After all, King Shangtai is just a young man in his twenties. Although he has received the education of a king since childhood, impatience is a common problem among young people. How could he be the opponent of the cunning Jin Changsen?
Jin Changsen is a true politician, a thorough pragmatist. There is no so-called pro-China and pro-Japanese factions in his heart. In his eyes, there is only a cold balance of interests, and following the strong is his motto. .
"Your Majesty, please contact Kirigen Kayama immediately and open Shuri Castle to welcome the Japanese army... I know you may think that I am an annoying pro-Japanese faction, but I tell your Majesty frankly that I am not, I just want the ancestral temple of the Ryukyu royal family. Can last forever..."
"Your Majesty, the Japanese have actually ruled Ryukyu for more than two hundred years. The Japanese influence in Ryukyu has become extremely entrenched. The three thousand armored ashigaru are all the elites of the Shimadzu family, and there are more than ten Japanese ships on the sea. Although the artillery on the warship cannot defeat the foreigners, it is more than enough to deal with us..."
"The most frightening thing is that the more than 100,000 Japanese people have never been of one mind with us. They will definitely be organized when the war breaks out, and what do we have? The only warriors in the country who can fight are the three thousand on the city wall... …”
What Jin Changsen said was the ironclad truth, and King Shangtai couldn't refute it at all. He looked at the fire all over the city and the shouts of killing floating in the wind, and felt a chill in his heart. Please come to more and faster chapters.
Just when King Shangtai was about to compromise, a loud shout suddenly sounded behind the two of them: "Your Majesty, please don't listen to his deception. Now we are on the verge of death. Do you want to be destroyed by the Japanese?" It was the pro-China faction who came over. Cai Mao, the leader of the Royal Forest Army, and Lin Yuanmiao, the Minister of Household Affairs.
Cai Mao stared at Jin Changsen angrily, wishing to poke a transparent hole in him with a sword. "Your Majesty, listen to the cries of war and countless fires all over the city. What does this prove? This proves that Mr. Xiao has instigated the whole city. There are hundreds of thousands of Chinese fighting there..."
"Jin Changsen! Take a closer look with your dizzy eyes. If it were just Mr. Xiao's dozens of guards, even if there were one or two hundred more people, could they have stirred up such a big war? How can you tell lies with your eyes open? It is indeed natural..."
At this time, Lin Yuanmiao also spoke: "Your Majesty, those who have achieved great things since ancient times have never been timid or have both sides. You have reached an agreement with Mr. Xiao. Since you have chosen the mainland across the sea, don't waver anymore..."
At this time, Lin Yuanmiao suddenly knelt on the ground and cried, "Your Majesty, we can win. As long as you make a will to let the millions of Ryukyu people stand on the side of the Chinese and fight the Japanese together, we will win..."
When Jin Changsen heard this, he went crazy at the time. He jumped on his feet and yelled, "You two bastards, are you going to kill the Ryukyu Kingdom? Mobilize the entire people to fight, are you going to go to war with Japan? You know how far away Kagoshima is. It only takes more than a day to reach Naha by sea, and it is not too much to say that it starts in the morning and arrives in the evening. The first update. But what about the Qing Dynasty? It takes three or four days to get to Naha from the nearest Ningbo. Before the Qing people came, our king I'm afraid he has been kidnapped long ago..."
"You two are national traitors!" Jin Changsen scolded while jumping on his feet, showing no signs of being polite. "You two lunatics, are you trying to kill the Ryukyu Kingdom and His Majesty?"
"Let me ask you one last question. I won't go into details if it's far away. In the more than five hundred years since the Ming Dynasty, when did the Han army come to Naha? When the Shimazu family invaded Ryukyu, where were the Ming Dynasty's troops? ? When the Japanese exploited us for more than two hundred years, what were the emperors of the Ming and Qing Dynasties doing!"
"You stupid bastards, are you going to destroy the ancestral temple of the Shang family? I, I, I... I will fight with you!" After saying that, Jin Changsen rushed forward and started fighting with Cai Maosi.
Perhaps it was Jin Changsen's words that made it difficult to distinguish. General Cai Mao, who was highly skilled in martial arts, was temporarily deprived of his momentum and just passively resisted. At this time, Lin Yuanmiao also gave up. He shouted and joined the battle circle, "Jin Changsen! You want to be the slaves of the Japanese and we don't want to be. We have never expected the emperor on the opposite continent..."
"What we are counting on is Xiao Letian, the great master of Western learning. You don't understand what we are thinking about..." After saying this, he knocked off Jin Changsen's hat with a slap.
Maybe it was this slap, or maybe it was Lin Yuanmiao's words that shocked Jin Changsen. He took a few steps back, leaned against the wall and looked at the two of them in disbelief.
"Crazy, you two are really crazy. You actually regard a scholar who writes books as your support? Are you naive or stupid?" Jin Changsen was speechless in the end, looking at the two old acquaintances in front of him It's like I don't know him.
The dispute on the city wall made the surrounding soldiers look dumbfounded. They all hid far away and no one dared to come and interfere. During the conflict, King Shangtai's face was full of confusion. He didn't know how to resolve the conflict at all.
"Crazy? You can say we are crazy, because if we are not crazy, then the only thing waiting for the Ryukyu Kingdom is destruction." Lin Yuanmiao wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and said in a low voice.
"To tell you the truth, we are all admirers of Xiao Letian's Western learning. In the book "The Journey to the West", Mr. Xiao mentioned more than once that this is a major change that has not happened in three thousand years, and this is a country that advocates iron, blood and jungle. The great era of laws..."
"From now on, human society will undergo tremendous changes. Some countries will revive, some will decline, and even new countries will appear out of thin air. Of course, countless declining civilizations will also perish..."
"Ryukyu is already too weak to recover. If you continue to delay this according to your ideal, it may give us a few years of breathing time, but our final end will be destruction..."
What Xiao Letian said is not alarmist. Taking 1865 as the benchmark and pushing back more than thirty years, it was the era of great changes in human civilization from the first industrial revolution to the second industrial revolution. The first update is also in this era of great technological development. Countless countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America have perished, and countless emerging countries have risen.
This nearly 30-year technological revolution has greatly promoted the development of productivity and rapidly increased the power of industry. The power of capitalism can be described as violent.
Internal combustion engines, armored battleships, telegraph technology, electric power technology, brand new weapon systems, biochemical technology... and other disciplines have developed rapidly. Not only has human productivity been greatly improved, but the destructive power has also begun to increase exponentially.
Emerging countries, which had been suppressed by the old capitalist countries in the past, are catching up in this great change, using brand-new military technology and military concepts to challenge the status of the old empires.
The two world wars broke out against this background. Moreover, according to the original historical track, Japan only officially entered the club of great powers after catching up with the last train of this great change.
During the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese not only received sky-high compensation, but also gained Korea and Taiwan. As for the poor Ryukyu Kingdom, it had been annexed before the Sino-Japanese War.
In fact, in Xiao Letian's book, the power of industry is mentioned more than once, and Xiao Letian elaborated on the first industrial revolution in great detail. In extremely simple language, he told people in the entire Chinese-speaking circle why Britain became a great power and what the profound truth lies in it.
Just because they don’t understand this truth, countless ancient countries have become colonies of the empire on which the sun never sets, and countless once-splendid civilizations have collapsed under the influence of industrial power.
Now, precisely because of the emergence of Xiao Letian, the Western world has finally become less mysterious. Elites from various countries under the East Asian Han civilization system finally no longer have to treat foreigners like ghosts.
But when Xiao Letian tore apart the fog on the foreigners, these elites were completely dumbfounded. They discovered that the Western civilization under the camouflage was not some magic clown. What these foreigners held in their hands was to change the world. The powerful power, their heads are filled with the cold law of the jungle.
Without any warmth or morality, these powers can unceremoniously destroy ancient civilizations that have existed for thousands of years for their own benefit, not to mention a small Ryukyu.
"Brother Jin, if the Ryukyu Kingdom continues to survive according to your way, our fate will be either annexed by the Japanese or other powers. The ancestral temple of the Shang Dynasty will not be saved at all... I know that we are gambling, but now there is no other choice but to gamble. What other ways do we in Ryukyu have to survive?"
General Cai Mao of the Royal Forest Army said earnestly, "Mr. Xiao once had a secret meeting with us. He told us that in the future, the struggle for hegemony between countries will be based on comprehensive national strength, rather than simple territory size and population. That is purely agricultural empire." The old idea..."
"If the old thinking is correct, Britain, a small island country, cannot become an empire on which the sun never sets. Of course, we have never expected that Ryukyu will be able to compete for global hegemony, but Mr. Xiao said that as long as we work hard and work hard for ten In the year, the Ryukyu Kingdom will at least have the strength to protect itself..."
Jin Changsen shook his head, as if trying to digest the information in his mind, "Is this the promise Xiao Letian gave you? We are a small Ryukyu, a poor and weak country where the crops of one poor person and two white people cannot feed the people, what do you still want?" Want the strength to protect yourself? He is lying to you, are you stupid..."
Unexpectedly, King Shang Tai, Cai Hao, and Lin Yuanmiao actually shook their heads at the same time. "Mr. Xiao didn't make any promises to us. He just said it was possible. Everything is possible. Mr. Xiao has never promised anything..."
Jin Changsen was completely defeated. He found that he could no longer understand the other party's thinking. He was so depressed that he almost vomited blood. "No promises? You...you are so naive. We are running a country..."
In the end, Jin Changsen couldn't speak anymore. He bowed and saluted His Majesty, "Your Majesty, the situation is so urgent. Let's not engage in verbal disputes. Everything will be decided by Your Majesty..." Cai Hao and Lin Yuanmiao also saluted and said, " Please ask the Holy Judge..."
King Shangtai was almost crying. He glanced at the burning Naha with his left glance, at Aiqing beside him with his right glance, and then looked back at the imperial city that had gone through hundreds of years of vicissitudes. The young king had no choice at all.
"This, this, this...what should I do..."
At this moment, there was suddenly an earth-shattering explosion from the distant dock, and the flames shot straight into the sky, and the soldiers on the city wall shrank down in fear.
Everyone turned to look, only to find that a large ball of fire lighted up at the dock. In the light, the foreign warships and the fighting people were vaguely visible. The hearts of everyone present were in their throats.
"Close the city gate! We are neutral, we maintain our neutrality, we will not help anyone..."
Jin Changsen's face was filled with joy, "Your Majesty, His Majesty..." But the two important ministers of the pro-China faction shook their heads and sighed in disappointment. Under the order of King Shangtai, the last army stationed outside the city gate entered the city.
Shuri Castle finally became an isolated island in the storm.
