In March of the twenty-first year of the Apocalypse, the time when the Empire voted for the cabinet once every five years.

If the first vote for the cabinet was overwhelming, the second is much more skillful. Entering the cabinet, it is the dream of every civil servant, and the ten candidates who participated in the cabinet election this time all seemed to be in high spirits, and even introduced themselves by themselves, and the last time they were all introduced by Zhu Youxiao.

It took only half a day to vote for the cabinet, and the election of the new cabinet was completed.

In this cabinet election, except for Wen Tiren's previous cabinet members, the other six have been replaced with new faces. This has a lot to do with the fact that the previous cabinet was generally older.

The first assistant of this cabinet is Sun Yuanhua, Wen Tiren serves as the second assistant, and the other five are Fu Yongchun, Li Rixuan, Li Zhiwen, Lin Xuji, and Yang Sichang.

After the election of the cabinet ministers is completed, they will officially take office in May, and two months of them will be the handover period.

It's just that the new cabinet has not yet officially taken office, and Wujiang in Suzhou has been hit again, "the drought is not raining, and the locusts cover the sky", the price of rice in Suzhou has directly doubled, and the price of rice in the south of the Yangtze River has also begun to rise. This year is different from last year, last year Zhu Youxiao forgot about the disaster in the empire, this year Zhu Youxiao has already prepared, together with the disaster in Suzhou and Wujiang, the grain transported from Yangon and other provinces happened to be sent to Jiangnan, and the rising momentum of rice prices in Jiangnan was suppressed in time.

This year, the disaster relief porridge in the south of the Yangtze River was specially equipped with roasted locusts, which just supplemented some of the nutrients needed by the people, and even people dared to eat locusts when they were hungry. In both relief efforts, the victims ate locusts, so that locusts finally began to be accepted by the people. Thanks to Zhu Youxiao's efforts, barbecued locusts and fried locusts also slowly became a dish on the imperial table.

It's just that the disaster in Suzhou is still very serious, the situation of prolonged drought and no rain continues, and the people's fields are still not harvested.

At this time, Zheng Zhilong's Northern Expedition to the Four Kingdoms officially began.

On the first day of the fourth month, Zheng Zhiguan's navy blocked the entire Seto Inland Sea, and for a time the fishing boats of the other domains in the Seto Inland Sea were not allowed to enter the sea, except for the ships of Kyushu.

On the sixth day of the fourth month, Shi Daxuan and Wang Yingshen led an army of 50,000 to land in Rihesajo, which was a landing point that the four feudal clans did not expect, and was occupied by the Kyushu army basically without encountering resistance.

After the occupation of Hiwasajo, the Kyushu army was divided into two routes, one was the 30,000 army led by Shi Daxuan to take Tokushima Castle, and the other was the 20,000 army led by Wang Yingshen Marugui Castle.

The 20,000-strong army led by Wang Yingxian was like a bamboo, attacking the city along the way, and took Marugui City in less than half a month. Wang Yingshen also took advantage of it, and when Ikoma Takatoshi succeeded to the throne, there was a "Ikoma Riot" (the Imperial Family Riot was an internal dispute caused by the succession of the family governor and the struggle for power among the daimyo families in the Edo period of Japan), and Ikoma Takatoshi became a loser, and Ikoma Takatoshi himself was also posthumously sent to Yuri County in Dewa Province.

Ikoma Takatoshi was also dissatisfied with this, and when Wang Yingxian's army entered Marugui Castle, he received help from Ikoma Takatoshi. With the help of Ikoma Gaojun, Wang Yingshen took Marugame City when he got to the place where he was captured.

Shi Daxuan's army was blocked under Tokushima Castle, which was a Tikaku-style Hirayama Castle, and Tokushima Castle was also equipped with three heavy cannons, which were bought by Tadahide Wasuka from the Dutch. Since Yan Siqi used a large number of artillery when he unified Kyushu, the Eastern Ying feudal domains paid more and more attention to the use of artillery.

After Wang Yingshen captured Marugame Castle, he led an army of 15,000 and 20,000 troops from the Marugame Domain to support Shi Daxuan.

"Tokushima Castle's heavy artillery has a geographical advantage, the range is longer than ours, and their heavy artillery can hit us, but we can't hit the enemy, which makes us very passive." Shi Daxuan said.

"Although the heavy artillery of Tokushima Castle has a long range, it is extremely inconvenient to move, so we should avoid the heavy artillery and attack from the dead angle of the heavy artillery is the best policy." Wang Yingshen suggested.

"Tokushima Castle uses the Yoshino River tributaries to help the Ren River, the Fukushima River, the Shinmachi River, and the Terashima River as the outer hori of the castle, and it is not easy to fill in the outer hori!" Shi Daxuan said.

"It's not easy, but there's only one way to go now, so I suggest that you fill in the outer hori with a cart." Wang Yingshen suggested.

"But in this case, the sacrifice will be great, and the firepower of Tokushima Castle is several times stronger than any castle in Kyushu before." Shi Daxuan said.

"Ikoma Gaojun, this is your chance to make meritorious contributions to the King of Kyushu, are you willing to take on this important responsibility?" Wang Yingshen asked.

"My subordinates are willing." Ikoma Takatoshi bowed and said.

"Koma Takatoshi, once you take Tokushima Castle, you should take the lead, and I will personally ask the King of Kyushu for a reward." Shi Daxuan said. For Shi Daxuan, he didn't have any pressure to sacrifice his troops.

"No, my subordinates will definitely fill in the outer hori within three days." Koma Takatoshi said with an oath.

……

Shi Daxuan said he would do it, and he spent two days making and forcibly requisitioning hundreds of cars of all kinds. On the third day, Ikoma Takatoshi led an army of 20,000 and began to fill in the outer hori.

After Wasuka Tadaei discovered the intentions of the Kyushu Army, he mobilized heavy troops to stop the Kyushu Army, and the people in charge of filling the Waibori were all surrendered troops, and their morale was extremely low, and they immediately threw off the car and ran away when they encountered strong resistance.

After the soldiers fled twice, Ikoma Takatoshi himself couldn't stand it, if he filled in like this, he didn't want to fill in the outer hori for a month, he personally took the law enforcement team and ordered: "If anyone dares to take a step back, cut it immediately." ”

After killing dozens of people one after another, the troops did not dare to retreat, so they had to rush forward, but the efficiency of filling in the outer bori was still low.

"At their rate, it's impossible to fill this outer hole in three days." Shi Daxuan shook his head and said.

"Don't worry, the Dongying people have their own ways to do things, Ikoma Gaojun said that it will be filled in three days, he must have his own way, you didn't see him personally led the law enforcement team up." Wang Yingxian said with a smile.

"I hope it can be filled in three days, the longer the time drags on, the more unfavorable it will be for us, our grain and grass are only enough for half a month, even if we take Tokushima City, we can only make up for our consumption during this time." Shi Daxuan said.

"If there is a shortage of food, then we can only forcibly levy people's food." Wang Yingshen said.

"Hey, then Shikoku will really be bleeding." Shi Daxuan sighed. Shi Daxuan may be the most compassionate of the leaders in Kyushu, he has always been in favor of slaughtering the city, but the general trend is that he can't change it.

(End of chapter)