New Shun 1730

Even if my body hurts, I still have to invest the money. It's a guarantee.

If Nanyang is lowered, Malacca and the Sunda Strait are in hand, Ryukyu will really be worse than a useless one.

The investment of tens of thousands of taels of silver bought a military port that may never be used in a lifetime. I am really speechless.

Spending money, but hoping that it will never be used in the future, is probably like the emperor renovating the Dagukou Fort of the previous dynasty in Tianjin: spending a lot of money, but expecting that all the money will be wasted. But if anyone writes a letter saying that building the Tianjin fort is just a waste of money and people, the emperor will definitely scold him. Pretty much the same truth.

Ryukyu is meaningless in a world where there are only China and Japan, and China attacks and Japan defends, Korea is in hand, and Tsushima and Hokkaido can be cut off. But with external forces, it becomes Achilles' heel. He may not be able to use it in his lifetime, but he still has to wear strong greaves.

This stems from Liu Yu's lack of confidence.

He was still a little afraid of the Dutch. After all, they had a navy of 200,000 tons and 200 years of naval warfare experience. Even if the capital ships could not come to Asia, Weihai had rich naval theory but no actual combat experience.

He was also not sure whether Weihai's navy had the ability to win this national destiny bet and whether it had the ability to defeat the Netherlands, which could force Britain to fight the Anglo-Dutch War for two hundred years.

If he missed the War of Austrian Succession, he would have to wait a long time until the Seven Years' War started. Time was running out, and he couldn't wait any longer.

But there is one thing to be happy about.

If you win, you can break through Nanyang to eat meat and fatten the sprouts of capitalism. If necessary, close the door and make the navy neutral to the outside world. You can let the domestic power be tossed, and the uprising and revolution will force the emperor to go to the palace for three consecutive times without worrying about external influences.

If he loses, the emperor will have to sell his iron pot to build a navy, because losing means that Liu Yu's terrifying prophecy is likely to come true. The shackles of royal rule will be heavier, but it can leave a strong enough family foundation for the future.

Of course, if the Nanyang bet fails, Liu Yu will be Dashun's most loyal minister; if he wins, that's another story.

The naval officers and cadets who followed him probably knew that they would fight in Nanyang in the future, and they were also looking forward to starting a war in Nanyang. They did not want to stay in Weihai all their lives, and they would never be able to get promoted without fighting.

At this time, Liu Yu couldn't help but feel happy when he heard that he still wanted to spend money even though he knew this was a useless place. He thought that Ying Suobi obviously advocated going south.

Being left here to inspect and later supervise the construction of the fort port, I made up my mind. I not only wanted to carry out the order, but also felt that the scenery in this place was not bad.

Their luck is much better than those stationed in the bitter cold land north of the Whale Sea.

Liu Yu told them again that they must drink boiled water, something he had said countless times before leaving Zhongcheng Port.

A few days later, a typhoon struck, and Chen Qinghai's squadron, which was patrolling outside, also returned to Ryukyu. After avoiding the typhoon, Liu Yu was ready to go to Japan.

He was not sure when the next typhoon would come, but he metaphysically pondered the crater theory and felt that a typhoon that had just come took the Ryukyu-Japan line, and the next time it would not happen to take the Ryukyu-Japan line.

The King of Ryukyu has also dealt with domestic issues. The domestic military and political affairs are temporarily taken care of by his brother Shang Che. King Shang Jing of Ryukyu follows Zhao Baiquan to the Celestial Dynasty.

Before setting off, Liu Yu warned Zhao Baiquan in private.

"Master Zhao, the King of Zhongshan is going to the Celestial Empire. This is a big event. According to the rules of canonization in the past, the Ryukyu envoy first went to the capital to ask for the canonization, and then the angel came. This time, it is the same reason, so it is easier to prepare. Can you Let him stay in Songjiang temporarily, firstly, to let him see the prosperity of the Celestial Dynasty, and secondly, to prepare the emperor."

"Don't just take him back to the capital directly. The court will be unprepared. The Minister of Li Government will definitely scold you."

Zhao Baiquan did not know the inside story of some things, such as the emperor's plan to talk about Ryukyu to the Western world, in order to achieve a common understanding that a tributary country was a territory.

Ryukyu itself is a small matter, but it can be used as a justifiable cause to conquer Japan. Liu Yu had to cooperate with the emperor in acting.

Although Zhao Baiquan didn't know the inside story, he knew that Liu Yu was the envoy this time, and it was better to listen to him on some matters.

And as Liu Yu said, the Li government has little experience.

There was really no king from a vassal country who came to the capital in person before, and this time he had to punish himself.

Normally, when envoys from the vassal came, they would report to the emperor during the morning court meeting, and the emperor would receive them after the court meeting. This time it was very different. How to receive them was a problem.

Receive it with the courtesy of a county king? It seems inappropriate for the King of Ryukyu to plead guilty to his own serious crime; perhaps the only one who can convict the feudal lord is the emperor. The emperor has not yet spoken, and the rank of county king is still there...

These troublesome matters must be dealt with by the civilized government, which gave Zhao Baiquan a headache just thinking about it.

I thought it would be a good idea to stay in Songjiang for a while.

By then, we can go all the way to the capital along the canal, and we don’t have to worry about shipwrecks. As long as we reach Songjiang, everything will be safe.

In response to Liu Yu's instructions, two warships were assigned to Zhao Baiquan to escort them back to the country.

Following the two battleships back, there are four trainee captains who have been waiting for a long time in terms of seniority. After returning, they will take over the two newly built cruisers. They must seize the time to train and complete the running-in before September.

After bidding farewell one by one, Liu Yu's fleet also set sail from Ryukyu and headed for Japan along the Kuroshio Current.

Liu Yu's first destination was Tosa Domain, on Shikoku Island. According to Liu Yu's knowledge and historical information, it can be known that this season is the season when various feudal lords go to Edo to pay their respects.

There has been no war on Shikoku Island for nearly 150 years. The lord of Tosa Domain is probably in Edo at this time, which is a good place to scare the lords of the Japanese domains.

Shi Shiyong, who went to Japan again, was telling the people of the Navy General Staff about the situation in Japan. At this time, he was talking about the things that the Japanese daimyo had explained during the audience.

"Thanks to the ability of Ying Suo Bo, the Japanese were given the sweet potato method to relieve famine and the currency reform was carried out. Otherwise, the Japanese shogun would have stopped the audience and report twelve years ago. The lords of the various domains no longer needed to go to Edo. Now that the Japanese shogunate has survived, the shogunate has money, and the famine in various places has eased, the audience and report have been restored."

"The wife of the lord of Tosa Domain must live in Edo, and the lord must also go to Edo once a year. Set off in April, live in Edo for a while, and then return to Kochi Castle."

"The audience and report are just a strategy of the shogunate to exhaust the daimyo. In a year, 30% of the time is on the road, 30% of the time is in Edo, and the remaining 40% of the time can be returned to the main domain to live. The return trips require ceremonial expenses, and much of the annual income is spent on the audience and report."

Shi Shiyong used his archery skills to be a spy for several years on the shogunate that had just restored the hawk hunting order, and he knew a lot about Japan.

Liu Yu also knew that Tosa later produced Sakamoto Ryoma, a Meiji Restoration hero with superb swordsmanship, but after getting the revolver for the first time, he never left his revolver and stopped playing swordsmanship.

He once said: "The Analects of Confucius" says: Confucius said on the river: Time passes like this, day and night. This world is constantly changing day and night, so it is the way of a gentleman to follow the trend of the times. It is wrong to do it with one heart once you have a firm idea, and you will be left behind by the times.

It can be seen that Confucius' words can be interpreted in ten thousand ways, and the key is to see what is needed.

In addition, he didn't know much about Tosa.

Shi Shiyong knew a lot, because when he taught the samurai of the shogunate to ride and shoot in Edo, Tosa had a lot of things happen.

A few years ago, there was a fire that burned down Kochi Castle.

Just after the fire, the Kyoho famine hit, and Liu Yu took the opportunity to smuggle. Tosa suffered extremely severely, many people starved to death, and they borrowed tens of thousands of taels of silver from the shogunate to come back to revitalize the industry.

But judging from the time, it is estimated that Kochi Castle has not been rebuilt at this time, and tens of thousands of taels of silver are not enough to revitalize the industry. In fact, it is indeed impossible. In history, Tosa tried to take over the papermaking industry as a government-run business, which triggered a large-scale uprising. In the end, they had no choice but to give up the idea of ​​government-run papermaking.

Based on the three news learned from Shi Shiyong, "fire, famine, and borrowing money", Liu Yu judged that Tosa was now an easy target.

After the end of the Warring States Period, the shogunate required one country and one city, especially for foreign daimyo like Tosa, which were not trustworthy. Tosa should have only one Kochi Castle.

It has only been a few years since the fire, and there was a major disaster before, so it is estimated that it has not been rebuilt yet. It may not be necessary to really attack, but it is enough to scare.

With a 200,000-stone ration, the army was not much.

In addition, the Chosokabe clan of Tosa Domain stood on the side of the Western Army in the Battle of Sekigahara. The current lord of Tosa Domain, the Yamanouchi clan, was enfeoffed later. The old subordinates of the former lord could not be killed. They could only be divided into senior and junior officers. The newcomers were promoted and the old ones were reduced to junior officers. There were also many internal conflicts.

This kind of place is suitable for killing chickens to scare monkeys and making trouble.

Shi Shiyong admired Liu Yu's courage, especially after Liu Yu really dared to go to Edo, he felt that Liu Yu was extraordinary. This time Liu Yu proposed to go to Tosa Domain to take a look. Shi Shiyong also knew that Liu Yu had solved the problem of Satsuma samurai in Ryukyu like cutting melons and vegetables, and he was full of confidence and did not think there was any danger.

After he finished telling all this to the middle and senior officers in the navy present, Liu Yu said with a smile: "I think you have guessed that everything is ready for the war against Japan, except for the east wind. Now that the Ryukyu issue is over, even the east wind is there."

"Mr. Shi has said a lot just now, but Japan is different from our dynasty after all. You can roughly understand it as the relationship between the Zhou emperor and the princes. Of course, politically correct, how can Japan be compared to the Zhou emperor? I said this just for the convenience of understanding."

"King Wu won the world and granted Taigong Wang the title of Duke of Qi. The surrounding area of ​​Qi was Duke Zhou's Lu. What did he do? Duke Zhou was of the Ji surname, and Taigong Wang was of the Lu clan. There was a difference in closeness between the inside and the outside, and there was also the intention of Lu to monitor Qi. In Japan, it can be generally understood this way."

"The Song State, a descendant of the Shang Dynasty, is an external daimyo; Qi is a hereditary daimyo; Lu is a vassal daimyo. "

"This Tosa is an external daimyo."

"There is a saying among the ancients that a nine-generation grudge can be avenged. It refers to the fact that the Zhou emperor boiled and killed Duke Ai of Qi. Of course, if it was Duke Huan of Qi, even if the Zhou emperor had ten guts, he would not dare to boil and kill Duke Huan of Qi. At this time, the authority of the Japanese shogunate was roughly equivalent to that of the emperor boiling and killing Duke Ai of Qi. "

"As for the military system, farmers and soldiers in Japan are separated, and each daimyo also has his own soldiers. It can be roughly understood that the emperor has six divisions and the princes also have three armies. "

"After understanding this, you should know how we should fight if the purpose of this battle is not to split Japan. If we can make good use of the contradictions within Japan, it will be better than tens of thousands of soldiers. "