Note: First, the general political envoy is not a local official position, but a central official position, and it is wrong to make Li Lan the general political envoy of Jiangsu in the previous article, but now Gulonggang does not know how to change it, so he can only make mistakes wrong. Second, what I just found is that sea cudivostok is an ice-free port, and it will be corrected later.

************

Due to the original foundation, after more than two years of development, the strength of the Manchurian Naval Division under Yu Zhong has been further advanced than before.

First of all, in the past two years, Vladivostok has built three more "Haiwei"-class warships, plus his original one, the total number has reached four, in addition, there are nine Haiphong-class and nineteen Seawolf-class. However, these warships have become a big fruit that has made many people blush. Yu Zhong never thought that Lei Ru, the chief soldier of the Zhili Naval Division, and Lan Li, who was stubbornly fighting and stayed in the Fujian Naval Division, had long been thinking about his warships. One of the two has a bigger appetite than the other, Lei Ru said that he wants to defend the Beijing division and needs to strengthen the sea force, so he asked him for one sea guard, three sea defense, and five sea wolves; Lan Li directly doubled the price bar. Because they were afraid that Yu Zhong would not agree, while writing to Vladivostok to make friends, they also asked Kangxi for a boat separately. This is not counting, the actions of the two major sailors were naturally known by the people of the other two sailors, the Guangdong Navy, that is, the South China Sea Commander Shi Shiji, and the North Sea Commander Wan Zhengse, who was responsible for the sea surface from North Korea to the mouth of the Yangtze River. Kangxi was helpless and sent someone to ask Yu Zhong what he meant, and as a result, Yu Zhong wrote to Kangxi to tell him that the thirty or so ships were not enough for his own training, and only answered the four sailors with two words: Wait!

This answer naturally made the four bigwigs very unhappy, Kangxi couldn't make sense, so the four of them were led by Lan Li, and specially sent his cronies to Vladivostok to grind and soak in the middle, which annoyed Yu Zhong! However, it is naturally not these four troublesome guys that Yu Zhong has to face now......

In the main cabin of "Triton", Yu Zhongzhan put his hands behind his back, and under the dim flickering candlelight, he looked at a chart hanging on the bulkhead, and couldn't help but sigh a few more times.

It's been two years! Over the past two years, under his orders, the ships of the Manchurian Naval Division have crossed the Soya Strait between Sakhalin and Hokkaido more than once, but further northeast, so far they have just crossed the Kuril Islands, and although they have found a huge peninsula, they have not been able to reach Alaska. And that peninsula, according to what Mo Jing told him, could only be the Kamchatka Peninsula in the future, where there is still a Bering Sea between it and Alaska. And if you want to cross the Bering Sea to Alaska, it is best to find the Aleutian Islands located in the southern part of the Bering Sea......

"Alaska!" Yu Zhong stretched out his hand and took a few clicks on the chart that only described the "Kamchatka Peninsula" that has no name yet, and there are many places that are just blanks, and secretly hated, "This group of dead old hairy people has walked down tens of thousands of miles, and they actually dried Lao Tzu in the end." …… Why haven't they found their way to Alaska yet? (Alaska was discovered by the Danish Russian explorer Vitus Bering, around 1740, the fifth year of Qianlong, and died of septicaemia shortly after his discovery.) ）

Closing his eyes, Yu Zhong recalled what Mo Jing had told him about the wealth of Alaska. Oil, natural gas, copper, zinc, jade, etc., especially gold, Mo Jing had seen a news before, saying that a mining company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in Canada can mine hundreds of thousands of ounces of gold in Alaska every year...... Oh gold! Mo Jing knew where in Alaska there was gold, and it was easy to mine, so it could be said that as long as he found a place, he would not worry about the Qing court not taking that land in his hands. And as long as you get to Alaska, do you need to talk about anything else? California's gold seems to be more famous, right? They all know where San Francisco is, even Mader.

"Military Gate!"

Yu Zhong was sleeping in the pile of gold, and a call pulled his attention back.

"Hmmm! …… What's up? With a straight expression, Yu Zhong turned around and asked the pro-soldier.

"Gunmon, I'm about to arrive at Ishikari Port!" The soldier replied with a wink, and at first glance he was a little uncomfortable when he moved from the dark environment outside to the bright main cabin.

"Got it. Tell everyone to get ready to land, and in addition, inform the generals of the ships and let them all come to the flagship! Yu Zhong said.

"Wow!" The soldier bowed in answer and turned to go out.

……

********

"The last general has seen the military gate!"

Murcha, Yu Zhong's "main family," took his turn this year to lead 5,000 officers and men of the Vladivostok Division to garrison the Ishikari port in Hokkaido, a port that can now dock more than 50 large ships.

"No need to be polite!" Yu Zhong picked up Murcha, turned to another person who bowed to him, and said with a smile: "Lord Matsumae, I haven't seen you for more than a year, but you are fat!" ”

"Your Excellency the General has praised it! …… It is a great honour to have you here. Tsunesuke Matsumae folded his hands together, hung them down in front of his body, and bowed to Yu Zhong.

"You're welcome." Yu Zhong took two steps forward, reached out and patted Tsunesuke Matsumae's shoulder, and said with a smile: "Matsumae-sama will not come to Ishikari Port this time, I'm afraid it won't be a special trip to meet me, right?" ”

"Hay!" Tsunesuke Matsumae raised his head and looked at the more than thirty warships docked on the dock with only a faint silhouette, his eyes couldn't help but show a sense of envy, and then he turned to Yu Zhong and said: "It is true that some troubles have been caused, but although these troubles are very difficult problems for the contemptible people, the arrival of you, General, has made these problems disappear." ”

"Oh? Am I so good? Hahaha...... Matsumae-sama, you're really good at laughing. Yu Zhong laughed twice and took the lead towards the port. Tsunesuke Matsumae bowed down and followed him, while generals such as Murcha and Yue Zhongqi fell behind.

……

"Your Excellency the Shogun, the shogunate has sent an envoy again. ......" Arriving at the conference hall, Tsunesuke Matsumae said to Yu Zhong again.

"Envoy? Who is it? Yu Zhong asked casually.

"Yes...... Shogunate Elder Middle, Your Excellency Tadashi Sakai! Tsunesuke Matsumae replied with a slight slurp. As the head of a small domain, even if he was a little stiffer at the end of the two years, he was in charge of government affairs in the shogunate, and at the same time supervised the old middle school of the daimyo in various places, he still felt that he was a little shorter in his heart, which was different from Yanagisawa Yoshiho's side employer, not to mention, this Sakai Tadashi did not come alone.

"Tadashi Sakai? Isn't he leading troops? Why did you get promoted again? Yu Zhong asked in some surprise. According to what he knew, Sakai Tadashiyo was the former Shogunate Elder, a position that was nominally the supreme consul of the Shogunate, and was only below the shogun, but most of them were honorary positions. Moreover, this Sakai Tadashi was so corrupt that even Tokugawa Tsunayoshi couldn't stand it, and finally ordered him to be abolished. Unexpectedly, this time this guy actually came to a salted fish and turned over, not only was he able to lead the troops to attack, but also got the "old middle", which was actually the position of the shogunate's prime minister.

"I don't know. That's what the shogunate document I received. ......," Tsunesuke Matsumae whispered.

"Sakai Tadashi, old middle...... The person sent this time has a status compared to the side employer, it seems that he wants to come and meet me, but it's just ...... Matsumae-sama, how did the shogunate know I was coming? Yu Zhong suddenly turned his head to look at Tsunesuke Matsumae.

"Your Excellency General, please forgive me, this is not a secret I leaked!" Matsumae Hengsuke was swept away by Yu Zhong's eyes, only to feel a chill in his heart, and hurriedly turned around and kowtowed to Yu Zhong and said: "That's all because Yanagisawa Yoshiho who came last time was too cunning, and he used deception to find out the news from Aomori's mouth that Your Excellency the General is coming." ”

"I see! …… Hehe, it's not a big deal, Matsumae-sama doesn't have to be nervous! Yu Zhong smiled, stretched out his hand to help Matsumae Hengsuke, and asked, "Is this 'Aomori' you are talking about the kid who was arrested by me in the first place?" ”

"Yes, yes!" Matsumae Tsunesuke kowtowed, and then continued: "Matsumae Aomori offended His Excellency the General before, and now he has carelessly leaked secrets, and I have already punished him, so please also ask His Excellency the General to ......"

“…… Hehe, little things. Does Matsumae-sama think I'm the kind of person who is stingy? Yu Zhong said with a smile.

"No, no, no, of course I didn't mean that. It's just Matsumae Aomori that he ...... "Matsumae Tsunesuke wanted to say something more to show his loyalty, but Yu Zhong waved his hand to stop him and said to him: "Anyway, sooner or later, the shogunate will know that I have arrived in Hokkaido." Moreover, I was thinking about meeting the shogunate for a while, and it was nothing if I leaked secrets or not. Matsumae-sama, don't blame anyone! ”

"General, you are so magnanimous!" Tsunesuke Matsumae kowtowed again, and then straightened up again.

"I want to meet the envoy of the shogunate in two days, so I'll get ready for Matsumae-samae, and tell that Sakai Tadashi by the way!" Yu Zhong said again.

"Hay, I'll go!" Matsumae Hengsuke responded, got up and bowed to Yu Zhong and the generals present, and then left.

……

"These Japanese are such a nuisance! Aren't they tired? After Tsunesuke Matsumae walked out of the council hall, Yu Zhong's generals began to speak, but without exception, they all spoke first to complain about the red tape of the Japanese.

"Hehe, these people are like this, and I didn't ask you to learn the same, what do you have to complain about?" Yu Zhong said with a smile.

"Yes. You haven't seen this Matsumae Tsunesuke look like in front of his men and those ordinary people, that's what is called powerful, he is a soil emperor at all! Let one side wait, the emperor of the soil here will salute you, are you still not satisfied? Murcha smiled and said to the grumbling generals.

"General Mu, you're used to it. We are not the same, and when I see these Japanese people bending over and over, I feel panicked! Turha laughed.

"Junmen, are we really going to war with the shogunate this time?" Not like the other generals who were indiscriminate, Yue Zhongqi asked with a straight face towards Yu Zhong.

"I don't know! It depends! Yu Zhong touched the beard on his chin and shook his head in reply.

"Junmen, since this Hokkaido is ours, we can't let others take it away. Since Tsunesuke Matsumae has been enlightened and accepted the official position of our Great Qing Kingdom, he is a member of our Great Qing Kingdom. If any shogunate in Japan dares to come hard, we'll fuck it. …… Are you still afraid of what's wrong with him? Lubuyi shouted.

"Less yelling! What justice do you have? I don't know your mind yet? Don't you just want to make some military achievements? Yu Zhong glared at these soldiers angrily, but his heart was much more solid. …… Originally, he used various means to get the Matsumae Domain under his own hands, and actually controlled Hokkaido in his own hands, although these things can be said to be very beautiful, but in the end, they do not seem to be in line with the current "morality", so he has always been afraid that this matter will be criticized by these generals in the army and some ministers in the DPRK. The truth is unexpected, though. The Tokugawa shogunate made the biggest mistake by not including Hokkaido in its territory and calling it "Ezo". Under the efforts of Old Man Fei and Yu Zhong, and under the telling of Matsumae Tsunesuke's son Matsumae Heinobu, the ministers of the Qing court actually felt that it was not a big deal to take in a small "tribe" that was once a vassal of Japan, but wanted to be vassal to themselves, with a population of only 10,000 people, and let Yu Zhong pass this hurdle without much thought. After Hokkaido's whales, white foxes, whooper swans, red-crowned cranes, rabbits, brown bears, sea eagles, and seals were sent to Beijing, the ministers seemed to recognize the fact that Hokkaido was their own territory, especially when they ate whale meat. …… Not to mention the soldiers. It is already very common for the Qing court's army, especially the border army, to take the initiative to provoke and beat people in order to get some military achievements, not to mention that now he is just making a "small island"? Besides, the court is silent, what else do those generals say? What's more, Hokkaido can also provide them with a lot of extra income every year, for example: a whale can be sold for tens of thousands of taels of silver...... And now, these soldiers have no reason to let go of Hokkaido, the Qing court has the most important military merits, and if there is a battle, it is faster to be promoted.

……

"Junmen, there are a lot of people in Japan, what if we fight their real fire and let them gather hundreds of thousands of troops?" Yue Zhongqi is more cautious, although he also hopes to fight, but he is not so hot that he is too lazy to think.

"If he really fights, no matter how many troops he has, it won't be a problem for us! Closing the country should not be a long-term solution for any country, especially Japan! …… A country surrounded by the sea without coastal defense is very pitiful and dangerous. Yu Zhong said.

……

**********

"I am the country of the rising sun, the envoy of His Excellency Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, the great general of the Emperor, the shogunate, Sakai Tadashi!"

Yu Zhong had planned to meet the shogunate envoy again after a while, but this Sakai Tadashi, who was now wearing a Japanese kimono and was accompanied by two guards wearing that kind of horn armor, wanted to see him, and Matsumae Hengsuke did not dare to make up his mind, and ran from Fukuyama Castle to Ishikari Port to ask Yu Zhong non-stop. Yu Zhong thought about it, and led his men to Fushan City.

"The Land of the Rising Sun? What a big breath! How do you know that the sun rises from you? Aren't you afraid that the sun will roast you all dry when it comes up? Yu Zhong sat in the center of the conference hall and asked with some amusement when he heard the interpreter relay Sakai Tadakiyo's self-sake. And his words also caused ridicule from the Manchurian naval generals who were sitting face-to-face with Sakai Tadashi.

"Your Excellency, I am here to negotiate with you on the orders of our shogun, not to listen to your teasing." Sakai Tadashi didn't respond to Yu Zhong's words, but just said with a straight face.

"Negotiate with me? …… Are you not mistaken? Yu Zhongxiao asked.

"What do you mean by that, Your Excellency?" Hearing the contempt in Yu Zhong's words, Sakai Tadashi asked angrily.

"The meaning of what I mean by this is very simple, that is, you don't have enough weight to negotiate with me!" Yu Zhong said.

"Your Excellency!" Sakai Tadashi stood up angrily and said loudly to Yu Zhong: "I am the old shogunate, equivalent to the Shangshu of your country, why am I not qualified to negotiate with you?" ”

"Shangshu? Haha......" Yu Zhong laughed.

"Your Excellency, please don't insult a samurai!" The horned armor general beside Sakai Tadashi also stood up and said to Yu Zhong with a gloomy face.

"Insults? Have I insulted you? Although Yu Zhong waved his hand to stop a few generals who wanted to make a move, he was still laughing.

"Your Excellency. Our 50,000-strong army has been assembled in the Tsugaru Domain, and if you don't want to talk about it, we're leaving! Sakai Tadashi said with a pair of triangular eyes.

"Fifty thousand troops? It turned out to be confident...... Alright then, let's talk! Yu Zhong grinned and pointed to the seat cushion, asking Sakai Tadashi to kneel down again.

……

"Your Excellency, we are here to tell you that Ezo belongs to our country of Japan, so you must return it to us. However, Tsunesuke Matsumae, and all the members of the Matsumae family, although they are guilty of treason, for the sake of your Excellency, we can not prosecute them, and if you wish, they can follow you away. "Forced" Yu Zhong had to give up his unreasonable attitude and agree to negotiate instead, and Sakai Tadashi's eyes had a slight smug streamer. Regarding the "Ezo Rebellion" incident, the officials of the shogunate actually had two attitudes, and they were still divided into the main and the main faction. The leader of the main battle faction is him, the former elder, and the current elder, Ii Naoxing and others. They believed that the Qing Kingdom was far away from Japan, and this time it was an active provocation, so as the shogunate that ruled the country, it must not give in. This would cause the prestige of the shogunate to decline, and it would be very likely that the daimyo in various regions who were already dissatisfied with the shogunate would have the same thoughts as the Matsumae domain. The main and faction were led by the side workers Yanagisawa Yoshiho and Makino Narisada and the Confucian scholars Kinoshita Shunan and Takao Fuzhu. These people believed that the Qing Kingdom was vast and a hundred times more powerful than Japan, especially that the Qing Kingdom could enter Japan through Korea, so it was absolutely impossible to anger such a huge neighbor for the sake of a razed land, and this negotiation only required the Qing State to order the Matsumae Domain to return or stop recruiting the people and samurai of the southern feudal clans, and as for the Ezo land, since it was a "razed land", there was no need to worry too much. As for the threat posed to Japan by the Qing Kingdom's acquisition of Ezo, there is even less reason for this. Because if the Qing really wanted to attack Japan, it could completely start from Korea...... Although the dispute between the two factions was very strong, and no one could convince anyone, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, who had always been willful and trusted Yoshiho Yanagisawa and others very much, leaned towards the main battle faction this time. The reason is also very clear, in addition to the reasons of the main battle faction, as the supreme ruler of Japan, Tokugawa Tsunayoshi is also extremely reluctant to be shaved by a small Matsumae domain, especially for another reason, if the Qing country can be allowed to make concessions this time, not only can the prestige of the shogun be greatly enhanced, but also directly control the Ezo land, and relieve the pressure on the shogunate by immigrating there, which is very conducive to stabilizing the situation in the whole country.

"Ezo? Where is Ezo? Seeing Sakai Tadashi's appearance, Murcha interjected in confusion and asked.

"Ezo is the land that your country calls 'Hokkaido.'" Sakai Tadashi pointed to the ground and said.

"Hokkaido? Old man, what are you talking nonsense? How could Ezo be Hokkaido? Will the land of our Daqing Dynasty be 'razed land'? Lubuyi shouted.

"This land is not your Qing country, it belongs to our Japanese country!" A horned armor general beside Tadashi Sakai shouted.

"Your Excellency, it doesn't seem to be the attitude of the Etiquette Gang, right?" Sakai Tadashi waved his hand to stop his subordinates from continuing to quarrel with Lu Buyi, just staring at Yu Zhong and asked.

"Well, that's right, you're right, you're right......" Yu Zhong responded with a smile, and then pretended to reprimand Lu Buyi and the others: "Shut up for me, why are they all like shrews?" Come up with a little bit of the bearing of a great country! Otherwise, when I go back, I will let others know about it, and I will think that we are bullying people. ”

“…… Excellency! "Bullying? Hearing Yu Zhong's words, the three people on the Japanese side stood up again, and Sakai Tadashi asked Yu Zhong in a deep voice: "Your Excellency, you and your subordinates have been entertaining us, are you...... Are you really going to declare war on us? ”

"Hit it, you're afraid you're a bad old man?" Lu Buyi also stood up and shouted.

"Your Excellency, I am waiting for your reply!" Sakai Tadashi opened his two triangular eyes wide, and tried to suppress the anger in his chest and said to Yu Zhong.

"Hehe, don't be angry!" Yu Zhong didn't seem to see the angry faces of the three of Sakai, and he still looked like he was smiling, "Actually, there is no need for us to fight with your country at all!" ”

"Not at war?" It seems that this guy from the Qing Kingdom is not willing to fight, otherwise, as a general of a big empire, he would not need to be so "weak" at all. Sakai Tadashi's heart moved, and he couldn't help but raise his head slightly, throwing a wisp of disdain in his heart, and then asked, "Since you don't plan to fight, why do you insult us again and again?" Still avoiding talking about the return of Ezo? ”

"Hehe, you're mistaken, Lord Sakai! The reason why I say that there is no need for us to go to war is because there is no question of belonging in Hokkaido. ...... here," Yu Zhong smiled and pointed to the ground, "It's first-come, first-served!" ”

"We Japanese got here first!" A bull-horned armor general shouted urgently.

"Wrong! The first to arrive here are our Qing people! Yue Zhongqi said leisurely.

"You talk nonsense! Before you arrived, we had already established a feudal domain in Japan. The horned armor general shouted.

"I'm not talking nonsense! Matsumae Domain...... It is the people of our Qing Dynasty. Yue Zhongqi smiled.

"You...... You're arguing! Matsumae Domain is rebellious! The horned armor general said angrily.

"We're reasoning!" Murcha chuckled twice, took out a map from his body and unfolded it towards Sakai Tadashiyo and the others, pointing and saying, "This is a map of your country!" If Hokkaido is yours, why don't you put it in it? ”

"Just because we don't put it on the map doesn't mean that Ezo isn't our land." Sakai Tadashi said in a deep voice.

"You're just making a statement!" Lu Buyi suddenly screamed and said, "If you don't mark it on the map, how do we know that it is your land?" When we take it, you say it's your territory? How can there be such a cheap thing in this world? …… If that's the case, then if I say that I forgot to include Honshu Island in my map, can I ask you to go back to Honshu? ”

"yes, that's right, that's the truth!" Yu Zhong nodded in satisfaction.

"Your Excellency, we already understand what you mean. However, I still want to ask you, how can you be willing to return Ezo to our country? Sakai Tadashi took a deep breath and asked again.

"It's easy to return! We have a saying there: Money can make a ghost grind......" Yu Zhong smiled.

“…… How much do you need? Closing his eyes, Sakai asked.

"That's the number!" Yu Zhong stretched out three fingers.

"Three million?" Tadashi Sakai shouted.

"Haha, it's worthy of being the shogunate's elder, and sure enough, I've seen the world, I thought you'd guess 300,000!" Yu Zhong said with a smile.

"I'm very sorry, but our shogunate can't come up with three million taels of silver!" Now Yanagisawa Yoshiho and his gang have nothing to say, right? I've tried my best, and I don't want to insist on going to war, it's just that these Qing people have too much appetite. Sakai Tadashi said to himself secretly.

"Three million taels of silver? Haha, I thought you understood, Lord Sakai! It turns out that you still don't understand, the three million taels I am talking about are not silver, but ...... Gold! Yu Zhong said leisurely.

"Gold?" Although Sakai Tadashi has made up his mind not to pay, he is still angry with Yu Zhong's "sky-high price". Even if the price of gold in Japan is cheap, 3 million taels of gold is equivalent to more than 10 million taels of silver. The shogunate was in financial difficulties now, and even the daimyo could not pay all their money, so where could they afford to pay so much money for a piece of Ezo?

……

"Your Excellency's conditions, we need to go back and ask our general for instructions, and take our leave!"

Yu Zhong didn't need to say anything more, and after Sakai Tadashi and the three of them put down this sentence that didn't contain much anger, they bowed to everyone present again, and left with a full of anger. As soon as the three of them left, Lu Buyi asked him anxiously: "Junmen, is what you just said true?" Three million taels of gold? If it comes to us, it's 35,600,000,000 taels of silver! ”

"What? Are you too much? Yu Zhong asked rhetorically.

"No, no, no, I didn't mean that......" Lu Buyi said with a wave of his hand.

"Junmen, they have 50,000 people, do we want to pull the army from Ishikari Port?" Murcha asked again.

"No way!" Yu Zhong replied.

"Junmen, if we don't pull our army over, Tsunesuke Matsumae won't be able to stop it for a long time. Although he has a lot of strength on the surface, more than 1,000 of the 2,500 warriors have been dragged to Vladivostok by us to serve as servants, and those ordinary civilians have only been here for such a short time, and they will not really listen to him. Murcha added.

"I didn't say send the whole army. Still, some of them are okay. …… Also, you can bring me some of those Korean warships from Ishikari Port! As for the other large warships, they were not allowed to show up. Yu Zhong said.

"Junmen, what do you mean by that?" Yue Zhongqi asked.

"Hehe, fishing has to catch whales, war,...... Naturally, he will beat his whole family! Yu Zhong said with a smile.