Chapter 424 Little Japan Makes an Assassination Plan
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Li Guolou led his fifteen Geshhars to leave the Dagukou Fort. Nearly a hundred instructors and students from the Xinwu Hall would still study in Dagukou for a while. He did not like to show off, so the group did not carry any evaders. The sign of silence was not sounded, and no gong was sounded to clear the way. Even the yellow dragon flag of the imperial envoy was folded and was not placed on the carriage. There were only three carriages, two of which contained personal belongings, some of which were belongings of his subordinates, and Some seafood, scallops, and tea given to him by Admiral Yulu. [Baidu Search Member Login]
Li Guolou still adhered to the etiquette in officialdom. He would not accept expensive gifts from local officials. However, he would still accept local specialties and other food as long as they were not precious food. He still abided by human common sense. , if the water is clear, there will be no fish, and we cannot let down the wishes of our colleagues.
Four horses pull a carriage, one coachman, and one guard. The three carriages are composed of six Goshhars. The other nine Goshhars ride tall horses. The impressive guards are in front and behind the carriages. Each carriage There are three horses with empty saddles behind them, for a total of nine horses, which are used alternately.
Li Guolou, Xie Liya, and Bai Lian were sitting in a carriage, lying on soft couches, hugging each other comfortably. The fatigue of the journey made them a little lazy, and they looked forward to returning to the government office in Tianjin City as soon as possible. Now Li Guolou is As an imperial envoy, he could not even return home. Even if he returned to the capital, he would have to stay in Xianliang Temple first, meet the emperor, and then return home.
Li Guolou hugged the two beauties, opened his mouth, and a piece of candied fruit entered his mouth. He chewed the sour and sweet snacks and said with a smile: "With you two waiting for me, the journey is much easier. I usually still Are you going to ride a horse and eat ashes?"
Xie Liya gave Li Guolou a kiss and said with a smile: "My husband works so hard, of course we both have to serve you well."
Bai Lian was still dissatisfied and glanced at him and said: "There are no imperial ministers like you in the world, who are not at all ostentatious. No wonder those ruffians are not afraid of you. Only with dignity can one have power. Even the imperial ministers in the play know how to walk?" "
Li Guolou touched his chin, laughed and said: "The imperial envoys in the play all have three strands of beard. Your husband has not grown a beard yet? I am the only person in the world who has reached my position without relying on cuteness. Let me I still can't let go of putting on airs in front of people of several decades."
The carriage rocked, and Bai Lian fell into Li Guolou's arms. She said shyly: "Brother Xiaolou is so bad. He is teasing me again for coming to the door automatically. I won't pay attention to you anymore."
Li Guolou pinched Bai Lian's face and said lewdly: "Grandma Ninth is the thickest-skinned. Let's take a shower together at night."
The three of them were flirting and flirting on the carriage, killing time on the journey. They did not expect that a death trap was waiting for them. Someone wanted to kill Li Guolou, and it was someone who had never had any grudge against Li Guolou.
All of this was the result of the emergence of Li Guolou, the vigorous establishment of the Qing Dynasty's modernization and restructuring, and the drive towards modernization of the Qing Empire.
This starts with Japan, a neighbor of the Qing Empire with only a strip of water. In December 1871, more than 60 Ryukyu people were caught in a typhoon on a boat and drifted to the south of Taiwan. 54 of them were killed by Taiwanese indigenous residents, and the others were sent away by the Qing government. Return home.
In 1872, Japan coerced Ryukyu to become its "internal vassal": it "canonized" Shang Tai as the Ryukyu vassal king. Japan used the murder of Ryukyu drifters in Taiwan as an excuse. The US Consul General in Xiamen, Charles Lee Xiande, claimed to be a Taiwan expert.
With the help of Li Xiande, he immediately launched an attack on the Qing government and lodged a strong protest to the Qing government.
In November 1873, the Japanese government sent Foreign Secretary Fushima Tanedomi to China. Attachment Yanagihara Maemitsu went to the Prime Minister's Office of the Qing government to inquire about the murder of Ryukyu drifters, and under the guise of exchanging the "Regulations on Reconciliation" between China and Japan, he spied on the Qing court.
Opposite Taiwan
The deputy envoy Yanagi Yuanmaeguang deceived the Prime Minister's Yamen Minister Mao Changxi into not understanding the concept of modern Western sovereignty, and misunderstood that the "Fanshe" in eastern Taiwan was not the real concept of Taiwan's sovereignty.
All owned by China.
The Qing Dynasty was so complacent that it dug a hole for itself without realizing it. Japan's excuse for invading Taiwan was the "theory that the land has no owner", which is to misinterpret the four words expressed by Qing court officials as "the land has been transformed into foreign countries and it is inconvenient to govern" as "the land has no owner".
"Unowned", it is not Chinese territory, so Japan can occupy it.
This is admittedly a sophistry, but the Japanese government's sophistry has historical origins that can be traced back to February 1867, when the American merchant ship "Pirates" crashed off the east coast of Taiwan, and the people who landed were killed by local "shengban".
The U.S. Consul in Xiamen, Charles Lixian, went to the Yamen of the Governor of Fujian and Zhejiang to negotiate. In order to shirk responsibility, the local officials of the Qing court put forward the argument that the local native tribes "were not returned to the king."
Li Xiande could not accept the excuses of the Qing court officials and reproached: "Over the past two hundred years, the Chinese activities in Taiwan have gradually expanded from the west coast to the east coast in conjunction with the Chinese government's administrative power over Taiwan.
In fact, Shengfan has never been recognized as having the land where he currently lives.
The residents of the West Bank often buy products from the Shengfan area, and the camphor produced in the Shengfan area has become a monopoly of the Taiwanese government. Outsiders are not allowed to freely purchase and export it. Violators will be severely punished. The so-called Shengfan area is not allowed to be exported.
There is no basis for the claim that it is under China's jurisdiction."
Liu Mingdeng, the commander-in-chief of Fujian Taiwan Town, who directly negotiated with Li Xiande, and Wu Dating, Fujian Taiwan Taoist scholar and political scholar, began their memorial to the court on this matter by saying: "The land where birds grow is the path of birds and the intestines of sheep, and the deep forests are dense.
, since it is rarely seen by humans and not included in the territory, our court has set up a ban on native cattle and strictly prevents entry and exit. Therefore, it is cruel and heavy on human life, and the intention is far-reaching."
These local officials, who were deeply influenced by China's traditional view of the world but knew nothing about the concept of territorial sovereignty in the modern world, were complacent in thinking that they had found an excellent excuse to shirk responsibility for the incident.
Therefore, in the memorial, he thought wishfully: "Foreigners should also forgive me because the people are not Chinese people, the land is not localized, and I am trying to conquer the sun.
This method of categorizing governance through compilation of civilians, cooked fan, and raw fan, as well as the political discourse system of "transforming the outside" and "turning the inside" derived from it, are all based on the extent and limits of the enlightenment etiquette.
, and has nothing to do with boundaries. Therefore, in the view of the Qing court, there is nothing wrong with describing the "Fan land" in eastern Taiwan as "not returned to the king" and "born outside the Fan", and it can be regarded as a successful negotiation worth learning from.
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The American consul Li Xiande could not forgive him. He could not understand the Qing officials' view of the world. He could only interpret the failure of Fan Di to return to the king as the Qing court's local officials' sophistry: "Fan Di is not Chinese territory, so China is against the Fans for killing American sailors."
Irresponsible".
In Li Xiande's view, this way of shirking responsibility is simply unreasonable.
Japan, with ulterior motives, played with the Qing court's outdated view of nature. This was exactly what the Japanese wanted the Qing court to do. The local officials in Taiwan did not realize at all that this matter was related to China's territorial sovereignty in eastern Taiwan.
It was not until May that the Qing court understood Japan's true intentions. Xixiang, the commander of the Japanese army's anti-Japanese army, sent a note from General Xixiang to send troops to Taiwan to Li Henian, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang. Unexpectedly, he encountered a strong counterattack by Li.
Li sent successive notes to Xixiang Congdao after May 11, saying: "This department has investigated the entire territory of Taiwan, which has been subject to the territory of our country for a long time. Although the indigenous people are different in raw and cooked forms, they have been eating hair and practicing soil for more than 200 years..." ····Cha Wan Guo Public Law says: All plants, animals, and residents in the territory, whether native to the soil or from outside, should be governed by local laws. ·····According to these articles, Taiwan is China's territory, Shengfang, must belong to China, and should be governed by Chinese laws. It should not be allowed to be allowed to be overridden by other countries. I hereby take note of the Lieutenant General of Japan, saying that Shengfang will massacre the refugees in Taiwan. I have been ordered to lead troops deep into the land to kill them. As a punishment, the murderer who continued to show violence and killed innocent people during his lifetime must be punished according to Chinese laws. However, the whole of Taiwan belongs to China, and the Japanese government has not negotiated with the Prime Minister's Office to cooperate. How to deal with it? Just go ahead and lead the troops forward. This is not only contrary to the public laws of all countries, but also inconsistent with the first and second articles of the peace treaty exchanged in the ten years of Tongzhi."
Li Henian's sudden toughness of attitude was due to Western countries' warnings to the Qing court: First, the British Ambassador to China, William Wytoma, wrote to the Prime Minister's Office on April 18, informing the Qing court of Japan's dispatch of troops to Taiwan, and in the letter asked about "life" "Whether the place where the Taiwanese student lives is included in the Chinese territory"; later, the British and French envoys as well as the Chief Taxation Secretary Hurd also went to the Prime Minister's Yamen to inquire whether the place where the Taiwanese student lived was Chinese territory.
What is particularly important is that the British, through their envoys in China, informed China of the information obtained by the British Ambassador to Japan Parkes: "According to the opinions of the East, the island of Taiwan originates from Dinan somewhere, which is not within the territory of China."
Witoma emphasized that the Qing court's determination of Taiwan's sovereignty was closely related to Britain's diplomatic attitude on the matter. If China believed that Taiwan did not belong to China's territory, the British government would not impose any restrictions on the British people's assistance to Japan in sending troops to Taiwan; if If the Qing court determined that Taiwan belonged to China, the British government would explicitly prohibit the British people from participating in the Japanese troops sending troops to Taiwan. The opinions held by France and the United States were roughly similar to those of the United Kingdom.
For this reason, the Qing government issued an edict on May 14, stating: "The place where the birthplace is born is under the jurisdiction of China, and Japan cannot be allowed to spy on it."
He also sent Shen Baozhen to lead the steamship army to inspect the Shengfan area in Taiwan in the name of patrol: "Be calm and prepare with camera." Li Henian's tough note on May 11 was completely consistent with the spirit of the later edict. , France, and the United States also sent notes to the Qing court, expressing their disapproval of Japan's actions.
However, Li Henian was obviously still not clear about territorial sovereignty. One of his later memorials returned to the old saying in Tianxiaguan that "the land does not belong to the boundary": "Only if provocations on the border are easy to open but not easy to eliminate, then in the hinterland of the land, after all, There is a distinction. If the Japanese soldiers invade the hinterland of Taiwan, they should supervise the command and encourage the troops to join forces to suppress them. If they want to take revenge on Japanese soldiers just in the name of killing Ryukyu refugees, they should abide by the contract and not make any sudden accusations of crime. Ask for it so as not to provoke yourself."
This distinction between "Fan Di" and "Heartland" was inevitably misinterpreted by Japan as "Fan Di" has no owner. Therefore, the Prime Minister's Office issued another edict on June 5, sternly emphasizing: "Although Fan Di is in a desolate state, it is still within the territory of China." , which killed Japanese refugees, should be handled by China in a fair manner. Why did Japan suddenly raise troops and invade the country? If it is said that the country is only seeking revenge against the Japanese and has not disturbed the hinterland, but allows the barbarians to fight, it will be controlled by foreign countries. He despises and covets again, the quarrel cannot be opened, and the system must not be lost. The governor should only follow the contract and theory, prevent the troops from returning, and make peace with Dun. He must not treat the territory as different from the hinterland and let him do whatever he wants."
The concepts of "land" and "hinterland" in Tianxiaguan must be subordinated to territorial sovereignty under the world view. This was the clearest statement by the Qing court that Taiwan was Chinese territory, and it played the most critical role in thwarting the Japanese invasion of Taiwan.
The matter finally came to the Prime Minister's Office. After the discussion, the Prime Minister's Office did not deny the terms of negotiation between Fujian and Zhejiang, but at the same time secretly instructed the relevant officials in Fujian and Zhejiang, specifically emphasizing the territorial ownership issue of Taiwan's Shengfan area: "Tell Yisheng Although the country cannot be restrained by law, its territory is the territory of the Qing Dynasty. When discussing with the country's consuls and others, we still cannot expose the idea that it is not part of China's territory and make foreigners dissatisfied."
In the political discourse system of the Prime Minister's Office: 1. Taiwan's "Shengfan" area belongs to the Qing Dynasty and is undoubtedly the territory of the Qing Dynasty.
2. "Shengfan" has not been classified as "king", and Chinese law cannot govern "Shengfan". The two can coexist without conflict. The latter is not a negation of the former. The former is similar to the territorial sovereignty declaration of the modern West. , the latter is based on the traditional Chinese view of the world.
In the traditional world view system, the general outline is the whole world, not the royal land. The central dynasties of past dynasties regard themselves as the center of civilization, radiating outward from the center, and there are different levels according to the degree of civilization.
In turn, they include: Fan, Miao, Yi and local chieftains who have lived in the country for generations and guarded the country's borders;
The four descendants of the vassal family who guard the gate and pay tribute as ministers;
Outside the vassals, there is an unknown land. Its classic description is: the Qing Dynasty lives in the world, and the four barbarians live in the corners of the world. China, barbarians, Rong and Di people from the five directions share the "world" and live together in the "four seas". This There is no specific boundary of territorial sovereignty in this "view of the world", everything depends on the degree of "civilization and enlightenment".
Yanagihara Maemitsu proposed: "In the land of Taiwan, your country only governed half of the island. In the eastern part of the island, your country did not exercise political power at all. The Fans still maintained their independence. In the winter of last year, our people He drifted to this place and was plundered and killed, so our government will send envoys to investigate."
Mao Changxi, the minister of the Prime Minister's Office, replied: "Now that I have heard about the killing of the Liu people by the Fan people, I belong to the two islands, and the people who belong to the soil kill each other. The decision is mine. I feel sorry for the Liu people. I have my own measures. How can I predict it?" I don’t care about your country’s affairs.”
Yanagihara Maemitsu argued that Ryukyu was already part of Japan, and the Qing government should punish those who killed Ryukyu people.
Mao Changxi said: "Those who kill people are all born as slaves, so even if they put aside the transformation, they will not obey the king's transformation."
Yanagihara Maemitsu said: "If you cause harm to people, your country will not be cured, but I will punish the islanders."
The Qing government ignored Japan's protests for a simple reason: both Ryukyu and Taiwan were vassal states of the Qing Dynasty, and there was no need for Japan to make irresponsible remarks.
Japan, however, harbored a grudge after gaining nothing and wanted to take revenge. The Japanese cabinet had formulated a plan to invade Taiwan. It purchased two British-built cruisers two years earlier and established a modern navy. Japan was intensifying its military strength and pursuing its glory. At the moment when Yang Lue deceived the Qing Empire, the Qing Dynasty suddenly turned out to be a financial manager, Li Guolou, who worked hard to build the Qing Empire based on new ideas. This frightened the Japanese cabinet. Under the planning of Yanagihara Maemitsu, an assassination attempt was carried out. Imperial Envoy Li Guolou's actions have quietly begun.