Text Volume 3 The Road to Empire_Chapter 781 Overseas Turmoil Twenty-three

On this day, the "Lancang River" wreaked havoc on the Kagoshima port batteries and guard facilities in an unrivaled manner, which not only shocked the Satsuma Domain, but also the powerful figures of the various domains who accompanied the Shogunate fleet on its expedition.

After all, Japan was an island country, and since the end of the Warring States period, both the Toyotomi Shogunate and the Tokugawa Shogunate have implemented the one-country-one-city system, and except for a few feudal states that are not close to the sea, the other feudal lords eventually chose to establish their own castles by the sea, which is convenient for managing their own territories and making it easy to develop the economy of the capital.

In other words, the scene that the "Lancang River" staged in front of them today may be repeated in various domains at any time. And what made these powerful people of the feudal kingdom feel the most awe-inspiring was that they had clearly seen such tactics with their own eyes, but they still couldn't think of a way to crack it. This is a scene that has never been seen in Japanese wars in the past, and even generals who are familiar with the history of the war have difficulty finding a similar battle scene.

When the powerful people of these feudal states realized that Kagoshima's today might become the future of the domain, they immediately left behind the dissatisfaction and careful thoughts that had been left in their hearts, and after the battle of that day, they asked to board the "Lancang River" to congratulate Mu Tianbo and Yoshikawa Kosuke on the victory, and once again expressed their allegiance to the shogunate, and it was obvious that everyone had already thought that the final winner of this war must belong to the shogunate.

And just as these feudal people climbed aboard the "Lancang River" to celebrate the shogunate's victory, Kagoshima also sent a small boat to send the old Shimazu Kutsu to the "Lancang River".

Although everyone felt incredulous, they did hear it, and Shimazu Kutsu, who was the envoy of the Satsuma Domain, told Yoshikawa Kosuke in front of them that the Satsuma Domain's rude attack on the shogunate fleet was a fallacious move by the old Shimazu Hisasho and Shimazu Hisashi to deceive the head of the family, Shimazu Mitsuhisa.

The reason is that Shimazu Hisasho and Shimazu Hisakei relied on the favor of the previous head of the family, colluded with each other to control the feudal government, and there were countless acts of corruption and perversion of the law. In order to prevent the new head of the family from punishing the two after taking power, the two not only refused to hand over the power in their hands, but also colluded with the evil party of King Ganzun to try to subvert the rule of Shimazu Mitsuhisa and put himself in the position of the head of the family.

Today, taking advantage of the shogunate fleet's attack on the port, which caused a great loss to the power of Shimazu Hisasho and Shimazu Hisakai, the head of the family, Shimazu Mitsuhisa, gathered the loyal and brave men of his family to fight back, and now he has captured Shimazu Hisasho, Shimazu Hisakei and other evil parties, and regained control of the Satsuma Domain.

The purpose of Mitsuhisa Shimazu's dispatch was to inform the shogunate that it was not the Satsuma clan that was rebelling against the shogunate, but the evil parties within the domain. Now that the evil party has been captured, the misunderstanding between Satsuma and the shogunate should be resolved in time, and the two sides should resolve the remaining issues through negotiation, so Shimazu Mitsuhisa invited the head of the fleet to enter Tsurumaru Castle for negotiations.

Although Shimazu Hisatsu said it very tactfully, how could everyone not hear the weakness in his words. After just one day of bombardment, the soldiers on both sides did not engage in a hand-to-hand battle, and the Satsuma clan actually gave in, and captured the main battle faction of the family to apologize to the shogunate, which really made the representatives of these feudal states fall through their glasses, after all, this is not like the legendary Satsuma samurai who would rather die than give in.

However, no matter how these feudal people were lost, for Yoshikawa Kosuke and other shogunates, most of their intended strategic goals were finally accomplished, and as long as the Satsuma domain was forced to send troops to attack the Choshu domain, then the shogunate would get the most out of this war and win the political basis for reorganizing the shogunate system.

It's just that there is a question at this juncture, who should negotiate on behalf of the shogunate, theoretically speaking, Yoshikawa Kosuke and Mu Tianbo are both qualified to represent the shogunate, but the others are worried about what will happen to the two, so it is proposed that someone else should be sent to test it first.

However, Yoshikawa Kosuke believes that in order to suppress the momentum of the Satsuma clan and prevent this negotiation from becoming a tactic for the other side to delay time, the shogunate must not show any timidity. So even if the other party has any traps, he should take this risk. Mu Tianbo disagreed with him, thinking that if this was really Satsuma's trap, Yoshikawa Kosuke should not fall into it, after all, he was the person in charge of coordinating the forces of all parties.

When several shogunate ministers and Mu Tianbo were arguing, the Tosa clan's elder Nochu Kaneyama took the initiative to stand up and request, hoping to go to Tsurumaru Castle to negotiate on behalf of the shogunate, and he said that he would do his best to persuade the Satsuma clan to agree to the shogunate's demands, rather than taking risks.

While the other shoguns were still hesitating, Yoshikawa Kosuke nodded at him and said, "If the Nonakaden is willing to negotiate on my behalf, then I can rest assured." Let Gamo Naoyuki be your deputy, he still knows very well what the shogunate wants, and he should be able to cooperate with you well..."

Maybe it's because Kaneyama Nonaka's personal ability is really good; Perhaps at this time, Shimazu Mitsumitsu had already done his best to suppress the family's powerful forces, and it was indeed necessary to reconcile with the shogunate as soon as possible in order to obtain support from outside. As a result, within two days, the two sides had already finalized the basic framework for compromise.

On the third day, Yoshikawa Kosuke and Mu Tianbo finally landed on Kagoshima land and signed an agreement with Shimazu Mitsuhisa in Tsurumaru Castle to adjust the relationship between the shogunate and the Satsuma domain. At the time when the two sides signed the agreement, 44 rebels, including Shimazu Hisasho and Shimazu Hisakei, were ordered to commit suicide by seppuku on the charge of trying to incite their own family to rebel against the shogunate and the imperial court.

Shimazu Hisaaki and Shimazu Hisakei pleaded guilty to all charges and accepted the punishment of seppuku suicide after receiving a promise from Shimazu Mitsuhisaki to keep their family. In the front yard of Tsurumaru Castle, 44 rebels changed into white linen clothes and prepared to be punished under the supervision of the family and shogunate officials.

The 44 samurai were not all warriors who regarded death as if they were at home, and some of them could not help but cry bitterly as they knelt on straw mats; Some people were slumped on the ground, not daring to take the knife used for seppuku. Although Shimazu Hisasho's face was pale, he was relatively calm among the many samurai who were about to seppuku.

After the prison officer lit the incense, he looked up at the cloudless blue sky, then sighed and withdrew his gaze, and greeted Shimazu Jiuqing beside him: "Jiuqing Palace, I'll go first, let's see you in the next life." ”

However, Shimazu Hisakei, who was trembling all over, didn't hear Shimazu Hisaaki's greetings at all, in fact, he looked at the knife he used to commit suicide in front of him, and he lost his reaction to all the sounds of the outside world. When Shimazu Hisaaki's mischief cut off Hisaaki's head and blood splattered on his face, he came to his senses.

At this moment, the desire to live overwhelmed everything, and he suddenly struggled to get up and shouted: "I want to see the lord, I want to see the lord, I don't deserve to die, I want to see the lord..."

In the face of Shimazu Jiukei's gaffe, the prison officer was also very impatient, especially when there were shogunate officials beside him to watch the execution, so he said to the entourage beside him: "Saburo, you go and help a group of Kukeiden, don't let him humiliate the reputation of the Satsuma samurai." ”

No matter how Shimazu struggled, he finally completed the seppuku ritual with the help of these Satsuma samurai. Of course, because of Jiuqing's desperate struggle, his intermediary could not cut off his head with a knife, which made him suffer a little more. As for the others, after seeing the fate of Shimazu Hisakei, they finally accepted their fate. They didn't have the courage to really cut their stomachs with knives like Jiuzhangdian and them, most of them just took the knife and made a gesture on the stomach, and then waited for the wrong person to give them a good time.

Although Shimazu Mitsuhisa later claimed that although these rebels had made mistakes, they still accepted the punishment of seppuku for the sake of their family, so they no longer held their families accountable. However, Shimazu Mitsuhisa still sent more than 1,000 people to overseas except for his sister and the rebellious parties attached to Jiuzhang and Jiuqing.

This was a great way to stabilize his rule within the domain, but it also aroused the resentment of the middle and lower class samurai, who began to slowly fall to the side of the shogunate.

However, while Shimazu Mitsuhisa stabilized his rule in the domain, Yoshikawa Kosuke also obtained the three powers he wanted, the first was to take back part of the command and personnel appointment and dismissal power of the Satsuma Division; The second is to take back the administrative authority of Satsuma Customs; The third was to issue a public statement accusing the Choshu domain of being behind the rebellion of the Chinese region, sending troops to support the shogunate to quell the rebellion, and demanding that the lord of the Choshu domain go to Osaka as soon as possible to explain to the shogunate and resign from the post of the five elders.

After Mitsuhisa Shimazu signed this statement, Kosuke Yoshikawa was convinced that the Sacho alliance was no longer sustainable, and that the shogunate's strategic goals were almost eighty percent complete. After the agreement was signed, Shimazu Mitsuhisa held a dinner to entertain Yoshikawa Kosuke and other shogunate representatives.

The dinner was set up in the Wangyue Tower, which faces Kagoshima Bay, and is a pavilion modeled after Chinese architecture that was presented to the lord of Satsuma by the former Ryukyu kings. Sitting in the pavilion, you can see the Sakurajima volcano on the opposite side of the sea, so it was named Wangyue Tower.

Although he could not enjoy the beautiful scenery of Sakurajima Volcano at night, in the eyes of the proud Yoshikawa Kosuke, the Sakurajima Volcano hidden at night was the most beautiful scenery he had ever seen. When everyone was drunk at the banquet, Kosuke Yoshikawa, who was in high spirits, simply pulled Kaneyama Nonaka to the edge of the city wall, and said with emotion facing the sea: "Nonakaden, don't you think the scenery here is beautiful?" ”

Although his face was a little red, his face was a little red, but his mind remained clear, and for Yoshikawa Kosuke's question, he stared at the night for a long time before he tried to piece together words and replied: "This, yes, tonight's starlight is indeed very dazzling..."

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