Volume VIII 1244 Memories of Taiwan

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When it comes to the island of Taiwan in the mid-19th century, you can't go around one person, and he is Shen Baozhen, the Harbour Master who had just fainted.

In real history, when Japan began to implement its overseas expansion plan after the Meiji Restoration, their first step was to eat the Ryukyus, abolish the Ryukyu national ancestry, and make the Ryukyus a prefecture in Japan.

Immediately afterwards, their eyes went south and focused on the fat of Taiwan, which led to the later Peony Society incident. Under the pretext that the fishermen of the two Ryukyu fishing boats were killed by the Takayama tribe in Taiwan, the Japanese government began to plan to send troops, and the general who led the troops was Saigo Takamori's younger brother, Saigo Congmichi.

Speaking of the Peony Society incident in 1871, there are indeed a lot of historical secrets in it, and the Japanese militarists at that time generally had two different strategic plans for the direction of the war.

One is the famous theory of conquest of Korea, which everyone knows very well, that is, to use South Korea as a springboard to attack the opposite mainland. Another strategic plan has a slightly smaller number of supporters, and that is the theory of the conquest of Taiwan, which is supported by the Saigo brothers, including the Kyushu forces.

These two strategic directions are actually a split within Japanese militarism, and even from these two arguments there has been a contradiction between the Japanese army and navy for a century, and even the 226 Mutiny in the later period is a kind of continuation of this ideological conflict.

Should we follow the national policy of invading the mainland or should we follow the British policy of colonizing the great seas overseas? This is a very serious question, which involves the direction of the entire Japanese nation and the innumerable investment of resources.

Facts have proven that in this world, there has never been a country that can be completely independent from the outside world, and it is impossible for any country's national policy not to be interfered with by external forces.

In the collision of these two currents of thought, the European powers, represented by Britain, resolutely supported Japan's theory of conquering Korea, because Britain has been a country with maritime interests supreme since ancient times, and they naturally have to restrain the mainland powers, and the more the mainland powers are, the more they will make the other side chaotic.

The South, which provoked a Franco-Prussian war in Europe, supported the civil war in North America, and even instigated Mexico and the United States to fight each other. Not to mention containing Tsarist Russia, Britain was able to join forces with France to send an army for a decisive battle in order to teach Tsarist Russia a lesson, which shows how strong the British are against the continental powers.

The same is true for dealing with Asia, the Qing State cannot be too strong, and it is in the interests of the British to have wars frequently, including civil wars or something.

In fact, the same is true of the 21st century that Xiao Letian has crossed over, European civilization wishes that the Chinese civil war will be fought as fiercely as possible, and the more chaotic other regions, the more beneficial it will be to their own economy.

In fact, it is not necessarily an attempt to invade China's land, sometimes messing you up, but just trying to force China's capital out, to a safe haven, and to force it under their wing.

At that time, Britain supported the theory of conquest of Korea, and even supported Japan in the First Sino-Japanese Naval War, which had deep strategic considerations for major powers, and this really had nothing to do with morality.

However, the two Saigo Congdao brothers actually went against the British, and actually put forward a theory of going south to conquer Taiwan! They also planned the Peony Society incident, and they were about to start taking action, which made the British very unhappy.

At that time, the British were already getting deeper and deeper in East Asia, and they could not allow Japan to go all out to develop a national policy oriented to the sea, and the golden shipping route on the high seas should be the private land of the British, and no one wanted to get a piece of the pie.

The distraught British ordered that all companies and individuals should not provide ship services to Japanese soldiers going south, no matter how high the price was paid, and not a single ship should be leased to Saigo from the province.

At the same time, Britain mobilized many politicians in Japan to start working on Saigo, hoping that he would abandon the unrealistic plan.

At that time, Saigo only recruited 3,600 soldiers, and he did not have a single ship except for two armed merchant ships that the shogunate had bought at a high price.

Saigo's army was stationed in Nagasaki to prepare for departure, but it turned out that none of the Westerners had chartered him a ship, and even the Japanese secretary of treasure, Okuma Shigenobu, chased after him every day and persuaded him to give up.

If the Westerners did not lend him ships, Japanese private ships could not sail to the sea, and the Meiji government did not agree to his plan, so it was difficult for Saigo to do it.

Just when everyone thought that Saigo would retreat in the face of difficulties, the madness peculiar to the Japanese samurai once again exerted its might, and Saigo suddenly announced, "The cessation of sending troops will affect morale, and if the government forcibly stops sending troops, I am willing to return the emperor's letter of full authorization, and go straight to the lair of Shengbo as a thief, and it will definitely not affect the country!"

If your country does not agree to my war, I will immediately break away from the army, take these more than 3,000 soldiers as pirates, and occupy Taiwan as pirates.

There is no record in history, so Xiao Letian still hasn't figured out how more than 3,600 soldiers were stuffed into two armed merchant ships, but if you don't believe it, it's really in history that the 3,000 soldiers brought by Xixiang came to Taiwan like this.

This incident is known as the 'Saigo Rampage' in history!

The Peony Society Incident took place in 1871, and Saigo's troops were sent in May 1874, after the Japanese established the Taiwan Governorate. What's even more incredible is that from the time Japan established the Taiwan Governorate and formed the Taiwan Expedition Army to the time when the artillery rang out in Taiwan, no one in the Qing Dynasty knew that this had happened.

In the end, it was the British minister Wei Tuma who took the initiative to contact the Qing government and told them that you should not be in a daze, Taiwan has been bombed by the Japanese, and the Japanese have already landed and built a castle in Guishan, why are you still indifferent?

Wei Tuoma really looked up to these people, and the Qing government was not pretending to be calm and indifferent, but they didn't know what was happening in Taiwan at all.

"Master, master, what do you want?" Xiao Letian, who was immersed in memories, was awakened by Jaechun.

"Oh, ah! nothing...... I'm thinking, if someone is secretly claiming hegemony on the island of Taiwan, or if other countries are secretly invading here, do you think the Forbidden City can know about it?"

"Huh?" Jae-chun was stunned, "how is this possible?"

Xiang Ying sneered beside him and said, "How is it impossible? Taiwan and Fujian people are forbidden to come and go without permission, and if the people want to cross the sea, they must obtain the consent of the government, and there is no telegraph line in the strait, and there is no fixed information transmission mechanism......

"What's worse is that those corrupt officials and mediocre officials are not in the mood to do practical things at all, what they want is to mix up for two days a day, as long as there is money to earn, they don't care what is happening behind the fanjie......"

Note: Today's third update is sent, and there are two more in the evening, everyone remember to refresh it! For the sake of the heart so desperate, the almighty book friends and gods!