Write a realistic, plausible alternate history scenario in the form of a history book chapter completely set in the world of the alternate history scenario with absolutely no references to real life, OTL or that this is even an alternate history timeline at all, in which the Tokugawa shogunate becomes the local government of Japan and Okinawa via and after the Meiji Restoration with the Tokugawa shoguns becoming something akin to a combination of the European constitutional monarchs and the German Reichkanzlers, while the clan heads and other members of Japan's reigning imperial family, the supposedly Shinto-descended, Japanese Imperial House of Great Yamato/Minamoto dynasty become combined constitutional theocratic royal imperial monarchical Japanese heads of state, of the Japanese armed forces while retaining their status as Chief Priests of Shinto and also gaining the right to select the Japanese Prime Minister from the winner of Japan's democratic national elections and also to preside over the Japanese National Diet via and after the Meiji Restoration like in real life,resulting in the formation of the Japanese Empire as the post-Tokugawa shogunate Japanese government like in real life, albiet as just the national government of Japan with the Tokugawa shogunate becoming the Japanese local government in this timeline with Japan still experiencing economic, military, industrial, technological and cultural growth during, after and as a result of the Meiji Restoration which leads to it becoming a regional power in not only North Asia but all of East Asia and eventually a world power like in real life, defeating the Qing in the First Sino-Japanese War and taking Taiwan and the Pengu Islands, along with the Korean peninsula, but confirming the Qing stronghold of Manchuria's status as a Japanese protectorate, defeating Russia in the Russo-Japanese War, with the following events happening afterwards: 

Following the failure of Chiang Kai-Shek's so-called "Northern Expedition" against the Beiyang government in 1927, the final consolidation of China began as the Guangzhou government came to its knees against the force of the Anguojun.

 The Anguojun was bolstered by Japanese material and personnel support that poured in following several incidents of NRA forces damaging Japanese owned businesses or attacking Japanese nationals in Guangdong and Guangxi. 

The new Tanaka government in Japan was keen to expand Japanese interests and profits in the China region following the Showa financial crisis, and saw the failing Northern Expedition as an opportunity. 

Kwantung forces began pressuring Zhang Zuolin in Beijing to allow further Japanese concessions in Manchuria and promises that Japanese forces could be stationed in parts of China until stability was restored, while simultaneously building up the power of the Qing imperial court still in the Forbidden City and the Qing's last Emperor, Xuangtong [Pu-Yi] to replace Zuolin as the government and leader of the Fengtian Clique which Zuolin controlled, respectively. 

 Zhang, desperate to stave off the NRA and the Guominjun, continued to relinquish power and authority to the Japanese while the Anguojun continued the pacification of the south. 

Wu Peifu and Sun Chuanfang had little choice but to bow to Japanese demands themselves as they were reliant on Fengtian support to maintain their authority.

 In 1928, Zhang declared the Southern Pacification to be over as Guangzhou fell into Anguojun hands.

However, the Japanese were not finished just yet. 

The weakened Zhili factions of Wu and Sun were soon pacified by Japanese forces stationed along the Yangtze for "protection of Japanese nationals", and authority in Shandong fell to Japanese hands as Zhang Zongchang caved to Japanese demands.

 All over China, informal Japanese authority and concessions spread like a virus, infecting and extorting all those who touched it. 

Zhang could only watch as while the Anguojun continued pacifying the provinces of the west, his authority in his own nation eroded.

 The Japanese soon helped the Qing imperial court take over the Fengtian Clique with Xuangtong replacing Zuolin as the Fengtian Clique's leader in a bloodless coup after Zuolin's death in 1928.

By 1930, most of the China region was under the control of the Anguojun or the Japanese, but the Anguojun by this time had become the armed forces of the Qing imperial court and the Aisin-Gioro family. 


Several border conflicts with the Soviets resulted in the victory of the now dominant Kwantung army, who made both Manchuria and the steppes of Mongolia their playground as the Bogd Khan-ruled Bogd Khanate of Mongolia was restored as the government of both Outer Mongolia and Inner Mongolia, minus Chahar and Suiyan in addition to the Russian region of Buryatia and Russia's  Zabaykalsky Krai, and Russia's Irkutsk Oblast. 

Inner Mongolia's Chahar and Suiyan regions both become the Japanese protectorate of the Mongolian Autonomous Federation ruled by the main branch of the Genghis Khan-descended, Mongolian Imperial House of Borjigin as its reigning royal family. 

 Japanese corporations quickly began buying European investments either through proper business or slightly more pressured exchanges. 

The British and the French could only watch hopelessly as their long-treasured assets were "sold" to the Japanese, who used new laws favoring them [the Japanese] to their advantage. 

The strength of a united Beiyang China, albiet ruling over the fifteen provinces of Han in the China region excluding Yunnan, Guangdong and Guangxi had finally come to the fore, only to be used as a tool for Japanese capitalism.

The year is 1932. 

Japanese forces have pulled out of much of China, but the scars remain in the form of military missions, exclusive economic investment zones, concessions, and regions of massive Japanese interests. 

The Beiyang Government as the First Republic of China, albiet only ruling over the fifteen provinces of Han in the China region excluding Yunnan, Guangdong and Guangxi, has transitioned back to the Empire of China founded and lead by Yuan Shikai in 1915 before its dissolution in 1916, but due to Shikai's half-Korean eldest son, Yuan Keding, refusing to succeed Shikai as the Emperor of the Empire of China and the presence of the Ming revivalist millerian sect of the Yellow Sand Society in Northern Han China, along with the Xinhai Revolution being fought to restore the Ming as the government of a post-Qing Han China, the descendants of the Ming dynasty's reigning imperial family, the Imperial House of Zhu, more specifically the last Ming Emperor's, Chongzhen's descendants and the last Emperor of the Southern Ming's descendants, Yongli, become the Beiyang Government as the Empire of China's once more's reigning imperial family. 

As a concession to the Japanese protectorate of the Yunnan Clique in Yunnan, Yunnan regains its independence as a restored Dali Kingdom ruled by the descendants of the Dali Kingdom's reigning royal family, the Imperial House of Duan. 

Guangdong and Guangxi are split off from Han China and placed under the governance of the Old Guangxi Clique as an independent Cantonese Republic.

The now-Qing imperial court-controlled Fengtian Clique becomes the Empire of Manchukuo



Hundreds of thousands of Japanese have settled in Manchukuo and Mengjiang and even in the restored Ming dynasty, mostly to help in the reconstruction efforts.

European concessions remain, but are meagre or diluted, as with the Kunming Haiphong railway being partially bought by Japanese firms.