Zheng Zhilong personally led the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs of Kyushu to welcome Wang Sai'er and his entourage, and held a grand banquet in the palace to entertain Emperor Masahito, Wang Sai'er and others.

The arrival of Emperor Masahito had a noticeable effect, causing some daimyo who had been dissatisfied with the Tokugawa shogunate to change their attitudes, most notably the relationship between Mitsumasa Ikeda, the lord of the Okayama domain, and Kyushu began to become ambiguous.

Emperor Masahito was also very satisfied with Zheng Zhilong's attitude, and Zheng Zhilong not only directly increased the emperor's salary from 100,000 koku to 500,000 koku, but also gave the emperor part of the power to dispose of political affairs.

……

Dongying is now surrounded by war clouds, and a big war is about to break out. Zheng Zhilong wanted to crusade against the Tokugawa Shogunate in the name of "Qingjun Side", but Zheng Zhilong only issued a document and did not really send troops, Zheng Zhilong is now in the Songjiang Domain with heavy troops to prepare for the next action of the Tokugawa Shogunate, while the Tokugawa Shogunate is actively preparing for war and preparing to crusade against Zheng Zhilong.

At the end of January of the twenty-sixth year of the Apocalypse, the shogunate's 120,000-strong army against Zheng Zhilong set out. The 70,000 Kyushu Army led by Zheng Zhihu and Wang Yingshen built a series of fortifications relying on Yueshan Futian Castle. Since the capture of the Matsue domain in Kyushu, Zheng Zhilong has been building fortifications on Tsukiyama Tomita Castle, and by the end of last year, most of the fortifications had been completed.

In mid-February, a vanguard army of 30,000 led by Tokugawa Yoshinao was the first to reach the right flank of Gassan Tomita Castle.

On 18 February, Tokugawa Yoshinao's 30,000-strong army took the lead in attacking the right flank of Tsukiyama Tomita Castle. On the right flank of Yueshan Futian Castle, an army of 20,000 led by Wang Yingxian. The two sides fought fiercely for a day without a score, but relatively speaking, the Kyushu army, which was on the defensive, had a slight upper hand.

On 19 February, an army of 50,000 led by Tokugawa Iemitsu himself arrived at Mt. Gassan Tomita Castle, which consisted of 30,000 troops led by Zheng Zhihu. Gassan Tomita Castle is a castle guarded by the ancient Izumo Kingdom. In 1611, after Horio Tadaharu transferred his base to Matsue Castle, Tsukiyama Tomita Castle was abandoned. But Zheng Zhilong has now turned the city into a military fortress.

The army led by Tokugawa Iemitsu launched a tentative attack on the second day after arriving at Gassan Tomita Castle, and the Kyushu army easily repelled this tentative attack by relying on the superiority of artillery.

On 21 February, Tokugawa Yoribo led an army of 40,000 to the left flank of Tsukiyama Tomita Castle. And on the left flank of Getsan Tomita Castle, the Kyushu garrison was also 20,000.

On 22 February, Tokugawa Yoribo relied on his numerical superiority to launch a fierce attack on the left flank of the Kyushu Army, which was led by Zheng Zhilong's sworn brother Hong Wook. Hong Xu relied on his advantage in firearms to resist the onslaught of Tokugawa Yoribo.

At present, the Kyushu army uses flintlock pistols, and the number of flintlock pistols of the shogunate army has reached more than 50%, and the gap between the two sides in guns is not large. Although the artillery used by the Kyushu Army was all eliminated by the Ming Army, in terms of quality, the artillery of the Kyushu Army was not worse than that of the Shogunate, but in terms of quantity, the number of artillery of the Shogunate was less than half of that of the Kyushu Army.

One side had the advantage in numbers, the other side had the upper hand in firearms, and the war between the two sides continued until the beginning of March, and the victory was still indistinguishable.

"The war in Gassan Tomita Castle has been going on for half a month, and if this trend continues, it may be difficult to distinguish the winner of this war for a while. Compared with the shogunate, Kyushu's material reserves are far inferior to those of the shogunate, and in addition, two consecutive campaigns against Honshu were launched last year, and now our army's reserves can only support two months of high-intensity warfare at most. Zheng Zhilong asked.

"Lord, we can continue to borrow money from the Ming Dynasty, I believe that Your Majesty is also willing to lend us money, although we are not patient for a protracted war, but the economic situation of the shogunate is not good, the treasury is empty, and they can't hold on to a long-term war." Qian Qianyi said first.

"Mr. Mu Zhai, it takes at least two months to borrow money from Daming, and it can't quench your thirst." Zheng Zhilong said.

"Lord, I think we can send troops to attack the shogunate's grain routes, and even send troops to attack Edo." Zheng Zhilong's sworn brother Gan Hui suggested.

"How are you going to sneak attack?" Zheng Zhilong asked.

"This time, the elite of the shogunate has been exhausted, and even most of the elites of the imperial three families have been dispatched, and the hinterland of the shogunate must be empty, and Honshu is surrounded by the sea, and our army can land from any place in Honshu and launch a sneak attack on the hinterland of the shogunate." Gan Hui explained.

"Tokugawa Iemitsu in order to prevent our army from sneak attack, he still retains 20,000 troops in Edo, especially Edo Bay, Tokugawa Iemitsu is the focus of defense, it is too difficult for our army to sneak attack Edo, but it is feasible to sneak attack the shogunate's grain route." Zheng Zhilong said.

"Lord, then sneak attack the shogunate's grain route, as long as the shogunate's grain route is cut off, Tokugawa Iemitsu will definitely retreat without a fight." Gan Hui said.

"How many soldiers do you need?" Zheng Zhilong asked.

"Three thousand, three thousand light rides are enough." Gan Hui thought for a while and said.

Zheng Zhilong only had a total of 3,000 cavalry, and these 3,000 cavalry were recruited from the retired cavalry of the Ming army, and they were also dragoons formed according to the Ming military system. For these 3,000 cavalry, Zheng Zhilong spent a lot of money, these 3,000 cavalry can be said to be his lifeline, he is reluctant to let them go on the expedition on weekdays, and now he has to transfer all of them at once to carry out the task of sneaking up on the grain road, he is really a little reluctant.

"Lord Wang, raise soldiers for a thousand days and use them for a while." Gan Hui persuaded him.

"Yes, I will give you all these 3,000 cavalry." Zheng Zhilong hesitated and said.

"With these 3,000 cavalry, this will be done." Gan Hui said happily.

"Lord, after repelling the shogunate's army this time, if our army wants to continue to crusade against the shogunate, we still need to borrow money from Your Majesty, and I think it should be sooner rather than later." Qian Qianyi said.

"What Mr. Makisai said is extremely true, how much do you think is appropriate to borrow this time?" Zheng Zhilong asked.

"For the sake of people's livelihood construction and the next war against the shogunate, we need to borrow five million taels of silver." Qian Qianyi said.

"Well, I will send someone to His Majesty to negotiate this matter." Zheng Zhilong nodded.

……

Gan Hui led 3,000 cavalry and quietly landed in the rear of the shogunate army on the navy of Kyushu. In Dongying, the number of cavalry was extremely scarce, which was due to many reasons, and it was almost impossible to put 3,000 cavalry into a concentrated battle at a time in a campaign like this.

In order to successfully attack the shogunate's grain routes, Gan Hui first carefully selected a suitable site for cavalry operations, and then formulated corresponding tactics according to the actual situation such as terrain. In order to ensure the combat strength of the cavalry, Zheng Zhilong even mobilized a batch of supply ships for the use of these 3,000 cavalry to ensure that the cavalry maintained its strong combat strength.

(End of chapter)