The news of the fall of the Four Kingdoms came, and the whole country of Japan was shocked again!
Since Ezo Island has not been completely occupied by Tokugawa Ieharu as Hokkaido, Japan currently has three islands in name: Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu.
But now, two of the three islands, Kyushu and Shikoku, have been occupied by the Yi Dynasty coalition forces. How can they not be afraid?
If this continues, Japan may not exist anymore.
As a result, the imperial army and the shogunate held secret meetings and negotiations in tacit understanding.
The situation was urgent, and both parties set out with the attitude of resolving the matter, so neither of them put forward any overly harsh conditions to the other party.
After more than ten rounds of verbal exchanges between the two sides, the shogunate finally gave Osaka, Nara, Shiga, and Fukui as the central boundary, and tacitly gave the area south of Honshu Island and Kyushu Island to the Imperial Army, collectively known as Nankoku. Shikoku and the land to the north of Honshu Island are still under the rule of the shogunate and are called Northern Kingdoms.
At this time, the wheel of history took a huge turn.
The two sides signed a peace treaty that lasted for ten years. At the same time, Shogun Tokugawa Ieharu was officially conferred the title of General of the Conquering Barbarians by the Emperor, and Mouri Shige of the Chosu Domain was granted the title of Zhennan Shogun.
Since the Southern Kingdom was nominally under the direct jurisdiction of the Emperor, the Southern Kingdom had to pay a "salary" of one hundred thousand taels of silver and ten thousand bolts of cloth to the Tokugawa family to guard the north every year.
At the same time, both parties agreed to send troops from the north and south to take back their own islands.
In October of the fourth year of Tiansei, Maori Zhong of the Chosu Domain sent an envoy to the Manchu Qing Dynasty in the name of the emperor, proposing to jointly send troops to deal with the Yi Dynasty. This was the second round of Japanese envoys sent to the Qing Dynasty. At this time, the shogunate's envoy was still in the Manchu Huitong Hall and had not received a formal response from Qianlong.
It's not that Qianlong didn't want to respond, it's just that the current Eight Banners New Army of the Manchu Qing Dynasty has not yet completed its training, especially the number of artillery castings has not kept up. Regarding the new weapons of the Yi Dynasty, the Manchu and Qing Dynasties had no clue of developing them.
The Manchu Qing Dynasty finally gained a short-term peace from the strong offensive of the Yi army. Even Qianlong, who was so happy about his success, did not dare to be willful and rashly tear up the treaty and attack Dayi. And even if Qianlong really wanted to be willful. Choosing who to take charge is also a problem. Basically, several of his highly trusted commander-in-chief candidates were taught how to behave by Yijun. If the new army is not strong enough, it will be a headache for them to deal with the Yi army again.
Of course, the most important thing is that if Japan can be deeply used to consume Zhang Rui's power, why would Qianlong not do it? The more anxious Japan becomes, the more Qianlong wants to take it easy, hanging on to them, neither refusing to say no nor saying yes. Otherwise, Japan would not be willing to use its best strength to fight to the death with Zhang Rui.
There were smart people in the Japanese mission, and they could probably guess what the Manchus meant, but they had no choice but to reply to Japan and explain the general meaning.
Both the shogunate and Heian Kyoya understood that if they did not have some strength to hold back the Yi Dynasty, the Manchu Qing would definitely not end. They could only desperately begin to mobilize their troops and launch a life-and-death battle against the Yi army.
Since Heian Kyo reached an agreement with the shogunate, the whole of Japan is now focused on foreign affairs. The shogunate also mobilized its final strength, raising 33 troops from 180,000 troops in one go. It can be said that all the samurai in the current territory were recruited.
As for Heian Kyo, under the call of the emperor, together with numerous serf soldiers, the total number of troops reached 550,000. It can be said that every household in the territory has soldiers.
Heian Kyo sent troops from Chosu Domain to attack Kyushu Island; the shogunate sent troops from Osaka to attack Shikoku Island.
The combined strength of both sides is millions, which can be said to be unprecedentedly large. They hope to deal with the Yi Dynasty coalition forces in one battle, otherwise they will have to be driven out of the Japanese island at the end.
At the same time, the emperor also issued an order calling on the Japanese people not to join the Han army. This is an act of judging the country. They will no longer be favored by Amaterasu and other major gods. After death, they will enter the eight hells and suffer forever. torture.
All ronin warriors who joined the Han army must also break away from the Han army and are not allowed to fight for the enemy. Those who violate the rules will have their honor as warriors revoked. The family members will be slaves and maids for generations, and they will never be able to stand up again.
Under the great momentum of the shogunate and Heian Kyo, the surrendered soldiers of Kyushu and Shikoku turned their hearts to Japan again. Many daimyo who had surrendered to the Yijun also secretly submitted private messages to the shogunate and Heian Kyo, crying about their difficulties. In fact, they were forced to I had no choice but to think of surrendering to the Han people. I was "in the Han camp and my heart was in Japan". When the shogunate and the troops from Heianjing came, they would definitely turn against each other.
Yijun was not unaware of these matters, but until they actually took action to openly surrender to the enemy, Yijun just turned a blind eye. After all, the current war was tense and it was not appropriate for there to be major turmoil in the local area. They just collected the evidence secretly and waited for the war to deal with it.
Compared with the idle daimyo, the most staunch support for the Yijun are the low-level Japanese farmers and handicraftsmen who have been allocated fields. They originally had nothing, but they were able to get the fields with great difficulty. If the shogunate and the troops from Heian Kyo came over, , they will have nothing again, and their lives may even become more miserable.
In their consciousness, there is no such thing as a country. They only know who can benefit them so that they can live a good life. As for the issue after death, they don’t care what the Emperor of Japan says!
After all, they will be managed by the higher-level Taoists and Buddhists of the Celestial Dynasty in the future. As for those little gods in Japan, they are a complete joke. Want to ask them to know? Of course that was what the abbot in the temple told them! Because the abbots in the temple have received orders from the gods of Yichao.
The most difficult to choose are the ronin samurai of the Japanese vanguard army. For the sake of the glory of Bushido, they should stick to their loyalty to the emperor, withdraw from the current Japanese vanguard army, or even join the army of the shogunate or Heian Kyo to resist the Yi army.
But the atmosphere in Yijun is really good. Not to mention the food, the money given is also real, and there will be a lot of land in the future. Until now, Yijun had allowed them to leave freely, but if they left now, the land they had worked so hard to conquer and share military merit would be completely nullified. The generosity of the Yijun alone also moved the ronin samurai of the Japanese vanguard army, which gave them unprecedented respect.
However, the strength of the shogunate and Heian Kyo this time is really huge. With their mere 40,000 troops to resist the nearly one million troops of the shogunate and Heian Kyo, it is really stressful!
After this battle, the Yi Dynasty may be defeated by Japan, and they will die. In the end, not only will they not be able to get their land, but they will not be able to keep the money they finally obtained.
Faced with the pressure of having no chance of winning, many Japanese vanguard warriors chose to leave the Yijun with their money and join the more powerful shogunate or the army of Heian Kyo.
Of course, there are also many ronin warriors who really do not give up their hard-earned military achievements and are willing to take a big shot. Or they are simply impressed by the charm of the Yi army and are willing to fight side by side with the Yi army. They stay and prepare to make the final desperate move. A battle.
