Chapter 3541
Speaking of countries that are extremely interested in this civil war, Portugal and the Netherlands are definitely indispensable.
In the past few decades, both countries have invested a lot of effort in Japan, trying to turn this country into one of their main trading partners in the Far East. However, due to the closed-door policy pursued by the Tokugawa shogunate, the scope of merchant activities has been limited to one or two ports specified by the shogunate, and it is difficult to increase the scale of trade.
Haihan's method of dealing with the shogunate was obviously more effective, and he directly sent troops to coerce the shogunate into submission. Since the Maritime-Japanese Friendship Treaty was signed at Sasebo Bay twelve years ago, Haihan merchants and goods entering and exiting Japan are no longer restricted by the shogunate's lock-down order, and the number of ports they can visit has increased to more than a dozen.
However, this kind of treatment is exclusive to Haihan, and other countries are still subject to restrictions. Although Portugal and the Netherlands intend to follow Heihan's approach, they do not have such strength.
What's more, if these two families really pull out an armed fleet that can overwhelm the Tokugawa shogunate, I'm afraid Haihan will not just sit idly by and will probably jump out to carry out so-called "mediation" to prevent them from establishing a naval base similar to Sasebo Bay in Japan. military base.
It is impossible to defeat Haihan and seize the Japanese market, but if Japan's own national power suddenly drops significantly and loses its external deterrence, then they will have the opportunity to take advantage of it.
And such an opportunity seems to have arisen. Japan's civil war is bound to greatly weaken the strength of the shogunate. No matter who wins or loses in the end, the control of foreign trade after the war will definitely decline.
The only thing that needs to be figured out is whoever wins between the Kyushu vassals and the shogunate will be more conducive to cross-border trade activities.
On the surface, it seems that the Kyushu vassals are more inclined to open trade, but one thing that cannot be ignored is that the Kyushu vassals and Haihan are closer, so close that they almost obey their words. In the future, the trade policies they implement are likely to continue to be dictated by Haihan, which is not a good thing for Portugal and the Netherlands.
Although Portugal and the Netherlands have been fighting openly and secretly as rivals for many years, they have reached a rare agreement on their stance on the Japanese Civil War - whoever can provide practical benefits to their country after the war, especially preferential treatment in trade, will They support whoever wins.
To determine this, representatives from both parties must hold face-to-face talks. In the inspection team, they knew that they would be monitored by Haihan at all times and would not be able to have a formal meeting.
However, as the war situation changed, the opportunity for a meeting came unexpectedly.
Since the location of the main battlefield has been changed to the west of the Kanmon Strait, the expedition team's camp will also be moved there. During this process, the scene was inevitably a little chaotic. Simao, the Portuguese military representative, secretly boarded a Dutch official ship and made secret contacts with the Dutch on behalf of Portugal.
"Every word I say here represents the attitude of the Kingdom of Portugal."
As soon as Simang came up, he first expressed Portugal's characterization of this secret meeting. Thomas, the ambassador to Haihan, granted him the highest authority to represent the Kingdom of Portugal at this meeting.
Su Keyi was also very clear about the purpose of this meeting. He went straight to the topic from the beginning: "Which side is your country going to choose to support?"
Simang responded: "Our diplomats have talked to the shogunate about the changes in trade policy after the war. The shogunate promised to open more ports and reduce trade restrictive policies. I think your country should also have contacted the shogunate. Right?" Su Keyi said: "The promises given by the shogunate to our country are similar. It seems that our choices are the same."
Both of them kept silent about the Kyushu vassals. It was obvious that the current conditions offered by the Kyushu vassals could not impress them. In order to win the support of the two countries, the shogunate offered more favorable conditions.
This is not because the Kyushu vassals are stingy, but because the preferential conditions proposed by several daimyo are more like drawing a picture out of thin air. There is no way to determine when they will be fulfilled.
Although the Kyushu vassals have formed a coalition, there is no final decision yet as to who has the final say internally and how the several daimyo will be arranged. Most of the ports promised to be opened are located in Honshu, Shikoku and other areas currently controlled by the shogunate. At this time, even the Kanmon Strait has not been conquered, and the pie has been drawn thousands of miles away. How can Portugal and the Netherlands be allowed to Trust their promises?
Therefore, in their view, the Kyushu vassals seemed to be able to defeat the shogunate because they had the support of Haihan. However, in fact, there were many hidden dangers and uncertainties in the camp, and the war potential was far less than that of the shogunate.
The Kyushu Allied Forces may be victorious in local battles, but overthrowing the shogunate's rule and replacing it is still an unrealistic goal in their view.
Therefore, they unanimously believe that it is not wise to side with the Kyushu vassals at the moment, not to mention that the Kyushu vassals obey Haihan's orders. At that time, Haihan's words may invalidate all the promises of the Kyushu vassals. That will really happen. Fetching water from a bamboo basket was in vain.
But even if support for the shogunate is determined, how to implement it is a thorny issue.
The arms that the Portuguese and Dutch countries could sell to the shogunate had been delivered one after another a few months before the war began. Now even if the shogunate is willing to pay, they don't have much on hand to sell, unless they are looking after the armed forces. The fleet was also sold to the shogunate at a price, but that was obviously unlikely.
Directly sending troops to intervene would be tantamount to confronting Haihan, which would be too risky and inappropriate.
Ximang discussed with Su Keyi for a long time and found that there were not many cards in his hand. All that can be done at present is to provide the shogunate with some military information, which may allow the shogunate army to gain some advantages on the battlefield.
But they understand that such measures are only better than nothing. There are Haihan warships operating everywhere inside and outside the strait. The Haihan army's perception of the battlefield situation is many times better than that of spectators.
And whether the information Haihan possesses will become a reference for the Kyushu Allied Forces to formulate combat plans, the answer seems to be self-evident.
Whether the support provided by Portugal and the Netherlands can be transformed into a victory for the shogunate army may depend on Haihan's attitude towards this war.
However, what they didn't know was that when Haihan was planning this civil war, someone had already considered whether he should take advantage of the situation and drag Portugal and the Netherlands into the water.
Fortunately, the envoys of both countries were relatively calm and did not publicly express their support for one of them. If they had shown their intention to directly participate in Japan's civil war during the Zhoushan Forum, or if they had opposed Haihan's intervention in other countries' civil wars, Portugal and the Netherlands might have been involved in this war inexplicably.