Li Hongzhang was in charge of the Prime Minister's Yamen, and he was also a powerful minister with a heavy army, so it can be said that the power is overwhelming, and his demands will be fulfilled for him by countless people, and ten days later, all the declarations since the Japanese annexation of the Ryukyus were sent to his desk. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

After a casual look, Li Hongzhang found relevant comments on the Ryukyu incident, and there was no doubt that most of them were scolding him Li Hongzhang, and praised the Ming Dynasty more, and even some new figures commented that China would definitely be unified by the Ming Dynasty in the future, and there were also those who encouraged the Ming Dynasty to make a northern expedition to the Central Plains as soon as possible.

The more Li Hongzhang looked at it, the more angry he became, saying that the prime minister's yamen had made a mistake in dealing with it, and that the Ming Dynasty's response had taken advantage of it and won praise from the Shanghai Haiyang newspaper, which looked at the problem with Western diplomatic concepts, at least that's what Li Hongzhang thought.

He couldn't help but snort coldly: Philistine!

Yes, how can you calculate like a businessman and be decent.

There were also newspapers in support of Li Hongzhang, in response to a recent rumor that Japan was demanding that the Qing court return the Ryukyus tribute. One of the comments in the declaration said: If this news is true, then Japan is really a big loss of dignity and completely violates the way of big countries to tolerate and treat small countries.

Obviously, the person who wrote this article was an old-fashioned literati who still held the old Chinese worldview and believed that big countries should not bully small countries. He also believes that China and Japan belong to the same suzerainty of the Ryukyus, and since they are suzerains, they should have the appearance of suzerain.

In the end, Li Hongzhang saw a comment on the diplomacy of the Qing Dynasty: "I see that the Qing Dynasty is generally about doing short-term work but not diligent and far-sighted, and it is still empty and has no real facts. In recent years, Japan has moved towards self-improvement in the West, and now it has cut off the Ryukyu universal metaphor, if it is still an independent country, then the fox is not much snickered at by other countries? Prime Minister Yamen did not first ask him when he was about to take the Ryukyus, and to this day he has begun to fight with his tongue, and his resignation is in vain. ”

This report satirized the absurdity of the Prime Minister's Yamen, which is only pragmatic and not pragmatic, and even ridiculed the Prime Minister's Yamen for only fighting for the profit of the tongue and being too cowardly.

"Nonsense!"

Li Hongzhang snorted coldly and slapped the newspaper on the table, scolding him a lot, but he couldn't hear it, but this newspaper was particularly hateful, once it was published, the scolding spread to the ears of people all over the world.

Li Hongzhang doesn't think he is weak, he just judges the situation, now the Qing Dynasty is simply unable to compete with Japan, the world has been in turmoil for decades, famine and plague have been repeated, the Ming Dynasty started from the southeast, Russia invaded the northwest, the land south of the Yangtze River has just been pacified, and the treasury is in debt of tens of millions of taels, which makes the Qing Dynasty tough?

Li Hongzhang was angry with this newspaper, just like the clear stream in the middle of the court, he only knew how to be blindly tough, but he did not know where the money came from and where the soldiers came from.

But he was still calm, Wu Chongyao, the minister of the Ming Dynasty's Foreign Affairs Department, gave him this remittance, and really hoped that he would see the cheapest and most circulated declaration comments in Shanghai, but let him read these comments, is he laughing at him.

Although some officials who look down on businessmen like Wu Chongyao and feel that the officials of the Ming Dynasty are a bit of a monkey, he does not dare to underestimate it, because the Ming Kingdom behind Wu Chongyao already has a thriving atmosphere, and it is really difficult to say what will happen in the future.

So he attaches great importance to Wu Chongyao's thoughts, he doesn't think that Wu Chongyao is laughing at him, because Wu Chongyao is quite humble in front of him, whether it is official correspondence or personal correspondence, and he does not have the aggressive posture of foreigners at all, but has the bearing of a Chinese scholar.

But what Wu Chongyao meant by showing him these newspapers, Li Hongzhang couldn't figure it out at all, and if the Ming wanted to intervene in the Ryukyu issue, Li Hongzhang had already made it clear, because the Ming Foreign Affairs Department had told him that as long as the Qing court was willing to come forward, the Ming Dynasty would fully support the Qing court to protect the Ryukyus.

But the Ming Dynasty has no chance to intervene, Ryukyu is a Manchu vassal state, in 1866 the Tongzhi Emperor also gave the Ryukyu King the last canonization, the Ryukyu Kingdom has adhered to the etiquette of the Fan Kingdom for hundreds of years, has never cut off the tribute, and the Qing Dynasty has never interrupted the reward, so even if the Ming Dynasty rises, seized the Fujian that is most closely related to the Ryukyus, the Ryukyuan people did not abandon the Qing Dynasty, turned to the Ming Dynasty, but moved from the Ryukyu Hall in Fuzhou, and set up a new tribute station in Tianjin.

The Ryukyuan people did not dare to abandon the Manchus, so that the Manchus could not get rid of the Ryukyus.

If possible, Li Hongzhang really hoped that the Ryukyuan people would be double-faced and switch to the Ming Dynasty, so that he would have less trouble, but the Ryukyuan people did not dare at that time, and now they dare not even more, the country is dead, and they can only turn to the Ming Dynasty for help.

However, if the Ryukyuan people think that they can take refuge in the Ming Dynasty and help them restore the country, they should be obliged to throw themselves to the Ming Dynasty, but he Li Hongzhang can't say this, and he doesn't dare to say it, once in this kind of subject country is in danger, he tells the subject country to go to the new master, this is obviously the act of abandoning the vassal country, he will definitely be saddled with an unkind and unrighteous infamy, Li Hongzhang is not afraid of being scolded, others call him weak, or scold him for being mediocre, these can't bring him down, but once he gets a reputation for injustice, his future may be ruined, Not everyone can afford to carry this kind of big hat.

Li Hongzhang suddenly thought of Zeng Guofan, but he immediately denied it, he felt that he couldn't bear this reputation as a teacher, and he really couldn't bear to continue to let Zeng Guofan carry him the black pot.

At this time, a disciple suddenly reported that the Ryukyuan people came to the door, how could the Ryukyuan people find this place, this is a private house, except for a few henchmen, he did not tell anyone.

But the matter has come to this, there is no point in chasing who betrayed him, he has to run away quickly. Otherwise, it won't look good if you are blocked by the Ryukyuan people. The Ryukyuan people can't do anything with him, but as long as the front and back doors are all in front of the door and wearing the official uniform of the Ryukyus, Li Hongzhang can't deal with it.

So he had to run early, otherwise he would have to climb over the wall at that time.

At this time, Li Hongzhang suddenly thought of the idea just now, and pushed the Ryukyuan people to declare themselves to the Ming Dynasty.

He thought of an article he had just seen that did not make sense, it was a rather crude article, but the reason was tempting, and the comment was of course scolding the prime minister's yamen, as a comparison, he praised the Ming Dynasty, saying that if Ryukyu was a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming fleet would have already entered Tokyo.

Li Hongzhang thought of this, and before leaving, he took out the newspaper:

"The Ryukyuan people came, brought them in, and let them read this newspaper. Don't let them kneel outside the door! ”

It's too embarrassing to kneel, it's not the Ryukyuan people who have lost, it's the face of the Great Qing Kingdom.

When the Ryukyuan people saw this newspaper, they should be able to realize for themselves that only the Ming Dynasty could help them at this time.

Maybe this is also the meaning of Daming asking Li Hongzhang to read these newspapers, Li Hongzhang feels as if he understands Wu Chongyao's intentions.

Li Hongzhang ran away, he felt that as long as the Ryukyuan people understood what he meant, then the trouble would be thrown to Daming. The Ryukyuan people are not trouble, but Japan behind is trouble.

Throughout history, Li Hongzhang believes that Japan is a trouble, from the Yuan and Ming dynasties, from Vietnam to Korea, there have been shadows of the Japanese invaders, Japan as a country, seems to be the biggest trouble in East Asia, Vietnam, Korea, the Ryukyus and even the Ming Dynasty have suffered greatly from the Japanese invaders.

This is a country of robbers, but it is very difficult to fight such a country, the Ming Dynasty fought with Japan in Korea for six years, emptied the treasury, and in the end did not make a name, Zhu Yuanzhang made sense to set Japan as a country not to be conquered, the Yuan Dynasty before Zhu Yuanzhang, Kublai Khan attacked Japan many times, and there was no result.

Therefore, Li Hongzhang felt that it would be very troublesome not to fight Japan, and even more troublesome to fight Japan, and this was a troublesome country.

Giving this trouble to Daming, although it is a little unrighteous, but it can be regarded as helping the Ryukyus, not asking them for any gratitude, just trying to have peace of mind, anyway, this is the truth that the Ryukyuan people themselves realized from the newspaper, not that he Li Hongzhang asked them to do this, I think they will not be embarrassed to publicize it everywhere in the future, so that Li Hongzhang will not have any trouble.

If there is trouble, it will only be Da Ming.

As for Daming's troubles, what does it matter to him Li Hongzhang.

But Li Hongzhang underestimated the Ryukyuan people too much, and he also underestimated the Ming Dynasty.

The Ryukyuan people did understand the relevant information from it, and the subordinates reported it to Shang Dehong when they went back, but Shang Dehong was not only the brother-in-law of the Ryukyu King, a heavy minister, or a pro-Qing faction, he was also a rather pedantic old master, who received Confucian moral education since childhood, admitting death, thinking that the Manchu Qing and the Ryukyus had the righteousness of kinship, and the Ryukyus had been filial to the Manchus like a filial son for hundreds of years, and had done enough etiquette.

So he insisted on asking the Qing Dynasty to come forward to help, anyway, so far, the news he has received is that the Qing Dynasty does not approve of Japan's disposal of the Ryukyus, and always insists on keeping the Ryukyu community.

So there is still hope in Shang Dehong's heart.

But Shang Dehong himself disagreed, and couldn't stand up to other Ryukyuan people at this time, after Ryukyu was controlled by Japan, the Ryukyuan people who were not willing to be slaves of the country, a large number of exiled to the mainland, most of them chose Fujian in exile in the Ming Dynasty, because in history, Zhu Yuanzhang had sent 36 various experts from Fujian to help the development of the Ryukyu country, including shipbuilders, translators, and navigators who were proficient in sea navigation.

With the help of these people, who played an important role in the history of the Ryukyus, the Ryukyuan people learned to build large ships and do business, and after a few decades, the Ryukyus were able to trade with China, Japan, and North Korea, and trade became the largest source of livelihood for the Ryukyu people.

And the descendants of these 36 surnames of Fujian people have a very high status in Ryukyu and are respected as the 36 surnames of Fujian people.

The descendants of these 36 surnames held important positions in the court of the Ryukyu Kingdom and were very prominent.

After more than 500 years of breeding, they have a population of tens of thousands, and after the fall of the Ryukyus, many of them returned to Fuken and lived in exile.

These people have long regarded themselves as Ryukyu people, and at the same time they know that their ancestral home is in Fujian, and they also know how to speak Fujian, Fujian is now the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and some people have long put forward the proposal of recognizing the Ming Dynasty as the suzerainty and asking the Ming Dynasty to send troops to help the Ryukyus restore the country, and they have also actually operated it.

However, the Ming Dynasty rejected the credentials presented by the representatives they had elected, telling them that their credentials were not legitimate, and the Ming only recognized Shang Dehong, the envoy who held the secret letter of the King of the Ryukyus, as the legitimate representative of the King of the Ryukyus, and no one else could represent the King of the Ryukyus, nor could they represent the Ryukyu Kingdom.

In fact, Daming didn't want to find a random reason to fight at all, and he had no intention of directly annexing Ryukyu, at least not yet. It's not what Li Hongzhang thinks at all, Daming wants to compete with Japan for the Ryukyus, and Daming actually wants to protect the Ryukyus from Japan.

Not to mention that Shang Dehong refused to switch to the Ming Dynasty, even if Shang Dehong really came to submit to the Ming Dynasty, the Ming government would not accept it, because Zhu Jinglun no longer wanted to continue to implement the nominal vassal system in East Asia, and he wanted to replace this flashy diplomatic relationship with a new system.

It's just that Li Hongzhang didn't understand Wu Chongyao's intentions, what he actually wanted Li Hongzhang to see was an article about the Ryukyuan people forming a government in exile.