In August, the Ryukyus are the most beautiful season of the year.

Bai Qi has recently become obsessed with fishing, and every evening he will drive a small boat alone to Tongxu Reef near Xiaohuang Island to fish.

The depth of the reef is only about 10 meters, and the water here is as crystal clear, and you can clearly see the colorful small fish on the bottom of the reef from the boat.

Bai Qi fishing is not for food, but for this quiet and leisurely, usually in an afternoon, no matter how much you catch in the end, Bai Qi will only choose the largest one to take back, and then release all the others.

This period of time is indeed leisurely, after the Japanese were driven out of the Ryukyus, although the soldiers and horses wanted to kill back to the Ryukyus, but before the completion of the army training, the Japanese would not do anything, so the days of Bai Qi during this period were very leisurely.

Generally speaking, it takes at least half a year to train a recruit to the point where he can go to war, and given the current efficiency of the Japanese, even if they are given a year, they may not be able to train a peasant into a qualified soldier.

Japan's main problem is still concentrated on finances, and the biggest problem of the current Japanese government is that it has no money, and it cannot even afford to buy weapons for the army, so no matter how fast the training progress, it is useless.

In comparison, Bai Qi's side can be described as strong, with the support of the Horse Group, the about 5,000 recruits on Bai Qi's side are all using the latest breech magazine rifles, and the troops are also equipped with heavy machine guns and 75mm rapid-fire guns.

Although there is a big gap in strength, Li Mu still feels dissatisfied, no, on August 15, Li Mu sent four of the latest armed patrol boats to the Ryukyus, once again strengthening the strength of Bai Qi's hands.

The four armed patrol boats were all propelled by the latest propellers, and each patrol boat was equipped with two 75-millimeter naval rapid-fire guns, as well as four 12.7-caliber heavy machine guns.

Speaking of the Japanese Navy, this is another tragedy.

Japan had just established its navy four years earlier, in 1872, and the current Japanese navy did not have any decent warships at all, relying only on a few sampans to maintain face.

At the beginning of this year, Japan's Ministry of the Navy proposed a ship purchase plan, hoping to purchase two decommissioned US steam warships to support the façade, but in the end the ship purchase plan was not approved, on the grounds that there was still no money.

Now with these four gunboats, in fact, Bai Qi already has the strength to attack the Japanese mainland, but Li Mu hopes that Bai Qi can keep a low profile for the time being, so Bai Qi can only go to Tongxu Reef every day to fish to relieve the depression in his heart.

It's really depressing, if Li Mu can loosen his mouth, Bai Qi will attack the Japanese mainland with four gunboats now, and when the time comes, he can't say that he will catch a few princesses and come back as maids, and if he has nothing to do, he will be bullied, so he will not live in vain in this life...

"General, general..."Yang Wei's shout interrupted Bai Qi's YY.

"What's wrong?" Bai Qi took off the hat buttoned on his face, turned over and sat up from the boat, and his tone was a little impatient.

"General, we have caught two Japanese fishing boats..."Yang Wei's voice was full of excitement.

Yang Wei is different from Bai Qi, Bai Qi is depressed and runs to fish, while Yang Wei is depressed and goes to sea to catch Japanese fishing boats.

In the past, if a Japanese fishing boat was caught, it would basically be scuttled on the spot, and as for the life or death of the fishermen, Yang Wei didn't have the leisure to care.

"And then..."Bai Qi could still calm down, knowing that if there was no accident, Yang Wei would not bother him.

"These two fishing boats are not out to fish, they are all rich people, according to their own accounts, they escaped from Edo, and the leader is called Tokugawa Tachiyan..."

Tokugawa, after hearing this surname, Bai Qi immediately thought of the last shogun, Tokugawa Keiki.

In fact, ten years ago, Emperor Meiji overthrew the rule of the shogunate through the Shogunate Movement, making the emperor the true national leader of Japan for the first time.

As soon as the name Tokugawa Tachiken heard it, it had something to do with the shogunate, and he was probably a descendant of the shogun, so he immediately became interested.

"Let's go back, let's go back and see..."Bai Qi was full of interest, and he immediately forgot about fishing or something.

When Bai Qi and Yang Wei were anxious to rush back, in the conference room in the military camp of Xiaohuandao, Tokugawa Liyan was also restless.

Contrary to what Shiraki imagined, Tokugawa Tachiyan was not a descendant of the shogun, but he also had a close relationship with the shogun.

Tokugawa Tachigo's family came from the famous Gozo family of the Shogunate period, which was three families that could use "Tokugawa" as a surname, and had a very special status in the Shogunate era, if the shogun died, but there were no descendants, the most suitable one of the three families would be selected as the new shogun.

This is how the last shogun, Tokugawa Yoshiki, came about.

Ten years ago, the Shogunate Movement not only completely overthrew the rule of the shogunate, but also dealt a heavy blow to the power of the Imperial Three Families.

The Japanese are indeed ruthless enough, ruthless to themselves, even more ruthless to others, and even more ruthless to their own internal enemies.

After the Meiji Emperor overthrew the rule of the shogunate, the 17-year-old boy Son of Heaven went on a killing spree, almost completely eradicating the imperial family, Tokugawa Liyan was lucky to escape the pursuit of the emperor's loyal forces under the protection of several retainers, and lurked incognito on Kyushu Island for ten years, until Hakuki led the Ryukyuan people to drive away the Japanese invaders, Tokugawa Riken fought desperately, hoping to complete revenge with the help of Hakuki's hand.

Although Tokugawa Liyan survived incognito, he was still very concerned about the Japanese government and the opposition, especially the contradictions and disputes between the Japanese government and the Shoma Group, Tokugawa Liyan knew very well, but even so, Tokugawa Liyan was not 100% sure that he had won the support of Bai Qi.

"My lord, don't be impatient, as long as we can show our worth, I believe that General Bai Qi will definitely let us get what we want." A middle-aged Humpty Dumpty man bowed behind Tokugawa and said.

Most of the Japanese figures are five short figures, and a height of 1.6 meters is tall for the Japanese, and after middle-aged fortune, the Japanese figure will be very funny, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the waist circumference of four feet is four feet.

Tokugawa Tatsuken is a young man who is not very old, and although his face is also weathered, relatively speaking, although he is not tall either, he looks much more coordinated because of his thinner body.

"Let's hope so, this is our last hope, no matter what, we also have to get the support of General Bai Qi..."

It is worth mentioning that the dialogue between Tokugawa Liyan and Humpty Dumpty just now is in Chinese, which is also an important manifestation of the popularity of Han culture in Japan, but at this time in Japan, only noble people are qualified to learn Chinese.

"The hatred of the country and the family has to be avenged, but it is still debatable that we adopt this method, if we introduce Westerners into Japan, then we are sinners of Japan, and after a hundred years, our ancestors will not forgive us." Another retainer looked sad, with confusion and helplessness in his voice.

There is probably no such thing as a "Japanese traitor" in Japan this year, and if there is no accident, Tokugawa said that their line should be the earliest Japanese traitor in Japan.

"The blood revenge of the clan has to be avenged, even with the help of external forces, we must set things right and restore the glory of the former shogunate, if we can't do this, our ancestors will not forgive us." Humpty Dumpty's tone was resolute before, and it seemed to him that it was obvious that the family hatred was greater than the national hatred.

"Say no more, since we're already here, let's face it." Tokugawa said that he did not want to back down, and there was nowhere to retreat.

Of course, Tokugawa is not willing to take this step if he can, but since he has already chosen, he should not regret it.

Outside the door, there was a sudden sound of the heels of leather boots bumping hard, which was the guards saluting, and Tokugawa Tatsuken immediately realized that the main owner had arrived.

Unlike the well-dressed and well-mannered Tokugawa Tatsuken and others, Bai Qi wore a long-sleeved shirt, a pair of waistpants with a bound body, and a pair of worn military boots on his feet, which looked a little unkempt and uninhibited.

Bai Qi's eyes were also unruly, after sitting down on the main seat, Bai Qi was not busy greeting Tokugawa Liyan and others, but looked Tokugawa Liyan up and down with sharp and rude eyes, and for a moment, Tokugawa Liyan felt very targeted by a poisonous snake.

"Your Excellency... Is it General Bai Qi? Tokugawa took the initiative to speak out.

"The contemptible person is Bai Qi, what do you want to see me?" Bai Qi was surprised by Tokugawa's fluency in Chinese.

"Introduce yourself, the contemptible Tokugawa Liyan, the retainers of the Meng family will not give up, and he is now the 16th Zhengyi General..."Tokugawa Liyan puffed up his chest, trying to impress Bai Qi.

"The position of General Zhengyi has been revoked, so you, the 16th generation, I'm afraid you are talking to yourself." Bai Qi unceremoniously tore off the last fig leaf of Tokugawa Liyan.

The shogun of the shogun refers to the shogun of Seiyi, and in Japan, this position is the real name of the shogun.

During the era of the shogunate, although the shogun nominally needed the emperor's canonization, the emperor actually had no say in the matter, so the first thing Emperor Meiji did after taking back his rights was to abolish the position.

By the way, in order to show the emperor's benevolence, the last shogun, Tokugawa Yoshiki, is still alive, although for Tokugawa Yoshiki, this is the real life is better than death.

Perhaps, there are rumors that Emperor Osamu himself is not pure, so no one knows whether the real Tokugawa Keiki is dead or not.

"You're right, it's true that we're talking to ourselves... Allow me to introduce myself to you once again, I am Tokugawa Tatsunobu from Edo, and if General Hakuki can give me a chance, then I will prove to you that the trust you have given me is absolutely worthy. Tokugawa gritted his teeth for a while before he calmed down again.

"Tell me, what do you want from me?" Bai Qi was noncommittal, picked up the teacup and took a sip, this is not the meaning of serving tea to guests.

"I don't know if General Bai Qi knows that the Japanese government is reorganizing the army in Kagoshima, and more than 30,000 soldiers are receiving military training in Kagoshima, and these soldiers will be trained in the next three months, and when General Bai Qi talks about how to deal with the siege of these 30,000 soldiers, I don't know if General Bai Qi has considered it?" Tokugawa is not nonsense, nor is it alarmist, in Tokugawa Liyan's opinion, with the current strength in Bai Qi's hands, it is indeed impossible to compete with 30,000 soldiers.

In other words, the population of the whole country of Ryukyu is only 300,000 people, and even if the army is exhausted, it can only pull up 10,000 or 20,000 people at most, which is not at all the same as Japan's war potential, although the Japanese government has no money, but compared with the Ryukyus, Japan has almost unlimited manpower, and it is not impossible to raise an army of millions.

"30,000 people, what does it matter, Japan does not have a navy, so it cannot carry out a cross-sea landing, they can't even land on Ryukyu Island, so what is the threat?" Bai Qi did not make a simple comparison of forces, and in Bai Qi's view, even if Japan trained more troops, it would not help.

"The general knows the truth that ants bite and kill elephants, if the general thinks that this mere more than 100 nautical miles can become a moat, then please forgive Tokugawa for taking the liberty of being presumptuous, Tokugawa will retire, and wish the general Wuyun prosperity..."As a descendant of the shogun, Tokugawa Liyan has his own pride, if Bai Qi has been treating himself with this attitude, then Tokugawa Liyan does not want to beg in every way.

Seeing that Tokugawa was going to be angry, Bai Qi laughed at this time: "Don't be angry, don't be angry, I have been addicted to playing chess with Pan Fuzi recently, and I was unconsciously affected by him.

That's right, the clouds and mountains and fog cover the east and west for a long time and don't talk about the right thing, good people will also be suffocated to death, it's better to be happy, and the success is successful, and the achievement is not pulled down.

"General Bai Qi, my imperial three families were almost killed after the emperor took power, hatred is not shared, if General Bai Qi does not dislike, Tokugawa is willing to help, only ask for the future general Wei Ling Kyoto, can avenge my family, Tokugawa Hara saddle before and after the horse, with the general horse head is to see..."

Hearing Tokugawa Liyan say so decisively, not only did the two retainers behind Tokugawa Liyan be dumbfounded, but Bai Qi couldn't help but be moved: "Don't worry, Tokugawa, you have a chance for the glory of the family..."