"Your Majesty, now our troops have been assembled in North Korea, and all kinds of materials are also being transported by sea to Busan, North Korea. It's just..."

"Just what?"

On March 1, 1609, there was a State Council meeting in Beijing. The theme of this meeting was naturally to discuss how to conduct the next step of the war: landing on the Japanese mainland. But as soon as the meeting began, Wang Xiangqian, the Minister of War, raised a difficult problem.

"Your Majesty, currently we include the more than 80,000 Japanese surrendered troops and the 59,000 allied forces that have entered North Korea from the north bank of the Yalu River. There are a total of more than 24,700 soldiers in North Korea. In addition, the logistics auxiliary personnel will be with the army for a long time. Counting the civilians and craftsmen, there were more than 300,000 people. Although those who surrendered, such as Date and Uesugi, handed over 300,000 koku of grain. However, this amount of food was only enough for the above people to consume for two or three months... Of course, the imperial court last year The tax payment situation of various types is very good, and there is still no shortage of food. What I want to say is that if the Japanese pirates want to land in the homeland, they must not only send the 300,000 people there, but also ensure enough food. At present, we have recruited There are more than 3,000 civilian ships, and the transportation capacity is not enough."

"That's it..." After Zhu Youdong listened to Wang Xiangqian's words, he turned to look at Cao Sanxi.

Cao Sanxi stood up immediately: "Your Majesty, don't worry, I will immediately mobilize civilian ships from the south to go north. The relevant recruitment expenses will be paid from the war fund. However, because the Strait of Malacca has been opened, most of the merchants in the south are eager to do business in Nanyang. Therefore, I It is necessary to recruit southern civilian ships, a 700-ton Dafu ship, and the monthly rental fee will reach more than 200 yuan. This cannot last too long, otherwise not only the rental fee will rise sharply, but it is expected that in the first year of Tianqi, the Central and South Five The commercial taxes received by the state will also drop sharply. Between entry and exit, I am afraid that more than 5 million yuan will be lost in this alone."

When Cao Sanxi said this, Xu Honggang, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, who was still pretending to be dead with his eyes closed at the meeting, opened his eyes all of a sudden, and then stared at Wang Xiangqian with an unkind expression.

"Hmph~!" He snorted with disdain for the miser, and Wang Xiangqian stood up: "Your Majesty, as long as the Ministry of War has enough transportation capacity, the landing plan is ready. After the civilian ship Governor Cao from the south is deployed, we can spend at most half a Months will be spent on training and organizing the newly arrived civilian ships, and then they can choose a date to cross the sea in large quantities. Because the specific date and location of the landing involve top military secrets, I will not talk about it here at the State Council. Later in the war room Report separately.”

"Okay, I understand." Knocking on the table, Zhu Youdong said loudly: "My lords, since the Japanese pirates and Siam started an undeclared war against me, the Ming Dynasty, in the 44th year of Wanli, this war has lasted for three years. Three Over the years, thanks to the perseverance of the people and the bravery of the soldiers, our country has slowly and completely reversed the situation of this battle from passive defense. However, although our Ming Dynasty is now confident of victory, you must remember that the so-called journey of a hundred miles is half ninety. , this final battle against the Japanese landing is the most critical battle. I also ask all the ministers to cooperate sincerely to bring the three years of war to a successful conclusion."

"I sincerely follow the emperor's will. With great power, I will surely come to Yingzhou."

…

When Zhu Youdong was preparing to give Japan the final blow, what was Tokugawa Yoshinao doing?

Busy killing people.

In the Battle of Korea in late February, the Ming army only annihilated the main force of Japan in Korea. There were small groups of garrison troops in some places outside the three cities of Ping, Kai, and Han, as well as ninjas scattered around to collect intelligence.

It was impossible for the army to wipe out all of them within six days. Therefore, of course, among these people, some slipped through the net and fled back to Japan. Families such as Date and Uesugi betrayed the Tokugawa shogunate and expressed their surrender to Toyotomi Tohide

The news naturally spread back to Japan.

After receiving such news, Tokugawa Yoshinao had to take action whether he wanted to or not: although large families such as Date, Uesugi, Mori, and Maeda, in recent years, all major relatives in their territories have been removed.

The family members and the core samurai group were all brought to North Korea. However, the branches and concubines left in the mainland must be killed now. Otherwise, the prestige of the entire shogunate will be completely destroyed.

Therefore, starting from March 1619, the Tokugawa family sent several new armies to the old territories of the above-mentioned daimyo, and launched massacres against the families of these families in various places.

This kind of thing will undoubtedly arouse the resentment of all foreign daimyo and local wealthy families, but it must be done. Overall, it is really more uncomfortable than eating a fly.

Speaking of eating flies, Tokugawa Yoshitsune was fed by Zhu Youdong more than one fly. At the end of January, the Korean royal family was sent to the bottom of the river in the Liaohe River. The news was spread back to Japan, and faced with the trembling many famous names, common people, and De

Kawa Yoshinao also had to "admit" that he sent this team of ninjas himself, and expressed his gratitude to Hattori Hanzo and others for their "fruitful" work achievements, which increased the territory of the Hattori family...

In fact, since the decisive battle in the East China Sea in February last year, Tokugawa Yoshinao knew that the situation for Japan was over: an island country had lost control of the sea, what else could it want to do? The only option was to let the shrine maidens dance hard to see if Amaterasu could return again

A divine wind blew up and blew all the Ming fleet to the bottom of the sea.

Of course, as the saying goes, no one is willing to give up his life until the last moment. Therefore, you still have to struggle when you should.

Also on March 1st, Edo Castle, the shogun's residence.

The hall is crowded with people. If you look carefully at the family crests on the clothes of these people, anyone who has a little knowledge of the situation in Japan at this time will be surprised to find: Why are they all a group of Tokugawa, Matsudaira, Honda, Sakai, Ii, and Sakakibara?

, Yagyu...the other family crests are completely invisible?

Yes, up to now, although Japan's foreign vassals all have different thoughts. But under such a situation, the close vassals of the Tokugawa family and the family members throughout the generations have united more closely - if the shogunate

After the collapse, the outside daimyo would at best reduce their fiefdoms, and if not done well, they would use their own methods to block it or even add gifts. But the Tokugawa clan will definitely die without a burial place!

Therefore, Tokugawa Yoshinao can fully trust this group of people here.

"Welcome to His Highness."

After taking the main seat, Tokugawa Yoshinao was not polite and went straight to the point: "Everyone, I won't say more. Now the war is unfavorable and the country is in crisis. If the Ming Dynasty cannot be repulsed in the upcoming invasion,

, the shogunate no longer exists. Therefore, today’s meeting is to determine how to deal with the Ming Dynasty’s invasion!”

In fact, if you really want to talk about it, the defeat of North Korea is acceptable to Tokugawa Yoshinao: although there are 15,000 new troops and nearly 10,000 ashigaru under the command of the feudal lord, but from another perspective, nearly ten

The unrest of tens of thousands of people was thrown out - the powerful armies under the daimyo's command abroad, and the domestic ronin who lost their territory due to the establishment of the Tokugawa shogunate. At this time, they were all in Korea, not at home. This is

This will reduce the possibility of being stabbed in the back during future landing interceptions.

It's just that guys like Date and Uesugi were so shameless that they surrendered without even fighting a battle. In this way, the power of the foreign daimyo was not weakened, and it seems that not many Ming soldiers died in battle. This is indeed a bit regretful.

But it doesn’t matter, Japan is not a weakling like Siam who is surrounded by Ming vassal states. Moreover, the shogunate’s control over the country at this time is unprecedentedly high. As long as Ming dares to land, he will definitely let that person
Chapter completed!