It was December 13th, the twelfth year of Hongxing's reign in the Ming Dynasty.
Wuhan.
In the yamen of the Cabinet Office outside the East Lake Palace, several ministers in black silk robes were holding a report from the Governor of Shaanxi and Gansu Wu Sangui that was copied from the Generalissimo's Office next door. Everyone is a little confused, you look at me, I look at you.
Wei Zaode, the chief minister of the cabinet, sat high in the middle, holding a copy of Wu Sangui's report and carefully reading it word for word. He didn't know how many times he read it.
The voices of several ministers and ministers below gradually started to discuss.
"Didn't Duke Liang lead the army to confront Li Dingguo between Baoji and Yi County? Why did he go to Lishan Mountain to build a city? And the city was not built yet, but the tomb of the First Emperor was dug up..."
"Yeah, we were fighting a good war, why did we go and steal the tomb of the First Emperor?"
"What nonsense are you talking about? How can this be tomb robbery? How can Duke Liang Guogong, the governor of Gansu and Shaanxi, dig a grave and call it robbery? And if people really want to steal, they won't give a memorial to the court!"
"Yes, yes, I made a mistake..."
"But this is too coincidental, isn't it? Japan just reported a great victory over there, and Liang Guogong dug up the Mausoleum of the First Emperor, and also unearthed a batch of bamboo slips related to Japan..."
Hearing someone raise a question, Wei Zaode coughed, threw the copy of the memorial in his hand on the table, and slowly raised his head: "Is there any coincidence? Isn't it just that a castle was built on the Gansu-Shaanxi front line and the First Emperor was discovered by the way? From his grave, some bamboo slips were unearthed, and the bamboo slips happened to record Xu Fu’s request to be granted the title of Shenwu Japanese King? This matter can only be true or false, there is nothing coincidental about it!”
He Tengjiao, Minister of the Ministry of Industry, was old (67 years old) and a little confused. Hearing Wei Zaode's words, he asked: "Master, what do you mean, Duke Liang didn't dig up Qin Shihuang's tomb and make a fake one..." ..”
"Dingxing Hou, what are you talking about? How could Duke Liang lie about this matter? What is his purpose?" Wei Zaode said, "What needs to be clarified now is whether Xu Fu's request to be granted the title of King of Shenwu is true or false. ?”
Mr. He Tengjiao became more and more confused as he listened, "Master Commander, this is the Cabinet Office! Assisting the emperor in governing the world is a day-to-day task. How can I have the time to take care of things that happened more than a thousand years ago?"
"Mr. Yushan, you are very knowledgeable, please tell me..." Wei Zaode kicked the ball to Qian Qianyi again.
Qian Qianyi is better than He Tengjiao. He is 78 years old this year. But his mind was very clear, unlike He Tengjiao who was already a little confused. After listening to Wei Zaode's words, he immediately said: "This matter is easy to handle. Let the Ministry of Foreign Affairs send a letter to the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan and ask if their king is a Kammuwa. After Wang Xufu? Grand Duke, what do you think? Is this okay?"
Grand Duke Luo nodded: "Yes, what's wrong? The current Japanese Japanese kings are descendants of the Shenwu Japanese kings. If the Shenwu Japanese kings are really Xu Fu and were conferred by the First Emperor, then the current Japanese Japanese kings are ministers of the Celestial Dynasty. It’s so inappropriate to call yourself the emperor!”
"Yes! It's so inappropriate!" Zheng Zhilong said, "If the Japanese king is really the successor of Xu Fu, and was conferred by the First Emperor, he should abide by his ministerial duties. How can he arrogantly proclaim himself emperor? This is disobedience, this is treason, and he should step down to apologize. .”
"Step down?" He Tengjiao asked, "Who will be the Japanese king?"
Zheng Zhilong said: "Of course, we should choose a virtuous person from the descendants of the Shenwu Japanese king Xu Fu and establish him as the Japanese king."
"Who are the descendants of the Japanese king Shenwu?" He Tengjiao asked again.
Zheng Zhilong said: "It is recognized that the descendants of the Japanese kings include the Minamoto, Ping and Tachibana clans, but the Ping and Tachibana clans have been cut off. There are many people who claim to be descendants of the two clans, but no one is recognized as the descendant of the Ping and Tachibana clans. And there are no clan leaders of the two clans. Only the Qing and Gen clan have recognized descendants, and there is also a clan leader of the Gen clan, the Japanese general Tokugawa Iemitsu."
The old fool He Tengjiao nodded, "So, if the Japanese king wants to apologize and step down, he should give up the throne to Tokugawa Iemitsu?"
Zheng Zhilong said: "Only in this way can we convince the public."
Wei Zaode stroked his beard and smiled: "It seems that this is the only way to go... Then let's draft a decree and paste it on Duke Liang's memorial."
When the Cabinet Office officials began drafting an edict to depose the Japanese king and replace him with Fang Jiayuan, the Minister of War, Wu Sanfu, who was absent from today's regular meeting of the Cabinet Office, was attending an imperial meeting in the map room of Qingliang Pavilion in the East Lake Palace - this was a military meeting. , so Wu Sanfu, the military commander, must attend.
"Your Majesty, Tian Yiqing's report said that the 20-step salvo tactics of the Nagasaki Army's Red Iron Artillery Regiment were extremely powerful! In the Battle of Nishisaka Castle, the Red Iron Artillery Regiment with only 2,000 people defeated Toyotomi in one fell swoop. The right wing of the army had four to five thousand men, and then repelled the three thousand reinforcements of the Toyotomi Army. Finally, they fought all the way to the main formation of the Toyotomi Army and achieved the first victory!
In the second Battle of Fuuchi Castle in late October, the Red Iron Artillery Regiment once again made a great contribution, pushing forward with the bullets of the Toyotomi Army all the way to within 20 steps in front of the enemy's center formation before firing a salvo! Although he also lost more than 200 people during the advancement, two volleys in front of the enemy's center formation completely defeated the Toyotomi Army's musketeers... and then they defeated the attempted attack with firepower. The attacking Toyotomi Army spearmen once again sealed the victory! "
It was military advisor Li Yan who was excitedly introducing Japan's domestic war situation. The victory in the two battles of Xiban City and Fuuchi City was expected, but the power of the fusiliers' volley within 20 steps shocked Li Yan!
Not only was he shocked, but most of the generals from the Generalissimo's Palace who were present at the meeting were also very surprised. Only Emperor Zhu looked indifferent as if he had known about it for a long time - because this crazy tactic of firing volleys within 20 steps was originally his Copied from the historical British Lobster Soldiers! Moreover, he did not talk to Li Yan and Wu Sanfu. Instead, he passed them and wrote a letter to Baoshi Zhengsheng, informing him of this method of warfare that was most suitable for Japanese samurai.
Baoke Zhengzheng went to Tian Yiqing, the commander of the army, and showed him Emperor Zhu's letter, and then the "Japanese crayfish soldiers" (they were small) were born.
Zhu Cixiang nodded and said to Li Yan: "We can also let our fusiliers practice this method... It doesn't have to be used on the battlefield, but it is just one more option."
The tactic of "20-step salvo" sounds simple, but it is very difficult to execute!
Because Laoshan—the noble officer from Pukou is not that crazy! In order to maintain the formation and supervise the battle, the fusiliers' officers had to be on the side of the formation, making them easy targets for the other side. If you advance 20 steps in front of the enemy's formation and start firing, the losses of junior officers will be very heavy.
And are the reserves of grassroots officers in the Ming army sufficient? Are they brave enough? This all needs to be carefully considered...
When Emperor Zhu was explaining things, there was a rapid sound of footsteps outside the door, and he saw Zhang Huangyan, the Minister of War, coming in with a memorial with affixed instructions. He came directly from the Cabinet Office meeting on behalf of Wu Sanfu. Wei Zaode also asked him to bring the copy of Wu Sangui's report on the "inversion work" with the Cabinet Office decree (originally it would be uploaded through the Generalissimo's Office, and it would have the Generalissimo on it. The decrees of the government) were brought together.
Zhang Huangyan first bowed to Emperor Zhu, and then presented the memorial in his hand, "Your Majesty, this is the memorial of Liang Guogong. It says that a burial pit in the Mausoleum of the First Emperor was discovered during the construction of the city at Lishan Mountain, and a burial pit was excavated from it. Among the many bamboo slips, one of them was sent by Xu Fu to Xianyang from the Japanese state."
"What? Xu Fu?" Zhu Cixiang was still pretending to be confused, "That Xu Fu?"
Zhang Huangyan said: "Your Majesty, it is Xu Fu who found the elixir of immortality for the First Emperor."
"Oh?" Zhu Cixiang looked interested, "What did you say? Did you find the elixir of life?"
"No..." Zhang Huangyan shook his head quickly.
"Not found?" Zhu Cixiang was a little disappointed.
"I didn't say this..." Zhang Huang said, "I just said that he led 500 boys and 500 girls to find three large islands in the eastern sea, and also discovered many indigenous tribes on the islands, so He temporarily put aside the search for overseas fairy islands and started to open up new territories for the First Emperor!"
