"Report..."
"Urgent report from Satsuma Domain..."
In Edo, in the residence of General Tokugawa, the sounds of emergency reports continued to be heard.
At this time, Tokugawa Ieharu, who was discussing the military situation with many ministers, could not help but frown and shouted outside the room.
"Yamamoto, go and bring people in..."
"Hi..." The person outside the room responded naturally and left.
Soon, a tired-looking Satsuma soldier was brought to the newly appointed tenth shogun Tokugawa Ieharu.
According to the trajectory of history, the ninth shogun Tokugawa Ieshige had not abdicated at this time, so this war should also be handled by Tokugawa Ieshige.
But Tokugawa Ieshige was famous for his slurred speech, and was even jokingly called the pissing public by his subordinates.
Therefore, in order to facilitate communication with ministers, Tokugawa Ieshige's speeches in most cases were relayed by Ooka Tadamitsu, who could quickly understand the meaning of his words.
Thanks to the presence of Ooka Tadamitsu, Tokugawa Ieshige's rule was moderate. The special nature of Ooka Tadamitsu made Tokugawa Ieshige turn a blind eye even though he knew that he was doing anything that was not evil.
It would have been okay for everything to continue like this.
However, last month Ooka Tadamitsu suddenly fell seriously ill and passed away soon. , Tokugawa Ieshige, who had lost his important tool of speech, felt very difficult when he discussed things with ministers again.
Maybe he feels that he is getting old, or maybe he feels that Tokugawa Ieharu has grown up, and it is time to completely delegate power to him.
In short, when Tokugawa Ieshige could only rely on writing to participate in several consecutive meetings, he made the decision to give up the position of shogun to his son Tokugawa Ieharu.
After all, I can only express my meaning clearly through writing. Even if the ministers can accept it with disgust, it is not a good thing.
It would be okay if the country was at peace. But now there is a powerful enemy coming from outside, and the inside is in chaos. This makes the entire shogunate officials now have no time and energy to allow Tokugawa Ieshige to continue like this.
So Tokugawa Ieshige simply passed the position directly to his son Tokugawa Ieharu.
Of course, passing the throne to his son at this critical moment seemed a bit unkind to Tokugawa Ieshige.
But Tokugawa Ieharu is not a newbie.
In the past two years, Tokugawa Ieshige has been delegating power to Tokugawa Ieharu to handle shogunate affairs. This also gave Tokugawa Ieharu many opportunities to hone his skills. Moreover, Tokugawa Ieshige was old after all. As the only legal heir trained by Tokugawa Ieharu, Tokugawa Ieharu had to shoulder the responsibility and lead the way.
This time the war between the two sides will not be resolved in a short while. It is estimated that Tokugawa Ieharu will finally end it. Tokugawa Ieharu's abdication at this time would also allow Tokugawa Ieharu to be more justified in handling matters.
…
"Tell me what you know about the specific situation of this emergency military situation." Seeing the Satsuma soldiers who knelt down and knelt down sensibly when they arrived, Tokugawa Ieharu was the first to ask.
"Reporting to the General. After we, Lord Shimazu, received news that the enemy wanted to land on the Shikamaru Mountain Kaikyo Road in our territory, we immediately organized the troops in the territory to prepare to block the enemy who wanted to land."
“Unexpectedly, the enemy launched a large-scale artillery bombardment on us when we had assembled our troops to intercept them.
"The enemy's artillery was too numerous and powerful. Before our Satsuma clan could react, a large number of casualties suddenly occurred."
"Even so, our army still tried its best to block the enemy's army, but the enemy's firearms were too powerful. It seemed that the iron cannon did not need to be loaded with ammunition at all. After some strafing, our army was really We have suffered heavy casualties, and now we are completely unable to stop the enemy's army."
】
The Satsumaban soldier kneeling on the ground did not dare to show any slightness, and quickly sorted out everything he knew and spit it out.
"That's why Shimazu-sama asked the villain to come over and deliver the urgent military information to the general, and told the general that he needed to come up with a way to deal with the enemy's firearms as soon as possible." After saying that, the Satsuma clan soldier bowed to Tokugawa Ieharu again. He kowtowed.
"Where are the military intelligence letters?" Tokugawa Ieharu asked again.
"Here." The Satsuma clan soldier quickly took out the military letter from his arms and raised it above his head in response.
Immediately, the retainer beside Tokugawa Ieharu was very sensible and took the military information and handed it to him.
Tokugawa Ieharu took a few glances, and the situation was probably exactly what the soldier said. But it will be more detailed in some details.
"The Shimazu family..."
"Young one..." The Satsuma clan soldier responded hurriedly when he realized that he was being called.
"Kneel down!" Tokugawa Ieharu said.
"I thank you, General, for your kindness." The Satsuma clan soldier asked and thanked him.
After all, it's really uncomfortable to kneel down.
"Have you ever been there when the enemy was shelling and bombing?"
"Back to General, I saw you on the top of the mountain in the distance." The Satsuma soldiers responded.
"Be specific." Tokugawa Ieharu said.
"The explosion was very powerful, and it didn't feel like a power that could be possessed by the human world. If the superior officer was sure that it was a firearm, I would have thought it was some kind of monster coming down to earth, and it would cause countless casualties wherever it went." The Satsumaban soldier recalled that he was still confused. The secondary heart looks like Yu Ji.
"Okay, you go back and collect the reward!" After hearing this, Tokugawa Ieharu waved him back.
"I thank the General for his kindness." At this moment, the tired faces of the Satsuma soldiers showed a hint of joy, and they left happily.
…
"My lords, what do you think of the military situation in Satsuma?" Tokugawa Ieharu asked with a serious face.
"We have known that the Han people value firearms since the Ming Dynasty. Judging from the information we have collected so far, it is expected that the Han people's firearms are powerful, otherwise they would not be able to defeat the Tatars with their strength. I have no power to resist." At this time, the old man Nishio Tadanobu, the old man of the shogunate, stood up and spoke first.
"Well, not bad!" Tokugawa Ieharu looked at Nishio Tadashi and couldn't help but nodded in agreement.
"But, General, don't forget. Japan is an overseas land. As long as we insist on clearing the country and resisting tenaciously, they may not be able to win. You must know that everything they have must be transported from overseas, especially the consumption of gunpowder. It's particularly powerful, and over time, their losses will be immeasurable." Seeing Tokugawa Ieharu's approval, Nishio Tadanashi continued to speak.
"If the Han people have unified China's nine states and want to defeat us, our resistance will be in vain. The worst we can do is imitate Annan. But now they still have the Manchus to deal with, and this is our opportunity."
