At a time when the situation in Japan began to change with the fall of the Ryukyus Kingdom and the joint oppression of Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Yingtianfu also welcomed an undesirable guest, the Russian Crown Prince Alexander Brown. Nikolayevich, who came directly from the Ryukyu Kingdom that had just been conquered by the Russian Empire on a warship—of course, this war should have been as easy as a garden walk, but it was stuck under the Shuri Imperial Castle for a full fifteen days, and the Russians unloaded a 68-pound cannon from the battleship "Alexander I" and bombarded it for five days before the Shuri City Wall collapsed, and finally used bloody hand-to-hand combat to destroy all the Japanese samurai who held in the Shuri Imperial Castle, and finally captured the capital of the Ryukyu Kingdom.

However, this victory was not complete, mainly because the king of the Ryukyu Kingdom, Shotai, and the princess Shomotozhen, were both killed in the battle of the royal castle (killed by the Japanese). In the end, the Russians could only find a random member of the royal family of the Ryukyu Kingdom and set up a puppet king.

But this war, which took more than half a month to kill, was still a great victory in the eyes of Zhu Ming's generals. After all, the Russians came around half the world to fight this battle, and after this battle, the Russians had a foothold under the nose of Daming. This made the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty secretly worry about it in their hearts.

But no matter what everyone thought in their hearts, everyone was very enthusiastic about the arrival of the Russian crown prince. In Fort Maria, in the name of a welcome reception, Chinese and foreign celebrities and envoys from various countries were invited to welcome the visiting Russian crown prince and others.

In Fort Maria that night, the most people seemed to be soldiers. The room was full of shining medals. The officers who jingle the spurs. Many of the officers still had very Western beards at the time. None of the hair or beard are black in color. Most of them were instructors at the Royal Army Military Academy in Yingtian or foreigners who served as advisers in the Ming Army and Navy, as well as Chinese generals of the Ming Army and Navy, as well as military attaches from various countries in China. They talked to each other either reservedly or passionately, all about the "Russo-Japanese War" that was about to be staged.

"In my opinion, the Russian crown prince's visit as scheduled has fully demonstrated Russia's will for peace, and the Ryukyu Kingdom should be the whole purpose of the Russians."

"Not necessarily, in fact, the location of the Ryukyu Kingdom is not particularly ideal, maybe the Russians will exchange the Ryukyu Kingdom for a port in Hokkaido and the founding of Japan, right? I don't think it makes much sense for them to occupy the Ryukyus, the Ryukyu country is too far away from Petropavrosk. And it's too nerve-wracking to rule a completely unfamiliar country......"

"But the question is, are the Japanese willing to exchange? After all, the Ryukyu Kingdom was a foreign domain. It's not a big deal to lose it, and what port in Hokkaido is the mainland of Japan, if the Russians have a foothold in the Japanese mainland, who knows what will happen next in the province? ”

"But does Japan have a choice? Although the Russians did not have a strong army, the harassment of 24 Russian warships off the coast of Japan would be enough to make it impossible for this small country to live in peace. ”

"But don't forget, the Ming Empire and Japan are allies, and the two sides are also related by marriage, if the Russians do too much, the Ming Empire will definitely not turn a blind eye!"

It's a time when it's noisy and lively. I heard the Chengqi official at the door shouting: "His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Empire, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of the Great Russian Empire has arrived in ......"

The whole hall fell silent. All the officers were in a straight posture and waited for Zhu Jishi and Alexander to arrive. When they were chatting and talking here just now, Zhu Jishi was also talking to Alexander and the British ambassador Robert Brown. The content of the Churchill talks, of course, was peace in East Asia.

Although the British Empire was eager to immediately fight in China and Russia, Qiu Fatzi still sang for peace in the talks just now, and also put forward several peace plans, the content of which was nothing more than Japan's founding reparations, and leasing a port on its mainland to Russia in exchange for the Ryukyus, and then China, Britain, Russia, and the United States jointly guaranteed the security and territorial integrity of Japan.

Of course, Zhu Jishi rejected such a plan, and he told the Russian crown prince during the talks: The Ming Dynasty and Japan are friends, and the two countries have signed a mutual assistance treaty, and Russia's invasion of the Japanese mainland means a serious infringement of the interests of the Ming Dynasty! In the event of a war, the Ming Dynasty will provide assistance to Japan according to the situation until it participates in the war!

This may sound tough, but Crown Prince Alexander still found out that the Ming Dynasty had tacitly acquiesced in Russia's occupation of the Ryukyu Kingdom. Now the Ming Dynasty only provided security for the Japanese mainland, and did not mention the Ryukyu Kingdom. However, the Russian crown prince still felt that he could press Japan again, after all, the geographical position of the Ryukyu Kingdom was not too ideal for Russia, and it was too far from the coast of Eastern Siberia, and it was difficult to echo the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago in between. If it is easy to deal with the Ming Navy, but once Russia goes to war with Britain and France, the Ryukyu Kingdom will definitely not be able to hold it. At that time, the home port of the Russian Pacific Fleet would have to be moved to Petropavlovsk on the Kamchatka Peninsula. So ideally, it would be to get a port in Hokkaido, Japan.

But now the Russians are in an unexpected trouble - Japan refuses to negotiate! Not to refuse the demands of Russia, but not to talk at all! There was no response at all to the intention of the negotiations released by Britain and the United States, and even Britain and the United States themselves could not reach enough high-level Japanese officials, and British and American ships could not enter Japan's main ports, so they could only pass letters to Japanese coastal defense patrol ships outside the ports. Therefore, in the meeting with Zhu Jishi, Alexander and Qiu Fatzi jointly put forward another request, hoping to send an envoy to negotiate directly with the Japanese shogun or emperor. Zhu Jishi only expressed his willingness to convey the British and Russian demands to the Japanese side, but there was no guarantee that the Japanese side would agree to receive the British and Russian envoys.

In addition to the talks on Japan and the Ryukyus, the demarcation of the border between China and Russia is also the highlight of today's talks. Zhu Jishi's position on this issue is still based on the "Treaty of Nebuchu" and the demarcation of the Sino-Russian border. Crown Prince Alexander proposed that the Sino-Russian border should be determined according to the current Line of Actual Control between the two countries, and that Russia must not give up the northern bank of the Amur River and Sakhalin Island in the eastern section of the Sino-Russian border. As for the central and western sections of the Sino-Russian border, the Ming did not yet have actual control over them, so negotiations could not take place - the position of the Russians had long been expected by Zhu Jishi. The series of castles and fortresses they built in the Far East were concentrated in the north bank of the Heilongjiang River, and the climate and environment on the north bank of the Heilongjiang River were still more conducive to human survival than the north of the Great Khing'an Mountains. If the Russians abandon this line, their only valuable strongholds in the Far East will be the city of Nebuchu (Russia's largest silver mine) and Petropavlovsk. Once these two strongholds are conquered by the Ming army, they may not even be able to keep Alaska!

Although the negotiations broke up unhappily, Zhu Jishi and Alexander still appeared in front of everyone with smiling expressions. Emperor Zhu walked in today, wearing a gray Western-style military uniform, wearing the generalissimo's epaulette, and a gold medal hanging on his chest. The hall erupted in enthusiastic cheers, and all the officers stood up and raised their hands - it looked like a German Nazi gathering in later generations, but the European military salute of this era was a Romanesque hand salute, which was also adopted by the Europeanized Ming army.

Looking at this scene in the hall, Crown Prince Alexander smiled and said to Zhu Jishi beside him in German: "Your Majesty of China, do you know what is the biggest gain I have gained from my visit to China this time?" ”

Zhu Jishi was stunned, and Alexander asked himself again and said: "It is the determination and confidence to reform the backward serfdom system in Russia...... In just a few years, you have transformed an ancient country from the Middle Ages into a semi-Westernized and civilized state, with a parliament, a constitution, so many Western-style factories, hundreds of miles of railroads, and an antique and anachronistic education system. If such a huge change could take place in ancient China, how could a small serfdom become a stumbling block to Russia's progress? So I'm going to move it! (To be continued......)