I started with the Shinsengumi in Bakumatsu

Chapter 175
Early the next morning, Takehiro Enomoto entered the Prime Minister's Office with the report he had written and handed it to Yagyu for review. Yagyu quickly checked the content and asked, "Are there subsequent interrogations of those prisoners?"

Enomoto Takehi replied: "Your Excellency Prime Minister, those prisoners are still in Osaka, and they are under the supervision of Mr. Tsugawa."

Yagyu didn't speak. He typed the documents on the table, thinking about this attack. Although the report mentioned that the prisoners were Dutch, he was sure that it was definitely not led by the Dutch.

With the strength of the Netherlands, the loss of several steam warships was not something the Netherlands could bear. Only Britain and France could do this.

But who is behind these Western captives is no longer important to Yagyu.

"Since they admit that it is the Dutch, it must be the Dutch who did it." Yagyu settled the matter directly, "Let Genichiro write down what happened this time, and I will make it public in the newspaper."

"Prime Minister, are you going to send troops to attack the Netherlands?" Takehiro Enomoto was a little excited. Attacking the Netherlands was not a difficult task for the Japanese navy.

Yagyu did not answer. He instead said: "There is no need to rush this matter. Let public opinion ferment for a while. Before that, I need to understand the British attitude.

After all, Daying is the number one in the world, so we can’t fall out with Daying directly.

This public riot is also to gain some benefits and let other small countries understand that Japan is not a small player who can be manipulated by others. "

Enomoto Takeyang saluted and said, "I understand."

In fact, Enomoto Takehi was right. Yagyu did want to seize the Dutch colonies, but he did not dare to send troops directly because Nanyang was already within the sphere of influence of Britain and France.

Although Japan has been reforming for several years and established a new army and navy, its hard power is still inferior to that of Britain and France.

However, Yagyu still wanted to stir up trouble and use this matter to express his attitude and offset the impact of the conquest of Korea.

The issue of conquest of Korea was not raised by Kido Takayoshi alone. After Yagyu won the Battle of the Tonkin Gulf and enhanced the national confidence, whether it was Eto Shinpei, Goto Shojiro, etc. who were born in the feudal dynasty, or Enomoto Takehi, who was born in the shogunate, etc. Everyone is interested in the theory of conquest of Korea.

As for Ohara Shigenori and others who came from a public family, they did not care about the Korean conquest theory. Their idea was to use the Korean conquest theory to deal with Yagyu Higen and try to disintegrate Yagyu Hiken's power.

Historically, the theory of conquest of Korea was proposed by Kido Takayun. In fact, Kido Takayun was also influenced by one person before he proposed this idea.

This person is Yoshida Shoin.

Speaking of Yoshida Shoin, everyone is familiar with it. After all, many reformers were his students.

After the founding of Japan, he was infinitely indignant. He wrote articles and cried out about the national crisis, and advocated "respecting the king and rejecting foreigners" and defending against foreign aggression.

Later, with the permission of the Choshu feudal lord, he established the Matsushita Village School, taught the art of war, preached the idea of ​​respecting the king and fighting the barbarians, and trained Takasugi Shinsaku, Ito Hirobumi, Yamagata Aritomo and other people to overthrow the curtain and reform.

However, Yoshida Shoin also had the limitations of his knowledge. He called for force to attack the shogunate and formulated a plan to assassinate the shogunate's elders. However, he placed his hope on the feudal officials and ministers to organize armed actions, which ultimately failed and was imprisoned again.

While in prison, he suddenly came to his senses and put forward the "Rise of Reckless Theory", and instead advocated relying on "powerful farmers and businessmen", ronin and lower-level samurai to overthrow the shogunate by force.

Ii Naobi was furious and ordered Yoshida Shoin to be escorted to Edo and executed.

Yoshida Shoin died, but his thoughts were passed down. Among them, the imperial view of history deeply influenced the Choshu clan, and the latter became an important pillar of the Meiji government. The foreign policy of the new government was also deeply influenced by his thoughts, and gradually Developed into Japanese militaristic ideology.

In his "You Prisoner's Record", he wrote: Every hero who wants to establish a cause in the world and make plans for the world must first make his ambitions and strategies bold, observe the current situation, judge the opportunity, prioritize the priorities, and determine them internally first. If Cao Cao relaxes, Xu should respond to the outside... For the current plan, it is better to guard the territory and make strict treaties in order to dominate the two captives.

Take advantage of the opportunity to cultivate Ezo, capture Ryukyu, capture Korea, pull Manchuria, and approach India. We will use the momentum of advancement to consolidate the basis for retreat.

So what the magic power has failed to do, what it has failed to do to bring fruit to the country has failed.

He took Manchuria to force Russia, took over Korea to spy on the Qing Dynasty, and took Nanzhou to attack India.

It is advisable to choose the easier one among the three and do it first.This is a great cause that has been passed down from generation to generation in the world.

It can be said that Japan after the Restoration basically followed this path, including Ryukyu, Korea, advancing into Manchuria, spying on the Qing Dynasty, going to war with Russia, entering Nanyang in World War II, etc. They basically copied them without any differences.

Yagyu had already annexed Ryukyu and took the first step. Kido Takayoshi saw the great victory in the Beibu Gulf, so he took the second step and proposed the theory of conquest of Korea.

No matter what others think, Yagyu will not let Japan go down the same old path.

The way he was looking for was to first suppress the Korean conquest faction, continue to increase national power, and then plot the Dutch and Spanish colonies in Southeast Asia.

As for Indochina, Yagyu did not want to occupy it as a colony.

First, he had to consider the attitude of the Qing Dynasty.

Secondly, he has to consider the attitudes of Britain and France.

Sending troops to occupy countries such as Vietnam would be very costly for Yagyu. If he had a bad relationship with the Qing Dynasty, his business in the Qing Dynasty would be destroyed. At that time, he would have to send troops to the Korean Peninsula and then invade Manchuria.

In addition, even if he defeated the Qing Dynasty and seized the land in Vietnam, he would definitely have to station troops. Now Japan would have to expand its military and increase military expenditures.

Finally, and most importantly, France will never let Japan seize the colonies in Southeast Asia so easily. Otherwise, where will France's face be?

Moreover, there is Britain in Southeast Asia. The main power of Britain is the East India Company, and Thailand is separated from France as a buffer zone. If Britain sees that France has been driven away, it may have to grab Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. .

Moreover, even the Dutch India may not all be occupied by Japan. The Netherlands is the richest colony. When the time comes, the Netherlands will definitely counterattack violently, and may even dedicate this colony to the British.

So he could only slowly seek to marry the Dutch Indies and the Philippine Islands.

Although Yagyu planned relatively few colonies for Japan, he had already planned a new path.

He felt that Japan did not need to seize colonies like the old colonial powers, and that it could obtain profits through trade.

Just like the Nguyen Dynasty in Vietnam, if they wanted to regain their lost territory, they had to purchase advanced weapons. Because of the French blockade, Yagyu earned a large amount of arms money in exchange for a large amount of coal and iron ore.

Although the profits obtained in this way are limited, the advantage is stability, which is much more stable than sending troops to occupy colonies.

Yagyu immediately asked the official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yanagihara Maemitsu to question the Dutch Ambassador Van Boels and asked Van Boels to give an explanation.Yanagihara Maemitsu issued a notice unceremoniously: "This matter makes the Prime Minister very angry. If your country does not give a satisfactory answer, then our navy will seek justice for the country."

Van Bols knew what was going on, and this matter was not done by his country, the Netherlands, so he was not afraid of boiling water and did not take Yanagihara Maemitsu's words seriously at first.

But as soon as I heard that Japan was going to send troops, I became anxious immediately.

"Mr. Yanagihara, I don't even know about this matter. Please tell Prime Minister Yagyu. I need time to understand the matter. Why do you need to say such hurtful words?"

"Mr. Van Pols, this is no small matter. Our fleet to welcome Princess Mary was attacked in the waters near your Dutch India, and the prisoners captured were also your Dutch!"
We can definitely think that this is what you did. You want to kill Princess Marie, prevent the marriage between the North German Federation and our country, and avenge the Battle of Beibu Gulf.

Mr. Van Pols, the Prime Minister is very angry. There is no reasonable explanation. Any consequences will be borne by you yourself! "

After hearing this, Van Bols jumped up and down anxiously. Yanagihara Maemitsu's words clearly meant that he wanted to blame Holland for this matter.

He was sure that Yagyu Heigan must know that France and Great Britain were involved in this matter, but Britain and France were big countries and it was difficult to cause trouble directly, so he pinched Holland as a soft persimmon!

But what is even more irritating is that the overall strength of the Dutch Indian Fleet in the Netherlands is not a match for Japan. Now the Netherlands is seizing time to build ironclad ships that can sail across the ocean, trying to strengthen its naval strength and regain its position.

But now, the Japanese threat is imminent, and Van Bols cannot express his pain, and he feels very aggrieved.

"I understand. Our country will definitely give you a satisfactory answer."

Yanagihara Maemitsu looked at Van Bols, whose tone was as low as dust, and sneered: "Mr. Van Bols, hurry up, Prime Minister Yagyu doesn't like to waste time."

Van Bols looked at the arrogant Yanagihara Qianguang, his teeth itched with hatred.

Helpless, Van Bols could only cry to Parkes first and pray for help from Daying.

Van Bols added fuel to the fire: "Mr. Parkes, the Japanese are extremely ambitious. This time, Yagyu Koshien's ambition is even more exposed. He is plotting against our country's Dutch India. You must help our country."

Parkes also had a headache about this matter. The reason why he used the name of pirates to deal with Japan's wedding fleet this time was because the matter was a bit sensitive.

It's okay if this thing succeeds, but if it fails and spreads back to China, the opposition will definitely catch it and give it a beating.

However, Parkes still said: "As long as Britain does not allow it, no one can take away your Dutch India. However, you must settle this matter as soon as possible and stop the Japanese."

Van Bols felt aggrieved. It was you, Da Ying, who arranged for me to get involved in this matter!

But with the hungry wolf of Japan around, he could only succumb to the man-eating tiger of Great Britain.

"Mr. Parkes, our Dutch fleet is too weak. It is not even as good as Japan. I hope Great Britain can sell us a few ironclad ships to strengthen the strength of the Dutch Indian Navy."

Parkes agreed to this condition without thinking for too long. The technological innovation of ironclads was rapid, and some backward ironclads and steam warships could be sold to the Netherlands.

Strengthening the Dutch navy to threaten Japan was a good move for Great Britain.

This can not only earn a military expenditure, but also strengthen the strength of the Netherlands and defeat Japan, killing three birds with one stone.

After receiving Parkes' promise, Van Poles left the British embassy. He immediately approached the French ambassador Roches to ask for some assistance.

In order to silence the Netherlands, France also agreed to sell an ironclad ship to the Netherlands.

Yagyu knew that Van Poles had met with the ambassadors of Britain and France, but the specific content was not clear, but he had already made plans to cover up the situation with troops.

But Yagyu couldn’t care about Holland’s affairs for the time being.

Akin had just given birth to his eldest son, and both mother and son were healthy. As a father for the first time, Yagyu naturally had to spend more time with Akin and his eldest son Jubei.

He planned to use Jubei as the nickname of the family head. Jin gave birth to the eldest son, so he would naturally be the next generation head of the family and inherit Jubei's nickname.

This is also the tradition of Japanese aristocratic families.

In addition, Akin gave birth to a child for him, but he still has no status. He plans to hold a wedding with Akin after the emperor's wedding.

Speaking of the emperor's wedding, there are less than five days left, and the palace has already made preparations.

However, in order to make the beauty smile, Emperor Meiji then invited Princess Mary to visit the wedding decoration in the name of holding a ball, and then asked her for her opinion.

In order to take care of Princess Mary, Yagyu suggested in advance that both traditional and Western styles could be arranged. According to Western etiquette, the emperor and the princess held a Western-style wedding in suits and wedding dresses during the day.

At dusk, the emperor and princess can put on traditional Japanese wedding clothes and hold their wedding in the evening.

This arrangement is very clever. After all, the traditional wedding ceremony in Japan is to hold the ceremony in the evening, and you can go directly to the bridal chamber after having a banquet in the evening.

Princess Mary was very satisfied with this because she also wanted to see what a Japanese wedding is like.

However, Ohara Shigenori and other aristocratic councilors seized on this matter to criticize Yagyu.

Holding two weddings will cost a lot more money. Although Emperor Meiji spent most of the money on this wedding, plus a million yen subsidy from the national treasury, the total cost of this wedding exceeded 500 million yen.

Such a luxurious wedding naturally aroused criticism from Ohara Shigenori. They were Confucian disciples, so they naturally wanted to dissuade such extravagant behavior. However, they could not directly criticize the emperor, so they pointed the finger at Yagyu.

However, Yagyu ignored these people. Their accusations were as light as feathers and disappeared with the wind.

Emperor Meiji didn't want to lose face in front of Princess Mary, so he naturally used the emperor's majesty to shut up Ohara Shigenori and others.

Ohara Shigenori and others immediately ceased their activities. They did not dare to offend the emperor no matter who they offended.

In this way, the emperor's wedding was getting closer and closer, and the atmosphere in Kyoto became more relaxed. Emperor Meiji was so happy that he couldn't sleep. He always put on his suit and looked in the mirror. But when he saw Yagyu, he felt relieved again. No one could Prevent him from marrying a beautiful bride.

(End of this chapter)