On the third day after the end of the Battle of Kagoshima Castle, after learning the news of the massacre of prisoners of war by the Wu army, Shimazu Hisamitsu once again sent his retainer Saigo to Wang Fu to protest and demand that the Japanese prisoners of war be treated well in accordance with international practice. Wang Fu replied directly: "Executing all the soldiers who participated in the defense of the city according to the rules is our respect for your customs. As for whether or not to treat your captives in accordance with international practice, it is a matter for us to negotiate with your shogun, and as a small Japanese feudal lord, what qualifications do you have to negotiate with us about international conventions between countries? ”

After all, Wang Fu really called a Japanese sinologist who took the initiative to defect to Wu Jun, and asked him to state that the victors of the Warring States period in Japan usually had the habit of executing all the soldiers defending the city, so as to prove that the Wu army's massacre of prisoners of war was by no means brutal, but to follow the customs of the locals and respect the customs and habits of the Japanese. At the end, Wang Fu said in a big way: "Don't worry, we won't be like this when we take the Thousand Eyes Temple, the Thousand Eyes Temple is a temple, not a city, according to your habits, we will not execute all the soldiers who participated in the war." ”

There was no need for an interpreter to dictate, and Saigo, who was quite proficient in Chinese, had already understood Wang Fu's words, and his face suddenly changed, and he asked cautiously: "General Wang, do you still want to attack the Thousand Eyes Temple?" ”

"Of course." Wang Fu replied with a sneer: "Unless you agree to the surrender conditions we and the British have made, and fulfill the promises, we will never stop fighting." ”

Saigo was silent, and after a while, he said in a low voice: "General Wang, in fact, there is another purpose in coming here, which is to ask you to reconsider the surrender conditions. We are willing to pay the indemnity, but the compensation of three million taels of silver is too high for us to bear. In addition, our Founding Fathers, as well as our brothers Saigo Takamori and Okubo Toshimitsu, were guilty of crimes that did not deserve to be killed in this matter, and our Founding Fathers would rather die than endure the shame of your country's guilt. So regarding the terms of surrender, please also ask the general to reconsider, as long as we can bear it, we will definitely agree! ”

"Can't think about it!" Wang Fu categorically refused and said: "These three conditions were personally put forward by our Zhennan King, and I have no right to modify and make concessions." ”

Saigo Congdao showed a very embarrassed look, and only after a while nodded and said, "Then General Wang, can you give us a little time to think about it?" I ask the general to give us a few days to think carefully, and before that, I ask the general to remember the precious lives of your two soldiers and soldiers, and not to attack our army again for the time being. ”

After that, Saigo Congdao hurriedly took out a gift list and said: "Of course, we will not let the general wait in vain, this is a small gift, if the general agrees to a grace time, within today, these gifts can be delivered to the general." ”

After receiving the gift list handed over by his own soldiers, seeing that the gifts that the Japanese promised to give him were indeed expensive, Wang Fu couldn't help but show some greedy looks, and asked Xixiang Congdao: "Then how many days do you need to think about it?" ”

"Five days, please give us five days." Saigo replied quickly.

"Five days?" Wang Fu looked at Xixiang Congdao with some suspicion, and after thinking about it, he said: "Considering a condition, it will take so long to take five days?" Three days! I'm only giving you three days! No attack on you for three days! ”

Saigo looked embarrassed from the road, and after thinking about it for a while, he nodded and said, "General, can you start counting from tomorrow?" It's not early today, and it's too late for our Satsuma clan to hold a meeting. ”

"Okay! It can be calculated from tomorrow. Wang Fu agreed, and said arrogantly: "Tell you the lord of the domain, this is the last chance I give you, within three days from tomorrow, if he doesn't give me a satisfactory answer, on the morning of the fourth day, I will attack the Thousand Eyes Temple!" ”

Xixiang Congdao hurriedly agreed happily, and Wang Fu added, "Also, don't want to run!" I won't attack you for three days starting tomorrow, but if your army dares to run, don't blame me for being rude! ”

Xixiang Congdao nodded again, and Wang Fu waved his hand at this time, letting his own soldiers lead Xixiang Congdao to leave. As a result, as soon as Xixiang walked from the front foot of the road, Gong Cheng, who accompanied him to meet him, immediately said: "Wang Junmen, be careful of the Japanese Kou's deception, will this be the Japanese Kou's strategy to delay the army?" ”

"Of course, it's a delaying tactic, wanting to stabilize us temporarily and buy time for their reinforcements." Wang Fu replied very directly, and said with a smile: "I have been fighting with the King of Zhennan for so many years, and I have dealt with the chaotic party Changmao on the battlefield for so many years, if I can't even see such a superficial plan to delay the army, I don't have the face to live in this world anymore." ”

"So, Junmen, you deliberately fell for the plan, did you plan to do it?" Gong Cheng asked.

Wang Fu nodded in acknowledgement, but his brows furrowed a little, and said: "But I haven't made up my mind about how to plan it, it stands to reason that this must be a good opportunity to besiege the city and send reinforcements, so that our army can wait for work, and we can calmly defeat the enemy without laboring on an expedition." However, we don't know much about the situation of the Japanese invaders, and we don't know which way or when the Japanese reinforcements will come, and we don't know how many reinforcements the Japanese will come. ”

"Then we can directly use tricks on the Japanese in the Thousand Eyes Temple?" Gong Cheng, who has always been lazy, rarely took the initiative to offer a plan, and said: "I remember that in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Cao Cao first promised Yuan Shao's son to surrender, deceived Yuan Shao's son into not taking precautions, and then took the opportunity to send troops to rob the camp overnight, killing Yuan Shao's son by surprise. Now our situation is very similar to Cao Cao's situation, can we copy this plan? ”

"It's feasible, but it's too big and too much." Wang Fu shook his head and replied to a unique term in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and said: "Our army has come from afar, and we have too little understanding of the enemy's situation, so it is hard to come across an opportunity to know the enemy's intentions and intentions in advance, and it is really a waste of opportunity to use it to deal with the enemy in front of us." ”

Gong Cheng was stunned, hesitated for a moment before saying, "Wang Junmen, I don't understand military affairs, don't blame you for making a mistake." I think that whether it is to be a person or to do things, in the end, we still eat a bite of food, step by step, we have come from afar, we know very little about the enemy's situation, and we do not consider destroying the enemy nearby and eliminating the immediate threat, but instead we are greedy to eat the enemy's reinforcements with unknown circumstances, which is inevitably a bit ambitious. ”

After that, Gong Cheng gave an example: "To make an inappropriate analogy, when I followed the Anglo-French army into Tianjin to prepare to attack the capital, the British and French could also besiege the city and send reinforcements, using the capital as a bait to lure the Chinese army to reinforce the capital, and eat the Chinese army one by one to achieve a big victory, but the British and the French did not do this, because they knew very well that their strength could not occupy the whole of China, nor could they destroy the Chinese army, so they chose to directly attack the capital. ”

"Now we are in the same situation, with our current strength, it is impossible to occupy all of Japan under any circumstances, and it is impossible to wipe out all the Japanese troops. So I think it's better for us to grasp the opportunity now, don't be too ambitious and go far away, if you eat too much, you won't be able to pull it out, and you will be in trouble. ”

Wang Fu was shocked by Gong Cheng's words, and after a while, Wang Fu also bowed to Gong Cheng and said sincerely: "Thank you Mr. Gongxiang for your advice, it is indeed too ambitious to be ambitious, Mr. is right, the rice can only be eaten one bite at a time, and the battle can only be fought one battle at a time, if you eat too much in one bite, it is more troublesome to not be able to pull it out." ”

After sincerely thanking him, Wang Fu immediately sent someone to contact Huang Yuanbao, so that Huang Yuanbao immediately began to prepare to do something that should be done, and at the same time racked his brains to calculate how to follow Boss Cao's words and do another, and not let others have an excuse to accuse him of being untrustworthy - following Wu Chaoyue for too long, although Wang Fu has been cultivated to the point of lack of morality and bad water, he still knows how to make a face.

…………

Of course, we have to look at the situation on the Satsuma Domain's side, after Saigo Congdao brought Wang Fu's reply back to the Thousand Eyes Temple, the decision-making level of the Satsuma Domain, headed by Shimazu Hisamitsu, did not hesitate, and immediately sent an envoy out of the camp with the rich gifts that had been prepared for a long time, and rushed to the Wu army camp to bribe Wang Fu. As a result, when Shimazu Hisamitsu and others were overjoyed, in the evening, the entourage of the gift-giving envoy returned to the Senyan Temple smoothly, and reported to Shimazu Hisamitsu and others the good news that Wang Fu had accepted the bribe, and said that Wang Fu set up a banquet to entertain the gift-giving envoy sent by the Satsuma Domain, and the gift-giving envoy was afraid that it would be too late to return, so he sent his entourage to come back first.

"Very good, the greedy Qing people have really been fooled." Hearing the good news, Shimazu Hisamitsu's eyes narrowed with joy, and he couldn't wait to give an order to Saigo Takamori and the others: "Quickly send someone to contact Katsura Kogoro and Katsu Kaishu, and tell them the good news that we have temporarily stabilized the Qing people, and ask them to rush to Kagoshima within three days to reinforce us, don't delay time." ”

Saigo Takamori and others Hai Hai Hai Hai received orders one after another, Shimazu Hisamitsu also smiled even more happily, very glad that he was lucky this time, by chance, not only received the Japanese shogunate's fleet reinforcements, but also the Japanese strong clan Choshu Domain, which was known for its grudge, did not hesitate to send the Choshu Domain, which had the strongest army strength among the Japanese domains, to reinforce the Satsuma Domain, so that the Satsuma Domain, which was already undoubtedly defeated, saw the dawn of victory again.

But then again, the luck of the Satsuma Domain this time was indeed amazingly good, because the Tsushima Domain, led by the Choshu Domain, had really threatened the rule of the Japanese Shogunate, and the Japanese Shogunate, which had little less control over the local area, sent reinforcements to the Satsuma Domain, although it was reluctant to win over one of the four strong domains. The Choshu Domain, which had a grudge against the Satsuma Domain, was also trying to win over the Satsuma Domain, and the other was because he hated all the foreign troops that invaded Japan, so he also decided to send reinforcements without much thought. At the same time, the two feudal domains of Tosa and Hizen, which were slightly inferior in strength, made it clear that they could consider sending troops, so as long as the Satsuma domain stabilized the situation and let the Japanese feudal domains see the hope of victory, not to mention the Tosa Domain and the Hizen Domain, even the other feudal domains would definitely send reinforcements one after another to pick up the cheap, and when the time came, the Japanese army would raise Japanese troops to deal with an expeditionary division of the Wu army, and the Japanese army would of course have the hope of victory.

After confirming that Wu Jun had fallen into his own strategy of delaying the army, Shimazu Hisamitsu not only subconsciously relaxed his night vigilance, but also happily drank some wine to help him sleep during dinner. However, in the middle of the night, Shimazu Hisamitsu, who had not been able to rest for several days, was suddenly awakened by the sound of an explosion coming from the bottom of the mountain, and quickly pushed away the quilt and got up. ”

"Back to the father of the nation, the little ones don't know." The little surname replied in a panic: "The little one heard a sound under the mountain, so he hurried to wait." ”

"Useless things, send someone to inquire about the situation!"

Shimazu Hisamitsu scolded loudly, and hurriedly got dressed with the help of the servants, and carefully ordered the servants to bring the armor for combat use and prepare to wear it. And it turned out that Shimazu Hisamitsu's caution was very correct, during this period, not only the explosions sounded one after another, but also the dense burst of gunfire and loud noises like popping beans, and when Shimazu Hisamitsu put on his armor, there was finally a small surname outside the door to report, "Father of the country, there is an enemy sneaking up on our camp at the bottom of the mountain!" ”

"The enemy?" Shimazu Hisamitsu asked a nonsense, and then without waiting for the small surname to answer, Shimazu Hisamitsu himself had already reacted and scolded: "Despicable Qing people! They must have attacked our camp! ”

It was too late to react, Shimazu Hisamitsu led a group of small people to hurriedly come to the gate of the Thousand Eyes Temple and looked down the mountain, the Japanese camp under the mountain had become a sea of fire, full of explosions and dense muskets, and everywhere were panicked figures running around, the Japanese soldiers who were seriously ill-prepared for the night battle could not launch an effective counterattack at all, and could only rely on the camp fortifications to fight a defensive war, but the simple field fortifications could not stop the Wu army's grenadier shells and picric grenades, Several lines of defense were easily broken through by the Wu army of the sudden killer, the Japanese soldiers shouted and fled in embarrassment, many soldiers fled directly to the dark place outside the camp, almost no Japanese army was able to contain the footsteps of the Wu army, the Wu army soldiers were like a rainbow, and they strode directly towards the Thousand Eyes Temple, and the front team had also directly attacked the entrance of the mountain road.

"Eight Tooth Road! Despicable Qing people! Shameless Qing people! Damn the Qing people! He had already promised not to attack us, but he even sent troops to attack us at night! Shameless! Vile! ”

When Shimazu Hisamitsu scolded, several Japanese soldiers suddenly escorted the gift-giving envoy sent by the Satsuma Domain to bribe Wang Fu during the day in front of Shimazu Hisamitsu, and when Shimazu Hisamitsu hurriedly asked the reason, the gift-giving messenger replied with a sad face: "The father of the country forgives, the little one doesn't know what happened, and he slept well on the Qing people's ship, and he was suddenly caught by the Qing people's General Wang, and their Wang general said that you are asking for peace to deceive him as a delaying tactic, he is not fooled, and wants the little one to come back and tell you, saying that you cheated first, So his promises don't count either. He also told you that the gift you gave him could be repaid later, or converted into cash and deducted from our war reparations in the future. ”

"Eight Tooth Road!" At this moment, Shimazu Hisamitsu was really angry and wanted to tear this unlucky messenger's heart apart.