Chapter 417: The Ambition of the Shimazu Family (Third update, please subscribe)
When Shang Dun left the royal city and came to the Magistrate's Hall, he saw that the usually domineering Japanese were now being forced to kneel on the side of the road, with a pile of corpses next to dozens of captives.
The road was full of alert Nanhua soldiers, wearing blue uniforms, holding Western rifles, and watching the surroundings vigilantly. After Shang Dun revealed his identity, he was led into the Fengxing Hall and sat in the main hall of the Fengxing Hall.
Facing the visiting Shang Dun, Li Fengzhi directly questioned him.
"Follow... Is this your attitude towards serving the Celestial Empire? One country, two subjects?"
Faced with the accusations, Shang Dun said helplessly.
"General, the Ryukyu Kingdom is poor and weak, and is separated from the Celestial Empire by an ocean. Facing the invasion of the Japanese, it is powerless to resist."
Then Shang Dun looked grateful again.
"With the help of the Nanhua army today, Ryukyu was able to get rid of the Japanese control. It is really a blessing for Ryukyu. The people of Ryukyu will definitely be grateful to Nanhua..."
Faced with the flattery of a country's regent, Li Fengzhi just smiled indifferently and then said.
"Don't be so quick to express your gratitude. Since you can have two territories under one country, then from now on, Ryukyu will be a vassal of Nanhua!"
"ah!"
Shang Dun opened his eyes wide in surprise.
"What? General, this, this..."
"You don't want to?"
Li Fengzhi leaned forward slightly and said seriously.
"Why? Ryukyu only wants to belong to the Japanese, but not to China!"
Shang Dun, who originally thought that he could take advantage of the conflict between Nanhua and the Japanese to drive the Japanese out of Ryukyu, was suddenly dumbfounded. He had never expected this would be the result. Faced with such a heart-piercing question, he was speechless for a moment and could only mutter.
"This, this, the Ryukyu Kingdom is weak, and the Japanese are tyrannical. If the Japanese ask for punishment, what should we do?"
"Don't bother with that!"
Li Fengzhi stood up and said.
"We will go to Japan to ask for punishment!"
Go to Japan to hold it accountable!
Shang Dun couldn't believe what he heard. He even looked in the direction of Naha, and seemed to be muttering in his heart - how dare they go to Japan to demand punishment with just one warship!
But it’s just Japan!
…
Japan also has dignity!
After the Nanhua Navy "attacked" the Magistrate's Office, the "Tatsuwa Maru" in Naha Port immediately left Naha and reported the "Shuri Incident" to the authorities after returning to Nagasaki. In the face of the "atrocities" of "the Nanhua warships brazenly seized the Magistrate's Office and killed many Japanese".
The Satsuma Domain, which had regarded itself as the "overlord of Ryukyu" for many years, reacted extremely strongly. Shimazu Hisamitsu, the lord of Satsuma Domain, immediately summoned Saigo Moritaka, who had just returned to Satsuma from Tokyo. After telling him everything, Shimazu Hisamitsu asked.
"Saigo, in your opinion, what should we do now? Should we wait for the court's decision, or handle this matter ourselves?"
Facing the lord's question, Saigo remained silent. As the first meritorious official in the fall of the shogunate, after achieving success, he thought that his fame and status were higher than those of the Shimazu family, the lord of Satsuma, and that this would damage the reputation of a "loyal official". So he resigned a month ago and returned to Satsuma to serve as a political advisor. However, he never expected that he would encounter this troublesome matter just after taking office as a political advisor.
"Nanhua... its national strength doesn't seem to be weak either!"
Saigo pondered.
"My lord, before I left Tokyo, I learned from Westerners that South China had conquered the capital of Argentina. So, they have destroyed two countries in South America! South China is very powerful, far beyond your and my imagination."
Unlike the Qing Dynasty, which opened its doors to live its own life, signed treaties with whoever came, and made friends with China by measuring its resources, Japan began to pay attention to the situation in various countries around the world from the day it opened its doors, trying to understand this somewhat strange world. Although there was no definite intelligence due to limitations in communication and other reasons, they still obtained a lot of intelligence related to South China through captains from European and American countries.
In fact, they were not unfamiliar with Nanhua. In the past few years, Nanhua's merchant ships and training ships had sailed into Nagasaki Port many times. Every year, tens of thousands of Japanese women took Nanhua ships to Nanhua to work as maids, and many unemployed ronin and samurai went to Nanhua for a living.
Japan is not unfamiliar with Nanhua, but what is unfamiliar is its national strength!
"Although Nanhua is strong, we cannot go too far. Ryukyu has been a vassal of Satsuma for nearly 260 years. If we sit back and watch Ryukyu be occupied by outsiders, how can we face the feudal lords of all generations?"
Once upon a time, Shimazu Hisamitsu was a man who advocated "expelling the barbarians". However, after being taught a lesson by the British in the "Anglo-Salvatore War" eight years ago, he immediately changed his position. He believed that "expelling the barbarians" that relied on the use of force had no future, so he took the initiative to cooperate with the British in a series of economic and military fields, becoming a pioneer in the theory of "opening up the country".
Shimazu, which has established factories, built warships and cultivated talents over the years and believes that it has become quite powerful, pointed to the map and said.
"Although Nanhua is strong, its navy is quite weak. Otherwise, they would not send only one warship to the East every year. This time they only have one warship in Naha. Although the tonnage is quite impressive, our Satsuma Navy has several warships. If we send a fleet to Naha, perhaps we will have a chance to force the Nanhua warships to retreat! Saigo, Ryukyu, has been my Satsuma territory for hundreds of years, and we must recover it!"
Of course, for Shimazu, there is another unknown idea why he wants to send a fleet to Ryukyu, which is to use this crisis to preserve the navy. Now the imperial court in Tokyo has established a navy, and they have been eyeing the warships of various feudal domains, and soon they will ask for warships from various places under various excuses.
If a crisis occurred in Ryukyu, the Satsuma clan could naturally use this as an excuse to refuse to hand over the warships to the imperial court.
Of course, if he could force the Nanhua warships to retreat, then his Satsuma clan would surely become famous and admired by all parties. After all, Nanhua... they were also foreigners.
Facing the lord's long sigh, Saigo Moritaka was silent for a while. He certainly knew what the lord was thinking. In fact, he himself was extremely dissatisfied with the imperial court's confiscation of the warships and even the soldiers of the various domains.
Staring at Nanhua on the map, far away on the other side of the Pacific Ocean, Saigo Moritaka thought for a while, and then said.
"Even if we send troops, our goal is not to go to war with Nanhua, but to force it to withdraw from Ryukyu. Therefore, we must not go to war with it unless it is absolutely necessary. After all, although Nanhua is far away, even if it can conquer two countries in the West, such strength is beyond our imagination. Once a war is started, I am afraid there will be endless troubles!"
In response to Saigo Moritaka's warning, Shimazu Hisamitsu nodded repeatedly.
"You are right. This time we are sending troops to retake Ryukyu, not to start a war with South China. South China can occupy a foreign country with Asians and destroy a foreign country, so their national strength must be quite good! However, that's all. After all, the South American countries are just small and weak countries!"
When facing the unfamiliar opponent Nanhua, Shimazu Hisamitsu was quite confident. He was no longer the same person as before the Anglo-Salvatore War. At that time, he had only a superficial understanding of the West, but now it was different. He had a very deep understanding of the West. Who was strong in the West? It was Europe! The so-called United States, which was just a second-rate country in Europe. As for the South American countries... their national strength was not worth mentioning at all. Even their former suzerain, Spain, was also weak.
"The fact that Nanhua was able to annihilate two countries is nothing more than the monkey becoming king when there is no tiger in the mountain."
(End of this chapter)
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