On the morning of May 10, inside Kitakyushu Castle.

The war-torn city has returned to calm, and Japanese civilians, who had grown up in the chaos of the Sengoku period, have adapted to the war, and are now once again skilled and numb in their work.

In the night battle a few days earlier, the Choshu New Army, which had crossed the shallow Shimonoseki Strait and attacked Kitakyushu, did not destroy the port. The largest seaport in northern Kyushu is also functioning today, bringing large quantities of goods from Taiwan and the Jiangnan region into Kyushu, as well as transporting large sums of silver and gold looted from the city—money paid by the occupation forces of the Choshu Domain to order large quantities of arms in the following month.

When it was almost ten o'clock, the battleship Zhiyuan that Qian Ran and I were riding slowly sailed into the port. This time, we are here to participate in the meeting as a military representative of the Australian and Song sides. In addition to members of the National Defense Force, navy, and army, the meeting was attended by managers of many companies in Japan, the Saga, Hirado, and Choshu domains of the anti-shogunate alliance, the Ogura domain, Kumamoto domain, and Yanagawa domain in the shogunate camp, as well as a bunch of small feudal clans in the neutral camp that need no more mention. It should be noted that the Yanagawa Domain, which is currently occupied by the entire territory, is not eligible to participate in such a meeting.

The meeting was held at an Australian Song-style restaurant in Kitakyushu Castle. This hotel was opened by Japanese businessmen before the war, and after the outbreak of the war, it was occupied by the greedy and shameless Hosokawa family, and now it is natural that the property will be returned to its original owner.

Originally, His Excellency the Governor was required to attend such an important diplomatic occasion. It was only from Europe that the new commander and next governor of the Chinese Viceroyalty would arrive in Taiwan in the next few days, and Governor Qin was going to hold a welcoming ceremony in Taipei, so this time only his adjutant was appointed as a plenipotentiary.

The Governor's adjutant is surnamed Du, and his single name is the word "Zhou", and he has a relationship with me in the Governor's Palace. At this moment, Du Zhou was sitting in the same carriage with us, taking advantage of the time to finally unify our opinions.

Soon, the carriage stopped in front of the Snow Hotel. A soldier in a military uniform stepped forward, gently pulled the car door, put one hand on the top of the door to prevent us from touching our heads when we got out of the car, and saluted with one hand on his chest.

I smiled at him, got down from the right side, reached out and gently adjusted the position of the meritorious medal on my chest, and stepped on the red carpet in front of the hotel side by side with Qian Ran, and walked indoors.

At this time, Japan has entered the summer, and it is undoubtedly not a pleasant thing to wear a well-groomed and luxurious school official dress. Luckily, there are plenty of ice cube basins in the hotel, and lowering the curtain can significantly reduce the temperature.

Du Zhou led us to the conference room on the third floor and signaled to us, and then one of the waiters shouted by name: "Special envoy of the Governor of the Chinese Governor-General, Mr. Du Zhou has arrived!" ”

The mahogany door slowly opened, and Du Zhou, who was dressed in black and costume, paced into the conference room, bowed slightly to the twenty or so feudal lords who had been waiting in their seats for a long time, and then walked to the main seat and sat down with a proud attitude.

"Representative of the Wehrmacht Navy, Lieutenant Colonel Qian Ran has arrived!"

"The representative of the Wehrmacht Army, Major Li Ruchu, the son of Viscount Qingsong, has arrived!"

I bared my teeth at Qian Ran, and immediately changed into an expression that was "completely in line with the arrogance and coldness of a nobleman and a victor", and strode into the room with him, scanning around with a sharp gaze before walking to the position on the left and right sides of Du Zhou.

After we sat down, Du Zhou said lightly: "Okay, since everyone is here, let's start the meeting." ”

Outside, two attendants slowly closed the heavy door, shielding countless political transactions, light or dark, behind the door.

This meeting... Or rather, the negotiations lasted more than two hours. It was just before noon that the great meeting of all the feudal lords finally ended.

After eating a buffet on the first floor, the various feudal lords can communicate freely... However, these old foxes all know that the so-called "free exchange" is not to let themselves and the old guys get together to reminisce about the old days, but to say that "the Australian and Song officials can freely choose the object of exchange".

So they either get together with a few people with the same interests, or they simply go back to their rooms on the upper floors of the hotel and wait for a possible home visit.

Hours of negotiations, reassurance, promises and threats followed.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to my alma mater. The National Naval University North Bay, well, does invest a lot of energy and resources in exercising our diplomatic and political capabilities while focusing on developing excellent naval officers, which is very important for me and Qian Ran in this meeting. (Of course, my aristocratic dad also put a lot of effort into my family education when I was a child)

By dinnertime, the diplomats in charge of contacting the representatives of the various powers had already drafted a series of treaties. I would like to list some of the more important and representative ones for you.

The first was the treaty with Choshu Domain, a close ally of Japan: the Treaty of O-Song-Choshu Kitakyushu

Article 1: This Treaty shall take precedence. This Treaty shall prevail in respect of the provisions of treaties previously concluded between the Republic of Australia and the Choshu Domain which are inconsistent with this Treaty. Unless there is anything inconsistent with this Treaty, the Treaty previously concluded between the Parties shall remain in force.

Article 2: The Maori family is the sole legitimate ruler of the Chōshū Domain, and the Republic of Australia guarantees that the dominance of the Māori clan in the Chōshū Domain will not be shaken.

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Article 8: The Republic of Australia and Song Dynasty will provide arms to the Choju Domain at a preferential price, and will accept military personnel of the Choju Domain to study at the Jeju Army School and the Taipei Naval Academy, as detailed in Appendix I.

Article 9: The Republic of Australia and the Song Dynasty will admit the Choshu Domain to join the "Treaty of Mutual Economic Assistance of the Southwest Domains", and shall grant the Chōshū Domain the status and treatment of the "founding member domain" in accordance with the regulations.

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Article 17: The Chōshō Domain will allow the Republic of Australia and the Song Dynasty to garrison Maguan and allow the Republic of Australia and Song Dynasty to build another military port in Maguan City. Among them, this military port will not be open to the Choshu Domain. For specific garrison regulations, please refer to [Appendix II].

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Article 21: The Chōshōshō Domain shall pay a lump sum of 50,000 taels of silver (Note 1) to the Republic of Australia and the Song Dynasty for military expenses, which may be paid in the form of precious metals, agricultural, animal husbandry and fishery products, and various raw materials.

These twenty-one articles, a total of one hundred and three treaties, were later abbreviated to the "Twenty-one Articles". It was the basis for the conclusion of treaties with the southwestern feudal domains and even with the Tokugawa shogunate.

It is also worth mentioning that the Joint Declaration of the Republic of Australia, Kyushu, and Choshu Prefectures and the Treaty of the Southwest Domains, signed by Japan and the Southwest Domains, legally declared that the Tokugawa Shogunate's armed invasion of Japan's Japanese administration had come to an end. Strictly speaking, the next stage of our army's deterrence of Edo is already another war. However, in historiography, it is more regarded as a continuation of the First Song-Japanese War, and is not named the "Second Song-Japanese War".

After the signing of a series of treaties, the entire island of Kyushu and the Choshu domain in western Honshu essentially broke away from the jurisdiction of the shogunate, either voluntarily or by force, and formed an alliance called the "Southwest Domain Convention Organization" (abbreviated as "Western Alliance"). The organization will be chaired by a representative of the Republic of Australia, with the four feudal domains of Saga, Choshu, Kumamoto, and Satsuma as the founding feudal domains, and the remaining feudal domains as ordinary member feudal domains. After the establishment of the Western League, all conflicts that occurred within the member domains must be resolved peacefully within the Alliance, and the Republic of Australia and Song will supervise the implementation of this provision.

At the same time, each member vassal must carry out disarmament in accordance with the internal regulations of the alliance, and must also pay monthly military expenses to the alliance's account for the formation of a "Western Alliance Rapid Reaction Force" under the direct command of the presidium. Under normal circumstances, this unit will only fight against non-member domains, but will also discipline members who do not obey the alliance's rules "when necessary".

Finally, at the meeting on the establishment of the Western League, the representatives of the feudal clans expressed that they would abandon their past grievances and unite together under the banner of the alliance with Australia and Song as the core, and strive to build a prosperous, strong and harmonious advanced region in Japan... In addition, all the feudal domains at the meeting agreed to make the Shikoku region the main direction of conquest after the war, and to strive to liberate the people of Shikoku as soon as possible, which was brutally ruled by the shogunate.