The ancient evil god that Zhang Zhenren said has not yet appeared, everything is calm, and there is no doomsday picture at all.
Until the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month.
When the soldiers and civilians of Saga Castle celebrated the forty-fifth birthday of the Emperor, Mount Fuji, located in the south-central part of Honshu Island, one hundred and sixty miles east of Edo and spanning between Shizuoka and Yamanashi, suddenly erupted.
Thick smoke billowed into the sky from the top of the mountain, and the mountain trembled slightly, like a woman giving birth, as if something was about to burst out of the ground.
The monks at Sengen Shrine at the southern foot of the temple disappeared, along with three Edo samurai who had climbed the mountain to worship.
Sengen Shrine has a history of thousands of years. It is said that it was built by the eminent monk Jianzhen in the Tang Dynasty to suppress the evil god of Mount Fuji. It seems that it can no longer be suppressed...
~~~
After the Manju Festival, the Emperor's palace moved from Saga Castle to Moji Domain. There is only a shallow strait between here and Honshu. On the other side of the strait is Ushioseki Castle where the "Ushiseki Treaty" was signed.
In the middle of winter in the fourth year of Guangde, the haze of war began to envelope Honshu Island.
Honshu's waterways leading to Shikoku, Kyushu, and Hokkaido have been completely cut off by the Qi army. As of early December, Tokugawa Iemitsu and the remaining daimyo of Honshu have actually become turtles in the urn.
In view of the huge casualties that the landing might cause to the soldiers, the Supreme Emperor delayed ordering an attack.
However, the bombing of Japanese pirates never stopped.
Every three to five days, hot air balloons fly over the Kanmon Strait and fly over the Choshu Domain. At an altitude of more than a thousand meters, they bombard this feudal kingdom that is said to be the most powerful in Japan.
Hot air balloons dropped tens of thousands of pounds of leaflets, incendiary bombs, grenades, and corpses infected with the plague virus.
It was the middle of winter and the weather was dry. Most of the buildings in Changzhou Fancheng were made of wood.
The fire caused by the explosion lasted endlessly, and countless Japanese people were burned to death. The food stored in the city was burned, and many people were infected with the plague.
According to this situation, the Choshu clan will collapse without a fight before the army lands.
Compared with the desperate Japanese pirates, the situation of the Qi army is obviously much better.
The army's logistics supplies are very sufficient, and the epidemic prevention is also perfect.
In the past half year, more than 800,000 people from various vassals in Kyushu were massacred, and more than 100,000 people were sent to Fujian and Sakhalin. The imperial civil officials plundered countless pieces of money from these dead and exiled Japanese. Millions of catties of grain, and all the fields in Kyushu have now been reduced to horse breeding grounds for cavalry of various regiments...
The rebel general Zuo Liangyu and the pirate Zheng Sen were trapped on Shikoku Island. They were in a very bad situation. They had no time to save themselves and were unable to help Edo.
Zuo Liangyu began to take the initiative to contact the Qi army to discuss surrender matters. It is said that he held the jade seal of the former Ming emperor in his hand. He believed that this was an important bargaining chip for peace negotiations.
Even Zheng Sen, who had a grudge against the Supreme Emperor for killing his father, wanted to surrender to Da Qi.
Liu Zhaosun looked at the peace agreement submitted by Zuo Liangyu and Zheng Sen, and gained a deeper understanding of the history of Wu Sangui's surrender to the Qing army.
Unfortunately, the Supreme Emperor has little interest in negotiating peace.
Now that Da Qi's national policy has been decided, there is a high probability that it will not occupy the Japanese country for a long time in the future, so there is no point in leaving people alive, and it may also prevent the Supreme Emperor from becoming an immortal.
Therefore, whether it was Tokugawa Iemitsu or Zuo Liangtama, their fate was already doomed during the Emperor's Eastern Expedition.
On the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the day of Wanshou Festival, Changzhou Domain was once again attacked by incendiary bombs by the Qi army.
The shogunate and the surviving daimyo were powerless to fight back against the Qi army's reduction in dimension.
The most talented and strategic emperors in history, from Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty to Wu Zetian, were not able to destroy the Japanese state. At most, they only tried to deal with the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese state. As for Kublai Khan who conquered most of the earth a few hundred years later, Both expeditions failed.
The Supreme Emperor is different from them.
The Yamato nation, which claims to be the descendant of Amaterasu, experienced the fear of being exterminated for the first time in the face of the Qi army's fierce offensive.
"If you have no desires, you will be strong. I want nothing, so there is nothing I can't do."
Later, the Supreme Emperor was summarizing the review
This is how he explained it to his subordinates during the Eastern Expedition.
Daqi does not need the Japanese population, the Japanese land, or even the Japanese wealth, so it can be free and go further.
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On December 18, the shogun assessed the situation and announced to the world at the Edo Castle Tower that the shogunate had surrendered.
The edict was issued in the voice of the emperor.
The emperor of the Eternal Line has long since ceased to hold real power in Japan, but as a mascot, he will still be carried out at critical moments and used as a chamber pot.
Although it is a letter of surrender, the words are full of rebelliousness.
It was precisely because of this edict that the emperor was angered and the Japanese country fell into the fate of complete destruction.
The Imperial Palace of Saga Castle.
The Supreme Emperor sat on the throne, scanning the front with bright eyes. A group of Japanese envoys came from Edo, kneeling on the ground with their buttocks stuck out high.
"Read it and let me hear how they want to negotiate peace."
Dongfang Zhu quickly unfolded the emperor's surrender edict and read it aloud:
"In view of the situation in Japan and the current situation of the shogunate, I want to take extraordinary measures to clean up the situation and save the people of the world from disaster..."
"Stop it," the Supreme Emperor rubbed his forehead.
"How dare you, a small country, claim to be the world's leader?"
"It seems that the Japanese are not used to surrendering to the Qi Dynasty, but I don't need them to surrender. Let's continue reading."
Dongfang Zhu agreed:
"This is to inform you and other subjects that I have ordered the shogunate to inform the Qi State that they are willing to accept its surrender terms, resume the performance of the obligations of the "Niuguan Treaty", compensate the Qi State for its war losses, repay the arrears of annual coins, and send the prince to Da Qi."
Such conditions were obviously not enough to impress the Supreme Emperor, who just laughed.
Dongfang Zhu continued to read: "To seek the health and happiness of the Japanese subjects, and to join hands with Ryukyu, Korea and other countries to enjoy the joy of common prosperity, this was the late emperor's ardent expectation for me, and it is also the goal that I have persisted in practicing over the years."
In order to seek the well-being of the subjects, we must plunder Daqi? Joining hands with Ryukyu and North Korea is even more nonsense.
"The original purpose of breaking off the Treaty of Ushioseki and declaring war on Daqi was to safeguard Japan's survival and stability. As for the rogues that later plundered coastal towns and the Satsuma clan took over Ryukyu, these things were not my intention in the first place, but the people below Acting recklessly..."
It turns out that the tradition of Japanese pirates descending and conquering the upper reaches has a long history.
"Invading the territory of other countries is definitely not my original intention; being an enemy of Da Qi is not my original intention. After half a year of war, although the generals of each vassal were brave and good at fighting, hundreds of officials worked hard to govern, and billions of people were self-denial and devoted to the public service, each doing their best. , but the war situation has not improved. The support of the people is not in our favor. In addition, the enemy has recently used cruel incendiary bombs, which fall from the sky and cannot be avoided, killing innocent people frequently and causing terrible harm. The family will be destroyed; it will also cause additional casualties to the Qi army. In this way, how can I preserve hundreds of millions of innocent sons and express my thanks to the gods of the emperor and the emperor..."
After reading this, Dongfang Zhu finally stopped because the Emperor's face became ugly.
It was not because this edict had too many flaws, but the Tokugawa shogunate's understanding of the situation was so outrageous that it really shocked the Emperor.
Reading the entire article, there is no word of surrender, and there is no mention of the Japanese invasion of China for hundreds of years.
The only expressed meaning is that in order to prosper with other countries, the Japanese country has paid a huge price. The army suffered serious casualties, and homes were destroyed and people died everywhere.
Although the cessation of war now is not beneficial to the Japanese country, the emperor feels aggrieved, but they must do this for the sake of peace for future generations.
The Supreme Emperor sighed and said leisurely:
"They are such a naughty nation. If they surrender, they will surrender properly. If they refuse to lower their posture, they will resort to death. That's all."
Now that the shogunate is besieged on all sides, it is really eye-opening that such a nonsense edict can be drafted.
The Supreme Emperor thought for a long time but could not figure out why he should accept such an armistice edict.
Maybe it's because of the emperor
One lineage for all generations, high above the world, that's why they dare to look down on the world like this, looking down on Liu Zhaosun, the king of kings.
"First cut off the sacrificial flag of the Japanese envoy. Tokugawa Iemitsu doesn't know me yet. Does he have the strength to fight with me? Fifteen years ago, I gave him a chance, but he was useless. The Japanese are not afraid of power. Out of fear of virtue, he ordered the army to land on Choshu Domain and bloodbath Choshu Domain."
