On the ninth day of November, Li Zhi was resting at the Li family store in Hirado City, thinking about which Japanese city to attack next. Tian Lai Novel. | 2
In fact, although the Japanese country is small, it is a country with a strong military. If the shogunate recruits troops from all over Japan, he can pull out more than 200,000 troops. Although these troops lack cannons and other heavy weapons, they are equipped with a large number of
matchlock gun.
Japan has a long tradition of matchlocks, and is familiar with tactics such as three-stage firing and fixed gunpowder. It even has a complete set of equipment for firing on rainy days, called rain iron cannons.
Li Zhi only had 10,000 soldiers on board this time. If these 10,000 soldiers were surrounded and bombarded by tens of thousands of Japanese iron gunners, there might be a risk of defeat.
According to Zheng Kaida, there are 60,000 ashigaru soldiers stationed outside the capital of Japan, Edo, at least half of whom are iron gunners. If there is a war in Edo, the Tokugawa family can temporarily recruit vassal daimyo and band daimyo near the Kanto Plain.
Entering Edo to fight. In just ten days, the Tokugawa family could gather an army of 100,000 people in Edo.
Now that Li Zhi is bombarding Nagasaki, I am afraid that the Tokugawa shogunate has begun to recruit a large army to prepare for a decisive battle.
Li Zhi's 10,000 new recruits have now completed training and are ready to participate in the battle. Li Zhi has a total of 30,000 troops. However, Li Zhi still has to suppress the disaffected gentry in Shandong and leaves 10,000 people in Shandong and Tianjin.
The defensive strength. Li Zhi could mobilize only 20,000 troops to attack Japan.
But even if we immediately sail back to mobilize troops and send 20,000 troops to the Kanto Plain in batches, we are still not sure of victory. There are hundreds of thousands of Tokugawa troops gathered in Edo, and 20,000 troops may not be able to win.
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Li Zhi's advantage was mobility. Steamships could travel all over Japan in five days. Although Li Zhi could not storm Edo, he could bomb other Japanese cities. Li Zhi looked at the map of Japan and carefully considered where to go next.
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Li Zhi was thinking deeply when he saw Zheng Kaida running in.
"My lord, the Lord of the Satsuma Domain, Shimazu Mitsuhisa, wishes to see you."
Li Zhi was stunned for a moment, but he did not expect that Japanese princes would come to see him.
Who is this Shimazu Mitsuhisa? What are you doing here? Li Zhi looked at Zheng Kaida.
Zheng Kaida said: "Satsuma Domain is a prince in the southwest of Kyushu Island. It is considered a relatively large feudal town in Japan. This domain attaches great importance to military preparation. It is said that there are tens of thousands of lower-level samurai in the domain, that is, 'country warriors', and their combat effectiveness is very impressive. At that time,
Seeing that the Ryukyu Kingdom was weak, the Satsuma Domain sent troops to occupy Ryukyu."
"However, this domain has always been at odds with the Tokugawa shogunate, and has always been suppressed by the Tokugawa family."
Li Zhi thought for a while and said casually: "Let him come in."
After a while, a tall warrior in his thirties, wearing silk-feathered silk clothes and a Tsukiyo hairdo, walked into Li Zhi's hall.
As soon as he saw Li Zhi, Shimazu Mitsuhisa imitated the Chinese manner, bowed his head to the ground, and said something loudly in Japanese.
The translator next to him quickly said: "Shimazu Mitsuhisa is very lucky to be able to meet the Duke of Daimeito."
Li Zhi nodded, without letting the Japanese prince sit down, but asked: "Why did you come to me?"
Shimazu Mitsuhisa stood up straight and said: "I will bring you a piece of news for Your Excellency, the Duke, and provide you with a strategy to defeat the Tokugawa Shogunate."
Li Zhi smiled and looked at Tokugawa Mitsuhisa up and down. Upon closer inspection, Li Zhi discovered that there was no family emblem printed on the haori of Shimazu Mitsuhisa, which seemed to be to avoid being noticed. Japanese samurai with status have all their clothes printed on them.
It is printed with the family crest. Probably Shimazu Mitsuhisa entered Hirado secretly this time.
"Your Excellency Mitsuhisa Shimazu, do you really want to see the decline of the Tokugawa Shogunate?"
Shimazu Mitsuhisa said loudly: "Because the Shimazu family belonged to the Western Army in the Battle of Sekigahara, the Tokugawa family suppressed the Shimazu family everywhere. Last month, the Tokugawa shogunate, in order to prevent our Satsuma clan from becoming bigger, even our Satsuma clan was
The gold mountains opened in Nagano have been stopped. Not only that, the Tokugawa family arranges for the Satsuma Domain to serve as a major general every year, and will not stop until our finances are ruined. I, the Satsuma Domain, can't bear it anymore."
Within the Tokugawa shogunate system, the Tokugawa family often asked other princes to undertake the work of large-scale construction projects, which was called general work. This kind of work cost huge sums of money, and the Tokugawa family often left the feudal town responsible for general work without any money.
It would lead to financial bankruptcy. However, they were afraid of the power and military power of the Tokugawa family, so the feudal towns did not dare to resist this arrangement.
"The Satsuma Domain has been unable to make ends meet over the years and has incurred huge debts. If things continue like this, the Satsuma Domain will be in chaos."
Li Zhi nodded and said, "What news do you want to give me?"
Shimazu Mitsuhisa raised his body and said loudly: "I want to tell the Duke that even if the Duke does not attack Edo Castle, he can still severely defeat the Tokugawa family. Now there is a huge amount of rice stored in Osaka Castle."
Li Zhi was stunned and asked: "How much rice is there?"
Shimazu Mitsuhisa raised his head and said: "The Tokugawa family is hoarding grain in Osaka Castle. According to Ming Dynasty, there are at least two million koku of rice. However, there are only 10,000 soldiers stationed in Osaka Castle."
When Li Zhi heard this, he looked at each other with Zheng Kaida.
Two million shi of food is not a small number. Li Zhi only spent more than 2 million shi of food in Shandong to support the people of Shandong Province in autumn sowing and summer harvesting and the construction of water conservancy projects so that the people could have enough to eat while working.
Two million shi of grain were worth five million taels of silver, which was a huge sum of money.
Zheng Kaida thought for a while, nodded and said: "My lord, Osaka is the center of Japan's rice trade and is the direct territory of the Tokugawa family. It is indeed possible for the Tokugawa family to hoard grain in Osaka City."
Li Zhi thought for a while and asked: "What do you want to gain from coming to help me?"
Shimazu Mitsuhisa bowed his hands to Li Zhi and said: "The Satsuma clan is willing to send 10,000 troops to help the Duke defeat the Tokugawa family. The Satsuma warriors are strong and good at fighting and are famous in Japan. If the Lord is willing to reward the country with half a sun afterwards,
Give it to the Shimadzu family, and the Shimadzu family will be grateful."
It turns out that Shimazu Mitsuhisa came to seek refuge with Li Zhi. Not only did he provide information, he was also willing to send troops to help Li Zhi fight the war.
Li Zhi asked calmly: "I am from the Ming Dynasty. If you follow me to fight against the Tokugawa family, aren't you afraid that your soldiers will mutiny?"
Li Zhi is talking about the Japanese's rejection of foreign invaders.
In fact, the national consciousness of Japan's "Japanese" nation is very strong.
In 1637, Kyushu Christians raised a flag to rebel. The Tokugawa family simply requested Dutch warships to bombard the rebels, but they were criticized by all Japan, saying that the Tokugawa shogunate invited foreign aid to kill their own people. The Meiji Restoration in later generations was actually the same.
Because the Tokugawa shogunate was unable to resist the "black ship" invaders, Japan's national pride was stimulated, causing all Japan to stand up angrily to overthrow the shogunate. The reason for overthrowing the shogunate at that time was that the Tokugawa shogunate was unable to protect Japan.
In fact, Japan did not originally belong to the "He" nation. Japan was originally owned by the aboriginal "Ainu" people. The Japanese "He" nation emerged from central Japan, slaughtered all the Ainu people, and drove them to Hokkaido.
, became the master of Japan. In this national war that lasted for thousands of years, the Japanese and the nation formed a clear sense of national recognition.
If the Satsuma clan helps Li Zhi, a Ming Dynasty man, to attack the Tokugawa family, it will obviously encounter great resistance in Japan.
Tokugawa Mitsuhisa raised his hand and said: "The Satsuma clan will not openly act under the command of the Duke. But as long as the Duke takes Osaka, the Shimadzu family will raise the flag of rebellion in the name of the weakness of the Tokugawa shogunate and contact the daimyo from various places to overthrow Tokugawa.
