Just when you think you're on the road, fate will silently dig a hole in your path when you're going well.

From the beginning, Lin Zhe was in anticipation of the completion of the Meiji Restoration as in history, so he began to meddle in the affairs of Japan two years earlier, and even did not hesitate to go into battle in person, united with the British to launch a war between the Sino-British alliance and the Satsuma Domain, and successfully forced the Satsuma Domain to sign the Castle Treaty.

However, what he didn't expect was that he went against history and meddled in Japan's affairs, which directly led to the change in Japan's situation and was completely divorced from history.

With the support of China and Britain, the Japanese shogunate did not give in to the reformers who were regent, and even prepared for war.

However, the attitude of the Japanese shogunate also directly detonated the opposition and cynicism within the Japanese domain, and the Nagasu and Satsuma domains officially raised the banner of armed overthrow of the shogunate.

If it had gone according to normal course, the shogunate, which had the support of China and the British, would have crushed the rebellion by defeating the forces of the Nagasu Domain, and waited until a few years later for the Nagasu Domain and the Satsuma Domain to unite again and finally bring down the rebellion.

However, at this time, the French did not support the shogunate in line with the great powers and other countries that had historically supported the shogunate, but instead supported the reformers such as the Nagasu domain and the Satsuma domain.

The biggest purpose is not to say how much benefit France has gained in Japan, but purely to retaliate and dismantle Taiwan!

France has a deep grudge with Britain and China in Southeast Asia, and Britain and France have great contradictions in Thailand, and both sides are fighting to include Thailand as their colonies. This led to a full-scale conflict between Britain and France in Southeast Asia.

At the same time, the French invaded Vietnam and fought with Vietnam for many years. This has also created a serious conflict with China.

Leaving aside the global situation, let's talk only about the situation in East Asia. Then France, the United Kingdom, and China all have a great conflict of interest.

In this case, it became natural for the French to dismantle the Chinese and British platforms in Japan.

The French sold large quantities of ordnance, especially breech-loading rifles, to the Shogunate faction such as the Chosu Domain, which caused the Japanese Shogunate's army to suffer greatly in the past two months.

Instead of being able to enter the Chosu Domain and force the Choshu Domain to submit, as in history, the shogunate army lost its troops and lost its city.

According to the news from the shogunate, in the past two months, the shogunate army has lost more than 3,000 people!

After the news was transmitted back to Nanjing. made Lin Zhe quite unhappy!

Why didn't this thing go in the direction I predetermined!

"Today, since the shogunate is weak, then give him appropriate support, and the empire needs the Tokugawa shogunate to continue to exist!" Although Lin Zhe was unhappy in his heart, he was even more dissatisfied with the weak combat effectiveness of the Japanese shogunate army.

However, supporting the Tokugawa shogunate and preventing the Japanese from carrying out industrial reforms was Lin Zhe's established policy towards the Japanese government, and even if there was an accident, it was necessary to stick to it.

Song Guanqian, Minister of Foreign Affairs on the side, was a little puzzled!

In the eyes of Song Guanqian, this Tokugawa shogunate is really muddy and can't support the wall, don't you see that the people of the Patriarchal Continent have requisitioned a large number of ordinary civilians as a source of soldiers for the new army, and you still continue to adhere to the so-called samurai tradition. All the soldiers were a samurai class, and ordinary soldiers were not recruited into the army, so for a long time, the Renjiazhou clan could easily requisition tens of thousands or even more troops. It doesn't hurt to lose, but what about you, the shogunate, if you lose tens of thousands of samurai classes. Don't hurt your muscles and bones.

This Tokugawa shogunate is really muddy and can't support the wall, but why does His Majesty insist on supporting the Tokugawa shogunate?

Just for the sake of a few concessions in Japan's capital and still have some commercial interests? It's nothing at all. If the empire wanted to, the Chosu domain would have defeated the shogunate. However, they also did not dare to take back the concession, let alone completely cut off foreign trade.

Otherwise, the Satsuma clan would be a precedent!

Therefore, he did not understand why Lin Zhe was so wary of the Japanese reformers, and even did not hesitate to let the empire send troops to the Japanese Honsatsuma Domain, but also supported the Tokugawa shogunate.

Of course, he doesn't understand it, but since this is Lin Zhe's decision, what he has to do is not to question Lin Zhe's decision, but to do it well.

After a few days, Song Guanqian, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Empire, summoned the British Minister to China to discuss Japan's affairs, but at this time, the British side obviously had little interest in meddling in Japan's affairs, and the previous victory in the Satsuma Domain had already allowed the British to get back on the field.

Although the British verbally expressed their support for the Empire's actions in Japan, they also made it clear that Britain had no intention of sending large-scale troops to Japan, let alone starting a war.

In this way, the empire will have to fight alone!

Subsequently, the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a telegram to the Imperial Minister in Japan, Li Bocang, asking him to strengthen contact with the Japanese shogunate and strengthen support for the Japanese shogunate regime.

After Li Bocang received the telegram, he immediately asked to meet Tokugawa Yoshiki, the real power of the Tokugawa shogunate, and then met with the contemporary Tokugawa shogun, that is, Tokugawa Ieshige.

When meeting with these two men, Li Bochang said that the empire was concerned about the future situation of the Japanese shogunate, and at the same time, he directly expressed that the empire hoped that the Japanese would maintain the current status quo and would be happy to see the Japanese continued to lead the Japanese feudal domains with the Tokugawa shogunate as the political center.

As a sign of friendship between the Empire and the Shogunate, the Empire was willing to provide a loan to the Shogunate for the Tokugawa Shogunate to maintain its rule.

In the past year, the Tokugawa shogunate has also purchased a lot of weapons and ammunition, and has trained a new army of seven or eight thousand people, but this new army uses mini rifles, and the new army of the Nagasu Domain, which uses breech-loading rifles, loses in the battle.

Immediately. The Tokugawa shogunate signed a loan contract with the empire, and the empire would provide a loan of 8 million yen.

Of course. The Empire will certainly not provide direct financial funds, which will be guaranteed by the Imperial treasury. The bonds are issued by the Royal Bank, and the bonds are sold at a 90% discount, deducting 5 percent of the issuance fee, that is, 85% of the actual receipt, and the money that can be obtained by the shogunate on Japan is 6.8 million yen.

The loan has an interest rate of six per cent per annum and is repaid over 12 years, with only interest repaid for the first six years and principal payments beginning in the sixth year.

In order to obtain loans, the shogunate would use customs duties revenue as collateral. In order to ensure the smooth repayment of this loan, the Imperial side will send some financial supervisors to stay in Japan's customs to help Japan establish a new type of customs.

The purpose of this loan was also specified, that is, more than 80% of it had to be used to purchase products from the empire, and the remaining 20% could be used by the shogunate itself.

This last condition was necessary, and the empire provided loans to the Japanese in order to allow the Japanese to buy their own weapons, arm the army, and then go to war with the reformers such as the Cheung Chau domain. What if this loan was not limited to the purpose and was spent indiscriminately by the Japanese shogunate, or if the Japanese themselves turned around and used the money to buy weapons from the British?

There was no objection to this condition, because the Tokugawa shogunate and Li Bochang were the first to negotiate arms procurement. Then the shogunate couldn't come up with the money, which led to such a loan.

After the loan contract was signed, Japan quickly purchased tens of thousands of 1858 Linde rifles from the Empire. Then almost thirty front-loading rifled guns were also ordered.

That's not all, because the Nagasu Domain and the Satsuma Domain in Japan are now openly allied. Although the Satsuma Domain's naval power had been attacked by the Sino-British alliance before, it still possessed the strongest naval power in Japan.

Therefore, the shogunate ordered a number of warships from the empire. Boost your sea power!

Guns, cannons, and warships, as well as cannonballs, bullets, and even some daily military supplies, this procurement package will greatly enrich the military power of the Japanese shogunate.

In order to ship to Japan as soon as possible, and the situation in the direction of the shogunate was also in crisis, and new weapons were urgently needed to equip the troops, and it was too late for the factories of the Chinese Empire to produce new weapons, so these purchased weapons were basically current weapons or weapons in stock in the Empire.

And these second-hand weapons are definitely cheaper than new weapons, and their performance is not bad, and they are not much worse than those brand new weapons, so the Japanese himself is happy to accept the current weapons of the Empire.

As a result, the Imperial Army directly vacated 10,000 1858 Linde rifles, which were produced and put into service a few years ago, although they had been in service for several years, but they were still in relatively good condition, and after the troops transferred these 1858 Linde rifles, they could just be replaced with newer 1864 Linde rifles.

As a result, it can be regarded as setting a precedent for the large-scale sale of second-hand 1858 rifles in the Chinese Empire, and Thailand and Vietnam, as well as Lin Chengting and even North Korea, all came up to them and wanted to buy cheap second-hand rifles, and the Imperial Army did not object, as long as they could come up with money, then they would buy it.

Anyway, the performance of the 1858 Linde rifle is not top-notch, and the armies of various countries are already equipped with newer small-caliber breech-loading rifles, and all countries, especially Britain and France, will not hide it, they can sell it, but the price is relatively expensive.

So while it's still early, this 1858 Linde rifle can be sold as one!

However, in addition to the United States, the Empire's arms foreign trade market is still too small, and tens of thousands of rifles have been sold, but the Imperial Army has now put in service more than 500,000 1858 Linde rifles, and although these rifles will continue to be in service, they are now also beginning to be retired, and it is estimated that all of them will be retired from the front-line troops in the 1870s, because according to the production of the 1864 Linde rifle, By that time, the 1864 Linde rifle would have been able to completely replace the 1858 Linde rifle.

At that time, the fate of these retired rifles will be the same as that of Mini rifles in the early years, one is foreign trade, but it is estimated that it will not sell much, and the second is to equip patrol police and some second-line local garrison troops.

After all, domestic patrols are still generally using Mini rifles! (To be continued.) )