Chapter 3522
Chapter 3522
Chapter 3522
When Hai Han sent troops to attack Hirado Domain, it had a significant impact on the trade of Portugal and the Netherlands in Japan. Fortunately, they were not Hai Han’s main target, so they did not suffer any casualties during the battle.
However, Hai Han's act of razing Hirado Castle to the ground completely cut off the possibility of the Hirado domain making a comeback. The Portuguese and Dutch trading houses in Hirado had to all move to Nagasaki and merge with the agencies stationed there.
At that time, Su Keyi had similar ideas to Su Yongshan's now, believing that Hai Han had no intention of settling in Japan. However, a few years later, Hai Han announced that it would establish a permanent military base in Sasebo Bay. Su Keyi then realized that Hai Han was not without interest in Japan, but just looked down upon the land of Hirado Island.
But what puzzled Su Keyi was that after Hai Han occupied Sasebo Bay and established a military base, it did not use it as a bridgehead to capture cities and territories in Japan. Instead, it exercised great restraint and stopped there, without further expanding its territory in Japan.
It seems that the purpose of Hai Han establishing this military base is simply to maintain deterrence against Japan, rather than to conquer this island nation.
As for the conflict between the local forces in Kyushu, Japan and the Tokugawa shogunate, a discerning person like Su Keyi could certainly see the signs of Hai Han's manipulation, but what he still didn't understand was why Hai Han wanted to provoke such a conflict.
Now it seems that a more reasonable explanation is that Hai Han could take advantage of Japan’s internal conflicts, sell large quantities of arms to various forces, and thereby seek greater benefits in Japan.
But there are many things that don't make sense. The most obvious one is that why did Hai Han make public such a thing that should make a lot of money quietly and also invite politicians from various countries to Japan for so-called inspection and mediation?
The outside world gets the impression that Hai Han wishes all countries in the world would pay attention to Japan and watch the civil war in this country together. This is obviously not just for the purpose of selling arms.
Whether this is to use Japan as a model to bring a little deterrence to other countries, or whether Hai Han has other ulterior motives, Su Keyi is unable to tell clearly based on the information currently available.
But there is one thing he can be sure of. Hai Han has made so many arrangements for this and the plan must be very big. Japan is likely to face a great disaster in the future.
However, weakening Japan will not do any harm to the Netherlands. After all, Japan's few foreign trade channels are now almost all in the hands of Hai Han and its followers. If the situation becomes chaotic, the Netherlands may get a chance to find another way out.
Yue Shizong, who came here on behalf of the Ming Dynasty, was also aware of this situation.
When it comes to political intrigue, the gap between Ming Dynasty and Hai Han is obviously not as big as in the field of science and technology. Yue Shizong has already vaguely seen some of the methods used by Hai Han in Japan.
He thought that Hai Han wanted to solve the hidden danger of Japan once and for all, but it was hard to tell how the situation would develop. After all, he had very little information about the strength of the two conflicting parties, so it was difficult for him to make an accurate judgment.
Although the Ming Dynasty has now completely severed ties with Japan, Yue Shizong is still happy to see Hai Han causing trouble in Japan, as this can at least indirectly help the Ming Dynasty share some of the pressure.
Although Yue Shizong could understand the situation created by Hai Han, he found it difficult to share his views with others. Many countries came here to watch the fun, but few were willing to stand with Ming. Any sharing of his views would probably be quickly heard by the Hai Han people.
Given such circumstances, Yue Shizong could only remain silent and not make any comments on what was happening in Japan.
At the same time, he secretly felt fortunate. If Hai Han wanted to instigate a large-scale civil war in Ming, it would probably be much easier than manipulating Japan. Hai Han had never stopped bribing Ming officials. As long as Hai Han was willing, it would not be difficult to support a few more Xu Xinsu in the heartland of Ming. But so far, Hai Han did not seem to have tried to weaken Ming by creating a civil war.
In other words, Hai Han chose a direct confrontation approach to erode the Ming Dynasty.
Is Hai Han kindhearted? Yue Shizong did not think so. He would rather see it as Hai Han relying on its strength to defeat Ming on the battlefield in order to establish its authoritarian image.
On the second night after arriving in Sasebo Bay, Hai Han once again arranged a face-to-face debate between Sakai Tadamori and Nabeshima Mitsushige.
After last night's debate, the guests of the delegation have understood that the purpose of the debate between the two is to win support from the international community for their camp.
It is common in international relations to resolve conflicts through negotiation, but in the debate between the two parties, there seemed to be little willingness to resolve the problem. Instead, both parties were trying to blame the other party for its mistakes and portray themselves as the righteous party.
Moreover, Hai Han does not seem to have shown any willingness to mediate the conflict, but is instead inducing all parties to choose to support one side.
In this debate, Mitsushima Nabeshige swept away the embarrassment and passivity of yesterday and appeared confident in his speech. He even demanded that the Tokugawa shogunate immediately stop usurping power, return the ruling power to the emperor in Kyoto Imperial Garden and await his fate.
Otherwise, the Kyushu coalition will uphold justice, attack the Tokugawa shogunate, and regain power for the emperor.
As soon as Mitsushige Nabeshima said this, there was an uproar at the table.
It was only at this time that many people realized that the Tokugawa shogunate was a usurpation of power by ministers, and that the real ruler had been sidelined and turned into a puppet, so that the outside world only knew about the shogunate but not the existence of the emperor.
However, the countries of the people present, except Hai Han, are all monarchies, and they naturally hate the behavior of powerful ministers undermining the power of the ruler. Even if the rulers of some countries themselves came to power through powerful ministers, they would not regard this as the right way.
As soon as Nabeshima Mitsushige said this, the shogunate represented by Sakai Tadamayo immediately became the villain. At this time, it is difficult to whitewash the actual nature of the shogunate by saying nonsense like "the shogunate governs the world on behalf of the emperor".
Of course, Mitsushige Nabeshima was not a conservative who was loyal to the emperor. The reason why he used this matter to attack the shogunate was, of course, the idea that Shi Diwen gave him last night.
As a result, the Kyushu coalition became the party that maintained the legitimacy of imperial power, while the Tokugawa shogunate became the thief who stole the country and was exposed in public. The positions of the two sides immediately reversed, and Mitsushige Nabeshima quickly gained the upper hand.
Finally, Sakai Tadamasa was forced to say: "If the Kyushu coalition has the ability, they can go to Kyoto and ask His Majesty the Emperor to show up and speak out, and remove the Tokugawa Shogun from office."
Nabeshima Mitsushige said without showing any weakness: "Don't worry, the coalition forces will definitely go, so don't come out and beg for mercy when the time comes!"