In fact, the shogunate still had the upper hand, whether it was Ishitaka, population, or property, more than the Shogunate combined, and the key problem was the lack of organizational capacity due to the rotten political structure. The strong feudal clan in the northeast is just a fierce man, and they who are late in reform do not have the confidence of the strong feudal clan in the southwest, they just fish in troubled waters, and they do not send a single soldier. The real opponent of the shogunate was still only the powerful feudal clan in the southwest.

As a result, the shogunate still decided to suppress it, and most of the island of Honshu was either led by Tokugawa himself, or the Tokugawa family's banner power, or the forces that depended on the shogunate, such as the pro-feudal clan and the daimyo of the pedigree, so the shogunate was still able to draw manpower.

However, the samurai they raised had decayed, the long-term peace had left swordsmanship unpracticed, and the opponents had been armed with rifled rifles, and the Tokugawa could mobilize more samurai, but the samurai themselves had been silently abandoned by the times.

At this time, the armed forces of the Shogunate faction had reached 100,000, of which the army of the Choshu Domain was as high as 40,000, which was the backbone of it, and the 10,000 people of the Kumamoto Domain, 8,000 people from the Satsuma Domain, and 2,000 people from the Hizen Domain could be compared with the soldiers of the Choshu Domain.

The Tokugawa shogunate mobilized 200,000 men to fight in Beichu, and once again failed, more than 100,000 of the 200,000 were traditional samurai, dressed in ancestral armor, and charged forward with a scream, dead in vain by a salvo of rifled guns. Tokugawa's new army numbered 80,000 and was on par with its opponents, but it was not used in a reasonable way.

After the decisive battle of Bichu, the Tokugawa shogunate had no strength to fight, and reluctantly retracted the remnants of the defeated army in Osaka.

However, the Tokugawa shogunate still did not intend to negotiate peace, and by this time they had completely lost faith in the war, and the reason why they did not negotiate peace was because they had finally received a clear message from China that the Chinese parliament had approved aid to Japan.

The Diet is the biggest trouble, and this is not the case, and without the approval of the Parliament, China's aid to Japan is illegal.

Of course, the emperor has a way to bypass the parliament, but any situation of the overhead parliament is a destruction of the legal system, even if it is a legal way to bypass the parliament, it is also a sabotage, he destroys the spirit of the legal system. It's like the relay race of the president and prime minister of Russia, which did not undermine the Constitution, but everyone understands that the Constitution is not respected and has become a laughing stock.

Either you don't play, or you have fun. Since Zhou Lang has formed a parliament, he can't use the parliament as a means to play with power like Yuan Shikai or Sun Dacang, if he wants to use it, pull it out and use it, if he doesn't want to use it, throw it in the toilet and wipe his buttocks. If he really intends to treat the parliament as a balanced power against the imperial power and the bureaucracy, then it is better to respect the parliament, especially in China, a country that has no tradition of parliamentarism.

Of course, if the parliament does cause unacceptable internal friction, Zhou Lang will throw away the parliament. But the situation in Japan is obviously not bad to this extent. The main reason why Zhou Lang supported the shogunate was to maintain the division of Japan, a divided Japan is like a vicious dog that always wears a dog leash, not only can not hurt himself, but can be used by me. At present, the banner of the fall of the Choshu Domain has always been the combination of public and military forces, and it is called for the joint imperial court (Gongjia) and the shogunate (samurai) to transform the power of the shogunate. At worst, they succeeded in seizing power from the shogunate, and Japan remained a feudal state divided by princes.

At this time, both the powerful feudal clan and the shogunate did not want to lose their power and establish a centralized state, and the flag of the emperor was only used by lower-ranking samurai, and they hoped to respect the king, reject Western influence, and establish a strong government. This was not in the interests of either the shogunate or the powerful feudal clans. The powerful feudal clans wanted to strengthen their power, and in fact their success could have further shattered Japan. But the problem is that after they destroyed the shogunate, it was likely to create a power vacuum, and then under the reshuffle, they were used by the lower samurai to successfully honor the king and create a centralized state centered on the emperor.

Just as in history, the lower-ranking samurai and the powerful feudal clan jointly defeated the Tokugawa shogunate, and the elite such as Kido Takayoshi and Okubo Ritsu quickly used the name of the emperor to demand the royal government to reinstate the royal family, force the strong feudal clan to return the royalty, and then abolish the sword, cancel the samurai privileges, and the powerful feudal and the lower-ranking samurai were betrayed by them at the same time. They also took advantage of the unified regime to establish a peasant-dominated army, defeating the samurai class led by Saigo Takamori.

So the shogunate had better be able to keep it.

The parliament has not been able to approve the budget for the troops, because it is a matter of spending money, and if the money is too much, it will have to come from the merchants, workers and peasants who represent the parliament, so the parliamentary deputies are very cautious about this. Card budget, this is a common problem in parliaments around the world, and China is not exempt from it.

Although the management of the feudal court and the military department repeatedly emphasized the special relationship between the Japanese shogunate and China, the parliament felt that the support for Japan was unknown. The Imperial Court even took out the promise made by the emperor when he mediated the relationship between the Japanese shogunate and the princes, and promised to support the shogunate in exchange for the founding of the shogunate. Now that the shogunate is in trouble, China will lose its trust with its friends if it stays out of the way.

The parliament held that the emperor's promise was mainly aimed at the invasion of foreign enemies, and if Japan encountered a British invasion, China might be able to support one or two, but they were internal fighting, and China had no reason to intervene. The Imperial Court also offered British support for the Shogunate to deal with the incident, and the Diet could only agree that China would also give the shogunate a batch of arms. Compared with arms aid, the cost of sending troops is much higher, after all, it is a businessman, and this account is clear.

Therefore, the shogunate was not completely without assistance, without the support of Chinese arms, the shogunate also used rifles and cannons, although they had some military factories, but they were completely unable to support the battle of more than 100,000 people. It can be said that Japan's civil war was in fact also a proxy war.

Arms aid alone could no longer prevent the shogunate from defeat, and the Rigain-in and the Ministry of War continued to call on the Diet to approve the budget for the military deployment. They presented increasingly detailed evidence, and even brought in representatives of the shogunate to give speeches informing the parliament that they would ally with the British if the shogunate faction was victorious.

The Tribunal's explanation for this was that once Britain was allowed to establish a foothold in the heart of East Asia, it would be a great threat to China. And did a science popularization to the parliament, telling them in the field of diplomacy, the current Britain and China in the global confrontation, and China is temporarily at a disadvantage, because China has never been able to find allies around the United Kingdom, northwest Europe is pro-British, and Ireland, the only one to resist the United Kingdom, has always been unable to resist because China cannot provide support. The British, however, gained a foothold in India in Asia and used it as a base to infiltrate the vicinity of China.

Once Britain gains a foothold in Japan and has the support of 30 million Japanese, it will inevitably have to guard against Japan in a future war between China and Britain, and it will not be able to fight with Britain in all its might, and retaining the strength to guard against Japan will greatly increase military spending.

When it came to military spending, he finally persuaded the parliament, especially the Ministry of War, who told the parliament that once the British supported it, Japan would be enough to raise a million-strong army, and China would need to retain considerable strength, and that if it was unwilling to send 100,000 people to help the Japanese shogunate now, it would need to use a million-strong army to defend Japan in the future. The council will still settle the account.

Therefore, the parliament approved the use of 100,000 troops by the Ministry of War to assist the shogunate, and the navy to provide a corresponding budget.

At this point, everything was a process driven by the mutual game of parliament and the bureaucracy, and Zhou Lang did not mobilize the imperial power to intervene. Because at this time, it is not urgent enough to require him to use his strength, even if it is only to influence or even express his position.

The parliament approves the budget, the military department draws up the plan, and finally the emperor has to approve it.

This is the process, the emperor is still the commander of the three armies, either nominally or substantively. If the emperor always approves at will, then it is a mere formality, as the English monarch did, and gradually developed a tradition of only signing consent, and if the emperor always gives advice, then it is substantive, because the emperor always has the power to decide on the actions of the army.

The secretary of the military department brought the joint battle plan drawn up by the naval division and the land division to the emperor, and explained it to the emperor, and then hoped to get the emperor's approval.

Only then did the emperor speak: "Is the sailor just a subordinate?" Didn't the council approve the use of sailors to fully cooperate with the land divisions? ”

The military department Shangshu nodded: "Yes, Your Majesty." Therefore, we decided to send 100,000 horse infantry to Osaka under the escort of the naval division, and complete the defense before the Shogunate sent troops to attack here. The sailor will then protect the transportation of logistical supplies. ”

Zhou Lang questioned: "Just to maintain the transportation of materials? Why not cooperate with the blockade of the shores of the Shogunate? Block British aid to them! ”

The military department Shangshu explained: "This plan was proposed by the Sailor, but the Danri Domain thought it was inappropriate. This is not in accordance with public international law, we are not at war with Japan, and there is no legal reason for non-belligerents to blockade each other's coastlines. Unless we declare war on Japan, but we are there to help. ”

Zhou Lang smiled: "Public international law? Any international rules and practices are traditions formed by state behavior. This cannot be said to be a violation of international law, it can only be said that there is no precedent, and we will create a precedent. Sailors are the most trouble-free, and there is no need to even send troops to Japan! ”

The military department Shangshu was puzzled: "Don't send troops? How to stop the rebels? ”

Zhou Lang said with a smile: "Send ten main ironclad ships into Osaka, send thirty cruiser ironclad ships to blockade the Kansai Daimyo, and let the consul mediate." Let the Fallen Curtain faction accept it when it is good, otherwise they will bear the consequences. ”

The military department was puzzled: "Will they accept it?" Now their situation is just right. ”

Zhou Lang said: "Yes." They are Japanese! ”

Will you give Japan another black ship tide, Zhou Lang thinks this is very good, and then the shogunate will continue to decline and become a puppet. The powerful feudal domains in the southwest and northeast formed separatist forces, and the central and northern Echizen, Echigo, and Kaga regions also tended to separate from the shogunate because they were separated from the shogunate territory by lofty mountains and mountains, and with the development of copper ore and other resources.

Such a Japan is what China needs.

And the easiest way to create such a Japan is to send ironclad ships!