The Great Bandit in Kangxi Year

Chapter 216 Naked Provocation
Jiang Tao recalled Wang Fuzhi from the local government and ordered him to be an imperial envoy to supervise the construction of local schools. At the same time, he released civilian guards to supervise the construction of local schools. This was a good opportunity to make money, and Jiang Tao dared not be careless.

Only then did he withdraw and began to pay attention to state affairs and strive to unify the country.

It is now June 1676, and 6 sharpshooter divisions have been assembled in China. The third sharpshooter division and the fourth marine division have also been equipped. Only the cavalry unit is progressing slowly.

After the disarmament, all the elite remained. Years of rigorous training made their combat effectiveness even better than before.

There are only [-] tiger and leopard cavalry, [-] spear cavalry, and [-] light cavalry. The main reason is that qualified cavalry cannot be created in a short time, and there are no good horse ranches in the country. Buying alone cannot maintain a large cavalry force. After all, war horses also have a lifespan.

Jiang Tao wanted to set his sights on Mongolia and the Qing Dynasty, where there are excellent horse ranches, but now that Kangxi is competing with Russia, once the empire intervenes, Kangxi and the Mongolian ministries will definitely be ruined, and it will be cheaper for the Russian Empire.

According to his memory, Russia at this time was the Romanov Dynasty, the serf system was still prevailing, and its strength was still a little immature, until Peter I sent a mission to Western Europe in 1697, and he himself also visited with the mission under a pseudonym. Implemented a series of reforms, known as Peter I's reforms in history, which improved Russia's strength in politics, military, economy, science and culture.

But even so, Jiang Tao is unwilling to face a large country with a vast territory and a population of more than 2000 million so early. After all, such a country has a lot of heritage, and the domestic climate is very cold, and logistics supplies are the biggest problem.

According to his preliminary calculations, defeating such an empire would cost at least hundreds of millions of silver dollars, not to mention colonization, and a long-term war would greatly consume the strength of the country.

Since Kangxi is willing to fight Russia to the death, Jiang Tao can only smile secretly. Although the Manchu Qing is still the number one enemy of the empire, but for the benefit of the country, he will not act with loyalty, and he will not be soft when it is time to act.

He had no choice but to look at Yunnan, Guizhou and other places, and ordered Wei Donglai to take seven sharpshooters to the Southwest Military Region, and unite the three sharpshooters and the third sharpshooter division of the Southwest Military Region to attack the two provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou.

These ten sharpshooters and the third sharpshooter division were named by Jiang Tao as the Mie Zhou Army. Among them, Wei Donglai was the chief general, Wang Dashan was the deputy general, Jiang Wudao, Yao Jun, Luo Feng and others were the generals.

The previous generals Zhenbei and Zhengbei were all changed to generals, only one level below the generals and one level higher than the generals. Only veterans in the army are qualified to be called generals. Now the imperial army and navy are only more than ten General, but the main generals of the four major military regions are all generals, including local defense and police forces, and all military power belongs to Jiang Tao.

As for the appointment of the cabinet minister as the chief general to destroy Zhou, it was mainly because Jiang Tao trusted Wei Donglai's ability. I'm afraid this was the last time he commanded a battle. After all, the cabinet was not allowed to intervene in the military, and soldiers were not allowed to participate in politics.

The reason why so many elites were dispatched to deal with Wu Shifan was mainly because Wu Shifan not only insulted the envoys sent by Jiang Tao to surrender, but also made hundreds of thousands of troops capture Awa, the capital of Burma, occupying more than half of Burma, and the Ayutthaya Kingdom also gathered The soldiers attacked Burma, and Burma ignored the other, and obviously couldn't hold on for long.

The Ayutthaya Kingdom is also the Ayutthaya Dynasty that ruled Siam. They have fought against Burma for hundreds of years. Seeing an opportunity at this time, how could they not be tempted?
What Jiang Tao was most worried about was that Wu Shifan would occupy Burma and continue to fight against the empire. If the western powers supported him, it would cause great trouble, so he first gathered troops to attack Yunnan and Guizhou, lest Wu Shifan occupy Burma and use Burma's power to deal with the empire.

However, Wu Shifan's ability to capture more than half of Myanmar was indeed beyond Jiang Tao's expectations. However, there are indeed many good things in Myanmar. Outside, only naked ambition and possessiveness remain.

Among them, the jade and gemstones rich in Myanmar enjoy a high reputation in the world, and the other is teak, which is tough and corrosion-resistant. It was the best shipbuilding material in the world before humans used steel to build ships.Myanmar is rich in forest resources. The country has 3412 million hectares of forest land, with a coverage rate of about 50%. It is the country with the largest teak production in the world.

Jiang Tao almost salivated at the thought of this. He was planning to hunt down Wu Shifan all the way with the sharpshooter, and reap the benefits by the way. At that time, he would bring Myanmar under the control of the empire and make him a real vassal state, enough to pay poll tax. He doesn't believe that China can't do what Britain can do.

While a large amount of combat materials were being transported to the Yunnan-Guizhou border, the Black Dragon Fleet was also gathering to deal with the navy of the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan.

Jiang Tao also sent envoys to severely reprimand Japan's harassment of the Ming Dynasty's coast over the years and its aggression against the Ming Dynasty's vassal state North Korea. It will become a Ming Dynasty's vassal state within one month, open more than ten coastal cities such as Nagasaki, and allow the empire to operate in its territory. Moreover, Japan cannot own a navy, nor can its army exceed [-], and pay a poll tax according to the number of Japanese nationals, five silver dollars per person per year.

This is a naked provocation. Although what is brought up is old and old, it is indeed a crime made by Japanese pirates, not pure slander. Jiang Tao is a good bandit who tells the truth.

Influenced by Confucianism, Li Qi was just an unsatisfactory scholar, but he did not expect to be appointed as a special envoy by Jiang Tao. According to Jiang Tao's instructions, he came to Edo Castle arrogantly and directly raised the request of the Ming Empire. Tokugawa, who was sick in bed, The third generation general of the shogunate Tokugawa Ietsuna almost vomited blood and died when he heard this. The elders Sakai Tadakiyo and Horita Masatoshi were all pale. Although Japan is now closed to the outside world, Ming defeated Qing and the country is powerful. How could they not know?

But if these conditions are agreed, Japan will be finished. If nothing else is discussed, just talk about the poll tax. Today, Japan has a population of about 800 million. That is to say, it is absolutely impossible to pay 4000 million silver dollars a year.

The reason why Japan closed the country is to stop the outflow of silver and open the port again, and there will be riots in the country again.

Because the third-generation general of the Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa Ietsuna, was weak and sick, causing the elder Sakai Tadakiyaki to be autocratic. Before Tokugawa Iezuna could speak, Sakai Tadakiyo rejected Li Yan on the spot and threatened: "Baga, it's pure slander. That's all ronin self-assessment. As for the invasion of Korea, it has nothing to do with the Tokugawa shogunate. Go back and tell the Emperor Ming that the emperor will not allow such a naked provocation. The hundreds of thousands of warriors under the Tokugawa shogunate will not submit. Let's use war to judge, but you can't leave for the time being, and you can leave after 20 days."

"Come here, take the special envoy of Shangguo down and treat him well." Tadaki Sakai said with a sneer at this point.

When the special envoy Li Yan was put under house arrest, Tadaki Sakai sighed and said very respectfully: "My lord, the people from the kingdom of heaven are not kind. They want to destroy our country. My lord general has a clever plan."

Tokugawa Ietsuna coughed violently for a while, and said to himself: "Why don't I let the general rule normally, hmph!"

Thinking of this, he said weakly: "Boss can figure it out, this general is going to rest."

After speaking, he left with the help of the maid.

Sakai Zhongqing was furious immediately, glanced at everyone, and said coldly: "Do you have a clever plan?"

"My lord, the Celestial Empire has never sent us troops in 2000 years. Even in the last Korean War, the Ming Dynasty did not send us an expedition. This time, we must not act without authorization. We should invite special envoys to discuss it." Yoshiyuki Shimadzu As the commander of the navy, he had no choice but to speak at this time, so he sighed softly.

"Bastard, Daming is being bullied to the head, we have to fight, otherwise you will pay tens of millions of taels a year." Zhongqing Sakai roared like thunder.

"But Daming's navy is extremely powerful. It just defeated the North Korean turtle fleet. Our navy is not an opponent at all." Shimadzu Yoshiyuki said helplessly with a bitter face. He clearly knew the strength of the Japanese navy. There are more than 100 warships, but most of them are small boats of more than [-] tons. Although there are cannons on them, they are all small cannons. There is only one dead end.

"Baga, what a coward. This is a battle for the survival of Japan. We must carry forward the spirit of the Yamato samurai. It is better to be broken than to be destroyed. All sailors must be assembled immediately, and merchant ships that are not in use must also go to battle. There are too many ants and they will kill elephants. What if If you don't dare to fight, then please make a harakiri apology." Tadaki Sakai stared and shouted sharply.

"Hey, get ready now!" Shimadzu Yoshiyumi left with a sad face. If he wanted to save his life and the family's territory, he had to fight.

……

Sakai Tadaki looked at Shimadzu Yoshiyuki in a daze for a moment, then shouted coldly: "Immediately send an order to all the feudal lords and daimyos in the territory to tell all the people about today's events, saying that Ming Dynasty wants to destroy Japan, and all the subjects are unanimous to the outside world. To prepare the army, every household must be prepared to maintain the dignity of our Yamato nation at any time. We are not a weak North Korea. Although our navy is slightly weaker, we have hundreds of thousands of warriors in Japan, and the people along the coast are all Take precautions and be careful of the opponent's shelling of coastal areas."

"Immediately vigorously build warships. This is a life-and-death battle for our Yamato nation. There is still a month of preparation time, please."

"Hi!"

All the ministers of the shogunate have a steelyard in their hearts. The conditions are so harsh that there is no intention of peace talks at all, and there is only a death battle.

During this month, the shogunate dispatched troops, gathered 20 troops in Edo, and recruited another 40 strong. The Japanese army suddenly became 80, vowing to beat the Ming army on land.

However, Jiang Tao had no intention of peace talks. While sending envoys to the Tokugawa shogunate, he first ordered the 4th Marine Division to occupy Ezo Island, and then ordered the Black Dragon Fleet to bombard Nagasaki and other port cities, and waited for an opportunity to annihilate the Japanese navy. The most effective way to deal with an island country is to defeat the opponent's navy first. Without a navy, the soldiers and civilians on the island country will not even have a place to escape.

As soon as the 4th Marine Division landed on Ezo Island, it began to clean up the Japanese on the island. At this time, there were not many Japanese settled on Ezo Island, only tens of thousands of people. In just seven days, most of them were cleared, and the rest All fled into the mountains.

Unexpectedly, within a few days, a large number of Ainu people came to surrender with the heads of the escaped Japanese. At this time, the admiral in charge of occupying Ainu was Liu Guoxuan. He first gave some knives, porcelain and other small gifts to the leaders of the tribes He said sternly: "This place is already under the jurisdiction of the Ming Empire. From then on, the Japanese will be prevented from entering, and those who enter will be killed."

The Ainu people were bullied by the Japanese. They saw that the marines were like heavenly soldiers and generals, but they killed thousands of Japanese with iron cannons in a few days. They all knelt on the ground to express their submission. As I said before, and these heavenly soldiers and generals are not as arrogant and unreasonable as the Japanese, and they even gave us gifts. They are really kind people.

Only then did Liu Guoxuan feel relieved, the prince had told him before his departure that if the Ainu people did not make trouble, he would let them go, and if they were disobedient, he would support the largest tribe among them and let them kill each other.

Liu Guoxuan suddenly remembered, what kind of boundary markers does the prince need to count, and what kind of sovereignty does he want to claim? Although he thought it was unnecessary, he still asked the soldiers to lift dozens of bluestone boundary markers from the warships and place them all over Ezo Island.

After communicating with the heads of Ezo, Liu Guoxuan learned that there are dozens of large and small tribes on Ezo Island. The three largest tribes have more than 3 people, and the rest of the tribes have only thousands or thousands of people. The total population But hundreds of thousands.

And the three largest tribes didn't come this time, obviously they didn't pay attention to the empire, Liu Guoxuan sneered, it seems that the military expenses of the Marine Corps have been settled.

Before the cabinet sent the governor of Yezo Island, Liu Guoxuan was the biggest official of Yezo Island. He did it when he thought of it. He sold some iron guns with wooden handles that were not used by the empire to these tribes, and promised benefits. A coalition force of 4 people attacked the three most powerful tribes on Ezo Island, while the Marine Corps supervised the battle and helped at critical moments.

However, in a few days, some small tribes that did not take the initiative to show their favor were all wiped out by the coalition forces, and the three major tribes on Ezo Island also reacted to the news, gathered all the young and strong, and won a total of 3 warriors. Zone Armageddon.

Immediately tens of thousands of people fought fiercely together.

Most of them hold cold weapons, and have no formation, they just carry out primitive fighting.

A small number of people have iron cannons. This iron cannon is not a cannon, but a Japanese matchlock gun, but the caliber is slightly larger and the power is slightly stronger than the bird gun.

The soldiers of the 4th Marine Division were watching the battle. Liu Guoxuan shook his head and directly fired more than a hundred cannons under his command.

dong dong dong...

A round of volley plowed dozens of bloodstains on the rear half of the soldiers and horses of the three tribes. More than [-] people died on the spot. After the great defeat, the Allied Forces of Xizou followed and chased them until they killed all the men from the three major tribes and several small tribes that were taller than the height of the wheel. was taken by the Marine Corps.

The coalition forces have seen the might of the Marine Corps, so how dare they say more.

In just half a month, the total number of Ainu people dropped to half, leaving only a hundred thousand people, and the whole island was wiped out by the crazy coalition forces.

Only then was Liu Guoxuan satisfied. The population of the remaining Ainu people was greatly reduced, which is definitely beneficial to the occupation of the empire. He didn't want Jiang Tao to learn about this, but reprimanded him: "The captives are all killed, who will do the work?"Labor is also money!

(End of this chapter)