Lin Yiqing also smiled: "When I come back, I must have a good look." ”

Saigo Takamori nodded with a smile, Lin Yiqing saluted and said goodbye, turned to leave, and Saigo Takamori watched his figure disappear at the door before turning his head.

"Kato, it's good to do it yourself......" Saigo Takamori said secretly in his heart.

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

In his sleep, Ito Hirobumi somehow returned to the Prime Minister's National Affairs Yamen in Beijing, the capital of the Qianji Kingdom, at 8:30 a.m. on November 25, Meiji 7.

Ito Hirobumi took the Japanese text of the treaty that the clerk of the cadre had placed in front of him and read it.

He looked at it so carefully, almost word by word.

After reading the treaty, when his eyes fell on the signing place, he suddenly became dull, and his hands trembled.

At this time, Ito Hirobumi's heart was full of sadness.

A clerk of the cadre side handed over the pen, ink, paper and inkstone, and Ito Hirobumi mechanically picked up the brush, and looked at the signing place of the treaty text, Ito Hirobumi's arm froze suddenly.

At this time, the brush in his hand seemed to weigh a thousand pounds.

Ito Hirofumi looked at the opposite side, only to see Lin Yizhe sitting opposite, calmly signed his name on the text of the treaty, after he finished writing, put down the pen, took the customs defense seal from a huge seal box, dipped it in the vermilion seal clay, stamped it on the text, and then took a small green jade seal (Lin Yizhe's private seal), stamped next to his name.

Seeing Hayashi Yizhe's movements, Ito Hirobumi looked at the brush in his hand again. Tears flowed instantly.

He knows. This one goes on. What it means for him.

Just yesterday, when they were still trying their best to debate and fight with the Qianguo side, and Okubo Toshitsu had already withdrawn from the table in anger, a telegram from Tokyo made them lose hope of making a final effort.

This telegram was sent by Emperor Meiji himself:

“…… Looking at the newspaper, I was very relieved to hear that I had tried to reduce the compensation,...... Since hearing about the grand occasion of the naval parade of the Qianguo Navy. Fang knows the short and long of the two countries. Hearing that more than 10 ships are now berthing in Fuzhou and carrying more than 10,000 troops, the dry ships are waiting for this letter in the Ryukyus, and they will set off on the same day...... If there is nothing negotiable, I will make a contract with Qianguo in accordance with my previous decree, so as to prevent the two countries from losing peace, and the dry ships will come to the east and restart ......the war."

Emperor Meiji made this clear in this telegram. The war is imminent, and it is necessary to sign a contract with Qianguo immediately.

At the moment of receiving the telegram. Hirofumi Ito can be said to be full of sorrow.

Everyone knows that once he signs such a humiliating treaty, it means that for him personally, it means that he will be ruined from now on!

But in the face of aggressive military threats from the Qianguo side, who wants to play the role of signing a contract?

As the supreme head of the mission, Okubo Ritsu was of course unwilling, he had already chosen to retire, confined himself in his room, and never came forward again!

At such a moment, Secretary of the Interior Okubo Ritsu, who is the supreme head of the Japanese government, left this infamy to others.

Hirobumi Ito looked at the text of the peace treaty and burst into tears for a while.

Everything in front of me became blurry.

A strong hand reached over and grabbed Ito's wrist.

"It's hard to write, is it? Shunsuke? Kido Takayo looked at Hirofumi Ito, who was in tears, smiled, and asked.

Ito's body trembled violently, and he looked at Kido Takayo and nodded effortlessly.

"People say that it is difficult to die for eternity, and in my opinion, the current moment is more difficult than death!" Kido Takayo sighed, looked at Ito Hirofumi, and said slowly, "I'll sign this word!" ”

"Shoju ......" Hirofumi Ito shed tears again, "You ......"

"Shunsuke, you are younger than me, and the future of Japan still needs you!" Kido Takayo said sincerely, "I'll take this infamy!" ”

Ito wanted to refuse, but for some reason, his hand suddenly became sore, and the brush in his hand couldn't hold it, and it fell on the table, splashing a little ink on the text of the treaty.

Kido Takayoshi picked up the fallen brush, dipped it in ink again, and signed his name at the sign of the treaty.

After signing his name, Kido Takayoshi seemed to have exhausted all his strength and collapsed on the chair.

Ito Hirobumi looked at Kido Takayo and was shocked to find that he was only 41 years old, and his originally shiny black hair had turned gray and white.

At this time, Kido Takayo seemed to have become old all of a sudden, like an old man in his 60s.

Yanagihara Maemitsu, who was present, also shed tears when he watched this scene.

On the other side, Lin Yizhe looked at Kido Xiaoyun, who had just finished signing, and couldn't help but flash admiration in his eyes.

Ito Hirobumi, like Yoshizhe Hayashi, has always maintained an indescribable reverence for Kido Takayoshi, one of Japan's "Three Masters of the Meiji Restoration"!

Kido Takayoshi traveled in Kyoto, got a geisha (later Kido Takayo's wife) to pass information and cover, and was lucky enough to escape for his life in the "Ikedaya" incident (in this incident, most of the leaders of the Choshu Restoration were beheaded or captured), and luckily absconded in disguise after the "Forbidden Gate Change", which is also legendary; Kido Takayoshi was the first to propose that the powerful feudal clans join forces against the enemy shogunate, judging the situation and actively promoting the "Sacho Alliance" after the "Forbidden Gate Change", which was the most important opportunity for the victory of the shogunate, which can be described as a strategic masterpiece; Kido Takayoshi repeatedly proposed "gradual constitutionalization", and his political vision can be called the highest among the "three masters", and Japan's later politics roughly ran along the trajectory planned by Kido Takayoshi, and his reputation as a "man of the green clouds" is well deserved!

Far from it, at this time, when the treaty of loss of power and humiliation was signed, although there was a telegram from the emperor, it was just a signed pen, but the heart and courage he showed were responsible, courageous, even with the eloquence of Okubo Ritsu and the hard work of Takasugi Shinsaku, it could not be compared at this moment!

The signing of this treaty, known as the "Beijing Treaty" (also known as the "Beijing Treaty", "Dry Japan Beijing Treaty", "Moss Bay Incident Treaty" or "Moss Affair Beijing Treaty"), announced the official end of the "Qian-Japanese Jiaxu War".

The main contents of the Beijing Special Covenant are:

(1) The purpose of Qianguo's dispatch of troops this time is to protect the people and drive out thieves, and Japan does not think that it is not; Japan's dispatch of troops this time is a "rampage of thieves," which is not the will of the Japanese Government, and the cadres do not refer to the Japanese Government.

(2) The Japanese government was not strict in controlling the army, and it should have compensated the Qianguo for the serious damage caused to the mossy bay, but the Qianguo failed to restrain the people of Moss, resulting in the slaughter of the Japanese people. The two parties agreed to compensate each other, and the specific amount and mutual payment were agreed upon.

(3) All correspondence between the two countries concerning the matter shall be withdrawn and cancelled by each other, and shall be dismissed forever. As for the situation in this area, it is advisable for the Qianguo to do its best and properly restrain it, so as to protect the passengers forever and not be harmed again.

(4) The Ryukyus are subject to the protection of the Qianguo, and if Japan wants to trade with the Ryukyus, it must conclude a separate treaty with the Ryukyus, which will be approved by the Qianguo and put into effect.

In all fairness, Ito Hirobumi believes that the conditions of the "Beijing Treaty" are not harsh for Japan, and it is not a humiliating unequal treaty at all, and Japan has neither been forced to cede land and rights nor pay reparations, and after more than a month of arduous negotiations, Ito Hirobumi is actually quite pleased to be able to achieve this result.

However, in the eyes of those patriots who clamored all day long for "enriching the country and strengthening the army" and "opening up thousands of miles of waves," the "Beijing Treaty" was a traitorous treaty, because in this treaty, Japan once again recognized the status of Ryukyu as a subject state of the Qianguo and spit out the Ryukyu that had been annexed again.

In the "Beijing Treaty", the most criticized by the Japanese government and the opposition was the issue about the Ryukyus.

Emperor Meiji 5, in the name of Japan's "Wang Masai Ichisen", asked the Ryukyus to send an envoy to Tokyo to celebrate. At the same time, he congratulated the envoys that there should be no descendants of Qianguo people or pro-Qianguo personages. Therefore, the king of the Ryukyus, Shotai, sent Shang Jian and Xiang Yuheng to Tokyo to celebrate. After Emperor Meiji summoned his envoys, he issued an edict to change the Ryukyu Kingdom to the Ryukyu Domain, and canonized Shotai as the vassal king, officially encroaching on the Ryukyus (the first Ryukyu disposition). The Ryukyu king Shotai sent people to ask for help from Qianguo, and at that time Russia occupied Ili, an important border town in Qianguo, and relations between the two countries were very tense, and war was about to break out. Russia threatened to send warships to attack China's coasts and ports, but the Qianguo navy was unable to resist at that time, and the Qianguo government did not take any action because it did not have the ability to help the Ryukyu king restore the country, but it always refused to acknowledge the fact that Japan had annexed the Ryukyus.

But this time, because of the failure of Saigo's adventurous operation to send troops to Moss Bay, after annihilating the main force of the Japanese navy, the Qianguo Harbour Master sailed directly to the Ryukyus in order to exert pressure on Japan at the negotiating table, and completely annihilated the Japanese military and police in Ryukyu and restored the Ryukyu Kingdom. The Qianguo side deliberately determined the status of the Ryukyus in the "Beijing Treaty," which was tantamount to not only regaining rights and interests, but also greatly humiliating Japan. Although in the treaty, the Qianguo still referred to Ryukyu as a "subject state," and the word "subject state" still belonged to the traditional system of the clan and vassal concept of the Qianguo and was not recognized by international law at that time, the treaty clearly stated that the Ryukyus were "under the protection of the Qianguo," and in the concept of international law, the Ryukyus were no longer a "subject state" but a "protectorate" of the Qianguo, and the Qianguo was the "protectorate" of the Ryukyus. This means that the traditional concept of Qianguo has been quietly changing, and it is no longer being played by Japan, which is familiar with both the "world view" and the "world view." How can this not make the Japanese "patriots" angry to death!

And Okubo Ritsu's refusal to sign the treaty is precisely for this reason. (To be continued......)

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