Ryukyu Kingdom, capital Shuri (present-day Naha).

The palace was lifeless, and although King Shangtai was sitting on the throne, his face was dead and he could not see any expression.

It's scared silly!

Just now, the Japanese envoy made a show of power in this palace, ordering the Ryukyu Kingdom to be incorporated into the Wa Kingdom and become Okinawa Prefecture under Japan, and at the same time, the Ryukyu King Shōtai must immediately go to Edo (present-day Tokyo) to receive the canonization of the Japanese emperor.

The Japanese envoys were arrogant and arrogant, and did not take the Ryukyu king seriously at all, but only came over formally to inform them that in fact, Japanese officials from Okinawa Prefecture had arrived and were ready to take over everything here.

It wasn't until the Japanese envoy left Lao for a long time that Shang Tai came back to his senses and hurriedly asked the courtiers for advice.

Hearing Shang Tai's question, the Minister of State and the 14 judicial departments (ministers) spoke one after another, divided into three camps, some supported the annexation to Japan, some opposed the annexation to Japan, and some wavered from side to side.

Of course, Shang Tai himself did not want to be incorporated into Japan, so on the one hand, he sent someone to inform the Japanese envoy that he was ill and would not go to Japan for the time being, and on the other hand, he sent the purple turban officials to Xiang Dehong, Xiang Dehong, the general Lin Shigong and others to secretly go to China to ask China to intervene.

Xiang Dehong and his entourage learned from the Ryukyu boat passengers that the Chinese emperor Li Weiguo was in Shanghai and was very close to the Ryukyus, so they hurriedly took a Western cruise ship to Shanghai.

As the capital of China, Shanghai dominates the ten provinces south of the Yangtze River, with a large scale and a prosperous economy.

After Xiang Dehong and his entourage arrived in Shanghai, they were deeply shocked by this modern metropolis.

The wide cement road is full of traffic, the shops are brightly lit, the bustling crowds, the rows of buildings on both sides, and some buildings are dozens of stories high. Straight into the sea of clouds.

The braids, which were once the hallmark of the Manchu era, are no longer visible, and men have restored their hair ornaments since the Han and Tang dynasties, and no longer wear ugly horse coats and aprons. There are also some men who directly wear Western hair accessories, suits and leather shoes, and glasses.

As for women. The costumes have not changed much, in addition to the traditional Hanfu, there are also many cheongsams. Because the women's clothes under the Manchu Qing Dynasty were still very beautiful, many women who loved beauty still wore cheongsam.

Xiang Dehong and his entourage are like rural people entering the city and Grandma Liu entering the Grand View Garden, admiring all the way, if they are not in a hurry to see the Chinese emperor, they are happy to stop and play.

The inner city of Shanghai, which has now become an imperial city, has been expanded with the earliest Yuyuan Wu Palace's palace as the center. It has become the Imperial Palace of the Imperial Palace.

The telegraph line from Shanghai to Beijing was still being set up intensively, and in order to facilitate his understanding of the world situation, Li Weiguo stayed in Shanghai for a longer period of time in the Imperial Palace.

Originally, after drawing a 38th dividing line for the two sides of the American Civil War, Li Weiguo planned to return to Beijing, but unexpectedly, the intelligence department received news from Japan and Ryukyu respectively about Japan's annexation of the Ryukyu Prefecture and the Ryukyu sent an envoy to Shanghai.

Li Weiguo was immediately furious, Ryukyu was a traditional vassal state of China, since the late Ming Dynasty was invaded by Japan. The Ryukyus were effectively controlled by Japan, although they were still paying tribute to the Qing Dynasty. But at the same time, they are paying tribute to Japan. The reason why Japan did not dare to blatantly annex the Ryukyus before was that it was afraid of the Qing Empire, and with the decline of the Qing Empire, Japan's military strength has increased significantly, and its ambition and courage have become greater and greater, this time it intends to take advantage of the Qing Dynasty's demise. New China had just been founded, and it did not have time to take into account the opportunity of the Ryukyus and other vassal states, so it was a matter of annexing the Ryukyus Kingdom.

"What did the Ryukyu envoy say?" Li Weiguo asked Li Hongzao, the governor of Liangjiang.

Li Hongzao received the Ryukyu envoy on the order of Li Weiguo, asked about some things, and then came back to report to Li Weiguo.

I only heard Li Hongzao reply: "Back to Your Majesty, the main reason for the Ryukyu envoy is to ask the empire to intervene. Prevent Japan from annexing the Ryukyu Kingdom. ”

Li Weiguo asked rhetorically: "Didn't say that if we intervene, will the Ryukyu Kingdom continue to step on two boats?" Didn't you say how to repay? ”

Li Hongzao shook his head and said with a wry smile: "The location of the Ryukyus is far away from the mainland, and it is disturbed by the Japanese attack, so it can only step on two ships. As for repayment, our **** kingdom will never ask for repayment, and every time Ryukyu pays tribute to the courts of all dynasties, he will be rewarded twice or even ten times by the courts of all dynasties. ”

Keep up appearances!

Don't mention it, this mentions, Li Weiguo suddenly became angry.

Uncle, **** does not collect protection money from the younger brother, and has to post money to appease the younger brother, which is really incomprehensible, it is simply self-deception.

Li Weiguo can allow this kind of thing to happen again in New China, since he is a big brother, he must be like a big brother, and he must have rules.

When you are a little brother, you have to pay the protection fee!

"You go tell that something...... In order for us to intervene, the Ryukyu Kingdom must henceforth sever its relations with Japan and no longer pay tribute to Japan, and at the same time, the Ryukyu King only has administrative jurisdiction over the Ryukyus, and the diplomatic and military affairs of the Ryukyu Kingdom can only be replaced by our Chinese Imperial Court and the Military Department. ”

This is Chiguo's downgrading of the vassal state to a colony, without diplomatic and military rights, that is the real colony and overseas territory that belongs to China.

Li Hongzao asked with some concern: "If the King of the Ryukyus agrees, is Your Majesty really ready to interfere?" ”

Li Weiguo was puzzled and asked rhetorically: "This is natural, Ryukyu is the eastern sea barrier of the empire, and it is impossible for the Japanese to occupy it." ”

Li Hongzao then said: "But didn't Your Majesty think that the Japanese side would never give up Ryukyu easily, and I am afraid that there will be a war." ”

Li Weiguo said fearlessly: "Fight and fight, we are even crushed by Britain and France, are we still afraid of small Japan?" ”

In Li Weiguo's eyes, Japan in this period had only just begun the Meiji Restoration, and its strength should not be very good.

But in fact, on the contrary, during this period of Japan, its military strength was still very strong, which Li Weiguo never expected, he always thought that Japan was strong after the First Sino-Japanese War to become China's evil neighbor, in fact, the establishment of the Beiyang Naval Division at the end of the Qing Dynasty was also forced by the Japanese Navy, before the establishment of the Beiyang Naval Division, the Japanese Navy first invaded and occupied the Ryukyus, and then used the Ryukyu as a springboard to attack Taiwan, until this time. The Qing government found that Japan, which had always thought it was weak, had become so powerful that it had a navy stronger than the Qing Dynasty's naval divisions.

In this time and space, because Li Weiguo was too hateful, Britain, France, and the United States, which had been bullying Japan, were all the time. Because of the crushing defeat on the Songhu battlefield, the military power of the three countries in Asia was seriously weakened. In particular, the United States was completely wiped out by the entire American Asian Fleet, and the British and French navies also suffered huge losses, and the French Asian Fleet directly returned to the mainland, while the British Navy's Asian Fleet had no supplies from Hong Kong Island and the Shanghai Concession, so it could only temporarily return to Singapore.

In this way, the balance of power in East Asia was disrupted, and Emperor Takamei of Japan took advantage of the fact that the great powers had no time to take care of Japan. Together with the Meiji father and son, they launched the Boshin War to unify Japan ahead of schedule and destroyed the shogunate.

Later, the United States was too busy to take care of itself due to the civil war, and Britain and France felt powerless to confront China, so their attitude towards Japan changed from invading Japan to supporting Japan. With the official succession of Meiji to the throne of the emperor, the reform reforms, and the covert support of the British and French powers, Japan's power swelled rapidly.

Historically, the Ryukyus were annexed only a few years later, but the current Meiji government has the support of the British and French powers because of its naval power. The strength is inflated, and there is no need to test China's reaction. Direct annexation of the Ryukyus.

At this moment, as Li Weiguo listened to Li Hongzao's analysis, he suddenly frowned, and he had to attach great importance to Japan.

"As far as the minister knows, in the past two years, Japan has taken advantage of the fact that it has no time to take care of them during the War of Imperial Unification, and it has happened very quickly under the covert support of Britain and France and other powers. In addition, China and Japan were separated by the sea, and the Imperial Navy lacked the ability to fight in the ocean, which made Japan even more arrogant. Li Hongzao's understanding of Japan is also because Shanghai is the trading center of East Asia, and there are many merchant ships from Japan and Shanghai. Among them, there are some friends of Li Hongzao, so they know this.

Li Weiguo's attention in the past two years has been focused on the Third Yapian War and the unification of China by destroying the Qing Dynasty, and he has not realized the quiet rise of Japan.

Of course, this is all because Li Weiguo was preconceived, and thought that Japan would not change as in history, and was ready to clean up Japan after a while, but he did not expect that history had changed dramatically because of him, and even the famous Battle of Sedan in Europe disappeared, Napoleon II was not captured, and the French Revolution could not break out, all of which shows that history is no longer the original history.

Although Li Weiguo was also aware of this problem before, he didn't take it too seriously, but now he has to pay attention to it.

"Tell Cheng Kun to roll over immediately!"

Li Weiguo naturally would not admit that he despised Japan, so Cheng Kun, who was in charge of overseas intelligence of the China S.H.I.E.L.D., lay down his gun.

Cheng Kun also accompanied Li Weiguo to the south, because Li Weiguo was very concerned about the major and minor affairs in Europe and the United States, so Cheng Kun was very careful to collect intelligence in this regard and behave well in front of Li Weiguo.

However, it is precisely because Cheng Kun has invested too much energy in Europe and the United States that he has made the same mistake as Li Weiguo and neglected his neighbor Japan.

Knowing that Li Weiguo was angry, Cheng Kun hurriedly sorted out all aspects of intelligence about Japan, and then personally sent it to Li Weiguo.

Fortunately, although Cheng Kun didn't pay much attention to a small Japan, the agents of the China S.H.I.E.L.D. are still working very dutifully, and the head of the Edo Station of Overseas Intelligence Japan reported some abnormal situations about Japan's politics, economy and military a year ago, and it has been backlogged in the intelligence archive room, and now it happened to be found by Cheng Kun, and he barely handed over in front of Li Weiguo, even so, he couldn't escape being scolded.

"In the future, I will be given priority to know the information about Japan!"

"Yes! Your Majesty! ”

"Forget it, don't make any order, no matter which country's information, no matter how big or small, you have to report it to me every once in a while!"

"Yes! Your Majesty! ”

Cheng Kun broke out in a cold sweat on his forehead, he was already lying on the gun, and he didn't dare to say more, the more he said at this time, the more he would be scolded.

There is a lot of information about Japan, and Li Weiguo has only read it roughly.

According to a report from the head of the Edo (Tokyo) intelligence station, Japan's annual fiscal revenue has reached 55 million yen, or about 15 million yuan. If we compare it with the Qing Dynasty in 1864, this income has reached half of the Qing Dynasty's finances, which shows that Japan is rising rapidly.

Of course, China, which won the Second Yapian War and the Third Yapian War, is now stronger, without the aggression and exploitation of foreign powers, and has the support of a strong industrial system, so that when New China was founded, the fiscal revenue of that year was as high as 1. 500 million yuan, which is exactly five times that of Japan.

In this regard, Li Weiguo does not need to worry that the economic gap between China and Japan will become wider and wider with time, and it is normal to throw a few streets off Japan in the end.

Li Weiguo focused on Japan's military strength, and the Meiji government set up 6 standing divisions with 200,000 troops, all equipped with breech-loading rifles and artillery provided by Britain and France.

As for the navy, it frightened Li Weiguo.

It turned out that at this time, Japan already had a very powerful navy.

"There are ironclad ships in the West Sea Fleet?" Li Weiguo pointed to the report and looked at Cheng Kun and asked, looking surprised.

"Yes!" Cheng Kun didn't quite understand, but at this time, he could only hope that the information reported by the stationmaster of Edo Station was accurate.

Li Weiguo thought for a moment and re-examined the report on Japan's West Sea Fleet.

Flagships: Izumi Ship (Tosa Domain), Ryutsuki (Kumamoto Domain), Yoharamaru (Akita Domain), Kangyumaru (Satsuma Domain), Unyang Maru (Choshu Domain, Purchased from the United Kingdom), Meng Chun Maru (Saga Domain, Purchased from the United Kingdom), Hayabusa Masaburu (Morioka Domain, Purchased from the United Kingdom), Kuaikaze Maru (Matsuyama Domain, Purchased from the United Kingdom), Rainbow Bridge Maru (Nakatsu Domain), Huayang Maru (Choshu Domain), Tsutsu Maru (Hiroshima Domain, France)

Among the 11 warships of the Japanese West Sea Fleet, there were actually five ironclad ships, which made Li Weiguo very suspicious.

"I think that the name of the ironclad ship should be a wooden ship with wrought iron armor on the outside, and it is definitely not an ironclad battleship under construction in the Imperial Navy."

Li Hongzao reminded him, which immediately made Li Weiguo breathe a sigh of relief and agreed with this statement.

It's just that even if the Japanese Navy has only five ironclad ships, it will be a huge threat to the Chinese Navy. This is because the current capital ships of the Chinese Navy are only ten shallow water heavy turret ironclad ships and a dozen British-made sail battleships, the former can only operate in shallow waters, and although the latter can enter the deep sea to fight, a dozen wooden battleships can definitely not defeat the five Japanese ironclad ships.

"No wonder Japan would dare to annex the Ryukyus so soon, this is an ironclad ship that bullied our Chinese Navy for not having deep-sea operations!"

"Your Majesty doesn't have to worry, isn't there another Zheng He? The 10,000-ton ironclad ship is a real ironclad ship, and it is definitely not something that the Japanese Navy's wooden iron hull can compete with. ”

"It's a pity that there is only one, if only the other nine were built!"

"What's wrong with one ship? As long as it can deter Japan! ”

Li Hongzao and Cheng Kun debated with each other.

Li Weiguo thought for a while, and suddenly became resolute.

The Ryukyus could not be annexed by Japan, so the Eastern Ocean Fleet of the Navy, with the Zheng He as the flagship, could go to the Ryukyus to test the reaction and strength of the Japanese West Sea Fleet, and if feasible, then transfer the second town of the Eastern Theater to the Ryukyus.

Since the little devil is not honest, then there is nothing to say, just cut him! (To be continued.) )