January 16, the fifth year of natural selection (the twenty-sixth year of Qianlong's reign)
As soon as the Lantern Festival was over, Mao Lizhong, who had been promoted to the rank of general of the world's military forces, couldn't wait to order in the name of the Emperor of Japan to recruit another 200,000 troops to quell the war in Japan.
Thanks to the emperor's order and the large number of civilians who had defected to the "Northern Kingdom" who believed in the "Emperor", the recruitment of the Southern Army was very smooth.
Of course, the main reason is that the food consumption in the South is particularly large.
Since the war has been going on for nearly a year, the autumn grain harvest in Japan is almost complete. The war itself consumes a lot of food. As time goes by, the inventory of the few countries in Japan began to become tense.
Coupled with the war, many landowners began to hoard large amounts of grain and grass and did not release them. If the shogunate has not yet been defeated and surrendered, the Southern Kingdom can still obtain some food through trade.
However, as the shogunate surrendered to the Yijun, the most important treasury to Japan also fell into the hands of the Yijun. Yi Jun issued a death order. If anyone dared to sell grain to the South, his house would be ransacked and his whole family would be beheaded.
In fact, there were some Osaka businessmen who dared to take risks and smuggled grain to the South. However, without exception, after being investigated and punished, their entire families were executed, and their heads were placed as officials in the capital to serve as a warning to those greedy ones.
The road through which the North could import grain was cut off, so the South naturally turned to North Korea's grain merchants. However, the navy of Yi Dynasty imposed a strict sea ban, and all foreign merchant ships that dared to approach the waters of the South were sunk, making it impossible for the South to import food.
But even so, the food in the south should be enough.
However, the gross profit must be high to ensure military rations, resulting in less food circulating on the market. Coupled with the separation of the north and the south, civilians who believed in the emperor fled to the southern country in large numbers. The food brought by these ordinary civilians was very limited. They would eat it in ten days and a half at most, and the rest could only be eaten in the southern country. They have to search for edible food, which naturally makes the southern country, which is already short of food, even worse.
So this New Year, even the Emperor of Japan has to look at the rice vat and look worried, and the civilians who believe in the Emperor and fled to the South are even more miserable.
The cold wind in the winter moon makes people shiver.
But what was even worse than this was the feeling of their hungry stomachs.
The bark of any weeds or trees is edible. Slowly, you can see that many mountains in the south are becoming bald due to hungry people eating the bark.
As for the joy of the New Year, as long as they can fill their stomachs on the first day of the New Year, they will wake up with a smile. When it snows, countless people fall asleep completely due to cold and hunger.
But even so, it does not affect those who brought their families to the southern country to stick to their beliefs.
Just because they believed and feared the emperor's edict: Those who dare to rebel and join the Han army will no longer be favored by Amaterasu and other major gods. After death, they will enter the eight hells and be tortured forever.
If you die in this life, you will die, and you absolutely cannot suffer the consequences for life after life.
So, when the Southern Kingdom issued a conscription order, this was hope for the starving people.
As long as you can join the army of the South, it means that you can at least have a few full meals, so how can there be difficulties in recruiting soldiers? Everyone is rushing to sign up.
The Northern Kingdom already had a sufficient supply of food and grass due to the powerful shipping of the Yijun. In addition, the Yijun also confiscated a large amount of food supplies from many daimyo and the shogunate. Under the supervision of Yi Jun, these food and material resources continued to flow to the market throughout the Northern Kingdom, so that the civilians of the Northern Kingdom had enough material to live a good year.
The people in the South naturally saw the good days in the North.
Due to the pressure of food and grass, the senior leaders of the Southern Kingdom unanimously believed that they could not sit still and wait for death. Otherwise, they would continue to gather the army and stay there without the need for the Northern Kingdom's army to attack. They would be defeated by the food and grass.
So just after the recruitment of troops in the southern country was completed, they couldn't wait to gather their troops and launched attacks on Kyushu, Shikoku, Osaka and other places. The main force was directed towards the place where Edo was located.
In order to improve morale, the senior leaders of the South believed that the people of the North should no longer be treated as Japanese. As long as the enemy could be eliminated, the army could be allowed to burn, kill, and loot the enemy. At the same time, the Emperor also agreed to this matter. After all, it was useless even if he disagreed, so no matter what the senior officials of the Southern Kingdom said, he could only agree.
Therefore, under the indulgent guidance of the top leaders of the South, as soon as the South's army crossed the northern border, they brutally burned, killed and plundered the local civilians. After plundering the property, the South's army became more morale and more murderous.
Although many people who were originally in the Northern Kingdom chose Dayi, they were still quite afraid of the Emperor. After all, the Emperor's family has ruled Japan for thousands of years. How could it be possible to say that you don't believe in it and not believe in it all at once?
At this time, the Yi army was more focused on maintaining stability in key areas and did not always fight against the southern army. The main forces fighting against the southern army were the main force of the shogunate and the troops recruited by the Yi Dynasty in Japan.
Stimulated by the lack of supplies, the South's army exploded into unprecedented combat effectiveness. This powerful combat effectiveness shocked the top leaders of the South. Facing the southern army with increased combat effectiveness, the northern army was defeated steadily. If it weren't for the deployment and support of Yijun troops in key areas, the Northern Kingdom might have lost a lot of land.
But even so, the deployed troops still could not completely prevent the Southern Kingdom's troops from entering the Northern Kingdom's territory and carrying out inhumane acts of burning, killing, and looting.
As the fleeing people spread the word about the ferocity of the southern army, the angry northern civilians even spread the word that from then on, there would be no emperor without Emperor Yi. Blood for blood, tooth for tooth, no more beasts who believe in the Emperor will be left.
The northern army, which was still somewhat inactive, was also angered by the inhumane killings of the southern country and no longer spared any help from the southern army.
Once hatred arises, it will continue to spread.
As a result, the most brutal battle broke out between the northern and southern countries.
Either you massacre my people, or I massacre yours. The killings became angry, and the northern army also carried out an indiscriminate massacre against the southern villages. Both sides even wiped out the vacuum zone that stretched for hundreds of miles. The blood was so bloody that the generals of the Yi army couldn't bear it.
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Beijing, Jinluan Palace
When he heard that the war in Japan was in full swing, Qianlong expressed his praise for Mao Lizhong.
As early as when the Yi Dynasty sent tens of thousands of troops to support Japan, Qianlong felt that this might not be an opportunity for the Qing Dynasty. Now that Da Yi's army is trapped in Japan, this should be the time.
