In fact, the so-called calm is only because there is a larger vortex hidden behind it.

For today's world, whether it is the battle against the Satsuma Domain or the possible battle for Burma in the southwest, it is just a small dessert before the big dish, and almost everyone's eyes are fixed on the Northern Expedition.

The large-scale conscription that began a year ago, to the situation of mines, arsenals and even military uniform factories working overtime day and night, are telling everyone one thing, the long-awaited Northern Expedition is coming!

This will be the biggest battle for Ning Chu to dominate the world, and it will also be a great battle for the Manchu Qing Dynasty to fight to the death, except for the previous decisive battle under the city of Anqing, there is no other battle that can be compared.

In the first battle of Anqing City, Ning Yu, who was only the Duke of Hanyang at the time, led tens of thousands of troops and completely defeated Kangxi's 200,000 horses, and even indirectly became a major reason for Kangxi's death.

If you talk about historical significance, it will be in the newly promulgated textbook of Ning Chu, which can write several pages of super war events, and it is also a great victory that everyone in Ning Chu will praise!

Therefore, the Battle of the Northern Expedition has now become another decisive battle after the Battle of Anqing, but compared with that time, the offensive and defensive trends are different, and it is the turn of the Manchus to fear complete destruction.

The entire nascent Ningchu regime began to operate like an extremely large chariot, and everyone up and down was like screws, adding fuel and ammunition to this chariot, preparing to complete the final blow against the Manchus.

In this context, all the other wars naturally became a foil, and even Deng Ziyi, who personally led the war against the Satsuma Domain, thought that he could participate in the Northern Expedition as soon as possible.

It was in this slightly cold atmosphere that Shimazu Munobu came to Nanjing City and truly became a future daimyo who lived here.

In the Fengtian Palace, when Ning Chu listened to Deng Ziyi's series of war reports, he looked at Shimazu Zongxin again, and said softly: "You have arranged accommodation and care for Shimazu Zongxin, and the treatment is according to the courtesy of the marquis." ”

The so-called marquis's gift, in fact, is the treatment that the marquis can enjoy when he retires, not high nor low, with his own personal caretaker, can live in the small courtyard of the second entrance, and there is also the protection of a security officer, as for the relevant allowance that can be received every year, it is about 100 silver dollars.

It's not that Ning Yu doesn't understand the importance of Shimazu Sonobu, it's just that at Shimazu Sonobu's current age, he can't say anything, and in the future, it will depend more on the relevant departments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education to implement Sinicization education for him, so that he will become an excellent chess piece for Ning Chu to interfere with Japan in the future.

As for after subduing the Shimazu Domain, Ning Chu's real biggest gain at the moment is actually Ryukyu itself.

How important is Ryukyu? It is not because of how rich its resources are, nor whether it is a vassal state of Ning Chu, but because of its strategic location, it is like a sharp knife stuck in the East China Sea, and it is the key place for Ning Chu to control the entire situation in the East China Sea and even the Pacific Ocean in the future.

In such a place, Ning Yu would never let go, he could not watch the Ryukyus gradually slide into the hands of other countries, even if he started a war, he would regain it under his control.

In fact, China's understanding of Ryukyu is very early, as early as in the Book of Sui, there is a relevant description in the "Legend of Ryukyu", "Ryukyu country, living on the island, when the east of Jian'an County, the water can be reached in five days." This record fully illustrates how long China has known about the Ryukyus.

In addition, according to the first national history written in Chinese after the Ryukyu state, "Zhongshan Shijian", the scene described in the Sui book was also recorded, "Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty ordered Zhu Kuan, the captain of the Yu cavalry, to visit the foreign customs, and began to reach the boundary of the country." Looking at it from afar, the pan swirls and stretches, if it floats in the water, so it is also named Liuqiu. ”

Therefore, since the successive dynasties, the Emperor of the Central Plains has been very concerned about Ryukyu, such as in the Tang and Song dynasties, Ryukyu and China have already started trade, and in the Yuan Chengzong period, he even sent envoys to appease Liu. Later, after the Ryukyus split into three independent kingdoms, Beishan, Zhongshan and Nanshan, the Ming court also sent Yang Zai, a minister, to envoy the three kingdoms of Ryukyu and canonize the kings of the three kingdoms respectively, making them truly vassal states of the Ming Dynasty.

When the Zhongshan Kingdom eliminated the Beishan and Nanshan Kingdoms and completed the unification of the Ryukyus, the king of the Zhongshan Kingdom was canonized as the king of the Ryukyus by the Ming court, and the name "Ryukyu" was officially decided.

During the founding of the Ryukyus, it also received many times of help from the Ming court, and successive Ryukyu kings had to accept the canonization and recognition of the Ming Dynasty, and used the Chinese era name and calendar, and even its official documents, diplomatic treaties, official histories, etc., were written in Chinese, and the degree of sinicization was not inferior to that of the Central Plains.

It was not until the 37th year of Wanli (1609) that the Shimazu clan conquered the Ryukyus, which completely ended the history of Ryukyu's independence, and then became a vassal state of the Shimazu clan, which sent grain and other goods to the Satsuma clan every year. In addition to this, it was necessary to continue to pay tribute to China, thus forming a situation of "two genera".

It was not until today that the Ryukyus were completely liberated from the hands of the Shimazu clan, and the history of the fall of more than 116 years has also made the current king of the Ryukyus, Shang Jing, cry for it, and he couldn't help himself when he talked about the past of being imprisoned, and almost fainted in front of Ning Chu's ministers.

Speaking of which, the current Ryukyu King Shangjing is only twenty-five years old, several years older than Ning Yu, but his personality is extremely weak, and while kneeling on the ground, he begged Ning Chu to completely send troops to destroy the Satsuma Domain.

"Your Majesty, the Satsuma Domain invaded Ryukyu for more than a hundred years, and in the past hundred years, my Ryukyu monarchs and people have all been in deep pain, and they hate to die with the thieves. If so, the whole of Ryukyu will belong to His Majesty, and he will willingly. ”

Good guy, Ning Yu hasn't met anyone who dares to draw a big pie for himself for a long time...... However, it is not easy to say whether Shang Jing's words are true or not, maybe it may be true, but for Ning Yu, he can't really kill the Shimazu family and the Satsuma clan at the moment.

The reason is very simple, the shogunate and other Japanese daimyo can sit back and watch the Shimazu family be defeated, and they can also sit back and watch the Ryukyus return to the arms of Ningchu, but they will never sit idly by and watch the Satsuma Domain and the Shimazu family be destroyed by Ningchu, if Ningchu does this, it will only force the whole of Japan to resist Ningchu, which is not in the interests of Ningchu at present.

"Shang Jing, I can understand the pain in your heart, but the soldier is a big deal, how can I say it lightly?"

Ning Yu stepped down from the throne, but he personally helped Shang Jing, who was kneeling on the ground, and sighed slightly: "In the future, Ryukyu will be placed under our vassals, and no one will be able to occupy it again, and you should be able to rest easy!" ”

Ryukyu King Shangjing is not a stupid person, of course he understands what Ning Yu meant by saying this, but he didn't dare to anger Ning Yu, so he only said at the moment: "Since Your Majesty said so, the minister will be relieved." ”

Ning Yu smiled and nodded, "Although the war is over this time, the Ryukyus themselves still need to be cleaned up, otherwise the Ryukyu King will be a little uneasy when he returns to China...... In this way, the king of the Ryukyus will stay in Nanjing for the time being, see the customs of Nanjing, and feel the prosperous beauty of the Celestial Empire, as for the Ryukyus......."

Speaking of this, Ning Yu paused, and Shang Jing also replied with great interest: "Everything is up to Your Majesty!" ”

"Hmm...... In that case, I will be more and more obedient. ”

Ning Yu nodded with satisfaction, and was not polite at all at the meeting, and said softly: "The official system of the Ryukyus can be modeled after the official system of our Celestial Empire, but this cabinet is exempted, which is not conducive to acting, it is better to set up the Governor's Office to quell the chaos and govern the people, and the governor sent by the Celestial Empire will manage the overall situation, first, it can better control the chaos in the Ryukyus, and secondly, it can also get the strong support of the Celestial Empire." ”

The Ryukyu King Shang Jing hesitated slightly, of course he understood that once he had this governor's palace, he was afraid that he would completely become the king of the Ryukyus with no name and power, and the scene was similar to that in the Satsuma Domain...... This is really the rhythm of just getting out of the wolf's den and entering the tiger's den.

It's just that this can't be forbade by the King of the Ryukyus, so he had to sigh low and say softly: "Since Your Majesty has taken the overall situation into account, the minister naturally will not have other opinions, everything is just what Your Majesty wants." ”

"The king of the Ryukyus is quite knowledgeable, and the great Chu will naturally not be treated badly, and the decree is that the king of the Ryukyus can be compared to the prince's etiquette system, and there should be no shortage of treatment, so as to ensure the needs of the king of the Ryukyus in Nanjing."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

At this time, the Ryukyu King Shangjing was really completely dead, and he no longer thought about those who did not have it, and the days of being a prince in Nanjing were much better than being an unworthy prince in the Satsuma Domain.

In April of the third year of the reform, Ningchu and Satsuma Clan signed a formal armistice agreement in Nanjing, and Satsuma Clan expressed its unconditional surrender, compensated Ningchu with 3 million taels of silver, and 2 million taels of Ryukyu silver, divided into 20 years, and opened Kagoshima as a treaty port, allowing Chinese to go to Satsuma Clan for investment, settlement, employment, etc.

As a supplement to this armistice, Ningchu also specifically limited the Satsuma Domain's military strength, that is, the size of the Satsuma Domain's standing army was limited to one battalion of 500 men, and all the defense of the country would be placed under the authority of the Chusar Cooperative Military Council, which would be protected by Ningchu's army. In order to ensure the combat level of the feudal soldiers, Ning Chu will send military attachés stationed in Sasa to conduct training.

It can be said that this agreement was all kinds of demands from Ninchu to the Satsuma Domain, and the conditions provided by Ninchu were only to open the market, allow the merchants of the Satsuma Domain to do business in China, and be responsible for the education of the future lord of the Satsuma Domain, Shimazu Munobu, and promised to return to the Satsuma Domain to inherit the position of lord of the Satsuma Domain when he became an adult.

For this agreement, even if the Satsuma clan has the intention to refuse, but it is unable to refuse, especially under the insistence of the old middle Xue Qing Cangjiu, this agreement is still signed, just to protect the interests of the two countries, the agreement has a confidentiality treaty, and no one is allowed to disclose it to the outside world.

Through this agreement, Ning Chu got everything he could get in the Satsuma Domain, and Yukiharu Kurahisa also secured his position and preserved the Dao system of the Shimazu family, both sides can be said to get what they wanted, but there is only one party that is very dissatisfied, and that is the shogunate.

........

Edo Castle, Oku.

Tokugawa Yoshimune, the shogunate shogun, was wearing a black kimono and holding a long katana in his hand, and was gesturing one move at a time, although he looked murderous, but the swordsmanship teacher on the side kept his head slightly bowed and his face was heavy.

"General, your heart is upset.......

Hearing this sentence from the swordsmanship teacher, Tokugawa Yoshimune put away the sword and stood up, and sighed softly: "After all, the katana is just a thing for the nobles to play with, and it is really useless on the battlefield, so what does it matter if you practice it or not." ”

When the swordsman heard Tokugawa Yoshimune's comment, his face turned red, and he slowly lowered his head, "Since Yoshimune thinks that swordsmanship is useless, then the minister also resigns from the position of this swordsmanship teacher." ”

After saying this, the swordsman's face turned pale, and it was obvious that if Tokugawa Yoshimune agreed, I am afraid that he would choose to commit suicide on the spot and save his full name.

Tokugawa Yoshimune was suddenly shocked, he knew that he had made a mistake all of a sudden, so he had to smile bitterly at the moment: "Mr. misunderstood, General Ben has no such intention...... It's just that the fate of Japan is on its shoulders, and I am really a little too anxious. ”

"Hey, the minister will retire first!"

After the swordsmanship teacher left, Tokugawa Yoshimune summoned the old man Mizuno Tadayuki and threw the secret information he had just obtained to Mizuno Tadayuki to check.

"What? The Satsuma clan signed such a treaty? How dare they? How dare they do such a thing? ”

Mizuno Tadayuki was obviously confused by the treaty between Ninchu and the Satsuma Domain, because once this treaty was signed, it was not so much that the Satsuma Domain was a courtier of the emperor, but that it was a courtier of Ningchu, and he almost completely surrendered to the other party, and the impact on the Satsuma Domain can be imagined.

In fact, when the news of the complete defeat of the Satsuma Domain reached Edo in just two days, the Shogunate and the Shogunate regretted it, they really underestimated the army of Ninchu, and they did not even think about why Ninchu was able to completely defeat the Satsuma Domain in such a short time, and they did not even have time to react.

In the wishful thinking of the Tokugawa monarchs, they originally thought that the two sides would not end the war so quickly, as long as the war dragged on, they would have a reason to intervene, collect benefits on both sides, and wait until the critical time to force Ning Chu to stop the attack in a conciliatory way, so that they would have both the inside and the face.

However, the Tokugawa shogunate's wishful thinking was wrong after all, and Ning Chu almost used an incredible speed to achieve a victory over the Satsuma domain, and even laid a deep wedge in Japan, which hurt so much that Tokugawa Yoshimune couldn't sleep.

"We must not stop there....... Otherwise, Ning Chu will definitely become the biggest enemy of my shogunate in the future! ”