In 1874, the situation in East Asia underwent a subtle change, when Fuso invaded Ganghwa Island in Korea, Japanese ships destroyed forts, landed and slaughtered Korean soldiers and civilians, forced Korea to conclude the "Ganghwa Treaty", and seized a series of aggressive rights and interests.

The Tang Empire knew about this from beginning to end, and also acquiesced in the invasion of the Korean Peninsula by the forces of the Fusang State, and there was a reason for this......

Originally at this stage of history

Fuso entered the period of the "Meiji Restoration", began to industrialize while learning from the West in an all-round way, and actively expanded its colonies abroad, invading Taiwan Island in 1874, creating the "Peony Society Incident".

In the same year, Fuso invaded the Ryukyu Kingdom on a large scale, coercing King Shotai to stop paying tribute to the Qing court and instead pay tribute to Fuso in preparation for the annexation of the Ryukyu Islands.

Now history has changed

After the Fuso Civil War, the samurai regime (shogunate) retreated into the background, and the first Fuso Cabinet government was formed in the modern sense with the reformists who respected the king. The domestic situation in Fuso has greatly improved, and it has been several years since then.

Although there are many internal contradictions, Fuso still started the historical process of learning from Datang and Europe and the United States, and promoted many innovative measures, which have produced positive significance.

On the one hand, it has alleviated the domestic contradictions in Fuso, developed the economy and boosted the confidence of industrial and commercial people, and on the other hand, it has been widely supported by the people, and the economic development has entered the fast lane.

Fuso soon discovered the bottleneck of development;

The three elements of developing industrialization are the market, raw materials and capital, and the last one can be solved through loans, but the first two cannot be avoided in any way.

However, Fuso is an island country with scarce resources, and in the case of Amami Oshima in the south, the Ryukyu Kingdom is a vassal of the Tang Empire, and the mainland and Taiwan Island are of the same origin as the suzerain, basically locking the road to the south of colonial development.

Look around

Only the Korean Peninsula has abundant coal and iron resources and a large population, which is suitable for colonial development.

If the Korean Peninsula can be colonized, then the development of industrial shortage of coal and iron resources can be solved, and the rich supply of gold, silver, tungsten, lead, aluminum and other important minerals can also be obtained, which solves the shortcomings of industrial development.

With the availability of mineral resources and the existence of the market, the process of industrialization will inevitably be greatly accelerated, and this is the inevitable result of the development of the interests of Fuso.

If Fuso is forced not to colonize the Korean Peninsula in the north, it will certainly not dare to disobey, but it will inevitably resent, leaving a deep estrangement that will be difficult to bridge.

Emperor Richard of the Tang Empire pondered again and again, and finally decided to adopt a tacit attitude and not obstruct the strategic direction of Fusang's colonial development to the north, which was in line with the current imperial interests.

Today, in the north of East Asia, Tsarist Russia's policy of "looking east" has become very obvious and has achieved rich returns, which further stimulated Tsarist Russia's colonial expansion ambitions.

In just over 20 years, Tsarist Russia has seized as much as 1.54 million square kilometers of land from the Qing Empire without spending a single soldier and threatening war.

During this period

Tsarist Russia successively sent troops to Central Asia, overthrowing the Kokand Khanate, the Bukhara Khanate, and the Khiva Khanate, and gaining nearly 4 million square kilometers of land in one fell swoop, of which Kazakhstan (Kokand Khanate) alone has more than 2.7 million square kilometers.

Coupled with the nearly 260,000 square kilometers (part of Xinjiang) occupied by Tsarist Russia's invasion of Yin Li, a total of 5.8 million square kilometers before and after, what a vast territory is this?

The successive successes of the "Look East" policy greatly stimulated the territorial ambitions of Tsarist Russia, and they ambitiously formulated the "Yellow Russia Plan" for a full-scale invasion of Xinjiang and the occupation of the Manchurian and Mongolian regions, including the three eastern provinces, in an attempt to gain a warm outlet to the sea in East Asia.

The goal has been set, that is, "Dalian", the capital of Yellow Russia in the East.

In the face of the heavy pressure of Tsarist Russia's eastward invasion, the British felt it, and the Tang Dynasty naturally felt it, and both sides involuntarily put the hope of containing Tsarist Russia's power on Fusang.

Neither Britain nor Tang was willing to spend heavy troops in East Asia and Tsarist Russia, which was an arduous task that consumed national strength.

The confrontation with the Tsarist Empire was not one war or two wars, but a strategic confrontation that lasted for tens or hundreds of years, requiring hundreds of thousands of soldiers for a long time.

Even with the strong strength of Britain and Tang, they can't bear it.

Under such strategic needs, the strength of Fuso cannot be excessively weakened, and there must even be some policy support, such as financial loans, industry, trade, and other fields.

Fusang was put on fire like this, and they had to face the heavy military pressure of Tsarist Russia moving south, were they stupid?

Not really

Unlike the world's leading powers such as the British and Tang Dynasty, Fusang's influence spread all over the world, and colonizing East Asia was not a core interest and was not of great importance.

If you can't stand it, you can retreat, or you can bargain with Tsarist Russia, divide their spheres of influence, and choose a lot.

Since ancient times, there is no choice in Fusang Mountain.

If we want the country to develop and renovate, if we want to get rid of the current situation of weakness and poverty, and lead the people to the road of prosperity and strength, we must colonize the Korean Peninsula and have no other way.

So why can't we develop the economy through hard work based on our own conditions?

The current state of international politics in the second half of the 19th century was such that how could colonial expansion (looting and plunder) come quickly with a little accumulation?

The rapid rise of the Tang Empire in North America and the rise in the world is the most vivid example, and its history of colonial expansion is the history of plunder, the history of cruel oppression, and every page is stained with the blood and tears of the colonized.

If it weren't for the large-scale colonization of North American whites, Indians, Mexicans, South American Incas and Mapuche Indians, wantonly plundering wealth and land, enslaving local natives, and occupying resource-rich mines and fertile pastures, where would the Tang Empire come from today?

Develop step by step, accumulate wealth, and get the Year of the Monkey?

In the 19th century, the international situation prevailed in the naked law of the jungle. Britain, France, Tang, Russia, Germany, and other first-class powers that control the world order and the right to speak have all pursued a policy of large-scale colonial expansion and spared no effort to expand in an all-round way.

How did the Victorian glory of the British Empire come about?

When Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837, the British Empire had an area of 21,015,000 square kilometers and a population of about 96 million.

At its peak in 1874, the British Empire had an area of 31,226,000 square kilometers (note; it did not reach the maximum of 34,870,000 square kilometers) and had a population of about 330 million.

In other words, in the 37 years since the reign of Queen Victoria, the territory of the British Empire has increased by 10 million square kilometers and its population has increased by nearly 235 million, thus achieving the great miracle of the "empire on which the sun never sets".

At the same time as the colonial expansion of the Tang Empire, none of the world powers were idle, they were all in a frenzied colonial expansion, and they were staking everywhere in the world.

The world's leading powers have all done this, so it is not surprising that Fuso will naturally follow suit.

When Fuso invaded the Korean Peninsula in the north, it would inevitably have an irreconcilable and sharp contradiction with the Qing court, the suzerainty of Korea, which was also helpless.

Today's Manchu court is a dou who can't be supported, and there are only one or two mainstays like Zuo Zongtang left to support the façade, but in fact, the inside has long been rotten.

History has long proved that with the weak combat effectiveness of the Qing army, it is simply impossible to stop Tsarist Russia from moving south.

Fuso or Tsarist Russia, the lesser of two evils.

It is a complete fantasy to think that Fuso would not invade the Korean Peninsula and the Manchurian and Mongolian regions, and these places would be able to escape.

Now

There were already many white immigrants from Tsarist Russia in the three eastern provinces, and their ambitions to move south in a big way have not been extinguished, but the conditions are not met.

The Trans-Siberian Railway is still on the blues, and the long ice field of 10,000 kilometers from Moscow to Vladivostok is a huge geographical obstacle that will be difficult to overcome.

Trapped in this, Tsarist Russia was unable to mobilize a large amount of manpower and material resources into the Outer Northeast, and the development of the region has lagged behind for a long time, unable to support the logistics of the army.

It is precisely because of this that Tsarist Russia tried to break through from Xinjiang, gradually encroach on large areas of land in the northwest, and realize the ultimate dream of "Yellow Russia".

It didn't take long for Zuo Zongtang to lead the army to recover Xinjiang, completely cutting off the strategic planning route of Tsarist Russia's invasion from the northwest.

It was with the support of the fanatical ideal of southern invasion that Tsarist Russia, after repeated deliberations, mobilized the strength of the whole country to build the Trans-Siberian Railway and extend its tentacles to the warm east.

Otherwise, why spend a lot of money on the Trans-Siberian Railway?

In order to develop those small towns in the ice wilderness?

The general trend of history is mighty, and there must be a cause and an effect.

In the Tang Emperor Richard's clear international vision, he would rather temporarily let Fusang gain power than let Tsarist Russia succeed.

When did you ever spit out a large piece of land that Tsarist Russia had swallowed?

If the Tang Empire intervened without authorization, which led to a change in history, and the weak Qing government signed a treaty to cede a large area of Manchurian and Mongolian land again, then he would be a sinner of the Chinese nation.

Emperor Richard had already understood that the Qing court could not hold the Manchurian and Mongolian regions at all, and there must be a history of fall, either Russian occupation or Japanese occupation, unless the Tang Empire directly sent troops to occupy the Manchu and Mongolian regions.

But to do so is to direct all the firepower to yourself.

Tsarist Russia is dissatisfied, Fusang is dissatisfied, the Qing court is dissatisfied, and the British, French, German, Italian, and Austrian powers are all dissatisfied, which is equivalent to the Tang Empire placing itself on the opposite side of the whole world, what is the suffering?

Isn't that crazy?

Just think about it, what a terrible prospect for a powerful empire with a population of hundreds of millions in North America to join forces with 350 million compatriots of the same origin on the East Asian continent to have people and money?

This will certainly subvert the entire world order, the era when Europeans dominated the world, all existing international patterns, and everything.

The result was inevitably that all countries in the world formed a coalition, including the Qing court, to jointly crusade against the Tang Empire.

That will be the first world war in human history, and the Tang Empire will independently deal with the mass brawls of countries around the world......

The Tang Empire has not made many moves in East Asia because there is a strategic red line in it.

This is a strategic red line that the British and French powers are highly concerned about, that is, the Tang Empire must not touch East Asia, which is beyond the limit of what can be tolerated.

(This chapter is a response to those readers who have been hoping to get rid of it, many readers are indeed enthusiastic, but really pitiful, this book has written more than two million words, and it can't be blocked, right?) There is another chapter in the evening, which is in the codeword. ）