Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 1068 Letter of Surrender

The dilapidated Tennoji Temple is witnessing a historic moment. The third generation shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu was forced to surrender, and the surrender place agreed by both parties was at Tennoji Temple.

The armies of both sides have retreated to both sides of Tianwang Temple, and let their patriarchs or generals discuss surrender at Tianwang Temple.

Tokugawa Iemitsu wore the armor that his grandfather Tokugawa Ieyasu once wore, with a samurai sword on his waist. Behind him were famous or important ministers such as Matsudaira Nobuzuna, Mizuno Katsunari, Ikeda Mitsumasa, and Matsudaira Tadaaki.Facing them were the daimyo Yamauchi Tadyoshi, Tachibana Muneshige, Shimadzu Mitsuhisa and others, as well as the generals of the Kyushu Army such as Nelson and Lu Xiangsheng.

For an ambitious person like Tokugawa Iemitsu, surrender is an extremely embarrassing thing for him. After surrendering, he will lose all his powers, and the era of the Edo Shogunate will also end.Afterwards, no matter whether it is the Western Kingdom Daimyo, the Huaxia Club or the Kyushu Army in charge of Dongying, it will not be the turn of the Tokugawa family to make a comeback, because the surrender of the Tokugawa family has caused them to lose all prestige.

"Your Excellency, General, we haven't seen each other for a long time." Muneshige Tachibana, in his seventies, said to Tokugawa Iemitsu in the first row.

"You escaped from Edo Castle and betrayed our Tokugawa family." Tokugawa Iemitsu said angrily.

If Tachibana Muneshige hadn't stood on the side of the fallen coalition forces this time, Sanada Maru and Osaka Castle might not have been able to hold on for so long, at least the shogunate would not have collapsed so quickly.

"I also betrayed Toyotomi's family before. Those who follow the sky prosper, those who go against the sky perish, and the annexation of the warring states proves that only the strongest can arm the world." Tachibana Muneshige was not ashamed of his behavior.

In the war of annexation between the daimyos of the Warring States period, starting from the scale of a village, they want to annex the surrounding area, and then a city, a country, and a region. The strong will annex the surrounding small forces.According to this trend of the Warring States period, Tachibana Muneshige and other Western daimyos believed that the world structure at this time was like their Warring States period.Huaxia, Koryo, Dongying, Western countries and other countries were the daimyos of the Warring States period. The weak need to obey the strong. Huaxia is the biggest "daimyo" in East Asia, so it is the right thing to obey Huaxia, otherwise it will be attacked by the other side.

"Do you know that the samurai system will be abolished by taking refuge in the Chinese people, and although the shogunate led by me implements the New Deal, it still retains the privileges of our samurai. Our samurai cannot be equal to ordinary people." Tokugawa Iemitsu said .

"Ahem, Your Excellency, General, this is a surrender ceremony, not a podium for your persuasion. You have already lost in the military, Edo Castle, Nagoya and other important places have fallen, and all the seas have been blocked by our fleet. Don't be delusional. There is still a chance." Lu Xiangsheng coughed a few times, and said to the shogun who was a few years younger than him.

"Edo Castle has also fallen?!" Tokugawa Iemitsu and the Dongguo daimyo behind him were shocked.It was the first time they heard the news of the fall of Edo Castle, and the family members of many daimyos also lived in Edo Castle as hostages.

The fall of Edo Castle meant that their families were also under control!

"The Huaxia Society teamed up with some of the samurai from your shogunate, set a big fire in Edo Castle, and then captured Edo Castle." Lu Xiangsheng dumped the blame for the burning of Edo Castle to the Huaxia Society and Ono Taro and other shogunate red scarf samurai .

"Is our family okay?" The shogunate daimyo looked at each other.

Most of their families were concentrated in Edo Castle. The Edo fire and war would definitely affect their families, but it is not known whose family members were killed in the turmoil.

"The group of guys from the Huaxia Society, I should use tougher means to attack them." Iemitsu Tokugawa regretted that he was a little bit cautious at the time. If he knew that the shogunate would really fail, he would definitely use bloody means to suppress the Huaxia Society.

"If you are concerned about the safety of your family members in Edo Castle, sign the instrument of surrender quickly, and we can release you one after another and return to Edo Castle." Nelson said with his hands behind his back.

He became eager to expand the territory for the future of his grandson.

Tokugawa Iemitsu took the surrender letter handed to him by the other party, and carefully read the terms in it.

"The shogunate needs to announce the disintegration to the daimyos and common people in all parts of Dongying, and recognize that Dongying has become an inseparable part of China forever... Establish Dongying Province on the basis of Honshu Island, Kyushu Island, Shikoku Island, and Hokkaido, and the capital will appoint the province. The highest civil affairs officials, magistrates, and judicial officers...allow Dongying to maintain certain local characteristics on the basis of receiving general Han culture education..." Tokugawa Iemitsu read some of the key clauses in the surrender book, and the ambitions of the Kyushu Army Shocked.

This is simply a public declaration of occupation, and the form of a surrender document is used to determine the legality of the occupation. In the future, disputes can be argued based on the surrender document.

"If I sign this surrender document, I'm afraid I, Tokugawa Iemitsu, will become a sinner." Tokugawa Iemitsu knew that if he signed the surrender document, then this surrender document would probably be handed down to future generations. Of course, for him Personally it's not a good thing.

"You are losers. If you want to survive and protect your own interests, we have no choice. Our Kyushu Army will not establish the Dongying Province with just a piece of paper, and will conduct a public vote in Edo City to decide whether to establish the Dongying Province. "Lu Xiangsheng said.

This time the Kyushu Army has adopted a different strategy than pure force in the past when occupying Dongying. It pays more attention to legitimacy and wants to minimize resistance, because Dongying is the largest force in East Asia other than the Chinese mainland, and its population is about a dozen times that of the mainland. One, once a rebellion occurs, several times the manpower will be used to crusade, which is likely to deplete the national treasury.Only two fleets and one infantry brigade have been sent now because Xiguo daimyo signed a secret agreement with the Kyushu Army to stand on the side of the Kyushu Army to check and balance the shogunate, otherwise it would be difficult for a united Japan to achieve complete occupation.

"Citizens vote? You are nothing more than manipulating public opinion and threatening to lure you." Tokugawa Iemitsu is so shrewd that he can see through it at a glance that it is an innocuous action carried out by the Kyushu Army in order to gain the legitimacy of its rule.

"Your Excellency, the shogun, it is necessary even if it is a mere action." Lu Xiangsheng said, "In the past, Dongying and China were separated by a sea, and it was difficult to achieve effective rule, but now hundreds of galleons are manufactured every year. , the steamship is in the ascendant, our army can come to Dongpu in a very short time..."

The daimyos of the Western Kingdom were also lost in thought because of Lu Xiangsheng's words.The reason why they cooperated with the Kyushu Army was that they realized the arrival of the era of great navigation. The fleet of the Kyushu Army could freely travel to and from the East China Sea, the Sea of ​​Japan, and the Seto Inland Sea, and they could not escape even if they wanted to.

(End of this chapter)