Hearing Li Hongzhang's words, Ali Guo and Harrison glanced at each other, and after seeing Harrison nodding, Ali Guo sighed and turned to Li Hongzhang again.

"Mr. Li, it seems that you will not give up on continuing your raids in Japan, will you?" Ali Guo said with regret on his face.

"That's right." Li Hongzhang said lightly, "In short, don't try to use words to make us give up the established plan, unless you use force to stop us." But I'll get to the bottom of that. Let's not talk about the strength of your garrison in Japan, whether you can fight us or not, once you use force against us, then you Britain and the United States will be tantamount to declaring war on China and China. ”

"Mr. Li misunderstood." "Of course, we will not destroy our friendship with China, and we will not have the power to stop you. However, we would like to remind you that the shogunate has an agreement with us in Britain and the United States, and if you attack the shogunate's territories again, it will be very difficult for us, so if you have to continue to rob them, can you not continue to attack the shogunate's territories? ”

The Shogunate had previously signed agreements with Britain and the United States, promising to open up the two countries and grant them one-sided most-favored-nation status, and the United States and Britain had promised to fully support the Shogunate, in other words, this period was the period when Britain and the United States had the closest relationship with the Shogunate.

Historically, it was only after the Anglo-Saxon War that Britain turned to support the Satsuma Domain and oppose the shogunate, but before that, Britain and the United States, and even later Western countries such as France and Russia, all supported the shogunate, so they are not wrong to say so.

"Don't worry." Hearing that the other party had already surrendered in disguise, Li Hongzhang said uncomfortably, "To tell you the truth, I have already talked to Mr. Katsu Haizhou, the representative of the shogunate, that we will not attack the territory directly under the shogunate, but will be hired by the shogunate." Go and attack the local feudal lords who do not obey the shogunate. Well, let's just say that our next step is to attack the Choshu Domain. ”

"Attacking the Choshu Domain?" Ali Guo was stunned for a moment, then nodded, "I see." ”

The current lord of the Choshu Domain was Mori Keikin, and the entire region was still nominally under the rule of the shogunate. In the past, relations between the Choshu domain and the shogunate were relatively good, but after 1861, the power of the Choshu domain gradually came into the hands of Zhou Bu and Katsura Kogoro, who advocated the reverence of the king, and the foreign policy completely changed. From being close to the shogunate, to being hostile to the shogunate, and becoming the vanguard of the shogunate faction, it has become the mainstay of the shogunate faction.

It can be said that in 1862, the so-called anti-shogunate overthrow of the four strong feudal domains had not yet been clearly proposed, but the Satsuma domain and the Choshu domain had already separated from the shogunate, and they almost rebelled.

The Choshu Domain and the Satsuma Domain did not rebel in the past, but they were just not prepared. However, the shogunate was no longer able to command the two local feudal lords, nor could they reap the benefits of these two feudal lords.

Therefore, the shogunate also had a headache for the Choshu Domain and the Satsuma Domain. Fight, the finances are insufficient, and I am afraid that if I can't beat myself, I will be more passive; Don't fight, the trend of separation between these two places is becoming more and more obvious. Over time, it will inevitably become a major problem for the henchmen.

In fact, due to the tendency of the Choshu Domain and the Satsuma Domain to rebel, there was a strong desire for xenophobia. Britain, the United States, France, Russia, and other Western powers were also quite dissatisfied with the policies of these two local feudal lords, and they had long wanted to find an opportunity to teach them a lesson.

In another time and space, there were two famous events, one was the "Shengmaicun Incident" that led to the Anglo-Saxon War, and the other was the "Shimonoseki Incident" that caused the British, French, American, and Russian coalition forces to attack the Choshu Domain.

These two incidents seem to be unrelated, but in fact, they are premeditated actions of the great powers, and they have long wanted to deal with these two local feudal lords, and those incidents are just an excuse.

If it weren't for the fact that these two feudal lords were soft in time, and the great powers found these two feudal lords difficult to deal with, they were afraid that the losses would be too great, and the final result would have been really difficult to say.

"Mr. Lee." American Minister Harrison suddenly said, "If you want to attack the Choshu Domain, then I wonder if you are interested in bringing us Americans and the British to do it?" ”

"Oh? Bring you guys? Li Hongzhang Li Hongzhang was slightly stunned, obviously not reacting, "You mean that you also want to participate?" ”

"That's what it means." Harrison said, "It's not a secret, the Choshu clan has been very xenophobic lately, and we have been dissatisfied with the people who often attack us, but we have not been able to make up our minds to punish it, after all, this matter is too big, and if it is not good, it will cause international disputes." Now, what you did has reminded us that we can also organize a volunteer army to punish the Choshu Domain with you, so that the volunteers do not represent our government, but are just private mercenaries, and a lot of troubles will be solved, I don't know if you are interested? ”

"I'll add one thing." Ali Guo continued, "Although our British and American troops in Japan are not as good as yours, they are not inferior in strength. If you agree to joint operations, then we are willing to send 12 warships, 3,000 marines, and are willing to provide you with some supplies, this kind of strength, I believe it will be of considerable help to you, don't you say? ”

"That's right!" Harrison said, "The joint action of our three countries can not only reduce losses and share risks, but also strengthen the ties between our three countries, which is a good thing that kills multiple birds with one stone, and Mr. Li, as a special envoy sent by the Chinese government, must not refuse such a good thing, right?" ”

"You're having a good plan." Li Hongzhang, who completely understood what the other party meant, nodded, "To put it bluntly, we can't be convinced, so we just join together to grab a hand, and we also want to share some benefits, right?" ”

"Huh." Harrison smiled and didn't continue to speak, while Ali Guo didn't say anything at all, and seemed to feel a little embarrassed.

"To tell you the truth, we can handle it by ourselves by fighting a small Changzhou Domain, and we don't need you at all." Li Hongzhang said, "However, as Mr. Harrison said, everyone is a good friend, and if there are benefits, we must share them together." However, there are some things to talk about, and in the joint operation of our three countries, there must always be someone who has the final say, who is the final say in this joint army? First of all, our expeditionary force only listens to the orders of their commanders, and will never listen to the orders of you Westerners. ”

"You want me to see it. It's better for us to fight on our own. Harrison said, "What do you think of this, your Chinese army is attacking Zhou Fangguo, and our British and American armies are responsible for attacking Changmen State, how about it?" ”

The Choshu Domain had only two regions, the Zhou Defense Kingdom and the Nagato Kingdom, and one country was equivalent to a prefecture in China.

Both the Zhou defense and the Nagato kingdom were quite wealthy, but in comparison, the Nagato was a little richer, and at this time, the administrative center of the Choshu Domain, Hagi Castle, and the economic center of Shimonoseki. They are all in the country of Nagato, so in terms of the rich Cheng dù and the important Cheng dù, it is Nagato that is better than the Zhou defense.

In other words, in terms of the reward ratio of robbery, attacking Nagato is better than defending Zhou, so Harrison's remarks are obviously taking advantage.

"You're stupid to me." Li Hongzhang said, "Changmen is rich and prosperous, while Zhou Fang is not a little worse. Why do you go to fight those who have money and are easy to fight, but we go to fight those who are difficult to gnaw and have no money? ”

"You can't say that." Harrison said, "Although Nagato is prosperous, it is also a key place for the Choshu Domain to defend. Whether it is Hagi Castle or Shimonoseki, there are strong shore defense batteries. In comparison, the perimeter defense is much worse, and it is much easier to fight. Isn't it easier for you to fight a perimeter defense? ”

"There's no need for that." Li Hongzhang said, "Let's go to Changmen." You go to fight the perimeter defense, and that's it. ”

"What is this...... Harrison didn't know what to say for a moment, and simply looked at Aliko.

"Mr. Lee." Ali Guo paused, "This cooperation must be sincere......

"Come less!" Li Hongzhang simply interrupted him and said, "You only have 3,000 people, and we have 6,000 people, and in terms of combat power, our strength is stronger." And you are only incidental, but we are the first, so we have the final say. ”

"But we have twelve warships!" "The fleet is stronger than your fleet in terms of size, and it can't just be the army. In fact, the attack on the Choshu Domain ultimately depends on the navy and warships! ”

"It's not that I'm underestimating you." Li Hongzhang smiled, "The soldiers are not expensive, not to mention anything else, do you dare to guarantee that twelve warships can burn a city?" Can't you? But five of us ships can burn a city at any time! Why? Because we have more advanced weapons, and you don't! Didn't I say that once we go to war, our five iron-framed warships will fight your warships as if they were playing, believe it or not? ”

"This ......" Ali Guo frowned, but did not refute anything.

Indeed, since the Chinese defeated the Russian expeditionary fleet, the Western powers no longer underestimated the Chinese navy, and they also knew that the Chinese navy warships were all new iron-framed warships, especially the recent burning of Kagoshima, which surprised them.

You must know that at this time, although the warships of the Western powers have evolved to the Cheng dù of ironclad ships, because gunpowder technology and artillery technology have not yet shown a decisive breakthrough, the charge of artillery is still black. Fire. Medicine-based.

In addition, the British and American fleets stationed in Japan, due to the distance factor, for the purpose of saving money, most of them were old-fashioned warships, although most of them were equipped with steam engines, but they could be fired. In terms of cannon power, most of them are still front-loading fire. Cannons, cannonballs are also quite weak, although there are also *flower* shells, but it is absolutely impossible to say that it is absolutely impossible to burn a city by artillery bombardment, even if most of the city is made of wood.

For China's new warships, the great powers have long coveted, but unfortunately China has long been not a soft persimmon rubbed at will, whether it is the army or the navy, they have shown amazing combat power, plus China has a lot of exquisite trade goods that Europeans are reluctant to bear, at least the upper echelons of Europe and the United States have been inseparable from Chinese goods, so before they are sure, the great powers do not want to offend the Chinese.

Of course, it is not that Britain and the United States are really afraid of the Chinese at this time, nor that they think that their own warships cannot defeat Chinese warships, but they are too involved, and they dare not act rashly.

"Well, since Mr. Li insists on this, then let's make up our minds." Ali Guo nodded, "We British and Americans go to attack Zhou Fang, you Chinese attack Nagato, each fight your own, and then harvest, each according to his ability, how?" ”

"That's a good idea." Li Hongzhang nodded.

Seeing that Li Hongzhang finally agreed to this plan, Ali Guo and Harrison glanced at each other again, and both showed a smile of relief.

That's right, in fact, the previous accountability is all fake, and finding a way to intervene and reap the benefits is the real intention of the British and Americans.

This is also to blame Li Hongzhang, he has to take a day off. Gave Ali and Harrison enough time to get to know Osaka.

When the two of them heard that the Chinese army had actually looted 10 million taels of silver in Osaka Prefecture, they were not calm in an instant, and the previous intention of asking the Chinese to withdraw from Osaka had long since disappeared.

Ten million taels of silver, what is the concept?

In 1862, after the establishment of the Chinese Empire, a new currency was minted, new weights and measures were unified, and the international currency was exchanged for 1 Chinese dollar to 1 tael of silver, which was exchanged for 0.35 pounds sterling or 1.75 US dollars.

Other words. Ten million taels of silver, currently equal to three and a half million pounds, one seventeen and a half million dollars! This is already a huge amount of money in this era.

It can be said that even if there is 100,000 taels of silver, the British and French armies can start a war against Japan at any cost, let alone 10 million taels.

In the past, Britain and the United States and other powers never thought of looting so much money from Japan at one time, because they did not want to dry up and fish. It's a long stream.

However, now that it is clear that China is going to be ruthless against Japan, it would be foolish if they were as conservative as before.

And Ali Guo and Harrison are keenly aware of it. With China's strong rise, China will inevitably seek more overseas colonies in the future, and other places will be fine, but in this far east. It seems that no country can stop China's aggressive aggression.

This small and weak country, and China, a powerful and malicious neighbor in the rise, will sooner or later be turned into a vassal country or a colony by China. And they, the United States, France, Russia and other powers, at most, are making some leftovers.

Therefore, Ali Guo and Harrison have figured out that sooner or later Japan will be China's, just like North Korea, and it makes no sense to fight with the current China for Japan, which is destined to be taken away by China.

Moreover, judging from China's past posture, this nascent regime is quite tough, and they are not even afraid of Russia, the giant bear of Europe, and they directly dared to open a film with the Russian expeditionary fleet supported by Britain and France, and finally won the war, so their small fleet stationed in Japan may not be anyone's opponent.

Ali Guo and Harrison have long reached an agreement, that is, they cannot compete with China, but must find ways to join the big family of robbing Japan, and take advantage of the fact that China has not yet had too many conflicts with Britain and the United States and other countries, and hurry up to reap the benefits and grab a handful.

Of course, it is not excluded that if Li Hongzhang is weak, they will be unforgiving, but since Li Hongzhang is so tough and so shameless, then they naturally don't have to continue to pretend to be good people.

Now that everyone has opened their hearts and decided on their respective targets, the next step is simple, it is nothing more than to discuss how to divide the scope of plunder, what is the approximate time of attack, how to avoid conflict once the two armies meet, and so on.

All in all, in front of Ryoma Sakamoto, everyone blatantly began to discuss how to attack the Choshu Domain and how to loot the local wealth.

This made Sakamoto Ryoma quite angry, but also quite helpless, so he had to continue to be patient and listen to these people shamelessly talk about how to attack the Choshu Domain in Japan and how to divide the local wealth.

When Li Hongzhang finally finished talking with the British and American envoys, everyone seemed to have reacted and realized that the Japanese envoys were still here, and they were all a little embarrassed, so they hurriedly ended the talks.

After the talks, Sakamoto Ryoma still wanted to fight for it, asked to see Li Hongzhang, and tried to persuade this Master Li to retract his fate, but unfortunately Li Hongzhang never gave him a chance to meet again, which made Sakamoto Ryoma can only watch the situation continue to deteriorate.

In the end, after ten days of waiting in agony, he finally waited for his teacher Sheng Haizhou again, but when he reported this qiē to Sheng Haizhou and sought a solution, he got another bad news.

That is, the shogunate actually wanted to officially crusade against the Choshu clan in the name of non-ministers, and the Chinese, the British and the Americans were the mercenaries of the shogunate.

In other words, the shogunate agreed to Li Hongzhang's original mention of yì, that is, this conquest of the Choshu Domain, the main force was Chinese, British and Americans, but the name of the crusade came from the shogunate. Then, once the victory is won, then let the Chinese, British, and Americans plunder the Choshu Domain, and afterwards only need to hand over the Nagato and Zhou Defense of the Choshu Domain to the shogunate.

In other words, the shogunate decided to let the three robbers rob their own house and rob them of the gold and silver treasures. Just keep the houses and land that you can't take away.

"This, how can this be!" After listening to the shogunate's decision brought by Katsu Kaizhou, Sakamoto Ryoma was really angry, "How could the shogunate make such an unwise decision?" Isn't that a wolf in the house? In this way, how will the world view the shogunate? Once it was made, what prestige did the shogunate have to speak of? ”

"There's no way to do that." Katsukaishu's face sank like water, staring at Ryoma Sakamoto in a fit of rage, "Even if we don't agree, they'll do it." In that case, why don't we go with the flow, so that we can recover something for the shogunate and preserve some vitality for Japan. ”

"Preserving Japan's vitality?" Sakamoto Ryoma sneered, "Okay, then you say, how do you keep the vitality method?" ”

"Well, don't you understand it now?" Sheng Haizhou sighed, "The Chinese are testing us. Test the mind of our shogunate, if our shogunate blindly resists fiercely, then the Chinese may send a large army to directly deal with our shogunate. Then divide and dismember Japan. ”

"Divide and dismember Japan?" Sakamoto Ryoma was stunned when he heard this, then slowly frowned, and gently knelt down again, "Teacher, you mean." Is there more to China's appetite than that? Do they still want to deal with us Japan in the same way they did with North Korea? ”

"Yes." Katsu Haizhou sneered, "I dare to assert that the Yoshidaya incident is nothing more than an excuse for the Chinese. Even if there is no Yoshidaya incident, sooner or later the Chinese will find an excuse to invade Japan, just as they invaded Korea. ”

"I've thought about that too." Ryoma Sakamoto nodded, "But if the Chinese want to invade our Japan, why don't they send their regular army, but instead send a private mercenary?" ”

"That's what I call temptation." Katsu Haizhou said, "We Japan are different from Korea, we have no land border with China, and we Japanese are also different from Koreans, not only have a larger population, but also have a stronger character, plus there are the interests of other powers, so the Chinese are not good at coming up as soon as they come up, he must come step by step and slowly encroach." ”

"Step by step, slowly eat away at ......," Ryoma Sakamoto nodded thoughtfully.

Seeing Sakamoto Ryoma nodding, Katsu Haizhou smiled with satisfaction, and then continued: "If my expectations are correct, the Chinese's attitude towards our Japan has not yet been unified, and the final decision has not yet been made on whether to attack in an all-out way or support the puppets, so they decided to test us."

If our shogunate is obedient enough, then they will probably support the shogunate and maintain a unified Japan, and the advantage of this is that Japan will not fall into turmoil, and China can use our Japan as a source of cheap raw materials and a dumping market for products, and slowly suck blood from our Japanese territory and grow stronger, and then slowly encroach on it.

On the contrary, if our shogunate is too strong to control it, then they may adopt a dividing strategy of divide and rule, that is, to find a way to turn our Japan into a troubled era, so that they can support the local feudal lords as puppets, and take advantage of the characteristics of the troubled times to greatly consume our national strength and people's strength, and finally when we are exhausted by the civil war, they will take the opportunity to attack again, swallow our Japan in one bite, and become one of their vassals or even autonomous provinces. ”

Speaking of this, Katsu Haizhou stared at Sakamoto Ryoma's eyes: "Now you understand, we Japan has reached a critical moment, either to become a submissive unified country, or to become an unobingely chaotic war, if it were you, what path would you choose?" ”

"You, you mean......" Ryoma Sakamoto opened his mouth wide, "I see!" Do you want Japan to bow down to China, and then use this situation to achieve the goal of unifying Japan? ”

"You really deserve to be my most valued student!" Sheng Haizhou nodded with satisfaction, "Hey, we say that Japan is a country now, but in fact, if you go out and see, how many people have a sense of belonging to Japan, and how many people are really working hard for Japan's independence from prosperity and power?" No, except for a very small number of people, most of them are just for three meals a day, they have no concept of a country at all, let alone a sense of nationality. ”

Speaking of this, Katsu Haizhou clenched his fists: "Such Japan is easy to conquer, because as long as the Chinese defeat our shogunate and capture the emperor, then they can legally conquer Japan."

The Chinese are not Westerners, they are very close to our Japan, and they have enough population and army, they can send a large number of garrisons to suppress Japan, and they also have enough time and strength to digest Japan.

After a long time, when they use power and force to force the Japanese to learn Chinese characters and speak Chinese, so that the next generation of Japan will no longer speak Japanese and no longer write Japanese characters, then it will not take two generations, Japan will become Chinese, and at that time, Japan will no longer exist zài, what I said, can you understand? ”

"I see." Ryoma Sakamoto took a deep breath, "So you want the shogunate to learn from the Joseon king and completely lose to the Chinese?" Surrender the Chinese? Be a puppet of the Chinese? ”

"Yes." Sheng Haizhou said, "When we encounter a strong enemy who is incapacitated, what we have to do is not to fight hard, but to humbly bow our heads, to please the enemy, paralyze the enemy, let the enemy relax their vigilance, and leave us a little room to survive." ”

Speaking of this, Katsu Haizhou exhaled and said, "As long as we preserve Japan's national system and traditions, and preserve our Japanese cultural heritage, even if we bow down to the Chinese, even if we offer it every year, then we will not hesitate!"

The Chinese are now very strong in their national fortunes and are prosperous, but they cannot always have smooth sailing, and sooner or later there will be a time of decline. What we need to do now is to exchange concessions for peace, and to use this opportunity to use humiliation to stimulate the national concept of our country, so that Japan can truly become a modern nation-state!

Once Japan becomes a nation-state like the Western powers, and once the people of our country are proud of Japan and are willing to sacrifice their lives for the country, instead of being indifferent to who rules them, then even a behemoth like China will not be able to annex us.

Therefore, this is to put death and then live, this is to exchange humility for peace, and weakness for survival, only in this way can we Japan become an independent individual and survive, and then wait for the opportunity, otherwise, being tough to the end will only make us like North Korea, which will be completely swallowed by China in the rising stage! (To be continued......)