I started with the Shinsengumi in Bakumatsu

Chapter 181 Arranging in advance
Before Yagyu left Hokkaido, he received intelligence from Kyoto.

"Eto Shinpei, Ohara Shigenori and others had close contacts with the ambassadors of Britain, France and the Netherlands, and Shima Giyuu left the capital to contact the old local samurai."

Hijikata Toshizo listened to Yagyu's muttering information and said with some disdain: "These people are really evil-minded. I would say that the Prime Minister is still too kind to them."

Yagyu put away the information, shook his head and said: "There is nothing we can do about it. We were able to unify at that time because the imperial court forgave them.

Moreover, I had no choice at the time. Such a big country needs people to govern. These people are already the most capable people in the country. If I kill them, I will lack enough talents to govern the country.

Originally, I wanted to wait for the country to stabilize before getting rid of them, but the plan could not keep up with the changes. "

Hijikata Toshizo said with murderous intent: "Prime Minister, we must not be lenient now."

Yagyu smiled and said: "It depends on how they do things, but these people are colluding with foreigners, and the matter is probably not small, and we will definitely not be able to keep them by then.

This time is also an opportunity. Since they want to help the tiger, they are looking for death. Just in time, let them open this festering wound and I clean them up at once. "

Hijikata Toshizo was very happy and said: "Then another group of people will come to grow potatoes in Alaska."

"Hahaha, why do you always expect people to grow potatoes?" Yagyu smiled brightly and left Hakodate immediately.

He has to plan things in Kyoto now, otherwise he is worried that these people will affect his plan.

You must know that Britain and France are the sword of Damocles hanging on Japan's head, but fortunately in more than a year, France will be defeated by Prussia, and domestic politics will fall into a period of chaos. He can take action to weaken France's power in Southeast Asia. power.

But Britain is still there, and its existence has restricted Japan's development in Southeast Asia and even threatened it.

To deal with Britain, it would take decades for Japan to reform, and if it wanted to weaken Britain in a short time, it would have to find strong allies.

One is the polar bear Tsarist Empire that spans Europe and Asia, but Alexander II will never work with him to deal with Britain. It is really not worth it to offend Britain for a small Japan.

Yagyu also knew this, so his relationship with Tsarist Russia was good.

But he chose the most suitable allies.

That's Prussia.

Once Prussia defeated France and became the overlord of the European continent, Prussia would naturally seek overseas colonies. However, Prussia's navy was so poor that it could not even defeat the navies of Denmark and the Netherlands.

Therefore, after the Franco-Prussian War, Bismarck took into account Britain's maritime strength and began to develop slowly and silently accumulate strength. Decades later, Germany dared to develop a navy and compete with Britain for world hegemony.

Compared with Prussia, although the Japanese navy has not been developed for a long time, its technological accumulation is no weaker than that of Britain and France and other major powers.

In particular, the millet-colored gunpowder proposed by Yagyu and the three-bar multi-expansion steam engine were enough to allow the development of ironclads to be close to the pre-dreadnought era.

If we rely on Prussian scientists and the two parties work together to invent single-based gunpowder, that is, smokeless gunpowder, we can directly enter the pre-dreadnought era.

For Yagyu, he had everything Prussia lacked. As long as he supported Prussia in building a strong navy, World War I would break out in advance.

The deal between Japan and Prussia seems to have made Prussia a lot of money, but the enemy it has to face is Great Britain, and Yagyu must use these technologies to strengthen Prussia.

As for the rapid development of the West due to these technologies, that is something beyond Yagyu's control. In order to make Great Britain unable to do anything, he could only create a stronger German Empire.

Besides, if a world war breaks out on the European continent, Japan will be able to follow closely behind.

Yagyu returned to Kyoto in a short period of time. He wanted to suppress the development of Eto Shinpei and others, so that after he left Japan for Prussia, Matsudaira Yoshiho and Tokugawa Keiki would not be the opponents of Eto Shinpei and others.

But he also had to prepare for the following Franco-Prussian War.

There is no king in Spain now. Although there is a three-person alliance government, there is still some internal chaos. The top priority of the country is to elect a king.

But they also have to care about France's attitude.

The internal chaos in Spain has prevented them from taking care of their overseas colonies. For example, Spain's Philippine Cerrado is struggling to pay military expenses to Japan.

Today's Spain is no longer the super empire it was hundreds of years ago. Spain's colonies have long been snatched away by emerging powers such as England and France, and their wealthy overseas colonies have been left behind.

The only remaining part of the Southeast Asia is the Philippine Islands, and this is already Spain's largest colony.

In addition, countries in Latin America and other countries have become independent from Spanish control, and a large number of colonial officials and troops had to withdraw to the Philippine Islands to work.

To this end, Spain intensified its exploitation in the Philippines.

At the same time, facing threats from powerful powers such as Britain and France, Spain had to develop Manila as a free port to allow other European countries to trade.

Prior to this, Spain had governed the Philippines for two to three hundred years and established a military government system, a manorial economic system, a religious education system, etc. to control the Philippines.

With the upcoming opening of the Suez Canal, Manila's trade will become even more prosperous, with countries such as Britain, France, and the United States setting up commercial houses and banks in the Philippines.

In addition, the tobacco, hemp, sugar, coconut meat, etc. produced here are very popular in the world market. Therefore, foreign businessmen have invested in building ports, docks, lighthouses, telegraphs, and railways in order to gain profits. This has greatly changed the Philippines.

The Philippines' own plantations, tobacco factories, sugar mills, etc. were also gradually established, forming a national bourgeoisie.

Well-to-do families in this class would send their children to study in Europe, and these young people became the pioneers of liberating the Philippines.

In addition to them, the downtrodden natives would also rebel against Spanish rule.

In 1872, the indigenous soldiers stationed in Cavite, Philippines, and the workers in the local arsenal, unable to bear the bullying and heavy pressure from the colonial officials, became angry and righteous, shouting: "Down with Spain!" "Kill the Spanish priests!"

The government immediately sent troops to suppress the rebels.

The Spanish army killed innocent people indiscriminately, killing three local missionaries who had no involvement in the incident and advocated making the church more Filipino.

Such atrocities greatly awakened the people and made the intellectual community even more intolerable, so a reform movement arose.

Now, the Governor of the Philippines is responsible for the compensation of 2000 million yen. He has already paid the first payment of 500 million yen. Now, he has received a notice from Japan that he must hand over the second payment of 300 million yen before October. .

This caused Cerrado to yell that the former governor was a swindle and that he was just here to clean up the mess.Fortunately, Japan has given some conditions, that is, Spain can use resources instead of compensation.

In the Philippines, there are still a lot of resources.

Cerrado had no choice but to order the military governments in various places to hand over tobacco, rubber, sugar and other materials in proportion to the total amount of 300 million yen.

Naturally, this money could not have come from the military government. Naturally, local governments took action against local businessmen and manor owners and distributed the compensation layer by layer.

The military government has long been accustomed to plundering local people. Many local indigenous people have lost their families and their families are crying.

The officials who collected the supplies said: "This is not the government's fault. This is all caused by the greedy Japanese. If you want to hate it, then hate the Japanese!"

At this time, Nakajima Nobuyuki and others who were trading in the Philippines suffered a disaster. The Japanese trading house in Manila was attacked by angry indigenous people. The warehouse was burned down, a batch of goods was robbed, and several Japanese workers died.

Nobuyuki Nakajima still dared to stay in Manila, so he immediately left Manila with a batch of rubber and tobacco, returned to Japan, and complained about the matter.

When the news reached Kyoto, it naturally aroused public outrage.

In the cabinet meeting room, Goto Shojiro said excitedly: "This is clearly the Spaniards allowing the local indigenous people to attack our country! We must respond. First, the Spaniards must hand over the murderer, and secondly, they must compensate us for our losses, and must Apologize to us!”

Kuroda Kiyotaka then said: "Yes, Spain's move seems to be to vent its anger, but it is actually testing our country's bottom line and must be counterattacked!"

The rest of the people were also filled with indignation and cursed Spain for being shameless.

Eto Shinpei and Soejima Taneomi looked at each other and discussed in a low voice: "We were just about to go north, but something happened to the south. I'm afraid this gentleman discovered something."

Soejima Taneomi responded in a low voice: "That should be true. We must be more careful. I think this time's incident should be just a warning."

Eto Shinpei suppressed the irritability in his heart, nodded and said: "It has been quiet recently, let's wait until this adult leaves Kyoto."

The Saga faction guessed well. What happened in Manila was indeed led by him. He had this plan when he signed the indemnity treaty with Spain. Now it is just Eto Shinpei and others who are caught in the crossfire.

Yagyu wanted to intensify the conflict between Spain and the indigenous Filipinos, so that when the Franco-Prussian War broke out, he would have an excuse to attack the Philippine Islands.

But he didn't expect that the Spaniards were too cooperative and actually transferred their hatred to Japan from the beginning.

Of course, he cannot let this hatred expand, otherwise the subsequent occupation of the Philippine Islands will increase the cost of governance.

What needs to be done now is to support local agents.

Within the Philippine Islands, there are three major civil forces. The first is the indigenous people, the second is the Chinese, and the third is the descendants of the Spanish.

Naturally, Yagyu would not choose people of Spanish descent. He felt that he could choose an agent between the Chinese and the indigenous people, and also arrange a Japanese as an agent.

There are really Japanese people in the Philippines. This matter can be traced back to the seventeenth century. Japan purged Catholics. A Japanese Chichidan daimyo finally lived in the Philippines and died in Manila.

After the Chichidan daimyo named Takayama Ukon died in Manila, his family returned to Japan and now serves in the cabinet.

However, following Ukon Takayama to Manila was Governor Konishi’s retainer Naito Yoshiyasu who settled down in Manila.

Naito Ruyasu's father is Matsunaga Nagayori, the younger brother of Matsunaga Nagahide, one of the three villains, commonly known as Bomberman.

Matsunaga Nagayori was a brave general and confidant under Miyoshi Chokei. It was because of this younger brother that Matsunaga Nagahide rose up in the Miyoshi family and became Miyoshi Chokei's retainer.

After the decline of the Miyoshi family, Matsunaga Nagayori was killed by Tanba Akiki Akai Naomasa. Naito Ruyasu defected to Ashikaga Yoshiaki, and then his territory was confiscated by Oda Nobunaga. Finally, he ran to the West and became a retainer of Konishi Yukinaga.

Naito Yoshiyasu also believed in Christianity. Like Takayama Ukon, the two had firm beliefs and ran to the Philippines to try to reorganize Christianity in Japan. However, Takayama Ukon died of illness more than a month after arriving in Manila, and the matter ended without any illness.

Otherwise, the Shimabara Rebellion may break out in advance.

Naito settled in Manila, where his family also established roots.

Yagyu decided to contact Naito Ruyasu's descendants first.

The current head of the Naito family is named John Naito, which is his Christian name. Over the past few hundred years, the Naito family has had two trading houses in Manila, and their lives have been pretty good.

Because of Takayama Ukon, the Naito family's life is much better than that of the Chinese and indigenous people.

Especially when the Governor-General of the Philippines was negotiating with Japan, John Naito came forward to lobby and made great contributions.

But this also put John Naito on the line with Japan.

Now that Japan has opened up Christianity, John Naito can also return to the country to pay homage to the ancestors of the Naito family.

Although the ancestor of John Naito was Matsunaga Nagayori, Matsunaga Nagayori married the daughter of Naito Kunisada, the guardian of Tanba, and inherited the Naito family name and changed his name to Naito Munesatsu.

Therefore, the ancestors of the Tanba Naito family are his ancestors.

It is said that the Naito family is a descendant of the Fujiwara family and is of the same clan as the Goshaku family. This can be considered a prominent family.

It's just that after the changes in the world, John Naito has almost no Yamato characteristics in appearance and figure. He has the hunch nose and deep eyes of a foreigner.

It was inconvenient for John Naito to return to Japan, so he could only send his son Carlos Naito back to Japan to worship his ancestors and negotiate with Yagyu.

Carlos Naito doesn't know much about Japan. His mother is of Chinese origin, and she has been exposed to religious knowledge and Confucianism since she was a child. Of course, she can also speak Japanese. This has been passed down from generation to generation in the Naito family.

Therefore, Carlos Naito is more inclined to be a comprador who combines Chinese and Western methods.

Carlos did not have much loyalty to Spain. He was more concerned about the interests of his family.

Japan sent people to contact them. In his opinion, Japan had already set its sights on this land. Contacting him was just the beginning of the plan. Spain, which had lost the war, could no longer keep the Philippines. It was time for the Naito family to return to the embrace of their motherland. , as for Spain, it has nothing to do with the Naito family.

(End of this chapter)