Diplomatic activities against Japan have been going on for a long time, and the previous public opinion warfare in the West and the joint efforts in the East can be regarded as part of diplomacy. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The Ming Dynasty did not approve of the Japanese note on the disposal of the Ryukyus from the beginning, and replied to Japan's official letter to make it clear that it did not recognize Japan's practice of destroying the Ryukyu Kingdom, and believed that it was aggression, but at the beginning the tone was quite mild, persuading Japan not to raise unscrupulous troops and bring disasters to the common people in the world.

The Japanese had long been prepared not to be recognized, but they believed that in any case, their annexation of the Ryukyus would not cause strong foreign interference, and the only one who could interfere with them was the Qing government, because they analyzed and determined that only the Qing government had the best reason to take action, whether from the perspective of interests or national law.

They were not worried about the Qing government, and on the Taiwan issue, their communication with Li Hongzhang and other Qing ministers had already figured out the attitude of these Qing officials, and they were sure that the Qing court would not go to war with Japan for the sake of the Ryukyus. As for Da Ming, they were most worried, but they felt that Da Ming had no absolute reason to forcibly intervene.

Therefore, at the beginning, the focus of Japan's diplomacy was the Qing court, but although Li Hongzhang and others did not intend to use force with Japan, they were absolutely unwilling to accept the annexation of their Fanbang by Japan, not out of interest considerations, but out of traditional Chinese moral considerations.

Because it was out of morality, the Qing government had no way out, and even if Japan proposed to divide the Ryukyus and divide the Ryukyu territory with the Manchus, the Qing court could not agree.

Historically, the final progress between the Japanese and the Qing court was that Li Hongzhang was willing to accept Japan's occupation of the northern part of the Ryukyus, and the southern part of the Ryukyus would be assigned to the Manchus, retain the core territory of the Ryukyu Kingdom in the central part of the Ryukyus, and continue to let the Ryukyu king rule, and Li Hongzhang's only purpose was to preserve the Ryukyu Society.

However, even such a partition agreement was not signed by the Manchus in the end, making the Ryukyu issue an unsolved case, even after World War II.

Li Hongzhang's delaying tactics gave the Ming time to operate, evacuate the expatriates from the Ryukyus, establish pro-Ming Ryukyu forces, and use these forces to form the Ryukyu government-in-exile, not recognize Japan's act of destroying the Ryukyus, and then bring the most legitimate, the Ryukyu king's secret envoy Shang Dehong, over.

Although I later found out that Shang Dehong was a woman with some kindness and couldn't make a big deal, it was still very useful as a banner. Let Shang Dehong give Wen Yuan, a high-ranking officer of the Ming Dynasty, an authorization to appoint Wen Yuan as the general of the Ryukyu State and lead the army of the Ryukyu Kingdom, of course, these armies are all borrowed armies.

The first misjudgment was on the Taiwan issue, Taiwan was close at hand, and they considered the attitude of the Ming Dynasty before they invaded Taiwan, but the tolerance of the Ming Dynasty on the Vietnam issue made the Japanese think that the Ming Dynasty's foreign policy was more restrained, so they rashly invaded Taiwan. As a result, Da Ming's attitude was very tough, and he sent warships to block the strait.

This time, they still think that there is little chance of Ming interfering, but Daming seems to be very active in targeting Japan, which is clearly a rhythm that has no conditions to find conditions.

The Japanese court is very puzzled, they think that they have not offended the Ming Dynasty, and even in Japan, the perception of the Ming Dynasty is quite good, as early as after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Japan has appeared this kind of voice, thinking that Japan should stand with the Ming Dynasty, support the Ming Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, and recover the Han people.

After the establishment of the Meiji government in Japan, the Meiji Restoration began, and it was still not hostile to the Ming Dynasty, but it was treated with the attitude of the great powers, and the treaties signed by the Ming Dynasty and Japan were no different from the treaties signed by Britain, France, the United States, Russia and other countries with Japan.

But Daming is targeting Japan again, if the first time it can be said that it is because Taiwan is too close to Fujian, it has always been the jurisdiction of Fujian before, and Daming has long had plans to take back Taiwan, so it can't allow other countries to get involved, so why is it this time?

At first, the Japanese court thought that the Ming Dynasty was worried that after Japan occupied the Ryukyus, it would threaten Taiwan because the Ryukyus were too close to Taiwan, so when the negotiations with Japan did not go well, Japan planned to cede the southern part of the Ryukyus to the Ming Dynasty in exchange for the Ming Dynasty's recognition of Japan's annexation of the northern part of the Ryukyus.

They believe that since this is the case, the Ming Dynasty's Taiwan will be safe, and naturally there will be no hostility towards Japan.

However, the Ming Dynasty rejected such a partition agreement, and sang a very high tone, saying that the Ming Dynasty could not accept the aggression of friendly countries in East Asia, and kindly reminded the Japanese government that in the activities of diplomatic relations, the principle of good-neighborliness and friendship should be followed, and East Asian countries should help each other and support each other, and should not kill each other.

Japan discovered the tone of the Ming Dynasty, but it had some imagination with the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

In fact, Japan is also playing the same kind of card, played in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and fooled many Manchu high-ranking officials, including an old fox like Li Hongzhang, Li Hongzhang has always been vigilant against Japan in history, and has expectations, always wants to hold Japan, as an ally against the West, knowing that the dream of the First Sino-Japanese War is broken, he regrets not being at the beginning.

At the time of Japan's invasion of Taiwan, Shen Baozhen, who was sent to Taiwan by Li Hongzhang, was still talking with Japan's Saigo Congdao in Chinese-style benevolence when he was negotiating with Japan's Saigo Congdao, telling Saigo Congdao that the Qing Dynasty and Japan's navies were both start-ups, and instead of confronting each other now and letting foreigners see the truth and truth, it is better for each to go back to lie down and try his courage, and in 20 years, they will be divided into high and low. Obviously, Shen Baozhen naturally regards the countries in East Asia as a community of interests.

The Japanese are very aware of the feelings of the same culture and the same kind in East Asian countries, so they also play this card in the Ming Dynasty, but they are not very good at playing in the Ming Dynasty, because the Ming Dynasty is the same as Japan, Japan has quickly changed its diplomatic thinking in an extremely flexible way, from the Oriental system of suzerainty to the Western-style nation-state system, and the Ming Dynasty is to hire a large number of consultants, as early as ten years ago, it directly sent diplomats to various countries, which was not professional at that time, and formed diplomats by hiring consultants in other Western countries. In addition, by excluding international students from Western countries through consulates every year, the Ming Dynasty has actually established a modern diplomatic concept of state-to-state activities based on interests.

If it is only based on interests, it is still difficult for the Japanese to understand the attitude of the Ming Dynasty, obviously carving up the Ryukyus with Japan is the greatest interest of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty does not need to pay anything, only need to agree, only need to sign a signature, you can get half of the Ryukyus, but they don't agree.

At this time, the Japanese directly felt that the Ming Dynasty was deliberately targeting Japan.

For this reason, the Japanese government and the opposition were very angry, and Japanese culture was derived from Chinese culture, but it was incomplete. They place extreme emphasis on the word "loyalty", extreme culture, often there is no concept of right and wrong, as long as they are loyal, it is good, such as the Anglo-Saxon War because the Japanese samurai attacked Westerners for no reason, just because the foreigners did not give way to their daimyos.

After the defeat of Japan, no one reflected on whether they had done wrong, and the daimyo issued a notice saying that they would give the foreigners their lives, and those samurai did not blame the master for not planting, but enthusiastically signed up for the master's seppuku, because this is loyalty, so this is good.

The Japanese, who were indifferent to right and wrong, felt that the Ming Dynasty was targeting them, and did not consider whether their destruction of the Ryukyus was just, and a group of ministers who felt that the Ming Dynasty had despised the imperial kingdom and humiliated the emperor, clamored for war with the Ming Dynasty.

Fortunately for Japan, throughout the Meiji Restoration, power was always in the hands of stable ministers, and unstable veterans such as Saigo Takamori were constantly squeezed out.

After suppressing the samurai rebellion, Okubo was assassinated the following year, and now presiding over Japanese government is Ito Hirobumi, one of the more stable bureaucrats in Japanese history, who holds the post of secretary of the interior.

Now, despite the fierce calls of the radicals and the continuous agitation of public opinion by a large number of unemployed samurai, Ito Hirobumi clearly believes that this is not the time to start a war with the Ming Dynasty, and suggests continuing to focus on diplomatic negotiations.

Ito Hirobumi came up with rational evidence and put forward four reasons: first, Japan's national strength is far inferior to that of the Ming Dynasty, and the country's floating water income is not as good as that of the Ming Dynasty; Second, after the Meiji Restoration, Japan was heavily indebted, and if a war broke out, it had to buy weapons from Western countries in cash, and Japan could not afford to cook without rice. Third, the strength of the Japanese army is insufficient, the standing army is only 32,000, the navy is less than 4,000, and the warships are decayed and ruined, while the standing strength of the Ming Dynasty is 300,000, and the warships are mainly ironclad ships, and the military strength of the Ming Dynasty far surpasses that of Japan; fourth, Japan's national turmoil is frequent, Eto Shinpei and Saigo Takamori have led samurai rebellions, and the folk ronin have moved around, causing trouble everywhere, and Japan must go all out to deal with domestic problems, and it is simply unable to wage war with foreign countries.

Ito's words could not convince the people, nor could they convince the radical samurai, but Japan's Meiji Restoration, which was not a movement that most people understood, but an innovation promoted by a few, was supported by the top, from the emperor to Shigenobu Okuma, and other elites who had been to the West, all supported Ito's negotiation-oriented approach, and some concessions could be made if necessary.

But this necessary concession absolutely does not include the actual restoration of the Ryukyus.

The attitude of the Ming Dynasty has always been the same, that is, Japan must restore the Ryukyus.

As a result, the negotiations have reached an impasse.

At the end of 1879, the Ming regretfully announced that the negotiations had broken down, and the two sides could not reach an agreement on the Ryukyu issue, and the Ming could not accept that a legitimate country in East Asia that had existed for 500 years would be destroyed by another country for no reason, and that the king of one country could not be captured by another country at will.

Believing that this was a moral destruction of the East Asian region for thousands of years, the Ming Dynasty would take all necessary means to stop this mistake of Japan, including borrowing troops from the Ryukyu government-in-exile.

Japan still harbors illusions, and the Japanese minister is still pestering the Ming Foreign Affairs Division.

But the Ming Dynasty began to carry out the last diplomatic activity before the declaration of war and the ultimatum, that is, the evacuation of overseas Chinese.

The Ming Dynasty temporarily requisitioned 100 Ming merchant ships, and under the armed escort of 10 Ming warships, they rushed to Nagasaki, Osaka, and Tokyo, Japan, where Chinese expatriates and businessmen were concentrated, and with the cooperation of the consulate, the evacuation of overseas Chinese began.

At this time, the Japanese knew that the Ming Dynasty really did not hesitate to fight, and the Ito Hirobumi government had no way out, either accept all the demands of the Ming Dynasty, or go to war!