Xinshun 1730

Chapter 446 Everyone is dead
After Kuroda Ketaka also expressed his thoughts on peace talks, Inao Masaobu had nothing to say.

The meaning of his existence as Ometsu is to monitor foreign daimyos, and the southwestern feudal clans are his key targets of monitoring.

Previously, these daimyos were worried about being occupied and repeating the fate of the Tosa clan, so they united and sincerely wanted to fight Dashun.

And now, after finding that there is no possibility of victory at all, it is also for their own benefit that they decide to abandon the Shimadzu clan and ask the shogunate for peace talks.

Kuroda Tsutsugao finally sighed and said: "As long as the Tang people don't take up an inch of land, they can be equivalent to Japan's material resources and win the favor of the Tang people. As long as they don't occupy the land, the Tang people can build ships and cast firearms, can't we?"

"If we are temporarily humiliated now, we will have a chance to win back in the future. On the other hand, if we continue to fight, the Tang people will occupy the land and treat the people kindly, and we will perish."

Inao Masaobu actually knew in his heart that Kuroda Tsudaka's words could not be miscalculated.Even he chose to stand on the side of Zhu Fan, so what else is there to say?
After reaching an agreement, each feudal lord summarized their ideas and wrote to the shogunate.At the same time, taking advantage of Dashun's capture of Xiaguan to control the strait, they each dispatched veterans in the domain to Kyoto.

For a period of time after that, it was still calm.

The Dashun army that occupied Hagi City did not go south, but was consolidating the defense of Hagi City and collecting food, rice, gold and silver from all over Hagi City.

The navy was busy drawing a map of Japan's coastline, and from time to time, it would flee to the south and walk close to the shore, but it didn't waste the expensive shells to bombard it everywhere.

At most, after going ashore, the Marine Corps escorted a group of people, drew maps, and measured precise latitude and longitude.

Moreover, the navy directly sent a message to the feudal clans along the coast: If the person who drew the map is attacked, Dashun will definitely capture the attacker's feudal hall. If you don't believe me, try it.

The warriors of various feudal clans turned a blind eye to this situation, knowing that Dashun and the others could do it, then this kind of threat was extremely powerful.

During the short period of peace, in Nijo Castle in Kyoto, Yoshimune Tokugawa was listening to the requests of the lords or elders of the feudal clans.

Before and after Dashun captured Kyoto and retreated, Tokugawa Yoshimune assembled a large number of banners and headed for Kyoto.

He's going to make a big show here.

Since the start of the war, Dashun has not caused substantial losses to Tokugawa Yoshimune.Regardless of the population or the city, Dashun only played a few genealogical daimyos at most, and did not attack the Yusanjia and Tokugawa's directly-administered territories.

Regardless of whether it is Nagasaki or Iwami, Dashun did not attack these important sources of income controlled by the Tokugawa clan.

However, the loss of reputation is too great.

Even if Emperor Gomizuo went to Nijo Castle to visit Tokugawa Iemitsu, and the emperor visited his courtiers, which was an unprecedented event, but he had already admitted to submit to the rule of the Tokugawa clan.

Even if the emperor's daily food and drink expenses are guaranteed, from time to time he still has to rely on selling calligraphy, paintings, and tickets to allow businessmen to enjoy the scene of the emperor meeting his ministers.

But in the end, it was unprecedented for the emperor to be arrested.This is very detrimental to Tokugawa's rule.

Tokugawa Yoshimune didn't understand Dashun's actions before, thinking that Liu Yu was crazy, and he really wanted to force him to fight to the end.

However, when it was reported that the Dashun Army might attack Shimonoseki, lay siege to Hagi Castle, and wipe out the allied forces of Changzhou Governor's House Hiroshima and other domains, Tokugawa Yoshimune suddenly became happy.

The situation was once again in his favor.

When they arrived in Kyoto, the Tokugawa family announced that the whole of Japan would establish a new king, fight to the end and never surrender.

A large number of lower-class samurai, and even the sons of the lower-class samurai, brought their own dry food and were inspired by the declaration of the war to the end, and spontaneously went to Kyoto to join the army.Some samurai even donated their family property.

Of course Tokugawa Yoshimune did not want to fight the war to the end. The result of the war to the end is likely to be that the southwestern feudal clans jumped back and sided with Dashun to fight the shogunate together.

But the slogan was shouted, and the shogunate regained the initiative from the passivity that Kyoto was breached before.

In Ertiao City, the old and important ministers of the southwestern feudal clans handed over proposals from the southwestern feudal clans.

"My lord general, we can't fight anymore. The Tang people can't be defeated with the current military equipment. Besides, the emperor didn't make a mistake, and he took the initiative to negotiate with the Tang people. How can he establish a new king because of this?"

Similar voices were constantly being raised, and after seeing wave after wave, the lords of the various feudal lords near the sea almost all had the same meaning.

Almost all of the top foreign daimyos in Shi Gao supported the truce and peace talks.

The Kaga domain, whose surface height is 100 million shi, supports the peace talks; the actual stone height is one million shi, and the Sendai domain, which has its own copper mines, supports the peace talks; the Kagoshima domain is not qualified to speak, because whether or not the peace talks, Kago The Island Domain is one that Dashun must clean up; Chikuzen, Kumamoto, Hiroshima, Saga...all support the peace talks.

Not counting the shogunate, Shigao ranked among the top ten daimyos, removing Nagoya and Wakayama, the second of the three royal families who are consistent with the shogunate, and excluding the Kagoshima clan who is not qualified to speak, and all support peace talks.

The remaining small domains, as long as they are in the western part of Honshu, Kyushu or Shikoku, and Mutsu Dewa is close to Ezo, all support the peace talks.

But Tokugawa Yoshimune did not immediately agree, but insisted that another new king should be established, fight to the end, and must not easily admit defeat.

The samurai who assembled in Kyoto, those samurai sons who brought their own dry food, also started internal discussions.Because Tokugawa Yoshimune deliberately asked people to release the news, the news that "the shogunate is about to fight to the death, and the feudal lords surrendered first" spread everywhere.

Soon after, there was an assassination incident in Kyoto.

Seven low-ranking warriors spontaneously attacked the old middle man of the Chikuzen Domain, hacked him to death near Nijo Castle, and shouted the slogan "Heaven punishes the country's thieves".

After this incident broke out, Tokugawa Yoshimune chose to formally discuss in public the issue of whether to establish a new king, whether to fight or make peace, in the name of "calming the anger of the people".

All the vassals knew that the shogunate wanted the vassals to take the blame, but at this time, they couldn't care too much.

Someone has to carry this pot.

If the shogunate blames the shogunate, the shogunate must die. If he dies sooner or later, he will die. It is better not to take the blame and fight to the end.

The prestige lost by the shogunate can all be wiped out.A large number of lower-level warriors who are dissatisfied with the feudal clans may form associations and even plan to withdraw the feudal clans.

Obviously the shogunate suffered a crushing defeat in this battle and its prestige was wiped out, but with Dashun's cooperation, Leng Shengsheng came back.

Now Tokugawa Yoshimune has made the matter straightforward, and the debate will be held in public, forcing the feudal vassals to make choices.

In debating this kind of thing, it may take some skills to win, but it is really not difficult to lose.

Just before the debate began, Toki Yoritoshi, who had previously served as the governor of Kyoto, committed seppuku, taking responsibility for the emperor's capture.

Not only did he take the responsibility for the emperor's capture, but he also wrote a last letter, thinking that he was at a loss during his tenure as the governor of Kyoto and during Dashun's raid on Kyoto.It is absolutely possible to take the emperor to Osaka for shelter before the Dashun attack.

So the emperor was arrested, not the responsibility of the shogunate, but because he, the governor of Kyoto, lost his chance because of panic.

After he was "committed suicide", Ota Sukiharu, the acting representative of Osaka Castle, also committed suicide.

Ota Ziqing believed that he also had a great responsibility. The shogun's arrangement was no problem, and a large number of troops were reserved in Osaka, which was enough to protect the safety of Kyoto.

But on his own initiative, he fell into Dashun's trick of diverting the tiger away from the mountain, and transferred the mobile forces in his hand to Tottori.

If it is not for his own self-assertion, Kyoto will not be breached.

The deaths of Toki Yoritoshi and Ota Ziqing removed the last responsibility of the shogunate.

After all, they were not executed by the shogunate, but committed suicide.In Japan, even if there is no such soft saying that "everyone is dead", after a death and apology, many things are really difficult to pursue.

Both Toki Yoritoshi and Ota Takaharu were seppuku on the street in front of Nijo Castle. They announced their mistakes in public and chose to behead the wrong person. It was not so painful to die.

Once the two died, the debate about war or peace began in Kyoto.

On the shogunate's side, Tokugawa Yoshimune's trusted senior middle schooler and childhood personal surname Matsudaira Huizhen came forward to preside over it.

The shogunate officials who nominally supported the faction of fighting to the end quoted the story of the emperors of the Song and Ming dynasties who were captured and established a new emperor to fight to the end.

The faction that supports the non-ceeding peace talks points out that Dashun's armaments are really beyond what Japan can resist at this time.

If there is no peace talks, the situation will only get worse.

And the story of this matter is indeed in the Shimadzu family. In any case, Ryukyu is a vassal of China. Toyotomi Hideyoshi has already given the answer to the consequences of touching the vassal of China, but the Shimadzu family does not have a long memory.

They didn't say any allusions such as laying bare one's salary and trying one's courage. Instead, they imitated the tactics of the Dashun Army and asked how the shogunate should deal with it if the Dashun Army continued to fight.

In the battle of Hagi, Dashun proved two things.

First, Dashun can concentrate about [-] troops anywhere west of Hagi City. This is just the bottom line, and there can be more.

Second, in order to defeat Dashun in the field, a large number of Guobeng and at least three to four times the strength of the troops are needed.

In other words, even if the shogunate wants to fight, it needs to gather about [-] field troops, plus logistics such as Caolu, it will need about [-], and it is possible to compete with Dashun.

But about [-] field troops are already the limit that the shogunate can mobilize.After the mobilization of these field troops, what should the shogunate do if Dashun repeats his old tricks and uses the advantage of sea transportation to raid Edo, Wakayama, Osaka, Nagoya and other places?
As long as Dashun's navy is not destroyed, the initiative is in Dashun's hands.The shogunate assembled [-] to [-] troops, and the speed of movement must be slow. They arrived at Hagi City slowly. If Dashun didn't want to fight, he could jump on a boat.

Ten days of shipping by sea is enough for these [-] to [-] troops to run on land for more than a month on two feet.

If the faction that supports the decisive battle to the end, who can come up with an effective method to deal with Dashun's tactics, then the feudal clans will support the decisive battle to the end.

If not, the feudal vassals will not fight any more.

(End of this chapter)