Fuso, Osaka.

Most of the entire area does not belong to the control area of a certain daimyo, but belongs to the control area of a very special force, which is Ishiyama Honganji.

That's right, this place is under the control of a temple.

And this temple is also different from the traditional Chinese temple, the monks in this temple are married and have children, and the temple can be passed on as a family inheritance, and at the same time, in order to govern the large area of land and people controlled by the temple, this stone mountain Honganji Temple also has a variety of structures similar to political power, and also has a large number of troops.

Therefore, to a certain extent, Ishiyama Honganji Temple is actually a daimyō, and its actual strength is no less than that of ordinary daimyos, even if it is placed in the entire Gyeonggi region, it can be regarded as a daimyo with superior strength, but the name is a little peculiar.

The temple directly controls more than 3,000 people, and in case of emergency, it may be able to recruit more believers to fight, but crucially, the temple's direct armament is equipped with ordnance purchased from Datang merchants.

Arquebuses, steel spears, swords, light plate armor, shotguns, all ordnance was imported from Datang, and even auxiliary supplies such as quilts were imported from Datang.

It can be said that the temple's army of about 3,000 people is a veritable Tang Armament Army, and its equipment level has reached the top level in the Fuso Islands.

How to evaluate the equipment level of the major armies on the Fusang Islands, you don't need to carefully discern it, just look at how many Tang Dynasty ordnance they are equipped with.

The reason why Ishiyama Honganji was able to build a pure Tang army of 3,000 was naturally inseparable from the deliberate support of the Tang Dynasty.

In the early years, when the Tang Dynasty first set foot in the Fuso trade, it was to trade with the temple, and supported Ishiyama Honganji Temple to continuously repel the invasion of several surrounding daimyos, ensuring the actual control of Ishiyama Honganji over the surrounding area of Osaka.

When the Tang Dynasty later proposed to set up a trading post in Osaka, Ishiyama Honganji generously sold a large area southeast of the sea to the Tang Dynasty, and still adopted the method of exchanging armaments for land.

At the same time, this kind of sale is not an ordinary sale, but the kind of formal contract, and this kind of sale is a complete sale of sovereignty.

Therefore, legally speaking, this land will truly belong to the territory of the Tang Empire from now on, and the Tang Empire can do whatever it wants here, and no one else can say a word of nonsense.

This piece of land of tens of square kilometers was also one of the several colonies that the Tang Dynasty acquired in the early days of the Fusang Islands, and it was also the only colony obtained by peaceful means in those years.

Other colonies, although also acquired by purchase or rent, were inevitably brought by force, some directly defeated, and some by threat of force.

Osaka Colony, the only exception, was genuinely purchased through friendly negotiation.

The reason for this situation is inseparable from the fact that the Tang Dynasty has continued to support the Shishan Origin Temple for many years, and the Tang Dynasty has not treated the temple badly in order to set a model of friendship and cooperation on the Fuso Islands and make other daimyo more cooperative.

However, when the empire adjusted its policy towards Fuso this year, the policy on the temple was adjusted accordingly.

Why the adjustment?

Because although the temple has been supported by the Tang Empire for many years, its military strength is already very strong in the surrounding areas, but its aggressiveness is seriously insufficient.

To put it bluntly, I don't like to fight, and I don't like to invade the surrounding daimyo!

This is what the Tang Dynasty does not want to see, the Tang Dynasty sells weapons to the Daimyo of Fusang, but does not want to see them hoard all the weapons, but hopes that they will all use them up, and hopes that they will start a war.

You only buy ordnance and maintain an army of 3,000 people, but you don't fight, which is not in the interests of Datang.

In addition, more importantly, because of the proximity to the Tang colony, the people of Ishiyama Honganji also broadened their horizons, and they also wanted to rely on the advantage of being close to the Tang colony to develop their own industries, especially the defense industry.

Xia Wuyan frowned when he saw the report that Ishiyama Honganji had already established an ordnance workshop with more than 300 employees and was able to produce arquebuses.

Strict control of Fusang's industry, especially the development of the national defense industry, has always been the focus of the Datang Fusang affairs yamen, when the Tang Dynasty 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 the local defense work of Fuso, including the manufacture of guns and shipbuilding are their severe targets.

And the effect is also very significant, since then there is no large-scale gun factory on Kyushu Island, as for the Honshu Island, there is no one, so there is no talk of fighting.

Subsequently, the Tang Dynasty continued to sell ordnance on the Fusang Islands, because of its low price and good performance, it was welcomed by the majority of daimyos, and due to the difficulty of self-made technology and higher cost, it formed a situation that it was better to buy it sooner.

Therefore, for many years to come, there was no large-scale defense industry on the Fuso Islands.

However, now, Shishan Honganji Temple has developed such a small ordnance work under the nose of the Tang Dynasty, and Xia Wuyan naturally can't bear it.

Immediately, I 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 1st Mixed Brigade of the Army, the Osumi Garrison Regiment, the Osumi Garrison Regiment, the Edo Garrison Regiment, and the garrison battalions of various colonies.

The navy had the Toyo Fleet in the Fuso area, which, in addition to the main fleet stationed in Osumi Prefecture, also had the Osaka Squadron stationed in Osaka, the Edo Squadron stationed in Edo, and several other colonial squadrons.

The above-mentioned fleets have a cruiser of 800 tons, five frigates of 400 to 500 tons, 16 patrol ships of between 150 and 200 tons, and many other small warships of less than 100 tons.

Judging from the above-mentioned troops, in fact, the Tang Empire has completed the deployment of troops in the Fusang area.

And now, Xia Wuyan is ready to ask the military to dispatch!

What to do?

Naturally, Ishiyama Honganji Arsenal is going to be killed!

It is a strategic task to control the development of the defense industry in the Fuso region, even if it is to directly kill the Ishiyama Honganji Temple, which has been cooperating for a long time, for this purpose.

Anyway, the Tang Empire supported the temple, not because it had any special strategic value, but because they were smart and took the initiative to serve in the early years, but now, it is the heart of independent development, plus it has always been unwilling to fight, but to accumulate strength.

This situation is something that Xia Wuyan does not want to see.

Therefore, after receiving the report, he simply went to meet with the generals of the army and navy, and then informed them of the relevant situation, and in the name of 'supervising the affairs of Fuso', he formally requested the military to send troops to destroy this disobedient daimyo who also wanted to develop and accumulate strength.

In addition, Xia Wuyan also mentioned other reasons when he asked for troops!

One of the main reasons is that the area of the existing Osaka colony is too small to meet the needs of development, and at the same time, the geography of Osaka is very important, as long as the place is completely controlled, then in the future, whether the Miyoshi family in the west wants to go east, or Oda Nobunaga in the east wants to go west, it will be blocked by the Tang Empire.

As the situation in Fuso got out of control further, Oda Nobunaga had regained several daimyo in the past few months, and the daimyo supported by the Tang Empire to fight against Oda Nobunaga was defeated, and it was difficult to completely strangle Oda Nobunaga in the central region, Xia Wuyan believed that it was already necessary to personally stop Oda Nobunaga from completely controlling the Gyeonggi region.

It was Xia Wuyan's strategic intention to completely control Osaka, block Oda Nobunaga's westward advance, and at the same time prevent the Miyoshi family from annexing other daimyos, so as to divide the island of Honshu in two and avoid unification.

After receiving Xia Wuyan's briefing, the high-ranking officers of the army and navy stationed in Osumi Prefecture also began to hold a consultation meeting!

To fight or not to fight, this actually does not need to be discussed, because Xia Wuyan has already asked them to send troops in the name of Qincha, although it is a request, but the army and navy have no 100% reason, it is difficult to refuse.

Xia Wuyan, as the minister who supervised Fusang affairs, was a serious minister, and he had many powers such as declaring war, negotiating, and signing contracts in Fusang affairs, or in other words, Xia Wuyan had this power in everything related to Fusang affairs.

Of course, in the political environment of the separation of military and political affairs in the Tang Empire, even if Xia Wuyan has this power in name, he does not have the courage to directly order the army and navy to do anything.

So, he used a request!

It's just that the army and navy will not refuse his request at this time!

The fight must be fought, otherwise the situation in Fusang will change in the future, and Xia Wuyan will not be able to sue, saying that their military is inactive, and their military generals will have no good fruit to eat at that time.

But how to fight, this is debatable!

At the high-level meeting of the army and navy of Osumi Prefecture, the generals expressed their opinions!

"The garrison regiment over there in Osaka is a reserve division unit drawn from the country, and more than half of them are recruits who have served for less than a year, and their combat effectiveness is worrying, so it is not a big problem for them to defend the city, but it is not easy to launch an attack directly!"

"Yes, and the enemy army on the side of Ishiyama Honganji also has 3,000 people, in addition, they are also friendly with several daimyo in the surrounding area, it is not ruled out that there are reinforcements, in the end, I am afraid that we will face more than 5,000 people, and may even reach 7,000 or 8,000 people, so it is difficult to complete this task with only the Osaka garrison."

"However, if you increase the troops, you can't increase the troops too much, the situation on Kyushu Island has not been stable recently, and we must leave enough troops in Osumi Prefecture to deal with any contingencies, once there is a change in Kyushu Island, we must send troops as soon as possible, so if you increase the number of troops in Osaka, you must control it to a certain extent."

"But we also have to take into account that according to military intelligence, the army of Ishiyama Honganji is relatively good at defense, and because most of their soldiers are believers, their will to fight is relatively tenacious, and they have learned a lot of our tricks in recent years, if we don't increase our troops enough, I'm afraid that the war will form a stalemate, which will not only increase casualties, but also cause unnecessary trouble!"

"As for the situation on Kyushu Island, don't worry at all, even if these Fuso people make trouble again, they are only limited to one Kyushu Island, with a navy, it is difficult to be afraid that they will not be able to turn the sky upside down!"

"So I suggest that the 1st Mixed Brigade be dispatched directly to take Osaka with a thunderous force and deter the surrounding daimyos!"

"Whoever dares to disobey will be beaten until he is convinced!"