Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 238 Return in triumph
"The lord has ordered the immediate withdrawal of troops and the cessation of hostilities. General Yoshino is ordered to return immediately to hand over the order without delay." The feudal lord, with a flag on his back, rode his horse quickly and shouted loudly.

Yoshino Nagashi's face darkened upon hearing this. With a look of deep sorrow, he pounded his fist on the stone and said in a hoarse voice, "The invading Chu fleet is wreaking havoc on Lake Ikeda. The coastal towns are like naked women. We must defend our homeland with our lives. Please, Lord, allow me to lead the troops into battle."

"Lord Shimazu has ordered an immediate withdrawal. No mistakes!"

"Okay, I'll obey your order." Yoshino Nagayoshi had to close his eyes in pain and accept the order.

not long

Yoshino Nagayoshi hurried back with several of his officers, jumped off his horse, and immediately rushed into the Shimazu family's ancestral mansion without stopping.

He saw the pale Shimazu Shigehisa standing in front of the rockery pond, looking extremely lonely. He immediately took a few quick steps and fell to his knees with a "thump", shouting in a choked voice;
"Sir, please allow us to fight to the death. Yoshino is willing to die on the battlefield. The hatamoto are united and vow to fight the enemy to the end."

After saying this, he fell to the ground with his body trembling, unable to suppress the intense emotions in his heart.

Shimazu Shigehisa sighed deeply and said with a dejected look;
"War...what to fight with?
The Choshu clan retreated, the Hizen clan retreated, and the Tosa clan also retreated.

The so-called four powerful vassals in the southwest are a joke. They were frightened by the powerful countries' strong ships and powerful guns and retreated. We were abandoned.

Takasugi Shinsaku sent an urgent telegram, asking us not to offend the Chu fleet and provoke a powerful enemy.

Without external aid, even if we wipe out all the Satsuma clan's hatamoto troops, we won't be able to hold out for long.

After all, this is a powerful army of the Celestial Empire, far beyond our ability to resist. The only way out is to surrender."

"Sir...you can't do that!" Yoshino Nagashi screamed miserably, but there was nothing he could do to save the situation.
A few hours later

Kagoshima Prefecture pier

The lord of Satsuma, Shimazu Shigehisa, led a group of people holding white flags and knelt on the ground to welcome the commanders of the Chu army and navy who came down from the dock.

have to say
The Japanese were absolutely admirable in their confession of guilt. Even Major General Pan Tianshou, deputy commander of the Second Expeditionary Division, who had always hated the Japanese, could not find any fault with them.

The surrounding Chu soldiers lined up in neat formations. The Satsuma lord Shimazu Shigehisa took the lead, offering his samurai sword with both hands, kneeling on the ground to beg for surrender, nodding and bowing with extreme respect.

And not far away

Seventeen warriors with sanitary napkins tied on their heads were kneeling in a row. They were wearing white kimonos and exposing their abdomens with desperate expressions. Then they inserted short knives into their abdomens and pulled them horizontally with force.

The samurai standing nearby swung his sharp sword amid the screams of the samurai who committed seppuku. In an instant, the heads fell to the ground and rolled far away.

These were diehards who were unwilling to endure the humiliation of defeat. Including Yoshino Nagayoshi, a total of 17 samurai committed suicide by disembowelment to thank the world.

Fleet Vice Commander Rear Admiral Dong Kuifa twitched his lips upon seeing this, and said with a certain emotion, "You Japanese pirates are extremely ferocious. No wonder those Ryukyu people were no match for you. They were so frightened that they were paralyzed."

"He's just a brave and aggressive guy, what's the big deal?" Major General Pan Tianshou snorted coldly.

The person who presided over the surrender ceremony on the spot was Zheng Yulan, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Seeing the Japanese making a bloody mess, he looked at the submissive Satsuma Lord Shimazu Shigehisa with undisguised disgust.

Said coldly;

"The reason for this war is that the people under your command are unrestrained, barking like mad dogs, and even insulting the flag of our Great Chu. How can this be tolerated? What can we not tolerate?
Today, our fleet is on an expedition to quell the evil spirits, clear up the world, and reaffirm the inviolable majesty of the Chu State. This is an act of punishment.

You must do four things if you want to surrender.

First, severely punish the culprits who caused the incident. All those who insulted the national flag of the Great Chu will be killed without mercy. The dignity of the kingdom must not be violated.

The second thing is that you must pay 30 silver dollars and 3000 women as compensation to compensate the army for its hard work and the soldiers for their hard work.

The third thing is that you, the lords of the Satsuma domain, write a letter to His Majesty the King of Chu to apologize and promise to restrain your subordinates and not make mistakes again.

The fourth thing was to open Kagoshima Prefecture as a commercial port and demarcate a concession as a price to pay for calming the situation.

If any of the above four points cannot be achieved, the Chu army will be crushed wherever it goes."

Each of these four things is extremely difficult.

But it's already here

The lord of Satsuma, Shimazu Shigehisa, had no room for bargaining at all and acted arrogantly twice. The first time, he was kicked to the ground and beaten by the British.

The injury hadn't healed yet, and he was kicked all over the ground by Chu Guo again. He was beaten so badly that he vomited three liters of blood due to internal injuries. He had no fighting spirit left.

Shimazu Shigehisa looked up at the towering figure of the sailing warship at the dock and the rows of fully armed Chu soldiers lined up. A feeling of misery enveloped his body and mind, and he couldn't help but shed two lines of tears. He nodded and agreed to these four humiliating conditions.

When proposing the conditions, Zheng Yulan, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, also included some private agenda, demanding that the Satsuma Domain provide 30 women in addition to paying silver dollars in compensation.

Where did the number of three thousand women come from?

This is roughly the total number of more than 7 officers, soldiers and sailors on seven sailing ships, plus more than 1320 army officers and soldiers.

If there were dozens more of them, the officers would lose every point.

The Japanese are definitely capable of producing such a small number of women. Every year, there are tens of thousands of "Nanyang sisters" going to Southeast Asia. This trend started in this era.

Otherwise, where did the Satsuma Domain get the money to build forts, purchase British steamships, and buy Western-style muskets?

Although the 30 silver dollars was a huge expense for the Satsuma clan, it could still be raised by borrowing money from others. It was only a temporary pain.

What made Shimazu Shigehisa's heart bleed the most was the opening of Kagoshima Prefecture, which was the core base of the Satsuma clan. Now that the four gates were wide open, it was like a sharp knife was pointed at his neck.

As for the three thousand women, that’s not a big deal.

On the wooden building not far away
Several white British people stood here and looked at the dock leisurely, taking in Shimazu Shigehisa's timid demeanor. Their words were full of disdain and a sense of gloating happiness.

"Hey, gentlemen, does that lord look like a dog to you?"

"Hahahaha... Although this metaphor is inappropriate, I think it is very vivid. These arrogant and rude yellow monkeys should be trampled harshly."

"Gentlemen, we should face up to the strength of the Chu State. It does have some of the style of a European navy."

"Yeah, it was a third-rate European navy. Don't forget that it was the fierce artillery fire of the British Empire Fleet that destroyed the Satsuma Domain's coastal artillery and steamships, and destroyed the Satsuma Domain's arsenals. The British Far East Navy also paid the price for this."

"That's right, we kicked open the door, and these Chu people walked in. They are a bunch of guys who took advantage of the situation."

"But it's undeniable that they did a good job, making these Fusang dwarfs feel awe."

"Perhaps, we should also set up a commercial port in Kagoshima Prefecture. There should be a piece of our territory here."

"This is an excellent proposal. I second it."

"Seconded."

"Seconded."

Several British businessmen discussed the matter and quickly decided it without considering the opinion of Satsuma lord Shimazu Shigehisa at all.

In their view, it's not important.

What is important is that the Chu State obtained the right to open a port in Kagoshima Prefecture. Following the preferential treaty signed previously, Britain, France, the United States, Russia, the Netherlands and other countries should also enjoy the same treatment, and there should be no favoritism.

When a nation is weak, it will inevitably suffer humiliation.

Since the lord of Satsuma accepted all the surrender terms, the Chu fleet would not go too far.

A few days later, after receiving 30 silver dollars worth of gold, silver, pearls, jade, and brocade cloth, he set sail with women and returned to the Hainan Islands.

The expeditionary fleet returned victoriously on June 6 and arrived at the fleet's home port, Manila, where it was warmly welcomed by the people.

Prime Minister Li Hezhang led several cabinet ministers to the dock to welcome them and held a grand triumphal ceremony. For a time, the dock was filled with the sound of gongs and drums, and it was extremely lively.

The expeditionary fleet then entered a period of rest and recuperation, and the fleet officers and soldiers as well as the army soldiers who went out on the expedition happily returned home with rewards and women.

Several commanders of the expeditionary fleet, along with Prime Minister Li Hezhang, entered the palace to meet His Majesty the King of Chu.

The expedition had achieved its intended objectives, successfully completing its mission with even more unexpected rewards. It was a truly remarkable feat. King Zheng Guohui of Chu naturally lavished praise on the expedition, especially for Deputy Foreign Minister Zheng Yulan, who had performed exceptionally well in defending the kingdom's dignity.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu was very satisfied with this and called him "my right-hand man and a capable minister." This made Zheng Yulan so excited that her face flushed. She walked as if she was walking on clouds, and all 36000 pores on her body revealed a sense of comfort.

The compensation of 30 silver dollars in goods paid by the Lord of Satsuma was handed over to the government treasury, and the King of Chu gave an additional reward of tens of thousands of silver dollars, which need not be elaborated here.

The three thousand Fusang women were divided up, but King Zheng Guohui of Chu did not care about these trivial matters and never mentioned them from beginning to end.

After the excitement, the crowd dispersed.

King Zheng Guo of Chu returned to the imperial desk, sat down quietly, and began to review the entire incident in detail, considering the pros and cons of the impact on the State of Chu.

From a broad perspective
In today's South Seas, the Chu State has become a rising regional power that cannot be ignored. It will arouse the fear of the United States and the Netherlands, and will also attract more attention from Britain and France.

Depending on your position, you will see things differently.

The strength displayed by the State of Chu is far from enough to make Britain and France wary.

Similarly, the strength demonstrated by the State of Chu can make the northern court pay more attention to it, which can be said to be a good thing.

The strength displayed by the Chu State and the concessions set up in the Ryukyu Kingdom's Naha Port will make the Fuso people in the north somewhat wary, and perhaps the Ryukyu Kingdom can survive longer.

Based on Zheng Guohui's understanding of the nature of the Japanese people, they probably won't be able to last much longer.

Originally, we were going to take action against the Ryukyu Kingdom in ten years, but now we estimate that it will take at most 20 years before those restless Fuso people will be unable to hold back any longer.

At that time, as long as it does not infringe on the interests of Chu, it will be fine.

Otherwise, the worst that could happen is a fight and a head-on confrontation. It's still early, so there's no need to worry too much about it right now.

The fleet's voyage opened up the Fuso and Ryukyu trade markets in the north, which was of great benefit to the dumping of domestic industrial products.

The installation of the No. 1 blast furnace at the Batangas Steel Plant is in full swing and is expected to be ignited for trial production next month.

The subsequent No. 2 and No. 3 blast furnaces will be ignited and put into production at the end of this year and early next year respectively, which will greatly increase the steel production of Chu State, especially the advanced production capacity of blast furnace ironmaking, which will greatly improve the quality.

What follows is a large amount of steel products, which the domestic market certainly cannot absorb, so we have to look overseas.

At this stage

The Chu State's Ministry of Commerce is discussing a major business deal with the Governor-General of British India, which is "cotton for rails". This is the current focus of Chu King Zheng Guohui.

As the jewel in Queen Victoria's crown, the Governor-General's House in British India has always occupied an important core position in the British colonial system.

Unlike the Dutch and Spanish, the British were willing to invest heavily in their colonies, building roads, bridges, railways and docks to expand product sales, strengthen their rule and plunder of the colonies, and were more thoughtful.

Since the late 19s
The Governor-General's Office of British India launched a large-scale railway construction plan. The Indian subcontinent colonies provided huge economic benefits to the British Empire and absorbed a lot of industrial production capacity.

In this process

The construction of transportation facilities, including railways, has played an important role.

The Indian subcontinent is vast, and railways can connect different regions and promote the flow of large quantities of goods and commodities, including important raw materials such as cotton.

While reducing transportation costs, railways can conveniently transport resources from all over India to ports for export to Britain.

This included cotton, tea, silk, coal, iron ore, etc., which made the colonists' plunder more efficient and also promoted the large-scale construction of the Pan-India railway network.

Besides
Railways also allow the British colonial governor's office to easily deploy military forces to remote areas and strengthen colonial rule, which is of far-reaching significance.

Because of these many benefits, railway construction in the Indian subcontinent is in full swing, with several important lines being started at the same time.

This is the business opportunity that the State of Chu discovered.

Since the Suez Canal had not yet been officially opened, the British generally unloaded the heavy steel cargoes at Port Said on the Mediterranean coast, transported them overland to Suez City, and then loaded them onto ships for transportation to various ports on the Indian subcontinent.

This process was time-consuming and labor-intensive, resulting in high prices for steel transported to the Indian subcontinent and drawing many complaints from the Governor-General of British India.

The construction budget allocated by the British Indian Governor-General's Office was not unlimited. The high construction costs and the difficulty in delivering rails and equipment in a timely manner were full of problems and caused a lot of headaches.

There was no choice before, so I could only endure it.

Now that the State of Chu has seen the business opportunity, it has sent personnel to the British Governor's Office in Kolkata to discuss cooperation matters, which is a very smart move to provide another option.

The Chu State did not ask for much, and it was impossible for it to swallow up most of the steel supply needed for the construction of the railway of the British Indian Governor-General's Office. It only asked for a share of the profits.

Given the massive scale of British railway investment, just a small share of the profits would be enough to sustain the Batangas Steel Plant under construction and operate at full capacity.

The most attractive part of this deal is that it exchanges "cotton for railroad tracks". The Hainan Islands themselves do not produce cotton, but they have imported a lot of textile machinery and will gradually build their own textile industry in the future.

The textile industry provides a large amount of employment, and the State of Chu cannot give it up at all costs.

Then the import of raw materials is a big problem. British India is the world's main cotton producing area. Wouldn't it be a good business to exchange cotton for high-quality and low-cost rails?

In terms of price and supply, it is more attractive than importing rails directly from the UK.

This deal could directly consume the huge cotton production of the British Indian colonies in exchange for the required low-priced rails, which was a win-win situation.

The rails produced by the Batangas Steel Plant can be directly shipped to various ports in the Indian subcontinent after being loaded at the Batangas Steel Plant terminal. Due to the short distance, there is no need to ship them back and forth, thus saving a lot of transportation costs.

Even if sold at a normal price, it is more cost-effective than British steel imported from thousands of miles away.

Moreover, the State of Chu did not ask for much, just a share of the profits.

The bulk of the steel supply still comes from the UK, but it just gives the British Governor-General's Office another option, and the hope of success is great.

The British certainly could not hide what the expeditionary fleet did on Fuso Island.

Invisibly

If we can improve Chu's status in negotiations with the British, maybe we can make this happen, which would be perfect.

Zheng Guohui knows

The commercial negotiations on this trip of Chu State would never go smoothly. Even if it arrived in Kolkata, it was unclear whether those arrogant British colonial officials would receive it.

The British are known all over the world for being very picky and difficult to deal with.

Even if the deal is beneficial to both parties, the British may not buy it. Instead, they may make all kinds of incredibly harsh demands.

In just one sentence, I look down on you. What can you do?

What happened to the State of Chu?
There were hundreds of princely states under the jurisdiction of the British Indian subcontinent, but they all allowed the British to order them around, and they had to submit and be obedient subjects.

From the Middle East to North Africa, from Malaya to Canada, from Cape Town to Egypt, the British Empire had at least 2700 to kingdoms, covering an area of ​​more than million square kilometers. It was really something to be proud of.

In Asia, in addition to the Indian subcontinent, there are also Myanmar, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Oman, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, the various princely states of Malaya, etc., which are so powerful that it makes people's scalps numb.
The newly born Chu State had too shallow a foundation. In this world where the strong prey on the weak, it is not enough to just think that you are awesome. You need the recognition of the world powers to be awesome.

In this world
To oppose Britain was to oppose the whole world. France followed behind Britain as a thug. The Anglo-French forces fought from the Crimean Peninsula all the way to Peking, and Tsar Nicholas I was so angry that he vomited blood and died.

In order to befriend Britain, Prussia married Princess Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, as its princess consort. This is strength.

Actively integrating into the British pound trading circle is the wisest choice.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu took a deep breath. His gaze looked through the oval window at the tall and low spires of Manila's Royal City, which seemed deep and bright.

In terms of promoting trade liberalization, Chu and Britain have the same interests, which determines that the two sides have the greatest basis for cooperation.

If we unite, both will benefit; if we separate, both will suffer.

(End of this chapter)