Daming ironclad ship Fujian, is a 9,000-ton ironclad ship, designed and built by the British, delivered to the Ming Navy, this warship is the same class of British Infeisin class, after the delivery of the Ming Dynasty, by the arsenal ship designer Elkeson engineer presided over, according to the Fujian design and manufacture of Guangxi, also 9,000 tons. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

These two ironclad ships, not only in Asia, but even in the world, are also first-class ironclad ships, and even the British dare not underestimate them.

Therefore, with the Fujian ironclad ship as the leader, and with the blockade of the Taiwan Strait by 10 5,000-ton modified ironclad ships, the Japanese army, which chartered two British and American warships, never dared to force its way into the blockade line. The Japanese had already paid a lot of money for the lease of these two British and American warships, and if they sank, their losses would be even greater. I can't afford to pay such a heavy price for so many samurai.

As a result, the 3,600 samurai were never supplied with any supplies, and were left to fend for themselves in the tropical jungle where the miasma was infested. As a result, thousands of people died of illness, and nearly 1,000 people were lost because of the conflict with Shengfan, and only about 800 people finally made it to the port alive.

But these 800 people had to board the Japanese civilian ships under the supervision of the Ming Navy.

I saw eight hundred samurai who were supporting each other, and even had to use the usually precious and dying bushido as a cane, and walked towards their steamship Hinomaru covered in filth.

On both sides are neatly dressed imitation British navy uniforms of sailors with guns solemn, in the middle is watched is a discouraged Japanese samurai in dirty kimonos, they are not so embarrassed, because Japanese samurai are clean, they pay great attention to cleanliness, and they also carry multiple sets of clothes on the march, but the problem, in the wilderness, in the end, they don't dare to take a bath, every time they go to bathe, they will be sneak attacked.

A group of Japanese samurai slowly boarded the boat, and at the end of the line was their leader, Saigo Nomichi, who was the younger brother of Saigo Takamori, one of the three heroes of Japan's Meiji Restoration, but he was lying down and walked to the mail ship, he was not dead, but he was sick and was carried. Next to Saigo's Congdao is Saigo's translator, and the strange thing is that this is a foreigner, and he is the American Li Xiande.

Just as the foreigner was about to step on the gangway to board the ship, suddenly a naval officer came forward, saluted him, took out a document, and said to him in a cold tone:

"I'm sorry, Mr. Lee, but you've been arrested. You are suspected of conspiring to incite another country to commit a violation of the sovereignty of another country. ”

Li Xiande was also embarrassed, but he did not accept the arrest: "You have no right to arrest me, the Taiwan domain is a borderless land." Moreover, the attack on this place is also the Japanese government's own behavior, and it has nothing to do with me. I just gave them some advice. ”

The officer's tone was still cold: "You have something to say to the judge." ”

Li Xiande was appointed, and he had no way to protest: "I ask that my consulate be notified. ”

The officer said, "Don't worry. The Ming Dynasty will not judge you, we are just arresting you at the request of the Qing government. And with the consent of the consulate of your country. You will be handed over to the Qing government. ”

Li Xiande was relieved, the United States had consular jurisdiction in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the laws of the Qing Dynasty could not try him, but not in the Ming Dynasty, when diplomatic relations were established, the Ming Dynasty did not have this treatment with other countries except for the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the United Kingdom, nor did it have one-sided most-favored-nation treatment, and all tariff preferences were negotiated bilaterally.

Li Xiande's arrest was indeed Li Hongzhang's request, and he protested to the United States through the Prime Minister's Yamen, and the Americans agreed to arrest Li Xiande.

However, for Li Hongzhang, there was one thing that was difficult to do, that is, consular jurisdiction, also known as extraterritoriality, according to this treaty power, the Qing court did not have the power to try Americans, and Americans who violated the law in the territory of the Manchu Qing Dynasty would be handed over to the American consul for adjudication, but it was agreed that the Qing court would send officials to participate in the trial.

However, under normal circumstances, the consuls of the other side would turn big things into small things, and the Manchu officials did not understand American law anyway. It's just that the consuls of various countries can handle criminal cases such as wounding and murder in the early days, but in the end, everyone found that the officials of the Qing government didn't care much anyway, so of course they had to favor their own people. The phenomenon of releasing people without going through the trial procedure began to appear. In particular, the French are particularly serious, and there is a phenomenon of abuse of extraterritoriality, which has led to the situation that the common people generally hate extraterritoriality the most. This has never happened in Japan, and it has given the Japanese government time to rationally negotiate the recovery of extraterritoriality.

As a result, historically, the US consulate in Xiamen really arrested Li Xiande and planned to transfer him to the Shanghai consulate for trial, but the Qing court did not intend to pursue it, so Li Xiande was released on the spot in Shanghai.

As for how this history will go, no one can say clearly, because Li Hongzhang was finally asked by the Ming Dynasty to negotiate on the Taiwan issue.

The Ming envoy in Beijing contacted the Qing Premier Yamen and told them that Taiwan was originally a government under the jurisdiction of Fujian Province, and since Fujian was already the territory of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming and Qing dynasties had a peace treaty, that is, they were friendly countries. Today, Fujian is already the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and the Taiwan government should have belonged to the Ming Dynasty. It is hoped that the Qing court, in the spirit of friendship and friendship, will immediately transfer the administration of Taiwan to the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, Taiwan is isolated overseas, the Qing court does not have a navy, and it is not easy to defend, and today's Japanese invasion of the border makes it difficult for the Qing court to deal with it, and he will not make trouble in Taiwan, and Taiwan is close to the territory of the Ming Dynasty, which is actually a barrier of prosperity, so the Ming Dynasty will absolutely not allow Taiwan to be lost to others, and now that the Qing court cannot defend it, it will inevitably lose the barrier of happiness, so it is proposed to negotiate on the issue of Taiwan's ownership.

For Li Hongzhang, this is the big trouble.

Although the Qing court did not have a qualified navy at that time, there was no way to fight against the two British and American warships leased by the Japanese, but Li Hongzhang still transported 6,000 Huai troops by merchant ships, landed from other places, rushed to the area of Langqiao Eighteen Societies, and stationed near the bullpen line on the border of the Han Domain, so no matter how fierce the Japanese samurai fought with Shengfan, it did not affect the peace of the Han realm.

Li Hongzhang thinks that the Japanese can't turn the sky, but the Ming Dynasty is different, and now the Yangtze River is blocking the Changmao North Attack, and at this time it provokes the Ming Dynasty, in case the Ming Dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom rebels form an alliance with the North Attacker, it will not be something that the Qing court can bear.

At that time, Changmao committed from the north of the Yangtze River, and the Ming Navy went directly north to Dagukou, even if the Dagukou fortress group was built by Li Hongzhang, he didn't want to take the risk, although he gave the court a package ticket, saying that where it was foolproof, there was really an accident, and in the end it must be him Li Hongzhang who took responsibility alone.

Li Hongzhang couldn't take this risk. In addition, he thought from the bottom of his heart that there was not much benefit to that place in Taiwan, and there was no pity for losing it. It is just a small island where Han people and people are mixed, and compared with the entire Qing Dynasty, it has lost a dime.

Therefore, Li Hongzhang immediately conveyed the attitude of the Ming envoy to the imperial court, asking the empress dowager and the emperor to make a decision, and Li Hongzhang put forward a proposal to abandon Taiwan. Of course, if you say this directly, you will definitely be impeached by the Qingliu of the DPRK, when the Russians signed the Aihui Treaty with the Heilongjiang general Yishan in the northeast, ceding a large area of wasteland, and finally Yishan was not dismissed from his post by questioning. Yishan is a powerful man of the Eight Banners, and if he Li Hongzhang loses Taiwan, there will be no good end. You must know that the Manchu and Han ministers in the DPRK and the Central People's Republic of China, now look at these Han ministers with heavy troops as a thorn in their side, and there are not a few.

Therefore, Li Hongzhang didn't care about giving up Taiwan, but he had to give the imperial history Qingliu in the court a reason, so that they would not pin all the pots on his head Li Hongzhang. He Li Hongzhang can't withstand these impeachments, but there is one person who can, and that is Zeng Guofan.

Anyway, there are more people in the world who scold Zeng Guofan, but Zeng Guofan is still in Anqing, because everyone knows that Zeng Guofan is inseparable now, and it is really suitable for Zeng Guofan, a big man, to take the responsibility of losing Taiwan.

Therefore, before Li Hongzhang made suggestions to the Qing court, he first sent a letter to his teacher Zeng Guofan, telling his hardships in detail, and finally begged Zeng Guofan to write with him, so that the court could give up Taiwan and protect the overall situation.

Zeng Guofan sighed, knowing that this was his own student roasting himself on the fire again, he had to jump into the fire pit, as long as he went to the book with Li Hongzhang and told the court to give up Taiwan, then the most scolded in the world would definitely be Zeng Guofan.

At this time, Zeng Guofan simply did not write with Li Hongzhang, he directly wrote in his own name, wrote a long memo, and told the imperial court that this place in Taiwan has always been under the jurisdiction of Fujian, and since the pseudo-Ming occupies Fujian, of course he will not turn a blind eye to Taiwan. It is really a bizarre thing that a small country in Japan dares to invade Taiwan this time. It may not be that the Ming Dynasty instigated it, but the purpose was to provoke disputes.

Zeng Guofan suggested that at this time of crisis, the Ming Dynasty should not be allowed to have any excuse to provoke border provocations, and Taiwan is just a barren island, so it is better to give up and take into account the overall situation. When the crisis in the southeast is resolved, it can be with the Ming Dynasty for a long time.

Zeng Guofan's letter, immediately aroused the criticism of the Manchu Dynasty, obviously everyone was very dissatisfied with his weakness, and immediately caused a scolding, in fact, if it were a different person, there would not be such a big criticism, the so-called tree big wind is this reason.

However, Li Hongzhang's work was immediately easy to do, and after Zeng Guofan wrote the letter, Li Hongzhang suggested to the Qing court to give up Taiwan, and also wrote a letter of exuberance. Li Hongzhang laughed a lot when he got the scolding, and even after he went to the book, anyone who scolded him would also be linked to Zeng Guofan. There are those who say that Zeng Guofan is afraid of the enemy like a tiger, and there are people who say that Zeng Guofan is a thief in the land, and some people are connected to Zeng Guofan who has been in Daming for two years, directly pointing out that Zeng Guofan has defected to the enemy, and the head of what he said is the Tao, and he is not ashamed to say that he listens to who and who says it in person, anyway, these Qingliu are only responsible for scolding, not responsible.

In this way, Zeng Guofan attracted all the firepower and opened a way for the others behind him, and he seemed to know that his role was to be a banner and be responsible for being scolded, so he did not refute those harsh criticisms, insults and impeachments, and he looked light-hearted, which made those Qingliu angry, and felt that people didn't take themselves seriously at all.

In addition to Li Hongzhang, after Zeng Guofan's scolded banner rushed to the front, soon the local officials in various places also wrote to the Qing court, hoping that the imperial court would take into account the overall situation and not fight with strong enemies for the sake of overseas poor places.

In the end, even Manchu ministers like Yi Xin supported the cession of Taiwan.

By this time, it was already a matter of course, at this time Li Hongzhang started his strategy again, his teacher helped him to pave a way, he also had to pave the way for the teacher, he officially accepted the negotiation request of the Ming Dynasty, and also put forward the requirements of the Qing court, that is, the Ming must give up the support for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, especially stop selling arms and materials to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!

Obviously, the reason why the Taiping army had the ability to invade the north was that the Qing court believed that it was because the Taiping rebels bought too many strong ships and cannons produced by the Ming Dynasty. If such an agreement could be reached, Zeng Guofan would definitely understand that it was his disciples who were helping him, and the garrisons along the Yangtze River would also think it would be beneficial to them.

But is Li Hongzhang's plan just so simple?