At the end of December in the fourth year of Guangde, the tragedy of the Tokugawa Shogunate officially began.
On December 28, after half a month of preparations for the air attack, the Qi army launched a general attack on Honshu Island with the Sixth Corps as the vanguard and the three imperial corps as the main force, combined with Ryukyu and Korean troops, totaling 120,000 people.
Zhao Lijiao thoroughly implemented the Emperor's strategy of "thorough cleanup".
On the first day of the first lunar month of the fifth year of Guangde, the Sixth Corps approached Changzhou Domain. All the Japanese soldiers who tried to resist along the way were massacred. On the third day of the first lunar month, the Qi army's troops pointed directly at the feudal city Ogihara.
On the third day of the first lunar month, the Emperor's palace moved forward from eastern Kyushu to Niuguan Castle in the west of Honshu Island.
Maori Hidemoto realized that the feudal vassal was about to face annihilation, so he urgently sent a third wave of envoys to seek peace with Qi.
Xiuyuan begged the Supreme Emperor to "regardless of past grievances" and spare the Choshu clan this time.
As long as the Choshu Domain can be preserved, the Mori family is willing to be the vanguard of the Qi army and lead the Qi army to attack Osaka and Edo Castle.
However, the Emperor was not interested in the land and population of Japan, and Mao Li never imagined that Liu Zhaosun's reason for continuing the Eastern Expedition was just to become an immortal.
~~~
Niuguan City Palace.
The Supreme Emperor was still practicing in the secret room and had no time to receive the envoy.
Dongfang Zhu had a stern look on his face, and the envoy knelt on the ground respectfully and presented the seal of the Lord of Changshu and the map of the vassal.
"We need to remind you that the Emperor never mentioned that you could surrender."
Dongfang Zhu didn't even look at the respectful envoy from the Changzhou domain in front of him, and said to the Japanese in a gentle tone that only an eunuch could have:
"Your Majesty, he doesn't need prisoners now."
Upon seeing this, Mouri Hidemoto's envoy quickly said: "Why did Master Dongfang say this? China and Japan are separated by a strip of water. The two countries are long-term friendly neighbors. Although there were pirates that invaded the Ming Dynasty in the past, the pirates were all ronin of the Kyushu Domain. The samurai has nothing to do with this vassal, and our Changshu vassal has never participated in invading China. I also ask Duke Dongfang to speak kindly in front of the Supreme Emperor to let the Holy Emperor know the difficulties of our vassal..."
As the envoy from the Choshu Domain spoke, he picked up a box of treasures and stuffed them into Dongfangzhu's sleeves.
"If I can surrender to Daqi, my vassal lord will personally lead my vassal warriors to conquer Osaka and serve as the king's vanguard."
Dongfang Zhu pushed away the treasure with both hands like pushing away a hot potato.
The envoy said anxiously: "Although the Changshu Domain and Daqi have quarrels, it is better to dissolve enemies than to make enemies. What's more, the Supreme Emperor can even accept the Satsuma Domain, so why can't he accept our domain..."
"You have misunderstood." Dongfang Zhu said with a kind expression, "Please forgive me, this has nothing to do with new grudges."
The high priest rubbed his big nose and shrugged his shoulders: "It's not personal."
The Portuguese patiently explained to the envoy: "The Emperor needs to kill more descendants of the evil god. This is a magical cultivation method. You descendants of the evil god are the material for the Emperor to become an immortal. Do you understand?"
The envoy from Changshu Domain was dumbfounded and didn't know what to say for a moment.
Dongfang Zhu smiled, patted the messenger on the shoulder, and said pleasantly:
"The high priest made it very clear. My emperor is not interested in the land of Dingkou, let alone comparing Daqi to Meng Yuan. That is an insult to us. Daqi is a dynasty of heaven, not a barbarian. The Eastern Expedition is an insult to us. It’s justice from heaven.”
The messengers looked at each other.
Dongfang Zhu continued: "My emperor is indifferent to fame and wealth, and has no desires or pursuits. His only thought is to beat you to death, or be beaten to death by you."
"So, please leave your heads here first and contribute your meager efforts to my emperor's great cause of cultivating the mysteries."
After Dongfang Zhu waved his hand, the surrounding guards swarmed up, immediately knocked down the Japanese envoy, and dragged him out of the camp.
Amidst the tragic cries of the yak butterflies, the Japanese pirates were beheaded.
To be fair, the Choshu Domain ruled by the Maori family was one of the external vassals that the empire could strive for. Maori Hidemoto had always been sincere in submitting to Daqi - otherwise he would not have sent three waves of envoys to surrender.
Mouri Hidemoto's elder brother, Mouri Terumoto, was the nominal general of the Western Army in the Sekigahara War and one of the most important forces in the Sekigahara War.
At that time, the Maori Corps had the largest force in the Western Army, with a total strength of more than 30,000 people. However, in the actual battle, Terumoto did nothing and stayed in Osaka Castle, implementing Maori Hidemoto's strategy: hold on.
Mouri Terumoto's wishful thinking is this. If the Western Army wins, as the general, Mouri will be the biggest contributor. If the Eastern Army wins, it will at least ensure that its capabilities are secure.
The ideal is plump, but the reality is very skinny.
After the Sekigahara War, the Mori clan was jealous of the Tokugawa family, and their territory was greatly reduced, leaving only 370,000 koku from Shufang and Nagato. They lost Aki, Bingo, Iwami, Izumo, and Oki five. The country and the three western counties of Boqi Kingdom, and the country west of Gaoliangchuan are China.
His strength plummeted.
Maori Huiyuan's cleverness was misled by his cleverness, and he died in depression.
After his younger brother Mouri Hidemoto succeeded as the head of the family, the shogunate's attacks on the Choshu Domain continued day by day.
Twenty years ago, when Liu Zhaosun first conquered Japan, the Choshu clan was quite passive in fighting the Ming army, which aroused the jealousy of the Edo shogunate.
This time the Qi army landed on Honshu, it was logical that the Changshu clan became cannon fodder again.
~~~~
The news of the failure of the peace talks returned to the Choshu Domain Hall and Hagi Castle, and everyone from the daimyo to the ashigaru were shocked.
The soldiers and people of this domain have long heard what the Qi army did in Kyushu. It is said that the Satsuma domain only resisted for two days before being captured... How long can the Choshu domain last?
On the eighth day of the first lunar month, when the offensive and defensive sides were fighting fiercely on the walls of Hagi Castle, the extremely desperate Mouri Hidemoto chose to end his life. He led his family to commit suicide by hanging from a beam at the feudal government residence. The reason why he did not choose to commit seppuku was because he was afraid of being killed. pain.
Although Mouri Hidemoto died, the battle of Choshu Domain was not over yet.
After capturing the city gate, the Sixth Corps drove more than 2,000 Ryukyu and Korean soldiers to start street fighting in the city, clearing out the Choshu feudal troops house by house and lane by lane.
Korean soldiers liked to throw lit Molotov cocktails through the window into the wooden house where the defenders were, laughing loudly and watching the Japanese pirates being burned into fireballs and rushing out of the house.
The Ryukyu soldiers were not so boring. They held flint-haired short muskets and suppressed the enemy's counterattack. They covered each other. After getting close, they shot the heads with one shot, blowing off half of the heads of the Choshu feudal army, and rushed to harvest the enemy's weapons. scalp.
According to the military merit reward and punishment system established by the Supreme Emperor for the soldiers of Ryukyu Province, if you cut off a Japanese pirate scalp on the battlefield, you can exchange it for thirty taels of silver or the equivalent of food and cloth...
The reward was quite generous, and the Ryukyu people worked very hard. By the time the soldiers of the Sixth Corps arrived, more than one-fifth of the houses and buildings in the city had been set on fire by Korean soldiers.
If the Ryukyu people worked so hard for the reward of silver, then what supported the Korean soldiers to be so crazy could only be the undying hatred between them and the Japanese country.
On the tenth day of the first lunar month of the fifth year of Guangde's reign, the Sixth Corps fully occupied Hagi Castle. Zhao ordered all battalions to conduct a large-scale search for Japanese soldiers who were lucky enough to survive in the city, and to carry out raids on Japanese civilians who might threaten the army. Completely "clean up".
On the twelfth day of the first lunar month, the Supreme Emperor finally arrived at Hagi City. As soon as he arrived, the Supreme Emperor announced that he would forgive some of the descendants of the evil god and would not be held accountable for the crimes they had committed.
Of course, the number of Changzhou Japanese still alive at this time was down to less than 2,000 from more than 30,000 before the war, and most of them were women, children, old and young.
At the Hagi Palace, the Supreme Emperor saw Zhao Lingjiao, who was already red-eyed.
Zhao was commanding a group of Korean soldiers to continue killing. When he looked back, Liu Zhaosun was standing behind him at some point.
"Don't be anxious, let the Japanese pirates feel fear instead of despair. Dogs who are desperate will bite people." More than 1,500 captives survived. They will be sent back to Daqi in batches to receive the imperial education of the empire.
"The head of Mouri Hidemoto will be salted with lime, put in a wooden box, and sent to Edo. Show it to Tokugawa Iemitsu, so that the shogunate will know what will be the final fate of those who oppose Daqi. .”
