One day two years later.

Wakuni Kyushu Island, Satsuma Domain.

The Satsuma Domain, the most powerful daimyo on the island of Kyushu, officially known as the Kagoshima Domain, was located in the southwestern part of Kyushu, and its territory included Satsuma Province, Osumi Province, and part of the Hyuga Province.

In addition, because it was separated from the Ryukyu Kingdom by the sea, the Satsuma clan invaded the Ryukyu Kingdom in the early 17th century, and the Ryukyu Kingdom was also under its control.

Today, Satsuma Castle is bustling with activity, and daimyo from all over the country have come to visit, and even those who can't come have sent important representatives.

The reason for this was that the Ming Dynasty came to discuss the matter of defending against the Ming army that was about to attack Kyushu, and for this reason, the shogunate launched a national daimyo to prepare for war, and soldiers from Honshu, Shikoku, and Hokkaido were continuously transported to Kyushu Island by sea, ready to fight the Ming army to the death on Kyushu Island.

As early as September of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, Li Hongyu had ordered the Ming army to eliminate the Japanese people on the Great Ryukyu Island, and established a naval base on the Great Ryukyu Island, preparing to use the Great Ryukyu Island as an important stepping stone for the attack on the Japanese State.

The Ryukyu Kingdom welcomed the arrival of the Ming army, and the Ryukyu King once again pleaded for annexation to the Ming Dynasty, but the previous requests of the Ryukyu King were all rejected by the Ming Emperor.

However, this time, Li Hongyu made the dream of the King of Ryukyu come true, and after inviting Emperor Chongzhen, the Great Ryukyu Island was included in the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and it was subordinate to the Zhejiang Political Envoy Division, and the King of the Ryukyu was the king of the Ming Dynasty with a different surname, which made the people of the Ryukyu very happy and held a grand celebration ceremony.

Although the Great Ryukyu is nominally subordinate to the Zhejiang Political Envoy Department, but the actual management is indeed the Customs Department, and now the Ming Dynasty is worried about internal and external difficulties, where does the imperial court still have the heart to manage such an overseas island as the Great Ryukyu, and it was naturally thrown to Li Hongyu.

This was exactly what Li Hongyu wanted, and Li Hongyu transferred personnel from the Customs Department to reorganize the military and political affairs of the Great Ryukyu, making the Great Ryukyu an overseas base of the Customs Department.

Originally, there were several armed forces on the island, but during the Xuande period, the king of the mountain country, Shang Bazhi, conquered the rest of the forces, set the capital at Shuri Castle, and established a unified Ryukyu Kingdom, which was officially canonized as the king of the Ryukyus by the Xuande Emperor.

Since then, the Ryukyu Kingdom has been paying tribute every other year according to the Ming Dynasty's code system, and each generation of kings has to accept canonization from the Ming Dynasty.

In addition, Emperor Xuande officially gave the surname "Shang", the ruler of the Ryukyus, and before that, the people of the Ryukyu Kingdom only had a name, and after that, they had a surname.

After recapturing the Ryukyu Kingdom from the hands of the Japanese people, Li Hongyu did not rush to attack the Japanese Kyushu Island, which was seen from afar across the sea, but ordered various constructions to be carried out in full swing on the Great Ryukyu Island, and he wanted to build the Great Ryukyu Island into a bridgehead against the Japanese Kingdom.

Originally, the shogunate thought that Li Hongyu was going to take advantage of the situation to attack the Japanese state, so he mobilized heavy troops to gather on Kyushu Island, but Li Hongyu did not move there and had no intention of starting a war.

The Wa Kingdom did not have the ability to counterattack the Great Ryukyus, and the Ming Army's sailors had already shown great combat effectiveness when attacking the Wa people on Ryukyu Island, and the Wa State could not compete with them.

Moreover, the shogunate was now trying to avoid provoking the Ming Dynasty, which was now in a difficult situation but was the Celestial Empire in the East, so the Wa Kingdom did not want to provoke a war.

Therefore, after the two sides confronted each other for a while, the foreign feudal armies gathered on Kyushu Island retreated to their respective territories at the beginning of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen.

There is no way to do this, the daimyo of the Wa State would rather have a good fight with the Ming army than just spend it in vain, after all, the economic strength of the Wa State is limited, and it is really impossible to bear the military expenses of the confrontation for a long time.

Therefore, after judging that the Ming army had no intention of attacking, it had to retreat, and sent people to closely monitor the Ming army in Ryukyu, and immediately reported any movement.

In addition, there are two of the four strong feudal clans on Kyushu Island, and the other two are also close to Kyushu Island, so even if the Ming army attacks Kyushu, the daimyo will block the Ming army's footsteps under the leadership of the four strong feudal clans, and then create an opportunity for the shogunate to mobilize troops.

There were four powerful daimyo in the Wa Kingdom, known as the "Four Great Domains", and in addition to the Satsuma Domain, there were also Choshu Domain, Hizen Domain, and Tosa Domain.

Among them, the Satsuma Domain and the Hizen Domain are on the island of Kyushu, the Choshu Domain is in the western part of Honshu Island, and the Tosa Domain is on the island of Shikoku.

It is worth mentioning that the Satsuma Domain and the Choshu Domain later became the two core forces that fell to the curtain, and the power in the Wa Kingdom was the strongest.

Naturally, the shogunate and the local daimyo were also close to each other, and the daimyo fiefdom that was close to the shogunate was closer to Edo, where the shogunate was located.

The estranged Daemin fiefdom was farther away from Edo, and even the Choshu Domain on Honshu Island was located in the westernmost remote area of Honshu Island, which was evident in its relationship with the shogunate.

The richest area of the Wakoku region is Honshu Island, and the environment of Kyushu, Shikoku, and Hokkaido Island is much inferior to that of Honshu Island.

However, due to the fact that the four powerful feudal domains were closest to the Ming Dynasty, their economic power gradually increased through the maritime smuggling trade with the Ming Dynasty, as well as trade with Korea and even the South Sea countries.

Many of the Japanese who roamed the sea had close ties with the Four Great Domains, and sometimes the Four Great Domains would even send soldiers to pretend to be Japanese to plunder the Ming Dynasty and Korea, and they made a lot of profits.

Because of this, the four great feudal clans were looked down upon by the daimyo of Honshu, believing that they had lost their status as daimyo and engaged in piracy and plunder.

Among them, it was the Satsuma Domain that invaded the Ryukyu Kingdom and forced the Ryukyu King to pay tribute, but the shogunate did not intervene in this matter and turned a blind eye.

Just when the shogunate thought that the Ming army only wanted to occupy the Great Ryukyu Island and would not attack the Wa Kingdom, at the beginning of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, Li Hongyu suddenly sent someone to send a war letter to the shogunate, first reprimanding the Wa State for plundering the Ming and Korean coasts and sneaking up on the ships of the Ming Dynasty's overseas trade caravans, and then giving the shogunate two choices.

One is to bow to the Ming Dynasty and accept the rule of the Ming Dynasty, when the Ming army will be stationed and managed in the Wa State.

The other is that the two sides use force to resolve the incident, and the so-called winner will win the final victory in this dispute.

Naturally, it is impossible for the shogunate to accept the request of the Ming Dynasty to garrison troops in the Ming Dynasty, so that the Japanese State will become an out-and-out vassal of the Ming Dynasty, even if the Shogunate agrees to the local daimyo will not agree, after all, the two sides fought in Korea forty years ago, and now the two sides still have a knot, how can they raise their hands and surrender to be slaughtered.

Therefore, the shogunate naturally chose to go to war, so Li Hongyu officially informed the shogunate that he would personally lead a large army to attack the Wa Kingdom in mid-June, and the shogunate's Tokugawa shogun would hunt on Kyushu Island.

The people of the shogunate never imagined that Li Hongyu would be so rampant and publicly announce the time to attack the Japanese kingdom, which made the daimyo everywhere extremely angry, and they all shouted to teach Li Hongyu a lesson.

After all, Kublai Khan's two eastward expeditions to the east ended in failure, and the Ming army was inseparable from the Ming army in Korea forty years ago.

Considering that the Ming army, which had a strong maritime transportation capacity, was menacing this time, the shogunate then began to mobilize troops from all over the country to support Kyushu Island, preparing to fight the Ming army to the death in Kyushu.

Since Li Hongyu, the dignified master of the Ming Dynasty, has issued a war letter to the Wa State in mid-June, then naturally he will not lose his trust in others, and he will definitely attack as promised, otherwise how can the face of the Ming Dynasty remain?

For Li Hongyu's declaration of war this time, the daimyo of Kyushu Island felt quite nervous, although the relationship between the Wa State and the Ming Dynasty was not harmonious, but many things that happened in the Ming Dynasty could be transmitted to the Wa State through various channels, and the daimyo of the Wa State knew that Li Hongyu was a person who could fight well, and did not dare to be careless.

Not to mention anything else, Li Hongyu's garrison of Ryukyu Island alone gave the daimyos quite a headache, and they were busy in vain in the face of military pressure.

At this time, Satsuma City, reception hall.

Daimyo or representatives from the four islands of Wakoku gathered and knelt on their futons to discuss the battle, and the meeting was presided over by Dazaifu Daiji.

Dazaifu is an institution established by the shogunate to manage the affairs of Kyushu, and although the supreme governor is Dazai Daishuai, this position is a fictitious position, and it is Dazai Daiji who is actually in power.

The current Dazai Daiji is the head of the Satsuma Domain, Shimazu Narugumo, and the lord of the Satsuma Domain, and as the most powerful daimyo on Kyushu Island, he is naturally the best choice for Dazai Daiji.

Shimazu Naruto is now in high spirits, this time in order to resist the attack of the Ming army, the shogunate concentrated up to 200,000 troops, ready to annihilate the attacking Ming army in one fell swoop, is the largest number of troops gathered by the Japanese since Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea.

Unlike Kublai Khan's two expeditions to the east, because Li Hongyu gave the time to attack in a bright way, this gave the shogunate enough time to mobilize troops and not rush into battle.

Despite this, the shogunate did not dare to slack off and despise the Ming army, and according to the information they investigated, the size of the Ming army in Ryukyu had exceeded 100,000, and the sailors docked at the two main docks of Ryukyu were even more dense.

Therefore, the shogunate was ready to concentrate its forces on the Ming army, as it had done against the Yuan Dynasty, so that the Ming army had no foothold on the island of Kyushu.

Although the Ming army pressed the border, the atmosphere in the hall still seemed very relaxed, the sneak attack of the Yuan army was defeated and fled by the daimyo of Kyushu Island, not to mention that this time the Wa Kingdom had already prepared to gather the power of the national daimyo on Kyushu Island, and had the most elite main force of the Wa State.

The Ming army's attack, the most likely choice is Hakata Bay, this place is the most suitable for landing, the Yuan army landed from Hakata Bay, but was defeated by the Japanese before it could gain a firm foothold.

Ever since the Ming army entered Ōryukyu, the shogunate began to strengthen the stone walls of Hakata Bay.

During the Yuan expedition that year, the Kamakura shogunate requisitioned Minfu in Kyushu and built a stone wall along the beach in the area around Hakata Bay where they were most likely to land to block the Mongol cavalry of the Yuan army, but the Yuan army was never able to break through this defensive line.

Therefore, the Edo shogunate had great hopes for the stone wall this time, and specially had people strengthen it, hoping to keep the Ming army out of the stone wall.

"Lord Da Er, the Ming army's attack on Kyushu with great fanfare this time is a bit unreasonable, is there any unknown conspiracy?"

Just when everyone was in high spirits and preparing to attack the invading Ming army on Kyushu Island, Mori Hidehiro, the lord of the Choshu Domain, pondered for a while and asked Shimazu Naruto with concern, he always felt that things were not as simple as they seemed on the surface.

"Lord Maori is too worried, the Ming people have always been arrogant and have always believed that they are the people of the Heavenly Empire, and this time it is the Taishi of the Ming Dynasty who leads the army, so it will definitely not be like the Mongols did in the past."

As soon as Mori Hidehiro's words fell, a daimyo said disapprerovingly, not taking this matter to heart at all.

"Lord Maori, since the Ming army has issued a war letter, it will definitely attack Kyushu, but it is not clear where they will land from now."

At this time, another daimyo also expressed his opinion, and said to Maori Hidehiro with a smile, "As long as we can eliminate the men and horses they landed in time and don't give them a chance to breathe, then we are not afraid of how many people the Ming army comes." ”

Hearing this, the daimyo at the scene immediately laughed, although the Ming army was numerous, but the Ming State and the Ming Dynasty were far away from the sea, and the Ming army had a limited number of troops to log in at one time, taking advantage of the gap between the Ming army's naval division to the second batch of soldiers in Daliuqiu, as long as they made every effort to eliminate the Ming army that landed, then the Ming army was afraid.

It's just that the daimyo at the scene can't judge which port the Ming army will land from on Kyushu Island, unlike when the Yuan army attacked, this time the Ming army will definitely choose a port that is easy to land to attack, which requires the daimyo to take precautions.

"Ladies and gentlemen, God Amaterasu will bless us, and this time we will definitely be able to defeat the Ming army and let them know the power of our Yamato descendants." Shimazu Naruun's thoughts were the same as those of the daimyos, and he said loudly with a smile, looking high-spirited.

To tell the truth, Shimazu Mingyun was not afraid of the landing of the Ming army, the reason is very simple, the Ming army has a limited number of troops to log in at one time, and when the second batch of troops of the Ming army arrives, maybe the previous Ming army has been wiped out by the Japanese army with superior forces.

This is also the reason why the shogunate mobilized 200,000 troops, in order to be able to destroy the Ming army that landed at the first time, so that the Ming army has no place on Kyushu Island.

The corners of Mori Hidehiro's mouth squirmed and wanted to say something, but when he noticed that the daimyo at the scene were unimpressed by his worries, he smiled bitterly and swallowed back the words that came to his lips, hoping that he was unfounded.

After discussing military affairs, Shimazu Naruto led everyone to the shrine to worship Amaterasu, hoping that Amaterasu could rain down the kamikaze again and destroy the Ming army's fleet as he did back then.

When the Yuan army invaded the Wa Kingdom in the east, it was hit by fierce hurricanes twice and suffered heavy losses, and these hurricanes were worshiped as "kamikaze" by the Wa people.

In particular, when the Yuan army attacked the Wa Kingdom for the second time with great fanfare, a violent hurricane suddenly blew on the calm sea, and the storm lasted for four days, the ships of the Southern Fleet of the Yuan Army were basically destroyed, and most of the ships of the Northern Fleet were also lost.

Therefore, Shimazu Naruto and others hoped that this time the heavens would send down a kamikaze again and destroy the ships of the Ming army, which would be tantamount to drawing wages from the bottom of the kettle, making the Ming army unable to transport troops to Kyushu Island.

(End of chapter)