Through the mediation of the Chinese consuls, the Choshu clan successfully sent representatives to begin negotiations with the shogunate.

However, the negotiations did not go well, and the shogunate was now in the upper hand, and they were eager to continue the war and use the power of China to completely eliminate these powerful feudal forces that had been divided for many years.

Not only did the shogunate not budge an inch on the issue of territory, not to mention the states proposed by the Choshu Domain, such as Tamba and Settsu, they did not even agree to the Choshu Domain's possession of the current 14 countries, but only agreed to the Choshu Domain's return to Nagato and Zhoufang to maintain its original power, and did not agree to abolish the system of visiting the Hajj and giving an account.

Seeing this situation, it made the southwest strong feudal unity, they united, not to fight for the interests of the Choshu domain, they were for self-protection, if the Choshu domain returned to Nagato and Zhoufang, they had to spit out those territories they swallowed, and they also had to worry about the shogunate's settlement after the autumn. Therefore, their attitude towards the end of the Hajj and the right to directly meet the emperor was the same as that of the Choshu Domain.

The Choshu Domain, which was rich in talents and diplomatic talents, soon reached a pact of joint action with the powerful Tohoku feudal clans who took advantage of the fire to rob them, and the powerful feudal clans of the Tohoku also sent people to negotiate and made a unanimous request that the Daimyo meet the emperor on their own.

The pressure on the shogunate suddenly increased, and the Chinese consul did not blindly support them, the Chinese consul hoped that the shogunate would accept some conditions and then restore peace to Japan. He also said that although the Chinese parliament agreed to send 100,000 troops, there was no guarantee that the 100,000 army would be able to solve the shogunate's predicament. Once the 100,000 Chinese troops are unable to stop the powerful feudal alliance, China will not be able to provide new support. Under pressure, the Choshu Domain expanded its direct army to 100,000 people, and the powerful feudal clans in the southwest, such as Satsuma and Kumamoto, began to actively send troops, and the size of the alliance army of the powerful feudal domains continued to expand, reaching as high as 150,000 people. The Tohoku Powerful Domains also began to send troops directly to deter in the areas bordering the Shogunate, and the Northeast Powerful Domains lacked manpower, but the quality of their soldiers was better, and their strength was as high as 50,000, and the total number of troops of the Powerful Domains was as high as 200,000. Although the shogunate had a large number of troops, most of them were unusable, and if they could not carry out a thorough reform, they would only be able to fight with 100,000 Chinese reinforcements.

The consul told the shogunate that the Chinese army was an expedition of laborers after all, and it was not known how much combat strength could be retained, and that once defeated, the powerful feudal clan would no longer be afraid of China, and whether or not the Chinese imperial court could persuade the parliament to continue to increase the number of troops, it was feared that the powerful feudal clan would be able to completely conquer the shogunate's territory before new reinforcements arrived.

The consul also told the shogunate that all they lacked was time, and as long as they had enough time, they were determined to rebuild the army, and China would provide some support, help train soldiers, send military advisers, and even help the shogunate train officers, and soon the shogunate army would be able to overwhelm the strong feudal clans, and then the shogunate would be able to counterattack back.

In addition, the situation in the shogunate was very unstable at this time, the princes of all sizes had different ambitions, the peasants and citizens were constantly fighting, and the finances were on the verge of collapse, and they all relied on debt to survive, and if the war was not ended, the shogunate's rule would also collapse.

So the shogunate had to make a compromise, and they accepted the demands of the powerful feudal lords. However, from the Choshu Domain, he returned the two countries of Tajima and Harima, and compressed the territory of the Choshu Domain into 12 countries, except for the old Nagato and Shubo, and agreed that Iwami, Yasumo, Izumo, Bigo, Bichu, Bizen, and the ten provinces of Hachi, Misaku, Inaba, and Oki were merged into the Choshu Domain, making the Choshu Domain a super daimyo with a height of 2 million stones.

The expansion of other powerful feudal domains, such as Satsuma, Kumamoto, and Tosa, was also recognized. At the same time, the control of the Date family centered on Sendai over the Mutsu Province (Rikuma, Middle, and Go), the Akita Domain's control over Dewa Province (Hazen and Go), and the Matsumae Domain's rule over Ezo Province were also confirmed.

Acknowledging the right of these powerful feudal lords to freely meet with the emperor and allowing them to manage their own products and commerce, and the powerful feudal clans of the southwest and northeastern feudal clans were also exempt from performing the Hajj confession, citing the fact that they were too far away, the powerful feudal lords accepted the demand for a symbolic tribute to the shogunate and continued to maintain the nominal rule of the shogunate.

The Chinese consul participated in the negotiations throughout the process, but he never made a clear statement and refused to sign the final treaty.

After the treaty was signed, the troops were withdrawn, the army was reduced, and the recuperation was ended, leaving only a large number of orphans and widows, and a new military aristocracy arose, and Japan was still torn apart.

The British came to them again, and they urged the Chōshū clan to repay the money, but the Chōshū clan denied that they had borrowed money from the British. The British had evidence in their hands, and they testified with the treaty signed between Murata Kiyokaze, a vassal of the Choshu Domain, on behalf of the Chōshū Domain. As a result, Murata Kiyokaze denied it in front of the British envoy, saying that the money had filled his pocket, and the feudal lord did not know about it, and then apologized to the British envoy, and in order to give an explanation to the British, he committed suicide by seppuku in front of the British. The frightened British envoy's pants were wet.

The Changzhou clan played the scoundrel, but the British played the scoundrel for hundreds of years, and they just got up as a gentleman, and the scoundrel methods have not been forgotten.

Then the British sent warships, this time they went directly to the shogunate, saying that since the shogunate was the legitimate government of Japan, it should repay the debts for the local government, and the shogunate had the backing of China, so they immediately rejected this unreasonable demand, and the British warships rushed to the port of the Choshu domain, Maseki, and threatened to shell Maseki and capture the port.

At this time, the Chinese warships that got the news arrived, and after confronting the British warships for half a day, the British retreated.

With China's support, the Chōshō clan succeeded in repaying the debt, which they could not afford, and the reason why China supported the Chōshū clan was to warn the British not to try to prop up puppets around China, which would not even recover the capital.

A civil war, although it did not change the face of Japan's separatism, but strengthened its separatist power. But this war cannot be without any effects.

In fact, the effects were not long in coming, and after the war, fierce competition began between the shogunate, which performed poorly in the war, and the Choshu domain, which was a blockbuster in the war. Both sides know that peace is only temporary and that war can come at any time.

In this atmosphere, both sides began to carry out more radical reforms, and both sides desperately strengthened their own forces in the hope of being able to suppress the other in the future, or at least to protect themselves.

Needless to say, the Shogunate already had the legal power to communicate with the outside world, and although it was a great cultural risk to strengthen exchanges with Westerners, there was no risk in communicating with China.

As a result, the Japanese powerful feudal lords began to send students to China, also known as Tang envoys, to study in various schools in China, hire Chinese consultants, open various factories and mines, introduce various new technologies, and desperately strengthen their economic power.

A race for modernization, which began in Japan, was still leading the way with the Choshu Domain, which was the first to sign an agreement with a Chinese company to build a railway from Shimonoseki to Fukuyama, linking the coastal plains of the Seto Inland Sea in the Choshu Domain. The Hizen Domain began to expand the port of Nagasaki with the foundation left by the shogunate and encourage trade. The Fukuoka Domain continued to encourage the construction of large-scale factories and forced farmers in the domain to grow mulberry and silkworms, expanding the production of raw silk. The measures taken by the Tohoku Powerful Domain were still to attract people and develop their products, especially the Matsumae Domain, which guarded a huge Ezo country and developed it in short supply.

At the same time, the countries actively encouraged the samurai of their own clans to be employed by Chinese companies, and first, they found that the military technology and experience learned by these samurai from Chinese companies were very helpful in improving their military capabilities, which was equivalent to China helping them train officers for free, as for the dead, it didn't matter, anyway, there were pensions, and if these samurai were not allowed to be employed by the Chinese, the clans had to support them, otherwise they would become bankrupt samurai, ronin, and create social conflicts. So they will fight the war for China, characterize it as a great cause of rebellion, and carry out righteous propaganda from the government.

In fact, it was from this war that Japan began their path to modernization.

For the time being, however, China was powerless to interfere with the modernization of the Japanese, because the parliamentary system had just emerged, and the Chinese bureaucracy, accustomed to an efficient absolute monarchy, was already extremely uncomfortable. They began to hope that the parliament would give them more freedom, they thought that this way of voting for each budget was too inefficient, and hoped that a general budget would be passed every year, leaving a certain amount of space for the imperial court to play on its own, otherwise in such a big country, many things could only fall into a rut.

The chamber of commerce, gangs, and trade unions in the council have just tasted power, and they find it nice to have the high-ranking officials of the court begging them, and they don't want to slip out of their hands. But this time they failed, because the gentry representatives, who made up seventy percent of the parliament, thought that the opinion of the imperial court was right, and they felt that they had to give the government free space, so they passed the proposal put forward by the prime minister.

It is clear that the new political forces are not able to react as quickly as they learn how to fight in parliament compared to the well-organized bureaucracy. The bureaucracy has learned how to co-opt parliamentary forces to speak for them, and their traditional ties with the gentry have not been broken, and it is clear that they are gradually co-opting the gentry to become their representatives in parliament.

Among the new forces, there is even more infighting than cooperation, and the trade union and the chamber of commerce are in flames, and the gang forces only care about themselves.

The reaction is the civil strife, which has entered a white-hot stage. The trade unions tried to reduce working hours by improving the working conditions of workers in parliament, and the chambers of commerce wanted to lower corporate tax rates and lower import and export tariffs.

In the people, their struggle is more intense, the economic crisis has changed them, the economic crisis has gradually passed, but the change has remained, and it is very deep and special.

Far from being resolved, the contradictions have become more intense, and the power represented by the various forces has not yet reached a balance, and this is the time when China's strength is at its weakest.

At this time, it is another time when the international situation is agitated and the political landscape is changeable.