The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 351: Xianfeng, your Qing Dynasty is so strong that it is numb! (Please subscribe and vote)
Late February of the fourth year of Emperor Xianfeng’s reign in the Qing Dynasty.

Yu Garden, Shanghai.

Ronglu and Weng Tonghe, who had been hanging around Shanghai for nearly two months, finally met Marshal Luo Xueyan, who had just returned from Japan, in these vibrant and prosperous days, living up to the expectations of Emperor Xianfeng, who had inexplicably expanded the territory.

Luo Xueyan's mission lasted almost two months. The reason why it took so long was because the Tokugawa shogunate was not very experienced in selling out the country. Britain, France and Qing had already prepared treaties for them that would cede territory and pay compensation, and humiliate the country. They just had to sign them.

After signing, Japan will be able to leap from a feudal and autocratic country to a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country!
This was such a blessing, but the Tokugawa shogunate's elders and the lords of the Yuma clan were unwilling to accept it. All seven forts outside Shinagawa Port were captured, and the cities and towns around Shinagawa Port were burned to ashes. After the Four-Nation Alliance landed at Shinagawa Port, it was still struggling. They also used the peace talks as a cover to dispatch troops and launched a series of counterattacks against the Allied Forces camp in Shinagawa Port.

Trying to save face and give up less interests through military victory.

Fortunately, Luo Xueyan had a clear understanding of the stubbornness of the Japanese devils. After the Allied Forces landed at Shinagawa Port, he immediately ordered the landing troops to back to the harbor and build simple bastions relying on the waterways of Shinagawa to guard against sneak attacks by the Japanese army. He also ordered people to transport more than a dozen twelve-pound cannons originally installed on warships ashore, set them up on the bastions, and aim at the Edo castle town that had not yet been burned down.

In addition, at the same time as the Allied Forces landed, he issued an order to the Governor-General's Office in Shanghai to dispatch a regiment of reinforcements, increasing the number of Allied Forces landing in Japan to as many as 4,000. He also hired 1,500 laborers from the Ryukyu Kingdom to build and reinforce the bastion of Shinagawa, showing his intention to fight a protracted war outside the Tokugawa Shogunate's hometown.

Seeing that the Four-Nation Alliance, especially the Qing army, was ready to take root at the doorstep of the Tokugawa shogunate, Abe Masahiro, Tokugawa Nariaki and others finally lost their temper and, in panic, they continued to kill several waves. The last time, they even organized an army of more than 10,000 people to attack the simple bastion of Shinagawa. As a result, under the joint attack of the enemy's land and sea firepower, they suffered heavy losses, and thousands of corpses lay in front of the Shinagawa bastion.

After this battle, the elders of the Tokugawa shogunate finally realized that if this state of fighting and negotiating continued, it would only further weaken the prestige and military power of the shogunate. Although there was a serious surplus of samurai in Japan at that time, the number was at least hundreds of thousands, and perhaps even millions. However, most of them were "corporals" in name only, and they were not even samurai strictly speaking. There were only more than 20,000 samurai who were directly under the Tokugawa shogunate. Even if the retainers of these samurai were counted as retainers of retainers, there were only more than 100,000 people at most.

Among them, the number of strong men who could actually go to the battlefield would not exceed 50,000, and most of them had to be stationed in various places, and most of them had official duties to take care of, so it was impossible for them to be concentrated in Edo to fight. This group of people were more like civil servants of the shogunate than professional soldiers, so the mobile forces that the shogunate could mobilize were very limited.

As for summoning ronin or corporals from various feudal domains who had no family salary to eat to go into battle, it also involved the expansion of the shogunate's direct counselors - to recruit them to join the battlefield to fight against the Qing, France, Britain, and the United States, they would have to be given a direct counselor position and a family salary, right?

This direct advisor to the shogunate is not a position that can be called upon and dismissed at will; it is a position that can be passed down to your sons and grandsons, similar to the Eight Banners Army of the Qing Dynasty next door.

This would require an expansion of recruitment by 20,000 to 30,000 at a time. Even if the average salary was only 50 dan, 1 to 1.5 million dan would be spent.

How much was the Tokugawa shogunate's tenryo? The existing 5,000 hatamoto and more than 10,000 non-hatamoto direct sengoku had already eaten up a lot of them, and the shogunate had many miscellaneous expenses to deal with. It had long been unable to make ends meet, and there was no surplus at all to expand the recruitment of direct sengoku.

Moreover, the hastily recruited direct troops would probably not be able to defeat the well-equipped and well-trained Qing Dynasty's Nanyang New Army - if they lost again, it would be hard to say whether the Tokugawa Shogunate could be maintained.

So after some calculations, several senior councilors including Abe Masahiro, Matsudaira Norizen, and Horita Masamune, as well as a group of Yume daimyo in Edo led by Tokugawa Nariakira and Shimazu Nariakira finally reached a consensus and agreed to accept the humiliating peace treaty.

In Dianchun Hall of Yu Garden, the freshly baked and still "hot" treaty of treason was in the hands of Weng Tonghe and Ronglu. The eyes of these two men were wide open.

As officials of the Qing Dynasty, they had seen all kinds of unequal treaties, but this was the first time they had seen an unequal treaty in which the Qing Dynasty was the beneficiary!

"Japan pays the Qing Dynasty 300,000 taels of gold as compensation." When Ronglu read out this, his voice trembled a little, "Marshal Xue, did you really get the gold?"

"Of course!" Luo Xueyan said with a smile, "Can we withdraw without getting the gold?"

"What about the gold?" Ronglu asked tentatively.

"The gold was paid to England and France to buy machinery and equipment for steel mills and shipyards, and to hire craftsmen." Luo Xueyan said with a smile, "Once the steel mills and shipyards in Shanghai are built, our Qing Dynasty will have rails for building railways, materials for making guns, cannons and ships, and we can even make steam gunboats ourselves! Even if our Qing Dynasty embarks on the road of self-strengthening, it will sooner or later become a true great power!"

In other words, the imperial court couldn't even touch a pound of gold.
Ronglu suppressed this thought that was not conducive to unity and continued to look down.

"Japan transferred all its territories on South Sakhalin Island to the Qing Dynasty and acknowledged that the sovereignty of Sakhalin Island belonged to the Qing Dynasty. South Sakhalin Island was occupied by Japan?"

Hearing Ronglu's question, Luo Xueyan was a little amused. He didn't even know that his own territory was occupied by the Japanese!

How did you, the Eight Banners officials, become your officials?

"It has been occupied for more than a hundred years!" Luo Xueyan said in a calm voice, "The north of Sakhalin Island is occupied by Russia, and the south is occupied by Japan. Now we can take back the southern Sakhalin Island, but we have to send troops to garrison it. Sakhalin Island is the territory of the Beiyang, right? Zhonghua, go back and talk to Prince Gong and ask him to send troops there quickly!" "We have to send troops."

Ronglu thought to himself, "Where can we find soldiers to send? And sending soldiers won't cost money."

"Of course we have to send troops! That's the territory of the Qing Dynasty, the legacy passed down by our ancestors!" Weng Tonghe said righteously, "If we don't send troops, what will we do if the Russians occupy it?"

He is indeed a clear stream. No, now he is not a clear stream yet, he is the leader of the donation class!

But what you said makes sense!

"Yes, yes, we must send it."

Ronglu didn't dare to say that he no longer wanted the ancestral foundation, so what would he do if Luo Xueyan reported him?
But the victory in this battle with Japan did not bring any gold, but instead gave us an extra island, Sakhalin Island, to station troops on!

"Also, the Qing Dynasty wants to set up concessions in Nagasaki and Osaka?" Ronglu saw another new clue, "And send consuls to manage these two concessions?"

This one seems good!
These days, Ronglu also asked people about some things in Japan and learned that Nagasaki and Osaka were good places and that there should be some profit in setting up a concession there.

"The Nanyang Minister's Office will handle this matter," Luo Xueyan said with a smile, "The court doesn't need to worry about it."

Of course, we can't give up the benefits to the court.
Ronglu looked back at Weng Tonghe, wanting him to say something for him.

Weng Tonghe nodded and said, "The Japanese Concession and the dispatch of the consul to Japan are indeed matters that the Nanyang Minister should handle. We should not trouble the Emperor and Prince Gong."

If there is profit, give it to Nanyang. If there is trouble, the imperial court will take responsibility?

When Ronglu thought of this, he glanced at Weng Tongjue and Qian Zhenlun who were present, and seemed to understand something.

It seems that Weng Tonghe has no intention of returning to Beijing to serve as an official!

However, Ronglu was not the kind of corrupt official who was confused. His purpose of coming south this time was not to compete with Luo Xueyan for the interests of Japan. He was serving as a messenger for Concubine Yi.

"General Xue," he handed the treaty text in his hand to Weng Tonghe, then took out the handwritten letter from Concubine Yi that he had held in his hand for several months and handed it over with both hands, "This is Concubine Yi's handwritten letter to you. Concubine Yi's sister will be able to come south this year, so she wrote this letter to you first and asked me to bring it to you in Shanghai. It should have been handed over to you a long time ago, but I didn't expect it to be delayed until now because of the war with Japan."

"Oh?" Luo Xueyan was startled. "Noble Concubine Yi wrote to me?"

Isn’t Concubine Yi Empress Dowager Cixi?

Luo Xueyan thought to himself, "Is it appropriate for Cixi to write to me?"

Whether it is suitable or not, you have to see it! They have already delivered it.

So Luo Xueyan winked at his aide Zhao Liewen, who immediately took the envelope, took out the letter inside, and handed it to Marshal Luo with both hands.

Luo Xueyan took the letter and looked at it, frowning slightly: "What? Imperial Concubine Yi wants me to petition the court to request the Eight Banners to march south? She also wants me to buy the post of Governor of Jiangsu with money? This..."

Ronglu smiled and said, "Marshal Xue, this is also what the emperor meant! Imperial Concubine Yi is just conveying the emperor's message. Buying the governor of Jiangsu is a good thing, you just go ahead. Asking the Eight Banners soldiers to go south will not really be done, you just need to submit a petition. The same idea has also been passed on to Lord Zeng, Lord Zuo, Lord Luo, Lord Zhang, and they can all propose it together."

(End of this chapter)