After the Battle of Shimonoseki, in view of the fact that the fate of Lieutenant General Augustus, the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces, was unknown, Major General Thomas, who had been quite bright in the encounter before, took over the command of the coalition forces.

However, although he took over the command, Major General Thomas soon discovered that the troops had lost the ability to continue the offensive due to the great losses and the disgrace of the troops, so it was impossible to fight a war of revenge.

Although Major General Thomas personally wanted to continue fighting, and he felt that the strength of the coalition forces was still strong and could continue to fight, it was a pity that he could only represent the British and not others.

In other words, the people of the other three countries did not want to fight anymore, and even those British subordinates had many people who were war-weary, so he could only obey the will of the army and lead the army to retreat to the port of Yokohama.

As a result, the vigorous operation of the Four-Nation Coalition to conquer the Choshu Domain ended in failure, and it was probably impossible for them to organize an intervention army until the situation was clarified in the four countries of Britain, France, the United States, and the Netherlands, and a new will was heard, and additional reinforcements were sent.

However, the impact of the Shimonoseki War had only just begun, and it was not yet known what the impact would be on Britain, France, the United States, and the Netherlands, but the impact on Japan was immediate.

There is no doubt that this battle was the first time that the Japanese independently defeated a foreign invading force, so not only did the morale of the people of the Choshu Domain be greatly boosted, but the atmosphere of the whole of Japan became delicate, and the various factions that had already been suppressed and could not raise their heads suddenly became active in an even more violent way.

After the news spread, various parts of Japan set up one after another. Enter. Group. weaving, spontaneously attacking local foreigners. It doesn't matter if you are from the four countries of Britain, France, the United States and the Netherlands, as long as you look different from the Japanese, as long as you are not Japanese, as long as you are a foreigner, you are a bad person, and you want to attack. And it's a blatant attack.

In cities like Nagasaki and Yokohama, there are many foreigners, so this kind of attack on foreigners is in full swing, and Westerners are afraid to rent out of the world, and they are trying to escape from Japan.

In addition to attacking foreigners, there were also turmoil in the areas ruled by the shogunate, such as the Kyoto area, where the emperor was located, an organization called the Tenjugu suddenly appeared, and after the emergence of this organization, it went around assassinating officials of the new shogunate. As a result, the security in the Kyoto area was very bad, especially those officials who defected to the new shogunate, such as the Kyoto Commissioner, who only dared to hide at home and did not come out, and did not dare to go out to do things at all.

Not only Kyoto, but also the new shogunate's areas were not in good shape, except for the ports of Osaka, Hyogo, and Yokohama, where the Chinese garrison was located, and Osaka Castle, the core of the shogunate.

In places like Sakurajima, Kanagawa, Nagoya, Edo, etc., various organizations were established. They all began to attack the local shogunate officials so that the local officials could not work properly, and the shogunate's decrees could not be passed in these places at all, and they all became anarchy.

Don't talk about those places. Even Osaka Prefecture, where the new shogun was stationed, had two assassinations of Katsukaishu in succession, and although both ended in failure, it greatly undermined the prestige of the shogunate.

This was true even in the few places directly under the shogunate. Not to mention the feudal lords in other places.

Since learning of the victory of the Choshu Domain, the feudal lords in various places have caused a turmoil, and many feudal lords have taken the initiative. Either they were forced to activate the members of the Shogunate, and they either openly announced their independence from the rule of the shogunate, or secretly obeyed the decrees of the shogunate, and in short, they no longer obeyed the decrees of the shogunate controlled by Katsu Kaishu.

In other words, apart from Osaka Castle, the new shogunate under Katsukaishu's command could no longer control any major city, and the shogunate's decrees were completely useless in Japan, because no place was willing to continue to obey the shogunate's orders.

In fact, if it weren't for the fact that the Emperor's Mansion in Kyoto was controlled by Chinese garrisons, and the Emperor's family had been jointly controlled by the Chinese and the Shogunate, the situation would have only been worse if the people of the Shogunate had been allowed to control the Emperor.

All in all, because of the defeat of the foreigners, the whole of Japan was boiling, and there was a great appearance of the whole country being excited and united. Although these groups have different names, they all carry the slogan of respecting the king, and then look for trouble from foreigners everywhere, just like the Boxer Movement in another time and space.

This kind of sparkling situation really frightened Sheng Haizhou, because he never expected that the Four-Nation Alliance would fail, let alone that the consequences of defeat would be so severe.

At present, most of the Japanese are still just staring at the chaos and have not yet had the time to think about the fall of the curtain, but if this kind of action is allowed to continue, the day of joint collapse will not be too far away.

The reason is very simple, the king is already the people's desire, if the new shogunate wants to comply with the people's will, then it must also follow the king, must be cut off with foreigners, including the Chinese, but if this is really the case, especially with the Chinese, then maybe the shogunate will not fall immediately, after all, the new general is originally a puppet, but he is afraid that he has no good life to live.

However, if they continue to maintain relations with foreigners, it will not be long before they will target the shogunate.

Both ends were difficult, and as a last resort, Sheng Haizhou could only find Li Hongzhang again and seek help from the Chinese.

Li Hongzhang was also tired of this matter, after all, he didn't know anything about the joint attack of the four countries on the Changzhou Domain in advance, and he was not stupid, and he soon knew that this was a trick played by Sheng Haizhou.

However, although he hated Sheng Haizhou for making decisions without authorization, he really couldn't ignore Sheng Haizhou. There is nothing else, just because Sheng Haizhou is the candidate he single-handedly supports, if he gives up, not to mention anything else, the country will definitely question his ability, which will inevitably have a far-reaching impact on his future promotion.

Moreover, even if he does not consider his future situation, for the sake of the interests of the Chinese, he cannot not think of a way.

You know, starting with the expeditionary force's attack on the Satsuma Domain, and then after so many things, most of the Japanese hated the Chinese to death, and if it were not for the strength of the Chinese, the Japanese were more afraid of the Chinese than resentful, and they would have attacked the Chinese like other foreigners.

That is to say, the current situation is also very unfavorable for the Chinese, so even if you want to help yourself, you must stabilize the victory boat. At the very least, the two important figures, the shogun and the emperor, must not be allowed to fall into the hands of the Shogun.

After comforting Sheng Haizhou and sending him away, Li Hongzhang decisively called China, and directly found the big boss behind him - Shen Shiming, Prime Minister of the State Council of the Chinese Empire.

Hearing what Li Hongzhang said, Shen Shiming was also quite angry, and first scolded Li Hongzhang for more than a minute, and then began to calm down and ask for countermeasures.

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, I think that this bell must be tied to the bell, and this situation is in this situation. In the final analysis, it was all because the Choshu Domain defeated the Shogunate's foreign mercenary army, and to put it bluntly, it was essentially the defeat of the Shogunate's crusading army. Therefore, if we want to calm the situation as much as possible, everything else is secondary, and the key is to send a large army to crusade against the Choshu domain again. ”

"Another crusade against the Choshu Domain?"

"Yes." Li Hongzhang said into the phone, "The Japanese admire the strong, and they won the battle against the foreigners this time. Only then did we become emboldened, and if we immediately sent troops, we would completely destroy the Choshu Domain, and it would be the most cruel kind of destruction. All that qiē will be covered up for the time being. ”

"You mean, this time we're going to go out on our own?" Shen Shiming asked.

"That's right." Li Hongzhang said, "Britain, France, the United States and the Netherlands are no longer able to fight, at least in a short period of time. When they redeployed their troops and attacked again, it was too late. At the very least, there will be a lot of losses, and we will lose the situation that we have worked so hard to build.

Therefore, we must send troops independently and destroy the Choshu Domain as quickly as possible, just as we would fight the Satsuma Domain.

In other words, we can't make the Japanese love us in a short time, and since we can't love them, we can only make them afraid of us!

As long as the Japanese find out that we Chinese are the objects they can never fight, that the imperial army will never be defeated, and that the Chinese Empire is still extremely strong, then they will be submissive again. ”

"So what do you want to do?" Shen Shiming said, "Let's say it first, no matter what you want to do, I won't send you any more troops." ”

"Huh? Why? Li Hongzhang was stunned, "Why don't you send troops over again?" Japan's current situation is precisely when it needs to use troops, and it must send at least one more army, no, troops from two armies to come, so as to ensure that nothing goes wrong. ”

"Two armies? You can really open your mouth. Shen Shiming said, "Listen, I won't give you a single soldier anymore, if you want to do something, just use the Japanese army that has been sent over, it's impossible to ask for more people, at most I will send you some new weapons." ”

"Prime Minister, why do you do this?" Li Hongzhang said, "Japan's current situation is like cooking oil on fire, and it must be suppressed with overwhelming force. ”

"I know, but not for now, because it's His Majesty's order." Shen Shiming said, "Your Majesty said, our Chinese Empire has just been established, and it can be said that it is in ruins, so we must first take internal affairs as the first priority."

You must also know that although our empire is unified, the people's livelihood is still withering, and there are still many warlords in various places, and those autonomous provinces do not have a fuel-efficient lamp, so although there are many troops in the country, they cannot be mobilized at will, and we must have enough strength to deter these guys. ”

"The lordship is also clear." Li Hongzhang said, "But there are so many imperial troops, just transfer 100,000 people, no, 50,000 people are fine." Anyway, Japan is also very rich here, as long as it is willing to let the foreign legions feed the war with war, except for the supply of ordnance, everything else is self-sufficient, it must be easy to do. ”

"Feeding war with war? You mean, give up the salary expenses of the regiments stationed abroad and let them find their own way to make money? ”

"Yes, sir." Li Hongzhang said, "Actually, there are people in Japan who have food and money, as long as the country provides weapons on time, and the salary can be paid, we can intercept a part of the shogunate's supply." ”

"This is absolutely impossible." Shen Shiming said, "I think you also know that His Majesty has a very strict grip on the army, and the policy of separating the military from the government must be strictly implemented. Therefore, whether at home or abroad, the military expenses of the officers and men of the armed forces must come from the central authorities, and the localities are resolutely not allowed to withhold them privately, and they will never be lenient if dereliction of duty or embezzlement is discovered.

You know, I can't control the Praetorian Guard, and as for the Ministry of Defense, it seems to be under my command, but my influence on them is really limited. To put it bluntly, the Ministry of Defense still gives priority to obeying His Majesty's orders. In other words, I can ask the Ministry of Defense to do other things, such as setting specific big goals, but I can't interfere at all in terms of military spending, which is all run independently.

Let's put it this way, whether it is the Praetorian Guard or the Wehrmacht, there are people from the CIA in it, plus the gendarmerie, which happens to be dark and bright. For His Majesty Xià firmly control the army.

These people are loyal to His Majesty, and they don't rub sand in their eyes, and as far as I know, they also have an internal reward and punishment system, once a corruption case is detected, as long as the evidence is conclusive, they will get a certain reward according to the size of their efforts.

These rewards not only allow them to be promoted, but also to make them rich. In other words, if a corrupt criminal is identified, then a part of the money that the embezzler has embezzled will be taken out as a reward. Reward to the whistleblower.

You can be promoted, you can make a fortune, and you can get a great reputation, such a good thing. Do you think those people will pass up the opportunity to report corruption?

Therefore, don't expect to withhold local goods privately, take what you deserve. Don't take what you shouldn't. Do your duty, Your Majesty and the empire will not forget you, if you do what you shouldn't do, no one can save you, understand? ”

"Uh......" Hearing the other party say this, Li Hongzhang always felt that he seemed to mean something, because Li Hongzhang had indeed intercepted a lot of things in his hands recently, including royal silver, jewelry and antiques, so in essence, he is actually a corrupt criminal now.

"Prime Minister, do you mean that I'm surrounded by spies?" Li Hongzhang asked cautiously.

"Hmph, don't pretend to be confused for me." Shen Shiming said, "You are the person I value, and I don't want anything to happen to you." Then, I won't go around in circles with you, and all the things you have recently collected should be handed over quickly, otherwise, after a long time, I won't be able to save you, and then not only will you be unlucky, but you may also have to affect your younger brother who is the head of the regiment. ”

"Huh?" Hearing Shen Shiming say this, Li Hongzhang completely understood, feeling that everything he did was being stared at, which made him suddenly break out in a cold sweat, and he felt that there was no credible person around him.

"You don't have to worry too much, I've put down your affairs for the time being." Shen Shiming continued, "After all, you are a diplomatic ambassador, of course you have to have a certain leeway in doing things, so although I have also been reported here about your gift-taking, I have reported it as normal and asked them not to arrest you for the time being."

But don't be lucky, they have records and backups of what you receive, if you don't hand it in on time, or if something is missing, I can tolerate you, the procuratorate can't tolerate you, I can't manage the procuratorate, understand? ”

"Yes, my lord, I understand the lowly position." Li Hongzhang immediately replied cautiously.

"Well, you're smart, so I won't say more." After Shen Shiming finished speaking, he continued, "By the way, where did you just go?" Oh yes, the issue of sending troops. Well, in short, I can't send troops to you right now, the reasons here are very complicated, there are internal and external, anyway, since you are responsible for Japan's problems, you have to be responsible to the end, if something goes wrong, I will look for you, not others, understand? ”

"Well, Prime Minister." Li Hongzhang said, "Even if we can't intercept the local wealth for military use, we can still loot Japan's wealth and hand it over to the country as before, so that the cost of sending troops should be no problem, right?" If nothing else, let's just say that we attacked Osaka and Edo before, and the amount of wealth looted, even if we send ten more troops, according to the treatment of overseas garrisons, it will not be more than ten or eight years, right? ”

"You know what, you think it's that simple to send troops abroad? Just have money? Shen Shiming said, "Of course, money is naturally very important, but we need to use money in more places now, and I can't use all the money in Japan."

Well, let's put it this way, His Majesty believes that the current situation in Japan is all a trivial matter, chaotic or not, it's all like that. As long as our country continues to be strong and Japan is so close to us, it will be resolved sooner or later, and there is no need to intervene prematurely.

In short, His Majesty's current mind is not on Japan, but on the Americas, and the current strength of the empire is all going all out to focus on the Americas, so if you want to continue to play in Japan, you can only rely on Japan to send troops, and there is no more.

If a Japanese dispatch is not enough, then you can come back first, anyway, Japan is there, we can't run, and when we are done with the affairs of the Americas, we can knead it however we want to turn back, understand? ”

"Yes. I see, Prime Minister. ”

After hanging up the phone, Li Hongzhang took a deep breath, realizing that in the future, he might really have to rely on himself and the Japanese army, and it was impossible to expect the country to send troops to support.

After thinking about it, Li Hongzhang felt that he still couldn't give up, or rather, in fact, they still had a lot to do in Japan.

Thinking of this, Li Hongzhang immediately found Liu Changyou, the commander of the Japanese Dispatch Army. Let's discuss the crusade against the Choshu Domain.

Liu Changyou's character is silent, and his name is Yinqu, which is actually from the Chu army in the former Qing Dynasty, and he was a good friend of Jiang Zhongyuan in his early years, and his performance in the suppression of the Taiping army was quite brilliant. Later, when the empire was unified, he originally continued to work under Hu Linyi, but when Hu Linyi took the initiative to cede power, Liu Changyou's troops were also incorporated into the National Defense Army.

Originally. After the incorporation, Liu Changyou had many choices, and he had to continue to serve in the army or become a magistrate.

According to the situation at the time. Since the integration refers to the reorganization after dispersal, the old subordinates are not used, and the military expenditure is independent, so continuing to serve as a soldier is actually inferior to being a magistrate in terms of oil and water.

But. Liu Changyou still chose to continue to be a soldier, and as a result, just like Chen Yucheng, he entered the national defense force.

According to regulations. All the national defense forces that have been recruited and appointed must conduct correspondence study, that is, there is no need to go to a military academy, and there will be a special person to teach you, so that you can learn the new tactics of the troops in the course of performing military affairs.

This kind of correspondence study is not to fool people, but there is an assessment every year, although for the officers who are recruited, if you fail to pass the assessment, you will not be demoted. War. Questions, but if you don't pass the assessment, it will undoubtedly get you stuck in other aspects, such as ordnance and the like.

That is to say, if you pass the assessment, if you have any good ordnance, you will be issued and dressed in order according to the results. The better the commander's performance, the more priority it is to get new equipment, otherwise, you will have to continue to wait.

The higher the assessment score, the better the equipment, and the stronger the combat effectiveness, and naturally, whatever combat tasks there are, they will also give priority to these troops, that is, it is easier to have battles to fight.

Only by fighting a war can we obtain military merits as quickly as possible, only by getting more military merits can we be promoted, and only by being promoted can we enjoy more treatment and achieve fame and fortune.

Therefore, the correspondence examination of officers within the army is also a very important examination, but after all, it has just been implemented, and not all officers attach importance to it, and there are also many officers who think that it is troublesome, or that the correspondence instructors who come to teach are too young, all kinds of despises, all kinds of contempt, and the instructors do not pass the assessment, and they rank low.

Obviously, Liu Changyou is not this kind of person, on the contrary, although he is not young, he is steady and studious, and he also attaches great importance to new military ideas, so he is quite outstanding in the assessment process.

In addition, Liu Changyou also had a lot of merits and reputation when he led troops before, he was very good at using soldiers, he once had a tie with Shi Dakai, and he had a good relationship with Feng Zicai and other former Qing officers, so he slowly fell into the eyes of Emperor Li Yongji, and transferred him to the training department of the Ministry of National Defense as a director, specifically responsible for the reorganization of the old army in the national defense force.

In other words, Li Yongji values Liu Changyou, not entirely because of historical figures in another time and space, nor his achievements, but most importantly, his character.

Because Liu Changyou seems to be modest, but in fact he is resolute, he may not be particularly outstanding in commanding specific battles, but he is very good at handling interpersonal relationships, and he is a handsome talent who can mobilize the forces of all sides to concentrate on doing great things.

Since Li Yongji attaches great importance to this Liu Changyou, this is in the eyes of His Majesty, so Shen Shiming also thinks highly of him, but after a period of back and forth, Shen Shiming also fell in love with this Liu Changyou, and the two soon became friends.

His Majesty and the Prime Minister both value it, and Liu Changyou is naturally more comfortable, and he has done a very good job, and the progress of the reorganized troops is quite good.

Originally, it was a very good errand to work at the Ministry of Defense in Nanjing, because his job was a bit like the former squire of the military department, and his power was not small, but since he heard that he was going to form a Japanese dispatch army, his mind immediately moved.

You must know that in the imperial army, except for the Janissaries, the establishment of the Wehrmacht has always been based on divisions, that is, a division is an independent large establishment, and there is no army-level establishment.

Therefore, the Japanese dispatch army, which can be said to be the first military-level unit in the national defense force, and it is still an overseas garrison, the situation is very different, and those sent must be elite.

Going overseas to fight, although it is hard, can gain fame and fortune, especially the fact that you will be famous in history, which is especially attractive to a scholar like Liu Changyou.

Therefore, Liu Changyou took the initiative to find Shen Shiming and asked himself to join the sequence of the Japanese dispatch army, even if he couldn't be a division commander, he would be willing to be a regiment commander.

In fact, Shen Shiming couldn't do such a big thing as the Japanese dispatch army, he had to report it to Li Yongji, who was far away in the Red Fort in Hollywood, that is to say, only if Li Yongji agreed, he would dare to give an order.

Li Yongji thought about it at the time, and felt that his main focus now was on the United States, and the things faced by the Japanese dispatch army were very complicated, and they had to operate independently, and they really needed a handsome person who could be civil and martial, in comparison, Liu Changyou was indeed a person with good loyalty and ability, so he agreed to let him join, and directly let him be the commander.

In this way, Shen Shiming, who received Li Yongji's instructions, turned around and issued an order to the Ministry of National Defense to appoint Liu Changyou as the commander of the Japanese Dispatch Army.

After becoming the commander of the army, Liu Changyou quickly formed a large army, because most of the people used were his former protégés, so the run-in speed was very fast, and he was quickly dispatched to Japan in less than ten days after it was formed.

After coming to Japan, he basically only took care of the affairs of his own army, and did not participate in other aspects, leaving it to Li Hongzhang himself. Since he doesn't fight for power, and he has known each other before, everyone gets along very well.

Now, since Li Hongzhang realized that he could not get domestic support, he could only go to Liu Changyou first and ask him whether he could quickly and easily defeat the Chōshū domain on the basis of guaranteeing that China's existing interests in Japan would not be harmed by the Japanese army's own strength.

If it had been before, Li Hongzhang would definitely not have doubted the strength of his army, but he was also taken aback by the matter of the Xiaguan Battle, you must know that in his mind, the combat power of the Four-Nation Alliance is also very strong, and it should not be much worse than his own Japanese army, so he is a little weak and not so sure about the fierce Choshu Domain.

No way, this is a matter of character and trade-offs, Li Hongzhang seemed to be strong and unreasonable in the past, but that is on the basis of understanding that he is stronger. Now, the other party has shown great strength, Li Hongzhang is not so sure, because he can't afford to lose, once he loses, the Chinese Empire may be nothing, but his future in the empire, I'm afraid it will stop here, which is even more uncomfortable for Li Hongzhang, who has a strong sense of fame and fortune, than killing him. (To be continued......)