In November, Bai Le arrived in Kyoto, Japan and submitted a letter of state to the Japanese Emperor. He also met with representatives from the shogunate and various vassals in Kyoto. Everything went smoothly, at least the start was smooth.

Although Japan is regarded as a vassal state of the empire within the empire, in fact, Japan is not.

In the era of the anti-shogawa war, the later King Cheng Li Hai ruled most of Japan, but because he was eager to end the war and to get the shogunate to agree to the compensation as much as possible, he did not get any tension in the relationship between the two sides.

Li Hai once intended to make Li Mingxun the title of the Shogunate General as the King of Japan and the Damingmen in the West as the King, but this was rejected by all parties in Japan. Of course, more importantly, the empire had not been established at that time, and Li Mingxun himself did not call himself emperor, so how could he make others king? Moreover, the various vassals still have a sense of belonging to the Japanese emperor.

Later, the empire was established and the old proposal to grant the general the king was raised again, but the shogunate always required that it could only grant itself the king and authorize it to unify Japan. This was unacceptable to the empire, because it was obvious that the Tokugawa family wanted to replace the emperor.

After that, the shogun was assassinated and Japan fell into a civil war. The Tokugawa Shogunate always believed that the general's death was done by the empire (this is true). After the civil war began, the shogunate quickly achieved a strategy for the disunity of the Western Daming. The empire sold weapons to the Western Daming on a large scale, exacerbating the bad relationship between the shogunate and the empire.

It was not until Okubo visited the empire that Japan began the "Innovation and Effect Tang" movement, which was essentially the Japanese version of the Westernization Movement. From this time on, the relationship between the two sides began to truly go to normal, but the Japanese shogunate also established relations with countries other than Portugal and economic and trade exchanges.

In the early years, the empire's envoys to Japan also regarded Japan as a vassal state. Later, with the awakening of Japan's nationalism, especially the southwest vassals who had a deep understanding of the empire, they all required the empire to uphold equal diplomatic etiquette towards Japan, just like European countries.

After successfully entering Kyoto, Bai Le first settled the textile quota issue. In Hue, he determined the silk fabric entry quota, and now he has settled the cotton quota. Although the textile entry quota for Japan has increased, the quota for cotton raw materials has increased very little. Without cotton, Japan's textiles naturally cannot constitute competition for the empire industry.

The Japanese parties did not worry about this. The reason was very simple, and neither side was in a hurry.

Bai Le was not in a hurry because after King Yu returned to Beijing, the Ministry of Industry and Economics of the General Administration of China joined forces to jointly develop an "Imperial Textile Industry Revitalization Plan", which is expected to restore the competitiveness of Imperial Textiles and revitalize the Imperial Textile Industry within three years.

On the Japanese side, while the shogunate sent a delegation to visit Europe, the southwestern vassals also bought two merchant ships, heading east and west respectively, and heading west to visit the subcontinent countries, Sassanthemum and the Ottoman Empire, while the east side went straight to Spain's two major colonies in the Americas.

The Japanese representative who arrived at the Governor of New Spain was disappointed because Spain traded with foreign countries in the Americas. The colonial governor said nothing, and the Spanish mainland itself did not count. It must be agreed with the empire before it can be determined.

But the Japanese representatives did not find anything. Although the empire did not allow Japanese textiles to enter the Spanish colony to avoid causing competition, the problem is that the planters in the Spanish colony had to find more buyers for the cotton in their plantations.

Although the empire strictly controlled the Spanish colonies, it could not completely suppress all parties, so it was only a matter of time before Japan authorized Japan to purchase cotton from the Spanish colonies.

The merchant ships traveling west also suppressed first and then rose. The Japanese merchant ships headed south and arrived in Annan. Facing the letter of nationality submitted by the Japanese representative, the Annan people were stunned and said that the shogunate had already submitted it, and it was also a letter of nationality signed by the Emperor.

So the two countries have already established diplomatic relations. As for the trade issues raised by the Japanese representative, Annan's civil servant ignored it and just pointed to the embassy of the embassy in Hanoi. The meaning is very clear. If you talk to them, we don't care about these matters.

In Zhenla, Siam and Myanmar, it was the same every time. It had been achieved through Madalan before it achieved results. The Madalan Sultanate, who had a bad relationship with the empire, immediately agreed to trade with Japan. However, after hearing that Japan did not accept Madalan exporting food to Japan, the Sudan fell into deep thought, and the merchant ship could only leave one representative and continue the negotiations.

In the Sassanthesia Persia and the Ottoman Empire, the subcontinent countries achieved considerable results. The two sides established diplomatic relations and established trade exchanges. The Japanese representatives saw cotton fields as vast as the ocean in the subcontinent and Egypt, and were excited to tell the Japanese mainland by telegram, excitedly announcing that Japan had achieved cotton freedom.

Although the cotton production and quality in these places are large, it is also a place where European countries are staring at it. Considering Japan's navigation technology and transportation costs, the cotton here actually has no price advantage over what the Empire sold to them.

The empire's textile industry revitalization plan has not yet shown results, but its influence has come out because the emperor ordered the propaganda machine to be started.

The report submitted by Bai Le had a great influence on the emperor, and the propaganda agency also quoted his point, that is, the inflated textile prices in the empire was a conspiracy of monopoly capitalists. The empire had a large number of low labor and too many places that urgently needed development. However, for their own interests, some capitalists would rather move the textile industry to foreign countries to benefit the foreign countries than to move to the impoverished mainland areas of the empire to help develop.

Obviously, this kind of propaganda is to simplify complex issues. In fact, the transfer of the textile industry is not entirely a conspiracy of capitalists. But just labeling this is enough, because this is the purpose.

Because of these propaganda, the textile industry revitalization plan was quickly promoted. No one dared to stand up and oppose it, both in government agencies and in the House of Representatives. This is the political ecology of the empire. No politician dared to challenge the label of "going with capitalists". Anyone who is labeled as this can be dragged off from the emperor's cabinet.

During the transfer of textile industry in the Yangtze River Delta region, the two lakes, Shandong and Henan provinces were eager to try. These places are not only the origin of mulberry, hemp and cotton, but also the developed transportation is connected to the core areas of the empire. Finally, after Li Junhua's approval, the Han River Province was added, not only to tilt resources, but also to be a typical example to promote.

Zhao Wenting, who was in charge of this work, not only arranged several close friends directly under the cabinet to work in the Hanjiang Province, but also went to the local area for a special inspection.

The so-called Han River Province is one of the three provinces that were established by the Korean Peninsula in the empire. To the north is the Dongjiang Province with Pyongyang as the core, the Han River Province with Seoul as the provincial capital and the Luodong Province with Busan as the core. In addition, there are four appeasement zones on the peninsula.

Among the three provinces, the Han River Province has the largest population and the most developed economy. An adequate population is the biggest advantage of the local area. Similarly, because it is close to the coast, the same is true for convenient shipping conditions.

The emperor also considered ethnic factors in this arrangement. Because of historical factors, the minorities in the empire were distributed in remote areas, and when transportation determines the economy, minorities are always poorer than the nationality, which is always difficult to solve.

But it is difficult to solve, and it does not mean that it will not be solved. The Koreans in the three provinces of the peninsula are the best solution. In order to further promote ethnic equality, Li Junhua, as the emperor, naturally had to work hard on this.

No one expected that a small matter like textile quota would be perfectly solved due to changes in the overall situation, but what Bai Le did shocked the whole of Japan.

Kyoto, Chinese Embassy.

Under the guidance of a young man, Goto Nobuzuki walked through the corridor and into the back hall. There were still many people waiting at the entrance hall, most of which were envoys sent by various vassals. When everyone saw Goto Nobuzuki, they nodded slightly, not daring to be disrespectful at all.

Goto Nobuzuru walked into the back hall and saw Bai Le sitting cross-legged at the tea table, playing with the tea set in his hands. Goto Nobuzuru bowed gently and said, "Senior, you really made a big splash yesterday."

Bai Le invited Goto Nobuzu to the tea table. Although he originally wanted to go to the Japanese back hall to chat with Goto Nobuzu, who would have thought that the way the Japanese kneel was too tormenting. Bai Le just knelt for a while and felt uncomfortable, and the two could only sit and drink tea.

"It's just doing things as you told me." Bai Le waved his sleeves and finally took off the robe that symbolized the identity of the empire ambassador. He said: "Xingang, don't get me rude. I may have talked to you for a long time. This dress is really uncomfortable."

Nobusuo Goto said: "It's okay, it's okay. In fact, this piece of clothing on you has made many people envy you."

Bai Le wore clothes designed by the empire specially designed by the empire abroad, based on the python robe from the Zhu Ming era. This type of clothes often represent the status of aristocrats, but Bai Le is not aristocrats. However, today's world is still mainly feudal countries, so the empire's overseas personnel are generally given titles, similar to the ambassador to Japan, who qualify as a third-class official, but Bai Le is still special.

The wrists and collars of his dress were marked by the imperial royal family, which shows the emperor's importance to Bai Le.

Yesterday, when Bai Le was in the Japanese Palace, in front of the representatives of various vassals and ministers, he invited Japan and Guangnan to conduct comprehensive negotiations with the empire on trade issues, no longer limited to textiles, grain, coal and other categories.

At the same time, it was also said that similar talks would also be held with the vassal states of the Southeast Asian vassal states.

This directly triggered a political earthquake in Japan. In fact, before Bai Le came to Japan, the various vassals had received news one after another that the textile quota negotiations would be increased this time, but who would have thought that it would be so raised that it was really caught off guard.

But yesterday, Bai Le only informed the situation and did not ask the emperor to express his opinion. The result was that everyone did not fall asleep all night.

After dawn, while coming to the Chinese Embassy to inquire about the news, we discussed in private.

After noon, all parties basically had a basic consensus, that is, Japan must unite this time, and a comprehensive alliance is not only the alliance between the various western vassals, but also the shogunate.

In fact, this has already learned from the past. In the early years, textile quotas were targeted at the Satsuma and the Choshu Countries. Therefore, these two vassals were negotiating with the empire, fighting each other and attacking each other, and suffering a lot of losses. Until they suffered too much and joined forces, the negotiations began to benefit Japan.

Now we have to conduct comprehensive economic and trade negotiations, not bilateral negotiations, but multilateral negotiations, which is a bit terrifying. Because Southeast Asia is a vassal state of China, once the negotiations are held, Japan will be under pressure from all sides.

Of course, there is another voice now, that is, it simply does not unite at all. The alliances of the western vassals, which were originally in the textile quota, were also dissolved, and the vassals joined it as small countries.

Many people hold this view, because many of them are the so-called Zhihua School.

In their impression, the empire has always been good at face and is willing to take a low attitude towards foreign relations. Moreover, considering China's diplomatic practice in Europe, the conclusion is that there is a very likely voting in this comprehensive economic and trade talks. Since the vote is voting, the more votes the better, and the more Japan breaks it, the better.

The chat between Bai Le and Goto Nobuzuki was still very relaxed. After all, the two were classmates in high school and college, and they were once in the same dormitory. It can be said that they were very familiar with it. Goto Nobuzuki was also very bachelor, and directly told Bai Le two voices from all sides of Japan: "Different people have different opinions, but their opinions are basically integrated into these two."

"Haha..." Bai Le chuckled and replaced it with new tea.

"Senior, is there anything ridiculous?"

"It's very interesting, isn't it? Xin Takana, do you still remember when we were in school? At that time, the voices of textile quota negotiations appeared, and many people in Japan refused to negotiate. There are also two voices, one is that they cannot talk about it, which must be the conspiracy of the empire. The other is that they don't need to talk about it, and everything is listened to the commands of the country.

But now, there is no voice that is not allowed to talk about. It's really interesting, isn't it?" Bai Le said.

Nobusuo Goto said: "This is all the benevolence of the Holy Emperor."

As Goto said, this is the product of Li Junhua's benevolent diplomacy. Over the years, Li Junhua's diplomacy has basically maintained an equal attitude towards the diplomacy of the vassal states. Even if the vassal states do not make any demands, the empire will take the initiative to reconcile. For example, the empire once asked the Nanzhang Kingdom to establish a country and trade with the empire. Nanzhang quickly founded the country, but it immediately caused the collapse of the domestic price system and the outflow of silver. The empire took the initiative to help it reform its economy, importing a large amount of honey, beeswax, and wood from Nanzhang to bridge the trade deficit.
Chapter completed!