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 before, during and while this is going on: 

The history of the Empire of Vietnam's ruling House of Nguyễn, descended from the Ming dynasty's reigning imperial family, the Imperial House of Zhu and referring to the Empire of Vietnam as the "Southern dynasty" in a clear reference to its status as a recreation/revival/modernization of the Southern Ming is one of ambition. 

After all, their dynasty traced back centuries, slowly amassing power and wealth until the great Emperor Gia Long had been able to reunify and conquer all of Dai Nam in 1802, with the assistance of the French from far overseas through a Catholic Priest who had championed his cause. 

Thus began a partnership between the French and Dai Nam, but toward the end of both his reign and his life, he slowly came to distrust the encroaching French influence, seeing patterns in how the British had wormed their way into the Indian lords until they had taken control of the entire subcontinent.

 He feared for his kingdom, that the French might do just the same and reduce his land to vassalage. 

In a hidden missive to his younger son and successor Minh Mạng, he gave him a final order: "Do not trust the French. Make use of their resources and goods, use them to your advantage, but never give them your trust."

Emperor Minh Mạng would take this to heart, keeping French advisors both in his court and at arm's distance, as well as welcoming British advisors to keep a balance. 

Trade was opened to both equally, knowing that any conflict between the two could be fought more fiercely outside of Vietnam.

 But he also began to study them. 

The Confucian Orthodoxy was strengthened,and the hidden religion of the Ming Emperors, Sunni Islam, was spread through Vietnam but surreptitiously Minh Mạng commissioned scholars and students to study western designs and systems of government, along with those of the Ottoman Empire.

He had them report back to him, and ever so slowly he slowly began to slip them into use by the government.

 Emperor Thiệu Trị would only continue this, and soon the army of the Empire was making use of western-style guns, building a new western-style fighting ship, and seeing the centralization of authority under the Emperor with the help of Ming loyalists in Han China fleeing the Qing and Ottoman advisors in addition to indigenous Vietnamese genius

It would be under Emperor Tự Đức that it all came to a final head. Having been the younger brother to Prince Hồng Bảo, his coronation was met by a rebellion in 1847 of the conservative and traditional elements of Dai Nam society led by Hồng Bảo, who claimed to be the legitimate Emperor to those who wanted to reverse the ongoing westernization (ironically, Hồng Bảo had also asked for Western help with the promise of conversion to Catholicism and to make Dai Nam a Catholic country). 

This, though, was met with failure, and thus established firmly that the new western course was set in place.

 Victories abroad soon overran the Luang Phrabang Kingdom in Laos and annexed Cambodia to direct rule, followed by success in bringing North Borneo under their rule when the Sultan of Brunei submitted to Vietnamese rule.

The real victories were yet to come. 

After expulsion of the French from the country, Emperor Dục Đức announced his most ambitious project yet.

 The European states had begun to take bites out of the failing Qing Dynasty, and so too would Vietnam. 

The First Sino-Viet War only the conquest of the island of Hainan, but then the Second Sino-Viet War saw a colossal success with the conquest of virtually all of Guangxi, expanding deep into Chinese territory and legitimizing the "Westerness" of Dai Nam in the eyes of the East.

 Only the west remained, and that was to come. France had never wanted to be evicted from Dai Nam, and now with the army required to occupy Guangxi, they struck through their treaty ports in Guangxi that Dai Nam had been careful to leave, but now moved on with a vengeance.

 And here again, the efforts at progress succeeded. Within two years, the French treaty ports were under full Dai Nam control, and the Franco-Viet War ended in a resounding success for Dai Nam, with Dai Nam also taking Guangdong, essentially reviving the territorial integrity of the Nanyue Kingdom. 

 Now, with control over the Eastern Sea, they could begin to strangle Western trade into China, exercising their strength as a rising power on the world stage with a growing sphere of both territory and influence.

Around a decade or two decades later, Following the failure of Chiang Kai-Shek's so-called "Northern Expedition" against the Beiyang government as the first Republic of China in 1927, the final consolidation of China began as the Guangzhou government came to its knees against the force of the Fengtian Clique's combined armed forces, the Anguojun [National Pacification Army].

 The Anguojun was bolstered by Japanese material and personnel support that poured in following several incidents of the Nationalist Chinese combined armed forces, the NRA [National Revolutionary Army] 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 the combined warlord of Manchuria, military dictator of the Fengtian Cluque and head of the Anguojun,Zhang Zuolin in Beijing to allow further Japanese concessions in the Fengtian Clique's powerbase and stronghold of Manchuria and promises that Japanese forces could be stationed in parts of China until stability was restored in the China region, 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] of the Manchu Imperial House of Aisin-Gioro 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. 

After the defeat of Soviet troops in the now Soviet-controlled post-1912, pre-1947 Chinese warlord clique/ faction of the Kuomingtang-ruled Nationalist Chinese government/Chinese military junta of the Xinjiang clique occupying East Turkestan by a joint IJA [Imperial Japanese Army] Anguojun-assault, the Japanese carry out their pre-WW2 and WW2-era plan to restore the  the now long dissolved Turkish Imperial House of Osman-ruled Unitary parliamentary constitutional Islamic imperial royal monarchy of Ottoman Empire as the government [the Ottoman Empire] of post-Xinjiang clique East Turkestan, with the post-1842, pre-1922 army of the Ottoman Empire after the country [the Ottoman Empire] was [the Ottoman Empire] reorganized [the Ottoman Empire] along modern western European lines during the Tanzimat modernization period [in the Ottoman Empire], the Modern Ottoman Army, [the Modern Ottoman Army] being [the Modern Ottoman Army] restored [the Modern Ottoman Army] from the Xingjiang Clique's warlord and bandit soldiers after the restoration of the Ottoman Empire in East Turkestan.

The  post-1903, pre-1920 intelligence, paramilitary, and secret police organization in the Ottoman Empire working under the Ottoman Ministry of War which  maintained a clandestine budget and command structure controlled by the War Ministry, whose existence was kept secret from both the Ottoman parliament and the Ottoman public, the Special Organization, [the Special Organization] is [the Special Organization] restored [the Special Organization] from the Xingjiang Clique's elite spies and operatives along with turned Soviet NKVD operatives in East Turkestan and Special Organization operatives from Turkey who move from Turkey to East Turkestan  after the restoration of the Ottoman Empire in East Turkestan

The now-Qing imperial court-controlled Fengtian Clique becomes the Empire of Manchukuo in Manchuria, differentiated from the restored Empire of China ruled by Chongzhen's and Yongli's descendants in Han China, called Hanchukuo, Mengjiang, called Mengukuo.

The Empire of Vietnam becomes a Japanese protectorate, called Vietchukuo

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.