Japan, which was well aware of China's traditional "view of the world", was fully Westernized after the Meiji Restoration. This status thus became a huge advantage in front of the Qing court: while they understood the modern diplomatic concept of the West, they were also well aware of the loopholes in the traditional "diplomatic concept" of the Qing court and the various conflicts with the modern diplomatic concept of the West. How to use this advantage to profit from the Qing court became the top priority of the Meiji government's work after the Restoration. The reason why the conquest of Korea and the seizure of the Ryukyus became so popular after the Meiji Restoration was that the Japanese were well aware of the loopholes in this regard of the Qing Dynasty.

In the Qing court, "putting it out of the way, not being able to govern the poor" was a political vocabulary under the "Tianxia View System". The Japanese were not ignorant, but they deliberately placed it under the modern "world view system" to understand it, and thus it became: the Qing court recognized that the eastern part of Taiwan was ownerless.

The impact of the negotiations was not large, but it also sparked some remarks outside the imperial court. These remarks are exactly what Japan needs. For example, half a month after the visit of the vice-island ministers, the "Declaration", which came out early under the influence of Northern Manchuria, published a manuscript signed "Lingnan Liantangsheng", which can basically represent the general opinion of most middle- and lower-class scholars at that time. "Lingnan Liantangsheng" said: "Although the area around Taiwan is the land of China, and the Taiwan government belongs to the border, it lives on the border of the island. As for Shengfan, he lives in the mainland; Although it is collectively referred to as Taiwan, it is not under the control of the Taiwan government. and gave birth to barbarians, did not know human nature, did not enter the king, and were not the people of our dynasty; What a hindrance with Middle-earth! ”

Among them, words such as "not entering the king" and "not the people of our dynasty" are exactly in line with the hearts of the Japanese. However, the original meaning of "Lingnan Liantangsheng" does not involve the issue of national borders, and all references are cultural. The two intersecting and contradictory sets of "world cognitive systems" and the different rules of the diplomatic game derived from them were easily manipulated by the Japanese government without the Qing court being aware of them.

With the unanimous foreshadowing at home and abroad, the Japanese Government urgently adopted the "Outline for the Disposal of Taiwan's Tibetan Land" and, despite the fact that the war in Hokkaido had just been extinguished, it hastened to organize an invasion of Taiwan, which was called the "Taiwan Shengfan Expedition." The focus of the "Essentials" is the "diplomatic results" achieved by the envoys of the vice-islands: "The Tufan tribe in Taiwan is beyond the reach of the Qing government. The evidence for this can be found in the books published by the Qing Dynasty, and the replies made by the Qing court officials at the time of the Qing Dynasty, which are particularly evident, and there is good reason to regard it as a terra nullius. It was the duty of the Japanese Empire to avenge the murder of the people of the Ryukyus who were part of our vassal domain, and the axiom of the Expedition can be mainly based on this. ”

Japan is about to send troops to Taiwan, but in the document to the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, Taiwan Province placed the weight of this matter after the matter of "suppressing the Changhua Liao bandits", and said: "The Peony Society belongs to the Fan Circle, and if it is suppressed from the past, it will be difficult for me to prohibit it." Although he was worried that the Japanese would entrench themselves in Fansha after the victory, the advice given was still negative: "Everything can only be calm." Naturally, this was the reaction of the Qing court that the Japanese hoped for, and the Taiwanese magistrates did not realize that the matter was related to China's territorial sovereignty in the eastern part of Taiwan.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly beyond imagination, but when the Japanese army sent a note to Li Henian, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, to Li Henian, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, he was unexpectedly counterattacked by Li Henian. Since then, Li Henian has repeatedly sent notes to Xixiang Congdao, which famously said: "The headquarters has checked the whole of Taiwan and has been under the territory of our country for a long time." Although its aborigines have the difference between raw and cooked, they have been eating wool and trampling soil for more than 200 years. …… Check the public law of all countries: All plants, animals, and inhabitants in the territory, whether they are born in the soil or from outside, should be governed by local laws. …… According to these articles, Taiwan is China's territory, and it must be subject to Chinese law, and it is not allowed to let other countries act as conspirators. The Japanese lieutenant general hereby sent a note stating that he had killed the refugees in Taiwan and was ordered to lead his troops deep into Fandi and kill the murderers as punishment. However, since the whole of Taiwan belongs to China, the Japanese government did not consult with Prime Minister Yamen on what to do, and ordered the troops to go forward, which not only violated the public law of all nations, but also did not conform to the first and second articles of the peace treaty exchanged at the previous time. ”

Li Henian's sudden toughness was due to the fact that a few people in the West were making a noise. First of all, the British ambassador to China, Wittoma, sent a letter to Prime Minister Yamen, informing the Qing court of Japan's dispatch of troops to Taiwan, and asking in the letter whether "the place where Shengfan lived was attached to the Chinese territory". Later, the British and French envoys, as well as the chief tax secretary Hurd, also went to the Prime Minister's Yamen to ask whether the place where Taiwan Sheng Fan lived was Chinese territory. Of particular importance was the fact that the British, through its envoy to China, informed China of the information that had been learned from the British ambassador to Japan, Aliko: "According to the Oriental opinion, the island of Taiwan is not part of China's territory from Dinan."

Wittoma stressed that the Qing court's determination of Taiwan's sovereignty was closely related to Britain's diplomatic attitude toward this matter. If China believes that Fandi does not belong to China's territory, the British government will not impose any restrictions on the British people to assist Japan in sending troops to Taiwan. If the Qing court determined that Taiwan belonged to Chinese territory, the British government would explicitly prohibit the British people from participating in the Japanese army's invasion of Taiwan. The views of France and the United States are broadly similar to those of the United Kingdom.

It is precisely because of such changes that the Qing court issued an edict stating: "The place of birth is under the jurisdiction of China, and Japan will not be allowed to watch it." He also sent Shen Baozhen to lead the steamship army, in the name of patrolling, to inspect the area of Shengfan in Taiwan, "quietly, the camera is prepared." Li Henian's tough note is completely consistent with the spirit of the later edict. Britain, France, and the United States also sent notes to the Qing court, expressing their dissupport for Japan's actions.

However, Li Henian obviously still did not know much about territorial sovereignty, and a later chapter in his recitals returned to the old tune of "Fandi does not belong to the boundaries" in the "Tianxia View": "However, it is easy to open up and destroy the frontier, and the hinterland of Fandi is differentiated. If you only take revenge on the Ryukyus refugees in the name of killing the Ryukyu refugees, you should follow the theory of the contract and not be silent and punished, so as not to provoke yourself. ”

This distinction between "Fandi" and "hinterland" is inevitably misinterpreted by Japan as "Fandi has no owner". Therefore, Prime Minister Yamen once again issued an edict, sternly emphasizing: "Although Fandi is deserted, it is under the territory of China, and it harms Japanese refugees. If it is said that the country is only seeking revenge with Shengfan, and does not disturb the hinterland, and then it is allowed to fight with each other, it will be despised by foreign countries, and even more coveted. The provocation is indispensable, and the system cannot be lost. The governor should only follow the theory of the covenant and prevent the return of the army, and make peace with the tun, and not let the land be different from the hinterland, and let it act arbitrarily. The concepts of "Fandi" and "hinterland" in the "Tianxia View" must be subordinated to territorial sovereignty under the "World View", which is the clearest expression of the Qing court's view that Taiwan is China's territory.

The two sides declared that after a wave, Saigo Congdao still set off with his expedition, and the Qing army, which could not be provoked to open itself, still chose restraint and actually let Xixiang Congdao land in Langqiao. The Japanese army, which had completed the military reform, fought a group of people who were just brave warriors, and naturally the imperial army had a long military fortune, and the chieftain of the Peony Society, Ashroku and his son, died on the battlefield as soon as the war began, allowing the Japanese to avenge the Ryukyu refugees. Then the Japanese army began to stink and shameless mode, and established the Governor's Office with Guishan as the center, preparing to stay in Taiwan and not leave.

When the Qing government learned of the Japanese invasion of Taiwan, it immediately questioned the Japanese government and sent Shen Baozhen, the minister of shipping in Fujian, to lead an army to Taiwan. After Shen Baozhen and others arrived in Taiwan, they negotiated with the Japanese army and actively prepared for war, but they did not open fire for a long time. Because the Japanese army did not accept Taiwan's water and soil, many soldiers died of illness, and the Japanese government also knew that it could not immediately occupy Taiwan militarily, so it had to turn to diplomatic means to solve the problem.

At the beginning of June, the grass came out in the summer, and on the ninth day of October, the two sides talked again in Beijing. Japan sent Okubo Toshitsu as plenipotentiary minister to Beijing to negotiate with Prime Minister Yamen. During his visit, Okubo brought with him many experts in international law, who were ready to use international law to debate with China on the sovereignty of Taiwan's "Fandi." The talks lasted more than 40 days, and China and Japan held a total of five talks, all of which discussed the sovereignty issue of "Fandi." Okubo Toshitsu frequently invoked the "Public Law of Nations," and the Prime Minister and the ministers of the Yamen Department avoided the "Public Law of Nations" from the beginning to the end, although they did not budge an inch on the issue of sovereignty over the "land." In a note from Prince Gong to Okubo Ritsu, he said: "The Minister of the King has not been able to understand the essence of the Taixi Public Law in detail, and he does not dare to ask questions on the basis of it. Fumisho also said in the Q&A: "The "Public Law of Nations" mentioned by Okubo does not include China, and China cannot be blamed for this. ”

The Qing court forced the Japanese army to withdraw from Taiwan with both soft (negotiation) and hard (preparation for war) and preserved Taiwan's territorial sovereignty, but it was still the big loser in the incident - Japanese Secretary of the Interior Okubo Ritsu once hailed the end of the matter: "Woohoo! This sincerity is rare in ancient and modern times, and it is a great cause that has never been seen in a lifetime! This is because the Qing court signed the "Beijing Article" with Japan to conclude the matter, and there are two records that are not human words: First, "I hereby use the Taiwan Shengfan to cause harm to the Japanese subjects and others in vain, and the Japanese State originally intended to ask the question, so it sent troops to the other side to clean up the Shengfan." This is tantamount to admitting that the Ryukyu people who were killed by the Taiwanese people before belong to Japan, leaving a pretext for Japan's annexation of the Ryukyus. Second, "Japan's actions this time were originally for the sake of protecting the people, and China does not think it is not." The Qing court only asked Japan to withdraw its troops, and did not ask any questions, and it was impossible to reverse right and wrong. Moreover, the Japanese, like Guo Xing'a, took advantage of the forced withdrawal of troops to blackmail the Qing Dynasty with a full 500,000 taels of silver.

"Guys, can we start negotiating?" The contract had just been signed, and Okubo was about to go back to celebrate with joy when a lazy voice came from the lobby door.

Okubo Ritsu didn't know this guy who was dressed in a Qing official uniform but didn't have braids, but all the Qing officials below Prince Gong Yixin knew him, and this person was Luan Yu, the minister of North Manchu in Beijing. The Taiwan incident has been tossed for half a year, and North Manchurian has not said a word, and now they have suddenly appeared, and this meaning is a bit deep.