C141 (1/2)
Chapter 141 - The Tabernacle
”Achoo …” Achoo... A... ”Achoo …” Xiao Letian sneezed violently three times in the autumn wind. Although it was spring all over Ryukyu, the sea breeze of late autumn morning was still a little chilly.
”Do you want to call the royal physician? How about we ask Doctor Ba Ke to let the Prime Minister have a look … Oh right, this one knows that there is a secret hot spring in the back of the mountain. ”Wrong, wrong, my chef is an expert in Japanese hotpot, Prime Minister would like to eat the hotpot, naturally he would be covered in sweat …”
Xiao Letian had only sneezed three times, but all the subjects of Ryukyu were flattering him like the tides. Xiao Letian did not have time to bother with them. He put on the cape handed to him by the Dragon Lord and looked at the Japanese Ship Closure that was getting further and further away.
Today, he came to see Sakamoto Ryoma off. After half a month of arduous negotiations, more than a month after the end of the Tyrant Fury, the King of the Glazed Ball and the envoy of the Shimadzu Family had finally signed the latest secret agreement.
When is the best time to negotiate? Currently, Xiao Letian had already completely controlled the situation of the Ryukyu, and the military power in his hands could be said to be the strongest in the entire Ryukyu Kingdom for the past thousand years. The Shimadzu Family simply did not have any leeway to negotiate conditions.
But what was strange was that Xiao Letian actually made a concession on a lot of details, to the point that Sakamoto Ryoma was dumbfounded. Xiao Letian actually allowed the Shimadzu Family to keep a thousand man team in the Ryukyu, and he could still take a portion of the Ryukyu Kingdom's tax revenue.
At that time, Sakamoto Ryoma was already stuttering, it was no different than before the war. If this agreement was shown to the Shimadzu Family, he would definitely be stunned.
The surprise of the Japanese was already within Xiao Letian's expectations, but Xiao Letian had conditions. There was a principled condition in the Tyrant Profound Contract, and that was that the Master of the Island had to personally write a memorandum seizing the Ryukyu for 200 years.
From how the Shimadzu Family had taken over the Ryukyu 250 years ago, to how the Shimadzu Family had exploited the citizens of the Ryukyu all these years, it had to be written in full detail. Finally, they had to admit that the Ryukyu Kingdom was an independent nation, and that it was an inalienable Subordinate States of China.
”Mr. Ryoma, if possible, can your Sky Emperor sign this memorandum? If the Sky Emperor is willing to sign it, I promise to offer him two hundred American Gun and two hundred thousand silver coins to help the Sky Emperor return to the core of his power … ”
Sakamoto Ryoma understood immediately. Xiao Letian wanted to completely sever the connection between Ryukyu and himself from international law, and once this memorandum appeared, annexing the Ryukyu would be very difficult.
”Mr. Ryoma, this is my bottom line, as long as you agree, I can let you all preserve a certain amount of military power, and can also let you all receive a portion of the tax. Of course it won't be as much as it was in the past, but I can still leave a fifth for you all …”
”Think about it, think about it carefully. I can even give Huashan Liyuan and Zhu Zhongjingshang a way out, let them safely return to Japan, and see how sincere I am …”
”Don't force me, if you really force me to start a massacre, and then expel all of the Japanese s, would I still be able to preserve the Shimadzu Family's dignity? Hadn't the Southwest Four Soldiers always been led by the Shimadzu Family? Would he still be the vanguard of the campaign to reverse the curtain? Mr. Ryoma has to consider these issues carefully … ”
There was no way that he could refuse Xiao Letian's conditions. He clearly knew that this was a rice ball that had been tainted with a chronic poison, but the current Shimadzu Family didn't have the strength to reject. The news of the Ryukyu's rebellion had already spread back to the Japan, and the Tsurukawa's Palace was furious enough to request for an investigation. The Shimadzu Family was currently only pretending to be an ostrich, if possible, they could drag it out.
Under the private discussion between Sakamoto Ryoma and the secret agreement, and with the unconditional cooperation of the Ryukyu Kingdom, a huge lie that was filled with loopholes was officially born.
In the official version, the bully's uprising was not a battle for independence at all, but just a massive disturbance. The reason was not that the Ryukyu Kingdom was independent, the other Ryukyu Kingdom was originally independent.
On that dark and windy night, when the rogue E Balang of the Japan attempted to rob the Chinese of their wealth, a serious conflict broke out between the two races after a fierce resistance. The army of the Ryukyu was also captured in the chaos, while General Kiyoshi Yamamoto misjudged the situation and decided to send his own troops to fight, and in the end, war broke out with the Chinese and the Ryukyu.
The number of soldiers stationed at Shimadzu Family had increased to around 800. The reason they were stationed at Ryukyu was only to protect the interests of the merchants of Japan, it was not a secret occupation, they had long said that the Ryukyu was independent.
The citizens who fought alongside Xiao Letian only numbered more than a thousand. As for the position of Prime Minister bestowed by King Shang Tai, it was also because the King admired the scholars of the country, so Xiao Letian acted as his representative for a few days just to make it convenient for the negotiations, so he would definitely have to resign before returning.
Xiao Letian and Sakamoto Ryoma were both smart people, they knew that they had to fabricate a lie to gag Tsurukawa's Palace and Manchu dynasty Hall. Only then would they be able to successfully escape and this matter would be able to continue.
Of course, they knew that this lie was full of holes. As long as someone was interested, they would definitely be able to find out what the problem was. As long as they had Ryukyu Kingdom as a witness, they could be considered as having treated them as deer and even if they hardened their hearts to not have any face, then the political enemies would really not be able to do anything about it.
Politics was like this. They paid attention to balance and not truth or falsehood. No one expected that they would be able to deceive their opponents. As long as they didn't give them an explanation for the war, it would suffice.
What did you say? Xiao Letian brought a hundred thousand Chinese to a bloody battle for an entire night? He even personally launched a charge? is a scholar, how could he possibly fight? Even if you want to fight, you can't do it yourself.
What did you say? Xiao Letian massacred more than ten thousand Japanese? That night, more than 200 Chinese died in the official statistics, more than 100 died in the aboriginals, and less than 300 died in the Japanese. Even if we added all of them up, it was still less than 1000.