On the grounds that the Ming Dynasty had diplomatic relations with the Ryukyus, it determined that the Ryukyus were a sovereign and independent country, and that any change in the sovereignty of the Ryukyus was regarded as an act of aggression, and that the wanton exile of a king to the capital of the country was a violation of international morality. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

As a result of the Ming statement, other countries immediately began to wait and see, and for foreigners, they did not want to see changes in East Asia affect their interests.

Ryukyu is located between China, Japan and North Korea, although the land area is very narrow, but because it is an archipelagic country, the country is a chain, so the span is very large, the most important thing is the geographical location, it can be said that the route from Japan to the south, basically have to pass through the Ryukyu Islands, then the shipping route from Europe to Japan, also have to pass through the Ryukyu Islands, this is a natural crossroads.

That's why the British wanted to get it and make it the Singapore of East Asia, because it could easily be used as a trading base for re-exports to China, Japan and North Korea, just like Singapore's role.

Therefore, I originally wanted to talk to Japan about the United Kingdom, and wanted to see the game between Japan and the Ming Dynasty first, but in order to prevent Britain from losing its right to speak from the events in this region, the British immediately expressed their concern about this and told the Japanese government that Britain did not want to see any infringement of British interests in the region, leaving an interface for future intervention, and at the same time not too directly involved. They had already intervened in the Chinese issue, suffered defeats, and in the end the Qing court and the Ming Dynasty left Britain at the same time and reached a separate agreement, and if Britain was too involved in the Ryukyu issue, and finally Japan and the Ming set aside the British, it would be another political and diplomatic defeat.

Other Western countries are looking at the attitude of the United Kingdom, and they have also expressed relevant attitudes.

The attitude of Western countries made the Ming Dynasty more reassured, and the Ming government was really worried about the direct interference of Western countries, but Zhu Jinglun was not too worried about this, because he knew very well that Japan's annexation of Ryukyu was relatively smooth in history, and for the British, they had ambitions for Ryukyu, and they had ambitions for any place in the world that had strategic value, but the reason why Ryukyu was important was mainly because of the reason that Japan's shipping route to Europe was choked. The British, who were interested in their interests, were willing to acquiesce in the annexation of the Ryukyus by Japan, and as long as the Japanese could continue to protect British interests here, they would accept it.

If the Ryukyus could become independent and not break the old order, it was clear that the British would be more acceptable. They have a vested interest in East Asian trade and are reluctant to upset the regional balance.

Therefore, the attitude of the Ming Dynasty is obviously consistent with the interests of Britain, and Japan is the role that destroys the regional balance.

For a time, the Ryukyu issue became an internal problem in East Asia, with only a few related parties, Japan and the Manchu Qing were the two major players, the Ming Dynasty belonged to the party that forcibly intervened, and the remaining party was the party with the least right to speak, that is, the Ryukyu country itself.

The attitude of the Ming Dynasty is very clear, that is, it does not support any act of destroying the peace, but this reason is not a very powerful reason, and it is obviously untenable to use this reason to start a war, Britain declared war on Germany in World War I with the German invasion of Belgium, that is because Britain has made a guarantee for Belgium's neutrality, and the Ming Dynasty has not made any guarantees to the Ryukyus, and there is no international treaty, so it is untenable in international law to declare war on Japan directly because of the Ryukyu issue.

The reasons for the Manchu Qing are sufficient.

In fact, in this matter, the most legitimate principle and jurisprudence is the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

In terms of international relations, the Manchu Qing Dynasty inherited the status of the suzerainty of the Ryukyus from the Ming Dynasty, and in order not to provoke the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, although they imitated the suzerainty system, they never dared to directly raise this banner, and it was always Satsuma, Japan's strong domain, not the Japanese government, that was responsible for contacting the Ryukyus.

Legally, then, the relationship between the Manchus and the Ryukyus was a relationship between states, a relatively powerful relationship between the suzerains and their vassals, and as long as the Manchus stood up, then there was enough reason to claim that they were responsible for the security of the Ryukyus, and that the suzerain-vassal system was linked to the relationship between the protectorates of the West.

However, the Manchu Qing Dynasty was too cowardly, and it was too sluggish, and the passing years were unfavorable, and the border was full of smoke, especially the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the south of the Yangtze River and the Russian invasion in the northwest as the primary threat, and the country also suffered the aftermath of the famine, and the remnants of the Taiping Army in the south of the Yangtze River had not been cleared, and they had not really managed the Ryukyu issue in history, and now they did not really want to manage it.

Historically, Japan took advantage of these weaknesses of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Japanese Foreign Minister Shin Inoue even ordered the Japanese consul general in Shanghai: "You should be careful to treat the Russians leniently...... Secretly made the Qing government suspect that Japan and Russia would collude with Japan and Russia if they had any urgent matters, and induced them to quickly agree to China's demands before the Ili issue was settled. ”

Japan hoped to use the leniency of the Russians to create a false impression of a Japanese-Russian alliance, and to use Russia to scare the Manchus and force the Manchus to make concessions on the Ryukyu issue.

Clearly, Japan's diplomatic ingenuity was far superior to that of the clumsy Manchu court.

However, Japan's oriental-style fraud tactics may not be able to hide from the eyes of Li Hongzhang and others, and the main reason why the Qing court gave up Ryukyu was that it did not pay attention to it and did not care.

During the period of New China, a large amount of assistance was given to some poor African countries, and at least there was a political interest in the United Nations vote, while the diplomacy of the feudal imperial system was completely the vanity of all countries coming to the court in the hearts of the emperor and scholars.

If it is said that the diplomacy of the northern steppes and even North Korea still has national security considerations, then the Ryukyu is a maritime island country, and even security issues are not considered, if the Manchu Qing Dynasty is presided over by a group of pedantic old masters, then the Manchu Qing Dynasty may still help the Ryukyus regardless of national strength, but now it is a pragmatic minister like Li Hongzhang who is presiding over diplomacy.

Li Hongzhang will definitely not start a war with Japan for the sake of false names, since the relationship with the Ryukyus in history is a face-saving relationship, then he will give up when he says that he will give up, and he will not feel any pity. Especially now that there are no conditions at all, I don't want to interfere even more, and I will make two painless protests through the Prime Minister's Yamen, and I will pull it in.

Therefore, Prime Minister Yamen only paid lip service to Japan's annexation of the Ryukyus, but in reality, did nothing at all. As far as Li Hongzhang is concerned, he has already given an explanation to those pedantic ministers in terms of face by using a fictitious method to deal with the already very virtual relationship between the vassal countries, otherwise he would not even have any interest in managing it.

But for the most direct parties, that is a big problem, the Qing court can ignore it, only verbally express its attitude, but for the Ryukyus, this is a real country, the Japanese police have controlled the Ryukyus, and the Ryukyu king's father and son have even been arrested in Tokyo.

Influenced by the 500-year-old culture of the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Ryukyuan people also had the concept and emotion of dying the country and the world, and many Ryukyuan people crossed east to China and went to Bei, the capital of the Qing court, to cry and complain.

The ministers secretly appointed by the king of the Ryukyus, his brother-in-law and brother-in-law Xiang Dehong, the purple turban official, and three others ventured to China in a small boat, and only landed in Fujian after encountering wind and waves and almost lost their lives, and then were sent to Beiqi by the Ming Dynasty.

Li Hongzhang adopted a delaying tactic on the Ryukyu issue, hoping to leave the matter for a later settlement, which has something in common with many diplomatic failures in the New China period, often not recognizing it, leaving it for the future, but the people have actually controlled the area, but they have not considered the principle of actual control in international law at all, when a people has lived in a place for 80 years, the international law bureau determines that the nation has a natural right of possession of the area.

Li Hongzhang didn't understand this, so he wanted to delay, which has a big problem that literati doctors shirk, that is, leaving difficult problems to latecomers, and as for whether latecomers have the ability to solve them, as long as they are not made in their own hands, they don't care at all.

Li Hongzhang can afford to drag it, but the Ryukyuan people can't afford to drag it, and after Xiang Dehong arrived in Beijing, he ran to the prime minister's yamen every day, and Li Hongzhang hid every day.

Chinese-style diplomacy is about a favor and a sense of decency. Although there is no explicit treaty, everyone subconsciously believes that the suzerainty has an obligation to protect the vassal state, and if the vassal state is killed, the suzerain's failure to protect it is unjust.

Historically, the Tang Dynasty sent troops to aid Silla, the Ming Dynasty sent troops to aid Korea, and the two wars with Japan were fulfilling this obligation. One of them, Tang Taizong was a famous Ming monarch, and once Wanli was a famous faint monarch, they all fulfilled this obligation, but when they arrived in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, they had to abandon it, so where did the face of the Amakusa Shangguo go?

Li Hongzhang thought that Xiang Dehong and others were too ignorant and did not understand the difficulties of Shangguo at all, but he knew in his heart that he was unreasonable, so he could only hide from it. Xiang Dehong and the others are also in a hurry, they ran out when King Shangtai was imprisoned, and they have reached a critical moment when they can no longer be critical, where can they afford to wait.

In the absence of other ways, they began to kneel at the door of the Prime Minister's Yamen, which is also a spectacle, it is simply a slap in the face of the kingdom of Amakusa, in this place of Beiya, the metropolis where ministers from various countries gather, or the heart of the Manchu court, not only let the Manchu civil and military in the eyes, but also let the foreigners see the joke.

But for Li Hongzhang, these jokes were laughing at him, but he really didn't dare to send troops to war with Japan, and finally forced Li Hongzhang to have no choice, he didn't dare to go to the Prime Minister's Yamen, and he couldn't stay at home, because there were also Ryukyuan people kneeling at the door of Li's house, which also blamed Li Hongzhang for being an irresponsible official in the Qing Dynasty, and an official who couldn't push it away, he was directly responsible for the affairs of the Prime Minister's Yamen, and he didn't look for him to find anyone.

Li Hongzhang couldn't go to work, but his office couldn't be delayed, so he asked his subordinates to rent him a private house in Dongjiaomin Lane, and used the smooth telegraph network of the diplomatic embassy here to communicate with the outside world, so that he could still receive information from the outside world.

Just when the stalemate reached the end of the year, and the entire country of Ryukyu was firmly controlled by Japan, Li Hongzhang received a sum of money from Wu Chongyao, the director of the Ming Dynasty's foreign affairs department.

It's not a lot of money, it's not big, it's weirdly small.

It's only eight cents.

This is remitted through the Rishengchang ticket number, and the remittance (remittance fee) alone is as high as ten taels, but only eight cents are remitted, which is obviously not a problem with money.

Li Hongzhang couldn't help but wonder what the minister of the Ming Foreign Affairs Department meant by giving him eight cents.

"What can you buy for eight pennies?"

He couldn't help but ask his staff strangely.

The staff thought for a moment and said, "An egg? ”

Li Hongzhang suddenly thought of something and asked, "Where did the money come from?" ”

"Shanghai!"

"Check it out for me, what can you buy in Shanghai?"

The Manchus have lost Shanghai, but the tentacles of the Prime Minister's Yamen can still reach here, and there is no need to use the power of the government, and those shops and ticket numbers operating in Shanghai will do this.

Soon came up with a list:

In Shanghai, you can buy an egg, two strands of thread, three nails, and a declaration ......