Since the outbreak of the Zun Wang Yi Movement in Japan, the whole Japan has begun to be chaotic, from ordinary differences to the outbreak of civil war, and now Japan has been a civil war that has lasted for many years.

The ongoing civil war has also put Japan in a difficult situation, which has not only brought a large number of casualties, but also brought heavy pressure on the lives of ordinary people.

In order to maintain the expenses of the war, both the Meiji government and the Tokugawa shogunate tried their best to squeeze every common man, and the peasants did not harvest enough food to feed themselves, and the phenomenon of selling children and daughters was quite common.

Even in order to raise funds, the Tokugawa shogunate even officially organized people to go to Shanghai and other coastal cities in China to open various names of 'tea rooms', which were often called Oriental tea rooms by the Japanese people.

What is a Toyo Tea Room?

Contemporary literati described it this way: There are so-called three sheng huggers in the Waibaidu Bridge, and the Oriental tea room is also, and the people who serve are all Bibang 28 enchantresses, with six-inch round feet without restraint, high buns and clouds, and powder for snow, and they also feel that they are not rich. Those who enter it pay one or two corners, then the spring floating snail is blue, the board is red, the smile is flirting, and there is no sorrow, if you lose the two wings of the British worm, it is not difficult to really ecstasy.

Perhaps this text description is too written, but in the words of later generations, it is simply that: in these Oriental tea rooms, for a dime or two, you can find a sixteen-year-old Japanese chick, let her sing and dance, and touch her thighs by the way, and if you add more money, you can directly do anything.

Since the empire entered Japan strongly, both the Meiji government and the Tokugawa shogunate have actually abandoned the policy of closing the country to the outside world, but unlike history, in history, Japan itself opened its eyes to the world and aimed at the West, especially Britain, France, and Prussia.

And in this era, the Japanese themselves have their eyes set on the Empire. On the one hand, the empire is closer to Japan, and on the other hand, it is not related to the traditional strong history of the empire, and modern China has not fallen as it has in history, but has risen strongly and continued to maintain the momentum of being a great power in East Asia. Japan's eyes will definitely fall on the Empire.

In addition to some normal business exchanges, in order to earn more foreign exchange, the Tokugawa shogunate officially organized many young Japanese women to open various art galleries for foreign foreigners and Chinese, at first only opened in the concessions of China and Britain and other countries in Japan, but the Japanese soon found that Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and other large coastal cities in China had a larger market, so they simply organized more young Japanese women to go to Shanghai and other imperial cities to make money.

According to the statistics of the Tokugawa Shogunate's consulate in Shanghai, in 1868 there were nearly 1,000 people living in Shanghai, 70% of whom were engaged in the sex industry, and contributed more than 200,000 yen in foreign exchange income to the Tokugawa shogunate every year.

Thus. After many years of civil war, Japan's finances have reached the point of exhaustion, and the reason why the Tokugawa shogunate was able to support it was entirely due to the loans of the empire, and the Meiji government was about the same, owing a debt to China, Britain and France, which relied on oriental tea houses all over Southeast Asia to make money, and it is estimated that it will not be repaid for decades.

The people are not able to make a living, and those who can't survive will naturally rebel. Some daimyo who were ambitious or unwilling to be co-opted by the Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji government also tended to use various banners, and some refused to send troops and money to these two central governments. Some simply announced that they did not recognize the two governments and played their own games behind closed doors.

There's the Ezo Matsumae Domain!

Although the Tokugawa shogunate declared Chiang Ezo directly under his jurisdiction in 1855, this direct administration was not very effective, and the Matsumae domain continued to govern Ezo, albeit in a difficult financial situation.

And into the sixties, when there was a civil war in Japan. Ezo also ushered in drastic changes, first of all, after Wakkanai Port was ceded to the empire as a concession, although in terms of national sovereignty, the Japanese themselves suffered great humiliation, but the arrival of the Chinese also brought new vitality to Ezo.

Although Wakkanai Port is not a deep-water port. However, this port is an extremely difficult perennial ice-free port, and the ice-free port is very rare on the coast of the North Pacific, on the west coast of the North Pacific, that is, Vladivostok all the way to the Arctic Ocean, there is only one perennial ice-free port.

However, Wakkanai Port in Ezo is also an ice-free port, and this port is located in the Soya Strait, which has a great strategic position.

Therefore, although Wakkanai Port in Ezo is not a very qualified military port, every winter, the ships of the Imperial Navy's North Sea Fleet still cross south in large quantities from Temple Street, Heilongjiang and other places, and then come to Wakkanai Port to spend the winter.

In order to serve the navy, the navy has built some supply depots here, as well as some repair facilities, but not much.

After the empire opened a concession here, the merchants of the empire also came one after another, and opened trading houses to trade with the local Ezo people, as well as with some of the contemporary Japanese themselves.

Several of the other ports in Ezo did not become Chinese concessions, but under the treaty between the empire and the Tokugawa shogunate, imperial merchants were also one of the few ports that had the right to trade in Ezo.

Although Ezo itself does not have too many and too good specialty products, even if it is a small trade, it is still much better than before.

After the financial situation of the Matsumae Domain improved in the past two years, it was natural that some chaotic ideas would sprout, such as that they were unwilling to send large amounts of money and even soldiers to the Tokugawa shogunate every year.

If the Tokugawa shogunate had any hope of defeating the Meiji government in a short period of time, many people now know that the possibility of the Tokugawa shogunate completely defeating the Meiji government was very small, so the empire did not allow it.

In this case, the war may last for many, many years, and in this case, many daimyo are naturally unwilling to spend this war with no end in sight.

Last year, the Matsumae clan used various excuses to shirk and reduced a lot of taxes and soldiers that should have been given to the shogunate.

And this year, the Ezo people also broke out in several riots, and the Matsumae clan even used the Ezo people to deduct the funds and personnel originally used to support the Tokugawa shogunate under the pretext of the instability of the Ezo people.

The turmoil of the Ezo people, which naturally has an imperial element behind this, began a few years ago. The empire began to meddle in Ezo, and even brought the issue of Ezo's independence to the negotiations.

The empire believed that Ezo was not historically part of the traditional territory of Japan, and therefore the people of Ezo had the right to decide the future of Ezo and whether they would become independent or join Japan.

This kind of thing naturally made the Tokugawa shogunate very dissatisfied, but the Tokugawa shogunate did not dare to say that it would refuse directly because it still needed the support of the empire. But let's just drag it out.

In this case, the empire naturally did not sit still, and soon found the natives of the Matsumae Domain and the Ezo tribe, and the natives of the Ezo people naturally had nothing to talk about with them, they were just a group of uncivilized natives, and if they were given a few novel goods, they would be foolishly bewitched by the envoys of the empire, and then caused several turmoil.

As for the Matsumae Domain, the envoys of the empire are much more cautious about this.

The Imperial Consul in Wakkanai made a promise to the Matsumae Domain. If the Matsumae clan had the courage to secede from the Japanese, then the empire would have supported them to establish an independent state.

Independent statehood?

This temptation is difficult for any careerist to refuse, and the first two lords of the Matsumae Domain, Matsumae Takahiro and Matsumae Tokuhiro, were still relatively cautious.

During Matsuzen's reign in Ezo, he was attracted by the promise of the empire, but he did not think that a complete independent state was a good idea because it would lead to repression by the shogunate, and he did not believe that the weak Ezo would be able to withstand the Tokugawa shogunate's crusade. Therefore, there was only some support for the Tokugawa shogunate, but there was no overt rebellion.

But when Shuhiro Matsuzen became the lord of the domain. As a young man, he quickly made up his mind, this is a big name where there is a king of a kingdom.

Soon, he conspired with the diplomats of the empire, and as soon as he took office, he used the pretext of the Ezo rebellion, and then cut off the tax and military support for the Tokugawa shogunate.

At the same time, a number of officials sent by the Tokugawa shogunate were repatriated.

All these actions have proved that Matsumae Shuhiro was ready to make a complete break with the Tokugawa shogunate, and this rupture was different from the previous rupture between other daimyo and the shogunate. In the past, those daimyo broke up, at most, they did not obey the shogunate, but Matsumae Shuhiro planned to directly break away from the Japanese and then establish a state.

This kind of ambition is the first of its kind in the contemporary Japanese book.

Seeing that the Matsumae Domain's side was getting higher and bigger, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also hurriedly reported the relevant affairs.

And this time. Lin Zhecai knew that Ezo, which had been forgotten by himself for a few years, had undergone so many changes, and these diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were quite capable of tossing.

If Ezo can become independent, it will naturally be a good thing, and if it can further divide the Japanese capital, it will be able to make a posture of three kingdoms, namely the Meiji government and the Tokugawa shogunate, and this Ezo land.

It's just that the empire can't interfere too much in this matter, so as not to let the Tokugawa shogunate take risks and turn the empire back, although the Tokugawa shogunate and the empire turn their faces, the empire is not afraid of anything, but it is always not a good thing for the empire's Japanese policy, so it is still necessary to keep a low profile.

"The Ezo side must be cautious, their Matsumae Domain must be independent, we can't interfere too much, and it depends on them whether they can succeed or not!" Lin Zhe instructed Song Guanqian like this.

Immediately, Song Guanqian said: "Your Majesty, what about the Songqian Domain's proposal to purchase ordnance?" ”

"This is naturally accurate, there is business to the door, so there is a reason not to do it, as long as the Matsumae clan can come up with the money, it can naturally be bought, well, you can also give some loans if necessary!"

Lin Zhe knew that the current Japanese people, whether it was the Tokugawa shogunate or the Meiji government, or those daimyos, were all poor jingle goods, and they had no money to buy ordnance at all, and if they did not approve loans, they would not be able to sell much ordnance.

After receiving Lin Zhe's instructions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs soon sent someone to negotiate with Shuhiro Matsumae, who was also an ambitious and courageous man, and immediately decided to borrow 100,000 yuan from the empire to purchase ordnance and weapons.

At the same time, they also began to expand their army with their own funds.

Although the main forces of the shogunate were held back by the Meiji government's troops, the shogunate sent small troops at will, or the daimyo near Ezo sent troops, which was not something that the Matsumae Domain, which was currently weak, could resist.

When everything was ready, on December 16, 1868, the Matsumae Domain publicly expelled all officials sent by the shogunate to Ezo and declared its independence from the feudal domain, establishing the independent 'Hokkai-kuo'.

Shuhiro Matsumae considered himself the king of Hokkai, and sent a note to each country that Hokkaido was an independent state, and also declared neutrality against the wars of the shogunate and the Meiji government.

This move was undoubtedly strongly opposed by the Tokugawa shogunate, and even by the Meiji government, which strongly opposed this separatism.

The Tokugawa shogunate then announced that it would send troops to attack the Matsumae domain.

In the face of this chaos in Japan, the empire also officially issued a notice, saying that the empire will maintain strict neutrality in the affairs of the Beihai Kingdom, Britain and France naturally do not care, anyway, it is difficult for their forces to reach Japan now, the influence is not large, and there is no intention to mix this is obviously a matter of the Chinese Empire, so the consuls of these two countries in Japan are very simply declared neutrality.

Although anyone with a discerning eye knows that the establishment of the Beihai Kingdom has the secret support of the Chinese Empire, but in any case, the empire has not openly expressed its support, so the Tokugawa shogunate can only pinch its nose and admit it, if it is not convinced, the empire may immediately turn around and directly openly support the Beihai Kingdom, which will be even more than worth the loss.

The establishment of the Hokkai Kingdom brought greater separatist tendencies to Japan, which was already mired in civil war.

In particular, on January 27, 1869, the Tokugawa shogunate, with several other daimyo close to the Hokkai Province, gathered an army of nearly 1,500 men on various ships, and then crossed the sea to land in the Hokkaido, and immediately fought a fierce battle with the troops of the Hokkaido, which was actually the Matsumae Domain, at Hakodate.

In this battle, although the strength of more than 3,000 soldiers of the Beihai Kingdom was inferior, but with the advantage of troops, and at the same time equipped with many new weapons urgently purchased from the empire, they repelled the attack of the shogunate army by killing 1,000 enemies and losing 800 themselves.

In this battle, the shogunate army lost nearly 1,000 men, and only more than 500 people fled back to the ship in disarray, while the Hokkai Kingdom suffered more than 1,000 casualties.

In this Battle of Hakodate, the Hokkai Kingdom thwarted the first round of the shogunate's crusade, thus laying the foundation for the founding of the Hokkaido.

However, although the first round of the crusade failed, it was clear that the Tokugawa shogunate would not give up easily, and soon raised more troops to prepare for the second round of the crusade.

The weak Hokkai Kingdom can be said to be in danger in the face of the shogunate's crusade, and if there is no big accident, the Hokkai Kingdom is estimated to be the same as the historical Ezo Republic, which can only exist for more than 100 days before it will be wiped out. (To be continued.) )