Ming Zhengzhi, I am Zheng Kezang

Since Ma Liangzhi and Mao Enshou reached a tacit agreement with Ming Zheng, Ryukyu merchant ships have become the only foreign trade ships that can enter Zhejiang Customs and Jiang Customs. These Ryukyu ships usually ship to Ming Zheng to avoid paying high sea taxes The designated commodities such as raw silk, silk, and tea were transported to Penghu, and then the nearby Southeast Asian and Western commodities were purchased and returned to Naha. As a result, the Satsuma domain could not participate in the most profitable silk trade, which naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of the Shimadzu family.

Under such circumstances, the Satsuma clan threatened the Ryukyu ship owners to transport the silk from the mainland back to Naha, otherwise the possibility of sending troops again would not be ruled out. In this regard, they have been promoted to the [Yinyi side] (management of national property and the governance of mountains and rivers) However, Ma Liangzhi deliberately shielded the ship owner and refused to carry out the order of the Satsuma clan, which caused resentment from the Shimadzu family.

In March of the 41st year of the Yongli calendar, with the support of Shimadzu's family, Mao Chaoen (Fang Sheng'an, a relative of Reading Valley Mountain) who had always been close to Satsuma's [give place] (managing the salary and travel expenses of servicemen) forced King Shang Zhen to relieve Ma Liangzhi. The post was transferred to Fang Anguo (Fang Quandun, the sixth generation of Fang's Lijin relative) who was the father of Zhen Biyan, the successor concubine of King Shang Zhen.

However, for the purpose of protecting the Shang family, Fang Anguo continued to perfunctorily meet Satsumo’s demands, so that the amount of raw silk and silk fabrics imported from Satsumokou continued to hover at a low level every year, so that Satsumokou’s trade status declined year by year, and it was once prominent. The financial resources of the Satsuma Shimadzu family gradually became difficult.

In order to avoid financial bankruptcy in the domain, Satsuma asked Ryukyu to provide the amount of annual tribute in June 42 of the Yongli calendar. Waiting for physical tributes to give 600 taels of silver. Although this move relieved the pressure on Satsuma's finances, it brought a heavy burden to Ryukyu.

Worried that Satsuma’s desire would be hard to fill, Mao Enshou and others once again pleaded with Ming Zheng for protection, but at this time Zheng Jun was preparing for the Qing army’s three provinces to attack Taiwan, so he had no spare power to support Ryukyu, and Ryukyu was forced to continue to endure the exploitation of the Shimadzu family. .

However, after October of that year, the Zheng army defeated the navy divisions of the three provinces of the Qing army, and the situation suddenly changed.

In the first month of the 43rd year of the Yongli calendar, Ming Zheng officially changed the original business house in Naha to the Guoxin embassy. The newly appointed Guoxin envoy He Zhizhou paid homage to King Shangzhen when he took office, and openly announced that he would protect Ryukyu from foreign aggression.Then Mao Enshou and Fang Anguo, who were ecstatic, immediately launched a coup d'état, deposing Mao Chaoen and Mao Longda (Misato's pro-Fang Anji) who were pro-*Japanese, the two three justices, and the six adherents (Table 15).

Ma Liangzhi, who came back to power as the head of Bodi, first notified Satsuma to restore the annual tribute to the amount in the 41st year of the Yongli calendar, and then expelled all Satsumo's tribute stationed in Ryukyu from the country.

The Shimadzu family was naturally furious at the sudden toughness of the Ryukyu side. However, at this time, it was no longer the Shimadzu clan when the first feudal lord Ieku was alive. Decades of peace inevitably affected the samurai in the clan. Coupled with the successive floods and droughts in the feudal domain, which caused poor harvests in the territory, the Shimadzu family did not have the strength to confront the Zheng army who had just defeated the Qing army and had a burst of morale, so they were forced to endure it.

Seeing the unusual weakness of the Satsuma people, the Ryukyu side was overjoyed and at the same time had further thoughts.On the first month of the 44th year of the Yongli calendar, Ryukyu announced that it would further reduce the annual tribute to Satsuma by half, and at the same time stop selling brown sugar, raw silk and other commodities to Satsuma, and all Satsuma merchants who came to Naha for trade would pay taxes and other laws that seriously stimulated Satsuma. , This completely annoyed the Shimadzu family, who are known as the strongest soldiers in Japan.

In the fourth year of Zhenheng (1687), Tsunaki Shimazu, who succeeded the family governor, made the final decision at the family elder meeting held in April of that year, and sent troops to crusade against Ryukyu.According to his order, after notifying the Edo shogunate of the relevant situation and obtaining permission, in November of this year, the Shimadzu family formed a "huge" fleet of 27 house ships and closed ships. Four thousand troops, including ronin, were recruited, and they marched mightily towards Ryukyu.

Before the Satsuma army's crusade was approved by the shogunate, Mingzheng's trading house in Nagasaki had already learned the relevant information, so Fubo Fleet [-] carried out surveillance on the ports of Satsuma after the storm, waiting for the Shimadzu family to set sail , The fleet has just sailed into the waters of the Sanan Islands south of the entrance island, and Zheng Jun's notification ship has already sent the news back to Dongning.

Zheng Kezang, who was inspecting the counties of Taiwan again, got the news of the Shimadzu family sending troops in Danshui, and ordered the navy to fight after a little weighing. The transport ship didn't have much power to mobilize. As a last resort, Lin Sheng ordered the Keelung team to raise their sails and attack.

The Keelung team, which was mainly responsible for teaching tasks, also gradually changed their guns after the three provinces attacked Taiwan. Although they still kept a large number of bird boats, lucky boats, and sand boats as teaching boats, the two single-masted longitudinal boats that were originally used as soft sailing boats were used for teaching. However, the sailboat was replaced by the Guangnan Squadron long ago, and four [-]-material iron-frame gunboats were replaced---Huang Chuxu, who was ambitiously planning to upgrade the Keelung Squadron to the Naval Academy Squadron, was worried that he had no chance. It is natural to be very happy to come to the door.

On November 44, 26th year of the Yongli calendar, Huang Chuxu personally led four double-sail gunboats and three notification boats to Ryukyu, and encountered the Satsuma fleet in the waters of Yoron Island, Iheya Island, Noho Island, and Manaha Island. Naturally, there is no need to elaborate on the course of the battle. Zheng Jun, who used Zheng Jun’s usual wolf-pack tactics, sank and destroyed six Anzhai boats and shut down [-] boats. The Satsuma only had seven wounded boats to seize the road. On the surrounding islands, only two ships with more than [-] people safely arrived on the main island of Ryukyu, and the rest were stranded on the affiliated islands such as Ie Island, and were finally captured by Zheng Jun or starved to death on the deserted island.

After the more than [-] Satsuma troops who escaped by chance landed, unwilling to fail, they marched forward all the way, attacking the officials along the way, but they frightened some Ryukyu people. Three Provinces) Nakijin Castle, an important town, also fell into the hands of the Shimadzu family.

The Ryukyu court was panicked after receiving the flood report, so Ma Liangzhi and Mao Enshou went to the messenger's mansion of Ming Zheng Guo in person to ask for help.He Zhizhou then sent someone to report to the Keelung team who had returned to Naha Ocean to show off their martial arts after the victory in the naval battle. The blushing Huang Chuxu led the team back to the north and unloaded [-] students at Minghu City to prepare for the battle.

The Satsuma army didn't know that Zheng Jun had gone and returned. They were going to use 300 people to create a miracle, and they patted their butts all the way south after ruining Nakijin Castle.In the end, after only one day of marching, they bumped into Zheng Jun's sailors at the fork in the road leading to Yujicheng and Nago Castle.Although most of Zheng's troops participated in the battle were young sailors and alternate military officers in their teens, but newborn calves were not afraid of tigers, and they had just won the previous naval battle, so their morale was bursting and their fighting spirit was high.On the other hand, although the Satsuma army got a short rest, on the one hand, the lost morale was not so easy to recover. On the other hand, they also lost the vital gunpowder and other ammunition supplies as a lone army, so they couldn't help it. riot.With such a plus and a minus, the result of the battle is naturally self-evident.When the last Shimadzu Ashgaru, who was defeated in the battle, fell under the siege of the Ryukyu people, the battle to determine the future of Ryukyu came to an end.

The victorious Ryukyu side hurriedly abolished the last tribute to Satsuma, and announced the abolition of the "Fifteen Oaths" imposed by Satsuma on the Ryukyu side.However, the Ryukyu side asked Mingzheng to support it in taking back Amami Oshima, which was cut off by Satsuma, but was rejected by Mingzheng, whose main force was still fighting in eastern Zhejiang at that time.

As for Satsuma, it was only at the end of December of that year that the news of the annihilation of the expeditionary army was learned from the Ming Zheng merchants in Nagasaki. , And sent people to Edo again to ask the shogunate to uphold justice, drive away the Mingzheng merchants in Nagasaki, confiscate their property and goods to compensate for Satsuma's losses.

Seeing that Satsuma's strength has been reduced, the shogunate, who is not at ease with foreign daimyos, is naturally secretly happy. Coupled with the strong opposition from the Sandu merchant group, the shogunate is not willing to come forward to fall out with Ming Zheng. , and the general Tsunayoshi, whose brain has been ruined by drugs, issued "Orders of Mercy for Human Beings" one after another in order to obtain descendants, not to mention forbidding the appearance of swords and blood in Japan, so Satsuma's request finally fell into the sea.

Seeing that the shogunate was unwilling to make decisions for itself, the Satsuma Fan hated their teeth so much that they launched a second crusade against Ryukyu in early February of the 45th year of the Yongli calendar. At Cape Sata, even merchant ships and fishing boats passing through Satsuma Bay were randomly bombarded by Zheng Jun. Although the Shimadzu people were extremely angry, they were helpless.Since the army could not be mobilized, it was impossible to keep wasting food for a long time, not to mention that the shogunate was eager to correct mistakes, so after a month of stalemate, the Shimadzu family had no choice but to give up the conquest of Ryukyu.

The Shimadzu family saw that they could not send troops to the sea, and the shogunate ignored them, so they sent ronin to make trouble in Nagasaki, hacking and injuring Ming Zheng businessmen one after another, and even the residences of Zheng Ming and others were harassed. Zheng Kezang who came here ordered an attack on the outlying islands of Satsuma.Zheng Jun successively seized Amami Oshima, Sanan Islands, Kuchinagarabu Island, Yakushima, and Iwo Jima. Even Tanegashima, the old Tanegashima home of the Satsuma family, was captured by Zheng Jun.

Due to the aggressive offensive of the Zheng army, the Shimadzu clan was forced to subdue, and the two sides negotiated in Satsuma Bay. In the end, the Shimadzu family gave up all their interests in Ryukyu, including Amami Oshima, and Ming Zheng returned the Satsuma outlying islands. So far Shimadzu Iehisa’s business was in vain, and what made the Shimadzu people even more frustrated was that the Satsumakou was completely closed, and Shimadzu lost a lot of money, and the prices of brown sugar and snow sugar in Japan also rose steadily.