Edo Traveler

What's the matter?

It can be regarded as a kind of historical change. The British occupied Zhifu before, that is, Yantai in the future. This place is one of the key points of the Shandong Peninsula near the sea, and it is very important.

But the local area is not the best sheltered and deep-water harbor. On the contrary, Weihaiwei next to him is a pretty good harbor. It is suitable for the establishment of military ports, coal reserves, and control of the Ezekiel Seaway.

Very different from history, Earl Elgin now confirms that he has a good Japanese dog, so he believes that the Tokugawa shogunate is enough for the task of containing Tsarist Russia in the Far East. As for the Qing Dynasty, it is enough to become a source of raw materials for the foreign powers and a place for commodity dumping.

With regard to Daoqing, he changed from a slightly hesitant attitude, not knowing whether to support him, to an attitude of strengthening local control and expanding the interests of aggression.

Rent Weihaiwei!

That's right, Earl Elgin's idea is very simple. He has already acquired Hong Kong and opened a concession in Shanghai. This time, through the war, he once again rented Weihaiwei and parts of Tianjin, and he gained a firm foothold along the entire coast of the mainland, which was very beneficial for him to control the political economy of the Qing Kingdom.

In addition, he heard that Tsarist Russia used the excuse of sending troops to mediate last time, but was attacked by the Qing state, causing a lot of losses, and he was going to bite another piece of meat from the Qing state. So in order to prevent the Qing Dynasty from dying so quickly, Dai Ying must also obtain a reliable military stronghold in an area closer to the center of Qing Dynasty's northern control.

In the end, Earl Elgin chose Weihaiwei. He planned to build a strict military port in Weihaiwei. At the same time, he built a shipyard, a fort, a wharf and other buildings here to strengthen the presence of the British in the Bohai Bay.

To put it bluntly, the expansion of the Russians in the Far East worries him. With Dae Ying's understanding of Russia, Count Elgin feels that a good dog from the Tokugawa shogunate alone may not be able to fully withstand it. Daoying also had to prepare in advance, just in case.

This was a result that Chuemon had not expected at the beginning, but it was also in line with the general strategy of bringing Britain to contain the development of Tsarist Russia. So I am not surprised by the news brought by Sir Lawrence.

At present, the foreign powers have not signed any new treaty with the Qing Kingdom, but Sir Lawrence has determined that Weihaiwei will become a leased land with the British. They even plan to open up a concession in Tianjin, let alone a small fish port in Shandong.

It's just that the incident happened suddenly, the time was tight, and the task was heavy. With the power of the British alone, there was no way to quickly build the Weihaiwei Military Port. Therefore, Sir Lawrence asked to hire Japanese workers who were already very skilled in building railways, ports and forts, and directly pull the whole ship to Weihaiwei to assist in the advancement of the construction project.

Especially for the construction of large slipway, some people may say that it is not just to build a slipway, how much technical content can it have, and how much skilled workers are needed?

Let's not explain more, this thing can't be repaired with money.

Moreover, Japan is very close to the Qing Kingdom, and people can be sent to the construction site in two or three days. Rather than recruiting the people of the Qing who still maintain a certain hostility, it is better to recruit Japanese workers who are used to it. The wages of Japanese workers are still low, and if they don’t need two dollars, the most important thing is to manage their meals.

As soon as he heard such a thing, Chuemon had nothing to refuse. Since we have decided to cooperate with the faction of Earl Elgin to check and balance the development of Tsarist Russia in the Far East, then we must do our best to help things that can be helped.

Seeing that the shogunate really cooperated, Sir Lawrence was delighted. It was agreed with the shogunate that more wages could be given to the workers who went to Weihaiwei to participate in the construction. This amount is 150% of the salary for work in Japan, eat and live.

About 500 people were hired in the early stage, and the main work was to build barracks and build military camps. The British had to station a certain number of naval units there to deter them. After the barracks and the like are all built, everyone has a place to live, and then a large-scale recruitment of workers will come to carry out other projects.

Chuemon remembers that when the British built the Suez Canal, they directly forced the feudal lords in Egypt to force Egyptian peasants to serve free of charge in the form of feudal corvée. There is not enough water and food, and there is no good treatment for the sick.

Although we are also a reactionary feudal government, we still need to make great use of the skilled workers who build railways, so we can't let them all die on the construction site.

On this point, Chuemon and Sir Lawrence spoke. The shogunate will send several officials, as the supervision team of the labor force, to Weihaiwei together to assist the British side in the management of labor. I also hope that the British side can properly treat the Japanese workers, at least they have enough food and drink, and nothing else.

For this request, of course, Sir Lawrence agreed, and it was not difficult. But since Chuemon had brought it up, Sir Lawrence followed this line of thinking and asked Chuemon.

Why don't you send envoys to the Qing Kingdom?

When I stopped Chuemon, why didn't the Tokugawa shogunate send envoys to the Qing Kingdom? In addition to some psychological idea of ​​avoiding trouble, there are certain elements of force majeure. But in the final analysis, the shogunate should indeed send envoys to the Qing Kingdom, and in the future, they still want to participate in the market grabbing into the Qing Kingdom.

According to Lawrence's idea, even if Japan and Qing did not establish diplomatic relations, it would not prevent exchanges. Taking advantage of the fact that Daiying is now about to sign a new contract with the Qing Kingdom~www.wuxiaspot.com~ the shogunate can follow suit and sign a "Friendship and Commerce Treaty", and then, as a younger brother of Daiying, follow the steps to start diplomacy in the Qing Kingdom.

Although it definitely won't play a role at first, at least it's no problem to pass on news, send information or something.

The words are right, after Chuemon hesitated for a while, he decided to take this as an opportunity to try to establish a certain degree of diplomatic ties with Obiqing. As for whether to sign a treaty or not, it will be discussed later.

Since we are in Shanghai, we have already set up a branch of Tokugawa Industrial. Now the building is ready-made, the personnel are ready-made, and it can be directly changed to the consulate in Shanghai. As for whether to send a minister or not, it depends on the situation.

After giving advice, Sir Lawrence left Japan with hundreds of skilled Japanese laborers recruited in Yokohama, as well as a large amount of building materials.

Before the winter, the shogunate suddenly did such a small thing that other people didn't care much about. Who knows what kind of evolution will happen after such a small episode? Chuemon doesn't know anyway.

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