[275] Get rid of Japan

Uesugi Tsunakatsu's sudden defection caught the already demoralized Ishikawa Sokei army off guard, and the Shogunate Army took the brave and warlike Satsuma Hayabusa as the vanguard, and suddenly killed Ishikawa Sokei's main formation. Sokei Ishikawa was a capable official, but not a brilliant military strategist, and after a modest resistance, the Shogunate captured the mountain, the commanding heights near Edo. Subsequently, the artillery of the Ming army was transported to this commanding height, and the muzzle of the cannon was directed towards Edo Castle.

Under the gloomy sky, the well-planned mansions of the Edo Castle town are stacked together like building blocks, contrasting with the ornate and tall castle complexes to the northwest. In Kong Youde's view, the so-called capital of the Japanese Kingdom is less than a county seat in Daming.

"Whew~" Kong Youde took a deep puff of his cigarette, and then snuffed out the cigarette butt on a stone, "Open the cannon~!" ”

"Open fire~!"

As the sound of the command was continuously announced, the five cannons, which had taken a lot of manpower to pull the hand of the mountain, began to spit out tongues of fire, and a dull explosion sounded in Edo Castle. The wooden watchtower erupted into orange-red fireballs, and two shells hit the most crowded towntown in Edo Castle, and then exploded violently, causing smoke and flames to rise from the wooden town. Amid the billowing smoke, the townspeople panicked and fled from the crumbling wooden houses, many of whom scrambled to bring buckets of water to extinguish the fierce fire. Under the guidance of the northwest wind, the fire spread rapidly from the highlands of the "Mountain Hand" in the west of the castle, and the entire Edo Castle was engulfed in black smoke and red tongues of fire, like a hell shrouded in red lotus fire.

"General, the fire is too fierce, let's retreat to the city!" Hoshina Masayuki's army was closest to the mountain hand, and he saw that the fire was spreading to his camp

Masayuki Hoshina was about to retreat, when he suddenly saw a group of horseback warriors galloping towards him in the light of the fire, "Iron cannon ready!" The head of the iron cannon group immediately raised the military equipment in his hand

"Hoshina-sama~~ I'm the messenger of Tadashi Sakai-sama!" The samurai who came shouted loudly

"Don't shoot!" Masayuki Hoshina said

"I'm Sakai-sama's messenger, Serada Motonobu." The leader of the samurai on horseback took out a letter from his bosom and said, "Hoshina-sama and Abe-sama have been deceived by that traitorous servant Sakai Tadakiyo! Saying that, Seryoda Motoshin handed the letter with both hands, "Sakai-sama has already written the truth of the matter in the letter!" ”

"Show me!" Masayuki Hoshina said

Masayuki Hoshina's flag took the letter from Motonobu Shirada and handed it to Masayuki Hoshina

"I see!" Bao Ke Masayuki suddenly realized, "This damn Zhongqing." Hoshina Masayuki then said, "Go back and tell Sakai-sama that Abe-sama and I will immediately enter Edo and kill the traitor Sakai Tadakiyo." Ask him to mediate on his behalf, and ask the Ming army and the fallen army to stop the attack immediately. ”

"Hey!" Serada Motonobu did not dare to slack off, and quickly turned over and returned to the Sakai camp with his companions

"What? The two adults, Masayuki Hoshina and Tadaaki Abe, also fell to Sakai Tadakatsu? Sakai Tadashi was like a gambler who had lost all his chips at the moment, and the more he thought about it, the more unwilling Sakai Tadashi finally couldn't help but shout with his knife and rushed into the enemy formation with his flag.

The two shogunate armies roared like wild beasts and rushed towards the opposing camp, mercilessly slashing their own compatriots. Sakai Tadashi, who wielded a long knife in the scuffle, was even more red-eyed, as long as it was someone within a knife distance of him, whether it was friend or foe, Sakai Tadashi would be killed with one sword. Gradually, the frightened Japanese soldiers stopped fighting among themselves, and instead trapped the already disheveled and delirious Sakai Tadashi at the core

"Rebel minister~ What's the use of staying?" Masayuki Hoshina saw Sakai Tadashiyo's dazed and crazy eyes from a distance, "Kill!" ”

Puff puff

More than thirty spears pierced Sakai Tadashi's body from the front of the chest and the back of the back, and Sakai Tadashi collapsed to the ground with great resentment

Immediately, the forces of the Shaozhuang faction led by Sakai Tadashi finally collapsed, and the samurai and ashigaru surrendered one after another. The shogunate army, which was stubbornly resisting in the shogun's palace, also chose to surrender under the persuasion of Sakai Tadakatsu, Abe Tadaaki, and Hoshina Masayuki and others, as well as the "persuasion" of the Ming artillery.

The Battle of Edo came to an end

The Kashiya on the Hill Hands Plateau and the castle town in Edo burned for three days, and the Ming and Korean armies also looted Edo Castle for three days. From the poorest townspeople to the wealthy daimyo samurai ueya, from the shogunate's government to the temples of Edo Castle, they were not spared. The Iron Legion of the Ming Empire ravaged the city as victors.

By the time the fire at Edo Castle had been extinguished, it had been three days before Sakai Tadashi and other shogunate elders and middle-aged people issued a notice of peace. Oedo, which was once prosperous, is now left in ruins. Most of the official buildings from the samurai families of the Edo daimyo to Edo Castle were also reduced to ashes. Countless civilians have died in fires and in war. Only the Tokugawa Shogun's Mansion and some of the Shogun's and Lao Naka's residences survived. However, the Edo people blamed the dead Sakai Tadakiyo for all these disasters, believing that it was his arrogance and madness that caused Edo to suffer this catastrophe.

Sakai Tadakatsu finally put the Tokugawa family in the position of the new shogun of the Tokugawa family, but the battle of Edo consumed a lot of manpower and financial resources of the Tokugawa shogunate, and its elite was almost exhausted in the internecine battle militarily. Now Edo Castle has been burned beyond recognition. Restoring Edo Castle was a terrible expense. This almost emptied the Tokugawa shogunate's treasury savings for decades, and Sakai Tadashi now needs the support of others at all times.

On June 1, the fourth year of the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese Emperor Masahito issued an edict appointing the five-year-old Tokugawa Ietsuna to succeed him as the general of the Expedition and report on his duties. However, Tokugawa Ietsuna had to come to Kyoto by July to meet His Majesty the Emperor and pay tribute before he could be officially appointed.

The Tokugawa shogunate, which was no longer what it used to be, had to comply with the emperor's decree and went to Kyoto on June 15 to meet with His Majesty the Emperor, and after offering 100,000 taels of silver and leaving Tokugawa Iemitsu's four sons, Tokugawa Tsunashige and five Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, as hostages, Tokugawa Ietsuna received a decree to officially take office as the shogun. Interestingly, Uesugi Tsunakatsu also went to Kyoto on the same day to meet the emperor. Due to the timely defection of Uesugi Tsunakatsu, Uesugi Tsunakatsu was also considered a meritorious man, and the emperor generously transferred Uesugi Tsunakatsu from Yonezawa back to his hometown Echigo, restoring the old territory before the Battle of Sekigahara.

Since then, the control of the Tokugawa shogunate over the feudal states has also been greatly weakened, and the surrounding feudal states are eager to take the opportunity to replace the shogunate when they see this shock, and the originally peaceful Japan is once again surging, and Japan is back to the Warring States period. As a result, Sakai soon sobered up from the joy of seizing power, and he found himself more dependent on the support of the Ming Kingdom now than he did if he had not seized power. For this reason, Sakai Tadashi had to obey the Ming army's words, and he didn't dare to say a word about the conditions previously offered by the Ming army.

At this moment, the Tokugawa shogunate was already numb to the amount of the indemnity, and only thought about how to regain its prestige, as for what to exchange for this in the future, no one in the Tokugawa shogunate thought about it.

On July 1 of the fourth year of the Ming Dynasty, the Tokugawa shogunate and the Ming Dynasty signed the "Edo Treaty" in Edo, which not only recognized the validity of all the treaties in the "Tomorrow Shimonoseki Treaty", but also added new contents: new Shimizu, Shimoda, and Hakodate were added as treaty ports; The Ming Dynasty reduced the amount of the indemnity to 19,000,000 taels, and lent the Tokugawa shogunate 3,000,000 taels of Daming treasure banknotes, with an annual interest rate of 1%, to be repaid in 20 years, and could not be repaid in advance; Japanese daimyo can join the Greater China Co-Prosperity Circle as a unit of their own family or feudal clan without the consent of the shogunate, etc.

After the treaty was signed, Sakai Tadakatsu still had a humble and respectful smile on his face, and he bowed politely to Li Xin and said: "This time, it is all up to the Supreme Kingdom to come forward in Japan to successfully quell the civil strife and restore the dynasty. ”

"You're welcome!" Li Xin said with a smile: "Duke An Guo knows that the Japanese people, the army and the people have just suffered a military disaster, so he specially sent a batch of medicines to your country. With that, Li Xin pointed to some wooden boxes that were being carried ashore by Japanese porters

"What kind of medicine?" Tadashi Sakai asked curiously

"Fushou ointment, taking this medicine can quickly relieve pain." Li Xin said with a smile

"Is it really that amazing?" Sakai Tadashi was skeptical, and after getting off the ship, he walked around the town, and sure enough, there were many Ming soldiers distributing this kind of Fushou ointment. No matter how injured people are, as soon as they take the "Fushou Ointment", the painful moans will soon disappear from their mouths, and in their place, it will be an incomparable enjoyment. The reputation of Fushou paste soon spread in Edo, and seeing the relaxed and happy appearance of those wounded, some Japanese who were not injured also tentatively asked the Ming army if they could give them some fairy powder in case of emergency. Obviously, the Ming army was very generous, and they tried their best to meet the demands of these Japanese, no matter how difficult it was.

Soon, after it was heard that the emperor also liked to take Fukuju cream, there was a craze for taking Fukuju cream all over Japan, and smoking Fukushou paste became the most popular and fashionable thing. Later, the Ming merchants began to land in Japan, and opened Juledi, which specializes in smoking Fushou ointment. Like a water pump, these juradi transported Japanese silver and gold to the Ming Dynasty.

The matter of the little devil was successfully resolved, Song Youliang got on the Dingyuan battleship and began to go south, the purpose of this trip was to inspect the sea frontier, and he came to Java to see how Zheng Zhilong's Nanyang Chinese Entrepreneurs Association was doing. Who knows, this trip actually led to another war in the southern Xinjiang of the Ming Dynasty.