Negotiations between Kyushu and the shogunate broke down completely, and the two sides turned to active preparations.

In mid-February, Zheng Chenggong led an army of 50,000 Kyushu to suddenly land in Hokuriku and take the Kaga Domain. The Kaga Domain, which had 1.2 million koku, was the largest of all the daimyos, and the Kaga Domain was treated the same as the Tokugawa Gozo family.

But the Maeda family of the Kaga clan was an extremely shrewd family that was good at political investment. At the time of the Battle of Sekigahara, the Maeda family was invested on both sides, with Maeda Toshinaga belonging to the Eastern Army led by Tokugawa Ieyasu and his younger brother Maeda Toshimasa belonging to the Western Army led by Ishida Mitsunari. Moreover, the Maeda family has always adhered to this principle, and in the last years of the shogunate, when the great government was returned, the Kaga clan was originally Tokugawa Yoshiki, who supported the shogunate. However, after the defeat of the shogunate at the Battle of Toba Fushimi, the Kaga clan turned to the new government's Hokuriku Suppression Army.

Moreover, the lord of the Kaga Domain, Maeda Toshitsune, was bisexual, and Horio Tadaharu, who was known as the "unparalleled beautiful boy in the world" at the time, was a lover, and Horio Tadaharu was the second generation of the Matsue Domain of Izumo Province, and it was for this reason that Horio Tadaharu had no children, and the Horio clan was cut off.

It can be seen that in the Maeda family, the interests of the family always come first. When the army led by Zheng Chenggong landed in Hokuriku, Maeda Toshitsune surrendered.

The soldiers took the Kaga Domain without blood, which greatly encouraged Zheng Chenggong. Zheng Chenggong decided to change his strategy, and he ordered Maeda Toshitsune to lead an army of 30,000 from the Kaga domain to attack the Fukui domain from land, while he himself led a large army from Kyushu to attack the Fukui domain from the sea.

The Fukui domain was a pro-domain, and the first lord of the domain was Yuki Hideyasu, the second son of Tokugawa Ieyasu, and Yuki Hideyasu's mother was Nagashoin Awan. It is said that Awan was bold by nature, and Tokugawa Ieyasu suspected that he was green, and even suspected that Yuki Hideyasu was not his biological son, which made the Fukui Domain a pro-domain, but the relationship with the shogunate was very bad, and Tokugawa Ieyasu was even very wary of Yuki Hideyasu all the time.

Faced with Kyushu's two-sided attack, the Fukui Domain was defeated and retreated, and soon the lord of the Fukui Domain, Matsudaira Mitsunaga, announced his surrender to Kyushu at Fukui Castle. After the capture of the Fukui domain, the army continued to advance eastward, and the Hokuriku feudal domains surrendered and fled, and by the beginning of March, the Kyushu army had completely occupied Hokuriku, and the shogunate's reinforcements lost Hokuriku before they could even rescue the shogunate.

The shogunate's army focused on defending the central and Kanto regions, while Hokuriku relied on the feudal domains themselves, and the surrender of the Maeda family caught the shogunate by surprise, making it impossible for the shogunate to send reinforcements to rescue Hokuriku in time. As a result, the shogunate quickly lost all of Hokuriku.

In order to attract more daimyo to surrender, according to Zhu Yuxiao's proposal, Zheng Zhilong and Emperor Yoshihito decided to continue to abolish the feudal prefecture while knighting the surrendered Kyushu daimyos. At the end of March, Emperor Yoshihito issued the "Decree of Nobility". The "Noble Order" was formulated by Zhu Youxiao based on the "Chinese Order" of later Japan.

The "Decree of Nobility" abolished the old identity system, abolished the original titles such as "Gongjia" and "Daimyo", and collectively referred to them as Chinese, and divided the people into four categories: royalty, Chinese, scholars, and commoners. The Chinese became the second largest aristocracy after the royal family and enjoyed many political and economic privileges.

The Chinese are divided into five ranks: duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron. Among them, the old princess family awarded the title of viscount or above according to the family background. The old daimyo family was awarded the title of baron or above based on Shi Takawa's performance in the war.

Another important article in the "Noble Order" is the establishment of the House of Nobles, an important purpose of this House of Lords is to settle this group of nobles who have lost their domains.

According to Ito's vision, the Chinese should become the "royal domain" and the cornerstone of the current system. Therefore, it became necessary to give privileges to the Chinese in order to ensure their social status. But there are more and deeper reasons for the "Noble Order" that appeared in advance of this era.

In early April, Emperor Yoshihito and Zheng Zhilong summoned the surrendered ministers and daimyo in Kyoto, and they conferred knighthoods. Considering that the entire Dongying has not yet been unified, the matter of the House of Lords has been postponed.

After capturing the Hokuriku, Zheng Zhilong advocated continuing the crusade against the shogunate and taking advantage of the situation to unify Dongying, while Wang Sai'er advocated suspending the offensive and forcing the shogunate to negotiate peace. Now the military power is in the hands of the Zheng family, and Liangren only holds the administrative power, which makes Wang Sai'er like a man, she wants to rely on the shogunate to contain the Zheng family, and she even wants to keep the existing area of the shogunate to achieve the purpose of containing the Zheng family.

"Lord Zheng, the principal and interest owed to the empire last year have not been returned, although Your Majesty has not urged it, but it is always overdue, this is always unreasonable." Wang Sai'er said.

"The minister is just worried that he will miss the opportunity, although the shogunate is now at the end of the strong crossbow, but the hundred-legged insects are dead but not stiff, if the Tokugawa family is given a chance, it is difficult to guarantee that they will not rise again." Zheng Zhilong said.

"What Prince Zheng said is extremely true, but it is better to be a man of his word, it is better to go to Beijing again to discuss with His Majesty the matter of postponing the payment of the payment, as for the crusade against the shogunate, we will discuss it after I return to Kyoto, how about it?"

"It will take months to come and go, and the crusade against the shogunate will be delayed until next year."

"I believe that the crusade against the shogunate will not be bad for these few months, Lord Zheng, it is better to wait until I return from the Ming Dynasty to discuss the crusade against the shogunate." Wang Sai'er insisted.

……

Wang Sai'er and Zheng Zhilong argued for a long time, and finally the two sides reached an agreement, Zheng Zhilong agreed to put the crusade against the shogunate after Wang Sai'er returned to Dongying, and Wang Sai'er agreed to crusade against the shogunate in the future, and she would never interfere again.

In May, Wang Sai'er set out from Ryukyu for Jingshi, which was also her last trip to Daming. The Ming Dynasty now has 10,000 navies, 20,000 armies, and more than 200 large and small warships stationed in the Ryukyus, and the naval strength is only slightly worse than that of Kyushu.

In August, Wang Sai'er arrived in Beijing. Wang Sai'er also realized that this might be the last time she would come to Beijing, after all, she was old, and it was impossible for her to run around the sea like this again. This time Wang Sai'er decided to stay in Beijing for a month, she first concealed her identity to see her younger brother, leaving her younger brother a large amount of money, and then entered the palace to catch up with Zhu Youxiao and discuss the matter of Dongying.

"Zheng Zhilong's disobedience is becoming more and more obvious, and I hope that the emperor will give the concubine guidance......" Wang Sai'er then told Zhu Youxiao in detail about what happened in Dongying.

"I know about the conflict between you and Zheng Zhilong, but now the first thing is to clear the shogunate, and in this regard, I support Zheng Zhilong. You don't want to rely on the shogunate to contain Zheng Zhilong, even if Zheng Zhilong wants to rebel, this shogunate must be cleared, and at this point, I will not change no matter what. ”

(End of chapter)