In the Honmaru Palace of Hiroshima Castle, important retainers of the Choshu Domain are gathering to hear an urgent military report. Murakami Motonobu didn't dare to raise his head in front of the gate of the Imperial Palace, and reported to these bigwigs of the Choshu Domain.

“… On that day, the shogunate ships Nishinari Maru and Hirano Maru broke into the waters of Shimonoseki, and the shipwreneurs believed that these two ships were here to explore the sea route for the shogunate brigade and prepare for the shogunate-Kyushu coalition to cross the Shimonoseki Strait and enter their own territory, so they sent three ships to attack.

Although the firepower of the shogunate's two ships was stronger than that of the Yokomaru, it was not much different from the firepower of the main family's Chochomaru and Jiu-maru, and the ship's crew was much more familiar with the sea conditions of Shimonoseki than these Osaka people, so it didn't take long for our army to gain the upper hand and break one of the masts of the Hirano Maru.

However, just when our army was about to capture the Hirano Maru, two warships of the Ming army suddenly appeared, and the number of guns on the Ming warships was not only nearly one-third more than ours, but their artillery power was also much more powerful than ours. Under the heavy artillery fire of these two Ming ships, Ding Chou Maru was sunk first, and Ji Mao Maru and Chongzi Maru originally wanted to withdraw to the port first, but under the entanglement of Ming ships and shogunate ships, both ships finally had to surrender to each other because of heavy damage..."

Murakami Motoshin is talking about the battle that took place off the coast of Shimonoseki three days ago, and this is the third piece of bad news that came after the Satsuma and Kumamoto domains betrayed the Choshu domain and the Shogunate-Kyushu coalition seized the family's territory in Kyushu.

The Maori ministers sitting in the palace were no strangers to the names of the three ships, the Yokomaru, the Dingchomaru, and the Hokumaru. This is the result of efforts by the Choshu Domain, which had recaptured Hiroshima and other places after the demise of the Mori-Murakami naval forces, and tried to rebuild a navy to defend the coastline after realizing the threat from the sea.

Because of the power displayed by the Ming fleet during the Toyotomi Restoration War and the Sado Kanzan War, the Mori family realized that they could not defend themselves without a navy on three sides of the sea. The Mori-Murakami naval tactics and Japanese-style warships, which followed the Maori-Murakami naval tactics and Japanese-style warships, were obviously unable to resist the sail battleships and cannon tactics used by the Ming and the Southern Barbarians, so with the cooperation between the Choshu Domain and the Ming Four Seas Trading Company in the whaling industry, the Choshu Domain purchased the first 475-ton hard-sail whaling ship in 1636 and renamed it the Yokomaru.

It was also in 1636 that the Choshu clan began to cooperate with the Shikai Trading Company to build the Shimonoseki Shipyard, mainly for the repair and maintenance of whaling ships and merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty. In 1637, the Choshu clan purchased a sail trading ship that had been eliminated by the Shikai Trading Company and renamed it Chochomaru. It was also in this year that the Shimonoseki Shipyard began to build a new type of sailing ship under the guidance of Akito shipbuilding technicians, and two years later succeeded in building a sail warship designed by the Japanese themselves, which was the Jiu Maru.

It can be said that these three sail warships are actually the foundation of the Choshu Domain's attempt to build a navy in the past five years, and they are also the most powerful part of the Choshu Domain's imperial crew at present. Five years of hard work can be wiped out in a single battle, and it is too dumbfounded for these Maori noblemen.

After this naval battle, the shogunate fleet, which controlled the Shimonoseki Strait, began shelling the coastal defense facilities in the Shimonoseki area and preparing for the landing of the coalition forces, and everyone could not think of how to deal with it.

After Mori Shu, who was sitting at the top of the palace, waved his hand to let Murakami Motonobu step down, his eyes swept over the faces of the retainers Fukuhara Sadayoshi, Kodama Kazuzo, Masuda Hirokane, Yoshikawa Hiromasa and others who were sitting below, and found that these retainers either bowed their heads and were silent, or tried their best to avoid their sight, obviously they were completely at a loss for the current situation, so they didn't want to be asked by him, the head of the family.

At this time, Mao Lixiu couldn't help but regret a little in his heart, regretting that he should not have listened to the persuasion of the old minister Masuda Motosho, and should go all out to run the Choshu Domain, and use the power of Ming merchants to develop the industrial and commercial economy in the domain, instead of agitating for some movement to respect the king, which led to the situation of the originally thriving feudal kingdom actually took a sharp turn for the worse, and the family stood on the verge of the destruction of the feudal kingdom.

Since the Battle of Sekigahara, the Mori family has been severely attacked by the Tokugawa clan, and has been weakened from a million-stone daimyo who owned eight kingdoms to a daimyo who only owned Nagato and Shubo, and it can be said that the Mori family was once on the verge of extinction, and the number of more than 5,000 core retainers was also weakened to more than 300.

However, thanks to the efforts of the old ministers such as Masuda Motosho, Kumagai Motonao, Amano Motomasa, and Anado Motosu, the Mori family finally survived this difficult time, and only after the death of Tokugawa Ieyasu did they have a few days of stable life.

Later, the Choshu Domain intervened in Japan's internal affairs with the help of the Ming Dynasty, supported the Toyotomi family's campaign to restore the country, and regained most of the lost territories in one fell swoop at the cost of defecting to the Ming Kingdom.

Unlike the Satsuma Domain, which was taught a lesson by the Ming Kingdom and took away Ryukyu and Tanegashima before bowing its head, the Choshu Domain was almost half persuaded and half took the initiative to take refuge in the Ming Dynasty. As a result, the benefits gained by the Choshu clan in the Toyotomi Restoration War were second only to the Toyotomi clan, but they did not have a clearer understanding of the military force of the Ming Kingdom.

Even the Choshu feudal lords who participated in the Battle of Hiroshima on that day often avoided mentioning the fierce artillery fire of the Akito in order to boast of the great achievements of their domain. As a result, the young samurai of the Choshu Domain often thought that the main merit in the Battle of Hiroshima was the result of their own family.

In the minds of these young Choshu domain samurai, the Toyotomi clan was able to successfully restore the country because the family won the crucial Battle of Hiroshima, but in the distribution of the fruits after the war, the Toyotomi clan did not return all the territory taken by the Tokugawa clan, which is obviously a bit ungrateful.

Although Masuda Motosho advocated that they should be screened one by one before being hired, the other Maori retainers who were suppressed and feared by the Tokugawa clan thought that they should not refuse to come, and took over all the retainers who came to defect, so as to quickly expand the momentum of the Maori family, and bring these newly recovered lands into the rule of the Maori family as soon as possible, in order to cope with the Tokugawa clan's counterattack.

Perhaps it was because Yu Tokugawa Ieyasu's memory was too deep, and these old Maori retainers had always felt that everything in their hands was illusory, and only by getting it in their hands as soon as possible could they be regarded as the real fruits of victory. They felt that if they did not digest these victories as soon as possible, when the Tokugawa clan sent troops again, the Mori family might have to spit out the newly recovered territories again.

Mori Shu finally chose the idea that most of the retainers supported, but after these good and bad samurai and ronin became the retainers of the Mori family, two problems soon arose. One is the struggle for power between the old and new retainers; The other was that the retainers expanded too quickly, which directly led to the decline in the treatment of samurai.

The spirit of "unity" that the Mori family is known for is the spirit that sustained the Mori family through the most difficult period of their suppression by Tokugawa Ieyasu, and it is even more difficult to abandon it today. In order to resolve the internal contradictions of the retainers, Mori Shu could only guide the spearhead outward, so in the end, the Choshu clan came to a conclusion that the reason why they were not doing well was because the Choshu clan failed to get a reasonable return in the process of assisting Toyotomi in the process of restoring the country.

Although some people of insight in the Choshu domain thought that this view was extremely absurd, and that while the family pointed the finger at the Osaka shogunate, it meant that they would have to clash with the Ming dynasty behind the Toyotomi clan, which was obviously an irrational idea. However, the Choshu feudal lords, who had been instigated by the Emperor's thoughts, obviously did not listen to this statement.

They wishfully believe that the benefits that the Ming Dynasty obtained from the Toyotomi family could also be given when the Choshu Domain replaced the Toyotomi family, so why did the Ming Dynasty wade into this mess. What's more, the army built by the samurai is obviously much stronger than the army cobbled together by the civilians in Osaka, and by the time the Ming reacts, maybe they have already hit Osaka Castle, and the Ming people will have to accept the reality at that time.

There were also some samurai who were even more ambitious, believing that once the Mori clan replaced the Toyotomi clan, it was necessary to go one step further and establish a real shogunate like Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, rather than being at the mercy of foreigners as it is today.

Although Mori Shu did not fully agree with the opinions of these radical retainers, the power of the radicals in the Choshu domain was already too great at this time, and even he did not dare to deny it from the front, so as to prevent these retainers from pointing the finger at him first.

Therefore, it is different from the Satsuma Domain's mid- and lower-ranking samurai who promoted the Tsukasu Rebellion. In the Choshu Domain, the idea of respecting the king was actually motivated by the ambitions of the middle and upper classes. To be precise, it was the upper echelons of the Choshu Domain who tried to expand the territory of the Choshu Domain and their own power with the help of the movement to revere the king.

Therefore, in the face of the continuous ultimatum sent by the shogunate, the Choshu domain could not immediately turn around like the Satsuma domain, and throw a few culprits to get through. If you do what the shogunate asks, it is estimated that there will be no more than a few people left sitting in the palace today, and even Mori Shu himself will abdicate and go into hiding.

With such an ending, not to mention that most of the retainers here don't do it, even the Maori Show will not give up until the last moment.

After thinking about it for a long time, Mao Lixiu finally broke the silence and said: "The situation of the battle of Xiaguan has already been heard by all the secretaries. Everyone has already seen the ultimatum sent by the shogunate yesterday, and it is always necessary to come up with an idea of where the family should go today. Fukuhara Sadako, you are the head of the retainers, you can tell your opinion first..."

(. = )