I can't help but complain that Haizhou is furious, it is really Li Hongzhang's conditions that are too harsh, if this is really signed, it will really be a complete betrayal, even if you say anything about compromise, it will be in vain.

If nothing else, it is absolutely impossible to cede Kyushu Island and Ezo Island to China alone. Ezo Island is okay, although it is directly under the shogunate, but it is a barren land, it is better to say a little bit if you want it, but Kyushu Island is different, it is the traditional core territory of Japan, if you really cede Kyushu Island out, then all of Japan will have to fight against him.

And the indemnity of 100 million taels of silver, which is even more impossible. Japan is not really rich, although it used to be rich in silver and gold, but after hundreds of years of mining, the production has long been too low. In the past, Japan has always been in the super-imports, importing a lot of things, and in the past 100 years, foreigners have poured a large amount of precious metals in Japan, and Japan's silver reserves have long been different from the past. Therefore, Sheng Haizhou will definitely not be able to take out this money, even if he loots it on a large scale, he will not be able to make up this silver.

In fact, the richest places in Japan are the two cities of Osaka and Edo, but at present, these two cities have been occupied by the Chinese and have been looted, especially Edo Castle, which can be said to be digging three feet into the ground, not to mention tens of millions of taels of silver, and all kinds of treasures are also pulled back by boat.

The remaining Osaka, although it is still a little vigorous, has also been blackmailed a lot by the Chinese, and it will have to be his own capital in the future, and it is impossible to dry up and fish, so what will he do to make up this silver? Even if you can really make up 100 million taels, how young is that? And if he gave the Chinese, what should he do himself?

As for that military right of passage, if it is really agreed, then the whole of Japan will become the backyard of the Chinese, and the Chinese can send troops over at will, and then the strategic place will be pinched by others.

Comparatively speaking, the third and fourth articles seem to be a little better than the other conditions. But Sheng Haizhou is not a fool, he knows that these two are also harboring evil intentions. Once agreed, then the Japanese became second-class citizens in their own country, but the Chinese became privileged and superior, and after a long time, when everyone knows that it is better to be Chinese, who will recognize themselves as Japanese? At that time, relying on China's population base and the distance between the two sides, Japan will sooner or later become a colony of China.

In short, he could not agree to any of these five conditions. If it does, Japan will be doomed.

What Katsu Haizhou wanted was for Japan to become a vassal state of China, a semi-colony with limited autonomy, not a colony like India.

Britain and India are far away, there are big cultural differences, there is also a large population gap, and the possibility of Britain swallowing India is relatively small, but this relationship is different between China and Japan.

The Chinese are very close to Japan, and they are stronger than Japan in terms of population and national strength. Cultures have a lot in common, and if you really do this, it won't take a hundred years, no. In less than 50 years, Japan may be swallowed up by China in its entirety, and it will no longer be an independent country.

You must know that although Sheng Haizhou was fighting for his life at that time. Only then did he quickly collude with the expeditionary force and secretly give the shogunate a return rifle, but it was originally intended. He also wants to do the good of Japan, and he is not without patriotism, but he thinks that his way of loving is different from that of those guys of the Zaoyi faction.

To put it bluntly, Sheng Haizhou's patriotic way is to save the country by curves, to hope that Tongguò will give in to a limited extent, first retain Japan's autonomy, and then be a grandson for a period of time, give up some power and interests, work hard for development, and then lift the shackles on his body when the opportunity is ripe.

In other words, Katsu Haizhou believes that Japan is a terminally ill and seriously ill patient, and such a weak Japan, in the face of a strong foreign enemy, what it needs to do is not to be tough to the end, but to compromise, obey a strong man first, and follow the strong man as a junior brother, so as to gain a glimmer of life. After that, I will concentrate on development, slowly recuperate my body, and then look for opportunities when I am strong.

This is the so-called deferentialism, which focuses on the limited bowing of the head, and then gradually and slowly rises, which is completely contrary to the idea of being tough on foreigners to the end and blindly resisting.

However, it is said that it is a limited bow, but Li Hongzhang's conditions are to swallow Japan whole, leaving no room at all. It's just a matter of doing it behind the scenes with such coughing conditions, but if he signs a contract publicly, then Katsu Haizhou will be a sinner in Japan through the ages, and he will inevitably deviate from morality, and no one will ever have the same heart with him again, because those who were fooled by him before will never believe him after seeing these conditions.

"Not accepting?" Seeing Sheng Haizhou's angry appearance, Li Hongzhang squinted, "Do you still have a choice now?" If you don't accept it, then we won't support you, and without our support, do you think you can still survive in Japan? You know, I'm different from you, without you, we can continue to find others, Japan is so big, there will always be someone who knows the times, don't you say? ”

"Listen to it!" Sheng Haizhou sank his face, "Once this kind of thing is owed, I will be a sinner in Japan through the ages, even if you kill me immediately, I will not sign it!" As for the others, I can't control them, but even if you can find the kind of guy who dares to defy the world's condemnation, as soon as the agreement is announced, the whole of Japan will be your enemy! Although Japan is small, it is not as good as your Chinese kingdom, but there are 40 million people, and if all of them are enemies of you, it will be up to you how you end up then! ”

After speaking, Sheng Haizhou stopped talking, got up directly and walked to the door, and was about to open the door and walk out.

Seeing that the other party was about to stretch out his hand to pull the door, Li Hongzhang suddenly shouted: "Stop!" ”

"Huh, what?" Sheng Haizhou stopped his hand, turned his head slightly, and said coldly, "Aren't you going to do it now?" If you want to do it, hurry up and see if I frown. ”

Li Hongzhang sat up on his knees, stared at Sheng Haizhou, and after five breaths, he suddenly laughed, laughing and slapping at the same time: "Okay!" Good! Good! I have the guts, I really didn't see the wrong person! ”

Speaking of this, Li Hongzhang stood up and pointed his hand to the seat where Sheng Haizhou was kneeling before: "Come, Lord Ruling Lord, come and sit down first, I actually have something to say, and after listening to my words, it's not too late for you to make a decision, okay?" ”

"Hmph, no need." Katsukai Boat Road. "As long as this agreement exists, we will not be able to continue to work together!"

"Hehe, that's just a joke." Li Hongzhang simply walked out and slowly walked to Sheng Haizhou.

"Jokes?" Sheng Haizhou turned around and looked at Li Hongzhang who came over, "So, that treaty is fake?" ”

"It can't be said to be fake." Li Hongzhang smiled slightly, "Don't you hear that the sky is asking for money to pay back on the spot?" Those conditions are really harsh, and even I frowned when I read them. To be honest, I didn't agree with that. I don't even want to take it out, but my men tell me that I'm testing you with this thing. ”

"Test me?" Sheng Haizhou said with a cold face, "How do you say this?" ”

"Well, that's a long story." Li Hongzhang stretched out his hand, "Come, let's sit down first, sit down and talk slowly, rest assured." I'll be sure to tell you the ins and outs. ”

Seeing that Li Hongzhang was soft, Sheng Haizhou, who had asked for him, snorted coldly, returned to his seat, and then continued to kneel and sit down. Quietly waiting for Li Hongzhang to explain.

When Sheng Haizhou re-entered the table, Li Hongzhang smiled and returned to his seat, but he did not kneel like Sheng Haizhou. Instead, he sat cross-legged, just as he had done before.

It's not that Li Hongzhang is deliberately slacking, it's that Li Hongzhang is used to making chairs in the past. But after coming to Japan, most of them were tatami mats, and everyone sat on their knees, so he was a little unaccustomed to it, so he sat cross-legged.

Of course, kneeling and sitting is not impossible, Li Hongzhang also understands these things, but after all, he is a representative of China, and sitting cross-legged is to highlight his differences.

In short, after sitting down, Li Hongzhang shook his head: "Lord Sheng, you should know that I really want to support you, after all, we have been together for so long, and we have some friendship." However, you and I are well aware of the current situation in Japan, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a place of chaos, and in such a situation, we must naturally be extremely cautious in supporting a person, and it is impossible to support a wrecked waste who has no ability, so that the financial and material resources of our empire have been wasted, don't you say? ”

"What does this have to do with those harsh conditions?" Sheng Haizhou continued to say with a cold face.

"Huh." Li Hongzhang smiled, "To tell the truth, this condition is indeed very harsh, if you are even willing to accept this condition unconditionally, it means that you have no bottom line at all, you just want to see the present, we dare not support such a person." On the other hand, if you don't agree, it means that you have long-term plans to run Japan, not just for the moment, in which case, we will be impressed by you. ”

"Is that really all there is to it?" Sheng Haizhou asked.

"Of course, it's not all, and the temptation is only one of the purposes." Li Hongzhang said, "There is another purpose. Well, as I said before, this negotiation is that there are comings and goings, and we can ask for a price, and you can naturally pay back the money on the spot. Now that our conditions have come out, even if it's just a draft, it's more or less a framework, so that it's not as clueless as before, and then, we can delete or modify it on the basis of these conditions, don't you say? ”

"It's impossible to cut the land!" Sheng Haizhou said directly, "As for the compensation, hmph, the Ming people don't say dark words, are you still less rich in our land?" Even asking us for money? Don't say 100 million, 10,000 taels are not! Eighteen hundred can still be discussed, but I'm afraid you won't be able to look down on it.

In short, I can't agree to any of the above conditions, if you have to sign a contract first and then cooperate, give me that batch of assistance, then I will at most promise you the conditions of free trade, in addition to Chinese goods, we can also charge a little less tax, but tax exemption and exemption from inspection is impossible. ”

"You're quite ruthless in changing money on the ground." Li Hongzhang smiled, "There must be a compensation for land cession, at most it can be less, for example, as long as the concession is used?"

I think so, you give us the port of Kagoshima, the port of Osaka and the port of Yokohama as concessions, and the barren land of Ezo Island will also be given to us, as for the compensation, 10 million taels can not be less, at most you use the customs tariff as collateral, borrow money from us, and give you a discount on the interest, how about it? ”

"Impossible!" Sheng Haizhou simply shook his head, and then said his own conditions.

In this way, Li Hongzhang and Sheng Haizhou were simply in this small room, really the same as bargaining for things in the vegetable market, you talked about the conditions back and forth, and the conversation became more and more intense, and they almost started to start.

The reason why everyone can continue to talk is because they don't want to turn their faces against each other, because they are still useful.

For Sheng Haizhou, he is indeed the most dangerous moment now, because the five thousand people under his command are not to worry, and once there is no support from the Chinese, then Sheng Haizhou will inevitably be regarded as an enemy of the DPRK. Jointly defeated by the princes of the world.

After all, no matter what you say, it was Katsu Kaishu who led the troops to attack Edo Castle and attack the shogunate, even if Katsu Kaishu said that the general was coerced and held hostage, but it was all a secret thing, and there was no actual evidence on the surface that Tokugawa Ieshige was under house arrest, and it was a sure thing that Katsu Kaishu led his troops to counterattack Edo Castle.

Therefore, although Katsu Haishu attacked Edo in the name of the rebel army, in fact, in the eyes of other Japanese, he was a rebel against the general. The reason why no one has openly raised troops to fight him until now is entirely because he is doing things too quickly, and everyone has not yet reacted, and the other is that the Chinese are helping him, and the other princes are undecided for a while.

Speaking of which, this was possible thanks to the Tokugawa shogunate, which for hundreds of years had a policy of strong cadres and weak branches. In the direct territories of various places, most of the local feudal lords were not strong and could not resist the central government.

It was also effective, and it lasted for at least 200 years of peace. So much so that even now, except for the Choshu Domain and the Satsuma Domain, which was crippled by the Chinese, no local clan has the strength to fight with the shogunate.

In the history of Japan in another time and space, the four great feudal clans did not appear at the same time. It came slowly. In the early days, the Satsuma Domain was the strongest, followed by the Choshu Domain. However, after the Satsuma Domain fought a Satsuma War with the British, its vitality was greatly damaged, and after that, the Choshu Domain also came to bombard the Great Powers, and fought with the Great Powers, which was also a great loss of vitality.

However, it was after those two wars that the Japanese princes were completely awakened, and since then, the Zunyi faction has lost its market, and everyone has begun to support the founding of the country, and no longer supports the closure of the country, and the so-called Zun Wang Yi has also become the curtain of the Zun Wang.

In other words, after the Satsuma Domain and the Choshu Domain fought with foreigners one after another, the other feudal lords began to take the initiative to deal with foreigners, learn Western military technology and industrial technology, form a modern army, and slowly embarked on the road of the Meiji Restoration.

But in this time and space, Hizen and Tosa among the four strong clans are not yet in the climate, the strongest Satsuma clan has just been beaten by the Chinese, and even the essence of Kagoshima has been burned, although many generals are still retained, but there is no money and no power, and it has been reduced to a non-streamed clan; The strength of the Choshu Domain was not bad, but the Western powers such as Britain, the United States, and France were eyeing them, and they were planning to attack the Choshu Domain at any time and turn the Choshu Domain into a concession.

Without the two thorns of the Choshu Domain and the Satsuma Domain, the shogunate was still a dominant family, but who knew that because of a sudden, or untrue shogunate coup, the shogunate changed its policy, and actually asked Katsu Kaishu not to fight the Choshu Domain, but to let them fight the Chinese expeditionary force in Osaka, which made it clear that Katsu Kaishu would die and officially start a war with the Chinese.

As a result, Sheng Haizhou made a quick decision, quickly and secretly contacted Li Hongzhang, deceived his own people, co-opted the expeditionary force, and then turned around and shot back, directly counterattacking Edo Castle, and when no one else reacted, and when the news was confirmed to be true or false, he knocked down Edo, which was known as the world's heroic city.

At this time, it no longer matters whether the former shogun was held hostage or not, and whether he made a false order, because with the fall of Edo, with the uncertainty of the life and death of the former shogun Tokugawa Ieshige, the center of the shogunate no longer exists, at least for a short time, and without the suppression of the shogunate, the minds of other princes are naturally active.

In fact, after confirming the news, it is not that no one wants to follow the example of Taiko Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the past, to send troops to rebel, to gain prestige by defeating Katsukaizhou, and then to pursue great power, but it is good to die, at this time the Chinese sent another army over, more than 40,000 troops sent to Japan, just sent to Edo, to protect Li Hongzhang's troops, there is a reorganized division of more than 13,000 people.

With the intervention of the Chinese, the other princes did not dare to act rashly, and they were all waiting for further changes in the situation while seizing the time to reorganize their arms and wars to deal with the coming troubled times.

That's right, after the destruction of the rivers and lakes, the local clan lords and the regional leaders who were originally directly under the generals began to have Xiao Jiujiu, they thought that this was the beginning of another Warring States era, and they all thought about how to protect themselves and grab territory, who still has the strength to manage Sheng Haizhou, a traitor who colluded with the Chinese?

However, whether it is returned or not, it is not that it does not care, it is true that Shenghaizhou now has Chinese as backers, and other local forces do not want to clash with the Chinese, so as to lose their own strength, but if the Chinese do not support Shenghaizhou. With the strength of Sheng Haizhou, he is definitely a big fat sheep, and everyone doesn't mind taking Sheng Haizhou's head to add gold and prestige to himself.

Therefore, now Sheng Haizhou can say that his net worth and life are all on the Chinese, all on Li Hongzhang, once Li Hongzhang declares that he will not care about him and will not support him, then what Sheng Haizhou did before was all for nothing, just to make clothes for others.

But on the other hand, the Chinese military seems to have a lot of options. But for now, giving up Shenghaizhou is indeed a bit more than worth the loss, or it is not appropriate.

The reason is very simple, Edo Castle said that it was brought down by Katsu Kaishu's people, but discerning people know that without the help of the Chinese, it is absolutely impossible, so for the time being, the Chinese are the enemies of the shogunate. Other clan lords still regard the Chinese as hostile.

Of course, this situation will not last, because as time goes by, after the local feudal lords attack each other. They would think of seeking the help of the great powers, and for the time being, there was no other great power in Japan that could match the power of China. Therefore, if those feudal lords want to get ahead and unify Japan, sooner or later they will have to be like the Chinese Beiyang warlords in the past. Find a great power to be a backer, among them, China is undoubtedly the biggest backer.

However, that will have to wait until later, and if that happens, Japan will definitely fall into the divided New Warring States Period, and it will be impossible to completely occupy a divided Japan unless China invests a lot of effort.

But the problem is that the Chinese Empire has just experienced the chaos of war, and it is the time to recover its vitality.

You must know that although China has suddenly been raised to the height of a great power in terms of economy and military by relying on Li Yongji's golden finger, it is still far from the great powers in agriculture, industry, education, scientific research and other hard powers.

In other words, the Chinese Empire is a beautiful thing, and the whole country is actually an old feudal country, not a modern one, even though the country is undergoing a radical transformation.

Therefore, China's main energy now is to devote itself to domestic construction, and externally, Li Yongji will do it out of his own pocket and try not to delay domestic construction, which is why he wants to go to Los Angeles himself.

However, Li Yongji's current focus is on the United States and Mexico, because in his view, China's biggest enemy in the future is the United States, and the reason is needless to say, so he rose to the challenge, and when the country was still very difficult, he went to great lengths to get a force to go to the western United States, intending to take advantage of the opportunity of the American Civil War to seize territory, weaken the United States, and divide the United States into two countries, the north and the south.

For this reason, Li Yongji has been training the army incognito in the Red Fort in Los Angeles in preparation for armed intervention in the US Civil War.

Just imagine, Li Yongji is now devoting all his energy to the United States, and everyone has gone to Los Angeles, so the golden finger also went to the Red Fort, so in China, there is no Li Yongji's golden finger, and naturally he will no longer be able to rely on the golden finger to cheat and accelerate like before.

And once there is no Li Yongji's golden finger cheating, the drawbacks of the Chinese Empire's lack of accumulation will be highlighted, and domestic construction is in full swing, it is precisely when funds and manpower are needed, how can it be possible to invest a large number of troops to Japan?

It is very expensive to raise troops, especially to station troops overseas, the cost is much higher than that of stationing troops in China, and the same three divisions are at least two or three times the cost of stationing troops at home!

This is actually not difficult to understand, for example, the garrison in Japan, because the Chinese Imperial Army uses self-produced weapons, and Japan cannot replenish them nearby, so it must be transported from the country, and in this era, even if it is by sea, this freight is not a small amount. In addition, because the officers and men of the overseas garrison will not be able to return home for a long time, they will have to increase the garrison allowance as compensation, and if this subsidy is added, the income will usually be twice as much as that of the domestic garrison, so it is not surprising that the cost of the overseas garrison is two or three times that of the domestic garrison.

It is precisely because of the very high cost of stationing troops overseas, the fact that China is currently engaged in large-scale construction at home, and the United States, Li Yongji's overseas target is the first choice, so China's current interference in Japan is very limited, and it is impossible to increase the number of personnel, and it is impossible to find a new agent in a short period of time.

Looking for an agent is not looking for something else, I don't know the bottom line, in case something goes wrong, it's not good, not to mention that the Chinese are currently very unpopular in the Japanese ruling class, and most of the others cherish feathers and will not cooperate with the Chinese, so Katsu Haizhou is the best candidate, not to mention that they have just established a new general.

In short, Li Hongzhang and Sheng Haizhou now need each other, and neither can do without each other, at least in the short term, so the foundation of everyone's cooperation is still very solid, at least for now.

It is precisely because of this that Li Hongzhang found that Sheng Haizhou was resolutely not threatened and did not accept the harsh treaty, so he temporarily changed his mind, no longer being tough to the end, but slowly bargaining with him, in fact, he was regressing, and he wanted to use his own regression to continue to envelop Sheng Haizhou, a rare and strange commodity to live in. (To be continued......)