In the afternoon of the same day, the Kyoto garrison finally entered the palace after suffering hundreds of casualties, and when these rebels led by Li Haotong entered the palace, it immediately turned into a massacre.

Although nearly half of the Janissaries had been killed or wounded in the past few days of defensive operations, the remaining Praetorian Guards were mercilessly slaughtered after their failed resistance and surrendered in batches, and more than 1,000 Praetorian Guard prisoners were slaughtered that day.

The eldest prince who was hiding in the palace and many ministers of the Ning Dynasty who supported the eldest prince were all captured and executed.

On this day, the entire palace was not only filled with gunsmoke, but blood soaked almost every inch of the palace's land.

In the evening of the same day, the Imperial Legation in Mandalay was informed of the news that Li Haotong led the army to conquer the palace, and in the evening, although he looked tired but full of excitement, Li Haotong sent an envoy to the Imperial Legation secretly, and had a secret meeting with Hao Mubai, the Imperial Minister of the Kingdom of Ning.

Also that night, the Ning army outside the city also learned the news that the Kyoto garrison had conquered the palace.

Although the Kyoto garrison massacre the Praetorian Guards and even many ministers made many military generals very dissatisfied, but now that the winner has been decided, and the eldest prince has been killed, the remaining second prince has become the only remaining heir to the throne of the Ning Dynasty.

In the evening of the same day, Ning's military also sent representatives into the city and negotiated with Li Haotong.

Although there were all differences in negotiations with the military, the military promised Li Haotong the most important condition, that is, the military would declare its allegiance to the second prince and support the second prince's official accession to the throne.

Of course, the military also obtained some of the conditions it wanted, for example, Li Haotong promised that the proportion of military spending next year would be increased.

Without further ado, the blood stains that were in the palace the next day had not yet been washed away. When the rubble in the palace destroyed by artillery fire was not cleared, the young second prince went to the palace with the support of a group of loyalists such as Li Haotong, as well as the support of many senior military generals, and then directly held the enthronement ceremony.

Ministers from other foreign countries, including China and Britain, were invited to attend.

At the ceremony, Hao Mubai could clearly see the unwillingness on the faces of the British consul in Ningguo, but even if they were unwilling, what would happen. The faction of the Great Prince they supported has been defeated, and even those who are the leaders have been killed one by one, even if the British army wants to send troops, but they can't find a second heir.

Lin Chengting has a total of two sons, and there are no brothers, nephews or the like, and now that the eldest prince is killed, only the second prince is left as the only heir to the throne.

And it is very important that in this battle for the throne of the Ning Kingdom. The empire has never officially intervened, which is why the British can't find any suitable reason, they can't just start a war against King Ning because they don't like the empire standing behind the second prince.

As soon as the enthronement ceremony ended, a British gunboat north along the Irrawaddy River also arrived in Mandalay, this British gunboat came under the diplomatic flag, carrying a number of British diplomats from Lower Burma, their main mission was to see the specific situation in Mandalay. They also carried telegraph machines and other equipment to restore telegraph communications.

When they first entered the Ning Kingdom. It was intercepted by the Ningguo River Defense Army, but because the ship came under the banner of diplomacy and the situation was too tense at that time, the Ningguo River Defense Army did not dare to really intercept it, so it could only follow and monitor all the way.

When the British gunboat arrived in Mandalay, a number of British diplomats on board spoke with local British diplomats. Then they learned a fact that surprised them very much, that is, a few days ago, the battle for the throne broke out in the Ning Kingdom, and now the second prince's faction has won a complete victory, and the original heir to the throne, the eldest prince, has been directly killed.

Subsequently. They repaired the telegraph room in Mandalay with telegraph machines and other equipment that they carried with them, and sent out relevant information.

The resumption of telegraph communications was the only way for Chinese and British diplomats in the direction of Yangon to be informed, and soon the situation of the civil war in Nanjing was transmitted to Nanking and London through transoceanic telegrams.

Knowing that Li Haotong had won the victory and supported his nephew to become the king of the Ning Dynasty as he wished, and that he himself had become the regent of the Ning Kingdom, Lin Zhe smiled and put down the telegram casually: "This Li Haotong is an ambitious and capable person!" ”

There are countless people who have played palace struggles throughout the ages, but in fact, most of them have failed, and there are only a handful of successes.

Now that Li Haotong has won, then he doesn't have to worry about the situation on the Ning Kingdom's side getting out of control, and now it is the British who have a headache instead of himself.

Li Haotong won the battle for the throne, and the British will have to worry that the Ning Kingdom will completely stand on the side of the empire, which will pose a great threat to the strategic security of Britain's Lower Burma and India.

However, in order to avoid further irritating the British, making them think that the situation in Myanmar has completely gotten out of control, and then take some radical measures, Lin Zhe still decided to suppress the affairs of Myanmar and try to keep a low profile, such as those secret agreements reached with Li Haotong, and there is no need to rush to announce them.

Of course, things must be done, but it is best not to do it openly, the empire's policy towards the Ning Kingdom is not to ascend to the sky in one step and directly regard the Ning Kingdom as its own vassal country, but to pull the Ning Kingdom into its own chariot and fight against Britain together.

And this kind of thing does not mean that one or two secret treaties can be achieved, but it needs to be pushed slowly and not in a hurry.

After Li Haotong became the regent of the Ning Kingdom, the next thing was relatively simple, and naturally the people below slowly pushed it, and there was no need for Lin Zhe to pay attention.

In the past few days, Lin Zhe has paid a lot of attention to the coup affairs of the Ning Kingdom, and now that Li Haotong has gone to achieve success, Lin Zhe has not paid much attention to it.

He has so much work on a daily basis that it is impossible to say that he always focuses on the same thing.

After Feng instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to do a good job in the follow-up affairs of the Ning Kingdom, he also turned his attention to other affairs.

This is also a foreign affair, but it is not related to Southeast Asia, but to the Ryukyu Kingdom.

The other day. In addition to the annual tributary ceremony, the Ryukyu envoy also held a meeting with diplomats from the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

At this meeting, the Ryukyu Kingdom asked the Ryukyu Kingdom to support their efforts to retake the Amami Islands, which had been seized by the Japanese Satsuma Domain during the Battle of Keicho and the Ryukyus.

The diplomats of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are quite speechless about this request, your ambitions are really big. And he really picks the timing.

They were ambitious because the Keicho Battle of the Ryukyus took place in 1609, more than 200 years ago, when the Satsuma clan invaded the Ryukyu Kingdom and finally occupied the Amami Islands, and from that time on, the Ryukyu Kingdom actually became a vassal of the Honsatsuma Domain.

Without the strong rise of the empire, the Ryukyu Kingdom would have been completely annexed by Japan in the years to come.

The current strong rise of the empire has severed the relationship between the Japanese and the Ryukyus by extremely powerful means. The Tokugawa Shogunate even signed a formal treaty with the Tokugawa Shogunate for this purpose, and the Tokugawa Shogunate renounced suzerainty over the Ryukyu Kingdom on behalf of the entire Nippon, but of course the reason why the Tokugawa Shogunate signed such a treaty with the Empire was because it was not the Tokugawa Shogunate that actually had the vassal power of the Ryukyu Kingdom, but the Satsuma Domain.

To put it simply, the former Ryukyu Kingdom was not a vassal of Japan, but a vassal of the Satsuma Domain, and the two are different concepts.

In addition, at that time, the Tokugawa shogunate was already at odds with the Meiji government formed by the Satsuma clan and other reformists. Naturally, he did not hesitate to betray the interests of the Satsuma clan and signed a treaty with the empire.

However, the Satsuma Domain and the Meiji government will never admit it, but there is no way to do it. Who made the empire so strong, this warship swung towards the port of the Satsuma Domain, and the Satsuma Domain could only pinch its nose and admit it.

Now the Ryukyu Kingdom saw that Japan was mired in a long civil war, and that it had profited a lot from trade over the years, and that it had ordered a number of steam gunboats from the Empire, and more importantly. They thought that if they went to retake the Amami Islands, the Empire would support them.

Not to mention, despite the wishful thinking of the king of the Ryukyu Kingdom, Shotai actually faced the Ryukyu Kingdom and the Satsuma Domain. Naturally, the empire is firmly on the side of its subjects.

However, Lin Zhe is also famous for this excerpt on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, support is okay, but it should be prioritized, a little diplomatic support is enough, but there is no need to send troops to support, in terms of Japanese affairs, it is mainly on the Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji government, and do not let other branches affect the overall Japanese phalanx of the empire.

What is the empire's phalanx against Japan, it may not be clear in the past few years, but now the lack has gradually become clear, that is, to prevent Japan from becoming a unified, rich and powerful country, on this basis, the empire supports the Tokugawa shogunate, and at the same time suppresses the Tokugawa shogunate, preventing them from completely destroying the Meiji government, you must know that a few years ago, the Meiji government was blocked by the imperial navy, lost the source of foreign ordnance, and suffered several defeats in a row.

Who saved them when they were in danger?

Is it the French who have always been their financiers? Or has it been a gradual jump in in recent years in favor of the British?

Neither, it was the Empire that allowed them to avoid complete defeat!

When the Meiji government was about to end, the empire decisively canceled many of its support for the Tokugawa shogunate, especially the crucial armament support, and at the same time opened a small opening, temporarily lifting the sea blockade of the Meiji government, and even acquiesced in the sale of arms by its own arms dealers to the Meiji government's Restoration Army.

This two-pronged approach was to avoid the defeat of the Meiji government, and to allow the two governments of Japan to continue to exist and confront each other.

Maintaining the status quo of Japan and leaving Japan in a state of division has been the core strategy of the empire towards Japan in recent years, and anyone who tries to unify Japan from the Meiji government or the Tokugawa shogunate will be attacked by the empire.

And given the sheer power and influence of the empire, once the empire falls to one of them, then that one will have a huge advantage that the other does not have.

The Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji government occupied the western and eastern parts of the Japanese government respectively, and then there was nothing to fight a small war, and there would be a war every once in a while, and the wars were frequent, resulting in a large number of population losses, and at the same time, the heavy military pressure also made both the Meiji government and the Tokugawa shogunate not have enough energy to develop industry.

And organizing the development of industry in Japan was also the core strategy of the empire towards Japan.

Although the weapons used in the civil war have advanced to the point of rear-loading rifles and front-loading rifled guns, and the Tokugawa shogunate is even equipped with iron-ribbed wooden gunboats, the level of weaponry is very different from that of previous years, but their own industrial capacity is even worse than in previous years.

The Tokugawa shogunate did not have any industry in the first place, and their market was completely open to the empire, so they could not develop industry at all under the impact of the imperial industrial products.

The most representative weapon, if I want to make my own weapons, I have to invest tens of millions, and it will take several years to develop, and the Japanese itself lacks steel and coal, and the price of this self-made weapon is very expensive, and the cost of all aspects adds up, far less cheap than the direct purchase of the empire's weapons.

The rifles sold by the Reich to Japan and throughout Southeast Asia are 1858 rifles and minor modifications of the rifle, and most of them are second-hand goods in the hands of the Imperial Army, and these 1858 rifles are very cheap in order to compete with the new rifles of Britain and France.

Let's not mention whether it can be made by itself, even if the Japanese themselves now have enough technology and industrial base to make their own breech-loading rifles, but the price is at least twice as much as the purchase of the 1858 rifle.

The Tokugawa shogunate didn't have much industry, and the Satsuma clan was no better there, it used to be better, with some factories, but in the Sino-Anglo-Saxon War a few years ago, their main port cities were completely destroyed by the combined fleet of China and Britain, and the losses were very heavy.

And then although they received the support of Britain and France, Britain and France are not stupid, and they will definitely not buy weapons equipment if they can buy weapons.

The empire sometimes sold weapons to the Satsuma Domain and other restoration armies, so like the Tokugawa shogunate, it was better to buy than to buy.

In order to raise funds for foreign ordnance, the Japanese himself got out everything that could be sold for money, and the tax rates in various places were very serious, and it was not an exaggeration to call it smashing pots and selling iron.

The excessive oppression also set off a rebellion by many people, and even some of the daimyos, many of whom rebelled against the rule of the Meiji government or the Tokugawa shogunate, and then led to repression.

In this era when it was completely mired in war, many daimyo still had the idea of taking advantage of the chaos to expand their territory, and several daimyo in the northeastern part controlled by the Tokugawa shogunate had already fought each other several times.

Japan in this era is completely different from historical Japan, and there are signs of re-entering the Warring States period (to be continued. )