Kangxi, your Qing Dynasty is dead

Chapter 490: What kind of slaughter?We must convince others with virtue! (Please subscribe, please vote)

Zheng Zongming and Zhu Shunshui were both stunned after hearing Li Zhongshan's words.

In fact, the General's Office, the Ministry of Finance and the National People's Congress have not discussed how to deal with Japan after the war - this issue seems to be too early to discuss before the defeat of the Spanish Armada, and the defeat of the Spanish Armada was too late. So suddenly.This is probably the charm of the decisive battle between the main forces of the navy, right?Sometimes a duel between the main fleets in a few days or even a few hours can decide the ownership of a large area of ​​the ocean, or even the entire ocean!
And Japan is an island country with a long tradition of isolation. The national defense and security of island countries often depend on the navy, so island countries with a certain strength usually attach great importance to the development of the navy.For example, Britain and Denmark (Denmark has territory on the European continent, but the center of this country is still on Zealand), but Japan is an exception. Although her strength is not weak, she lacks the ability to develop a navy due to her long-term policy of isolation. Foundation.

Even though it has received help from Western naval powers such as Spain, the Netherlands, and England in recent years, due to its poor foundation, Japan cannot find a few craftsmen who can build "big ships" with a load of more than 500 koku, and everything has to be started from scratch. In the beginning, progress was still very slow.

So far, the Tokugawa Shogunate's Naval Office has only built a few gunboats with a light load and displacement of less than 200 tons, and they were built under the step-by-step guidance of Western engineers and technicians.

The progress of the shogunate navy was also very slow. It took several years to build some armed Galen ships and Spanish galleons to support the scene. There was not even a serious fifth-level frigate.

In the past two years, Japan's foreign exchanges have all been maintained by the Spanish Armada, but now the Armada has been "invincible", and the lifeline of Japan's foreign exchanges has been suddenly seized by the Ming Dynasty!
Although Japan's domestic economy is self-contained and it doesn't expect much import and export, it can only buy some raw silk and cotton from China, and China will not embargo these things.But if Japan wants to progress and take the path of no return to militarism, it must import advanced technologies from China and the West, import iron materials to make weapons, and import saltpeter to make gunpowder.

As long as the Ming Dynasty blocks Japan's foreign trade, Japan will no longer be able to develop, and may even regress!

Once Japan's military force retreats, won't the opportunity come for the Ming Dynasty to slaughter Japan?
Thinking of this, Zheng Zongming and Zhu Shunshui became energetic.

Li Zhongshan first looked at Zhu Shunshui who liked to advocate "righteousness and honor".

Zhu Shunshui twirled his snow-white beard and said, "Although Japan is now ruled by generals, Japanese generals cannot rule the world with one hand. There are still many powerful vassals in the country who are alienated from the shogunate. In addition, Japan's shoguns are nominally ordered by the emperor to govern the world. The emperor is now Although it was controlled by the general, he was the nominal lord of the world after all, and his rightful name was still in the hands of the emperor.

We can try to instigate a group of powerful vassals who are alienated from the shogunate to support the emperor and oppose the generals. In this way, Japan will definitely return to the so-called Warring States period of chaos.By then, it will be easy for Ming Dynasty to conquer Japan! "

The old man is indeed a sun-knowledge sect, and he is indeed a good teacher of Tokugawa Mitsukuni, the eldest shogunate!The idea behind this one is obvious from a person who has studied Japanese history and specializes in Japan!
However, Mr. Zhu is too old and cannot serve as the first "Five-Star Emperor".

So Li Zhongshan looked at Zheng Zongming again.

Zheng Zongming said: "General, I believe that if you want to conquer Japan, you must first conquer Kyushu, and if you want to conquer Kyushu, you must first control Korea! Now Korea has been controlled by the Duke of Sui, and part of Kyushu is also in the hands of the Duke of Sui. Next, we should try to conquer the entire Kyushu while provoking civil strife in Japan. It is best to rescue Emperor Reigen from the Kyoto Imperial Palace and bring him to Kyushu, so that he can establish a court in Kyushu to fight against the shogunate."

This Zheng Zongming is indeed a good example of patriotic overseas Chinese in Japan!They have all figured out the "Pseudo Kyushu Kingdom"!

However, this Zheng Zongming looks a bit amiable and makes money, but not fierce enough. He looks much worse than "Wheat King". Can he control the situation?
"Both of you are indeed resourceful and capable ministers, and they are familiar with Japan's internal affairs!" Li Zhongshan first gave Zheng Zongming and Zhu Shunshui two high hats in a tone of approval, and then changed the subject, "But I, the Ming Dynasty, am The heavenly dynasty has always paid attention to persuading people with virtue, how can it conquer Japan, a country with mountains and rivers in a foreign land, where the wind and the moon share the same sky?"

Conquer people with virtue?Is it to convince people with martial virtue?

"The general is indeed benevolent!" Zhu Shunshui stroked his white beard and said with a smile, "I'm being rude... but we help the emperor to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate who does not abide by ministerial ethics and is not benevolent and righteous, so that we can convince people with virtue!"

Zheng Zongming smiled and said: "The general doesn't know something. Japan is a country of warriors and has always valued military ethics. Although our country is sincere in helping, we must first subdue them with military ethics, and then we can educate the Japanese and make them behave benevolently and righteously. Barbarians invaded China."

Yes, there are sets of benevolence, justice and morality!

Li Zhongshan nodded with satisfaction and said with a smile: "You two are right... To deal with the Japanese, you must first use martial virtue, and then practice benevolence, in order to convince them!"

As he spoke, he looked at his military advisor Zhou Chang: "Pei Gong, in your opinion, how much martial virtue do we need to make the Japanese surrender?"

"One hundred thousand is enough!" Zhou Chang said.

One hundred thousand...tons?Li Zhongshan said in his heart: The equivalent of [-] tons is enough, but there are not that many now!

Zhou Chang added: "The third master trapped tens of thousands of Japanese pirates with his tricks. They should already know the martial virtues of the third master!"
If the third master can take these Japanese soldiers for his own use, the number of one hundred thousand will be almost the same... plus Satsuma, Choshu, Tosa and other feudal lords, there will be a hundred thousand army to defeat the emperor! "

Li Sanye Li Zhongzheng...

Li Zhongshan's eyes lit up: Zhongzheng would be the first "Five-Star Emperor"!
"Zheng Shangshu, Mr. Shunshui, what do you think?" Although Li Zhongshan had made up his mind, he still wanted to seek the opinions of the two Japan-knowing factions.

"The three generals are indeed full of military virtue. If they can defeat tens of thousands of warriors, they will be able to conquer Japan with their virtue." Zhu Shunshui then raised a question, "But has the general thought about how to govern Japan after its virtue has been conquered? "

"General," Zheng Zongming also said, "Japan has a population of 2000 million after all... Does the general want to divide Japan into several countries and then conquer them with virtue, or does he want to maintain the unity of Japan to facilitate charity? Virtue?"

"Of course divide and conquer is the best!" Li Zhongshan said, "It is indeed very inconvenient to govern a population of 2000 million... But how to divide Japan and rule it?

I'm afraid it would be difficult to achieve this divide-and-conquer thing simply by relying on martial ethics, right? "

"It's not that difficult," Zheng Zongming shook his head, "but it's very expensive... and it may not be worth the loss! If the general just wants to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate and replace it with an obedient Japanese shogunate, it won't be too difficult. .”

Overthrow Tokugawa and replace him with Shimadzu or Mori?Li Zhongshan thought to himself: It doesn't seem to mean much, right?

After all, it would be better for Japan to be divided into several parts and managed!

Zhu Shunshui thought for a while and said slowly: "Actually, it's not that there is no clever way..."

"Mr. Shunshui, what do you think?" Li Zhongshan asked quickly.

"I don't dare," Zhu Shunshui said with a smile, "It's just an idea..."

Seeing that he was hesitant to speak, Li Zhongshan hurriedly urged: "Sir, stop being so pretentious and come quickly!" "

"General, don't be anxious. I know everything I know right now," Mr. Zhu said thoughtfully. "The so-called shogunate rule in Japan is actually a disguised method of dividing the country and establishing the country. The names of the feudal lords under the shogun are actually The lord of the vassal state!

This system is inherently prone to division!In the early years, the Muromachi shogunate found it difficult to control local daimyo, and eventually the entire country fell apart, and Japan entered the so-called Warring States period of chaos.

If heroes like Oda Nagasaki, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu hadn't emerged, and they reunified Japan step by step... the country might have really fallen apart.

After Tokugawa Ieyasu subdued the heroes and unified Japan, he actually adopted a method similar to the parallel system of prefectures and states in the Han Dynasty to govern the country.

Although there are many princes with different surnames in Japan, the share of prefectures, counties, or heavenly territories has never been able to overwhelm the territory of local daimyo.

However, the Tokugawa shogunate also adopted the method of handing over the pilgrimage, so that the daimyo from various places were either busy on the road or living in Edo, and did not have much time to govern the place.Over time, the princes became alienated from the place and became close to the shogunate..."

Zhu Shunshui talked a lot. Although he hadn't said his "clever method" yet, General Li already somewhat understood what the old man meant.

"Mr. Shunshui," Li Zhongshan saw that the old man had been "enlightening himself", so he followed his intention and said, "I kind of understand that the parallelism of the prefectures and states in the Western Han Dynasty is ultimately about unification. So the Tokugawa shogunate also left On this path...it’s just that I haven’t mastered it yet.”

"General, you are a wise man!" Zhu Shunshui said with a smile, "The talents and strategies of Tokugawa Ieyasu are naturally inferior to those of Emperor Han Gao... Otherwise, Japan would have been twisted into a rope by now, and it would be impossible to divide and conquer!"

"Then how should we divide it now?" Li Zhongshan asked.

"We want to turn the Tokugawa shogunate into the Muromachi shogunate," Zhu Shunshui said. "The Tokugawa shogunate overcame other heroes and set the rules from the top down. However, the Ashikaga shogun of the Muromachi shogunate was born with deficiencies and relied on the support of the world's great names to become a shogun. So it is The rules are set from the bottom up... It's a bit like Kangxi's plan to unite the people for the country after defeating Fuquan!"

Li Zhongshan now understood: The Tokugawa Shogunate and the Muromachi Shogunate are probably the difference between the Federation and the Confederacy!

If we want to use clever methods to dismantle Japan, we can only find ways to reform Japan's vassal system and lead Japan back to the path of "Confederation"...

As long as the feudal confederacy lasts for a long time, Japan will become fragmented and it will be difficult to unify it again.

"Mr. Shunshui's move is really brilliant!" Li Zhongshan gave a thumbs up. "Even if Marquis Wu was alive, he probably wouldn't be able to think of a better way."

Zhu Shunshui smiled and said: "General, please don't praise me. I have lived in Japan for many years. I was also the teacher of Tokugawa Mitsukuni, the current Japanese shogunate. How can I still know the weaknesses and weaknesses of Japan?"
However, it is not easy for the method proposed by the old man to come true! "

Li Zhongshan smiled and said: "It is a difficult method to divide Japan, a country of 2000 million people, into different parts and subjugate each one with virtue."

He paused and then said: "However, it all depends on people... Let's sum it up together and see where we should start?"

……

Next to Hangzhou Bay, with Jiulong Mountain as the center, starting from Baisha Bay in the east and reaching Zhapu Town in the west, the beach line stretching for more than ten miles has become a huge military refugee camp.A few months ago, the Japanese mercenary army, which landed in Zhapu with great momentum and supported by the Spanish Armada, circled around Pinghu County and its surrounding areas. After several months of wreaking havoc, the Ming army commanded by Li Zhongzheng was finally defeated again. Forced back to the tidal flat between Zhapu and Baisha Bay.The space they can move around in now is quite narrow, with the tidal flat extending less than ten miles inland.Further forward, there is the line of contact between the two sides!
More than [-] Ming troops were on top of the tens of thousands of Japanese mercenaries who were forced to the beach of Hangzhou Bay. They assumed a posture of overwhelming the mountains and could completely crush these Japanese pirates who didn't know the heights of the sky at any time!

In fact, the Japanese pirates' invasion of Pinghu was basically Li Zhong's strategy of "luring the enemy to land".

After all, the coastline of the Ming Dynasty is so long, it is impossible to have tight defenses everywhere.

Therefore, the best way to prevent Japanese pirates is to choose a favorable terrain and put a large number of Japanese pirates on the shore to fight!
As long as a large number of Japanese pirates are concentrated in one place, there will not be many Japanese pirates in other places.

In order to make the Japanese pirates think that landing from Zhapu was a "financial opportunity", Li Zhongzheng thought of many ways and spent a lot of money.

They even let the Japanese pirates occupy Pinghu County, and also allowed the Japanese pirates to plunder a lot around Pinghu County.

As for the Japanese pirates, it may be because they have not been Japanese pirates for many years and have forgotten how to be Japanese pirates.

He really thought that there was a lot of money in Pinghu, so he kept sending more troops to Pinghu, as if he wanted to make a big splash!
Later, the number of troops increased to [-] to [-]!Moreover, in October of the [-]th year of the Republic, an autumn offensive was launched to cooperate with Kangxi in the north to resist the Ming army's attack.

As a result, the Japanese pirates' autumn offensive suddenly hit the iron plate prepared for them by Li Zhongzheng!

In less than three days, the offensive killed 2 people and wasted a lot of ammunition.

Subsequently, the tens of thousands of Japanese pirates who landed in Hangzhou Bay fell into trouble.The territory controlled by the Ming army continued to be compressed, and the casualties of the troops were also increasing!
After the Spanish Armada that was originally guarding Hangzhou Bay was lured away by the Ming Dynasty's ocean-going fleet that returned to the Western Pacific, the Japanese pirates also had a big problem with their logistics supply!
The Dongyang Fleet of the Ming Navy, which was originally huddled in the Yangtze River Estuary and did not dare to go out, began to move frequently around Hangzhou Bay, constantly attacking ships transporting supplies for the Japanese pirates.

However, the Japanese pirates' supply lines have not been completely cut off, and some food, ammunition and reinforcements will always be transported.

And after these limited supports arrived, the Pinghu Japanese pirates could barely maintain the pace of slowly retreating...

Of course, this was all deliberately arranged by Li Zhongzheng.

The purpose is to "fish to fight the Japanese"... If the Japanese pirates are not tied up, the Tokugawa shogunate will not continue to fill our Pinghu side with people and supplies, and this "Japan" will not be able to resist.And isn’t this contribution small?

However, when the news of the Spanish Armada's disastrous defeat in Da Nang came, Li Zhongzheng stopped pretending at all.Directly mobilize the navy and land forces to attack the Japanese pirates in Pinghu.

It only took a few days to capture Pinghu County, which was about to be converted into a Japanese-style castle by the Japanese pirates. Then they attacked the city all the way and quickly pushed the Japanese pirates to the beach of Hangzhou Bay.

Once here, the Japanese pirates have no choice but to retreat!
Because at this time, no ships belonging to Spain, England, the Netherlands, Portugal or Japan could be seen on the surface of Hangzhou Bay.

The sea is full of warships from the Eastern Fleet of the Ming Navy!It even includes a first-class battleship "Jiangsu"!

When the battle reached this point, the Ming army's strong attack was meaningless, and the Japanese pirates' resistance was also in vain.Now the Ming army only needs to guard the front line where they are in contact with the Japanese pirates to prevent them from jumping over the wall to encircle them. Then everything will be fine, and they can wait quietly for the Japanese pirates to run out of ammunition and food.

The headquarters of Masatoshi Hota, the general of the Japanese mercenary army, is located in a fortress on Jiulong Mountain. Looking down from the fortress, you can clearly see the desperate situation of the Japanese mercenary army.The Ming army had built a series of offensives on the contact line, including trenches, parapets, and fences, and set up hundreds of artillery pieces. From time to time, they bombarded the front line of the Japanese pirates, keeping them in constant tension.

On the sea, more than a dozen gunboats with shallow drafts had already arrived very close to the Japanese pirates' camp. They kept using naval guns to bombard the Japanese pirates on the shore, trying to scare the Japanese soldiers who were resting.

However, the efforts of these gunboats had no effect.The Japanese soldiers, who were so hungry and panicking, had already laid down in despair and had no strength to move. How could they be frightened?

As the general, Hota certainly knows that the army under his command will soon be destroyed...unless he can make a decision that goes against the spirit of Bushido!

"Hotita, that's about it... Do you really plan to ruin the lives of tens of thousands of good men? Is it worth it?"

The person who was speaking was a retainer of the Shimazu family named Shinna Tadaki.Both loyal and wise, the name was changed so well (it was originally called Zhongqing) that he gained Li Zhongzheng's trust and became the commander of the Japanese mercenary battalion under Li Zhongzheng. Now he was sent to persuade Hotta to surrender.

"Why is it not worth it for a samurai to be loyal to his lord?" Hotta is actually a lord who is afraid of the pain and drowns himself in the sea. He is just talking hard and wants to see what kind of steps the other party can provide him.
"Be loyal to your lord?" Shinna Tadaki said with a smile, "Who is your lord? King Carlos IV of Spain? You are now the commander of the Japanese mercenary group in Spain...not the Tokugawa Shogunate.

So if you commit seppuku now, your allegiance will not be to Lord Gongfang, but to the King of Spain!By the way, how long has it been since the Spanish King paid the Japanese mercenary group?Employment is considered as having military pay. If there is no military pay... the employment relationship will be automatically terminated! "

(End of this chapter)