Since His Majesty the Emperor issued the order to levy the Japanese, there has been jubilation in all parts of the coast, and the Ming army is also very competitive, and good news has been coming.

On 11 March, the navy took control of the Shimonoseki Strait, cutting off Kyushu from Honshu.

On March 13, Qu Neng led his army to occupy Hakata Bay and besiege Dazaifu, and the defender Imagawa Sadadashi was killed on the spot, and Shoji Sadadayoshi surrendered; On the same day, Sheng Yong landed on Kagoshima and defeated the Satsuma army in the plains outside the city, and the main generals Shimazu Motohisa and Shibukawa Mitsuyori fled in the wilderness.

On March 15, Qu Neng and Sheng Yong met in Dazaifu.

On March 22, Dazaifu was breached, and Ashikaga Yoshinori, the general of the Japanese Shogunate, was captured, and the shogunate governor Yoshisho Spo Yoshinori was killed in battle.

On March 23, General Sheng Yong, commander-in-chief of the Japanese army, reported to the imperial court that the Ming army had taken control of the entire island of Kyushu.

On April 7, General Qu Neng, the deputy commander-in-chief of the Japanese army, landed on Shikoku Island, and the Japanese general Shao Erzhen Lai was the vanguard, and the military peak was directed at Iyo Province; On the same day, the 2nd Marine Brigade landed in Tosa Province.

On April 11, Qu Neng defeated the Iyo garrison and joined forces with Xian Zhong's army in Tosa Province.

On April 12, Qu Neng occupied the territory.

On April 19, Qu Neng occupied the country of Awa.

On April 25, Qu Neng occupied Sanuki Province, and thus Shikoku Island was occupied by the Ming army.

......

In order to improve the understanding of the Ming people of the significance of the conquest and improve the self-confidence and self-esteem of the Ming people, Zhu Yunwen ordered the newly established Propaganda Department to intensify propaganda and instill in the Ming people the emperor's sage and wisdom, the bravery and fearlessness of the front-line officers and soldiers, and the timidity and filth of the Japanese army through various means such as newspapers, newspapers, and storytelling.

The good news in the newspaper is only a few dry lines, far from meeting the needs of the people of the Ming Dynasty, and everyone hopes to see more detailed and in-depth content. In response to everyone's demand, the bosses of various newspapers have been very kind, and have asked officials of the military department, teachers and students of military academies, and amateur "military theorists" to publish a series of columns in the newspapers, such as analysis of the war situation, strategic forecasts, trends in the imperial court, and countermeasures against the Japanese state, so as to satisfy the job-seeking desires of the people at all levels.

Not only that, but there are also some literati who have taken advantage of this trend to release a series of literary sketches that everyone likes to see, such as "Erlang in the Army", "Wang Dahan Kills the Enemy and Serves the Country", "Zhao Family Scholar Writes from Rong" and so on, among which the most popular is a scholar surnamed Tan wrote "Yang Hansheng Waguo Looking for Father", written about a Fujian businessman surnamed Yang businessman was kidnapped by the Wa Kou to the Wa Kingdom for more than 20 years, and his widow Hansheng joined the army to recruit the Wa, in an operation, rescued the old father and recognized the story of the storyline, the storyline ups and downs, Tear-jerking, at the end of the article, the words of the businessman surnamed Yang are even more thought-provoking:

"Although I have experienced more than 20 years of slave life, I am still lucky, because in the land of the Japanese people, I don't know how many Ming people still live a life that is worse than death, and I don't know how many people are buried in other places and cannot return to their homeland for the rest of their lives. The vast sea blocked their way back to their hometown; The brutal Japanese people have extinguished their hope of survival. They had hoped countless times to see their gray-haired parents again, to see their children waiting to be fed, and to see their wives with their hair, but they were disappointed, and they did not close their eyes until they died! ”

"Your Majesty, you are a saint! But please save more people! They're miserable! They're miserable! ”

......

In addition, there are some descendants of the Han people who were captured as slaves after the failure of the Yuan Dynasty to attack the Japanese, and after Yang Rong learned about them, he immediately sent someone to send them back to Beijing, so that they could show up to tell the story, recounting the cruelty and inhumanity of the Japanese people, and describing the homesickness of their ancestors......

After a series of operations, there were fewer and fewer people who dared to raise objections to the levy in the Ming Dynasty.

There is a misunderstanding among the officials of the Chinese dynasties, especially the civilian officials, that they like to calm things down, retreat externally, and suppress internally, and they are all incompetent.

But in fact, this is not the case, the appearance of these characters is when China is in decline, and in the face of difficulties, they have no choice but to do so.

And when China was strong, there were very few civil officials who were willing to give up their interests and please foreign countries, and at most they were just a little noise outside the mainstream.

Before the conquest, everyone discussed that the risk was too great, and they were afraid of repeating the mistakes of the past, so there was great resistance from the imperial court.

After the conquest, everyone found that the Ming army was brave and invincible, and the Japanese were vulnerable, and many civil officials also had the idea of finishing their work in a battle, and they wrote to the imperial court one after another, demanding that the Ming people be completely exterminated and that the people of the Ming Dynasty be safe and happy.

For ordinary people, the Japanese are not a good thing, and it is better to be completely beaten to death! No one dared to openly sympathize with the Japanese invaders, otherwise they would be scolded: "I want to be a slave of the Japanese kingdom so much!" Most people can only be speechless.

But.

On May 25, a piece of news reached Jingshi.

"The Japanese state pretended to use the name of the envoy, intending to sneak attack our Ming army, the front-line commander - the commander of the Marine Brigade Chu Zheng brazenly counterattacked, killed the main culprit of the Japanese on the spot, captured several fake envoys of the Japanese state, and had a fierce conflict with the Japanese army, after a bloody battle, my heroic and fearless Ming army defeated the Japanese army and occupied Xiaguan."

"In order to prevent a similar situation from happening again, General Sheng Yong, commander-in-chief of the Japanese army, ordered the whole army to be on alert."

"The Japanese thieves shouted to catch the thieves, accusing our army of killing the messenger, the emperor ordered the whole country to mobilize, and a great war is about to break out!"

.......

What the? Emperor?

Accustomed to hearing the news of the victory, coupled with the bitter hatred of the Japanese people, the government and the opposition immediately blew up the pot, and the streets and alleys, teahouses, wine shops, and various yamen of the imperial court talked one after another, and the crowd was excited, demanding that the Japanese be taught a resolute lesson and let them understand that the power of the great tomorrow is inviolable.

Lian Zining, the left capital of the Imperial Palace, wrote a letter overnight, asking to destroy the Wa Kingdom, the reason is very simple, the Wa State is arrogant, and even claims to be the emperor, which is a great rebellion, and my Ming Emperor only dares to call himself the Son of Heaven, the so-called tolerable and unbearable, such a shame and humiliation can only be washed away with the blood of the Wa people.

Xu Huizu, Song Sheng, Wu Gao, and others, important ministers of the Military Aircraft Department, also wrote letters one after another, accusing the Japanese state of not changing their minds and must be severely punished.

He believed that the reception of envoys was a matter for the imperial court, not the responsibility of the front-line commander, and that Sheng Yong and Yang Rong's move was tantamount to a private meeting with the envoys of the enemy country, and that they were suspected of supporting the army and seeking rebellion and usurpation.

Qi Tai's recital shocked the government and the opposition, and the civil officials echoed it, demanding that the Qincha be sent to Kyushu to prevent the front-line generals from supporting their own troops.

The military generals hurriedly wrote to defend him, and Sheng Yong, who was far away in Kyushu, was even more panicked after hearing the news, and he hurriedly wrote to the imperial court in order to prove his innocence, saying that most of Kyushu had been pacified, and asked the imperial court to send local officials to govern, and his energy would be mainly focused on conquering the state.

Qu Neng originally planned to write a letter to defend Sheng Yong, but was stopped by Yang Rong, the supervisor, and finally Qu Neng went to the secret fold, the content of which no one knew.

In all the above letters, the more special ones were the household officials represented by Yu Xin, who pointed out that the imperial court's food reserves were insufficient, and advised the front-line generals to act cautiously, not to wantonly expand the scale of the war, and to end the war at the lowest cost.

Faced with the new situation of struggle, Emperor Zhu Yunwen convened a military conference in front of the emperor at the Qianqing Palace on the first day of the first month of June to discuss the strategy of fighting against the Japanese.