There is no direct leader in the imperial diplomatic system now, which leads to some confusion. This is a fact, but it is just an excuse for Bai Le to swear the Japanese.

In fact, Japan's relations have a great weight in the imperial diplomatic strategy, and the fact that Tokugawa Yoshizo completely turned to the empire, even if there is only such a possibility, can be regarded as a major event to change the Japanese power pattern, and King Yu must attach great importance to it.

Therefore, Bai Le cannot return directly. He has to delay for a while to figure out the real idea of ​​Tokugawa Yoshizo, instead of giving too much hope to the country too early, and ultimately gaining disappointment. If you want to discuss such a big thing directly with Yu, you still have to do the necessary homework. Therefore, Bai Le is preparing to conduct a series of investigations on Japan in the name of a private visit. If a survey report on Japan can be issued, Bai Le will be more confident when he returns to the empire and discusses with Yu.

Two months later, Shin Kyung.

This was Bai Le's first time entering the center of the imperial decision-making, the emperor's imperial study.

A meeting of imperial predecessors just ended, and the cabinet members who attended the meeting walked out of the imperial study room, and Bai Le entered it.

The emperor's imperial study room was very simple in structure, and the spacious conference table was used for ministers of the imperial conference. If an expanded version of the imperial conference, that is, the State Council, is held, you have to go to a special conference room.

At this time, the ministers dispersed, and there were four people in the imperial study room, sitting in pairs of people on the conference table, some reading newspapers, some drinking tea, some eating snacks, and some pretending to sleep.

This is the true highest decision-maker of the empire, the emperor, king Yu, king Cheng and deputy prime minister Pei Yuanqi. The four of them are about the same age and grow up together. They are now the pillars of the empire.

"Who are you?" Pei Yuanqi asked when he saw Bai Le coming in. Among these four people, he was the strangest to Bai Le.

Bai Le quickly saluted and was about to explain, but was stopped by King Yu. King Yu said: "Yunqi, this is King Ying's eldest brother-in-law, his family, now the ambassador to Japan. He just returned yesterday."

"So that's it, no wonder it looks more familiar." Pei Yuanqi said familiarly.

The emperor drank tea and asked lightly: "Bai Le, I came back yesterday, but I went to the Ying Prince's Mansion. Have you ever seen your sister?"

"I haven't seen you yet. After the boat arrived at the port yesterday, I went home first. I didn't know that the princess was at home." Bai Le answered carefully.

"Today, or tomorrow, find some time to visit." The emperor smiled and said, "Please advise Princess Ying more. It's not that she is young. She and King Ying are at this age, and there are several children, so they need to calm down."

"Yes, when I see the princess, I should convey the emperor's meaning." Bai Le said.

"Silly words, do you still need to convey the emperor's words? That's your own idea." Li Junwei knocked on Bai Le, and Bai Le realized it.

Although he scolded him, Li Junwei still pointed to the chair beside him and said, "Sit down and talk. The people here are both your boss and your elders. It is not beautiful to stand alone."

"Thank you, Your Highness." Bai Le thanked him, sat on the chair, but he was halfway through his butt. He was careful to deal with this and was ready at any time.

"Your report is well written." King Cheng Lin Junhong suddenly said, and Bai Le immediately stood up, but it scared Lin Junhong.

"You should sit firmly. When you step down and return to China in the future, you will inevitably come here. Will you be so arrogant in the future?" Pei Yuanqi said with a smile, calling the servants to change the tea to everyone.

The emperor's imperial study was not the emperor's private place for a long time, but the imperial decision-making place, and the office of these people.

Lin Junhong waited for Bai Le to sit firmly and asked: "You said in your report that cooperation with the Tokugawa shogunate is imminent this time, let me tell you about your judgment."

"Yes, Your Highness." Bai Le instinctively wanted to stand up, but Li Junwei next to him directly pressed his shoulder. He had to sit there and said seriously: "In recent years, the empire strategy that has the greatest influence on Japan is the establishment and deepening of cooperation in the Eastern Alliance. This alliance not only formed an alliance in politics and military, but also gradually deepened economic cooperation.

The Eastern Alliance is a great political cooperation and will surely leave a brilliant mark in the history of the empire. Its influence is far-reaching and beyond what ordinary people can imagine......"

"I asked you to give me insights, not to sing praises." Lin Junhong knocked on the table.

Bai Le shrank his neck and thought that the rumors were correct. Among the imperial royal family, the king Lin Junhong belonged to the emperor, who was the most serious and extremely majestic, and he was far more powerful than the emperor and the king Yu.

One emperor and two kings are the main decision-making figures of the empire. The emperor is arrogant, but he always maintains a peaceful state, neither happy or sad with things, nor sad with himself, and does not express his joy or anger. His thoughts are unknown. Ministers who have fewer contacts with him cannot see from the emperor whether they are satisfied with themselves or dissatisfied with them.

King Yu is the most easy-going in speaking and doing things, but also the most cunning. As a minister, he doesn't know which sentence he says is true or which sentence is a joke. When facing him alone, he always has to be more careful.

King Cheng Junhong is the most majestic and feared by ministers inside and outside the court. Bai Le has experienced it today.

He said just now, but he was not just singing praises. The Eastern Alliance was the first comprehensive cooperative alliance led by the empire, including almost all countries in the Chinese cultural circle. In fact, this alliance is indeed of historical significance and the cornerstone of the imperial diplomatic strategy.

More importantly, the Eastern Alliance was advocated by the emperor, Prince Yu and the eldest son of Prince Yu's mansion. One flattered three people. Bai Le couldn't find such a good opportunity in daily life. Even though he heard that Prince Cheng was not easy to provoke, he chose to take the risk of flattering.

However, Bai Le regretted it now. He originally thought that King Cheng could not be provoked and did not dare to be presumptuous in front of the emperor. Now it seems that the emperor is used to King Cheng's attitude and does not care about it. Instead, he will take over it.

In this way, Bai Le didn't dare to talk nonsense anymore and said directly: "This Eastern Alliance economic system is exclusive. All resources and commodities can be provided to each other and benefited each other. It was precisely because Japan only provided goods to Nanyang but did not import Nanyang goods, so it was excluded from the system. This caused a huge blow to Japan's economy, especially the economy of the Customs Alliance economy."

The empire's senior officials knew this. In the empire's global strategy, Britain and France were the biggest competitors on the ocean, and Russia and Hindustan Empire were the two major threats on land. But this refers to the field of national security. If the economic field is selected separately, then the customs alliance economy united by Daming in western Japan will be the biggest competitors in the empire's trade.

In recent years, customs alliance economies have continuously introduced advanced technologies from the empire and have formed a relatively complete industrial system. Especially in the textile industry, shipbuilding industry, etc., it has certain advantages over the empire. This is also the main commodity needed by the countries in Southeast Asia. It is the empire that excludes Japan from the Eastern alliance system, which provides support for the empire to stabilize this market.

But Japan was obviously hurt by the establishment and deepening of the Eastern Alliance system.

You should know that the empire has been rising for decades and has long passed its fastest development period. On the contrary, Japan's customs alliance economy has entered a stage of rapid development with its own advantages. The establishment of the Eastern Alliance and the empire's tightening of trade with Japan have a great blow to its vibrant economy.

The desires of merchants are endless, and driven by profits, the courage of merchants is also endless.

After the establishment of the Eastern Alliance, Japan could only expand trade further and extend its trade hand to the Spanish colonies of the subcontinent, Europe and the Americas.

For example, the Empire used cotton as a raw material to jammed the neck of Japanese cotton textiles, while Japanese traders imported cotton from India. The Empire controlled Japanese silk fabrics to enter the imperial market and imposed dumping tariffs, so Japan sold them to the American Spanish colonies, which also liked silk fabrics.

However, Japan's ocean-going navigation capabilities have problems and transportation costs remain high, many businesses cannot be done. For example, the steel produced in Japan is completely uncompetitive in the subcontinental market facing the steel from the Imperial Southeast Asian provinces.

It can be said that although Japan used all kinds of means to find a market for the overproductive overcapacity of the Customs Alliance economy, it was difficult for Japan to do this without a colony outside. In fact, the Customs Alliance economy has formulated a colonial plan and also invited decrees from the Japanese Emperor. Regardless of its origin, any ship funded by anyone who discovers new territory can be used as land granted by the Japanese Emperor.

In recent years, Japan has a craze of adventure, with large and small expedition ships moving towards the depths of the Pacific Ocean, attempting to explore areas that humans have not arrived and find a rich colony for Japan.

However, there was no result at all. The reason was very simple. For Japan, the earth was unknown, but for the empire and for the pioneers of European navigation, almost all corners of the planet had been visited, and only the frozen Arctic and Antarctic were unreachable.

Japan always felt that there should be a continent in the center of the vast Pacific Ocean, which was richer than America, but the fact was that there was no. Japanese explorers did find several islands, put on flags, and declared them to be owned by Japan. When they made public announcements, they immediately found that island on the map published by the Imperial Map Bureau. Based on the principle of first come first served, the Japanese could only return without success.

According to Bai Le, although the Oriental Alliance system did curb Japan's development to a certain extent, it forced Japan to find an endogenous driving force.

In other words, Bai Le has discovered that because there is no way to export, Japanese capitalists have begun to seek domestic markets, and their eyes have been looking at the Tokugawa Shogunate territory, which accounts for 55% of Japan's land and 50% of its population.

Perhaps this is why Tokugawa Yoshizo urgently wanted to cooperate fully with the empire. It was not just some turmoil in his country that made him realize the backwardness and decline of the shogunate, but more so was born from the Western Customs Alliance economy. Those capitalists who were extremely eager for markets and profits had regarded him and his shogunate as a fat meat.

"So, do you think the Tokugawa shogunate is already in a very dangerous situation now, right?" Lin Junhong asked.

Bai Le nodded and said, "Yes, this is what I have summarized in Japan over the past few years. Now Japan is already a pot of boiling oil, and a spark may be completely ignited."

"What would that be?" Lin Junhong thought for a while and asked again.

Bai Le sighed and shook his head slightly: "I don't know, it's hard to say. But I know, it must be related to nationalism."

Bai Le said, opening the next pages of the report and said, "This is an investigation I commissioned from a Japanese newspaper to conduct, and an investigation in several daimyo territories of Kyushu."

Lin Junhong looked at it and frowned. Then, the data was passed on by four people.

The data is very similar, it is a type of poll, and the data is large in scale, with more than 500 samples, and it covers men, women, people of all ages and different occupations.

One of the data is very interesting, that is, to make a choice between you being a local and you being a Japanese. Sixty-five percent of the people choose to be Japanese.

This is a very terrible number, because the survey sample contains many rural farmers, which is the main component of Japan's population. Even so, the proportion still reaches 65%, which means that on Kyushu Island, even farmers have some national consciousness.

Bai Le introduced the situation in Japan in detail. There was a common xenophobia phenomenon in Japan's main ports and cities with relatively high education levels, especially those targeting the Chinese in the imperial world. Bai Le gave an example, Nagasaki, at the beginning of this year, a Tang Dynasty Yashiki was flattened and a temple was built.

This is a very reference event. You should know that in the pre-Imperial era, Nagasaki was the only Japanese city that the Chinese could visit. Many people lived in Nagasaki, forming Chinese communities like Tangren Yashiki. During the two Japanese civil wars, due to the intervention of the empire, these residences Tangren (Chinese who own real estate in Japan) decreased, but Nagasaki was still a land where Chinese people gathered and also a land where the imperial capital invested more.

And this time, a Tangren community was banned, which has shown some clues.

"You won't think that those Japanese people dare to use the empire as a target." Lin Junhong felt a little incredible.

Bai Le said: "I don't think so, but there must be a target."

"Then, the more we help the Tokugawa shogunate, the greater the possibility of becoming a target, right?" Pei Yuanqi said.
Chapter completed!