Just when Li Hongzhang was extorting money in Osaka Prefecture against a group of wealthy businessmen, the bigwigs of the Edo Shogunate were also holding urgent consultations.

The shogunate's shogun at this time was Tokugawa Ieshige, who was sober-minded, but this person was not in good health, so he usually focused on recuperation, and his chief elder was generally responsible for major national affairs.

In other words, when dealing with government affairs, the old man does it, and at most he has a conclusion, and when he talks to the general, usually the general will agree, how to say it, this can be regarded as employing people.

At this time, the chief elder of the shogunate was Ando Nobumasa, who was the founder of the country who pursued the combination of public and military, and he was also a sober-minded rational faction with good ability, but he was still slightly weaker than his predecessor Ii Naobi, who was assassinated.

This Nobumasa Ando had just experienced an assassination in the change outside the Sakashita Gate, and although his life was worry-free and nothing serious, he was frightened and did not dare to go out, so he could not, or did not dare to go to Osaka to negotiate in person, and could only find someone to negotiate with the Chinese instead of himself.

In the end, he found Katsukaishu, who he valued the most, and could be said to be the rising star of the shogunate.

Sheng Haizhou also knew that this action was important, so he agreed without any excuses, but made a request, that is, he must have the power to make arbitrary decisions.

What does this mean, that is, Katsu Haizhou must have the right to decide, and any negotiations between him and the Chinese, the shogunate must admit the account afterwards and not regret it.

According to Sheng Haizhou's words, the more this is the case with China's strength and Japan's strength, the more Japan with its weak strength should abide by the agreement, so as to increase Japan's sympathy points, otherwise, it will make the big countries unhappy and give people an excuse for further interference.

These words to Sheng Haizhou. Ando Nobumasa thought so, so he agreed, which means that you let it go, and I promise to admit the decision you made in front of you.

After receiving the affirmation and authorization, Sheng Haizhou made up his mind, and after that, he did not set off immediately, but went to the Americans and the British first.

Sheng Haizhou's idea is simple, China is a hungry wolf. It is a bit difficult for Japan to deal with it alone, so it will have to pull a few more hungry wolves to go over, so that there will be a conflict of interest between hungry wolves in order to fight for a piece of meat, for example, although Japan will still suffer losses, but in the end the losses will be smaller.

It can't be said that Sheng Haizhou's approach is wrong, on the contrary, his approach is the wisest at the moment, but. Once he does this, the charge of treason will never escape, and at least those hot-blooded rebels will definitely move him further into the assassination list.

Therefore, Katsu Haizhou is actually doing this kind of thing with the mind of a martyr. Not to mention his subordinates, he himself felt that he was particularly sad at this time.

After some earnest and powerful analysis, both the British and the Americans agreed to send people to mediate, and they were all of high standards. For example, the U.S. Minister to Japan, Townsend. Harris, the British minister to Japan, Ali Guo, all went out in person.

In fact. Even if Katsu Haizhou does not come to them, the British and Americans who have important interests in Japan will come forward, after all, the Chinese have done something too much this time, or rather, some of the plundering is too ruthless.

Think about it, the Chinese have eaten so many places in Japan alone, and even Osaka has taken down, which has severely shaken the ruling foundation of the shogunate, and the shogunate is inclined to open the country and trade, if the shogunate collapses, how will everyone divide the interests together in the future? Can we still have fun together?

In any case, after the ministers of the two countries agreed to go out together, Katsukaishu was much more emboldened, and immediately rushed to Osaka with them.

When they arrived in Osaka, Li Hongzhang and the others had already received 10 million taels of silver from the merchants of Osaka. What should be said here is that this money is calculated according to the new Chinese weights and measures, that is, one tael of 37 grams of silver.

Receiving 10 million taels so easily made Li Hongzhang regret it a little, regretting that he should have asked for a little more in the first place. According to his thoughts, it was not easy to ask for 20 million at the beginning, but it should still be feasible to ask for 15 million.

However, since the words have been said in advance, it is not appropriate to ask for it again, and he has relegated his arrogant and shameless name anyway, so how can he talk about some credibility next, and he must also leave some for the Chinese government, right?

Don't forget, they only represent the interests of the company, not the interests of the Chinese government, and it is their business for the Japanese to confuse them, and they must not be confused.

After all, Osaka is the hinterland of Japan, and the number of their expeditionary force is too small.

But Katsu Haizhou and the others didn't know, they saw that Osaka Castle was defended by the expeditionary force like an iron bucket, and when they were on the way, they heard a lot of rumors that the expeditionary force was hired by the Satsuma clan this time and was going to come to the downside.

Because of his status as a special envoy, and because he may still be carrying foreigners, Sheng Haizhou met Li Hongzhang without any hindrance.

However, for various purposes, Li Hongzhang did not ask for formal negotiations immediately, that is, Li Hongzhang did not want to face the British and Americans immediately, but wanted to talk to Sheng Haizhou in private first.

As for Sheng Haizhou, in fact, he didn't want to be stiff all at once, anyway, the British and the Americans were just pulling in to cheer, and if they could get a proper solution without getting through guò, it would naturally be a good thing, so I agreed.

In this way, Li Hongzhang ostensibly thought that you were guests from afar (he regarded himself as the master of Osaka), so let everyone rest and rest first, and talk about it tomorrow. But in fact, when he asked Sheng Haizhou to his room at night, avoiding the British and the French, he first started a conspiracy, no, a negotiation.

Speaking of which, the original Li Hongzhang was also a humble gentleman, and he also liked to be polite and honest in doing things, but compared to those things, Li Hongzhang was more enthusiastic about power, or rather, at this time, he was young and ambitious, and he was actually a typical utilitarian.

In the past, the reason why he paid attention to courtesy, righteousness and honesty was because Zeng Guofan liked this tone, and he worked under Zeng Guofan, so he catered to the preferences of his superiors and showed Xiàn a model child who was deeply influenced by Confucianism.

However, when Li Yongji ruled the world, he saw Zeng Guofan like the sunset. Li Hongzhang decisively defected to the command of the new court, nominally a courtier of the new emperor, but in fact defected to Shen Shiming.

In other words, although he is an internal affairs officer or a central commissioner, in fact, this position was given by Shen Shiming, Shen Shiming is not just the prime minister of the State Council, he also holds the position of the internal affairs department, and his real power is monstrous.

Although Shen Shiming has been famous for his talent in the past, he was actually born in business. I have been in business for most of my life, and I have always been in the lower middle class.

Such a person, compared with those arrogant Confucians, seems to be more philistine, more utilitarian, and more direct, even the sycophants are all businessmen's sets.

So coincidentally, Li Yongji is also a layman. Shen Shiming's things are very useful, and Li Yongji only looks at the results, not the process, which can be regarded as a meritocracy. And Shen Shiming did a good job, so this can be regarded as looking at each other correctly, to put it elegantly, that is, the monarch and the minister are compatible.

In the beginning. Shen Shiming's power is actually not too big, but as Li Yongji puts his mind on the United States, with Queen Yin Susu becoming pregnant. The emperor and the empress almost let go of the major affairs in the country, which made Shen Shiming have more and more power, and in this world, the authority is growing, and naturally there is a trace of the grandeur of the minister, so that the State Council has begun to override other departments.

Shen Shiming's growing power is in the eyes of many people, and Emperor Li Yongji often lives in a simple place, and he can't see anyone, so defecting to Shen Shiming is a shortcut to heaven. Therefore, I don't know how many people want to join Shen Shiming's command.

Li Hongzhang is also one of them, and the reason why he can be favored by Shen Shiming is not only because he is really capable, but also because of Li Hongzhang's swiftness in adapting to the form.

That is to say, Li Hongzhang is very good at pondering the thoughts of the people above, and then doing what he likes, when he found out that Shen Shiming was utilitarian and direct, and he didn't want to beat around the bush, he quickly changed his mentality, abandoned the original things, and started from utilitarianism in everything, which quickly impressed Shen Shiming.

Don't underestimate this, being able to open and close your mouth and proceed from interests is not something that most Chinese intellectuals can do lightly, because that will make people feel embarrassed and can't pull their faces.

Shen Shiming was actually a little hypocritical in the past, but after all, he was born as a businessman, and his hypocrisy was not so strict, and Li Yongji was a person who pursued utilitarianism extremely, and after Shen Shiming became the prime minister and grasped the power, he also found that in fact, the country's major politics was still a thing that paid attention to interests, so he began to be naked.

This Shen Shiming himself has fallen, so he naturally hopes that more people will fall together, and when there are more people, he will not be so conspicuous, so he will favor Li Hongzhang, who is quick and capable, and often take it with him to raise some education.

Since Li Hongzhang wants to climb high branches, it is natural that the leader's quotations are always memorized, and he follows the teachings of his boss every time, and after a long time, he will also fall, and everything is utilitarian, and even becomes more and more shameless and more direct.

He hasn't realized these things yet, after all, there is a great interest in the country, so he feels that everything he does is for the good of the country, and he is a modern class super, so he slowly doesn't feel that there is anything wrong.

How to say it, this is a matter of atmosphere, or rather, the cost of degeneration is too low, so that Li Hongzhang, who is also a well-known Confucian, has become open and closed, and once they fall, they will not feel that it is shameless for the lion to open his mouth, but it is getting closer and closer to the Westerners, or even more.

Sheng Haizhou is different, although he has always supported the founding and enlightenment, but he still maintains the traditional idea of etiquette, righteousness and shame, is polite, pays attention to beating around the bush, and pays attention to doing things to leave a line, that is to say, he still maintains some of the virtues of traditional samurai, and still has the subtlety and restraint of Orientals.

Moreover, he had traveled to China from 1860 to 1861, and he was deeply touched by the drastic changes in China at that time.

Originally, in 1860, he planned to visit the United States, but at that time, China was undergoing great changes, and various news came, which shocked him, so he decided to change his itinerary and go to China to see it first.

Although Sheng Haizhou traveled to China, his identity was restricted after all, and he was only at the bottom of the people. Looking at the problem from a bottom-level perspective, and not coming into contact with the high-level circles of the Chinese Empire, the perception of China is actually wrong.

Why is it wrong? The reason is very simple, although Li Yongji has set off a wave of enlightenment, it is actually a kind of limited enlightenment, that is, they have not copied the systems and ideas of the West, but have learned some systems and ideas of a modern republic in another time and space in a limited way.

Moreover, because after Li Yongji's rise, not only did he never lose a single civil war. Foreign wars are always won, and even Russia, one of the great powers, was defeated, creating a military myth. In addition, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Li Yongji abolished the privilege of foreigners in China, and foreigners who violate the law in China must enforce Chinese laws, on the contrary, foreigners always cry and shout to buy Chinese goods, so the Chinese are much more angry towards foreigners.

Hence the civilization of China. In fact, it is a non-humiliating, even victorious active enlightenment, which is an act from the top down.

In this case, the country is open to the outside world. It was the imperial court that took the initiative, and because of the power of autocracy, the opposition was not in the climate, and the common people were willing to trust the government. I believe in the imperial court, and I am willing to cooperate with the imperial court to learn the idea of enlightenment, and link the study of civilization with promotion and wealth. Slowly, it became an active act, which is completely different from the humiliating passive civilization of the Japanese, who are very resistant and have a large number of strong opposition.

As far as he knows, most of the people are willing to cooperate with the imperial court, and they are willing to believe in the imperial court, and the implementation is quite good.

In this regard, Sheng Haizhou didn't think of anything else, he thought that this was a good job of the Chinese emperor's education work, because he found that China has a large number of books that introduce overseas situations, even if you can't read, storytellers and cross talk actors always like to talk about overseas things, and even make jokes about overseas stories.

Therefore, the people in the Jiangnan area of China know more and more about foreigners, and there are more and more foreigners on the street.

After returning to Japan, he thought about widely promoting universal education about overseas situations, and even thought about cultivating storytellers, but he soon discovered that the situation in Japan was completely different from that in China, and that China's system would not work in Japan.

The reason is very simple, to this day, there are a large number of wandering samurai class in Japan, and most of the wandering samurai have no identity, but they have no money to spare, and they are very resentful of the society, and their resentment has nowhere to vent, so they choose the shogunate and foreigners as the target.

Therefore, if you blatantly promote the introduction of foreign books and content in Japan, such as training storytellers, you may be killed by the samurai of the Samurai faction tomorrow if you say good things about foreign countries here today. According to the rules, samurai are not responsible for killing civilians, so even if they are killed, there is no reason, and the shogunate cannot control it, so it is difficult to rely on storytellers and other methods to promote Western enlightenment.

Therefore, the problem is back, if you want to succeed in civilization, you must learn from China and engage in centralization, so Katsu Haishu was a hardcore Gongwu faction at this time, and believed that the most important goal at present was to strengthen the authority of the shogunate and carry out deepening reforms, and the most important step in this deepening reform was naturally to abolish the privileges of the samurai.

Unfortunately, he knew that it would be difficult to do this, at least not directly, so he felt that he should learn from the Chinese emperor and first establish authority over the wars of the Zayi clan, and then slowly clean up the disobedient samurai.

He believed that Japan was an island country, analogous to Britain in Europe, and compared China to France, believing that there would be friction and conflict between China and Japan in the future, and that coastal defense was the most important thing to defend Japan.

For this reason, Katsu Kaishu persuaded the old lieutenant and the general, and they all agreed with Katsu Haishu's opinion, so he appointed him as the warship commissioner, and actually managed the shogunate's navy and trained seafarers for the shogunate.

It can be said that Shenghaizhou was actually always wary of China, but he did not expect that things would come so quickly, and the Chinese would attack Japan so quickly.

Perhaps it is precisely because he usually studies a lot of China and the experience gained from his previous travels that when Sheng Haizhou saw Li Hongzhang, he showed Xiàn very respectful and humble, and gave the other party enough faces.

Because in Sheng Haizhou's impression, most of the Chinese have a good face, as long as you have a lower attitude, they usually don't care about themselves. Instead, concessions will be made.

But it's a pity that what he met was the blackened Li Hongzhang, and this trick didn't work.

Hearing that Sheng Haizhou whispered for the Yoshidaya incident as soon as he came, saying that the perpetrators would be severely punished, and hoped that Sino-Japanese friendship would not be affected by this, Li Hongzhang hurriedly waved his hand: "No, no, no, you misunderstood, we can't represent the Chinese Imperial Government, we are just a mercenary." ”

"What?" Sheng Haizhou understands Chinese, as soon as he hears this. He was stunned, "What do you mean, my lord?" ”

"I mean, in fact, we didn't come to Osaka this time for Yoshidaya's business." Li Hongzhang said with a smile, "Well, let's put it this way, originally, we did send troops for the Yoshidaya incident, why?" It's because you killed ......"

"It's the Satsuma Clan!" Katsu Haizhou immediately corrected, "It was the samurai of the Satsuma Domain who did it, and it has nothing to do with our shogunate!" ”

"Well, okay. It's the Satsuma Domain. Li Hongzhang nodded, "Then, the samurai of the Satsuma Domain killed an employee of our company, and this employee is a senior employee. His death was very damaging to the company, and it was also contrary to the company's people-oriented philosophy. So. The Eastern Bloc sent troops to Satsuma and punished the Satsuma clan for causing the incident.

Originally, we just hoped that the Satsuma clan would hand over the murderer, but who knew that the soldiers below didn't know the severity, and they accidentally burned down the port of Kagoshima with a cannon fire, hey, I also deeply regret this. ”

Seeing Li Hongzhang's appearance, Sheng Haizhou's eyelids jumped, but he finally endured it, and said in a proper manner: "The sword soldiers have no eyes, and the war is ruthless, which is also inevitable." ”

"yes, you think so too." Li Hongzhang nodded, "Actually, we accidentally burned Kagoshima, and we felt embarrassed, but fortunately, Shimazu Hisamitsu, the head of the Satsuma Domain, was still there, so we invited him over to apologize, who knew that as soon as people came, they said that the murderer of my company's employees, what was called Kojiro, they had already been arrested, and they also sent a messenger to China to report the news, asking China to send someone to deal with it."

Hey, as soon as we heard this, we were even more ashamed, blame the bureaucracy of the company, and give orders indiscriminately without understanding the situation, causing us to hurt our good neighbors for no reason. ”

"If you have deep remorse, why do you continue to attack Osaka?" Sheng Haizhou said suddenly.

"That's what I'm going to say next." Li Hongzhang coughed and cleared his throat, "Look, don't we regret it, as soon as the matter is discussed, it turns out that this matter is an oolong, and the head of the Shimazu family is naturally crying, and we are also embarrassed." Therefore, the commander of our fleet said that it was their fault to burn Kagoshima, that they had done too much, and that if you have any requests, they will do their best to help you do it, and they will pay off the debt of burning Kagoshima.

Hey, if you don't say it, our fleet commander is soft-hearted, and he can't see anyone crying, don't you say? ”

The more Katsu Haizhou listened, the more wrong he became: "Could it be that you mean to say that this attack on Osaka Prefecture is the idea of the Shimazu family?" ”

"That's right!" Li Hongzhang nodded heavily, "Originally, we thought they wanted money, although we are also poor in this regard, but it is estimated that there are still 18,000 people." Who knows that the head of the Shimazu family doesn't want this, but wants our soldiers. That's right, they want to borrow troops! ”

"Borrowed soldiers?" Sheng Haizhou frowned, "What do you mean by borrowing soldiers?" ”

"Of course it's to beat your shogunate, what is this called? That's right, down! Li Hongzhang said with a smile, "The people of the Shimazu family said that he worked hard to govern the country, that is, he hoped to crusade against the corrupt shogunate and return the emperor to you, and now that his city is gone, we will naturally be responsible, and we will directly send troops to Edo, take your shogunate directly, and ask us to use naval guns to burn your Edo as well, saying that since we can burn Kagoshima, Edo Castle is similar to Kagoshima, but the scale is a little larger, and it should not be difficult to burn Edo." ”

"Never, this must not be!" Sheng Haizhou exclaimed.

"yes, that's right." Li Hongzhang nodded, "As soon as we hear it, burn Edo?" This is not good, we are just private mercenaries of the Eastern Bloc, just seeking justice for our own family, this shogunate, but interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, is not in line with our purpose. ”

"Yes, China is a country of etiquette, how can you bully other countries at will." Sheng Haizhou hurriedly said.

"Yes." Li Hongzhang said, "When they heard that we were not happy to send troops to fight Edo, they retreated to the next best thing, saying that it was okay not to fight Edo, but we had to do two things:

First, if we want to fight Osaka Prefecture, we must take Osaka Prefecture and raise an indemnity for the Shimazu Domain in Osaka Prefecture. As you can see, we've done that.

Second, after conquering Osaka Prefecture and collecting the amount of compensation demanded by the Satsuma Domain, we were asked to continue to send troops to attack the Choshu Domain. The Choshu Domain must be defeated and the Choshu Domain must agree to be incorporated into the Satsuma Domain.

As long as we do these two things, the Satsuma clan will think that we are sincere, and the past incident, that is, the burning of Kagoshima, will be written off, and they will also give us corresponding preferential policies, so that our company can do better business in the area ruled by the Shimazu family, and everyone will turn the conflict into a jade silk.

They said so, and they threatened us with caesarean sections, and we had no reason to refuse. You see, now we have followed the instructions of the Satsuma clan and taken Osaka Prefecture, and we have also acted as bad guys and stepped forward to help them raise a sum of compensation...... Well, so, in fact, if you don't come, we plan to leave, and next, we have to fight the Changzhou Domain. ”

"This, this ......" Hearing such an unbelievable set of words, Katsu Haizhou was completely stunned, and said for a while, "So, you mean, fighting Osaka Prefecture is actually the meaning of the Satsuma Domain?" ”

"Not really." Li Hongzhang shrugged, "Is it necessary for me to lie to you?" In other words, we have reached this point, the black cauldron can't be shaken off, even if we want to fight ourselves, it doesn't matter if we say it, but the facts are the facts, and we did come here at the request of the Satsuma clan. Also, most of the money we collected in Osaka Prefecture was given to the Satsuma clan as compensation, and the other half was used as military expenses to hire us. Not only that, but we have to fight the Changzhou Domain later, and you say, it's not easy for us.

Then, our commander said that after beating the Choshu Domain and returning the favor of the head of the Shimazu family, he will leave immediately, and he will never wade into this troubled water again. ”

"Since you don't like it, you can refuse." Katsukai Boat Road.

"Originally, of course I refused." Li Hongzhang spread his hands, "But I am just an observer sent by the imperial government, I only have the right to observe and coordinate, and whether or not to send troops or not is an internal matter of the company, to be precise, the matter of the commander of the fleet." And we, the commander of the fleet, have always made a promise to the head of the Shimazu family, and we must do it. Moreover, the Shimazu family has a lot of money for the troops, and they are red-eyed from top to bottom, and they are willing to use money to fight this battle.

By the way, in our country, a company like the Eastern Bloc has a lot of power, and it is okay to talk about it at home, but when it comes to foreign countries, especially countries like you, Japan, which have not yet established diplomatic relations, our imperial government is not easy to manage. So, if you have to blame this matter, then blame the Satsuma Domain, we are just mercenaries of the Satsuma Domain, and we have no choice but to be a bad guy here. (To be continued......)