The first thousand two hundred and eighty-eight chapters
Fuso, Osaka.
Most of the entire area does not belong to the control area of a certain daimyo. Instead, it belongs to the control area of a very special force. This is Ishiyama Honganji Temple.
Yes, this place is under the control of a temple.
Moreover, this temple is different from traditional Chinese temples. The monks in this temple get married and have children, and the temple can be passed down as a family business. At the same time, in order to manage the large area of land and people controlled by the temple, this stone mountain
Honganji Temple also has various structures similar to political power, and it also has a large army.
Therefore, to a certain extent, Ishiyama Honganji is actually a daimyo, and its actual strength is no less than that of ordinary daimyo. Even if it is placed in the entire Gyeonggi area, it is considered a powerful daimyo, but
The name is just a little strange.
The temple directly controls more than 3,000 armed forces. In an emergency, it may be able to recruit more believers to fight. The most important thing is that the temple's direct armed forces are equipped with ordnance purchased from merchants of the Tang Dynasty.
Matchlocks, steel spears, swords, light plate armor, and shotguns were all imported from the Tang Dynasty. Even auxiliary supplies such as quilts and uniforms were imported from the Tang Dynasty.
It can be said that the temple's army of about three thousand people is a veritable Tang weapon army, and its equipment level has reached the top level in the Fuso Islands.
How to evaluate the equipment level of the famous armies on the Fuso Islands? There is no need to carefully identify them. Just look at how many Tang Dynasty weapons they are equipped with.
The reason why Ishiyama Honganji Temple was able to create an army of three thousand with pure Tang weapons was naturally inseparable from the deliberate support given by the Tang Dynasty.
In the early years, when the Tang Dynasty first started to get involved in the fuso trade, it traded with this temple, and supported Ishiyama Honganji to continuously repel the invasion of several surrounding daimyo, ensuring that Ishiyama Honganji had actual control over the surrounding areas of Osaka.
As the saying goes, repaying love in return. When the Tang Dynasty later proposed to set up a trading post in Osaka, Ishiyama Honganji generously sold a large area southeast of the seaport to the Tang Dynasty, and also adopted the method of exchanging ordnance for land.
The way.
At the same time, this kind of sale is not an ordinary sale, but the kind involving a formal contract. This kind of sale is a complete betrayal of sovereignty.
Therefore, legally speaking, this land truly belongs to the Tang Empire from now on. The Tang Empire can do whatever it wants here, and no one else can say any nonsense.
This land of tens of square kilometers was one of the several colonies that Datang acquired in the early days of the Fusang Islands. It was also the only colony that was acquired through peaceful means.
Although other colonies were obtained by purchasing or leasing, they were all unavoidable with the use of force. Some were conquered directly, while others were obtained through threats of force and intimidation.
Only the Osaka colony was truly acquired through friendly negotiation.
The reason for this situation is inseparable from the fact that the Tang Dynasty has continued to support Shishan Origin Temple for many years. In order to set a model of friendly cooperation on the Fuso Islands and encourage other daimyo to cooperate more, the Tang Dynasty has never treated the emperor badly.
temple.
However, when the empire adjusted its policy towards Fuso this year, it also adjusted its policy towards the temple accordingly.
Why adjust?
Because although the temple has been supported by the Tang Empire for many years, its military strength is considered very strong in the surrounding areas, but its aggressiveness is seriously insufficient.
To put it bluntly, he doesn’t like fighting and invading surrounding daimyo!
This is what the Tang Dynasty did not want to see. The Tang Dynasty sold weapons to the daimyo of Fuso, but it did not want to see them hoard all the weapons. Instead, it hoped that they would use them all and hope that they would start a war.
It is not in the interests of the Tang Dynasty that you only buy ordnance and maintain an army of three thousand people, but do not fight.
In addition, and more importantly, because of the proximity to the Tang Colony, the people of Ishiyama Honganji also broadened their horizons, and actually wanted to rely on the advantages of being close to the Tang Colony to develop their own industries, especially the national defense industry.
When Xia Wuyan saw the report that Ishiyama Honganji Temple had established an arms workshop with more than 300 employees and was capable of producing matchlock guns, he frowned.
Strictly controlling Fuso's industry, especially the development of the national defense industry, has always been a key task of the Fuso Affairs Office of the Tang Dynasty. When Datang landed in Osumi County, and then sent troops to various parts of Kyushu Island many times, a large part of the reason was to destroy Fuso.
Local defense work, including gun and shipbuilding, are the targets of their severe attacks.
The effect was also very significant. Since then, there has been no large-scale gun factory on Kyushu Island. As for Honshu Island, there was none in the first place, so there can be no talk of a strike.
Subsequently, the Tang Dynasty continued to sell ordnance on the Fuso Islands. Because of its low price and good performance, it was welcomed by the vast number of daimyo. However, due to the difficulty of self-made technology and the higher cost, it created a situation where it was better to buy it sooner.
Therefore, for many years to come, no large-scale defense industry was formed on the Fuso Islands.
However, now, Shishan Honganji Temple has developed such a small ordnance business under the nose of the Tang Dynasty. Naturally, Xia Wuyan cannot bear it.
He immediately took the report and met with the generals of the army and navy!
At this time, there were more than 15,000 Army troops stationed in the Fuso Islands area, including the Army's 1st Mixed Brigade, Osumi Garrison Regiment, Owa Garrison Regiment, Edo Garrison Regiment and various colonial garrison battalions.
The Navy has the Toyo Fleet in the Fuso area. In addition to the main fleet stationed in Osumi Prefecture, this fleet also has the Osaka Squadron stationed in Osaka, the Edo Squadron stationed in Edo, and several other colonial squadrons.
The above-mentioned fleets have a total of one cruiser of 800 tons, five frigates of 400 to 500 tons, 16 patrol ships of 150 to 200 tons, and the remaining 100 tons.
There are also many small battleships below.
Judging from the above-mentioned military strength, the Tang Empire has actually completed its military deployment in the Fusang area.
And now, Xia Wuyan is ready to request the military to dispatch!
What to do?
Naturally, I went to kill the arsenal of Ishiyama Honganji Temple!
Controlling the development of the national defense industry in the Fuso region is a strategic task, even if it means directly killing the Ishiyama Honganji Temple that has been cooperating with it for a long time.
Anyway, the Tang Empire supported the temple not because it had any special strategic value, but because they were smart and proactive in their early years. But now, they have developed a desire to develop independently. In addition, they have always been unwilling to fight, and
It’s all about accumulating strength.
This situation was something Xia Wuyan didn't want to see.
So after receiving the report, he simply went to see the generals of the army and navy, and then informed them of the relevant situation. In the name of the imperial envoy to "supervise the Fuso affairs", he formally requested the military to send troops to destroy this disobedient man.
, and also wants to develop a daimyo that accumulates strength.
In addition, Xia Wuyan also mentioned other reasons when requesting to send troops!
One of the reasons is that the existing Osaka colonial area is too small to meet the needs of development. At the same time, the geography of Osaka is very important. As long as the area is completely controlled, no matter whether the Miyoshi family in the west wants to move eastward,
, or Oda Nobunaga from the east wants to advance westward, both will be blocked by the Tang Empire.
As the situation in Fuso got further out of control, Oda Nobunaga successively regained several daimyo in the past few months, and the daimyo supported by the Tang Empire to fight against Oda Nobunaga were defeated one after another. It was difficult to completely defeat Oda Nobunaga.
When Nobunaga was strangulating the central region, Xia Wuyan believed that it was necessary to take action personally to prevent Oda Nobunaga from completely controlling the Gyeonggi region.
It was Xia Wuyan's strategic intention to completely control Osaka, prevent Oda Nobunaga from advancing westward, and prevent the Miyoshi family from annexing other daimyo, thereby dividing Honshu Island into two and avoiding unification.
After receiving Xia Wuyan's notification, the top army and navy officials stationed in Osumi County also started a consultation meeting!
There is no need to discuss whether to fight or not to fight, because Xia Wuyan has already used the name of the imperial envoy to request them to send troops. Although it is a request, the army and navy do not have a 100% reason. That is very difficult.
Rejected.
As the minister supervising Fusang affairs, Xia Wuyan is a serious imperial envoy. He has many powers to declare war, negotiate, sign contracts, etc. on Fusang affairs. In other words, Xia Wuyan is responsible for everything related to Fusang affairs.
have this power.
Of course, in the political environment of the separation of military and political affairs in the Tang Empire, even though Xia Wuyan had this power in name, he did not have the guts to directly order the army and navy to do something. If this was used, the army and navy would not listen or not.
It is estimated that if you turn around, you will be directly impeached, and then you will be finished first.
So, he used requests!
However, the Army and Navy will not refuse his request at this time!
A fight must be fought, otherwise if the situation in Fusang changes in the future, Xia Wuyan will not be able to file a complaint, saying that their military has not done anything, and their military generals will not have anything good to gain by then.
But how to fight is debatable!
At the high-level meeting of the army and navy in Osumi Prefecture, the generals expressed their opinions!
"The garrison in Osaka is a reserve division unit drawn from China. More than half of them are new recruits who have served for less than a year. Their combat effectiveness is worrying. It is not a big problem for them to defend the city, but it is not difficult to launch an attack directly.
Small!"
"Yes, and there are three thousand enemy troops at Ishiyama Honganji Temple. In addition, they have good relations with several nearby daimyo. We do not rule out the possibility of reinforcements. In the end, we may face more than five thousand people.
, it may even reach a coalition force of seven or eight thousand people, so it is probably very difficult to complete this task solely relying on the Osaka garrison."
"However, if we increase the number of troops, we cannot increase the number of troops too much. The situation on Kyushu Island has been unstable recently. We must leave enough troops in Osumi County to deal with any eventuality. Once there are changes in Kyushu Island, we must immediately
Send troops, so if we increase the number of troops in Osaka, we must control it to a certain extent."
"But we also have to consider that according to military intelligence, the army of Ishiyama Honganji Temple is better at defense, and because most of their soldiers are believers, they have a strong will to fight. In addition, they have secretly learned a lot of our tricks in recent years. If
We don’t have enough reinforcements, and I’m afraid the war will become a stalemate, which will not only increase casualties, but also cause unnecessary trouble!”
"As for the situation on Kyushu Island, there is no need to worry at all. Even if these Fuso people make trouble again, they are only limited to one Kyushu Island. With the navy here, are they still afraid that they will make a big difference!"
"So I suggest that we directly dispatch the First Mixed Brigade to take down Osaka with a thunderous force and intimidate the surrounding daimyo!"
"Whoever dares to disobey will be beaten until he does!"