Faced with the chaos of Japan, it is only natural that Nakayama King Shotai of the Ryukyu Kingdom will have the ambition to try to recover the Amami Islands.

And this move was also tacitly approved by the Empire!

On October 23, 1868, two wooden steam gunboats of the Ryukyu Kingdom arrived in the Amami Islands, and dozens of Ryukyu soldiers on board landed on Amami Oshima without any hindrance.

However, although they were not discovered by the Satsuma Domain before landing, they were not hindered, after all, although there is still a little bit of the current Satsuma Domain's sea power, it is all used to resist the fleet of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and it will not appear in the waters of the Amami Islands unless it is a special situation.

However, this does not mean that the Satsuma clan did not have troops on the Amami Islands.

Although the archipelago was nominally part of the Ryukyu Kingdom, the Satsuma clan had actually controlled the islands for more than 200 years, and during these 200 years, the Satsuma clan had established a complete administrative rule on Amami Oshima and had a certain number of troops stationed, and many of the people on the island were descendants of Japanese immigrants.

Why did the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs consider the Ryukyu Kingdom to retake the Amami Islands out of ambition and self-confidence?

Because the Amami Islands have been controlled by the Satsuma Domain for more than 200 years, it is normal to take them back unless the Satsuma Domain is directly defeated in war, and even if the Amami Islands are recaptured, not many of the inhabitants of these islands will agree with the rule of the Ryukyu Kingdom.

When the Ryukyu army, which numbered less than 100 men, landed on Amami Oshima, it was soon discovered by the Satsuma Domain garrison on the island, and a fierce battle broke out between the two sides near the port.

The result was a tragedy for the Ryukyu Kingdom, as the nearly 100 people who landed were completely defeated, and only a dozen or so people escaped, and the rest were either killed or captured.

This happens. Even if the Ryukyu Kingdom is no longer willing, it can only retreat.

The Ryukyu Kingdom is not a big country, and this standing army has only a few hundred people in total, and the loss of nearly 100 people is already a major loss for them.

Not long after, the envoys of the Ryukyu Kingdom hurriedly arrived in Nanjing, and then asked the empire for support. It is hoped that the empire will send troops to avenge them and recover the Amami Islands.

For these envoys, Song Guanqian fooled the past, what kind of joke, how could the empire change its strategy towards Japan for the sake of just one Amami Islands.

Although the empire acquiesced to the Ryukyu Kingdom's attack on the Amami Islands, it does not mean that the empire will fight in person.

The Empire's strategy toward Japan was to maintain a state of division and civil war, and in order to achieve this goal, the Empire needed to maintain close ties with the Tokugawa shogunate. At the same time, in the past two years, communication and contact with the Meiji government have also increased.

Especially after the last time the empire took the initiative to help the Meiji government through the difficulties and avoid its downfall, the Meiji government also saw some goodwill of the empire, or they were able to guess the intentions of the empire.

That is, the empire did not want to see the Meiji government defeated by the Tokugawa shogunate.

In this case, the Meiji government also began to seek support from the imperial side!

Today's empire has a great influence in both the Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji government, and the 1858 rifle of the empire is the standard equipment of both armies.

Under these circumstances, the Imperial did not want to change the status quo in Japan, nor was it even willing to excessively weaken the military capabilities of the Meiji government.

The Satsuma clan was the main component of the Meiji government. It would not be in the interest of the Empire to weaken the Satsuma Domain too much, and if the Empire once again intervened in the dispute between the Ryukyu Kingdom and the Satsuma Domain on a large scale. Then it is very likely that a new anti-Chinese wave will be caused in Japan.

You must know that over the past years, various factions in Japan have been extremely xenophobic, and the very beginning of the Emperor is a very clear xenophobic slogan, and it is very common for the merchants of the empire to be ostracized in Japan in the early years.

Later, the empire intervened in the civil war in Japan, which caused a revolt from some Japanese, especially in the Meiji government area in the southwest. There have been many anti-China waves, and the Chinese concession in Kagoshima has been attacked by ronin more than once.

The Imperial Empire was forced to continuously increase the number of troops stationed in the Kagoshima Concession, from a platoon at the beginning, to a company later, and now to a full mixed battalion. Nearly 700 troops were stationed to guard the security of the concession, as well as to protect the safety of passing Chinese merchant ships and warships.

However, these anti-Chinese waves all came from the people, and the early Meiji government and the Satsuma clan ignored the official attitude, but with the gradual change of the relationship between the Meiji government and the empire, under the strong diplomatic pressure of the empire, the Meiji government also began to suppress this civil anti-Chinese wave, and in the past year, there has been no resistance against Chinese merchants and goods on the part of the empire, especially in the southwest. 、

And the empire wants this situation to continue, after all, the empire still needs the Japanese market anyway.

Although the amount of trade between the empire and Japan was not large, this market was a very typical dumping market for industrial products for the empire, and the nature of the market was completely different from that of Europe and the United States.

With the exception of a few vassal states of the empire, such as Korea, the Kingdom of Vietnam, and the Ryukyus, Japan was the only dumping market for industrial products in the empire.

All kinds of primary industrial products from the empire, such as woven fabrics, cotton yarn, matches, soap and other daily necessities, have already encroached on the Japanese market, and in addition, the ordnance products from the empire also occupy a huge part of the Japanese market, such as the Tokugawa shogunate, many of the funds they used to buy ordnance came from the empire's loans, so they had no choice but to use loans to buy Chinese weapons.

On the Meiji government's side, at first they mainly used French weapons, and later they also bought some British weapons, and with the improvement of relations with the empire in the past two years, and the empire was also interested in supporting the Meiji government, it was not killed by the Tokugawa shogunate, so it also gave a certain amount of preferential policy support.

As a result, the Meiji government also purchased many imperial weapons.

The imperial weapons purchased by the Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji government were mainly army weapons, rifles were 1858 rifles, and artillery was based on mature technology and low prices of iron-cast front-loading rifled guns, of course, ammunition was also their main procurement weapons, and grenades and paper shell bullets in these years were not so easy to get, even if one or two were made, but it did not mean that they could be mass-produced, and that they could be mass-produced did not mean that they were cheap.

In addition to army weapons, they also purchased a small number of Imperial warships, mainly small-tonnage offshore gunboats.

In the past few years, the ships of the empire have not only sold well in China, but also sold a lot in Southeast Asia, the Kingdom of Vietnam, Thailand, the Japanese Bentokugawa shogunate, the Meiji government of Japan, and even the Ryukyu Kingdom and Korea.

And the shipbuilding of the empire is estimated to be very large, unless there are thousands of tons of large ships, the construction period of other ships is generally difficult, and even sometimes those shipyards of the empire will have some survival, order today, and you will be able to drive the ship away tomorrow.

This is true of merchant ships, and warships are greatly influenced by the sale of the USS Washington to the Confederate in the early years and the later Battle of the Pearl River Estuary!

At that time, the USS Washington was the first warship of the Empire to be exported, and the price of this warship of the Southern Federation could be described as very generous, and the Imperial shipbuilding industry also regarded this warship as a test ship, and all kinds of new technologies were pushed up, such as open-air rotating turrets, ironwood mixed armor, and new steam power.

And Washington's record did not live up to the expectations of outsiders, although it eventually sank by a mine, but before it sank, it had become the most sunk enemy ship in the American Civil War, and it was also the most influential warship.

If the USS Washington gave outsiders the first glimpse of the Empire's shipbuilding strength, then the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary in 1866 was a way for the world's navies to truly recognize the tenacious combat effectiveness of the Imperial Navy and the strength of the Empire's shipbuilding.

From that time, there were many countries that came to China to order ships, the earliest of which were the countries surrounding the empire, and the Tokugawa shogunate was the earliest, and even before the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary, they had already begun to order warships from the empire, and even bought second-hand wooden-hulled warships from the empire, and the Meiji government also ordered an offshore gunboat.

In addition to Japan, the Kingdom of Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, and the Ryukyus have also ordered one or two small gunboats, some of which are small ironclad ships, which are born from the Zhenguang-class offshore gunboats, but although this kind of small offshore ironclad gunboats are cheap, cannon fodder-class ships for the Imperial Navy.

But for those small countries, it is an extremely expensive guy, and the annual funds for the navy are only hundreds of thousands or even not so much, so it is very difficult to buy ironclad ships, even small offshore ironclad ships.

However, some small gunboats with wooden hulls are more suitable for them.

The two sides of the civil war in Japan combined, but they purchased many Imperial ships and army ordnance, and the export of ordnance became the main export business of the Empire to Japan.

This, combined with the export of other industrial products, made Japan the Empire's best dumping ground for industrial products in recent years.

If there is not much need, the empire will not destroy the current status quo of the Japanese capital, for the empire, the Japanese "this" that is separated and caught in war is a good "day", and at the same time it is necessary to maintain a relatively friendly relationship, at least not let the Japanese "I have nothing to do" to make Chinese goods and the like.

Therefore, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Empire simply rejected the request of the Ryukyu Kingdom to send troops to the Empire, but still said that the Empire would acquiesce to the Ryukyu State's claim to sovereignty over the Amami Islands.

Compared with the Amami Islands, Lin Zhe is more concerned about the situation on the Ezo side, especially in recent years, Ezo has asked for independence! (To be continued.) )