On the way to Petropavlovsk, Muravyov received the news of the loss of the fortress of Miaojie at the mouth of Heilongjiang, and after learning that there were at least several thousand infantry troops in the combined Anglo-French fleet, Muravyov immediately ordered all the Russian troops defending Sakhalin Island and other parts of the Kamchatka Peninsula to withdraw to Petropavlovsk for defense.

Sakhalin Island is located in the eastern part of the Heilongjiang estuary, facing the Sea of Okhotsk to the east and north, the Tatar Strait and the Nevelskoy Strait to the west, and the Soya Strait to the south opposite the Soya Cape in Hokkaido, Japan. In April 1853, Tsar Nicholas I ordered the Russian-American company to immediately occupy Sakhalin and ordered Nevelskoy to establish a post on each side of the east and west coasts of Sakhalin. In August of the same year, Nevelskoy landed on the eastern shore of Sakhalin and established an outpost named after Muravyov, the governor of Eastern Siberia of Tsarist Russia. And openly declared that "Sakhalin belongs to Russia." Tsarist Russia raised the Russian flag at the northern tip of Sakhalin, declared possession of the place, and sent troops to attack Jiuchun Gudan. Tsarist Russia sent an envoy to Japan, Chachin, to discuss the ownership of Sakhalin Island, but the result was unsuccessful.

Three days after the Russians left Sakhalin, the Anglo-French Pacific forces landed on the island and occupied the occupied area that had previously belonged to Russia. After Tan Shaoguang came ashore, he ordered the expansion of the wharf and port, and many of the houses and facilities that the Russians had built on the island were occupied by the Taipings.

After Grant left a detachment of the Taiping army, he himself led most of the ships north to find the Russian fleet. Grant always felt that he had to destroy the Russian fleet before he could ensure the safety of his transport fleet and troop transport fleet. But he did not know that Muravyov had ordered all the Russian ships to retreat to the Petropavlovsk military port.

The southern part of Sakhalin Island, on the other hand, was considered its own territory by the Edo Shogunate of Japan and belonged to the Matsumae Domain. Tan Shaoguang was stationed on Sakhalin Island, and because of his insufficient troops at the moment, he did not go south for the time being. On the seventh day after landing, a group of Japanese came to see Tan Shaoguang.

Tan Shaoguang was very strange that the Japanese would send someone to come. You must know that although Japan claims that Sakhalin belongs to the Matsumae Domain, there are very few Japanese on the island.

In the original Russian army camp, Tan Shaoguang met the representative of the Japanese, the then Japanese Edo Shogunate's survey and commissioner, and the coastal defense hanging. There were no people in Tan Shaoguang's army who could speak Japanese, but fortunately, there were people who could speak Chinese in the entourage of Chuan Lu Shengmo, and after detailed conversations between the two sides, Tan Shaoguang understood the meaning of the Japanese.

Although the Japanese always believed that South Sakhalin belonged to Japan, in 1785, the Edo Shogunate sent five people, including Tetsugoro Yamaguchi, an official of the Ministry of Works, and his entourage to survey the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin Island in two ways, and came to the conclusion that "the northern part of Sakhalin Island belonged to the Qing Dynasty of China."

After the occupation of North Sakhalin by Russian troops last year. It has been constantly invading the southern part of Sakhalin and occupied the whole island at the end of last year. Subsequently, Russia sent an envoy to Japan to negotiate the ownership of Sakhalin, and the meaning was very clear, that is, to force Japan to recognize that Sakhalin Island belonged to Russia in its entirety.

At that time, Kawaji Seimo went to Nagasaki as a receptionist with Masanoshi Kani, Arao Nariyoshi, and Koga Massu, and negotiated with our envoy Ri Tingcha in accordance with the above policy. Kawaji's diplomatic skills are extremely skillful. As a result, it was decided to hold consultations on the border issues of the Kuril Islands and Sakhalin after an on-site investigation, and to give no definite answer to the question of port opening and trade. Only MFN clauses are permitted.

Russia then struggled with the Crimean War. He did not continue to persecute Japan, but Kawaji asked the shogunate to send him to Sakhalin in person. When Chuan Lu Shengmo and his party came to Sakhalin, they happened to encounter the retreat of the Russians. After asking, I learned that it was the British and French Taiping Heavenly Kingdom coalition forces calling.

Chuan Lu also heard that in southern China, an insurrectionary army had established a state called the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Chuan Lu and other Japanese actually always thought that this was just a flash in the pan, and the rebellion was no match for the powerful Qing Dynasty, but they did not expect to meet the Taiping army that joined forces with Britain and France at this time. Chuan Lu feared that after the Russians left, the Taiping army would invade South Sakhalin. So I came to make contact.

After listening to Chuan Lu's narration, Tan Shaoguang said with a faint smile: "Our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's northern expedition this time is mainly to attack the Russian old Maozi, and we won't ask about South Sakhalin Island for the time being, but North Sakhalin Island, which originally belonged to the Qing Demon Court, belongs to our Taiping Heavenly Kingdom at this moment." ”

This time I went north. Tan Shaoguang felt very strange what he saw and heard, not to mention the desolate Sakhalin Island, even the northeast of China, which is also very vast and sparsely populated. Like the huge Sakhalin Island, the Russians sent hundreds of men and built a few outposts to dare to declare the island to Russia. Seeing this scene, Tan Shaoguang couldn't help but move his mind to expand the territory for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

During his few days on Sakhalin Island, he discussed a strategy in detail with the generals of the General Staff Department and reported it to the Western King of Suzhou, and Tan Shaoguang and others agreed that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom could actually send thousands of troops and gather tens of thousands of displaced people to move to the northeast or Sakhalin Island. Tan Shaoguang and others felt that since the Russians could come thousands of miles away to occupy it, Weishenme Taiping Heavenly Kingdom couldn't?

Therefore, Tan Shaoguang did not say anything to death, nor did he admit that South Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands belonged to Japan, he just said that he would not care about it for the time being.

But Chuanlu Shengmo is also a good diplomat, and he also heard the ambiguity of Tan Shaoguang's words, and frowned at the moment. As the United States, France, Britain, Russia and other countries forced Japan to sign a series of unequal treaties, Kawaji and other young Edo shogunates began to wake up, and they began to feel that if Japan continued like this, Japan would be divided by the great powers sooner or later.

In February 1854, Commander Perry of the U.S. Fleet led U.S. warships to Uraga Harbor in view of the various advantages that the British had found in Japan. This time, there were seven warships, equipped with 1,200 cannons, and more than 1,000 sailors, to force the shogunate to negotiate. As a result, the Japan-US Treaty of Friendship was signed in March of the same year. During that negotiation, Kawaji also saw the warships of the great powers. At this time, he began to be surprised that the great powers would join forces with such a traitor as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and in Tan Shaoguang's barracks, Chuanlu saw many British and French naval officers who had come ashore, and they were actually very polite to Tan Shaoguang.

As a fellow Asian yellow race, Kawaji's heart was deeply stabbed, and South Sakhalin Island was occupied by the Russians. Although Japan was indignant, it did not have the courage to say that it would send troops to regain the lost territory. But at this moment, he saw that the Chinese had actually sent troops, and it was still the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which they had always regarded as just a peasant rebel army, and heard that the Taiping army had killed two or three thousand Russians in the first battle at the mouth of the Heilongjiang River.

This fact made Kawaro very surprised, the Yamato people are a very peculiar people, they revere the strong, and they came this time, Kawalu also has a purpose, that is, to see what kind of army the Taiping army is.

At this time, he heard the ambiguity in Tan Shaoguang's words, and couldn't help but worry. If the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had the support of Great Britain and France, and after the end of the war against Russia, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom forcibly occupied the island, what could Japan do?

When he walked into the barracks just now, Chuan Lu saw the strength of this army. The soldiers of the Taiping Army were all young men of seventeen or eighteen years old, and they were all tall, strong, and strong. Everyone was armed with muskets. That kind of military temperament made Chuan Lu admire, and he had a new understanding of the strength of the Taiping Army.

And Tan Shaoguang was not prepared for this contact with the Japanese, and when he came, the king of the west did not explain how to treat the Japanese, but he only took advantage of the situation and did not suffer losses and could not fall into the majesty of heaven, and put on a tough posture from the beginning, which made Chuan Lu feel even more afraid. But Chuan Lu didn't dare to say it clearly. can only temporarily agree with Tan Shaoguang's vague words, he does not dare to stimulate the other party.

Zuihou Chuanlu gave Tan Shaoguang the gifts he had brought, which were originally intended for the Russians on the island, but now turned into gifts for the Taiping army.

Tan Shaoguang did not shirk. Fifty smoothbore guns were presented to Chuanlu and his party, which was regarded as a return gift. These arms were captured from the Russians in the Battle of Temple Street, and the Taiping soldiers had rifled guns, and they could no longer use such guns, and most of the captured guns were taken to Sakhalin by Tan Shaoguang. However, if Xiao Yungui knew that Tan Shaoguang actually returned the gift to the Japanese, he would definitely scold him a lot, what is polite to the Japanese?

After receiving the excellent smoothbore gun in return, Kawaro was very happy and began to ask if there were any such guns that they could pay for. And Tan Shaoguang is worried about how to dispose of these arms, if you want to say that you lost it, it's a pity, if you want to say that it will be shipped back to Shanghai, it will be thousands of miles away, and these smoothbore guns will be slowly eliminated in the Taiping Army, and if they are shipped back, they may lose freight. Unexpectedly, Sichuan Lu intended to buy military arms, Tan Shaoguang was immediately overjoyed and talked with Sichuan Road about selling arms.

Japan also asked Britain and France to buy arms, but British and French arms were very expensive and limited in quantity (because most of them were bought by the Qing army and the Taiping army), so it was rare to encounter such a batch of arms at a medium price. Soon Tan Shaoguang and Chuan Lu negotiated a price, and the Taiping Army sold more than 1,200 captured smoothbore guns and other arms to Japan, and Chuan Lu promised to buy these arms for 103,000 taels of silver.

Tan Shaoguang was very happy, he finally disposed of this batch of arms, he didn't think about informing the British and French allies, in fact, it stands to reason that this batch of arms should be regarded as a joint capture of the coalition forces, but without Grant's knowledge, this batch of arms was sold by Tan Shaoguang. I don't know if Grant will be furious when he comes back. However, Tan Shaoguang didn't care, after he collected all the wine and liquor distributed to the soldiers of the Taiping Army, he sold it to the sailors of the British and French fleets, making a lot of money, which made Grant very unhappy, and he didn't care about this time.

The two sides did not reach any agreement, because neither side actually had any preparations for this contact, but Tan Shaoguang just disposed of the batch of smoothbore guns. But then Kawaji made up his mind that he must go back to report this matter to the shogunate as soon as possible, and send people to the territory of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to have a look, learning from others has always been a good habit of the Japanese, this time Kawaji felt that Japan should look for allies in Asia who could help his country, but he did not know that he went back to the Edo shogunate this time to present the "Sakhalin Kanxing Book" to vigorously advocate the search for allies, and this letter that brought decades of suffering to Japan later is also called "Kawaji" by historians. (To be continued......)