor of the Imperial Guard Division. In 1872, the Goshinpei was renamed the Konoe troops. On December 14, 1891, the Imperial Guard Division was born.

The personnel of the Imperial Guard Division came from the four regimental districts of Hongo, Utsunomiya, Sakura, and Mito. Since the Taisho era, infantry and cavalry were recruited from the whole country, while artillery, engineers, and transport troops were drawn from the elites of the divisional districts in the Kanto region (the 1st and 14th Divisions). To protect the Imperial Palace, excellent soldiers had to be selected as much as possible to form the Imperial Guard Division. Therefore, soldiers assigned to the Imperial Guard Division were also seen by the world as high-class troops. If there were relatives serving in the Imperial Guard Division nearby, the family would feel like "when a man gets to the top, all his relations get there with him," not to mention that sense of pride.

Having such an identity also meant huge responsibility. The Imperial Guard Division was one of the seven earliest divisions established in Japan. As the Emperor's forbidden army, it had long borne the responsibility of guarding the Imperial Palace's safety. Therefore, the Imperial Guard Division, possessing four infantry regiments, had long been stationed in Tokyo. The Imperial Guard Division was not only strictly trained, but its military discipline was also extremely strict.

Now that the 'rebel troops' were moving freely in Tokyo, at least it proved that the Imperial Guard Division was powerless to implement the defense of the entire Tokyo. That is to say...

"Police gentlemen, 30,000 troops have already arrived in Tokyo, ready to engage in battle at any time. Before the battle, we must ensure the occupation of the police station. If you police gentlemen are unwilling to lay down your weapons, we can only begin to launch an attack!" The revolutionary army outside continued to persuade.