After Ryukyu became a vassal state of Our country in the fifth year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang migrated thousands of people with 36 surnames from Fujian to help Ryukyu build it, and gave various economic, educational, calendar, political system construction, military, scientific and technological assistance, making it quickly become one of the "three" important vassal states at that time - Siam (Thailand), Korea, and Ryukyu.
However, in the 37th year of the Wanli Calendar (1609), the Japanese Satsuma Domain sent more than 3,000 troops to capture Ryukyu, forcing Ryukyu to also "pay tribute and claim subjects" to Japan. Thus, the prelude to the era of the "Ryukyu Dual Suzerainty" was opened. Because, at that time and even in later generations, the Qing Dynasty was strong, and Japan had to ask for us in economic and trade, so the nature of this "dual suzerainty" was not obvious.
In the second year of Chongzhen (1629), he was canonized as an edict of Ryukyu
(1) Disregard for vassal states is the "commonality" of the Ming and Qing dynasties
The situation of "dual suzerainty" existed in many countries such as Annam, Siam, and Japan, and the Ming and Qing dynasties often did not manage or lift them. On the one hand, because Annam, Siam and other countries took the initiative to appear on the same occasion the phenomenon of "dual suzerainty", in case of occurrence, still with China as the suzerainty, very well-behaved to avoid "their own embarrassment"; on the other hand, because of the existence of the concept of "heavenly kingdom", we actually do not attach importance to the vassal states except Korea. Only the requirement is to satisfy the "vanity face".
Taking Ryukyu as an example, in 1872, the eleventh year of Tongzhi, Meiji issued an edict abolishing the Ryukyu king of the domain. At the same time, tribute was suspended, Sino-Ryukyu diplomatic relations were suspended from being handed over to Japan as chargé d'affaires, and participation in the birthday celebrations of the Chinese emperor and empress dowager was prohibited. As a result, the Ryukyu side sent people to ask for our help. But in fact, we don't pay attention to it.
Until for the sake of "face", people begged for the door to come up, and had to take care of it.
Illustration: Left three He Ruzhang, right one Huang Zunxian
In March 1877, the special envoy of King Shangtai of Ryukyu and the king's brother-in-law complained to He Jing, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, and Ding Richang, the governor of Fujian.
(2) He Ruzhang believes that taking advantage of the fact that Japan is still very weak and small, he will be crippled first, saving him from "raising tigers for trouble" and becoming more and more powerful! The bottom strategy is constant verbal protest, no actual action
On November 20, 1877, He Ruzhang, who was appointed as the first envoy to Japan, arrived in Tokyo and officially went to work. Faced with the Ryukyu problem, he came up with a countermeasure five months later (five months was only relative to the time after his arrival, not after he received the order to give advice).
On April 28, 1878, He Ruzhang offered three strategies for the middle and lower levels. He Ruzhang believes that Japan does not dare to fight, so the first book is our initiative to attack, the middle strategy is to support Ryukyu, and the next book is to constantly protest.
Why doesn't Japan dare to fight? The main reason was that at that time, Japan's national strength was weak, its foreign debt was serious, its internal instability was unstable, and its military strength was insufficient. That is, reforms such as "abolishing feudal counties", rent reduction and tax reduction to win public support, the purchase of weapons by superpowers, and internal wars and chaos. Last year (1877), Saigo Takamori, one of the "Three Masters of the Restoration", launched the "Satsuma Rebellion" and was defeated, as evidenced by the fact that his subordinates had their heads cut off to surrender.
He Ruzhang's former residence
So, the best policy is: preemptive strike... Taking advantage of the fact that Japan's national situation is uncertain and its military strength is not strong, it competes with Japan, and Yukeke also competes. Conceal tolerance, raise tigers to sit big, and the situation will not be replicated.
The central policy was to criticize Japan and support the Ryukyu resistance. If Japan attacked, we would immediately attack Japan with the Ryukyu Inside and Outside.
The next strategy is: only in the language of constant protest, ask the world to judge, the Japanese people consciously reason to be poor, may be able to get lucky to let the Ryukyu exist.
In the end, Li Hongzhang chose to make a decision and voluntarily abandoned Ryukyu. In the absence of actual opposition from the Chinese side, Japan had no distractions, and in 1879 it boldly annexed Ryukyu and renamed it Okinawa Prefecture.