Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

In fact, there was some contact between Russia and the Shogunate in the past.

The incident began when a grain ship departing from Kii lost its way in a storm and eventually drifted to the Russian colony in the Aleutian Islands.

These Japanese sailors were rescued after encountering Aleutian indigenous people and a Russian expedition in the area.

Later, a Russian merchant ship sank nearby, and these Japanese and Russians joined forces to rebuild a small boat, enabling them to travel from the Aleutians to Kamchatka. Even the leader, Kotaro Ōkuroya, learned Russian and reached Irkutsk, and later St. Petersburg, where he was received by Empress Catherine.

After a long ten-year journey, Daikokuya and his companions boarded the Russian Navy's expedition ship "Catherine" and arrived in Nemuro, Hokkaido.

The Russians also had their own objectives: to send the shipwrecked sailors back to Japan, using the opportunity to demonstrate goodwill and further promote trade.

However, Matsudaira Sadanobu, a senior councilor of the shogunate, could not make such a decision on his own. After receiving the crew, he said that if they wanted to trade, they could apply in Nagasaki.

This way of answering is very Japanese, you could say.

Matsudaira Sadanobu also had some ideas. As the chief senior councilor of the shogunate at the time, he hoped that Daikokuya Kotaro could serve as a diplomatic expert on Russia. After all, one could tell from his surname and the nature of his work that he was also a rice merchant.

He also became a scholar of Rangaku and had many exchanges with scholars in the shogunate. Matsudaira Sadanobu himself was the lord of Shirakawa Domain, and his surname represented that he was a member of a sect, so he should have been very authoritative.

However, there was also internal strife within the Shogunate's senior council members. With Matsudaira Sadanobu's loss of power and his resignation to return to the Shirakawa Domain, the plan for the Daikokuya to communicate with the Russian side was abandoned.

As for the subsequent decisions of the shogunate, they almost seized the warships of the Russian expedition team, and during the Bunka era, they even arrested the Russian captain who was surveying the Kuril Islands, making the relationship between the two countries very delicate.

Solovyov's core concern was the Qing Dynasty, and his understanding of Japan was not very detailed; he only knew that the eleventh shogun, Tokugawa Ienari, was in power.

After all, this was a blank area in terms of business, which happened to be right between the end of the Edo period and the period of the Yonhap Shogunate, a period of slow decline for Japan.

Unaware of the situation, he decided to split his forces into two groups: Solovyov and Zhaolian would travel to Nagasaki aboard the battleship "Grace" under the escort of two frigates; while the battleship "Brave" and the remaining warships and supply ships would blockade the waters around Kagoshima.

On the one hand, we need to negotiate to see what the shogunate's attitude is.

On the other hand, it is also to understand the current situation so as to facilitate further decision-making.

Solovyov even knew that the shogunate liked to stall for time, so he naturally wouldn't be polite either.

After all, there was a fat tiger who went to Malaya, and his demands were very straightforward: "yes or no." If the shogunate were to stall, or if the Nagasaki magistrate did not give a prompt reply...

Then we'll have to teach them a lesson, head straight for Edo, storm Tokyo, and meet the Shogun.

As for that birdie spot, Solovyov didn't care.

The appearance of Russian warships in Nagasaki also greatly shocked the Japanese.

They had never seen such a large warship before.

However, the local magistrate was quite responsible. Nine years ago, the British treated the Shogunate's face like a doormat during the Phaidon incident, which was quite unpleasant.

As a result, the lord of the Saga Domain was punished with 100 days of confinement, and several of his retainers and Nagasaki magistrate Matsudaira Yasunaga committed seppuku in anger.

They were so arrogant that when the Russians came here eleven years ago, they even tried to seize Russian ships. At that time, the Russian representatives were trying to trade and establish an embassy, ​​and had no hostile intentions.

When faced with truly ruthless pirates, the shogunate was powerless to stop them.

Solovyov also saw the small boat sent by the shogunate. When he boarded the boat for inspection, there were staff members from the Dutch trading post assisting him.

In Japan at that time, the international language was Dutch, and most of their foreign intelligence was related to the Dutch.

There's no way around it; the Dutch are just that money-grubbing. They've always prioritized business above all else. If you asked them to do a striptease, they'd probably be willing to put aside their shame and do it if it meant making money.

The Dutch, however, were relieved to see the Russian flag.

"Your Excellency, this is a Russian battleship with over a hundred cannons. News from Batavia indicates that our Dutch Crown Prince is marrying the Russian Emperor's sister. We are related by marriage, so there's no need to worry. They also have no hostile intentions."

"How do you know they aren't hostile?"

After hearing the question from this clueless magistrate, the Dutch embassy staff could only offer an explanation.

"With the gun doors closed, and the sailors and officers lined up on the deck, according to European tradition, this was a salute, a custom of the navy."

But Japan's navy is always associated with pirates.

"Alright, since that's the case, I'll have to board the ship and question them."

One of the old habits of the Japanese is that if you give them face or are overly polite, they will sometimes take advantage of you.

Even now that we've seen such a large warship, we can't find a ship this big, not just in Japan, but in all of East Asia.

They were about to board the ship for inspection, and Solovyov signaled to Berlinsky to lower the rope ladder.

One advantage of Japanese samurai is that they regularly exercise and bathe to cleanse themselves, so their physique is generally excellent.

Climbing the rope ladder was quite nimble.

After boarding the ship, the magistrate was completely bewildered.

Why are officials from the Qing Dynasty here?
Given this demeanor, the Dutch embassy staff reminded him that the Russian officer who came was at least a vassal lord, a high-ranking official, or someone of Chinese descent, and that some courtesy should be observed.

After Zhaolian introduced herself, the magistrate immediately bowed.

"We were unaware that a prince from the Celestial Empire had arrived. We apologize for any offense we may have caused."

To be fair, if the Bushido spirit is applied properly, it can actually be quite polite. In fact, when the other party is so polite, Zhao Lian and Solovyov, who came here to cause trouble, don't know how to deal with it.

You shouldn't hit someone who's smiling. If the other person is bowing and explaining, you should at least do it in a civilized way if you're going to cause trouble.

"This is my duty. Even Emperor Wen of Han could not freely enter or leave Zhou Yafu's Xiliu Camp. I have come here by imperial decree to question the Satsuma Domain under the command of the Japanese Shogun about the oppression of the King of Ryukyu, an outer vassal state of the Qing Dynasty."

Well, in the end, the Qing emperor found out, but Zhaolian's approach was quite polite. He even brought a written statement dictated by him and personally written by the top scholar, Long Ruyan.

Seeing this, the magistrate did not dare to be negligent. He boarded the ship to inspect it, inquired about the purpose of the Russian giant ship's arrival, and then went to the Nagasaki magistrate's office.

The position of Nagasaki Magistrate was not held by a single person; sometimes it was held by two people. The current holder of this position, Kanazawa Chiaki, was a hatamoto (chief minister) of the shogunate.

Another one, Tsutsui Masanori, was a hatamoto (a descendant of the Tsutsui family, a daimyo family during the Sengoku period).

The two were somewhat confused when they discussed this.

The Qing Empire actually sent people?
As for holding the Satsuma Domain accountable, there are many troublesome issues involved.

Although Shimazu Nariaki is currently the lord of the Shimazu clan, his father and grandfather are still alive.

Moreover, the previous two generations of clan heads, Shimazu Shigehiro, were the ones who remotely controlled the clan's administration from behind the scenes, acting as reclusive officials.

Therefore, Shimazu Nariyuki's father became the scapegoat and directly announced his retirement.

The reason for his seclusion was that Shimazu Nariaki was trying to cut back on expenses, which was unacceptable to Shimazu Shigehiro, who had always lived a luxurious life.

Because of this, Shimazu Nariaki was dismissed and replaced by Shimazu Nariaki.

As for why the shogunate didn't care?
Not to mention the Satsuma Tentaka Shogun, there were also powerful samurai, making them tough nuts to crack. The daimyo with a staggering 77 koku of rice was not someone who could be subdued by ordinary means.

Moreover, although the title of the wife of Shogun Tokugawa Ienari was Konoe Shigeko, she was only an adopted daughter of the Konoe family. Her true origin was from the Satsuma Domain, and she was the daughter of Shimazu Shigehiro.

The process was quite complicated. It started when the eldest son of the previous shogun died suddenly, and an heir needed to be identified as soon as possible. However, the Shimazu family had already made a marriage agreement with Ienari, who came from the Hitotsubashi family. It was only with the help of the court nobles that an awkward situation was avoided.

The position of the Imperial Palace has always been reserved for the daughters of the five regent families and imperial princes, and the shogunate has always hoped to add some imperial blood to the shogun.

Of course, it wasn't that women from the Tokugawa family weren't sent to the palace to serve as empresses.

As a result, apart from Empress Meisho, the first female emperor of the early Tokugawa shogunate, there was no one of them with Tokugawa blood.

In Japan, the female emperor could no longer marry, and naturally, no bloodline was passed down.

As for the shogunate, it has consistently failed in this regard.

As for Tokugawa Ienari, that's a different story.

If the Celestial Empire were to question the Satsuma Domain about this matter, and could not provide a swift response or relay the message from Nagasaki to Edo, then the Qing Dynasty's iron-hat prince, aboard a giant Russian warship, would have to go directly to Edo.

Considering that the Qing emperors still held considerable prestige in East Asia at that time.

Even Prince Rei's letter of accusation clearly states that the incident in Ryukyu was caused by the magistrate of Satsuma and the local officials who acted rudely and attacked the Qing army soldiers who landed there.

In this way, the other side is in the right. Moreover, this was because Satsuma had been violating the shogunate's ban by smuggling goods to Ningbo and Fujian through Ryukyu, which was eventually discovered by the Qing Dynasty.

This two-faced approach began even before the old Khan had assumed the title of Khan.

Ryukyu was also a coerced accomplice, but the actions of the Satsuma Domain violated not only the laws of the Qing Dynasty, but also the laws of the shogunate.

Therefore, Kanazawa and Tsutsui, the two magistrates, also urgently contacted Nabeshima Natsunao, the lord of the Saga Domain.

Nabeshima Saito was the unlucky guy who was punished with 100 days of confinement because the British came to Hirado.

He had more experience in this kind of thing than the two officials.

"Gentlemen, the only course of action now is to report to the Shogun and request that he summon the senior councilors of the Shogunate to the castle for a decision. However, when the Russo merchant ships came to Hirado, the Russo must also have some grievances about what Magi-buchi did."

"The key is still to deal with the Qing princes; the Russian envoy is merely going to pay tribute to the Qing emperor."

"However, he also has his orders. Since the two officials want to travel by paper, they may head straight for Edo now. With the advantage of seagoing vessels, they can bypass Kagoshima in no more than ten days. During this time, we also need to submit an urgent report and head to Edo."

If it were just a prince from the Qing Dynasty, that would be fine. We could entertain him well and then send him directly to Edo to meet the shogun by land.

And with Russian envoys among them, Solovyov's reputation in Europe was already quite high.

However, due to the relatively large network latency in East Asia and the slow information updates, the shogunate was slow to learn about many things at this time.

The Dutch staff even mentioned that the Dutch Crown Princess was the younger sister of the Russian Emperor, a fact that was initially not taken seriously by the shogunate.

In other words, after the two officials discussed the matter, they contacted the lord of the Saga Domain and some scholars of Dutch studies in Hirado. Only after gathering information from all sides did they realize the level of the opponent who had come.

Fortunately, Russia was far away, and the Qing prince only brought six hundred soldiers with him, showing no intention of starting a major battle.

However, now that Russian warships have gone to Kagoshima, it's hard to say what might happen in the Satsuma Domain.

If the problem were serious, Nagasaki probably wouldn't suffer any major punishment because of their effective handling of the situation.

After all, neither the Qing prince nor the Russian envoy intended to attack Nagasaki. They also hoped to resolve the issue peacefully, restore Ryukyu's independent status, and simply have it remain as an outer vassal state of the Qing Dynasty.

As for how to deal with the Satsuma Domain, that was something the shogunate had to explain to the Qing emperor.

The Ryukyu issue, due to its established facts, did not result in significant losses for the shogunate.

However, the general's father-in-law has so much debt and is even resorting to high-interest loans. He has already gone into seclusion, which makes the situation even more difficult to resolve.

In any case, the two magistrates also sent an urgent message, dispatching a swift messenger from Nagasaki to Honshu, which would take at least a week.

That would consume a lot of horsepower, and there wouldn't even be enough time for the shogunate to give a reply.

Akira and Solovyov had also discussed it and decided they couldn't wait that long. The magistrate of the shogunate hoped to be entertained in Nagasaki to buy some time.

Solovyov's main objective this time was speed. He could attend the banquet, but it would just be a meal to get acquainted with the Japanese daimyo and hatamoto magistrate.

The round trip speed is much slower, which will cause delays.

Zhaolian's main mission was to go to Europe to "pacify" the country. The matter of Ryukyu was just a special task given to him by Jiaqing. He wouldn't spend too much time in Japan.

Moreover, one wonders what kind of food the Japanese might serve at a meal. (End of Chapter)