Tokugawa Mitsukuni was no longer in the mood to stay in Nanjing to arrange Wei Zaode's visit to Japan, because the peaceful and prosperous times of Japan were coming to an end, and he had to go back and report quickly!

Now there is a bad guy in the west of Japan, and Zhu Cihong, the lord of the Ming Dynasty, turned out to be a sinister and cunning bad guy who plotted to subvert the peaceful and prosperous world of Japan.

And to the east of Japan, there is a madman! Spain, a Catholic empire, is completely insane, and is actually planning a large-scale raid on the core area of the Ming Empire!

Didn't they see the huge fortress forts on both sides of Wusongkou in Shanghai? Don't you see the Jiangyin-Jingjiang fortress group on the edge of the Yangtze River?

As an envoy visiting China, Tokugawa Mitsukuni was once invited to visit the fortresses along the Wusongkou and Huangpu River in Shanghai, and was deeply impressed!

Because the cost of building a fortress with sandbags is relatively low (not completely stacked with sandbags, but it can still greatly reduce the cost), so the Ming Dynasty's Navy Department built a large number of fortresses near important Haikou and harbors, and Shanghai, as the most important Haikou city and trade center of the Ming Dynasty, was guarded by a large group of coastal defense fortresses and land fortresses!

Among them, the Shanghai Haiphong fortress group is mainly located along the Yangtze River on both sides of Wusongkou, not one fortress, nor a group of fortresses, but two groups of fortresses! A group on the east bank of Wusongkou, another group on the west bank of Wusongkou! The two fortress groups not only firmly blocked the entrance to the Wusong River, but also held two large stretches of river banks that were relatively easy to land on and build docks.

Although Shanghai is a coastal city, the coastline of Shanghai is actually difficult to land, because most of them are mudflats, and the water is too shallow, and the difference between the coastline at low tide and high tide is more than ten to twenty miles. And there are no ready-made ports near Shanghai's coastline, only a few small fishing ports. To make matters worse, there are no official roads in the area, and the water network is crisscrossed, so transportation mainly relies on inland waterways. These water networks are connected to the Huangpu River in the upper reaches of the Wusong River.

The Ming army stationed in Shanghai built a Jiangpu fort on the west bank of the Huangpu River, and also built a Pudong fort on the east bank of the confluence of the Huangpu and Wusong rivers. Two bastions are firmly stuck in the waterway that enters downtown Shanghai from the beach southeast of Shanghai. Even if an enemy who had eaten the gall of a bear's heart and a leopard forcibly landed on the beach, it would be blocked by the water network and these two fortresses, and it would be almost impossible to quickly occupy the downtown area of Shanghai.

And the downtown area of Shanghai is not without the protection of the city wall, the Pudong area of Shanghai has a 20-mile-long Baoshan wall (Baoshan was located in Pudong during the Ming Dynasty), protecting the back of the Baoshan fortress group on the east bank of Pudong and Wusongkou, and there is an artificially excavated canal outside the Baoshan wall as a moat. The Puxi area of Shanghai is guarded by a Wusong wall, which is longer, extending from the Wusong fortress group at the mouth of the Yangtze River to Jiangpu Fort, in a semi-circular shape, with a length of nearly 50 li, and there is also a canal on the periphery that acts as a moat.

Although the two long walls in Shanghai were limited in height and were not protected by prismatic platforms, many gates were opened. However, it has a sloping anti-artillery wall, which is thick enough to resist heavy artillery. As long as the Shanghai government could form a militia of the workers in the city before the enemy's army raided, and cooperate with the small number of regular troops to deploy the city walls, it would be able to defend the city.

At present, there are 200,000 or 300,000 handicraft workers in Shanghai, as well as three large arsenals, including Shanghai Shengang, Shanghai Bujialao, and Shanghai Ganglian, as well as the Shanghai Naval Academy. Not only does it have a large number of people who are easy to organize and familiar with guns, but it also has a large inventory of guns and production capacity.

Unless the army that raided Shanghai succeeds in a very short time, they will never be able to conquer the city!

In the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, in addition to the "Shanghai Fortress", the Ming Dynasty also has the Jiangyin-Jingjiang fortress group. This was used to block the enemy's march up the river and threaten Nanjing. In this era, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River were very wide, and the Jingjiang River and Jiangyin on the south bank of the Yangtze River together constituted a narrow section, so it was natural that it was selected by the Ming Navy and became the gateway for defense along the river. A series of bastions formed an impregnable defense, almost impossible to destroy with naval guns, and could only be taken by landing and attacking!

However, in this era, the time required to attack the fortress is calculated in months, and the capture of Jiangyin-Jingjiang fortress group is only calculated in years...... And how much time does it take for the general mobilization of the Ming Dynasty?

"The defense of the mouth of the Ming Dynasty can be said to be impregnable! Therefore, I think the idea of the Spaniards raiding the southeast sea of Daming is completely crazy! It is impossible to succeed! ”

Tokugawa Mitsukuni, who had rushed back to Edo, was in Edo Castle at this time to report to the old man and the assistant minister Masayuki Hoshina and others about the harvest and observations of his trip to China.

This time he reaped the bitter fruits, met bad people and madmen, and also met a Daming Jiangnan who was already in the initial stage of capitalism.

"So, do you think the shogunate should reject the Spaniards and then side with the Ming?"

The old middle school Sakai Tadashi asked questions. In recent years, because Matsudaira Nobutsuna was old and frail, it was difficult to cope with the increasingly difficult internal and external situation, and Sakai Tadashiyo, who was in the prime of life, gradually became the most vocal old man.

"This ......" Tokugawa Mitsukuni frowned, but he didn't know what to do?

"Lieutenant General (the official position of Guangguo is Lieutenant General Right Konoe Quan)," said Nakamatudaira Nobutsuna, the old man of the pen on the side, "You are the heir of the Mito family, what else is there to say?" ”

Masayuki Baoshina said: "Yes, let's say it!" You can say anything! ”

"Hay!" Tokugawa Mitsukuni nodded, "Then the lower official will know everything!" Xiaguan thought that if the Ming Dynasty defeated Spain in the Pacific, then Japan would be in danger of overturning!

Because there is no way for the current Japan to join the feudal system dominated by the Ming Dynasty...... The Tokugawa family can become a vassal of the Great Tomorrow, but His Majesty the Emperor cannot be a subject to the Great Tomorrow! ”

"Lieutenant General, how can you say such a thing!" Bao Ke Masayuki's face changed greatly, and he immediately opened his mouth to reprimand. Because he already understands what Guangguo is saying? Tokugawa Mitsukuni is talking about the possibility of abolishing the Empress of Heaven and promoting Tokugawa Shogun to the king of Japan!

Tokugawa Mitsukuni sighed: "What Xiaguan said is just the truth!" ”

Masayuki Hoshina angrily reprimanded: "As a courtier, can you say something like that? ”

Tokugawa Mitsukuni shook his head: "So, can we return the great government and turn Japan into an emperor's country like the Ming Dynasty?" ”

"Lieutenant General! What are you talking about? ”

"Lieutenant General ......"

"Lieutenant General, are you crazy?"

"Lieutenant General!"

All the elders were shocked by Tokugawa Mitsukoku's words, and they didn't care about any etiquette, so they all shouted.

Tokugawa Mitsukuni snorted: "Can't you say anything?" I'm just telling the truth! These are the two paths that Japan has in front of us now!

Either become a rebel and thief, with the support of the Ming Dynasty, eliminate all disobedient foreign daimyo, and then make the Duke a king, and then make Japan a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty.

Either...... Everyone became loyal ministers together, and the shogunate took the lead in returning the great government, changing the feudal domain to a county, establishing an empire, and then allied with the Westerners against the Ming Dynasty!

Other than that, there is no other way! ”

Tokugawa Mitsukuni is crazy, right?

The Mito Domain is about to change its heir......

What to do! The smartest person in the Tokugawa family is also crazy!

So, is there any other way?

When the old middle school heard Tokugawa Mitsukuni say this, their first reaction was that this smart man was crazy! But then I thought about it, and it seemed that there was no third way to go!

So everyone stopped squeaking.

Mitsukuni Tokugawa continued, "This is no longer the time to live behind closed doors! Japan must open the country, and if it wants to open the country, it will face two major problems, one is the relationship with the Celestial Empire! The second is competition with the nations!

Because His Majesty the Emperor cannot submit to the Celestial Empire, then Japan will not only not be able to be protected by the Celestial Empire, but will also be hostile and subverted by the Celestial Empire! If the emperor cannot be abolished and the emperor replaced by the emperor, then Japan will have to unite the forces of the feudal domains into one country! Only in this way can the samurai of all Japan fight for their country, not for their own vassals! Combined with the power of the Japanese samurai, Japan is enough to fight against the Celestial Empire! ”