Edo, shogunate.
As the third generation Tokugawa Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, he was lying comfortably on a soft couch, with two beauties rubbing his shoulders with low eyebrows.
Two young beauties pinched his feet.
A young beauty gently handed a peeled longan to Tokugawa Iemitsu's mouth.
An attendant who was over fifty years old was holding a memorial and was reading out: "The Tokugawa (Tianyasu) family's Kai Musashige, Chief Setsetsu and Izumi Harima Uchiten, solemnly memorialized: Since October, rains have caused disasters. Kamigetsu Castle, Yancheng City, Himeji Castle, Miki Castle. Others suffered greatly, and tens of thousands of people were affected..."
In his hand, there was also a pile of memorials.
Tokugawa Iemitsu waved his hand lightly and said, "Yes..."
The young eunuch picked up another memorial: Bungo House Domain Tenlord, Nagasaki Division Representative, and Nagasaki Advocate Hineno Yoshio wrote that since the Satsuma Domain has started the war, Kao Castle has been lost, and things are uneasy. Mitsuhisa Shima of the Satsuma Domain was a traitor and a traitor. On Bingwu of this month, Cheng, the general of the Ming Dynasty, beheaded eight thousand people under Mitsuhisa for their rebellion...! "
It's not that Tokugawa Iemitsu didn't receive battle reports from Kyushu, it's just that the butt determines the head, and the head determines the thinking.
There are currently five gaibei daimyo in the Tokugawa shogunate. The so-called gaibei daimyo refers to the daimyo who were forced to surrender in the Battle of Sekigahara. To give a very simple example, the current relationship between the Satsuma Domain and the Tokugawa Shogunate is just like Cao Cao during the Three Kingdoms period, who used the emperor to control the princes. Cao Cao was the shogunate in his childhood. The Satsuma clan is equivalent to Zhang Lu, the governor of Hanzhong, or Ma Teng of Xiliang.
This kind of daimyo has a relatively distant relationship with the Tokugawa clan and has a strong independence. Therefore, the outside daimyo has always been the target of the Tokugawa clan's wariness and weakening. However, although the Tokugawa clan established the shogunate, they did not dare to Directly weakening a certain foreign name without any reason.
As early as the Kamakura shogunate era, the shogunate, a power organization above the sky and the emperor, has ruled for four hundred years, and its rule will continue.
Genji defeated the Taira clan to establish the Kamakura shogunate, and the Ashikaga family killed Minamotoshiki and established the Muromachi shogunate. Oda Nobunaga and Takeda Shingen rose up to overthrow the Muromachi shogunate. Then, an unprecedented fierce battle was launched for the supreme position of the shogun, which destroyed the entire Japan. They were all involved in the whirlpool of blood and fire.
Oda Nobunaga and Tokugawa Ieyasu teamed up to kill Takeda Shingen. Akechi Mitsuhide killed his former old boss Oda Nobunaga with a black knife in his back, and was later killed by Oda Nobunaga's favorite general Toyotomi Hideyoshi. After the unification, Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched a war to conquer the dynasty, but was slapped back by the Ming dynasty.
After eight years of hard fighting, not even an inch of land was gained, but hundreds of thousands of Japanese samurai were killed. Toyotomi Hideyoshi vomited blood and died. The death game that lasted for hundreds of years finally came to an end. Tokugawa Ieyasu had the last laugh. After the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Zhengchao, the Tokugawa family gradually destroyed the Toyotomi family and took sole control of power.
To say that all the feudal lords in the whole little life did not have the strength to threaten the status of the Tokugawa shogunate, nothing is absolute. Whether it is the Genji, the Oda or the Tokugawa, they all defeated the superiors, and they are what we are today. s position.
Weakening the strength of the vassal states below was something the Tokugawa shogunate was happy to see. When Tokugawa Iemitsu received the message that Cheng Shijie led the Ming army to conquer Kyushu, the first thing he thought of was God helping Tokugawa.
However, among the five external daimyo, the fifth place is the Fukuoka Domain of the Kuroda clan, followed by the fourth Kumamoto clan of the Hosokawa clan, the third Sendai clan Date clan, the second place is the Satsuma clan, and the first place is It is Kaga Domain. Now that Cheng Shijie is dealing with the Satsuma clan, there is no harm to the Tokugawa clan.
There are five foreign daimyo, three of whom are in Kyushu. The Kyushu vassals have always been unruly to the shogunate. Tokugawa Iemitsu is very happy to see them beaten by the Ming army and their strength is greatly weakened. Finally, he sends troops as a savior. Help them defeat the Ming army that invaded Kyushu.
The Tokugawa shogunate had 80,000 extremely brave Hatamoto samurai under his command, and a mere 10,000 Ming army, but he did not take them seriously. What really troubled him was Ming Guo's attitude. Why did the Ming Dynasty send troops to invade Xiaoli for no reason?
It may not be difficult to defeat the Ming army of more than 10,000 people, but what is difficult is how to deal with the aftermath. After all, what I have to face in my childhood is a behemoth with a population of over 100 million. Tokugawa Iemitsu asked himself that he did not have the ability of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and did not have the courage to risk his life against this behemoth.
Just when Tokugawa Iemitsu was thinking about it, there was a gentle knock on the door.
"Your Excellency General, Your Excellency Lao Zhong wants to see you!"
Tokugawa Iemitsu waved his hand, and the beautiful girls and boys around him got up and left, leaving Tokugawa Iemitsu alone in the entire quiet room.
"Come in!"
The maid kneeling outside opened the door, and an old man with white beard and hair, a thin face but sharp eyes strode in proudly, and then knelt in front of Tokugawa Iemitsu.
It was none other than Tokugawa Iemitsu's senior officer, Sakai Tadakatsu, who was the highest official in the shogunate.
The maid immediately closed the door. Sakai Tadakatsu kowtowed and said respectfully: "See you, General!"
A smile appeared on Tokugawa Iemitsu's young face: "Your Excellency, Lao Naka, please sit down!"
"Thank you General!"
"Is there a problem?"
Sakai Tadakatsu was the eldest son of Sakai Tadatsuki, the lord of Kawagoe Domain, and his mother Hokyoin was the daughter of Suzuki Shigenao (lord of Mikawa Ashusuke Castle). When he was young, this guy was a fierce and fierce character. He had experienced hundreds of battles and was also a good hand in managing local economic development. With his extraordinary record and political achievements, his position in the Tokugawa shogunate was as stable as a rock. .
Sakai Tadakatsu looked solemn and whispered: "General, there is news from Kyushu!"
"How's it going?"
"Satsuma Domain..."
"Did you win?"
Sakai Tadakatsu said: "Big defeat!"
Tokugawa Iemitsu frowned: "A big defeat? How is it possible?"
The Kyushu clans are strong, especially the Kumamoto clan, the Satsuma clan, and the Fukuoka clan. If the Kyushu clan joins forces, even if the Tokugawa shogunate has 80,000 warriors, it will not be sure.
"According to intelligence, the Ming army that Fukuoka Domain and Kumamoto Domain had defected to defected before the battle. The entire Satsuma Domain army was defeated, and even the last Osumi Castle was lost!"
Sakai Tadakatsu smiled bitterly and said: "The Ming army had hundreds of powerful cannons, which fired Qingyi style explosive shells. With one shot, the mountains collapsed and the ground was shattered. The Shimazu family samurai were blasted with blood and flesh by their cannons. Fly, the situation is in chaos!"
Tokugawa Iemitsu's expression became serious.
"In addition, this Ming army is extremely well-equipped, with thick armor and invulnerability. The Samurai clan's samurai slashed with swords and sparks flew out. The armor was not damaged, but the samurai swords were sharpened by it! The Ming army was equipped with a powerful crossbow with a range of The bird cannons were no inferior in comparison, and their accuracy was far superior. The Ming army hid behind a kind of fortification made of sandbags. The projectiles fired by the Satsuma Domain's iron artillery team were all blocked by the sandbags, and their crossbowmen The crossbow arrows shot down the Satsuma clan's soldiers in pieces!"
Tokugawa Iemitsu said in surprise: "The Ming army is so well-equipped? Doesn't it mean that the Ming army is poorer than a beggar, and a dozen warriors can defeat one of their thousand households? How..."
Sakai Tadakatsu smiled bitterly and said: "Those are the guardsmen, so naturally they are easy to deal with, but this time they are the top elites of the Ming army, and they are not so easy to deal with. Otherwise, the battle of conquering the dynasty would not have been so miserable. .”
The Korean War is an everlasting pain in my heart. The nine-pronged army attacked North Korea and lost 70% of them. As those who have witnessed it, they still have lingering fears in their hearts when they mention the Korean War.
Tokugawa Iemitsu frowned and said: "Your Excellency Laozhong, tell me, what is the origin of this Ming Army general Cheng Shijie? Why haven't I heard of him?"
Sakai Tadakatsu said: "It has been found out that he is Cheng Shijie, the Duke of the Ming Dynasty who defeated the Manchu cavalry and annihilated 40,000 enemies in the Battle of Liaoyang."
Tokugawa Iemitsu's pupils shrank: "Is it him? Cheng Shijie who defeated Zheng Sang?"
"Not only Zheng Sang, but also the Spanish Luzon and the Dutch officials were all snatched away by Cheng Shijie. It is said that he also extorted 4.6 million taels of silver from the Spanish, and each Spanish hostage had 1,000 taels. The Dutch also suffered a big loss in their hands!”
Who is the most popular person in recent years? That must be Cheng Shijie. In the Battle of Haizhou, he killed more than 10,000 Jiu slaves. Huang Taiji mobilized the elite Eight Banners to seek revenge, but the result was even worse. Cheng Shijie annihilated more than 40,000 people in one battle. Now Jiu Nu Neither recovered.
There is nothing to say if Cheng Shijie is good at land battles. After all, Xiaoli is separated from the Ming Dynasty by the sea, so there is no need to be afraid of him. But the problem is that Cheng Shijie is also good at sea battles. Zheng Zhilong collects protection money from Ning Haijun, and he becomes angry. Then he directly lifted the table and annihilated all the more than 200,000 Zheng Group's troops.
At the same time, the Spanish and Dutch would be pressed to the ground and rubbed if they offended Cheng Shijie.
While Tokugawa Iemitsu and Sakai Tadakatsu were talking, messy footsteps came from outside the door.
Tokugawa Iemitsu was very unhappy at being disturbed for no reason. He frowned and was getting angry when a servant ran in embarrassedly and roared at the maid outside the door: "Urgent battle report, I want to see the general!"
"Let him in!"
The attendant was panting like an ox. He held up a battle report and knelt in front of Tokugawa Iemitsu: "Your Excellency, urgent report from Nagasaki!"
Lao Naka Sakai Tadakatsu hurriedly reached out to take the battle report and handed it to Tokugawa Iemitsu.
Tokugawa Iemitsu glanced at it after opening it, and his expression changed drastically.
Sakai Tadakatsu asked in confusion: "General, what happened?"
Tokugawa Iemitsu said: "Your Excellency Lao Naka, see for yourself!"
As Sakai Tadakatsu opened the battle report, he saw it read: "On October 29, the eleventh year of Kanei (the eighth year of Chongzhen), in just one day, all the Nagasaki forts were destroyed, and hundreds of bombs were dropped in the city. Countless civilians were killed and injured..."
As the saying goes, whose flesh the needle does not prick will not hurt.
When the Ming army attacked the Satsuma clan unscrupulously, Tokugawa Iemitsu was not in a hurry. He had the intention of killing someone with a borrowed knife. It would be best if the Ming army and the Satsuma clan died together. Even if we cannot die together, we must weaken the Satsuma Domain as much as possible. But it's different now. The Satsuma clan no longer exists, but Cheng Shijie has no intention of stopping, and now he is slashing at Nagasaki again.
You must know that Nagasaki is the money bag of the shogunate. Now that Nagasaki is taken over by the Ming army, this will cost the life of the Tokugawa shogunate. As the only trading port in its small days, without Nagasaki, it would be a waste!
Tokugawa Iemitsu gritted his teeth and said: "Your Excellency Lao Zhong, go down and make arrangements. I want to call all the generals to discuss sending troops to Kyushu to fight against the Ming invaders! Also, let someone go to Beijing and ask the Ming court about this! "
Sakai Tadakatsu asked in confusion: "Why is this?"
Tokugawa Iemitsu said: "I want to find out whether the Ming army's invasion this time was caused by General Cheng's subjugation or the Ming court's instigation! Only by understanding what is going on can we deal with it with ease!"
Sakai Tadakatsu understood. If the Ming army's invasion of Xiaori was just an act of subjugation, all they had to do was use hard and soft tactics to force Ming to withdraw its troops; if the invasion of Xiaori was ordered by the Ming court, then Japan would be in big trouble...
Although the Tokugawa shogunate enjoyed a period of peace at this time, many generals who had experienced the war of imperial conquest were still alive. The brave and warlike atmosphere honed in the mountains of corpses and seas of blood during the Warring States Period had not yet dissipated. Therefore, Tokugawa The war machine of the Shogunate was still running smoothly.
At this time, under the governance of the Tokugawa shogunate, the overall trend of the small life was on the rise. The trauma caused by the century-old war was being healed bit by bit. Therefore, the prestige of the Tokugawa shogunate in the small life was very high. Tokugawa With Iemitsu's order, the Kanto vassals quickly mobilized, and armies from all walks of life gathered one after another to assemble towards Edo.
The Hatamoto samurai under the Tokugawa shogunate even polished their samurai swords, wiped off the rust spots on the blades of their cross spears, brought dry food, and gathered impatiently, shouting that they wanted to teach the Ming army a lesson. Some impatient ones didn't even wait for the shogunate's army to be dispatched, so they went on the road in groups. It seemed that to them, the Ming army was not a terrible enemy, but a pile of walking and moving silver.
Just when the Tokugawa shogunate sent troops, Cheng Shijie also arrived at Nagasaki Port. After Nagasaki Port was captured, Nagasaki Castle relied on its tall and strong walls to hold on for eight days.
After eight days and eight nights of bloody battles, the entire Nagasaki City was full of corpses, and more and more ronai and samurai joined Cheng Shijie's command. After all, everyone has to eat, and Cheng Shijie is responsible for making it. Each warrior can have a box of 500-gram canned meat and two 400-gram compressed biscuits. If one person eats it, there will definitely be no problem. But it is much better than following those big names.
Cheng Shijie used food to attract the wandering samurai who had been young for two reasons. First, he did not want the strength of the Kumamoto clan and Fukuoka clan to increase too fast, and secondly, there was another problem in the country.
In order to prevent the King of Liao from intervening in Liaodong, Cheng Shijie asked Song Xiance to sneak into the Central Plains and act as a rogue. At first Cheng Shijie wanted Song Xiance to be a sword. Cheng Shijie asked Song Xiance and other gangsters to kill whoever caused trouble for Cheng Shijie.
But the problem is that Cheng Shijie didn't realize that Song Xiance was too capable. After Song Xiance occupied Yanzhou Prefecture, the Dashun Army under his command surged to more than 40,000 people. Then Song Xiance held high the banner of attacking the local tyrants and dividing their land, and marched directly westward. Guide Mansion was captured effortlessly.
After occupying Guide Prefecture, Song Xiance's army surged to more than 100,000 people. Especially at this time, it was the autumn harvest. Taking advantage of the autumn, Song Xiance divided more than 2,000 acres of land belonging to the landlords of Yanzhou Prefecture and Guide Prefecture into poverty-stricken areas. Common people, this time the troops under his command increased to more than 500,000 people.
Song Xiance also rode a tiger south. On the one hand, he attacked Dongchang Mansion and Xuzhou. Now the court could not sit still. Zhang Xianzhong burned Fengyang to a white ground with a fire. He finally caught Zhang Xianzhong, but he did not expect to appear again. A Song Xiance.
Emperor Chongzhen did not dare to be careless. He directly rejected all opinions and asked Cheng Shijie to go back and quell the rebellion of Dashun Army. Because Cheng Shijie had to return to the Ming Dynasty, he had to expand his results as soon as possible.
Relying solely on the Fukuoka and Kumamoto clans, it would not be a big problem to capture Kyushu, but in the small days there was not only one Kyushu, but also three other islands.
In this case, in order to have enough to eat, the samurai and ronin these days became the Mad Dog Corps under Cheng Shijie. The number of the Mad Dog Corps has increased from more than 3,000 at the beginning to more than 20,000, and even many Kumamoto Samurai and Fukuoka Samurai also quietly joined the Mad Dog Corps.
Seeing Cheng Shijie arriving in Nagasaki, these young warriors of the Mad Dog Corps behaved even more bravely. They held a mess of weapons, roared towards Nagasaki City, and climbed up the city wall like a string of ants.
Although the Japanese army was beaten out of their souls by the terrible artillery fire of the Ming army, they still clenched their teeth and endured at the critical moment of life and death. Their bows, arrows and muskets were fully fired. Bullets rained from the city walls, and sharp arrows blocked the air. The civilians of Nagasaki also Rush up to the city wall to help the battle, throw rocks at the cannon fodder of the ants attacking the city, or pour down pots of boiling oil. The cannon fodder that was hit will fall down in clusters, and dead bodies will soon accumulate under the city wall. A thick layer.
However, the fanaticism of this group of cannon fodder far exceeded the imagination of the Nagasaki Port defenders. After their first charge was repulsed, they immediately launched a second charge without taking a break. If they failed the second time, they would do it again. Like a rising tide. The defenders of Nagasaki Port fought hard. There were piles of dead bodies above and below the city, and rivers of blood flowed.
"Commander, these little warriors are still not good enough. Why don't we let our artillery support them?"
Sun Kewang could tell that he would definitely not be able to attack in these small days.
Cheng Shijie smiled faintly and said, "Cannonballs don't cost money?"
"Then they won't be able to defeat them. As time goes by, their morale will inevitably decline!"
Cheng Shijie said: "This is a problem. Call Honda Yourong over!"
Not long after, Honda Yurong, who was fully 1.68 meters tall, came over. Among the heights of Ming men, 1.68 meters can only be regarded as an average height. But the problem is that in his small life, he stood out from the crowd.
"Greetings to Your Majesty the General!"
"Honda-kun, how many people can you run away from...like this...again!"
Cheng Shijie told Honda Yurong about the method of digging into the city.
Honda Yuei led a large number of young warriors to shoot at the city wall with bows and arrows. After killing more than a thousand people, they finally arrived at the gate of Nagasaki Castle. Dozens of young warriors used shovels, iron drills, pickaxes, etc. It was fun to dig hard at the city wall.
First, dig a small hole, stuff it with a small packet of explosives and detonate it, blowing up the city bricks, then use an iron drill to pry them off, dig a larger hole, and then blow it up again...
After struggling for a long time, they successfully drilled three holes the size of the Eight Immortals' Table in that section of the city wall, and filled each hole with hundreds of kilograms of explosives. Almost ready, with an order, the cannon fodder who were fighting hard on the city wall retreated, and Xiaori took the opportunity to regain this section of the city wall.
Just as the Nagasaki defenders raised their swords and cheered on the recaptured position, a thunderous violent noise shook the ground, and the entire thirty-meter-long city wall turned into an erupting volcano. Hundreds of Nagasaki soldiers Wrapped in broken city bricks and flying into the air...
The soldiers and civilians of Nagasaki Port thought it was an earthquake. They knelt on the ground and kowtowed in fear, praying to the gods and Buddhas in the sky to bless them and forgive them for their crimes. They did not notice at all that amid the flying rocks, their originally strong city wall had an extra long line. Through a gap of thirty meters, the Mad Dog Legion and the allied forces of the Kumamoto and Fukuoka Domains surged in despite falling rocks and choking smoke...
The end of Nagasaki Castle has come.
The composition of the cannon fodder of the Mad Dog Legion is very complex. There are small-time warriors who were defeated and captured, there are young people who came from the city after the city was broken and plundered, there are small-time farmers who voluntarily joined, and there are also some who were originally weak and in humble status, but there are many Ambitious, small feudal lords who want to take advantage of the Ming army's invasion to make a fortune, as well as bankrupt sailors, pirates, etc. The composition of these guys is extremely complex, but they have one thing in common, that is... poor!
What would happen if a group of extremely poor guys rushed into a prosperous big city with open fire? You can even think of it with your knees. Killings, looting, and arson, these atrocities spread like a plague. The figures were distorted in the blazing fire, and the wild laughter and shrill cries became the main theme of the city.
"Commander, we just received information that the Tokugawa Shogunate has sent troops!"
"Oh, they are finally willing to send troops!"
Cheng Shijie smiled lightly and said, "How many people did they come?"
"It is said that there are 12,000 Hatamoto samurai, more than 23,000 ashigaru, and dozens of daimyo lords, with approximately 50,000 to 60,000 horses!"
"Only 50,000 or 60,000 troops?"
If Tokugawa Iemitsu hears Cheng Shijie's words, he will definitely cry and urinate. Despite Cheng Shijie's disdain, in fact, the Tokugawa shogunate has already tried its best to suck milk.
The army needs to eat along the way, transporting grain and grass, and deploying a large number of weapons, all of which require a large number of manpower, and the mobilized civilians also need to eat. They are different from the Ning Navy, which brings its own supplies and baggage troops. , usually there is supply training during training.
Therefore, every time Ning Haijun dispatches troops, the preparation time is very short. It can be said that at most tens of thousands of troops can be dispatched in one day, 50,000 to 60,000 troops can be dispatched in three days, and 100,000 troops can be dispatched in ten days.
The Tokugawa shogunate was having a hard time. They had 80,000 elites, but these 80,000 horses could not move. The reason was that there was not enough food and equipment, and there were no good roads like Liaodong.
Originally, Cheng Shijie was planning to withdraw his troops and return to the division, but the problem was that Tokugawa Iemitsu actually sent troops without saying, "Fuck him!"
"Pass the order, Li Zhixiang returns from Ogi City and is responsible for intercepting the reinforcements of the Tokugawa Shogunate!"
"Order... the Death Battalion to prepare to retreat!"
When Ning Haijun was preparing to retreat, he was making a fortune in Nagasaki City in his childhood. Now Cheng Shijie is like a money-spreading boy, using food and low-value industrial products in exchange for the treasures they captured from the Kumamoto and Fukuoka clans.
As for the capture of the Mad Dog Legion, they all belonged to Cheng Shijie.
As teams of young captives and carts of gold and silver treasures were loaded onto the ships, Cheng Shijie found that his more than 500 ships were no longer enough.
Finding pinpoints is what Catherine is best at: "Your Excellency, do you want to hire more ships?"
"That's right, you didn't bring the Venetian fleet to the small days, did you?"
"Actually, it's more than that!"
Catherine smiled and said: "I can also hire transport ships from the Dutch East India Company. There are thirty-three ships in total. Together with our Venetian fleet, we can have a carrying capacity of 40,000 tons. How about it? The price is negotiable!"
"you are vicious!"
Cheng Shijie had to accept Catherine's threat. There was no other way. There were too many supplies and gold and silver treasures seized. It seemed that Ning Haijun would need to build more transport ships in the future.
We must make up for the serious lack of transportation capacity.
Sun Ke looked at the soldiers of the Mad Dog Legion and said, "Commander, what should we do with them? Are they going to be taken back home?"
"Young Zhuang was brought to Liaodong to build roads and mine. As for these rabid dog regiments!"
Cheng Shijie thought of Annan: "Send these little days to Annan, and let the monkeys and dogs bite the dogs in Annan!" (End of Chapter)
