"Lord Maori, do you know why our country sent troops?"

"Lord Ho, please speak up. This domain thinks that there is no anger in the Tang Kingdom, and the Tang Dynasty is rude to send troops, which is a loss of great power! ”

Maori did not slack off, and met with the Chinese consul in person as soon as possible.

The consul said: "Lord Maori understands in his heart that collusion with Yingyi is despised by a gentleman. ”

Maori denied it: "There is no such thing." ”

In the context of Confucian culture, no one dares to fall behind the reputation of colluding with the Yiren, and the mainstream voice in Japan is the Yiyi. After the shogunate opened its ports, it only traded with China, Korea, Vietnam and other East Asian countries, and the Dutch were given some privileges, but they still did not trade with other Western countries. Other powerful feudal clans, although secretly smuggling, never dared to establish formal relations with Westerners, not only for fear of the shogunate, but also culturally unable to do so.

The consul said: "Since this is the case, then I will not mention it below." Our country still hopes that Japan can be peaceful, and this envoy has come to mediate and dare to ask the Maori Lord to strike the army! ”

Maori said: "If you don't quit?" ”

The consul said: "Our country has to send troops to come, although the parliament allows 100,000 troops to be sent, but the soldiers are fierce and dangerous, once the war starts, like a tiger fighting a rabbit, I dare not do my best!" ”

Maori forced a sigh of relief: "Why does the Tang Kingdom have to help Tokugawa? ”

The consul said, "It's really a shame." ”

Mori continued to deny: "There is no such thing as a joint attack in the Choshu Domain, and this is a slander against the Tokugawa family. ”

The consul sighed: "Lord Maori should know that Japan is located in the east of the sea, and the country has been peaceful for hundreds of years. But the West invaded the east, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty was originally a Liaodong Hu species, colluding with the Western Russians. Two hundred years ago, the Russians invaded the East China Sea. Fifty years ago, the Manchus joined forces with Russia to invade Mongolia. I, the Great Zhou Tianzi, worked hard and fought hard. First chase the Russians to Manchuria, and then drive the Russians out of the Western Regions. Millions of Han troops fought hard to drive the Yi people away from Shenzhou and retreat to the European continent. Now Yingyi has come from the sea and has come to Japan. Since ancient times, there has been Xia Wuyi, not my Huaxia, all barbarians. It is not easy for Japan to renovate, and it took thousands of years of hard work to expel Ezo, and there are four islands in Japan, and it has become a country of ceremonies, music, poetry and books. Now that the British are invading the east, whoever has courtesy, righteousness and shame in his heart dares not to be rude! ”

The consul's attitude was very clear that what China wanted was to prevent the Yi people from expanding their influence to the east. It is also the grand strategy of global competition between China and the United Kingdom. As for the difference in rhetoric, it is because the context of different cultures is different, and it seems to be a bit of a spring and autumn in Japan.

Maori was silent for a long time. Yi Xia's righteousness was pressed down, and he couldn't catch it. Once it is confirmed that he is colluding with the barbarians, the Maori family is finished. The emperor did not dare to support him, and those ronins might even defect, especially the samurai who had fought against the Yi people in the Chinese overseas company, and they set their actions one by one so noble that it was impossible to accept the renyi in any case.

Maori understands that what China is doing now, according to the understanding of the East, is to fight the world and compete with the Yi people.

He did accept Britain's support, and promised to give Britain some rewards after success in the future, but that was all a no-brainer, and he didn't intend to really cooperate with Britain, but just cheated some arms. Now that China supports the shogunate, once he is beaten as the culprit of the Lianyi, he will inevitably lose power without even using troops.

A sense of crisis instantly weighed on Maori's heart, and the ups and downs of life came too quickly.

He felt himself instantly knocked down from the clouds of the kingdom and into reality.

I could only put down my posture and asked, "If the army is dismissed at this time, what should the shogunate ask for guilt in the future?" ”

The consul said: "My country has come forward to mediate. If the Maori family is willing to rebel, it is a friend of China, if it insists on going its own way and resists stubbornly, the Maori adults should think twice. ”

Mori said: "The princes of Kansai were originally one, but the Tokugawa family acted perversely, so there are wars and chaos now. In order to strike the army, the Tokugawa family needed to agree to three things. ”

"Which three?"

"First, abolish the Hajj and confess, this is a bad government that ignores human ethics!"

To this day, although Mori is in command of the army, his family is holding hostages in Edo, so it can be said that he is risking the loss of his relatives to fight against the shogunate, which is why he has always waved the banner of public and military cooperation, and only wants to reform the shogunate, but does not dare to openly oppose the shogunate.

The consul said: "This matter can be followed! ”

Mori said: "Second, all princes can meet the emperor, and the shogunate must not stop him. ”

The consul thought for a moment: "This is also reasonable!" ”

Maori said: "Third, the land of Kansai should be handed over to the princes of Kansai. The shogunate must not interfere! ”

The consul thought for a moment, shook his head and said, "No." Choshu Domain can't get past Kyoto! ”

Obviously, the principle has been set, and the powerful feudal clan of the Shogunate faction can break away from the shogunate in the future, and will not be controlled by the shogunate, and can directly meet the emperor. However, the territory could not cross Kyoto, and once the entire Kansai region was handed over to the Shogunate faction, Kyoto was under the control of the Shogunate faction.

Maori said: "Then all the land in western Beijing can be cut off from Kansai?" ”

The consul shook his head: "You go to the shogunate to discuss this matter, and the envoy is only mediating." You have negotiated the best, but if you can't, you will be powerless to interfere. ”

At this end of the negotiations, Maori Jingqin was quite frustrated, seeing that it was done, but he had to give up halfway, so that he hated China, but he could not hate, all the information shows that it was indeed because of the United Yingyi, if he did not unite with Yingyi, it would be impossible for the Chinese parliament to pass the budget, but without the United Yingyi, he did not have the capital to confront the shogunate. As for uniting Yingyi against China, he didn't want to think about it.

China's direct intervention completely shattered Maori's dream of establishing a shogunate, and he could not afford to let it go. If they were able to keep the territory they were currently occupying, the power of the Mori clan had also been greatly expanded, from more than 300,000 koku to more than 2 million koku. It became the second largest power in Japan after the shogunate, but the problem was that these things were not guaranteed by China, and if the shogunate did not agree to continue the war, the Chinese would help the shogunate. When the time comes, let alone keep these territories, the Maori family may have to decline.

Mori Kei immediately found that the current situation had instead become that the Mori family wanted to reach an agreement with the shogunate as soon as possible to ensure the occupation of the land, rather than the shogunate being in a hurry.

Thinking of this, Maori Jingqin immediately took action, the first step was to immediately demand that all the ports under his rule immediately take measures to expel the British merchant ships that came to the port, and no longer give the Chinese a handle, the second step was to drive away all the representatives sent by the British, and the third step was to immediately negotiate with the shogunate.

And to pull in the Chinese consul and let the Chinese consul be a witness, it is equivalent to getting China's guarantee.

At this time, as did Maori Jingqin, who felt that the situation was changing too quickly, there was also an Englishman, Hader, who was an Irishman, but an Irish nobleman who was finally the king, who believed in Protestantism, graduated from Trinity College, served in the East India Company, and had a good understanding of Oriental culture.

It was he who succeeded in establishing relations with the local forces in Japan, and it was he who succeeded in persuading the British government to support the local forces in Japan, or he succeeded in getting the local powers in Japan to reach an agreement with Britain and sign a diplomatic treaty.

After the Choshu clan was in good shape, Hader quickly rushed from India to Japan, followed by Mori Kei, he hoped that Mori would fulfill his promise as soon as possible and establish diplomatic relations with the British, who were willing to recognize the Mori family's control over Japan, of course, provided that the Mori family could enter Kyoto.

Seeing the Maori army approaching Kyoto and the shogunate army crushing at the touch of a button, Hader thought that within a month, he would be able to successfully establish an anti-China base in the heart of Chinese power.

But who could have known that when he just woke up from the soft belly of a Japanese geisha in the morning, he was suddenly told to leave.

He really didn't understand why, and after a long time of communication, he realized that it was their owner who didn't want people to think that he was in trouble.

Hader was momentarily frustrated, knowing that he had once again run into the invisible barrier.

For many years, he could not understand this phenomenon, East Asian countries, once they had normal exchanges with Western countries, they would be criticized, first of all, their own intellectual elites would oppose and warn the monarch, and then the natives who came into contact with Westerners would be severely punished, and it was good for Westerners to be expelled, and it would be even life-threatening to enter these countries without authorization.

This cultural exclusion has formed a barrier, which is not actively constructed by the Chinese, but Hader has found that the Chinese have greatly strengthened this barrier in the field of diplomacy, making it difficult for the West to establish normal relations with East Asian countries, and making it impossible for Britain to use the contradictions between East Asian countries to oppose China.

The notion that collusion with others is a sin is first and foremost a cultural phenomenon. What Hader does not understand the most is that the Chinese themselves are trading with the West, but they are maintaining a closed relationship in other East Asian countries. Chinese trade with the West and are not considered to be colluding with the Yiren, but once those small countries trade with the West, they will immediately be labeled as a Tongyi by their own intellectual elite. The reason why China will not be labeled is because China is the cultural center of East Asia, and no one will be able to pass through it, which is a kind of cultural hegemony. It is formed by history, no one can change it, and Hader is annoyed that the Chinese have abused this cultural hegemony.

Even unified independent countries such as Korea and Vietnam did not dare to bear this hat, let alone the princes of a divided country like Japan.

Hader knew that his diplomatic behavior had failed again, and he now thought that instead of turning the tide and supporting the Choshu Domain to seize power again, and then becoming a pawn of Britain against China, he was thinking more about quickly reducing the losses and recovering the British government's investment in the Choshu Domain.

The arms that were given to the Chōshū clan were given to them in the form of low-interest loans, and the money had to be recovered, because the money was as high as three million pounds, and if it was not recovered, the account would not be settled, and the prime minister would have to step down.