Katsu Kaishu was in the prime of life, and he was a resolute man, and since he had made a decision, he immediately asked his deputy to pretend to be him, and with the assistance of Sakamoto Ryoma, he continued to control the army of Nagoya, while he himself disguised himself and took only two retinues, one man and three horses, and rushed to Osaka Castle overnight.

The reason why this is the case is very simple, no one else can do this except him.

After a day and a night of continuous travel, he finally arrived at Osaka Castle, and after that, Katsu Haizhou immediately asked to meet Li Hongzhang despite his exhaustion.

For Sheng Haizhou, Li Hongzhang was very impressed, and when he heard that it was this guy who asked to meet, he immediately arranged to meet, and when he saw the other party, he was immediately startled.

Because the other party was covered in dust at this time, his eyes were red, and he looked like he had gone through the wind and dust, and he was very wolf, but the other party was also an important minister, and it was said that he was the commander of the Japanese army who conquered the Changzhou Domain, how could he become like this.

Faced with Li Hongzhang's question, Sheng Haizhou didn't talk nonsense, and immediately told his intention.

Katsu Haishu first started with the order to abandon their original itinerary and attack Osaka Prefecture instead, and then he knew that there had been a 100-day coup d'état in Edo, and the shogun had become a puppet, and now he was the minister of the Shoyi faction who held real power.

"When the hell did this happen?" When Li Hongzhang heard this, he also knew that the matter was serious, so he frowned and asked, "Why didn't I hear the wind at all?" ”

"Master Lee." Katsu Haizhou said, "This matter came very suddenly, from the earliest time I received the chaos order, to the time I heard that something had happened to the shogunate, it has only been seven days now.

As far as I know, the coup d'état was quite secretive, and on the surface it was another unsuccessful assassination, which was quickly put down, but in reality, all the guards around the general were made up of the Shoyi. Then they also put the shogun under house arrest and blackmailed the shogun and a group of bigwigs, and used the shogunate to give orders.

In other words, these people did not overthrow the shogunate, but quietly used the shogunate, so except for a very few people, they did not know that the shogunate had been occupied by thieves, nor did they know that the shogun was involuntarily, and thought it was the same as before. ”

"Well, you mean. There is a group of rebellious ministers and thieves who have invaded the general's palace, and then put your generals under house arrest, and then occupy the magpie's nest, and the general who has been under house arrest gives orders to the outside? ”

"That's right, that's pretty much it."

"It's ridiculous." Li Hongzhang shook his head, "Your dignified general's mansion must be heavily guarded, how can it be occupied by a group of chaotic ministers and thieves, and your generals and other important ministers have been placed under house arrest." Or give orders according to this? It's simply ...... Even if they put your general under house arrest, won't outsiders find out what's wrong? ”

"Adults don't know." Sheng Haizhou sighed, "Our general's health has always been poor, and he doesn't show his head often. And this time the thief was able to succeed, also because of his high status. ”

"A high-status internal response?"

"Yes." Sheng Haizhou nodded, "This person is Sanjo Minomi!" ”

Next, Sheng Haizhou briefly told him what he knew.

Originally. Tokugawa Ieshige was infected with a cold some time ago and was sick in bed, and Minoru Sanjo came to visit him as the emperor's envoy.

This Sanjo Minoru is very familiar with the general. I used to come and go, so the general didn't suspect him, who knew that this thing was actually bold, and when he visited the general, he suddenly accused General Tokugawa Ieshige and Prince Wawa Palace (Tokugawa Ieshige's wife), and then summoned Tokugawa Yoshiki and other important ministers respectively, and separately charged him.

After that, in order to hide people's eyes, he asked his peripheral subordinates to launch an assassination, mobilized the shogunate's guards, and then under the pretext of the assassination incident, he carried out a purge in a grand manner, replacing the general's cronies and guards with the people he brought, and then quietly mastered the shogunate.

"It's still a little hard to believe." Li Hongzhang shook his head, "And if it's really as secret as you say, how do you know?" ”

"That's because I have eyes and ears in the shogunate." Katsu Haizhou said, "I know the general's personality very well, and it is absolutely impossible to give me an order to attack Osaka, so I sent someone back to inquire about the situation.

Sure enough, on the third day, I received a secret report with a brief explanation of the ins and outs of the incident, and I learned that the general had been placed under house arrest. Well, my people are on an errand in the shogunate, and there is absolutely no mistake in the information. ”

"Oh, that's right." Li Hongzhang nodded, "But it's really incredible, are your shogunate guards really that vulnerable?" ”

"My lord, don't I understand enough?" Sheng Haizhou smiled bitterly, "Our shogunate doesn't have many guards, and the people who did it were premeditated. They first controlled the general internally, then carried out assassinations outside, took the opportunity to eliminate dissidents, and finally made it look like an assassination failed, and then used the general to give orders.

Of course, this matter is obviously not something that a few low-level samurai can do, but a lot of people do it together, they are obviously a big force, and it is very likely that even the imperial court is involved. In this case, they join forces inside and outside, at least for a short time, and can absolutely deceive outsiders. ”

"Oh, that's right. So, your generals were really accused of being accused, and then they forced your generals to issue an order to bring your troops to war with us, hoping to provoke a full-scale conflict, isn't that so? ”

"Yes." Katsukai Boat Road.

"You're in such a hurry to come here just to explain this to me?" Li Hongzhang said, "Do you want to sue me, in fact, you have no ill will towards us, and the orders to go to war with us are all false orders?" ”

"That's right." Sheng Haizhou nodded.

"Then I'm weird." Li Hongzhang said, "Since you already know the truth about this matter, just publish the truth, and then others will naturally not listen to their chaotic fate." ”

"It's not that simple." Sheng Haizhou shook his head, "I have no evidence for the general's accusation, and I am weak, if I make this matter public, no one will believe me, or not many people will care."

When the time comes, they will be in control of the central righteousness, and they can change me as the commander at any time, and then replace them with new people, and continue to obey their orders to wage war with you, once that happens. Your and our armies are going to really meet each other, and it's too late. ”

"That's right." Li Hongzhang smiled and nodded, "But let me see, they asked you to bring troops to Osaka to fight us, I'm afraid it's not just to provoke a Sino-Japanese war, I think it's more in the hope of killing people with a knife and getting rid of you with our hands, right?" ”

"It's not impossible." Katsukai Boat Road.

"Okay, I see." Li Hongzhang said, "What are you rushing over for?" It can't just be to inform me about this, right? If you just sue me, your shogunate has changed the sky. Why did you come in person? ”

"Your Excellency is really smart." Katsu Haishu said, "I naturally came here for other purposes, but before I do that, I would like to ask your lordship, why did you delay moving when you said that you were going to leave Osaka as soon as possible and attack the Choshu Domain?" Is it really like the outside world said, you are going to go back on your word and don't plan to hand over Osaka? ”

"How so. How can we go back on our word. Li Hongzhang shook his head and said, "Do you think I don't want to leave here early?" It's really ...... Hey, it's hard to say, forget it. Don't say it, don't say it. ”

Seeing Li Hongzhang like this, Sheng Haizhou was silent on the surface, but he was quite disdainful in his heart.

There is no other reason. In his mind, he really thinks that the Chinese want to rely on the debt, and want to stay in Osaka.

As everyone knows. The expeditionary force had no intention of staying in Osaka at all, after all, they could only stay in Japan until August at most, when they would have to leave for Los Angeles and then take part in the invasion of Mexico.

It's already July, which means that there is less than a month left for them to be in Japan.

In addition, there is another thing that they don't know, the reason why the expeditionary force has stayed in Osaka Castle and has not left is purely the result of Li Hongzhang's forcible suppression, otherwise, with the belligerent minds of the officers and men of the expeditionary force, they would have sent troops to the Changzhou Domain and robbed them on a large scale.

So, if that's the case, why do they stay in Osaka all the time? Although there are many reasons, such as wanting foreigners to do it first, but that is not the main thing, the real reason is actually very simple, it is a weather problem.

In fact, as early as a few days ago, that is, before Ali Guo came to question Li Hongzhang, the expeditionary force wanted to leave Osaka and go alone to attack the Choshu Domain.

Although the British and Americans did not do it at that time, Tang Hailong at that time confirmed that his family had limited time, and there was still a month to be in Japan at most, and he had no time to continue to play the trick of letting others do it first and easily occupying it himself.

Although Li Hongzhang is a special commissioner of the central government, and there is Shen Shiming behind him, this army has the final say, and it is Tang Hailong and Shi Dakai who have the final say, that is to say, Li Hongzhang seems to be coaxing in front of outsiders, but his real power is not great.

Originally, everyone was going to get on the boat and drive out, but at this time, Li Hongzhang received a piece of information, that is, a strong wind was blowing in the Xiaguan area, and many houses along the coast were damaged, which was not conducive to navigation.

It was this information that completely dispelled Tang Hailong and Shi Dakai's thoughts, and continued to stay in Osaka City honestly.

Just kidding, they encountered a hurricane when they attacked the Satsuma Domain, although they avoided it in time and did not cause much damage, but the situation at that time was also shocking, so they were careful about the hurricane in Japan, and they took it for granted that there was another hurricane near Shimonoseki.

In fact, the wind gust in Shimonoseki was much less powerful than the hurricane that the task force encountered in the Satsuma Domain.

In Kyushu, Japan, in July, it is normal for the coastal areas to occasionally blow strong winds, but as for the disaster, it is only some simple wooden houses along the coast that have been affected, and they all come and go in a hurry, so if you are a long-term resident of the neighborhood, it will not be strange.

However, the news was delivered by CIA operatives, most of whom had been sent in recent years as businessmen and had limited knowledge of the situation on the ground. In addition, after the task force encountered a hurricane in Satsuma, it paid special attention to Li Hongzhang, and asked Li Hongzhang to notify the intelligence officers near Shimonoseki to pay attention to the local weather conditions and report anything wrong immediately.

Those intelligence officers were also careful, and reported the local weather conditions on time every day through the radio equipment to facilitate the task force's reasonable arrangements.

Now, they dutifully reported that there had been frequent windy weather in the local area recently, but the result was that Tang Hailong and others misunderstood, thinking that there was an epidemic of hurricanes in the local area, so they no longer dared to shout for anything to level the Changzhou Domain.

Even, Tang Hailong also discussed with them, feeling that the coastal areas of Japan were too evil. Especially in the summer, so I persuaded them not to care about the Choshu Domain, just stay in Osaka Prefecture honestly, and wait until August, and after the handover with the follow-up colonial army sent by China, they will leave directly.

Anyway, Osaka Prefecture is also quite prosperous, not to mention the 10 million taels of filial piety silver, just collecting local taxes is also very rich, no worse than looting the Choshu Domain.

This is also true, because after the expeditionary force occupied Osaka Prefecture. Not only did the local city defense and security fall under the control of the expeditionary force, but even the taxes went into the pockets of the expeditionary force.

Osaka Prefecture's taxes mainly include commercial tax, agricultural tax and poll tax, of which the commercial tax is collected every month, the agricultural tax is collected according to the season, and it is collected four times a year, namely the spring tax, the summer tax, the autumn tax and the winter tax, and the poll tax is collected once a year.

Although the tax is collected in this way. However, after the Osaka Prefecture collects the tax, it has to pay it to Edo Castle, but this payment is not paid every month, but twice a year, usually in spring and autumn. Naturally, it is to reduce losses and reduce transportation costs.

When the expeditionary force made a surprise attack on Osaka, Osaka Prefecture had already paid a spring tax to the shogunate, but it had accumulated for so long. There was still a lot of money in the treasury, and the accumulation exceeded 500,000 taels of silver. Although this money is not comparable to the military expenses of Osaka merchants of 10 million taels, it is still a lot of money.

After taking Osaka. In fact, Shi Dakai's people were still very restrained, and there was no disturbance to the people, nor did they extort tyranny, but what they never expected was that Shi Dakai and they wanted to play with strict military discipline, but the wealthy businessmen in Osaka didn't think so, especially after they were extorted 10 million taels of silver, they actually took the initiative to give advice to Li Hongzhang Shi Dakai and others, helping them to loot the small and medium-sized businessmen and ordinary people in Osaka Prefecture.

Their solution was simple: to take advantage of the Chinese occupation of Osaka and collect taxes in advance.

How is it a way to do it in advance? In other words, all people in the vicinity of Osaka Prefecture have to pay taxes for three years in advance, including poll tax, agricultural tax, and commercial tax.

In terms of how to collect taxes, there is no need to bother the expeditionary force, the twelve wealthy merchants in Osaka are all covered, and the expeditionary force does not need to do anything, it just needs to keep the status quo.

In other words, the expeditionary force did not need to send troops to collect money from house to house, they only needed to continue to send troops to guard the city gates and send patrols to maintain law and order in the city as before, and nothing else was needed, all handled by the twelve wealthy merchants.

In this way, after the expeditionary force agreed, these wealthy merchants sent their own thugs to carry out the orders of Kawamura Shuzo in Osaka Town, and began to collect taxes from house to house.

In just a few days, they gave the expeditionary force five million taels of silver, and the actual income was far more than that. According to Li Hongzhang's personal prediction, the money actually collected by those wealthy businessmen may have already exceeded 10 million taels.

This looting action to pay taxes in advance made the people of Osaka Prefecture complain, but the shape shì is stronger than people, and now Osaka Prefecture is occupied by Chinese, the strongest is Chinese, followed by those wealthy merchants, ordinary people are powerless to resist.

The people of Osaka did not dare to trouble the Chinese, nor did they believe that the Chinese were the ghosts, so they spread their grievances on the heads of the wealthy merchants and the shogunate.

The reason is simple: the orders of the wealthy merchants to collect taxes were all carried out by the towns of Osaka, and nominally, this was the money collected by the shogunate from the people, not from the expeditionary force.

During the whole process, the expeditionary force did not participate at all, and they collected money secretly, ostensibly having nothing to do with it.

Although the expeditionary force occupied Osaka, for security reasons, they only occupied some strategic points, did not send many people to the town, did not interfere in the daily life of the people of Osaka, and even the usual security and other things, the town commissioner was still in charge of management.

In other words, the main force of the expeditionary force actually lived outside the castle and trained in the barracks every day, and except for some necessary patrols who would wander the main streets of Osaka Prefecture, the people of Osaka did not feel that life was any different from before.

Because of this, the people of Osaka Castle were nervous at first, and even felt that after the Chinese came, their lives were better, because no one collected taxes from them, no one went to extort, and even petty theft on the streets stopped.

But now, the town commissioner suddenly cooperated with the thugs of the wealthy merchants to collect taxes. The use of the original bureaucratic system, the banner is also the shogunate, and they are required to pay taxes for three years at a time, how can this not make people angry?

The people of Osaka were also very easy to fool, and when they heard the tax collector say that it was money from the shogunate, they really believed it, and really thought it was an order from the shogunate.

I can't help but believe it, because it's still the original tax collector, or the old rules, it's just that the amount of taxes collected is a little larger. Nothing else has changed at all, and with the fact that these tax collectors have opened their mouths and closed their mouths about the shogunate's orders, how can the common people know whether it is true or false.

In fact, for example, Osaka has long been controlled by wealthy merchants, and in the past, tax collection and other aspects were also done by wealthy merchants, and this relationship is an interdependent relationship. That is, the head of the administration was an airborne cadre appointed by the shogunate, but a minor official below. But they all listened to the words of Osaka's wealthy businessmen.

In the past, because of the pressure of the shogunate officials and the military deterrence of the shogunate, they could only act on orders. Don't dare to mess around, now that the shogunate's forces have been expelled, the Chinese have become the bosses, and the Chinese will not be stationed for a long time at first glance. Instead, they wanted to make a fortune and leave, so they became emboldened and decided to take advantage of this political vacuum.

Other words. They don't need the Chinese to do it, they just need the Chinese to acquiesce, don't hinder them from making money, when the time comes, part of the money they receive will be handed over to the Chinese, and they themselves will keep the other part, as for the black cauldron, it will naturally be lost to the shogunate.

Anyway, after the money was collected, whether it was given to the shogunate or not, the people did not know, and even if the shogunate found out afterwards, there was nothing they could do about it, because they could say that the money was taken by the Chinese, unless the people of the shogunate dared to ask the Chinese, otherwise it was foolproof.

It can be seen from this that the Osaka businessmen at this time did not have the slightest sense of statehood, and they always put their interests first, as long as they could make money, even if they cooperated with the invaders, even if they oppressed their own compatriots, there was no pressure.

The most terrible thing is that after tasting the sweetness, the wealthy merchants in Osaka actually ate the marrow and knew the taste, and they tried to do other tricks, for example, when they heard that the shogunate was going to conquer the Choshu Domain, they pondered to make a rebellion donation, and the object of collection was no longer those who had no money to take, but those small merchants with small assets.

This action to collect money is being carried out, and if the expeditionary force leaves at this time, the people of the shogunate will inevitably send people over as soon as possible, and then this trick will not be able to be played, and if it can't be played, how will the expeditionary force get rich?

If they were still a little psychologically burdened at the beginning, then they would be at ease when they knew that these Japanese people were targeting their resentment at the shogunate.

Just by collecting taxes, you can get five million taels, and when you collect the donations, you may be able to get at least one or two million!

With so much money, Osaka Prefecture can get it so quickly, if you leave Osaka in a hurry and go to the Choshu Domain, even if you beat all the Choshu Domain, can you receive so much money and say it?

Don't you see, when I fought the Satsuma Domain, I looted the treasury of the main castle of Kagoshima, and the mess added up to more than 50,000 taels. Although the castle town was burned, there is no way to count how much money the castle town can receive, but looking at their poor appearance, it is estimated that it is impossible to receive a huge sum of one million taels.

After all, Osaka Prefecture is Japan's money bag, and if you stay here for one more day, you will have more oil and water, so why should you leave early?

In fact, Katsu Haizhou has also heard of these things, after all, there are many secret agents of the shogunate in Osaka Prefecture, and the secret agents of the shogunate will also send him a piece of information, so he knows that Osaka Prefecture collects money under the guise of the shogunate.

It's just that Sheng Haizhou didn't know that this was actually done by the Osaka merchants themselves, and thought that it was done by the Chinese.

Although he was very dissatisfied with Li Hongzhang's cozy attitude, he was stronger than people, so Sheng Haizhou immediately said: "Since adults have unspeakable hardships, then I won't ask." However, I also ask my lord to keep his promise and give up Osaka as soon as possible, otherwise, if the shogunate continues to force me to lead troops to recover Osaka, then a fight between you and me will be inevitable. When the time comes, the situation will fall into chaos when the swords and soldiers are together, which is also what adults don't want to see, right? ”

"Even if I give up Osaka, will you not be in chaos?" Li Hongzhang smiled, "Moreover, even if I give up Osaka, you can guarantee that those rebels will not attack us?" Joke, big joke!

Hmph, if you want me to say, since your generals are all under house arrest, you don't want to rush to rescue and counter the rebellion, why did you come to Osaka? Do you think I would dare to hand over Osaka to you in this situation? Or rather, why should I give it to you? ”

"Your Excellency." Sheng Haizhou bowed deeply, "To this day, I don't hide anything. Didn't you ask me why I came in person? It's very simple, I came to borrow troops from adults. ”

"Borrowed soldiers?" Li Hongzhang was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly realized, "Do you want to borrow my soldiers and horses to help you quell the rebellion?" ”

"Yes." Katsu Haishu said, "I have 5,000 soldiers and horses in the Owari Domain, and I can basically control it, but with such a few soldiers and horses, I will never be able to return to Edo Castle to quell the rebellion." Therefore, I hope that with the help of the soldiers and horses of the adults, you and I can join forces and fight into Edo before the other party can react, exterminate the rebels, and rescue the general. ”

"If we were to send troops, it would be easy to exterminate the rebels." Li Hongzhang said, "But have you thought about it, what should you do if your general is unfortunately killed during this period?" ”

"A general is a general." Sheng Haizhou said calmly, "As long as you can quell the rebellion...... There are still a lot of people in the Tokugawa family. ”

"Oh?" Hearing Sheng Haizhou say this, Li Hongzhang instantly squinted, looked at Sheng Haizhou, and nodded, indicating that he understood.

yes, it's so obvious, don't you understand? This victory sea boat is clearly to be captured.

As long as he succeeds in quelling the rebellion, it will be a great achievement, if the shogun is alive, the power will also fall into the hands of Katsu Haizhou, and if the shogun dies, then find a person from the Tokugawa family to go up as a puppet, and the power is still in the hands of Katsu Haizhou.

"Hahahaha." Li Hongzhang suddenly laughed, "Okay, good, Shenghaizhou?" There are guts, I like it. Well, since you've said so, then of course I'm going to be an adult. However, you have to think clearly, if you want to borrow our soldiers, it will come at a price. ”

"I know." Sheng Haizhou said lightly, "What are the conditions, you just have to mention it, it's still early, we can talk slowly." (To be continued......)