The one who is not afraid of anything, of course, is not the lord of the Shimazu family, Mitsuhisa Shimazu. As the lord of the Satsuma Domain with a power of 725,000 koku, he is the most famous person in Kyushu, Japan. How could he not be afraid? It was precisely because of fear that he had to pretend to be fearless, gritting his teeth and raising the flag of collapse!
This thing sounds contradictory, but in fact it is not contradictory at all. Because if you fail to overthrow the curtain, you will not necessarily die - there are still so many Spanish warships on the sea of Kagoshima Bay, and the worst thing is to escape... Even if you can't escape, you will have to commit seppuku in the end, isn't there still a process? Death after the battle report was over was a reprieve. How could it be given a reprieve of two or three years, right? Even if he was finally arrested by the shogunate, he would still have a chance to "appeal for mercy", right?
If Shimazu Mitsuhisa does not fall, but chooses to surrender...then there is really no way to survive! Satsuma's surrender was not brought down by kowtow and apology. At worst, it could confiscate what it had received, or at worst, it could reduce its seal. Confiscation, transfer, and reduction of seals all mean that a large number of feudal lords will lose their jobs, and a large number of rural lords will lose their status - the actual wealth of the Satsuma clan must be over one million! If you look at the population of Satsuma Domain, you will know that if it is only 605,000 koku, how can there be enough food for 4 to 50 million people? How come the actual stone height of Satsuma Domain is over one million koku! It's just that there are many rural people who don't pay annual tribute, which lowers the nominal height of Satsuma. If the Satsuma domain was changed, how could the new lord and shogunate allow so many rural people who did not pay food to exist? Their ancestors had never conquered the world for the Tokugawa family, so why should they enjoy the treatment of country scholars?
Moreover, for the shogunate, country people were more troublesome than langshi - langshi had no family property, were homeless, and had difficulty passing on to their descendants, which was a short-term trouble. Rural scholars, on the other hand, have land and industry, can marry, have children, and leave many descendants...and these descendants all have the status of samurai, and they are not allowed to serve in official positions, nor can they inherit the family business (samurai families generally implement the primogeniture system) Most of the descendants will become wandering wanderers.
Therefore, eliminating the country people now is equivalent to eliminating the rogues in the future!
The rogues of the Satsuma Domain must keep their few privileges, glory and dreams (the country warriors are still scholars, and they still have the opportunity to serve as officials, and their descendants can also receive training in killing people in the domain schools. If they become farmers, it will be over) ), I will definitely give it a try! Anyway, if you lose the battle, you will die at most. If you don't die on the battlefield, the worst you can do is work as a farmer... What if you win? The Shimazu family became shoguns. They were the ones who founded the shogunate. How could they be able to serve as bannermen?
As for the rogues who have nothing to fear, they are even less afraid... Even if they are defeated and die, they can still be prosperous for a few years - most of these rogues are the generation that lost their masters or leaders after the Battle of Sekigahara. The descendants of the samurai have struggled for so many years in the peaceful and prosperous days of the Tokugawa family. Now they finally have a chance to realize their dream of being a samurai (the rogues are not considered true samurai anymore). Even if they die in battle, it is worth it!
Therefore, under the pressure of these two groups of people, Shimazu Mitsuhisa and all the important officials of the Shimazu family were all forced to a dead end!
Anyone who dares to publicly propose surrender will be punished by heaven...
Just when Shimazu Mitsuhisa was trying to pretend to be fearless, Kagoshima Castle welcomed visitors from Edo.
The visitor is Shimazu Yoshino, the daughter of Shimazu Mitsuhisa. She is fourteen years old this year, but she is very small, with very delicate facial features, big eyes, long eyelashes, and snow-white skin. She looks like a porcelain doll— -This girl is the illegitimate daughter Mitsuhisa had with an oiran when she was in Edo. She looks like her mother and is extremely small and cute. She was originally betrothed to the heir of the Otomo family (a descendant of Otomo Yoshito, the Gao family with a salary of 1,000 koku), but the engagement was canceled because the Shimazu family was accused of being enemies of the court.
Because he was preparing to marry into the Otomo family, Shimazu Yoshino had lived in the Satsuma Domain residence in Edo for the past two years. After the Shimazu family was accused of being an enemy of the imperial court, he and other Shimazu family members and retainers were placed under house arrest by the shogunate.
However, the shogunate did not embarrass the Shimazu family who were under house arrest. All supplies were as usual, and they rejected Tsunahisa Shimazu's "request for seppuku" and then allowed Shimazu Yoshino and several worthless Shimazu family members to return to Kagoshima Castle. Go and report to Shimazu Mitsuhisa that you are safe.
Moreover, Shimazu Yoshino also brought a handwritten letter from Tokugawa Mitsukuni, who had returned to Edo because he was blocked in Nagasaki.
In the letter, Mitsukuni promised on behalf of the general that as long as the Shimazu family was willing to surrender, they would be able to obtain a transfer of title - the shogunate could hand over approximately 130,000 koku to the Shimazu family in the territory east of Takamatsu Castle in Bichung and the Takahashi River in Bichung.
One hundred and thirty thousand stones!
And you can still survive...
Of course Shimazu Mitsukuni was moved. His enemy was not just one shogunate, but the Eight-Nation Alliance! The possibility of winning is very slim. The best outcome is to go into exile in New Spain. It is not as easy as the lord of 130,000 koku, right?
"My lord, the Tokugawa family has gone too far to bully others!"
"My lord, the Shimazu family must never surrender to the traitor Tokugawa!"
Shimazu Mitsuhisa's beautiful wishes were immediately shattered by his two good brothers, Hisakuni Ijuin and Hisao Kayama!
It turned out that those who were with him in the city today to listen to Shimazu Yoshino's talk about the situation of the Edo Domain were Nie Kiyoo, Kamada Masakatsu, Ijuin Hisakuni, Ise Sadaki, Kayama Hisao and others from the Shimazu family. Although their surname is Shimazu, they are all brothers of Mitsuhisa Shimazu - Mitsuhisa's father, Tadashi, is super fertile and has fourteen sons!
In order to arrange for these good sons, he violated his conscience and gave seven of them to his surnamed ministers as adopted sons. It was not that those surnamed ministers had no sons (they still had nephews), but they were forced to be given to the Shimazu family. The son is a good father! In fact, the Shimadzu family used the method of inheritance through adopted sons to seize the family property of their retainers...
Of course, Shimazu Mitsuhisa's good brothers and nephews, who have a family fortune of several thousand koku, are firmly opposed to the Shimadzu family surrendering... The Shimadzu family now owns seven hundred and twenty-five thousand koku, They only have a few thousand dan. If their territory is reduced to 130,000 dan, what will they do? Isn’t it true that there are only a few hundred or even a thousand Shi family left? These hundreds of thousands of stones are enough for their own family, but they still have retainers below!
Japanese feudalism is layer upon layer of feudalism. There are a bunch of middle and low-level samurai to support under the high-level samurai who receive thousands of ki!
If it were reduced to a few hundred dan at once, I don't know how many people would lose their family business. They were originally arranged by Shimadzu Tadahashi to seize other people's family business, and now they have to lay off people and have to be chopped into pieces? After all, Shimazu Mitsuhisa has a group of Gokudai domain warriors around him who can fight to the death to protect him. They are all parachuted in, surrounded by outsiders, and they will die every second!
Shimazu Mitsuhisa sighed and waved to his daughter, signaling her to leave.
After sending away his daughter, he turned his attention to his confidant, Nekiyo.
"My lord," Mitsuo Kiyo is Mitsuhisa's nephew, and of course he opposes the Shimazu family's surrender, "you don't have to worry, because we also have the Eight-Nation Alliance Army on our side!"
"Really?" Shimazu Mitsuhisa's eyes ignited with a little hope, "Which eight countries?"
"There is Spain, Holy Roman Kingdom, Dashun Kingdom, Great Mongol Kingdom, Manchukuo, Tianzhu Kingdom, Rakshasa Kingdom and our Satsuma Domain!" Kiyotoshi Kiyo said with his fingers, "It's the same eight countries!"
"Really?" Shimazu Mitsuhisa thought about it and felt something was wrong, "Why is there still Manchukuo? Is the Ming Dynasty's Anping Protectorate preparing to rebel? In that case, North Korea should be on our side!"
"The reliable news I have just received," Ni Neki Kiyoo said, "is that Jin Duoduo, the guardian of peace and stability in the Ming Dynasty, is seriously ill and is about to die. The position of guardian of peace and stability will be inherited by his eldest son Jindoni. And this Jindoni and his father Jin Duoduo is different. He is not willing to become an internal vassal of the Ming Dynasty in the name of the great protector of stability. Instead, he wants to be the king of Manchuria and become an external vassal of the Ming Dynasty... For this reason, Jin Duoduo has been maintaining close contacts with the Spaniards and secretly training troops. Prepare for war and prepare to raise troops to resist when Ming Dynasty refuses to recognize Manchukuo! And the possibility of Ming Dynasty recognizing Manchukuo is extremely slim!"
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