Standing at the head of the city and looking at the looting scene under the city, looking at the smoke and dust in the east and west, Shi Dakai frowned, and finally shook his head, returned to the tent, and didn't look at it anymore.

The tent was set up in one of the best-preserved gates, and because of the difficult terrain, it became the headquarters of the expeditionary force.

Seeing Shi Dakai walking in again, Li Hongzhang, who was reading a book inside, smiled: "I said it earlier, what's so good about it, it's better to be like me, don't look at it directly, at least it's out of sight and out of mind." ”

"But I can hear it." Shi Dakai walked over and sat down, and slowly poured himself a glass of wine, "Such a big thing...... Seriously, if we do this, we will definitely go to hell in the future. ”

As soon as he heard him say this, Li Hongzhang knew what he was talking about, it was nothing more than about looting.

Let everyone rob for three days, the expeditionary force is all watching from the wall, not participating in the robbery, the robbery can only be the Japanese, not only that, their accompanying staff officers also take pictures everywhere, not only their own troops, but also the below.

In addition to photography, there is also videography, that is, taking videos around with a video camera, and also making records. These practices, in addition to keeping records, are also intended to prove to posterity that it was not their expeditionary force that participated in the looting.

Of course, even if the expeditionary force did not participate in the robbery, in fact, they could not escape the involvement, because although it was Sheng Haizhou who ordered the robbery for three days on the surface, it was Shi Dakai who really gave the order. Without Shi Dakai's nod, Sheng Haizhou would never agree to do this.

In addition, don't look at the ferocity of those Japanese robbing, but after they robbed something, they had to take it all out and hand over the big head to the expeditionary force, they could only take a little small head. Of course, the expeditionary force only had goods, and if there was adultery and plunder. That's what the Japanese themselves enjoy.

All in all, the order to let go and grab for three days was ordered by Sheng Haizhou on the surface, and it was executed by the Japanese, and the expeditionary force had nothing to do, but in fact, this incident happened under the persecution of Shi Dakai, otherwise, if the expeditionary force restrained it, this kind of thing would not have happened.

Although Shi Dakai is no stranger to this kind of looting, he himself is very disgusted with this kind of action. Therefore, this kind of robbery for three days is not his intention, he is just carrying out orders.

This order came from Li Hongzhang, but Li Hongzhang accepted the order from above, and this order was not an order of the prime minister, but an order of Emperor Li Yongji.

If it was just the Prime Minister's order, Shi Dakai might have disobeyed the order, but when he picked up the phone in person. After hearing Li Yongji's order on the phone, he knew he had to carry it out.

Of course, Shi Dakai was not unprincipled in carrying out orders, and he also personally asked Li Yongji at that time. Ask why you did it. Because in Shi Dakai's opinion, this is completely unnecessary, but will cause hatred, after all, no matter how much they try to ask for involvement. made it look like he didn't do it, but that would deceive outsiders, and insiders can't deceive them.

Li Yongji's answer at that time was simple. He said that for a country like Japan, you either don't move, or if you move, you will be ruthless, and anyway, the war is fought, so you don't expect people to remember your goodness. In this case, it is better to grab it for three days, so that not only can you get benefits, but also completely drag that guy Sheng Haizhou into the water, so that his reputation will be completely ruined, and he can only go to the dark with himself in the future.

Shi Dakai actually didn't agree with Li Yongji's words, but he was the emperor and the boss, and when the boss spoke, what was wrong was right, and he could only carry out the order.

And it won't work if you don't execute it, Shi Dakai understands very well that he is not alone in this unit, the three regiments below are from different camps, and they all have radios, which means that Li Yongji can cross him at any time and give orders directly to the people below.

If it was the Taiping army in the past, then it would be fine, even if the Heavenly King personally issued an edict to his subordinates, but the current expeditionary army is far different from the original army.

The expeditionary force has three regiments, the first regiment is composed of the Qingpu Military Academy student army, needless to say, it is the descendant of the emperor's majesty, and it is absolutely impossible not to obey the emperor's orders.

The remaining second regiment and the third regiment belong to the old Taiping Army and the Qing Army respectively, the old Qing Army does not talk about it, it is impossible to listen to their own and not listen to the emperor, even if the second regiment dominated by the old Taiping Army really has an accident, they will not listen to themselves.

The reason is very simple, most of the 6,000 people in the entire expeditionary force are either married or have a small net worth, that is to say, most of them have settled down within the Chinese Empire, have a lot of worries, and are no longer as worthless and fearless as they were when they fought the world.

Moreover, even if the second regiment listens to itself, facing the first regiment and the third regiment, it will definitely not be able to stop it, not to mention that the people of the task force are all from the Praetorian Guard and are the emperor's descendants, and it is impossible to have a heart with Shi Da.

In addition, even if Shi Dakai can successfully rebel, what is the point? He has 6,000 people in his hands, but there are still millions of troops within the empire, how dare he confront the empire's army?

After Shi Dakai surrendered to the Chinese Empire, he was not without ideas at first, after all, he was still young, but as time passed, his idea of rebellion had long been extinguished, because he knew that in the Chinese Empire, unless Li Yongji died suddenly, as long as he did not die for a day, it would be completely impossible to rebel.

Because the most powerful Praetorian Guards are all the emperor's descendants, and only listen to the emperor's orders, and the second national defense army is similar, and it is also the only emperor who is the first to look forward.

However, if he didn't mix in the army, Shi Dakai didn't know what else he could do, so he had the idea of starting over.

In fact, Shi Dakai is doing quite well, at least in the old department of the Heavenly Kingdom, he is the best one at present, and the reason why he can climb so fast, everything else is false, the main reason is the emperor's favor.

In other words, once he disobeys the emperor and loses the favor of the emperor, then he is nothing. What winged king, what past reputation, in the new dynasty is all floating clouds, no matter how great the credit is, it is not as effective as the emperor's words.

It was precisely because Shi Dakai saw it very clearly that he heard the emperor's meaning, and he intended to carry out a big ransack. That's why he insisted on this order to grab three days, and tried every means to throw the black cauldron to Sheng Haizhou and try to get the expeditionary force out. You must know that Li Yongji only ordered a big robbery, but he didn't say that the expeditionary force would not rob it, and of course, he didn't say that the expeditionary force must follow and rob.

"To hell?" Hearing what Shi Dakai said, Li Hongzhang pursed his lips, "If I can really make Huaxia rise, then I would rather go to hell after death in the future." Besides. Lord Shi, you used to be ruthless, and you were ruthless when you killed your own people, why did you relentless to these Japanese who were not of my race? ”

"I'm not soft-hearted." Shi Dakai paused while holding his wine glass, and said expressionlessly, "I just don't think it's necessary." After all, didn't you say that sooner or later this Japan will become one of our provinces, and this killing is ruthless, and it will not look good in the future. ”

"Whether it can become a province of the empire or not is a matter for later. Who knows what will happen in the future. Li Hongzhang said, "I only know that this is the meaning of His Majesty, a courtier." Naturally, I want to listen to His Majesty's words and share my worries for His Majesty. Seriously, Majesty is right, to these Japanese. You have to be ruthless enough, and only when you are afraid of killing will they respect you. If you treat them too well, they will think you are a bully and they will get an inch. ”

"Perhaps." Shi Dakai took a sip of wine, slowly put down his glass, and changed the topic, "Seeing that it's almost the end of the month, I don't know when we will leave Japan and leave for America?" ”

"It should be soon." Li Hongzhang squinted and smiled, "It is said that the Japanese dispatch army in China has arrived in Shanghai, and in just a few days, you can leave for Japan. ”

"That's right." Shi Dakai glanced at Li Hongzhang, "Then will Master Li still come with us at that time?" ”

"Me? Who knows. Li Hongzhang smiled, "It's just an act of obedience, if the above wants me to follow, I will follow, if you don't let me follow, I won't follow, that's all." ”

"Oh, I see." Shi Dakai looked at Li Hongzhang and knew that the other party was not telling the truth, but he didn't want to ask more, so he continued to drink.

Not to mention, Sheng Haizhou's group of Japanese subordinates can't fight, but when it comes to burning, killing and looting, it is a top master, even if it is for his own compatriots, it is called a ruthless and ruthless.

At the beginning, there may be some people who can't wipe their face, at most grab a little property, leave a little left, but as time goes by, everyone's courage is getting bigger and bigger, and they are getting more and more fierce. Robbing the strong. Rape is everywhere, as long as it is a young woman, everyone will not let it go, and in the process of robbery, if you resist a little, it will be a shot there, and it will not reason with you at all.

Burning, killing and looting this thing, once it is let go and the animal nature of people is stimulated, the simple scene is simply miserable, and the beautiful things of human beings are completely lost, and some are only red. Bare. Naked desire. Hope and killing.

This is not about calling the Japanese, Chinese or anyone else, but as long as you are a human being, as long as you participate in this kind of collective heavy crime, you will lose a qiē moral restraint and quickly become a beast that moves only for the sake of desire.

After the Japanese army burned and looted for three days, the entire prosperous city of Edo was in a depression, full of fire and crying, dead bodies everywhere on the roadside, and many eyes were lost. A naked woman doesn't know whether she is dead or alive.

However, after such a barbaric plunder, the harvest was also staggering, so that it took three days just to count the goods, even for a general celebration, and during the count, although no longer let people be free to be in the city, the sneaky rape and plunder, still turned a blind eye.

When the general inventory was over, Rao is Li Hongzhang and others were mentally prepared, and they were also taken aback by the amount of wealth looted.

After all, Edofu was the shogunate, and it was the actual center of Japanese rule, so most of the goods were concentrated in Edo.

According to statistics, more than 33 million taels of silver alone were looted from the homes of nobles, samurai, and merchants, and only a small part was scavenged from the treasury and the homes of ordinary people.

In addition, there is also a lot of gold, a total of 300,000 taels, according to the new weights and measures of the empire, 1 tael is equal to 37 grams, which is equivalent to 11.1 tons, which is also a lot of wealth.

There are also copper coins, and there are many copper coins, but if they are equivalent to two taels of silver. It is only worth 10 million Chinese dollars, which is equivalent to 10 million taels of silver, of course, this is according to the Chinese exchange rate, if it is calculated according to Japan, it will be more, because the value of Japanese copper coins is higher than that of China.

In addition, there are others like precious stones, jade, antiques, scriptures. Treasures such as handicrafts are worth countless things, many of them are unique books or treasures, if they are really sold at the market price, they are far higher than the value of the 30 million taels of silver.

All in all, this time it was a big fortune, and it's hard to say how much it all adds up, but it is estimated that if you add those treasures, it will be worth more than 100 million taels of silver. That's what can be said in the past.

More than 100 million taels of silver, this amount is not a small amount, it seems to be more than the amount looted by the Jingwu army in the first place.

But actually, if you want to talk about wealth. Edo Castle is definitely not comparable to Beijing Castle, and the reason why the wealth looted by the elite army from Beijing City is so small, and the reason why it cannot compare to Edo Castle is entirely because the situation is different. The main difference is whether or not there is looting.

When the Jingwu army captured Beijing, it only looted the yamen treasury in Beijing City. The people of Beijing were not looted, and the Qing government had already left ahead of schedule and took away a lot of property, so the amount looted did not seem so much, but if it was also robbed for three days like in Edo Castle at that time, it would definitely be more than 100 million taels of silver.

Edo Castle is the center of Japan, and in terms of wealth, it is not inferior to Osaka, and although the Edo shogunate may be short of money, the local dignitaries are very wealthy.

For the past 200 years, Japan has been one of the world's largest producers of silver and gold, and in the 17th century, a single Iwami Ginzan produced almost one-fifth of the world's silver.

In addition to silver, Japan also produces a considerable amount of gold, and was the world's largest gold producer before the rise of places like San Francisco.

Therefore, although Japan lacked many other resources, in the mid-19th century, it could be said that it was a real country of silver and gold, and even though there was a large outflow of silver and gold, the country still retained a large amount of precious metals.

In recent years, although the shogunate has become poorer and poorer, those shogunate ministers and dignitaries are quite rich, and without the constant blood sucking of these people, the shogunate would not have fallen so quickly.

For example, according to this statistics, the shogunate's treasury is only more than 3 million taels of silver, which is less than one-tenth of more than 33 million taels of silver.

Of course, it is impossible to publish so many things openly, so the ledger is divided into two, one is the internal account, that is, the actual amount, which must be handed over to the Eastern Bloc; The other is the external account, which is a slightly public figure, and this number is definitely much less.

Finally, after the statistics were completed, the number announced to the public was that a total of 3,300,000 taels worth of silver had been collected, and this wealth was divided into two halves, and the expeditionary force took 300,000 taels as military expenses, and the troops of Shenghaizhou received 3 million taels.

As soon as it was announced, it was as if the expeditionary force was really just a mercenary under Sheng Haizhou, and they abided by their duties and didn't get much benefit, but the big benefit was still given to Sheng Haizhou. But in the same way, Sheng Haizhou took the three million taels, which is equivalent to really carrying this black cauldron of robbery, and he can't get rid of it when the time comes.

Of course, Sheng Haizhou knew the inside story, although he didn't know how many things he had robbed in three days, but he knew that it was absolutely impossible to only have more than three million taels, which was almost ten times more.

However, he also understands a truth, the shape is stronger than the people, don't look at the fun of Sheng Haizhou's subordinates now, but in fact they are still a group of rabble, once they leave the expeditionary force, they are nothing, and he can't bear it if a few feudal lords come over, at least for now.

Therefore, in this case, the most important thing is to destroy the wealth and eliminate the disaster, continue to tie the expeditionary force firmly to his side, and find a way to seize the big government, as for the rolling infamy, he doesn't care at all.

However, he already thought that he was bearing the burden of humiliation, but after hearing the words that the expeditionary force was going to leave Japan next, he was still shocked, no, not only frightened, it was really shocked, angry and afraid.

You know, at this time, it was the weakest time for Katsu Haizhou, the new army had not yet done a good job, the princes were eyeing each other, and once the Chinese left Japan at this time, then he would really be finished, completely finished.

"Don't worry. Lord Katsu Haizhou. Seeing Sheng Haizhou's angry face, Li Hongzhang hurriedly answered, "It's just that the expeditionary force is leaving Japan, not that we want to abandon you." ”

"Does it make a difference?" Sheng Haizhou raised his voice, "Don't you know what's going on now?" Although we took Edo, the shogun himself was not found, and nine times out of ten he was kidnapped by traitors. As soon as they continue to attack us in the name of generals, what will we do? My men alone will never be able to stop those traitors. ”

"On that note, rest assured." Li Hongzhang smiled. "We, the government of the Chinese Empire, are quite satisfied with Lord Sheng Haizhou, and naturally we will not abandon Lord Sheng Haizhou lightly. Let's be honest, the Reich has already organized a Japanese Dispatch Army, which is a much larger and more combat-ready force than the Expeditionary Force, probably more than thirty thousand men in total.

In two days, this force will arrive in Japan, and when they are there. After handing over to the expeditionary force, the expeditionary force will leave, and then the affairs in Japan will be handed over to the Japanese dispatch force to be responsible. I say that, you can rest assured, right? ”

"Japanese troops? 30,000? Sheng Haizhou was surprised, "What does this mean?" Why do you have to send so many people? ”

"Didn't I say that a long time ago?" Li Hongzhang's old god said, "The current expeditionary force." It was only a private army subordinate to the Eastern Bloc, not a regular army of the Empire, so it did not represent the will of the Chinese Empire. And the coming Chinese dispatch troops. But it is the national defense force of the empire, that is the regular army that represents the Chinese Empire.

In other words, your previous negotiations and cooperation with the expeditionary force do not mean anything, and it does not mean that the Chinese Empire supports you or has any deal with you, and you must be clear about this. ”

"What, you've reaped enough of the benefits, do you want to cross the river and tear down the bridge?" Sheng Haizhou's face instantly darkened.

"No, no, no, how can it be, adults are not restless, it's not too late to be angry after listening to me."

"Okay, then Master Li, you say." Sheng Haizhou said coldly.

"That's actually the case." Li Hongzhang said, "In fact, after the Yoshidaya incident, our Chinese Imperial Government has been discussing countermeasures, but you also know that this country center is always more cautious in dealing with this kind of thing, so the time is a little delayed, but it is not as convenient and flexible as the Eastern Bloc, so the first to come to Japan to seek justice is the irregular expeditionary force."

Now that the Imperial Government has made a decision, and has considerable admiration for Lord Katsukaishu, it has sent a formal negotiator to hold formal state-to-state negotiations with the Japanese government to formally negotiate a proper solution to the Yoshidaya incident.

Of course, in view of the current chaotic situation in Japan, in order to protect the special envoy for the negotiations and also to protect the Chinese compatriots in Japan, it is necessary to send a regular army to protect it. ”

"Master Lee." Sheng Haizhou said, "I am really sincere, and I have done it to this point, I hope you don't go around in circles with me, it's better to tell me the truth." ”

"Oh?" Seeing Sheng Haizhou's calm face, Li Hongzhang nodded, and stopped going around in circles, "Okay, now that you have this awareness, I'll tell you the truth."

In fact, the truth is that our imperial government is quite worried about the current situation in Japan, especially about the atmosphere of rebellion in Japan, so it wants to support a strong pro-China person to rule Japan, and you are the person we value very much.

Therefore, although the expeditionary force is leaving, the Japanese dispatch force will come before then, and then the more powerful Japanese dispatch force will fully support you and help you ascend to the position of power in Japan, whether you are a general yourself or a general's puppet, in short, I hope that you will rule Japan. ”

"If I'm not mistaken, you're trying to support me and make me an obedient puppet." Katsu Haizhou continued to say calmly, "As long as you control me, you will control the whole of Japan, I'm right." ”

"It depends on what you think." Li Hongzhang smiled, "Let's put it this way, after Japan sends troops over, the accompanying special envoy for negotiations will also start formal negotiations with you, if you can satisfy the special envoy for negotiations and sign a series of treaties that we are satisfied with, we will fully support you." If you can't satisfy us, you'll have to give up.

Anyway, you yourself understand that with the current state of Japan, if it cannot become a unified and pro-China vassal state, then the only way to go is to be divided and dismembered.

Well, I'm telling you enough now, right? So the question is, are you willing to be our puppet and help us control a unified and pro-China Japan, or do you want us to give up on you and then take advantage of Japan's chaos to dismember Japan first, and then slowly encroach on Japan? ”

"Why me?" Sheng Haizhou suddenly said, "Choose an agent, there are many candidates, so many powerful people don't choose, why choose me, a guy who has no power and no power." ”

"Why?" Li Hongzhang smiled, "Maybe it's because I'm more familiar with you than other people, and we don't have much time to choose slowly, after all, the longer it drags on, the greater the variables."

Anyway, in my opinion, it doesn't matter who the agent is, as long as it's a Japanese, with the powerful military power of our empire to rely on, whoever can be the agent can actually be. But I think this person must also be a smart person who understands current affairs, and those guys with rigid heads are absolutely not good, well, are you satisfied with this answer? ”

"Understood." Sheng Haizhou nodded, "It seems that Lord Li still has a high opinion of me, thank you so much for Lord Li's love." ”

"Where, where." Li Hongzhang smiled, "So, are you willing to be our agent?" ”

"Do I have any options?" Sheng Haizhou sneered, "The agent is the agent, I just hope that you can really do what you say, just don't throw me away halfway." (Want to know more about Time Smuggling 1859?) Open WeChat now, click on the "+" sign in the upper right corner, select Add Friends to add an official account, search for "Qidianzhongwenwang", follow the official account, and never miss every update! (To be continued......)