Chapter 436: The Qing Dynasty Becomes a Vassal
Chapter 436: The Qing Dynasty Becomes a Vassal
The much-anticipated peace talks at Prince Rui's Palace achieved fruitful results on the first day.
All those present unanimously agreed to establish a new dynasty and name it Daxia.
The Bannermen withdrew from the Great Wall, moved the capital to Osaka, and ruled southern Fuso. At the same time, they retained the Heilongjiang General Region, the Jilin General Region, and the territories of British Columbia and Alaska in North America.
Zai Yi retained the title of emperor and pledged allegiance to the leader of Daxia.
The Qing Dynasty was still an empire, the noble titles it had conferred were still valid, Shao Quanzhong was still Prince Rui of the Qing Dynasty, and the bannermen still enjoyed aristocratic privileges in the Qing Dynasty.
The bannermen within the Chinese mainland can choose to stay or leave on their own. If they stay, they will become ordinary citizens.
The Qing Dynasty became a vassal state of Daxia, retaining internal judicial power, limited economic and military autonomy, with Daxia in charge of foreign affairs. The Qing Dynasty accepted Daxia's protection and paid tribute to Daxia.
The Qing Dynasty's position in the Bactrian system was on par with that of the Joseon Dynasty, Ryukyu, Lan Fang, Sulu, Shannan, Gorkha, Brukba, Kanjuti, Hawaii, and Fiji, and higher than that of Annan, Siam, Konbaung, Kazakhstan, Khiva, Bukhara, and Afghanistan.
But the status of the Qing emperor was higher than those chiefs and kings, basically.
The representatives of the new army were satisfied. The Qing government not only withdrew from the areas outside the Great Wall, but also from Fengtian and Changchun, retaining only the areas they actually controlled. This was beyond their demands. Originally, they only asked the Qing government to withdraw from Shanhaiguan.
To be honest, there are very few Han people in the two general districts at present, and the Jilin General District is even jointly managed with Lucia.
As for North America, it was sparsely populated and difficult to control, so the bannermen went there to basically guard the border for the country. As for Japan, it needed someone to assimilate and actually control it. It would be much better for the Qing Dynasty to actually control it than for the Japanese pirates to have the final say.
The Qing court became a vassal state of Daxia, basically restoring the original situation where Nurhaci was a vassal of the Ming Dynasty. Our anti-Qing and restoration of the Ming Dynasty can be considered a success, right?
As for the title of emperor, it’s OK as long as you are not our emperor. You can just be happy among yourselves. It would be even more awesome if Daxia could take over the empire as a vassal state, wouldn’t it?
On the Qing side, many cities have been massacred, right? They are worried that the bannermen will be liquidated on a large scale. Now they can retreat intact, retain the throne, and control the vast territory, which is already good.
Fortunately, the emperor is Shao Quanzhong's son, otherwise he would never have been able to obtain this position.
As for Shao Quanzhong's statement about not accepting constitutionalism, this matter has nothing to do with the Qing court. You guys continue to discuss it among yourselves. Can we leave now?
The first phase of negotiations was a complete success, and we should first realize the goal of "expelling the Tartars".
Zhang Zhidong and Yung Wing withdrew from the Grand Council. At the suggestion of Zhang Zhidong, the Qing court appointed Li Hongzhang to head the Grand Council and entrusted him with the power of prime minister. Zuo Zongtang was named the General of Ningyuan and was in charge of military affairs.
The young emperor issued an edict, announcing that the Qing government would withdraw from the Central Plains and move to Fuso from that day on.
Three million bannermen obeyed the orders and, under the joint supervision of the Huai Army and the New Army, passed through Dagukou and boarded transport ships to Fuso and North America.
The high-ranking officials and nobles of the Qing Dynasty were certainly willing to leave, as there would be no good consequences if they stayed. Ordinary bannermen were also very enthusiastic.
Iron-clad crops are not actually very tasty, and many ordinary bannermen are in dire straits. If you go to Southern Fuso, you will have more than 12 million slaves to command, and each family can have more than 20 slaves to serve them, okay?
If you are willing to go to North America, there are vast territories that can be divided up and you can become a big landowner.
It will take a long time for the large-scale immigration of three million people to begin here.
The first thing Li Hongzhang did when he took office as the chief administrative official of the Qing Dynasty was to ask the Great Xia to guarantee the security of the Qing Dynasty and help the Qing Dynasty eliminate the Taiping Army regime in northern Fuso.
Even without him mentioning it, Shao Quanzhong had to solve this matter. His son had to be kept safe in Osaka. With just one phone call, the Great Xia Empire recruited the Taiping Army.
Tokugawa Yoshinobu pledged allegiance to Bactria, and Northern Japan became a vassal state of Bactria. A ceasefire was achieved with the actual control line of Azuchi Castle in Lake Biwa as the boundary between Japan and Qing.
After Tokugawa Yoshinobu became the Shogun of Daxia, he immediately submitted a petition asking the upper country to send immigrants to solve the serious imbalance between men and women in northern Japan. There were 2.5 million women of marriageable age in northern Japan who could not find husbands... In fact, southern Japan occupied by the Qing court faced the same problem, so they didn't care. The bannermen solved it themselves, and the Eight Banners nobles suffered more.
The great ethnic integration of Japan is not something that can be solved in a day or two. The Xiyuan negotiations stopped for ten days. The first batch of bannermen from the capital had just left for southern Japan, and the negotiations between the Huai Army and the New Army continued.
Those who sat back at the negotiation table were all Han people. On Shao Quanzhong's side, only Zhang Zhidong, Yung Wing and Shao Quanzhong were left.
This time Zhang Siwen smiled and said, "Your request to drive out the Tartars and restore China has now been fulfilled. It's our turn to make demands."
"We demand that in order to stabilize the country, Daxia needs to equalize land rights and gain a solid public support base. We need to nationalize industry, concentrate our efforts on achieving comprehensive industrialization, and catch up with Britain."
"That's absolutely not possible."
Li Zhanchun objected without even thinking about it.
"Why not? In history, which dynasty was destroyed because of land annexation and the displacement of the people? When a new dynasty is first established, isn't it a routine practice to distribute permanent farmland to the people?"
"this--"
The representatives of the New Army were embarrassed. Their goal was to drive out the Tartars and become big landlords. Even if they were noble and could contribute to the country, the New Army had to accept donations from a large number of landlords and capitalists to be able to mobilize more than 200,000 troops.
You are speaking for someone whose money you are paying. They are the ones who pay you, but now you want to take over their land and factories. How is that possible?
"By the way, Wenxiang's attempt to nationalize the railways has been condemned by everyone. This is absolutely not feasible."
"He was robbing, we were buying out the shares, not robbing."
"That won't work either. Free trade can make a country strong. When the Qing Dynasty was in power, which government-run factory was profitable?"
"I have successfully experimented with this method in Cuba, France, Bulgaria, the Grand Duchy of Crimea, and the Pak-Ukrainian Heavenly Kingdom. The Qing government's state-owned enterprises are losing money because of poor management, not because of this method."
"..."
Li Zhanchun was silent, then suddenly changed the subject, "What about the constitution and parliament? This matter should be decided by parliament."
Hehe, when the parliament convenes, we have the thirteen provinces of Fengtian, plus Mongolia, Tibet, and Qinghai, which makes a total of sixteen provinces. You have only eleven provinces participating in the Southeast Mutual Protection. Among them, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Shandong probably cannot go with you.
Shao Quanzhong slammed the table and said, "I've said before, we can't let the parliament get in the way!"
"Without constitutionalism, we do not support Marshal Shao becoming emperor."
"Then don't be the emperor! What's the point of being an emperor without real power?"
"Well, it looks like we still have to fight to get a result!"
"Just fight, no matter who you are afraid of!"
In fact, Shao Quanzhong had always been afraid of the Hongmen forces. However, now that he had a red-haired Irish military supervisor who could actually stop the Hongmen from infiltrating, he was suddenly no longer afraid.
Alas, civil war is actually quite exhausting, but it seems that since the two sides cannot reach an agreement, civil war seems inevitable.
(End of this chapter)