World history is very interesting: Yuan Tengfei talks about Japanese history

Chapter 7 The First Battle Between China and Japan—Battle of Baijiangkou
The queen ran away with her brother

Emperor Kotoku conferred the title of Prince Nakadai as Crown Prince, made the ancient prince become a monk, appointed Nakaomi Kamazu as a minister, and actively assisted Prince Nakadai to promote the reform movement.

Emperor Xiaotoku knew in his heart that the throne was given to him by his eldest brother, the prince, and he also had a buddy, Nakamitsu Kamazu, why didn't these two dare to do it?So if they want to reform, let them go.As a result, Japan began the famous Dahua reform, which followed the Tang Dynasty, and began the Tang Dynasty period of more than 1000 years.

The country's implementation of the New Deal will definitely cause resistance from vested interest groups, and old forces will inevitably come out to obstruct it, especially the remnants of the Soga Clan are very dissatisfied with the New Deal, because the core of the New Deal is to centralize the power in the hands of the Emperor and establish a centralized government. system.Therefore, the remnants of the Su'er family supported the ancient princes and rebelled.The eldest brother, the prince, had been on guard for a long time, and the rebellion was quickly put down.

After the rebellion was quelled, in order to wipe out the Soga clan, the prince swung the butcher knife at his father-in-law Soga Ishikawa.For the sake of the country's long-term peace and stability, the eldest brother, the prince, killed the old father-in-law's family at all costs.At that time, Suga Ishikawa's family was still very powerful, especially when Suga Rulu and his son were put down, Suga Ishikawa was a minister with meritorious service.Seeing the eldest brother Prince Zhong crossing the river and demolishing the bridge, turning his face and denying anyone, Suga Ishikawa's subordinates were very upset, and urged Suga Ishikawa to fight to the death with the official army.But Suga Ishikawa understood that confronting the government with his own strength was tantamount to hitting a stone with an egg, so he didn't listen. He said that I betrayed Suga and became a traitor of the Suga family, and I deserved to die long ago.In the end, Soga Ishikawa's family committed suicide collectively.

The eldest brother, the prince, swept away the powerful enemy with an iron fist, and wiped out the power of the Su'er family, but because of the heavy killing, he couldn't help but feel ashamed in his heart, and couldn't sleep or eat.He felt that these things happened because of the bad feng shui in the capital.At that time, the capital of Japan was in Namba, and he suggested to his uncle, Emperor Kotoku, to move the capital to Asuka River.Emperor Kotoku has always had no opinion, and he always listened to what his nephew said, but this time Emperor Kotoku resolutely rejected the request of Prince Nakata to move the capital.Because the palace in Namba has just been built, it would be too troublesome to move the capital, and it would take a lot of work.

The eldest brother, the prince, also came up with him, and was very angry after being rejected. You don't want to move, right?You old boy stay here alone.The eldest brother, the prince, issued an order to move his mother, the emperor Huangji, his brother, the prince Hairen, and all the officials and officials to Feiniaochuan.We're leaving, we won't play with you anymore.

The most interesting thing is that Emperor Kotoku's second wife, the princess, also left her husband and followed her elder brother, the eldest brother, the prince.Emperor Kotoku's original spouse gave him a son named Prince Arima, who later died of illness.Emperor Huangji felt sorry for his younger brother who had no one to take care of him, so he betrothed his daughter, the imperial daughter, to Xiaode, and married his niece to his uncle.

This kind of thing about the Japanese royal family is not new, and everyone may be used to seeing it here.The problem is that the niece doesn't love her uncle and husband, but only her own brother.The reason is also very simple. Emperor Kotoku was over half a hundred years old at this time, and he was sick. He was an old couple and a young wife, and his life was not good.The eldest brother, the prince, is young and promising, and his original partner Su Wo committed suicide in anger because he got rid of his father-in-law, Su Wo Shichuan.The eldest brother, the prince, was newly widowed, and the younger sister came to comfort his elder brother. After comforting him, the two of them went to bed, and the old dramas of the Japanese royal family that were familiar to each other were staged between the brothers and sisters.

One is the young and handsome elder brother, and the other is the uncle who is about to become a bad old man. The middle-class princess can figure out which one she should love with her toes, so she left her uncle and husband without hesitation and ran away with her brother's lover.

When Emperor Kotoku saw that his wives had run away with others, he couldn't tell what he was suffering. He stayed alone in the palace all day long, sighing, and soon died.When he died, only his original mate, Prince Youjian, stood by his side.

Please let mom play tricks

When Emperor Kotoku died, it is reasonable that the eldest brother of the crown princes should succeed to the throne.But the eldest brother, the prince, likes his younger sister, the emperor's daughter, but the emperor's daughter is the old emperor's queen after all, and he can't make the former emperor's queen a queen after becoming the emperor.The eldest brother, the prince, also understands that what he has done will not be on the stage, and he is not willing to be the emperor at this time.what to do?I had no choice but to ask my mother to come out again to be the emperor.The old lady was already 62 years old at this time, so she could do whatever her son said, so she played a trick again and became the emperor.

Since the old lady is the emperor this time, she can no longer be called Emperor Huangji, but Emperor Qiming.There are a total of eight female emperors in Japanese history, but there are more than eight titles, because two of them were enthroned twice, each with two titles.

The mother of Prince Nakata took the throne again and became Emperor Qimei, and the most indignant one was Emperor Kotoku's son, Prince Arima.For Prince Youjian, the eldest brother, the prince, robbed his stepmother, angered his own father to death, and deprived himself of his inheritance rights. No matter how you think about it, he hates him day and night, but he suffers from his own strength. , had no choice but to stay away from the court and pretend to go to a local hot spring to recuperate.There was a prince who heard a lot of gossip in the local area, all dissatisfied with the government, and mistakenly thought that people were old-fashioned, and everyone was tired of the current court, so he made friends with heroes in the local area and prepared to rebel against the court.

Three years later, Prince Youjian returned to the imperial court, just in time for the right minister in the court to die of illness, and his position was in vain. In addition, Ezo (Here Ezo is the name of the place, which is today's Hokkaido) caused chaos, and the eldest brother, the prince, was busy. Dispatch troops to conquer Ezo.Prince Youjian felt that his chance had come.

One day, Brother Su Wochi came to visit.This Suga Chi brother is Suga Ishikawa's younger brother. After the Suga Ishikawa family died in vain, the Suga family lived in fear.Therefore, for brother Su Wochi, Prince Youjian did not set up defenses. He felt that anyone could be a spy, but only brother Su Wochi could not be a spy.In order to win over one more helper, Prince Youjian told brother Su Wochi exactly what he was thinking, and finally he yelled that it was time for an uprising.Then, Prince Youjian also made an appointment with Brother Su Wochi on the date of the uprising, planned the steps of the uprising, who to contact, how to attack the eldest brother, Prince Zhong, and so on.

It never occurred to him that brother Su Wochi was really a spy sent by the eldest brother, the prince, and he was hiding it very deeply.Brother Su Wochi is not only a spy sent by Prince Zhongda, but also the leader of the most trusted spy of Prince Zhongda. This time he went deep into the enemy's nest, and he really lived up to his mission, and found out the truth about Prince Youjian.

As a result, the prince Youjian was captured before launching the rebellion, and his party members were imprisoned one after another.Prince Youjian himself was a young man in his twenties, and was executed by the order of Prince Zhong.In this way, Emperor Kotoku's branch is considered extinct.

Get hotheaded and provoke Datang

When Prince Nakata was assisting the government, that is, when his mother was the emperor for the second time, the first war in history broke out between Japan and China.

This war was started on the Korean peninsula.Almost all the wars between China and Japan in ancient history, except Kublai Khan's conquest of Japan, were all caused by Korea.The two countries do not border each other, and it is impossible to fight if they want to.

At that time, there were three countries in the Korean Peninsula and Northeast my country, forming a tripartite confrontation, Baekje, Silla, and Goguryeo.Silla is the worst, always being bullied.Don't look at Silla's lack of strength, but he recognized the most powerful elder brother in the world at that time-Tang Chao.Silla had the closest relationship with the Tang Dynasty. During the period of Tang Gaozong, in order to vent his anger on his little brother, the Tang Dynasty used troops against Goguryeo and Baekje.Baekje was first destroyed by the coalition forces of the Tang Dynasty and Silla.After the coalition forces destroyed Baekje, the main force of the Tang army withdrew to the country, leaving more than 1 horses to guard the old place of Baekje.

However, Baekje was not really pacified. After the main force of the Tang army withdrew, the Baekje people seized the opportunity to restore the country.Baekje's old general Fukunobu Onimuro launched the Baekje Restoration War.The Baekje Restoration Army felt that its strength was too weak to compete with the Tang Dynasty and the Silla Allied Forces, so they sent envoys to Japan, hoping that Japan would send troops for reinforcements.

Japan and Baekje have long had diplomatic relations.Most of Japanese Buddhism and Confucianism were passed down from Baekje.At that time, there was a prince named Fu Yufeng in Baekje who was still a hostage in Japan.Onimuro Fukunobu offered more than 100 captured soldiers of the Tang army to Japan, and at the same time demanded that Prince Fengzhang of Baekje, who was a hostage in Japan, be taken back and proclaimed king, and asked Japan to send troops to help.

At that time, the eldest brother, the prince, was also hot-headed.He has a general named Abebirov who conquered the east and the north in Japan, and he was invincible and invincible, which made the eldest brother and the prince think that he was powerful enough to expand his territory abroad.In particular, the Japanese have always been obsessed with the Korean Peninsula since the legendary Empress Shengong, and now they see Baekje sending envoys to ask for help, which is exactly what they want.Japan went up and down, gearing up, ready to use force against the Tang Dynasty.

Onimuro Fukunobu was very happy when he learned that Japan sent reinforcements, and quickly launched a military operation, leading troops to besiege the city where the Tang Dynasty garrisoned.Tang Gaozong also sent general Liu Rengui to lead troops to reinforce.

For the expedition to Baekje, Japan sent four batches of reinforcements. The first batch consisted of 5000 people; Tons of cloth, 7000 pieces of cowhide (cowhide is used to make armor, which is equivalent to today's bulletproof vests), and 7000 dendrobium rice seeds; the number of the second batch of expeditionary forces has reached 1; The third batch sent an army of [-] people; the fourth batch also sent nearly [-] people.The generals leading these four batches of expeditionary forces are all old Japanese nobles, such as Soga, Monobe, Miwa, and Jibei, and many generals are inextricably linked to the Korean Peninsula. Traveled to the Korean Peninsula.

After the Dahua reform, the quality of Japan's military has also undergone earth-shaking changes.It turns out that Japan is a tribal society, the army is all private divisions, and there is no unified national army.After the Dahua reform, the centralization of power was strengthened, and the Ministry of War was established in the central government to uniformly dispatch the army.Therefore, Prince Zhong Daxie and Japan felt that this battle must be won.In order to boost morale and increase momentum, the eldest brother and the prince even invited his own mother and empress, Emperor Qi Ming, to march in person.Ships, big and small, mighty, and the witches prayed along the way, making it very lively.

After all, Emperor Qiming is a 68-year-old old lady, how can she stand the exhaustion of the journey?Coupled with the fear of war, he soon became ill and was dying, and died in the palace before reaching the place where the troops were dispatched.Before the battle was fought, the emperor was tossed to death first.

Once Emperor Qiming died, the country could not be without a king for a day, so the eldest brother and prince had no choice but to temporarily claim control, bit the bullet and continued to march. He ordered Abebirov to lead more than 3 Japanese soldiers to the Korean peninsula.

If you convince him, he will become good
At that time, there were less than 2 Tang troops on the Korean Peninsula, and the number of ships was much smaller than that of Japan.But not long after the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the great ancestor Li Yuan and the Taizong Li Shimin were both emperors on horseback.At that time, the famous generals of the older generation like Li Ji were still there, and the younger generation like Su Dingfang and Xue Rengui had grown up.

In contrast, the Japanese army is like a frog in a well, and they don't understand Datang's military power at all. Compared with Datang's combat effectiveness, it is like fireflies fighting the moon for glory.

In 663 AD, the Tang and Luo coalition forces launched a fierce attack on the capital of the Baekje Restoration Army.At the mouth of the Baijiang River, a large-scale naval battle broke out with the Japanese and Baekje allied forces.

Tang Jun Liu Rengui commanded 170 warships, and Japan had more than 1000 warships. From the perspective of the number of warships, Japan has an absolute advantage.However, most of the Japanese warships were small boats, and they were far inferior to the Tang army in terms of offensive performance, defensive capabilities, and weapons and equipment.Many of the warships of the Tang army were huge warships, equipped with various warships for different naval battle needs, and even warships specially used for fire attacks, equipped with firearms, called fireships.

Many Japanese warships attacking the Tang army is like a bunch of torpedo boats fighting a battleship, and a group of ants trying to deal with an elephant.But the Japanese fought wars, especially in modern times, with the spirit of ants eating elephants and toads swallowing dinosaurs.

As soon as the two sides fought, the Japanese fleet took the lead in launching a fierce attack on the Tang army.Liu Rengui ordered the defense. Tang Jun's warships were like iron walls, and the Japanese warships were no different from hitting a stone with an egg, and they shattered one after another.Tang Jun easily resolved the first round of Japanese attacks.

The Japanese launched a second round of suicide attacks, which is what they do best.Liu Rengui ordered the building ships to press the formation, and the fighting ships and walking ships were divided into two groups, occupying both sides of the river, and successfully formed a siege of the Japanese fleet, wrapping the Japanese fleet in dumplings.Seeing the successful completion of the encirclement strategy, Liu Rengui decisively ordered a counterattack.The warships of the Tang army were equipped with clapper poles, which were bamboo poles with large stones tied to them.Immediately, the Japanese battleship was shattered, and the soldiers on board jumped into the sea to escape one after another. Those who could not swim sank directly to the bottom, and those who could swim were shot to death by the soldiers of the Tang army.

The scene at that time did not look like a war at all, but a massacre.The soldiers of the Tang army probably felt like they were playing soy sauce, and they didn't feel the cruelty of war at all.According to the military plan formulated before the war, the remnants of the Japanese navy, who were preparing to launch the third attack, saw that the first two waves of attacks were like meat buns beating dogs. It's too miserable, the strength of the two warring parties is too far apart, 36 counts, it is the best policy to go, and they start to flee.

How could Liu Rengui, a famous general of his generation, be willing to miss such a good opportunity?Order the Tang army to drum up the sails and rush towards the Japanese fleet.First, the rockets were released, and then the Japanese warships were sunk one by one by catching up and swinging the pole.Due to the high density of Japanese warships, Tang Jun's rockets almost never missed their shots.

By the time the sun sets, the naval battle is over.Japan lost more than 400 warships, while the Tang Dynasty did not lose a single warship.This is the most famous naval battle at Baijiangkou in the history of the Sino-Japanese War.But in Chinese history books, regardless of whether it is "New Tang Book", "Old Tang Book" or "Zi Zhi Tong Jian", there is only one sentence to record this incident: "Meeting Japanese soldiers at Baijiangkou, winning all four battles, burning There are four hundred boats, the sky is scorching with smoke, and the sea is red." The history books are very simple, but the great victory of the Tang army is an indisputable fact.

After the defeat of the Japanese army, the remnants of Baekje's regime soon perished, and the dream of Baekje's restoration of the country was completely shattered.

After the Tang Dynasty defeated Japan, Liu Rengui, commander of the Tang army, sent envoys to Japan to return the prisoners, telling Japan that the Tang Dynasty would not take the initiative to attack Japan, and asked Japan not to take any action when the Tang army attacked Goguryeo.

After Japan suffered this beating, they also knew how many eyes Prince Ma had, so they dared to jump around and watch obediently as the Tang Dynasty wiped out Goguryeo.In order to express its sincere admiration for the Tang Dynasty, Japan also sent a mission to Chang'an to congratulate the great victory.

The Japanese are like this. If you convince him, he will become obedient and learn from you in all aspects.After the naval battle at Baijiangkou, Japan began to fall in love with the Tang Dynasty thoroughly, and batches of envoys sent to Tang Dynasty began to cross the sea to study in Chang'an.

(End of this chapter)